We're finally at Sabaody! I can't believe we've reached this point. I can't believe it's taken all this time, either. I really did not think this through when I began the story so early in the timeline. But it doesn't matter anymore! We're here! The Supernovas and the Straw Hats are here, at long last!

A few people have asked me what I'm going to do about the timeskip. For those who are curious: I'm planning to cover a some of what happens after Marineford, while Luffy's training, then we're going to skip forward some time to continue some time before Law leaves the crew to go to Punk Hazard. So, there is going to be a timeskip, but not as long as the one in the manga. About a year or a little less? That sounds about right.

I feel like I must apologize for the absurd amount of bad jokes and puns in this chapter. It's what you get for encouraging me. I'm sorry.

Guest 1: Thank you for your review and the good wishes! I like writing long chapters because I love when other authors do, so I try to fit in as much as I can. As for Folding Socks, I'm afraid that fic is still going to take a while, because I want to concentrate on this one, but rest assured that I'm not planning on abandoning it!

Guest 2: Thanks! I live for the moments I get to write them being silly friends together, so I'm glad you like it! There's a lot that on this chapter.

27. Prepare for the best and hope for the worst
(Seems like the whole damn world went and lost its mind)

"Mack?"

Saki approached his crewmate with a sweet smile and a cheery disposition.

He only stared at her, still soaking wet from Penguin's and Shachi's sudden hose attack. His face was an uncrackable mask of indifference, despite him not being in a better state. "Yes?"

"You look like a guy who knows his way around a pair of scissors."

She batted her eyes at him.

He didn't look impressed at all.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"I need a haircut."

She was still smiling. His face was unreadable.

"Good luck finding one," he replied.

"Maaaack."

—

It turned out to be a good decision to ambush Mack as soon as they set sail and plead until he gave in just to make her shut up, because he came down with some sort of stomach bug the next day.

It was only him, so Law said that he probably caught it when he fell into the swamp, but he quarantined him in the sickbay in case it was a virus. They would have made a great entrance, arriving to Sabaody puking their guts out.

The circumstances left Saki with less time to do a handful of pressing things, because for the first time in months, she had the galley to herself.

The first day was okay, since it was a bit of a chaos without Mack and nobody had the time to complain while they redistributed their tasks. The second day Saki faced a riot during breakfast over the quality of her coffee, and since it was too early to put up with anybody, the argument was settled after she yelled at a few stunned guys (those who hadn't known life at sea without Mack, clearly) that they could either make their own or take turns shoving the coffee pot up their asses.

The third day she woke up, prepared enough breakfast to feed an entire platoon in hopes of keeping the mutinous jerks from complaining too much about the coffee she was not making for them anymore, and went to the main deck, mug in hand, to see if the newspaper had arrived. Usually Law picked it up, but he hadn't woken up yet. Saki was reluctant to call it oversleeping, since he didn't do much of that.

The newspaper was tossed on the floor in front of the door, and she took it and sat down to flip through its pages. Confirmed sightings of several rookie crews heading towards Sabaody at once. That included them. Eleven people with bounties over a hundred million beli were about to meet in the same island, and though the feeling wasn't shared by the majority, Saki couldn't wait.

She took a gulp of coffee, and when she got to the bounties, she choked and spit over the pages.

Settling the mug on the floor, she shook the newspaper in the air and wiped off what she could of the stains, and she ran back inside, skipping steps. Nobody in sight. She went to Law's quarters, banged on the door, and waited. No reply. She put her ear to the door, and she didn't hear water running, so she assumed he wasn't in the shower.

"Captain?" She tried, pushing the door slightly.

It was open. The room was, also, empty, so she had been wasting her time.

There was only one other place he could be. Well, there were a lot, but only one that seemed feasible, so upstairs she headed.

The door to the sickbay was unlocked, and when she stepped in, she could see, on one of the beds, Mack, well awake and reading a book, and on the other side, out cold on a stool and crumpled over a counter holding rows of specimens, Law.

Saki looked at Mack, then at their captain, then back at Mack.

"Maybe you should wake him up," he suggested.

"Is he okay?" She asked, unsure.

"Is he ever?"

Saki had to concede that point. "I feel kind of bad disturbing his sleep."

"I'm sure his neck will feel worse if you leave him there," said the voice of reason, who to be fair looked like he could have tried to, but just couldn't be bothered walk from the bed to where he was.

Saki approached Law, tried calling his name, and when it didn't work, she pressed on his shoulder very softly, because if there was something she had learned of years of bad sleeping patterns and paranoia, it was that sudden touching was Bad with a capital letter.

He jumped awake, and she pretended she hadn't seen him drooling over one of the papers on the counter when she shoved a bounty poster in front of his face.

"This time only you got one!"

He seemed to have a bit of trouble processing the visual and auditory information at first, but he rubbed his face, and when his eyes focused and he took the paper from Saki's hands, he smirked.

"Is this about the last island?"

She handed him the rest of the newspaper. "I guess they couldn't figure out who was specifically involved, so they dumped all the blame on you. Congrats, Mister Two Hundred Million."

"I'll take it." He sounded satisfied. "Not a bad number to show up at Sabaody."

"Speaking of making important appearances," she said in the tone she used when she was about to ask for a favor and suddenly putting a hand over one of his. His smirk was replaced by a fleeting look of confusion, which went away as soon as he glanced at their hands.

Saki didn't have time to keep talking before he smirked again, and by then she knew the battle was lost.

He chuckled, and not in a cute way. "Not a chance."

She pulled her hand away like it was burning and threw her arms up in the air. "Dammit, Law! You can't show up to a pirate gathering flaunting those! Have some shame!"

"I don't want to hear that coming from you," he retorted in a very good spirits. "Nice try, though. You even touched them. I'll give you points for effort.

"Screw you too," she muttered, followed by a quiet, "breakfast is ready," before heading towards the door. She stopped one moment to say, "Mack, I miss you," and then left them behind.

