Author's Note: Happy Halloween everyone! Starting this chapter, things start to really pick up, so I hope ya'll enjoy!

To Sophia Mendes-Coruja: Aw I'm glad I could cheer you up! You're always so nice haha, makes me happy too :) ALL HAIL DARK AND MYSTERIOUS STORIES! Robin is the best, gotta get her in there. I'm soooo glad you're loving my story, it's one of my favorites to write! Thank you for always reviewing and I'll see you next time!

To fluffypuppies: Mihawk and Katakuri interaction is wonderful XD two of the best, most epic characters in One Piece. The Valera are sort of like the minks, just with less...animal parts? The Valera are pretty much almost normal people, just with a few rabbit appendages and additional strengths ;) but I'll go into it more later. Definitely excited for ya'll to read the upcoming chapters, as we're finally going to other worlds! Lol, you CAN get a signal in the other worlds if you have the right equipment ;) Thank you for the awesome review!

To bpv229: I'm so glad you decided to give this one a try! I've actually been meaning to update the summary since I've gone a slightly different direction with the plot, but I'll get to it eventually *shrugs*. Enjoy the update!

To Shiho-Akemi: *insert maniacal laugh* PERHAPS...or perhaps Mihawk is just being mysterious? I won't tell ;) not yet anyway.

WARNINGS:

- Violence

- Some bullying

- Overprotectiveness

- Dubious plans

Luffy hummed quietly to himself as he worked to muck out stalls. It was very early in the morning, so the air held a slight chill to it which his naturally warm body greatly appreciated.

It'd been about a week since the "creature incident". Ever since the golden-eyed monster had made an appearance, Zoro insisted on going everywhere possible with Luffy, even walking him over to the Ranger Headquarters for class. When he confronted his friend about it, Zoro just said that he wanted to make sure he was safe.

Honestly, it bothered Luffy a bit that Zoro didn't think he could protect himself, but the sad part was…it was kind of true. His friend had access to three powerful creatures (that he had yet to see but knew they dwelled in the elegant swords that now hardly ever left Zoro's waist), while Luffy had nothing.

Until he made a pact, there wasn't much he could do against a powerful creature.

'…I guess I could mess with their mana…' He thought, closing the door to the stall so he could move on to the next one, 'Don't know if that would do anything though…'

His next stop was home to a certain palomino Pegasus who snorted in his face, making him smirk.

"'Morning, Sunny! You gonna let me clean today?" The winged horse was notoriously difficult and had kicked Luffy multiple times, but he refused to give up. Someday, he would gain her trust and fly all over the place!

Sunny whinnied and turned her back, ready to kick. Luffy huffed and scratched his head.

"Welp, I guess you'll have to sleep on dirty hay then. See ya in a few days!" As he turned to leave, Sunny's ears perked up and she turned around with an annoyed look on her face. "Shishishi, what, you change your mind?"

For all her attitude, Sunny valued clean hay, so Luffy was allowed inside to clean. The Pegasus watched him closely, not moving to force him to clean around her. Even so, Luffy smiled widely, enjoying himself.

"Thanks, Sunny! Hey, you want an apple?" The winged horse snorted and butted his chest to send him flying onto the concrete. Luffy laughed as he sat up. "Guess not."

He worked quickly, needing to finish before eight o'clock rolled around. It was finally time for the summoner midterm exam, and he needed to have time to change clothes and join his fellow rangers in the examination room.

Zoro and his summoner friends were all super stressed out, but Luffy had complete confidence in their abilities. Plus, he couldn't wait to see what manner of creature they would summon! Anything that was Level V was bound to be awesome!

After quickly saying goodbye to Kaku, Luffy stripped off his gloves and jogged back to Quiet Creek, desperately needing a shower. When he arrived and slipped into his room, Zoro was awake and going over different circles he'd drawn.

"Hey, you should've woken me up."

Luffy frowned but hid it quickly with a small smile.

"I had to be there early, and you have your test today, so I didn't want to bother you, sorry." Zoro huffed and fixed him with a soft stare.

"I just want you to be safe."

