The water was calm, but the majority of them were on their toes about the sudden weather Nami said would strike. While the weather was fine, Chopper hurried to test on the blood stone.
He came out quickly, and said that the blood stone was animal blood, not human. It had only been fifteen minutes, and another storm hit, bringing them out of that area, and to an island that had a volcano on it. It looked like half of it was on fire. He didn't want to go to that place. But what made him want to go there was that none of the needles were pointing there. "Let's go to that one! On the other side!" Luffy cheered. He was soaking wet, but didn't care much. "That one, Nami!"
"It's not on the log pose!"
"But it's right there, we don't need the log pose," Luffy insisted. Nami had no choice, he was the captain, and half of them were interested in the island, as well. But the water started to boil beneath them, and Luffy took some calming breaths. Chopper saw this and told him to breathe in and out.
"Nami, get us out of this boiling sea," Zoro said. They knew about the pirates that had boiled alive in the Marineford war. Normal boiling water, like while cooking, wasn't bad. But the boiling sea beneath them was bothering him. They maneuvered the Sunny around the island as best as they could, and came to a chilly area.
The rain was no longer beating them down here, and they heard the den den mushi inside screaming and crying. Luffy had never seen it like this before! "It's crying, does it have a stomach ache?" He felt better inside already. The ship was no longer in the boiling water, and there was not much they could do to weather the storm that they weren't already doing.
Some were outside, while a handful were inside with the den den mushi. "If I answer it, it'll get better," he reasoned.
"Wait! There's less than a 50% chance that this 'emergency call' is the real thing!" Robin warned. "There's a big chance it is marines, looking to track us. If you answer and the line is tapped, they could find our location!"
"That's our Robin! Hey, Luffy, carefully think about this one!" Usopp yelled. Luffy answered it without a second thought. "Luffy, damn it!" Usopp shouted. Robin sighed, resigned. There wasn't anything they could do about it now, after all.
"HELP MEEEE!" the den den screamed. "Ah, it's so cold. Is that you, boss?" Luffy said he wasn't their boss. "The crew keeps getting killed one after another! They keep getting killed by that samurai!"
"Hey, what's your name, who are you?!" Luffy shouted.
"I don't care who comes! Save us! We're at Punk Hazard! Gyaaa! I got stabbed!" and the line died. Luffy put his thumb to his chin in thought. Robin commented that it was good acting if they were marines.
Usopp demanded they not go, but Luffy didn't know. "Smells like trouble," he said simply.
"He got stabbed! Of course it's trouble!"
Zoro asked about the mentioned samurai, and Brook explained that they were swordsmen from a country named Wano, which was closed to the rest of the world. Not even the marines approached it. Interesting!
"I didn't even know there was a county like that! But they said Punk Hazard, not Wano!" Usopp said. Nami insisted they stay away while Robin said the voice could have only come from the nearest island. Punk Hazard had to be the one they were near. "But it's on fire."
"No, the fire was on the other side. We're entering cooler waters. Luffy, are you sure you want to go on there? There's a volcano and fire everywhere!" Nami said but without any bite in her tone. Luffy turned around, and said he wanted to see the outside of the island. Maybe the volcano was far from the rest.
He didn't want to shy away from an adventure because of his mental illness. If it really was a super triggering island, then they'd avoid it. They went outside, and sailed around the island, the boiling water far behind them and soon in a very cold place. The volcano was unheard over here.
As long as he didn't get too close, it should be fine. He could stay away from there. "Well, the fire's all gone! This should be fine!" Luffy said he wanted to go on an adventure and maybe help those guys that were calling for help. Usopp came out and handed Luffy two little globs with small holes in them. "Here are some earplugs. Put this one in the left ear and it should dull sudden noises!" the sniper said. Luffy beamed and put it in his ear. He clapped loudly next to his ear, but the sound was drowned out. Everything else worked but any loud blasts.
"Thank you!" He asked about the right one.
"It's the same, if that one dulls noises if necessary, too," Usopp said proudly.