She then went to rescue her coffee mug, took a plate of food from the galley, and locked herself in her quarters to draw and think of beautiful things.

—

The next day, with Mack having made a full recovery and after the sickbay was thoroughly cleaned, Saki asked Law if she could use it that evening. He said yes, since at that point he was used to her using it for tattooing and she always left the place cleaner than it had been. He asked what for, out of curiosity. She said she needed to make a fix.

And since a fix shouldn't have taken long, when she didn't show up for dinner, he went to look for her.

She found her on one of the cots, sitting with her right leg completely straight and coloring a swirling design of blue, black and white waves that took up most of the outer thigh.

"Hey," she greeted him nonchalantly, without looking up, like she had been expecting him. "I'll be done in a minute."

He could see that. He was also torn between staring in judgmental silence or ask if this was a stealthy way to get under his skin in a surreptitious way, since he hadn't let her do so literally. "You said you were doing a fix," he said in a measured tone.

"I am fixing an eyesore," she replied.

Something that should have clicked form the start did so then. He blamed the surprise and the apparent stupidity of her actions – because what kind of moron did a tattoo that size on themselves instead of getting someone else do it, seriously – for not catching it at first glance.

She had tattooed over one of the scars she had gotten from Marina. It was undistinguishable from the rest of skin now, hidden somewhere under the swirls.

He didn't feel like getting on her case for something so personal. For all the times she said she didn't care about what others thought about her, she could be very image-conscious. "You said it didn't bother you."

She stopped for a second to glance at him, seemingly lost, and when she understood she returned to her work. "It doesn't. But it bothers some of you, and that bothers me." He was about to protest when she continued. "Mack especially. He's not going to say anything, but I know he feels guilty."

So did Law, but he was glad that she was focusing on someone else.

"Besides, I've had this idea for a while, so it's as good an excuse as any other."

Alright, so she hadn't done it for petty reasons or completely motivated by third parties. "You could have waited to find someone at the next island."

"No!" She said, like he had proposed something unimaginable. "I wanted to do it." She looked at the clovers on her calf and ran a gloved finger over the lines. "It's much better this time around. This one could do with a few touch-ups." And she went back to the new design.

Law suddenly felt very silly about trying to think sensitively. There was a reason he did things in a certain way, and see what trying to act like a functional human being got him. It wasn't worth it. "You can't just go and tattoo yourself," he said at last.

"I can," she interrupted him, wiping the last part she'd gone over to inspect it. She looked up at him and gestured at her leg. "Evidently."

"But you shouldn't," he insisted. The theory of this being a subtle revenge scheme was plausible again. "What if it had gone wrong? It's easier to make a mistakes when you're…"

He trailed off when she saw her eyes narrow with suspicion. He didn't like that look.

"Speaking from experience, are we?" She said.

"No," he replied way too fast to be convincing.

She looked like she didn't buy it. "I will choose to believe you because otherwise I'd have to stab you." She directed her attention back to the tattoo. "Besides, it's my job. If I didn't know I could do it, I wouldn't try. Or are you going to tell me you've never operated on yourself? Because that's something you really should not be doing, you know."

He sighed. "I have a Devil Fruit."

"And I have an amazingly steady pulse." She smiled at him cheerfully. "And now it's done! What do you think?"

She stared at her completed work with satisfaction.

On one hand, he liked what he was seeing in more ways than one. On the other, he couldn't admit it because he had a duty not to encourage reckless behavior and he wasn't a hormonal teenager.

So instead of taking a closer look, which he actually wanted to do, or answering her question at all, he huffed and said, "Dinner's ready."

The last thing he saw before heading out was a cheeky grin that confirmed that getting a rise out of him had indeed been part of the objective.

—

Getting to the Sabaody Archipelago was a matter of weeks that everybody spent in a state of high anticipation, in their own ways. Everybody was excited about having gotten to the mid point of their journey, and for a few days the morning paper passed through more hands than usual because everybody was interested in knowing where the rival crews were. There were several discussions about who looked tougher, who they'd like to run into while they were there, and who had the most punchable face, a prize that Eustass Kid won every time that particular topic came up.

And at last, one gloriously sunny morning, they got to the archipelago, which, according to Bepo, was actually a massive mangrove. Huge trees stood at the center of every grove, painted each with stripes and a number to signal the area, and solid land stretched as far the roots could sustain it. But the most impressive feature were the giant bubbles building up in the ground and floating up, catching the light beautifully. Right after being in a place where the greenery was so thick it didn't let the sunlight through, to Saki this felt like a tree island done right. Even if Sabaody, too, was a little too hot for comfort. It was already summer, though, so she could let that one slide.

The Heart Pirates docked in an area that at first glance seemed to be made up of nothing but hotels and an assortment of shops geared to travelers. Flashy advertisements for a myriad establishments and products filled the streets. Not far from them, one of the trees, marked with the number 72, watched over the grove.

Once they were on land, they stopped a moment to take in their surroundings and decide what to do for the day. It was still early.

The first thing Saki did was try to catch the nearest bubble. She regretted it as soon as her hands stuck to it and she was basically left with a sticky balloon in her hands and a bunch of vicious nitwits that would make fun of her if they noticed her struggle to wipe the stuff away, so she feigned that she was perfectly fine and just interested in the consistency of the thing while they talked.

"Let's split up to explore," Law suggested. "We'll attract a lot of attention if we move in a big group."

Her finger sank into the bubble. She pulled them out, lowkey afraid that it would swallow her.

"Good idea," Shachi replied. "Marine HQ is just a stone's throw away, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and this time they are expecting us," he said. "Then again, they're expecting everybody else as well. Try not to stand out too much." And he added, "And avoid the Celestial Dragons at all costs."

The subject had come up a few days before, talking about the island and its proximity to Mary Geoise. Saki's only knowledge of those people came from the news and her late mother's rants prompted by her general disregard for authority, but Law and Mack had insisted not to cross them if they didn't want an Admiral sent after them, so it was easy advice to take to heart.

