Disclaimer: See disclaimer from Chapter 13.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Chapter 14

"Hey Robin! Join my crew."

"What?"

"Join my crew."

"Why?"

"I like you. Everyone on this crew is following their dreams. You're following yours too! You can do that as a member of the crew."

Nami said, "He has a point, more than he knows actually. Luffy, did you tell Robin your dream? You can't really get someone to join your crew without telling them that, can you? It's kinda important."

"Shishishi, oh yeah. I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

"And remember what I said about Roger and Poneglyphs?" said Nami.

"You said he one of his crew was a descendant of the family that made Poneglyphs in the first place… I forgot to ask you about that! There was a family that made the Poneglyphs? And how do you know that?"

"The guy's name was Kozuki Oden. I don't know much about the Kozuki family other than that they made the Poneglyphs, but Oden could read them and Roger did apparently search out Poneglyphs on his travels. That and apparently his family was from Wano Country, which is one of the few countries that are independent of the World Government. It's somewhere in the second half of the Grand Line, which is why the Government hasn't gone and conquered them. I know all this because I've met two of Roger's crew. Unfortunately I promised not to tell anyone who they are, but I can guarantee we'll meet at least one other down the line. Possibly two."

Robin thought for a bit, then realized something. "So this was your plan, to get me to join the crew. My, my, Nami. You ARE a cunning one."

"Hmm… nope!" Nami joked. "My actual cunning plan is to get you to agree to be my girlfriend. This is just one more step along the way."

"G-g-girlfriend?" It looked Sanji had managed to return to the real world for a moment. And now he was out of it again, with an actual nosebleed this time.

"So, Robin? Will you join my crew?" asked Luffy again, seeing that Sanji had successfully killed Nami's attempt at flirting with Robin.

Robin looked around at the rest of the crew. Nami, hopeful. Nojiko, hopeful. Vivi, still somewhat suspicious but not against it. Zoro, indifferent. Usopp nodded at her and smiled. Sanji, no need to ask.

"Alright. After I cut ties with Crocodile, I'll join your crew."

"Why not cut ties with Crocodile right now? I can set up some spy devices, and we don't have a plan that really requires sabotage," suggested Nami, grinning.

"Right now?" asked Robin, still off balance.

"Right now. I can teleport to Alabasta with you, we can go and get your stuff, and you can leave a goodbye note for Crocodile."

Robin looked at Luffy, who grinned and nodded. She thought about it for a minute. "What the heck. Why not?"

"HOORAY!" shouted Luffy. And the Straw Hats descended into a party.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

That evening after the party ended, Nami and Robin teleported to Alabasta and flew to Rainbase to retrieve Robin's few belongings.

"You know," said Robin, "I could just leave a note in my room for Crocodile to find, but somehow I feel like doing something more… outrageous."

"We could sneak up on him in his sleep and tape it to his face," suggested Nami. "Or we could even write it on his face."

"Mmm – a bit too stereotypical," said Robin. "How fast are you with teleportation? I mean, how fast can you get us out of there in a dangerous situation?"

"Less than a quarter-second. I'm able to use it in battle if need be, and I can cast the spell in about one-tenth of a second, so it's just that plus my reaction time. Better if I can see it coming and reduce the reaction time."

"Excellent. Here's my plan…"

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Hey Mr. 0!"

Robin barged into the room where Crocodile was meeting with Miss Doublefinger and Mr. 1. For some reason the Unluckies, the 13-and-Friday pair of animals, were in the room as well.

"Miss All-Sunday. You're back faster than expected. And who's this?"

"I just came to tell you that I'm resigning."

One of Crocodile's eyebrows went up in surprise. He took a moment to process this, then drawled, "Miss All-Sunday. You know that there is only one way to resign from Baroque Works."

"Is this the part where you try to kill me?" asked Robin, amused. She crossed her arms. "In that case I may as well preempt you. Clutch."

