Luffy turned into a stuffed dog, and fell to the floor. He bounced on the furry fabric, horrified. He let his guard down when he thought he was safe. The burst was strong, but hadn't been strong enough to keep everyone down. Luffy could still hear and smell fine, despite being made of fur. He could see despite having no eyelids, his eyes unable to look in other directions.
He tried walking on the four, small legs, but it was hard. "Now, toy," the girl who said this began. Luffy immediately focused his strong hearing on everything other than her voice. He focused hard on the people he could hear outside. He didn't hear what the girl said, and didn't feel any different.
He was tossed outside carelessly. What was he supposed to do now? Did everyone forget about him? How did he not be a toy anymore? He landed with a squeak noise on the streets below, having been thrown all the way from the palace, it seemed. Well, he couldn't give up. There was a way to reverse it, a devil fruit was never invincible. He ran around town on the stubby legs, following the scent of Zoro. Luffy still had his senses. His furry feet with no traction were getting dirty. He had no hands, wasn't lucky enough to be a toy with hands. Crap.
He also couldn't use his devil fruit like this. He was helpless. But like he told Law, it was okay to need help. He had to save Law, now, again. He was with Mingo, chained up in seastone and really beat up. Luffy followed the scent until he saw an impossible climb. He had no claws at all, just a stuffed dog.
This was the worst feeling he'd ever felt in his entire life. He ran around the circumference of the hill that he smelled Zoro and some of the others on. Did they gather here? He found an outcropping and followed that up. He barely fit, but managed to make it to the top. He hurried through the thick stems of the tall sunflowers. So weak!
He tried to summon any of his powers. He felt he could give off the scary aura, but not much else. He wasn't human anymore, and he also wasn't an ares anymore. While he was confirmed not to be human, he still felt that way emotionally and would refer to himself that way. Just a stuffed animal. He made it to the tree, and pulled up the ground by burrowing inside. He ran down steps. "Zoro! Usopp, Robin, Franky!" Luffy shouted, and tumbled down the stairs into a meeting room with a bunch of tiny people.
"Oof!" he made when he hit the floor. "Everyone is here!"
"Who're you, another toy?"
"Uh, yeah. How do I turn back?"
"How'd you know our names?" Usopp asked in suspicion. "You knew all of our names despite us being undercover." He sounded accusing. Everyone was giving him a suspicious look. It was upsetting they didn't remember him, but he wasn't surprised. It was what happened to all the other toys.
Zoro had been there, but wasn't anymore. Well, it would hurt the most for him to not look at Luffy in the way he always did.
The toy soldier didn't know him from earlier, but asked if he knew them. If he was somebody they knew that turned into a toy. The three there were on guard. "Yeah…" Luffy said. He sat down and looked at his useless paws. "My name's Luffy. I was their captain cause we're all pirates."
They all looked baffled and disbelieving. He was all alone. Well, he would fix this. "It's okay if they don't remember me right now, how do I turn back?! I have things to do and people to see!" Luffy insisted. "Not to mention I still have to save Law, cause he got caught again. And I don't know how the Sunny is, and I still have to see Ace!"
The Straw Hats knew that only one of them would know all of this. Luffy didn't know how their timeline had been instantly rewritten with Luffy removed from it. He didn't want to ask. "Are you really our captain?" Usopp asked. Luffy nodded. He looked at the paws and said he was useless now!
The toy soldier told him that they were about to start Operation SOP, to knock Sugar out. If she was knocked out, then they should all return to normal. "What about broken toys? Will they be revived? I met a toy and he got smashed because of me!"
"I don't know if they'll come back. I would doubt it," the toy soldier said. Luffy nodded sadly.
"Well, we'll pull it off. Even if I'm really useless like this. I have really good senses, though!" Luffy said. "How can I help?"
"I'll carry you in my bag," Usopp said. The three were angry they'd forgotten their captain, which was hard to believe, but Luffy knew too much to not be one of them in some way. Luffy said he might be able to use haki like this. If he could knock Sugar out, then he would be of a big help!
"You have conquerors' haki?" Luffy nodded. Well, he did. He wasn't going to try and use it here, though. Luffy asked what the operation was.
"We're going to go into the underground of the island that exports and imports weapons. The underground world, where toys are forced to work at the order of Sugar, Doflamingo's lackey. We will go there and knock here out, restoring all the toys and taking the first step to bringing down the Donquixote family, bringing rule back to King Riku!"
"Whoa, that's a good plan! How are you gonna knock her out?"
