Twelve Red Lines

by Vikingr

I expected to die when I went into the water. Instead, I was rescued by a crew of people who I knew only as characters in a story. But what does it take to become worthy of being a Straw Hat? And why are so many little details not matching up to what I know?

26. Anagnorisis

Anagnorisis: the point in the plot where a character realizes the true state of affairs

Gerbilfriend: Thanks. And it was a movie.

gamelover41592: Thank you very much.

Krazyfanfiction1: Poor Willy indeed...

Cv12Hornet: Yeah... *shrugs* Contrivances and One Piece movies kinda go hand in hand.

Resisting the Borg: As they were meant to be.

The Keeper of Worlds: Eheh... Not quite.

The Patient One: Thank you, mein Schatz. *hugs* As far as Jones not knowing Dovahzul... She has the dictionary, but never had a chance to really learn the language. It's hard, when you have no one to speak it with, to pick up more than a few words.

King Eli: Eheh... Sorry?

Dragondancer81: Thank you very much.

Snowgirl7589: Sparkle...? Sorry, I don't understand...

Antiguo: No, I wasn't planning on it, although I'll probably have more than in canon. Don't worry, I'm being careful.

Lightsbane1905: Yes, that was a movie. And so's this.

leavingyouforme: Thank you very much! As far as why Jones is contacting Jonathan... For the sake of the mindfuckery, dear reader. For the sake of the mindfuckery. She knows his game, knows how good he is at it... So she's forcing him to play hers instead.

xanothos: Thank you very much.

Draco Oblivion: Don't worry, Yosaku will be alright. Just scars, nothing permanently debilitating. And yes, they'll still be having fun at Navarone in a little while.

Avisian: *smiles* Thanks. I thought so too.

EnixFairy: Thank you. *bows* That's what I strive to do.

Bombadilo Baby: Thank you very much. I'll continue to do my best.

Kikidevil70: Sometimes she gets them, aye. Not very often, but... Well, the fic started on one. I'm certainly planning to bring them up again, but yeah, it's a pretty long time between them, usually.

Fencer22: Nothing to apologize for. I was planning on keeping it to physical forces, since the fruit is broken enough with those. *holds up enormous physics textbook*

Drakon45: Thank you very much.

Azurai Wolf: Thanks. Now that Jones is more comfortable with the Straw Hats, we might be seeing that more often— after all, for her the most important thing is protecting the crew, no matter the cost. That means both emotionally and physically. As far as putting Bellamy in his place... I certainly have a plan for him, and that's all I'll say.

starelight: No, Jones' ship isn't with Luffy. He's too young for her. Half plus seven means Jones couldn't get with anyone younger than nineteen. Thank you very much for your support!

EvilpuppyofDoom: Ah. Yes, Jones can do that. Comes with studying literature— she's trained to pay attention to little details, like what colour someone wears most and their word choice when speaking and writing. It doesn't have to just apply to analyzing text.

Xipholynx: Thank you very much! And, well, *nervous laughter* diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Sage McGavin: Indeed.

Redery: You're back? *bows* I'm honoured that you saw fit to give my story a second chance. Evan Johnson is an SI written by a friend of mine. We did a rap battle because why not?

havarti2: Indeed! So much fun— but at the same time, so hard on a poor little caravel.

Insanity Lord: No, that was a movie. As for the Candy-Candy Fruit— I'm gonna mitigate possible conflict here by saying Gasparde, in my 'verse, drowned when his ship went down. Therefore the fruit gets reincarnated.

rosewillow narusasufangirl: Possibly. There are certainly many reasons Jones doesn't want to tell people outside the crew about her origins or her Devil Fruit.

FairyGirl960: Thank you. And here's what happens next.

Aldura Rising: Thank you very much— for both your compliments, and your perseverance. I will admit, there were definitely some parts in early chapters that were quite awkward and I knew people might be put off by. I wasn't trying very hard at first; I thought no one would read this, and was mostly using it to vent and live out daydreams while dealing with one of my bouts of depression. But the Cross-Brain apparently saw something in my writing even through that, for which I am very grateful. I'm still amazed, actually— even months later, sometimes I think it was all something I dreamt up.

Salem '72: Thank you very much.

Partsu: Maybe someday.

LuffyLover: Thank you. I would ask Evan as well before you go doing something like that, but you certainly have my blessing. And you're welcome

Bravsoul: Won't say if your feeling's right or not, but thank you.

Solemn Nonsense: Thank you very much. *grins* And I like Ghin and Merry together too. It's supposed to be the opposite of Usopp and Merry— the gunner is all too willing to believe that their ship is coming alive, while the rigger needs to be literally slapped in the face with it. Multiple times.

Chery: That is a very good question, and something Jones didn't think about at the time. That said, I counter with a question of my own— how would Crocodile get a chance to run interference on Daz Bones when he was taken away to Impel Down less than 24 hours after that conversation?

Doodling Shadows: You're not the only one who's expressed discomfort seeing Jones hurt all the time— and I'll even admit that I imagine the injuries on myself while writing, so sometimes it bothers me too. However, they're pirates— people are bound to get hurt. Jones just gets the brunt of it. As far as gravity... By the time you're reading this, I'm pretty sure I've answered your question.

PervyPanda: I'm glad you decided to give me a second chance. It makes me a little sad when people drop a fic because of the gender of the main character— but maybe that's because being genderfluid, I can identify with characters regardless. *shrugs* You're certainly not the only one who likes Jones x Robin, or the only one who's claimed any of those as the reasons. It's a popular ship, it seems. As far as quality, I figure anything worth doing is worth giving at least 80% on, even if it's just on a fanfiction website. I'll see what I can do about the fight scenes— those are something I know I need to practice with, but I've never been sure exactly in which direction to go. I'm sorry about the paragraphs; they don't look that long when I type them in my word processor, but I assume the formatting on the website changes that. And on that note, sorry about this long-ass, one paragraph reply. As far as chapter lengths, no, I haven't really thought of shortening them. Sorry; my massively long chapters are actually a point of pride for me, in a weirdly twisted way. Would it help your friend if I made PDFs available? You can put bookmarks in those, so you're less likely to get lost if you have to stop mid-chapter. I think. And yes, I agree, I should probably describe Jones more. Both little things, and actually giving a full description at some point. I was trying to avoid the Mary Sue tendency to give overly long, detailed descriptions of my SI, but I think I went too far in the other direction. Thank you very much for your suggestions!

The Nefarious Nerd: / Thank you very much! I'm glad people like my version of Luffy, and I'll try to keep developing his thought processes in the same vein. And hopefully soon I'll begin going into a few other characters in a similar way.

Guest (October 28): 1) Yes, gravity will be fun to play with as things go on. 2) One could go places with that, but I will not. Just physical forces for me. Sorry. 3) It can be. But manipulating forces on multiple things at once is hard; she can only do two at once right now, and even that gives her a headache. It'll be a while before anything like what you're suggesting becomes possible. Sorry. SIDE NOTE: As far as your side note, I would predict that either Rey or Kylo Ren will lose an arm in the upcoming film. Thank you very much for your support!

I was standing in a long tunnel carved of blue stone. It was veined with lacy grey and white- sodalite, I think. A beautiful stone. Glancing up, I could see someone standing a few hundred meters ahead of me, just before a bend in the tunnel. A man; very tall, dressed all in blue and grey that made him blend into the stone. I was too far away to make out his features in any detail… But I could tell that he was smiling. He raised a hand, beckoning to me; I immediately started running forwards, inexplicably drawn. But no matter how fast I ran, it didn't seem to be enough. The tunnel stretched weirdly with every step I took, my goal getting further and further away…

…Beep…

"LAND HO!"

"Eah!" Usopp's shout woke me. This was… not exactly the best thing, since I'd been sleeping in a sort of nest I'd managed to jury-rig in the rigging. Ruatha and Geier had been with me- my baby because he nearly always was, the vulture because she was tired after a night watch. Tumbling out of the makeshift nest, I flailed my arms like helicopter rotors in the hope it would slow my fall. It didn't. Geier- who'd taken to the air as soon as she felt things unraveling around us- shrieked with avian laughter as I performed a glorious belly flop on the deck.

Ruatha had slightly more success than I did. He still fell, aye, but between his limbs actually being made for such and having been spending time watching Geier, my baby was able to flap in such a way to noticeably slow his descent. He landed gracefully on my back, crooning as he stepped on my ribcage and squashed the wind out of me.

I groaned. "Yes, yes, you're cute and you're starting to learn how to fly. Perkunas protect us all. Now get off."

"Flogah…" Ruatha grumbled. But he complied- at least until I was back on my feet again, at which point he climbed up to his accustomed place on my shoulders.

Rubbing my head, I looked around. Huh. No sign of monkey-men or giant turtles, we had yet to have a ship fall on us, and I didn't recognize the shoreline on the horizon. Tabarnak. Eyes closed, one hand still rubbing my temples, I shot the finger at the sky. "Osti d'épais de marde, other me! Didn't we just go through a movie or whatever? Don't you have readers eager to see what I have planned for Blackbeard?"

Of course, I didn't expect a response. So I was surprised, when I opened my eyes, to see a cloud floating high above that kind of looked like a fist with the middle finger extended. Kind of. If I squinted. I snorted at the sight. Yeah, real subtle, other me. Real subtle.

"Who are you yelling at?" Robin asked, glancing up from her book with a frown. I paused and shook my head.

"I- uh, no one. Don't worry about it. I am 103% certifiably insane, as anyone on this crew will be quick to acknowledge. Sometimes I talk to people back in my own world as if I think they can hear me- and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I think." Come to think of it, was I really as crazy as I thought I was? Do crazy people think they're crazy? I wasn't sure how to test this…

Pursing her lips, Robin turned her attention back to her book. "I see."

It wasn't long after that until the Going Merry made port. As usual, we furled the flag and mainsail to prevent anyone seeing our Jolly Roger and ratting us out to the marines- and just to avoid making the general populace nervous. Once we were safe at anchor, Nami rounded everyone up from where they'd been sleeping or working.

"Alright! What supplies do we need, if any? Who needs to go shopping? Who wants to stay back and guard the ship?"

Johnny, Yosaku, and Usopp all raised their hands at the last question. The gunner spoke up first. "We'll stay with Merry. I need to check her for damages after the race a few days ago- I didn't get a chance at Partia, and it's easier when she's in port. It's, ah, I'm worried about her… A lot of what we've been doing lately isn't normal for the East Blue; she might not be able to handle it as well as a ship built for the Grand Line."

"And we're working on something!" Johnny piped up on behalf of himself and Yosaku. "Big Bro Usopp gave us a great idea a while ago that we wanna try out- electric swords!"

That made Zoro frown. "You wouldn't need all these weird tricks if you spent more time training with your swords in the first place."

"Leave them alone, Moss-Head." Sanji blew a smoke ring at the bosun. "Not everyone can have your level of single-minded focus."

"Are you saying I'm stronger than you?" Zoro asked with a triumphant smirk. "Cause that's what I'm hearing- that you don't train enough to keep up."

"No! I'm saying that shitty boulder you call a head only has room in it for one thought at a time!" Sanji launched a flying kick at Zoro; a steel-toed shoe met the flat of a blade with a resounding clang. Before the brawl could go any further, though, Nami clicked her Clima-Tact together.

"Thunder Tempo!"

Bosun and cook both fell to the deck, twitching. Spinning her weapon, the sailing master sighed. "Would it kill you two to get along for five minutes?" She didn't wait for an answer to the question, rubbing her temples with one hand. "Sanji, you come shopping with the rest of us- I'm sure there's something in the kitchen that needs replenishing. Zoro, you stay back and keep watch; we can't trust the tinkerers to notice everything while they're working."

"Of course, Nami dear!"

"Tch. Fine."

The cook spun and danced as he got to his feet, while the bosun never really stood- more sat up and shuffled to the side so he was leaning against the rail. Nami rolled her eyes at that. "Don't you dare nap while you've got guard duty!"

Zoro rolled his eyes. "I won't, I won't. Sheesh."

Luffy bounced excitedly as the majority of us began disembarking. "Yay! New island, new adventure! What're you gonna do, Ace?" The rubber boy leapt onto his brother's back. He'd been doing that a lot, whenever there was downtime; it was like he was worried Ace would leave or something if he went too long without Luffy hugging him.

"Ergh, get off, Lu. You can walk by yourself." Peeling his brother off his back, Ace squashed golden straw down onto black hair in a forceful but affectionate noogie. "I'm coming with you, of course. Give your crew mates a bit of a break from dealing with your bouncing all over the place."

Pouting, Luffy stuck out his tongue. "I'm not that bad."

"He's really not," Lisa agreed before Ace could say anything. She smiled sweetly up at the firecracker. Ace looked torn between mystification and laughter.

I separated from the rest of the crew almost immediately on disembarking. Ghin frowned, looking like he was debating whether or not to try and stop me. He eventually decided against it, sighing heavily through his nose. "Jones, I know you're a grown woman and that makes you think you know what you're doing, but… where the Hell are you going?"

"To find a book store and spend every beri currently in my possession on as many books as I can afford about den-den mushi- preferably including a few volumes on breeding habits and the construction of different types of rig." Shoving my hands in my pockets, I continued on my way away… Only to pause again when my honorary brother sighed once more. This time it made a bit of a whistling sound, like his nose was a teakettle.

"Why?"

"Because- and this sentence makes no more sense in my home world than in this one- I intend to make a snail-based internet." I'd been considering the merits for a while and finally decided that yes, it really was a thing I wanted to do- potential terrors that Bartolomeo could inflict on the world if given a media to write and distribute fanfiction aside.

Ghin- and everybody, really- looked at me like I'd grown an extra head. Or, well, like I was acting like me. I would probably eventually stop noticing when people looked at me funny. It was Chopper, in all his childishly curious, fluffy glory, who eventually saw fit to further question my motives. "Um… Jones… What's an internet?"

That made me freeze up. Because… How do you explain the World Wide Web to someone whose nearest equivalent was snail telephones? I wasn't an IT guy; I didn't even know how to explain it to people who had seen a computer. "It's… um… A series of tiny tubes and boxes, controlled by people playing with mice, that's spread over almost the whole world. It's used to shop, look at pictures of cats doing silly things, watch pornography, play games, and occasionally even to share useful information. Communication takes tiny fractions of a second in most cases- faster than any snail call."

"EH?!" Chopper's eyes spun- then started to glow. "AND YOU CAN BUILD ONE? SO COOL!"

I shrugged. "Not sure, actually. But I won't know until I try."

As I turned and continued on my way, I saw Robin trailing behind me. Her eyes were wide, mystified. Not quite sure what was going on, I waited until we were well away from the rest of the crew- and were, in fact, browsing through a small bookstore- before confronting her. "Can I help you?"

Of course, to anyone looking on, it wouldn't look like a confrontation at all. I was standing on tiptoe, trying to read the titles on the top shelves; Robin was scanning boredly through a volume on local legends. If we hadn't been speaking- and we were doing that quietly- we wouldn't have looked like we were acknowledging each other's presence at all.

Robin took a deep breath at my words. "Baryshnya Witch… This internet you speak of- just to make sure, it will allow for the near-instantaneous transmission of large amounts of data?"

I nodded. "All over the world. You'd be able to access a digital library in Sabaody from the comfort of a bar in Goa Kingdom. Of course," a snort of laughter forced its way out before I could stop it, "For every Encyclopaedia Britannica, there's a 4chan; for every Nature journal, there's… some site where naked people dance to bad techno music, probably. You find a lot of weird stuff online."

"Can you imagine what the World Government would do with a system like that?" Robin's fingers went white as she gripped the book she was holding tighter; there was a nearly imperceptible tremor in her voice.

Ducking my head, I reached up to pat Ruatha as my hat shadowed my eyes. "Wrong question. What you should be asking is what could I do to them with a system like that?"

Now Robin's face was going white too, pale and shaky. "You- your aim is to take down the World Government? Are you a Revolutionary? I thought-!"

"No," I interrupted before finding out what Robin thought. Sticking my tongue out, I winced as I continued. "I'm not a Revolutionary, although I think they have the right idea. The World Government reeks of dystopia- and I hate dystopias. But I'm just a little witch; my main focus is on protecting and serving this crew… my friends. That said, Luffy is Dragon's son- the very act of him existing would eventually bring us into conflict with the World Government. And that's not counting the fact that most of the Celestial Dragons and a good chunk of the marines are corrupt assholes who our dear captain would beat to a bloody pulp given the right circumstances."

Finding a book on snail anatomy that looked promising, I grinned as I pulled it down. "So I prefer to be prepared- the best defense is a good offense. Being from another world gives me a step up in that direction. I know big chunks of the future, a lot of stuff about different people, science… I'm not perfect; I screw up sometimes, with the things I'm changing. But overall, I think I've been managing to make things better. And I've been getting better at making plans, manipulating things in our favour… Or I like to think so, at any rate."

Shaking her head, Robin closed her book. She took a deep breath, still shaking. "Like a little spider spinning her web… But you're just one spider; the World Government is a thunderstorm that will shred your web and wash it away."

I tilted my head in acknowledgement. "If I was alone, aye. But I'm not. Straw Hats look out for each other, and together, we can overcome anything. Also," and here I chuckled, "You've got it wrong. I'm not a spider. I'm a dragon, with knowledge as my treasure."

Robin sighed at that, sounding a little… sad? Something was bothering her. Maybe she was thinking about Ohara, wondering whether the internet could've saved it? Or maybe she was afraid what I was trying to do would lead other islands to the same fate. That was certainly the impression I got from her next words. "The others trust you, so I wont judge for now. But be careful, Baryshnya Witch. When dragon fights dragon, someone is bound to get burned."

That made me flinch- because yeah, in no fantasy I'd ever read was dragon fighting dragon a good thing, for the dragons themselves or anyone around them. And especially not for their riders… I don't know where I was going with that analogy. Rolling my eyes, I glanced at the Fourth Wall and shook my head. Silly writer…

Robin and I didn't talk any more while we sifted through the shelves. She didn't let me out of her sight, though. The archaeologist followed me as I picked through the stacks, occasionally checking something in the book of legends she had picked up. I, meanwhile, slowly assembled a pile of books too tall for me to see over- all on the topic of den-den mushi. And yes, it did occur to me that I could save myself a lot of trouble by calling Sabo, having him connect me to Dragon, and asking Luffy's dad about snail breeding, since it was a canon hobby of his, but that was only if Dragon saw fit to answer my questions. Which I suspected he wouldn't until after I'd started being more open with my future knowledge.

"Do- do you need help?" Robin asked hesitantly as I tottered towards the checkout with my tower of texts. I shook my head- which nearly caused me to lose a few books from the top of the heap as I moved.

"No, no, I'm good." There was a tremendous thud as I placed my books down on the desk in front of the cashier. The poor teenage boy stared at me with wide brown eyes. At first, I thought it had something to do with the giant tower of books I was purchasing- then I remembered that I had a dragon the size of a large dog riding on my shoulders. Ruatha let out a little hiss of laughter at the look on the boy's face.

After a moment of thought, I pointed at the book Robin was holding. "And I'm paying for that one too."

The archaeologist opened her mouth to protest. "Baryshnya Witch, I-!"

I stopped her with a raised hand. "It's fine; don't worry about it. I don't mind buying things for my friends."

That made Robin fall silent. She stared at me with confusion as I paid, and remained quite quiet as we left the store. It wasn't until we were out in the streets, looking around at the other shops the town had to offer, that Robin spoke again. "I- It's been a long time since anyone called me a friend."

Raising an eyebrow, I glanced up at the tall archaeologist. "Really? Doesn't the captain count?"

"Ah. That's true." Robin looked contemplative. "I wish he wouldn't be so insistent that I was one of you. He- how can he be so trusting? He doesn't know what I've done, what I am…"

"But I do." I smiled, although at the same time I had a strange heavy feeling in my chest. "And Luffy… He may not know particulars, but he's good with people. Just because he acts like a dumb kid doesn't mean he can't tell whether he can trust someone. Sometimes he just knows."

"Indeed." Robin frowned thoughtfully. "But has it ever occurred to you he could be wrong? That perhaps you can't trust certain people, no matter how they seem at first?"

"Not really." I crossed my fingers under the heap of books I was carrying, hoping my confidence in my captain wasn't an open invitation to Murphy. "Has it occurred to you that maybe Luffy can see things in people that they don't know themselves?"

Robin startle a bit at that. She didn't say anything else, her gaze turning inwards as she thought about… something. I left her to it, looking around and eventually raising a hand to wave when I saw a bunch of our crew mates heading into a little restaurant. This, of course, destabilized my pile of books. Four arms sprouted from my ribs amidst a flurry of petals, grabbing hold of the texts before they fell to the ground. I stared at the limbs for a moment. It was a little freaky, seeing a bunch of arms that weren't mine sticking out of my sides. Several long seconds passed before I moved- and really, I only did so after a fifth hand bloomed and nudged my shoulder. Shaking my head, I readjusted my hold on my books so Robin could dispel her arms.

Sitting down around a table, we wasted no time in ordering. Which, of course, involved a lot of Luffy yelling for meat and the rest of us shaking our heads as we looked at our captain with exasperated fondness. Although Sanji was a little annoyed.

"Pipe down Shithead!" The cook booted Luffy in the side without getting up from his seat, sending the captain rolling onto the floor. Luffy didn't seem at all bothered by this, just grinning and jumping back into his chair. The waiter, on the other hand, looked horrified as he scurried back towards the kitchen.

A different waiter than the one Sanji had spooked brought us drinks as we waited for our food. Once the boy was gone, Nami leaned forwards and placed her elbows on the table with a contented sigh. Chopper nodded beside her as he gulped his milk.

"I know. It's nice to just relax on an island and not have to fight people."

Lisa nodded as well, petting Drifter as the otter sat on her lap. Geier was perched on the window sill; the vulture conveniently disappeared whenever waiters wandered too near our table. It made sense- a carrion bird was a lot less likely to be welcome in places where people prepared food than a cute water weasel.

"No, no, that's not it," Nami shook her head, "Although it is nice to get a break from fighting and have a chance to do some decent shopping. I got some adorable new tops. But… This is Asuka Island. Rumour has it the most beautiful sword in the world is here- the Seven-Star Sword. It had a golden handle inlaid with seven beautiful emeralds, and silver plating on the blade… Something like that would be worth a fortune." Nami sighed. Her eyes turned to dimly glowing beri symbols. "But it's been lost for years; I don't even know where to start looking."

"Asuka Island?" Robin raised her eyebrows. "I've heard that name before as well. It was in regards to a legend- apparently, every hundred years like clockwork, a disaster befalls the island. You can tell when it's imminent when a red moon rises. The Seven-Star Sword was an artifact given to the king of an ancient kingdom to combat this disaster, alongside three magical gems that produce some sort of shield. Unfortunately, the sword was cursed."

"Cursed?!" Chopper yelped. The doctor clung to Ghin; the rigger rolled his eyes and rubbed patiently at thick reindeer fur.

Luffy yelped in unison with Chopper. "A cursed sword? Cool! I bet Zoro would like that!"

"You don't believe that, do you Lu? Curses don't exist." Ace shook his head and patted Luffy's hat. My captain pouted.

"Jones came from another world," the rubber boy grumbled quietly. "If that can happen, why can't curses? And isn't Zoro's Kitetsu sword s'posed to be cursed too?"

That made Ace pause and shrug. Everyone, even Robin, had a bit of a giggle at his expense. Then the archaeologist smiled softly. "The legend even ends with a prophecy of sorts- When the red moon shines, the sword will be imbued with great power. If the Seven Stars fall to it, the world will be forever ruled by darkness. Of course, no one knows what that is supposed to mean. And even if they did, I wouldn't put much stock in prophecies- world-walking little witches aside, it's impossible to truly know the future."

…

WHAT?!

Tabarnak. I may not have seen this movie, but I'd read it in Blue's fic. Of course, that version was probably brief and not the most accurate, left some things out… Raising one hand, I elevated my middle finger in the direction of the Fourth Wall as I slammed my forehead into the table. Everyone looked at me in confusion- except Ruatha, who started nibbling on my ponytail.

"Are you okay Jones?" Lisa asked, prodding at me. A growl rose up in my chest; had it been anyone else asking the question, I would've snapped at them. As it was, I couldn't hold back a bit of bitterness from creeping into my voice.

"I'm fine. My stupid-ass writer, on the other hand… She's getting soft in the head."

Frowning, Drifter held up a sign. What the-? Can I get some bloody context for this?

Sanji huffed and blew a smoke ring as our food arrived. "Trust me, River Dog, if we knew, we'd give it to you. Jonesie's just weird like that sometimes. You'll get used to it. Eventually."

X

Zoro didn't sleep on the job, no matter what Nami and the shit cook said. He did, however, have his eyes closed- it was hard to meditate with them open, especially with all the flashes and explosions Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku were making. Distracting… Breathing deeply, the swordsman focused inward. He was trying to figure out flying slashes, as he had been ever since Little Garden. Jones had said it was mostly a speed thing, and that it would be easier once he figured out how to cut steel. Well, he could do that now…

The bosun focused on the sounds of the universe, the gentle pulsing of different substances. It was… unnerving. He was glad he'd figured out how to block it out when he needed to; if he had to listen to this all the time, he would've gone mad. Air in particular- it had a rapid, fluttery pulse, like the wings of a hummingbird. It took several long minutes of listening for Zoro to be able to properly perceive the spaces between the beats. Of course, he wasn't sure that hitting between the beats of air would create one of the flying slashes, but it seemed like as good an idea as any.

WA-FOOM!

A nasty smell, like a cat's litterbox that hadn't been cleaned in a month, bloomed through the air. Zoro opened his eyes and scowled at the chemists crouched in a circle in the middle of the deck. Usopp's face was covered in soot and Yosaku's eyebrows had been singed off. Johnny's sunglasses had a big crack bisecting one lens. But those three bozos would be alright- what worried Zoro was the charred patch on the deck, with embers still burning against the wood.

"Oi! What're you morons up to?" They better not accidentally blow up the ship. Merry was the first place Zoro had been able to call home since he left the dojo; he would not be happy if she sank.

"You dumbass! I told you not to put it next to the candle!" And apparently Usopp agreed with Zoro, seeing as the gunner booted Johnny in the rear. The blue hunter soared over the rail and splashed down beside the ship. Yosaku followed shortly after, arms flailing. At least the green hunter's wounds from Alabasta had finally healed; Chopper would've had words if Usopp had booted an injured person like that.

The gunner spent the next minute extinguishing the embers on the deck- but not with water or by stomping, the way Zoro would've thought. Instead, Usopp doused the area with some sort of thick foam he got from a tin in his duffle bag. Huh. Once the foam had been covering the deck for a solid couple minutes, then Usopp sprayed the area with water before rushing over to the rail as Johnny and Yosaku were climbing back aboard.

"Hey, hey, hey! No way! If you wanna play with that any more, we're switching to the beach! I'm not hurting Merry again if I can help it!"

Both hunters looked mortified, immediately dropping back into the water and making their way to shore. "Shit. Sorry Big Bro- we didn't realize…"

Zoro raised an eyebrow as Usopp prepared to disembark and join his fellow chemists. "What was that?"

"We just made ammonium perchlorate," Usopp explained, rubbing his nose proudly. "It was a by-product of trying to electrify Johnny's sword- Yosaku's was easy enough, but for Johnny's, we have to play around with different compounds for a bit." Then the gunner frowned. "Ammonium perchlorate might be useful on its own, but it's so unstable- too much heat, a little spark, a careless impact, then boom."

Shaking his head, Usopp picked up the last of the chemistry equipment sitting on the deck and joined Johnny and Yosaku on the beach. Zoro sighed. He still didn't think the hunters should be wasting their time on stuff like that- they could've been decent swordsmen if they'd just put in some more effort- but he couldn't tell them what to do. All he could do was focus on his own training.