"You guys are awesome!" the captain said happily. Chopper and Usopp were smiling in pride while the others were just happy for them. "Okay, I'm gonna go on the island! Who else wants to come!" Luffy asked. Zoro raised his hand, and Robin said it sounded fun. The others would draw straws for one more person to go. The other three went inside to get proper clothes for the freezing weather.
Usopp was chosen to go with them, which he wasn't happy about. "It'll be fun, don't worry!" Luffy said. Nami was happily wearing the robe he gave her from Hancock. The four of them got off of the ship, and disembarked onto the island. "So, we're looking for the hurt people?"
"He's probably already dead. He was stabbed, after all," Zoro said casually. The wind and snow were harsh, and Robin suggested Luffy look for anything that gave away that there were people around. Usopp didn't want to go. "I see your cowardice has returned."
"Half of the island is on fire! Why would I want to go here! And I'm not a coward, I have the 'I can't go on new islands' disease!"
Robin lightly said the New World would be difficult for him if he still had such a thing. Usopp pouted. "Any luck finding anything?" Luffy nodded. He could smell people. Snow didn't dull smells as much as rain did. Luffy breathed in deeply, but listening was a bit more difficult with the blizzard around them.
"I smell a bunch of people here. And a whole place that smells really bad, but has people there," Luffy lightly said. "Let's go for the place with the most people!" Luffy said, thrusting his fist up in the air. Robin and Zoro went along with it while Usopp hid behind the three confident pirates. They kept walking towards the smell, which Luffy would get used to just fine. Bad smells weren't debilitating anymore. He could handle it. They came across a huge building, and Luffy smelled something familiar! "Neh, someone is here that I know!" Luffy said. Zoro raised his brows wondering who it could be. "I don't remember, it's just familiar."
The four arrived at the place that smelled of people.
"Room," Luffy looked around. And saw the course of the blue area. "Shambles!"
All four of them paused, the three normal humans unable to hear what Luffy had. But suddenly he couldn't hear well anymore at all! And his chest felt heavy. He also couldn't smell anything. Then Usopp screamed and Zoro cussed. Luffy looked to the side and saw his own self there, waving his own right arm around.
"Ahh! Too loud!" Usopp's voice said in Luffy's body, only his right hand going to his ear. Zoro cussed loudly in Usopp's body while Robin was in Zoro's body.
"Ahahaha! You all got switched!"
"So did you!" Zoro snapped.
"WHAT?!"
"You got boobs now!"
"It's too loud, ah! And I can't move my left arm!"
Luffy found he couldn't even use haki in this body! It wasn't trained in the hardships of any haki at all! And he couldn't stretch this body. Luffy was helpless in here. And it didn't take long for all of them to be knocked out. Luffy really was helpless. And boobs sucked already. When they woke up, all four of them were in a jail cell. None had chains around them, as they were each useless.
Usopp was in the worst shape out of all of them. Robin was in Zoro's body and Zoro had his swords with him as Usopp, wearing a cold scowl. Luffy hated his new body. "Does anyone know what happened?" Robin asked. It was so weird having a girl's voice come out of his lover's body. He hated it already.
"Someone said 'room!' and then 'shambles!' and now we're like this. I don't know who it was, though. Robin, is there anyway to make your boobs lighter." He grabbed them and squished them and then complained that they were way too heavy and solid. She said they were stuck there. If Sanji were there, Luffy would be safe, only because he was in Robin's body. "This sucks."
Zoro agreed. Usopp was miserable. "I can't even use any of my weapons with my arm like this," he said. "And everything is too loud and smelly. And my right arm is starting to hurt." Poor guy. "How can you move it at all?" he asked.
"Practice and determination. There will be a blast coming, so you need to put the right hand out, and just let it come out, okay? It'll break the cage doors, too!" Luffy insisted. "You can't hold it in or it will be very bad."
"Does this mean I have to drink blood?" he asked.
"Just hurry up and get us out of here," Zoro said in annoyance. Luffy told Usopp it would get bad if he didn't let out the blast. The sniper, looking so unconfident inside of Luffy's body, pressed a hand to the bars, and grunted as it exploded outwards, throwing the cage door so hard that it was impaled into the other wall.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Usopp complained.
