Chapter 35
Xomniac AN: Just a note to our readers so as to correct a misconception that some of you seem to have. Apparently some readers have taken to believe from our apologies about our late chapters that other readers are giving us a hard time about our posting schedule. This could not be farther from the truth. All of our readers on all of This Bites! posting sites have been nothing but accommodating for when we post. The only individuals who give us a hard time about when we post are we ourselves. We of the Cross-Brain pride ourselves on our weekly update schedule, and we consider missing our Sunday update to be a mark against us!
Cross-Brain AN: Ah, yes. And, to our rival, DuncanIdaho2014, author of New Game Plus, currently the third most popular One Piece fic in the fandom, we have a few words to say. Ahem…
Hornet AN: DUNCAN, YOU JACKASS!
Xomniac AN: DAMN IT YOU RAT-BASTARD, WE WERE MINUTES AWAY FROM FINISHING! MERE FUCKING MINUTES! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU, PSYCHIC!?
Patient AN: You put out a work that thoroughly upstages at least one aspect of our own ideas, and then that blasted cliffhanger… WELL. Let's see how you feel with the cliffhanger waiting for you at the end of this chapter. *Grins menacingly.*
I clenched my fists as I tried to stay calm and keep my thoughts straight about the situation. On the surface and based on a few of his past actions, Aokiji could be just barely considered a decent Marine, but his attitude of Lazy Justice was just too fickle for me to even consider letting my guard down. I'd managed to fast-talk Smoker because his morals were strong and firm, but if I tried the same thing on either of the two non-psychotic admirals? If at any point, for even a second, an instant, they got bored or disagreed with me in any way, shape or form, I'd end up as either a humanoid dry-ice popsicle or a freaking burnt sieve.
The only mercy was that, most likely, he wouldn't be hostile right away, but considering how much I had done on the SBS, if he was in any kind of order-following mood then I was screwed.
So… yeah, no pressure.
"Robin, what's wrong? Do you know this guy?" Luffy demanded.
"We met once before," Aokiji lazily stated.
"To terrify Robin like this… Cross, who is he?" Nami demanded.
I swallowed heavily as I clenched and unclenched my hands, trying my best to keep my blood from freezing in my veins… which, given the fact that the air was almost certainly several degrees colder than it had been a few minutes ago, was an all-too-real possibility. "One of the three individuals who compose the Marine's Ultimate Military Force and all but guarantee the Corps' position as being one of the Big Three superpowers in the world today: Marine Corps Admiral Aokiji. Though you sure as hell wouldn't believe it if he wasn't being serious."
The reaction from our crew was immediate, sonorous, and above all else, panicked.
"A-Admiral?! What the hell is someone like that doing here? Shouldn't he be chasing down some pirate with a billion beri bounty or something?!" Usopp cried incredulously before stiffening and slowly starting to look towards me, and I stiffened in terror as well as I accepted the reality of the possibility. Shit, had I really done so much damage that they'd send an Admiral after me?! I mean, I could only imagine why Akainu wasn't literally burning down the Grand Line to get at me, but—!
"Don't worry, don't worry, he doesn't have a bounty yet…" Aokiji waved his hand casually. "Not that they don't want to assign you one, it's just that the World Government is still trying to properly define his crimes, is all. Nobody's ever really… done what he's done before. Well, that and we don't have a picture yet."
I relaxed as he said that, though I was having trouble reading his tone. I suppose I was hoping that I could get some hint of approval or disapproval from his voice. I took that chance to speak up. "So… you're not here on anyone's orders?"
The admiral shrugged nonchalantly. "Nah, I'm just out for a walk, no need to panic."
"Oh, well, that's good, then! Care to join us for some 'cheese'?" I asked in a hopefully casual voice. Fortunately, much of the crew face-faulted in response to my question, and the resulting amusement helped me calm down some.
"Y-Y-You can all relax, I think," Vivi stuttered. "I-I-In my experience, Aokiji does seem to be the… tamest of the Admirals."
"Ah, Your Majesty," Aokiji nodded at her, his eyes traveling to her chest. "Nice boobs. Are you free tonight?"
Sanji and Vivi made sounds like geese being strangled underwater, and it clearly took an effort for the cook to restrain himself from attacking.
"Gross, you must be like three times her age!" Su shuddered in disgust.
I myself felt a sweatdrop weighing down on my temple. Yeeeaaah, I'd forgotten about this little scene…
"Vivi, is this guy seriously an admiral?" Usopp asked incredulously.
"Yes," she, Carue, and I said together, and Vivi grimaced before continuing. "Though Su has a point, I don't recall him being so… perverse last time I met him."
"You didn't have a body then and I got older," Aokiji shrugged. "Anyway, no need for you to panic; like I said, I'm just out for a walk. You guys are… uh…" He scratched the side of his head for a second before shrugging indifferently. "Ah, forget it."
"YOU'RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE!"
"I uphold the motto 'Lazy Justice'," he said.
"WE CAN SEE THAT!" More than a few veins popped on foreheads as the crew roared at him.
"Anyway… don't mind me, I'm getting tired of standing," he said, shifting his position so that he was lying down.
"Is this guy really one of the strongest Humanity has to offer?" Leo questioned incredulously.
"Lemme put it this way." I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder with a grim look. "If he wanted us dead, we'd be corpses a quarter-mile that way."
Most of the crew stared at me in shock, while Aokiji waved his hand dismissively. "Now, now, Mister Cross, hold on a second, that estimation is entirely inaccurate."
I blinked in surprise. "Really? I thought that would be well within your range?"
"He means that you're underestimating him, Cross," Robin whispered numbly. "If he'd wanted, he could have easily sunk us while we were still several miles offshore…"
I promptly felt my gut drop out from me as the memories of the manga came flooding back. "Oh. Yeah, that… that sounds about right," I replied, just barely keeping the wobble out of my voice. "I think I might have blocked that out."
"This guy is that strong?" Conis whimpered fearfully.
I cocked my head to the side. "We… might be underselling him a bit…"
"Yeah, well, don't worry about it…" Aokiji sighed lazily (how else?) as he scratched his side. "I just decided to wander around a bit to gather information on two subjects: whether Nico Robin had decided to leave Alabasta or burrow in for the long haul, and to gauge just what kind of a person one rabble-rouser named Jeremiah Cross is like."
I allowed myself a grim smile at that. "Wow, way to make a guy feel special, Admiral."
Aokiji ignored me, looking at the archaeologist on the ground behind me. "Nico Robin, I must honestly say that I am a bit surprised. I was expecting to find Jeremiah here, obviously, but you? You've always made it a point to be as incognito as possible from the last time I saw you up until now. And despite that, you're staying with a pirate crew that's become the most well-known in the world."
Robin stared back, unmoving, for a few seconds before Aokiji shrugged. "Well, I'm not questioning your choice. But that does mean I'll have to let HQ know so the crew's bounty can be… what's the word? Right, recalculated. 100 million plus 60 million plus 55 million plus 79 million is—"
"A number too big for you to calculate because you just can't be bothered to work up the energy," I cut in, earning several incredulous looks, Robin's more than anyone else's.
Aokiji looked at me before shrugging again. "Eh, you're right, they can calculate it themselves," he said.
"Seriously?" Zoro muttered, sweatdropping in disbelief.
"What do you want with Robin and Cross?" Luffy asked, anger clear in his voice.
"He-Hey, Luffy, there's no need to get worked up, he just said he's here on a walk!" Usopp hastily said.
"He's right, Luffy, don't pick a fight with an admiral! You can't win a fight against someone like him!" Vivi protested, though her protestations were far more desperate.
"Like I said, I'm not planning on doing anything while I'm here," Aokiji said with a sweatdrop.
"And we're going to trust the words of the Admiral whose sense of Justice is only barely less wishy-washy than Kizaru's because…?" I trailed off dryly.
Aokiji stared at me silently for a moment before sighing and waving his hand. "Eh, I'd argue but it doesn't seem worth the effort."
"YOU'RE NOT EVEN GOING TO DEFEND YOURSELF!?" Usopp demanded incredulously.
"How did someone like this traumatize Robin?" Donny muttered in confusion.
"Anyway… I heard something while I was napping. You," he said, pointing at Tonjit, who glanced around in confusion before pointing at himself. "I wasn't in a deep sleep, so I heard what you said. You want to get back to your village, right? Pack your things."
"Hey, don't listen to him!" Luffy said hastily. "He's—"
"The good guy, you moron," I deadpanned.
"—the good guy, you moron, you shouldn't—wait, what?" Luffy said, looking back at me. Then his eyes lit up, and he pounded his fist in his hand. "Oh, right! We're the bad guys, so the Marines are the good guys. Sometimes I forget! Shishishi!"
"So much for him being smarter," Usopp muttered to Vivi, who was massaging her temples with an exasperated groan.
Boss, meanwhile, was eyeing the Admiral suspiciously. "And how exactly do you propose to do that, huh?" He gestured his fin towards the coastline. "I've been in those waters, swam out a bit. The currents are completely unreadable, and the paths between the island peaks are too deep to track from the surface. I just don't see—!"
THOCK THOCK THOCK!
"Hey, what the—!?" Boss glared up at me as I rapped my knuckles on his shell.
"Ladies and gentlemen, for today's grand prize, name the two-word phrase that explains anything past the point of argument," I announced.
"OH! OH!" Soundbite waved his eyestalk eagerly. "What is 'DEVIL FRUIT'?"
"Correctamundo!" I crowed as I pointed at Soundbite. "Congratulations, little snail, you've just won an all-expenses paid trip to the wonderful festival island of San Faldo!"
"Woohoo!"
"Ah, I'm sorry, but…" Conis spoke up hesitantly. "I know that Devil Fruits can be very powerful, yes, but the gap between the high points of the island must be extremely long! Is there really a power capable of spanning them like that?"
"Yes…"
I winced self-consciously as Robin's weary voice spoke up behind me, prompting me to shoot a guilty look over my shoulder. To think that I'd forgotten about the very real panic attack she was seconds away from suffering while I tried to keep myself calm…
"His powers," Robin continued fearfully. "They are more than capable of accomplishing the task…"
From there, the good part of our meeting with the admiral went as I had expected it to. An ordeal of packing for Tonjit, an uninjured Sherry promising to get him there fast, and an uneventful walk to the coast a good distance away from Merry. Well, almost uneventful, anyways. As we went, one of my fellow mates came up beside me.
"So, aren't you going to—?" Nami began, only for me to cut her off with a motion across my throat. Thankfully, she only needed to take one look at my dead-serious expression to slow her pace a little and fall back behind as though nothing had happened. Once that was handled, I watched Aokiji for a second before moving to the edge of the group, where Robin was only just managing to keep pace. She barely even spared me a glance before renewing her vigil on the Admiral's back.
"That was foolish, Cross," she whispered without so much as looking at me. "I have no doubt that you know how strong this man is; the entire crew working together would have no chance of defeating him."
"And yet, if he provoked you enough, you'd ignore all of that and try to snap him in half, despite knowing that it would do nothing," I whispered back before raising my hands when she snapped a look at me. "But! I get where you're coming from and you're right. I'm sorry, I was acting like an idiot back there, but with me I either put up a strong front or I act like any other person, and on the Grand Line, breaking down just isn't an option. Just…" I rubbed my chin thoughtfully for a second before coming to a conclusion. "Just stay coo—calm, alright? He'll no doubt try and push your buttons, get you to give him an excuse to strike, but it won't work, got it?"
Robin bit her lip as she looked at Aokiji again. "I can't guarantee that, Cross. He… He knows me, knows what to say…"
"And I know something even better than that," I cut her off, grabbing her shoulder. "I know the truth. He can twist it and paint it however he wants, I know what really happened. And honestly, that should be enough. After all…" I leaned forward slightly and gave her an honest smile. "If anyone here knows just how powerful the truth can be in the face of adversity, it's the heiress of Ohara, right?"
Robin flinched enough that she stopped walking as I said that, but she recovered the next second, nodding as she continued moving forward. And as she walked, I was gratified to see that there was at least some measure of confidence in her step.
"When this is over, I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT OHARA," Soundbite said in my ears.
I grumbled slightly as I started moving forward again. "With any luck, you'll learn it soon enough from her own mouth," I breathed back, too quietly for anyone but him to hear.
And from there, the walk was uneventful. The only thing that really surprised me, though I suppose that it shouldn't have, was that by the time we actually reached the coast, Luffy seemed to have warmed up to Aokiji. I vaguely remembered something about that in the story, but was he actually this friendly? Well, either way, it wasn't quite to the point where he was calling him by name buuut…
"So, what are you going to do? You can't swim if you have a Devil Fruit, so… are you going to fly them across? That'd be so cool!"
