Chapter 10

Story Start: En Route To Conomi Islands

We were thirty minutes out. Or rather, we were thirty minutes away from reaching the point where I planned to engage the enemy. (I had made the Yamato replica for a reason after all.) As such, we were close enough to begin our battle planning. But first, equipment upgrading for our two new members.

"Yo Sanji, Gin, over here." I called, gesturing for the two to join me and Nami. Ten minutes after we had left the Baratie I had hypnotized the pair to unlock their Observation Haki then let them settle themselves apart from the others to get used to the new sense they had just gained. Now the pair gave me a confused look but quickly moved over to once more stand in front of me. Pulling my right jacket sleeve back and visibly shifting the band of invisible cloth I kept on my wrist around the other sample strips of cloth kept on said wrist, (the original cloak being kept safe on the Merry where it shouldn't get damaged in a fight if we needed to replace someone's cloak) I said "Since the two of you have joined the crew, that means there's a piece of equipment that I need to give you that is standard equipment for us."

Forming two cloaks, I kept them floating with my strings as I shifted the invisible cloth back under the rest of my cloth bands, covered the sample strips with my coat sleeve again, then stated "These are Invisibility Cloaks. As the name implies, they make whatever they are covering invisible. Just remember that invisible does not mean silent." Seeing Sanji's visible eye turn into a heart with the light of a shining star coming from behind it, I gave our new chef a stern look and said "Sanji, I feel that I should state that if me, Nami, or any other female that joins this crew finds out you've been using this to spy on them, I will forcibly hypnotize you to reenact Tim Currey's song Sweet Transvestite on the main street of either the island we are on or, if we are out at sea, the next populated island we come to, body language, clothes, and all."

The heart immediately went away and Sanji rapidly paled. Apparently even without knowing what I was talking about, the word Transvestite in the song title was enough to get my point across. But him just imagining it wasn't good enough, I wanted to make damn sure he wouldn't risk it. I made a regular sheet with a speaker on either side and hooked it up to my phone as I pulled up a specific YouTube video. As the four minute long video began playing, Sanji steadily went from pale to straight white, anime physics coming into play as little cracks began forming on his face and throughout his suit as his visible eye got wider and wider, the cigarette hanging limp from his dropped jaw and the smoke from it actually forming a terrified face in its wisps.

"So I'll remove the cause. But not the symptom!"

As Dr. Frank N Furter took the elevator out of sight, I did away with the cloth construct and pocketed my phone before I leaned in right up to Sanji's face and casually stated with a grin full of teeth "You'll be a good boy so I don't have to go through the trouble of making you do all of that, right?"

Sanji gave a wooden nod and I leaned back as I said "Good to hear."

Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro were all snickering by this point. When I glanced over at Nami, she was smirking in satisfaction. She gave me a nod of approval when she saw me looking her way. Gin though was impressively stone faced about the whole thing.

Now that that was covered though it was time to get down to business. Turning to the front of the bridge, I grabbed the maps and sketches I had made with Nami's help with my threads and turned back around. Clapping my hands once to get everyone focused again, I said "Alright, let's talk battle plans."

The map enlarged itself and the Arlong Pirates' base of operations, unoriginally named Arlong Park, rose up off of the map. As everyone else gathered around, a point out in the ocean gained a green spinning circle (able to be seen spinning by the four spokes on it) and a moment later a small model of Yamato rose up from the cloth map in the circle.

Gesturing outside the window to Yamato's Eighteen Inch guns, I said "Now, I know that in the end it's not my call but this is what I had in mind. The original Yamato's eighteen inch guns had a range of twenty five miles. But her gunners had radar to help them and my eye sight is nowhere near that good, however I should be able to do six with my spy glass. My idea is that I would send you guys ashore in a landing craft made out of invisible cloth. You guys would get close and once in position signal me. Once you do, I'll bombard the place with rounds from the eighteen inches (and everything else since I'll be controlling the rounds rather than physics) and you guys can storm the place and deal with any survivors."

"NO!" Luffy said firmly, going so far as to cross his arms in an x.