Arms sprouted all over the four agents in the room, dislocating joints on the unprepared Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger and choking the vulture and the otter.

Crocodile removed his cigar from his mouth and placed it in an ash-tray. He stood up slowly, then his entire body except for his head turned into sand and flew at Robin.

Robin threw something at Crocodile. Nami teleported them out just as the object exploded, revealing itself to be a glitter bomb.

The glitter mixed with Crocodile's sand.

Nami and Robin teleported back into the room on the other side, invisible and holding cameras.

As Crocodile re-formed into his human form, the Unluckies, now free and gasping for air, suddenly started chattering with laughter. Glitter is a bitch to get out of hair and clothing. Imagine what it's like to try and remove it from sand – and that sand was part of Crocodile's body.

When Crocodile realized that he might never stop sparkling, his face was priceless.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

The next morning, as the Straw Hats laughed over the pictures of Crocodile, Nami was reminded of something.

"Hey, today is Sunday, right? I'll be right back, I just have to go get the newspaper." And Nami teleported out. It usually took days for the weekly newspaper to be delivered by seagull to ships, but Nami could get it immediately.

"Huh, she seemed unusually eager for that," said Nojiko. "She usually goes to get a newspaper on Sunday mornings but I think she's looking forward to something."

When Nami came back she was grinning widely. "Luffy! Remember I told you I would prank your Grandpa?"

She handed him the newspaper. There on the front page, below the fold, was a headline, "Unknown Pranksters Target Vice-Admiral Garp" and a photo of the man that Nami had taken and sent in anonymously. He was snoozing in his armchair wearing a pink ball gown and with absurd makeup on his face.

The laughter began anew.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Nami set up tracking and listening charms on Crocodile's person, and created a one-off scrying mirror to show a visual of him and his surroundings at all times. She showed everyone how to use them and placed them in the Going Merry's meeting room. Robin volunteered to be the one to watch them; all it took was for her to use her Devil Fruit power to sprout an ear and an eye to watch the mirror.

The Straw Hats continued training as they sailed, following the Log Pose. They started Robin and Vivi on Haki training and also convinced them to start a rigorous physical training regime, which neither of the two had been doing thus far.

"But I don't want to look all muscular like Miss Monday!" objected Vivi. Robin nodded, agreeing with that point.

"Miss Monday?" asked Nami.

Nojiko explained. "Really big muscly woman, kind of a butch. Listen Vivi, do Nami and I look like that?"

Vivi looked at the two. "No…"

"And yet we're both stronger than Miss Monday," said Nojiko. "I guess you didn't see it, but I did beat her in that fight by overpowering her. See the thing is, she's been doing a different kind of training specifically aimed at building muscle mass. Slow-lifting weights at the limit of her strength, probably eating a diet aimed at reducing fat to make the muscles more obvious. That kind of training is great if you want to look like a bodybuilder, but it actually doesn't increase your muscle density like ours does."

"And", chimed in Nami, "we girls naturally have a layer of fat under our skin which helps hide the muscles. Your arms and legs will gain a bit of flesh but you won't get muscles popping out of your skin. See?" Nami flexed an arm, showing a small bulging bicep, but without much muscle definition showing through. "Not like Zoro."

Vivi looked over at Zoro, who was once again doing handstand-pushups. He really did have muscles popping out of his skin. She swallowed.

"I know, right?" said Nojiko, with a slightly naughty grin.

"Anyway, back to the exercises!" said Vivi hurriedly. "What kind of exercises do you do again?"

"We'll start with body-weight exercises, simply performed to an extreme number of repetitions. We'll also do speed training, which does increase your strength in addition to your speed. Nojiko and I use weights, but nowhere near the limit of our strength. You won't be needing those until you've increased your base strength to the point that the benefit of body-weight exercises starts decreasing."

