7. Showing Zoro And Nami The Ropes

Story Start: Abandoned Town ID, Time Dilation, 10x, Money Multiplier 2X-25X (2,500X)

Soon as we were out of sight of Shell Town, and thus the Marine's ability to see us, I had dropped us into a Savannah ID and got out the Chinook. Canceling the ID once we were flying forward, I directed John and Sam to a spit of land just big enough to land on that was about fifteen minutes away from Orange Town at full sprinting speed.

Now we were in another ID, this time the Abandoned Town ID. Sweeping my arm around, I said "Welcome to the Abandoned Town ID. We are currently locked in at a ten to one time dilation field which means that for every ten minutes we spend here will be one minute outside. We will be spending one month in here for both training and resource acquisition. You see, here in my IDs, and ONLY here, anything you kill, will disappear but leave loot behind, either money or various items."

I heard a ka-ching ! sound from Nami and her eyes turned into Beri symbols. Nodding at her, I said "Along with the time dilation modification I've got the money multiplier on as well, more specifically, I've got 2, 5, 10, and 25 times active, giving us a 2,500 percent increase to any money we earn in here." Nami promptly started drooling at that bit, which I studiously ignored as I said "This will fulfill the one month parameter of her contract, allowing her to get the full use of keeping her seventy five percent of the funds she generates before she drops down to the fifty that the rest of us have. But the money and various loot items we'll be gathering are secondary to the training you three will be undergoing, and yes I'm including you as well here Captain. Out on the Grand Line, and especially the second half, there is a set of powers that are quite common place, collectively known as Haki. There are three basic powers that everyone in the New World knows about, Observation, Armament, and Conquerors. The first two, anyone can learn with enough practice while the third one you have to be born with. Fortunately for us, Luffy here was born with it." As the other two looked at Luffy, she gave a D-Shaped grin.

Pulling out the two books I had on Haki, I said "Each of you will be reading these books. Don't be offended by the For Dummies title, it's the name of a series that gives beginner information to the reader about a multitude of subjects. And the second book has a few other types of Haki in it that others most likely won't know about. I figure you guys can work on loot acquisition in the morning before lunch then switch to Haki training until dinner time."

"And what will you be doing while we work on this Haki stuff?" Zoro asked with crossed arms.

"Oh, I'll be working on it with you guys as well, I'm nowhere near good enough not to need practice as well." I said easily enough before I snapped my fingers and said "Oh, before I forget, Nami, I've got an upgrade for your staff."

"What's wrong with my staff?" Nami asked, hand drifting down to rest on the three parts of it.

"It's made out of wood. And while our future Sniper will be able to make you a unique weapon, I'd feel better if you used something a little more sturdy between now and then." I said, pulling out a foot long rod and tossed it to her as I said "Green button extends it by a foot and a half on each side, red collapses it again."

"Huh." Nami said to herself as she pushed the green button, the rod extending into proper staff length and the Navigator swung it around to get a feel for the new weight.

Luffy watched her test her new weapon, hand moving to the pipe on her back and said "I want to see how good you are with that Nami, if need be I can spar with you for a while each day."

"Alright." Nami said, sounding a bit unsure.

"One last thing guys," I said, grabbing their attention again as I held up my tablet and said "I've got access to an interdimensional shop on this, if you can think it, someone out there can make it. If you want to buy something with the money you keep, just let me know. Captain, I recommend looking into attachments for your pipe. Blunt force trauma is all well and good, but if you can turn your staff into a spear or trident then it's even more options for you."

"Fair enough." Luffy said before a loud barking sound came from down the street we were standing in. As we turned that way, we saw a pack of six mean looking dogs come running towards us and I said "Guess the ID thinks we talked long enough."

Zoro grinned as he pulled one of his regular swords out and said "That's fine by me."

Time Skip: An Hour Later

Zoro almost lazily sliced the crazy redneck with a shotgun the ID had tossed at us in half. I was quick to claim said shotgun even as he counted the money he received from the only slightly out of place enemy in a bored manner and said "I thought the enemies in here were supposed to be challenging."

Quickly pumping the slide in order to eject any and all ammo out of the gun and into my book bag's storage space, I said "We're starting small to let Nami get used to her heavier weapon. I figured once we spent a day or so in here we'd shift IDs. I might be able to make you a coliseum area where you can take on waves though."

Zoro nodded as he handed me half of the money and stuck the rest in his own inventory equipped book bag, this one with a much smaller twenty five slot subspace pocket, the Ronin claiming that was all he'd ever need, Nami of course planned to get one as big as possible, something I was sure Usopp and Chopper would do as well. I put the money in my inventory, more specifically the slot designated 'Crew Funds' with one hand even as I used my Observation Haki to side step a charging Rottweiler, my tiaha piercing its head and said "Though I agree that these enemies are a bit underwhelming. Before I left the island with my Einherjar we were taking on megacities of enemies at once." At Zoro's questioning eyebrow raise I elaborated "One of the IDs I can make is a planet wide city, with massive two thousand plus story buildings. And the ID was jammed pack with human and alien enemies."

