Luffy and Usopp goofed off in the snow as Sanji shoveled. I stayed inside with Nami, since I didn't have the urge to get frostbite.
I was almost done with Luffy's bracelet when "Miss Wednesday" jabbed at Nami about navigating.
"Turn around, turn around!" She shrieked.
Somehow, we'd gotten turned completely around!
"I'd offer navigational help, but facts are I'm useless in the Grand Line!" I called as I helped turn the ship.
"Can't be any worse than me!"
"All I know is how NORMAL currents work! Barely even that!"
"I guess you can be worse than me…" Nami conceded as we entered warmer weather.
Zoro woke up after the fact, only to be sent back under by Nami's fist.
I approached the captain. "Captain, can I see your arm for a second?"
Luffy held out his right arm and I tied the gold-and-red bracelet around his wrist. "Here you go."
"That's awesome!" He cried. "Thanks Finn!"
An island came into view. Its inhabitants cheered as we sailed in.
I looked at Zoro. "No way this is as good as it seems."
"Yeah, this reeks of a honey pot." He concurred.
Nami nodded. "But off go the idiots." She sighed.
Indeed, Usopp, Luffy, and Sanji were out there partying.
I groaned.
"Stay alert, but fake complacency." Zoro recommended.
I ate and drank sparingly, but faked sleep after Zoro. Even if the stuff was drugged, as my form was a Nuckelavee, who poisons crops and sickens men, I was immune to poison and illness.
I followed Zoro outside. A town of bounty hunters, called Baroque Works. Interesting. A clever plan, to be sure.
As Zoro laid waste to the bounty hunters that attacked him, those that split off met me in my hybrid glory. I breathed out illness and laid them low. Fools. They fell, coughing and puking.
One snuck up behind me and slammed a sword into my upper left back. I staggered forward, cursing my overconfidence. As blood ran down my back, I was grateful I'd left my favorite jacket on the Merry. I wouldn't want to ruin it.
I turned and grabbed the man by the throat. "Nice. Try." I threw him through a building.
Zoro rounded the corner and stopped dead. "What did you do to them?"
"Might wanna stay back." I returned to human form. "I'm not sure if they're contagious."
"You made them sick." Mr. 8 said in disbelief. "Monster!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Says the one trying to kill us."
I watched as Zoro took them on, but when Miss Wednesday took Luffy hostange, I stepped in. My full glory was revealed, skinless and quadrupedal. My horse head had miasma wisping through its teeth and my long arms almost touched the ground.
I wrapped an elongated hand around Miss Wednesday's neck and lifted her off the ground. "No you don't." I stared her in the eye with my empty pits, black the whole way through.
She squeaked and went limp.
I used a hoof to kick her duck in the head as Zoro used Mr. 9 as a bludgeon. He swung him into Mr. 8 and used Luffy's stomach to bounce up and finish cutting the man down.
I returned to human form and staggered. The slash in my back was causing me to lose blood.
Zoro tore my shirt into bandages and wrapped it, then we sat down to watch the sky.
We watched the group get torn apart by infighting, then Mr. 8, no, Igaram, begged us to save the princess, who was Miss Wednesday, actually Nefertari Vivi.
He offered a substantial reward.
"How about a billion beris then?" Nami smirked, appearing from nowhere.
"Nami!"
Nami negotiated, getting no concrete reward set, and sent Zoro after the princess.
I raised an eyebrow. "Little heavy-handed, that."
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Point to you." I conceded.
She turned to Igaram. "So, what exactly is Baroque Works?"
Secret criminal organization, blah blah blah, ideal nation, blah blah blah.
I snorted, then winced. "What makes you think the boss will ever actually live up to his promise?"
Igaram looked dumbfounded. "You...raise a good point."
Following the struggles, we found Luffy and Zoro fighting. "Oh my god." I facepalmed. "Are you for real right now?"
Nami stopped the fight with two fists as I watched. Vivi explained what Baroque Works was really after: the conquest of her home country.
"I see, so you don't have any money to spare."
I looked at Nami and tugged her ear. "Down, girl. Not everything's about money."