"No?" I asked in confusion of how ardently Luffy was in his vetoing of the plan. Giving a gesture at the map, I said "Captain, this gives us the best chance of success. If we catch them by surprise, we won't have as many enemies to face, enemies which are adept at operating in the water which their base is next to. Water which we as humans can't breathe in and which you and I are especially at risk of if we go under since we'll become anchors if they manage to toss us into the drink. What's so wrong with that?"

Like I said, this was why I made the Yamato in the first place; Lots of guns to hit them from long range with several armament haki'd shells of cloth as a surprise attack with observation haki allowing me to defend our two more important vessels when the survivors inadvertently tried to close the range, either for hand to hand combat or to try to sink the ship from below.

Luffy scowled and said "These bastards hurt Nami, they don't deserve a quick defeat from a surprise attack. They have to be beaten face to face! And besides, I told you already, Captains fight Captains. I can't do that if that Arlong Bastard is buried in rubble!"

Zoro nodded and said "Luffy's right. After what these bastards have been doing, I want more than just taking out the stragglers, I want to gut as many of them as I can get my blades into."

Having had plenty of time to recover his composure, Sanji nodded and said "I may have just joined the crew today but I can certainly agree with that sentiment for what these fish bastards have done to the lovely Nami-swan and her people."

"Yeah, they need a lesson beat into them." Johnny declared as he punched his right fist into his left palm, Yosaku nodding in agreement as he fingered the hilt of his Dao.

The only ones not saying anything were Usopp and Nami. Said navigator had a bit lip but didn't seem like she was going to argue about this either way. Usopp's knees were shaking a bit but his eyes still had a hard look to them. Sighing, I said "Fine, I'll keep Yamato in reserve." Grumbling to myself I added "Probably better to keep the vessel holding our boats out of their attention anyway." Shaking my head, I finished at a proper volume again "That said, I still think we should split up with you guys going in through the land entrance while I come through the water entrance."

Confused looks traded the hard ones and Usopp asked "Uh, Matt? Didn't you just say that you and Luffy are at the most risk around the water? Why do you want to go through that entrance?"

I gave Usopp a smile. It was not a nice smile. In fact, that smile made not only Usopp break out in a nervous sweat, it did the same for Johnny and Yosaku. Zoro and Sanji simultaneously raised an eyebrow while Luffy tilted his head in confusion.

Tapping the blue ocean on the edge of the map, my grin gained a few more teeth as I explained "These are fishmen we're dealing with here. Fishmen right next to the ocean. If they try to flee from their rightful punishment, they will go by sea, diving down where we cannot follow for long. However, if there is a twenty foot thick slab of duck tape covered by invisible cloth for a quarter mile out, if they were to flee, instead of diving to their escape, they will instead face plant."

Evil grins that matched my own began appearing. Even Gin had one appearing on his face as he said "To have something they believe makes them biologically superior to us taken away from them and keeping them ignorant of that fact until they either try to use it as an avenue of attack or retreat. I like it."

A sudden thought hit me and my grin turned into a frown as I looked over at Nami and said "Hang on, I just realized, these people don't want anyone getting off the islands, that means there will be fishmen posted as look outs at various points of the island right?" When Nami nodded with a frown of her own, I continued "Will they have Den Den Mushi with them? Because if they get word that their base is under attack then they could go after the island residents to use as hostages."

All of the other males of the crew gained scowls at that. (Well, Gin's lips turned down a little at the 'complication' to the plan, but he got a pass due to having only just recently stopped working for that coward Krieg.) Nami though shook her head and said "The fishmen go into the water too often to be able to take Den Den Mushi with them. The one time I saw one of the fishmen accidentally bring a snail into the ocean with him, Arlong just about beat him to death for killing such a valuable tool. As far as I know, only the snail that replaced that one is on the base, and Arlong keeps it in his room to be sure it won't come to any harm. If something happens on the island Arlong needs to know about, the crew uses runners to report in."

"So once we take out everyone at their base we need to track down the bastards hanging out around the island." Zoro groused.

"I know where the sentries are posted and what patrol routes they normally take." Nami stated.

"That'll certainly make finding them easier Nami-swan." Sanji said with a smile.

There was suddenly a series of SONAR pings from my pocket. Pulling my phone out, I read the text message Taifun had sent me and my eyebrows went up in mild surprise.