"Heh," Aokiji smirked, somewhat bitterly. "Sorry, Straw Hat, but the only fruit I know of that could carry this much through the air is the Float-Float Fruit, and the pirate who ate that hasn't been active since Roger's execution. Just watch. And move back for a minute, please…"
Everyone complied, watching quietly as Aokiji dipped his hand into the water. I shook my head at Soundbite, who seemed confused for a moment before his eyes widened massively, and he grit his teeth to keep from crying out. I turned back towards the ocean in time to catch the massive yellow sea king as it breached the surface and (rather stupidly) bullrushed Aokiji.
"O-OH NO, IT'S THE MASTER OF THE LOCAL SEAS!" Tonjit cried fearfully.
"I-It's going to eat him!" Conis cried as she started to swing her Burn Bazooka off her back.
"Shit!" Leo cursed in agreement, one sword unsheathed and the other halfway out, the rest of the squad mirroring him.
"Wait!"/ "Hold it."
Conis looked incredulously at the fox clinging tightly to her shoulder, fur fluffed out to the max, while the four dugongs obediently, though nervously, ceased preparing their weapons at their teacher's command and raised fist.
"Don't bother." Boss grimly huffed out a cloud of smoke as he stared dead ahead. "You're already too late."
"Yeah…" Su nodded nervously, her ears and tail twitching with frantic energy. "Can't you tell? It's obvious, so, so obvious. That thing…"
Aokiji glanced up at the aquatic titan with cold disdain.
"…it's already dead."
"Ice Age."
And just like that, the world stopped.
There was no other word for it. Everything around us just flat out stopped. Moving. Not just the ocean, frozen into a solid chunk of matter, and not just the Sea King that was now the world's largest ice sculpture. I mean the whole world up and literally froze. The wind, the grass, my own freaking heartbeat… quite simply, the stupidly huge display of power before us literally stole the breath from my lungs, as in I felt it whoosh out on account of the sheer impact the scene had on me, and I had no doubt that everyone else present experienced the exact same sensation.
Of course, from the burning chill in my lungs, the sheer wave of cold hitting me might have had something to do with it as well.
For a few brief seconds, the world was well and truly at peace…
Until the CRACK! of the frosted-over Admiral standing up broke the silence.
"H-Holy crap…" Lassoo whimpered in awe.
"S-Su, how did you—?" Conis started to stammer out.
"You know that 'animal instinct' thing where animals know when a storm's about to hit or something like that?" Su shivered fearfully as she shrunk as far away from Aokiji as she could. "Kinda firing on full cylinders at the moment."
"…I think this is the last time I underestimate someone who acts weird," Donny squeaked.
"Good, you'll live longer," Boss grit out grimly, his 'knuckles' white as they gripped the ropedart at his side.
Nami gave me a horrified look. "And there are two others like him?!" she whispered.
"Oh, no, no, nooo." I shook my head grimly. "There aren't two like him. There are two others who are worse than him." I jerked my chin at the Admiral. "At least he has some measure of respect for human life."
Nami went white as a sheet, a stark contrast to most of the rest of the crew, who followed down after Tonjit to see him off with smiles. The only other one who stayed within earshot was Zoro. "So, any advice for when he attacks?"
"Just one thing: protect Robin," I muttered back before following the rest of the crew.
…Because as dire as the situation was about to be, the current state? Walking on the frozen ocean and staring at a sculpture that had been a living, frothing sea king not moments ago was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. Even if the sea king in question must have been brain-dead stupid if it didn't recognize that it was attacking someone who could only be defined as an apex predator. Meh, call it Darwin in action. The point was, the whole scene was just as awe-inspiring as it was absolutely terrifying.
Alas, the farewell to Tonjit couldn't take longer than it took for him to go out of sight, and consequently, for Luffy to finally notice the cold. At that point, I walked closer to Sanji, and as I was casually passing him by, I muttered, "Help Zoro. Protect Robin."
It was a serious credit to Sanji that he didn't even hesitate or pause, merely altering his gait ever so slightly so that he was shadowing-but-not-shadowing Robin.
All too soon we were back on dry land, and all too soon Aokiji sank into a sitting position with a world-weary sigh. Luffy tilted his head in confusion while Zoro and Sanji exchanged looks of understanding.
"What's wrong?" Luffy asked curiously.
"How do I put this… you're the spitting image of your grandfather, Monkey D. Luffy," Aokiji said tiredly, prompting the rubber man to stiffen. "You're both wild souls, neither of you willing to let anyone tell you what to do…"
"Y-You know my grandpa?!" Luffy whimpered fearfully, looking about ten seconds away from bolting.
"How could he not know him, Luffy?" I asked dryly. "Heck, he probably trained him."
Turns out that ice-men are capable of shivering, though I suspect it was more out of existential terror than cold. "Not on your life. I was lucky enough to be trained by a different member of that particular generation of loonies. He was harsh, sure, but I'd take him over the 'Fist of Love' any day."
The display of horror from both Luffy and Aokiji was enough to make everyone anxious and incredulous.
"Well, this explains why Luffy is such a monster: it runs in the family," Sanji muttered.
"Oh-ho-ho, you have no idea," I chuckled. "You want a frame of reference for how nuts the old man is, how about—"
"I would rather not have a frame of reference, thank you," Aokiji interrupted. "And to continue my earlier thought, as bad as Straw Hat is, you're making him even worse," he slowly turned his gaze to me, "Mister Jeremiah Cross."
That was unexpected, but what he said next was even worse. "Maybe I should just kill you all right here and now. The World Government sees Cross as a threat more than anyone, but analysis through official reports and your SBS has shown that your crew as a whole is a determined group of individuals. Half of your number may be animals, but your size is nothing to scoff at. One day, you'll surely become an acute threat. From the time that Straw Hat received his first bounty up until now, your growth has been extraordinary. And though for the most part you've only preyed on pirates or tyrants unless the situation demanded otherwise, such as with Navarone, you've made no secret of the fact that you despise the World Government."
"Wh-Why are you saying all of this?! You said you were just out for a walk!" Usopp stammered.
"Believe me, when it comes to him and Kizaru, that only means they don't feel like killing you at that moment." I shifted on my feet uncomfortably. "Ten seconds later? Whole different story."
"And if Cross' impossibly comprehensive knowledge isn't enough, your crew is now especially dangerous… because of you, Nico Robin," Aokiji continued, completely ignoring us.
"So you're saying that you want to take Robin away from us?!" Luffy snarled, adopting a fighting stance while Zoro and Sanji both flanked Robin, whose face was a mask of impassiveness.
"Now, now, let me explain…" Aokiji waved his hand placatingly. "It's not quite so simple. See, the size of a person's bounty does not merely reflect their combat capabilities. It also reflects how much of a threat that person is to the World Government." He pointed at Robin. "That's why she had such a large bounty placed on her head at the age of eight. Since then, Nico Robin has always been something of a survivor. Betraying those who gave her shelter, using them as shields so that she could escape to a new group. And now, rather than hiding in a warzone, she's picked this crew as a new set of scapegoats, and one as globally active as this?" He shook his head with a sigh. "I find myself concerned by these circumstances, to say the least."
Despite my forewarning, Robin's semi-calm mask cracked clean through and exposed the terror she was feeling; the admiral's words shook her, and I had to actively remind myself that as much as I really, really, really wanted to, trying to tear this bastard down would most likely be fatal.
"You—!" Sanji started to snarl, only for Vivi to hastily grab his sleeve and hold him back.
"What did Robin do to you in the past, Aokiji?" Vivi asked in a mostly civil tone… or as civil as possible when her voice was shaking like a leaf and sweat was pouring down her brow.
"Oh, she never did anything to me personally," the Admiral shrugged casually. "I only know her because she escaped from me a long time ago. But since then…" He slowly cracked his neck back and forth. "Well, suffice to say that the rest of you will learn one day the extent to which this woman is a curse given life."
I'm not quite sure what hurt more at that instant: the sight of Robin shuddering heavily out of the corner of my eyes or the way my fingers were starting to bite through the bandages covering the palm of my hand.
"And the proof of that?" Aokiji continued frigidly, every bit of him as cool as liquid nitrogen. "Why, you've seen it for yourselves: every organization that Nico Robin has been a part of has ended up completely annihilated, always leaving her as the sole survivor."
I bit my lip in an effort to stay silent as the words I knew to be untrue proceeded to sow merry hell amongst the crew. While most everyone else was glancing at one another uncomfortably as they processed those words, I took the opportunity to glance back at Robin. Thankfully, though she still looked to be thoroughly and utterly haunted by her trauma, she didn't look close to snapping either. I started to think that we might be able to pull through this…
Until he said it. Until he fucking went there and said it.
"That's always how it's been for her, ever since the time when she was eight."
I blinked in confusion for a second as I wondered why he was being so specific about that when the truth hit me like a ton of bricks.
Twenty years ago. The Archaeologists. Ohara.
That bastard was pinning fucking Ohara on her.
I didn't even need to look back at Robin to gauge how she was feeling, because I was damn well feeling it too. To hell with the consequences and to hell with this asshole; if he wanted to go that far in the name of making Robin attack first, if he wanted to use the truth as a weapon that much, that was his problem. And it meant that he didn't have the right to complain when I decided to fight back.
And I started my counterattack the only possible way I could.
"Pfheheheheh…"
With a dry and grim chuckle that caused everyone to freeze and stare at me.
"What's so funny, Jeremiah Cross?" Aokiji wondered, just as incredulous as everyone else.
"Pfheheheh, heh, hoooh…" I wound down my laughter by exaggeratedly wiping a tear from the corner of my eye. "Ohh, nothing, nothing, I swear. I'm just… amused, is all. Just, you know, the way you said it. It, it's just funny is all!"
"Care to elaborate?" the tall man inquired.
I slowly allowed a savage grin to spread across my lips. "You sure you want that, Admiral? Really, really sure? After all, once I start talking…" I slowly cracked my neck back and forth. "I don't stop until something breaks. And honestly? I just don't think you're strong enough not to crack."
Aokiji tensed, but folded his arms in a show of relaxation. "Please, continue." He narrowed his eyes menacingly. "I insist."
"Cross, please," came a whisper directly by my ear. I looked back at Robin, and smiled grimly.
"Sorry, Robin. I know I said I'd be careful, and I really wanted to avoid this…" I shrugged and shook my head helplessly, at the same time removing Soundbite from my shoulder and handing him to the nearest crewmate, Conis in this case, much to the snail's horror. "But when someone goes that far, hurts one of my friends that bad, talking me down is as hopeless as talking logic to Luffy."
Soundbite whimpered as I turned away, and locked eyes with Aokiji. "This is gonna suck, isn't IT?"
"Like a black hole," I confirmed quietly. Then I re-donned my grin and spoke more audibly. "So, what did I find amusing? Well, quite honestly, it was just the way you tell the story. See," I gestured in his direction. "The way you tell things, it sounds like what happened to those groups was all Robin's fault. But, see, that's… just not really correct, is it, Admiral? She," I waved my hand at Robin. "Never actually did anything, did she? Well, alright, she might have helped us with Baroque Works and I don't know the details of whoever else she worked with, but the point is, by and large, the reason that those organizations all collapsed, it wasn't her fault." I slowly pointed my finger up at him, my face pointedly devoid of emotion. "It was all you. You and the rest of the World Government's dogs."
Aokiji frowned and I felt the temperature drop a degree or two, but I pressed on. "You're the ones who started the fights against those groups, who destroyed them and made Robin run. You're the ones who put a bounty on her head, and made it so that she couldn't trust anyone in the world. You're the ones who hunted her, day and night, without cease or pause, like bloodhounds after a scent."
"Now, now, Mister Cross, I'd be careful with what you say…" Aokiji coldly retorted. "After all, you're talking about things you know nothing about. Nico Robin is a legitimate threat to the World Government, we were justified in our pursuit."
I let out a bark of humorless laughter. "A threat? Why, because she destroyed some battleships? Give me a freaking break!" I swung my arm back at Robin. "Her powers make limbs in her line of sight. She's trained those powers for the last twenty years and isn't able to sink a ship, how could she do it when she was eight!?" I shook my head with a scowl. "No… she's not a threat because of what she can do, she's a threat because of what's in her head." I took a challenging step forwards as I glared bloody murder at the Admiral. "Do you even know why you're hunting her? Twenty years after the fact, after climbing so far up the ranks, do you even have an inkling as to the real reason why the Elder Stars sentenced her to death? As to why they let—no, ordered what happened twenty years ago to take place?"
"It's not my place to ask," Aokiji countered.
