"Zinnia?" Lulupo asked.

She nodded.

"Wait, why are you telling me your real name if you're going to kill me?"

"Because I cannot stand being called 'Mrs. Kite.' I hope at least one person respects that, even if they are about to die," she replied, more tears streaming down her face.

The performers with the guns started shooting at Lulupo, but he extended his hair and pulled it together tight, making the bullets lightly bounce off of it and land on the ground in front of him. As they reloaded, the ones with the swords charged forward.

"Oh come my way!" Lulupo called out. He swiftly dodged past all the slashes, and dispatched his six attackers with a kick to the head or a gut punch. He tied them up with his hair, and proceeded to dash forward, knocking out the remaining slavers with swift strikes to the head while dodging their gunfire.

After binding all his assailants in his hair, Lulupo turned his attention to Zinnia, who still had tears streaming down her face, and was now trembling, but still maintained her fighting stance.

"I cannot do this… I do not want to die for this scum!" she thought.

"Darling, you're shaking," said Lulupo, slightly relaxing. "My mama always taught me not to hit a lady… but I will if I must."

He tightened his grip on the slavers and readjusted his fighting stance.

"Darling… you're not one of them, are you?"

Tears started absolutely pouring down Zinnia's face, and she started blubbering. Lulupo didn't relax though.

"N-no… I-I am n-not…" she stammered. "I-I-I am a s-slave, too…"

Zinnia readjusted herself. She turned around, then unzipped the front of her jumpsuit. She dropped it down a bit to reveal her bare back to him. On her back was a large, oddly shaped burn mark. It was shaped like a sort of foot print: in the middle was a large circle, with three triangles protruding from the top and one from the bottom.

"S-see this? Th-this is the brand that the World Nobles give to slaves t-to forever m-m-mark them as 'less th-than human'."

Zinnia zipped up her jumpsuit, wiped the tears from her face, and turned back around to face Lulupo again. He finally relaxed his stance, but was still holding onto the slavers tightly with his hair.

"Hold on, darling, if you're a slave, why aren't you wearing one of those dreadful bomb collars?" he asked, looking at the woman who had her head blown off.

"Th-they have other ways of controlling me," Zinnia replied. "You see…"

She turned back around and went back to the cage with the snake in it.

"I come from an island of warrior women called Amazon Lily. At birth, we are given a snake who grows with us and accompanies us into battle, and these snakes are often our best friends…"

Zinnia reached into the cage to stroke the snake's chin. It was a long snake, somewhere around six feet, with red and white scales wearing a black helmet on its head.

"Ruth here was my only friend growing up. I am… different… from the other women on the island. Ruth and I are much closer to each other than the other Kuja women and their snake weapons."

She looked in Lulupo's direction, but struggled to maintain eye contact with him.

"I was always much weaker than the other women… so I learned the art of navigation so I could sail on my own… but as Amazon Lily is in a Calm Belt, it's difficult to sail."

"Mmm, I know, darling. No wind and full of sea monsters."

"I stowed away on the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock's ship to escape and see the world myself… but after sneaking out again at the first island we came to… Ruth and I were captured by slavers and brought to auction, sold as a package deal.

"The only grace the man who bought me, Saint Legree, afforded me was keeping Ruth and I together… I sobbed uncontrollably if we were separated. And while he did unspeakable things to me, my wailing was so annoying to him that he refused to separate us…"

"Stop crying!!" Saint Legree shouted as he struck Zinnia again. "Stop crying, dammit!!" Zinnia's crying became even louder.

"Darling, your story is terrible… but I think I understand the gist. We need to break you and your snake friend out of here!" Lulupo said with a flourish.

"From what I can tell, they're holding your snake hostage so you do what they say, is that correct?"

"Yes… Ruth is my only friend… if you are trying to give me an outlet for escape, I am not leaving without her."

"Darling, I can break you and your snake out of here with ease," Lulupo replied with a wink. "But you need to do me a favor too."

"What is that, sir?"

"Join my crew! We desperately need a navigator!"

As soon as he said that, a hatch opened up near Zinnia's feet. Out popped a burly slaver in a gas mask, carrying the unconscious bodies of Andy and Roxanne. He looked around the room and saw Lulupo and Zinnia staring at him, with all his slaver buddies tied up in Lulupo's hair.