Zoro let out a hum of interest and said "I might want to take a shot at that one at some point."

"Not on your own you won't, I don't care how badass you are, that place is not somewhere you go with just swords unless you can do flying air slashes." I said with a frown.

THAT obviously gained Zoro's full interest and I grinned as I said "Yes I know the theory behind the technique, no I'm not telling you until you get Observation Haki down. It'll make it so much easier to do that technique as well as cutting things like steel and other high strength metals if you know about it."

Zoro grumbled at that but I could tell that he was more determined than ever to learn the skill set after lunch. Whether or not he'd keep that determination after the first week of trying was the question but hopefully the promise of new techniques would keep him focused. Course, given the guides on Haki I had, one week might just be all he needed to get at least Armament down. Mihawk's niece from that one dimension had been VERY thorough with her explanation on Haki and how it should feel when using it after all.

Deciding to throw him a bone, I turned my gaze to in the direction of the town outskirts and focused. A moment later, a large five story coliseum shimmered into appearance and I said "There you go. One endless enemy location." Pulling out a set of Einherjar cards, Kirito and his group appeared around us and I said "Guys, I want you to give Zoro a hand if he gets in trouble during the higher numbered waves but otherwise just let him enjoy himself in the coliseum."

"Will do, boss." Klein said with a salute before he turned to Zoro and gestured towards said building and said "Well, shall we get to the cutting block then?" Zoro's eager grin was answer enough and the group took off.

"Good to know the best way to distract him." Kushina said from where she had been laying on a bench, idly sniping murders of crows from the air with her chains as they tried to get closer to us.

"Zoro can be deep when he wants to be, but usually he just likes his booze and his swordsmanship so give him a chance to spend time with either and he'll be perfectly happy." I said with a shrug of my head. Walking over, I offered a hand and hoisted Kushina up off the bench, idly collecting the loot around her and said "Come on, since Zoro's doesn't need us to keep track of him anymore let's go check on Nami and Luffy."

"Sure, I'm curious on if Nami has started crying yet or if she's still in her money haze." Kushina said with a grin and I chuckled as we began making our way to the other side of the town.

Ten minutes later we came upon the sight of Luffy having a grand old time dealing with a pack of murderous raccoons, squirrels, and cats in a group of trees in the town's park, the young captain laughing as she leapt and grappled from branch to branch, pipe, fist, and sandaled foot knocking whatever had the misfortune of being her current target out of the trees. Nami was running along on the ground, apparently doing her best to finish the target off with her pipe before the animals hit the ground to recover. Occasionally she wasn't fast enough due to Luffy going for a further critter than usual but she was game enough to deal with the animal when its wits were regathered.

Luffy spotted us reasonably quickly and grinned that D shaped grin of hers as she said "Hey Matt, think fast!"

"Whoa shit!" I yelped and reflexively jerked backwards as Luffy booted a big ass screaming Raccoon at my face fast enough to imitate a rocket sled. Tyrus, who until that point had been lazily lounging on my shoulders, opened his right eye before blasting the screaming animal into the trunk of the same tree it had been launched from, the scorched black Raccoon actually coughing a cloud of smoke from its mouth before falling to the ground and breaking apart into gold motes of light.

Luffy was snickering like her idiotic male counterpart at my reaction and as I got my heartrate back to normal I said "That wasn't nice Captain, I'm nowhere near as fast as you are."

"Well I was sure Kushina could have stopped it at least." Luffy said before grinning at Tyrus and said "Nice shot though Tyrus."

Tyrus yawned and stretched his wings out as he said "Well there's a reason why there are sayings about things being as quick as snakes."

"I guess so." Luffy said before she turned serious and asked "By the way, wasn't Zoro supposed to be with you?"

"He was, but he was getting rather bored so I added a coliseum to the ID where he could face ever increasingly difficult enemies in waves." I said, gesturing towards where the new building was.

Nami blinked once as she asked "You can modify your IDs without leaving them first?"

"I can, what, did you think we would be spending the whole month in this place?" I said then asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no. I just figured you'd end the ID then make a new one right after." Nami said, idly rubbing the back of her head with the hand not holding her metal pipe, said pipe idly knocking a leaping squirrel away.

"That would have been at least twenty seconds to a minute wasted, per ID shift. Better to just side shift into IDs while keeping the dilation and multiplier settings the same." I said with a shrug, kicking a cat away that tried to pounce on me, Tyrus apparently deciding to contribute now as he shot off of my shoulders to begin knocking the cat around with his stiffened wings.