They all stood up and hurried out. "Usopp, where's the exit?"
"How should I know?" Zoro yelled at him to sniff really hard. "But it smells bad in here! And I can hear people everywhere. It's so distracting! And there are moving things all around!"
Robin said, "He's probably suffering from sensory overload. Along with Luffy's extra sensitive senses, he also has haki now. We're all helpless like this, besides Zoro." But even his arms were weaker, and couldn't handle most of Zoro's rougher attacks that were hard on a normal person's body. Luffy pat his own shoulder. Telling Usopp he just had to try and not focus on everything around him.
"Oi, Robin, what about you? Can you use observation haki?" Zoro asked. He was very unhappy being in Usopp's body. Luffy was finally seeing what it was like to not have super senses. It was sort of boring, like he was missing a lot of himself. But having feeling in his left arm was a sudden and slightly unwelcome shock. He wasn't used to it anymore. It hung at his side out of pure habit.
The woman in Zoro's body shook her head. It just made her distracted in all directions, and she couldn't focus well. Zoro was the only one who could do anything. Luffy tried making hands with Robin's power, but nothing happened. He was unsurprised. Even getting used to his own devil fruit took years. He couldn't master or use one after an hour.
"This sucks ass," Zoro said, the other three nodding. "We have to find the guy that did this to us," he added. "Usopp, can you hear anything familiar?" He shook his head. "Looks like we're going in blind and helpless." The four of them proceeded down a hallway, Usopp using his own functional hand to plug his nose. Luffy felt stiff not in his rubber body. He wished he could just remove Robin's boobs, they were annoying, but she'd not be happy about that.
"Neh… this sucks. I'd rather have balls than boobs," Luffy muttered. Zoro snorted. Robin said the opposite. She'd prefer breasts than "dangly bits". Luffy started laughing about that.
"Let's just find the guy that did this," Zoro said. "If only we'd heard or seen him!" They were looking around before Usopp said he heard people on the other side of the wall. Luffy couldn't punch it in without shattering Robin's hand, so Zoro sliced the wall apart. They saw a bunch of people in yellow suits. Luffy wondered why they let Zoro and Usopp keep their weapons when they were taken.
"Hey! Who did this to us! Change us back!" Zoro said, grabbing the nearest guy and putting his sword to his throat. "Change us back, now!"
"Ahhh! It's them! How'd they get out of the cage?!"
"Just subdue them again!" Something very worrying happened next. Usopp, completely helpless and having trouble running with rubber legs, was cuffed with seastone. Luffy tackled him as his own body started going berserk, snarling at people, trying to bite them. But Robin wasn't physically strong, and Luffy was thrown off.
Robin pinned him down, the strongest of them and biggest physically at the moment. "Find the keys!" she shouted. Luffy and Zoro searched the room, but the keys they found were the right ones.
"Damn it!" Luffy said. He couldn't grab the seastone, and Usopp couldn't let out a burst with both hands cuffed. This was probably the worst thing that could have happened while they were switched. Luffy was able to control himself mostly when he was holding seastone. He had used it as a weapon many times.
But here, Usopp was undisciplined in his mind and unable to fight off the effects the seastone amplified. "Gag him so he can't bite," Luffy said. The enemies had all run out of the room from the terrifying aura emitted by Luffy's body. Usopp had lost complete control. Zoro came back with a rope, and put it in Usopps' mouth.
Luffy felt terrible for him. "We'll find the keys or the guy to switch us back. Don't worry," Luffy said to his gagged and cuffed friend. Usopp was still looking furious, but balrey nodded. Robin threw Usopp over her shoulder while Zoro had his swords out. Two of them, since Usopp's mouth couldn't handle holding a sword in it.
They ran through the building, searching for any cuffs in every room they came across. They found nothing helpful until they heard fighting on their own outside. Peeking around the corner of the slightly open door, they saw marines and a figure in a black coat. They didn't need to deal with marines in this situation, too, so they turned back.