And on that note… Zoro stood and drew Wado Ichimonji. Cool metal settled in his hand, the blade that had been with him for so long, she was more an extension of his spirit than anything. Eyes closed, listening for the elusive gap between beats in the rhythm of the air… There. A quick flick and snap across produced a short-lived burst of wind, but not quite what Zoro was looking for. Hmm… He was still missing something. But what?

Something silver flashed past his head, distracting him. The movement was followed by a small thunk, the sound of a knife embedding itself in wood. Spinning on his heel, Zoro caught sight of the offending weapon sticking out of the Going Merry's mast. He stomped over and yanked it free.

"Oi! Who did that?! You'd better- huh?" The swordsman froze mid-sentence when he recognized the tanto in his hand. Plain but good steel, a battered wooden hilt that had seen better days… And had his name carved on one side in a sloppy childish hand. Zoro frowned in confusion. It had been over a year… He'd never expected to see that blade again.

Which meant… He had an old friend to check in on. A promise to keep.

Glancing at the beach where Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku were mixing something that produced acrid smoke, Zoro debated whether or not to tell his crew mates before he left. Nah., He was sure this wouldn't take long. Check in on Saga, make sure he was alright, catch up for a bit, then come back to the Merry. A couple hours tops. He'd probably be back before any of the ones who went shopping. Nodding to himself, Zoro hopped over the rail into shallow water and waded off towards the forest that covered most of the island.

The trio of chemists didn't notice even as he splashed past. Largely because they were trying to keep some chemical that burned with strange, purple flames from scorching a hole in Johnny's jacket.

Shadows of greenish gloom enveloped Zoro as he strode into the forest. Hip-deep ferns brushed against him with every step; twigs crackled beneath his feet. He'd been walking for about ten minutes when he came across three people- a tall, slim man in bluish armour, a heavy man whose orange vest displayed numerous green geometric tattoos, and a small teenager with a leopard-print coat and a smiling baseball cap. Zoro halted and frowned as they approached him, unsure what to think. He'd never seen any of the three before.

The armoured one approached, hands raised to indicate peaceful approach. "Roronoa Zoro?"

"Yeah." The Straw Hat bosun folded his arms. "Who wants to know?"

"My name's Bismarck; these are my associates Boo Kong and Toma." The towering redhead gestured first to his larger companion, then to the teenager. "We've been expecting you; Sensei asked us to bring you up to the dojo."

"And who's your sensei?" If this was a trap- if some asshole had gotten their hands-on Saga's knife and was using it to trap him… Heads were going to roll.

"His name's Saga. Fornaldar Saga."

Zoro raised an eyebrow at that. He'd never heard Saga's surname- his old friend had been quiet about his family. Still, there was no guarantee this was his Saga. He'd take care, just in case. Unfolding his arms, Zoro rested his right hand on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. "Alright. Lead on."

Bismarck nodded and turned, leading the way off into the forest. Boo Kong indicated for Zoro to go next, the large man taking up the rear. Toma walked alongside Zoro as they hiked, a slight bounce in the teenager's step. He kept glancing up at the bosun through unruly copper bangs.

"So… You and Sensei knew each other when you were kids, right?"

"If your sensei is the same Saga I'm thinking of, yeah." Zoro grunted. He didn't even try to be subtle as he evaluated Toma. Stealth wasn't his strong point. The kid was small, speedy… The overlong sword he carried was suited to a completely different style than he was. If Saga had been teaching this kid to fight, what the Hell was he thinking? Small, slim, speedy… This Toma kid needed to be dual-wielding small weapons, not waving around a nodachi that was almost taller than he was.

"That's so cool." Toma's voice was steady, but his eyes were glowing with admiration. "I want to be just like Sensei someday- to fight for justice and protect the island. But I have a lot of training left to go before I'm anywhere near as good as Sensei."

Zoro nodded thoughtfully. He had nothing to say to that, really- nothing except that he wished Johnny and Yosaku would show that level of dedication to their swordsmanship. They were supposed to be his apprentices, dammit! Not Usopp's! He had plans for training those two, like the plans he'd seen the war dog working on for trying things with Jones.

…At least the shit cook didn't have an apprentice yet. If he did- and if his apprentice was somehow better than Zoro's- the bosun would never hear the end of it.

As they walked, Zoro couldn't help but feel that there was something off about this island. It felt like… The whole island felt the same as Sandai Kitetsu had when he'd first bought it. Wild. Cruel. That aura even seeped in between the beats in the pulses of the place, muddling Zoro's mind whenever he allowed himself to listen. He clamped down on the feeling- hard- before it could give him a headache.

Soon a large building emerged from the trees, a great towering temple carved of stone that perched atop a cliff. The style wasn't familiar to Zoro at all- not that he ever really paid much attention to such things. It was certainly big enough to be a dojo, though. A few dozen marines were scattered around the outside in groups, sparring and practicing kata. That put Zoro on his guard for a moment- he was a pirate, after all- before he remembered that as far as the world knew, he was still Roronoa Zoro, demon of the East Blue and bounty hunter extraordinaire.

And then the doors opened and a man stepped out and Zoro froze. Because that was Saga, but Saga was dead. He'd died when that ship burned… But clearly he hadn't, because Saga was standing right there, a great jian strapped across the back. The sword glowed faintly green with some unearthly inner light. It created strange shadows on Saga's red robes and white hair.

Saga smiled. "Hello Zoro. I thought it was you I saw when that goat ship was coming into port. It was a bit of a surprise, of course- I never took you for the sort to start a crew."

"Didn't start it. Joined it." If Zoro was more of a touchy-feely person- like his captain- he would've caught Saga in the most forceful embrace known to man. As it was, the Straw Hat bosun couldn't take his eyes off his old friend. Saga's right arm dangling limply left Zoro concerned. And… Guilty. Because whatever injury caused it to be that way, that prevented Saga from using his dominant arm- it was almost certainly due to him staying back on that ship.

"Well, I never would've expected you to join a crew either," Saga said with a small, confused frown. "I thought you were set on walking your own path, becoming the greatest swordsman in the world?"

Zoro shrugged self-consciously. "I found a captain who convinced me I could have both friends and my goals."

"Heh. I'd like to meet a captain like that." Saga smoothed his robes with one hand. "Will he be upset that you came to see me?"

"Probably not," Zoro admitted. "He'd probably want to meet you."

Saga let out a huff of laughter. "Unfortunately, I don't have time for that, as much as I'd love to meet your new friends. Zoro… I have something I need you to help me with."

The Straw Hat bosun nodded. He'd figured as much. "Alright, I'll do it."

That took Saga momentarily aback. "I- Thank you, but don't you even want to know what it is before you agree?"

Zoro shrugged again. "It'd be nice to know what you need before I actually do it, but… You're my friend and I owe you. My crew's here for a couple days on shore leave; why wouldn't I use that time to help you?" The swordsman flipped the tanto that had led him here around in his hand, offering the hilt to his old friend.

"Heh…" Smirking wryly, Saga shook his head. "I'd forgotten how refreshingly blunt you could be." Instead of taking the blade, Saga held out a sheath with his good hand. Zoro hesitated a moment, surprised, before accepting it. Sheathing the tanto and shoving it in his haramaki felt… odd. But good. It was nice to have an extra blade, in case anything happened to one of his main swords.

Smirk turning into a genuine smile, Saga led Zoro into the dojo proper. The stone walls were painted with strange, old pictures that seemed to depict some sort of story. There was lots of red and green- maybe blood and trees? Or was that supposed to be the moons? A bunch of stars? It wasn't a story Zoro could understand, but Saga gestured reverently to some of the images. Once again, the Straw Hat bosun winced at the way his friend's right arm dangled uselessly.

"I need you to find these." Saga gestured to a set of three pink circles on the wall. "The sacred orbs of Asuka Island. As far as I'm aware, they're in the possession of a local priestess. They- I need them in order to control and eliminate an ancient curse on this island." Chuckling self-consciously, Saga ran his hand through his hair. "You probably think me mad…"

"No more than one of my crew mates." Zoro let out a snort of laughter. When Saga looked askance at him, the swordsman thought for a moment, then nodded to himself. Saga was a friend and Zoro hated lying, especially to friends. And telling Saga about Jones couldn't do any harm, could it? "Our… I don't know what to call her- she acts like a quartermaster sometimes, but not always, and she's never claimed the title- she came from another world. We just pulled her up out of the water one day, bleeding. She does strange things, knows strange things, calls herself a witch… Not sure if she's an actual witch though." The swordsman shrugged.

"Interesting…" Saga traced one of the images on the wall with his fingers. "Well… I must say, I'd be curious to meet her, if we have the time."

That sudden change confused Zoro. Just a few minutes before, Saga had said there was no time… But it could be just a slip of the tongue, caused by curiosity. Yeah, that was probably it. Putting it out of his mind, the Straw Hat bosun looked at the circles on the wall. "So, these orbs you need… Where would I find the priestess you think has them?"

Saga smiled. Something about the light in the room made his eyes flash an eerie green colour. "On the far side of the island there's a small town where the people live by an archaic set of traditions. The priestess is a young girl named Maya who lives with her grandmother. My men can show you the way to her house."

X

Once we were done eating, the away team headed back to the Going Merry as a unit. Not that the log pose was set yet- it wouldn't be until tomorrow evening- but we had lots of stuff to drop off before we could go exploring more. Mine and Robin's books, the food Sanji had picked up, Nami and Lisa's new clothes… And a pile of leather and canvas that Ghin had picked up somewhere. I shot him a look of confusion. What could he possibly need that for? We'd already had a decent supply for repairing sails.

My big brother snorted. "Gonna try and make something that'll slow down your habit of destroying shirts."

I frowned. "Am I really that bad?"

"Yes," Ghin thumped me gently on the head as Nami glared, "You are. A marine at Warship Island, dinosaurs on Little Garden, Ace and a bomb in Alabasta… And I'm sure it'll get worse the further we go along the Grand Line. Things are getting more dangerous, and with your tendency to blow yourself up with your powers and otherwise throw yourself into danger… You need something that can stand up to the abuse you put things through."

Drooping, I edged away to trudge along at the edge of the group. Arguing with Ghin was futile in this case… He was right. Most likely. Even Zoro had only wrecked one shirt that I could remember, back when he fought Mihawk. Ruatha rested his head on top of mine and crooned; Geier chuffed with laughter as she soared above.

There was a pawn shop that we passed on our way back to the harbour. Something in the window caught my eye- something we didn't need yet, wouldn't even be able to use for a while. But… Once we could. Once we had the Sunny, and Brook… Although, if I found a way to save the Merry, would we even need the Sunny? I wasn't sure. But even if we didn't, this was something Brook might like.

I shoved my pile of books at Luffy, startling my captain. "Huh? Jones, what're you doing?"

"Picking up something for when we get our musician."

"Oh. Okay, cool. Just don't tell me who they are or where we meet them. That's spoilers!"

"Aye-aye Captain." Did I have any beri left? After all the snail books, not really, but I had my powers. Although… Where was I going to get titanium, iron, and aluminum oxide? And even if I did, this was gonna hurt. Let's see… Johnny, Yosaku, and Usopp might have iron and aluminum oxide from their experiments, but that still left titanium. That'd be hard- pun not intended, but welcome.

Or… Wait. Did I have some scrap metal from when we were at Clockwork Island? Probably… Iron and aluminum were almost definite, then, and titanium was possible- it was frequently used for propellers and things that were underwater, since it was resistant to the abrasion of the sea. Rifling through my utility belt, I came up with a bunch of little bits of shrapnel, mixed with screws and a couple bullets. A lot of aluminum and iron, one bit that looked like titanium, and a couple plates of copper and scraps of copper wire. I stuffed the copper back in my pocket, then separated the aluminum from the other metals and shoved it into Ace's hand.

"I need you to burn this for me."

"What?!" Ace yelped, staring at the silvery shards I'd handed him. I rolled my eyes and spoke slowly, as if to a small child.

"You're a fire man. If you burn aluminum, it makes aluminum oxide. I need aluminum oxide to make a thing to get money to buy a thing." And when had my life turned into a video game side quest?

"Okay…" Ace looked dubiously at the aluminum I'd handed him, then lit it up white hot. Everyone had to cover their eyes and look away, lest we go blind. After a few minutes, the light died down. Ace waved the aluminum oxide he'd produced around for a while to try and cool it before handing it back to me, but it was still hot when I touched it. That was okay though. I needed things to be hot for what I wanted.

Using my powers over friction, I grated the iron bits together until some of them flaked and produced coarse filings. Abrading the titanium to get filings of that was harder- pun intended this time- but by sacrificing some of the aluminum oxide to mix with sand, then increasing friction again, I was able to make my hand into temporary sandpaper. Doing so left bloody scrapes along my palm, but gave me a little bit of titanium powder. It should be enough.

"Under Pressure!" I know I was worried about being figured out by Celestial Dragons, or messing with the economy, but just one stone on a lonely backwater island should be fine.

Mixing the aluminum oxide, iron filings, and titanium powder in my hands- along with a bit of my own blood, which was unavoidable- I began pressing them together. I sat down on the ground and absorbed the friction around me to get the force I needed for compression, sliding around slightly on the suddenly slick ground. Pressure… and heat. Like when I'd made the diamonds, I quickly burned my hands as I compressed the substances inside. The powders hardened and fused, shrinking, as I pressed on them until the heat became too much. I tossed the stone I'd made onto the ground, blowing on my bleeding, blistered palms to cool them.

Chopper trotted over to me with a distressed whine. "Jones, what are you doing?" Not waiting for an answer, the little doctor began rubbing salve on my hands before wrapping them in soft gauze. "Would it kill you to stop getting hurt for five minutes? I know you can't always avoid it in fights and such, but these are your own powers! You know making gemstones burns you! You need to stop!"

Why was he so concerned? It was just a few little burns and scrapes; I'd had plenty worse even on my old world. I shrugged it off, much to the doctor's exasperation. As soon as Chopper released my wrists, I reached over to pick up the stone I'd made. Lumpy, uneven shape- but vivid blue and the size of a robin's egg. I held it up in Nami's direction. "So… What kinda price you think I could get for this?"

The sailing master stared at me, dumbfounded. Her eyes turned to beri symbols reflexively, despite what we'd discussed the last time I made gemstones. "You can make sapphires too? What about emeralds? Or rubies?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Emeralds probably not- I don't remember how they're formed, but I'm pretty sure it involved the word hydrothermal, and I can't do hot water. Rubies maybe… They're like sapphires, but coloured with different stuff. Chromium, I think. Not sure where I'd find any of that, though." That reminded me- I still had my ruby from when Ghin and I conned those gang members in Loguetown. Never done anything with it… I pulled the red stone out of my pocket and stared at it side by side with my fresh, steaming sapphire.

Rising to my feet, I headed for the pawn shop, tossing the stones up and down as I walked. "Alright, got a thing to buy. Won't take long- no need to wait for me if you don't want."

But wait they did, out of a combination of confusion and wondering if I needed help. Drifter held up a sign. I never thought I'd see any hoser crazy enough to be that casual about burning their skin off and making fucking diamonds and sapphires with her bare hands.

Ace blinked. "Me neither, and I live in the New World with a captain who's managed to crack air when he gets angry. Has Jones always been like this?"

Luffy shook his head, beaming. "Nah, but I like it. Back when we found her was… Not good. I'm glad she's gotten so happy and has so much fun with her fruit!"

Bells above the door jingled as I entered the pawn shop and strode up to the cash. The man behind the counter paused in cleaning an old brass lamp, his eyes flicking to Ruatha on my shoulders before coming to rest on my face. "H-hello Miss. C-can I help you?"

"How much for that piano in the window?" I gestured at the instrument that had first caught my interest- a baby grand piano made of dark wood, with delicate carvings on the legs that resembled waves and spiralling birds. There was a name printed on it in peeling gold leaf; enough letters had flaked off that I couldn't tell what the name had once read. "And by how much, I mean can I exchange it for a couple gemstones I have on me?"

"That would depend what sort of gems you're talking." The storekeeper raised an eyebrow in my direction and set the lamp he'd been cleaning on the counter. The look on his face indicated he didn't think any stones I could present were worth nearly that much.

I plunked my sapphire down on the counter, holding the ruby in reserve.

The storekeeper's eyes bugged out; he snatched up a jeweller's loupe and used it to examine my sapphire. "This- You- Where did you get a fifteen-carat sapphire?!"

Oh. Um… Time to roll an intimidate check! "It's probably safer for us both if I don't tell you. It's not stolen, and that's all you really need to know, isn't it?" A mad grin split my face, stretching my scars as I tilted my hat back, resting my other hand on the counter and leaning slightly forwards. Ruatha grinned as well, all sharp teeth and rumbling laughter.

Face going pale, the storekeeper gulped. "Yes, I suppose that's all I need to know indeed. A fifteen-carat sapphire- and such a vivid blue… Yes, this is worth enough to trade for the piano. Seven stars… I might have to put an add out to sell this; foreign buyers are the only ones with enough money. I was already planning to do that with the baby grand…" He began polishing the sapphire absently. "Would you like me to wrap it for you?"

"No. No, I'm good." That said… How was I going to get an 800lb piano to the ship? I had always been strong, and I'd gotten stronger since coming to this world, but was I strong enough for this? Between my training and my powers… There was only one way to find out.

I clicked my tongue at Ruatha, pointing at the floor. "Down boy. Mommy needs her shoulders to pick up something big."

My dragon snorted, but climbed down as I approached the piano. At the last minute I paused and removed my training weights- both from my arms and my legs. Yes, for once I remembered to do that. Every little bit would help. I passed the weights off to Ruatha, clipping them around his legs and tail. "And carry these for Mommy please; I don't wanna have to come back for them."

"Geh, geh!" My dragon strutted proudly, waving his tail in a slow figure-eight.

Crouching, I moved under the piano so my back was flat against it. I gripped the front legs with my bandaged hands and took a deep breath… Then lifted.

Or, rather, it was more standing up, I guess. And tabarnak, the piano was heavy. The weight crushed awkwardly at my lungs, making breathing difficult; my legs and back burned. My arms were better off, keeping the piano level rather than actually doing the lifting, but even they ached. But at the same time, as much as it hurt, it was manageable. I took a step towards the door, and then another. They were shaky, and my balance wasn't the best. But I could take them, which was all that mattered. I had gotten stronger- much stronger.

And despite the awkward way I was carrying the piano, which should've prevented anyone being able to touch me, I felt a brief brush of hands against my shoulders. Like someone was trying to steady me, or maybe soothe the ache in my back.

One staggering step after another, I made my way out of the store. I couldn't really see where I was going though, bent over the way I was. It led to me bumping into the doorframe a few times before I managed to get out- and then nearly running into Lisa as well. The little girl yelped and jumped back; I likewise tried to pull back, but doing so safely with a piano on my back wasn't the easiest thing. I nearly fell over on my ass as the weight shifted; the only reason I didn't was because Ace grabbed hold of the front of the piano and held it steady.

"You alright under there, little big sis?" Ace peered under the piano with a teasing smile. I growled.

"If I wasn't carrying a piano, I'd deck you right now." That just made Ace laugh at me, so I tried to ram him with the piano. Which was… not a good idea, but I don't always think straight. When I charged him- sluggishly- with the piano, Ace just grabbed the instrument and lifted it up over his head. And since I was too surprised- or stubborn, take your pick- to let go, he picked me up as well by default.

I squirmed, dangling from the raised piano. "Show off! Put me down!"

Ace didn't, just snickered and smiled up at me. I could've dropped down and waited for him to return the piano to the ground- or gotten him to carry it for me, I guess- but I didn't want to do that. I could lift it by myself and I was bloody proud of that, thank you very much! Even if a certain shirtless fireball was still showing me up. Luffy giggled at my predicament.

"Shishishishishi!" Despite nearly rolling around on the ground, my captain was careful not to drop any of my books. "Ace, Jones doesn't like when you ask that. I dunno why. And she doesn't like needing help either, even though that's dumb and everyone needs help with some things."

No one else seemed to find the situation funny. Ace's face fell; he gently lowered me to the ground, piano and all. He was even careful enough to settle the piano on my back the way I'd been carrying it before. I grit my teeth, readjusting to the weight I'd been momentarily free from as it resettled on my spine.

We headed back towards the ship with no further incident. Or, well, until we got to the beach at the same moment said beach exploded. My ears rang; the echoing BOOM was followed by Usopp's shrieking voice.

"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF-! I TOLD YOU FIVE TIMES ALREADY, STOP PUTTING THE AMMONIUM PERCHLORATE DOWN NEAR CANDLES! IT'S UNSTABLE!"

"Sorry, sorry…" Johnny's voice crackled as he tried to soothe the gunner. "I thought I'd put the candle out this time, I swear!"

"SORRY WON'T CUT IT IF YOU BLOW US ALL UP!"

"Calm down," Yosaku ordered, getting between them. "Bro, take off your sunglasses if that crack's making it hard to see. Big Bro Usopp, it was an accident and no one got hurt. Chill."

Luffy beamed and bounced, interrupting before the gunner could respond. "Hey guys! Whatcha making? Is it supposed to blow up like that? Cool!"

"We're trying not to blow up," Usopp groused. "We've been trying to electrify Johnny's sword while still allowing his spray attack to be a base instead of an acid. It's not easy, especially when someone keeps putting the highly unstable by-products of our experiments near open flame! We already had to shift off the Merry so we didn't damage her!"

Nami shook her head. "At least all the noise must've kept Zoro awake…" the sailing master muttered.

Johnny and Yosaku yelped in unified protest. "Hey! Big Bro Zoro wouldn't sleep on watch! He's been training the whole time- trying to figure out flying slashes, I think."

"Yeah! Although he's been quiet for a while… Maybe he's meditating?"

Sanji rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. Moss-Head's probably managed to find himself a place to curl up and snooze no matter how loud you're being. Typical."

While Johnny and Yosaku yelped and began to yell indignant protests on Zoro's behalf- yelling over each other so they were difficult to understand- I considered the problem of getting the piano up to the ship. Before I could figure it out, though, Ace picked me and the piano both up and jumped to the deck. For a moment I felt weightless- except for the snap and burn in my elbows as I continued to cling to the bottom of the piano. This time, before putting the piano down, Ace shook the instrument until I fell off. I landed on my ass, arms aching.

"Oi, what was that for?" I glared up at Ace, rubbing my arms. I think I just pulled a few muscles.

Ace shrugged and set the piano down by Nami's tangerines. "S'how I get Lu to let goof things."

"Yeah, well, I'm not your brother!" Rising, I stomped over to Ruatha as my dragon climbed aboard. I retrieved my weights and strapped them back on, looking around. I didn't see any sign of Zoro on deck, nor did he emerge from anywhere as people wandered around putting their shopping away.

And then Lisa found the stab mark in the mast.

"What's this?" The little painter ran her fingers over the golden wood.

Yosaku, helping Johnny and Usopp bring their chemistry equipment back aboard for cleaning, paused. "Looks like a stab wound Li'l Sis. But it's too small for Big Bro Zoro's swords, and he wouldn't do something like that."

A few minutes later, though, it became abundantly apparent that whether the stab mark had anything to do with him or not, Zoro wasn't around. I'd been starting to expect that, from what I remembered of Blue's fic, but I hadn't been certain. As soon as it was confirmed, I groaned and began thumping my head repeatedly against the mast. Each thud sent a little charge of force down my spine.

"What's wrong?" Ghin asked, placing a hand on my shoulder. I only half paid attention.

"We're in a movie and he's loose and Mock Town's coming but it's not and what is going on these days? My writer is a pain in the butt!" I raised my middle finger at the Fourth Wall. Dammit… Although I wasn't really sure why I was complaining either.

Maybe I was just anxious at the delay in my plans.

Sanji chewed angrily on the butt of his cigarette. "Shit… The Mossball's loose. We've gotta go looking for him. Orders Shit Captain?" The cook turned to Luffy. Picking his nose, the rubber boy rolled his eyes.

"We go looking for him, duh!"

That'll have to wait. Drifter waved a sign as he and Geier soared in a circle around the mast. Marines arriving in port. I don't think they've seen us, but we might want to move the ship before they notice the Jolly Roger.

"What branch number?" I asked half-heartedly. Not that I had any idea whether to be worrying about any specific captains or not, but if it was someone I did know, I wanted to be prepared.

No branch number, was the otter's reply. The ship has a base number on it though. G-8.

Wha-? Well, we had almost sailed into Navarone during that race. I probably shouldn't be surprised. "If anyone's looking for my opinion, we should hide. There's a high chance we'll be dealing with these guys later, and it'll be easier if they don't know who we are. Of course," I glanced at Luffy, "It's your decision, Captain."

Luffy thought for a moment, then nodded. "I trust Jones. If you think that's best… Nami, find us somewhere to hide while we find Zoro."

"Aye-aye captain!" Nami grabbed a map she'd acquired somewhere of Asuka Island. "Posts everyone! You know the drill by now!"

We moved like a well-oiled machine- that sailing race had done wonders for our teamwork. Soon enough the Going Merry was drifting out of the harbour. We passed not one, not two, but five marine ships. I recognized Lieutenant Drake at the bow of one of them. As Merry left port- under the power of just her unmarked mizzen sail, as always when we were trying to avoid detection- I flung Ruatha on top of Ace so my dragon's squawking and fluttering wings would hide the Whitebeard pirate from view.

"Hmm…" Nami scanned the coastline, comparing it to her map. Then suddenly, "There! Between those rocks!"

Usopp shot a dubious look at the narrow opening. "Are you sure we'll fit?"

"Of course we will!" Nami shot the gunner an offended look. "Do you honestly think I'd run Merry aground?"

"No…"

The craggy gap very quickly turned into a swift-flowing river pulling us uphill. We couldn't stop- the bottom was stone worn smooth, no purchase for the anchor- and it was too narrow for us to turn around. As Merry was dragged swiftly along, I took a moment to wonder at the number of times this had happened. I'd always known about Reverse Mountain, of course, but this river, and the one on the island where the race started… Uphill rivers were actually quite a common thing in this world, weren't they?

And then the riverbed dropped abruptly away below us and we were flying through the air. Everything was momentarily weightless. I clung to the nearest line with one hand, my other holding my hat on as we plummeted. Soaring through the sky, not bound to the earth or even the ocean… This was the ultimate form of freedom. I loved it. So what if these weird uphill rivers were common? They were awesome.

"Sesehihihihihi!"

"Uuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Usopp didn't share my opinion. The gunner clung to the rails for dear life, his eyes bulging out of his head. Weird… The different biology in this world seemed to be settled disproportionately around the eyes. Was there some survival advantage conferred by being able to emote to such extremes?

"We're gonna hit that hill!" Johnny squeaked, hugging Yosaku tightly. The green hunter just gritted his teeth, gripping the rail with white knuckles.

Chopper stared, mystified, at the landmass Johnny had indicated. "That's no hill…" the tiny doctor murmured. Before anyone could ask him what he meant, he added, "He's singing…"

No one could tell who Chopper meant by he.

Johnny was right though- we were descending rapidly towards the hill-like thing. I braced for impact, hoping I could absorb some of the force and lessen the strain on our dear little ship. Soon enough, Merry hit dense, grey-violet earth with a heavy, jarring THUD. Her timbers shivered; a charge of force almost larger than I could stand raced up my legs. Half the crew was knocked on their ass. And then…

And then Merry bounced.

The hill moved beneath us, tossing our dear little ship back up into the air. A craggy head rose from the river, massive horn dripping water. Eyes the size of bathtubs tracked our new trajectory with surprise. The last thing I saw before we descended below the treeline was those huge eyes turning into hearts as the massive beast- some sort of cross between a hippo and a rhino- let out a bugling call.

