Once Upon A Pirate

by TheEldritchWriter

Everyone dreams of having an adventure, at least once in their life. It's not always possible, unfortunately. But, what if you were gifted a chance? Would it be a miracle? Would it be a curse? Who knows, it's not like it could happen simply by, I don't know, opening a door... right? I hereby present my adventure! ... Or the story of how I opened a door and ended up in One piece.

9. Chapter 9: Butterfly Effect

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Cha- cha- chapter NINE! :D He he

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I woke up the next morning feeling like a big pile of sea king shite.

My everything was aching, and not in a good way. My black eye had swollen again a little during the night along with my split bottom lip. My still healing ribs were sore and I had a whole new bruise around my neck -ten very defined fingers- and my throat was scratchy as heck.

To summarize? I felt and look like shit.

I got out of my hammock and up the stairs leading to the deck as silently as possible, and I winced at the very bright morning light once outside. It was still early, considering that we had sailed quite late last night after the whole Whiskey Peak incident.

Other than me, Vivi, Sanji and Karoo, everyone else was still asleep. I got into the kitchen, where I could hear some noise. The sweet smell of coffee lead me to the table, where I sat down my head meeting the cool wooden surface.

"Miss Kasey, you look terrible."

I groaned, looking to the side. "Thanks, princess, I hadn't realized."

She shook her hands in front of her as if in defence. "No no, that's not what I meant! It's just that… erm… everyone else's wounds have already healed, while yours..."

Oh yeah, that.

I lifted my head from the table and sat properly, eyeing the princess next to me and shrugged. "And I look worst? Yeah, let's just say I have a… condition of sort. It's not contagious or anything, don't worry."

"Is it related to what Mister Bushido was talking about yesterday?" she asked in concern.

I pursed my lips. I had hoped sleeping would help get me answers on how to deal with that but turns out a few hours of sleep weren't enough to come up with a solution. I'd figure it out as I went, just like most of what I had been doing up until now. One thing was sure, I was going to be as honest as I could with them in the meantime.

"Yeah, it's related."

We stayed in silence for a moment, until Sanji came with fresh cups of coffee for us.

"Here you go my lovelies!"

I took my cup from the cook's hands and breath in the familiar aroma. "Aaaah-! The brew of the gods! Sanji, how would I survive on this crazy sea without you?"

"It's a pleasure Kasey-chwan~!" he started swirling around, then calmed down and looked at us more seriously. "Ah, but please, Vivi-san has a point Kasey dear, you should take care of those wounds before we get another iceberg situation on our hands."

Vivi made to answer, but I answered first to both of their surprises.

"Don't worry Sanji, that was caused by reverse mountain and the seven magnetism fighting each other at the entrance to the grand line. I'm not saying it's going to be smooth sailing from now on, but these few hours are not going to be the norm for the first part of the grand line."

Vivi cocked her head to the side. "I thought you guys were new to the grand line? No offence, of course."

Sanji tilted his head to the side. "We are. How do you know that Kasey-chan?"

I sigh. "Look, I'll try and be as honest as I can, but for the whole story... It would be better if everyone is there, is that okay? I'm not sure myself how to explain everything properly yet"

They both nodded after a brief pause. Sanji went back to preparing breakfast and Vivi got up from her spot, stretching.

"Well! I'll go and wake up the others then. As you said, we won't encounter as crazy of weather as reverse mountain had, but we still should be on our guards."

I shook my head at the royal. "Nah, let them sleep. If there's anything we'll wake them up, but they earned their rest."

"B-But-!"

"Nope! Sit down. Anyway, Luffy is definitely going to wake up as soon as bacon hits any kind of pan from Sanji's kitchen. You won't have to do a thing. So sit, kick back and relax while we still have a few moments of silence."

She was about to argue, but just as I said that, Sanji took out a piece of the meat and lowered it near the hot pan.

It didn't have time to touch it.

*KABLANG!*

"SANJI! FOOD!"

I took a sip of my cup and looked at the flabbergasted royal. "Called it."

One after the others, the crew woke up and entered the kitchen. Meals with the straw hats, as most would expect, was quite the event. Not because we partied or celebrated for every meal, those were their own brand of crazy, no it was because of the ongoing war that would become the table during those times. You had to, of course, shield your plate from the grabby hands of the captain -which I have to admit, were excellent ways to train one's reflexes- but also from the random condiment projectile the sniper would throw in hopes of stopping said captain. It had become somewhat of a game. Usopp would train his aim on Luffy's hands while I would try and get the condiments I liked into my plate.

I still had trouble differencing hot sauce from ketchup, but I digress.

One thing was for sure, meals at that table were never a sad endeavour. It was frustrating to no end, anger was also a possibility, but it never stayed for long, and it was funny. Funny as in, laughing under the table clutching your side. Once you taste a meal in the company of the straw hats, no meal would ever be the same.

It made all the pain from this morning vanish into thin air as I laughed at my friend's antics.

-oOo-

"I don't understand."

I looked at the muttering princess next to me and then back at the guy's group down on the deck. They were trying to see how much Karoo would be able to drink, going off on a cheerful cry of "Chug! Chug! Chug!" while presenting the duck with glass after glass of sweet juice.

"It's a game, Vivi. Don't you guys have those types of games in Alabasta?" I asked her teasingly.

She gave me a seething glare. "That's not what I meant!"

I recoiled a little from her. "Woah, woah! Geeze, I'm sorry. What's go you into a twist so suddenly?"

"You're no better than them, I don't see how you would understand." she grumbled, going back to glaring at the boys.

Ooookay. What was her problem?

Nami came out of the kitchen with our share of drinks. They had the same liquid as the guys, but it was complemented with a slice of lemon and a little umbrella.

I thanked Nami and took my glass. She turned and gave Vivi hers. The princess looked at the drink like it had insulted her mother and then sighed, deflating a little.

"How can you all be so calm, I don't get it."

So that was the problem?

"Don't worry Vivi, if something happens they'll get right to work. They don't want to die, even if sometimes it's hard to believe." Nami pointed out.

The princess still looked a little defeated, but at least she was sipping down the drink. I looked back at the guys, who were now laughing at a very bloated Karoo. It was kinda impressive when you stopped and think of our situation.

We were in the middle of the first part of the most dangerous sea in the world, and our crew was composed of a few teenagers with big dreams, plus an adult that didn't act like one.

I was starting to see what Nami was talking about back in reverse mountain.

I shrugged the thoughts and got down on the deck with the rest of the guys.

"Hey, Usopp, think you could make some fishing gear?" asked Luffy.

"Oh yeah, fishing sounds nice." lazily said Zoro.

"And it would be an alternative food source, not a bad idea." Sanji agreed.

I sat down next to them. "That's a good idea, mind if I help? I'd also like to get your opinion on the weapon I'm making."

Usopp lifted his nose toward the sun. "Of course! With my help, everything gets more incredible! I'll create the most amazing fishing rod ever seen! He he he!" he then turned to me. "But I didn't know you were making a weapon, I thought you were going to use swords?"

I lifted my eyebrow. "Why would I ask for so much tracing paper if I was going to do that?"

"Oh yeah, I still haven't seen those blades, have I?" said Zoro. "Where are they by the way?"

"Down in the girl's room" I shrugged. "I usually leave them in my hammock so they don't get tossed around during the day."

"So! When are we going to see it? The weapon?" eagerly asked Luffy.

I hummed. "Well, I already have everything I need to make it and with Usopp's help, I'd say… we could have a prototype nearing Alabasta I think. What say you, thinkerer in chief?"

"Hmm, I'd have to look at your blueprints, but it sounds doable." said the sniper, scratching his chin in thoughts.

I nodded in agreement. With his help it was more than doable, we would be able to make the fishing gears, maybe some ammo I would like to propose to him, Nami's staff if she had already asked for it and my dual sword in time for Alabasta.

Especially if I was able to make him not add the party tricks.

I was about to say something when a sound stopped me. It was hard to hear, because of the ongoing conversation next to me, and it was really faint, but it was there. Getting up, I walked to the railing and looked at the sea.

"Kaz? What are you doing?"

"Shhh! Can't you hear something?"

They stopped talking and listened. The sound got a little louder, but I still couldn't find the source. It was like a crowd talking loudly in a wind storm. Yet there was no wind. I got up the stairs and kept an eye on the sea, trying to find the source of the noise. That's when I found it.