"I know." Luffy replied while ruffling through his drawers for a clean uniform. Zoro meant well, but his overprotectiveness was becoming…stifling. Even now, their room was covered in talismans, many more than he'd originally put up.

Trotting out into the quiet hallway, Luffy instinctively glanced to the window but was pleased to see nothing there but the early morning sun. He didn't understand why the creature had approached him, but hopefully it wouldn't be back.

Soon he was dressed in his clean uniform and walking out of the dorm with Zoro and Usopp on each side. Both of their jackets looked freshly pressed with straight collars and polished buttons.

"Shishishi, you two look great!"

"I don't have any stains, right?" Usopp asked, twisting a bit as they walked, "We've gotta look perfect or they'll take points off, can you believe that!?" Well, with the headmaster guy as their main professor, it wasn't that surprising.

Luffy glanced down at himself. His uniform was clean, but a bit wrinkled in places and his jacket was tied around his waist. He didn't like how constricting it was.

Thankfully, he wasn't being graded today. One look at his sandals and they'd probably fail him on the spot.

Walking to the classroom, his friends didn't talk much, too focused on their own thoughts. They'd spent the whole semester preparing for this test, one that had made people flunk out in the past.

When they reached the door, Luffy had to step off to the side. Only summoner students were allowed inside at first so they could mentally prepare themselves for the summoning. Eventually, other rangers started to arrive and joined him in the corner.

Chopper and the others were a lot more relaxed than the summoners checking in with the pink-haired teacher at the door. From what Luffy understood, the summoner professors would watch through the window, but wouldn't actually be the room. Shuraiya broke out a deck of cards after about thirty minutes of waiting and watching had gone by.

"This is so stupid…" Nero complained from where he stood up against the wall (refusing to join their game of Go-Fish), "Why do we even have to be here?"

"Just in case." Luffy replied, losing a few cards to Kaya, "Plus we can see what mana looks like during a big summoning! I'm so excited!"

"Yeah, you would be…" Nero grumbled, rolling his eyes, "since it's the only thing you're good at." Luffy let that comment slide and returned his attention to their game. When he finally made a pact, mana manipulation and close combat wouldn't be his only skills.

He'd be strong. Strong enough to protect himself and his friends.

"You may enter." Akainu growled, opening the door for them…finally, "You are to stand against the wall and not interfere, is that understood?"

"Yeah!" Luffy chirped, leading the way into the room. He was pretty sure Akainu disliked him, but whatever, he was ready to watch a Level V joint summon!

Zoro knelt down on the floor to go over his section of the circle for the fifth time. One mistake and the whole summoning could fail…no pressure.

Satisfied his section had been copied perfectly from their reference book, he looked around to gauge everyone else's progress. Nami had already finished and was sitting in front of her section painting her nails (much to Vivi's amusement) while Usopp had his face to the floor, tracing a line over and over again. Curly Brow looked almost done, so they were doing pretty well on time.

Though, since their entire summoning class was present, and the circle was as big as the room, it was difficult to tell exactly how many students were completely done.

Honestly, Zoro hadn't bothered to learn everyone's names, just the people he cared about or who annoyed him enough to make an impact.

Five minutes later, they were done. Zoro stood up with everyone else to inspect their work, impressed with how it had turned out. The circle itself was large and intricate, a testament to how powerful and sizable the creature would be.

Roc Rodan, a Level V creature with a grade of 325 from Fotià, the Realm of Fire.

The beast was a massive bird of prey that was strong enough to hunt smaller species of dragon, though it tended to avoid the more powerful tribes. It had a strong sense of survival and was considered slightly intelligent, but not sentient.

'All we have to do is summon it, keep it here for a few minutes, and release it.' Zoro repeated in his mind while taking a deep breath, 'We can do this…' If he was ever going to command (and kill) creatures from Skotàdi, Fotià was a good place to start.

Behind him, the doors opened again to allow the ranger students inside. Luffy smiled and waved at everyone before trotting to stand between Zoro and Usopp. There were a lot fewer rangers than summoners, so they spread out all around the circle.

