Hey guys, afternoon. I'm glad that the last chapter went down OK and I was really happy when one person said they actually related to it. That's totally what I was going for.

Coby's eyes widened. It was around midnight now and he had just gotten home, having gone to see a movie with Helmeppo. The first thing he saw when he reached his house was the note stuck to the door.

It was a message from Moriah, he wanted his money. Tonight. And what was worse, he had leverage.

Coby shook his head, snapping himself out of his daze. He had to call Luffy, tell him that Moriah had Nami. He was about to do so when he remembered that Luffy, Ace and Garp had gone to Dressrosa on the previous day and were away for the whole weekend. The next person that came to Coby's mind was Zoro, but he didn't answer when Coby called him. The pink haired teen swore. Why were they both unreachable at a time like this? Coby sighed, dialling the third number that came to mind, already knowing this one would be less use than the other two.

"Hey Coby, what's up?" Helmeppo's voice greeted from the other end of the line.

"Helmeppo! Listen, we're in trouble. Moriah wants his money."

"Yeah, I know. That's why we're doing this whole thing with Mr Garp-"

Coby groaned, Helmeppo not getting it. "No, I mean he wants the money now! Tonight! He's got Luffy's girlfriend!"

Helmeppo gulped. After a couple of seconds of silence, he answered. "We need to call Luffy and Zoro then…"

"I already tried. Luffy's out of town though and I can't reach Zoro. We don't have much time anyway, he set a deadline of 2 a.m. We've got literally two hours. I think… I think the only thing we can do now is try and get the money. How much do you have?"

"You know I haven't got anywhere near enough…"

Coby sighed. "Well, we'll have to just give that and see if that satisfies him for the time being. Either way, we can't let anything happen to Nami. She's only involved because of me, if they do anything to her…"

"I get it. OK, meet me at my house and we'll see how much money we've got. Did Moriah give a place?"

"Yeah. I'll show you when I get there."

With that Coby hung up. He looked up at the sky and exhaled slowly, attempting to calm himself down. He didn't think something like this would happen so soon. He had been training under Garp for about a month now and whilst he had improved, he definitely wasn't ready to confront Moriah's gang yet.

######

Violet pulled her coat tighter around her, really feeling the cold. It was a little past midnight now after all.

She had been surprised to have been contacted by Bellamy about half an hour ago. She had known for a while now that he, like her, was working under Doflamingo, but he had never actually spoken to her before tonight. The two had just gone about their business separately until now. But it seemed like Bellamy was in some kind of trouble, with him simply sending her a text to come to a certain place immediately. Violet didn't like the fact that he seemed to be demanding this from her but figured that Joker would probably want her to help him if he was in danger.

Violet turned the corner onto the street where she expected to find Bellamy waiting. However there was no one there. The street was completely empty, although Violet could see blood on the pavement. It looked like there'd been some sort of a struggle here. Had Bellamy been involved? And if so, what had happened to him?

"It's just as I thought…"

Violet immediately turned around at the sound of the voice behind her. Standing there was Absalom, holding a phone in his hand. Violet frowned, figuring out what had happened now. "You used Bellamy's phone to contact me. Who are you? What do you want?"

Surprisingly, Absalom merely grinned widely. "Wow, you're really beautiful, you know that? The boss wanted to use you to get some information about the mysterious 'Joker' but I think I'd much rather take you for myself."

"What are you saying? Quit messing around Absalom!"

A second person emerged from around the corner. It was a girl with bright pink hair. Absalom scowled at her. "Come on Perona, look at her! She's totally hot!"

"It doesn't matter! The boss said we have to kidnap her, like we did that blonde guy!"

Violet frowned. The 'blonde guy' was presumably Bellamy. So he really was in trouble. Violet didn't know how important he was to Doflamingo, but she figured that she needed to help him, if only for the reason that he may give these people information on their boss.

"Namiiiiii! Where are you? Your prince is here!"

The three all stopped, hearing the sound of someone running towards them, their footsteps pounding against the pavement. After a couple of seconds, Sanji skidded around the corner, his hopeful expression turning to a disappointed one when he realised Nami wasn't among the three people there.

After finishing his shift at the Baratie, Sanji had bumped into Hatchi and Keimi on the walk home, who'd told him that they'd been out with Nami. They said that she'd seemed kind of down, so Sanji had called her, wanting to see what was on her mind. When she hadn't answered for the third time, Sanji became worried, but figured that she may be at home, so he'd quickly ran to Nami's house. She wasn't there.

So for the past twenty minutes or so he'd been running around the city, searching everywhere he could for Nami, but hadn't found anything. At least, not until now.

Sanji blinked, recognising two of the three people in front of him; Violet and Absalom. He scowled at the male, remembering he'd had a couple of run-ins with Nami over the last year or so. "Hey, I recognise you… You haven't done anything to Nami, have you, you shitty jerk?"

Absalom merely grinned sleazily at him. "So what if I have?"

Sanji narrowed his eyes at him. "Where is she?"

