"And then we didn't even get to use it," Luffy was saying, "'cause they let me in without any questions."

"Are you serious?" Nami laughed. She was sitting on the beam of the back porch, her witch's hat sitting on a lawn chair, talking to Luffy about how he and Zoro had cleared his name after the whole knife incident a month earlier. The three of them had been talking for well over an hour, and Nami was starting to feel a beer buzz.

The sliding door opened, and Zoro stepped out. He'd gone inside to grab beers for he and Nami, but now he was empty-handed.

"Are they out?" Nami asked.

"What? No," Zoro said. He turned to Luffy. "Hey, I think we should head out."

"What? We just got here!" Luffy said. "Why does everyone want to leave?!"

Zoro beckoned to the two of them. Nami hopped off the beam and they stepped in front of the sliding door. "You see that guy in there?" Zoro nodded to the white guy with dreads that Nami had noticed about an hour earlier.

"Yeah?"

"He's passing out molly."

Nami looked in his direction again. The guy was clearly handing a nervous-looking girl something, although Nami couldn't see what it was. Her mother's words rang in her head; she was starting to feel like getting out of here, too. She looked around for the guy throwing the party, but he seemed to be oblivious to what was going on.

"What's molly?" Luffy asked, a little too loud.

"Drugs, dude," Nami said.

"Ohhh…" Luffy watched the guy as Zoro pulled him off the porch, then around the house to the front yard. To his credit, Luffy didn't say anything else until they were safely outside, where the neighbor's dog was barking loud enough to mostly mask his complaints.

"Why do people have to do that?" Luffy asked. "We're all just there to have a good time and they have to ruin it."

"It's not our business if they wanna get high," Zoro said dismissively. "That's their idea of a good time, it's just not ours."

"I wanna punch that guy," Luffy muttered. "For ruining Halloween."

"Well it's not like they're hurting anybody," Nami piped up.

"Sure they are!" Luffy said indignantly. "They're hurting me!" Both Nami and Zoro sighed.

"Well what do you want to do now?" Zoro asked.

"I'll probably head to one of the other parties in the area," Nami said.

"Alright, then," Zoro said. "Luffy, what about you?"

But Luffy wasn't paying attention to their conversation. He was glaring at a van across the street. The guy with dreadlocks was talking into the passenger window. He must have followed Nami and the boys out of the house-Nami hoped that the neighbor's dog had been loud enough that he hadn't heard him complaining.

"Luffy, don't do anything," Zoro warned. "You'll just make trouble."

Before Luffy could do anything, the guy who'd been passing out ecstasy stepped away from the van, and both the front doors opened. From the driver's seat stepped out an unassuming curly-haired guy with what looked like bear ears on the top of his head, and an over-sized T-shirt with a picture of a lion wearing a crown.

Luffy turned to Nami and Zoro. "They're not even wearing costumes," he said. "You see what kind of person doesn't wear a costume to a costume party?"

Zoro rolled his eyes. Nami pointed at the car. "He's wearing a costume," she pointed out.

The second guy to come out of the car was wearing baggy pants and a flat-bill cap at an angle, which looked really silly, because he was white. On top of that, he had on full clown makeup, with a red nose and everything. He signalled to his two friends, and the three of them crossed the street.

"No such thing as free samples," the guy with the clown makeup was saying as he walked up to the party. The neighbor's dog barked at them as they passed, as he had at everyone else who passed his lawn. The clown walked over and kicked the dog. "Shut up!" he shouted.

Luffy gasped. The guy with clown makeup walked up to the door of the party and let himself in. Luffy clenched his fists and walked forward.

"Luffy!" Nami hissed. Luffy turned around. "I think that's the guy behind all the clown sightings people have been talking about! Let's just go."

"No," Luffy said. "I'm gonna go beat that guy up."

"How are you going to-" Nami started, but Luffy was already walking back to the house. Zoro sighed, shrugged at Nami, and followed him.

Nami let out a groan. She could easily have gotten in her car and driven home, to be sure, but a sense of curiosity-and an optimistic desire to see this clown guy get beat up-spurred her to follow the boys inside.

The clown guy was addressing the party as the three of them came through the door. He had everyone gathered in the living room, with his two flunkies-the guy with the bear ears and the guy with dreads-flanking him and blocking the passage into the room.

"It's come to my attention that some of you," he was saying loudly, "prefer to get your drugs from somewhere else!"

"Look, man, I just said that to get your boy off my back," the black guy with the suspenders said.

"Ay," the guy with the bear ears pointed at him. "Quiet when the boss is talkin'."