"What is it Matt? Why'd your phone make that sound?" Usopp asked.

Unlocking my phone, I tapped on an App that wasn't there the last time I was on my phone as I said "Taifun's apparently decided to compile an app full of Challenges."

Instead of seeing what was on the app right away, a two foot tall hologram of Nia from Pokken of all people appeared over my phone. Sanji's visible eye immediately turned into a heart but I ignored that as Taifun gave a wave and said "Hey there Tac. Sorry I didn't have this ready for you back on the island but there were a LOT of possible pathways for your journey to look through." The ROB wearing a woman's face smirked and said "Including a few interesting ones where you ran into a certain Miracle Working Okama."

I paled almost as drastically as Sanji had earlier at the idea of running into that person. I had nothing personal again them, (at least, I didn't think I did, but I never ran into any IRL) but I did NOT want to be sissified, no matter how thorough the process would be, thank you VERY MUCH!

Taifun had been kind enough to give me five seconds to recover from that tidbit before continuing his message with "But those events are neither here nor now so let's get back to this app I made for you. The App is composed of three parts: Bounties, Challenges, and Store.

Bounties is pretty straight forward: Certain people and/or other type of beings you will face will have value for defeating. For Pirates, this is pretty straight forward, their bounties match that given to them by the Marines and or the World Government. For people who DON'T have Marine or WG bounties, such as members of said organizations, the bounties are determined by rank in whatever organization they are in along with skill level.

Challenges is a bit more eccentric. There are certain things that I have seen in the various pathways that I would appreciate happening here. However, unless it is something rather substantial, I will not bring attention to these 'things', and unlike with Gamer powers, these metaphorical 'Quests' will not announce themselves when events that match up with their goals arrive. And they won't give you a notification when you complete them either. Some of them are also region locked so that you cannot view them until certain points in your journey. Because of all of these factors, I suggest you check this part of the app periodically. Completion of Quests will usually have monetary rewards, but sometimes certain items relative to your location or circumstances shall be rewards as well.

Like Bounties, Store is straight forward enough. The App stores the reward money you earn from Bounties and Challenges and can be either used to purchase items from this part of the app or for a ten percent 'Conversion Fee' be 'Withdrawn' to be used elsewhere. You can also 'Deposit' any 'Real World Money' you have if you need just a little bit more to buy an item from the store. Just remember that that money falls under the conversion fee as well if you want it back so think carefully before you deposit any large funds.

Items purchased in the store can be categorized two ways, Useful For Your Devil Fruit and In World Objects. As you know, the multiverse is vast, and there's more than just Invisibility Cloaks that are fabrics with helpful properties. From plain cotton to woven mithril, this part of the store has plenty that could be helpful to you, for the right price.

In World Objects are as the name says objects that could be purchased if you come across them in a store. From match books to Eternal Log Poses, so long as one of these objects exist in the world you're in, then you can purchase it and a copy of the best version of the object will be made for you. Exemptions to the inventory are food and beverages, Devil Fruits, and anything considered as secure and or classified information; no buying the Gorosei's diaries for you! Also, if the last version of an item is destroyed, that object is removed from the store's inventory. So if the last copy of a very rare book is burned, it can no longer be bought."

Taifun/Nia clapped their hands once and said "Well, that's everything. Time for me to just sit back and continue enjoying the show. Ciao."

As the hologram disappeared revealing the three tabs of the app, (currently on the Bounties tab) I rolled my eyes and said "Great, not only am I this crew's Public Relation's Officer, I'm it's Quarter Master as well." I then frowned and glanced at Luffy and asked "Does that make me the Third Mate even though I wasn't the third member you recruited?"

Luffy shrugged and made a "Neyauh" sound, not knowing, and not particularly caring about the answer either way.

"You know, you were already supplying us with repairs to our clothing along with new outfits before, albeit for a price. This is really just an extension of that." Nami said with a shrug.

I sighed at that and said "Fine, but you people WILL be paying me the full price for the items you ask for, I ain't no thrift store." Turning my gaze back to my phone, I rose an eyebrow and said "Well, the Bounties part tracks at least, Arlong's here along with his three commanders Nami sketched for me."

"Arlong's mine Matt." Luffy growled out.

