SailorStar9: With Chapter 162 uploaded, I present Chapter 163 this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.

Pairings: Ace/Sasha, sibling Luffy/Sasha and Sabo/Sasha, Background Protector!Law/Sasha

Disclaimers: One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichirō-sensei. Me, on the other hand, own absolutely nothing, except my OC, the pairing and the fic idea.

Chapter 163: Arc 12: The Straw Hats Defeated?! Hody Gains Control of the Ryugu Palace!


"Boss!" the surrounding Fish-Men chorused.

"How could a human move faster than a Fish-Man in the water?" one of the invading Fish-Man wondered. "What's wrong with them?"

"How dare they cut Boss!" the Fish-Man beside him cursed. "Don't be afraid, they're just humans. They can't stay long in the water."

"Catch them!" another Fish-Man shouted.

"Let's take the Energy Steroid." one of the smaller Fish-Man bit down on the pill.

"Yare, yare." Sasha sighed, seeing the Fish-Men around them bulk up. "Zoro, mind taking half of them?"

"Then, you take the other half." the green-haired swordsman agreed, the two weapon users now standing back to back.

"Screw this!" the now powered-up Fish-Men laughed. "Kill them all! Neptune's army too!"


"What's this?" King Neptune frowned. "I sense a great deal of madness."


"Three Sword-Style: 108 Pound Phoenix!" Zoro's energy projectiles blew the Fish-Men attacking him back.

"Drilling Water Cannon!" Sasha let loose three highly compressed streams of water from the 'Seaslayer' kris which blasted the Fish-Men swimming towards her onto the sea floor.

"All you can do is defend yourselves." the second wave of Fish-Men took over the fight. "Just give up. You're choking already, aren't you? Drop dead!"

"Zoro, surface." Sasha instructed, as her Haki aura flared. "I'll finish this in one move."

"Will you be alright?" Zoro asked. "Never awaken the sleeping dragon, huh?" he mused and swam back to the surface."

"Don't push your luck too far." Sasha hissed at the Fish-Men closing in on her. As if in response to her anger, the water that flooded in started churning furiously. "Water Dragon Biting Explosion!" at her attack call, numerous streams of water shot up from the seabed, piercing each Fish-Man in the chest, the impact sending them into the air above the water level. Their targets immobilized, the water bullets then turned into water dragons which bit their victim and tunneled back into the water with a Fish-Man in their mouths. The multi-target attack only ended once the Fish-Men hit the ocean floor.

"Damn," one of the few Fish-Men who managed to dodge the initial attack cursed. "Screw what Boss wants! Let's just kill her!"


"This place is going to be filled with water." King Neptune reminded, once Zoro surfaced. "You have to hang on to me, too. They defeated my strong army easily. They've some sort of uncanny strength. I have to get all my men out of the palace. Secure some air with this, jamon. Hang onto my body very tightly." he tossed a Bubble Coral to Usopp from his beard. "We don't have time, jamon!"

"Yes!" one of the Fish-Men soldiers dived underwater.

I hope my strained back can take it. King Neptune prayed. It is an embarrassment for us to have Selena-sama defend the palace. Diving into the water, he stood face to face with the powered-up invaders, Zoro grabbing onto his beard with one hand, his other hand reached out to pull Sasha from the battlefield.

"Now, my soldiers. Here is your way out." King Neptune declared. "Abandon the battle and get out of here. Merman Combat: Ultramarine!" he fired off a powerful blast of water from his palms. "All soldiers go!" he barked. "Ride the current at any cost, jamon!"

"Damn!" the Fish-Men that were not blown off swore. "They're escaping without fighting us."

"Boss Hody, you gotta take this." one of the Fish-Man threw an Energy Steroid pill into Hody's mouth.

"I hate getting old." King Neptune muttered, struggling not to pass out as he slowly sunk. "I can't even move a millimeter, jamon."

"King Neptune-sama!" the Minister of the Right turned when he realized King Neptune had not followed.

"This is the end, jamon." King Neptune was resigned to his fate.

"Hoe!" Hoe roared, diving towards its master.

"Great!" King Neptune grabbed the reins and let the whale pull them off.

Hoe was suddenly stopped when Hody grabbed King Neptune by his tail.

Left with no choice, King Neptune let Hoe off. "Don't turn back, jamon!" he ordered his troops. "You have to keep going and find Fukaboshi and the others!"

"Tie the stupid king up." Hody ordered. "Finally," he forced the captured Sasha's face up to look at him. "My ultimate prize."


Meanwhile, in the Sea Forest...

"It's a beautiful place." Luffy gushed, Megalo having arrived at the Sea Forest. "So, this is the Sea Forest."