It actually made Zoro feel more at ease with Luffy at his back. The teen had a constant and bright presence that he wouldn't want anywhere else, especially for such a dangerous summoning.

"It's time." Akainu bellowed over the intercom. None of the professors would interfere unless something went terribly wrong, so they were on their own. "You may begin when ready."

Luffy vibrated in place as Zoro and the others began the summoning. They'd all memorized the specific incantation their class had jointly created and wasted no time in starting the summoning process.

In response to the summoners starting, Luffy pulled mana up to his eyes and scanned the room. It was an incredible sight! Everyone's mana glowed a bright blue and flowed from their bodies directly into the circle, making it pulse with energy.

For a moment, Luffy felt a pang of sadness in his heart that he would never be able to complete such an incredible feat, but he quickly dismissed it. He didn't need to be a summoner to have awesome adventures and lots of friends.

Once the long incantation was completed, the circle began to glow a deep…blue? Luffy's nose scrunched up slightly in confusion and he glanced over to Zoro's reference material. Wasn't the bird-thing supposed to be from Fotià?

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd noticed. The whole room buzzed with whispers and mana flow started to become shaky. It wasn't possible for Roc Rodan to be in Koràlli, was it? He was practically made of lava!

"All right, who the hell messed up!?" Bellamy yelled from across the circle, making a bunch of the other summoners bristle.

"Why do you think we did!? What about you?"

"HAH!? What did you say!?"

"W-Well, I certainly didn't…my part is perfect!"

Luffy listened as the summoners started to argue but focused his silver gaze on the circle. Something was seriously wrong. Whatever was being summoned, definitely wasn't Roc Rodan…and it had a lot more mana than everyone was prepared for.

But it seemed the professors outside weren't going to do anything considering they were still watching and taking notes. Maybe it would be okay-

Suddenly, Luffy was practically hit in the face with powerful mana that sent him reeling back a few steps. It was a strange orange color that radiated from the portal like tendrils of smoke. The other rangers could also see it and were slowly backing away from the circle. The summoners, however, were too focused on their argument to notice the deep, black abyss forming in their circle.

He swallowed nervously and looked into the darkness, eyes widening at the sight of orange tentacles and beady eyes staring back at him. Was that…what he thought it was?

Luffy wasted no time meeting the terrified gazes of his fellow rangers who were all looking to him. They needed to act fast, or their friends would be killed!

Zoro looked down in confusion at the blue circle, wondering what had gone wrong. They'd done the incantation right…and yet, whatever was coming was obviously from Koràlli. Oh well, they could just do what they were going to do with this new creature. It wasn't like it was beyond their control-

"DISCONNECT!" A voice screamed, tearing through their heated argument, "DISCONNECT NOW!" Zoro turned around in shock (not removing his hands from the circle) to stare at Luffy who was sprinting towards them.

"Wha-"

"Oi, oi…" A snotty student said, rolling his eyes, "You scared already, ranger? Even if it's not Roc Rodan, we'll just snare it-"

"IT'S A KRAKEN!" Luffy replied, skidding to his knees next to Zoro, eyes blazing silver, "A KRAKEN'S COMING!"

At that, Zoro's blood went cold and his stomach dropped. Twisting back around, he could now see it, buried in the darkness, a creature. It was so big, it wouldn't even fit up through their circle, but its tentacles were starting to probe upwards, straight towards them.

A Kraken was a Level VI creature, grade 780. It was completely beyond their means.

Once everyone realized they were in genuine danger, they started to scream and attempt to pull their hands off the circle. Unfortunately, their mana was still deeply connected to the circle, and therefore the creature. It siphoned their mana and kept their bodies glued to the circle, trapped like rats.

Zoro pulled hard against the floor, but it was like the creature's suction was right on his hands, refusing to release him.

'This is ridiculous!' He thought, straining his muscles, 'It's not going to fit in the circle, so why doesn't it just leave-' Zoro froze, eyes blowing wide.

Reverse Summon.

From what he remembered; Krakens were considered fairly intelligent. Could it be trying to pull them into its world…as food!? That had to be it, otherwise it wouldn't have bothered to answer the summon in the first place, not when it had the power to resist!