I waved Luffy off and said "I know that Captain, I was just making an observation. Besides, while I can certainly go one on one, I'm the best one for crowd control. I'll handle the mooks, you guys can decide which of you get the officers and the rest can help me make sure none of them escape." Shifting tabs, I raised an eyebrow a moment later and said "Speaking of not letting anyone escape, listen to this: You Can Run, But You Can't Hide; The main fighting's done, now's time for the mop up, Take Gin, Johnny, and Yosaku with you around the island and capture the remaining members of the Arlong Pirates. It's got a counter for how many there are along with a tracker and the reward is a copper metal coat. Huh, I wonder if that's like the Metal Coat from Pokemon..."

"Us Matt-Bro?" Johnny asked, thumb pointed to himself. Gin meanwhile had an eyebrow raised, a vaguely interested look in his eyes.

"That's what it says, yeah." I said, tapping the map attachment link and looking it over.

Gin's eyes narrowed a little and he asked "Questions: Who is this Taifun, what did he mean by many paths and the multiverse, and why is he giving you a set of challenges and a way to buy things?"

"Yeah, that is kind of odd, what was all of that about Matt-Bro?" Yosaku asked with a frown.

I glanced up from my phone and studied the three. I then glanced at Sanji who also looked curious. Humming in thought, I said "Tell you what, you four manage to stay with us three islands into the Grand Line and I'll tell you then."

Yosaku and Johnny both looked confused and Johnny said "But we're not part of the crew?"

I smirked and said "Well, consider that incentive to join." I then looked over at Luffy and continued "If you want them that is Captain."

Luffy grinned and said "I don't mind. I believe ten people is how many people I need for my crew after all. And with all of you, that leaves a slot for our musician and someone else who I like."

I raised an eyebrow and hefted my phone as I said "You do recall that I can play music from this right?"

Luffy pouted and said "I know that! But it's not like having the real thing!"

I rolled my eyes at that, shook my head and as I attached the sketch cloths to the map said "Moving on, here's who you guys want to go after first. We've got Arlong, Kuroobi, Hatchn, and Chew."

As I spoke, the sketches turned into 3D models and I gestured at Nami as I said "Care to give us specifics Nami?"

Nami nodded and gestured at the first form and said "Arlong is-"

"NO!" Luffy shouted, once more crossing his arms.

Nami blinked in confusion and asked "Luffy?"

"I don't want any spoilers! It ruins the fight." Luffy said with a growl.

"Tough Luck." I said flatly. When Luffy glared at me, I gestured at everyone on the bridge and said "We are ALL going to be within sight of Arlong. There is a chance he may go after one of us when we fight. That means we need to know what to expect. Seven people outnumbers one."

Luffy growled but he quieted when Zoro said "Oi Luffy, just cover your ears if you don't want to hear this."

"Fiiine." Luffy grumbled as he did just that.

'What an idiot, who gives up actionable intelligence on an enemy? Sun Tzu must be rolling in his grave right now.' I thought before I gestured at Nami to continue her briefing.

Coughing into her fist, our navigator said "As I was saying, Arlong is a saw tooth shark fishman. Because of this, he is able to quickly regrow his teeth. Supposedly each new set is stronger so he'll pull them out himself and have a set in each hand to use as a weapon. He's incredibly strong compared to humans, able to lift entire houses with his bare hands, and I've seen him bend metal in his mouth, and crush stone with the same. He's got the durability to match that strength as well. Along with using the pointy parts of his body against people, he can pick up a handful of water and throw it at someone with the force of a gunshot. He does have a 'proper' weapon, a serrated sword called the Kiribachi. But he keeps it in the armory of Arlong Park so if we can keep him from going in there it shouldn't be a factor in the fight."

Nami gestured to the next figure as she said "Next up is Kuroobi, a ray fish man. While he has a cutlass, like Arlong, he usually leaves it in the armory and instead prefers to use his Fish Man Karate. I've heard him say before that he is a level 40 black belt."

Nami then pointed at a six armed fishman and said "As you can see, Hatchan is an octopus fishman and I'm pretty sure only Arlong is stronger. He's so strong, he can use six cutlasses that each weigh three hundred kg while maintaining fighting speed."