"UAWAWA!"

SPLASH! The Going Merry set down in a river- a broad, deep one this time, that actually flowed downhill instead of up. Not that there was any shortage of hills in the immediate area. Indeed, all of Asuka Island seemed to be made of hills and lakes. Kind of like Ontario… A quick pang of homesickness jabbed me in the chest; I squashed it down. No point being homesick for a place I'd never see again. For a brief moment, I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. Whatever phantom arms had taken to following me around, they felt a little… sad? I'm not sure… Sighing, I put all such thoughts out of my mind as we steered Merry towards a nearby lake. We were nearly in the center of the island now; it was as good a place as any from which to coordinate our search for Zoro.

I knew where he'd gone. Saga's dojo. But where that was, I had no idea.

"Waaaaaah…" Usopp's eyes were spinning as he leaned heavily on the rails. "Why do we keep doing things like that?"

"Because the Grand Line is as twisted as a bowline tied by a three-year-old," Ghin grumbled, unwrapping himself from a line that had become tangled around his legs.

There was a great stone promontory that thrust out into the lake. Rounding it, we were faced with a broad, shallow bay. A small shrine stood on the shore; a folded towel sat on the steps. Three shimmering pink orbs rested behind the towel. Swimming in the bay was a young girl with long, blue hair. She hummed quietly as she swam in circles, occasionally dipping her head beneath the water to wash her hair. Smiling softly, the girl stepped onto the shore. Her pink swimsuit clung tightly to her body, gold glittering at some of the seams. She walked up to the shrine, wrapping herself in the towel and picking up the orbs- then froze when she caught a glimpse of the Going Merry out of the corner of her eye.

Her face went pale; she spun on her heel and took off into the forest, the orbs and towel clutched to her chest. "Aaaaaiiiieeee!"

"Wait!" Luffy waved after the fleeing girl. "Come back! We're not scary, promise! We just need help finding one of our friends!" He stretched out one arm, grabbing a tree on the shore.

Usopp yelped and grabbed the captain's shoulders. "Hey! Luffy! Calm down- we can find Zoro on our own!"

Johnny and Yosaku rushed to help the gunner, grabbing the rubber boy from behind. It wasn't enough though. Even the weight of three people didn't stop Luffy's arm from snapping back to normal length, dragging all three men through the air at high speed. Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku screamed and flailed as they flew; Luffy giggled. All four of them swiftly disappeared into the forest, crashing sounds indicating their point of landing well beyond what the rest of us could see.

"Uaaaaaaaaah!"

"Yiiiiiieeeeeeee!

"Shishishishishi!"

Nami groaned and rubbed her temples. "Someone drop the anchor, please, so we can go after those morons."

It took a moment for anyone to respond- largely because Zoro was the one who usually dealt with the anchor, and he wasn't there. Eventually Ace did it. The freckled pirate looked just as exasperated as Nami; grey eyes kept flicking worriedly over to where Luffy, Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku had disappeared. "He's just gotten worse since I left, hasn't he?"

I shrugged. "Not really? At least he can beat bears and stuff on his own now, so you don't have to worry as much about him getting hurt."

Ace shot me a flat look. "I will always have to worry about Lu. If he can beat the bear, it just means he'll go looking for something bigger to fight."

Responding to that would require deeper thought than I wanted to get into at the moment- things about Luffy's past and family and Ace's own emotional issues- so I didn't say anything. Yet. Eventually I'd have to address it, but not today. Instead, I focused on getting to the shore without getting wet, since we still didn't have a landing craft. Nami had long since accepted that and stopped hounding me about it, though.

Ruatha clung tight to my shoulders as I prepared to disembark, naturally. What wasn't usual was Lisa trying to climb up with him. The little painter hugged me tight and smiled while I calculated how much force I needed. I looked down at her in surprise. "Eh?"

"I don't wanna get wet either," Lisa made a face at the water. "It makes some of my paints runny and clumpy. And flying's fun."

"Okay…" I reached down and held onto Lisa, making sure she didn't fall off as I launched us shoreward with a force-charged leap. She still wasn't strong enough to hold on through such acceleration on her own… I'd been trying, but training her was slow going when she cared more about experimenting with different colours of paint.

FWAM! A burst of force sent us flying away from the Going Merry, setting the little caravel rocking. Oops. I don't think I did any damage, though. Having more passengers than usual- and the fact that I hadn't done this with Ruatha since he was a fair bit smaller- threw my balance off; I found myself flipping over in the air. A quick twist of force to redistribute gravity for a moment fixed that. Half a second later, I came down on the shore on my feet. Lisa giggled and grinned as she released her grip on my waist.

"Your Devil Fruit is so cool Jones!" The little painter bounced on her toes. "You and Luffy both. I wish I had a Devil Fruit too- they're so much fun!"

My face heated up. Tabarnak… I've never really known how to deal with compliments. Sometimes I can just ignore it, if there's more pressing things on my mind but just then… Thankfully, Drifter and Geier landed in a tree beside us just then, providing a distraction. Sanji, Ghin, and Ace leapt to shore soon after, with the cook carrying Robin and the rigger carrying Chopper. Sanji's eyes glowed pink. Nami arrived last, having decided to swim over rather than ask Ace for a lift.

"Should we not leave someone to guard the ship?" Robin asked as Sanji put her down.

Nami shook her head. "I doubt there's a need. Unless…" The sailing master turned to me. "Jones… What do you think? You don't know this island well, but you know something about it, right?"

"Yeah… I promised Luffy I wouldn't give out spoilers though."

Sanji blew a smoke ring at me, setting me coughing. "If you hadn't noticed, the shitty captain's not here, and neither's the shitty mossball who'd hold you to it. Spoil away."

I shrugged, self-conscious. "My word is the only honour I have; even if they're not here, I won't break a promise. But I can tell you that we don't need to post any guards. Merry will be fine; if we need to worry about anyone, it's Zoro."

Chopper sniffed the air, his nose twitching adorably. "So… Should we go after Luffy and the others, or try to follow that girl? Sorry… I can't smell Zoro anywhere, so I don't know…"

"There's nothing to apologize for Choppy." I scooped the little doctor into my arms and cuddled him like a teddy bear. Smiling, Lisa reached up to rub his soft fur.

No one answered the doctor's question at first. After a while I realized that everyone was looking at me. Except Ace; he'd succumbed to a narcoleptic fit and was draped over a nearby log, snoring away. A little bit of drool leaked out the corner of his open mouth. Yeah… He really looked like Luffy sometimes, and when he was sleeping was one of them. Were Roger and Garp related somehow? Cousins or something?

I raised an eyebrow at all the stares being directed my way. "What? What is it?"

"The captain's not here," Ghin said slowly, "And neither's the bosun. Next on the list would be the sailing master if we were at sea- Nami- or the quartermaster on land. But we don't have one of those. Not really."

"Okay…" What was he getting at? And since when wasn't Nami the quartermaster as well as the sailing master? She was the one who was in charge of the crew's budget. I didn't realize I'd voiced those thoughts until Ghin and Nami both shook their heads.

"Like I want the trouble of herding these monkeys on land. It's bad enough when they're confined to the ship and can't escape to do too much damage."

"And the quartermaster looks after more than just the budget," Ghin explained. A wry smirk crossed his face. "They're also in charge of making lists of supplies, telling people what the ship needs as a whole. Now, let's see- who usually does that? Oh, and the quartermaster's usually the one in charge of any public relations and negotiations and such… And who do we know who's pretty good at that?"

My face heated up even more; I promptly hid it behind Chopper's fluffy hat so people couldn't see me blushing. "Sorry…"

Sanji huffed. "Don't apologise, dammit. You've done well enough so far."

Drifter nodded in agreement and raised a sign. Wow, he seemed to carry an unlimited supply of those things around… I wondered how. All in favour of Jones as our quartermaster?

More hands, paws, and wings rose than really should've been possible with the number of people we had around. I glanced up and shot a frown at Robin; the archaeologist responded with a small, mysterious smile. The extra hands poofed out of existence with a swirl of petals. Groaning internally, I hung my head. Robin, why do you like to mess with me so?

Then Drifter reached over from his perch on Geier's back and patted my head. He waved another sign in front of my face. Congratulations Jonesie; you're in charge until the other hosers get back. So… What should we do?

Merde… Yes, yes, let's randomly decide to give me authority during an adventure I had only the faintest idea about. That's sure to go well. My head started to ache, a dull, rhythmic throbbing. I nuzzled the back of Chopper's head as I thought.

"We… I guess we should split up. Some of us follow the girl, and some of us look for Luffy, Usopp, Johnny, Yosaku, and Zoro." Although I had a pretty good idea where the captain, gunner, and hunters were- or at least, where they'd end up. The tunnels were my favourite part of that chapter of Blue's fic. "Umm… Sanji, Nami, Robin, Chopper, Ace- you guys head for the village. I- I mean, follow the girl. Ghin, Lisa, Drifter, Geier- you come with me and look for the missing third of our crew."

Everyone nodded; Ghin patted me on the head. "There. That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"No…" I shook my head. My honorary big brother smirked.

"And giving orders felt kind of good, didn't it?"

"Maybe a little…" Not that I was about to let it go to my head. And merde, what if I screwed up and sent someone into a trap, got them hurt? Did Luffy worry about this all the time? I tried to put it out of my mind. My crew mates were tough; everyone would be fine. The groups I'd assigned split off. As I wandered off into the trees with the rest of the search team, I glanced back to see Sanji kick Ace in the ribs to wake him. The firecracker, unprepared, flew into a tree and bounced to the ground before he was awake enough to remember to go intangible. Huh. Guess he was one of those logia who still needed to know an attack was coming to avoid being hit.

Lisa worked her hand into one of mine to hold as we walked; Ghin strode along behind, watching my back. Drifter and Geier flitted overhead, the vulture pulling maneuvers that would've been difficult for birds half her size as she wove between the trunks and branches. Ruatha, still perched on my shoulders, watched her intently. Every once in a while he fluttered his wings and twitched his tail. Poor baby… He wanted to fly so badly.

So… Drifter asked as we moved further into the forest, Where're we headed? You have any idea where the other hosers might be?

"Not really… Sorry…" I flinched. "But- it's Luffy. If we find the head of the trail of destruction, we can just follow that."

Somehow, though, despite heading in the direction Luffy and company had rocketed in, we couldn't find the trail of destruction. Or rather, we found more than one and couldn't tell which one was right. Numerous wide swathes of flattened undergrowth and broken branches cut through the forest; most were probably made by large animals like the hippo-rhino we'd bounced the Merry off of earlier. The problem was that without a tracker like Chopper, we couldn't easily tell which ones had been made by animals, and which were the product of human activity.

I looked up at Drifter and opened my mouth; the otter shook his head and shot me down before I could actually get any words out. Nope. I'm not getting down on my paws and sniffing around like a barbarian. Where I come from, animals are civilized.

Okay, that was… odd. Shrugging, I crouched down to take a look in the unlikely event that I could spot any footprints. Nothing. Not that I'd ever been taught how to track at all… But I did remember Blue saying that the dojo was on top of a cliff or something. So we needed to head uphill. Trying to ignore how much that sounded like Zoro-logic, I stood up and glanced at my companions.

"No idea which is the right one, but maybe if we climb up there we'll be high enough to get a decent look around." I pointed at a randomly selected nearby hill. Ghin looked thoughtful and nodded his agreement, which made me relax somewhat. What? I was still nervous about the whole quartermaster thing; having him approve of my decisions was a lovely balm for my shaking ego.

Lisa released my hand to skip and whistle as we climbed. I kept a close eye on her; the similarity to home- plus what Ace had said earlier- left me worrying about bears. If we were all together, I was sure we could take one, but if Lisa ran off alone… I shook my head. Ghin's mother hen tendencies were rubbing off on me.

"Monah…" Ruatha rested his head atop mine, a warm, heavy weight.

For all my excuse of going up the hill to have a look around, we couldn't actually see much of anything for most of the climb. The trees were too thick; dark green branches blocked out almost the entire sky- forget even trying to see anything going on below. Sticky, syrupy smells filled the air, pine resin and cedar.

About halfway up the hill, though, the trees opened up in a clearing surrounding a small spring. The source of the clearing was obvious- not too long before, a towering fir had come crashing down. Its log- just starting to decay- cut across the center of the space like a great fence. Lisa clambered up on top of the damp wood, shading her eyes as she peered out over the island. Aww, adorable…

A chuckle from beside the spring alerted me to the fact that we weren't alone. There was a man standing there, tall and slender, with long white hair that dripped water onto his red robes. It looked like he'd just gotten dressed after bathing. One of his arms hung funny, limp, like maybe he couldn't use it properly; despite this, he had a large sword strapped across his back.

"You three make an adorable little family," the man observed, smiling. Something about his expression- or maybe his tone of voice- set me off. I couldn't speak, couldn't think; I ended up ducking my head, hiding my face behind one of Ruatha's wings. Geier landed on the log beside Lisa with a squawk; Drifter held up a sign as soon as she stopped moving.

It's six, hoser. Just cause three of us can't talk don't mean we're not people.

"My apologies," the man bowed, "I didn't mean to offend. If I may ask, though, what are you doing up here? It's a long way from the town and village; the only things in these hills are some old ruins and a marine dojo- and a few hermits such as myself." He ended with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Ghin grunted. "Maybe you've seen him? Fairly tall, muscular, green hair, carries three swords. He wandered off somewhere, and he doesn't have the best sense of direction. Gotta find him before he ends up in Mariejois or something."

The white-haired man raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't speak right away, pausing to think about something first. His smile was fixed in place once more by the time he decided what words to use. "Ah, so you're some of Zoro's friends. Don't worry, I have people keeping an eye on him. I'm afraid it's my fault he wandered off- I'm an old friend, and I asked him to help me with something. My name is Fornaldar Saga."

Warning! Warning! Red flags started going off in my head. Dammit Blue! Would it have killed you to be a little more descriptive in your fic? Then again, I bet you never thought I'd be relying on that silly thing to puzzle my way through a potentially life-threatening adventure, did you? Still… If you'd bothered to describe what Saga looked like, I would've been able to warn people! Tabarnak!

I didn't let my alarm show on my face though. It would only let him know I was onto him. Instead, I began trying desperately to come up with a way to talk our way out of this. Not easy, given that literally the only things I knew about this guy were that he was an old friend of Zoro's, he used to be a marine, and he was cursed. And I wasn't even sure about the one in the middle- could've been my imagination from the way Blue wrote things. No, the only thing I could trust was that he was currently in the thrall of the sentient magic sword on his back, and that made him an enemy until it could be destroyed.

Huh. Asuka Island would actually make for a decent D&D game.

And then, still without changing that pleasant smile that was so at odds with the curse I knew him to be under, Saga made my blood run cold. "None of you happen to be Jones, do you? Zoro mentioned the name as someone who might be able to help me, but didn't really give a description beyond being female and a witch."

What in the nine bloody hells could he want with me? I wanted to deny it, to use another name, pretend I was someone else- but my crewmates didn't know what was wrong! Before I could open my mouth, Lisa was nodding in confirmation. She hopped down from the log and grabbed my hand, swinging our arms back and forth.

"Yep. This is Jones! And I'm Lisa, and that's Ghin, and Ruatha, and Drifter, and Geier! Drifter's really soft, but if you try to pet him without permission, he'll shank you." Okay, even when I was frozen and terrified, Lisa's strange mix of childishness and hardened criminal was adorable.

"Excellent." Saga held his hand out towards me. "Would you mind coming with me, Jones? I have something I'd like you to look at; it needs a witch's expertise."

"NO!" My sudden shout surprised everyone, myself included. I was shaking… The little knowledge I had was worse than when I knew nothing at all. I didn't know what to do, what to say, only that this man was bad. And powerful. If Blue's fic had any accuracy whatsoever, Saga was capable of beating Luffy, of nearly killing Zoro. And he was smarter than either of them.

And that sword didn't help- Shichiseiken, or the Seven Star Sword, whichever name you want to use. I'm not sure whether it was because I knew it was cursed and my mind decided to play tricks on me, or if I could actually sense something about the curse, but… That thing was evil. Dark and sticky and wrong. I didn't want to be anywhere near it.

"No?" Saga's smile hardened into a line. "My dear, that wasn't a request. I asked if you'd mind; you don't have a choice in the actual act of accompanying me."

He reached out to grab my hand, which I had pulled back when I yelled. Ghin stepped in and slapped him away. "Hey, cool it. When someone says no, you stop."

From a hard line to a glare; Saga's expression was suddenly stone, like the carved snarl of a gargoyle. "I'm afraid you don't get a say either. I require the witch's assistance, and I'll be taking her. By force, if necessary."

He drew his sword- both it and his eyes flashed green with eerie inner light. A part of me wanted to run, but… I'd sworn I wouldn't. That after Arlong, I'd never run again. And besides… Even if Saga could beat Luffy one-on-one, it wasn't just one person he was facing right now. I drew one of my sais with one hand, my other clenching into a fist. Ghin pulled his tonfa out from their place across the base of his spine; Lisa readied her paints. Ruatha climbed down off my shoulders with a hiss as Drifter drew his clam blades and Geier cocked her gun.

"Mystic Fire!" Green flames roared out of Shichiseiken as Saga cut across. Steel rang against steel as Ghin caught the slash with his own weapons- but that did nothing to stop the fire. Green embers latched onto Ghin's jacket, singeing the hems; the rigger fell to the ground and rolled across the damp earth to prevent them from spreading.

I jumped in with a flying kick to Saga's chest, followed by five rapid strikes with my fist and an up and down slash with my sai. "Pentagon Punch! Tiger Blade!" Saga blocked each attack with little effort. Merde… He even had time to swing back and catch Drifter's clam blades on the pommel of his sword as the otter jumped from Geier's back. A quick flick threw the little mustelid away.

Tabarnak. Saga was fast.

"Calming Green!" Lisa splashed Saga with a great swathe of paint, forcing me to slip to the side lest I be hit as well. She was sure getting a lot of mileage out of that colour since joining our crew- although certainly for good reason. It was probably the fastest way to subdue people I'd ever seen… As long as their symbolism and yours matched up.

Saga's didn't. He didn't even pause. In fact, if anything, Lisa's green made him worse, feeding the green light that seeped from his eyes and sword. Saga immediately launched an attack in her direction. "Mystic Snake Fang Assault!"

Shichiseiken's blade transformed into a giant serpent made of blue fire. I staggered at the mere sight of it, shaking my head- this was no Devil Fruit bullshit, this was straight up actual magic. The snake lunged forwards, sinking its fangs into Lisa's shoulder. I tried to step in and deflect it, but the fire just flowed around my sai as if it wasn't even there. The steel heated up in my hand.

Blood. Too much blood ran down Lisa's arm and chest. She screamed, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes. Grabbing the snake behind its head, Lisa tried to pull it off. She only succeeded in burning her hands. Blue, yellow, and green paint splattered over the rocks as Lisa dropped her palette.

"Bastard!" Ghin roared as he rolled to his feet. Tonfa spinning, he charged Saga from one side while I came in from the other. "Black Dog's Howl!"

"GAAAAAAAAME!"

"Mystic Whirlwind!" Saga transformed Shichiseiken back to a proper sword and spun as Ghin and I attacked, cutting both of us across the chest with a blade that trailed stinging blue-green fire. His limp arm, flying up in a floppy yet perfectly controlled movement, delivered a heavy strike to the side of my head. Saga followed the spin with an overhead chop as he came around, a strike Ghin was barely able to block.

"Reeow!" Darting in underneath, Drifter jumped up and somersaulted towards Saga's face. Shining clam blades came close enough to the swordsman's eye to clip the ends off a few white bangs- but not enough to do actual damage. Saga brought Shichiseiken up and once more knocked the otter away. Chips of shell flew; the cursed sword chipped Drifter's clam blades when he blocked.

DAKAKAKAKAKA! "SCAAAREEEEEEEE!" Geier swooped in from above, her machine gun blazing. Saga turned on the ball of one foot; his hand moved in a blur as his eyes lit up brighter green than I'd ever seen, with veins of the same colour flowing over his skin. He blocked every single bullet that came in, cutting most of them in half! Then that terrible blade, glowing green like its thrall, swung up at Geier. Even though the vulture was too far away to be hit by the upward slash itself, a green fireball caught her in the face.

"SCEEEEEYAAAAAAAAA!" Geier crashed into the ground at Saga's feet. He moved to split her with Shichiseiken; this time, unlike with Lisa, someone was fast enough to help. Ghin ducked in, one tonfa held over head to block the descending sword, and pulled the vulture away.

He didn't manage to save her gun, though. Cursed metal and flames tore through steel with a horrid- but thankfully brief- noise that left my ears ringing.

Off to the side of the fight proper, Ruatha was crouched over Lisa. He alternated between licking her wounded shoulder and awkwardly trying to put pressure on it with his head; red smeared over white scales. Every once in a while my baby would glance up at Saga and hiss, then look to me to see if I had any instructions.

I didn't, though. Couldn't think of much beyond fear and anger because this man had hurt Lisa. Spinning in, I alternated striking with my sai and kicking as I went around and around, hoping the movement would make it harder for Saga to counter me. "Dragon Swarm!"

The very tip of my sai left a faint scratch on Saga's face, barely visible. It vanished almost instantly in a wash of green light. Then the swordsman stomped and spun in place, the tip of Shichiseiken tracing a circle on the rocks around him. An instant later, a wall of green fire flooded out in all directions, accompanied by a shockwave that knocked me back on my ass.

"Mystic Thunder!"

Tabarnak! That burned! This was worse than being branded by Ace! Sure, that had been hotter and more sustained, but this… Shichiseiken didn't just burn flesh. I could feel it inside too, tearing at parts of my mind. There's really no way for me to explain it. Rapidly flickering bands of black and white danced across my vision, making me feel sick; I was overcome with a sudden burst of despair and self-loathing without the usual thoughts that accompanied such feelings. Something in the back of my mind even started wondering who I even was, and whether all of my thoughts and feelings recently were just another of my many, many masks…

"Destruction Field!" Luckily for me, self-loathing in no way impairs my ability to fight through pain. I rolled up and over, bringing a sai and a kick down simultaneously like a hammer, releasing a burst of force as I did so. Saga stepped back out of the way, sweeping his sword through the back of my knee as I tried to get my balance in a new and awkward position. Planting a foot on my chest, the cursed swordsman turned slightly, bringing Shichiseiken up to block as Ghin came in from the side.

Green sparks scattered through the air as steel met steel.

"Belial!" Instead of trying to break through the block, Ghin used it, crossing his arms in such a way that Shichiseiken was pinned between his tonfa. He dropped his weight, twisting down and around- only to be stopped dead partway through. Because Saga hadn't moved. The cursed swordsman was strong enough to hold Ghin up with one arm.

"Mystic Fire!" This time, Saga's attack caught Ghin point-blank in the chest, flinging him backwards and burning him badly. My honorary brother lost his grip on his tonfa as his arms flew out to the sides; the weapons clattered to the ground well away from where he fell.

I reached up and grabbed Saga's ankle, twisting violently in the hope of flinging him off my chest. No such luck. Maybe if I'd been on my front, able to get my arms under me and lever myself upwards I could've forced him to move by picking him up, but in this position, I had no leverage. Wait… Levers are used to increase force… I'm an idiot.

"Newton's Second!" A force burst made Saga stagger back, allowing me to get to my feet. The cursed swordsman raised his eyebrows and wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. That's right, bastard, bite your tongue in surprise. You deserve it.

"Hmmm… That tastes like a Devil Fruit power…"

Wait- taste? I didn't get a chance to ask what that meant, or even to prepare myself before Saga attacked again. Glowing green steel morphed into blue flames. "Mystic Snake Fang Assault!"

YEOW! Blue fire dug into my chest, tearing through skin like great teeth. A few flicks of Saga's wrist made the snake bite over and over, each time creating a new burst of pain. Pain and blood and light… The flaming serpent was so close to my face, all I could see was blue and red. Faintly, I could feel disembodied arms wrapping around my shoulders, trying to comfort me and maybe pull me away. But while they did help with the pain, somewhat, whatever phantom had taken to following me wasn't able to shift a person.

"REE! REEOW! RE- oof!" Drifter tried to attack again, this time targeting Saga's ankles. The cursed swordsman stomped on him, knocking the otter flat. Buffeting wings a second later- courtesy of Geier- had no more effect. The flaming serpent rose momentarily from tearing holes in my chest to rip at one of the vulture's wings, forcing her to the ground.

KRA-KOW! KRA-KOW!

Two pistol shots- Ghin was finally using those guns he'd bought so long ago. Too bad both shots missed, Saga twitching to the side as if his cursed blade gave him Kenbunshoku Haki.

Off to the side, Lisa had gotten to her knees, with Ruatha still clumsily trying to stop her shoulder bleeding. The little girl crawled to her dropped paints, mixing swiftly. "Hallucination Hot Pink!"

"Zariel!" Lisa's attack didn't hit, but it provided an excellent distraction that allowed Ghin's to make contact. Scooping up his tonfa, Ghin bull-rushed Saga, knocking the cursed swordsman away from me and pinning him to a tree. But Saga didn't seem phased at all, smiling as Ghin drew back a hand to strike.

"Mystic Thunder!" A great wave of green flames struck Ghin in the face; the accompanying shockwave knocked him flying again. Saga followed it up with a spinning strike that caused more flames to lash out at Ghin, Lisa, Drifter, and Ruatha; Geier and I were spared only because we were so flat on the ground. "Mystic Whirlwind!"

Blood dripping down my front, I forced myself to my feet. My arms were barely functioning, numb; I wasn't sure if it was because of the physical injuries, or the way Shichiseiken had burned my mind. Everyone else rose as well, even Lisa. Poor girl… She wasn't a front-line fighter; she shouldn't have to deal with this.

Gripping my sai tightly, I curled up into a ball and rolled for Saga's knees. At the same moment, Ghin leapt for the cursed swordsman's head. Drifter launched himself at Saga's stomach, a raging ball of wild, bloody fur. Ruatha spat before running in with claws flashing; Geier's hopping, shrieking attack was much the same. Lisa swiped her paintbrush across, careful not to hit any of the rest of us.

"Shell Game!"

"Azazel!"

"Ree-owa!"

"Hokalvoth ediin! Dovah jusk!"

"SCREEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"Sadness Blue!"

None of our attacks hit, though. Right before Ghin's tonfa made contact with his head, Saga shrouded himself in a sphere of swirling green fire that blew us all away. It also, due to the spiralling, gathered us all up and flung us on top of each other. "Mystic Raiment!"

And he didn't stop there. Once my crewmates and I had been thrown together in a heap, another burst of fire rose of from the ground, firing us all into the air. "Mystic Judgement!" I was separated from the others as we flew; a second later, I landed draped over Saga's outstretched arm. The impact knocked the wind out of me- for some reason, my Devil Fruit had momentarily decided not to function.

"This would have been so much easier if you'd just agreed to come quietly, my dear." Awkwardly sheathing his sword, Saga unleashed one final attack using the act of clicking Shichiseiken into its sheath as a catalyst. "Mystic Indignation!"

A pillar of fire rose up out of the cursed sword and came down on my crew mates. By the time it hit, it almost looked like a titanic bolt of lightning rather than a column of flame. The explosion produced when the flames struck their target was blinding. I couldn't see anything, couldn't tell whether everyone else was okay… And the sound. A tremendous FOOM that left daggers piercing through the sides of my brain as my ears rang like church bells.

I wasn't entirely sure what happened after that. Couldn't see, couldn't hear… I was aware of Saga carrying me, but I couldn't tell where or how long. Tabarnak… What did he want from me?