They had to disconnect, but how-

Suddenly, Zoro was torn away from the circle by small, calloused hands. It was Luffy. He'd literally torn Zoro's part of the circle into pieces with his bare hands. He couldn't stop the yelp of pain that accompanied having his mana flow snapped like a twig, sending it flowing back into body at a terrifying rate.

His body burned like his gut was on fire, making him groan and wallow on the floor.

Luffy stopped to gaze down at Zoro before continuing down the line of summoners. It took mere seconds for him to tear students away from the circle. From his position on the floor, he could see that the other rangers were working as fast as they could, but no one could match Luffy's speed.

"Get them away from the circle!" Luffy commanded, not looking up from his task. The short teen received an affirmation from the other rangers, who took to his leadership quickly and easily.

Inside the circle, the Kraken's limbs were starting to come through and slap the ground menacingly. It had obviously discovered its source of mana was being cut off. Where the hell were the professors!? Weren't they right outside?

Just before everyone was disconnected, what was left of the circle started to pulse and the abyss' suction reversed polarity. The Reverse Summoning had begun. Had the creature been smaller with only one summoner, it would've been over already.

Zoro pushed himself up onto his elbows, but his body shook from the strain. He felt so…weak. Couldn't he do anything to help?

At this point, there were only five students left. They screamed in terror as their bodies were drawn towards the darkness, unable to stop themselves. Luffy and a green-haired ranger rushed forward, eyes a blur of silver.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One…there was one left, and it was Vivi.

The blue-haired girl had tears running down her cheeks as a tentacle darted forward and wrapped around her, dragging her into the darkness. The other rangers stopped at the edge of the sludge, but Luffy didn't hesitate.

He darted forward, sandals and jacket thrown away. The portal was small now, with only enough room for the last tentacle.

"L-Luffy!" Vivi yelled, reaching out her hand towards the raven-haired teen. Luffy ran straight into the darkness, sinking in up to his waist, but he didn't seem to care. With a grunt of effort, the small teen latched onto the tentacle and began to pull desperately, to no avail.

"Hang on!" He yelled, prying harder, but nothing happened. The Kraken was simply too strong. With a determined growl, Luffy clenched his fist. Zoro watched in awe as the teen slammed his hand onto the scaly skin, making it bubble up and burst, eliciting a spine chilling screech of pain.

What had he done? Was that his mana?

Amazingly, it worked, and the tentacle loosened its grip on Vivi. Luffy wasted no time pulling her out and tossing her to the green-haired ranger waiting at the edge. He'd done it!

Just as Zoro started to smile, it fell.

"LUFFY, LOOK OUT!" He could only watch as Luffy was picked up in Vivi's place and dragged through the portal. Zoro met his wide eyes for a moment and reached out for him despite being all the way across the room…but then the circle vanished, taking the tentacle and its struggling hostage with it. It had all happened in a second, the circle's integrity disintegrating quickly when Vivi was disconnected, leaving no anchor to their world.

The floor was empty, like it hadn't just held a portal to another world.

Like it hadn't just stolen away his best friend.

Luffy was gone.

Smoker rushed across campus, pushing students out of the way. He'd just gotten a call that an "incident" had occurred during the summoners' midterm exam and that all first year faculty needed to be there ASAP.

Akainu hadn't given him any details, just that it was bad.

Right when he arrived, Smoker was met by Hina who had just finished wrapping a blanket around a quivering female student.

"What the hell happened!?" He couldn't tell just from looking around exactly what had occurred, especially since there didn't seem to be many injuries.

"Something went wrong with the summoning." Hina whispered, "We're looking into it, but it looks like sabotage." As she explained to him what happened, Smoker's frown deepened.

"Why didn't you or Akainu stop them?"

"The door was magically sealed." Hina said with a scowl, "Someone wanted to delay us long enough for the Reverse Summoning to finish. Though, it seems they didn't account for the ranger students' efficiency."

So, in other words, someone had just attempted to kidnap (or kill) their entire class of first year summoners. That wasn't good. Leaving Hina to console another student, Smoker wandered around the room, mentally cataloging anything he could find.