"Fair enough." Nami said with a shrug of her shoulders before she began rapidly moving around to collect all of the money that had been laying on the ground, the matter clearly dropped as she chanted under her breath "Money, money, money, money, money!"

Luffy giggled at the sight her Navigator was making while Kushina shook her head and said "That's just sad."

"Don't care, I'm going to be filthy RICH!" Nami called over her shoulder before she went back to her chanting.

When Kushina glanced at me with raised eyebrows, I merely shrugged and said "Some people just really like money, I'm giving her a pass given her past, and if it motivates her to get stronger by getting better at fighting then can we really complain?"

"Well when you put it like that." Kushina said with a slight shrug of her own.

Luffy gave more of her unique 'Shishishi' laughter for a few moments before she almost physically shifted gears to glance at me with a considering look and asked "So Matt, I saw Zoro's strength back in Shell Town, and I've got a good idea about what Nami can do now, what do you say you show me what you can do in a spar?"

"No devil fruit powers." I said quickly.

"Fair enough." Luffy said agreeably, idly twirling the pipe in her hand that suddenly looked a lot more menacing than it did a moment ago.

Sighing, I pulled out Maribelle's card and activated it as I said "Oh, this is going to suck." The next instant, my Observation Haki blared a warning and my kukri knives were blocking her pipe, gritted teeth facing a beaming grin.

Time Skip: Two Weeks Inside Dilation, Cave System ID

"Are these blindfolds really necessary? It's not like this cave isn't dark enough already!" Nami grumbled, her collapsible staff knocking a bat out of the air and into the cave wall with a crunch. Our Navigator then proceeded to unerringly bend down and snatch the money the bat dropped as loot and put it in her backpack, ignoring the rest of the loot drop.

"Yes, otherwise you'd be tempted to use the NVGs rather than your Observation Haki." I said as I used my swords to smack a snake that was actually bigger than Tyrus away from me.

"Isn't that a little hypocritical coming from the guy using the night vision in his mask?" Nami asked grumpily.

"A, I've already done this training before for five days straight. B, I'm making sure we don't walk right over a giant pit just in case the ID decides to fuck with us, and believe me, for something that I create, these things are rather sadistic in throwing curve balls at me and my party, so that's incredibly likely. And C, you missed one."

Nami cursed as a particularly large vampire bat swooped down from right above her, the thief quickly hopping backwards while swiping overhead and yelling "I thought these things were supposed to screech in order to see in here!"

"We probably can't hear them over your own screeching woman." Zoro said as he negligently sliced through what looked like the love child of a fox and an angler fish, the swordsman also blindfolded.

"What was that?!" Nami yelled out, actually turning towards Zoro and taking a step forward like she planned to hit him next.

"Come on guys, there'll be plenty of time to fight later out in the sunlight where we can actually enjoy the show." Luffy said, shattering a rock golem like creature with her pipe that had a blackened end for the brief moment of impact.

The two crewmembers grumbled a little before huffing and moving apart to attack the targets that the ID provided to vent their aggression on in a much more productive manner. The few Einherjar that I had summoned for loot collection purposes all snickered at the byplay. Well, the nonmonetary loot for Nami at least, that girl apparently didn't trust the others to give her her dues once we finished. Surprisingly enough, she was only slightly grudging to hand twenty five percent back at the end of the day. Whether that would remain true when it was half rather than a quarter would just have to be seen.

A few minutes later, as I finished guiding the blindfolded group around the pit that I had known the ID would throw at us, Luffy asked "By the way, Tyrus has been gone for a while, are you sure he's alright?"

A LOUD thunderclap suddenly rang through the cave system bouncing off the rock walls several times and causing all of us to startle, Nami actually jumping up a full foot. Landing a little gingerly, Nami panted as she said "So glad that didn't happen while we were over the pit."

"Damn Anime Laws of Nature." I muttered under my breath before I turned my head towards Luffy, hoping my tone of voice was enough to inform her of the gimlet stare I was giving her behind my mask as I asked "That answer your question?"

"Eh heh, sorry?" Luffy asked, rubbing the back of her head even as she smiled sheepishly.

"If he causes a cave in, I vote we leave him until it's time to shift IDs." Zoro said with a snort.

"Why do you think he's hunting in another branch of the cave?" Kushina asked with a smile.

"Guys, don't be so mean." Luffy said with a slight pout, though amusement was clearly heard in her voice.

"Whatever." Zoro said, his head moving in a manner that suggested he had rolled his eyes behind his blindfold and began walking forward again as he continued "Can we just get back to killing things already?"

"Sure, sure." Luffy said with a laugh as she too began walking again.

"I cannot believe that this is my life now." I muttered to Kushina who let out a giggle as we followed behind them. I sighed when a thankfully much quieter thunderclap rolled over us. At least it sounded like Tyrus wasn't actively trying to bring the whole cave down around our ears.