Absalom met his gaze, not willing to back down. "Wouldn't you like to know…"

Violet smiled, sensing her opportunity. She lunged at Perona, who, not expecting her attack, was sent tumbling sideways by her kick. Both Sanji and Absalom froze, not expecting something like that from the Chemistry teacher. Absalom was about to intervene, when Sanji stepped in-between him and the two women."Where's Nami?" he asked again.

Absalom clenched his fists. "Out of the way!"

With that, Absalom lunged at Sanji, who blocked his attempted punch with his leg. The two were locked in that position briefly before Sanji overpowered Absalom, sending him backwards. Before Absalom could recover, Sanji was on him again, kicking him in the side to knock him into the wall of the alleyway, before finishing him off with one last kick. He turned around, surprised to see that Violet had incapacitated Perona by this point too.

Sanji gulped. He knew she was working with Doflamingo, but he didn't realise that that meant she was this tough too. Violet, who had been examining Perona's body, suddenly looked up at Sanji. He had just seen her fight, so her cover was blown with regards to him. So she had no choice, she'd have to deal with him too.

Violet quickly got up from her crouched down position and swung her leg at Sanji, who blocked it with his own. Violet attempted to overpower Sanji, but found that she couldn't, his defence holding firm. The blonde blinked. "Why are you attacking me?"

"Why are you here? Are you following me?" Violet demanded. She knew Sanji was friends with Law. Was he helping him perhaps?

"What? No, I'm looking for my friend. Besides…" Sanji flashed Violet his most charming smirk. "I could never harm a beautiful lady like yourself."

Violet cringed. Even in this situation he still couldn't resist. The teacher sighed, withdrawing her leg. This guy was an idiot, there was no need to waste her time on him. Besides, she could tell from how easily he'd blocked her kick that she wouldn't stand a chance against him if they actually fought. "Whatever. Well, your friend isn't here, so you can go away now."

Sanji blinked, not understanding Violet's hostile attitude towards him. The teacher ignored Sanji's confused expression and went to Absalom. He was out cold. She looked up at Sanji. "What did you knock him out for? I wanted to ask him where his hideout was!"

The blonde frowned, looking over to the equally unconscious Perona. "Erm…"

"Shut up," Violet interrupted, not giving Sanji the chance to point out her hypocrisy. She searched Absalom's pockets, finding nothing aside from Bellamy's phone.

"So what do we do?"

Violet continued to search Absalom, ignoring the question. Sanji walked up so that he was next to her. "Maybe we-"

"What are you talking about? There is no 'we'. Go home kid."

Sanji sighed, Violet sure was stubborn. "Listen Miss… I need to find these guys' hideout to save Nami and for whatever reason, you want to find their hideout too. I know about you and who you're really working for, but for tonight my immediate concern is my friend so I'm willing to put aside our differences for now. Besides… I'm sure I could help you do whatever it is you want."

Violet paused. Sanji did have a point. He was strong and she had no idea what she was up against. All she knew was that someone had captured Bellamy, she had no idea who they were or how many of them there were. This wasn't the sort of thing she could do alone, and having Sanji would definitely help her. The teacher sighed. Whatever way she looked at it, teaming up with Sanji was a good idea.

"These people have one of my… colleagues… too. If they have one of your friends, I'm assuming we'll find both of them at their base. I'll contact Joker. He knows more than anyone about the criminal world in this town. He may know something about where their base is."

Sanji nodded, although he didn't like the idea about asking Doflamingo for help. But if that was the best way to save Nami, then so be it. When Violet went to call Doflamingo, Sanji took his own phone out, Zoro being the first person that came to mind to contact. He didn't know too much about Moriah, but from what he'd heard from Coby, he seemed to be pretty dangerous, meaning he and Violet would need as much help as they could get.

######

Coby sighed, done counting the money. About $3000 in total. Everything he and Helmeppo had in their accounts. "This isn't even half of it…" the pink haired teen muttered, 'it' being Helmeppo's 'debt' to Moriah. "Do you think he'll take it?"

Helmeppo gulped, continually staring out of his living room window in fear of Moriah or his thugs suddenly appearing. "Nope. You know he'll probably kill us, don't you?"

"He won't kill us. Well… he won't kill you at least. He needs someone to pay Morgan's debt after all."

Helmeppo looked at Coby, the implication of what he just said being that the pink haired teen was the one who's life was in danger. "Listen Coby… you've been a real good friend to me. Not many people would stick by someone through something like this. You don't have to come with me, let me deliver the money to Moriah."

Coby shook his head. "No, forget it, I'm coming with you. I'm your friend, I won't let you do this alone."

Helmeppo nodded. "Oh… OK. Thank you."

Coby smiled weakly back at him, trying to hide how terrified he was. "No problem."

What followed was a short silence, neither knowing what to say. Suddenly, Helmeppo chuckled slightly. Coby looked over at him, having no idea how he could laugh in their current situation. "What is it?"

"I'm just thinking… the first time I saw you… I really hated you."

