Part 2; Pirate Graveyard

Chapter 2/4; Baroque works

Cheers filled the air along with party pops and confetti. Igarappoi stood on the shore, tall and proud, treasured saxophone in hand, awaiting the pirates with an easy smile and a warm welcome. It was just another day at Whiskey Peak. Another crew of pirates.

Only two things were remarkable about them; they were only five. Their captain was recognizable from her poster, which had stood out due to the price money. But the girl was a lot smaller and younger than the image had suggested.

But her eyes were guarded.

"Welcome to our town!" Igarappoi greeted the pirates who looked equal parts excited and suspicious as they came ashore. "We welcome you, brave adventurers. Would you like liquor? We have oceans worth."

He managed to say all this with his voice only breaking once. Growing up in a dessert land, the mayor had swallowed more sand than food as a child, which reflected on his voice.

"I hope it's good liquor! I can still taste that godawful homebrew I had in Rouge Town," the pirate captain said, wrinkling her nose. Igarappoi wasn't certain if the girl was trying to look intimidating or just annoyed. Either way, it was more cute than anything else.

"Our whiskey is the smoothest in Grand Line!" Igarappoi promised. "Or would you prefer it smoky? We have a thousand barrels of different kinds to satisfy you."

"Liar," the girl said, and it was her easy tone, the certainty that she was right, that almost had the mayor blow his cover. Almost.

"I offer you to see for yourself then! Tonight we fhersh…" Igarappoi cleared his voice, tuned it, and tried again. "Tonight we feast everyone!"

A tanned boy with a long nose grabbed his captain around the shoulders with his other arm flung around a smartly dressed blond man, both of them happy and eager to join the celebration. The girl captain seemed to just go with the flow. The people behind Igarappoi hurriedly swept them up, asking well-practiced questions to judge their character, what perked their interest. They were all good actors.

Another woman of the pirate crew, this one decidedly prettier and better shaped than her captain. "Excuse me, but how long does it take for the log pose to adapt?"

"The log?" Igarappoi repeated, making sure his face showed mild disappointment before he broke into a wide grin, put an arm around her shoulder and turned towards the house where his folk were setting up tables and drinks, starting up grills and carrying out meat and vegetables. "Let's not think about such boring things tonight. It's a celebration, you need it after the journey you've just shurr…" he cleared and tuned his voice again. "You've just survived the first stretch of Grand Line. Take this time to unwind!"


Miss All-Sunday travelled silently in the shadow of Mr 5 and Miss Valentine. Or rather, trying to keep her own shadow from touching their ship, since she had the sun behind her. She longed quietly for the comforting darkness to sweep across the sky. Night-time night had always been her favourite time; when fewer people were out and about, when she could relax some of that constant tension in her muscles that prompted her to always be on guard, always on the watch. Even now; with the highest position in Baroque Works crime syndicate a woman could achieve, she was constantly alert. Constantly hiding.

Bunch, the turtle she was riding, slowed and turned slightly from his course in the wake of her boss' subordinates. Miss All-Sunday didn't care to reprimand him; the turtle knew better how the sea moved than she ever would. Sure enough; the small boat in front of them rocked dangerously while the turtle used his powerful paddles to compensate the movement and rock his passenger as little as possible.

Miss All-Sunday sighed, bored and impatient. It's not like her dream had ever been easy to chase. It took so much patience, so many lies and so many risks for almost no reward. She didn't even hold much hope about this one lead she had. But she had to have hope. She had to live. And she had to go through infuriatingly boring tasks like this to keep the boss's paranoia down.

But she did have a small hand to play against the boss for giggles. The boss liked people dead, and it brought Miss All-Sunday a thrilling world of amusement to "lose" a couple of targets. Because the boss couldn't kill her. Not yet. She was the only one in the world who couldn't be so easily replaced. So she had been playing with one of the targets. A crack in the boss's defences he was eager to fix, despite it being little more than an itch.

Bunch made a little sound as the island with its giant cacti-shaped graveyards started rising from the sea.