Time Skip: Three Real World Days After Leaving Shell Town, En Route To Orange Town

Once again the Chinook was roaring over the wave tops. Given Buggy's propensity to randomly fire off his Buggy Balls at anything that moves (and even stuff that doesn't) in boredom, Luffy, me, John, and Sam all agreed that we should come in low and fast in order to prevent him able to get the cannon loaded and fired in time, with a bit of weaving thrown in on final approach for extra caution.

In the cargo hold thirty people sat ready for action. As John declared that we were five minutes out, I remembered the discussion we had 'last night' in the ID before we left.

(Long) Flashback

The ID was currently in a briefing room configuration, podium with a projector at the front with several individual desks arrayed in rows opposite it. Standing at the front with my laptop hooked up to the podium, I said "This our main target tomorrow, Captain Buggy 'the Clown' of the Buggy Pirates, bounty 15,000,000 Berries. Don't let the small bounty fool you, this man was a cabin boy on the Pirate King's ship and so is a New World veteran. But don't overestimate him either, for all of that experience, he's still mucking around in what is considered world wide as the 'Weakest Blue'."

I pulled up a full body image of the pirate in question, along with a smaller image of his Jolly Roger and continued "Buggy is one of the few pirates of the East Blue that has eaten a Devil Fruit. To clarify, to my knowledge, Only Buggy, our Captain, and one other pirate has obtained one, and that last one is either a VERY recent acquisition or to happen in the nearby future. My knowledge isn't as extensive as the Marines when it comes to knowing all of the pirates out there of course, but the chances of there being more than ten total in this Blue are very low. Buggy's fruit is called the Chop-Chop Fruit, and it makes him the worse opponent for any non-Haki using swordsman."

At Zoro's suddenly much more intense attention, I elaborated "The Chop-Chop fruit's major strength is that the user becomes permanently immune to damage from being cut or pierced, regardless in what manner. Instead of being wounded the user's body simply becomes sliced into pieces, pieces which the user can control, either to reattach themselves back together or move around the body parts separate of each other. And he can separate his body parts at will as well, making them fly and using them to swarm his opponent with body parts, using them as an improvised smokescreen to hide the knives that he likes to use. The only body parts that cannot fly are his feet which must remain either on the ground or carried by someone, although they can walk around when detached. Also he can only control his separated pieces from and up to a certain distance, if his body parts goes past that distance then he loses the ability to control those parts."

"That's strengths of the fruit, let's go over weaknesses. There's the usual bit about not being able to swim and losing strength when covered in standing water, with the full effect starting when they are covered up to about their waist. Specifically to this fruit though, along with the limited range of control Buggy is just as susceptible to blunt force damage as any other human." I then smirked and said "As proven when Canon Luffy groin shot the bastard during his Orange Town fight."

I played a quick thirty second clip from the anime and the entire room burst into laughter at the face Buggy had made when the Male Luffy had given him a good kick in the gonads. Luffy was actually smacking the table with her open palm as she laughed accidentally cracking it as she said "Oh god, that is priceless!" She then grinned and asked "Hey, would it be considered bad form if I did that in MY fight?"

"Considering how much of an asshole he is? Doubt it." I said with a smirk.

"You know, as a fellow male, I should be doing my best to convince you not to do that." Zoro said with a smirk.

"And yet you're clearly not. Got a problem against this guy's ability, Swordsman?" Nami asked with a cattish grin.

Zoro raised his right hand with pointer finger and thumb not touching by only a few paper's width and said "Just a little."

"Right, moving on. His current First Mate and Chief of Staff are a beast tamer named Mohji and a wannabe swordsman Cabaji respectably. And Zoro, I say wannabe because he rides a unicycle and calls his various skills Carnival Tricks." I said, pulling up an image of the two. Picking up a manila folder, I tossed it onto Zoro's desk and said "That's everything he showed in the anime and manga. He's nowhere near what you're capable of purely blade wise but he's got a fairly decent array of supplementary skills to make him a pain to deal with if you're not in top form for any reason."

"Right." Zoro said with a frown, opening the envelope and looking at the papers inside even as he kept an ear on the rest of the briefing.

Turning my focus onto Mohji, I replaced Cabaji with a picture of his lion Richie and continued "Mohji here on the other hand prefers to have his pet lion Richie fight for him. Being a lion big enough for Mohji to ride like an organic motorcycle, Richie is both powerful and fast, so your best bet is to stick with medium to long range if you can't knock him out in one hit. It should be noted that preference to not fight doesn't mean Mohji can't. He's fairly capable with a whip and has enough speed and power to be on equal footing with Cabaji in a fist fight so don't get cocky around him."

"Moving on, the rest of Buggy's crew is pretty basic, stereotypical sword and pistol wielding ruffians, though you can expect some acrobatics and other various circus themed abilities as part of their fighting style. In the end though, they're really just mooks so they shouldn't be any problem for us."