"Thank you, Mohji," the clown said. "I can't believe the disrespect-" he began quietly to his friend, then realized this was the sort of thing he could add to his speech, and repeated it for the room. "I can't believe the disrespect this town treats its criminals with! Don't you know how important I am? You all should be bowing down when you hear my name!"

"Dude, you can't be here," the host said. "This is a private party, no one here knows you-"

"What was that?" the guy said, walking up to the host so they were barely an inch apart. "What did you say about my nose?"

"What? I didn't-"

"Listen up!" The gangster turned to address the party. Everyone was stock still and silent. "There's a new player in town, y'hear? We own this city! You want narcotics, you gotta come through me! You wanna buy a 'piece', you gotta come through me! You hold up a liquor store, it better be for me! Pretty soon every cop on the cape is gonna know about the Buggy Gang!"

"Go ahead, tell your friends!" the guy with dreads said.

"And if anyone squeals to the cops, we'll know!" the guy with the bear ears said.

Luffy turned to Zoro and then, making no attempt to keep his voice down, asked, "Who the hell is this clown?"

The room fell, if possible, more silent than before. The clown turned around to face the three of them. Shit, Nami thought, we're fucked.

"What did you call me?" asked the guy who was clearly wearing clown makeup.

"I didn't call you anything," Luffy responded flatly. "I don't even know who you are."

"I am Buggy the Gangster!" the thug shouted. "And you will show me some fucking respect or else I'll-!"

"No."

The party uttered a gasp.

"What? You can't just-"

"This guy's a loser," Luffy said, turning to Zoro, who shrugged.

Nami grabbed Luffy's arm. "Luffy!" she whispered. "Stop antagonizing him!"

"I'm not antagonizing him," he said, and by his blank expression, Nami could tell he was being earnest. "I just don't care."

"You should listen to your friend, bub," the guy with dreadlocks said. "Buggy's the toughest guy in the county."

"Quiet, Cabaji," Buggy said. He turned back to the three of them, his face wearing such a look of fury that, under other circumstances, might have been comical. "You come in here and disrespect me, on the day of my grand debut?" he said. "It looks like I'll have to make an example of you!"

A chant began to rise around the party. "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" they said. Buggy's face twisted into a grin.

"Luffy, let's just go," Nami whispered, but Luffy shook her off.

"Okay, Mr. Clown-Guy," he said. "I'll beat you up. But not because you asked me." Luffy stepped forward, his face grim. "It's because you kicked that dog outside. And that's unforgivable."

Luffy reared up a punch and Buggy put his fists up to defend, but before they could land a blow on each other, the host shouted.

"Wait, stop!" he shouted. Everyone turned to him. "Guys…" he said, "this is my dad's house. He'll kill me if you make a mess. Could you please do this outside?"

Buggy and Luffy looked at each other. "Do you mind?" Buggy asked.

"Yeah, we can fight outside."

"Alright, let's go." Buggy pushed past Nami and Zoro, but as Luffy made to follow, Nami grabbed his arm.

"Luffy, you don't want to do this," she said. "These small town gangster-types are really dangerous, even if you do beat them. Back in my hometown-"

"I'll be fine," Luffy said, pulling out of Nami's grip and following the gangsters outside. The party relocated to the front lawn, where Luffy and Buggy squared up against each other.

"This is nuts," Nami whispered to Zoro. "Has he even been in a fight before?"

Zoro turned to her as if she'd asked if his hook-hand was real. "Everyone talks about how many fights Luffy's been in," he said.

"Okay," Nami said, "but have you seen him fight?"

Zoro opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of meat hitting meat interrupted them. They turned to see that Luffy had decked Buggy so hard in the cheek that he actually stumbled backwards.

"Idiot! I wasn't ready!"

"Was I supposed to wait for you?" Luffy asked.

"You'll pay for that!" Buggy lunged forward, but Luffy easily side-stepped his punch and landed one in his stomach.

Nami was amazed; this kid was pretty scrappy. He had a perfect boxer's stance, and hadn't been hit once, but every punch he threw so far had landed.

"That Dutch courage sure is helping you now, ain't it, kid?" called the bear-eared guy everyone was calling Mohji.

"I'm not Dutch, I'm Brazilian," Luffy said, confused.

"He's talking about beer," Zoro called. "You know, when you drink a lot of beer and feel like you can do anything?"

"No, I don't," Luffy said. "I didn't even have any beer-" Buggy, trying to take advantage of Luffy's distraction, threw another punch at him. Luffy ducked, then hit Buggy's chin with an uppercut that actually made him catch air before falling on his ass.