Saki turned to Mack, who also seemed very interested in a nearby bubble. She distracted him before he could commit the same mistake as her. "If you're going to shop for groceries, I'll go with you. I need to do some shopping myself."

"Haggle like our lives depend on it," Penguin pitched in.

"I mean, they sort of do," she said. "The more we save, the better…"

"Sure, let's go together," Mack replied before asking the others, "Anybody else?"

They were either having very interesting conversations and didn't hear Mack, or just wanted to avoid carrying bags, and Saki didn't believe it was the former.

"We could eat cauliflower for a week," Saki suggested in a whisper.

She could feel by just looking that his mind was running through every possible recipe. "That's not a bad idea."

Not many people would have agreed with that assessment, but they had refused their rights to that particular conversation. It was like they still hadn't learned how unwise it was to annoy the man who put food on their table.

"We'll meet back here this evening." Law said, and then turned to Bepo, tossing him his sword. He caught it gracefully. "Let's get going."

The group split into smaller ones, and Saki and Mack were left to their own devices, which involved watching out for discounts and hitting every food stall they came across. But before that, when the others were out of sight, she asked him if he was carrying a handkerchief, by any chance.

—

Saki had discovered a while ago that she loved shopping around with Mack because he had his priorities in order.

He was also completely nonplussed at her very unsubtle attempts to either flirt with or feed a sob story to a shopkeeper to get free stuff, because he was used to Felicia doing exactly the same. It made her life so much easier than having the peanut gallery hanging around and laughing at her.

What also made her life easier were the low cut t-shirt and the booty shorts she was wearing.

They hit a few grocery shops and left the bulkiest bags there with full intent to send the guys later to pick it up. There was no way the two of them could carry all of it, and they should have known better before choosing to play hooky.

Saki was stuffing her face with a manju she had just gotten from a stall while Mack read a receipt.

"How did you get a crate of oranges for free?"

"Nobody wants a cute girl to fall victim to scurvy when she's short on cash."

Mack's stare was as judgmental as her mother's had been when she skipped her homework in favor of reading comic strips.

"Stop looking at me like I'm not cute and poor," she said.

"You aren't cute or poor."

"You've got to understand," she said with her mouth full. "My womanly wiles only work on people who don't know me."

"I wonder why."

"I don't." And then, she caught sight of what she had been looking for for the better part of the day. "Can we go to that weapon shop?" She said, pointing in its general direction, holding the manju in her mouth because her hands were full of bags, so the sound that actually came out was unintelligible. Mack seemed to catch the drift anyway and marched in that direction.

The shop had a few gaudy blades on the window, so Saki guessed they had put the showiest of the lot on display to attract people looking for souvenirs. She just needed something that she could use with more ease than what she had now and would last her for some time.

Once she was inside, she glanced around and realized that the shop's window was indeed representative of what was inside.

"Welcome!" Said a man full of energy from behind the counter. "How may I help you? Looking for something to remember your trip?"

Saki swallowed the last of the manju with an effort. "To survive it, actually. I need a sword."

"Then you've come to the right place!" He guided them towards one of the shelves and picked up a katana with a gold trim along the sheath. "Made from the finest materials, and also a beauty to match its owner."

Saki appreciated the compliment, even if it was designed to extract money from her. The sword, not so much. "I've never used a katana," she mused, taking it from the shopkeeper for inspection. The first thing she noticed is that it didn't weigh much at all, which could be good or bad depending on how it was made, and she unsheathed it to take a look at it.

She didn't like it. "This is going to bend at the first strike," she said, handing it back to the man. "Do you have anything else?"

He did, at least according to him. According to Saki, each one that he handed her was a bigger disappointment than the last. Bad balance, flimsy blades, everything you'd expect from a shop that sold for show and not utility.

She thanked the man and left the shop empty-handed. "At this rate, I'll have to punch my way into the New World."

"How well do you jump? Because you aren't going to reach many faces."

"We're like the same height, Mack. Don't diss yourself."

"Why do you think I throw knives instead of getting up close with enemies?"

"Huh." She hadn't thought about it. "Well, that explains things. But seriously, how hard can it be to find a decent weapon?" She complained, throwing one last glance at the shop.

"I suppose that's what we get for searching in a tourist area."

"Excuse me," said someone, interrupting them. An old man carrying twice a box twice his size had stopped next to them. "Are you looking for serviceable weapons?"

"We are!" Saki said, her good mood recovering instantly. "Do you know any good shops?"

"You'll have to head to one of the lawless areas," he replied. "That's groves 29 and under."

Mack pulled out a tourist map they had picked up next to a hotel before. "They aren't far from here."

"Keep an eye out for pirates and bounty hunters," the man said. "Marines don't keep watch there, but if you want to risk it…"

"We do," Saki replied, grinning. "Thanks a lot! Let's go, Mack!"

"Glad to be of help," the man replied as they left.

It only took them a few minutes to reach grove 29, and the scenery soon changed from hotels and street vendors to bars, a variety of shops, and dilapidated buildings. The faces also looked considerably less friendly than before.

Saki felt eyes on them almost as soon as they set foot on the grove, though nothing happened as they made their way to groves 28 and 27 in search of a weapon shop. She wasn't the only one to notice.

"They know who we are," Mack commented.

"Kind of difficult not to with what you're wearing," she replied. "As long as they don't bother us, it doesn't matter."

"I wouldn't count on it."

"Oh, I know."

The shop they eventually found was much less inviting than the first one, as was the shopkeeper inside, a middle aged woman with harsh features and her blonde hair tied back in a bun. The screech of a sharpening tool coming from the back room gave Saki some confidence.

"Welcome," the shopkeeper said, without any flourishes. "What are you looking for?"

"A sword. Single-handed, if possible."

"Something not too heavy and long," she said, after taking a hard look at Saki. "Double-edged?"

"Yes, please."