Pulling up an image of a ship with the Buggy Pirates' Jolly Roger on the main sail, I said "This is their ship, the Big Top. It's got pretty decent firepower but really bad maneuverability given its shallow bottom. Luffy, with your permission, I'd like to assign some of my Einherjar to board, loot, then sink her in order to prevent any of the Buggy Pirates' escape once we finished trouncing the Captain and his command crew."

Luffy started to nod before she paused and said "Actually, is it possible we could sell it once we've grabbed everything we want instead?" At everyone else's looks, she shrugged and said "Hey, money is money right?"

"I like how you think Captain!" Nami said with a grin before she turned back to me and said "And I volunteer to be part of the looting party!"

"Of course you do." Zoro said with a huff.

I grinned at that but before the two could get into an argument I said "Actually Nami, I think a better use of your talents would be to grab the Map of the Grand Line they have as well as the bit of treasure they keep close by while we deal with the crew. Sure, we've got the World Map on my tablet, but if we can keep something vital like navigational data out of enemy hands then we should."

Nami hummed before she glanced over at Luffy and asked "Captain?"

"Do it." Luffy said with a nod, and that was that.

End Flashback

"One Minute Out!" Sam called back shaking me from my thoughts. There was a flurry of movement as weapons were given final checks and the floor hatch swung downwards revealing the water immediately under us. Kirito and his group all made their way over to the hatch and as the Chinook lifted twenty feet higher each hopped out of the hatch, wings activating once clear. I watched them zip just over the waves towards the anchored Big Top for a brief moment through the side windows before I had to turn my attention to the back doors that were opening while the center hatch closed. The combat members of my SGA and NCIS Einherjar all stood up, taking safeties off their weapons with one hand while the other held onto the overhead straps as Sam called "Twenty seconds out!"

Me, Zoro, and Luffy followed the Einherjar's lead, Kushina remaining seated by Nami. The Chinook suddenly came to a complete stop and a green light by the exit hatch turned on, and we all charged out, landing on the roof of Orange Town's tavern, panicked musket balls pinging off the armor plating for the brief few seconds before the MUCH more effective sound of P90s and Sig Sauer P229s drowned them out. Me and the other two Straw Hats leapt out of the chinook last, the helicopter quickly pulling away to set Nami and Kushina down in an area with a little less gunfire thrown around.

As our feet touched the ground, Buggy screamed out "YOU FLASHY BASTARDS! i DON'T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BUT YOU ALL ARE GOING TO FLASHY DIE THIS DAY!"

"WE'RE THE STRAW HAT PIRATES YOU FAKE PIRATE!" Luffy shouted back, sling shooting herself right for her opposite number, pipe out and a dangerous grin on her face as she went.

"Captain!" Cabaji and Mohji shouted, Cabaji quickly getting on his unicycle to rush over only to screech to a halt and hastily block with his sword when Zoro appeared. The Santoryu user grinned evilly around the blade of Wado Ichimonji as he said "Your fight's with me pal."

"And you're going against us beast tamer." I said as I dashed to stand in front of Mohji and Richie, Tyrus reared back on my shoulders and letting out a menacing hiss, instinctively flaring his wings even though they were currently hidden under an illusion. I had my Tiaha out, ready to deflect his whip or even try to pull it out of his hands when he used it. Could I have just tazed or stunned the bastard? Well, yeah, but this was my first fight as a pirate First Mate going against another pirate First Mate, I needed to see if all those months of training had actually made me an effective fighter or not and Mohji was a relatively safe person to test that with given he used a whip rather than a blade or a firearm. Course, if I was getting my ass kicked, THEN I'd go for one of those two weapons.

Unaware of the fact that I could end the fight in less than a minute, Mohji threw his head back and gave a big belly laugh as he said "You and that pathetic snake? Against me and Richie?" Laughing some more, he glared at me with malice and said "You've made a BIG mistake little man thinking you're anywhere near my level."

I let out a sigh and said "Tyrus, please show this idiot that size isn't everything."

"With pleasure." Tyrus said with a grin, shocking Mohji that MY animal partner knew how to talk before I threw him at Richie's face where he proceeded to latch onto the lion's nose like a bear trap. Richie let out a pained yell at this and TRIED to swipe Tyrus off. Before he could actually start swinging his paw though Tyrus zapped him, the Lion doing that glowing skeleton thing all kid cartoons are famous for. Ten seconds later, a cartoonishly sooty Richie coughed out a smoke cloud before keeling over sideways, legs completely stiff and white eyes showing him to be dead to the world.

As Mohji stared in absolute shock with jaw crashing to the roof tiles, Tyrus slithered up to 'stand' on Richie's ribs and smacked the comatose lion with his tail and crowed out "And that's why snakes are better than lions!"

Mohji snapped out of his shock, shaking his head before he pulled out his whip and shouted "You damn snake! I'll kill you for hurting Richie like that!"

