AN: Uhhhh. Sorry for the long wait?

(The song for this chapter is "Swear to My Bones" from the Persona 5 original soundtrack.)

Two days ago, in the New World:

Thatch caught the purple projectile aimed at his head without looking, observation haki having been working overtime since Teach's betrayal some months before. While Kei killing the man and Ace's safety had stilled his shaking nerves, he was still keyed up enough that he probably could have caught a bullet if shot at.

Then he looked down and recognition kicked in. He looked back to Marco, who was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. Thatch asked, "Wait, what the heck? You found it?"

Marco smiled lazily, as though he hadn't just been out all day flying everywhere. While Thatch eyed him skeptically, the resident phoenix said casually, "I just went to the first island that willingly grew durians for sale and turned their records upside-down. I bet you never even figured out that's what it was."

"I found it in a box." And besides which, Devil Fruits warped whatever they were based on into nearly unrecognizable lumps of swirly colors… Oh, who was he kidding? Marco had been at this pirate thing longer than anyone except Pops.

Predictably, Marco ignored his rejoinder and stepped forward, tapping the side of the newly-reincarnated Yami Yami no Mi. "Are you going to eat it?"

Thatch scratched the back of his neck. "Honestly, if you'd asked me before this whole thing started… I probably would have given it to Teach if he asked. I wasn't really interested in learning how to use some weird power."

Marco nodded. "And now?"

"Now, I'm mostly thinking 'screw him.'" Thatch set the Devil Fruit on the edge of his cutting board. "But I'm going to freeze it first. If I cut this thing open right now, we're going to be smelling it for a week."

Marco winced. "Yeah, that'll be fun to explain to the others."

"Better get on that, Mr. First Mate," Thatch suggested brightly. "Because you've got about four hours."

Marco fled, which saved Thatch the trouble of chasing him out. Left alone with the fruit, Thatch rested his hand against the ridges and sighed quietly to himself. This Devil Fruit had been the source of a lot of misery, and had almost gotten him killed. Teach's ambition had done the rest.

Thatch figured it was time it was put to better use.

Other than the drama of introducing Sabo to everyone, the morning was a pretty quiet one. The miniature mixed fleet was so far out of the normal shipping lanes that Inazuma didn't think they'd see any other vessels for weeks, while monsters like Sea Kings had quickly learned how little Tailed Beasts cared for their input and ended up filling the larder. Ace, for his part, simply stated that he was still heading toward Fishman Island and the rest of his family, and then the navigators could hash out the details.

"Hey, Franky, is Striker II ready to go?" Ace asked, sticking his head down into the cyborg's den. Well, Ace called it a den, but it was more of a shipborne shipwright's paradise. He couldn't name half the tools involved in Franky's work, but Luffy's shipwright knew his stuff. "I wanna see if I can stress-test it."

"Sure," Franky said, from where he was stooped over the designs for his next super-project. "Lemme just get it up to the deck."

Ace grinned and gave the cyborg a thumbs-up, then headed up to Sunny's deck.

"What's with the smirk?" Sabo asked. "Don't tell me you're planning something and were gonna leave me out?"

"Would I do that?" Ace asked. When Sabo raised an eyebrow nearly the same way Ace did, he gave up and said, "Okay, yeah, I would. But I'm not this time, so you can come along if you want."

"Oh, is it going to be something dangerous?" asked Saiken, whose antenna-eyes poked up over the deck. Ace didn't see Utakata anywhere, though, so Saiken was the best choice for this.

"Yeah, sort of," Ace said. He leaned on the railing and said, "If either of us fall in, do you mind coming to the rescue?"

"I can swim, Mr. Hammer," Sabo said in a dry voice. "And I looked after Luffy as much as you did back when he used to forget."

"It can't hurt to be safe, Sabo," Saiken said, lifting his head and curling both eyestalks in so he could focus on them. "We fought to rescue Ace, and Isobu told me your brothers lost you for a while. I'm not gonna let that happen on my watch!"

"You're the wrong shape for a mother hen," Ace complained.

"And Isobu told me you nearly drowned the first time he saw you in person," Saiken went on.

"You did what," Sabo began, only to be cut off by Franky's shout of, "STRIKER II'S SUPER DEBUT!"

Ace stuck his tongue out at Sabo before leaping off the side of the ship, just as Franky pushed Striker II into the water. He landed with his feet balanced on the backs of the two seats, spinning both arms like a pair of windmills as he tried to keep his balance. It'd been way too long since the last time he'd been on a craft this size, and he could hardly wait for the rush.

And then he fell asleep.

Ace woke to Sabo poking him in the cheek, from the seat in front. He was sprawled back over it, looking at Ace upside-down. "Hey, are we gonna get this moving?"

Ace swatted his hand away. "I'm working on it!"

Striker II had a different mast than he was used to, since it could fold up and out of the way instead of a permanent square-rigged one. And it was kinda triangular. Unlike the first edition, it was a real two-seater and it had a dual-powered engine. Whenever Ace didn't want to power it with his flames—which would be even faster now—the World's Greatest Shipwright had helpfully thrown in a Flame Dial as a freebie.

"Tell me how it runs!" Franky called from the deck, waving. "I won't settle for anything less than a SUPER experience, and neither should you!"

"You got it!" Ace called back. While Sabo got back into the front seat and braced for launch, Ace said, "So, ready to take this for a spin?"

"More ready than you," Sabo said, and they were off.

The new steering system is a bit twitchy, Ace noted, as they shot across the sea with two joyful whoops. Previously, he'd used his body weight to steer for the most part, but Franky's redesign skimmed over the waves sideways if Sabo happened to be leaning a different way. Or maybe Ace needed to train his passengers to copy him? He decided to mention it later, if he couldn't figure out a way around it.

"Didn't you have a different boat before?" Sabo asked over the roar of the water and the new engine.

Ace leaned to the left, steering them toward Isobu's shell-spikes. An obstacle course sounded like the perfect way to stress-test Franky's design. Even if Isobu got grumpy about it, they wouldn't have far to fall if they hit one of the obstacles. "Yeah, but Kei hasn't seen it since Banaro. I asked."

"Right, Kei. So…" Sabo dragged the word out, making Ace eye the back of his head suspiciously. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"WHAT?!" Ace nearly steered them into a spike before swerving hard enough to send Sabo sprawling. "No, Sabo! She's a friend."

"Methinks the lady protests too much!" Sabo sing-songed.

Ace kicked the back of his chair with the foot that wasn't pure flame, even as they wove through spike after spike, never getting close enough to clip one. "Jerk. Are you trying to make up for ten missed years of yanking my chain?"

"Oh, you know it," Sabo replied, craning his neck to look back at Ace and give him a brilliant grin. "So, don't wreck us before I can!"

