Italics indicate thinking

Bold is for attacks

Steve's POV

"There are so many!" Lil said in awe looking at all the minks at this little party they were throwing.

"Yeah there sure are a lot of different ones." I added "You must be liking this place."

"Of course I am, it's a dream come true." She kicked her feet.

"Mhm." I nodded.

"Something bothering you?" Robin asked.

"Just that letter is all." I hummed "Not quite sure what to make of it."

"Yes, it was rather strange." She sighed "This whole chain of events is weird."

"HEY!" Luffy yelled "Come here!"

Everyone gradually worked their way over to where Luffy was standing with Brook.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"Kin'emon, he should have gotten here by now right?" Luffy asked.

"I guess." I shrugged.

"Now listen." Brook said "You should avoid the word Samurai here, or the Wano Country as well, mentioning them may anger the Minks."

"Where's Law?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, he went to play in the forest with his bear friend." Luffy smiled.

"I wouldn't call that playing." I sighed "But yeah he went to the forest."

"Uhh hello!" Nami snapped "What are we gonna so about Sanji!"

"Well he left a note." Zoro commented.

"It's not like he was captured." Luffy shrugged.

"You're not taking this seriously!" Nami and I yelled.

"Why don't we go back to the beginning." Monet suggested "Take us back to the start."

"Yeah that's fine." Nami said "We were running away from Big Mom's singing ship and there were people on it, those two guys from Fishman Island and Capone "Gang" Bege."

"They probably wanted Caesar." Wyper explained "Since fighting with that ship wasn't a good option, I used the Coup De Burst to fly us away. Since Zou always moves, we were able to get here in just about a day."

"But the destruction of the town, that looked almost two weeks old." Robin pointed out.

"It was ten days ago." Wanda explained "But the arrival of the others was a miracle, if it weren't for their skills and Chopper's medicine."

"Look it's fine if you don't wanna talk about it." Franky told her.

"No, I'll tell you." Wanda said.

"Hey!" a monkey dropped in "The Duke's awake!"

"Oh, why don't you come with me." Wanda said "I'm sure the Duke will want to meet you."

"Who is this guy?" Luffy asked.

"In short he's like our ruler, we have two here on Zou." Wanda explained "The Duke of the Dawn Inuarashi and Ruler of Dusk Master Nekomamushi."

"What a strange political structure." Monet noted.

"Before them it was even more complicated. So the story, it started about half a month ago." Wanda said "Normally we ring the bell when guests arrived, but it had been some time since we had rung it, so the next time when it was the raid bell people were unsure. How were we expected to give something we didn't have to someone so fierce? They insisted a samurai was here, demanded we turn him over but no such person existed."

"I take it from the look of this place they wouldn't take no for an answer huh?" Rose asked.

"A man, a mammoth from the crew of Kaido, named Jack crushed our city and us in his search of that samurai called Raizo."

"Isn't that the name of Kin'emon's friend?" Luffy scratched his head.

"You should just listen." I sighed.

"We can discuss more about it later." Wanda said.

Outside the Duke's room was some Lion Mink friend of Wanda's, he was pretty loud but once he knew who we where he was quick to let us pass. Inside was a large hut like room, on the bed was a very large dog Mink who was sipping on tea.

"Damn he's huge." I said.

"You're safe thank goodness!" Wanda hugged him.

"You're the Strawhats huh?" he asked "I owe you a thanks, you did us a big favor."

"Apparently my friends saved you guys." Luffy said "But I still don't know the whole story."

"Wait a moment." Wanda walked over and grabbed Lil "Sir, this is the girl I mentioned in my message earlier."

"Uhh hello." Lil waved.

"Hmm…" Inuarashi looked at her "Well, let's see it."

"See what?" she asked.

"If you're the successor let's see you summon them." He said "Bring out that stupid old tiger."

"Okay." Lil dug around her purse "Tiger Stone: Azwraith the Phantom Lancer!"

A tall bipedal cat appeared and looked around.

"We see we are on Zou." The cat man said before looking at the dog in the bed "You've seen better days Inuarashi."

"And you still haven't aged a day." The dog growled.

"You two know each other?" Lil asked.

"Yes, we remember this one." Lil's pet said "You've finally arrived at Zou."

"What's the point of this place?" Lil asked "Everyone keeps saying I'm important because I have all your stones."

"It's because we come from here." Azwraith said.

"What?" she said "So all you guys are Minks?"

"At the time yes, we were all the 12 strongest warriors of the Mink tribe, each from its twelve strongest species." The cat said "Around here we are like legendary warriors."

"But Icarus is just a bird, he's not a Mink." Lil pointed out.

"That one is a special case." The old cat said "It before the time of Gold Roger, the tale of the first conductor, the man with the Gem-Gem Fruit."

AN

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Till Next Time!