"Did you forget about me?!" I asked in my best TF2 Spy voice, swiping at him with my Tiaha like a bat, sharpened wood ready to demolish his shoulder. Mohji yelped as he leapt away from the swing, sending his whip my way as he did so. The whip wrapped around the Tiaha and we had a brief tug of war before I suddenly grinned and pushed my Tiaha towards him, making it fly even faster towards him. Mohji's eyes widened again as he ducked under the flying projectile, giving me a chance to dart back up close to him. As he straightened up my left Kukri knife came in from the side and slammed into his wrist. Mohji yelled out in pain even as he let go of his whip, backing away and instinctively holding his wrist with his uninjured hand. Drawing my right knife as well, I grinned and said "Having a little trouble there mate?"

Mohji growled at me and said "Don't get cocky you punk!" Letting out an animalistic roar, he rushed forward throwing his left fist at me. Even without Observation Haki he telegraphed his attack so much I easily made his punch connect with the flat of my right Kukri knife causing a loud crack to sound out. Mohji's eyes widened in pain and he cried out as he gripped his right hand with his left, apparently ignoring the pain in his right wrist to do so.

Sighing, I sheathed my Kukris and said "Right, this is getting embarrassing. I was hoping for a good fight to test myself but you're just too weak."

Mohji's eyes blazed with fury as he shouted "How dare you look down on me like that?!"

"Because you're already on the ground." I said, drawing my Wraith Stunner and shooting him.

"Well that was all very anticlimactic." Tyrus said with a huff as he slid over.

"Yes, yes it was." I said, pulling out a set of handcuffs from my book bag and slapping them on Mohji's wrist before retrieving my Tiaha. Standing up, I looked around to see how the others were doing in their fights.

With Zoro At Start Of His Fight

Swords locked against Cabaji's single blade, Zoro grinned eagerly and said "Our First Mate told me you have a few tricks to back up your pathetic excuse for swordsmanship, do try to keep me entertained will you?"

"Pathetic?!" Cabaji spat back with angry eyes, all but spitting in rage as he said "My swordsmanship is a work of art you half wit!"

"Maybe modern art." Zoro taunted.

"That does it, die! Arsonist Technique!" Cabaji shouted, shooting fire out of his mouth at Zoro from point blank range. Zoro easily disengaged though, spinning out of the way from the attack, slicing into Cabaji's left side as he did so with a cut that wasn't particularly deep but still easily bled.

"You leave yourself wide open with that 'trick' of yours." Zoro said with a smug smirk.

Quickly backpedaling to the edge of the bar roof, Cabaji sneered and said "Well then why don't you try this on for size, Acrobatics, Dance of 100 Kamikaze Tops!" Cabaji threw the named 100 razor tops at Zoro who began quickly slicing through them all.

But while he was distracted with the tops, Cabaji had jumped off of the tavern's roof. He didn't stay on street level for long though. Just as Zoro finished dealing with the last ones, he shot up the tavern wall and even higher up in the air as he called out "Acrobatics, Fireworks in the Cool Summer Breeze!"

"Eh?" Zoro asked bored, looking up at Cabaji as his angle of launch brought him over the Santoryu user.

Cabaji cackled as he began descending and said "This is it for you Roronoa Zoro, Wheel Stab!"

Zoro sighed and said "You're still leaving yourself wide open. Tatsu Maki!" Zoro spun once with his swords and launched a twister straight up into the air. Cabaji barely had time to widen his eyes before the twister slammed into his body and he screamed in pain as the cutting winds tore into him. Zoro took two steps to the side to avoid the falling body. Staring down at it dispassionately, he took Wado Ichimonji out of his mouth and sheathed his blades as he said "What a disappointment, I've been having better fights in the coliseum IDS."

Zoro idly handcuffed the downed Chief of Staff before he glanced around to see how everyone else was doing.

With Luffy At The Start Of Her Fight

"Who are you calling 'Fake' you unflashy bitch?!" Buggy asked as he separated at the waist, popping his top half above Luffy's charge.

"I'm calling you Fake! My First Mate told me your story, how you ran from the Grand Line, came to this 'Weakest Blue' when you used to be on the Pirate King's crew. Pirates are supposed to brave the seas, letting nothing they throw at them keep them from their dreams. And yet here you are, having ran away with your tail between your legs!" Luffy said, glaring up at his top half before she snorted and said "Besides, you are way too obsessed with treasure. Every real pirate knows that adventure trumps treasure every day of the week."

"You shut your mouth you heathen, treasure is everything!" Buggy shouted, throwing several daggers at Luffy who deflected them with a spin of her pipe. Undaunted, Buggy further separated into over two dozen parts as he shouted out "Bara Bara Festival!" He sent all of the parts swarming around Luffy, the quickly moving body parts hiding the ten knives that his fingers were curled around.