Most of the time, pirates who arrived at Whiskey Peak were drained and it rarely took more than a couple hours for the weariness and alcohol to put them to sleep. This crew though, only three men and two women strong, must have had an easy ride because the party was still going five hours later. They were all helping themselves to food and mead and liquor, and Igarappoi was starting to worry about their booze.

Only one of the pirates was properly drunk. He stood on a table, entertaining a group people of varying ages. Most of what the boy said was a lie, but he was invested in his tales and was interesting enough that at least his audience weren't sneaking glances at Igarappoi asking when they could kill the story-teller.

The blond teen was seated in a crowd of women who were genuinely enjoying themselves. He stood out, that boy. Fitted in dress-pants and a blue shirt with his tie and blazer hung neatly over the back of a chair. The mayor had to wonder why this man was a pirate when his clothes and the way he carried himself seemed to hint at nobility. Not that anybody cared about such a detail. The blond treated the ladies well though, which was a happy surprise for all involved. The women of this village were no strangers to tactless men whose hands kept wandering to places with or without their consent. Now they were giggling and blushing at praise and compliments and passionate poetry. Some were even putting on a show of throwing with their hair and opening their clothes a little just to get showered with enthusiastic worship.

One of the girls turned to Igarappoi and mouthed "can I keep him?". He laughed but shook his head negative.

At another table the swordsman and the navigator were immersed in drinking games. That one was a lot more typical to the occasion. Actually, those two were supposed to have gone down hours ago, but they were both still downing mug after mug with mead and rum. They were starting to waver now, so hopefully they would all just fall down like toy soldiers any minute.

The captain was the most hard to please. She ate very little; just fruit really, and she seemed to prefer to watch rather than participate in the celebrating. Her face was relaxed, but the sharpness in her golden brown eyes made Igarappoi's skin crawl. His only consolation was that the girl with the straw-hat wasn't trying to raise a fuss even if she suspected anything.

Monkey D. Ruffy. Igarappoi knew the name from her poster, and he was sure he'd heard the name mentioned somewhere else as well, but hadn't been able to pinpoint it yet.

"You shouldn't distance yourself!" the mayor shouted at her, pretending to be drunk and waved a bottle of rum that he didn't really want to share. "Think you can beat me in a drinking game?!"

"I can," the girl said, like that was a fact.

"Then here. Bring out the shot-glasses!"

Cheers filled the air, disrupting a story the boy with the long nose was telling in the middle of the room.

"No need!" the captain said, and she was smiling so confidently her eyes seemed like they were on fire. "I don't bother with shots. Take me down with a whole bottle!"

Igarappoi stuttered in his drunk performance to stare at the too small girl. Well, she was worth thirty million, so she probably wasn't all that weak, definitely had a devil fruit to her name even though his people hadn't been able to find any reports on which power she hosted. But draining a whole bottle? Like a shot? Was she asking to die?

It would solve that problem though, even though Igarappoi wasn't about to fight fair in a suicide-challenge.

He caught the eye of one of the people dressed as a cook. "Bring me full bottles of our best rum!"

"Roger!"

"I have been drinking from this one," Igarappoi said to the girl and placed his half-full bottle in the corner of a window, thankful he would be able to enjoy the smooth, spiced goodness of it for a little while longer. Alabasta's cactus rum was too hard to get your hands on outside the country itself.

The cook returned with four bottles and handed one each to the mayor and the pirate captain.

"The one left standing wins," the girl said as she popped the cap off with her thumb.

"You're on," Igarappoi agreed and used his ring to open his own bottle of non-alcoholic brew.

Monkey D. Ruffy stood with her feet apart, pulled her shoulders back and chest out and turned the bottle upside down in her mouth.

Igarappoi hurried to mimic her, but couldn't swallow more than a handful of times before he had to lower the bottle to breathe.

The girl was still swallowing, eyes closed and the liquid bubbling inside the glass container, quickly drying up. Igarappoi tipped his own drink back, hoping to not make a fool of himself like this.

"Ah, finally!"