One of the little people came over with a large blueberry. Well, it looked like one. It sure didn't smell like one. He put his useless paw in front of his nose. It stunk. Smelled very spicy. "This is the tatababasco ball! With this, it's so spicy that Sugar will pass out!"
"I'll be the second choice of it!" Luffy offered.
There was an underground tunnel they would be going through to get to where Sugar was. Robin and Usopp could barely fit in the tunnel that had been being dug for years. Franky couldn't, though. He would be entering through the toy house above. Franky wasn't upset with this. Even if Luffy was a toy right now, he'd do what he promised his toy friend he would.
Plus, he was still going to kick Doflamingo's ass. Usopp and Robin were carried right above the ground by the little people. Luffy felt completely out of the loop, because he was. He just showed up and claimed to be their captain. At least they believed him somewhat. Luffy ran after them on his stubby legs. He was behind everyone, not wanting to slow them down.
Toy soldier expressed worry over Franky going off alone, but Usopp said what Luffy was thinking. "He'll be fine! Franky's a cyborg with a ton of hidden weapons!" Robin was in agreement, and so was Luffy. He was getting better at running as a toy. He was still too slow, but good enough.
The one legged toy explained the scope of their enemy force. Three main executives, with a handful of underlings, with 2,000 fodder members under that. Monet and Vergo were both important, but they were both dead back on Punk Hazard. The gas had no doubt gotten to them if the building didn't collapse first.
"That's good!" Leo said, one of the strongest fighters and the one that seemed to be the leader besides the toy soldier.
When they reached the grate, they all went out, Luffy jumping down. He sniffed the area, and asked for Usopp to open the nearest crate, right in front of them. Luffy found one. Maybe they could help him out with this super weak form. Usopp pulled out a pair of seastone handcuffs. "That! Give that to me," Luffy said making a down movement with one of the paws.
The seastone was put in front of him, and he pressed his front feet to it. The stuffed dog got thicker and heavier. The fur was covered in black- his haki was back! "I'll take care of the enemies in here, you guys pull off that tabasco thing!" Luffy said, the stuffed mouth growing teeth. They were also made of fabric, but covered in haki, it worked alright. He could bite.
Everyone left him in the small hallway, and he wrapped the seastone handcuff around his small body. With no internal organs, having it wrapped tightly around his abdomen was fine. He let out a breath. Well, what should be a breath, he didn't have any lungs in this. He was going to take down Doflamingo, as revenge would not be present. He turned Luffy into a damn toy.
Nothing as bad as being forgotten and completely useless. He'd never felt worse, no matter what happened in his life. He let the fury and the uncontrollable part of him come out, wanting to do everything to make himself useful. He ran out of the hallway, and let himself lose control. It was a huge harbor, with tons of crates being moved around by toy slaves. It seemed to open up to the coast. He wasn't going to attack anyone but the Doflamingo workers. He would take them out, whatever that meant.
He had claws, made of fabric but covered in haki so they were solid and sharp. He lunged at the first workers, attacking rabidly. He took down every single worker, who started to flee at the rabid and strong toy. He looked at the other toys. "We'll save you guys!" he insisted. "Don't worry!" he added, and ran off. Many of them were larger and tougher looking than he was as a small stuffed animal. But they all seemed to be forced to work.
Maybe it had something to do with how Sugar was speaking to him and he managed to ignore her. Lucky for him!
When he went to find the little people, he saw a bunch of toy bears that smelled like the other little people! They had to have been turned into toys. "Leo! Those toys are your fellow little people! They got turned into toys!"
"What?!"
Sugar asked how Luffy was there, though she didn't remember his name. Even she forgot about everyone she turned. Though he didn't think she'd ever care, she was unable to feel any personal guilt about doing all of this. Luffy walked out in front of her and let out a snarl. He released that aura, and it had Sugar trembling.
He walked up to her, and Usopp took this chance and shot the tatababasco grape into her open mouth. She looked like a scared little girl, not a monster with a horrifying devil fruit. "Yes! I got it!" Usopp said as she swallowed the ball involuntarily. Her face turned a bright red and she screamed as the ball burnt through her mouth and throat.
Then she fell slack, drooling, with tears of pain and fear out of her eyes. Luffy popped back into place. "Yes!" he called, the seastone now below him. "I'm back!" he cheered. Usopp started to cry and ran to hug Luffy. He felt guilty he'd forgotten about his closest friend. "It's okay! I'm better now, see? And we both took her down!" Luffy said, slapping hands with Usopp.
