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Chapter 9

The skies above had a muted orange hue, which meant the sun was at twilight high above the fog. Down below at city level, the quiet hum that made Shunran Island seem sleepy and boring changed into a dull roar as the city came to life. The black towers that absorbed the light now gave off soft colorful glows, as did lights in buildings across the city. From the Shopping District, music of every kind could be heard from every direction and actually was audible from all parts of the island. Sanji bobbed his head to the music, and let the vibe from each club that he passed take him. It amazed him how much he was able to get. Food of all kinds, a bauble or two for Nami, and enough of his precious cigarettes to keep him puffing until they got to the end of the Grand Line. He had so much now, he borrowed a large cart to haul it all away. And he didn't pay hardly anything for all of it!

In fact, the apparent economy nagged at his mind. Sen dressed rather plainly, and didn't carry herself as if she was rich or anything, and yet was able to buy a banquet. How could they practically give everything away? He was sure that the earrings he had gotten for Nami were something that could only be found in a rich person's private collection or at the bottom of the sea in a chest. There was no doubt that it was real. The merchant had taken the back of the stone and cut a perfect circle out of a piece of demonstration glass. One of his 5-star meals, and these babies afterward? Nami would be all over him like chocolate on strawberries….

He was glad now that they had rescued Sen, even though she and her entire city were acting strange. They welcomed him as a cook, a merchant, and a man who appreciated a good time. But when they asked how he came upon the island and his answer was Sen, things got eerily tense.

After some inquiry of braver souls in the city, he learned that Sen was currently in trouble for destroying a portion of the city. And that she wasn't to be trusted and to be avoided at all costs. Their conversation was well guarded by the surrounding noise, so they were free to talk.

"Her? She's…." Sanji waved his hand at chest height. "Petite. Kinda cute actually, and the way she was cowering in that boat with a broken arm-" And then he remembered her little pre-breakfast performance, and then the way the port authorities were backing away from her when she got off the ship. "Just how dangerous is she?"

The light red-skinned man struggled to keep up with Sanji since he was pulling a cart and going as fast as he could. "As an Arashan, she's worthless. Hardly a patron goddess of the island. But on top of being Arashan, she got greedy and now she's got a bit of the Devil in her."

'Sen?! A goddess!? That would explain the no-nonsense and take charge attitude…' Sanji tried not to laugh. "And what Devil's Fruit did she eat?"

"I've never seen it, and she hides all the time now, so no really knows. There was so much panic that day a month ago, nobody quite knows what happened. Everyone knew that she wouldn't be a guardian goddess because her powers were so weak she couldn't even bring down a drizzle. But that day, she could've leveled the whole island and none of the other Arashan would've been able to stop her. We knew it was her because each Arashan has a Siren's song of their own, and the storm from her song was enough to level half of Lallan district, which is what her family controls. No one knows why she stopped, either. Once one of the Conducting Towers fell, her song and the storm stopped. We need those things to live! Ever since, she's been hostile, secretive, she mumbles things to herself, there's been a weird fog all over the city, and her pet is almost always black." He shuddered.

"Pet? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Arashan have to be responsible with their powers or else their powers will come back to bite them in the ass. Pets are clouds that follow them around. If there isn't one, it means they are in a stable or calm frame of mind. Once the cloud shows up, it means that something is wrong with them, and once it turns black, it means something is seriously off and they are downright DEADLY. After a while, the pet will start to torment them and then it gets really ugly…

Which is why all us normal Shunran try to keep them happy. Thank goodness it doesn't take much. They're an easygoing bunch that don't want much more than to just enjoy the weather they create. Or the weather they would create if Sen weren't blocking it. If this doesn't end soon, the best she can hope for is banishment from the island. But there's talk about putting her out of her misery… A shame. Before that she'd never done anything wrong save for being slightly silly and irritating, and the Lallan family is one of the most prominent on the island for her father's work in bringing us so much prosperity."

Sanji was slowly putting things together. "Just what does her father do?"

"Niyin Lallan's a merchant. Evidently all these stupid pirates that come through the Grand Line looking for One Piece or some garbage carry a lot of treasure, food… hell, everything the world has to offer. The Arashan not only guard the island from those invaders, they can pretty much turn those ships over and empty 'em like broken piggy banks on the island. Then merchants like yourself and her father trade whatever we don't need, which is pretty much all of it. Hence, they are also called Sirens."

Sanji took an extra long drag of his cigarette and mumbled. "Is that right…?"

"Gotta make a living somehow."

"Touché…" He took a left turn and a brown blur of antlers and fur ran headlong into him. They were both knocked back a few feet, which scared the hell out of the man beside Sanji. Luckily, the cart was not turned over or anyone injured. Chopper popped back up and tugged at Sanji's collar.