X

Chopper's ears drooped. He couldn't believe it- he'd lost the girl's scent. Tracking in this kind of forest… It was different than back home. So many new smells- his nose was getting confused. Especially since this area in particular smelled like a whole town had been running back and forth across it for years. It was impossible to pick out the scent of a single person in the mess. The little reindeer popped into Walk Point and snuffled at the ground, hoping the form he was born with would be more sensitive than his hybrid one. It wasn't.

"Sorry everyone… I lost her. There's too many scents…" Chopper sniffed harder, tail twitching with annoyance- at both the forest and himself. "Too many people."

Nami patted him on the back of the neck. "It's fine. You got us this far, and I think I see a village up ahead. We can ask people there if they've seen Zoro- no need to worry about the girl."

"Eheh…" Chopper flicked his ears and tucked his tail in sheepishly. He hadn't noticed that they were getting close to a village… Although that would certainly explain the town's worth of scents he was picking up.

"Hopefully they're not a village of cannibals who trap and eat clueless travellers like ourselves," Robin said conversationally. Squeaking, Chopper popped into Brain Point and jumped onto Ace's shoulders, waving his hockey stick about as he looked for people hiding in the undergrowth. He didn't want to be eaten!

Shaking his head, Ace pulled Chopper down off his shoulders and held the little doctor close to his chest. "Robin, don't scare him like that. He's just a kid."

"Sorry, Fire Fist." The archaeologist didn't look very sorry. Chopper wondered why Jones and Luffy seemed to like her so much- she was all quiet and scary! But… It did feel nice when she sprouted extra hands to pet him with, and it was always good to have more people to talk about science and history and stuff. Robin knew a lot about medical history that Doctorine hadn't been able to tell him…

Ace's arms were warm- far too warm for a reindeer from a winter island. Between his fur and his Leafs jersey, Chopper had more than enough insulation for this mild forest. Squirming down, the doctor shot Robin a reproachful look. "That wasn't very nice at all. I'm a prey species- you know I scare easily when it comes to being eaten."

Robin actually seemed to wilt a little at that. "My apologies, Gospodin Doctor. I didn't mean any offense."

"Dammit, Shitty Reindeer!" Sanji's frowned. "You shouldn't upset a lady like that- she was just trying to make a joke!"

The cook moved to kick Chopper, the way he kicked everyone who annoyed him. On the one hand, Chopper was overjoyed to be included and treated like the human members of the crew, but on the other… he really didn't want to be kicked. So Chopper opened his eyes as wide as they would go, until the stretch hurt just a little- just enough to make his eyes start to water a tiny bit. He turned his head up to stare at Sanji, lower lip trembling, and wrung his forehooves together. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to upset anyone. I was j-just so s-scared!"

"D'aaaawwww…" Chopper suddenly found himself in Nami's arms. Much better than being hugged by Ace- Nami wasn't nearly as warm. "Look at that cute little face. Sanji, how dare you make Chopper cry?"

The sailing master rapped the cook lightly on the head; disproportionate to the level of punishment, Sanji seemed to collapse inwards. "Sorry, Nami dear… Sorry Chopper…"

Ace coughed something that sounded suspiciously like the word whipped into his fist. Spinning on his heel, Sanji launched a kick into the freckled pirate's chest which, thanks to Ace's Devil Fruit, had zero real effect. "I am not whipped, Shitty Fireball! I simply show the ladies the respect and affection they deserve!"

Through the hole Sanji had kicked, Chopper could see parts of Ace's lung and ribcage before the flames blocked them out, the freckled pirate's fluid body flowing back into place. Fascinating… He could learn so much about anatomy if Ace would allow him to perform a vivisection- given the unique properties of the logia, it shouldn't hurt him at all if Chopper was quick. And Chopper was very quick about such things. He had to be, otherwise some of his past patients would've died on the table- a certain world-walking witch came to mind. The little doctor was still amazed Jones had been up and about so quickly after what he'd seen… He found himself wishing she had eaten a logia like Ace, rather than her rather explosive paramecia fruit. The Force-Force Fruit could do a lot of cool things, but it meant he couldn't safely perform a vivisection to compare the anatomy of people from her world to that of people from his own.

When the pirates arrived at the village, they were met with the sight of people rushing about in a panic. Most of the women and children were sneaking off into the woods, while the men looked to be preparing to fight- though their only weapons were cleavers and farming equipment. Chopper saw the girl he'd been trying to track as she knelt by the mossy ruins of an ancient building. Her hands shook, but her voice was calm- the kind of calm that hides sheer terror- as she pleaded with an old woman who was sitting on the wall.

"Please, Grandma Izaya, pirates are coming! You need to get out of here!"

"I will not." The old lady tapped her walking stick sharply on the ground. "When you get to be my age, death stops holding so much dread- even a bloody death at the hands of pirates. If He comes for me, I'll welcome Him as a friend- and bring as many of those pirates as I can with me. They can have their drunken parties in Hell."

Wow. That old lady had the same attitude as Doctorine. Chopper found himself drawn to her automatically. He wondered if she was some sort of local medicine woman- her garish, heavily decorated clothes looked like it. Would there be time for him to ask her about herb lore and things once they found Zoro? Doctorine always said the herb lore of different islands was overlooked far too often in medicine.

Nami glanced around, taking in the way the villagers were hiding and arming themselves. "You don't think… Maybe they have something they're trying to hide?" she whispered. "This isn't a normal reaction to a pirate raid. More like a war."

"Judging by those runes, I'd say you're right, Baryshnya Navigator." Robin idly ran her hand over a broken, moss-covered column that was covered in strange, half-hidden symbols. "There's a story here… And not one the wider world is meant to know."

Chopper wondered why Robin didn't just use everyone's names. She'd started out with Miss and Mister, or some of them had weird little nicknames, but as time went on, the archaeologist was getting more formal, not less, even slipping into a West Blue language he didn't understand. The reindeer's ears twitched thoughtfully. It was almost like… she was afraid of getting attached, and this was a way of distancing herself from the crew. He didn't know how to fix that, though; he was a doctor, not a psychologist.

The blue-haired girl froze, finally noticing the Straw Hats that had followed her up from the lake. "AAAAAH! THE PIRATES! THEY'RE HERE!"

Those villagers who had managed to arm themselves gathered together and moved as if to ward off the pirates, advancing as a group. Chopper didn't know about anyone else, but he found this quite menacing; the little doctor clung tight to Nami, his ears lying flat with nerves. Sanji, meanwhile, took a step forwards, hands raised with the palms out.

"Oi, oi, everyone calm down. We're not here to hurt anyone; just looking for one of our friends. Shithead wandered off and got lost."

The old lady who'd been up until then refusing to move slowly stood up and nodded. She was tiny, but managed to shoulder her way through the crowd like they were nothing more than a beaded curtain. "See, Maya? There's no need for me to run. These pirates aren't here to hurt anyone… Tell me dears, what does this friend of yours look like?"

"Fairly big guy," Sanji told her, dropping his cigarette butt on a stone and stomping it out. "Tall, muscular, green hair; carries three swords. He has the shittiest sense of direction ever, so he'd prob'ly have a look of dumb confusion on his face and be wandering around aimlessly."

Before the old lady could respond, one of the villagers interrupted. "Why are you helping them, Izaya?" The man gestured violently with the cleaver he was holding. "Even if they're not here to hurt us- which I doubt; you can't trust the word of a pirate- they're still pirates! Just like the men who attacked us last month! If one of them gets lost in the forest and dies, I say let him rot!"

"Besides," and here the villager pointed his cleaver at Robin as she quietly examined the symbols on a ruined wall, "That one has plenty of blood on her hands. She's the Devil of Ohara!"

Robin flinched at that title, and Chopper flinched right along with her. He didn't understand what it meant, exactly- he'd never heard of Ohara- but calling someone a devil… The reindeer snorted and popped into Walk Point, causing Nami to drop him as he pawed at the ground and prepared to charge. Sanji, however, beat him to it.

"Hey! Don't say things like that about Robin! She's no devil- rather a sweet angel with lovely violet wings and a silver halo of wisdom!" The cook stepped in and kicked the cleaver out of the villager's hand. "And what the Hell's an Ohara?!"

"Nothing important," Robin interrupted before anyone could say anything. She didn't look at anyone, still examining the symbols cut into old stone. Chopper whined, still tempted to ask- but Robin probably wouldn't answer. And while Nami and Sanji looked clueless, Ace made a quiet noise of understanding. Chopper would just ask him later.

"These runes," Robin murmured, ignoring everyone's stares, "They're similar to ancient Chichewa. A bit of an odd dialect, but if I have enough time…"

The wind shifted, bringing new scents to Chopper's nose. More people, approaching the village. At first the reindeer thought maybe it was another group of pirates, that there actually was an invasion. Then he caught a familiar whiff of steel, sweat, and oil. His ears perked up; he pranced in place for a moment, unable to help himself, before bolting in the direction of that beloved smell. "ZORO!"

Not really paying attention to where he was going, Chopper cantered through a bunch of marines to get to his friend. They were led by a tall man in bluish armour and a heavy man with lots of tattoos- although that fact didn't register until a few minutes later. Chopper leapt through the air when he caught a glimpse of familiar green, transforming into Brain Point as he soared so that he was tiny when he landed on Zoro's chest. The bosun caught him reflexively, eyes wide with shock.

"Ch-Chopper?!"

"Where did you go?" the little doctor demanded, widening his eyes until they started watering. He sniffled, picking up a faint, strange addition to Zoro's usual scent. Something acrid and bitter that stung Chopper's nose- Zoro needed a bath. "I was so worried."

"Gah! Chopper, calm down!" Zoro briefly rubbed Chopper behind the ears before putting him down. "I'm fine; don't worry. Just helping a friend out with some things."

A wave of relief washed through Chopper; he hugged his hockey stick and took a step back, the better to look up at Zoro from his diminutive height. "Oh. Okay then. Sorry… Just… When we couldn't find you…" He bit his lip and sniffled slightly. Zoro winced.

"Hey, hey, hey, Senpai," the man in blue armour interrupted before the Straw Hat bosun could reply. "Come on- we're on a schedule. She's just over there."

He gestured towards the blue-haired girl. Zoro nodded, face hardening. Chopper took another few steps back in alarm- Zoro was scary. What was going on? Why was Zoro acting so scary?

The bosun drew Wado Ichimonji as he walked up to the girl. He pointed it ay her threateningly. "Priestess of the Seven Stars- hand over the sacred orbs."

"No!" The girl backed away, clutching a small bag to her chest. Chopper heard the clink of round stones striking each other inside. "Please, just leave us alone! You don't understand!"

Zoro winced at that, and for a moment Chopper thought the bosun was going to lower his sword, apologize, and explain himself. Instead, though, his grip on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji tightened. The swordsman grit his teeth, his gaze turning inwards- like he was thinking of something that caused him pain. "Hand over the sacred orbs and we'll leave peacefully; if not, I'll be forced to take them. I won't ask again."

"I can't! Please, just leave us alone!" The girl took a few steps back, until she accidentally walked into a wall. She couldn't go any further without taking her eyes off Zoro and his marine companions.

Zoro hesitated. The large, tattooed man who'd come with him snorted. "You're too soft, Senpai. Just take 'em." His eyes flashed eerie green as he spoke, sending child up Chopper's spine.

Sighing, Zoro nodded and began approaching the blue-haired girl again. There was no more hesitation in his step. Squeaking in fright, the girl turned and took off. As she passed the stubborn little old lady, the girl grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her along as she ran. Zoro took off in pursuit. Jumping in the way, Sanji swung a foot up and kicked the swordsman in the chest, halting him in his tracks.

"Oi! Shitty Moss Brain! What the fuck are you doing?!"

The bosun didn't answer. Zoro tried to shoulder past, scowling; Sanji maintained his position, driving a knee into the swordsman's stomach. "Answer me, salaud! What's going on?"

"Damare!" Zoro lashed out with his free hand, shoving Sanji roughly aside. So roughly, in fact, that the cook was sent crashing into the wall of a nearby building- which then collapsed on top of him from the force of the blow. Squeaking, Chopper scrambled over to begin digging Sanji free of the broken bricks.

Darting forwards, Zoro managed to grab the blue-haired girl by the arm before she and the old lady could escape. He pried the bad she was holding free of her hand, the stones inside clinking loudly from the rough motion. A few of the villagers, armed with cleavers, raced at the bosun in an unorganized rush. Zoro caught all their blades with his own, cutting right through many of them. A quick spinning attack launched the villagers away, sending them sprawling over the ground.

"Come on. Let's go." The Straw Hat bosun rejoined the marines he'd come with, not meeting anyone's eyes. His muscles were tense, so much so that Chopper swore he could hear a faint creaking coming from the swordsman's skeleton. Zoro and the marines left quickly afterwards.

Chopper would've liked to go after them, but… there were people here who needed him. No life-threatening injuries, but Zoro's attack had left the villagers sliced and battered. And then Sanji… Chopper popped into Heavy Point to better dig through the rubble of the building. Ace joined him after a moment; between the two of them, they quickly retrieved the stunned cook. Sanji's eyes were still spinning as he was extracted from the collapsed building.

Nami looked horrified. Of course, she expressed this horror by cracking Sanji over the head, setting the cook's eyes spinning faster. "What the-? You and Zoro fight all the time! Why'd you let him take you out so easily?!"

"Sorry Nami dear…" Sanji shook his head, trying to clear it. "There- there's something wrong with the shithead, though…" The cook sighed. "Yeah, we fight all the time, and he's a shitty prick of a moss brain. But there are certain things we don't do to each other, and we're still part of the same shitty family. Something's chewing at him inside; we need to find out what it is."

Sanji started to rise- only to wince and hiss when he tried to push himself up. His left arm wasn't moving right. To Chopper's eye, it looked like something had been twisted, pulled… Maybe even a minor break. He wouldn't know until he examined it. Sanji levered himself up with his other arm, glaring at the injured limb as if it had offended him. "Shit… Feels like the shitty moss-head broke my arm. Salaud…"

"Let me have a look." Chopper grabbed Sanji's arm and began manipulating it gently. Not a through break but he felt a couple minor fractures. The reindeer snorted and opened up his medical bag, rifling through for bandages. The fractures weren't bad enough that he thought Sanji needed a cast or anything, but it should still be bound for a little while, give the bones a little support.

Robin frowned and turned to the blue-haired girl and the old lady. "I don't suppose you two know what's going on? I haven't been with this crew very long, but I know Gospodin Swordsman well enough to know he wouldn't do something like this without reason."

For a few minutes, the girl hesitated. After a nudge from the old lady, she sighed. "My name is Maya, and this is my grandmother Izaya. We're the priestesses who serve this village. Those marines- they serve the man who's supposed to protect this island." Maya sighed again. "Saga- my fiancé… He claimed the cursed sword Shichiseiken after our island was attacked by pirates- or rather, it claimed him."

One of the villagers Zoro had knocked around got to his feet with a growl. "Wait- that green-haired bastard was one of you?"

He was immediately cracked over the head by old lady Izaya's walking stick. "They just said he wasn't acting like himself, moron! It's probably the curse of the sword- Saga and Shichiseiken have done something to the poor boy's head. Not that it makes the situation any better…" The old lady trailed off into thought with a grumble.

Maya looked askance at her grandmother. "But… I thought you said someone possessed by the curse couldn't touch the sacred orbs?"

"He didn't touch him though, did he dear? You had them in your satchel."

"Surely you don't believe all this?" Robin waved a hand in a vague gesture. "All this talk of curses and possession… Magic doesn't exist. It's merely a way primitive cultures describe Devil Fruits and similar phenomena- no offense." The archaeologist did look vaguely sheepish at her own words, but Chopper doubted anyone who'd just met her that day would be able to pick up on it.

Nami shook her head in disbelief. "Didn't you and Jones already have that talk? And you still don't believe in magic?"

"I don't know how to explain her particular circumstances," Robin acknowledged. "What I do know is that I've never seen any evidence of other events that fell into the category of magical, neither in person or in anything I've read of history. Curses are rumour and legend, nothing more."

This time it was Izaya's turn to shake her head. "You're a smart girl, Nico Robin. You have to be, to have survived this long. But in some ways, you're quite stupid. Come, let me show you…" Hobbling away with surprising quickness, the old lady motioned for the Straw Hats to follow her. They did, confused; Maya joined them as well, but none of the other villagers dared approach.

X

"Oof!" I bounced off stone with a fit of coughing when Saga threw me down. My senses were clearer now; I could see the dojo where he'd brought me. My chest still burned from the wounds I'd received. It took me a while to get my breath back because of that. My Devil Fruit powers still didn't seem to be working properly- I wondered if that had something to do with the power of the cursed sword.

"Out." Saga gestured towards the door, addressing a few marines who'd been training indoors. Most of them left without question. One, a young boy with a strangely pirate-like smiley face on his cap, hesitated. Ah. He must be Toma.

"Sensei… Who's he?"

"She is a witch from another world. I need to question her." Saga's eyes glowed eerie green in the dark.

"Oh. Okay…" Toma made to leave as Saga turned back towards me. But rather than heading out the door, the boy hid in the shadows by the door. His eyes flickered briefly green and red; Toma pulled his hat lower over his eyes and bit his lip, gaze fixed on me and Saga.

The white-haired swordsman didn't seem to notice. Saga pointed Shichiseiken at me, speaking quietly. "Tell me how to get to your world, witch."

"I don't know how," I snapped. "Why in the Nine Hells do you wanna go there anyway? There's nothing there you'd want." Wracking my brains, I tried to remember what Shichiseiken's goals were. But nothing was coming up- I don't think Blue bothered including that.

A strange look lit up Saga's face- not an evil grin, but something mad and manic and hungry lit up with lines of glowing green that grew over his skin. "But there is, my dear. You came from that world, so they have people. They have blood."

Osti d'épais de marde! I felt my face go pale. Merde… So Shichiseiken was your stereotypical chaotic evil sentient artifact, eh? No real plan, no goal beyond destruction… I shouldn't have expected anything less from a sword supposedly forged out of bloodshed and regret.

"And I think you do know how you got here," Saga continued. "I just need to give you the right motivation to tell me… Mystic Fire!"

Yeowch! I rolled across the stone floor, trying to put out the flames. It didn't work on magical fire, though; rolling only seemed to allow the sparks to spread across my skin and clothes. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Burning, stinging, searing… On my mind as well as my skin. My thoughts went dark and fuzzy, twisting into a headache. Mind magic… A small portion of the back of my brain began to whisper about how much better things would be if I just told Shichiseiken everything I knew.

But I didn't know anything. Not unless I wanted to spill that this was a story… And I don't think that answer, true as it was, would satisfy the cursed sword. So I grit my teeth and snarled as the magical flames burned themselves out. "I don't know what happened- I just woke up here one day!"

"You're lying. No one lies to me. Mystic Snake Fang Assault!" Shichiseiken morphed into a serpent of blue flames. This time the fangs dug into my side, ripping through muscle and just barely missing a few organs that were kind of important. Hot blood dripped out, spattering onto the floor. I fell to my knees in pain. Over in the shadows by the door, I saw Toma flinch and clap his hands over his mouth.

"I'm not lying!" Tears welled up in my eyes. And really, disregarding the Fourth Wall thing, I didn't know how I'd gotten here. I have no idea how my writer planned to explain it. A warm presence appeared at my back- the arms. One arm wrapped around my shoulders, comforting; the other reached down and pressed against my side, as if trying to staunch the bleeding. There was little an insubstantial hand could do in that way, though.

Saga's manic, glowing expression morphed into a chastising frown. "Now, now, no one just walks from one world to another without knowing. It's not like picking your nose. I think you do know how you got here."

"Ce que tu pense… J'men calice…" I coughed. Invisible arms rubbed soothing circles on my back as I tried to lever myself back to my feet. Saga didn't let me, though.

"Perhaps I'm being too subtle," the red-robed swordsman mused. Cracking me on the head with the pommel of Shichiseiken, Saga knocked me to the floor and stood over me, planting one foot on the base of my spine to keep me from getting up. Delicate flicks of his wrist traced shallow, searing lines into my flesh. They didn't bleed much, but they burned the same way as the sword's Mystic Fire. I bit my lip until it bled, forcing myself to contain the yells of pain boiling up in my chest. I tried to use my powers, tried to call up a Newton's Second to force Saga off of me, but while I could feel the force, it wasn't responding properly to my will.

The invisible hand that had been pressed against my side disappeared for a moment, though the other was still a soothing warmth on my back. When Saga went to make his next cut- a cutting arc across my back- there was a brief flash of blue light and a loud clattering noise. Shichiseiken flew out of Saga's hand, bouncing across the stone floor. The white-haired swordsman kicked me in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me, before stepping aside to retrieve his blade.

"Interesting… I would've thought your powers would be suppressed, with how much of your blood I've taken." Saga licked some of the blood off Shichiseiken. Then he made a face. "Your blood tastes strange… I suppose it comes of being from another world."

Around this time, I saw Toma leave. He looked ill, shaken, like he couldn't bear to watch what Saga was doing anymore. I didn't really blame him- if this was half as uncomfortable to watch as it was to experience, I was kind of surprised he hadn't already given his presence away by vomiting or calling out. Then again, I hadn't done either of those yet, so maybe the kid was tougher than I was giving him credit for.

Still would've been better if he'd tried to help, though.

"Mystic Snake Fang Assault!" Yet again, a serpent made of blue fire lashed out. This third bite tore across my lower back. I grit my teeth and curled into a ball. My eyes burned with tears; invisible arms wrapped around me, holding me tight. I was grateful. Even if the arms couldn't do much to lessen the pain, it helped somewhat to know that I wasn't alone. I still wasn't sure who they were… But at the moment, I couldn't muster the brainpower to find out.

Then the fangs of the snake dug deeper into my back, grating against bone and nerves. Not deep enough to do any damage, Perkunas be praised. But enough that, despite the comfort of the invisible arms holding me, I screamed.

"GYAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOUUUUU! NIYHAAAAAAAA!"

X

"ZORO! ZORO! WHERE ARE YOU ZORO?!"

Usopp winced as Luffy filled the forest with the sound of his echoing shouts. Damn, sometimes he forgot how loud the captain could be. Not often, but sometimes. The gunner jogged along behind, along with Johnny and Yosaku, fruitlessly staring around in search of their missing swordsman. Finding Zoro in a forest was not easy- too much green… Usopp sighed. If only they could get to a hilltop or something- if he could get somewhere he could see, maybe he could use his binoculars to spot the white of Zoro's shirt through the trees.

"H-hey Luffy? Can we go up there?" Usopp pointed at a nearby hill. "I might be able to see Zoro if I can find a decent viewpoint."

Luffy paused in his shouting, considering those words. Then he nodded. "Alright, let's go. Stupid Zoro… Why does he get lost so much?"

Usopp shrugged. Johnny and Yosaku looked at each other, communicating something silently. After a moment, the green hunter spoke. "We always thought Big Bro had some sort of curse on him or something… But since coming to the Grand Line and seeing how it screws with weather and navigation and stuff…"

"I think he drank Grand Line water when he was a baby," Johnny continued. "Lots and lots of it. Enough to mess with that DNA stuff Big Sis Jones and Li'l Bro Chopper are always tryna study."

That… didn't sound likely. Usopp would actually take the curse explanation over the Grand Line water. Mostly because even if he didn't know how that DNA stuff worked, he was pretty sure that wasn't it. Of course, his personal bet for Zoro's nonsense of direction was some sort of brain damage. The swordsman certainly got in enough fights that it was a possibility…

Near the top of the hill, the trees opened up to reveal a large stone building. Usopp couldn't help but smile when he saw it- if he could get up on the roof, he could see the whole island. Eager to climb the old, worn stone, the gunner raced forward. He skidded to a halt after a second, though, as he neared the building and noticed all the swordsmen practicing near the entrance. They were all marines, sparring with wooden swords. Usopp froze, automatically looking for a place to hide. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Yosaku placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Remember Bro, we don't have… You know. Marines aren't after us yet."

"Eheh…" Rubbing his nose nervously, Usopp smiled. "Right. I forgot. I mean, we're pirates, so I guess I just thought…" He trailed off uncertainly. Johnny and Yosaku both laughed.

As the pirates approached the doorway, a small teenager in a leopard patterned coat stepped out. He had a sword that was far too long for him, but from the way he walked, he seemed used to it. Luffy cocked his head to the side and waved upon seeing him. "Hey! Have any of you seen Zoro? He's all green and carries three swords!"

The teenager paused, then nodded. His expression was- odd. Grim, a little sad, and kind of ill. When he spoke, his voice was shaky. "Y-yeah. Zoro's a friend of S-Sensei. He went down to the village with B-Bismarck, Boo Kong, and some others to run an errand." Shaking his head as if to clear it, the boy stood there, staring at them.

Usopp felt the hair on the back of his neck rising. This guy was creepy. There was something seriously wrong with the kid. But what? The gunner didn't get to think about it for long though; he was drawn back to the present by Luffy bulling forward. "So he'll be back soon? Good. We'll wait here for him. Hey, is your Sensei person here? Could we talk to him?"

The captain made as if to head into the building. Eyes going wide, the teenage swordsman moved to intercept him, arms spread wide. "Um- you shouldn't go in there. Please, just wait outside."

That was… Suspicious. Usopp wasn't about to question a guy with a sword that big though, no matter how strange things seemed. The gunner shrugged and sat down, keeping a wary eye on all the marines around them. Luffy, Johnny, and Yosaku all reluctantly did the same. Not that it lasted very long. They'd barely been waiting for a couple of minutes when the four pirates heard something from inside the building that made their blood run cold.

"GYAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOUUUUU! NIYHAAAAAAAA!"

Usopp covered his ears on reflex, before he'd even registered exactly what the noise was. But even blocking it out, he couldn't get it out of his head. A scream- the scream of a voice that wasn't meant for making such noises. Cracked and broken, it couldn't be identified as male or female. The echoing, piercing sound terrified Usopp- he wanted to run, to hide, before whatever was causing a scream like that came for him too…

But at the same time, he wanted to help. If there was something he could do… No one deserved to be in that much pain. Unable to decide between fight and flight, Usopp looked to his captain for guidance. Luffy's muscles were tense, fists clenched. Dark brown eyes blazed. Glaring at the teenage swordsman, the rubber boy let out a low growl.

"Who's that? What's happening?" He moved forward without waiting for an answer.

The younger boy tried to stop Luffy, eyes wide with fear. Flickers of red and green light flashed across his eyes; he shook his head and twitched, giving him a slightly crazed appearance. "No! Please, just leave it alone! If- if you go in there, Sensei might do it to you too!"

"What?!" Johnny and Yosaku squawked in unison. "Your Sensei's doing that? Why? To who?"

"I- I don't know…" The teenager shrank in on himself, suddenly seeming very small. "Sensei… H-he's been different since pirates attacked a little while ago. Obsessed with- ergh!" Another flash of green and red flickered across the boy's eyes, longer and brighter than previously. He turned his head and bit his own wrist, hard enough to draw blood; that seemed to make the light die down. "S-Sensei asked Zoro to get something for him. Th-then… When he went out to bathe today, Sensei brought a- a girl back with him. He's in-interrogating her about something…"

Eye's narrowing, Luffy shoved the boy aside and stormed past. Johnny and Yosaku squeaked and followed him, readying their weapons. Usopp moved to follow, but hesitated when he saw the way the boy was looking at everyone. Fear… and shame. So much shame. The boy looked positively ill with guilt and confusion. So Usopp paused before entering the building.

"Hey, um, whoever you are… Are you alright?"

"My name's Toma," the boy murmured a little bitterly. "I- I joined this dojo to learn about the sword of justice, but… What Sensei's doing right now isn't justice. That girl… She never did anything wrong, but he's torturing her like some criminal. I- I'm scared."