"Uh oh," was all he managed to get out before being met with a knee to the gut and a karate chop to the back of the head from Zinnia, knocking him out cold.

"Please, sir," Zinnia began. "Please release Ruth and my fellow slaves! I will navigate your ship to the ends of the world if it means she and I can be free again!"

"Darling, who am I to turn down a beautiful lady?" he replied with a bow.

Lulupo walked towards Ruth's cage and extended several hairs from the top of his head. He twisted them together and stuck them in the lock of the cage. After a few seconds of fidgeting around, the lock popped open, and with it, the door to the cage. Ruth immediately slithered out and wrapped herself around Zinnia, much to the Kuja's delight.

"Oh, Ruth!" Zinnia exclaimed, tears welling up again. "I thought you were going to be stuck in that cage forever!"

"Now, as for you darlings…" Lulupo said, addressing the other slaves in the room. "Line up in an orderly fashion. I'll unlock your collars too so you can get back to your families."

The slaves did as they were told. A middle aged man was first in line to have his collar unlocked. Lulupo stuck his hair in to pick the lock… but the collar exploded anyway, killing the man instantly.

"Oh, dear god…" was all Lulupo was able to get out before the slaves started panicking.

One of the slavers trapped in Lulupo's hair piped up. "Hahaha! You fool! Only Mr. Andre's key can unlock the bomb collar without it exploding!"

Lulupo tightened his grip on that slaver and turned to Zinnia. "Mr. Andre is…?"

"The owner of Zaba World. He is the one who originally bought me from Saint Legree. Legree was going to kill me because of my constant crying… but Mr. Andre made him a business proposal and is now in league with the Celestial Dragons and the World Government now, supplying them slaves and bribes," Zinnia replied.

"Hmm. I see…"

A few minutes earlier, Schwarz was milling about Zaba World. Trying to find the missing members of Worldwide Smoke. He made his way to the big top where "Mrs. Kite"'s show was.

"Only two places I haven't checked. Here, and the Tunnel of Love," he thought.

Schwarz went through the entrance of the big top, where he was stopped by a security guard.

"Sorry, sir, next show's not for another thirty minutes."

"I'm looking for my associates. Young couple, woman wearing a sapphire pendant, and a really tall, black guy with glasses. Seen 'em anywhere?"

"You need to leave, sir," the guard responded.

Schwarz replied by spawning a hole under his feet and one right behind the security guard. He dropped through, then immediately appeared behind the guard.

"Sorry, peasant, I'm gonna have a look around here, if that's okay with you," he said, acting as if the guard had let him through.

The guard tried to grab Schwarz, but Schwarz dodged as soon as he felt the guard's hands on him, and soon had the guard's arms pinned behind his back.

"Listen, bud, there's two ways this ends: either you let me explore this tent, or you wind up with your throat slit and I explore the tent anyway. Which sounds better to you?"

"F-first one…" the guard choked out.

"That's what I thought," Schwarz growled as he released his grip on the guard and started walking toward the back.

It was at that point the middle aged man's bomb collar went off, prompting Schwarz to run toward the sound.

The guard pulled out a baby transponder snail. "I need all hands to big top. We have incident!"

Schwarz entered the back part to find Lulupo with a bunch of slavers in his hair, a bunch of panicking slaves, two headless corpses, and the still-unconscious Andy and Roxanne.

"Apparently I missed something interesting," he said to Lulupo. "Looks like you got it under control, though."

"Schwarz, darling, these collars are rigged to explode if anything but a special key opens them. I need you to look for the ringleader of this vile circus!"

"What am I, everyone's errand boy?" Schwarz snarked back.

"Schwarz!"

"Alright, alright, I'll go poke around for the-"

Suddenly, a voice came over the park's PA system.

"Attention, guests of Zaba World, this is the owner, Mr. Andre, speaking."

A mustachioed man in a fancy tuxedo sat at an ornate desk, speaking into a transponder snail.

"There is currently an incident at the big top, and it could be very dangerous for any guests. Please, do not panic, and exit the park in an orderly fashion. Our top-notch security service will handle it."

The tent was soon surrounded by Zaba World security, all of whom had guns drawn.

"Come out with your hands up!" shouted the security captain. "No one needs to get hurt! We have you surrounded!"

"Ah, shit," Schwarz murmured. "Looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out."