"Are we done?" Luffy asked, but Buggy sat up and scrambled backwards. "Oh. Guess not."

"You made me bite my tongue!" Buggy turned to his friend with the bear ears. "Mohji, show him what happens when you disrespect the Buggy Gang!"

Mohji stepped forward. "You made a big mistake, kid," he said.

"Wasn't this fight supposed to be one-on-one?" Zoro called from the porch. Although he made no attempt to move, the other gangster stepped in front of the stairs as if to block him.

"You wanna interfere? Go ahead, try," he said. Zoro rolled his eyes.

Mohji threw a wild punch at Luffy, who ducked again and hit him in the ribs. A left hook then caught Mohji in the cheek and he was thrown to the ground, too. Buggy had taken this time to catch his breath, and then produced a pocket knife.

"Luffy, look out! He's got a-"

Buggy lunged at Luffy, who, again, sidestepped the attack, punching Buggy in the head as he overbalanced and fell on the ground.

Wow, Nami thought.

"Cabaji, don't just stand there!" Buggy shouted.

"Oh, right." The guy with dreadlocks they were calling Cabaji stepped forward to help the other two against Luffy, leaving Zoro behind.

"Stay here," Zoro said over his shoulder, casually walking off the porch. Nami opened her mouth, but something told her that this guy was about as helpless as Luffy was, so she just followed Zoro off the porch instead.

Luffy was holding Mohji up by his oversized shirt, then turned to Zoro. "You're fighting, too?"

"Might as well," Zoro said, as though this was some minor annoyance. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife.

"I told you to stay on the porch!"

"Yeah, well," Zoro shrugged. "I'm not good at following orders." He opened his knife. Cabaji came at him with a flurry of punches, but Zoro managed to dodge each one. When he went for a stab, however, Cabaji managed to block it, knocking the knife out of Zoro's hand. It dropped into the grass a couple feet from Nami.

"Ha!" Cabaji said. "I've been trained in the art of fighting people with knives!"

"Oh yeah?" Zoro said, clearly uninterested. He reached into his pocket and drew a second folding knife. The crowd of partygoers gasped.

"What?!" Cabaji exclaimed. "He had a backup?"

Zoro lunged at Cabaji again, this time making several slashing motions which Cabaji was barely able to dodge. When Zoro went in for the stab, Cabaji sidestepped him and grabbed his arm, wrenching the knife out of his grip.

"Ha ha!" he said. "Now I'm the one with the-" Zoro reached into his pocket again-"Oh no…"-and drew a third knife. "Are you serious?!" Cabaji exclaimed.

"This is my last one, I promise," Zoro said, grinning.

"These bastards are making fools of us," Buggy muttered. Zoro had his back to him, and so he lunged at him. "Cabaji! I'll hold him while you-"

Before he could reach Zoro, Luffy had grabbed Buggy in a full nelson. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a grin.

"A full nelson? Really?" Buggy scoffed. "You think an amateur move like that could hold Buggy the Gangster?" He flailed, trying in vain to pull out of Luffy's grip. "Alright, lemme go," Buggy said. Luffy didn't comply.

Zoro and Cabaji were still sparring, when Zoro caught Cabaji's hand and pressed his thumb into a pressure point inside his elbow. Cabaji let out a yelp, and dropped the knife. Zoro scooped it up and took a step back, now wielding a knife in each hand.

"Hey, Nami," Zoro called. "Toss me my knife."

Nami looked down at the knife at her feet. She picked it up, folded it closed, and then tossed it in Zoro's direction. But wait, she thought, how is he going to catch it if both his hands are occupied? But just as she thought this, Zoro hopped up and caught the knife in his mouth. With his teeth, he clicked the knife open again and lunged at Cabaji, swinging his arms and bucking his head in a slashing pattern.

"What the hell, dude?!" Cabaji said, dancing out of his way. "Fine! Fuck! You win!" Zoro headbutted Cabaji, and he fell backwards on the ground, where the green-haired knifemaster towered over him.

Buggy gritted his teeth. "You idiots!" he growled. "Have to do everything myself…" He reached into his pocket and drew a small pistol. At the sight of the gun, someone screamed. A couple of the partygoers ran off, while the others started to back out of the range of the gun. Fuck! Nami thought. This had gotten way out of hand.

"Alright!" Buggy said, pointing his gun at Luffy. "Drop to the ground before I show you the true power of the Buggy gang!"

Nami half-expected Luffy to protest, but he raised his hands and sank to his knees. Even Luffy's not bulletproof, she reminded herself.

Zoro took a step forward, but Buggy swung the gun around to him, and he raised his hands too.