The summoner students were all pale and shaky but had no physical wounds. Their condition was likely a result of having their mana flow forcefully dismantled by the ranger students…the nausea would pass. In the center of the room was a group of students, all of whom Smoker recognized as the Monkey brat's friends.

Roronoa was at the center, staring down at the floor with a blank stare of shock.

"Oi, everyone okay?" He asked quietly, making them turn to look at him. They all looked terribly upset.

"…he's gone…" Roronoa whispered, hitting the floor with his fist. Smoker frowned.

"Who's gone?"

"Luffy!" The normally stoic teen yelled, making the room go completely silent, "H-He was right there, and I-I couldn't-"

"It was my fault!" The blue-haired girl cried, wiping her eyes desperately, "He leapt in to save me and-and-" Smoker raised his hands placatingly.

"Woah, woah…slow down and tell me what happened. Where's Luffy?" All of the students looked down, staying silent. The blonde Vinsmoke put an arm around Nefertari to comfort her and the other one refused to look at him.

Finally, the long-nosed teen composed himself enough to speak.

"H-He…the Kraken…it grabbed him." Smoker's breath hitched, "It took him…and we couldn't do anything to help."

Well, crap.

Before Smoker could say anything else, Akainu stepped forward and ordered all the students to return to their dorms unless injured.

"What about Monkey D. Luffy, the missing student?" He inquired, swiftly approaching the Headmaster. Akainu scowled.

"We may have a traitor in our midst. There's no time to go searching for one student." Smoker's teeth ground together in anger. Was he seriously suggesting they just left the kid alone in Koràlli!?

"You-"

He cut himself off as two figures appeared in the doorway. The normally smiling Shanks appeared uncharacteristically serious and with Rob Lucci beside him, they looked positively dangerous. Students and faculty alike got out of their way as they walked up to the center of the room, where the small group of grieving friends sat.

"Excuse us." Shanks whispered, gently putting a hand on Roronoa's shoulder. The students seemed confused, but scooted, nonetheless.

Once they had a clear space, Rob Lucci placed a hand on the floor and poured mana into it. Smoker and everyone watched as a miniature version of the summoning circle appeared, prompting Shanks to squat down next to it.

"Let's see here…hmmm…looks like Noah's Deep, what do you think?"

"I agree." Lucci affirmed, spinning the small circle around, "Though there's some corruption from Fos and even Skotàdi…we may be dealing with a syndicate of some kind." As the two rangers conferred over the circle, Akainu stalked forward.

"Don't even think about it, Akagami! I forbid it!"

"Oh…" Shanks whispered, coming up to a standing position to face Akainu, "You really think you can stop us, Sakazuki? Luffy is our precious student and we will do anything to get him back."

For a moment, Smoker thought they would come to blows, but thankfully the Headmaster backed off. Dealing with two ridiculously powerful rangers (in front of traumatized students no less) wasn't a good idea.

"…do what you wish…but don't expect compensation or assistance for your classes."

"Ah, don't worry about it!" Shanks chirped, smirk forming on his lips, "I've already called in a substitute. Hopefully, we won't be gone long." Smoker padded after the two rangers, stopping them in the lobby.

"Just the two of you?"

"Yeah," Shanks replied, "It's all we need. We'll bring him back, don't worry."

Smoker nodded and let them go, praying the little brat wasn't dead yet. But, with his family lineage, he seriously doubted it.

Luffy couldn't breathe.

The water was freezing cold around him and he couldn't move due to the tentacle snug around his body. He struggled vigorously, trying to get up the energy to mess with the creature's mana flow again, but without air, his body was quickly shutting down.

Just before he passed out, the Kraken emerged from the water and dumped him on something hard. Luffy took deep, greedy breathes, trying to compose himself. Somehow, he'd survived.

Would it try to eat him now?

Blinking to clear up his blurry vision, Luffy surveyed his surroundings from his place on the ground. They appeared to be in some sort of cave (the Kraken's home?) that connected directly to the ocean.