It was no crowd.

Nor was it even a storm.

"Nami…!" I slowly called the navigator.

"What is it Kaz?" she asked while walking up the stairs.

I didn't answer. All I did was point toward the other side of the ship, making sure to keep my expression as neutral as possible.

I pointed at the big ass whirlpool in the middle of the sea.

She paused, blinked a few times, always keeping the same straight face I was schooling.

Why you might ask?

Of course, a whirlpool three times the size of the ship in the middle of the sea was quite concerning in itself.

But this was the grand line.

So this was a giant whirlpool in the middle of the sea that was headed straight for our ship.

As in moving.

"Ahem." the navigator said, turning toward the now flabbergasted crew also looking at the thing. She paused.

And then panic ensued.

"GET TO WORK PEOPLE! ZORO, SANJI, GET THE OARS OUT! USOPP, KASEY, VIVI, I WANT THE SAIL FURLED ASAP! LUFFY, GET TO THE HELM AND TURN US FULL STARBOARD!"

"YES!" was the general consensus.

In a feat of incredible teamwork, the very well-oiled machine that was our crew managed to out sped -believe me you that I was never prepared to use that word for something like this- the crawling natural phenomenon in record time.

It took us half an hour to stop paddling, just in case the thing was still near. Spent and tired, at least for me, not talking about the three monsters on board, we cleaned up the deck and got back to whatever we were doing before the incident. I was especially proud of the fact that I hadn't fallen overboard once during the whole ordeal.

Yet the sound of a fist hitting the railing stopped me.

We all turned towards Vivi, who was now visibly fuming.

"We just got out of a dire situation that I have been warning multiple people on this crew of, and now you're all just going back to relaxing?!"

We all blinked at the princess, unsure how to react.

But then we also have a Luffy on board.

His head cocked to the side in honest confusion he just went "Well, yeah." and that was too much for the resident royal. She let out a frustrated growl and went to stand near the front of the ship, hand rubbing her forehead.

I looked at the princess as she stepped closer to the rails of the merry. If there was one face I could relate to right now, it would have been Vivi's. The sheer anxiety, stress and fear were obvious to all of us, along with the frustration of not being in control of the situation. Not that any of us were in any way able to control that, but that kind of thought seemed to be the problem for Vivi at the moment.

This wouldn't do.

I looked at Luffy, waiting for his approbation and walked toward the princess before leaning on the rail right next to her, making sure the tattoos on my knuckles were visible to her.

"Hey." I started softly. "Have I ever told you the story behind my tattooed hands, your highness?"

"Huh?" she looked at me, unsure of where I was going with this. "Erm, no miss Kasey, you haven't. I do have to say it's quite peculiar to have 'death' written on one's fingers." she said, nervously sliding a little further away from me.

"But, it's crossed out and 'alive' is written over it, do you know why?" I pressed on.

"A morbid sense of humour?" she deadpanned.

"Pffeheha! Yes and no... may I ask you something?"

She looked at me and then let out a sigh. "Sure."

"What do you think about when you cross a street?"

That took her aback. I could see in the corners of my eyes that the rest of the crew was listening, probably wondering where I was going with this. Vivi took a moment to think about her answer.

"I'd say… nothing? Unless I have a lot on my mind then I might be thinking of that."

I smiled. "Exactly. Most people when crossing a street, such a small and boring thing to do in a day, think of nothing."

She blinked at me. "Most people?"

She was a smart girl that one. I wriggled my tattooed finger in front of her. I did promise myself to be more honest with them after all.

"Ever since I was a kid, the first thing that came to my mind when crossing a street, was all the different ways I could die."

"You? But you're so-"

"Optimist? Glass half-full? A ray of sunshine?"

"Maybe not that last one, but yes." she deadpanned.

I chuckled. "Optimism is something that can be learned, princess. Some people need to learn it in order to survive."

The deck was silent, leaving me to my thought and to prepare the right words.

"A piece of building coming loose, a distracted driver, twisting my ankle and becoming invisible to the oncoming traffic, missing the sidewalk and face planting on a sharp object, robbers and all of those fun things crossed my mind on such a simple daily task. And it still happens right now at my age."

"R-Right now?" her eyes widened a little.

"HA! You have no idea the amount of time I saw myself slipping on deck and impaling myself on miscellaneous objects or jumping into the sea only for it to be a sand dune and breaking my neck. You do know my reputation for being quite clumsy, no?"

I turned my head towards the princess. Only to find that the whole crew was staring at me with wide eyes. Even the duck was openly gaping at me.

"That's horrendous miss Kasey!" the now concerned princess said.

"Wait wait! I was going somewhere with this, please let me finish." I sheepishly smiled.

That was probably too weird even for them. Clearing my throat I looked back at Vivi.

"Anyway, what I mean is, this is one of the reasons why I got this tattoo."

"One of them?"

"Pffhehe! Yes, half the reason was an homage of sort to someone I hold dear, a joke in a way, and the other is to remind me that I'm not yet dead, but still alive. Do you know what I mean princess?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "I-I'm not sure..."

"It means 'let go', princess. This tattoo is my reminder that I can't do anything against things that are out of my control. It tells me to let go."

At first, she didn't quite understand, but soon she had furry written all over her face.

"Miss Kasey, I do hope you are not telling me to let go of my people!"

I looked at her unimpressed. "No Vivi, but tell me one thing, can you control time?"

"Huh? What does-!"

"Can you control the weather? Or people's will?"

"Of course not!"

"Then yes princess, I'm telling you to let go of the things you cannot control."

Silence. She looked at me like I had slapped her across the face, a mix of incredulity and hurt.

"Let go?"

"Yes. Are you or are you not doing everything in your power to get back as soon as possible to Alabasta?"

"I-I am." she stuttered.

"Did you or did you not ask for help?"

"I did." she said more confidently.

"Is there anything else, right in this very moment, that you could do to help them right now?"

"I am doing everything that I can!" she yelled.

"Then why the anxiety?"

"What?"

I sighed before looking Vivi right in the eyes. "Don't get me wrong, worrying is more than natural in your current situation, but it shouldn't keep you from crossing the street."

This time, there was no hurt on the princess's face. Just plain realization. I wasn't the only one on deck with a soft smile on my face. Vivi looked at her hands, looked at mine and then looked up to my face.

"Let go." she murmured.

"Yes, let go. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a peaceful day at sea Vivi, you are doing everything you can so please, please! Let go and take care of yourself."

She smiled a real one and gave me a hug. These kids were too cute.

"Thank you miss Kasey." she sniffled.

"Anytime your highness."

And that was that. The crew went back to their distractions and I lead Vivi toward Nami, who had already asked Sanji to get the lawn chairs out. As I passed by them to get my blueprint and start working with Usopp, I got a glimpse of what Nami had on her side table.

"Is that today's newspaper?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I got it back in Whiskey Peak, figured it would take a while for us to get one so I took it before leaving, why?"

"Any section on a short story contest?"

She opened the paper to look. "Yeah! They posted them, I wonder who would write in those." She snickered. "Why? You know someone that did?"

I snickered back. "Maybe! Just checking on some butterflies, that's all."

And I left the baffled girls there to get my blueprint, a new bounce in my steps.

-oOo-

Smoker was in his office, going through a pile of reports before getting on his ship. The smoke in the room was so thick the man was invisible, same for pretty much everything in the room. He was halfway through a report on the last whereabouts of the straw hat pirates when his door opened.

"Captain Smok-ACK! *cough cough* What the-?"

The sound of someone walking and hitting shelves, boxes and other items was heard along with a streak of swearing. Then a window was opened, letting the thick smoke out and revealing the room.

Along with Smoker casually sitting on the sofa.

"Ca-Captain!" The officer made a salute.

"At ease marine." grumbled the smokey captain.

The officer relaxed and nervously walked toward Smoker.

"Erm, Captain Smoker? There's an Admiral that just arrived in town by, err, by bicycle?"

Smoker sighed. Right, that guy, he thought. The logia user got up and took his coat near the door before turning toward the marine. "Go get petty officer Tashigi, we'll meet the Admiral in the lounge."

The marine did a last salute and ran back from where he came from. The captain took the time to throw away his two used-up cigars and changed them for fresh ones. He lit them and left the room to meet the guest.