"Alright…" The woman tapped her lips in thought for a moment. "I should have something—" She crouched down below the counter and disappeared for a good minute during which only metallic clatter and the sharpening sounds from inside could be heard. Saki wondered how many things she kept down there.

At last, she emerged with a rapier and placed it with force on the counter, sliding it towards Saki. "Give this a try. It's been sitting there for ages, but I think it may suit you. Sheath comes separately."

Saki picked it up and immediately felt the difference with the blade she had been lugging around since the Marine ship. It was well balanced, lighter than average and slightly shorter. She swung it at the air a few times, trying to get used to the handle.

"It's comfortable," Saki said, turning to Mack. "What do you think?"

"Looks good to me."

"Knew it," the woman said smugly. "It's a damn fine sword, but tall people want tall blades. It's sixty thousand. Will you take it?"

Saki didn't have to think much about it, because she may have been stingy but she didn't skimp money on important things.

"Yup," she replied. "I'll need a sheath too."

"Right away." The woman took one out from under the counter. Saki wondered if she was just taking the blades and sheaths apart to make extra cash. "That'll be an extra ten thousand."

Saki handed her the money, and she was picking up her new purchase when the sharpening screech stopped and someone came out of the back room.

Saki would have liked to say that she knew that face, but that wouldn't have been exactly true. She did know that mask, though.

The man, so tall that he almost brushed against the ceiling of the shack with long, wavy blonde hair, and holding two scythes in reverse grip, also took notice of them.

In the many conversations in the Polar Tang about which Supernova had the most punchable face, he was always disqualified from the competition for obvious reasons, but seeing him in person, Saki couldn't say she was feeling a particularly strong impulse to do so.

She wasn't picking up on any hostile vibes from him. If she had to put her finger on it, she'd say he was as curious about their presence as they were.

"Heart Pirates," he said. "So you're already here."

"'Massacre Soldier' Killer." An auspicious name if there ever was one. She thought it was probably in her best interests not to piss him off. "We were wondering how many of the others had arrived."

"We've seen Jewelry Bonney and Basil Hawkins, so far."

"That's good to know." In truth, she was disappointed by the lack of mention of the Straw Hats. She was looking forward to a chat with Nico Robin about Ohara.

She headed towards the door casually, with no intentions of keeping up the conversation just in case the guy was as easy to set off as his captain allegedly was, but as soon as she cracked it open shots, there were shots outside, and a bullet passed through the opening and by the shopkeeper, getting stuck in the wall behind her. Unfazed, she picked up a cigarette from under the counter and lit it.

"Seriously? Now?" She had expected to get jumped when they were just two shorties and her most threatening weapon was a bag full of cabbages, not now that she had a shiny new weapon and they had run into a murder machine.

"Bounty hunters and kidnapping gangs like to set up ambushes around these parts," the shopkeeper explained. "Send them away, will you? They're bad for business."

"You don't have to tell us twice," Saki replied, and at the same time she did, Mack passed her and flung a knife that, judging by the earth-shattering scream that followed, hit someone.

"Well, better to test it now that I just got it," Saki said, leaving her bags to the side and unsheathing the sword she had just acquired.

"No refunds policy," the shopkeeper warned her.

"Fine by me!" Saki shot back before opening the door with a kick and running outside, swinging to the left.

The guy who had, predictably, been waiting to jump them right by the door was the first to fall, and as soon as she turned around she saw Mack was throwing knives again and that Killer had also come outside and had already taken care of two more.

Spurred by the very real need to look good in front of the competition, she went for the target nearest to her. Not many were left, since a couple had wisely run away.

The new sword was a breath of fresh air, and after the first couple of swings it felt like an extension of her own arm. It had better balance than the one she'd had before and looked better made, though that wasn't surprising, since she had never been one to get fancy swords. They inevitably broke or were lost, and she was of the opinion that as long as they did their job, they were fine, but at that moment she really wished she could keep that one forever.

The second guy was swiftly knocked up, and she sidestepped the third one's attack and slammed the hilt behind his neck. When she looked up, there weren't any attackers standing.

Saki took a second to go back into the shop to pick up her bags and say to the shopkeeper, "Thank you!"

"Told you it was a good one!" She yelled back.

She and Mack started to leave, and she sent one last glance at Killer to say bye and hopefully get out of there before someone had the genius idea of attacking them again when she noticed him staring specifically at her.

Her first instinct was assuming that he was going to attack, but he didn't move an inch, and it was only by the slight inclination of his head that she figured out what had caught his attention.

"Are you looking at my tattoos?" She asked awkwardly and slightly confused. Could he even see well through that mask? Could he eat? Did he take it off or did he live off of noodles and drinking through a straw? Did he wash his face, or had everything fused together? Those were also important questions that she didn't think it was appropriate to ask.

"Who's the artist?" He asked.

So she was right. What was more, he was asking about tattoos, so any awkwardness on her part vanished right that instant. "The one on my left arm was done by someone in North Blue, but the two on my leg are mine." She said proudly, standing on one leg to show the other off. She didn't mention the one on her right arm because she was fairly sure the dude didn't want to join their crew.

"You did those?" Killer asked.

Saki could smell the interest of a potential customer in the air. Saki grinned. Mack called her out.

"Saki."

"Come on," she replied, and then she turned back to Killer. "Why, thinking about getting one?"

Killer cocked his head thoughtfully, and Mack insisted.

"Saki, second warning."

"Money is money," she said, trying to make her case. "I'll give you a Supernova discount!" She told Killer.

She knew she was playing with fire. Not because she thought she was in danger from Killer at that exact moment, but because Mack looked like he was about to stab her in the spleen.

"Saki."

"It's a generous offer, but I'm not sure it's a good idea." Killer replied politely "I'll think about it."

Saki felt a second surge of pride at not being denied. Mack grabbed her by the shirt and started pulling her away.

"Don't take too long!" She shouted at Killer as she let herself be dragged along. "Who knows where we'll be in a week!"

They left the scene of the crime, and when they were a fair distance away, Mack muttered, exasperated, "You're unbelievable."