"I... always wanted to come here." Shirahoshi admitted. "Thank you very much, Luffy-sama!"

"Maybe I can treat him carefully here." Chopper reasoned, having hitched a ride on Megalo with Sanji and the gravely injured Hachi.

"That's the Sunny!" Luffy recognized the undamaged ship as Megalo neared its destination.

"Franky is there too." Chopper beamed.

"Hey Franky!" Luffy called out. "I didn't know you were here. Let me introduce you." he started, once Megalo landed on the seabed. "She's Coward."

"I'm sorry." Shirahoshi blinked. "My name is Shirahoshi."

"Franky, no one else is here?" Luffy asked.

"Actually, Robin came here too but she said she had to look for something and went into the forest of huge coral." Franky replied.

"Luffy, long time no see." Ace grinned, approaching Straw Hat crew with Jinbe.

"Ace!" Luffy glomped the older 'D.'

"You look stronger." Ace pried Luffy off.

"Boss Jinbe-sama." Shirahoshi smiled. "It has been a long time."

"Princess Shirahoshi-sama." Jinbe greeted. "You're here too. Long time no... what?" he exclaimed. "Princess Shirahoshi? Why are you here?"

"What's up with that delayed reaction, Jinbe-sensei?" Ace joked.

"Franky," Chopper pulled Hachi from Megalo's back. "Can you help me with Hachi and Sanji?"

"You're the octopus guy." Franky recognized Hachi. "What happened to you?"

"Hachi?" Jinbe was shocked for a second time that day. "What? How were you injured?" he hurried over. "But before that, why are you here on Fish-Man Island? I thought you've been caught with Arlong."

"Jinbe-san, why are you here?" Hachi winced, seeing the older Fish-Man.

"Franky, Sanji is next." Chopper shouted.

"No, you don't need to do that." Sanji corrected and jumped off Megalo. "Oh, Mermaid Princess." he serenaded. "I feel like a bad painter when I'm standing in front of you. Because I can't depict your splendor in front of any of the paint I have."

"That's the way he always acts in front of women." Chopper sniffled. "He's okay now."

"Your beauty won't fit on my canvas." Sanji continued. "So, I can't draw."

"He's back to his old self!" Chopper cried in relief.

"Back to his old self?" Ace echoed, looking at the mini reindeer perched on his shoulder. "But the vibe I get off from him..." the fire wielder frowned.

"It's so noisy." Den stepped out from the Sunny's lawn. "What's going on? Why is Princess Shirahoshi here?"

"Who the hell are you?" Luffy demanded. "Why are you on board the Sunny?"

"That's Den-chan, my shipwright master Tom's brother." Franky explained. "He's doing the recoating for us."

"Princess Shirahoshi-sama, I know why you wanted to come here, but..." Jinbe protested when Luffy suddenly cut in, kicking away a thrown ax. "Again?" he frowned, after Ace incinerated the weapon into a char. "I beat him up so badly but he kept throwing dozens of things. How persistent is he?"

"And now look what you've done." Ace scolded his younger brother. "Why did you bring her here, Luffy?"

"So, that's the grave she talked about." Luffy mused, the group standing back as Shirahoshi paid her respects to her late mother. "She's been at that for a long time."

"That's her mother, Queen Otohime's grave." Jinbe explained. "Vander Decken's relentless courtship began right after the Queen death. That's why the Princess couldn't even attend her mother's funeral and has spent the last 10 years in the hard Shell Tower. The things that she wanted to tell her mother kept building inside her heart, probably."

"Luffy!" Nami called from the water bus she and Camie were in.

"Nami-chin, look." Camie pointed out. "That's Boss Jinbe who's standing right by Luffy-chin's side. Oh?" she blinked, spotting Shirahoshi once they alighted. "Princess Shirahoshi is with them. Shocking!" she exclaimed. "Hat-chin, what happened to you?"

"Is that true?" Jinbe asked after Nami filled the rest in. "Hody did it? I never thought that such things could happen at the Ryugu Palace."

"What happened to Zoro and the others?" Luffy pressed.

"I don't know." Nami replied. "I was wanna go back as soon as I met you."

"No..." Shirahoshi wept. "I can't believe Father-sama has been caught."

"Luffy, I apologize." Jinbe started. "Ace-kun and I... we left the message because we didn't want to get you into trouble, but we let you get involved already. We have to hurry, but let me just say, 2 years ago, when I met Lady Sasha, it was harder for me to talk about it than it is now. I've been feeling very thankful to those people who stopped the Arlong Pirates running wild in the East Blue. That was you guys, wasn't it? Let me express my gratitude. And I want to apologize at the same time. The person responsible for setting Arlong loose into the East Blue was me."


SailorStar9: Any OOC-nes is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Reviews are much appreciated.