Walking in the corridors of Loguetown's marine base, he thought about the last few days. Preparation for their trip in the Grand Line was finished, along with the most pressing reparation to the town. The higher-ups had given him the 'ok' to chase the straw hat pirates over the red line and his replacement for Loguetown had arrived the day before. All that was left were the last minutes' details and a few last warnings to the resident mobsters.

They were all ready to go.

Smoker arrived in front of the lounge at the same time as Tashigi.

"Tashigi." greeted the captain.

"Captain Smoker." answered the petty officer.

As one, they entered the lounge room. In there, sitting on one of the sofas, was a tall dark man with a sleeping mask on top of his head. He had a bored look on his face and was aimlessly looking at the ceiling.

"Admiral Aokiji." greeted Smoker.

The admiral looked at the two marines and nodded his head as a greeting. "Smoker. Slendy lady."

A vein popped on Tashigi's forehead, but she stayed silent.

"You have some useful information for me if I understood correctly." said Smoker while sitting in front of the admiral.

"Hn, that is correct." Aokiji, shifted on the sofa, getting more comfortable. "What do you know exactly? I don't feel like talking for nothing."

Tashigi took one step forward. "Miss Kas- I'm sorry, the target was signalled by the Fleet Admiral as a possible spy working against the WG. She was sighted in Loguetown two days ago in company of the straw hat pirates. We believe she is being held by the pirate crew because of her, possible, ability to speak with inanimate objects."

Aokiji lifted a lazy eyebrow. "Possible? Speaking with objects? What's this about?"

Tashigi shifted uncomfortably. "It was not added to the report because I'm the only witness and everything went so fast that I could be mistaken and-!"

"Tashigi." cut Smoker.

"Y-Yes, captain Smoker." she straightened herself. "It was not confirmed at 100 percent, so it was omitted in the report, sir, but there is a slight chance miss Kasey could have a devil fruit that allows her to speak, as I just said, to inanimated object."

Aokiji blinked in shock, then sigh. "This is just getting weirder and weirder."

Smoker grunted noncommittally. "Anything from HQ?"

Aokiji sighed again. "Few things, not sure how helpful it'll be for you. She escaped from Marineford, and when I say escape I mean through a window, while I wasn't looking. It didn't really matter at the time since the orders were to let her go." he frowned. "But then… then things got, strange."

The officers waited patiently for the admiral to continue.

"The way she entered Marineford was through a door."

Smoker's eyebrow twitched. "Sir-"

"I mean a door that wasn't supposed to be there. Geeze, calm down." the admiral dug his pinky finger in his ear. "So we looked for a door door fruit holder, but turns out he's a cipher pol agent undercover since four years ago."

That shocked the two marine officers. A cipher pol agent?

"Hmm." Started Smoker. "The revolutionary hypothesis really is the most probable."

"What makes you think that?" asked Aokiji, lifting an eyebrow.

"He personally came here to help straw hat escape."

Aokiji stared at the captain. "Well... that's something the Fleet admiral will want to hear."

On that comment, Aokiji got up and started to walk toward the door. "My job here is done then." He turned to look at the marines. "Unless there is anything else I should take to Fleet Admiral Sengoku?"

"None from us." denied Smoker.

With a nod, the cold Admiral got out of the lounge room and headed toward his bike.

Looking at the man leave, Smoker let out a puff from his cigar. "Tashigi."

The petty officer gave a salute. "Yes, captain Smoker?"

He took out a piece of paper from his coat. "Please look into this, I don't know what the links are, but if what the Admiral just said is true, things might be more complicated than we thought."

Tashigi took the small piece of paper and nodded. She then left for the information room in order to start her research. Opening the small paper the captain had given her, she read two words.

Baroque Works.

-oOo-

All the way back into the blues, in the quiet village of ShellTown, Rika was sitting at her mother's bar with an opened newspaper in front of her. Today was the day the short story competition was out and she was excited to see the entries. One of the marines she was friends with had told her that there were sometimes incredible stories in them and the winners could have his creations published all around the blues.

So when the paper had been delivered to town, she had taken the first copy she could find and had eagerly started to read.

That's how officer Ripper found the little girl when he entered the Food Foo restaurant. Only, she had a perplexed expression on her face.

"Hey, Rika! What's new little friend? What's with the long face?"

Rika looked up from the paper. "Oh, hi Ripper. I'm reading the entries for the short story contest." she told him.

"By your expression I take it they are less than impressive?" he gathered.

The little girl scoffed. "No, most of them are good, but there is one that gets on my nerves."

Ripper curiously got closer to the girl to get a better view of the story in question. "What's wrong with it?"

He started to read the story and frowned. The story itself was pretty good. It was the story of a boy and his kite and a wild seagull. Not extraordinary, but not exactly bad either. The lesson was great and the tale itself made sense. No, the story had another kind of problem, and the officer understood quite easily what was offending the kid.

That story was full of spelling mistakes.

Extra letters were everywhere, it wasn't even funny.

"Did the person who wrote this even try? I don't understand." was Ripper's comment. "Is it signed?"

"Yeah, the writer signed it as 'the storyteller' so there's not much to go off of." grumbled Rika.

"Not everybody can be good at spelling Rika!" Chastized Rika's mother, Ririka. "Maybe they were in a hurry or are just good at inventing stories. There's an old saying that goes 'don't judge a book by its cover' for a reason you know." Ririka got close to her daughter and kissed the top of her head. "Sometimes you have to look at things differently! That's how you'll live a long and interesting life." she took Ripper's order and went back into the kitchen.

Rika stared at the paper, pouting. What could she do? The cover of this story was bad, no matter how she looked at it! Frustrated, she was about to throw the newspaper away, when something caught her eyes. Frowning, she took another look at the story. Her eyes widened.

She then got up and out of the table, running, only to come back a few seconds later with a pen and paper.

Ripper looked at the child with growing intrigue. "Rika? What are you doing now?"

The little girl ignored the marine to concentrate on her work. A few seconds later, she let out a victorious cry and had a look of pure amazement on her face.

She turned toward the marine. "They're not mistakes!" she proclaimed.

"What?"

"They're not spelling mistakes! It's a hidden message!" the child squee'd gleefully. "Like a treasure map, but with words!"

The marine, and other officers around him, got closer again to look at the paper. Indeed, when you stopped looking at the misspelled words and only took the extra letters, you could make new words. A text, in a text.

The marine was baffled. "What does it say?" he asked the little girl.

-oOo-

"This is preposterous!"

"Calm down, Sengoku. It can't be that bad."

The fleet admiral stared at his long-time friend, irritated. "Tsuru, I get newbies reports that have fewer spelling mistakes than this piece of garbage." he stated. "I'd rather not waste my eyes on something like that on my downtime."

"I don't get why you spend your downtime on something like reading, point." grumbled Grap while loudly munching on a rice cracker.

Sengoku sighed. "Some of us like to read, Garp. And this story is interesting if it wasn't for these god-forsaken mistakes!"

He was about to give the paper to his goat when Tsuru swiped it from his hands. "Let me look."

Sengoku rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Suit yourself."

Tsuru read the paper, schooling her expression as neutral as possible before clearing her throat. "I can see what you meant."

"Ha! Told you!"

But the vice-admiral kept on reading.

And reading.

And re-reading.

And then she frowned. "Can you pass me some spare paper and a pen?"

Sengoku frowned in turn as he gave the items to the lady. "Sure, but why?"

She clicked the pen open and started to write. "Because these aren't simple spelling mistakes."

The fleet admiral and the war hero looked at each other, before looking back at their friend's notes with curiosity.

-oOo-

On the island of Baltigo, somewhere in the Grand Line, a blond toting a top hat was walking toward a meeting room. He had been called over by his superior over personal matters. He was quite curious about that since personal matters were a rare subject in the army.

As he turned the corner, he almost hit a short red-haired woman.

"Ouf! Sabo! You should look where you're going! What if I had a bomb or something in my hands?"

"A bomb?" the blond chuckled. "Why would you have a bomb here, Koala? Why not something else?"

The redhead pouted. "You never know!"

The blond chuckled anew and stepped to the side, allowing the young girl to pass by him. "Okay, okay. I'll be careful from now on."

He continued his way toward the meeting room.

"Oi! Wait!"

He turned around, lifting an eyebrow at the ginger's interruption.

Only for said ginger to pass him and enter the very room he was going to. She looked at him. "What are you waiting for?" and disappeared into the room.