Luffy had stalled her, but was unable to put the fake grape into her mouth with no opposable thumbs. Luffy got the seastone cuffs, knowing he wouldn't use them again here, and cuffed her ankles together since her wrists were too skinny. He took the key and tossed it into the harbor.
Everyone was cheering, men of all sorts of appearances and sizes. Many looked very strong, too. "Told you you'd get fixed!" Luffy said, he and Usopp holding up thumbs proudly. Just an instant, but successful teamwork. Neither sustained a single scratch. Both of them were thanked and bowed to. It was kind of odd, but not bothersome.
"You! You're Straw Hat Luffy!" a guy with long blonde hair and a fancy outfit. But he calmed quickly, and said he was no longer bothered by that.
"L-L-Luffy-senpai!" a guy with weird green hair and septum piercing said. "It's an honor to meet you! Ahhh!"
"Hey, nice to meet you, too! I like your hair, it looks like a rooster!" Luffy said brightly. "Neh, where'd you all come from?" Luffy wondered. The green haired Bartolomeo was red in the face, crying and whispering about how honored he was to get a smile from Luffy. What a weird guy.
"We were all tricked by that Doflamingo! We were fighting at the tournament! When we lost, we were dropped into the trash and then turned into toys to work here!" a guy with long legs said. There were quite a lot of them. So, did they meet Ace, then?
Just then, the floor from above broke apart, and water and a cracked, stone stage fell in. "You idiot, I'm a devil fruit user!"
"I'm not! I'm in more danger!"
"Ace!" Luffy cheered. "Do you remember me?" Luffy asked, running to him. Ace had his watermelon bag with him, which smelled of a devil fruit. He won the championship! Ace said of course he remembered him, baffled by the question. "I was sort of turned into a toy and forgotten by everybody!"
"WHAT?!"
"Shishishi, I was a stuffed dog! It sucked. But hey, you won the tournament! Good job!" Luffy congratulated. Ace grinned. He'd planned on winning the whole time.
He said, "Once this mess is over, I gotta introduce you to somebody I met at the coliseum." He had a bright smile on. "But for now, go do your plan!"
Luffy honestly told him he didn't have a plan other than to go after Doflamingo and help Law there. And find Zoro along the way, he was probably lost. "Okay, don't do anything too stupid." Luffy smiled and nodded.
"Robin, Usopp! You have permission to do whatever you want!"
"Roger, captain!"
"Captain!" the little people shouted, standing in front of and on a beefy man in a gladiator's outfit. Missing one leg and with a sword. It was the toy soldier! He looked so harmless then, but not anymore. Luffy walked to him and the man smiled at him, thanking him and Usoland for their help.
Luffy laughed and said he'd been a toy, too. Even if it was for a few hours only. Luffy could hear unaware humans around the port, shouting in shock of seeing the toys. The championship fighters were still all cheering, and Luffy could hear them all promising to take care of Mingo for their two saviors, Luffy and Usopp.
Of course, Luffy was planning on taking down Mingo, as was the "captain", Kyros. But they were all infighting about who would do it. "I'm going to take care of Doflamingo!" Kyros said. Luffy asked where the other guy that was guarding Sugar was.
"I lit him on fire. Seems he's flammable, so it all worked out," Ace said lightly. Luffy could smell the scent of burning plastic.
Luffy told Kyros that he had to save Law. But he wanted to get Zoro and tell him everything that had happened so far. "You don't have time for that. Who knows what'll happen next? Doflamingo should be reeling from the toys coming back to life." Ace was a Whitebeard commander, so he was smart at strategizing. "I can go and find Zoro and tell him what's happened. I'm sure he wants to be of use."
"Thanks!" Kyros hopped his way to the lift, where an enemy was waiting. Luffy slammed a haki covered fist in the old man's face, breaking any teeth he had left. They rode the lift up quickly, way faster than any other method of getting up. The lift was manually shut down from above. Luffy ripped open the top of the elevator, and he wrapped an arm around Kyros and used a one armed rocket to get up high enough to climb out.
"GAH! It's Straw Hat Luffy!" Luffy punched them all, and ran off to follow Law's scent, who was right above them. He didn't know where any stairs were. Kyros somehow looked cool even hopping on one leg.
Kyros said the stairs were on the other side of the castle. Luffy jumped out the window, arm looped around his waist, shocking the man before Luffy stuck his stretched out foot into the upstairs window and followed it up. He ran with Kyros to the room he knew had Law and Doflamingo in.