The mayor stopped drinking to look at the pirate. She was holding her bottle upside down beside her, showing how she'd finished it, and was drying her chin. She smiled brightly at Igarappoi.

"I've been trying to wash out the taste of God's sick piss brew since leaving Rouge Town. And I won! You didn't finish yours!"

Everyone who had turned to watch stared at the girl, ready for when she fell over. She hiccupped once, smiled at Igarappoi and her eyes were glazed over.

"I don't like you," she said and swayed a little.

Any moment now she would drop dead from alcohol poisoning. Or at the very least fall unconscious.

"You heart's all sneaky. Hair full o guns. Why all 'em gravestones? Cacsus graveyard."

"I challenge you too!" the cook said and held out another bottle to the girl.

"Another? Okay, I've had two before, when my opponent also survived the first one. I'm still alive."

She'd done this before? Her opponent had once "survived too"? So she knew this could and probably would kill her? Igarappoi had a moment of questioning the world that pitted a child against anyone in drinking games until one of them died.

How was her liver doing?

"I'm fine," the girl drawled, waving an unsteady hand at them all, popping the cap off the bottle with the other.

So they all must have made strange faces. Igarappoi shook his head to clear it.

"Well then, let's survive another night," Ruffy continued with a soul-deep sigh, broken with a hiccup. "Aki always said to f-fight. I promise to Sun I live till…"

The pirate stopped talking, scrunching her face up in confusion. The man who was challenging her popped his flask open, but the sound didn't seem to reach Ruffy.

"The alcohol's catching up," someone said.

"Girl, maybe you've had enough," Igarappoi said and reached out a hand.

Her eyes widened, went from brown to gold in a flash and she straightened with a face that tried to hide true fear under a mask of determination.

"The one left standing wins!" she cried, and then she straightened, leaned her head back and Igarappoi watched the liquid bubble as it disappeared down the pirate's throat.

The cook hurried to copy her.

From his place on the couch Zoro was keeping an eye on everyone. He still felt well-rested, which he was happy about. He'd caught sight of a tattoo he guessed the villagers had in common. Most of them kept it from view, but there was one person in this room who had it on full display; a winged skull and crossed fencing swords over the letters; B W. Zoro had caught it peeking out from under skirts and pants and sleeves. It stirred a memory. Some people had come to East Blue looking for him, because he was infamous as a bounty hunter no matter how much he denied that fact.

Those idiots had not been as good at persuasion as Ruffy.

Usopp went down with a happy sigh, down for the night, and Zoro turned to watch his captain.

The sight of Ruffy turning a bottle upside down in her throat had the swordsman jumping up in fright. Was she trying to kill herself?

In front of Ruffy another man hurried to imitate the pirate captain, and he only managed three or four gulps before he fell backwards. Some of his friends rushed forward to make sure the guy was still alive. Ruffy still stood.

She lifted the bottle from her face, the last drop falling on her tongue before Zoro and anyone else who's watched ducked for the flying flask that made a funny sound when it hit Sanji square in the forehead. The most amazing thing was that the bottle didn't break, although it effectively knocked Sanji out cold.

Ruffy hiccupped. "I. Won." She tried to focus on the people in front of her. "I won, right?"

"You won, captain, with a landslide. And that's it for your adventures today. Sleep," Zoro said and picked the girl up with one arm under her bum. Her lithe body easily fit against him with her head on his shoulder.

The girl just heaved a deep sigh and obeyed.

"She's still alive?" asked the man with the enormous curls, the mayor if Zoro remembered correctly. He looked quite a lot more worried than the swordsman would have thought of a bounty hunter. On the other hand, Ruffy was the one with the bounty, and the government wouldn't pay the full price if the criminal was dead.

"She'll be fine," Zoro ensured them and went back to his place.

"What happened?" Nami asked from where she was still drinking, against a nun.

"Ruffy got drunk and fell asleep," Zoro said and placed said girl on the sofa.

That had the navigator throw her head back and laugh until she cried, then suddenly got serious. "Sleep sounds good," she said, sat down by a table and promptly started snoring in that uncomfortable position.