A little startled, it took a few seconds for the blond to follow her, shaking his head at her antics, smiling.

In the room was a long meeting table. On the far wall, you could see one of the biggest collections of transponder snails in the world.

Or at least that's what the boss liked to say.

Said boss was a dark-haired man standing at the end of the table. In front of him, on the table, a couple of papers were spread.

"You wanted to talk to me, sir?"

The dark man turned around to face the other two individuals in the room. The man pointed to the vacant seats next to him. "Take a seat, this might take a while."

Looking at each other, Sabo and Koala sat in front of the other, flanking the dark-haired man at the table. In front of them, now that they could see it more clearly, was today's newspaper. It had been separated for better analysis and one page, in particular, had loads of annotations and even a note page on the side, to sum up the finds.

The dark-haired man looked at Sabo. "There was something interesting in the newspaper today." he started.

"Are you talking about the short story contest?" Asked Koala, glancing at the page on the table. "Was there anything good?"

The dark-haired man chuckled and lightly tapped the papers in front of them. "Rather than good, I'd say… instructive." he then turned toward the blond. "Years ago I swore that if there was any way to help you regain your memories, I would help you do so."

Sabo slowly nodded. "You did, sir."

Dragon spread the papers a little more on the table. "It seems like this day might be upon us."

There was a startled silence.

"In the paper, sir?"

"Yes." the dark-haired man stated. "One of the stories in the contest was, let's say interestingly written..."

"Say more like horribly." piped up Koala as she picked up the page in question. "It's full of spelling mistakes. Where you trying to correct it, sir?"

"Yes and no." He smirked. "Turns out these mistakes were in fact a hidden message."

Both soldiers looked at the paper in dumbfounded awe.

"Who would think of doing something like that?" asked the blond.

"Are they new allies, sir?" continued the redhead.

"It's too early to say." Answered the revolutionary. "But I do believe them to be well informed. Because this message, although coded, is partly addressed to me and you, Sabo."

The blond frowned. "And they pretend to be able to give me back my memories?"

Dragon nodded. "That, and they also gave me the identity of Joker."

That got both soldiers to gape at their boss.

"Are they trustworthy?" asked Koala in concern.

"I'm afraid there is only one way to find out." said Dragon as he looked at Sabo. "But the choice is yours. I am curious, but I won't order you to go."

Sabo stayed silent for a second, thinking. He then looked at his boss, the only fatherly figure he knew, in the eyes. "Tell me what it says."

Dragon smiled his signature smile and shifted one particular piece of paper so all could read it on the table.

-oOo-

Buggy was relaxing on the deck of the Big Top. He and his crew had just left the old man Crocus back at reverse mountain and he needed to expel the sudden rush of memories from his mind. Meeting the old doctor hadn't just been a bad surprise, but the damn geezer had the gal to laugh at him in front of his and Alvida's crew.

Still muttering about childhood trauma, Buggy completely missed Cabaji coming toward him.

"Captain Buggy!"

"WHOARGH!" Jumped the clown. "What?! Why did you sneak up on me, Cabaji?!"

"S-Sorry captain! I was just bringing the newspaper to you." the acrobat said while presenting said paper.

Buggy took the paper and grumbled. "Damn old man distracting me even now… AND PUT A DAMN BELL ON, WOULD YOU?!"

"Yes, captain Buggy!"

Buggy sat back in his chair and opened the journal with a snap, reading on to force his brain to concentrate on something else than old dusty memories.

While scanning, his eyes landed on the short story contest.

"That will do."

He read on. Some stories were funny, others sad. Some were really good and others were just plain garbage. One, in particular, made him stop.

"What the flashy hell is this?"

As he re-read the piece, his eyes started to sparkle.

"Cabaji! Bring me a pen and paper would you?!"

"Yes, captain Buggy!" the acrobat ran on deck and brought what was asked in record time.

Still panting, he looked at his captain writing. "Are you writing a story too captain? A biography maybe?" he asked.

"No, you flashy idiot! This one has a hidden message in it." he started to cackle. "Only a brilliant mind like mine would be able to decipher it this fast! Years of treasure map reading does that to one's mind! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"And what does it say, captain?"

Buggy stopped mid-laugh. He then quickly finished transferring the hidden message onto the new piece of paper and stood up.

"Ahem, ahem! So this is how it goes..."

-oOo-

Marco was walking along the rails of the moby dick, shaking his head. He had had to take care of some of his stupider brothers after a small brawl against Kaido's crew. Ten wounded, one small ship sank and an hour of his time lost. He tsked, not that it was a big deal, but did they have to get hurt on the day he was supposed to receive his precious crosswords?

Of course, the well-being of his brothers and sisters was important to him, he just wished they would think before challenging the Kaido pirates in a drinking game.

They weren't Pop for goddamn sakes!

Arriving on the main deck, he looked around to see who was there.

"You look annoyed, son." grumbled Whitebeard, because a man like him was never simply talking. Or maybe it was his devil fruit acting up, who knows.

"Hn, just a few idiots, pops. That's literally what siblings are for."

"Gurarararara! Ain't that right!"

The phoenix smiled and walked toward Haruta, who he had spotted earlier. The commander of the 12th division was casually reading the newspaper, grumbling under his none existing beard.

"The contest isn't up to your expectation Haruta?" asked Marco as he picked up the already separated papers.

"You have no idea, Marco!" he growled. "If you take the time to post a story in the damn paper, usually you take the time to read what you send! This seakingshit is not even worth mentioning at this point!"

Marco lifted an eyebrow. For a pirate to whine about grammar, the piece must have been pretty bad.

"What's the story about? It can't be this bad if they let it in the papers." Ace asked, walking closer to the other two from below deck.

"I'm also curious, now that you mention it." said Whitebeard.

Haruta sighed, shaking his head. "That's the worst part! The story itself is pretty good, it's about a little boy, a kite and a seagull. The seagull brags about being free to the kite when it gets stuck in a tree but is then saved by it and the boy when a sudden storm appears. It's a great lesson in not taking things for granted and learning to respect others." He then growled anew. "But the writer is shit at writing correctly! Look! Just in the first three words of this sentence! There is an extra 'T', an extra 'H' and an extra 'E' there, there and there! Even I can see it! This is ridiculous I tell you!"

"Gurarara! Don't worry son, the writer could be someone who is learning. Didn't you just say the story itself was good?"

The other three started to talk about the ridiculous mistakes in the paper, while Marco was thoughtful, his hand cupping his chin.

Ace saw him. "What is it, Marco?"

The zoan user thought a moment more. "Mind if I take a look?"

Haruta gave him the paper, wondering what his brother was up to. The same question was on the face of the other two presents.

Marco took the article and scanned it. The story was long enough to fill up the whole page and as Haruta had pointed out, it was full of seemingly easily avoidable mistakes. That is, unless your favourite pass time was crosswords.

Marco left the three stunned pirates to go and get a pen and paper. He then came back on deck and sat on the floor near the other three. Slowly, he started writing the mistakes on the new sheet of paper. The three pirates on deck were baffled by what they were seeing.

"Well, I'll be damned." said Whitebeard. "All these years on the sea, and this is the first time I see something like this."

"Holy shit!" said Haruta. "And it was right in my face!"

"Yours, mine and probably the rest of the world. How many people are going to understand you think?" asked Ace.

Marco, still writing down the very hidden message that was in the short story. "My guess?" He said. "Anyone knowledgeable enough to decipher a treasure map or a crossword puzzle. That and anyone observant enough."

"So it would be for a wide public?" said Haruta, his head turned on the side.

Marco finished writing the new text and frowned. "No, see, it's still coded."

He turned the coded message so all of them could read it.

"Do you think it's some kind of communication test for the revolutionaries?" excitedly asked Haruta.

"Nah, it looks like a series of warnings? For people?" Ace answered, puzzled.

"What does it say, son?" inquired Whitebeard.

Marco turned the paper back toward him and started to read.

"To the amnesiac named off his hat, fighting the great cause..." he started.

-oOo-

"To the fire born of the king and raised by the strength..." a little girl surrounded by attentive marines read out loud.

-oOo-

"Meet rubber in the war-afflicted country of sand. There, you'll find your answers..." continued the top-hatted blond.

"One for the lost memories..." picked up the redhead next to him.

"One for the fallen Thatch..." finished the dark-haired man sitting at the table.