I snarled darkly as I seriously fought the pointless desire to crush the bastard's face in. "Of course you don't. After all, it's your whole motto of 'Lazy Justice'. Akainu doesn't need to ask, Kizaru doesn't care either way, but you? You don't think it's worth the effort to care, you just do what they say because it's easier. Well, let me make it nice and easy for you!" I jabbed a finger back at Robin. "The cold hard facts of the matter are thus: the World Government put a bounty on her head when she was eight. Years. Old, when her only crime was learning something that the World Government didn't want her to know. They didn't consider any alternatives, didn't even contemplate mercy as an option, they just jumped straight to full on lethal. That alone is all that's needed for anyone with a shred of common decency within themselves to realize that the organization that you've dedicated your life to is completely corrupt."
Aokiji's expression was cold, but his eyebrows rose in response to that statement. "And you really think it's fair to judge the World Government based off of a single incident, Mister Cross?"
"Don't play dumb like that, Kuzan, it doesn't suit you," I spat harshly, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. "You really think I'm making that judgment so lightly?" I pointed at Vivi. "They accused a princess who sacrificed everything to save her country from one of their boxed crooks of treason because of a one-sided blood feud, forcing her to become a pirate." I folded my arms. "And that's just the start. I know five islands off the top of my head that the World Government has driven to hell, not even counting the two currently represented on our crew."
"Fine, so the World Government isn't perfect…" he begrudgingly admitted. "But the Marine Corps still exists for the protection of all civilians, to minimize whatever casualties happen, from either side."
I scoffed dismissively. "Some Marines believe that and act on it, sure, but for the Corps as a whole? That sentiment hasn't been even remotely true for a long time, and it's only going to get worse from here on. And you know it, Kuzan, even if it's only deep down in your gut: when Sengoku steps down, you'll be his prime candidate, I'm sure, but who do you think the Five Elder Stars are going to want in his place? Someone cool-headed and restrained like you? Hell no. They'll want someone who will keep their definition of peace by any means necessary, even if it means murdering hundreds of innocent men, women, and children to remove the risk of a perceived criminal slipping through their clutches."
His fists clenched as he heard my words, no doubt realizing exactly what I was referring to. But still, he was way too calm. Time for the real guns.
"You could try challenging him to a duel to the death, and Sakazuki would still become Fleet Admiral. You know what the future holds, Kuzan. So, right now, in the present, you need to ask yourself… 'Is this what I call justice? Can I take pride in something like this?'"
Aokiji stiffened and Robin gasped quietly as I threw Jaguar D. Saul's last words to the admiral back in his face. Then I gave him a slight smile, nothing but bitterness within, and spoke the words that I knew would break him. "I know exactly what happened that day, Kuzan. I know what you did and why you did it. I know how you felt then and admittedly I've only got a good guess as to how you feel now. But there is one thing I know above all else: I might not have known him personally… but I know that if he were here right now, seeing what you are and what you're doing, what you've done… he'd be disgusted with you."
I had only a split second to notice Aokiji's expression turn from cold to downright apoplectic—
Before he was suddenly in front of me, arm drawn back.
My pupils dilated. "Ah, shi—!"
WHAM!
That was as far as I got before the air was smashed out of my lungs by Aokiji backhanding me in the chest and sending me tumbling into the grass. The first thing I managed to process through the pain was that I wasn't breathing. The second thing I processed was that he had strapped me with bands of fucking ice SHIT TOO TIGHT!
"Sengoku was right, Jeremiah Cross," Aokiji breathed frigidly. "I really shouldn't have let you open your damn mouth."
"Grrgghh…" I wheezed out as I rammed my fist against the restraints, trying desperately to draw some measure of breath but failing on account of how my ribs were being kept from expanding. "Bas… tard…!"
"Actually, in retrospect… I think that Akainu might have been right for once, too."
My struggles promptly froze as I caught sight of the very icicle-laden foot hanging over my head.
"Sometimes," Aokiji droned darkly. "You just need to stamp out the bugs."
Once again, for all my bravado, I couldn't bring myself to keep my eyes open. I clenched my eyes shut—
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
FWOOM!
Only for a very sudden burst of heat to course a few inches above my head, and I snapped my eyes open to see Aokiji just a few steps back, glaring daggers in Conis' direction, having barely dodged the gunner's Burn Bazooka blast. Without pausing, the gunner aimed another blast and fired even as she ran towards me, before kneeling down and pressing Soundbite to my chest.
"What do we say to Death? NOT TODAY!"
CRACK!
"GAH!" I gasped like a drowning man coming up for air as the ice shattered and my lungs were freed, putting Soundbite back on my shoulder. "Mother-fucker that stings!"
"Good, means that YOU'RE STILL CONSCIOUS!"
The second I could focus on something other than my breath and scrambling to my feet and away from Aokiji, I noticed that the vast majority of the rest of the crew was preparing to follow Conis' example, their expressions ranging from Nami's firm resignation to Boss' cold determination to Luffy's outright fury.
But above all of them was at once the best and worst thing that I could have heard at that moment:
"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE, AOKIJI!" Robin yelled, crossing her arms and glaring bloody murder at the admiral.
My eyes widened in panic as I snapped an arm up at her. "Robin, don't—" I tried to protest.
"You have no right to protest anymore, Cross," she outright snarled. "You've had your say, now here's mine. TREINTA FLEUR!"
Before I could do or say anything further, thirty arms bloomed all over Aokiji's body, poised to snap his body in half. He turned his attention to her, his powers beginning to freeze the duplicate arms. But in spite of the steam starting to waft up from her real arms and the slight wince in her expression, still she stood strong.
"My, my. It looks like I underestimated this crew; they've actually pushed you to the point of attacking me to try to protect them?" Aokiji said, perfectly calm despite the hold posed to break him in every possible sense of the word.
"You killed the first true friend I ever made right in front of me the last time we met," Robin spat venomously. "Now, for the first time in twenty years, I've actually found friends who would still believe in me, even after you did everything you could to turn them against me. And now that I've found them…" She snapped her hands shut. "I am done running. CLUTCH!"
And just like that, Aokiji's form shattered into diamond dust, and Robin, though panting, had a distinct look of triumph on her face.
I, however, was feeling distinctly less enthused. "Very nice, very badass," I grit out as I watched the ice particles start to shift. "Oh, and by the way everyone? His fruit, the Ice-Ice Fruit? It's a fucking Logia, which means that that little display, impressive though it was, accomplished absolutely jack and shit beyond most likely pissing him off. In summary?"
"Burn him before he pulls himself together, got it," Lassoo growled, padding forward in his hybrid form.
Aokiji chose that moment to reform his upper body, the air and ground crackling from near-instant snap-freeze as he started seemingly pull himself from the permafrost coating the ground.
Lassoo sucked in a deep breath before belting out a thick ball of tar. "CANI-PLASTER!"
The Admiral, already half-reformed by that point, spared the black gelatinous ball a glance before blowing out a misty white cloud that intercepted the tar a mere few feet from him. When the cloud dispersed, all that was left was a jagged black hunk of ice reaching towards him that he didn't even spare a second glance as he stood up.
Lassoo's eyes widened and his tail dropped between his legs as he started inching backwards. "Ah…"
"Actually," I continued in a faux-calm tone of voice. "What I was about to say was this." I promptly turned around and belted down the coastline, grabbing Robin's jacket and dragging her along with me. "FUCKING RUN!"
"We covered this earlier, Cross," Aokiji said dryly. "Feet or miles…" I noticed him crouching down and pressing his palm to the ground as I looked back. "There's nowhere that you can run. Observe. Ice Age."
FWOOSH!
I had all of two seconds to note the wave of cold that swept past my feet—
"WOAHSHIT!"
CRACK!
Before my feet slid out from beneath me due to my feet losing all traction on the frozen soil, sending me crashing to the ground.
"…Duly noted," I mumbled into the ground.
"I wonder if he'll be able to pull himself back together after THIS!"
I managed to flip myself over in time to see Chopper swipe his arm out and send a number of vials spinning through the air, all of them surrounding Aokiji.
"EAT THIS…" Chopper snarled viciously, a number of scalpels splayed in his hoof. "CHERRY BLOSSOM BLAST FLURRY!" With that, the currently-psycho-doctor snapped his hoof out and flung his blades at the vials, striking each one dead on, breaching the glass—
KA-BOOM!
And causing the contents within to react violently with the air.
I winced and shielded myself from the wave of light and heated air that assaulted me.
It only got worse when Conis fired her Burn Bazooka with all the firepower the Dial could muster, followed by Nami practically bringing the wrath of Zeus down on his head. Even Usopp contributed what he could, his hands blurring with how fast he was firing.
Everybody watched the resulting smog, and when it cleared… Aokiji stood there, completely unscathed and with his normal, bored expression back in place.
"Well, I'll give you this much," he drawled as he flicked a clod of dirt from his jacket. "If I weren't a Logia, that probably would have stung a bit."
"WHAT THE HELL DOES IT TAKE TO KEEP THIS GUY DOWN?!" Usopp screamed.
"Does anyone have any sea prism stone, New World-grade pirates, or convincing enough acting skills to make him think you're Sengoku?" I asked sarcastically. "Or we could just try building a sauna."
"This is not the time, Cross!" Robin grit out.
"What part of the words 'coping mechanism' are you people failing to grasp!?" I shot back at her.
"Sounds like the core concept to me."
Robin and I froze before slowly turning our gazes up to stare at Aokiji in terror as he suddenly towered over us.
"I am really starting to hate that technique…" I whimpered.
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!"/"GET AWAY FROM ROBIN-CHWAN!/""GET AWAY FROM MY CREW!"
Zoro, Sanji, Boss, and a lobster-red Luffy lunged at Aokiji from behind. He turned his head halfway as he regarded them for an instant before moving, fending off Boss with a kick and grabbing one of Zoro's arms and simply tossing him away. Luffy and Sanji, he didn't even touch; his powers crippled them with frost as soon as they touched his body. By the time he was done, the Monster Trio plus one were left rolling on the ground, agonizing over their hyper-frostbitten limbs as he turned back to us, and moved for Robin. Gritting my teeth and steeling my nerves, I interposed myself between them, arms flung out to shield her.
Aokiji raised an eyebrow at me before shrugging indifferently. He then clamped one hand down on my shoulder opposite where Soundbite was and reached past me with the other. And then…
"Ice Time."
CRACK!
"AAAARGH!"
It was… almost indescribable.
Intellectually, I knew at the time that the ice—dry ice, at that—was stupidly far below zero in temperature and thus extremely cold, but physically? Physically, that ice burned. It burned worse than almost any other burn I'd felt before, almost as bad as the hell Eneru had put me through, and it was spreading, going down my arm, down my side, across my chest—
"GRGH, MOTHERFUCKER!" I snarled out in agony. "RIGHT ON THE FUCKING SCARS, YOU RAGING BASTARD!"
It took every bit of willpower Zoro had forced into me to not just slip into oblivion, and I came damn close to giving up the ghost, too, but there was one sound that made me hang in there.
The sound of Robin whimpering in the exact same agony behind me.
It took a second for me to get the mental wherewithal to do much of anything, but once I did, I reached up with my unfrozen hand and grabbed the arm Aokiji was using to freeze my hand. I winced as the ice burned at my already mutilated fingers, but I pointedly refused to let go, prompting him to glance down at me.
I snarled in the admiral's face. "Let. Her. Go."
Aokiji stared at me, his expression unreadable, for several seconds with no notable change in the ice's progression. Then, all at once, the freezing stopped advancing, and Aokiji pulled back.
I didn't even have time to contemplate the fact that I wasn't being frozen anymore when my attention was diverted by a grunt of pain behind me, prompting me to spin around and grab Robin just before she toppled over.
It was… I'll be honest, it wasn't good. Whereas I'd managed to get away with only one of arms and the upper part of one of my legs frozen, the entire right half of Robin's body was completely encased in ice, her remaining half visibly struggling to support the dead weight. How she still seemed coherent, let alone conscious, was beyond me.
"Nico Robin," Aokiji stated quietly. "As Cross somehow knows, Jaguar D. Saul was my friend, too. It was because of his final wishes that I allowed you to escape from Ohara that day. I still feel responsible for your life, but after twenty years of wandering, I felt that it was time for you to die. But it seems that you've found your place after all."
Those words stunned Robin more than any of the weaponized truths he threw at her earlier, and the rest of the crew seemed stunned as well, me especially. Was… Was he really serious? Was he actually reaffirming Robin staying with us!?
He sighed, and turned away, waving his hand carelessly as he started to walk towards the ocean. "Well, in the end, I suppose we owe you all something from the Alabasta incident, so I'll let you go today."