"Fight? Oh, I am not much for killing," said Zinnia.

"Try to hit them non-lethally, then," Schwarz replied. "Wait, who are you? What's with that huge snake?"

"This isn't the time for introductions, darlings. We need to get Andy and Roxanne and get them out of here!" Lulupo declared.

Back on the Humo Robinson, Shaska was pacing back and forth, her tentacle feet making loud, squishing sounds as she puffed on her cigar. "Agh, what's taking them so long?"

"Lady Shaska, it has only been half an hour," replied the prince.

"That's it, I'm going to look for them, too. I'm bored," she said. "You're coming too, prince."

"You, shipwright girl, you can fight, right? You guard the ship and the doctor while me and the prince go get the rest of our crew back."

"Ah am not yer employee!" Ren declared angrily.

"C'mon, prince. Let's go."

Shaska and Samudra disembarked the ship, leaving Ren and Puerco by themselves. Puerco looked down and noticed Ren's short shorts.

"Nice legs," he said, earning him a slap in the face.

Schwarz, Lulupo, Zinnia, and the couple were trapped in the big top, the latter still unconscious.

"So, we gonna fight our way out?" Schwarz asked.

"There is a hatch that goes to the Tunnel of Love right here," said Zinnia. "I believe it also goes to a secret port where all the slaves are sent to a place called the Sabaody Archipelago."

"It might not be a good idea to fight when two of our crewmates are still unconscious," said Lulupo.

One of the slavers in Lulupo's hair piped up. "You guys are stuck! As long as your friends got those bomb collars on, they ain't leaving this park except on a slaAAAAAAAAAH!"

The slaver was cut off by Lulupo squeezing his hair even tighter.

"Any ideas, darlings?"

"I got one," said Schwarz, drawing his sword.

He cut a large hole in the big top, showing them exactly what they were up against for the first time. The security guards cocked their rifles, all trained on Schwarz.

"Alright, guys, listen up!" said Schwarz. "We got a lot of your 'merchandise' here, so unless you wanna make some unhappy buyers, you'll do what we say! Don't want any of them getting caught in the crossfire, right?"

"FIRE!" shouted the security captain.

The guards did as they were told, but due to Schwarz's superhuman reflexes, he was able to throw up a set of holes just in time: one right in front of him, and one right behind the guards, resulting in them getting shot from behind.

"Well, if that don't beat all," he said, readying his sword and dissipating the holes.

More security guards rushed in to fill the gap. Ruth uncoiled herself from Zinnia's body and became straight as a ruler in her hands. Zinnia flipped out of the tent and into the line of guards, knocking them out one by one with strikes from Ruth, as well as a series of kicks. She tried to make her attacks as non-lethal as possible.

"Lulupo! Protect Andy and Roxanne!" Schwarz called out as he jumped into the fray.

Lulupo obliged, and crouched down around their unconscious bodies, making a protective barrier out of hair. The slaves, meanwhile, had no other option but to sit back and watch as Schwarz and Zinnia fought off Zaba World security.

Shaska and Samudra reached the gates of Zaba World, which at that point was crowded with throngs of people desperately trying to get out.

"What do you propose we do, Lady Shaska?"

"Lemme borrow that spear for a sec," she replied, puffing on her cigar.

"Please be careful with it, Lady Shaska. The Spear of Bhaala has been in my family for centuries."

He handed the spear off his back to her. Shaska proceeded to jump forward over the crowd, stick the spear into the wooden sign, and used it as a platform to vault over the crowd on the other side. "Your turn, prince!"

Samudra, not amused by this, simply turned into steam and floated forward, making sure to grab the spear on his way.

"That's a neat trick," Shaska said as he returned to a corporeal form. "I can manipulate water myself. All mermaids can, with proper training. But that steam thing could really come in handy."

A voice came over the park's PA system again.

"Good afternoon, guests of Zaba World. This is the owner, Mr. Andre, again. Please, have a good day, and be sure to exit in an orderly fashion. The commotion at the big top should be solved within the hour. Please wait patiently, and you'll be able to resume your fun afternoon at Zaba World!"

"Big top, eh? Looks like we know where the party is," said Shaska.

Shaska puffed on her cigar and cracked her knuckles.

"Let's go get our employees back, prince."

TO BE CONTINUED