"It's called building a portfolio, Mack," she said, feeling no guilt whatsoever.

"I'm telling the captain."

"Why would you do that to him?"

Mack faltered and reconsidered. "I won't tell you that you have a point." And he resumed the march.

"That's okay," she said happily. "But you can't deny it would be hilarious to tell people that a guy on Kid's crew was tattooed by one of us."

He did not, in fact, deny it, but he didn't say anything else, either, until they were back to grove 79.

—

Saki and Mack were able to snatch some of the guys when they came back to the sub in the evening so they could pick up the rest of their groceries, and as luck would have it, they had rented a few weird contraptions that let them ride the bubbles of the island. Saki, freeloading style, climbed behind Penguin on one and listened to him ramble about the trees' resin, the bubbles that were made of it, and something they needed to do with it to the ship to go deeper underwater, as they made the trip to the shops and back to the Polar Tang. She didn't understand all of it, but Penguin did and he seemed happy explaining it, so she waited until he was done talking to she feed him one of the manjus she had bought before.

Once the supplies were safely stored in the sub, the boiler room troupe plus Sturgeon hopped back onto their bubble thingies and rode off into the sunset in search of fun for the night. Saki didn't know where they were going and she didn't want to ask.

She decided to go back to a pita stand that she and Mack had come across earlier and wander around, not too far from the sub. The grove had a different kind of beauty at night, and she was hoping to catch sight of someone interesting while being undetected herself, now that she wasn't walking with the equivalent of an advertising board right to her side.

She saw a lot of sailors, merchants, and plain old travelers up and down even at that hour. What she hadn't seen all day, she noted, were Marines, and there was supposed to be a garrison only a few groves away, not to mention Sabaody being at Marineford's doorstep, so that seemed odd. She would have expected them to be wary with all the high profile pirates gathering at the archipelago.

On her way back, she ran into Law, and assumed he had been doing the same as her. It was hard to stay cooped up in the submarine when they were in such a lively place, especially when they could run into their rivals anytime. All the crews arriving at the same time were aiming for the New World and One Piece. There was a special kind energy in the air that was difficult to ignore. Most pirates failed way before getting there. What was waiting for them beyond the Red Line?

She remembered when her biggest wish had been leaving her home island, and she was surprised by how big she was thinking. When had she started looking forward to the future like this?

"Seen anything interesting?" Saki asked the man at fault for everything.

He was relaxing against the wall of a hostel and doing some people-watching. "No, but I heard that someone's seen Mad Monk Urouge and Scratchmen Apoo near the shipyards."

"That makes five plus us," she commented, and Law waited for her to explain. "When we saw him earlier, Killer said Bonney and Hawkins were also here." And pouting, she added, "Hawkins got the jump on us."

He was from North Blue too. They had been, in a way, racing against each other to get to Sabaody.

Law chuckled at that. "What's the hurry? The New World isn't going anywhere."

She regarded him with interest. "You don't want to head in straight away?"

"I'm thinking about it," he said, crossing his arms. His gaze was on a ship that had just set sail from the grove. "It's better to go prepared than to go on without a care."

"You don't think we can handle it yet?"

He gave a light knock to Saki's forehead, drawing a small complaint from her, and replied, "I did not say that."

"Okay, sorry I asked," she said, rubbing the spot where he had hit her. "Did Mack tell you anything else about what happened?"

His face was enough for Saki to know that Mack hadn't, and that Law now wanted to know. "Should he have?"

"Naaah," she said, waving the question away. But knowing it wouldn't fly, she added, "I think that Killer guy wants a tattoo."

For a moment that Saki would forever treasure in her memory, Law's face contorted into a wide-eyed, square-mouthed face of shock. "Please tell me you didn't try to sell it to him like you did with me."

"No, no, he was interested from the start," she said, putting her hands defensively in front of her. "Couldn't stop gawking at mine."

Law released a sigh of relief. "Are you sure he wasn't just staring at your legs?"

"They're way too short to take so much staring," she joked back. "It was pretty funny. And he seemed like a personable guy."

"Yeah, I'm sure that Massacre Soldier epithet got slapped on him because he's charming."

"He's very polite," she insisted. "Also, mister 'Surgeon of Death,'" she continued sarcastically, "I still haven't seen you kill anybody you've operated on, so I'll take the names the Marines choose with a grain of salt."

Law had opened his mouth to reply when silence fell like a heavy curtain to their left, and when they looked in that direction, they saw the people that had been filling the center of the street had vacated it and were looking down, some even kneeling. Some sort of procession was advancing through the middle of the street, but before Saki could see it clearly, Law took her hand, pulling her quickly into an alley, and stood in front of her.

"What's that?" She whispered, leaning closer to him. They were both hidden from sight, but he was also blocking her view and could barely make out what was going on.

"Celestial Dragons. Better stay where they can't see us."

They waited in silence, unmoving, as the procession advanced. Saki couldn't see them until they were passing right in front of them, and at that moment she spotted a man dressed in strange white clothes and wearing a resin bubble like a helmet, two men that looked like bodyguards, and a man and a woman in chains trailing behind them.

She had heard about nobility and their slaves a few times in her life, but they had been so far removed from her life that it had never felt real. It was harder to ignore after seeing it with her own eyes.

She felt Law tense up, and she squeezed his arm with her free hand. He still hadn't let go of the other.

Saki thought the worst of it was over when a shot rang in the air and a kid started crying. Her first impulse was to lean forward to watch, but Law didn't let her.

"Don't," he said quietly.

She didn't know what he was seeing, but she could deduce it from the screams. A kid had been shot for moving. Someone had yelled for mercy, and that someone had also gotten shot. In a way, it felt worse to imagine the scene from the sounds alone than bearing witness to it, even if Law was shielding her for her sake.

She had to remind herself over and over that laying a hand on that sorry excuse of a human would bring an Admiral to the archipelago, but that only made her all the more furious.