Ace was about to retort, but the docile obstacle course suddenly bucked, throwing ridiculous amounts of water all over the place. The bottom of Striker II skipped across the now-exposed shell, making Ace wince at the noise as they shot off into open water again. What if he'd screwed up Franky's paint job?

"What are you doing back there?" Isobu demanded, lifting his head out of the ocean. His single working eye glared down at Ace and Sabo as the Striker II started drifting a bit in front of his nose, sail extended. "I was enjoying the peace and quiet before you went on a joyride."

Sabo tensed. Oh, right, Sabo wasn't really used to having Tailed Beasts around all the time. And the one he did was… Well. Naruto might've called him "Old Man Yang," but no one else would dare. Yang Kurama was at least as nasty as Kaido, with his entire fleet of followers, and the fact that he'd decided not to kill everyone didn't feel like a reassurance as much as a suspended sentence.

Ace shoved his brother's top hat down around his ears and bellowed back, "Have you seen what lives in these waters? And not counting you!"

"I have killed most of them." Isobu rolled his eye, in a gesture he had clearly copied from a human somewhere. "Or else we would not be able to feed you."

"Ow!" Ace laughed. "Right in the heart."

"Or stomach," Isobu replied, peering closer at them. "A new ship?"

"Yeah. Did you see what happened to the last one? Kei didn't know," Ace said, leaning heavily on Sabo's shoulders as he finally got his top hat off.

"It was destroyed in Utakata's initial rampage."

Huh. One mystery solved, then. "Well, I guess if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have this. And it wasn't like I was around to complain much."

"Excuse you," Sabo broke in, pulling on Ace's hat's cord. "But Luffy said you had a wake. For a glorified raft."

"Shh!"

"And not to mention you have my name on your arm, you sap," Sabo went on.

"The hell I do!"

"You can spell your own name! I made sure you could!"

"I am suddenly not convinced the two of you are adults," Isobu commented, as each of them did their best to put the other in a headlock.

"Adulthood's no fun if you can't be childish sometimes!" Sabo replied, sounding more relaxed than he had since Isobu emerged. Ace couldn't attest past that—he was a bit busy trying to escape the arm bar Sabo had him in without turning into fire.

"Noted." With that, Isobu dove back underwater and left them to their game.

Ace promptly burst into flames, making Sabo yelp and let him go. The next few minutes consisted of the two of them wrestling and not a whole lot of sailing, though the Striker II held up just fine in the face of their roughhousing. Even when Ace threw Sabo off the boat and then remembered he wasn't supposed to do that to someone who'd nearly been killed by fire on a ship, and nearly dove in to get him out before he remembered he couldn't swim.

"Oh, quit looking at me like that," Sabo said once he climbed back onto Striker II, dumping seawater out of his hat. He set it on the edge of the boat instead of on his head again, then started writing out his neck-napkin. "I'm not made of glass."

"...No," Ace said. Then he had second thoughts and said, "But isn't there some kind of Logia—"

"Not the point!" Sabo said, and hit Ace in the face with the napkin. "Hell, I bet I'm stronger than you are."

"You take that back," Ace retorted, reaching to grab it.

"Hi Ace, hi Sabo. Having fun?" Kei's voice interrupted, making both of them whip around to stare at her.

She was crouched outside of their ship, with Isobu nowhere in sight and therefore no real reason for her ability to walk on water. Given that Striker II sat kind of low in the water, she had her arms crossed on the rim.

"…How the hell are you doing that?" Sabo asked, as his eyes darted from her feet to her face twice over.

"I could tell you," Kei said mildly, "but then I'd have to kill you."

Sabo grinned. "Or I could just ask Naruto."

Kei shrugged, standing up. "Could. Anyway, the answer's 'chakra.'"

"That's the next best thing to 'magic,'" Ace complained. "Except all of them have it and there's no Devil Fruit rules or consistency."

"Right back at you, firebug," Kei said. "And just so you know, we're heading out soon. As soon as you and Sabo get back to Franky, actually."

"You came all the way out here to tell us that?" Sabo asked.

"No, but you were on the way." Kei tilted her head to one side and glanced toward the turbulent waters Isobu had left behind. Her eyes went distant, the way they generally did when she spoke to Isobu in her head. After a second of pure zoning out, she shrugged and concluded, "Might wanna get out of the area before Isobu surfaces."

"Can do," Ace said, and Kei darted away just as he kicked Striker II's engine to life.

"There you are," Isobu said, once they were out of the blast radius and not dodging his scaly tails. "Now, as for Fishman Island…"

"You know," Sabo began, as they shot across the waves and back toward Sunny, "for someone who didn't know what Devil Fruits were when you met her, I think she fits in with everything on the Grand Line just fine."

"That's what I kept thinking." While Isobu tearing the ocean wide open again cut off the actual sound, Ace felt Sabo cuff him on the shoulder anyway for turning it into an impromptu attempt at windsurfing. Sure, Striker II wasn't quite as flat or as...board-like as a surfboard, but it sort of worked.

And then, when they were about to head back to the fleet, the engine sputtered and died.

"Performance issues?" Sabo asked, while Ace swore at it.

"Or is the thing broken?" Saiken's burbling voice asked from relatively nearby, and Ace looked around until he spotted the usual periscope eyes. Now, if Saiken had decided not to let his tails flail around above water, he might've been stealthy.

"Guess Franky didn't work out the kinks or something," Ace said, though a little louder than usual so Saiken could hear him. "I'll just sail us back to the ship."

"Or I could get Isobu to do it. Or tow you in a bubble… But while Uta is doing things without me? Nah, Isobu will want to!" Saiken paused. He lifted his bulbous head out of the water and called, "Bro, bro, can they get towed back to their other human friends?"

Isobu turned his huge bulk around, since he was mostly shell while Saiken was mostly slime. Ace had seen the giant slug stretch out while trying to hug Isobu, and he was reminded so strongly of Luffy then that it had almost hurt. Here and now, though, it was just amusing to see something that big acting like a whiny kid.

Kei waved down at them from Isobu's head-spikes, while Saiken swam off to go bother more interesting people.

Ace looked around Striker II, considered, and then hauled Sabo up by the back of his long coat. "Permission to board, Captain Kei?"

Kei gave him a thumbs-up.

Isobu said, "Get up here."

And before Sabo could react, Ace hurled him up at Isobu's head. "Up you go!"

"You jerk!" Sabo shouted on the way up, but at least he landed all right on one of the spikes, treating it like the trees of their childhood on Dawn Island.

Once Isobu was close enough, Ace leapt off the little craft's nose, hitting a spike in flame form and then pulling himself up onto Isobu's head next to Sabo and Kei. As soon as he was clear, there was a sound like a landslide and a loud gulp. Striker II disappeared into Isobu's mouth.