"That won't work!" Luffy shouted, batting the parts above her away with her pipe before leaping straight up out of the swarm before she drew her legs up and said "Gomu Gomu, Gatling Spear!" Her toes turned armament black before her feet lashed downwards multiple times fast enough to appear to be multiplying. Her feet hit both flesh and ground, breaking a circular hole into the roof even as Buggy's head let out a yell of pain. When she finished, she stretched her arm over to a nearby barrel and allowed herself to be pulled over in order to avoid falling into the newly made hole.

She watched calmly as Buggy slowly brought all of his body parts back together, bruises easily visible on his arms, and covering the rest of his body underneath his clothes as well. Gritting his teeth, Buggy snarled out "How does a no name runt like you know Haki?!"

"Shishi, wouldn't you like to know?" Luffy asked with a grin before she launched herself at him.

Buggy quickly separated into several parts to avoid her and began laughing as he said "What are you stupid? You can't hit me with such a blatant move!"

"Not even these?" Luffy asked with a grin, the end of her pipe slamming down on Buggy's right foot which was still on the roof. There was a loud crunching sound as multiple bones broke and Buggy screamed in pain again before he yelled out a second time as Luffy stomped on the other foot with her sandaled foot.

As Buggy's feet did a limping run away (Which looked weird without legs being attached) Buggy shouted "STOP THAT!"

"Why? This is a fight isn't it?" Luffy asked with a cocked head. She then knocked away the hand holding three knives between the fingers wolverine style with her pipe, more specifically, she hit the wrist that connected the hand to his forearm, Matt having explained how Buggy would further detach the limb if someone tried to actually catch said forearm.

"OW!" Buggy yelled, gripping his returned wrist with his other hand. There was anger in his eyes as he glared at her some more but Luffy was starting to see fear creep into those orbs as well. Smirking, she said "Planning to run away like always Buggy?"

Buggy's eyes widened before they narrowed and he shouted "Never, I'll flashily END YOU!" Once more holding ten knives with just the fingers, Buggy sent just the knives at her, the knives traveling much faster now that they weren't hiding behind other body parts.

In response, Luffy gripped the pipe with both hands and spun her arms together so that she looked like a rubber band airplane and called out "Gomu Gomu Spinner Shield!" Her arms rapidly unwound and she moved her arms all around her. Hidden due to the speed she was spinning her pipe, one of the ends was blackened and all of the knives broke when the blackened tip hit them, as did all of his fingers. This of course had Buggy screaming in pain again as his broken digits dropped the now useless blades, moving back to him where he cradled them against his chest.

Luffy cocked her head and said "You know, now that I think about it, shouldn't a New World Veteran know how to use Haki?"

"Shut it you unflashy bitch! I do too know how to use Haki!" Buggy shouted.

"Apparently not if you haven't used it this entire fight." Luffy said, her smirk growing before she suddenly frowned with her eyes flicking to look over Buggy's shoulder before she shouted "Incoming!"

"You don't actually expect me to believe that do you?" Buggy asked with a flat expression only to yelp as a giant seagull grabbed him by the shoulders and began to fly off. The Chop Chop Man quickly broke apart into pieces, reassembling back on the ground by his feet and staring wide eyed at the bird as it flew away with a sad sounding caw and he asked "Where the flashy hell did that thing come from?!"

"You're wide open." Luffy said from directly behind him before there was the inexplicable sound of a bell over a crunching sound. Buggy's mouth opened in a silent scream, his eyes turning white. When Luffy lowered her leg from where she had mercilessly groin shot him, he fell to the side, hands holding his damaged goods and knocked out cold. Taking the opportunity, Luffy took a pair of latex gloves out of her book bag and put them on before reaching back in and taking out one of the set of Sea Stone Handcuffs Matt had bought during their month in the IDs. Quickly cuffing his wrists behind his back, Luffy nodded and said "There, that should keep you from going anywhere."

"Took you long enough Captain." Zoro said as he and I approached.

Luffy shrugged and said "It's not my fault he kept separating his limbs every chance he got."

"True, that's a pretty annoying ability to fight against." I said with a shrug before I smirked and said "Bet you wish we had those Super Soakers now."

Luffy rolled her eyes and said "For the last time Matt, that wouldn't have weakened him like it would have if he was in standing water."

"No, but it would have probably made him unable to control his separated body parts." I said with a grin.

Luffy opened her mouth with her pointer finger up, paused as she ran that through her head before she dropped the finger and said "Point."