Usopp whimpered in fear at that while Zoro's focus sharpened and he grinned as he said "I call dibs on the octopus."

Nami gave him a slight smile and said "Yeah, I figured you would, just watch out for the ink he can shoot out of his mouth."

Zoro nodded his acknowledgement of that and Nami gestured at the last figure and said "Finally there's Chew. He's a smelt whiting fishman. Like the other three, he's adept with swords, but like Arlong and Kuroobi, he keeps his two katanna in the armory. Instead, what I've seen him do is suck water in through his mouth then spit it out at extremely high speed."

"Sounds like a one barreled Blastoise." I muttered, absentmindedly making a cloth construct of said turtle which shot 'water' out of its cannons. Nami nodded in agreement and said "Yeah, that's what it looked like when I saw him practicing, though I've also seen him suck up a LOT of water once or twice to the point where he expanded like a balloon and then shoot a ball shaped blast of water."

"Usopp probably has the best chance against him then." I mused.

"Me?!" Usopp asked incredulously.

"Long Range vs Long Range. Snipe him from a distance under your invisibility cloak, draw him away from the water then hit him with the thermite we made before hitting him with an incendiary round. Bastard will light up like a Roman Candle." I explained.

As Usopp gained a considering look, Nami frowned and asked "Disregarding the question of what a Roman is, when did you guys make thermite?"

I shrugged and said "Second night we were at the Baratie. It's just aluminum powder and iron oxide along with a couple of other things mixed a certain way. Usopp apparently brought a VERY comprehensive chemistry set to make special ammo when he joined you guys. All he needed was the instructions for how to make it."

Nami raised an eyebrow at me as she crossed her arms and asked "And you know how to make thermite?"

I grinned and said "Me, specifically? No, but the internet is a lovely thing." I patted my phone and ignoring the confused looks of those who weren't around when I joined the crew pocketed the device before I clapped my hands together and said "SO! Zoro's going to make calamari of the octopus, Usopp will handle the smelt whiting, who's handling the Ray?"

"I'll take him." Sanji said, blowing a smoke cloud out of the side of his mouth before he continued "There was one time a bunch of karate nuts were heading to a tournament and stopped at the Baratie for a night. I went a few rounds with them so I should know what to look out for when it comes to this bastard."

"Guess that means we three are helping Matt with crowd control." Gin mused, pointing at the bounty hunter duo.

I let out a hum then turned my full attention to said duo as I asked "Johnny, Yosaku, knowing how strong fishmen are, and being completely honest with yourselves, are you two good to form the third corner of a triangle or would you rather handle any runners heading inland?" I wasn't trying to be insulting with that question, but none of the bounties the pair had taken down had been over a million beris. On a baseline, fishmen were stronger than humans and neither Gin nor I would be able to pull their asses out of a fire if we were on opposite sides of the fighting.

The bounty hunters both grimaced before they had one of their silent conversations with each other. About a minute later, they looked down and Johnny sighed as he said "We'll handle any runners."

Seeing their slumped shoulders, I said "Hey," when the pair looked back up at me, I continued "There is nothing wrong with being normal level combatants for the area you operate in, and not everyone is suited for one vs group combat. If I didn't have my devil fruit augmenting my combat abilities, I wouldn't be suited for it, and I certainly wouldn't be able to go up against a fishman mano a mano with just my knife, haki or no haki. The fact that you've agreed to come when you aren't actually members of the crew yet says more than you taking down any number of fishmen by yourselves."

"Matt's right, just do what you can and leave the rest to us." Zoro said.

The bounty hunter duo nodded at that, looking resolved rather than ashamed now. With that taken care of, I continued "Now then, once we're six miles out, I'll make you guys a cloth vessel big enough to hold all of you but that Nami can sail by herself. You guys follow her under your invisibility cloaks until you reach the land entrance. Johnny, Yosaku, you two are going to need these."

A thread shot out and connected with the invisibility cloak Gin had folded over his forearm. A moment later, two more cloaks were made and as they floated towards the two, I said "If we wind up going separate ways I'm going to want those back. I do not want the fact that someone can make cloaks that can hide people from even Observation Haki getting out, and I certainly don't want to take the chance of said cloaks falling into undesirable hands. At least if it's kept to crewmembers I'll be on hand to reclaim them if the cloaks are captured."