Nami and Nojiko were finally able to spar with Luffy while the Merry was en route, dancing around the sky and fighting with fist, foot and sometimes swords. Luffy turned out to be an excellent mid-air fighter, having greater range due to his Devil Fruit, practice in the air due to constantly catapulting himself off of things when he was younger, and a penchant for unconventional battle tactics. In fact, the two sisters found themselves quickly having to revise their mid-air tactics because Luffy was just that good at three-dimensional fighting. He did have to be fished out of the sea a number of times when he ran out of spiritual energy, because he was still using Haki for Geppo, or when an attack threw him into the sea, but overall he was fighting at a much higher level than he had been before.

Nami also took off a few alternating days to continue her mapping project, occasionally mapping a new island in the Grand Line, and otherwise continuing with the East Blue and sometimes an important island or a landmark elsewhere.

She did take the opportunity to stealthily rob pirates whenever she ran across any that seemed like less than nice people, which was almost all of them. The Grand Line contained a far higher concentration of pirate ships than the Blues, and the pirates were both stronger and richer, but with her Haki-enhanced Notice-Me-Not, Nami was easily equal to the task of emptying their hoards without notice. She no longer fought and captured pirate crews, because she had realized that the inhabitants of the Grand Line were used to pirates and generally able to defend themselves. She didn't want to bring this "Great Pirate Era" to a close if it meant the Government tightening its control over the world.

There would be exceptions of course. Some crews were just too nasty to let them roam free.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Now that is fascinating," said Nami. She and Robin were on the island in the East Blue she had warded for rituals, having teleported there to do Nami's diagnostic/analysis ritual. "For one thing, when we do the diagnostic on you while you're using your power, I can see a much stronger connection to your mind that isn't so obvious when you're not doing anything. You know, the motions you make with your arms are probably not required."

"I know, I can use it without them but it's become a habit."

"Fair enough. The really interesting part is this," she said, pointing to a brightly-glowing pair of runes located at Robin's heart on the glowing three-dimensional diagram of the enchantment.

"I did notice that, there was nothing glowing quite so brightly when you did the diagnostic when I wasn't using my power."

"Yup. That's a power-transference pair of runes. There are a number of power-transference pairs throughout the enchantment, but the brightness of this one and the fact that it's right in your heart, which is the location of a magical human's magical core, tells me that it's probably what is receiving magical energy from whatever is powering Devil Fruits. In fact, now that I know that, I might be able to use this to track down the location of that source. I'll have to do some preparation, probably modify a spell in order to do it, but it looks possible."

"That's good. So no magical curses on me?"

"Nope. Absolutely no magic except the Devil Fruit. Which isn't a curse – if it was, the diagram would be glowing black instead of the neutral white you see."

"Glowing… black?"

"Yup, sort of like a dense smoke, but it somehow seems to absorb light. That's why it's called dark magic. If there was any magic charged with emotions when it was cast, it would be glowing some other color than white. So that's good news, it points in favor of Devil Fruits not being some malicious long-running plot." This ritual used color to show the emotions with which the magic was infused, so a Patronus charm would show up as pink, yellow, or something in between, and a Stunning spell would show up as white.

Nami dropped the ritual, having taken enough photographs. She had performed it a number of times now, and learned how to keep it powered up without staying in physical contact with the rune circle. "Alright, ritual is over, it's safe to move now," she said once the runes had stopped glowing.

"Thanks. I do have one question. If Devil Fruits were created by a god, then how is it possible for you to break down the magic and understand them like that?"

Nami shrugged. "Good point. It is just one possible theory. But I've actually come across three enchanted items that were created by a god before. Huh, I'm surprised I can actually say that. Anyway, when I analyzed them they were highly complex, far more so than even these Devil Fruits, but they were built from the same runes and enchantment principles that I'm familiar with. Of course, those, like these, used some runes and techniques I've never seen before, and I never understood those fully, just like I doubt I will ever fully figure out everything about Devil Fruits." Nami was, of course, talking about the Deathly Hallows.