"This island is crazy! Where's Luffy and the others?!" The reindeer had a slightly panicked look on his face and was looking around him in paranoia…

Sanji growled and threw Chopper off him. "Hey! Get off! What the hell's the matter with you? Other than the nervousness, this joint's alright. I gotta visit some of these clubs after I take this stuff back to the ship." He grinned to himself and straightened his clothes.

"The fog… it talked to me…" His eyes were currently fixed on it as the mist drifted lazily around their feet.

"The fog?" Sanji's eyebrow went up.

'A talking animal…? What the hell is that thing?' The man with Sanji also couldn't believe what Chopper was saying. "Hey, we get a lot of weird things here, but the fog doesn't talk. It doesn't move, it doesn't do anything. Even the Arashan can't make it do that."

"I swear. It was the fog. Someone on this island has Devil's Fruit powers and said that the islanders-" Chopper looked over at the Shunran with his mouth agape. "Back to the ship!" Chopper hitched up to the cart and ran off with it back to the ship with Sanji in tow.

Chopper nearly spilled everything in the cart as he bulked up to human size, threw the cart on deck, and dragged Sanji into the tiller room. "Okay. The Arashan have been controlling someone with some kind of Fog or Cloud Fruit and they want us to do something about it."

"…Hm. So that's what Sen is… "

"Sen? No, it's not Sen, otherwise the whole island would smell like her, and this thing is male. And the fog was already here even before Sen came back."

"But the guy I was just talking to said that Sen created the fog."

"Well, it's not her. Sen is a Zoan like me. Some kind of amphibian or lizard."

"And why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"She's really scared of it. And she's obviously trying to keep it a secret. If people as powerful as the Arashan are afraid of her, then -"

Their conversation was interrupted with a shriek, a whoop of joy, and the sounds of voracious eating and subsequent choking. They came outside to find Nami with her hands on her knees and puffing tiredly, while Luffy was building his energy by trying some of the delicacies in Sanji's cart.

"THIS DUMBASS ALMOST GOT US KILLED!!! DAMMIT, LUFFY!" Nami screeched at him.

"Ah, Nami-swan! What's the matter?! And I must apologize for my behavior earlier! I must admit I wasn't myself the past few days…" Sanji went right back into his flirting routine, and led Nami over to a seat. As they passed Luffy, Sanji slid his foot under Luffy's and knocked him over without missing a step. "Get the hell out of the food, stupid. I haven't cooked it yet. Now Nami! What has happened to you so that I may kill our buffoon of a capitain?"'

Nami caught her breath and put her hand on her forehead. "These people SERIOUSLY don't like people with Devil's Fruit powers, pirates, Sen, and when people BREAK THINGS! And Luffy managed to get in all four of those things in one encounter! He found a box in a store, containing Sea Stones. He touched it, froze, got mad, broke the box, which I had to spend my good money on, and explained to the clerk that we were pirates, who rescued Sen. Somehow, this sequence sets off the MAGICAL CUE that tells these people to RUN US OUT OF THE CITY. I DIDN'T GET TO DO HARDLY ANYTHING!!!"

"Well if the weirdness keeps up, we'll be leaving soon enough. Where's Zoro and Usopp?" Chopper sniffed the air. The fog's scent stayed the same, no matter where he was in the city, which meant he was either being followed, or the fruit allowed the user to literally be everywhere at once. Neither Usopp nor Zoro's scents were in the air, though. "Luffy, should we interfere with what's going on here? A lot of people could be in danger. And the fog warned me that if we didn't, we wouldn't make it out of here alive."

Sanji started hauling the cart into the kitchen to get it away from Luffy. "Sen said she would be able to see us safe passage out, but she can't protect us once we're out to sea. Shunran is an entire island of pirates and thieves. They use the powers of Sirens like Sen to destroy pirate ships and loot their treasure. I also heard that we shouldn't trust Sen, either. The Devil's Fruit seems to have changed her."

"Damn right! She's either mastered her powers real quick or she's gone nuts!!" Usopp appeared behind them looking as winded as Nami was when she arrived. "I must have run across this entire city! She leveled a building and then conjured a storm I haven't seen since we first got to the Grand Line!"

"I bet Zoro went and pissed her off." Sanji growled. "One of you can find the jerk. If you'll be so kind as to join me, Nami-san, the music coming from one of the clubs I passed was just the thing for our spirits this evening!"

As he took her hand and was about to lead her off the ship, the fog rose up into a loosely human form on the gangplank and 'blocked' their way. "You don't wish to stay and hear the plan…?"