"Got it." Johnny said, looking his cloak over even as Yosaku wrapped his around his body with a grin like a kid in a candy store.

Nami took over the conversation from there, pointing out where the rest of the crew would be making landfall, which was a dock near her hometown. True, it was normally watched over by two or three fishmen but it was where she always went when she returned from her trips so she had to do the same this time to keep her 'crewmates' from thinking something unusual was happening. I just hoped the guys wouldn't accidentally do something that would draw the fishmen's attention. While I was sure they were perfectly able to take the watchers out, doing it silently while remaining invisible would certainly be a challenge.

Time Skip

We were six miles out from Arlong Park. I studied what I could see of the place through my spy glass for a moment before I frowned and said "We've got a problem."

"What, what problem?" Nami asked looking alarmed at something going wrong before we even started.

Handing Usopp the spy glass and pointing, I asked "If I'm not mistaken, that's a Marine talking with Arlong, with three stooges serving as body guards."

Usopp took a bare moment to glance through the spy glass before he practically strangled it and growled out "Matt's right, those are definitely Marines. Guess we know how Arlong's been able to avoid having the Marines coming after him, he's got one of them in his pocket."

Nami grit her teeth and clenched her fists hard enough they turned white at this showing that she had had no idea before now. Then again, if she wasn't making maps for Arlong, she was either at the orange orchard or out gathering money to buy her home town from him so it would have been easy for Arlong to keep her from learning about his dealings with the corrupt Marine.

"I'm glad I put us under cloak twenty miles out, if the ship these bastards came in saw us they could send out a warning." I said, getting nods of agreement from the others. Frown growing, I said "We're going to have to either wait for the Marines to leave the region or take that vessel and its crew out of the picture before we hit Arlong Park if we don't want them crashing the party. Either way, we need to find that ship."

A stream of cloth came out from under my sleeve and moved to the window seal where it formed into a seagull. A second stream turned into a screen and as the 'bird' turned its head the image projected on the screen shifted as well.

"Wow! Since when could you do that?!" Usopp asked.

"About five months into my stay on the island. It took me forever to learn how to get seeing things with an eye on a piece of cloth working, or rather, it took so long to learn how to make the connection to the eye. I don't like doing this if I don't have to though, it's a freaking headache splitting my sight between my own eyes and the eyes on the cloth." I muttered, already massaging my forehead. Firmly closing my eyes, I double checked that the thin strip connecting my bird shaped drone was properly invisible (much less chance for it to be cut then one of my threads, and longer range to boot) and then sent the drone up into the sky.

"Question: Why isn't it completely invisible like the part you're connected to?" Nami asked.

"It'll keep people from accidentally touching it and wondering why there's something invisible if it lands right next to them." I explained and she made an 'Ah' sound of understanding.

The drone flew twenty feet over the water, moving MUCH faster than a normal bird until it was a quarter mile out. Once there, it slowed down to a much more normal speed for a seagull and glided over to land on the left side of the open sea gate.

As the drone (and the others) watched the Marine officer accept a stack of beri bills, Usopp asked "I don't suppose you figured out how to get audio to go with visual?"

"Not yet." I grunted out, watching as the four Marines were transferred into a giant pot which Hatchan pulled through the canal and out to sea. The seagull drone stayed in place for a few more moments before I pushed it off, being sure to flap its wings this time and sending it higher in the air to follow the four.

Hatchan turned west when it left Arlong Park and headed for a cove where a cruiser big enough to hold fifty people was docked. Once the Marines were climbing a rope ladder Hatchan quickly left and I landed the drone on the top of the mast flying the ship's Marine Colors.

Opening my eyes, I focused on the area around my body and began moving Yamato into position even as I turned to Luffy and asked "Captain, permission to infiltrate to find their communications room and ready the drone to keep them from calling for help when we attack?"

"Do it." Luffy said with a nod.