"Will you take me with you when you investigate the source of this magic?" requested Robin.

"Sure, but only after I've made sure it's relatively safe. Nojiko made the same request actually."

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Finally the next island came into sight on the horizon.

"So Robin, what's the name of this island anyway?" asked Nojiko.

"It's called Little Garden," said Robin, "and it has the reputation that no ship that has ever gone there has ever returned."

"R-really? No ship has ever returned? Um, maybe we should skip this one?"

"Relax, Usopp, if that were the case, we wouldn't know what its name is, would we?"

"Do you know anything else about it, besides the name?"

"Nope."

Luffy grinned excitedly. "It's gonna be an adventure!"

As they neared the island, they started hearing roars and other sounds of large, strange animals. The plant life looked distinctly different, and when they saw pterodactyls flying in the distance and dinosaurs running on the beach, they quickly decided that it was a prehistoric island.

"Hey guys," said Usopp. "I think I just came down with a case of I-can't-get-on-this-island-itis. I'll just stay here on the ship."

"But what if the ship is attacked by a pack of velociraptors while everyone else is gone?" asked Robin.

"I'm staying with Nami and Nojiko then!"

"Hey Zoro," said Nami, "did you notice those auras?" She grinned.

"Yes," said Zoro with a gleam in his eye. "they're stronger than the two of you."

"Let's go check them out!" exclaimed Nojiko.

Usopp changed his mind very quickly. "On second thought, I'm staying with Luffy!"

Luffy wasn't even there anymore. He was air-walking halfway to the island, laughing.

"Maybe Sanji! Or Zoro!"

"Hey Zoro," said Sanji. "We need to restock on meat. Ten thousand Beri says I can bring back more dinosaurs than you."

"You're on. T-Rexes count double."

Usopp drooped.

"Well," said Robin, "I guess you're stuck with me and Vivi then."

"Quack!"

"And Carue."

"Actually," said Vivi, "I think I'll go with Nami and Nojiko. Those auras you were talking about, they're people right? I'd rather deal with people than dinosaurs."

"Yes, definitely people. I think they're actually giants," opined Nami, who had run into a couple of giants at Marineford.

"G-giants?"

"Cheer up Usopp. Giants don't eat people," said Robin. "I'm going with you too."

"What happened to all the reasonable people?!"

"We joined a pirate crew."

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Hold up!" called Nojiko halfway to one of the large auras near the middle of the island.

"What is it?" asked Nami.

"It's those people," said Nojiko, pointing in a direction, obviously through the trees.

"Those four auras?"

"Yes, I recognize two of them from Whiskey Peak. They're Baroque Works agents, that booger bomber guy and the lemon woman."

"Booger bomber?" asked Nami.

"That would be Mr. 5," said Robin. "He ate the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, and can turn any part of his body into a bomb. 'Part of his body' is apparently a flexible concept because it includes his breath and his boogers."

"He flicks his boogers at people and makes them explode," explained Nojiko. "If I have to fight him, I'm shooting him in the face. Some things are just to gross to tolerate."

Vivi and Nami nodded in agreement.

"I'll take him if you want," volunteered Nami. "I have some Seastone that I should be able to use to block him from using his Devil Fruit power in the first place. He's not particularly fast or anything is he?"

"Nope," said Nojiko. "without his Devil Fruit he'd be a mook."

"Then I should be able to stop him before he digs out a booger. Worst comes to worst I have some magical shields I can use to block the ick. Moving on, shall we intercept? They seem to be headed for our ship."

"Yes, let's go stop them!" said Usopp. "We can't let them hurt Merry! And they're a lot less scary than those giants you wanted to find!"

Robin laughed, and the four ladies, Usopp, and Carue changed their direction on Nojiko's indication.

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Nojiko stepped out of the forest onto the beach in front of the four people who were following it. "Well what have we here? Four Baroque Works agents. I wonder what you're doing on Little Garden?"