I snickered at that before we turned to the stairs as Nami came up them with Kushina, a bulging bag over each shoulder as she said "Hey guys, all fini-?" She stopped when she saw the carnage we had left on the rooftop. The mooks of the Buggy Pirates all killed, most of them by chest shots though a few had the dubious fortune to have been taken out via headshots, the still comically smoking form of Richie lying next to Mohji, Cabaji bleeding out of multiple wounds where Zoro had left him, and a bruised and battered Buggy on the floor by the three of us flesh and blood humans, the NCIS and SGA Einherjar forming a perimeter around the tavern roof keeping an eye out for any latecomers. Swallowing a little nervously, Nami said "Glad I'm on you guys' side."

"Yeah, kind of different when the other side aren't ID constructs I'll admit." I said, looking around myself with a frown. I didn't regret letting the Einherjar loose on the crew, these were the loot and pillage type of pirates after all, but it was still a bit distasteful seeing all of those bodies.

Luffy had a frown of her own, though much more severe. Pushing her hat down to hide her eyes, she said "As much as I don't like the thought of killing people, these guys brought this outcome about by their own actions."

"Right." Nami said with a fortifying breath before she shook her head hard and said "So I guess we should go tell the original residents that they can come back now."

"Shouldn't be too hard, especially if the mayor is nearby like he was in Canon." I said, pulling a flare gun out of my book bag. I cracked it open to make sure it was loaded before I pointed it upwards and fired. The red ball of light shrieked as it shot in the air before it exploded into a hanging ball of light that was slow to fade away.

It was silence for five minutes before Tony called out "Boss, I've got an old guy with a poodle hair cut coming up the main street in some leather armor with a spear.

"That's our guy, wave him up would you Tony?" I said.

"You got it." Tony said giving a sweeping arm wave followed by a come here gesture.

A couple of minutes later, a tense Mayor Boodle came up the stairs to the tavern roof, gasping and turning pale at the sight of all of the pirate bodies on the ground. As he stepped onto the roof proper, I asked "Mayor Boodle?"

"Um, that's me, but can I ask how you know that name? And furthermore who are you people?" The Mayor asked.

Luffy gave him an easy smile and said "My First Mate Matt knows a lot of things. I'm Luffy by the way, that's Zoro, my Second Mate, and Nami, our Navigator slash Third Mate, and we're the Straw Hats."

"I see. Well you have my heartfelt thanks for dealing with the pirates." Mayor Boodle said before jerking as Buggy groaned. He took a startled step back when Buggy's eyes snapped open and he shouted "I'LL FLASHILY END THAT UNFLASHY BITCH!"

"Awww, Shaddup!" Luffy said, kicking Buggy in the jaw hard enough to snap his head around and knock him unconscious again. Snorting down at him, Luffy turned back to Mayor Boodle and said "Don't worry, he's in sea prism stone handcuffs so his devil fruit doesn't work. I figured you and your townspeople could call the Marines and collect the bounty he and his officers had and use the money to repair your town." My Captain then grinned and continued "Only seems fair that their capture pays for the damage they themselves caused right?"

"Indeed." Mayor Boodle said, a look of anger in his eyes as he glared at Buggy as he came closer. As he walked up to us though, Gibbs said "Hey Boss, we've got more civilians coming from the town outskirts."

"Guess that's our cue to leave then." Luffy said.

"Hang on Captain, I need to do one thing real quick first." I said and everyone turned their attention to me as I dug out a compact tranquilizer gun and shot Ritchie with all ten darts. Sticking the tranq gun back into my book bag, I said "There, that ought to keep him out of it for a while.

"Er, right." Mayor Boodle said, giving the lion a wary look before he turned back to Luffy and offered his hand as he said "Thanks again Captain Luffy."

"Shishi, no problem." Luffy said, accepting the hand shake with a grin before she led us all downstairs. We made our way to the dock where Kirito's people were waiting by the captured Big Top, a rather large pile of loot waiting to be stored. Once everything was stored, I brought up the trade forum on my tablet and selected the sell option. Placing my tablet against the keel of the Big Top saw a large wire frame appear on the ship before it was sucked into the device, a beep sounding once it was gone.

"So now what?" Zoro asked.

He was answered by the sound of the Chinook come barreling around the shore, coming to a stop in front of us and turning so that its rear hatch was facing us and Luffy and I both grinned as she loudly said "I do believe Syrup Village is our next destination."

As we boarded the helicopter I nodded and said "Nami just needs to work out if it would take twenty four hours or less to get there by boat first."

Nami considered that for a moment before she nodded and said "With a good wind it would easily be doable."

"Then let's go, to Syrup Village!" Luffy said with a grin.

"Aye Aye Captain." John said with a grin, the Chinook quickly pulling away from the dock, leaving several surprised villagers watching from where they had come running to investigate the loud sound. We were officially on our way to get our fifth crew member.

END

Author's Notes: Sorry this took so long. I had trouble working on the first half in a reasonable time frame and then some of my Dis cord buddies said it would be better to get the Buggy fight done now rather than as a chapter of its own.

Also, I Have a Pat reon up and running if you're feeling generous. It's under the same username as my fanfiction.