Sabo blinked. After a few seconds as he searched for words, he said lamely, "…That was your boat."

"It was until the engine crapped out on us," Ace said, shaking his head.

"Isobu will spit it out once we get back to the others," Kei said, still lounging on a different spike. She had one arm holding her head up, barely, and hadn't opened an eye at their antics. Other than noting that she'd pushed one of her arm band things up so her banded wrist was visible, Ace didn't really know what she might've been doing up here.

Though a nap sounded nice.

"I take it this happens a lot?" Sabo asked, "And I'll get my hat back?"

"Yep, to both questions," Ace replied, and leaned heavily on Sabo.

Speaking of naps—

"—didn't do this when we were kids," Sabo's voice was saying.

Whoops. Ace sat up, yawning, and pulled his hat off his face. Strange, it hadn't been there before...

"Hey, sleepyhead," Sabo said, and poked him in the shoulder. "We were just talking about you."

"Must've been why my ears were burning," Ace responded instantly, poking Sabo back.

"Technically, you're almost always burning," Sabo retorted. And then more poking.

"Hah," Ace huffed, turning around where he sat.

They might've been able to start some kind of ridiculous haki-versus-Devil Fruit thumb war if Kei hadn't interrupted with, "You're both as bad as Luffy."

"Who do you think he got it from?" Sabo teased, and knocked Ace's hat back over his face.

"Not from me!"

"I can see pretty clearly that you're all bad influences," Kei said in a dry voice, but when Ace looked at her, she just shrugged.

While they were cruising, Ace took the opportunity to lounge across Isobu's head like a cat, though he'd just had an accidental nap. Next to him, Sabo sat back to enjoy the ride. Kei remained in her position, looking out to sea with a completely placid expression on her face. Isobu's low, gentle rumbling made a peaceful background hum to the sea's slow rolling. Now, if only Striker II was fully functional, it would have been a perfect day.

But there was one other problem.

Ace had made the mistake of mentioning certain things to Sabo while he and Luffy had been filling their blond brother on all the things he'd missed. Like the thought, no matter how tinged by desperation or empathy, that he had wanted to tell Kei who his father was. Half as a test, half because he was certain Kei wouldn't care. Or know enough to care. Only he'd never found the right time, and now it'd been long enough that his doubts had settled in.

But to get into that, he'd needed to talk about Teach and Impel Down, and Sabo had punched him in the head out of retroactive worry. It'd hurt even if he didn't use haki.

Sabo hadn't said anything to say regarding Ace's question, though, beyond, "If you want me there, I will be."

Which was why he was here now. Luffy would've blurted something out before Ace had a chance to.

"So, why're you out here?" Ace asked Kei, fiddling with the beads of his necklace. "Since I know why Sabo and I are."

Kei raised one eyebrow. "I'm just keeping out of the way. Whatever happens next, Isobu and I can handle it."

Ace eyed the bulk of the monster sea turtle below them and had to agree. He hadn't seen anything slow Isobu down since he'd met him, except Kei's expectations about not being seen or causing a ruckus. Now that those restrictions had been lifted, and after the shit that happened at Impel Down, there wasn't much to hold him back except for the health of the people around him.

"I can believe that," Sabo said, and Isobu gave a low chuckle that shook everyone like an earthquake.

Kei lowered a hand and ran her fingers along Isobu's head as the rumbling stopped. Her eyes went distant again, then she rested her chin on her forearm. "So, you?"

Ace realized he was tense, and tried to forcibly relax. "Stress-testing, mainly. You saw how that went. Other than that, just, uh, seeing how you're doing."

Sabo nudged him with his knee, subtly enough that Ace was sure Kei didn't see it. Sabo knew as well as Ace did that he never just checked on anyone. Even seeing Luffy for the first time in three years had been prefaced by both the hunt for the ghost skiff and, after that was resolved, chasing rumors about Teach. He generally expected people to get along on their own, and Kei was New World strong.

All the same, her eyes narrowed very slightly as she looked sidelong at him. Still, Kei stayed slumped where she was while Ace's heart did its best to climb up his throat.

Sabo nudged him again, and Ace's hand itched to lash out right back into his brother's face, because this wasn't helping. But Sabo would probably see it coming with observation haki and oh screw it.

"I just… I wanted to ask you something," Ace blurted, before he could let his fears get the best of him. "I mean, I wasn't planning… Just give me a second."

Kei lifted her chin somewhat, but didn't otherwise move. "Take your time."

Ace swallowed hard. He felt like he was trying to talk his way out of being eaten by a monster, and the only reason he was coming out ahead was because it was too busy sunning itself to bother. Which was kind of ridiculous, given that Kei wasn't a monster, and Isobu was, and Ace was more nervous about the first person than the second one. But no matter how much he tried to tell himself that—that his fear was pointless—it all came back to people and their jeers and his fucking father.

Sabo's presence was probably the only reason he didn't chicken out despite himself. Sabo knew already, and he was Ace's brother.

Ace fidgeted for a while, toying with the sigil on his hat cord this time instead of his necklace. He didn't meet Kei's gaze or Sabo's, but every inch of him was wound tighter than a spring. Even after he turned the little demon emblem over for the fifth time, Kei said nothing.

But he wasn't going to walk away from this conversation without giving her some kind of answer.

Finally, after five solid minutes of silence and avoiding Kei's question, he said, "It's hard to… I don't know where to start."

"The beginning is generally best," Sabo said quietly, while Kei hesitated to suggest anything.

Ace swore silently, because it would have been easier just to tear the knife free, but… "Okay. Okay, I can do that."

There was a long silence, filled only by the sound of the ocean.

"Do you…" Kei hesitated, then offered, "Right after we met Yugito, you guessed some things and let me fill in the rest. Do you want me to try that?"

"No, I can do this." Ace set his jaw, fighting down a scowl, before he said, "It's about my father," spitting the last word.

Kei didn't say anything. She just waited for him to stop throwing sparks.

"Before I was born," Ace began in a low voice, "my mother carried me long enough that it killed her. But even before then, I was… My very existence was a sin." His hand clenched in a fist, sparks being smothered in his fingers. "If you talk to—if the wrong people find out—"

"The World Government?" Kei asked, her voice whisper-soft.

Ace's minute flinch probably told her enough. "They're…on the list." She hadn't moved, so… Okay. So far, so good. "How'd you know?"

"Jinbe told that story about the child hunts," Kei said, and Ace suppressed another shudder. "Your reaction was telling. But if you don't want to tell me, I won't ask you to. It's your secret."