I closed my right eye and the drone took off from the top of the ship and went inland. The moment it had trees blocking the sight of any of the Marines it landed behind a tree trunk and was reabsorbed into the invisible streamer, one of the eyes moving to the end of the strip. With the visible cloth removed, I brought the strip back to the ship and stuck it through a porthole. It took a short while, but I found a small room by the stern with a den den mushi sitting on a desk. There was a bored Marine lounging in his chair with his feet on the desk and his hat pushed down to cover his eyes.

By the time I had located the communications room, Yamato was in position six miles outside of the cove. Usopp frowned from where he was once more looking through my spy glass and said "They're raising anchor Luffy, looks like they're leaving."

"It'd probably be better to hit them while they're away from land Luffy. That way they can't run away." Zoro said, idly thumbing the hilt of Wado Ichimonji.

"Not to mention if we hit them out of sight of land none of the watchers on shore can sound an alarm." I offered before I smirked and said "It would make hiding the ship in a giant dome of invisible cloth until Arlong Park is dealt with easier. So long as we leave everyone bound up with no chance of escape we can leave these pathetic excuses for human beings out at sea until we're ready to hand them over to the Judgement of the people Arlong has subjugated."

Luffy groaned and I saw him reach under his hat to run his hands over his skull as he said "It's just one thing after another, I just want to kick Arlong's ass, is that too much to ask?!"

Despite the situation, I let out a snicker at that. Luffy glared at me for it but after a moment, he sighed and asked "This will keep us from being interrupted right?"

"That's right." I said with a nod.

Luffy groaned again before he said "Fine! We knock out these guys then we go pound in Arlong's skull."

I nodded at that then began turning Yamato as I said "I'll run Yamato parallel with their course. Once she's broadside I'll surround them with invisible cloth and you guys can board while I take out the communications officer and cut off the room he's in before joining you in securing the rest."

"Sounds like a plan." Gin stated, idly tapping the handle of one of his tonfas.

As we waited for the cruiser, I made a quick slide down from the bridge to the port side of the top deck. (With invisible cloth over the top to hide us.) Once we were all down, it was just a matter of waiting for the Marine vessel to get closer, maneuvering so that when it came level with us we were right alongside it.

As I had waited, I had constructed a large dome made out of invisible cloth around the Yamato with an opening for the cruiser to enter through. The moment the cruiser reached the stern of the Yamato, I drew back the invisible cloth hiding her (and us on her top deck) and snapped the entrance to the dome closed.

As surprised shouts came from the cruiser at the suddenly appearing ship, the invisible strip of cloth in the communications room shot off the desk next to the sleeping Marine's feet and wrapped around the man's head, earning a startled shout as the Marine was knocked back, chair tipping over as his arms flailed around. Within moments, I had the man cocooned and the door was closed and behind a ten foot block of cloth.

Communications room secured, I opened my eyes, moved from behind one of the five inch guns I had been hiding behind and made a slide down to the cruiser. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Gin had already leapt over but Johnny, Yosaku, and Nami joined me on the slide. Our navigator had fury in her eyes as she took off for the nearest Marine still standing and delivered a vicious swing into his torso with her collapsible staff.

The fight (if you could call it that) for the cruiser lasted a bare two minutes, and it was only that long because we had to track down a few Marines that decided to hide below decks rather than attempt to repel boarders. (A failed attempt from the start given we all had Observation Haki) As I began encasing all of the mooks in balls of duck tape, Nami had the coat of a blubbering Marine Captain (apparently named Nezumi) bunched up in one fist and delivering a fine example of an enraged female beat down as she ranted about how HE was the reason why no one had helped her people. The other men of our crew were rather wisely staying out of it, instead dragging the bodies of unconscious Marines over to me for containment.

As I finished securing the last Marine, I looked over at Nami and asked "So am I going to secure him as well or are we just going to throw his carcass overboard?"

The vaguely human shaped lump of ground hamburger somehow had the strength to whimper at my question. Nami considered the pathetic man in her grip for a few moments before she negligently tossed him at my feet. After making sure that the guy wouldn't actually die from his wounds if left unattended (he had been under Nami's fist for a few minutes after all) I quickly wrapped him in tape before I clapped my hands together and said "Right! Well I don't know about you guys, but I want to grab that den den mushi. It should be able to link up with my phone which will be helpful if we ever have to split up into groups down the line."