"You're right," Zoro decided to play along and sat down too, beside the sofa, resting his head against Ruffy's stomach. Her hand found Zoro's neckline and pulled sleepily at his shirt.

The party quickly stopped all around them, way too fast for this to have been anything but a show.

"Sweet dreams, you mad adventurers," the mayor said around a sigh.

Zoro stayed still, pretending to sleep as he listened to grumbles and mumbles all around him, waiting for an opening. This would be great. His wounds were healed up and he had longed for a chance to test out his new swords.

"A waste if you ask me."

Mihawk's voice again. A warning.

Zoro focused on his breathing, keeping it even as his senses hitched at the fact this room held his crewmates and his captain. They were all in here, asleep and vulnerable in a town filled with bounty hunters.

He couldn't get cocky. He had to lead the fight away.

Looking up at Ruffy's face, Zoro almost didn't want to leave. Her eyebrow was twitching and jaws chewing, biting the cushions of the sofa. There were still people in the room, but not in their direct surroundings, so Zoro carefully raised on his knees and pressed his lips against Ruffy's ear.

"I'll protect you, so sleep tight. May your dreams be good," he breathed.


Aki was gone. She was dead. The stew was Aki. The cooks had killed Aki and fed her to them and Ruffy was throwing up and vomiting and her stomach was a hole and the tears wouldn't stop. She couldn't eat or sleep. Her hands were always shaking.


"Hey now, let my friends sleep. They've had a rough few days," said Zoro from where he sat on top of the highest building in the area. He had now successfully drawn all attention to himself, and he thought he had a good way to keep it that way.

"A nest of bounty hunters, sitting here like spiders, gathering up pirates high on the glee they've entered Grand Line."

The earlier so friendly faces shed their masks, revealing hardened men and women pulling out their weapons of choice.

"I estimate there's about a hundred of you," Zoro drawled, eyes flying over the people below. "Good enough. I'll be your opponent, dear Baroque Works."

That got attention. Of course it did. For these people, the organization they belonged to, secrecy was everything.

"How do you know that name!?" someone shouted.

"I was scouted by some of your people once," he offered as an explanation. "An organization where you know nothing about anyone or who gives orders. Blind obedience isn't my thing."


"Hey! The lord is here with an instant order."

"I'll be right there."

"No, it's not food-related. The lord's son is in trouble. We're to gather up whatever don't need and hand them over."


Yubashiri, Snow Leap, was good and light and deadly. She sat well in Zoro's hand, with the only flaw of being lighter than Kuina's sword Wado. It was just something he had to get used to and just try not to let the lightness of Yubashiri bring him off balance.

It didn't matter. The whole town, children and elderly included, were all coming after him.


The cage was half of the room, but that wasn't the problem. The chains had been taken off as they entered this place. The show-cage. Nobody said it. There were no words at all. Because the chains were gone. There was only one fate left. Only one reason they were here.

Someone was pacing on the other side of the bars.

"Are you trying to humiliate me? How does any of these things meet my requirements?"

"They don't, son. This mess is your own fault. Let this be a lesson in what happens when you're goaded into accepting bets. Be grateful I managed to get so many for you to select from."


Sandai Kitetsu, the third demon-steel, cut through stone. Zoro wasn't prepared for that. Had only planned to block, but the kitetsu had cut.

"I can see you making a lot of trouble for me," Zoro said to the sword, both impressed by the sword's sharpness and aware she would turn on him if he ever did anything by halves. But the thought made him smirk. "Just like your grandmother."


There was no way out. Survival instincts glittered under layers of fear. They hadn't received orders yet. There was no need. There was only one way to interpret the discussion going on outside the bars.

Her whole body shook. Aki was dead. She had died so that she could live on in Ruffy's heart.

The chairs on the other side squeaked softly. Aki was in her heart.

The young lord's voice was bored. "The one left standing wins."

Aki had to live.


In a dark room on Whiskey Peak, driven by survival instincts, the sleep-walker crawled out of the building on all four, her golden eyes wide open in her sleep.