"No, I want to—" Ace began, then cut himself off when he felt his voice start to get louder. No, he needed to be calm. If he started shouting now, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop.

Kei was one of the most powerful people Ace knew who wasn't on any pirate crew. And yet he wasn't afraid she would hurt him. Aside from her huffing and puffing over the box of paper from months ago, Kei had never even gotten angry at him in a way that made him afraid for his life. Hell, he'd blown up at her. And she'd agreed enough with what he said that there wasn't an argument. What would one extra fact—the piece she was missing—do to their bond?

Could she join the Whitebeard Pirates if she—?

Shit. If Kei rejected him and told—

Kei, oblivious to his thoughts, just said, "Ask away."

Or not so oblivious. She was watching him shrewdly as his feelings probably showed as clearly on his face as his freckles did. Though she didn't know a lot about the Blues the way he did, she was sharp. She could read people. She was from a place where not reading people was a really, really bad idea.

And Ace went back to the oldest question still clinging to his heart like barbed wire.

"What would you say…" Ace began, forcing himself not to choke on the words. Their familiarity was almost sickening. I can do this, I can— "What would you say if you met the Pirate King's son?"

The words hung in the air like smoke, clingy and cloying. If they were, Ace might have been able to ignore their weight and the sensation that he was standing on a knife's edge. Sabo was at his back, and he knew Isobu didn't give a shit, but a little voice in the back of his head kept insisting that this was the end. That this situation could tip against him in an instant, and it would all be over.

And yet to his own ears, the question had almost managed to come across as off the cuff, like he hadn't been building up to the question for entirely too long. Ever since the conversation they'd had about the clan wars, the surge of empathy when he realized that jinchūriki were treated like pariahs, the near-confession after Kei fixed Utakata's seal…

It was all building up to this, for Ace.

"If I met the Pirate King's son…" Kei sat back, then slowly raised her hand. Ace still tensed, half-convinced by the voice of doubt in his head that she could still strike like lightning. And, more importantly, that she would. "I'd raise my hand like this, then say 'Yo.' Just like I did when we met."

Ace stared at her, jaw dropping open before he could fully process her answer. His hands clenched into fists on top of his knees, and when he spoke, his voice shook. "D-did you hear what I said? Gol D. Roger's son. People say the man was a demon! The World Government—they'd call anyone with his blood a demon just for that. It's the most cursed blood in the world…"

"Really? A demon?" Kei gave Ace a knowing look, then patted Isobu's shell. As the huge turtle rumbled in what Ace realized, belatedly, was actually reassuring, Kei went on, "Then you're in good company, aren't you? I mean, you drew a line when Yugito and I were still mulling over how much we wanted to take out Teach, regardless of the lives lost. Whether we were planning on sinking the island or not, it really wasn't a question that should've been asked, was it? A real 'demon' wouldn't have blinked. And yet, I remember you dragging us both back from the edge."

"But—" Ace bit down on his knee-jerk response, trying to get her to understand the sheer scale of what she was dismissing. "But I don't—"

Sabo's hand met the back of Ace's head. When Ace glared back at him, Sabo shrugged innocently and said, "I'm just doing what you'd do if you caught me saying something like what I know you were going to say. And I didn't wanna hear the end of that sentence any more than Kei did."

There was another rumble from Isobu. Kei tilted her head to one side as though she was listening to him, then said, "Isobu says he won't tell his siblings if you don't want him to."

A drop of ice water crawled down Ace's spine. He'd known that the Tailed Beasts could all talk to their hosts without needing to open their mouths, but the idea that Isobu could tell the others whatever he wanted through the same process… Though his mouth felt dry, Ace managed to say, "Please don't tell anyone else. Not even Matatabi."

Kei bowed her head with her eyes closed, a solemn hand over her heart. Even when he racked his memory for the times he'd poked around Marine bases, he'd never seen someone act that formally toward him. It wasn't a gesture of loyalty like the Marine salute. It was a promise. "I swear I won't. Ever."

Ace blinked rapidly, turning away so he could wipe his eyes before the impending tears spilled over. He knew neither Sabo or Kei or even Isobu would say anything, but he had to. Around the knot in his throat, he whispered, "Th-thanks."

"Of course." Water bounced on the giant turtle's shell as he spoke in a tone that completely ruined the mood. "Now, I think we should return to the ship. If I must keep this boat in my stomach any longer, I may decide to keep it forever."

"Oh, hell no!" Ace shouted, stomping on Isobu's shell for emphasis, even if the turtle probably couldn't feel it. Even as a wild, relieved laugh kept trying to bubble out of him. He was free enough—safe enough—to have this argument, and it was great. "I just got it from Franky!"

"Do you really have to fight the turtle while we're still on his back?' Sabo asked, but he was grinning too. "You haven't relearned how to swim in the last five minutes."

"Shut up, Sabo!"

"Never!"

And then Ace had Sabo in a headlock and Kei was scooting away from them, toward the edge of Isobu's head. Her smile, from what little Ace saw of it before Sabo almost threw him onto his back, was bright even if it wasn't a true grin. It reached her eyes.

But then she said, while Ace had Sabo pinned via arm bar, "Don't make me turn this turtle around, kids."

"Kids? Who the hell made you the nanny?" Sabo demanded, though his voice was a little muffled by his cravat and Isobu's shell. Ace learned fast.

"Get over here," Ace said, and grabbed for her. "You're not getting out of—oh, seriously?!"

Kei had exploded into water before he could even get close, dousing them both with sea spray. Her laugh—more of a cackle—drifted up from somewhere around Isobu's jaw spikes, before Ace spotted her running across the waves toward Sunny at a speed that would have been uncanny even if she hadn't been ignoring physics.

"Cheater," Sabo complained as he snaked out of Ace's grip.

"Friggin' ninjas," Ace agreed. He sat up on Isobu's head with Sabo, then knocked on Isobu's shell. "So, wanna help us catch her?"

"You are on your own."

"The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake," I sang under my breath, watching Saiken blow the biggest spit bubbles of his life to encase our ships. "You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake…" I tapped my fingertips on the Thousand Sunny's railing. "Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor…"

"We're not underwater yet, though," Luffy said. Though he'd been bouncing in place ever since we'd finally gotten within sight of the Red Line, he still made time to check in on everyone's adventurous spirit. "Hey, Kei, did you do this last time, too? Is that why you're singing? What's Fishman Island like?"

"Uh," I said, while Luffy continued to pepper me with questions. He didn't stop until I held up a hand as a silent plea for him to cool his jets. "Luffy, I didn't come through this way."

"Eh? Why not?"

Isobu answered with a rather dry, "It was easier to find an unoccupied part of the Red Line and climb. We didn't know where the Ryugu Kingdom was, or that there was a tunnel."