"I think I'll see if they've got any booze." Zoro said as he followed me towards the nearest hatch.

"I'll start moving their powder to the Merry." Usopp stated. At his words I absentmindedly made an opening in Yamato's side with a gangplank connecting to the cruiser so that way he didn't need to do any more climbing up or down than necessary to reach the Merry earning a nod of thanks from him.

"Not their cannonballs Usopp bro?" Johnny asked.

Usopp waved his hand in dismissal as he said "Maybe two to replace the ones we shot when we met you guys but we don't really have room for more than that. Powder though is useful for more than just the cannons."

"Guess I'll grab their navigational charts." Nami muttered, also moving towards the ladder that I was climbing down.

When I entered the communications room, I ignored the still squirming cocoon that was the communications officer and instead moved towards the den den mushi. It gave me a blank stare as I drew close and didn't so much as twitch when I picked it up. Bringing it to eye level, I smirked and said "You'll be coming with me and my friends alright little guy?"

The snail blinked first one eye then the other before it somehow seemed to shrug showing how little it cared for apparently being kidnapped. Huffing in amusement at that, I put the snail on my shoulder then connected to the squirming cocoon of cloth and brought the communications officer above deck with me to join the rest of the marines.

As I waited for the others to finish raiding the cruiser, I brought out my phone and pulled up its number. Showing it to the snail on my shoulder, I asked "Can you call that number?" I wasn't sure how I 'knew' it, but I had the feeling that the snail could do its own dialing rather than requiring someone to punch in the numbers on its rig.

The snail gave me a side eyed look for a moment before it turned its gaze back to my phone and narrowed its eyes in concentration. A moment later, its eyes widened in surprise as the phone began ringing. Quickly cutting the call short, I patted the snail on the shell and said "Thanks" before I added the snail's number to my contacts, labeling it SHS #1. We'd probably wind up naming the little guy down the line, especially if we got more snails, but for now that designation would do.

With that taken care of, I turned the gangplank I had made for Usopp into a spacer block between the Yamato and the cruiser, further securing the cruiser to the cloth ship with a three foot wide ring of cloth around the top of the cruiser's hull. That done, I turned them to point back towards Arlong Park and began to bring them back into position.

Once we were in position and had everything we wanted from the cruiser, I made the landing craft for the others (stocked with a few sailing essentials so the fishmen wouldn't get suspicious about Nami coming back on an empty ship) and watched as Nami began bringing it towards land. Once they were outside of the dome of invisible cloth, I went down to the Merry and stuck our newest addition on the kitchen table in a bowl with a few leaves of lettuce and said "You just hang out around here until we come back alright?"

The snail did that one eye blink then the other at me for a moment before it nodded then turned to begin nibbling at a lettuce leaf. With it taken care of, I went back to Yamato's top deck, double checked that the cruiser was secured to her, and that the Marines wouldn't accidentally roll themselves overboard in their tape balls. After that, I shrunk the dome, reforming Yamato's cloak with it and giving the cruiser a new coating.

I attached a strand of invisible cloth to Yamato in order to maintain full control of her from a distance then formed my suit of invisilet as I moved to the port side of Yamato. I stared out at Arlong Park in the distance for a few moments before I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them a moment later, I controlled the suit I was wearing to lift me up into the air a foot off the deck and then shot towards land. I had battlefield terrain to alter then we could finally give those bastards the beating they deserved.

END

Author's Notes: Remember that there's a new poll every two months for what I work on next so please keep putting in your choices guys.

As for the story, I was originally going to cover the fight with the Arlong Pirates but there were two factors against it. For one thing, I only had ten days of this month set aside for this story and that would take way too long to write. (As it is, I think if this and the other two branch stories win the poll I'll have to stick with them for both months rather than just one) Second, unlike Marching, these stories are more in line with the anime episodes rather than a manga arc. And finally, this allows me to stay somewhat level timeline wise with the other two stories.

On a side note, when I first wrote up this chapter, I called Nezumi's ship a schooner. But when I watched Episode 31 in preparation for writing Zaboomafoo's chapter 10, Nezumi specifically says "a patrolling marine cruiser stopping at a pirate island won't look too good" so I swapped classifications.

So until next time, this is Tac signing out.