I was so relieved I thought I might pass out. Vivi, however, still spun her Lion Cutters—no, wait, Lion Cut-ter, singular. Her other hand was—clutching her necklace again. "Just today?" she snarled.
Aokiji paused and glanced back at Vivi before rolling his eyes with a sigh. "Alright, let me rephrase that: I won't come after your crew again unless I'm outright ordered to. Better?"
Vivi continued to glare at him for a few seconds, and then allowed her Cutter to stop spinning.
"Good." And with that, he started walking again, and we started to allow ourselves to relax…
"You've found people who will protect you, Nico Robin. They're willing to take on the world for you, of that I have no doubt."
But, of course, it couldn't be that simple.
"But can they win? I seriously doubt that."
I couldn't have felt more pain in that moment if he tore all of my bandages off, for moments before Robin's free eye slid shut as she gave up the fight to stay awake I saw the spark that had been growing there over the past few weeks flicker and die.
Damn it… Damn it… DAMN IT! One parting shot from him, and every bit of faith Robin had in us was gone.
"Damn you…" I hissed viciously. "Damn every last one of you monsters straight to hell."
Aokiji paused again before chuckling deeply. "A monster, huh. That's rich, coming from a demon like you."
I grit my teeth as I glared at Aokiji's back. "Well at least. I'm. Honest."
That shut him up.
And so, without a single word further, Admiral 'Aokiji' Kuzan of Marine HQ walked out onto the winter wasteland he'd constructed without a care in the world, slowly striding off into the distance…
Leaving us all to contemplate and process our complete and utter defeat, in every sense of the word.
-o-
"Geeze, you work fast, Chopper," I complimented, flexing the new bandages on my arm that were distinctly devoid of any manner of frost. "Thanks for the quick unfreeze, I didn't expect it to be this fast."
"It's nothing, Cross," the reindeer replied. I snapped my head over to him, and he sighed. "No, Cross, it still doesn't make me happy, but right now, I don't feel like I've done that much good, considering how my best shot did absolutely nothing against Aokiji."
"…You're so let down that you're not even going to flip out like you usually do? I mean, in the story, you were more focused on defrosting—"
"In the story, I wasn't as good at fighting as I am now," Chopper cut in absentmindedly as he ruffled through his bag. "In this reality, your advice helped me get to the point where I'm stronger and more confident. Back on Skypiea, it was different; I knew that Luffy would have to beat Eneru, and he did. But this time…" He rammed his hoof into his bag, causing it to let out a very terror-inducing clink of glass. "None of us could do anything. I couldn't do anything. I… couldn't even help…"
I grimaced in acknowledgement, but shook my head. "Try not to let it bother you too much, Chopper."
"And why the hell not, Cross?" Chopper snarled, snapping an equal parts vicious and desperate look at me.
I pointed my finger at the wall of the cabin with a flat look. "Because currently, our four strongest frontline fighters are warming their frostbitten asses in the ocean after getting said asses absolutely handed to them. In victory, it's not very fair to use them as milestones, but in defeat they're perfect justifications."
"So what you're saying…" Soundbite started slowly. "Is that there's no SHAME IN LOSING IF THEY LOST TOO?"
"Something like that," I waved my hand in vague agreement. "Aokiji is the epitome of the big leagues in this world. Today, we had no chance of winning, but he let us live because he has decency. I have no doubt that someday our crew will have to fight someone of his caliber and win to escape death or worse, but as long as we keep training, we won't be hit with more than we can take. We'll be pushed to our limits just about every time, yes… but we'll survive."
Chopper groaned and kneaded his temples miserably. "Damn it, Cross, how can you be so sure of that with everything that's gone wrong?"
I smiled fondly and patted the top of his hat. "I'm not saying this off of my knowledge, Chopper. I'm saying it off of something I believed before I came here, and now know with perfect certainty: our captain, Monkey D. Luffy, will become the Pirate King, and in that same breath, we will be the crew that puts him on top. It's just that simple."
That brought the reindeer up short. He stared at me for a few more seconds before finally smiling and nodding firmly. "Yeah, you're right. He won't die before he reaches his dream, and neither will the rest of us." He tilted his smile upwards as he patted a hoof on the deck. "None of us will…"
That sobered me up a little, but I did my best not to show it. Fortunately, I got a good excuse not to dwell on Merry and how unsure I was that I could keep my promise to her in the form of Conis coming into the impromptu medical room that we had set up in the kitchen.
"Everyone else sent asked me to check on how Robin's doing. Is she going to be alright?" she asked in concern.
At that, I couldn't suppress my grimace. "Physically?" I jabbed my thumb at the tub of lukewarm saltwater she was soaking in. Already the ice had subsided by a substantial amount, releasing her face and torso and leaving only the lower parts of her extremities fragile. "She'll be fine. It was touch and go for a bit on account of how Aokiji literally turns people into ice, but she's thawing well enough, so she's out of any critical danger."
I groaned and kneaded the bridge of my nose. "No, the real damage was all in Aokiji's parting shot, and fixing that's… not gonna be so easy." I shook my head miserably; she had called us her friends. She had been ready to accept us. She had been one. Freaking. MINUTE! away from exchanging secrets, from her accepting us wholeheartedly. And now… now, we'd be lucky if she would still be willing to call any of us by our names.
I gave Conis a solemn look. "As soon as Boss and the Monster Trio are healed, bring everyone in here, and Chopper, be ready to wake her up."
The two nodded and got to work, leaving me to watch over Robin in solemn silence.
If I was honest with myself, my relationship with Robin was… different from the rest of the crew, to say the least. Back before I came to the Blue Seas, I was always the older brother in my family. Whether it be my natural brother or my stepsiblings, I'd always been the eldest, the one… relatively in charge, given how they never respected me worth shit, but I digress. Anyway, the point is that growing up, I didn't really have someone close to my level that I could relate to, someone with equal interests. And don't get me wrong, I loved the rest of the Straw Hats to death and back and most of the time I could match their energy without worry, but with Robin, I could find… peace and quiet. With Robin, I could enjoy a quiet moment of debate over some story or other, or a nice and sharp back-and-forth snarkfest.
To put it simply, while the rest of the crew filled the niches of siblings and cousins of similar or slightly lesser ages, over the course of her time on the crew, Robin had become like the big sister I'd never had. And the idea that all of that could have just been undone by some paltry words…
I groaned and kneaded my temples miserably. I had to get this right on the first try, I had to, because if I didn't, I wasn't sure that I'd get another chance before everything went straight to hell.
It was the longest half hour of my life until the others were ready, by which time Robin had completely defrosted. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen, and Chopper prepared the smelling salts. Or at least, the horrific concoction he called smelling salts, anyways.
"Alright, fair warning…" Chopper bit his tongue as he waved the vial under Robin's nose. "After a trauma like this, the reactions of patients waking up have a tendency of being somewhat—"
Robin's eyes snapped open and CRAP HARD GRIP ON MY THROAT COULDN'T BREATHE!
"—VISCERAL!" Chopper gagged out around the arm that was coiled around his neck.
"No shit!" I wheezed out as I yanked at the fingers that were throttling me.
"Let him go OR GET READY TO lose a thumb AGAIN!" Soundbite roared.
Robin blinked numbly for a moment as she came back from her adrenaline high before gasping in shock and snapping her arms down, allowing the arms that had been incapacitating the crew to dissolve. "I-I'm so sorry, I just—! I-It was reflexive, I didn't mean—!"
"No harm done, Robin," I rasped, wincing as I rubbed a particularly sore part of my throat. "For the most part, at least… anyway, you don't have anything to worry about, you're back with your friends now."
I was hopeful, so so hopeful, that the trauma of being frozen, or at least the sheer hurt of the ordeal, would have been enough to suppress Aokiji's last words to her. But going by the way that she smiled at me in a clearly hollow way, it was painfully obvious that that wasn't the case.
"Yes… Yes, you're right…" Robin slowly allowed herself to relax back into the tub before turning her grin on Chopper, causing him to shiver uncomfortably. "Thank you for the assistance, Mister Doctor, I apprecia—"
"Come on, Robin!" I cut in, causing her to jump and successfully putting a crack in the mask she was trying to bolt back into place. "Are you really going to let the words of that coldhearted bastard undo everything you've been looking for over the last twenty years? You called us your friends—hell, we are your friends, full-stop!"
She made a weak attempt to smile. "Mister Jeremiah—"
"DON'T YOU 'MISTER JEREMIAH' ME!" I snapped, slamming my fist into the wall. I noticed Sanji holding himself back with an effort in the background as I moved over to her. "Damn it, Robin, I thought you were past this! It doesn't matter what the hell that bastard said or what scare tactics he tried to use, we still want to be your friends, and I thought that after all this time, you were willing to trust us. The words of someone like him shouldn't make a difference!"
Her expression faltered, but she still tried to hide behind a painfully neutral expression instead. I grit my teeth; if I had to take drastic measures to make her be honest at this point, so be fucking it.
"Robin, I broke that mask before through kindness, but damn it, I can and will go the other way and get you spitting nails if I have to; if I can do it to Aokiji, I can do it to you," I warned her before groaning in exhaustion as I cooled down a bit and gave her a pleading look. "Listen, Robin… do you really want to go back to the point where instead of seeing you, all we saw was Crocodile's right-hand woman who helped to try to overthrow Vivi's country? Do you really want to go back to being Miss All Sunday?"
Vivi remained perfectly silent, her body slightly angled away from Robin, but the glances she was occasionally shooting her spoke volumes.
"Come on, Robin!" Nami pleaded desperately. "You're one of the only people on the crew with a lick of sense. Without you, how the heck would we be able to keep from going crazy every second of the day?!"
"Not to mention that you can keep up with me when I'm talking about science, even when I go off the deep end!" Chopper tacked in, tears shimmering in his eyes. "I'm alright with the fact that usually everyone else just smiles and nods, but you actually read my notes and understood them! You even helped me develop half of the combat formulas I'm using! You're almost as much of a mentor to me as Doctorine!"
"You're a stone-cold bitch with cheap-as-all-hell powers and enough practice keeping your emotions to yourself that I probably wouldn't trust you if Cross and Luffy didn't," Zoro cut in. Before anyone could tear his head off, however, he sighed and bowed his head. "And… you're one of the strongest women I've ever met."
Luffy was silent for a few moments, the brim of his hat tilted down over his eyes before he finally spoke up. "You're a member of this crew, Robin, no matter what." He stated it as though it was an immutable fact… and honestly, it might as well have been.
I capped it all off with clamping my hand down on my shoulder and leaned forward, looking her dead in the eyes. "You belong here, Robin. You know it, we know it. So, after everything you've gone through with us, all the good times and the bad that we've shared, do you really want us to treat you like everybody else you've met for the last twenty years, and vice-versa?"
She tried to stay emotionless for a bit, she really did, but ultimately, my words were the breaking point; she bowed her head, not willing to look at any of us, and I swear I saw something sparkling from her face drip into the tub below her. "… No," she breathed at last, hugging herself miserably. "But what else would you have me do? This crew… this is the first place that I've actually felt secure since… since…" She bit down on her lip before she could say anything further.
"Seriously, Robin? Even after all this, after all we've gone through, you can't bring yourself to tell them?" I asked, unable to keep the hurt out of my voice.
Slowly, she looked up, tears actually shimmering in her eyes. "No, I can't… Because I can't deny what Aokiji said. We… you're all strong, incredibly so… but not strong enough to fight the world." She looked away miserably. "Nobody is…"
"At the risk of Sanji kicking me, that's a steaming load of bull," Mikey announced hotly.
The cook took a deep draw from his cigarette before snorting it out. "I never thought I'd agree with anyone insulting a woman in any form, but I agree with the dugong," he stated. "You're the only one here who believes that, Robin dear."
"…How can you say that, Sanji?" she shook her head miserably. "What just happened with Aokiji—"
"Is only going to help us," Zoro cut in sharply. "We lost, and none of us are happy about that, but we survived. We've seen what we're up against, now we just need to get to the point that when we meet him again, we won't lose."
"And unless shit somehow goes sideways in a manner most spectacular sometime soon, we won't have to face anyone we can't beat with no way out except their mercy again, Robin," I said carefully, looking at Luffy the whole time… though his head was still bowed, preventing anyone from reading his expressions.
"You can't—" Robin began.
"Do you really think that I'm lying?" I interrupted.
"I—no, but you don't know—" she stammered.
"Do you really think that our captain, Monkey D. Luffy, will ever let any of us down?" I pressed, quietly but intensely.