Red and green lights flashed in Toma's eyes yet again, setting him twitching. The boy bit himself again, a second mark just above the first. Usopp winced, unable to help the surge of disgust and confusion that welled up in his chest. And apparently made its way to his face, since Toma flinched and hung his head. "I- It's not just Sensei who's different these days. Most of the other men too… And sometimes my head starts to hurt and go fuzzy, especially when Sensei does something I don't understand."

Usopp really didn't know what to say to that. Placing a hand briefly on Toma's shoulder, the gunner offered the boy a couple bandages to wrap his arm. Then Usopp took off after Luffy, Johnny, and Yosaku. Hopefully they could save whoever was screaming and figure out what was going on here.

It took a moment for Usopp's eyes to adjust to the dimmer lighting after he entered the building. The first thing he saw was his crew mates, their backs stiff, frozen in front of him. Yosaku's mouth was agape, jaw almost touching the floor; tears were streaming from under Johnny's sunglasses. Luffy was so tense he was shaking, eyes fixed on something up ahead. The captain's fists were clenched- tightly. A few drops of blood dripped from one of Luffy's hands, where his fingernails were digging into his own palm.

Usopp's gaze migrated further into the room as his eyes adjusted. The first thing he saw was a tall man in red robes, long, shaggy white hair brushing his shoulders. This man held a long sword in one hand, its blade glowing faintly green. There was a dark splatter pattern on the blade where blood was blocking out the luminescence. The swordsman was looking at something on the ground, a small frown on his face. "I'd stop if you'd just tell me what I want, witch."

A weak, watery voice rose from the object of the swordsman's focus. Usopp could barely make out the words being spoken. "Fuck you… I already said- I. Don't. Know." The voice descended into a storm of wet coughing.

And that drew Usopp's gaze to the floor. A small, dark, humanoid shape, trying to crawl away on trembling limbs that gave out after a single movement. Something dripped from the figure's chest and side; there was a dark smear on the floor beneath them. Even if he couldn't see any features in the dim green light, Usopp recognized the silhouette of a distinctive hat.

Jones.

"Funny," the swordsman hissed. "Somehow I don't believe you. Now, I'll keep asking until you tell the truth- how do I get to your world?"

"Crisse de calice de tabarnak d'osti de sacrament de trouvvierge! I already told you, I don't know! I have no idea how I got here! Mon tabarnak j'vais te décalisser la yeule, calice!" Jones tried to get to her feet- it looked like she was aiming to punch the swordsman in the face. She didn't manage, though; her legs gave out underneath her before she'd taken more than a single step.

"I see you need some more encouragement. Mystic Snake Fang Assault!" The room lit up brightly as the glowing sword turned into a snake made of pale blue fire, lashing out and digging its fangs into Jones. She screamed, confirming that it was her voice that been hear earlier.

"GYAAAAAEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

"STOP IT!" Breaking the spell of horror that had held him frozen, Luffy lunged forwards and swung his bloody fist at the swordsman's face. Stepping back, the white-haired man changed his blade back into a sword in order to block the punch. Growling, Luffy stood between Jones and the swordsman. "LEAVE JONES ALONE!"

"No." The swordsman swung his blade in a broad arc; Luffy leaned back just enough that the tip went swishing past. "Her world has blood like this one; much more blood. Once I've fed on these lands and seas, her home will provide my next feast!"

That was… alarming. Usopp's knees turned to jelly at the words. This man was insane. Or… Was it the green glow that seemed to flicker from his eyes and beneath his skin? The same glow that lit up the blade of his sword… Either way, there was something seriously wrong.

Luffy's already stormy frown deepened. "How'd you know Jones comes from another world anyway? That's supposed to be secret."

"Zoro told me."

Three words- those three words were enough to make Usopp's blood run cold and his legs collapse. The gunner sank to his knees- and he wasn't alone. Johnny and Yosaku leaned heavily on each other. As for Luffy… His anger was nearly tangible. "You're lying! Zoro would never give up his friend's secrets like that!"

"Then maybe he's not really your friend anymore," Saga said with a sinister smile. "Or maybe… Maybe he never was."

"YOU'RE LYING! GUM-GUM GATLING!" Fwap-fwap-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwap! Luffy launched a barrage of punches at the white-haired swordsman. Each was deflected by the glowing green sword, leaving shallow cuts on the rubber boy's knuckles.

Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku shook themselves out of their stupor. Groping through his duffel bag, the gunner pulled out a handful of his special bullets. "Exploding Star! Rotten Egg Star! Fire Star! Crackling Star!" His shots soared past Luffy's snapping fists. Fire, electricity, and a sulfurous stench exploded along the length of that glowing sword. It didn't seem to bother the wielder much, though, nor did it damage the blade.

"Acid Rain Jet 75!"

"Base Drops Jet 75!"

Twin bullets of liquid shot from Yosaku and Johnny's gun tanks to strike against the mad swordsman's chest. Unlike fists or bullets, he couldn't block liquid; trying only led to him spraying the acid and base solutions all over himself. It ate holes in his clothes and burned great patches of his skin-patches which immediately glowed green and healed over. The hunters paled at that.

"Shit! Bro-?"

"Nope, I didn't expect that either."

Manic cackling tore free of the swordsman's throat like some twisted creature. He quickly got himself under control- but that only made him creepier, as he turned to the pirates and addressed them in a completely calm, almost pleasant voice. "Shichiseiken hungers for your blood."

"Wha-?"

"Mystic Thunder!" A blast of green light and its accompanying shockwave knocked everyone in the room flying back- everyone except the swordsman who was its source.

Luffy was the first one back on his feet. He flung his arms back, then snapped them forwards into the mad swordsman's chest. "GUM-GUM BAZOOKA!" The strike actually landed, slamming into the white-haired man hard enough that it sent him flying out the door. A long cut opened up on each of Luffy's hands from where he'd hit the blade of the sword.

"Johnny, Yosaku, get Jones out of here! Usopp, back me up! We're kicking that bastard's ass for what he did to Jones and what he said about Zoro!" Without waiting for an answer, Luffy bolted out the door.

"S-sure!" Usopp squeaked and took off after his captain. Behind him, Johnny and Yosaku moved to pick up a trembling, bloody Jones.

In the few seconds it took for Usopp to get outside, Luffy and the white-haired swordsman had already managed to create a small crater in front of the dojo. Assorted marines stood around in a circle, just… looking on. There was something off about them- like they were zombies, brainless. The only one who seemed to have anything in his head was Toma; the boy was curled at the base of a wall, knees pulled up to his chest, his face a mask of guilt.

"GUM-GUM WHIP! GUM-GUM BULLET!" Luffy swung a leg through the swordsman's legs, then launched a heavy punch at his chest. The white-haired man dodged both, tutting.

"Oh dear… I'm ashamed to think of you as Zoro's companions. I'd have thought anyone he deigned to travel with would be strong."

Usopp hesitated. He wanted to help- Luffy looked like he needed it, and this asshole had been hurting Jones. But… True warriors didn't interfere in each other's fights. The gunner's hands shook from a combination of fear and helplessness. Then, as Luffy flipped over the swordsman's head and fired a Gum-Gum Spear downwards, the rubber captain looked over at Usopp.

"What're you waiting for?! He hurt Jones! Tortured her! Screw fighting fair!"

"Ah! Right! Aye-aye Captain!" Usopp saluted like a marine and rushed around to get a better vantage point for shooting. As he ran, he pulled a few bullets out of his bag. "Triple Exploding Star! Pepper Star! Exploding Cactus Star!"

"Gum-Gum Stamp! Gum-Gum Battle Axe!"

Kicks, explosions, needles, spices… None of it seemed to have any effect on the glowing swordsman. He dodged most, and even what he couldn't dodge, any wounds were immediately healed by more of the eerie green light. Tracing a great circle around him with his sword, the madman unleashed his magic yet again. "Mystic Thunder!"

This time, with no walls to hold them in, Luffy and Usopp were thrown much farther. So far, in fact, that they went over the edge of a cliff abutting one side of the dojo. Luffy stretched out an arm, aiming to grab the building and haul himself back, but a great curved wall of green fire rose up and burned the rubber boy's hand. "Mystic Raiment!"

Without enough time for Luffy to try again, the two pirates fell. Usopp felt his stomach drop out of him, making its way down to prepare for the inglorious landing that was sure to come. Jamming his slingshot into his belt, the gunner began digging through his duffel bag. He had to have something in here that would help… Where was that thing he'd been working on since the race? He was sure he'd packed it. Ah, there it was.

"Usopp Parachute!" Patchy, colourful cloth opened up above Usopp as he activated the device. He felt his fall instantly begin to slow- although not nearly as much as he would've liked. Those trees were still coming up far too quickly, and Usopp couldn't control the way he was spinning as he plummeted.

Not far away, Luffy prepared his own defense against the upward rush of the ground, inflating himself into a great rubber ball. "Gum-Gum Balloon!"

Seconds later, two loud sounds echoed from the base of the cliff. The first was the crunch and boing of a rubber ball bouncing in a pile of leaves as Luffy landed. Seconds later, Usopp's descent was halted with a series of crashes and a heavy thud. The gunner bounced down through the trees and landed heavily on his side with a groan as pain shot up his leg. "Oww… Okay, I think that needs to be about 20% larger. I'll fix it when we get back to the ship."

Luffy glanced over, brushing himself clean of leaves and mud. "You okay Usopp?"

"Yeah… A little banged up, but I'm alright."

"Good." Luffy nodded and glared up at the top of the cliff. "We've gotta find a way back up there. I really wanna kick that guy's ass. No one does that to my family." The rubber captain growled in frustration. "I'm still not strong enough though…"

Usopp winced at the guilt and anger in Luffy's voice. Hesitant, the gunner reached out and placed a hand on his captain's shoulder. "You can always ask Jones when we get back to the ship. It's not spoilers to ask for training ideas, is it? I mean, she already got Sabo to tell us all about that Haki stuff."

"Yeah…" Luffy nodded. The captain started walking, prompting Usopp to follow. "Can't do that yet, though. You?"

Shaking his head, Usopp folded his parachute and jammed it back into his bag. "Not yet. I don't think anyone's had any success with it yet. Maybe it'd help if we got Ace to show us too?"

Luffy opened his mouth to reply, but didn't get the chance. Before he could say a word, the ground opened up under their feet, dropping both pirates into a rocky hole. Usopp screamed in spite of himself, hugging his duffel bag tightly; Luffy held his hat on with a determined frown as they plunged into the abyss.

X

The sun had set by the time Zoro and the marines returned to the dojo. Unable to see clearly in the dark, the Straw Hat bosun tripped over the edge of a small crater on his way into the building. Huh. That was strange. Zoro caught himself on the doorframe and took a moment to glare down at the unexpected pit. He was sure that hadn't been there when he left. Then again, trees and buildings and everything moved around on him all the time, so he shouldn't be too surprised that the ground had developed a random hole.

But there were other odd things going on too. The Toma kid who seemed to idolize Saga earlier was sullen and quiet, running forms in a corner and not looking at anyone. He had a grim, nauseous expression on his face. And then there was that brand-new smear of blood on the floor… Zoro couldn't actually tell from looking at it what the dark liquid was, but the smell was unmistakeable. It looked like someone had been beaten and cut open, then dragged across the floor. The smear ended in a random spot on the floor, as if the beaten person had been lifted up and carried away.

Deciding to ignore the bold smear- this was a sword dojo, so it could've been a training accident- Zoro approached Saga and held out the bag he'd taken from the priestess. Three pink stones clinked together inside. "Here. I got them. I hope you're happy; I had to fight my own crewmates to get the stuff." Which still left a bad taste in Zoro's mouth. He squashed down the urge to snarl at his old friend.

Saga flinched away, as if being close to the orbs hurt him. Or maybe it was something about the tone of Zoro's voice. "Thank you, Zoro. I'm sorry I had to put you through that, but it was necessary- none of my men can hold the sacred orbs. Could you please just… Toss them down the well out back? My men and I will rest much easier once those things are underground."

This was getting odder and odder. Frowning, Zoro reached down and patted Sandai Kitetsu with one hand. The cursed katana vibrated slightly; Zoro had never felt it do that before, but he was fairly certain what it meant. There was another cursed sword in the area- probably Saga's. Zoro wondered if that had anything to do with all the odd occurrences.

But… He still owed Saga. Shaking his head, Zoro headed out to the well Saga had indicated and tossed the bag with the orbs down. It was a long, long time before he heard a splash- that well must be as deep as the height of the whole hill, right up from sea level. Maybe even deeper.

What was the story here? Zoro spent a while gazing into the well, trying to put the pieces together. But… He didn't have them all, did he? All he knew was that Saga had a cursed sword, and for some reason wanted those orbs gone. There was something missing… But Zoro didn't even know where to start finding the missing pieces.

Something thudded back inside the dojo, followed by the sound of Boo Kong's booming shout. "Sensei! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine… Don't worry…" Saga's voice shook slightly.

That was another thing. Saga seemed ill. It wasn't just that his crippled arm was bothering him- his voice, and even his good hand, shook occasionally, and one of the marines had mentioned frequent collapses and moments of confusion. Zoro wished he could bring Chopper up here to check his old friend out, but… After what had happened down at the village, that probably wouldn't be the best plan.

And that was another thing… Zoro hated being at odds with his crew like that. Even attacking the shit cook that way… True, Saga hadn't known that was a possibility, but Zoro still resented being put in that position. He just- he owed Saga so much. A life debt like that took a long time to pay off.

Hopefully his crew would forgive him.

X

Groaning, Ghin hauled himself to his feet. It took a few minutes for his eyes to stop spinning. Once they had, he took stock of his surroundings. Tonfa flung not too far from him, lying on the stone. A couple trees looked to have been blasted over by those last couple attacks. Geier was already up, standing protectively over the unconscious form of Drifter. Every once in a while, the vulture glanced over at the broken remains of her machine gun and let out a whistling cry. Off in the opposite direction, Ruatha was just rising, the dragon's white scales stained red from lying on Lisa's wounded shoulder.

Lisa. Ghin scrambled over to the little girl's side, heart jumping to his throat. She was still there, and still breathing. Good. The rigger pulled bandages out of his pockets and quickly wrapped the little painter's wounds. She would probably be alright… But he should get her to Chopper anyway. Just in case.

Ghin retrieved his tonfa before hefting Lisa onto his back. He handled the girl as carefully as he knew how, as if she was made of eggshells… Lisa was toughening up, sure, but slowly. She didn't do much combat training, although she was perfectly happy to join in with speed and endurance training. Well, if she could run and use her paints, Ghin supposed that was enough for now. Lisa was young; there was plenty of time to train her yet. And until then, the rest of the crew could look after her.

"Giin?" Ruatha cocked his head to the side curiously. "Fos mu dreh?"

"Come on little guy- let's go find the others." Ghin glanced over at Geier. "Can you carry the river dog? And maybe fly overhead and tell me where the others are? We need to get Lisa to Chopper."

"Sreeeeeeeeeeee!" The vulture fluffed her wings and bobbed her head. It took her a minute to scoop Drifter up onto her back. By the time she'd succeeded, the otter was already starting to wake up. A few seconds later, when she took to the sky, Drifter was almost back to full health. The little mustelid was mighty pissed off, though, tucking his chin into his jacket as Geier took to the sky.

I'm going to fry that fire-happy squabby hoser! No one cooks my mates!

Ghin headed downhill with Ruatha at his side, doing his best not to jostle Lisa. Hopefully Drifter and Geier could find the rest of the crew soon- Ghin didn't feel like trudging all over the island looking for people with the little girl on his back. What if they got attacked again? Ruatha wasn't much good in a fight without Jones giving him orders, and Geier's gun was gone… And shit, they needed to get Jones back! That asshole with the flaming sword must've taken her.

The group was almost all the way down the hill when Geier swooped lower and Drifter held up a sign. We found them! Village off to your left!

Ghin broke into a light jog once he knew which direction to head in. He would've liked to run, but he was worried that if he did, he would jostle Lisa and make her injuries worse. Ruatha hopped and fluttered beside him, occasionally bounding ahead. The little dragon always came back though, whining and hissing. His tail lashed constantly.

They had almost arrived at the village by the time Lisa woke up. The little girl groaned and shook her head. "Owwie…"

"Don't worry," Ghin assured her, "I've almost got you to Chopper."

"I'm not worried," Lisa pouted, poking Ghin's cheek. "I know Choppy can fix me. It hurts, though." The little painter wasn't crying, but her eyes were a little watery.

When they entered the village proper, Ghin immediately looked around for Chopper. He found the little reindeer in the middle of town, passing out bandages and burn salve to a bunch of lightly battered villagers. Not far away, Sanji was cooking stew in a great pot that sat on Ace's lap. The freckled pirate looked totally unamused as he sat on a rock, his lower body in flames. Further on still, Robin was examining a bunch of pictures on stone while an old woman told her a story. A younger woman with blue hair sat with Nami, head in her hands. "Oh Saga… What do I do?"

Nami rubbed the girl's shoulders. "Don't worry Maya. We'll figure something out."

Ghin marched over and set Lisa down beside Chopper. The little doctor squeaked when he saw the crude bandaging on Lisa's shoulder. "Aaaiieee! What happened?!" Chopper got to work before anyone answered, undoing the bandages and putting some sort of disinfectant on Lisa's shoulder before he started stitching the wound up.

He also tossed a pot of some sort of salve at Ghin. The rigger began quietly tending to Ruatha, Drifter, and Geier. While the vulture snapped and hissed, barely tolerating being touched, the otter and the dragon loved it. Both started purring as Ghin rubbed the salve into their wounds. Then, without being asked, Drifter grabbed the pot of salve and began tending the rigger's wounds with his tiny paws.

"There's some asshole with a magic sword up in the hills," Ghin informed the others with a grunt. "Cleaned our clocks. Now Lisa's safe, I'm heading back up there. Asshole's got Jones."

Sanji scowled. "Any idea what he's planning to do to her?"

"No. Just said that he wanted her cause Zoro told him about her being a witch." Ghin froze when he realized what that might mean. Could the swordsman have-?

"Shitty Moss-Brain better not have told this asshole where Jones comes from…" Sanji muttered, apparently coming to the same conclusion.

The blue-haired girl- Maya- let out a strangled whine. "Oh Saga… What have you done…?" She looked up at the gathered Straw Hats with watery eyes. "I'm so sorry everyone…"

Robin and the old woman approached from their spot by the stones. The archaeologist was shaking her head. "I'm still not sure I believe you. It just sounds too fantastic to be true."

"I've told you the whole story." The old woman shrugged. "What more can I do? And you read the stones yourself."

Ghin glanced up at the dark-haired woman. He still didn't know whether they could trust Robin or not. Luffy and Jones seemed to, but they weren't always the brightest… Or, well, Luffy wasn't the brightest, and Jones had the common sense of a turkey in a rainstorm. Still… "Does this story you're talking about have anything to do with a magical sword, or why the man holding that magical sword would want to kidnap a witch?"

"I- I suppose it does." Robin paled even further. "You… Gospodin Rigger, do you mean you encountered the sword? And it's truly magical? Not some trick?"

Ghin shrugged. "It shot fire and wind, and turned into a snake on command. Don't think there's a Devil Fruit that allows for all of those at once."

"No, I can't think of one either," Robin sighed. "Very well. I'm not sure it will help at all, but I can tell you what the stones had to say about that sword…"

X

Once upon a time, the three princes of Asuka Island beheld a beautiful priestess on the day of the red moon, and all fell in love with her. To make her notice their grace, the three brought forth the Seven-Star Sword, the royal family's symbol, and all fought for it. The battle spread throughout the entire kingdom, and the blood of the victims soon covered the land and sea. The sword, absorbing the blood and hatred of so many, became cursed, causing massacre and destruction, destroying the Kingdom of Asuka.

The sword spread wars as blood begot blood, until the entire region was engulfed in war, and the sea became a world ruled by darkness. However, the very same priestess that had caused the conflict to start took all the hate that was stored in Shichiseiken, and sacrificed her own life. The princes, now grieving over their loss, vowed to atone for their sins. Then, they were presented with three orbs by the Gods of Asuka's Seven Stars, which sealed the cursed sword's powers.

However, once every one hundred years, Shichiseiken gains enough power to break its seal, when the red moon shines and the Gods are forced to sleep.

X

Maya nodded miserably at the end of the story. "That's what I was doing down by the lake, when I first saw you," she explained. "Purifying the sacred orbs. There's a ceremony that must be performed once every century by the high priestess. It keeps the power of Shichiseiken sealed away, so the sword lies dormant rather than feasting upon blood. But- But that green-haired man stole them, so I can't perform the ceremony."

"Now that he's possessed by Shichiseiken," the old lady at Robin's side clarified, "Saga can't touch the sacred orbs- they are anathema to him. So he had to have someone else take them for him."

Sanji growled. "But why would the shitty moss-brain help someone like that? I thought he was supposed to be sensitive to luck and curses and stuff… Isn't that one shitty sword he carries cursed too? Could that be doing something to him?"

"No…" Maya shook her head. "Shichiseiken doesn't work well with others."

"Then it must be something between Zoro and Saga himself," Nami decided, snapping her Clima-Tact together, she tapped it on the ground. "Hmm… If this Saga person's so desperate to hide the orbs, that must mean the red moon's supposed to rise soon, right?"

"Tomorrow night…" Maya said quietly. "And without the orbs to light the three towers…" She let out a choked noise and buried her face in her hands.

One of the other villagers spoke up, scowling and rubbing his bruised arm. "Saga used to be an alright guy. A bit sleepy and distant, when he first showed up, but after Maya nursed him back to health… He and his buddies promised to protect the island, training something they call 'the sword of justice.' But there were too few of them. A year ago, we were attacked by pirates. Overrun. Saga took up the forbidden sword and saved us, but he's been changing ever since. Going mad. But no one here has the skills to subdue him or his marine friends."

"So he's not an evil man," Robin mused.

Maya shook her head violently. "Not at all. Before Shichiseiken took hold of his mind, Saga was so sweet. So kind…" The priestess sighed. "I'm so sorry, everyone. I should've prevented this…"

The old lady rubbed Maya's shoulder. "Dear… There's nothing you could've done."

X

Luffy looked around the cave he'd landed in, dimly lit by a shaft of light coming down from above. He spotted his gunner not far away, lying half-buried in a bunch of fallen dirt. Bounding over, Luffy pulled his friend out. "Hey! You alright Usopp?"

"Yeah…" Usopp shook his head to clear it, his spinning eyes resuming a normal appearance. He looked up at the hole they'd fallen through. "Can- can you rocket us outta here?"

Staring upwards, Luffy tried to decide. The edges of the hole were all crumbly… Not a good spot to grip. "Nope. If I try, I'll just bring all the dirt down on top of us. We'll have to get out somewhere else."

Not wanting to wait, Luffy immediately took off down a nearby tunnel. He needed to get out of here, needed to kick that swordsman's ass for what he did to Jones. Luffy clenched his fists as he ran, wincing as that caused his fingernails to dig into the wounds on his hands. He was so sick of Jones getting hurt like that. And not just her… While Yosaku's explosion injuries had healed, the green hunter had a lot of scars that would never fully go away. Every time he saw them, Luffy felt so bad about not having been there to help.

He was the captain. He was supposed to be able to protect people.

Usopp scrambled after Luffy, barely able to keep up. "Hey! Wait! Do you even know where we're going?!"

"No. But we're gonna find our way out anyway." Oh look, a lever. Maybe it opened a door that would led back to the surface. Luffy pulled the lever experimentally. At first, nothing happened. Then there was a low rumbling noise from behind one of the cave walls. A door opened up alright, but it didn't lead to the surface. No, all it led to was a small room with a large boulder in it- a boulder that began a slow, ominous roll downhill towards them as soon as the door was out of the way.

The boulder picked up speed quickly. Luffy watched for a second as it came towards them, trying to decide if he and Usopp could squeeze past. Nope, didn't look like it.

Usopp clearly thought the same thing. Grabbing Luffy's shoulder, the gunner shook his captain. "Oi! Don't just stand there! We've gotta either get out of here or bust that thing up!"

"Yeah, okay. Gum-Gum Pistol!" A single punch was all it took to shatter the stone. Gravel and dust rained on the teenage pirates, setting them coughing.

It was hard to see in the tunnels as they got further from the shaft where they'd fallen in. Luffy squinted in the dim light, groping along mostly by feel. It made for frustratingly slow going. The young captain growled. "Usopp… D'you have a torch or something?"

"Sorry, no." The gunner shook his head. "I've got some flammable ammo, but using it's probably not the best idea. We might light ourselves on fire instead of just getting light."

"Aww…" Well that sucked. With no light available, Luffy continued to grope his way forwards as the cave crew dimmer and dimmer. Soon he couldn't even see his own hands when he waved them in front of his face.

It was weirdly quiet in the caves too. The only sounds were their own footsteps and breathing, and the occasional drip of water off the walls. Luffy didn't like the quiet- it felt lonely. Dead. He was glad he had Usopp with him; if he'd had to endure that sort of quiet by himself, he wasn't sure he could handle it. Luffy hated being alone.

Behind the rubber boy, Usopp cleared his throat nervously. "Umm… Luffy? Do you- do you think Zoro really left the crew? And told that crazy guy about Jones being from another world?"

"No," Luffy said, a little more forcefully than he meant to. "Zoro wouldn't do that. He's our friend; that asshole was lying to make us mad." Because not everyone could think when they were mad, so the crazy guy was trying to trick them into doing dumb stuff. Right? Zoro wouldn't… Luffy stomped angrily on the doubt he was suddenly feeling. Stupid magic crazy man, making him doubt his friends.

A lever sticking out of the rocks slammed into Luffy's shins as he made his way along. Being rubber, he didn't mind much. Hmm… Maybe this one would open a door out of here. Luffy yanked on the lever and waited, squinting desperately in the hope of seeing a shaft of light open up. No such luck. Instead, there was a low rumbling noise from overhead.

"EEEEEEYAAAAAAARGH!" Usopp screamed and tackled Luffy from behind, knocking the captain forward as the tunnel roof caved in where they'd been standing. The teenage pirates rolled to a halt against a stalagmite, coughing as the air was filled with dust and dirt. A rubbery smack echoed through the caves as the gunner hit his captain over the head.

"Are you insane?! Quit pulling levers before you get us killed!"

"But what if one of them's a door?" Luffy shot back. "We need to get outta here- I've gotta kick that guy's ass for what he did to Jones!"

"You can't kick his ass if you're dead!"

"We're not gonna die!" Dusting dirt off his vest- he couldn't see, but he could feel it- Luffy marched off down the tunnel. Usopp squawked and scrambled after him.

Neither spoke for a long while. Luffy growled internally- he didn't like arguing with his friends. And… Usopp wasn't made of rubber like him, so he guessed it made sense that the gunner was afraid of being crushed. Sighing, the captain turned to apologize- oddly enough, at the same moment his crew mate did.

"I'm so-!"

"Sorry Lu-!"

CLICK.

Something shifted audibly under Luffy's foot. He and Usopp both froze, staring around in the dark. At first there was nothing, no sign of any doors or danger. Then a narrow shaft of light opened up somewhere ahead. Letting out a whoop, Luffy took off towards it, Usopp hot on his heels. It wasn't until they got closer that they noticed a grinding noise coming from the ceiling, and the fact that what appeared to be a thick stone wall was lowering with surprising speed. Crap. Luffy grabbed Usopp and flung the gunner forwards, sending him rolling under the descending stone. Then the captain slid through himself. By then it was so low he had to skid by on his back. A stray stone knocked Luffy's hat off his head; he reached back and grabbed it, snapping his arm back just before the wall met the floor with a loud crunch of finality.

Usopp panted, glaring at the wall that prevented them going back. "That was-!"