"She's a Straw Hat!" identified Mr. 5.

"It looks like they were sent after us," said Usopp, stepping out behind them, slingshot in hand.

The agents turned around and looked at him. "Long-nose. Another Straw Hat," said Miss Valentine.

"Mr. 5, Miss Valentine, Mr. 3, and Miss Goldenweek." Vivi and Robin stepped out as well, blocking them from the forest. The agents turned to them.

"Miss Wednesday. Miss All-Sunday," greeted Mr. 3. "We heard from Mr. 0 that you had both betrayed him. It's a surprise to find you here, Miss All-Sunday."

Nami teleported silently between them and the shore as all four were looking toward the forest. "Which one's the booger bomber?" she asked, making them all turn about again.

As Nojiko silently indicated that Nami's target was Mr. 5, Carue popped out and stood between Vivi and Robin with a "Quack!" Only Miss Valentine turned around to look behind her this time.

Usopp snickered. "You were right, Nami. It does look pretty funny when you make people spin around like that. Oh, right, what was I supposed to say? We have you surrounded. Surrender or die!"

"Hmm… Seeing that everyone is using stereotypes," said Mr. 3. "How about no!" And he blasted a large volume of wax out in every direction, protecting his fellow agents and attempting to capture their opponents.

Usopp, Vivi, and Carue turned and ran away from the attack. Robin had enough situational awareness to jump back while keeping an eye on her opponents.

Nojiko jumped up into the air and used Geppo, then pulled her sword and sent a flying slash at Mr. 3.

Nami jumped up and ran on the wax, using Haki to harden its surface and keep it from sticking to her, and dashed in towards Mr. 5. She pulled out a pair of blocky seastone handcuffs and first bludgeoned Mr. 5 on the head, then locked the handcuffs around one wrist, grabbed him by the back of the coat, hoisted him high into the air with Geppo, and carried him helplessly toward the forest.

Miss Valentine had leapt high in the air with her umbrella right when Mr. 3 started the fight. Unfortunately, this meant she was vulnerable to Usopp's sniping skills, which he took advantage of with a "Special Tabasco Star".

As Nojiko engaged Mr. 3 with her Haki-imbued sword and fists, Robin took the opportunity to use her Devil Fruit power to knock out Miss Goldenweek, then formed a chain of arms and pulled the girl off the beach and out of the way.

Miss Valentine, coughing desperately due to Usopp's hot pepper sauce attack, landed on the ground, unable to dodge Usopp's continuing fire of lead balls and continue flying. Vivi charged toward her and attacked with her Peacock Slashers, which Valentine managed to block with her umbrella, damaging that in the process.

Between Vivi, Usopp, and Carue, Miss Valentine was overwhelmed and soon took a knockout kick to the head from Vivi. Now the only one left was Mr. 3.

Nami jumped up into the air beside Nojiko, who had taken some distance and was still sending flying slashes out to keep Mr. 3 occupied.

"This one's a notch above the rest, isn't he?" remarked Nami.

"Yeah," said Nojiko, looking down at Mr. 3 who had now created an artfully detailed giant battle suit to protect himself, and was flinging large wax harpoons at Nojiko whenever he wasn't blocking one of her attacks. Nojiko dodged these, having found out that the wax stuck to her and tried to capture her if she blocked. She had broken that off by layering some Armament: Hardening beneath it, but dodging was easier. "His defense is pretty good. It can block bullets of course, and with a thick enough shield he can block my flying slashes at this level. And if I go in close, he'll just try to catch me in his wax. I think I'll have to use some obvious Haki to beat him."

Nami looked at the man for a moment, who was taking a breather and staring up at the two sisters, who were air-stepping motionlessly in the sky. "How are you doing that?" called Mr. 3 up at them.

Nami ignored his question. She turned to Nojiko and said, "Just go all out for a bit. I can wipe his memory afterwards, and a concussion can explain it."