There was a minor spark of recognition in Robin's eyes and she perked up ever so slightly, looking at me, and then at Luffy. He looked up slightly, revealing one of his eyes, and Ace couldn't have had more of a fire burning in his than Luffy's had at that moment. Robin looked at him for what felt like an eternity before slowly looking away, shame on her face.
"…I want to say that I believe…" she whispered, clutching tightly at her arms. "But after all these years—"
"Cross."
Robin cut herself off, and we both looked back at Luffy. He looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth, but his eyes still burned. "I'm… changing my orders," he grit out uncomfortably. "From now on, you have my permission to say anything you know—" He shuddered heavily at the words before forging onwards. "But only if it can help us get stronger, that's it!"
I gaped, and most of the rest of the crew seemed equally stunned, but Luffy just looked at Robin, a wry grin slowly growing on his face. "After all, if we're going to take on the whole world, then we're going to need to be a lot stronger, right?"
I glanced at Robin for a second before looking back at Luffy. "Yeah, that'd be for the best. I mean, so long as we fight like hell we'll get through what's coming up next…" I trailed off for a second before nodding firmly. "But yeah, I'd be a lot more comfortable if we took what little time we have here on Long Ring Long to hone our skills."
"Training whenever you can DOES HURT!" Soundbite piped up. "HURTS THEM, ANYWAYS!"
"Well, I'm all for it. If I know what to shoot for, I should be able to reach it faster," Zoro grinned widely.
"My students and I train on a regular basis anyways, so we'll just have to train twice as hard, right boys?" Boss said confidently, pounding his 'fist' into his 'palm'.
"BOSS, YES, BOSS!" the dugongs barked as they snapped to attention.
"I don't plan on letting another lady get injured in my sight. I'll be glad to train," Sanji said firmly.
"Count me in, too," Chopper nodded in agreement.
"I could definitely use a chance to get used to wielding my arsenal now that I have the chance," Conis mused to herself.
Everyone else responded in the same vein, some speaking, others only nodding, but absolutely none opposed to the idea. I turned back to Robin and promptly felt a pang of sympathy at the sheer degree of shock she displayed. For anyone to be so taken aback at the idea that anyone would be willing to risk their lives for them… it was moments like this that I was really grateful for the transceiver hanging at my side.
Still, my sorrow and rage were promptly washed away by what Robin did next: she smiled. An honest, true smile. It was weak and frail, but that wasn't important to me. No, what was truly important was that the spark of life that I'd seen extinguished earlier was back in her eyes; not as strong as before, unfortunately, but there nonetheless.
Bolstered by her reaction, I nodded and clapped my hands. "Right! Everyone who isn't still recovering from hyper-hypothermia, meet me on the deck in ten minutes. I'm going to need that long to make sure I don't forget anything. Oh, and!" I hastily stuck my finger up, causing everyone to pause before shooting apologetic looks at Robin, Conis and the dugongs. "For the record, I do apologize for my cryptic nigh-savant-like bullshittery. But! I promise that once everything is said and done on the next island we arrive on, I will let you all in on the secrets I hold. Agreed?"
Conis and Su exchanged glances for a moment before the angel nodded firmly. "You saved my home with whatever knowledge you have, Cross. I'm perfectly willing to wait as long as I need to learn it."
"Speak for yourself!" Su sniffed. "You'd better talk soon and fast, bub, or else I'll snatch slimeball and make him tell me!"
"JUST TRY IT, puff-BALL!" Soundbite shot back.
Boss puffed out a cloud of smoke as he held up his flippers in a placating gesture. "Hey, doesn't matter to me either way. In the end, I am and always have been a soldier, and you are my superior." He jabbed his cigar at me. "Until you do something suicidally stupid, my boys and I will listen to you no matter what."
The TDWS nodded in agreement, though Mikey was noticeably reluctant.
"Sooo… we don't get a vote in asking for spoilers early, then?" SMACK! "OW! I was just asking, geeze!"
"Well, if we've got ten minutes, I'll go ahead and double-check the upgrades I've finished up," Usopp muttered, seeming somewhat subdued. I frowned as he left, suddenly remembering that while Merry had been one catalyst that drove him to leave the crew, she hadn't been the only one; there had been two, and his rock-bottom self-esteem from meeting Aokiji was the other. I needed to nip that in the bud once I got the chance, or else we might be looking at a shitton of trouble anyways.
Vivi and Carue left the room next, and everyone else followed soon after, Chopper lingering the longest to make sure the water was still well-suited for Robin. Soon, only Luffy and I were left.
"Robin…" I glanced at Luffy for a moment before giving her a compassionate look. "I'm ready to back you up on… that whenever you are."
She clenched her eyes shut with a shudder and held the position for a moment before giving me a light smile. "… I'm still not certain… but I…" She nodded hesitantly, the action slowly picking up strength. "For the first time in I don't know how—" Robin choked off as she shook her head with a dry chuckle. "Lying again and you no doubt know it… for the first time in twenty years I have hope again…" She graced me with a tearful smile. "And it's all thanks to you. You have my thanks, Mis—" Robin flinched and smiled apologetically. "Cross."
I smiled back and clenched her shoulder reassuringly. "We'll get through this, Robin, don't worry. Now, here." I picked up a vial Chopper had left behind and handed it to her. "Take your medicine and get some rest. We'll wake you up around dinner time, alright?"
Robin chuckled as she took the vial and downed it. "Knowing Sanji, you didn't even…" she trailed off into a yawn. "Even need… to…" She blinked blearily at the vial. "Huh… it would… appear that Chopper… improved his formula… recently…" I caught the vial as she nodded off and sank a few inches into the water.
I watched her sleep soundly for a moment before hanging my head with a groan. "Damn it, Robin…" I ground out miserably.
"Eh? What's wrong?" Luffy asked in surprise. "Robin's happy again, isn't that a good thing?"
I shook my head miserably. "That's what she said, Luffy, and I want to believe her, I want to so bad it hurts…" I shrugged in defeat. "But the fact of the matter is that Robin is a world-class actor, and I honestly can't tell whether or not she was faking those emotions, because I know damn well that she is fully capable of it."
"You had better not be saying she doesn't think we're her friends, Cross," Luffy growled.
"No, Luffy, not at all," I shook my head solemnly. "In fact, that's the only thing I'm completely certain of at the moment."
"Then we should trust her! It's what friends do!" Luffy nodded as though that were that.
I, on the other hand, bowed my head. "Captain… that's the exact reason why we can't trust her."
"Eh!?"
I gestured between him and myself. "We're her friends, Luffy, her friends who she cares about more than life itself." I pointed at him sadly. "You should know better than anyone that people, even people as smart as her, tend to do stupid, stupid, stupid things, so long as it ends with saving their friends… or their family, as the case may be."
Luffy's expression darkened like a thundercloud, but in the end, he just didn't have an answer to that.
-o-
Several minutes of me racking my brains for everything that I could instruct the crew on at this point—which involved no small amount of grumbling (read: violent cursing) at Ace for the 'instructions' on Haki he gave—found me stepping out onto the deck. Everyone's attention turned to me immediately.
"Alright, guys, let's get started." I clapped my hands together and rubbed them eagerly. "To start things off, let me give you all a fair warning: while I've seen and heard of a lot of techniques, which I will be sharing with you, the thing is that I don't know how to do most of them. But if you guys could figure it out on your own, then I know that you can figure it out via description, even if it'll no doubt take longer without the on-hand experience."
I looked at Usopp first, noticing him standing beside… something, covered with a tablecloth. "Usopp, full status report on upgrades."
The sniper nodded. "I've almost finished Nami's Perfect Clima-Tact, but I'm still having trouble with making the Eisen Dial work down here. You're sure that there's a way to make it happen?"
"Positive. But if you're still having trouble making it flow… Nami, you're the expert on clouds, think you can see if you can figure out what he has to do?"
Nami nodded, and Usopp continued. "Well, alright, then… In other news, I've almost finished upgrading my slingshot and arsenal. Boss—" He looked at the Dugongs. "I've finished the Thermal Dart, but I haven't worked out a way for you to have a safe place to grab it yet. So, I'm either going to need an indeterminate amount of design time to fix that, or I'm going to need to make heat-retardant gauntlets for you."
Boss snorted and waved his flipper dismissively. "Please. A little bit of heat doesn't scare me, I can take it on the chin like a man."
"Uh… Boss?" Conis cut in hesitantly with a raised finger. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but Heat Dials are capable of reaching temperatures of up to and over 700 degrees Celsius. You could seriously injure your flippers if you used that weapon unprotected!"
Boss cocked an eyebrow at Conis before plucking his cigar from his mouth and grinding it down in his free palm without even a hint of either hesitation or a wince. "I have spent over three-quarters of my life smashing my flippers into the bedrock of the Sandora River and the skulls of every living creature in it. It is a miracle if I ever feel anything with them." He grinned confidently. "Trust me, if anyone can take the heat, it's me."
"…Right. Just make sure that whenever you're not using it, you keep it deactivated, otherwise you're going to be getting a lot more scar-tissue," Usopp finally concluded before nodding at me. "And Cross?" He took hold of the tablecloth covering the table he was near. "Your upgrades are complete." With a triumphant grin, he yanked back the cloth.
I grinned as I took in the sight. He had completely revamped my armor. The color was the same, but ridges covered the backs of them from elbow to finger and knee to toe, and the elbows and knees were thicker than the rest of it, guarding the joints perfectly. The armor as a whole was thicker, too, each piece easily double the size of my limb proper; I could see sleeves of what looked like fabric on the insides of the armor, with the metal part expanded outwards. And in the palms of the gauntlets were two distinctly round shapes, the palms displaying seven-pieced honeycomb-grilles.
"Specially designed from the Usopp Workshop, your new armor comes complete with heat and cold insulation, along with an extra layer of protection and durability composed of sea king leather and the special fibers I use in my ropes. The left one is the Flash Gauntlet, which I've hooked up with that strobe-mechanism you said you liked, and the right one is the Impact Gauntlet, which channels all impacts to the Dial no matter where you catch them, even if they're not on the palm itself. And don't worry, I've worked out all of the bugs this time with Luffy and the dugongs acting as test dummies; just make sure to discharge it outside of the feedback mechanism after every twenty or so blasts, otherwise there's a good chance the buildup of energy will blow your bones clean out your elbow. Also!" He pointed on Conis. "I'm working on a way to build a similar device for the Reject Dial. For now, though, the only one who can use it without breaking their arm—and most likely their body as a whole—is Luffy."
"And he hits about as hard as that thing anyway, so really it's a moot point," I chuckled before pointing at Zoro. "Alright, moving on. You, mister First Mate… I have absolutely no idea how you pulled it off, but you worked out some kind of technique you called Nine Swords Style: Asura. Basically—"
"No, no, I got it," Zoro cut me off with a casual wave of his hand. "I know what you're talking about. I've been meditating on it in my spare time, but now that I know that it's actually possible…" He trailed off into a feral grin that caused my blood to freeze over.
Soundbite shuddered in terror. "Unclean… Unclean…"
I swallowed heavily in agreement before forging on. "A-A-Anyway, while you're working on that, another technique to think on is one of a set known as the Six Powers." I turned slightly so that I was addressing the whole crew. "The Six Powers is a highly advanced martial-arts style that is used almost exclusively by the Marines' top brass, the purpose of which is to essentially turn the human body into a weapon. Thankfully, however, I think that the techniques are simple enough that you can figure them out yourselves.
"The one I'm thinking of at the moment is known as Iron Body. The basics of it, as I understand them, is to clench your body's muscles hard, and I mean really hard, so that your very flesh—" I rapped my knuckles on my abdomen. "Becomes as solid as iron itself, so that not even blades or bullets can hurt you. Well…" I nodded my head to the side. "Unless it's a bullshit-strong attack, but… well, you get my point." I looked back at Zoro. "I figured that you have the most experience out of all of us at blocking near-lethal attacks with your torso, so I figure that you'd have the most luck puzzling it out."
"Makes sense," Zoro nodded in agreement.
"Hey, I've taken twice as many blows as the Marimo!" Sanji protested.
I gave the cook a flat look. "Sanji, you've taken a lot of bad hits, I'll admit, but you sure as hell didn't take Mihawk's ship-cutting slash or Mr. 1's shredding drill head on."
Sanji faltered at that for a moment before grumbling and looking away as he chewed on his cigarette.
"And besides, you'll be focusing on the second, third and fourth of the Six Powers, and I'm honestly going to be surprised if you don't have at least one of them by the time the day is out. And Zoro will never let you hear the end of it besides that, since he's already mastered one of them as far as his fighting style is concerned."