"Good," Buggy said, "finally you assholes are showing some respect!" He pointed the gun back to Luffy. "Now, I want you to-"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence. Red and blue lights suddenly illuminated the crowd as a police car approached them from behind. One of the neighbors must've called about the disturbance.

"Shit!" Buggy shouted. He looked around frantically. "I can't deal with cops, I have priors!" He shoved his gun into his friend Mohji's chest and sprinted into the backyard. Koji dropped the gun, and someone went around the house to see where he went.

"He's frickin' gone," he said.

"Police, on the ground!" yelled an officer as the party scattered. Most of them made it away, but Mohji and Cabaji were too close to the action, and both sank to their knees with their hands over their heads.

"I knew we should have gotten a lion," Mohji muttered.

"Shut up!" Cabaji snapped, kicking his friend and earning a stern yell from the police officer.

Zoro grabbed Luffy. "Okay, we gotta go," he said.

"Huh?" Luffy said, but he didn't fight him as Zoro led him away from the house.

"C'mon, my car's this way," Nami said. The three of them sprinted down the block to where Nami had left her mom's car, each looking over their shoulders to see if the cops were following them. Fortunately, they were mostly occupied with the two gangsters, who they would end up detaining and keeping in holding overnight, which would cause a number of problems in their respective personal lives, but that's a story for another time.

They reached Nami's mom's car, and Nami shoved the key into the ignition.

"Wait!" Luffy shouted, jumping in front of the car door.

"What?"

"You've been drinking," Luffy said. "You can't drive!"

"Dude, I had a couple light beers an hour ago," Nami said. "I'll be fine."

"If you're going to imbibe, you can't drive!" Luffy declared.

"What is that, a slogan?"

"Move!" Nami probably would have kept arguing, but the situation was tense enough that she groaned and moved around to the passenger seat while Luffy took the wheel.

"Okay, hands at 10 and 2…" Luffy was whispering to himself.

"Luffy, can you drive?" Zoro asked from the backseat.

Luffy scoffed. "Like it's hard!" he said.

"Have you ever driven before?" Nami pressed.

"Sure I have!" Luffy said. "A buncha times! ...In the Walgreens parking lot."

"That's not the same!" Zoro shouted. Luffy pulled out of the spot, the car lurching forward as he intermittently stepped on the gas.

"Wait, so you're gonna make a big deal about buzzed driving, but you'll drive without a license?!" Nami asked, her voice shrill.

"All I'm hearing is you admitting that you're buzzed," Luffy said. "And buzzed driving is still drunk driving."

Luffy was an admittedly okay driver. True, it was mostly because he was a good fifteen miles under the speed limit, and there was no-one else on the road at this time of night, but besides not being able to keep the gas steady and running more than a handful of stop signs, he proved fairly competent; at least enough to get them to Nami's house in one piece.

"Park in front of the house," Nami said, as they drove up to her mom's duplex.

"You don't want me to park in the driveway?" Luffy asked.

"Better not risk it," Nami said; her neighbors were parked there. The three of them got out of the car, breathing collective sighs of relief as they leaned up against it. Unsurprisingly, it was Luffy who broke the silence.

"Nami!" Luffy said, "your hat!"

"Oh." Nami realized that she had forgotten her witch's hat back at the party. She waved a hand dismissively. "I got it for free anyway." She looked from Luffy to Zoro. "So how are you guys getting home?"

"Walking, probably," Zoro said.

"Do you live around here?"

Luffy and Zoro looked at each other. "Guess we'll find out," Luffy said.

There really weren't any other options, so Nami didn't protest. "Will you at least text me as soon as you guys are home?" she asked.

Luffy stood up. "Sure," he said as he started walking backwards down the street.

"Don't you need my number first?" Nami asked.

"Oh, right, of course." Luffy came back and handed Nami his phone. She put in her number, then did the same for Zoro.

"See you later," she said as both boys began to walk away from the house. "This was fun," she added.

"Yeah, it was!" Luffy said, grinning. "We should hang out again sometime!"

"Don't push it," Nami said with a smirk as she walked up to her house. About an hour later, Nami got texts from both boys saying that they'd made it home, and despite her dismissal, on Monday she found herself pairing up with Zoro in a few of her classes, and sitting with Luffy at lunch. By Wednesday, Luffy invited her to his house after school, and by the weekend, the three of them made plans to hang out. Over the course of the next month or so, the three of them started spending virtually every free moment together, to the point that, while Nami was hesitant to call them her best friends, they certainly didn't have any competition. For the first time since she left her old school, she felt connected to someone else, and that feeling excited her more than she was willing to admit aloud.