Nojiko shrugged. "Okay. I've been wanting to do this in battle for a while now."

As Nami returned to the others, Nojiko sheathed her sword and coated her whole body with Armament: Hardening. She dropped to the ground, creating a small crater as she landed on her feet.

"What the heck?!" exclaimed Mr. 3. "What Devil Fruit did you eat?"

Nojiko didn't answer him. Instead she vanished, dashing towards him in a curved path so fast he couldn't follow, and slammed into and through his wax armor, fist first. She came out, still coated in shiny black Haki, with Mr. 3 bent over her fist, and simply flicked him off and slammed him into the ocean.

And that was the end of that fight.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Vivi, immediately covering her mouth in embarrassment at swearing. "Nojiko! I didn't know you could do that!"

Nojiko withdrew her Haki, turning back into the blue-haired and tattooed girl they all knew. She smiled at Vivi. "It's Armament Hardening, just covering your whole body and clothes. It takes a lot of energy to use like that, but it's quite powerful. Excuse me for a minute, I have to go fish him out. Nami, you got another pair of those seastone handcuffs?"

"Sure." She tossed one to Nojiko, who caught it and went to fetch Mr. 3 from where she could feel his aura under the waves.

When she was back, everyone gathered and Robin asked, "So, will we with our prisoners? The Merry doesn't have a brig."

"Let's wait for Luffy and the other boys to get back before we decide," said Nojiko.

"I can dump them on an empty island somewhere and fetch them later," offered Nami.

"That works," said Nojiko. "Why don't you do that and we can get back to exploring."

~ Witch on the Waves ~

When the group finally reached the two strong auras they had been chasing, they were revealed to be a pair of giants, who were currently dueling with each other as Luffy watched.

"Hey guys!" he greeted.

"Hi Luffy," said Vivi. "What's going on?"

"I got eaten by a dinosaur!" laughed Luffy.

"I will never understand your fascination with getting eaten by giant creatures," said Nami, shaking her head. "How did that turn into a duel between two giants?"

Luffy told the story of Dorry and Brogy and their 100-year duel.

"That's amazing!" declared Usopp, actually crying tears in awe. "Two great warriors of the sea, battling out their duel for 100 years! I want to be like that some day!"

"Better keep doing those exercises then, Usopp," Nami needled. "That kind of strength doesn't just come from being a giant."

"Hey Luffy, did you give Dorry all of our alcohol or was it just the barrel of beer?" asked Nojiko.

"Umm… I just brought one barrel, so I think it was just the beer," said Luffy.

"Oh, okay, so we have some left to share with them after the fight? Because these guys seem to be having way too much fun to try and kill each other."

"I guess," said Luffy. "I don't know how much there was."

Nojiko snickered. "I can't wait to see Zoro's face when he realizes all his precious booze is gone."

The others grinned at that.

"Hey Luffy," said Nami, "while you were getting eaten by a dinosaur, you missed a fight with some Baroque Works agents."

"Aw, man, I missed a fight! Was it a good one?"

"So-so. One of them was pretty good, but he went down fast when Nojiko went all out."

"Nojiko went all out? And I missed it? Crap."

"Couldn't be helped, Captain," said Nojiko. "they were heading towards the Merry. They could have been trying to destroy our ship, so we had to stop them."

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Dorry and Brogy ended their fight when the volcano stopped erupting, and the Straw Hats quickly made friends with the two titanic warriors.

"By the way, do you know how long it takes for the Log Pose to reset on this island?" asked Nojiko.

"One year," said Dorry.

Usopp started freaking out.

"Relax, Usopp," said Robin reassuringly. "I still have an Eternal Pose for Alabasta."

"Do you know what happened to the rest of the Giant Warrior Pirates?" asked Nami, turning to the giants again.

"No," said Dorry, "they left a year after we started our duel. There wasn't enough food on the island for the whole crew!"

"We told them we would find them after one of us won," said Brogy.