Both Zoro and Sanji looked at me, the former with wicked eagerness and the latter looking about ready to burst into flames of pure determination. I smiled innocently, somehow managing to move all of my cold sweat to the back of my head. I would not show weakness, I would not show weakness!
"Talk fast," Sanji growled viciously.
I most certainly did not swallow heavily. "Well, see, Zoro's able to produce flying slashes with his Phoenix attacks, and the technique known as the Tempest Kick lets you produce them with your legs. All you have to do is kick with enough force and somehow concentrate all the resultant wind from the attack into an amalgamation of pure wind strong and sharp enough to match any blade."
Sanji's determination faded into a contemplative frown. "Hrm… you mean like what the old geezer did with his peg leg back when that huge shield-wearing psycho tried to ignite the Baratie?"
I blinked. "…Huh, I forgot about that. Figures that old coot would have figured that technique out, God only knows how far into the Line he got before turning back. But… yeah, pretty much, just concentrate all of that wind into a singular blade of air and you should acquire a nice ranged attack in your arsenal."
Sanji smirked at Zoro, but grudgingly looked back at me when I snapped my fingers for attention. "Alright, as much as I'd love to start on that one right away, you said there were two more?"
"Yeah. The third technique, you've actually done already, back when Ohm scarred Conis. With the Moonwalk technique, you kick so hard that you can jump on the air itself. Besides using Devil Fruit powers, it's the closest thing you can ever get to actual flight. I don't expect you to get the hang of that one in a hurry, but if you're able to do it while you're berserk…" I shrugged. "If you have to, try channeling that anger so you can figure out how to do it.
"Now, the fourth one," I said, looking around at the whole crew again. "Seems to be the easiest of all the Six Powers with how common it is. A certain ex-pirate in the East Blue by the name of Captain Kuro even developed a half-bastardized, half-improved version of it: the Shave technique. This is the only one that I know the instructions for: by kicking the ground ten times in a second, you can generate enough force to move fast enough that you seem to practically teleport, disappearing. How the hell you manage it, I don't know, but like I said, it seems to be the easiest of them. Heck," I chuckled, looking back at the sniper and navigator. "With how good you are at running, I wouldn't be surprised if you could manage it, Usopp. Or you, Nami."
The two of them looked contemplative, and I turned my attention back to Luffy. "The fifth technique is called Finger Pistol. Essentially, with enough strength and by applying Iron Body to one's finger, just doing this—" I stuck my arm out, index finger pointing outwards. "Oughta be enough to put a hole in a person as well as any gunshot. A bit more visceral than what you're used to, I know, but I just thought it might be a good idea for your pipe. Good way of piercing through particularly strong defenses and all."
Luffy hummed thoughtfully as he tilted his head to the side.
"Now, the last one is another one that you've pulled off, Luffy, during your fight against Eneru. Though…" I waved my hand side-to-side. "The official technique is admittedly more effective than that airhead thing you pulled off. Letting your body go limp and letting your reflexes do all the work dodging is the basis of the Paper Art technique, but the real deal lets you keep your head in the game, so that you can attack or move appropriately."
"Oooh, now that sounds like fun!" Luffy grinned eagerly.
"Alright, now, let's see…" I slowly started ticking down on my fingers as I muttered to myself. "Zoro needs Haki, Nami and Usopp are fine on their own, Sanji…" I glanced at the cook as he swung out a few kicks. "Hey, Sanji, does the phrase 'if God made food, then the Devil made spice' mean anything to you?"
Sanji froze mid-swing, shooting a shocked look at me. "That move actually works!? I came up with it back on the Baratie while I was drunk off my ass and I've never used it because I didn't think it'd actually work!"
I shrugged helplessly. "Yeah, well, somehow it actually does, and to great effect, I might add. Something about your heart burning even hotter than the kick or something?"
Sanji's expression rapidly shifted from surprise to realization and then to thoughtful contemplation.
I shrugged and left him to it in favor of moving on. "Alright then, next up, Chopper!" I pointed at the doctor in question. "Seeing as we're currently in the middle of a verdant wasteland, is there any chance that you'd be willing to try training in order to gain control of 'that'?"
The reindeer stared at me in confusion for a moment before paling visibly, even beneath his fur, fidgeting uncomfortably. "I, ah, don't think that that might be such a good idea, Cross…"
"What? Why not?" I blinked in confusion. "I mean, I suppose the whole hyper-exhaustion thing is a danger, but we've got enough muscle here to easily match you, and all we have to do to break the form is knock you in the ocean."
"Weeeell…" Chopper clicked his hooves together sheepishly… the same way he'd done when he was explaining how he'd developed his little Hyde-issue.
"This is gonna suck, isn't it?" I stated blandly.
"Well, see, the thing is, Cross," he said, rubbing the back of his skull. "'That' was a berserker when I stumbled onto it because it was primarily controlled by my unconscious mind. Back then, my unconscious was totally empty, so it was essentially my baser animal instincts given form, if admittedly more savage than I'd expect. But now…" He tapped his hoof against his temple. "That part of my brain isn't quite so unconscious anymore, remember?"
I stood stock still as the implications sunk in. And said implications were that if things proceeded anywhere even relatively close to canon, there was a non-zero chance of the Tower of Justice becoming a butcher's shop. Or some other unimaginable abomination of SCIENCE!
… On the other hand, maybe Spandam deserved that—NO, no, it wasn't worth it. It very nearly was, so very, very nearly was, but! I had collateral to think of, so much collateral.
"Let's put a pin in that for now, alright?" I squeaked uncomfortably.
Chopper nodded with just as much trepidation. "Probably for the best, yes."
"Moving right along!" I hastily swung around to my next target, and then paused as an idea came to me, prompting me to swing back to Chopper. "Actually, there's still something that you can do. You know about Luffy's Gears, right?"
"Uh…" Chopper blinked in surprise. "You mean that technique that he used to turn huge and punch out the seawall, right? And the one he used to save Conis from Eneru? What about them?"
"The latter is Gear 1.5 and the prior is 2.5, prototype versions of Gears Second and Third," I explained. "Both extremely powerful tools, to be sure, but, well…" I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly. "Well, you remember how the recoil from 2.5 snapped Luffy into a midget?"
Chopper grimaced as he caught on. "I'm guessing that 1.5 has some kind of side-effect as well?" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know if I can help with anything like the shrinkage, but—"
"Yeeeaaah, see…" My sheepishness redoubled. "That's the thing. Gear Second's side effects are a lot more, shall we say… visceral than Gear Third. How to best put this… Ah, Luffy!" I pointed at our captain. "How do you start 1.5 and how do you usually feel after using it?"
Luffy grinned eagerly as he held his leg up and pointed to it. "Oh, it's easy! I just pump my legs to get my blood flowing faster, and then that makes me go faster too!" He then looked upwards thoughtfully, totally missing the horrified look that had started spreading over Chopper's face. "The bad news is that so far I've only been able to keep it going for a few seconds and after it runs out, I usually feel kinda tired and my muscles ache all over." And then his eager grin was right back in place. "But I've been getting better at using it in my spare time! Some more practice and I'll be able to keep it running for as long as I want! Here." He placed his fist on the deck. "Check it ou—!"
THWACK!
"GRK!" Luffy choked, slapping a hand to the side of his neck. However, before he could do anything further, the syringe that had just stabbed him finished emptying its contents into his bloodstream, causing the rubber-man to keel over and start snoring.
We all stared at Luffy's prone form in shock for a moment before turning our gazes to Chopper, whose hoof was still extended in a throwing follow-through and whose face was a rictus of pure rage. "Unbelievable, inconsiderate, suicidal…!" The human-reindeer's words trailed off into unintelligible grumbling as he marched up to Luffy and grabbed the back of his collar. He then shot a dour glare around the deck. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going retire to the kitchen for a bit so as to guarantee that this ignoramus!" He emphasized the word with a thoroughly ineffective smack to Luffy's temple. "Doesn't keel over at age 50 due to artificial MUSCLE ATROPHY!"
Nobody dared halt the doctor as he marched up the stairs, flung Luffy into the kitchen and slammed the door shut behind him.
Soundbite blinked in surprise before giving me a hesitant glance. "Should we SAVE HIM?"
I shook my head with an exasperated sigh. "No, no, best we leave them be. Luffy might suffer in the short-term, but Chopper is essentially working to save him from, well, himself." I clapped my hands as I decided that it'd be better for my sanity to not dwell on whatever unholy procedures Chopper was performing. "Right then, next up is…" I frowned as I realized who I had turned to. "Vivi. I meant to ask you after we were through with Eneru, but things got kinda hectic so I forgot until now with Aokiji, so I'll ask before I forget: that necklace you're wearing, what—?"
"OH, MY, LOOK AT THE TIME!" Vivi yelped desperately before I could get another word out, sweat cascading down her face as she plastered a very rictus grin on. She then vaulted onto Carue's back and clutched his reins in a white-knuckled grip. "In all the excitement, I almost forgot that I'd been meaning to run some laps with Carue, for practice! Well, no time like the present! Come on, Carue, let's go, once around the island, chop chop!"
"Hey, now, wait a—!"
WHOOSH!
"Minute…" I trailed off slowly as I turned my head to stare after the dust cloud that was fast approaching the horizon. "…Wow."
"DAT DUCK CAN MOVE!" Soundbite whistled in awe.
"Tell me about it…" I grumbled darkly before giving Soundbite a searching glance. "By the way, is there any chance that she—?"
"Sorry, nada." Soundbite shook his head in denial. "Most I've GOTTEN IS THE word 'SIROCCO'… ALTHOUGH…"
I glanced at him curiously. "What?"
"EH…" He nodded his head side to side. "I think that I heard a voice coming from IT? DON'T THINK IT WAS alive, though, so…"
"Huh…" I mulled that over for a second before shaking my head. "Well, either way, if she doesn't want to share, I suppose that's just her prerogative. I'll drop it… for now, anyway." I moved on to Conis. "Alright, now for you, our resident angel of firepower. Given how you've been toting that Burn Bazooka around all day without so much as breaking a sweat, I'm guessing it's safe to assume that you don't find it's weight to be in any way daunting?"
Conis shifted her bazooka around on her back for a moment before nodding confidently. "Yes, that sounds about right. Thanks to all the strength from the extra oxygen, it barely feels like I'm carrying anything."
"Then I say it's high time we change that," I said, smacking my fist into my palm. "Seeing as you can carry that behemoth around no problem, you can easily carry around a bunch of its cousins at the same time. Your goal is to find out just how firepower you can comfortably strap to yourself at once; trust me, if you think talking softly and carrying a big gun equals being a badass, that's easily trumped by being a walking arsenal."
"Can do!" the angel saluted eagerly.
"Su, make sure she doesn't somehow overload and become ineffective."
"I will try, but I make no promises!" Su swiped her tail up to her forehead in a salute.
"Hey!"
"Remember the macaroni incident?"
"YOU SWORE TO NEVER MENTION THAT AGAIN! Though I suppose I do see your point. So much cheese…"
I shuddered slightly as I watched the usually serene woman devolve into a fit of horrified twitching before electing to move along. "And Boss!" I pointed at the martial artist confidently for a moment before slowly lowering my finger. "I… am afraid that I have nothing for you or your students…"
"Eh," Boss shrugged indifferently. "You've given us more than enough to work on already." He pumped his fist with a grin. "We'll just have to do the rest ourselves! Right, boys?"
"AYE, BOSS!" his students concurred.
"Well, then, in that case…" I clapped my hands and nodded. "That's it! Everyone go right ahead and get to it!"
"Hang on a second, Cross," Nami interjected. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"Eh?" I blinked at her in confusion. "No, I was just leaving that up to you. I don't have anything to suggest until Usopp's got the Clima-Tact ready, so—"
Nami cut me off by rapping her knuckles on my forehead with a flat look. "I meant you, dumb-dumb. You've told everyone else what they should do to get stronger, but what are you going to do in the meantime?"
I felt a cold sweat begin to drip down my forehead as I suddenly realized I hadn't thought of something for me to do, and that meant someone was going to 'volunteer' me to work with them. And in all honesty, that was likely to end with me in a motherload of pain.
"I-I, uh…" I stammered intelligently.
"Mikey, Donny," Boss thankfully interrupted. "Go help Cross out. Sobek knows he needs it."
"BOSS, YES, BOSS!" both dugongs barked, saluting.
I swallowed nervously at their enthusiasm and promptly shot a pleading look at Usopp. "Please tell me that you managed to finish whatever upgrades you planned to make to my baton."
"Ah…" Usopp hesitated for a moment before nodding nervously. "Maybe yes? Fair warning, I'm not entirely confident about its build, so—!"
"I'm about to fight two Kung-Fu Dugongs, see how much I care!" I growled desperately.