"Sorry," Luffy told his friend, "I didn't see that." At any other time, Luffy wouldn't have apologized- all these traps were interesting, and kinda fun- but… He was still upset about Jones, and he didn't want another of his friends getting hurt. Especially not if it was his fault.

The shaft of light was still there, despite the trap having come down- a small opening just above Luffy's head, large enough for a man to crawl through. Shooting each other a quick look, he and Usopp didn't even need to talk. This was what they were looking for, after all. The rubber boy led the way, jumping up and crawling out onto… a narrow ledge on the side of a cliff.

"Well, that sucks," Luffy pouted. Usopp nodded in agreement. Below them, a small river rushed through a narrow canyon; on the other side, an ancient tower pushed up from between the trees. It was very pretty, and definitely the sort of thing Robin would like, since she seemed to love history so much. But it wasn't what they were looking for. Usopp glanced over at Luffy.

"Back in, then?"

"Eeyup."

Back underground, they soon left the light behind again, leaving Luffy suddenly appreciative of an aspect of his Devil Fruit he'd never considered before. Namely, that stubbed toes no longer hurt. Oh, he'd always been aware of the fact that blunt impacts as a whole no longer bothered him, but he'd never realized that stubbed toes were part of that. Luffy had just assumed he was a lot less clumsy than he had been when he was little, that he didn't get stubbed toes anymore. He couldn't remember having one since before he'd left Makino's house- although he did remember how much they'd hurt when he was little. He used to hate them. But now, in the dark, Luffy was fully aware of all the things he was bashing his toes on, and how little it hurt compared to what he remembered.

Devil Fruits were awesome.

Just as he had that thought, Luffy bashed his toes yet again. Tripping over one of many, many rocks he couldn't see, the rubber boy flew forwards. He caught himself on a… something. It felt like wood rather than stone, but it wasn't positioned properly to be another lever. It did move when Luffy's weight crashed into it, though. A loud creak echoed through the blackness, accompanied by the sound of Usopp hitting the dirt with a groan.

In hindsight, Luffy should've done the same. Less than a second after his crew mate dropped to the ground, a large metal pendulum swung through the tunnel, striking Luffy full in the chest and slamming him into the ceiling. And while it didn't hurt, prying himself free was difficult. Particularly his one leg; it had somehow got caught between two stalactites.

For a while after that, the floor descended in a gentle slope. When it levelled out, the teenage pirates found themselves wading through knee-deep water. Fresh water, at least. And even if it had been salt, Luffy wouldn't have let that get him down- he could see a light up ahead!

"Wooh-aww, crap." Dashing out the watery door, Luffy found himself standing in a shallow bay off one of the islands many lakes. On the shore nearby was a ruined tower, leaning slightly; no landmarks that would help guide them back to the dojo were remotely visible. The rubber boy slumped.

Usopp placed a hand on his captain's shoulder, gesturing back into the tunnels with a jerky motion. "Umm… Third time's the charm, right?"

"Yeah!" These tunnels couldn't go on forever! Eventually they'd find a way out.

The next half hour or so of scrambling around in the dark passed more or less uneventfully. No traps, no lights… Luffy was more than once tempted to see if he could just punch a hole through the ceiling, but that would be a bad idea. Whether he succeeded or not, he'd bring down tonnes of rubble on himself and Usopp. He didn't want to do that.

A section of floor sank beneath Luffy's foot with an audible click. Oh no, not again. This time the trap was a rapidly closing stamp of some sort that rushed in from the side, slamming Luffy into the opposite wall. It just barely missed getting Usopp too; the gunner flinched back as stone brushed past the tip of his nose.

"Who builds a place like this?" Usopp demanded in exasperation. Luffy shook his head as he peeled himself free of the wall, forgetting for a moment that his friend couldn't see him.

"I dunno. It'd be kinda fun, though, if we weren't in a hurry. Maybe we can come back later?"

"Denied!" Usopp folded his arms so aggressively Luffy could feel it, wind brushing against his back.

Not too long after, they saw a third shaft of light. This one was smaller than the others, a narrower opening- but Luffy and Usopp were fairly small, so they checked it out all the same. One short, angular, exceedingly narrow crawl later, the boys climbed out between two boulders right beside… Yet another old, ruined tower. This island must be a historian's paradise. Once more, there were no landmarks to be seen that would guide them back to the dojo- or even the Going Merry. Luffy sighed as he looked down the unfriendly cliffs that surrounded them. Not fun climbs… Back into the tunnels they went.

"This is taking forever," the rubber boy groaned, clutching at his hat. "I wanna kick that crazy sword guy's ass!"

Groping his way forward, Luffy wished he had a light. Or a walking stick… Something. If he'd had his old pipe, he could've used it to poke around ahead of him, maybe trip on things less… Actually… For the first time, Luffy found himself wondering why he'd stopped using his pipe when Ace left. Sure, he didn't usually need it, but sometimes it'd be useful- Sabo's had been when they fought Crocodile.

"I should get a new pipe," Luffy mused. Behind him, Usopp squawked.

"Pipe?! You used to smoke?"

"No. For fighting. Like Sabo." Saying his brother's name sent a brief rush of warmth through Luffy's chest. He was just so happy that Sabo survived.

Stumbling, the rubber boy placed a hand on the wall to steady himself. Damn, this darkness was such a pain. Stone shifted under Luffy's fingers, startling him into stepping back into Usopp. For a moment, nothing happened. Then… Fwip! Fwi-fwi-fwi-fwi-fwi-fwi-fwip!

Stinging pain appeared across Luffy's body in sharp bursts. At first he wasn't sure what it was, since he couldn't see and the first few strikes just grazed his cheeks and chest. But then a few more lasting wounds appeared as the things embedded themselves in his arms and legs. Arrows. Luffy fell to the ground and covered his face. It was one thing to fight through a storm of arrows when he could see where they were coming from and kick the archer's ass, but when he couldn't… First priority was to protect anything important, like his eyes and heart- even he knew that much. The arrows had to stop eventually.

Behind him, Luffy heard scrambling feet as Usopp did… something. Hopefully got out of range, or found a stalagmite to hide behind. As arrows pinged off stone around him, Luffy wondered if this would help at all with that Haki training Sabo had described. Dodging traps in the dark was kind of like hitting each other while blindfolded.

A lot less fun though. Hitting each other while blindfolded- and better yet, watching everyone hit each other while blindfolded- was funny.

It took several long minutes, but eventually the arrows did stop. Listening carefully, Luffy couldn't hear any movement from up ahead. Definitely one of the traps, then, not a hidden archer. He wondered if this would've been easier if he'd brought Johnny or Yosaku with him, and sent Usopp to help Jones. Nah, probably not. They probably couldn't disarm traps they couldn't see. Rising stiffly, Luffy carefully pulled out the arrows that had embedded themselves in his limbs, wincing at each one. That hurt.

"You okay Usopp?"

"Y-yeah…" The gunner's voice was shaky. "I managed to avoid them all. It was… weird. Like, I was so focused on hearing them that I forgot I couldn't see for a minute."

"Cool!" Despite his desire to get out of there and kick the crazy swordsman's ass as soon as possible, Luffy found himself bouncing with excitement. "D'you think it's that Haki stuff?"

"Probably not. I'm just used to listening to the wind and stuff when I shoot, compensating for it; my hearing probably took over, since I can't see. Um… That said, can I try leading? You're setting off way too many traps."

"Okay." Pressing himself to the side of the cave, Luffy let Usopp edge past. The gunner groped past, but paused with his hand on the captain's arm. Rough calluses stung raw flesh; Usopp was touching an open wound.

"Sticky… Is that blood?"

"Yeah. A few of the arrows got me." Luffy had counted seven when he pulled them out, although he'd been grazed by more. He gripped the ones that had hit him tightly, snapping their shafts.

"You gonna be okay? I can try to bandage them now, but it'll be easier if we can get some light."

"Nah, it's fine. I can wait 'til we're outside. They're not bleeding much, so it's fine." Luffy smiled at his friend, before remembering Usopp couldn't see him. That thought made the rubber boy pout.

They edged forward once more, and for a while they made good time. Usopp did seem to be better at creeping around in the dark than Luffy was, his hearing and delicate touch allowing them to avoid a few more traps- at least two, from the levers the captain brushed against without activating. Maybe more that he couldn't feel. But eventually, inevitably, Usopp screwed up too. A drop of cold water fell down the back of the gunner's neck- Luffy heard the plop- and Usopp jumped in the air.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! What was that?!"

At the top of his leap, Usopp hit something on the ceiling- why would anyone put a trap trigger up there? Were they expecting to be robbed by tall people? A second later, the floor was sloping downwards and tiny stone marbles were falling on them from three sides. The perfectly polished balls made climbing back up impossible; Luffy and Usopp were forced down, deeper underground. They collapsed in a heap atop a pile of stone marbles, more raining down atop them.

The trap door closed above them with a booming THUD.

"Oww…" Usopp groaned as Luffy dug them out of the heap of marbles. There was a faint rustling noise; Luffy would've bet anything Usopp was rubbing either his nose or the back of his head sheepishly. "Dammit… Guess I'm not much better than you after all."

Luffy didn't answer. He was too focused on a patch of faint, pink light up ahead, glowing from inside a deep puddle. Or maybe a small pond; the body of water looked larger and larger as he got closer and was able to take a better look. Crouching down on the edge, he saw three fist-sized pink stones, perfectly round, sitting at the bottom of the pool. They were very pretty… Kinda sparkly and see-through, like gemstones. But Luffy didn't know any pink gemstones.

"Oi! Don't touch that!" Usopp yelped as Luffy reached into the pool. "What if it's another trap?"

"It's not." Luffy couldn't be sure how he knew that, though. There was just something so… innocent about the stones. Loving. He fished them out of the pool and tucked them into his vest. He'd show Nami and Jones later; they seemed to know stuff about rocks. Maybe one of them could tell him what the pretty balls were.

Usopp cringed- and with the balls hidden in his vest, it took a minute for Luffy to figure out how there was still enough light for him to see his friend. Looking up, the rubber boy saw a long, narrow shaft that opened up to the stars. Unfortunately, it was too narrow for him to Rocket up, even if the mouth was sturdy enough to grip. Dammit… But maybe- there was some old grating sticking out around the bottom of the shaft; maybe he could use that to climb?

Stretching up, Luffy grabbed one of the bits of grating to pull himself to the ceiling. As soon as he rested his weight on it, though, the bit of broken metal gave way. Not as if he was pulling it out of the rock, or it was snapping off partway… No, it swung in Luffy's hand like a well-oiled lever.

Oops.

Releasing the sneaky hidden lever, Luffy dropped to the ground- landing in knee-deep water with a splash. The pool he'd taken the pink balls from was bubbling, more water rushing up from somewhere beneath and making the pool spread. Wider, deeper… Something rumbled in a side tunnel as the water rose up to meet it. And then…

WHOOSH!

The water gushed back at tremendous speeds, hitting Luffy and Usopp full in the face. The blast was strong enough to knock both boys off their feet, and with the rapidly rising water levels, they were soon adrift in the caves.

In no time at all, what little light the stars provided was beyond reach. Luffy couldn't see, could barely hear or feel anything besides the rush of cold water. Plucked along like a leaf in a stream, the rubber boy bounced off stone walls as the water flowed around him. Fresh… But even if it didn't paralyze him the way salt would have, Luffy didn't know how to swim. He closed his eyes and clung to his hat, holding his breath as hard as he could. The young captain's heart sped up as he realized he wasn't sure where, in this raging river, Usopp was. He hoped his friend would be alright…

X

The sky was getting dark. I grit my teeth as I hobbled along, leaning on Yosaku. Or, well, he was practically dragging me by this point. Johnny walked slightly ahead of us, watching constantly to see if we were being followed, his sword and spray gun both ready to fight.

"You alright, Big Sis?" Yosaku asked, catching me as I tripped over a root. I growled and elbowed him in the ribs, too sore to put any real force into it. He smiled bitterly. "I'll take that as an 'I'll live'."

"Gyargh…" was my somewhat bubbly reply. Talking hurt… Breathing hurt, with the way Saga had been tearing at my chest and back. We'd stopped a little while ago to bind my wounds, so I didn't bleed out and any pursuers would have a harder time tracking us. That said, everything still burned.

Meanwhile, the three of us were lost in the middle of the forest, with night rapidly approaching. We'd seen no sign of the Merry, or of any of our crew members. I glanced up at the stars and sighed, wishing I knew which ones indicated the cardinal points. Something I'd been proud to learn back home, but I'd let fall by the wayside in this world… Little skills like that would've been just as useful as fighting and Devil Fruits.

"River up ahead," Johnny reported, peering between the trees. "Should we stop for a break, Bro?"

Yosaku nodded. "Yeah… We could all use a drink, and Big Sis is heavier than she looks."

"Sorry…" I leaned away with the intent of giving the green hunter some relief- and promptly fell over, barely managing to catch myself against a tree. Yosaku grabbed me and pulled me over to the river Johnny had found, shaking his head.

"Don't apologize Big Sis. It's fine." Then the green hunter smacked his palm against his hitai-ate. "And I'm an idiot. Half that weight's your weights, isn't it? Shoulda got Johnny to carry those…"

"Aye…" I glanced sheepishly at the lumpy training weights still strapped around my wrists and ankles. "Sorry."

Both hunters snickered.

The river water was icy cold- or maybe I was just thirsty and sticky enough that it felt that way- and tasted slightly of fish and milfoil. Yum. Once I'd had a drink, I did my best to clean off some of the blood coating the visible patches of my skin. I rocked back and forth on the bank of the river, a little woozy from pain and blood loss.

"Nami's gonna kill me," I eventually moaned, playing with the tattered edges of the great holes Saga had torn in my shirt. Johnny and Yosaku snickered again; apparently my status as destroyer of shirts amused them. I splashed the hunters with a frustrated groan.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Branches snapped under creeping feet. Someone had been following us. Standing fairly quickly, I swayed for a moment as movement and pain threatened to knock me over. I drew my sais-Johnny and Yosaku had both their swords and their spray guns at the ready.

A few minutes later, Toma stepped out of the trees. The boy looked nervous, jumpy; he was carrying what looked like a first-aid kit. When he saw our weapons, Toma jumped. He nearly dropped the box he was carrying. One hand rose above his head.

"Ah! I- I come in peace! Don't shoot!"

I looked at his eyes. Warm, light brown; no hint of glowing green or red. He was still himself. Weirdly, there were a couple of fresh bite marks on one of his arms. Human bite marks. I wondered where he'd gotten them, and why he hadn't bandaged them up yet.

"Who the Hell're you?! What're you doing here?!" Johnny and Yosaku pointed their dadao at Toma's neck.

The young swordsman hung his head in shame. "I- I saw what Sensei did to the witch. I couldn't bring myself to help then, but… Everyone's eating right now, so I came to see if I could do anything to help now… I- I'm sorry. So, so sorry…"

"You- you just watched?" Yosaku growled. "What kind of man are you?"

"Selfish coward!" Johnny's sword started to- crackle with electricity? COOL! When did they do that? "Your sensei tortured Big Sis!"

Toma flinched. "I know! I- I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do! Sensei- he's not usually like this. He's usually so kind and patient… And he and Maya-dono are adorable together. Please believe me- I don't know what's come over him the last few months! I joined his dojo to master the sword of justice- to help people!"

Sword of jus-? I frowned, lowering my sais. "What path of justice do you follow? Moral? Absolute?"

"Naniiiii?" Toma cocked his head to the side in confusion.

Johnny and Yosaku turned to stare at me in disbelief. "Big Sis… This guy's sensei tortured you! Why aren't you pissed off?"

Because it wasn't Toma's fault and I was still used to thinking of myself as pretty low on the totem pole of priority. "Yes, Toma just watched while Saga was torturing me. But it wasn't his fault and really, it was the best thing he could've done. Saga's currently possessed by a high-level chaotic evil artifact; if he'd known Toma was in the room, he either would've tortured Toma beside me, or forced him to help." I may not know this movie, but I did know evil magic.

While Johnny and Yosaku were processing that, I looked back to Toma. "So… What kind of justice?"

"W-what do you mean? What's the difference?" Toma fiddled with the chain that hung around his neck. Funny; from Blue's fic, I'd've thought this guy was a cocky little brat. Then again, I suppose watching the man you admire torture a young woman can strip away a pretty big piece of youthful arrogance.

"Justice- the word is defined simply as 'fair behaviour or treatment.' Usually, though, it refers to punishing those who've done wrong." I stared at Toma, unblinking. "Everyone has their own kind, appending adjectives to describe how they see and mete out justice. Many marines adhere to absolute justice, the opinion that everyone who has even the slightest thing to do with crime- even being a criminal's son- should be punished most severely. Some follow unclear justice- the letter of the law, no more, no less. And some follow moral justice, where right and wrong are more important than good and evil."

"Oh…" Toma's gaze turned inward. He tapped his fingers on the first-aid kit he was carrying… Then curled in on himself. "I- I don't know. I never thought about it."

Exhausted and sore, I leaned against a tree. "Well, that's something you need to think about. And I'd think hard if I were you. If it helps, though, I can tell you what I think."

Nodding, Toma looked at me expectantly. I closed my eyes, thinking back to one of my favourite video games. A quote from Tales of Vesperia would be far more impressive than anything I could come up with myself. "I think there are some things that you have to do, even if they're a crime. Someone has to do them, even if it means taking the blame."

Then, because my traitor mouth always has to ruin the moment, I continued. "And… Just one other thing. I don't know you, but… Your coat may say 'marine,' but that smiley on your hat- that says 'pirate.' Think about that, too, while you're meditating on justice."

Toma's immediate reaction was to drop the first-aid kit and remove his cap, staring at the smiling face doodled there in black pen. "Pirate-?"

Johnny and Yosaku, finally unfroze. "Big Sis…" the blue hunter asked slowly, "Are you tryna recruit this kid?"

"No." I shook my head. "Just… trying to make him feel better after what he saw. Guess I'm not doing a very good job of it, though."

"You're trying to make me- you're the one who got tortured!" For a moment it looked like Toma was considering hitting me the way Luffy would've. "I should be trying to make you feel better! That's why I snuck out here!"

Yosaku blinked. "Huh. No, Big Sis, I think you did a pretty good job. He seems pretty cheered up to me."

Blink. Blink. Toma stared at us. "You- this is your idea of cheering people up? You pirates are nuts!"

Suddenly, without warning, Toma flinched and covered his eyes. There was a faint green glow from behind his hand; it lasted about thirty seconds before fading away. Toma kept his eyes covered for a little longer, rocking back and forth in place. "It sees… I can't let it in, won't let it in… But it still sees."

Jumping to his feet, Toma spun so he was no longer facing me and the hunters. "I- I have to go. Before it finds me."

The young swordsman took off into the forest. He left the first-aid kit behind in his flight, crashing through the trees like a charging rhino. Seriously, for someone so small- Toma was even shorter than me- he made a lot of noise. But it was more than the disproportionately loud noise that made me frown at his retreating back.

Because… If Toma said he didn't know what had gotten into Saga when it was clearly the possessed sword, what did he think was trying to break into his head?

Toma was well out of sight by the time Johnny sheathed his sword and bent to pick up the first-aid kit. The blue hunter looked hesitantly from the white metal box to my wounds. "Big Sis…"

"I'm fine; save it." I bit back a groan as I straightened, which sent pain singing through my chest and back. "We might need it later. Let's get moving… Find the others…"

"Aye-aye Quartermaster." Both hunters flashed a joking salute; I responded with a skyward motion of my right hand, middle finger extended. That just made them laugh, although laughter quickly turned to concern when overstretching my wounded chest made me curl in on myself with a hiss of pain. Yosaku was immediately at my side, ready to support me as we continued our trek through the darkening forest.

Hopefully, wherever the others were, they were alright. If my orders had sent anyone into a trap while Luffy was gone… I bit my lip, forcing back worry. It didn't go very far, though.

X

Zoro yawned. He hadn't slept well that night. The barracks in Saga's dojo were crowded, warm, and noisy with snoring men- a far cry from the cozy quarters of the Going Merry. And sure, Usopp snored sometimes, but on nights that was a problem, Zoro could always climb up top and settle down in the crow's nest, or go to the kitchen to grab some booze for an hour until the gunner quieted down. Stifling a second yawn, the Straw Hat bosun thought longingly of the gentle swaying of the ship. Some nights, it almost seemed like Merry was rocking the crew to sleep… It was comforting.

Ah, well, it wouldn't be much longer. Tomorrow night he'd be back on board. Zoro eyed Saga from the corner of his eye. There was something… off about his old friend. Or maybe… Maybe it was just his injury. Zoro flinched at the thought.

My fault. If I hadn't cut that mast… If I'd found a way to get him out when he got stuck… Memories of an explosion played in front of the swordsman's eyes, a ship wreathed in flame. And older memories too- learning swordsmanship side by side, fighting bullies in a back alley, a promise to be the strongest and fight for justice…

"Everything alright, Senpai?" Toma asked dully, breaking Zoro out of his thoughts. Looking down at the young swordsman, the Straw Hat bosun frowned. At first he'd thought Toma idolized Saga, but since he'd come back to the village yesterday, the boy had been quiet and withdrawn, actively avoiding his sensei. And then last night- last night, Toma had disappeared for over an hour during dinner. No one else seemed to have noticed, though. Zoro wondered if something had happened to the boy.

Bismarck and Boo Kong stood behind Saga like great statues as Zoro's old friend prepared to address the gathered marines of his dojo. The pair made Saga look small and frail, especially with his white hair and crippled arm. But Zoro knew- even handicapped as he was, Saga could take both of the larger men easily. The red-robed swordsman smiled at his men; the smile contained no warmth.

"Good morning all. The awaited time has almost arrived. Tonight. Tonight, the plan will be complete- we shall undo the ancient spell and obtain the insurmountable power that is our right!"

Dozens of men cheered, but there was something strange and hollow about it. Zoro would take a rowdy Straw Hat party any day. And their eyes glowed eerie green. He was no doctor, but Zoro was pretty sure eyeball glows weren't usually that colour. He'd seen gold, red, and white before, but never green.

Grinning darkly, Saga continued. "You all came here to learn the sword of justice. Well then, let me tell you the secret of justice- power. Laws, order… These things don't matter. Even the gods don't matter. All that matters is strength and will- and we? We shall be the strongest."

And then? Then Zoro's heart nearly stopped. Because Saga, frowning in concentration, moved his crippled arm and used it to draw his sword. He thrust the blade skywards in a rapid, powerful motion. "This is Shichiseiken, the Seven-Star Sword. With its power, we shall cut the path to true justice and take our rightful places as judge, jury, and executioner to this flawed world!"

There was a deafening chorus of roaring, whooping cheers from the gathered marines. Zoro frowned, one hand unconsciously going to rest on the hilts of his swords. That- that didn't sound like the Saga he knew. At all. More like that marine asshole back in Shells Town- the captain with the axe arm. What was going on? Had his injury really changed Saga that much?

The only person besides Zoro who wasn't cheering was Toma. Slumped over, hands in his pockets, bags under his eyes… The boy looked half-dead. Or maybe like he wanted to die. Every once in a while he would shake his head and close his eyes- usually just as they started to take on the greenish glow that had infected most of the marines.

And… Those bandages on Toma's arm- those hadn't been there yesterday. Zoro frowned. What was going on with this dojo? Was- Saga's sword was cursed, but was the curse really that strong?

Smiling, Saga turned to head off into the forest. He paused and rested a hand on Zoro's shoulder before leaving the training yard. "Thank you, old friend. Thanks to your help, my dream will soon be realized. Tonight, when the red moon rises, I'll finally be able to break free from the shackles of this world."

Not sure what to say, Zoro responded with an affirmative grunt. Saga patted his shoulder and continued on his way, off to train or meditate or something- Zoro really didn't know how or where his old friend spent most of his days. Hanging back, the Straw Hat bosun waited until everyone was going about their business before wandering over to check on Toma.

"You alright kid? You're kinda quiet. What happened to Saga being so cool, and wanting to be just like him?"

The boy jumped, staring at Zoro with suspicion. After a moment, though, he relaxed. Sort of. His murmuring to himself still made him seem tense and crazy. "It doesn't have him yet… He's safe… But what if someone's listening?"

Toma looked around, making sure no one was nearby before he answered Zoro's question. "I- Sensei's not who he used to be. I'm scared… But I don't know what to do. It knows I'm resisting- it wants to get me too. He- It made him torture her. I was too scared to help, too scared to watch…"

Zoro frowned. What was it? What made Saga torture someone? And… "Who did Saga torture?"

Twitching, the boy shook his head and rubbed his eyes on the back of his hands. "I don't- I don't know. Never caught her name. Sensei called her a witch, and the swordsmen in colourful trench coats called her Big Sis. She screamed… So much blood. But- She knew I was there, but she wasn't angry. She tried to make me feel better, even if she was the one all torn up."

Zoro's stomach sank. Only one girl he knew would qualify as Big Sis to a couple guys in colourful coats, and worry about a random teenager rather than her own wounds. Saga had gone after Jones. But… Why? Was- was it his fault? Had he said something to draw Saga's attention to the world-walker?

Well… He had told the owner of an apparently very powerful cursed sword that Jones was a witch and came from another world, so Zoro figured the answer was probably yes.

"Shit…" The blood rushed away from Zoro's face. What had he done? The curse- it must be stronger than Sandai Kitetsu's. Jones… And the orbs. Zoro was willing to bet those orbs had something to do with whatever Saga had been saying about the red moon and power. And… Was it even Saga anymore, at this point? Or was the sword speaking through him? Had Zoro been played for a fool by a cursed blade?

How could he- Zoro shook his head. It was too late to fix most of it. How did he stop it from going any further? And atone for what had already happened? Placing a hand on Toma's shoulder, Zoro shook the boy- Toma appeared to have gone catatonic, mumbling nonsense under his breath and clawing at his own arm. "Snap out of it. I need to ask you something."

"Hai Senpai?" Toma froze with his hand covering his eyes. Green flashed briefly between his fingers.

"Two things; they're important. One… Did Jones- the woman who got tortured- seem to know you without being told? Anything, even just your name?"

Toma thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. Zoro felt some small measure of relief; so Jones knew what was going on here, or at least some of it. "And two… Which way did she and the guys in colourful coats go?"

"I- I don't know. Didn't let myself see. It watches through our eyes sometimes, even those of us it can't control. I- I might be the last one. Boo Kong… About a month ago, it got him too."

"What is it?" Zoro frowned. Toma flinched.

"I- I don't know. A voice in my head… For the last year. Always whispering. At first I thought it was just me, but then the others… It took them one by one, controlled them. Didn't seem to care too much at first that it couldn't have me, but yesterday… It wants me too. I won't let it, but… It's hard to hold on." The boy looked up at Zoro, eyes wide with fear. "Do- Do you think it has Sensei too? That it's why he hasn't been acting like himself?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out." Zoro scowled at the ground. If he didn't know where his crew mates were, that meant he just had to solve this himself. Well… If the source of the issue was that cursed sword, he just had to break it, right? And if it wasn't… If it wasn't, he'd figure something else out later.

Now he just needed to find Saga.

X

The Straw Hats sat in a circle, eating breakfast as the sun rose. Nami stifled a yawn; beside her, Lisa did yawn. The sailing master reached over and patted the young painter's head. "Didn't sleep well?"

"No…" Lisa picked at her porridge, stirring in enough sugar that Nami felt mildly nauseous. "I dreamt about that sword- the Shichiseiken. It turned into a giant snake and ate the world… We tried to escape to Jones' home, but it followed us."

Oh dear… Nami wrapped an arm around Lisa's shoulders. She was about to give the girl a reassuring squeeze, but remembered at the last moment that doing so would aggravate Lisa's wounds. "It'll be okay. We won't let that happen; there has to be a way to seal Shichiseiken even without those orb things."