"The hell you didn't," Ace complained, bobbing down below in the now-repaired Striker II. He'd done two laps of his brother's ship before coming to a stop, satisfied with Franky's work. "I told you there was a way through without needing to do the next best thing to flying."

"And finding it would have taken more time," Isobu replied, as Saiken's latest bubble engulfed the Sunny and muffled his voice somewhat. While Ace dragged his new ride back into its dock, Isobu went on, "Now, we can all experience the moment together."

I eyed him. I'm sure you weren't thinking about that at all when we came through. We didn't even know what planet we were on.

You know that, and I know that, but I do not think it matters.

Still, while all of this had been happening, Luffy just stared uncomprehendingly. After a little longer, he shrugged to himself and wandered off, scurrying up the main mast and stretching to touch the edges of Saiken's bubble. "Hey, is this like what we might've got if we stayed in Salisbury?"

"Sabaody," Usopp corrected, even as he peered all around the ship for any signs of intruders. "And I don't think they'd welcome us back."

Even from the crow's nest, I didn't imagine he'd be seeing much given all the Tailed Beasts lurking in our immediate area. While Isobu's Hidden Mist genjutsu kept us from being spotted by anyone else, Isobu's physical shell, combined with the bulk of Saiken, Yang Kurama, and the bubble-bound Matatabi and Shukaku would make it hard to see past them. Even if Chōmei had charitably decided to keep watch in the sky above the Red Line instead.

"Rayleigh and Shakky and Hatchan and Keimi would, though," Luffy said, once again demonstrating his total lack of volume control. Or maybe my ears were just too sharp. "And Rayleigh was a coating expert or something, right?"

Too late for that now. Though if Luffy ever decided to come back to Sabaody, I hoped he'd be tough enough to take on whatever Marine contingent had decided to set up shop there. Given how many friends he'd made, though, I had no doubt that forces could conspire to make Luffy into the most powerful person ever seen on the Grand Line as soon as they had the opportunity. It was somewhat hard-coded into the nature of the entire genre we found ourselves in.

Not that I was gonna mention that to anyone.

In relatively short order, Saiken got his glorified wagon train organized to his satisfaction. With Revolutionaries, pirates, former prisoners, Tailed Beasts, and jinchūriki all ready to go, he linked each bubble to the next with a thorough coating of what was basically soap made of spit. Isobu moved slowly to flank the bubbles before his chakra surrounded the ones Saiken did not, taking up the burden of towing every Tailed Beast that wanted to travel in a separate bubble to avoid getting water everywhere. Saiken could handle all of us humans, since we were unfortunately equipped with the organs necessary to drown. Once our travel arrangements were made, we dove.

Naruto and Gaara joined me at the railing to marvel as the sea closed over our heads. It was one thing to swim. It was quite another to be playing at being a submarine with a ship clearly not designed for such shenanigans. The Straw Hats had lit every lamp in to get a better look at the depths of the sea, though there wasn't much to look at in my opinion. Visibility wouldn't have been great with direct spotlights, and even then, the main points of interest would still have been our Tailed Beast companions. Matatabi's fur glowed with a deep blue light that hardly did anything to the darkness we were steeped in.

"I wonder," Gaara said, as a Sea King with a face like a giant hairless cat approached and did an abrupt about-face upon spotting Isobu, "if our oceans have anything like this."

"If they did, how would we know?" Naruto asked, leaning over the railing with his arms dangling. "Most of us worry about how much land we have, not how much ocean we control."

Gaara made a vague noise of assent.

"At least the Land of Fire has a coast, Naruto," said Fū, as she wandered over from wherever she'd been running around before. She sat next to his elbow, grinning. "Hey, maybe when we get back we can find a beach or something and hang out and look for mermaids!"

In a bubble this small, I didn't consider it a major concern to keep my chakra sense running on all cylinders all the time. The few things that could attack us would hit the Tailed Beast contingent first and die horribly. Fū still felt wary of me, sure, but apparently wasn't letting it stop her from hanging out with her friends. The rest could wait.

"Are they anything like in that story with the box?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"What box?" asked Gaara.

"Uh, there's a story of a guy…" Naruto paused, scratching his head. "Urashima Tarō? I think he rescued a sea turtle, and the sea turtle said he could visit the underwater mermaid kingdom…"

While Naruto butchered a childhood fairy tale for the benefit of his friends, Jinbe listened as well. Because Naruto couldn't remember the names of anyone involved aside from the main character, it ended up being the Epic Saga of Some Guy named Urashima Tarō and a Bunch of People. I imagined that if Naruto had remembered Otohime and the rest of the colorful cast, or the name of the kingdom, or the treasure, Jinbe probably would have wondered how the story of the Ryugu Kingdom's treasure had ended up in the mouth of a tiny child who knew nothing about ships. Naruto knew the story because Kakashi enjoyed reading to him and Tatsumaki when they were younger, and I was fairly certain Jinbe would have known it because he lived it. And I knew I could blame Kakashi for it, because the version I told had Urashima open the box to get his old age back on purpose, so he could be with his now-elderly wife.

So I occasionally edited the story to suit my audience. Sue me.

"Oh," Gaara said.

After Naruto explained how the protagonist of his story was reduced to a skeleton by his accumulated years, I was sure Jinbe's version of the magical box didn't function the same way. It didn't sound plausible even in this bizarre setting. Then again, he hadn't said anything to dismiss the possibility out of hand either. Probably for the best.

"Something wrong, Gaara?" Fū asked, swinging her legs over the railing as though bored.

She'd been as attentive as she could be during story time, but Naruto had a way of relaying stories that was more loaded with tangents than my thought process. Now that it was over, she could fidget all she wanted.

"Is Sanji going to be okay?" Gaara asked, drawing blank looks from Jinbe and me.

"Your crew's chef shouldn't be in any more danger than anyone else would be," Jinbe said, after thinking it over. "Unless there was something specific you were worried about?"

"Sanji gets nosebleeds," Gaara said flatly. "A lot."

Everyone thought about that. There was really only one reason Gaara, of all people, would bring that kind of habit to our attention.

"...Like the kind total perverts get?" Naruto asked after a second or two, eyes wide. At Gaara and Fū's worrying silence, he said, "You're kidding. And he's, what, really into mermaids?"

Gaara and Fū just sighed.

Isobu's voice interrupted the teenaged plotters, saying in a mild tone that warbled in the water, "Oh look, another contestant."

Everyone on the ship suddenly got a very good view of an octopus-squid thing that was about the size of three Tailed Beasts put together, Yang Kurama included. As a yellowish bulk of tentacles and seagoing horror, it was almost impressive. With its beady eyes and wide grin-as opposed to a beak like a proper cephalopod-I was once again left questioning what, if any, logic went into the evolution of life forms in this ridiculous ocean. It waved all its arms, possibly as a threat. One of them even reached for Saiken's convoy, and therefore us.