-oOo-

"Both for the revival of ASL..." Read out the old lady in a marine coat.

"To the crescent moon beard, I give a warning. Darkness is afoot, and the malevolent D is to blame..." continued the seagull-toting officer next to her.

"To the wanted anarchist, a gift. The joke's on the flamingo..." grumbled the hero next to them. "What kind of bullshit is this?"

"Shut up Garp!"

-oOo-

"To the fallen noble in pink, that's for what you did to black feathers, moron." finished Buggy.

"Is this it cap'n?" asked Cabaji.

"That's all there is. This is some flashy way to get information across! I wonder who thought of that?"

"Think it might be the resolutionists?" asked a random pirate.

"It's revolutionists you flashy moron!" shrieked the captain.

-oOo-

Marco lifted his eyes from the paper to look at his family. They were all staring at him with wide eyes.

"Woah." was all Haruta could say.

Most of them agreed to this. Most of them, but Ace.

He had a furious aura and was starring daggers at the paper in Marco's hands. He actually hid the thing behind his back in case the commander of the 2nd division decided to actually make the paper disappear in flames. Next to him, Whitebeard was thinking.

Haruta looked from one to the other. "Hum, something I'm missing?"

Ace growled. "To the fire born of the king and raised by the strength, meet rubber in the war afflicted country of sand. There, you'll find your answers and both for the revival of ASL." he spat. "Those are addressed to me."

Haruta's eyes widened. "That's actually pretty cool, no? Why do you look so angry?"

"Because the only other person who knows about ASL isn't smart enough to make something like this." He growled. "Or heartless enough to insinuate something like that." his eyes narrowed. "and the way that person described me..."

Marco hummed thoughtfully, then looked at his adoptive father. "Then would the crescent moon beard be you pops?"

The giant man nodded slowly. "I believe so, but I'm unsure about the message. Darkness is afoot, and the malevolent D is to blame? It's a little vague…"

"What about the part with Thatch?" asked Haruta.

The trio blinked. "What?"

"Well, yeah! There, you'll find your answers for the fallen Thatch. Doesn't that refer to our Thatch?"

There was a pause. Then they all looked at each other.

"Where is Thatch, by the way?" carefully asked Haruta.

New silence.

"Shit." was the unanimous answer to his question.

And that's how Marco's tranquil afternoon of crosswords filling became a wild search for one of his brothers.

-oOo-

In the hallways of the great castle of the Dressrossa kingdom, the prince of darkness was walking towards the throne room. If anyone had asked him how he was doing, he would have laughed and answered 'a little peeved' and kept ongoing. Not that anything had happened to his beloved castle, nor even to his beloved crew. Heck, the problem was that nothing was happening. Even the marines didn't have anything interesting to do.

So, Donquixote Doflamingo was bored.

And he hated being bored.

Opening the door to the throne room, he saw a few of his officers whispering over a piece of paper. He stopped and looked at the strange sight.

"Trebol, Baby 5, Buffalo, what are you doing?" he asked.

The snotty man turned toward him calmly, in contrast to the other two who jumped from shock.

"Something is interesting in the newspaper, Doffy!"

The warlord calmly walked toward them and took a look at the papers in the hands of his officer. One was a page of the newspaper, like he had said, where a story was written. A very badly written story if the numerous mistakes were anything to go by. The other was a page with the handwriting of Baby 5 on it. It was a strange message written in riddles.

Interesting.

"I didn't know you were into riddles Baby 5." Doflamingo snickered.

"No sir! This was in the strange story in the newspaper."

Lifting one eyebrow, the warlord took another look at the article. Effectively, if one was to take the mistakes in the text, it would create a new, completely different one.

"We were arguing over the possibility that you are in that cipher, Doffy." piped up Trebol.

Curiosity peaked, Doffy looked at the paper. So someone was spreading rumours about him? He snickered. There was one thing he hated more than anything, it was false rumours. So if the author of this story was spreading false rumours about him…

...that would be the perfect distraction from boredom, no?

But when Doflamingo read the text, he was shocked.

"Fuffuffuffuffu, interesting."

"What is interesting, Doffy?" asked Trebol, uncomfortably close.

The prince of darkness chuckled. "Looks like we have a new friend." he told his beloved officers. "And this friend wants to play! Fuffuffuffu, FUFFUFFUFFUFFU!"

As the warlord sat on his throne and laugh, one thought went through his mind.

Someone had rolled dice on him.

And so he would flip a coin at them.

And so was the end of Donquixiote Doflamingo's boredom.

-oOo-

All over the world, five individuals each received the same paper as everyone.

One received his at the back of a renowned marine bar…

"Hey Cap! You just came back from mission? That's great! We were getting lonely without you here, hehe!" said a marine while tapping the shoulder of a man with a captain coat.

The man smiled and ruffled the marine's hat and hair affectionately. "Ha! What would you do without me, punk?!"

The man sat down and spoke enthusiastically with the rest of the table. After a good laugh, his eyes landed on a forgotten paper.

The day's newspaper.

Without any afterthought, he opened the pages and took in the information within.

He stopped at a specific page.

A page with an unusually badly written story.

It took him little to no time to decipher the hidden message and understand its meaning.

The man slowly smiled.

"Well, well… would you look at that."

… another one received it in the darkest corner of the blues…

"Coack! Master! Master!"

The form of a young lady shifted from a dead tree branch to look at the crow holding a bundle of paper. The crow gave it to her and she slowly tore one page after the other, seemingly uninterested by its content.

Until one particular page.

"Kehkekeke! Have you seen, Pecot?" The lady cackled, glee on her trait as she scanned the page in her fingers.

"It's here~!"

… two would receive it at the same time…

"Oi! What're you waitin' for, mongrel?!"

"Shhh! You idiot! I'm concentrating, leave me alone!"

"What? Ya need brains to concentrate, ye don't have none!"

"WHAT! Youuuu-"

"Whas'that? Paper?"

The fight between the two individuals came to an abrupt stop as one of the two saw the newspaper in the hand of the other. The one that held said paper smiled devilishly at his partner while showing him the page he was on.

"Oh, you're going to love this."

… and one sinister soul would receive it in the deepest, darkest place known to man.

In the dark depth of the sea, a figure was walking the deserted sand that made its bottom. It was a strange sight, especially since no light was supposed to come so deep down into the sea, yet here it was, illuminating this being.

As the figure kept on walking, it came about a sunken ship. It was so recent, the bodies of the poor souls were still in their fresh state, untouched. The figure pushed the fresh flesh aside and took a look at the ship's body.

It had been a fine vessel, but its crew visibly hadn't been taking care of it. Going by the scratch marks on its frame, the crew and the vessel had stood no chance against the sea king that had sunken them.

Continuing its walk into the ship, the figure came upon a floating piece of paper. For some unknown reason, it had survived the crushing of the ship and the current of the sea to land near the figure's feet.

He bent down and took it near the light source to read what was on it. Once his eyes landed on a particular page of the newspaper, the figure didn't visibly react. It just stood there, with the piece of paper in hand.

Yet all the fish that came close to the figure's face would tell the same story.

Of about how they'd seen death smile that day.

-oOo-

"I don't get it."

Usopp was looking at one of the pages of my blueprint. Flipping it around, comparing with another one and just plain trying to make sense of the thing. We were currently in his 'workshop' which was a small platform in the storage room and were preparing the space for us to work.

"How does that make a weapon?" he asked confused.

I chuckled at the sniper. "You're looking at it wrong, dummy." I took the pages from him and pointed at one of the corners of the pages. "See those lines?"

"Yeah?"

"These are called roman numbers. So if you pile them up in order, one on top of the others..." I shuffled the pages to do exactly as I was instructing. Once done, I placed them on one of the crates we were using as tables and placed my hands in the middle of the bundle to flatten everything together, revealing the complete blueprint. "Ta-da~!"

His eyes started to sparkle. "Woaaah! Where did you learn to do that?!"

I shrugged as I was taping the pages in place. "A guy named Photoshop came up with the original idea, I just tweaked it a bit to fit what I needed. Pretty convenient isn't it?"

"Convenient? Wasn't it more trouble to do it that way?" he asked while reviewing my work.

"In a way, yes. Because you have to make sure every layer is exactly on top of the other for this to work, but in the long run it's going to be easier." I told him as I brought my materials closer.