Above him, the creature settled itself down, so its tentacles surrounded him. Looking closer, the creature actually wasn't as scary looking as he originally thought, but it was still huge. The Kraken huffed and whined, holding its injured tentacle close.

As Luffy moved himself into a seated position, the Kraken growled at him and transferred his slimy limbs closer, effectively corralling him.

"S-Sorry…" He stuttered, freezing out of his mind, "'m not gonna do anything…j-just cold…" The Kraken observed him carefully, not reacting at all. Unsure of what to make of the situation, Luffy curled up into a ball to try and warm himself up.

If the Kraken didn't want to eat him, why had it grabbed him? For that matter, why had it tried to take everyone?

As time went by, the Kraken refused to move or let Luffy out from within its many arms. If he tried to move, a tentacle would push him back towards its main body. Honestly a bit bored, Luffy started to "talk" with the creature.

He told it about his classes, friends, and whatever else he could think of. The Kraken just blinked down at him, sometimes showing a sliver of interest, but it was hard to tell…the beast could not understand him at all for all he knew.

"Ne…do you have a name?" Luffy asked, scooting closer to its squishy main body. The Kraken gave off a soft rumble, one he interpreted as 'no', "Really? Well, what about…hmmm…Surume?"

The beast tilted its head and pointed a tentacle to itself, making Luffy smile tiredly.

"Yeah, Surume, that's you." He pointed to himself, "I'm Luffy, nice to meet ya!"

The Kraken didn't seem to care that the name meant 'dried shredded squid' (Luffy was hungry…), and actually smiled. As it turned out, Surume was actually quite playful and understood more than Luffy thought he did.

The creature apparently decided that it liked Luffy and grabbed him with his tentacles to cuddle his freezing body close to its own. Honestly, it didn't help all that much considering Surume was constantly wet and cold, but the thought was nice. Before he could fall asleep, a voice broke the silence, and made the massive Kraken flinch.

"Oi…Kraken…where the hell is our merchandise?"

Luffy peeked out from within Surume's protective clutches to see a group of fish-people. Were these the ones who'd tried to kidnap everyone? The Kraken didn't seem like the type to take a bunch of mana rich kids out of the blue.

"Oh, Hody, look!" One of them exclaimed, "Isn't it…holding something?" The head fishman narrowed his eyes.

Surume immediately balked and slid backwards, holding Luffy tighter.

"Give it here, now. Unless you want us to go recruit some of your siblings…"

Realizing his new friend was actually being used by these fishmen, Luffy squirmed in the Kraken's grip.

"It's okay, Surume, put me down." He soothed. When the Kraken didn't move, he tried a different approach, "…you did all this for your family, right? I understand, you don't want them to get hurt, so let me down, please."

At that, Surume relented, if reluctantly. He gently placed Luffy on the ground before the leader, who raised an eyebrow and looked him over shrewdly.

"…uh…just one?"

"Looks that way."

The leader, Hody or something, stalked up to him and scowled down on his shivering form.

"Kraken, is this really all you got out of that entire group of mana rich humans?" Surume nodded, touching two tentacles together sheepishly, "You're telling me, all I have to present to Arlong is this tiny, soggy, practically mana-less human!?"

Surume backed up a bit, scared by the fishman's anger. Hody growled.

"If this puts a mark on his record, you'll pay!"

Luffy grunted as the leader grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him off towards the other end of the cave. He tried to resist, but his body felt like a limp (and very cold) noodle. It was all he could do to keep up and not get dragged along the rocky ground.

Behind them, Surume rumbled sadly, prompting Luffy to glance back and flash a quick smile. He'd be okay.

"Do you think Master Tesoro will be angry with us?" Another one asked, appearing nervous. Hody frowned.

"Probably…but it wasn't us, it was the Kraken! Hopefully, Arlong will handle it, I certainly ain't dealing with that crazy djinn."

Listening in on their conversation, Luffy was starting to become nervous. There was a whole group behind the mass kidnapping attempt? And, from the way they talked about it, someone on their side had helped facilitate it, otherwise, how would they have known and succeeded in altering the circle.

But who?