And then Isobu opened his craggy maw and let out a noise that no turtle would be able to mimic, due primarily to a lack of vocal cords of relevant range. Everyone under the size category of "Colossal" in the area clamped appendages over their ears as he sang like a whale. Specifically, if I had to guess, a type of whale that ate krakens for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Except even as I was trying to avoid abusing my regeneration abilities any more than I already had (and Sanji swore audibly from the kitchen about Logias and grease fires), I was pretty fucking sure I recognized the song.

Really? You break out things from Pokémon at a time like this?

Are you jealous of my range? You were not going to win any awards with your mermaid song earlier.

Oh, shut up. You're no dragon bird.

I am a dragon turtle.

I gave up, and coincidentally Isobu stopped singing after the kraken inked itself and fled in the blind confusion. For a monster of the deep, it wasn't all that intimidating compared to my mental roommate. Odd, how I could say that about so many things.

"Did anyone else notice something odd about that encounter?" Jinbe asked, once everyone had stopped acting like their eardrums would blow out.

"Are you talking about the thing swimming away? Or the singing monster turtle?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"We could have made so much takoyaki with it," Fū complained under her breath.

Since we had kinda been depending on Sea King meat for most of our protein recently, it wasn't as though Fū's idea didn't have merit. But we could just as easily hunt up nearly anything else. Or wait until we could hit a restaurant, like law-abiding citizens.

…Pfff. Yeah, right.

"That is not what I meant," Jinbe said. He peered out into the darkness as the ink dispersed, frowning more severely than usual. "That was a North Blue kraken."

Fū stared blankly at him. "…What?"

"Kraken aren't normally found in this area," Jinbe explained, as the kids hung onto his every word. "We have Sea Kings, on occasion, but kraken prefer colder waters. Something is wrong here."

Something about the way he said it… "So, how long until we get ambushed?"

"Pardon?"

I shrugged. My logic didn't necessarily make sense, but Jinbe was a good listener. Maybe he'd be able to figure out what the heck I meant. "If there's something wrong down here, we're probably gonna end up in the middle of it. I mean, we're traveling with the Straw Hat Pirates, heading out to meet the Whitebeard Pirates, and we're carrying something like a hundred Revolutionary Army members with us. Even with Tailed Beasts escorting us everywhere, we're bound to run into something chaotic sooner or later. Actually, given that Fishman Island is directly below Mariejois, we're overdue for another fight."

Because main characters always were.

"The kraken didn't count," Naruto agreed.

"So says you."

"You didn't even touch it!" Fū yelled back, waving her arms to emphasize her point as Naruto shouted in agreement.

Gaara pretended he didn't know them.

"Unless you plan to run into and then attack the Neptune Army, I don't think that will be a problem," Jinbe said, a little taken aback. Then again, perhaps he had yet to experience the terror of dealing with a bored Naruto.

That was his could attest to the consequences.

But since the conversation didn't seem to be heading anywhere fast, I pushed off from the railing and decided to walk the length of the ship. The kids could pester Jinbe for stories and other fun things, since they hadn't been able to corner him before. So, to give him some time to stew and to prove Isobu wrong about my singing ability, I continued my song from before. "Such wonderful things around you, what more is you lookin' for? Under the sea, oh, under the sea…"

Fishman Island… I suppose if I had to describe it, I would have called it a fairy tale kingdom. Thanks to some giant tree or kelp, it was the only place on the ocean floor that had a free and constant supply of sunlight. With that in mind, fishfolk and merpeople of the past had colonized it, leading to the establishment of the Ryugu Kingdom at its base. According to Jinbe and Ace, who had been here before, the place had a whole district that was basically the most benevolent tourist trap on the planet. Given the bright or pastel colors literally everywhere inside the air bubble that surrounded the place, I could kind of see their point. It was like an aquatic Disneyland, but without giant anthropomorphic mice. Everything that wasn't based on coral architecture was held up by bubbles or smooth stone, and there were more types of fish and fish-people than anyone could shake a stick at. For all that I'd bothered Namur back when we first met, I hadn't had a clue about the true extent of morphology variations within a single sapient species.

Then again, this was One Piece. I honestly wouldn't have believed Whitebeard was a human if Ace hadn't taken the time, quite a while ago, to explain how big actual giants like Oars Jr. got. The baffling part of Fishman Island was that the people could be anywhere from the size of rabbits to the size of whales and still be called the same species. Or race, I supposed, since merpeople and fishpeople were apparently capable of producing either.

Anyway, that was my first impression. While I stared dumbstruck at everything along with the kids and the Straw Hat Pirates, everyone for whom Fishman Island was an old hat got back to work.

Speaking of old hats, though, it quickly became apparent that between the tremendous size range of the inhabitants and the general presence of really big sea life in the Grand Line, the Tailed Beasts couldn't get so much as a second glance. Giant turtles clearly existed, as did whales the size of islands and thus half-a-dozen giant monsters could almost be mistaken for locals. Jinbe's surprise at seeing Isobu in action had been limited to his strength and his speaking ability, not size or morphology. We'd made a habit of killing bigger things four times a week by then.

"I like this place," Saiken had said, once the Sunny and all the other ships were safely docked inside the air bubble that made up about half of the Ryugu Kingdom's territory. Sitting back on his haunches, he concluded, "It's a very pretty underwater island. Back home, you only get this many colors near the surface."

"That is because of the Sunlight Tree Eve," Jinbe had told him, and proceeded to explain the tremendous value of a source of constant, nourishing daylight that had been around for untold centuries. Basically, the Ryugu Kingdom was a coral reef, just farther underwater than any such place had ever been before.

But some of our number were more interested in other features, such as something known only as Bubbly Coral.

"Never mind that," Matatabi had interrupted, disappointing Robin and anyone else interested in history. She reached out with one flaming paw and nearly scared off a fishman merchant twice my height, then decided to lower her face to speak to him directly. "Tell me, can you create a series of bubble creations that would allow my brothers and me to travel safely through the city? I would quite like not to hurt anyone by accidentally stepping on them."

The merchant, with an eye for opportunity, had merely said, "Give me a minute to figure out measurements?" He'd looked down at the little branches of pink coral in his hands before blanching and calling for an assistant or fifty, but he didn't give up or refuse.

Matatabi purred. "Of course."

And that was how five Tailed Beasts cost us several hundred thousand beri in glorified pool rings.

"Look, Uta! I'm flying!"

"Try not to hit any buildings."

"You're not looking!"