"Is that so?"

Helmeppo nodded, picturing that day in Elementary school all those years ago. "I remember hearing that Morgan had been beaten up by Roronoa Zoro. I was so shocked, I couldn't imagine anyone being tougher than Morgan. From that point on… no one was scared of him any more, and because of that they weren't scared of me. The first time I saw you was at some point after that day, with Luffy and Zoro. I hated all three of you. Jeez, I was such a brat back then…"

Coby chuckled, him too finding a sense of humour. "Yeah, I remember. Man, you really have changed…"

"You know… you were my first friend Coby. You were the only kid who didn't resent me for using Morgan to push everyone around. Why was that?"

Coby shrugged, surprising Helmeppo, who gave him a questioning look. Coby thought for a second, before answering. "Well… I just figured you'd learned your lesson and wouldn't be mean to anyone again now that you'd seen how it could all blow up in your face. And… that was exactly what happened, wasn't it?"

"Yeah… Thanks Coby."

Coby merely nodded. He glanced at his watch, it was nearly one now. They had an hour. He glanced at Helmeppo, who sighed, knowing that it was time to go. With that, the two boys wordlessly got up and left the house, going out into the pitch black November night. The two walked in silence, Gecko Moriah their destination.

######

"This way," Violet muttered, turning right. She and Sanji were on their way to Gecko Moriah's hideout which, as one would expect, was in one of the worse areas of town. It was actually not too far away from Miss Doublefinger's bar. The streets were almost completely deserted, giving the city a weird 'ghost town' feel to it.

Suddenly, Sanji noticed something. He wordlessly grabbed Violet's hand from behind and pulled her into an alleyway. Violet was about to shout in protest, but Sanji quickly covered her mouth before she could. "Shh…" He whispered, pulling her back so that the two were hiding behind a dumpster. They both watched, and after a few moments, they heard footsteps approaching. Two people walked past the alleyway, a round man and a slim woman. When they had passed, Sanji removed his hand from Violet's mouth.

"They were following us," he explained.

Violet looked at Sanji, honestly impressed that he had noticed their pursuers. "Well done. I didn't hear them at all, it's a good thing you did."

Sanji's eyes turned to hearts, Violet's mild praise too much for him. "Of course! When it comes to your safety, I'm never too careful!"

Violet giggled slightly. When she'd first met Sanji, she thought that the whole chivalry thing was an act, but he really was like this. She couldn't help but find it kind of cute. "They must be Moriah's subordinates. I suppose this means they've found the two we dealt with earlier."

"I guess so. I wonder how many guys this Moriah guy has."

"Joker had no idea," Violet replied, waiting to see whether the coast was clear. "Say, when are your friends getting here? I thought they were coming to help us."

Sanji sighed. The only people he'd been able to get ahold of were Usopp, Chopper, Franky and Brook. Luffy and Ace were out of town, whilst he hadn't been able to contact Zoro and Robin. "I don't know. I asked them to meet me at a street a couple of blocks from where you said the hideout was. We haven't reached there yet, so for all I know they could be there waiting for us."

"Alright then," Violet began, finally satisfied that the coast was clear. She walked back out onto the street, Sanji close behind her. The two continued to walk for a bit in silence, Sanji wondering something the whole time.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Violet didn't bother to turn around to look at him. "What is it?"

"Why do you work for Doflamingo? I mean, he's a criminal who's done some terrible things to people I care about. Why would you want to work for someone like him?"

"Who said anything about wanting to work for him…" Violet muttered, before inwardly cursing herself for letting something like that just slip out.

Sanji blinked. "What does that mean?"

Violet turned around, giving Sanji a harsh look. "Nothing. Listen, just because we're doing this together now, it doesn't mean we're buddies or anything."

Surprisingly, Sanji didn't look intimidated, his eyes merely turning to hearts again. "Wow, you're beautiful even when you're angry with me…"

Violet rolled her eyes, feeling a little disgusted by how funny she found Sanji. She was so busy thinking about that that she didn't notice someone waiting for her in the alleyway she was passing. Before she could blink, that person emerged from the alleyway and lunged for her. It was the round man from before. Violet was unable to react quick enough, the man reaching out to grab her.

However before he could, Sanji closed the distance between him and the two, swinging his leg up to swat away the round man's arms. The second person, the slim woman, emerged from behind the round man, sending a kick Sanji's way, the blonde seeing it coming just in time to block it. The woman pulled back, although she slipped, momentarily off balance. Sanji had the chance to kick her, but didn't, instead choosing to place himself in between Violet and their two attackers. Violet glared at his back. "What are you doing? You could have kicked her just then!"

Sanji turned slightly so that he was looking at her. "I don't kick women."

This only annoyed Violet even more. "What are you talking about! She's trying to kill you! How can you not fight her!"

"Doesn't matter…" Sanji began, his expression deadly serious. "Even if I die, I won't kick a woman."

Thanks for reading guys! Hope you're enjoying the weekly chapters.