"There- there is." Maya's voice behind her made Nami jump- the priestess hadn't made a sound while approaching. Turning, the sailing master saw that Maya was clutching a heavy holy book to her chest. Her grandmother was beside her, one hand on her shoulder. Both looked grim.

Robin glanced up from her own book with a sad, sympathetic expression. Of course; anything to do with history or archaeology, the archaeologist probably new about it, whether she believed in magic or no.

Maya bit her lip, trembling. She couldn't meet anyone's eyes. "I… Um… I'm a direct descendant of the priestess who first sacrificed her life to save the world from Shichiseiken's bloodlust. If- There's a second ceremony detailed. In the absence of the orbs, a full-blooded priestess who's strong in magic can sacrifice herself to seal the blade again."

Nami knew Sanji well enough by now to pre-emptively flinch at his voice. He always shrieked a little when ladies were threatened. It was kind of painful.

"What?! That can't be right! No civilized religion requires the sacrifice of a beautiful young woman! It's utterly barbaric!" The cook waves a spoon at elderly Izaya, chastising. "You shouldn't let her believe such things- it's cruel."

"I'm not letting her believe she needs to sacrifice herself," Izaya snapped. "And though what the book says is true, I'm not letting my granddaughter die. I'm neither cruel, stupid, nor senile."

Drifter held up a sign. So there's a third way?

"Not exactly," Izaya grumbled under her breath, "Smartass hairball. But Maya's powers are greater than those of any other priestess in our family. Far greater- extraordinary, even. If she goes through with the beginning of the ritual, the strength of her prayers should be enough to seal Shichiseiken even without blood."

Maya looked away. Her hands were shaking. "I- I don't think it will work. But even if it doesn't, I can always continue and do- do it the proper way."

No one said anything for several long minutes. Sanji in particular looked anguished. Ghin scowled, face stormy. Lisa bit her lip; Geier let out a quiet keen. Robin looked grim. Ruatha's wings drooped as the dragon wandered over to wind himself around Maya, trying to comfort her. Nami felt her own hands begin to shake.

She couldn't begin to imagine how Maya was feeling right now; at least when she'd tried to protect Cocoyashi, it wasn't her life Nami had to give.

Ace had been trembling since the moment Maya mentioned sacrificing her life. His gaze was turned inwards, deep in thought- or memory. When Ghin reached out and placed his hand on the freckled pirate's shoulder, Ace flinched and pulled away. One flaming arm came up as if to knock the rigger away; Ace froze at the last moment and shook his head, dropping his hand to his side.

No one said a word as they finished eating. Drifter cleaned up quickly, washing the dishes and stacking them in a freestanding cupboard beside the village well. There was no need to put them away- the wooden bowls and mugs were public village property that were kept for workers and guests. Wanderers' bowls, Izaya had called them the night before.

Sanji sighed heavily once everything was done. "If- If you're sure about this, darling Maya, we will of course do anything in our power to help you."

"Speak for yourself, Shit Cook," Ghin growled. "I'm going out to find Jones. Whatever that crazy swordsman wanted her for, it can't be good."

Spiral eyebrows snapped down towards angry blue eyes. "You don't even know where to start looking! And besides, the fate of the world rests on Maya's ritual!"

"And I'm sick of my little sisters getting beat up, tortured, and almost killed! And she was taken by that Saga guy- if we kick his ass while getting her back, won't that stop him?"

"It's not that easy!" Izaya snapped, whacking Ghin over the head with her walking stick. "Beating Saga won't remove the curse- he's merely a pawn, not a necessary piece. Even after you've defeated him and reclaimed your comrade, Shichiseiken will still be released to feast on the blood of the world."

Ghin looked like he was about to protest, so Nami snapped her Clima-Tact together and pointed it at the rigger. Her hands shook. She didn't like having to be the one to make this decision, but with Luffy and Zoro gone… "Ghin… I know you don't like it. I don't either; none of us do. Watching friends and family get hurt… But if we don't save the world first, we might not be able to get Jones back. She…" Nami winced. "It's not the first time Jones has gotten her ass handed to her. She'll tough it out long enough for us to break the curse."

For a moment, the rigger didn't react. Then, still not saying a word, he turned and slammed his fist into the nearest wall. Stone cracked under the force of the blow; more worrying, though, was the sickening bony crunch that accompanied the crack. When Ghin pulled his hand back, his knuckles mangled and bloody. Chopper squeaked in distress and bounded over.

"Why did you do that?" the reindeer asked reproachfully as he tended Ghin's hand. The rigger growled.

"My sister is being taken. Again. I couldn't save Tippy… I won't lose another. I can't- can't fail again."

Chopper hummed a consoling noise. As soon as he was done tending Ghin's hand, the little doctor hugged the rigger's leg tightly. Lisa soon joined him, arms wrapping around the man's waist from the other side. Eyes closed, breathing heavy, Ghin reached down to pat both of them on the head.

Maya approached hesitantly, resting a hand on one trembling, grey-glad shoulder. "I- I know it won't make what happens to her in the meantime any better, but… You won't lose your sister. Once- once the curse is sealed and Saga is himself again, it should be fairly easy to get her back."

Ghin nodded, but he still looked broken. "I was right there though. I should've been able to protect her. But I didn't."

Nami winced at the pain in her crewmate's voice. Ghin never talked about what had happened to this Tippy girl who was so important to him, but she was starting to get a picture. It wasn't pretty. They had to push through though- like Nami had so many times in the past while working for Arlong. "Then we need to get going as soon as possible. The faster we seal this curse, the faster we can rescue Jones and find the others."

Grumbling something unintelligible, Ghin nodded. Shortly thereafter, the Straw Hats moved out as a unit. Maya and Izaya walked at the center of the formation; Nami and Robin took the lead with the aid of an old map the priestesses had provided, and Ace brought up the rear. Sanji and Ghin were arrayed to either side, with Lisa and Chopper still hugging the rigger tight as they walked. Drifter and Geier soared overhead, while Ruatha tromped along beside Sanji.

The dragon looked just as pissed off as Ghin- although it was hard to tell, since he didn't speak English. Still, every once in a while Ruatha would let out a low growl, sniffing the air as if trying to locate his mother. "Monah…"

"We'll get her back," Sanji assured the reptile, running a hand through the dragon's coarse mane. "We've just gotta save the world from that shitty curse first."

They had been walking for several hours- indeed, it was nearing noon- when the ground shook. Izaya stiffened in shock and struggled to keep her balance, while Maya clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle a startled whine. Everyone else just braced themselves as the stone beneath their feet rumbled and vibrated like a giant purring cat.

It took ten minutes for the quake to die down. Nami traced the map with a frown, comparing it to her own notes about nearby parts of the Grand Line. "Odd… There's no fault line nearby."

Maya shivered and clutched tighter to her holy book. "It- it must be a sign that Shichiseiken is soon to wake. We have to hurry!"

Before anyone could take more than a few steps, though, the ground shook again. This time the vibrations were powerful enough that they would've knocked Lisa off her feet if she hadn't been clinging to Ghin. Chopper popped into Walk Point for more stability. As well as the rumbling there was an ominous bubbling noise from somewhere beneath their feet.

But… That couldn't be right. The map didn't show any sign of a geyser in the area either. Just solid bedrock and old ruins…

Nami's faith in the accuracy of the old map was immediately blown to bits as a fountain of water erupted from the ground practically under Ace's feet. The freckled pirate jumped back in alarm. Cold water gushed nearly forty feet into the air, spraying everyone in the vicinity with icy drops. Soaked, Geier was forced to land in a nearby tree. And then two dark, sopping shapes fell from the sky.

The shapes quickly resolved themselves into people. Sanji caught the first one and immediately dropped it on its ass; Ace caught the second and began hugging the life out of the half-drowned figure- also somehow managing to deliver a punishing noogie while doing so.

"These arms are only for holding ladies! Merde! Fall on somebody else next time, Shitty Longnose!"

"Lu! You shouldn't go running off like that on an unknown island! There's a cursed sword that's taken some of your crewmates- what if it got you too?"

Nami couldn't help but giggle at the two vastly different reactions- or at the responses Usopp and Luffy had to them. The gunner jumped to his feet, rubbing his aching tailbone and gesticulating wildly. The captain, meanwhile, looked like a wet kitten as he tried to free himself from his brother's embrace.

"Oi! We're crewmates! That means we're supposed to help each other! So don't go dropping me on my ass just 'cause I'm not a girl, 'specially when I'm more delicate than they are!"

"Ah! Ace, lemme go! I know 'bout the curse already- I'm tryna find the crazy magic swordsman so I can kick his ass!"

Maya and Izaya stared as the freckled pirate reluctantly released his younger brother. The blue-haired priestess cleared her throat. "Um… Who are these people?"

Nami smiled. "A couple of our missing crewmates- Usopp, our master gunner, and Luffy, dumbass extraordinaire."

"Oi!" Luffy scowled, wiping his hair out of his eyes and blowing water out of his nose. "That's captain dumbass."

Ace facepalmed. "Missing the point, Lu."

Marching over to her captain, Nami poked him in the forehead. "Well then, Captain Dumbass, where the Hell were you two? And what happened to Johnny and Yosaku?"

"I sent them to get Jones out while I dist- disa- fought the crazy swordsman guy who had her." Luffy scowled, looking around as if he expected to see Saga on top of one of the nearby hills. "I think they got her, but the asshole knocked me'n Usopp off a cliff, so I didn't really see."

Nodding frantically, the gunner cut in before anyone else could say anything. "And then we fell into a big hole! We've been wandering around underground all night- up until that geyser caught us, anyway! I thought we were gonna drown!"

Drifter bopped Usopp over the head with a sign. Don't be such a baby. It could be worse.

Ghin glanced at Luffy, one hand buried in the thick fur of Chopper's neck. "Is- was Jones alright?"

The rubber boy's face darkened. "No… Not really. The crazy swordsman was torturing her. He knew she was from another world- said Zoro told him. But Zoro wouldn't…" Luffy clenched his fists, fingernails biting into palms that were already red and raw. A couple drops of blood fell to the ground.

Sanji huffed, lighting a cigarette. "I don't think we can really say what the shitty moss-brain will do. He attacked darling Maya's village, stole some sacred artifacts, broke my arm. Curse probably got him too."

"Not possible!" Izaya swung her walking stick aggressively. "The green-haired boy was able to touch the sacred orbs, which means he was untainted by Shichiseiken's power."

"Actually, he didn't touch them…" Maya murmured. "He took the bag I was carrying them in."

"Still too close. Their aura would've at least caused him pain if he was possessed."

Robin hummed. "Is it possible that Gospodin Swordsman and the man who carries the cursed sword have a history together? Something from before the latter became possessed?"

No one answered for a few long minutes. Nami frowned. Zoro… Didn't actually talk much about his past. He'd told everyone about his friend Kuina who'd died, but other than that...

"Saga did come from a different island," Maya eventually offered. "He doesn't talk much about where he lived before…"

Robin nodded thoughtfully. "So it's possible he's holding something over Gospodin Swordsman- guilt, a debt, and old friendship. I wonder… When he and the marines came to the village, Gospodin Swordsman was carrying a fourth blade- a tanto, I believe. It was shoved through his haramaki, across the small of his back. That could provide a clue as to the hold the cursed swordsman has over him."

Luffy shrugged. "Does it matter? This Saga guy- he tortured Jones and made Zoro do his dirty work. I'm gonna kick his ass and break that stupid sword."

Izaya cracked the young captain over the head with her walking stick. "Idiot! That's impossible! Shichiseiken is a magical artifact- you won't even be able to scratch it!"

"You can't know that until I at least try!"

Maya pushed in between the pair. "Please… Grandmother, Captain, fighting won't help. We'll continue on as we were; I'll head to the central temple and begin the ritual. If the captain feels like fighting Saga as a distraction, he is welcome. Just please," here the young priestess turned to face Luffy alone, "Don't kill him. Saga's a good man. He saved me… I'd gladly give my life to return the favour."

Luffy froze, confused. Sanji explained. "Since the shitty moss-ball stole the sacred orbs, the ritual to seal the shitty curse and save everyone from the shitty sword has a high chance of killing darling Maya. I still don't think it's a good plan…"

"It's the only plan," Maya reminded the cook gently. Sanji huffed and blew a few smoke rings, plunging his hands into his pockets. "Saga was cursed because he took up the sword to protect me, waking Shichiseiken. I owe him my life, and since we've lost the sacred orbs, it's a price I'll gladly pay."

"Orbs?" Luffy asked. "Can't we just get them back after I kick the crazy guy's ass?"

"It wouldn't work," Robin informed the captain gently. "The ritual has to be performed before midnight tonight- you might not have time to look for the orbs after fighting the cursed swordsman."

Usopp looked thoughtful. "Sacred orbs…? What do they look like? Are they pink, about the size of an apple, kinda shiny and translucent?"

"Huh? Oh, yes." Maya shot the gunner a confused look. "How did you know?"

"Show her what you found in the tunnels, Luffy."

"Ne? Oh, you mean the pretty rocks." Reaching into his vest, Luffy pulled out three large, flawless pink gemstones. Nami felt her eyes light up against her will.

Rose quartz… She'd never seen such perfect spheres, so large. It wasn't the most valuable of gemstones, but worked like that, it would still fetch a pretty penny. The sailing master shook her head; she shouldn't be thinking like that right now. A bad habit from her days raising money for Arlong…

Maya gasped at the sight of the stones. "Where-? You said you found those in the tunnels?"

Usopp and Luffy nodded in unison as the gunner explained. "Yeah. Along with three ancient temples and way too many traps. We nearly died!"

Running her fingers over the smooth surfaces of the orbs, Maya had tears of relief in her eyes. "We- we can perform the proper ritual after all. Those temples you saw, we just have to take the orbs there. I'll get to see Saga again…"

Nami frowned. If Luffy and Usopp had found the orbs in the tunnels… How could they be sure Saga and the cursed sword didn't have a contingency plan for this? "It's too risky to go wandering all over the island, though. Saga… He'll probably send those marines of his to cover all the temples."

Maya drooped with realization, her hand falling to her side as she lowered her head. Almost immediately, though, Luffy reached out a finger to raise the priestess' chin. Ever so gently, he forced her to look at him.

"Hey… It'll be okay. We're tough, and Nami'n Robin are smart. We'll figure something out. Don't give up just yet. You love this Saga guy, right?"

Nodding, Maya reached up to rub her teary eyes. A small smile crossed Luffy's face. "Then trust him and trust us. We'll kick that cursed sword's ass so hard the guy who made it's gonna feel it!"

"Could we avoid Saga's forces if we went through the tunnels?" Lisa wanted to know. The little painter was still hugging Ghin tightly with her good arm.

Actually, Drifter offered, I have an even better idea. The old temples- were they open to the sky?

"Yeah…" Usopp nodded. "The tunnels lead there, then open out. They're regular buildings, just… older."

Then the answer is simple. He who is in possession of air superiority wins a battle; Geier and I will fly the orbs to the temples while the rest of you engage the enemy on the ground. They can't take the orbs back if they can't reach us, and none of them can intercept us either.

Geier preened as everyone read the sign, then let out a shrieking cry. She flared her wings and shot a pointed stare at the orbs. Personally, Nami thought this was a great idea. It looked like Ghin had some concerns though.

"What if any of them try to shoot you? You can't fight back at range; not since Saga broke Geier's gun."

"Screeeeeeeee!" Geier raised one foot of the branch where she was perched, making a swiping, grabbing motion. Sunlight flashed of sharp talons. The message was clear- gun or no gun, the vulture was ready for action.

Old lady Izaya slowly looked around at the pirates. "You- you really think you can do this? It's a sound plan, I agree, maybe the best we have, but do you think we can succeed?"

"Of course!" Sanji spat his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. "Anything to make sure darling Maya doesn't have to give her life!"

Luffy nodded firmly. "Yeah. We can do this. If we're together, nothing can beat us."

"Very well. If you're sure…" Izaya hobbled over and began pointing out locations on Nami's map. "These are the ancient towers of Komon, Tonroh, and Hagun. Once the orbs are in place, a barrier is formed that prevents Shichiseiken from drawing power from the Seven Stars of Asuka."

"And that seals it?" Robin asked. Izaya shook her head.

"A proper sealing is a bit more complicated. There's a special ritual Maya needs to perform on the central temple- right there, Pikarya." The old woman pointed out yet another location. "Theoretically, it would be also possible to end the curse completely during this time, but no one has ever discovered how."

"Obviously," Ghin muttered, "Otherwise there wouldn't be a curse anymore."

The old woman shot him a dirty look, but said nothing. Nami was inclined to agree with the rigger; the fact that Saga was possessed made it kind of obvious no one had broken the curse yet.

Luffy nodded. "Then that's what we'll do. Drifter and Geier can deliver the orbs; the rest of us will spread out and fight the bad guys and protect Maya. Try to find Zoro, Johnny, Yosaku, and Jones too."

Huge dark wings spread wide; Geier swooped down and grabbed the orbs in her talons. A quick fold and flip, then the vulture was rolling over Nami's head- a motion that allowed Drifter to snatch the sailing master's map. Growling, Nami shook her fist at the duo as they flew away. "You better not lose or damage that, got it? I need it for my atlas!"

Drifter's response was to hold up a sign over his shoulder. There were no words on it- just a heart, a smiley face, and a very well drawn hand with its middle finger extended.

Shaking her head, Nami turned to her crewmates. "Alright… I'm sure you all know the drill by now. It looks like we're getting close to the final showdown, so everyone pair up and move out. Priorities- defend Maya, find Jones, kick marine ass."

Luffy nodded. "And if you see Zoro… Tell him I need to talk to him. There's a reason we don't tell anyone where Jones comes from. I don't know what it is, but there's a reason."

X

Delivering the orbs to the towers was… Rather anticlimactic. While there were certainly large numbers of marines combing the forests and lakes, none of them bothered to look up. Drifter shook his head. Humans… Most of them weren't really that bright.

{{I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay! I sleep all night and I work all day!}}

Geier rolled her eyes as she landed at the top of the first tower. {{Must you sing that song? You're not a beaver.}}

{{Yeah, well… I'm bored and I don't know any good otter songs.}} Leaping down off his partner's back, Drifter grabbed one of the orbs and settled it into an indentation that seemed to have been made for the purpose. {{Besides, I'm closer to being a beaver than the snakes who wrote it were.}}

{{True, I suppose.}} Geier flexed her wings and shook her head. {{I never did understand how pythons could sing about being a lumberjack; they don't even have legs.}}

Nodding, Drifter paused to adjust his Stetson. {{So… Two more of these to go. What should we do after? I really don't think this'll take long.}}

His partner chuffed with laughter. {{We could always find a river and test your dam building skills.}}

"REEEEEEEEEEEE!" Drifter let out an indignant squawk, his tail fluffing up. {{That's not funny!}} he admonished. {{I'm an otter, not a beaver! We're nothing alike!}}

{{Fur-wearers who spend most of your time in the water; you seem a lot alike to me.}}

{{Nope! Nothing! Not at all! Those stuck up, buck tooth hosers wouldn't know how to have a good time if it slapped them in the face with one of their own tails!}} Scowling, Drifter jumped on Geier's back. {{Let's just get this over with.}}

The vulture bobbed her head, laughing as she took off. {{Of course. And then- maybe we can ask the locals if they know anything about him?}}

Drifter didn't think it likely- he had no use for such a poor backwater island in his business. But there was always a chance he had been blown off course, or needed to stop to resupply. Tiny, needle-like teeth bared in a grin. {{Naturally.}}

A gentle breeze toyed with Drifter's Stetson and the edges of the map as the pair flew. The otter held on tight to make sure neither was blown away. Asuka Island was beautiful from above… He loved flying. His ground-bound kin missed out on so much, not having bird partners. Sometimes Drifter wished he'd been born a bird, instead of a mammal.

Sometimes.

Yes, later they would ask around in the village, see if he had been on the island. Once the danger of a world-eating catastrophe was past, that was an excellent idea. But until then… {{I cut down trees. I wear high heels, suspendies, and a bra! I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear Papa!}}

{{YOU ARE NOT A BEAVER!}} Geier rolled, nearly dislodging Drifter from her back. {{Although… Do you have something you need to tell me?}}

{{No… I just like that song, is all.}} Releasing his grip on his partner, the otter flung himself into free-fall. He still kept a firm hold on his hat and the map, though.

Geier rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh before diving. She came up beneath Drifter in a well-practiced maneuver, catching him in the center of her broad, feathered back. {{One of these days I'm going to just let you fall when you do that.}}

{{You won't. You love me too much.}}

{{The gods only know why…}} Geier shook herself in flight. Her words were bitter, but the tone was affectionate. {{Joint the police they said. Serve your country, make lifelong friends, play with the latest technology. It'll be fun, they said. None of my aunts mentioned dealing with batshit insane rodents every day.}}

{{OI! Mustelid, not rodent! Hoser!}} Chuckling, Drifter preened Geier's feathers with his hind paws as the next tower came into sight.

X

I had no idea where we were and no idea what to do- either to find our crew mates or get back to the main plot. Trying to hide it from the hunters was futile- Yosaku could feel me shaking whenever I leaned on him, and I swear he and Johnny are telepathic. Not that I didn't try. Glancing up at the slowly darkening sky, I sighed. Tabarnak… I hate not knowing what I'm doing.

"What's wrong Big Sis?"

"Noth-!" I was interrupted when a marine came crashing through the trees, nearly running us over.

He had his sword drawn, and his eyes were glowing green. Cursed, then. So questioning him probably wasn't on the table. Before I could do anything, Johnny and Yosaku drew their dadao, the green hunter leaving me leaning against a tree.

"Electroblade!" Two humming, electrically charged swords swung at the cursed marine. They were sloppy cuts, and the marine managed to block both at once. But that didn't really matter, and may even have made things worse. His whole body went stiff for a second, smoke rising from the ends of his hair. Then he flew backwards, dropping his sword. A few seconds later, the marine crashed into a tree and slid to the ground.

Johnny and Yosaku high-fived. "Nice! A successful test!"

I was about to say something- although I'm not sure what- when the sky lit up with green light. Merde. That wasn't good. I scanned the horizon for any sign of the source.

There. A pillar of light, such a bright green that it was nearly white. That had to be coming from- or heading to- Saga and Shichiseiken. I pointed at it. "Follow that cliché!"

"What?" Johnny and Yosaku froze and stared at my hand. I rolled my eyes.

"The bloody sky laser. Such a movie cliché. That's where we need to go if we wanna find the plot- I mean, the others."

The hunters glanced at each other and shrugged. I took off shakily into the woods; Johnny and Yosaku were forced to follow me. Or, well, I guess not forced- they could've stayed behind if they wanted, but that would've left them lost in the woods with a bunch of possessed marines.

Now that we knew which way to go, it didn't take us very long to get to the plot. I mean, to the hill where Saga was pulling off the final stage of whatever plan he was trying to enact. Which seemed to involve a lot of glowing and chanting. I leaned on a tree as I evaluated the situation; Johnny and Yosaku hid in the bushes beside me, surprisingly quiet for a couple gadget-happy goofballs.

Then again, I suppose being a prankster requires some stealth abilities.

Not long after we arrived, Saga suddenly stopped in his chanting. He stared around, as if trying to find the source of a noise I couldn't hear. And then, from one nearby hill and three further ones, a pink glow began to cover the sky. Then I heard it, a faint voice singing in the night.

"Mvetserani ine magalasi a m'mbuyomo, Ankhondo a malamulo akale.

Mvetserani ine zida zakufa za chinenero cha Chingerezi.

Mverani ine magalasi otayika mu nkhondo, amene ali ndi tsamba lachita zabwino.

Mverani ine magalasi akale, mundimvere ine magalasi a miyoyo yotayika.

Usiku uno ndikukupemphani.

Ndikukuitanani ku zithandizo zanga.

Mverani ine magalasi, chifukwa chachikulu chingaperekedwe.

Thupi lanu linapita tsopano mzimu kukhala.

Mverani Ine Odziwa Akufa Ine ndikukupemphani inu.

Ndikupempha iwe ndi tsamba lanu lauzimu.

Ndi mphamvu yanu ndikupemphani inu.

Ndi mzimu wanu ndikukupemphani.

Bwerani tsopano, tsatirani vuto latsopano, ndikuitana inu.

Aliyense wa inu ndikulemba.

Ndikukupemphani inu akapolo omwe anamwalira.

Ndimvereni ndikubwera kudzandithandiza.

Ndimvereni ndikumenyana nane.

Nditetezeni ku mizimu yovulaza.

Limbani nkhondo zanga ndikukuuzani.

Mvetserani Ine Mizimu ya otayika okonda, bwerani ku chithandizo changa, bwerani ku mbali yanga.

Nditetezeni ku mizimu yovulaza.

Nditetezeni ku mizimu yowala.

Ndikukupemphani.

Ndikukupemphani.

Ndikukupemphani.

Ndikukupemphani.

Ndikukupemphani.

Lolani gulu langa lankhondo lichitidwe.

Zilekeni zikhale chomwecho.

Zilekeni zikhale chomwecho."

The chanting was eerie and beautiful. I had no idea what the words meant, but I didn't need to. Just hearing the voice made me feel warm, safe… It was some sort of protection or purification spell. Invisible arms wrapped around my shoulders from behind; whatever entity they belonged to began humming along with the rhythm of the words.

Saga took off running towards one of the nearest hill. His whole body was glowing green at this point, covered in strange runes; when he ran, he left footprints made of glowing green embers. I whistled. Awesome and dangerous. Made him easy to follow, at least.

"Follow that plot device!" I hissed quietly, scrambling off through the woods again.

Johnny and Yosaku trailed behind me, fussing quietly with the tanks and harnesses of their spray guns. Faint metallic clinking followed them, leading to Yosaku finally letting out a soft, aggravated snarl. "I knew we should've put more padding on these things!"

We arrived at the hill just behind Saga. Except… It wasn't actually a hill. Rather, it was a great stepped temple, atop which a girl with blue hair was chanting loudly. Maya. Pink light emanated from her, growing stronger and stronger as it linked with more pink lights from what must've been the orb temples Blue mentioned. And despite how much I normally dislike pink, the light made me feel so happy… So safe…

"HRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!"

A snarl that sounded more beast than man tore from Saga's throat, making me freeze in my tracks. He raced up the steps of the pyramid temple, swinging Shichiseiken wildly- with both hands. Odd… I'd thought one of them was paralyzed earlier. Raising the cursed sword high, Saga was about three steps from Maya, blade descending…

When Luffy charged in from the side and tackled him out of nowhere.

"Gum-Gum Stamp! Gum-Gum Axe!" Once he'd knocked Saga away from Maya, my captain laid into the cursed swordsman with a couple punishing kicks. Saga didn't even bother to block; as soon as Luffy's legs snapped back, green light washed over the areas of impact. Neither kick even left a bruise.

"Mystic Thunder! Mystic Fire!" A burst of green knocked Luffy back before hitting him with a fireball. Saga sneered. "Get out of my way, filthy pirate."

"No!" Fwap! Fwa-fwap! Fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwap! Luffy launched a flurry of punches at Saga. "Gum-Gum Gatling!"

Saga tanked most of the blows again, stepping in closer in order to bring his sword to bear on my captain. A series of rapid slashes flashed across, each trailing a burning arc of green light. Several of them tore across Luffy's chest even as he leapt back; the rubber boy parried several more, knocking Shichiseiken aside by punching the flat of the blade.

That was impressive. The timing it took to do something like that… I considered asking Luffy to help me train as well as Ghin. Although he might use Garp methods… Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the fight just in time to see a tremendous clash between rubber and cursed light.

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!"

"Mystic Raiment!"