"And why is that?" he asked, lifting his head to look at me curiously.

"Because if some modifications are needed, all I need to do is replace or make a new layer instead of re-drawing the whole thing again and again." I told him as I handed him the poles for the fishing rods.

"Impressive." he said, automatically taking the material.

"Why thank you, master thinkerer!" I told with a small curtsy.

We got to work on the fishing gear first, so the people that wanted to fish could do it as soon as possible and we could concentrate on the weapons without any disturbance. Working with Usopp was rather easy. We had small conversations, he would ask for a tool or I would ask for a tool, we would compare work and make sure everything was functioning before starting something new. It was almost as if we had done that our whole life. Saying we were a well-oiled machine was not far from the truth. A stray thought reminded me of a blue-haired cyborg and wondered what we would be able to come up with when he joined the crew.

"So, what do you think about my plan? By the way, should we make some lures?" I started, not looking up from the rod in my hands.

"They're not bad, but I think we could improve some of the mechanism in the hilts." He inspected a metal loop closely. "What do you mean by lures? We'll have some of those no? Live ones?"

I snickered, winding up the fishing rope on the wheel thing. "And you think these lures are going to be safe from a certain someone for how long exactly?"

He paused and looked blankly at the wall in front of him. "You make a good point, unfortunately." he restarted his work. "Making extra, fake, lures sounds like a fabulous idea... Can you pass me the hammer please?"

I took the tool and handed it to him. "What improvements did you have in mind?"

He took the time to hammer the little metal hoops in the fishing rod. "How about magnets? I think I have some that would be strong enough"

"Hmm, yeah I thought about it." I lifted the almost finished rod to take a better look at it. "I wasn't sure if the magnets would last, and after finding the chain, I wasn't sure it would work on sea stone… could you pass me the glue, please? The water-resistant one."

Never lifting his eyes from his work, he blindly took the right flask and handed it to me. "Sea stone?" he sounded surprised. "That's not something you can find easily… and isn't a rock? How are we supposed to work with the thing?" he asked as he finalized his part of the rod and handed it to me.

I finished my part a few seconds after him for final testing and took the unfinished rod from him. "There's about a foot extra in length on the chain. I figured we could test on it and figure it out as we go."

He cupped his chin with his free hand. "Well, it's not impossible, but we would need to be on land to make any real progress. Especially if we want to melt it." He tested the rod a little and then, satisfied, started on the third one next to him. "I guess we just have to hope the next island will be good enough for us to actually do any kind of testing."

I almost nailed my thumb to the rod in my hand as I flinched. Testing on the next island would be difficult. Not only because of its nature but because of the events that would unfold on it. Telling him here and now would not only freak him out, it would also bring back the question that I had been avoiding these past few days. I had promised myself to be more truthful with them, but outright telling them was still hard for me. The fact that even if everyone had been acting as if nothing was wrong wasn't really helping me get out there and tell them. Hence my walking on eggshells.

I knew deep down that it wouldn't be that big of a deal, just look at what happened, errr, would happen,with Sanji and he would still be a part of the crew. But still, I couldn't bring myself to tell them yet. This irrational, completely absurd fear that they would all hate me after I told them was very loud in my head.

It was probably my anxiety talking, but it was making a pretty convincing case.

We continued working in somewhat comfortable silence for a moment. "I guess we should at least shape the wood then. Like that, I would have a weapon that I can get used to and not just random pipes I find on the battlefield."

He snickered. "What? Don't like pipes?

I stared at him with a blank face. "Remind me again how many times you had to repair Luffy's?"

He paled. "Point taken."

"And you weren't the one to receive the pipe on your head, so please, don't laugh at my growing phobia of pipes." I grumbled.

He stayed silent for a moment. "You do have to admit it's pretty funny." he snickered.

I 'accidentally' pushed the hammer on his knee.

"GRK!"

-oOo-

"Hey, Zoro."

I pushed the swordsman's foot a little to wake him up. The only reaction I got was him cracking an eye open. I swear this guy, it was all or nothing. Sometimes the smallest of noise could wake him up and other times Armageddon could fall upon his head and he wouldn't be perturbed.

"What?" he grumbled.

"Me n' Usopp just finished the fishing rods." I said pointing at the sniper showing the rods to Luffy. "And we're about to start on my blades, but there are a few things I would like to have your opinion on. Along with our three friends of course." I pointed at the three swords resting next to him.

He shrugged. "Meh, I don't feel like it. You guys are the maker-nerds, I'm gonna be more useful once they're done anyway."

I slowly nodded. "Of course, of course." I started walking away and then turned to look at him over my shoulder. "You're right. After all, a few magnets around metal swords wouldn't be that much of a problem now, would it?" I said innocently.

His eyes opened wide in horror and seconds later he was already near the storage door, towing Usopp behind him by the nose and grumbling something about idiots and their bright ideas.

I chuckled and followed behind them.

Back in the storage room, Usopp was moving stuff around so we could lay everything down on the floor while Zoro was looking at the blueprints. He pointed to the hilts and the mechanics drawn on the paper.

"What's all this suppose to do?"

"You can read a blueprint?" I asked in surprise.

He snorted. "It's a sword. Of course, I can read it."

I looked at him in shock. It made so much sense and so little at the same time.

I shook the feeling away, with some luck if I didn't comment on it it would work for a long time.

Not waiting a moment longer, I started to explain the idea to the swordsman. As I spoke he grew darker and darker, then seemed to get lost in thoughts for a second. He eyed the tarp that covered my blades, Hoshizora and Umikari, then back at the blueprint and finally back at me.

"It's not a… conventional way to do this, but you did say it was something you were ready to work for." He sighs. "I guess if the swords themselves agreed to it..." He then paused, a blank expression on his face. "Never knew I'd one day end up saying something like that." he deadpanned, but came back from his existential crisis real fast, shaking his head in the process. "Anyway, for this to actually work, you should get better at using a bo-staff. You weren't too bad back in Whiskey Peak, at least you gained some reflexes, but you were basically swinging around a big stick and not using any actual fighting techniques." he stated, then smiled.

You know, that smile I got terrified of when I asked him to teach me?

Yeah, that one.

"We should also start your training in swordsmanship." he said with glee -glee- before turning toward the still covered blades.

He uncovered them and frowned. "You took wakizashi blades?" he asked puzzled.

"I took what?"

He sigh. "Figured. These are what we call wakizashi blades. They're made a little shorter than normal katana and are usually used as spares. It's the first time I see a pair that looks like that though." he thought for a moment. "Actually, this is probably the best possible length for what you have in mind, but we'll have to change how you wield them as single swords then."

"Why is that?" I asked confused.

He tapped on the blueprints. "Because for this to works and those god-forsaken magnets not to touch the blades, the hilts will need to be abnormally long. Which changes the way you wield them." he took a pause. "You also removed the tsuba on your designs, why is that?"

I looked at him blankly. "As soon as you tell me what that is I can answer you."

He rolled his eyes and took Wado out, pointing at the round guard that separated the hilt and the blade proper. "That, why did you remove that?"

I looked at the sword and back at Zoro with a mute 'ah'. "Erm, well, I wasn't going to remove it at first, but when using it at full length..."

He nodded in understanding. "It's going to be in the way, yeah I get it."

For a second the only noise was coming from Usopp moving woodworking tools around for the next step and preparing vials for his ammunition. Zoro then picked up Hoshizora, inspecting the blade in different angles and testing the weight. He then frowned anew.

"Are those cursed blades?" he asked.

I lifted my eyebrows. "I knew you were able to tell these things even without me telling you but this is kinda impressive." He glared, I ignored. "In a way yeah, both them and their lost brother/sister somewhere. To be honest, calling them 'cursed' is a little farfetched. Pissed off is more accurate."

He blinked. "Brother? Sister? Pissed off?" he asked in pure confusion.

"The one that made them, according to them at least, only ever made three swords. If we go by how Kitetsu is named..."

"…!"

"Shut up." Zorro looked taken aback and then did a quick back and forth with his eyes between me and his cursed sword as I continued as if I hadn't been interrupted. "So yeah if we go by how Kitetsu is named, they would be Nansen the first, second and third, but they all have their own name instead." I shrugged. "They're pissed off because they are swords yet weren't really used as such over the last few years..."

"…!…!"

"Sorry, over the last few centuries." I paused. "Century?!"