Kyros burst through the window into the room and went after Mingo. Luffy could smell seastone, which was keeping Law cuffed. He didn't have the keys to the cuff, though. There was another old guy in there, tied up as well. Law was not happy to see him at all.
"You're alive!" Luffy cheered.
"You've got nothing to do here, Straw Hat! Did you destroy the factory?!"
"I dunno, Franky's on that, but I'm not a toy anymore!" Luffy cheered. "And I helped save the toys, too! Usopp and me took out this little girl and freed the toy- whoa!" Luffy said as he saw Doflamingo's head on the floor.
"You did this?!" a guy with spiky white hair shouted, targeting Luffy. He ripped an angry and protesting Law out of his chair and tossed him out the window as he still said he wanted no help. "Stay there!"
"I'm going to kill you!" Law shouted and landed with a loud, "Oof!" Well, it was on grass, he should be okay. That guy with the propeller head attacked Luffy, and he felt a blast come out, and shot it at the guy, blowing a hole in his stomach, blood splattering all over the room. They were all deathly silent at this.
Well, he hadn't meant to kill him. Oops! "B-Buffalo!" Baby 5 screamed. Luffy said he hadn't meant to kill him. She turned into a gun and shot at him, him dodging the bullets easily. He sent a kick at her gut, throwing her into the wall. The white haired guy just seemed to just see that Doflamingo was beheaded. Luffy was bummed he could do nothing about it now, but he was still alive somehow.
"Oh, Tra-guy." Zoro said casually from below. "What are you doing here?" So Zoro made it up with the help of Ace, it seemed.
"Oh, man, that sucks," Ace said.
Luffy looked up when he sensed a big presence coming that turned the room into slippery stone as it molded into different shapes. A stone hand came to pick up Mingo's head. "You really had me fooled."
"Ah, Mingo is alive!"
But he was not happy. "Everything is going to shit, huh? Looks like I have to use 'bird cage' to fix this, immediately." Another Mingo showed up, and slashed at Luffy with his strings. Law had explained his devil fruit to them earlier, but he did use it expertly, it seemed. A whole string sliced the tower apart, Luffy just barely slamming Kyros down so he wasn't cut in half, too.
When one of Mingo's slices hit, the strings were burnt up by his blood. Usually his acidic blood didn't hurt anything but people directly. Doflamingo didn't let himself get surprised by that too long as a clone did the same, like Robin could, only it was made of string. Luffy had trouble keeping up for once.
A haki covered fist to his face slammed him into the wall. "It seems you've ruined my reign here, as well as killed one of my family," he said coldly. Strings were wrapped around him, but not breaking the skin. Luffy made himself into a balloon again, and landed a kick to Mingo's head. Only when it made contact, he grabbed it.
"Tell me, how did you heal Law?" he was asked coldly, even with a wicked grin.
"None of your business! How dare you turn me into a toy!" he shouted. He took the foot that was being held by and wrapped his toe around Doflamingo's neck. He was slammed down face first into the stone. The guy who was holding Doflamingo's body also made Luffy stuck in a stone cocoon.
Luffy looked around trying to figure out the next best move. Everyone in there hated him, and were furious. But then Zoro and Ace were there. Like it had been when they went to fight Caesar. As far as Luffy knew, Robin and Usopp were still underground, half of his crew were heading to Zou, and Franky was working on the factory. Zoro sliced the ground, getting Luffy out of the bind. Luffy heard a raging Law outside, still cuffed and injured. "Pica, take the intruders out! I'll let them suffer in the way everyone else did."
"But what about Buffalo!? He killed him!" Baby 5 shouted.
"His death can wait in panic. There's no stopping it now!" Doflamingo laughed, and the stone floor threw them around before they were tossed out of the window. Luffy landed on Law, who grunted in pain. But then he froze when he saw something shooting into the sky, high above the island. From that pillar, thick strings surrounded the island, like a cage.
"Is that the bird cage?" Luffy asked.
Law said, "He plans to kill everyone on this island, before the truth of this country comes out!"
"Zoro, do you have the key to his cuffs?"
"How would I have the key?" Zoro asked. "You kill somebody? You got blood everywhere." Luffy looked down. It had been an accident. Ace frowned at it. "Tra-guy, what do we do now? What's this bird cage he's doing?" Zoro questioned calmly. But then the ground beneath them started to shift.
"It's Pica! He can control stone!" Law said, still on his back.