"Bwahahaha!" Shukaku's laugh required everyone to cover their ears for a moment or two while he got it out of his system."You're as graceful in the air as you are on land, Saiken! Do a loop!"

"Kinda makes me wish Chōmei came down here with us," Fū commented, watching the Tailed Beasts do their best to frolic. It was mostly an exercise in not squishing people, accomplished with moderate difficulty and the occasional awkward twist in the air.

But it made them happy, so it was clearly worth it.

In human news, it turned out that Ace was kind of like a walking, talking, occasionally-flame-wreathed passport when it came to Fishman Island's customs check. Ordinarily, everyone visiting was obliged to have their ship inspected for who-knew-what by the local authorities, since people who traveled via bubble were the type who couldn't cross overland. Ergo, no Marines or World Nobles. Everybody else fell under the Ryugu Kingdom's power if they wanted to move past the Red Line.

Except for the Whitebeard Pirates. If we weren't underwater, I'd have half-expected a ticker-tape parade of some variety.

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!"

And it helped that we found Thatch and Marco waiting for us like a couple of airport valets almost as soon as the last of the Tailed Beasts floated off into the air. Thatch even had a sign, which jammed all the pirate flags of the relevant crews onto one banner.

In response, Ace leapt off the Sunny before we were even properly docked.

I didn't. Instead, I scrutinized Thatch's work. He hadn't included Yugito's band of marauding cat cultists, or the Revolutionaries, but only because neither of them had given him anything to work with. In the former's case, it was due to a lack of focus despite being a new pirate crew by some vague certification consisting of "well, why not?" on the part of the former fans. In the latter's, not being widely known was the entire point.

This did not save me from the group hug, because in the end I'd always been a pushover.

"Kei, hey, you're not excused! Get down here!"

Once Thatch let Ace go—and he wandered over to Marco with the banner draped around him like a feather boa because he could—I went down to meet my inevitable fate. The second I touched the bright sea floor, I was instantly swept up into a bear hug that I did my best to return without hurting Thatch's back. After we'd spun around a few times—and my feet failed to find solid ground three times in a row—I put my weight into controlling the arc.

The next thing Thatch knew, I was hugging him while also basically carrying him over one shoulder. So much for his height advantage. Jinchūriki strength won out.

"I knew you had it in you. I knew you could succeed in the Grand Line, no problem," Thatch said, once I set him down again. "It's good to see you again, Kei. And you even brought our wayward brother back home!"

"Hey, I went off looking for her first," Ace argued back, even as Marco ducked past him and held up a hand in easy reach of mine.

Fist bump! "So, care to tell us a bit of what you've been up to, Tidal Blade?" Marco asked, withdrawing his hands to his pockets. His half-lidded eyes darted to one side as the shadow of Yang Kurama's bulk passed over us, almost like an eclipse of an unseen sun. "…And what's with the giant floating animals? I'd only call two of them Sea Kings, and that's a stretch."

I smiled somewhat sheepishly. "It might be faster just to introduce you to everyone else. We're gonna be holding everyone up for a while, otherwise."

Sanji's mermaid thing notwithstanding, I'd learned a bit about Luffy's crew in a few cases. Since Whitebeard had confirmed that Fishman Island had a Poneglyph, Robin would be occupied from the start. The rest of the crew would undoubtedly find something in this brightly colored tourist trap to entertain themselves. Even if most local jerks probably wouldn't willingly pick fights while the Whitebeards were in town.

"We're gonna be here a while anyway," Ace said, "or did you think you were gonna get away without a Whitebeard Pirate party?"

I had not, and ceded the point.

"Is this a thing?" Gaara asked, as he and Naruto swayed in time with the terribly off-key sea shanties being sung by the Whitebeard Pirates. "Until I got here, I didn't think 'drinking contests' were real. Only Zoro and Nami ever do it."

"I don't think it works as well with sake," Naruto replied, "because each bottle is so expensive. Unless you're Granny Tsunade or something." Naruto paused, blinking. "Wait, Zoro and Nami? I get Zoro, but isn't Nami too small for this?"

"I don't know. She drank a lot at Whiskey Peak and everyone passed out except her." Gaara frowned slightly in concentration. "Nami and Sanji said I couldn't join in; not that I wanted to. So, I just watched until Baroque Works tried to kill us."

"…Weren't you only on the crew for like a week?" Naruto asked blankly.

"Hah! That's nothing!" Fū grinned. Cackling outright, she continued, "By the time I was on the crew for a week, Aokiji almost killed us!"

Naruto and Gaara exchanged glances. Then Gaara broke the silence with a sigh and a, "She's right, too. I was an icicle for an hour."

That was the gist of the conversation from the dreaded kiddie table, anyway.

Suffice to say that when the crews all met up, they converged on the Moby Dick because it was by far the largest of the ships and proceeded to party as hard as…well, pirates. Specifically, the Whitebeard, Straw Hat, and Cobalt Lioness Pirates. The Revolutionaries were mostly along for the ride. And the free drinks.

Never let it be said that such a group lacked for opportunists.

All around the deck of the Moby Dick, pirates partied. Among the general carousing and off-key singing, there was one centerpiece to the whole shebang. And that centerpiece, lit with lamps and surrounded by the loudest partygoers of the lot, was an ongoing drinking contest. The defending champion was the old man himself, Whitebeard of the iron liver or something similar, and the crowd around him included his defeated challengers.

Ace was either asleep or unconscious, with his head resting on his left arm and a game of connect-the-freckles across his face, thanks to Luffy's rubbery hands. Luffy, for his part, snored with his head dropping off the table and onto the floor, somehow still devouring any scrap of food left in the immediate area in a way that drew stares when the crowd could spare the attention. Or had a piece of food swiped right out of their hands. The third brother, snickering with his hand over his mouth, did his best to complete the freckle constellation while the hand with a marker in it shook with his suppressed laughter.

And yet, the game continued. I was in it for the atmosphere, really.

"KANPAI!"

The show must go on.

"Just because Ace gave up doesn't mean I will, Pops!" Thatch said, grinning widely in the face of the ongoing challenge. His face was flushed even as he grabbed the next cup.

"Ace passed out," I corrected, shaking my head slowly. While I'd been quietly matching Thatch and Whitebeard drink for drink, my face didn't show any signs of it thanks to Isobu's influence over my metabolism. The closest I'd gotten to an alcoholic flush was to grimace whenever I tasted the sake, but that was it. "Good thing the nurses are going dry tonight."

"Not for lack of arguing," Janey said, huffing as she observed the party. "Honestly, no restraint at all…"

"I'm not sure how you're doing this," Marco commented, leaning over to count the empty bottles by Nami's elbow. "You're what, six drinks deep? And Thatch has almost two feet and a hundred pounds on you."