"So, who's the boss, anyway?" Luffy asked.
"Don't ask! You're better off not knowing! Baroque Works would hunt you down!"
"Yeah, leave us out of it. Someone who wants to take over a country would be incredibly dangerous." Nami said.
"Exactly! You'd be no match for Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"
I facepalmed. "You just told us." I said into my hand.
A vulture and an otter took off from a building as Nami blew her top.
From there, we woke the sleeping duo and set sail as Igaram pretended to be the princess and his ship blew up.
"Be careful not to crash your ship on the rocks near the shore. And Congratulations on your escape." A woman's voice rang out.
Everyone stopped moving to stare at the black-haired woman in the cowboy hat. I recognized her from a bounty poster I'd seen while on Camellia's ship. "Demon Child" Nico Robin.
"I must tell you, Miss Wednesday, I met up with Mr. 8 just a little while ago."
"It was you who did that to Igaram!"
"Okay, lady, we get it." Everyone stared at me. "You like feeling superior, and you like working for the Croc. Tick Tock, the croc's keeping you in time like a puppet on strings, Nico Robin, a little puppet just dancing how he wants you to." I was completely improvising. "Tick tock goes the croc, who's little helpers will be shocked, when he betrays them, tick tick to-ggrck!" An arm sprouted from my bandages and started to strangle me.
"Ignoring that little...loudmouth…" Nico Robin drawled.
"Miss All-Sunday!" Vivi gasped.
I clawed at my throat as Nico Robin bantered with the crew.
Zoro was at my side in a second. He drew his katana as Nico Robin offered us an Eternal Pose, and he cut off her pinkie.
The pinkie provides 50% of the human grip strength, so I was able to get air in my lungs at last. The Demon Child's arm vanished and she shook her hand, sending blood onto the deck.
Luffy crushed the Eternal Pose and told her to get off of the ship. She left on a giant turtle.
I fell to my knees. "Holy shit. Zoro, you just saved my life." I rasped. "I owe you."
"You mouthed off to Miss All-Sunday…" Vivi gaped.
"What just happened?!" Usopp and Sanji wanted answers, and so Nami and Vivi explained.
Zoro looked at me. "You alright?"
"Well, the wound on my back's opened up again and I'm gonna have a handprint on my neck for the next week, but I'm not dead." I felt blood staining the makeshift bandages on my back.
I fetched bandages from the storeroom and approached Vivi and Nami. "Can one of you help me out?"
Sanji was there in a flash. "I shall, my lovely-sorry, sorry!" I'd grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. "Forgot!"
I let him go. "It honestly makes me uncomfortable when you talk like that to me. Anyway, can one of you two help me bandage my back?"
The two unwrapped my makeshift bandages. "That looks painful, Finn."
"It's not fun." I admitted. "If I didn't have three months of Marine Training, I'd be unconscious right now."
The gash went from my left shoulder to the middle of my back. It wasn't too deep, so my spine made it out alright, but it hurt like hell.
"This is going to scar." Nami told me.
"Friggin' stealthy bounty hunter." I muttered.
Once my back was wrapped, I put on a new shirt and went to get some food.
A few days later, I finished Zoro's friendship bracelet. Black and grey.
He had me tie it around his left wrist. My back ached, but I ignored it.
I swallowed to clear my sore throat. "How's that?"
"Nice. Won't get in the way or anything."
"Good."
"Land! I see land!" Usopp shouted.
We sailed down a river, passing trees which looked familiar. The scales on the trees almost looked like some...thing...prehistoric. Fuck. "I think we've just entered the land of Dinosaurs, everyone."
"Cool!" The idiot trio cheered.
I stifled a cough. Damn sore throat.
Luffy and Vivi went off "on an adventure" and Zoro and Sanji went hunting.
I went belowdecks to sleep. I'd been feeling poorly for the past few days, probably just my depression flaring up, and I just wanted to sleep.
Turns out, you miss a lot when you sleep.
From a giant's honor duel to Baroque Works making another attempt at our lives, I somehow slept through it all.
We left with Giants paving the way for us, through a monster.
So, how am I doing? Does this suck?