Usopp glanced at the two amphibians, who were tapping their weapons in their palms before shuddering in terror. "Point taken." The sniper-tinkerer drew a metal cylinder out of his bag and tossed it to me. "Just be careful, it's still kind of—!"
I caught the cylinder in mid-air—
ZAP!
And promptly found myself flat on my back, coughing up a hefty cloud of smoke. "Ow…"
"NOT fun!" Soundbite whined.
"…sensitive," Usopp winced sympathetically as he stood over me, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, those Thunder Dials are really tricky. Guess there are still a few bugs to work out, huh?"
"The appropriate phrase here…" I wheezed out as I shakily extended my arm skyward, my baton held delicately between my fingertips. "Would be 'no doi'."
Usopp took the collapsed weapon back with a pair of insulated pliers he'd pulled from his bag. "I'll just, ah, try and work them out, then, huh?"
"Yeah," I winced as I coughed up another lungful of smoke. "You do that…"
"Nice dance, Cross," Su snickered. "Real fancy footwork!"
"Go get your tail charred off, puff-ball…" I snarled as I slowly crawled to my feet, shaking my head in order to dislodge the stars swirling in it. "So, uh, how are we doing this exactly?"
Donny jabbed a flipper over his shoulder, pointing towards the shore. "This way."
I gave him a shaky thumbs-up. "You got it. Just gimme a bit to get my armor on, I'm going to need all the protection I can get."
"Yeah, sure thing, we'll be waiting," Donny waved his flipper flippantly as he and Mikey leapt over the edge of the ship.
I waited for a moment before shooting a glare at Nami. "You realize that they are going to absolutely tenderize me, right?"
Nami hummed to herself, tapping a finger on her lips. "I suppose I could tell you that this is for your own good. That I care about you, and that I want to see you get stronger so that I don't have to worry about you so much. I could also tell you that I think you can teach those dugongs as much as they teach you, or even that this is a matter of solidarity, with all of us getting steadily stronger and that I don't want you left behind."
I saw this punch line coming a mile away. "Aaaand in reality?"
She patted my shoulder comfortingly as she sported a winning smile. "Try and grow a spine and some thicker skin, you weak-ass piece of putty."
"…Alright, while most of that is par for the course… thicker skin? Don't you think that if there were a way to do that, I'd jump on it?" I asked dryly, holding an arm up at eye-level.
The blood drained from Nami's face as she gaped at my limb before she swallowed heavily. "… Okay, I suppose I could have worded… that…" She trailed off before giving me a flat look. "Considering how you always tell Lassoo that dog insults were fine before he joined the crew, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say you're screwing with me?"
"Atta girl," I chuckled, slapping her back as I moved past her to where my armor was laid out.
As I pulled on the pieces, I thought about how different it felt. The sleeves fit like… well, like a glove, and the metal on the outside moved just as the sleeves did. It was a bit more comfortable than the last set I had, but I could feel that it was a lot tougher this time, too; the sheer extra weight of the things attested to that. In addition, the Kevlar-grade material on the inside coupled with Usopp's whatever-the-hell metal on the outside made sure that I wouldn't have to worry about any pain getting through the bandages. To cap it all off, the armor was sealed on just as tightly as my previous iteration, with the elbow and knee guards doing an expert job of hiding the unlatching mechanisms.
I rolled my arms and took a few practice steps to re-acclimate myself to the weight of the armor, although it soon became clear that I wasn't so much re-acclimating as I was flat-out acclimating. After all, the difference in size combined with the fact that it was around twice as heavy as the old armor was making this seem less like an upgrade and more like what it actually was: a completely new set of armor that I'd have to grow used to all over again. And it wasn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped, either.
I threw out a few practice punches and swung my leg up so that I could lash out a Spartan Kick.
I grinned in satisfaction.
"Perfect," I announced before glancing over at Usopp, one of my gauntlets held up so that the palm was facing him. "So, how do I…?"
"Hey, don't point it at me, that's the Flash one!" the sniper said, hastily covering his eyes. "But just flexing your palm should be enough. Whole hand, to prevent misfires."
I eyed my left hand—my Flash Gauntlet— for a moment before flipping its palm down and firmly flexing the bottoms of my knuckles. I was extremely happy to see light strobing on the ground. "Ooooh, yeah, this is gonna be useful…" I then glanced over at Lassoo as he chose that moment to get up and shake himself off. "Well, I'm almost completely loaded down anyway. Whaddaya say, Lassoo, wanna help me give them our best?"
The dog-gun yawned jaw-crackingly wide before giving me an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, Cross, no can do." He jerked his head over at Conis. "I've got an appointment with our resident iron-jock-strapped angel here for an upgrade." He leered eagerly, tongues of flame licking out from between his fangs. "I want me a piece of that firepower she was tossing around earlier!"
In spite of the fact that I was going to be left without my heaviest artillery at my back, I couldn't help but chuckle. "Alright, go on, then."
Tail wagging excitedly, he bounded over to Conis, and I exchanged glances with an eager-looking Soundbite before jogging over to the railing and jumping down to the shore. I was very pleased when I found that it didn't hurt in the least.
A few scant feet before me, Donny and Mikey stood on opposite ends of the Merry, the former twirling his staff with quiet but ill-disguised eagerness, and the latter practically bursting with belligerent excitement.
"Alright, then," I nodded as I started walking forward, stretching my arms back and forth as I went. "So, are there any rules here? Any limitations, any holds barred, is there a starting sig—" I cut myself off mid-sentence, leaping forwards and swinging my leg at Mikey.
Said leg was promptly caught by the chains of the nunchuck the dugong snapped taut and held at bay without even a hint of worry from him.
Mikey stared blandly at the sole of my greave for a moment before cocking an eyebrow at me. "Did you honestly expect that to work?"
I shrugged in an innocent manner. "Not really, but I had to try."
"Well, I guess the first lesson is in situational awareness," the dugong replied.
I frowned. "Situational awareness? What—"
"BEHIND!" Soundbite suddenly yelped.
I didn't even need to look to guess what Soundbite was referring to, and most likely any other person would have ducked down to avoid what was coming, but seeing as I wasn't one for conventional solutions, I instead chose to leap forwards, using the chain of Mikey's weapon to vault over him. I'd have gone for a boot to the head in the process, but he rolled under me before I got the chance, leaving me to land in a roll and turn to face my opponents.
"Hmm, not bad," Donny hummed, twirling his bo staff as he landed, Mikey popping up beside him. "You and Soundbite really do form a good team. Okay, we'll do this the normal way."
Both dugongs snapped their weapons up into ready stances, a palpable aura of menace rising around them.
"Defend yourself."
"GASTRO-FLASH!" I immediately shouted, pointing the Flash Gauntlet in front of me, Soundbite chiming in with an ear-piercing shriek. Mikey stumbled and fell to the ground with a cry of pain while Donny kept going. Apparently one of them had the foresight to plug their shells with wax.
I threw up an arm to block the bo staff as it descended, then hastily moved my other arm up when the dugong seamlessly moved into another strike. And then another strike came and was blocked. And another. I backpedalled furiously, barely blocking the strikes from the bo staff—but the fact of the matter was that I was actually blocking them. And every other block built up a little more energy…
I caught another overhead strike, and instead of blocking the follow-up I tried to meet it with my palm. The Impact Dial rang out, rattling the air in front of me, and Donny only barely managed to pull back his staff before it shattered. We each paused, me panting slightly and Donny not winded in the slightest. And just to make matters even more fun, the staff-wielder was swiftly joined by Mikey jumping to his side, eyes narrowed and bloodshot but still full of raw energy.
We maintained our deadlock for a few moments, until the dugongs acted on an unspoken signal and suddenly moved.
Mikey immediately shot towards me, while Donny veered off to the left. He was going to go behind me again, I just knew it, but with Mikey up in my face I wasn't able to do much about it. Where Donny was almost like a dancer, flowing from attack to attack with almost water-like fluidity, Mikey was straightforward, brutal smashing. Or, to put it another way, Donny actually had grace and strategy, while Mikey had adapted hack-and-slash to his nunchucks.
Once again I found myself on the defensive, and I kept a count in my head as the blows rained on my right arm. Not to let off the Impact Dial again. I doubted they'd let me do that. No, it was for something else…
"BEHIND!"
I was ducking even before Soundbite barked out a warning. Unfortunately, that didn't do much good as Donny had gone low with his attack this time. Fortunately, as I was squatting down, I was only lightly knocked onto my side rather than sent tumbling. I grinned as an idea came to me, and I planted my right palm on the ground.
"Impact."
With a loud bang, the Impact Dial discharged, spraying dirt and grass everywhere.
"Ackpft!"
Including into my face. Not my brightest idea, but it did get the dugongs to back off and snap their guards up, and that was precisely what I'd been going for. I quickly sprang to my feet and charged at the first dugong I saw, who turned out to be Mikey. After all, I couldn't stay on the defensive forever and the best way to flip the script would be to take out their primary enforcer first.
I did not count on Mikey wrapping up my punch in the chains of his nunchucks and flipping me off my feet.
I don't know if it was design or by accident—probably a bit of both—but as I sailed through the air, I managed to position my foot just right so that it clocked Mikey upside the head. Of course, he had that big turtle shell protecting him, but a nice and heavy armored boot connecting with his skull still dazed him a bit. Of course, I also got the wind knocked out of me upon hitting the ground, so I think we came off even in that exchange.
As I caught my breath, I felt Soundbite desperately chomp on my shoulder. I glanced up and hastily threw up my armored palm to catch Donny's staff, something I felt even through the layers of protection. My foot came up to try and meet his soft underbelly, but he put his muscular tail in the way—and in doing so, forgot about my second trick of the fight.
"GASTRO-FLASH!"
Wax or not, non-sight combat senses or not, getting a spotlight to the face hurts. More than that, the instinct to cover your eyes is both universal and very difficult to overcome, as amply demonstrated by Dragon Ball Z. With the pressure on my arms gone, I raised my other foot and managed to nail Donny clean in his face, throwing him off of me and leaving him reeling. I breathed a sigh of relief and began to stand up—
"INCOMING!"
This time the warning wasn't in time. Mikey's nunchucks hit me right between the shoulder blades. I let the blow knock me forward onto my hands, and shot my foot back in a mule-kick. It didn't hit anything, but it did force him to dodge back a bit before leaping at me again, giving me long enough to spin around—
"IMPACT!"
And slam my right gauntlet into his gut as I activated its mechanism.
"GAGH!" he cried out, flailing slightly as he tumbled on the ground. I immediately took the opportunity, diving onto the downed dugong. It wasn't any kind of formal move, closer to just kneeling on him, but I was over double his weight and size, so it worked. I punched the ground, to get as much charge as I could into the Impact Dial, and moved the gauntlet into position—
Aaaaand promptly froze when I felt a weight land on my back and wood knock against the back of my skull.
All four of us stayed frozen for a few seconds until I slowly raised my Flash gauntlet up where Donny could see it, pointedly keeping the palm facing away from him. "Truce?"
Donny was silent for a moment before removing his staff from my neck and hopping off. "I can live with that."
"Ooooowww," Mikey whined as he wiggled on the ground, clutching his belly miserably. "Damn it dude, that huuuurt…"
"Oh, you have no right to talk, Chuck-boy!" I winced as I twisted my torso back and forth, causing the spot where he'd managed to slam me to flare up painfully. "Freaking hell, those things hurt like heck!"
"You kicked me in the head and hit me with the pure force of Donny's staff!" the orange-bandanna-wearer moaned. "That does not compare to one nunchuk-blow!"
"Guys, guys," Donny cut in, coming between us with his flippers raised placatingly. "You're both babies, can we move on now?"
"HEY! I'm a baby, TOO!"
We all spared Soundbite a flat look, which he responded to with a wide grin.
"… Fine, moving on," I ultimately conceded. "So, any advice you two can give me?"
"Well, for starters… you're an instinctive fighter, Cross," Donny explained.
"Basically, that means you can lash out like a freaking maniac without thinking and not automatically get your ass handed to you," Mikey provided.
Donny glared at his fellow student and opened his mouth before trailing off and cocking his head to the side. "Alright, so he's not entirely wrong. The gist of it is that what you do is brawling with some sense to it, which Zoro told Boss and Boss told us was apparently what you're going for, and you're damn good at it, too. As for training options, well…" He shrugged helplessly. "There aren't really any formal ones. The best way to train what you do is to just let you go ahead and fight. Trial and error, and all that, let you work out all the kinks in your strategies for yourself."
I nodded thoughtfully as I processed that explanation. "Works for me…" I trailed off before looking at the snail on my shoulder. "Ah, by the way, Soundbite? You need to be a bit—"
"Say faster. I DARE YOU."