Sanji and Zoro showed up at that point, and Sanji told them that he had come across a hut made of wax containing Mr. 3's transponder snail, and spoken to "Mr. 0" – Crocodile – and pretended he was Mr. 3, telling Crocodile that the Straw Hats were all dead.

"Huh," said Nami, "apparently there is a brain in that air head after all. Who knew?"

As the afternoon began to end, it was time for the Straw Hats to go, since they didn't want to stay on the island overnight.

The giants met them at the mouth of the river leaving the island.

"A great danger still lies ahead of you," said Brogy.

"It's an obstacle that has always been here, trying to prevent people from reaching the next island." said Dorry.

"And because you shared your booze with us," said Brogy.

"And you are the first pirate crew visit the island that we actually like," continued Dorry.

"We'll help you get through it!"

"Hang on!" shouted Nami. "Does it have anything to do with that giant Sea King I can feel rising beneath the ocean ahead?"

"Giant Sea King?!" exclaimed Vivi in alarm.

Dorry and Brogy laughed. "I knew there was something different about you, Nami!" said Dorry.

"That's the Island Eater," explained Brogy. "It's a monster goldfish that eats every ship that tries to leave."

"Thanks for the warning and for the offer of help," said Nami, "but we have our own pride as pirates and warriors! Don't we Luffy?"

"Of course we do!" shouted Luffy. Then he looked at her questioningly. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that we'll take care of it ourselves! Remember we told you how useful that is against Sea Kings?" Nami emphasized the "that" with a tiny burst of Conqueror's Haki, focused solely on Luffy.

"Ooooh, I get it!" said Luffy, and he laughed. "Let's do it!"

"Alright, let's Geppo out there so we can get it before it's too close to the ship, and so Luffy doesn't knock out half our crewmates. Everyone, raise the sails to slow the ship!"

The two sisters and Luffy air-walked out to where the gigantic goldfish was rising.

"Huh," said Nojiko as it surfaced. "It's only about two-thirds the size of Laboon."

"Yup. I bet that between the three of us, we can actually knock it out," guessed Nami. "Let's show 'im who's boss!"

"ALRIGHT, GOLDFISH!" shouted Luffy. "Get out of the way before we turn you into sashimi!"

The three each released a powerful, simultaneous burst of Haki, focused quite precisely on the massive sea creature in the case of the girls, and in Luffy's case focused mostly in its direction but with a good deal of bleed-off in all directions. Fortunately they were far enough away from the Going Merry that Usopp and Vivi didn't pass out.

The Island Eater's eyes rolled back up in its head, its strangely human-like tongue lolled out comically, and it rolled over onto its back.

As the trio air-walked back to the Merry, Dorry and Brogy laughed.

"It seems they don't need our help after all!" said Dorry.

"Conqueror's Haki," mused Brogy. "It's been a long time since we've come across anyone who could use that. And there are three of them!"

"King of the Pirates. Somehow I think Luffy can actually do it."

When Nami, Nojiko and Luffy reached the Merry, Robin met them with look. "Conqueror's Haki? All three of you? You've been holding out on me, Nami."

Nami grinned. "Actually, we're pretty sure we figured out a way for anyone to learn Conqueror's Haki. Luffy's a natural though."

Robin stared at her. "And your bounty is fifteen million Beri. The World Government has no idea how dangerous you really are, do they?"

"Girl, you don't know the half of it."

~ Witch on the Waves ~

"Hey, we forgot about the prisoners! What do you guys want to do with the Baroque Works agents we captured?"

"Shishishi, take their treasure and let them go!"

~ Witch on the Waves ~

Author's Note: I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure some of the things I said about exercise regimes and muscle-building are false in our world. I'll just remind you that biology is different in One Piece, and I'll claim that in that world, it is possible to build muscle density to absurd levels without greatly increasing muscle mass. Anyway, the point is, DON'T follow my advice – talk someone who has a degree in such things.