Eventually, the street went back to its regular sounds, and she and Law were able to come out. There was no trace of what had happened.

"They've taken them away," Law said, noticing where she was looking. He still had her hand in his, and she didn't feel like pulling away.

"Is this supposed to be normal?" She asked. The people around had gone back to their business like nothing had happened.

"It's their everyday. People can get used to everything."

Suddenly Sabaody didn't seem as pretty as before. "I don't think I could live like this."

"You'd be surprised." He gave her hand a light squeeze, and they started walking down the street. "I wanted to tell you something," he said. "I've already talked to Bepo, Penguin and Shachi about it. There's somewhere I want to go tomorrow."

"And where's that somewhere?"

"Grove 1. Bepo and I were gathering some intel today, and we found out there will be a big slave auction tomorrow."

Saki didn't follow that leap of logic that brought Law to think he had any business in a place like that. "Why do you want to go there?"

"Because the owner of the auction house is Joker," he said, waiting for the words to sink in. "I thought you'd be interested."

She replied right away. "Count me in."

He smiled a little. "Promise not to do anything dangerous."

"I promise," Saki said tiredly.

"I mean it," he insisted. "Even if you can't stand what you see."

"Hey, I'm not going to do anything that can land us in trouble. I'm not complete idiot," she said, feeling like a little kid getting scolded.

"I know," he said in a casual tone. "I wouldn't keep you around if you were."

She couldn't reply seriously to the unexpected compliment. "That's not very convincing when you also keep Shachi."

"I don't hold hands with Shachi."

She held back a laugh, and it was useful to blame on that she fact that her cheeks had flushed a little at his comment. She poked him with an elbow. "Oh, so that's what sets us apart. I get handholding privileges."

"That's it," Law replied with a half-smile. "That's the only difference."

"I'll have to make sure to rub it in his face."

"I don't think he'd want it anyway."

"Are you kidding me?" She said, seeing her opportunity. "He loves you. Everybody loves you. You're like the most popular guy on this island. 'Captain, can I help? Captain, I fixed a leak, please give me validation. Captain, I just fluffed up your pillow so you can sleep more than two hours in a row.'"

"Stop that." It was his turn to look a little embarrassed, but he laughed anyway.

She wondered when that had become the best sound in her world and when the feeling of his fingers laced with hers had started to feel like a refuge. She wondered how she had let him get this close to her and why she didn't mind what had seemed like such a bad idea before.

She wondered why he didn't mind, but even if she could get a straight answer, she wouldn't ask the question. Sometimes, words weren't enough to convey the simplest things. Sometimes, some things were too fragile to be spoken without breaking them.

The brush of a hand. A whisper in the night. A smile meant for only one person.

There was no need to complicate anything. Everything was as it should be.

—

According to their information, the Human Auction House opened at 4, so their merry group of five left for Grove 1 with time to spare, in case something held them up.

They passed by a wood sign with the words 'No Marines Allowed' written and the remains of some poor sod that had been pinned to it. The only recognizable thing about it was the Marine's uniform cap.

"No wonder we haven't seen any around," Shachi commented.

"That's a lawless zone for you," Penguin replied, thoughtlessly, invitingly, unknowingly unleashing a new blight upon the world.

Because Saki was there, and she had seen that pun since they had arrived to the island, and she had to take the chance as soon as she saw it. "Not anymore."

There was a beat of silence in which Bepo seemed a little confused, Shachi, Penguin and Saki stared at each other with understanding, and pressed their mouths shut to keep in the silly giggles. Then Law sighed very loudly, and Shachi broke into a fit of contagious laughter.

The feared crew of the Surgeon of Death advanced through the most dangerous area of the archipelago laughing like the dumbasses they were while they received awed stares.

"I don't get it," Bepo said weakly, and making it even worse.

"That's because you aren't three," Law replied.

"Oh," Bepo said, and after some thought he said, "So should I get another two of the guys?"

Law stared dumbfounded at Bepo as his brain processed the confusion, at which point the other three were wiping tears from their faces.

"I can't take you anywhere," Law grumbled and marched on, pretending he didn't know them, which, considering they liked to plaster their Jolly Roger on everything they wore, wasn't very effective.

And through all this time, no bounty hunters attacked, perhaps because they didn't dare messing with so many of them together, or most likely because they didn't know what to make of the situation.

Things got a little more interesting when they got to grove 21, though.

There wasn't a commotion when they got there. Yet. But the whispers of the people passing by were enough to know where to go, and it only took a minute of looking around to find the source of the general agitation.

Saki knew then that she had been right gauging Killer's hostility levels the day before, because everything about his demeanor right then was screaming that he was going to murder the mountain of a man in front of him. She recognized him as Urouge, 100 million beli, and boy, did he have to have trouble fitting through doors. He had tribal tattoos in the shape of flames peeking out from his sleeves, and Saki couldn't decide if she liked the aesthetic. It wasn't something she would have chosen, but maybe they were traditional where he was from.

He flung a pillar at Killer and missed, and it was then that Saki noticed he had wings, which could have been natural or a very strange fashion choice. She wasn't one to judge on that regard, though.

Law decided to sit down on a crate to enjoy the show, and the rest of them stood around him, staring at the two Supernovas that were just about to go to town on each other, standing perhaps more straight than usual and trying to look cool and all around impressive. She had the feeling that Penguin was still cracking up on the inside and she had to take a deep breath and concentrate to not join in.

Someone yelled, "There's a monster on the loose!" as soon as Urouge attacked, and Killer leaped at him to retaliate with his blades. The townspeople didn't even have time to vacate the street before someone else jumped in the fray, and she knew that face too.

Seeing X Drake in the flesh and not just his mugshot also prompted the question of why X and not XX. That was confusing. And again, she wasn't one to judge, considering one of her own friends was earnestly named Penguin, but she was finding it hard to believe that parents around the world were as tasteless to name let their kids carry the burden of things like X and Killer in their names. They could at least have dropped the surname, in Drake's case. Other kids must've picked on them like crazy, and that had consequences for a person. They were setting them up for disaster.