"Hey, the palace is getting away! You cowards! Why'd you run?!" Luffy raged as the land warped and the castle was moved to a newly formed mountain with it as the top directly in the middle of the island. Luffy started to hear a grinding noise, and looked around, distracted.
Law said, "It's the bird cage! The strings will converge into the middle, slicing anything they touch in their way. Like a cage made of razors that gets smaller and smaller!" Ace wondered if there was any way to get out. Maybe he could burn it, or Luffy could blast a hole into it. "I don't know, but if that even worked, you'd have to do all of it since the rest will keep moving."
Luffy could see the flower hill and the factory were raised high up. The whole land of Dressrosa was being warped and convoluted so it was almost unrecognizable. Luffy wondered how on earth they could ever rebuild the country when it looked this way. The royal palace was the furthest from the ground, the hardest to get to it seemed.
They'd need to get across town and then climb the new mountain. Why couldn't Mingo have been dead? And was this bird cage that bad, that he'd rather not take revenge on killing Buffalo immediately? Was it that bad, unstoppable? Nothing was unstoppable for Luffy. Nothing. They'd defeat Mingo before this bird cage killed everyone.
There was a "click" noise from a huge siren in the middle of town. For announcements most likely. But it was the warlord speaking, not some alarm or warning about what was happening to the island and what they should do to get to safety.
"Citizens of Dressrosa, and guests. I could have just ruled over you in terror from the start! But now that you know the truth, I'm sure you want to kill me. That's why I prepared a game! A game to kill me! I'm in the royal palace. I won't run or hide! If you manage to kill me, then of course the game is over. But I prepared another way to end the game," he said in amusement. He definitely was not beheaded and dead.
"If you kill all of the people I'm about to name, then I'll let you all live, and the game will be over! I'll also prepare an award for all of these people! Kill or be killed! All of the people in the country are now 'hunters'! If you want to be saved, you have no choice but to take someone's head!"
Luffy couldn't tell if he was lying now, but he doubted he'd let everyone live after those he named were dead. It was probably just manipulation. What a terrible leader he was. Kyros, toy soldier man, wanted to save the whole country. Luffy wanted to save his friends and allies. His wish for the toys to be fixed was done, even if he hadn't put much work into it.
But his goal was to take down Doflamingo. They were supposed to just return Caesar in reward for the warlord resigning from his position in the government, as well as king. But that was thrown out the window when the deal was off. And now the man wasn't exactly making it easy for anyone to give up on killing him. He couldn't just go off after Caesar on the sunny.
Not easily and not now.
"No one will come to save you, and there's no way out of the birdcage! No matter how strong your attack, how hot your fire, it won't be broken!" That bit was addressing Luffy and Ace. "It's impossible to call outside, and you will all die and nobody not in this country will notice.
"Your neighbors will continue to kill others, even their family, even their best friends! Even the citizens they are sworn to protect!" Luffy could hear the sounds of people crying, fighting and the sounds of murder. Why were so many people going crazy and attacking others? It had to be something their tyrant king was doing.
"You can run away and hide yourself, but there's no safe place within the birdcage! The terror will go on until you die, unless you win the game! Scream, hate! You are all victims!" He laughed, and his face showed up on a screen projected in the air against the bird cage wall. A huge one seen from below.
"Think! Will you all kill me, or with me and the Donquixote family, punish those 12 fools opposed?! If you make the wrong choice, this game won't end. 100 million berri for each star! These are the real convicts of Dressrosa!" Then a photo of the offenders with their names were listed.
One star had Robin, Kin'emon, Viola - a princess that Zoro said helped him and Ace into the castle grounds - and Franky. Two stars were Kyros and Zoro (much to Zoro's disappointment). Three stars were Ace, Sabo, Law and the king Riku. Luffy froze at seeing a blonde with the name Sabo.
"Lu, later, okay?" Ace said, putting his hand on Luffy's shoulder. Luffy nodded. Then those who skipped from a three star to five star.
"These are the two worth the most! The ones that forced me to make this game, the ones that angered me the most today!" Doflmanigo's voice shouted, and Luffy and Usopp's faces showed.
"Usopp?!" Zoro asked in shock. Luffy said it was him and Usopp that knocked Sugar out and returned all of the toys to their original forms. Including Luffy, damnit! Being turned into a toy… how humiliating. Luffy was still shocked and confused about Sabo. He turned to Ace, and asked if it was really him.
"Yeah. His story adds up," Ace said. "For now, focus on what's happening now." Ace gave Luffy a soft smile, and the teen nodded.