I looked at the blades in astonishment. "H-How old are you both exactly?"

"… ?"

"… …?"

I deflated a little. "Yeah, of course, you don't remember..."

Usopp was now looking at us with round eyes. "Uh, did I miss something or is Kaz talking to the swords?"

"Yep." was Zoro's answer.

"I-! There's-! Rahhh! You know what? I don't know! Just do like me and roll with it!" I said exasperated.

"Speaking of rolling with it..." Zoro turned toward Usopp. "Do you have any extra wood for a temporary hilt?"

I didn't like the glint in his eyes.

It took a few minutes to measure the right length for the hilts of my swords and with Usopp's promise to only sand the staff I would use I left the storage room to get on the deck for my very first lesson of swordsmanship.

Turns out there was more to sword fights than just swinging it around hoping to cut down the enemy before you were cut yourself. Of course, I knew that there would be a lot of techniques to learn and to master, but I didn't exactly expect Zoro's words when I asked about the 'code' of a swordsman.

"A code?"

"Well yeah! Didn't you let Mihawk cut you down because of it?" I asked.

"No no, that's a swordsman's pride, there is no such thing as a 'code' to follow. The first thing we learn as an apprentice is that fighting dirty is expected. Heck, we train expecting the enemy to fight dirty."

I was floored. "Bu-But then-!? What about that whole show about cutting a swordsman in the back being shameful?!"

He sigh. "That was a duel, it's not the same thing."

"I'm sorry, but between someone trying to kill me with a sharp stick and someone telling me they're going to kill me with a sharp stick there isn't that much of a difference!" I huffed.

He tsked and shook his head. "It makes all the difference. In a fight, your life is on the line, in a duel? Your honour is on the line."

I was sitting cross-legged in front of him and looking at him like he was crazy. Which apparently was very apparent because he sighed and started to explain.

"When you become a full-fledge swordsman, finding yourself through the blade becomes possible. After meditation, soul searching and polishing your skills, the 'dirty' way of fighting become useless, because you would already be stronger than the ones using such techniques at that point."

"So… if I encounter someone using those kinds of dirty techniques, it's because they are beginners like me or just bad at it?"

"Yes and no. That's when foot works become so important. A bad swordsman will only charge at their enemies while wildly swinging their blades and use dirty tricks to wound their enemies and finally kill them. While a real swordsman will follow the one rule."

I cocked my head to the side. "Which is…?"

"One strike, one kill."

I thought for a minute, making sure I understood everything. "So, just to be sure I understand correctly. Being a swordsman is more about dodging an opponent and taking him down with one strike rather than clashing sword on sword?"

"Yes. Of course, there is more than that, but the basic is there."

"And I have to learn how to fight dirty in order to be able to counter those kinds of attacks."

"Correct."

"Make sense." I got up. "So what should I do first?"

"You will start with the basics, in such I want you to do twenty basic cuts perfectly. Every time you do it wrong, you have to start over again."

That was… strangely reasonable?

I got in the position he told me and he showed me how to do the basic cut. As its name stated, it was pretty basic, it was a downward motion starting from the top of my head to my hips. The right positioning was a little tricky, but it wasn't something hard to do.

Or so I thought.

See I forgot two things during these first few swings. First, the weight of the sword. It wasn't that heavy, but repeatedly swinging it in the same perfect way again and again quickly became really hard. It felt like weightlifting while balancing on a gymnastic beam. But the second thing I forgot about was the most dangerous one.

*TWACK!*

"Gah!"

*THUD!*

"Shishishi!"

I had two teachers.

Still on the ground, both tyrants looked down at me. They had horrifying smiles and shadows were hiding their eyes from my sight. Was it just me or did they also grow in size? The looming figures let just one eye reflect the light as they both opened their mouths.

"Again."

And to my horror, they spoke in unison.

-oOo-

I was sitting in the crow's nest, a blanket around my shoulders and sipping a lukewarm tea, savouring the light breeze right before the sun gets up. Having the last shift as a lookout was quite nice, but maybe that was just because I was used to my shifts as a bartender. Usopp was completely surprised when I told him I actually liked those. Guess he was one of those people that needed their full night of sleep.

Mornings on the Grand line were pretty calm, most of the time. You would get the random flash storms and a few sea creatures, but other than that it wasn't really active like in the day. I remembered the very first time I had a night shift on the Merry and saw the sea suddenly illuminate because of some strange form of plankton. It had been beautiful, I even woke up the crew so they could also see it. We also discovered that they were a carnivorous type of plankton, but I digress.

Looking at the horizon I frowned, still no signs of Little Garden. It had been about a week and a half since we left Whiskey Peak and still no signs of the dreaded island. I guess I couldn't really base myself off of the story, since travel between islands never seemed to be that long, but then again, this was real life, we couldn't just teleport somewhere.

I paused on that thought.

Okay, so maybe it could be possible, but not right now. Taking out the book I always carried with me on lookout duty, I opened it to the loose page section to add the teleportation ability into the 'possible' section of the page. It was the devil fruit encyclopedia I had gotten back in Loguetown. Every now and then I would read it or write what I knew or thought about the damned fruits.

The previous owner had one hell of a mind though. That, or he/she was one of those devil fruits experts I had heard about, the amount of information on those fruits in the book was incredible. Beyond the folklore, beyond even what most users knew, the information was fascinating.

And the implications of where I had found the book just made that person so much more terrifying.

After I read a few pages of the handwritten notes, I had some suspicions on just who used to be the owner of that book, and I didn't like it one bit. doesn't mean I wouldn't use this to my advantage, but I wouldn't thank the owner either.

I was halfway through the pages about the strange picot picot fruit, a fruit that allowed its user to create small holes In anything he wanted when the guy's room door opened on Sanji getting ready to get into the kitchen. I waved at him and settled back to finish my chapter.

Soon everyone would be awake and a new day on the Going Merry would start.

After I finished my last page, I started to get back down on deck and went into the girl's room to put the book back in its box. I moved slowly, making sure not to wake up the still sleeping girls in the room. Vivi had been placed on the sofa and we had moved the coffee table to give more space to move in the room. I got out as fast as I got in and managed not to wake any of them up.

Once back upstairs I made my way to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"Good morning, Kasey-chwan!"

I chuckled. "Morning Sanji."

It had become a daily routine of sorts. As I was an early bird, I was usually up a little after Sanji, who always got up early to prepare breakfast. Not long after, Usopp and Luffy would come up, one because of the smell of food and the other because his hammock was in the way when people got up, waking him at the noise. Soon after Vivi and Karoo would wake up and Nami would usually follow after her. For Zoro, it was a gamble. One day he was up the other he wouldn't. It was all or nothing, or he was up about at the same time as me or he was the last one to get to the kitchen.

This morning wasn't any different than the others. We battled against Luffy to save as much of our plates as possible, Sanji and Zoro would get into an argument and Usopp and I would continue our condiment game.

"Nami-dear." started Sanji after the meal. "Do you know how long we have left before Little Garden?"

"Hmm, unfortunately no. I only know the direction we need to take, but the time to get there… why? Is there something wrong?"

"Ah, no, not yet. It's just that our food stock is starting to get a little low. Nothing to panic about yet, but it would be nice to get some more fresh stuff soon."

I made sure not to make eye contact. I didn't know when we would be landing, but if the food situation was anything to go by, it would be soon. I got up and made my way to the door along with most of the crew.

"Wouldn't Kaz know?"

And then I stopped clear in the middle of the doorway, cursing Zoro with all the swear words I knew, and being a Canadian?

It was a lot.

I slowly turned toward the swordsman, like most of the people in the room. He wasn't even looking, he was peacefully sitting on one of the crates and leaning on the wall behind him, arms crossed behind his head and everything.

I took a small breath. "Know what?"

He finally looked in my direction, one eyebrow lifted. "Didn't you, yourself, say you knew too much? wouldn't that be in your arsenal of knowledge?"

I almost faceplanted.

So that's what he meant.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Nah, I know we're going to get there soon, but not the exact time. I'd say maybe this afternoon or tomorrow. No more than three days if I were to take a guess." I shrugged.

"Do you happen to also know what kind of food we'll encounter?" asked Sanji.

I took a moment to think. Meat-wise, we were in the clear that's for sure, but plant-wise I didn't know much about edible plants of the Jurassic era in general, so the Jurassic era of another world was kinda out of my knowledge sphere.