"Hey, I earned my tolerance," Nami said, though she swayed when she tried to stick her finger in Marco's face. "Both of you can shut up."

Marco pushed her hand aside before her finger went up his nose. Then, "And you, Pirate Hunter?"

"Pff, whatever." Zoro, of course, was doing his best to match Whitebeard. "This is nothing."

"Gurarara!" Whitebeard guffawed, setting his own massive sake jug against his knee. "So many cheeky brats at once! Brings a tear to an old man's eye."

"KANPAI!" came the cry for the next round.

And the next.

And the one after that.

An hour or two later, the under-seventeen age group had long since lost interest in anyone over that age, and gone to find their bunks on the Thousand Sunny while dragging Luffy, Nami, and Zoro with them. Most of the Whitebeards, Revolutionaries, and miscellaneous pirates were sprawled out insensate on the deck, hiccupping or happily drunk without them. The division commanders were as dead to the world as Ace had been, except for Marco and his utter refusal to imbibe when he was immune to alcohol anyway.

"I don't believe it," Marco muttered as he surveyed the carnage. The party had put a huge dent in the Moby Dick's stocks, and yet it wasn't over.

Utakata and I were still keeping pace with Whitebeard.

Thatch, meanwhile, was hanging off Yugito's shoulder even as she hauled him somewhat to his feet. Unfortunately, the fact that he was so much taller than her made the prospect awkward at best. He was mumbling the entire time, saying things like "An angel!" and "Pretty kitty," and so on.

"Before you drag him to sleep this off," Marco said, gesturing vaguely at the remnants of the party, "do you have any idea how they're doing that?"

Yugito tilted her head slowly to one side, raising an eyebrow. It was easy to see Ace's influence in that gesture alone. "Doing what?"

"Drinking like fish and not apparently feeling it," Marco replied, because if Yugito was drunk, he sure couldn't see it. And he knew she had been drinking before, at least until bowing out at about the same time that Jozu and Blenheim had.

I hid a smile behind my cup. Yugito was making friends.

"I know I'm drunk," said Blamenco from the floor, "but I can't tell if you're drunk."

"You're not drunk," grumbled Fossa as he pushed his watermelon-striped hat down over his eyes. "I'm drunk." A pause. "We don't have anyone named 'drunk,' right?"

"I think I'd know if we did, if only for the jokes we'd make," Marco told him in a dry voice, and Fossa subsided.

"Oh, I'm sober," Yugito assured him. "I'll likely remember this for years."

"That doesn't explain how," Marco said.

Yugito shrugged. "Kei explained it as an inherent immunity to poison, which Utakata tested against Warden Magellan. Alcohol is nothing in comparison, though it means that none of us can get drunk even if we want to."

Marco blinked. "What."

"A long story that can wait until after the contest," Yugito replied, jerking her head in the direction of Utakata, Whitebeard, and me (which I meant I waved offhandedly back). We were the only contestants left upright. And even then, to my not-so-experienced eye, it looked like Whitebeard was starting to flag. "Could you tell me where I can drop Thatch before he starts drooling?"

"I…sure?" Marco said, mostly out of reflex. "This way?"

The next morning, bets had to be accounted for. While Marco was distracted by guiding Yugito and Thatch to Thatch's room so he could sleep off this round of liver abuse, we three remaining participants in the game brought it to an end. While Utakata grumbled about wasted years and unearned tolerances, I just said that none of them could remember who had won in the end. Our distinct lack of hangovers in the morning indicated a blatant lie, but no one except Marco would have called us on it.

And to be honest, he was too busy trying to figure out why and how Yugito had emerged wearing one of Thatch's spare shirts.

"…Seriously? You don't have your own clothes?" Utakata asked from across the breakfast table.

"Izo drunk-designed something," Yugito said with a shrug. "Something about not wanting me to wear Kei's old one?"

Utakata sighed. "That's not what I was really asking about, and you know it."

"Thatch called me a kitty-cat again," Yugito informed him loftily. "So I drew whiskers on his face and borrowed a shirt while Izo modifies my clothes." She arched an eyebrow. "Were you expecting a different answer?"

Utakata rolled his visible eye. That just about served as an answer.

"I might have, if he'd been sober while propositioning me," Yugito elaborated slowly, checking her nails before buffing them against her "borrowed" shirt. I wasn't sure why she bothered, since her tendency to grow them out at will meant that they somehow ended up flawless at the end of the day. "But not like that."

Several of the less-hungover pirates choked on their coffee as the dots connected themselves. As she heard the reactions, Yugito made a face that resembled the figurative cat that swallowed the canary. She'd loosened up to the point where she was playing elaborate pranks on people, which could only be a good thing. At least until someone got clawed.

"Smug as hell, aren't you?" My voice was dry, but Yugito could read my tone well enough by this point that her smile remained unaffected. I reached out to point a finger at her plate, which was adorned with salmon spread on toast. "Did he promise you the first shot at the tuna?"

"I'm not going to hold a man to agreements made while drunk," Yugito replied. Under my and Utakata's stares, she relented after a brief battle of wills. She curled her fingers underneath her chin and smiled lazily. "...But yes, he did."

"Called it," I muttered. "Sheesh, they're definitely trying to recruit you."

"And I'm enjoying playing hard to get," Yugito said.

A distant voice shouted, "I knew it!" When all three of us jinchūriki tried to spot the culprit, no one admitted to it, or to any of their friends doing so.

"Kei-sensei," Naruto said, piping up from next to my elbow. He hadn't been there before, so his stealth training must have finally roused from its deep slumber. Pirates were a little too easy to get around. Naruto just latched onto me like a limpet and asked, "Who really won that drinking contest?"

"I told you, we fell asleep first," I said, unperturbed by the deaths of a dozen running bets.

"Bo-riiiing," Naruto sing-songed. "Really, though, who won?"

I sighed, then beckoned Naruto closer. I whispered the answer in his ear, to the obvious curiosity of the pirates. And the information Naruto heard prompted a mischievous grin.

He ran off to join his friends at breakfast with a cackle shaking his whole body. He bounced off Fū before they put their heads together almost simultaneously, plotting. If Gaara and Luffy got dragged into it, with Usopp and Chopper as collateral… Oh well.

"It'll be all around the ship in two hours," Utakata commented, shaking his head slowly.

"It should be fun," Yugito said, raising a glass of milk in a clear demand for a toast. "Kanpai?"

"What the hell," I said, and clinked my mug of coffee against it.

After a second's thought, Utakata added his tea cup.

AN: I was gonna include a bit about the Marines here, but This-Chapter-Is-Too-Long-Already-itis won out. Guess we'll need to wait a while to see what they're up to (but hopefully not as long as the gap between these last two chapters was).