No key anywhere, and Luffy couldn't sniff out seastone with Robin's weak senses. Humans, full humans, were so helpless, it was crazy. Usopp had tired himself out, and was just letting out angry whimpers. "Being in your body sounds like hell," Zoro said quietly.
"I guess for someone who isn't used to it," Luffy reasoned. They finally came across a room with cuffs and other weapons. Swords and guns. They looked for any keys, and found a whole box of them. The ones for seastone were in a different case. Zoro took them out and worked to find one to fix Usopp.
One of them fit and clicked, the seastone falling off of his wrists. Usopp was now crying in Luffy's body. "It's okay, no more seastone," Luffy said.
"How do you deal with all this? I'm even seeing things! Am I hallucinating?! I want my body back!" Usopp shouted. Zoro sighed, and said there was nothing they could do without finding whoever did this to them.
"We at least need to get Luffy back in his body," he added. "C'mon, let's get going. We have to find whoever it was. This could get really bad." They nodded, and Luffy held Usopp's working hand. They hurried out of the room, running. They came across a door and Zoro opened it, looking for anything helpful.
When they got there, they found their crew members in there, along with a severed head. "Nami, everyone!" Luffy said in relief but then irritation. "You were caught, too?!" he asked in irritation.
"Luffy, why are you crying?" Chopper asked, hurrying over. "Did you have a flashback?"
"It's a mess," Zoro said and explained what had happened. They were all angry, and said they came across that guy from Sabaody attacking the marines. "We saw someone like that, too. Do you think he did this to us? I thought he saved you, Luffy?"
Luffy said, "Well, I don't know the reasons exactly why he saved me. If he did do this to us, then that's kinda a jerk thing to do, though."
"Well, to do anything, we need to fix you all," Franky said. "This is weird." Everyone nodded in agreement. Chopper felt so sorry for Usopp in Luffy's body. Just like it would be hard for somebody to suddenly be in Chopper's non-human body.
"We have to go looking for Law. His power might have done this, though. Remember, he chopped up and rearranged everything back at Sabaody. Maybe he did that to your mind or souls or whatever?" Sanji said. "Maybe he'll switch me with Nami-san!" Nami slammed a fist into his head.
Luffy said, "Trust me, boobs suck! They're really heavy and bounce with everything!"
"That's what makes them wonderful!" Sanji argued. Brook wasn't there. He hadn't been taken with the others off of the ship, which was worrisome, but they'd find him later.
Zoro said they needed Nosebleed to try and navigate them around. "What's with the severed head?"
"He says Law chopped his body apart. He's looking for a kid. You guys come across any kids here?" They shook their heads. Only guys in weird yellow suits. "Well, we have to get Luffy back in his body, as a priority," Franky said.
Chopper nodded. "If Usopp has a flashback in Luffy's body, it might get messy again."
"Ah! I don't want to see any of that!" Usopp shouted, right hand on his face. "I don't want to see the war."
"That's why we need to get you the hell outta his body as soon as possible," Franky said. "Should we split up? Some look for Law to fix Luffy and the others for a way out? Then once Luffy is back in his body he can hunt the rest out with his senses." They agreed with this plan.
"Mosshead, go and protect Nami-san! Robin-chan, you too!" Usopp's body and Zoro's body agreed. They could get switched later, Luffy's was the most important. And they had to find another way out. Luffy told them all to be careful, and they went their ways. Usopp carrying his bag of weapons over his right shoulder.
It was Sanji, Luffy, and Usopp right now. They would be faster as a smaller group. Once Luffy was back to normal, he'd be an assistance to Sanji easily. But they needed someone with haki to get to Law the fastest. They ran back the way the four had gone but not made. Usopp said he could hear a lot of people shouting. "They must know we're all escaped now," Sanji said.
"Why did you bring the severed head?" Luffy asked. Sanji looked at his hand and swore. He had been so damn quiet for a while that he'd forgotten he was still carrying him. Sanji led them down places that didn't have any enemies. They had to do this fast and with minimal effort. They all knew Sanji mostly wanted to go with Luffy and Usopp to protect Robin's body.