Or infamy, as it were.

Law's name was simply cosmic irony.

At any rate, what mattered was that Drake had, at some point of his life, taken the probably drunken decision to tattoo his rather strange surname on his torso, and was shamelessly showing it off as he cut the show short. Saki may have been in luck still, because Law's hands weren't the most atrocious thing in town.

"If you want to do this, wait until you are in the New World!" Drake yelled.

If he was trying to avoid trouble for him, for them in general, or for civilians, Saki couldn't tell. The guy used to be a Marine before defecting, so he couldn't be completely rotten, right? Those who were always stayed. An alignment crisis was a sign of a working moral compass.

Urouge backed off with a condescending remark towards Killer, which already put him higher in the punchable face list because, if nothing else, Killer had good taste in tattoos and read the newspaper like a respectable person.

Drake walked away from those two, and whether he realized it or not, closer to the Heart Pirates, accompanied by some of his crew. Either he was trying to look cool, or he normally walked in an awfully strung up way.

"That was pretty good just now," Law said when he was close enough to hear. "But Drake… How many men have you killed?"

Saki supposed it was sort of hypocritical of him to stop the mass destruction that would have ensued from the fight when he had a good pile of crimes on his shoulders.

Drake stopped for a moment to look at Law with disdain. "That's none of your business, 'Surgeon of Death.'"

Penguin twitched, about to implode from cheesiness. He had gone from smug smile, to undisguised grin when Law talked, to outright shaking to keep it in. And it was contagious.

Thankfully, Drake walked away with his mean, and as soon as they were out of earshot Saki turned to say something to Penguin and didn't get the chance because Shachi smacked him upside the head and said, "You bastard!"

Saki snorted, Penguin laughed and Law looked at them with interest and sounding just a little bit weary. "What's the matter now?"

"Nothing," all three replied at once.

The rest of the way to the auction was only interrupted a couple times by bounty hunters who had misjudged their lucky day.

The Human Auctioning House was the biggest building Saki had seen yet in the lawless area, at least three stories high with, she guessed from what she could see from the outside, a windowless attic, a skylight, and the rest of the roof covered by moss and grass.

As for the people gathering around the venue, Saki had expected them to be seedy types, because of course no self-respecting person would be caught dead at a place like that, right?

It was a big surprise to see that most of them were perfectly normal looking people who had come to pass the time like someone would go to a theater on their free day. Fancy ladies and gentlemen congregated near the door, which had just been opened. There had to be some sort of security around, if they were hanging out there so nonchalantly. She assumed Marines couldn't be very far, since from what she had gathered their base was only a couple of groves away. That also meant that they were aware of what went on in the auction house and turned a blind eye to it. She wasn't as surprised by this as she should have.

Their group advanced towards the entrance, paying no mind to the murmurs and the glances sent their way, but taking full advantage of the fact that people were scrambling out of their way to get inside the auction house and find good seats.

They settled on the center section, somewhere towards the middle, to have the stage directly in front of them. Law and Penguin sat together, and Bepo, Shachi and Saki sat on the row directly above them.

The place from inside reminded Saki of an auditorium, and it could have perfectly passed for one had it not been for the sign outside that left no doubt as to what went on inside it. And when she paid attention to the far end wall behind the stage and saw the symbols on each side, her heart skipped a beat.

They were eerily similar to the Heart Pirates' Jolly Roger, but smiley flags weren't so uncommon those days. She could swear she'd seen that one somewhere, though not recently. She tried to remember for a while, as the auction house was gradually filled with people and the others made small talk.

She was fairly sure she'd seen it once or twice at the smuggler's hideout in Asteria, but that wasn't strange, since Joker had been behind that too. No, she had a feeling she had come across it somewhere else. And then it hit her that maybe it was a Jolly Roger, not just a creepy little symbol that Joker liked to slap on his stuff.

And when she ran through the database of pirate faces and Jolly Rogers she had in her memory, it didn't take her much to realize who that one belonged to.

He knew. He had to have known from the start, and she had been too stupid to put together the pieces of the puzzle until that instant.

This was a terrible moment to have such a revelation, because she couldn't exactly take Law by the shoulders shake him silly for being an unrepentant fool. He'd probably taken that into account, too, when he had invited her to go.

Calmly, she leaned forward, rested an arm against the back of Law's seat, and still looking at Donquixote Doflamingo's smiling Jolly Roger whispered, "I'm going to murder you and I know where you sleep."

He gave her a half smile. He'd totally had seen it coming. "We can talk later."

"We will," she assured him.

"Look who showed up," Penguin said suddenly, gesturing at a group next to the entrance.

Saki gave up the threats to look up, and as it turned out, they hadn't been the only notorious pirates interested in the auction. Eustass Kid stood next to Killer and other two of his goons, who made Saki wonder if that crew's joining requirements involved a minimum height limit and looking like a freak of nature. Maybe the guy really cared about their general aesthetic.

Kid was staring at Law, saying something to Killer, and Law answered in kind by flipping him off. Saki hid her face behind a hand for a moment because she didn't know if she should cringe or laugh, and when she looked up again they were still staring, though Kid's grin had turned more threatening. It was hard to figure out what the others were thinking, but since none of them had moved from the spot or even said anything back, she guessed they were not so terribly offended. They must have gotten worse thrown their way on an hourly basis.

Just for kicks, Saki smiled directly at Killer and winked. Kid seemed mighty confused by that and turned to Killer, who shuffled awkwardly in the spot and looked away as his captain questioned him.

Saki laughed out loud, and Shachi, who had no clue what he had just seen, was outraged. "Did you just wink at Fistface?"

"Hell no!" She said, still laughing.

"I saw you wink!"

"I wasn't aiming at him."

He took one last weirded out look at the freakshow before telling Saki, "That's even worse."

"Why, Shachi, I never knew you felt so strongly for me."

He turned red and started spluttering when Bepo offered, "Do I need to kick someone?"