"Hmm, if you're talking about meat, as long as you're ready to hunt it should be fine, but for greens and fresh veggies… I'm afraid it isn't something I can help with. I know there is a lot of it on the island, but I couldn't tell you if it's edible or not." I answered while continuing my way through the door.

"W-What about B-Baroque Works?" asked Usopp.

"At least two of them, maybe four depending on what happened to Mister Five and Miss Valentine back on Whiskey Peak." I answered without thinking.

Up to that point, I hadn't looked at my fellow pirate's faces while answering. But the resounding sound of a fist colliding with wood made me look up.

"That's it! Miss Kasey! Explain yourself!"

guess my remark was too much for the princess. It shouldn't have been such a surprise really, but that last little tidbit had been the extra drop of water to make the glass tumble, and now everyone in the kitchen was eyeing me with different levels of concern.

"It's true that you know an awful lot Kaz, and don't give me that storyteller bullshit!"

"Kasey-san, I must admit that this is getting a little out of hands."

"Y-Yeah! What i-if you're really a spy for B-Baroques work?!"

The only ones not pressing me on the matter were Zoro and Luffy. The first one was simply staring daggers into my skull while having one hand ready on Wado and the other just looked, disappointed.

And that hurt way more than it had any reasons to.

Taking a calming breath I turned to them. No more lies, true, but I needed safety.

"Guys, look, I know I owe you all an explanation, but- argh! I just don't know how to explain it to you, it's just so crazy!"

"Why don't you just tell a story then?" asked Luffy.

"Because I don't want you guys to think I'm pulling your legs, which is exactly what you would think if I don't explain myself! Heck! I have a hard time understanding what happened!"

That did calm the growing mob for a second. I was probably overthinking things, but there was this small chance that knowing the truth would make them want to leave me on the next island, never to be spoken to again.

And I didn't want to go.

They were my friends now, the only ones I could rely on in this world. Sure I could still get to know other people, but these guys were now too big in my life to even take the chance to get thrown out of the crew.

My expressions must have betrayed me a little because now everyone in the room was staring at me.

'I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry.' I repeated to myself as I crossed my arms in a self-hug.

A gasp from Vivi diverted attention from my person. She had her hands in front of her mouth and was looking at me with teary eyes and… pity?

"Miss Kasey, you- are you ashamed of your past?"

I blinked. What?

Usopp had wide eyes, seemingly understanding something about Vivi's comment.

"Is that why she has so many tattoos?"

Pardon me?

A wave of… something, passed on every member of the crew, and now they all looked at me with sad horror painted on their faces. What?

"The first time we met, she was tied up by the marines, but she refused my help." said Zoro with realization on his face.

I huffed. "Wait, that was just bad-"

"She got bruises for days afterward, and later too. Old man Crocus also said that you were strangely weak… he even though you were dying!" Nami continued, borderline crying. "And the ones from Whiskey Peak were barely any better!"

What were they onto? This seemed suspicious… and oddly familiar?

Wait.

Oh hell no.

"That's-!" I tried to explain.

"She didn't know how to sail, like at all, and trips on everything." Sanji had tears slowly coming down his cheek.

My eyebrow twitched. "Wait, hold on guys-!"

"She also was sick for weeks first time she was on boat, like she had never sailed before." added Luffy with incredulity all over his face.

Luffy too now?!

"No, guys, GUYS! Come on-!"

"And that story about her tattoos!" Continued Vivi. "This is it! Miss Kasey, were you… detained or mistreated? For a long period of time?" continued Vivi, completely ignoring me. "Maybe like, your whole life? Only able to read to pass time and that's how you know so much?"

"Maybe-!"

"GUYS!"

They all stopped their crazy theories and looked at me. This was insane, and I wasn't sure how in the hell they ended up with this scenario, but this was stopping right there.

"Guys, I don't have some kind of tragic backstory, it's just extremely weird and hard to explain."

Vivi looked at me suspiciously.

"That's exactly what someone who had a tragic backstory would say."

"Argh! No! Look, I swear it's just strange! I had a good life, really!"

They didn't look convinced. They were about to continue their strange assumptions on my person when I caught a glimpse of salvation.

"Land ho!" I cut abruptly while pointing at the small mass in the sea I could see from the kitchen window. "See! Land!"

It almost worked, Luffy started to have stars in his eyes at the mention of land, but quickly shook his head and looked back at me, frowning.

"Kaz, I don't really care about the past, but you are acting really weird..."

This was it, I was going to have to tell them everything. I racked my brain to find any excuses to delay the inevitable. There was only one thing I could do, give myself some insurance.

"I'll tell you, but I have some conditions."

He stayed silent, waiting.

"First, whatever happens, and I know I'm asking for a lot, but please make a stop at Drum kingdom before going to Alabasta."

Vivi was about to argue, stepping closer and all, but I lifted a hand, stopping her.

"I know Vivi, but it's for the crew and also for the people of Drum. You are doing everything you can for your kingdom, please don't take away from this one, it's important."

She would have argued more, and a lot of the crew too, but my strange knowledge up until now might have had a little to do with the reluctant acceptance. Whatever that meant anyway.

"Second, I'll tell you everything, in details even, only if we wait until after Little Garden."

Frustration was everywhere on their faces, some of them even groaned, but they let me finish nonetheless.

"Finally, all I ask is if you don't feel like I should be part of the crew after I tell you everything, please leave me on an island with people and not one where I would be alone, please?"

That did stun some of them.

"It's that bad?" asked Nami.

"No, but it's still a possibility."

They weren't prying anymore, the only one who still was angry was Luffy for some reason. Probably because I asked for so much.

"Let's get ready to land." he said.

And that was that.

-oOo-

Getting closer to Little Garden made me aware of a lot of things. I grew up with the land before time and I have to say, seeing dinosaurs in the flesh was very exciting, but there was one thing I was terrified of. No, it wasn't the possibility of running into a t-rex, even though that would be quite the experience, it was far from being scary compared to someone else.

I was terrified of Mister Three.

Back when I was in high school, my art teacher had decided that a horror film was a good idea for Halloween. No one was complaining, but the choice of the movie was peculiar. It was the House of wax. It was a decent horror movie, I enjoyed it even when I watched it, but for the weeks after I had dreams where someone was encasing me in wax, or that my food was wax, or that wax was stopping me from breathing.

Let's just say that dying in wax was one of my phobias.

And Mister Three was a wax man.

I didn't feel comfortable telling the crew about him, I had already hinted that more agents would be on little garden earlier and the whole backstory fiasco had happened. My only hope was to figure out where he was before shit hits the fan.

Should be fine, right?

...

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Et voilà! This was chapter 9 people! I'm gonna be honest here, I enjoy writing the 'in-between' two islands sooooo much! It allows me to develop so much and thread my own ideas it the story more easily than in an arc. Not that I don't like the arc and OG stuff, but it's just easier in the in-betweens. Couldn't wait to see what you guys would think of it. xD

I'm having difficulties with Little Garden, to be honest. It's one of the smaller arcs and not much happens other than meeting the mister 3 pair and the giant warriors. I know it's a plot twist and it will be more than necessary in the future, but with the whole situation with Kaz, making sure I put the right info and not making it too boring is wrecking my little brain hard. But then again I was supposed to make Little Garden and Drum in one chapter and now it's leaning more toward each arc having their own. I'm pretty scared for the length of Alabasta.

Other than that, it's all going peachy! I might have more news for y'all next update, but for now!

See ya! ;p

May chaos rule and dorkyness prevail!

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In the next tale of Once Upon A Pirate...

...

Our pirates finally set foot on a very peculiar land...

...

"W-What do you mean it fits the name?!"

"Well, well..." "It would be my pleasure, Usopp-san, to educate you on this marvellous ecosystem!"

"Why did I ask?"

"Let me tell you a story."

...

... existential questions are asked...

...

"Forget about getting up, how do we get him back down here without getting us all killed?!"

"I mean he's pretty reckless, but he wouldn't have us killed." "I mean not intentionally anyway."

"Come see this Kaz! It's so cool!"

"Not intentionally, was it?"

"Help"

...

... a painful realization in sight...

...

I was no better than Rob.

...

... and Kaz finally comes clean to the crew.

...

"and what if I told you I come from such a reality?"

...

In the next chapter of Once Upon A Pirate: Timeless Beast and Frozen Feet!