When they got out the exit, they saw Law standing in front of a decimated ship, Smoker and Tashigi both down and injured. "Hey! Law - Tra-guy!" Luffy shouted in Robin's body. "Hey! It is you!"
"Shut up, don't act friendly! Look what he did!" Usopp snapped in Luffy's body. There was the sound of a volcano exploding in the distance, and it seemed Usopp lost one of the ear plugs, and heard it. Instantly, his demeanor changed.
"Uh oh," Sanji said. Luffy's body had tears down his face as he attacked Law. Sanji grabbed him roughly, making Usopp scream. He was having a flashback, and grabbing roughly made it worse!
"Chopper said it was worse to touch him! You should' have just not moved!" Luffy said in worry. Law looked slightly baffled. "Usopp, you're okay! You were never at the war, that never happened to you!"
"Ah! They're boiling!" Usopp screamed, trapped in a memory that wasn't even his. Sanji ordered that Law put Luffy back in his body now. The warlord did so immediately, and the screaming died down as Luffy calmed himself by biting his own lip. He let it pass, Usopp going through the worst of it.
Was that really how he acted in a flashback? Or at least one like this? At least Usopp didn't attack his crew mates, just an outsider. Luffy said he was fine, and pushed himself up using both arms. "Usopp? Are you okay?" Luffy asked quietly. The sniper hugged Luffy tightly in Robin's body, and Luffy hugged him back.
"I-I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Usopp cried. Luffy smiled and patted his back.
"I'm better now, though. And Chopper made me meds and all," the captain pointed out. But now Usopp was in Robin's body. Now he had to suffer with the weight of boobs. "Hey, you! You gotta switch Robin and Zoro and Usopp!" Luffy said. He was irritated that it happened to them, but he knew based on Law's expression that he hadn't known how bad it would end up.
"I'm busy now," Law said shortly, and made a "room" and forced them back inside a bit. Usopp called him an asshole. Luffy didn't disagree, but he sure was glad to be back in his body and out of Robin's. Usopp happily moved both arms around.
Sanji said they had to find the others. "Yeah, I got their scent already. This place does smell of chemicals," Luffy said, leading the three to where he heard and smelled his crew. Upstairs a bit. They found stairs and hurried up. Finding those yellow guys in front of the room where Luffy heard a lot of kids, and smelled a lot of people, Sanji and Luffy beat them all up and entered the room.
Zoro asked if Luffy was back. "Yup!" he moved both arms around.
"Where's that asshole, then? I want to be in my own body again," the swordsman said in annoyance. "This weak body and neck can't do shit." Luffy said Tra-guy made them go back in the building. But at least Luffy was back in his body.
The current situation was that there were tons of children, of all sizes, some bigger than Franky, begging them to save them. "Are they prisoners?" Luffy asked.
Chopper said, "They were kidnapped, apparently." His voice was full of sympathy.
Nami was looking at them all with wide, watery eyes as they begged to be saved from this place. The room was large and comfortable enough, but it also felt sort of fake. Like it was trying too hard to be cozy. But Luffy watched Nami's face with a blank look on. He knew what she wanted.
"We have to go, Nami-san! There are more enemies coming!" Sanji said. The severed head was demanding if the kids knew where his own was, Momonosuke. Sanji told him to shut up when it was scaring the kids. Luffy was silent when Nami declared, "I want to save the children!"
Sanji was against it. "We're not a charity! We have no reason to save them, or even know why they're here!" he insisted.
Nami glared. "When children are crying to be saved, I can't turn my back on them!" she said firmly, her face also looking pained at the kids' expressions and tearful beggings. "I want to help them!" She looked right at Luffy, the one who could accept or decline it and leave the kids behind, being the captain and all.
Luffy looked at the children. Something was off about them. They smelled wrong. Definitely human children, but something was off. "Well, I don't think I can stop you. I've done some pretty selfish things, too!" Nami's face was into one of complete relief and happiness. "Let's get outta here. Sanji and I will stay behind and make sure nobody follows," Luffy said.
"Right!" Nami said, and they ran through the room and out the hall with all of the children.