"All of you, stay on your seats," Law said in good humor.

They all replied 'Yes, Captain' with varying degrees of mirth and embarrassment.

The light mood vanished pretty fast when the speakers of the house blared with the voice of an announcer that had just stepped onto the stage, and who would have taken the first place on the competition from Kid if he had been a pirate worth the required amount of money.

The auction started with a young man, supposedly a West Blue pirate that Saki had never heard about, starting at 480 thousand beli. That was how much a life was worth according to these people.

Afterwards was the turn of an older pirate whose bounty she did remember, then two sisters, then a petty criminal, and by then Saki had slid down her seat with her hands together on her stomach and was staring at the ceiling in an attempt to block out what was going on. It didn't surprise her that Joker was behind human trafficking, it had been clear as day as far back as Asteria that he only gave a damn about getting money no matter the means, but, as was the case with the Celestial Dragons, there was a difference between knowing and seeing. Saki really could not fault Law for wanting the man dead. He didn't look comfortable either, even though he hadn't moved from his previous laid-back position, his shoulders were tense and his expression was deadly serious.

Next to her, Shachi looked thoroughly disgusted. "Why the hell are so many people bidding?"

No one replied, but they were equally appalled by the lows they were witnessing.

Saki's list of people who should be dropping dead right that instant had grown to 17 when whispers of a Celestial Dragon entering the venue caught her attention, and it was then that she also saw near the entrance a few Straw Hats.

No Monkey D. Luffy himself, and no Nico Robin in sight, either, but she hoped they weren't a bunch of jerks and she could catch them later to ask for her. Her afternoon may have yet had a silver lining.

Meanwhile, Kid glared at the noble like he thought he would catch fire if he stared enough. The Celestial Dragon didn't even notice it as he left a beaten up man in front of the door and advanced dragging behind him two chained women.

Then the general attention was pulled away from him again, because the pirate they were trying to sell on stage collapsed, and the same public that had been watching a human selling show like it was a perfectly acceptable pastime was now scandalized to see a half-dead man. She couldn't wait to get out of that place.

"What are they shouting for?" Shachi huffed, arms crossed and expression contorted into a sneer. "That's what you get when you sell people like cattle!"

"Shachi," Law said quietly, "keep it down."

The curtains closed, and Penguin muttered, darkly, "I hope he's done the job right, for his own good."

"He had the pride to go out the way he wanted," Law replied. "You've got to give him that."

Saki just thought it was a waste.

There wasn't time for any more conversation, because the auction house's management was in a hurry to sweep the incident under the rug, and the curtains opened once again. It looked like a container covered with a sheet, and the announcer pulled it away to reveal a fish tank with someone inside. A someone with a fish tail where legs should have been.

Saki leaned forward instinctively. "Is that a mermaid?"

And at the same time, the entire venue was filled with an uproar of excited conversation and bidders that was immediately silenced when a shout rang through the air.

"I'll bid five hundred million! Five hundred million beli!"

The tension in the air was palpable as everybody turned to stare at the Celestial Dragon who had yelled. The same man that had come into the auction house only a few minutes before.

Saki saw out of the corner of her eye that the Kid pirates began to move towards the door, and then the unexpected happened.

With a resounding crash and a shower of debris, Straw Hat Luffy and Pirate Hunter Zoro, riding some sort of fish, blew up the entrance and landed only a few rows above Saki and her comrades. That had the welcome side-effect of vacating most of the seats, which gave them a perfect view of what was about to transpire.

Before anybody could realize what was going on, Luffy shouted the mermaid's name, the mermaid shouted back, and he began to make a beeline towards the stage.

He was going on the rescue, and Saki's heart soared like when she read a particularly heroic passage in one of her favorite novels.

In the middle of this, people also noticed that the pirates had arrived in the company of an octopus fishman, and once again, Saki witnessed how the definition of what was acceptable and not was more than a little twisted in the archipelago. They ran away from him, scared, at the same time that a horde of men attempted to restrain Luffy, and the commotion came to a close when someone shot a gun and the fishman fell on the stairs.

Silence fell like a load of bricks as Straw Hat Luffy turned to stare at the Celestial Dragon, who had a gun in his hand. And while the utter psychopath sang and danced because he had taken down the fishman, who would no doubt have been able to snap him in half if he had tried, and relief spread through the audience, Saki didn't lose sight of Luffy. Not one pirate in the room did.

They knew the rumors. They knew that bounty couldn't be for show. They knew that expression on his face, because there wasn't a single one of them that hadn't worn it at some point during their travels, when someone had crossed a red line and turning away was no longer an option.

He walked to his friend and kneeled beside him. They exchanged words that Saki couldn't hear, and the Celestial Dragon made his last mistake when he aimed with his gun again.

He shot.

Luffy lunged at him and smashed in the Celestial Dragon's face, who was sent flying with so much strength that he broke several rows of seat on landing.

The regular people were stunned into terrified silence, but all the pirates present were either unfazed or grinning like maniacs.

Luffy apologized to his crewmates for the incoming Admiral.

Saki laughed. The rumors had been right about someone, for a change.

And then the father of that Celestial Dragon tried to shoot Luffy, and all hell broke loose. The rest of Straw Hats joined the fight, and soon there was an all-out brawl between the Straw Hats, the Celestial Dragon group and the auction house's private security.

Both Heart and Kid pirates stayed where they were, watching the proceedings, which were infinitely more interesting than the show they'd been initially promised.

Saki's silver lining had outright turned into one of the best days ever, and it only got better when Nico Robin entered flying through the ceiling like an angel with wings made of hands, and another guy fell on top on one of the Celestial Dragons, popped the bubble around his head and slammed him unconscious against the floor.

The entire crew was pure, unadulterated nonsense. She might have become a fan right then and there.

There were tears in the corners of her eyes from so much contained laughter when she heard Shachi say, completely fascinated, "It's like a circus show, but pettier."

Truer words had never been spoken.