"No, no, your speed was fine!" I waved him down placatingly. "I was going to say specific. Just saying behind doesn't mean jack when an attack can come from high or low as well."
Soundbite frowned, but nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Well, if we're done here, I'm going to get back to trying out more of our new arsenal," Mikey grinned eagerly, heading back towards the Merry.
"And if Nami's done with Usopp, I should probably see how far her bojutsu has progressed," Donny added, following his fellow student.
I was about to go find Lassoo when I remembered that I had something to deal with on the ship as well. Sighing, I began trudging back towards it.
"What's wrong? WE DIDN'T DO THAT badly," Soundbite said curiously.
"It's not that, Soundbite. It's about something far more serious." I shook my head grimly as I climbed back aboard the Merry. "Do me a favor, will you? Any snide remarks you feel like sharing during the coming conversation? Try and keep them to yourself unless they're constructive. This… is going to be delicate."
Soundbite seemed to shrink in on himself in apprehension; I guess he'd seen me this kind of serious enough now that he was worried about what was coming next. Probably like how I was. I climbed to the top of the Merry where Usopp had established his makeshift factory, where I saw him tinkering with the Eisen Dial's control apparatus alongside a blue rod that was splayed open and was starting to take on a very familiar form. He glanced up as he heard my approach and promptly rolled his eyes. "Look, Cross, I'm sorry about the baton, but with your armor finished, Nami won't be happy if I don't make her upgrade priority one, so—"
"This isn't about that, Usopp," I interrupted. "I could give a damn about getting shocked. I'm here about the stability of the crew."
Usopp choked off in shock and turned to fully face me.
I glanced at Soundbite and spun my finger in the air, waiting for the telltale buzz before continuing. "Usopp, this is very serious: how are you feeling after that meeting with Aokiji?"
The sniper's expression instantly darkened with doubt, and it took a few second for him to work up his nerve to reply. "…I… I remember what you said after Drum Island, Cross," he muttered morosely. "That I'd always be the weakest on the crew. At first, I was alright with things because of how you said that I was the weakest out of the world's strongest crew. And it really worked, too…" He ground his teeth. "Until now, anyway. It's just… if the Monster Trio and Boss were beaten in one shot like that, what good am I going to do against opponents like—"
"Usopp," I cut in sharply and with more than a little desperation, causing him to snap out of his thoughts. "All of us on the crew are meant to do what we can. Nothing more, and nothing less. I'm the crew's tactician, so my training in brawling is so that I can handle mooks, not full-blown officers or captains. You're a sniper, not a frontline fighter; if anything, you're supposed to be as far from the fight as possible, so that you have a better chance attacking opponents nobody else possibly can."
Usopp's expression barely lightened, and he sighed. "Cross… I know I'm stronger than I normally ever would have been at this point without you. And obviously, all the extra upgrades and weapon designs I've been doing have made it clear that I play a key role in helping the crew's weaker members. But still…" He scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "If we're going to be up against monsters like Aokiji… I just want to make sure I live up to the crew, you know?"
I sighed in undisguised relief. I could work with this. "So… what you're saying is that you're just disappointed because you don't feel like you're living up to the name of the crew?"
Usopp started to nod his head before pausing and slowly shooting a suspicious glance my way. "Yeah… but why do you ask?"
I froze as I realized that I'd just overplayed my hand. "I… it's nothing, Usopp, just getting some ducks in—"
"What is it, Cross?" he pressed, serious as the grave.
I grimaced as I thought things over before mustering my nerve and giving Usopp an equally serious look. "Usopp… do you trust me?"
My question caught the long-nose off-guard. "Huh? What are you—?"
"Answer the question," I repeated.
"Yes, yes, I trust you, geeze! What's this got to do with—!"
"Usopp," I interrupted again. "I realize that I might have played this card to death and back when I joined the crew, but I am playing it now in full confidence: you are better off not knowing."
"What!?" Usopp squawked indignantly. "Cross, this obviously concerns me, I have a right—!"
"You have the right to know, but that does not mean that it is in your best interests," I flatly interrupted. "If you have any measure of trust in me, then you will listen to my words and heed them: that possible path in life is dead and buried in the ground, where, if I have any say in the matter, it will remain until the end of time, forever unseen and unheard. You. Are better off. Not knowing it." I softened my expression, putting as much pleading desperation into it as I could manage. "So, please… don't ask again?"
Usopp hesitated for a second before sighing and hanging his head. "Alright, Cross. If you say so."
I let out a whoosh of relief as I clapped Usopp on the shoulder. "Great, thanks! Well, seeing as that's… everything…" I paused in my exit before slowly turning back to Usopp. "Actually… one more thing. Just… want some advice to help with your confidence?"
"Uh…" Usopp thought it over before nodding tentatively. "Yeah, why not. Couldn't hurt, I guess."
"Great! Now then, first things first. Tell me this, Usopp: do you think you're a good liar?"
"Wha—? I know that I'm a good liar!"
"Then how about this: if all else fails in inspiring your confidence, why not try lying to yourself? Now, now!" I held a hand up when Usopp started to protest. "Hear me out! Look, when you get scared or feel like running, why not just try… I dunno, convincing yourself that you actually have the willpower you need to fight and win? Practice that enough and eventually you'll believe it so much that it's actually true! Genius, no?"
Usopp blinked several times as he processed that, cupping his chin in thought. "…You know, that's crazy enough that it just might—"
"LOOK out!" Soundbite suddenly hollered.
Moments later, we heard the sound of a door slamming open, followed shortly by Chopper, still clearly in the throes of the Madness Place.
"ALRIGHT, I'M DONE WITH THIS IDIOT! DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH HIM!"
The two of us quickly rushed to the edge of the Merry's top, just in time to see Luffy arc off the Merry, wafting gracefully through the air before slamming to the ground in a shower of dirt and grass. Amazingly, he stayed asleep through the whole ordeal.
Well, at least, until a small syringe-dart… well, darted off the ship and hit Luffy in the seat of his pants. Two seconds of stillness. Just two. And then—
"WOOHOO!"
Luffy shot up and started rocketing around the plain like a rubbery bat out of Impel Down, the syringe falling out immediately. And what followed was proof that giving Luffy too much caffeine or sugar was only to be done if we were going to use him as a weapon.
"I THINK he may have mastered SHAVING," Soundbite groaned dizzily, his eyestalks spinning uncontrollably. And honestly, considering the numerous footfalls and dust trails that were crisscrossing the plain and the air above it, along with dialogue that sounded almost Alvin, Simon, and Theodore-grade levels of fast and squeaky, I couldn't blame him. It also almost made me ask Chopper to make more of whatever the hell that had been for combat use.
Almost.
After a few seconds, I turned my head to look at Usopp. "You want some practice hitting a moving target?" I deadpanned.
"I acknowledge that I am good at my field, Cross," Usopp deadpanned right back. "But I am nowhere near that good."
"Fair 'nuff."
Shouts arose from the island as Luffy tore through everyone's training sessions in his stimulant-induced rampage, none more angry than Zoro and Sanji. The second I heard those particularly irate voices, I immediately hid behind the scant protection of the Merry's railing as I realized what was coming.
"Uh, Cross, what are you—?" Usopp began, before being interrupted by two-thirds of the Monster Trio.
"LUFFY!"
"Nice place you got here," Usopp commented as he huddled alongside me.
"Make yourself right at home," I invited right back.
After a few seconds of no explosion, we both poked our heads out from behind the railing. We almost immediately regretted it; I could see faces and arms flickering in and out on Zoro's sides, and Sanji's right foot was dragging along the ground, wafting up smoke. Luffy had stopped bounding around like a chipmunk on crack, and seemed to be almost appraising the threat.
And then they moved. The resulting clash promptly threw up a massive cloud of dust, streaked with fire and practically spitting razor-sharp winds. The din echoing out was devoid of grunts of pain… then, after a solid minute, we saw Luffy soar above it, his mouth bit down on his hand and his body already bulging.
"GUM-GUM!" Luffy shouted, audible even over the roar of the clash below. I gaped in awe, completely forgetting to take cover. This is what I had signed up for.
"GIANT PISTOL!"
Luffy's fist impacted the shore under the dust cloud with an almighty crash, and the hard-packed soil and the rock below simply disintegrated. And rather than add to the existing dust cloud, it blew it away entirely. I caught a glimpse of red on Sanji's foot and nine swords rather than three, before the last of the dust cleared and I got a glimpse of where Luffy had hit, distracting me from all else.
It was as if a giant had stomped on the spot—which was basically what happened. A fist-shaped chunk of coast was simply gone, as if it had never been there. And right next to it, shrunken to a foot tall, was Luffy. The contrast was so ridiculous that it triggered… something within me.
"Pff—"
"WILL YOU JUST HURRY UP AND LAUGH ALREADY!?" Nami screamed at me.
Well, who was I to deny a lady her wishes?
"PFFHAHAHAHAHAHA! I FUCKING LOVE THIS CREW SO MUCH! PFFHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Ahhh, it was good to be back.
-o-
A few hours later, we decided that we'd gotten as much as we could out of staying moored to Long Ring Long. Soon enough, we'd packed up what little of our supplies we'd unpacked, gotten everyone aboard and weighed anchor, following the course the Log set for us to reach the next stop on our journey.
As we set off on this new voyage, Nami, Zoro and I stood side-by-side on the railing, staring at the sunset.
"So," Zoro started solemnly. "We've suffered our first complete defeat as a crew, and it pushed us far enough that Luffy decided to revoke any limits on spoilers as long as it could make us stronger. And you said that this is the start of the hardest leg we're going through?"
"Aokiji was a hopeless fight, and we won't be finding another one of those anytime soon," I confirmed solemnly before allowing myself a slight grimace. "But the fights that we will find are going to push us farther than Alabasta. This extra training will help, I'm sure, but…" I hung my head with a sigh. "Well, suffice to say… buckle up."
Nami glanced between us for a moment before groaning in frustration and turning around to stride back towards the cabin, but as she walked, I didn't miss the last words she muttered beneath her breath.
"God, I need a vacation."
Cross-Brain AN: Here's something unheard of for This Bites!: a preview of the next chapter!
"Wow, it is a map, of an island! Weird name though, anyone recognize it?"
"Not me."
"Nope."
"Never heard of it."
"What about the letter that came with it?"
"Here, let me, I'll read it. Alright, let's see. Here's what is says:
"If you are a pirate among pirates…"
A Resort with a Twisted Secret…
"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PUT IT, BUT… I DUNNO, something just sounds… off. GOOD OR BAD, I don't… this place is weird."
"Among pirates…"
A Vile Demon Hidden in Plain Sight…
"A… smiling flower, at that. Swear to God, Grand Line gets weirder every day…"
"Among pirates…"
A Pitiful Man With a Terrible Past…
"Every single one of those arrows symbolizes a day of loneliness I endured after that storm. They are the number of the regrets I have suffered at suddenly losing every one of my beloved crewmates. Have you had a glimpse of what I've endured?"
"Then gather your steadfast crew of companions…"
Doubt Turns to Conflict, Conflict Turns to Hate, Hate Turns to Madness…
"HEY! GET BACK HERE, BITCH! THAT'S MY AUDIENCE! GIVE ME BACK MY AUDIENCE!"
"And set sail for our island."
And All the World Made to Bear Witness
"LUUUUUUUFFYYYYYYY!"
"The name of the island is…"
The Island that Nobody Leaves…
"How… how could this happen? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FRIENDS?!"
OMATSURI ISLAND.
"Wow, this place sounds like fun!"
"Yeah, it does… any opinions on it, Cross?"
"Hmm… I'll be honest, I think I might have? But I can't quite… ah, no, wait a second! Yeah, now I remember! I saw a poster for—ah… for, for… for an event! Yeah, an event about the place! Never actually saw it so I've got no clue what to expect, buuut the poster itself looked pretty cheery! Flowers everywhere, bright and colorful; probably nothing on the island itself to worry about. In my opinion?"
"Tell me this is just a NIGHTMARE. SOMEONE WAKE ME UP!"
"I'd say that this could turn out to be the most relaxing vacation of our lives."
Cross-Brain AN: All of a sudden, that ending turned into a devastating cliffhanger. And for those of you who don't get how, well… clearly, you've never seen the darkest tale ever to bear the name of One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island.
Patient AN: It's high time that we got to include a bit of horror in this story, and so we shall… at the stroke of midnight next Sunday. Don't hold it against us… you don't know what we've been through…
Hornet AN: Are you ready?
Xomniac AN: Sleep tight, readers… don't let the flowers bite.