Both combatants were thrown back. Saga slammed into some sort of carved standing stone hard enough to leave the surface covered in a spiderweb of cracks. Like pavement after an earthquake. On the other side of the battlefield, Luffy crashed into a tree. It snapped in half, the top falling into the forest with an echoing noise.

My captain was back on his feet in an instant, leaping into the air and driving downwards with an attack from above. "Gum-Gum Spear!"

He actually hit this time- hard. Saga, still recovering from the mutual blowback, slammed face first into the ground. When he came up, the cursed swordsman's face was bleeding heavily, his nose broken. Once again, though, the injuries were swiftly healed by glowing green runes.

"Mystic Fire!" A brilliant fireball shot from the sword sent Luffy tumbling head over heels through the air.

"Gum-Gum Rocket!" Using the remains of the tree he'd previously snapped, Luffy fired himself at Saga before even hitting the ground. He wrapped his arms around the cursed swordsman's shoulders to keep Saga from attacking, then rubber met bone with a resounding thud. "Gum-Gum Bell!"

"Mystic Raiment!" A swirling sphere of green fire burned my captain, sent him tumbling away. Luffy groaned and snarled as he was thrown back.

"Quit messing around with that magic stuff and fight me like a man, dammit!"

"Uahahahahahaha! But I am no mere man- I am a god!" Saga's shoulders shook with manic laughter. "A little monkey like you could never hope to defeat me! Mystic Judgement!"

A column of green fire rose up from the ground. Luffy jumped out of the way, rolling sideways and launching himself at Saga with a roar. A rubber fist smacking into Saga's deranged grin, knocking the expression off his face. "Shut up! Gum-Gum Pistol!"

"Great Mystic Fire- Boa Assault!" Shichiseiken turned into a great serpent of blue-green flames, far larger than the technique Saga had used against me and Lisa. Rather than biting, this version was a constrictor; it wound itself around Luffy and held him tight, pinning his arm as it snapped back.

"You think to defeat me, foolish boy?" Saga's voice was echoing weirdly now. Something about it hurt my brain. "Don't you see? The more you and your little friends fight me, the more violence and misery there is, the more blood you spill… The stronger I become!"

Growling, Luffy struggled against the tight hold of the flaming serpent. He couldn't move his limbs, so he tried biting at it- only to let out a pained yell as doing so burnt his mouth. "GYAH!"

That yell was what finally caused me to unfreeze. I turned to Johnny and Yosaku, trying to come up with a plan. I had no idea how to beat Saga, but we had to do something. "How high a voltage can you do with Electroblade?" Even if we couldn't break the curse, it would have a damn hard time fighting if we could incapacitate the human vessel.

I hoped.

Johnny looked at Yosaku; both hunters shrugged. "No idea. We haven't been able to test much."

"Well then, get ready for some serious fieldwork. We're gonna-!"

Footsteps on stone interrupted me, accompanied by the crunching and snapping of branches as something large burst free of the trees. Green and white flashed across the battlefield, turning from a line to a great spiral as the newcomer reached Saga. The wind thrown up by spinning blades forced flames to dissipate, turning Shichiseiken- temporarily, at least- back into its native form.

"TATSUMAKI!"

X

When a giant of a man covered in green tattoos burst through the trees, Chopper squeaked and turned to Ace. "Please don't throw any fire! You'll burn down the fo-!"

The freckled pirate wasn't able to respond. A loud snore tore free of his body- his narcolepsy had claimed him. And at a cursed inconvenient time, too. Groaning, Chopper popped into Heavy Point and turned to his other companions. "Ruatha! Get Lisa out of here!"

{{No!}} The dragon snorted and pawed at the ground. He didn't want to run- he wasn't a hatchling anymore! But as usual, no one understood him. Ruatha growled from frustration.

Lisa shot Chopper a reproachful frown. "Why can't I fight? You're only two years older than me!"

"It's not that! You're injured!" The doctor gestured at the painter's arm. She rolled her eyes.

"So? I don't fight by punching people. It hurts, but it's not in the way." Lisa pulled out her paints and began mixing.

Chopper shook his head. "Alright, I guess. Just… Stay behind me and Ruatha." The reindeer groaned and rubbed his temples. "If anything happens to you, Ghin's gonna kill me."

"No, he'll kill Ace. He was supposed to be looking after us."

Extending his hockey stick with a click, Chopper beamed. "Oooh, I like that excuse. Okay then- let's go!"

{{Yeah!}} Ruatha jumped and flared his wings, hissing as the behemoth of the man crashed towards them through the last few trees.

There was something… off about this guy. He was too quiet, and his eyes were glowing a strange mix of green and red. Normally Ruatha would've expected a guy like this to yell taunts or battle cries or something as he approached, but… Nothing.

A meaty fist crashed into the ground where Chopper had been standing; the reindeer jumped out of the way at the last second. The doctor responded with a heavy punch and a slashing strike with his stick. Both caught their attacker in the head. "Heavy Gong! High Stick!"

No response; the huge man staggered for a moment, but didn't speak. What he did do was draw a pair of massive maces from his belt. Spiked steel swiped at Chopper from both sides; Ruatha snarled and darted in as a distraction.

{{Dragon Rush!}} Charging, Ruatha rammed the towering man in the small of the back, jumping up after the impact to bite at the back of the man's neck. A twisting strike with a spiked mace knocked him out of the way.

The huge man immediately engaged Chopper maces-to-hockey stick, apparently judging the doctor to be the biggest threat. Steel clanged repeatedly against whatever strange metal Johnny and Yosaku had made the stick out of. Sparks flew through the air.

"Friendship Yellow-Green!" Lisa splashed their attacker with a swathe of paint. It did nothing. Weird.

Shaking his head, Ruatha snarled as he got to his feet. That hurt! His scales weren't tough enough yet. Maybe that was why Mum didn't like him fighting too much. But… He was a pirate, like everybody else. Even if they couldn't understand him, he knew what that meant. Something boiled up in Ruatha's chest as Chopper and the big man continued striking at each other with their weapons.

He was not just a baby to be protected anymore! He was a pirate! He was a dragon!

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!" Ruatha flared his wings and dug his talons into the ground as he screeched. The force of his cry nearly knocked him off his own feet. It did knock Chopper and the strange attacker over.

Ooh, Ruatha liked that. That felt powerful.

Chopper got to his feet a second before the big man did. The doctor quickly laid down strikes with both his hockey stick and his fist. Then he turned to look at Lisa. "Your paint didn't work."

"I noticed," the little girl responded drily. "Do- do you think it's that curse thing? My paints didn't work on Saga either. Maybe the curse changes the way they view symbolism?"

Shrugging, Chopper popped into brain point and began searching through his backpack. He pulled out some rope- which even Ruatha knew was not a normal doctor thing; Ghin must be infecting the others- and began tying up their opponent. "Could be the curse suppresses their brains enough that symbolism doesn't register at all. Is everyone alright?"

Lisa nodded. Preening, Ruatha let out a victorious roar. He was more than alright. He was awesome. He loved his new scream. "MARZUH!"

X

"JONES! JONES, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Robin couldn't help but shake her head a little at the way Ghin was shouting. So loud… He was going to bring every marine on the island down on them if he wasn't careful. Not that he seems to care. No, from the look on Ghin's face, he would gladly rip through everyone this side of the Red Line to find his little sister.

Which… Okay, there was a part of Robin that was envious. If- If her mother had survived, would Olvia have searched for her daughter that way?

Something of her thoughts must've shown on her face- Robin's control of her emotions had been slipping ever since she'd met these Straw Hats. Sanji, the third member of their party, glanced from the archaeologist to the rigger with a small smile.

"You know… They're not even really related."

"What?" Robin shot the cook a puzzled look. Sure, she knew Ghin and Jones didn't look alike, but some siblings didn't, and the way they acted…

"Yeah… Ghin joined the same time I did; Jones was already with the crew. She's actually the reason he joined." Sanji let out a huff. "At first I thought he was in love with her or something…"

Robin looked at Ghin again- the rigger was nearly shoving trees over as he ploughed through the forest. "This level of dedication… For someone he's only known for a few months? Yes, I can see why you would've thought that."

Ghin glanced back at Sanji and Robin, pausing with one hand planted against a tree. He didn't say anything, but his eyes bored into the cook's. Sanji flipped the rigger off.

"Yeah… We're all like that, I guess, to some extent, but the shitty war dog takes it a few steps further. Mostly for Jones and Lisa."

"Bite me, Shit Cook."

"Not in a million years, War Dog. You're neither a lady nor a delicious ingredient."

Robin chuckled at that, unable to help herself. Neither of the men seemed to notice, too caught up in glaring at each other. Sanji tapped one foot on the ground; Ghin pulled out his tonfa and started spinning one idly.

"You wanna go?"

"Bring it. You may be the cook, but you're about to be toast."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" A crazed redhead in blue armour burst out of the trees, swinging a sword wildly. He lunged for Robin as soon as he saw her, his eyes glowing with a supernatural red and green light. The archaeologist crossed her arms and called upon her powers.

"Seis Fleur: Clu-!"

"Mouton!"

"Black Dog's Howl!"

Before Robin had a chance to complete her technique, a steel-toed boot and a ball-tipped tonfa crashed into the armoured intruder from opposite directions. Sanji's foot met the newcomer's face; Ghin's tonfa crushed the armour encasing one leg. And likely the limb underneath, given the odd angle at which the man's leg bent afterwards.

"Well…" Robin stared at the armoured man as he lay crumpled on the ground, his nose and forehead bleeding profusely. "That was… anti-climactic."

"Asshole," Ghin grunted. A few more bashing blows with his tonfa crumpled and reshaped the blue armour until there was no way the man wearing it could move. Nodding to himself, the Straw Hat rigger immediately headed off to resume his search for his sister.

Sanji immediately followed, hands in his pockets and all previous signs of hostility forgotten. Confused, Robin frowned at the man they'd taken down for a long moment. By the time she started moving again, the men were so far ahead that she almost had to jog to catch up. Almost.

"Gospodin Cook, do you mind telling me what that was all about?" Robin almost grabbed Sanji's shoulder, but let her hand drop at the last second. The cook didn't seem to notice.

"What was what all about?"

"You and Gospodin Rigger… You were insulting each other, and then you used actual combat techniques with the intent of hitting your friends. Or at least, I thought you were friends. That's what your crew always claims, at any rate."

"Our crew. You're one of us too." Sanji pulled one hand out of his pocket to give a lazy wave. The motion culminated in him flipping the bird at Ghin again; the rigger responded with an obscene gesture Robin was fairly certain was unique to East Blue street gangs. It meant something along the lines of And you go fornicate with the sea king that chased you into harbour.

"You certainly don't seem like friends," Robin observed. "At least not you two, and possibly Gospodin Swordsman."

"Not sure what's up with the moss-brain yet," Sanji admitted, his shoulders briefly going tense. Then he relaxed, glanced back over his shoulder, and smiled at Robin. "But we'll find out. As for- all that… That's just our way of blowing off steam. We may be rivals, the three of us, but before that, we're brothers. And trust me- shitty as they may be, I'd rather have the Moss Ball and the War Dog by my side than the assholes I was born with."

X

"Senpai…" Toma asked as he trotted along behind Zoro, "Do you even know where we're going?"

Zoro scowled at the question. He was sick of having his sense of direction challenged. Just because he'd screwed up that one time on Syrup Island… Okay, there was also the fact that he'd been lost when that asshole in the purple suit had set his wolf on that girl. And all the times he'd wandered off to weird places when he'd been working with Johnny and Yosaku way back. He growled.

"No. No, I don't know where we're going. But I know we need to stop Saga and figure this out. And if Jones knew your name, that means something big's going down, so she and Luffy are gonna be in the middle of it."

Toma's eyes glowed green as he nodded; he covered them with his hands to avoid having the voice in his head see what he and Zoro were doing. Unable to see where he was going and with his hands occupied, the young swordsman nearly fell off a cliff as the pair made their way swiftly downhill. Zoro caught him by the back of his spotted coat.

"You can't keep doing that; you're slowing us down."

"I- Sorry…" Toma hung his head. "I just want to help. But I can't let it see…"

Thinking for a moment, Zoro undid his bandanna from around his arm. He tied the black fabric around Toma's head with a firm knot, securing the bandanna over the young man's eyes. "There. You can at least use your hands now."

Reaching up, Toma fiddled with the frayed edges of the cloth. "I'm wearing Senpai's… Thank you. Thank you very much."

Zoro grunted. "Just don't go falling off any more cliffs. You slow me down, I'm tying you to a tree and leaving you."

"Of course Senpai."

Once able to use his hands, Toma was surprisingly capable at navigating blindfolded. He groped along behind Zoro, using his hands like a cat's whiskers to feel for trees and rocks. The elder swordsman was impressed. "Have you trained for this?"

"Hai Senpai." Toma nodded. "Even- even before it came, I used to go down and practice in the tunnels under the island. There-In most sections, there's no light at all."

This one had a good work ethic; Zoro approved. About to say so, the Straw Hat bosun froze when the sky lit up with green and pink light. In particular, a pillar of the most brilliant green Zoro had ever seen rose from a distant hilltop.

"This way!"

Tearing off through the trees, Zoro didn't wait to see if Toma followed. This wasn't a matter of direction, of knowing where things were- this was a simple matter of following the light. That Zoro could do. Rapid footsteps behind him soon indicated that yes, Toma was following. His blindfold didn't seem to be slowing him much at all.

Excellent.

Even as quickly as they were moving, it took some time to get to the source of the light. And it moved at least once during that time- for once, Zoro was sure of that, rather than using it as an excuse. Following when the light moved, the Straw Hat bosun and his blindfolded tagalong eventually came to a great temple, so large it resembled a hill. A girl- the priestess who'd originally owned the orbs- stood at the top, chanting in a language Zoro didn't understand.

Near the base of the temple, Zoro spotted a cluster of blue, green, and red-spattered-purple partially hidden beneath a tree. Johnny, Yosaku, and Jones. They were frozen, staring at something above their level; Zoro was too far away to see what.

And then, in between, there was a brilliant flare of fire from halfway up the side of the temple. Blue-green, and so bright it made the bosun's eyes hurt. But even barely able to look, he could see what it was. A great flaming serpent, a giant constrictor wrapping around a small, dark figure. Said figure let out a short, sharp cry of pain.

"GYAH!"

Luffy. Clamping Wado Ichimonji between his teeth, Zoro took off up the side of the temple as fast as his legs could carry him, drawing his other two swords as he went. The world narrowed around him as Zoro focused in on the red-robed figure that held the tip of the serpent's tail. He was already attacking when he reached Saga.

"TATSUMAKI!"

A whirlwind dissipated the fire, turning it into the blade of that monstrous jian Saga had kept across his back. Luffy dropped to the ground, charred and panting, but mostly well. He landed on his feet next to his swordsman.

"Thanks Zoro! Now, let's kick this guy's ass!"

"Aye-aye Captain."

Saga sneered at the pair as they shifted into twin fighting stances. "Aw, Zoro, you wound me. I thought we were friends."

Zoro growled. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm pretty sure you've been abusing that friendship this whole time. This- this isn't you, Saga, and I won't do the dirty work of some cursed talking sword."

"UAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! But you already have! Nothing can stop me now- certainly not a pair of idiots like you!"

Listening carefully, Zoro focused on the rhythms of the world. There was wood and sap from the myriad of trees surrounding the temple; cloth and stone and flesh and steel. Yes, he was becoming more and more familiar with these rhythms. And then there was another one, less familiar, but recognizable all the same. The same sinister pulse that was everywhere on this island, stronger beside Saga than anywhere else; a similar rhythm to the one that hummed from Sandai Kitetsu.

"Mind if I take this one?" Zoro asked his captain. Luffy scowled.

"He tortured Jones. I wanna kick his ass too."

Nodding, Zoro bit harder on the hilt of Wado Ichimonji. "Together then?"

"Yeah."

The two stepped forwards in near perfect sync, launching attacks at Saga from either side. Blades slashed down in a short arc as a rubber fist extended with a snap.

"Tora Gari!"

"Gum-Gum Bullet!"

Saga blocked both with a spherical shield of green fire before launching his own blazing counterattack. "Mystic Raiment! Mystic Fire!"

Luffy and Zoro were thrown back, nearly landing on top of each other. The rubber captain growled. "I hate it when he does that!"

The best defense is a good offense.

The voice of his sensei rang briefly in Zoro's head. But what did that-? Idea. Nodding to himself, the swordsman glanced at his captain.

"I have a plan. You just punch him; I'll handle the rest."

"Okay." Luffy nodded and flung his arm back, twisting it around with a series of loud, ominous squeaks.

Closing his eyes, Zoro listened hard to the rhythms of the world. There were two that were important here- air and the curse. But striking between the beats of the air didn't produce the effect he needed. Not quite. Then how-?

Maybe it wasn't just external rhythms he needed to pay attention to. As Luffy's arm snapped forwards, spinning, Zoro launched an attack. Each used a single sword. It flew between the beats of the rhythm of the air; the attack was launched on the beat of the rhythm of Zoro's own flesh, when his arm was at its strongest.

"Ittoryu: Sanjuroku Pound Ho!"

A burst of wind shot forth in the shape of a cutting blade. It maintained its shape until reaching Saga, even slicing through when he raised another shield of fire. The flames sliced open and blew away around the cut, creating an opening. Luffy's attack, already moving, plunged through.

"Gum-Gum Rifle!"

"ARGH!" The spiralling punch drove into Saga, knocking him back and crushing his ribs with an audible snap. He coughed blood. Green runes flashed over Saga's skin, healing his wounds within seconds.

In the sky above, pink light grew fainter as green brightened. The chanting in the background became more desperate.

Luffy growled as Saga stood. Zoro didn't need his captain to say anything; he already knew. No matter how hard they struck at Saga, it was useless unless they destroyed the sword. But for that, he'd need to be closer- which meant someone else had to handle the fire.

"Captain, switch!"

"Huh? But I can't blow the fire away like you can!"

Oh, for the love of… "Listen to the world, Luffy! There's a rhythm in everything, like a thousand songs that make the world! Strike when your own song beats strong, and in between the beats in the song of the air!"

Of course, Zoro had no idea how that advice would translate from swordsmanship to unarmed combat. He was immediately forced to dodge as Saga sent a column of fire roaring up from the ground. "Mystic Judgement!"

Luffy rolled behind a tree. For a moment, the captain's eyes were scrunched closed in concentration; then his face lit up. "Wow… That's beautiful! Okay Zoro, I've got it. You ready?"

"Always." Without waiting to see what his captain would do, Zoro rushed in. Three swords rose and crossed, ready for an attack. Green fire rose up in a swirling sphere before him.

"Mystic Raiment!"

"Gum-Gum BB!" It was like a Gum-Gum Pistol, only it stopped several meters short of striking anything. Rather than a blade of air, Luffy's punch produced a concussive burst of air that blew the flames aside.

Zoro smiled around Wado Ichimonji as he struck. His captain… Luffy might not have been the brightest most times, but if there was one thing he always grasped quickly, it was fighting. So reliable. Of course, a man who was anything less wouldn't be worthy of being Zoro's captain.

"Yaki Oni Giri!" Striking between the beats of steel, Zoro connected with Shichiseiken with all three blades at once. The remnants of the cursed sword's own flames wrapped themselves around his katanas; Zoro added their strength to his own, even as the tails of the green fire burned at his hands.

Green light vanished as the cursed sword broke into three equal pieces- both from the sky, and from Saga himself. Zoro's old friend collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut. At first, there was no sign of movement, not even a heartbeat; Zoro worried that either he or the curse- or maybe the combination thereof- had killed Saga. Then, though he remained unconscious, the red-robed swordsman drew in a shaky breath. Sheathing his swords, Zoro knelt beside his old friend.

In the sudden absence of green, the whole sky glowed pink- then white.

"Sensei!"

"Saga!"

Two sets of footsteps raced towards Zoro and Saga- one from the temple's roof, and one from the forest below. Toma and the priestess reached them at the same time; the girl flung herself on Saga's unconscious form in a relieved embrace. Meanwhile the younger swordsman stood awkwardly at Zoro's side, looking confused and afraid. He slowly undid the knot holding Zoro's bandanna around his eyes, passing it back to its owner with shaking hands.

"The- the voice. It's gone."

Luffy frowned at the priestess and the young swordsman. "So… Does that mean the curse is broken?"

The priestess shook her head. "Not completely, no. Shichiseiken is broken, but as long as there is darkness in men's hearts, it will still have some power. That said," here she wiped away tears from her eyes, "There's more than darkness in the hearts of men. There's also great light. And as long as that light exists, the sword can be kept sealed."

"Oh." Luffy looked disappointed. "I don't get it, but okay." Then the rubber captain turned to his bosun. "Zoro… We need to have a long talk later. With a Fist of Love or three. But right now… I'm hungry."

The captain promptly passed out on the stone steps, his stomach growling. Zoro laughed and shook his head. A second later, though, all mirth was gone as Johnny, Yosaku, and Jones approached.

A set of gaping holes in her charred, bloodstained shirt showed the otherworlder's torso wrapped in bandages; she was shaky as she walked, occasionally leaning on Yosaku for support. Zoro flinched. I did that. Me. If I hadn't told Saga… "Jones, I'm sorry. I shouldn't ha-!"

"It's fine. Don't beat yourself up over it." Jones' glasses flashed pink as she looked away. Her voice was flat. She couldn't meet Zoro's eyes, which just made him flinch again. "Just… Don't tell anyone outside the crew about me again, eh? This wasn't one of the ones I knew about, but there are reasons I'm careful about who I tell."

Flinching for a third time, Zoro got to his feet. He tried to lighten the mood, but humour wasn't part of his training, so it fell flat. "Even if you say it's fine, Chopper's going to kill me."

Jones smirked, her scars twisting tight. "Oh, I think you may have more than that to worry about. In fact, I think you might be in for a round of what Ace got, once everyone's back together."

Of course. He expected no less. Closing his eyes, Zoro took a deep breath. There was a fine line, he supposed, between honesty and foolhardiness. It was a line he never intended to cross again.

X

The sun was barely over the horizon as we prepared to leave Asuka Island. I basked in the beautiful, pink-gold light as I lay draped on the rail. I'd been excused from helping with preparations on account of my injuries- Chopper and Ghin had berated Zoro into doing my share. Not that the swordsman seemed to mind the atonement, despite the numerous bruises he was sporting from last night.

No one had been happy to learn he'd told a psychotic sentient artifact about my origins and subsequently gotten me tortured. Luffy had even gone so far as to use Zoro as a training dummy to try and teach Ace the Fist of Love.

We were almost ready to disembark when Maya, Izaya, Saga, and Toma appeared on shore. Both swordsmen took one look at me and turned away, ashamed. Instead they focused on Zoro. Meanwhile I, like the good little narrator I am, eavesdropped as my dragon marched up to me and demanded attention.

"Once again, I'm so sorry for everything I put you through." Saga had spent most of the night apologizing to our crew, but one more was always welcome. "I- I've failed our promise, Zoro, and that failure caused harm to you and your friends. I said I would master the sword of justice…"

"Hey…" Zoro reached out and placed a hand on Saga's shoulder. He didn't say anything else, though.

Saga hung his head. "I'm not worthy of calling myself a swordsman, or your friend. But I will be. From now on, I'll work doubly hard to master the sword of justice and protect this island, for everyone's sake. And I'll see to it that no one ever awakens Shichiseiken ever again."

Nodding, Zoro removed a tanto with a wooden sheath from the back of his haramaki and offered it to Saga. The red-robed swordsman pushed it away. "No, keep it. Like I said, I failed our promise and I'm not yet worthy of calling myself your friend."

"If you're sure…" When Saga nodded again, Zoro slipped the tanto back to its previous place. Then he surprised everyone by stepping in and ruffling Saga's hair, something he usually only did to Luffy- and even that was rare. "Dammit, I'm just so glad you're alive- that I didn't- You make sure to stay that way, you hear?"

"Of course." Saga smiled. At his side, Maya beamed and hugged him tightly.

Old lady Izaya cackled. "Oh, you kids are so much fun! Too bad you're pirates!"

Luffy stuck out his tongue at the elderly woman. "That doesn't have to be a bad thing! Being pirates means we're free!"

"So it does! So it does!"

Releasing Saga, Zoro boarded the Going Merry; everyone else was already partway to their posts. Before we got underway, though, Toma's voice made everyone freeze.

"Sensei!" The young swordsman approached Saga, trembling, and bowed sharply. "I would like to request your permission to leave Asuka Island! I feel that at this point in my training, it would benefit me to learn from a second master!"

For a moment, Saga was shocked, unable to respond. Then his eyes glinted with sadness as he realized Toma couldn't look at him any more than the boy could look at me. "I- Right. You saw what I did to Jones. It's understandable that I scared you, and for that I'm sorry, even if I wasn't fully me at the time."

"It- It's not just that, Sensei!" There were tears in Toma's eyes as he straightened. "I… Even knowing the sword is broken and the seal's in place, I can't stay here. I can still feel it, sliding against the back of my mind. M-Maybe if I hadn't resisted so long, I wouldn't be so scared, but…"

"You don't need to explain; I understand perfectly." Saga reached out and brushed strands of messy ginger hair away from Toma's face. The boy unconsciously flinched away from his touch; Saga looked saddened by this. "I am sorry, for everything. And if ever you wish to return, know my dojo is always open to you. You- You were like a little brother to me, before… All this."

Gathering his courage, Toma finally looked up to meet Saga's eyes. Then he flung himself on the red-robed swordsman in a forceful hug. "And you were the best big brother I could've asked for, Sensei. Maybe someday… No, someday I'll definitely come back, when I've mastered my own personal justice and can face the whispers without fear. Then we can guard the sword together."

"I would like that very much."

Turning, Toma then bowed low in Zoro's direction. "Zoro-senp… No, Zoro-sensei! Would you please accept me as your student?"

Zoro considered this for a moment, then grinned. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this. Watch it War Dog… I have one now too."

His words left Ghin- and really, everyone else- utterly baffled. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, the bosun nodded to Toma. "Sure thing kid. Get your ass up here."

"YES!" Toma leapt up, tacked off Merry's hull, and hauled himself aboard. Zoro immediately planted a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course, if I'm gonna be training you, there's gotta be some rules. But we'll cover those in a bit. Right now we need to be heading off, so come on. First lesson's how to raise an anchor."

Toma followed dutifully as Zoro went about his job. Soon enough, the Going Merry was underway, drifting through a series of rivers and lakes back out to the sea.

We were almost there when a bugling roar sounded off to one side. Thunderous footsteps followed. Seconds later, the gigantic hippo-rhino from the other day charged around a hill. Its gigantic eyes were pulsing pink hearts.

"UWAWA!"

"Full speed ahead!" Usopp yelped. Everyone rushed to do as he said. We weren't fast enough, though. The hippo-rhino caught us quickly, and immediately began ramming and rubbing the side of the ship. It even followed as Merry moved further out to sea.

The massive amount of force the hippo-rhino was delivering through its affection made me nauseous. I really hoped it didn't do to much damage to Merry, but from the feeling, it probably was.

PUFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!

Thankfully a whale spouting far too close for comfort scared the great beast away. Growling, Drifter jumped on Geier's back; the two flew low alongside the ship to check her hull. Pretty scraped up, but no visible leaks, was the otter's report a minute later. Near thing, though; that hoser left some pretty wicked gouges in a couple boards.

Grumbling, Usopp began preparing to go over and patch up the damage as best he could. He was just tying his harness line around the rail when he froze. The gunner's eyes bulged out; his jaw dropped to the deck. One trembling arm rose to point at something off the port bow. I followed his gaze and my heart froze; pretty sure a bunch of my crewmates had the same reaction as they caught sight of a very familiar boat approaching.

What in the nine ever-loving Hells was he doing here?