Author's Note... Just Enjoy

Letting his guard down, Arlong took the chance and grabbed Luffy's shirt, throwing the brunette over his shoulder and behind him. Luffy landed gracefully on his feet but had to guard as Arlong sprinted at him and wrapped his arms around Luffy's waist.

The thug used his larger mass to pick the teen up and run through a wall, Luffy first. The wonder board structure crumbled as the pair went through it, creating an opening into another part of the warehouse.

"He gave me his hat? His treasure-... how can he trust me so easily?" Nami thought clenching the rim of Luffy's hat. Tears cascaded off her already wet, runny red cheeks and her brain continued to short-circuit from everything that was happening. "Didn't he remember what she did? What Arlong did? I thought this was all over..."

Luffy

"I can't wait for this to be over" Luffy huffed tired and shaking his senses back into focus while standing from the pile of wall that separated the lobby from whatever room they were in now. Arlong cleared a patch of ashen dust from the shoulder of his outdated hula shirt.

The man regarded Luffy as if he were a wolf stalking a camp site on a winter night. Each breath he took was almost feral, seemingly diluted with rage and malice. "Congratulations kid! You're moving up on the list of people I hate. It's a short list, high mortality rate….but real special. You're number two."

"I don't know what you're babbling about. I'm just here to kick your ass and to take Nami back" Luffy responded brushing the threat away stone-faced. "Words don't count for shit with scum like you." Luffy wanted to believe his own words but truthfully, this whole situation left his head buzzing with thoughts and questions. After all, this kind of quagmire doesn't happen every day.

Arlong's face slipped from his sinister and cocky grin into a frown that harmoniously etched into his face. "Shahaahaha-… so eager to die? I wonder how messed up YOU really are, grueling for punishment like this" he laughed before his voice dropped to an icy tone. "Let me see…pops liked to throw them back, showed you the rough side of a belt?"

Luffy charged the man that easily towered over him by more than a foot and pulled his arm back, winding up his strike. He lunged at the thug, swinging his arm upward towards Arlong's chin. The strike missed as Arlong stepped back calmly letting the first sail past him. He stepped in and punched at Luffy with a right jab catching him off guard but he quickly gathered himself and punched the man's meaty wrist just as his strike gained momentum.

Arlong was left open when his punch was knocked off course so Luffy launched an open palm into his throat stunning him further. He followed up with a push kick to his chest sending the convict stumbling back into some scaffolding. The metal structure bruised his back and knocked him to the ground with a clatter.

Finally having a moment's pause, Luffy took notice of his surroundings realizing he was in a giant room. "Damn you even have an evil lair. Nice but needs more snacks, moron" Luffy said almost to himself.

This room was much further along by construction standards in contrast to the room they were just in. The floors were finished hardwood, a nice acorn color although dimmed in the badly lit room. There was more scaffolding spread across the borders of the wall and they linked with higher structures and planks around the room but the area was so large, that it was left undamaged by their scuffle.

The walls were closer to completion than the ones in the other room aside from the hole Arlong made when the two of them tumbled through the wall. There were a couple of windows, not many, and because of the size of the room, it did little for light. He was getting to his feet, stammering for air through his bruised wind pipe.

"I want to kill you for disrespecting my father" Luffy said, his eyes spurning Arlong's entire existence. "And for hurting my friends… and Nami… but I can't... I won't be the monster that you are. Even if every stitch of my being wants to break your neck."

He knew he couldn't go as far as Arlong and that pushed his senses to be that much more alert. Still, Luffy wondered how Arlong ended up so demented. He seemed almost damaged as he watched the teen with a wild look, drunk on the torment he'd grown comfortable with. However, his plan wasn't to play psychiatrist. He had enough of his own issues and that would probably hurt his head. In this life or death fight, what has to be most important is breaking his control over Nami's life. That was the mindset that brought him here after all.

Arlong caught his breath after a fit of coughs and stood enraged to face Luffy's stare with a watery glare of his own. "If you don't kill me, I'll kill you…Besides you fucker, we aren't different at all! I just do what you and everyone else is afraid to do" he barked. "I take what I want, when I want and I deal with anyone that gets in my way in the most reliable way. Violence… Shahahaha!" Arlong informed with a deafening laugh directed at his own joke.

The dark room hid most of his expression but Arlong was entranced by the aura he was feeling. He began to feel anxious so he lunged at Luffy screaming. "I found her first! She's mine! You can't take her from me!"

"She's not an object" Luffy shouted, his words doing little to sway Arlong as the thug reached him in seconds. He ducked a wild punch and blocked a hard elbow that made him think in that moment that his wrist was broken. This blurred his vision for a moment although Arlong didn't let up, landing a right hook to Luffy's lip cutting it open and drawing blood.

He swung wildly trying to create some space but Arlong head-butted the brunette's punch making his already swollen wrist jolt with thousands of hot needles, fighting for supremacy under his flesh as his knuckles bruised and became engorged from the blow.

Arlong grabbed the extended arm before Luffy could retract it and threw him to the other end of the battleground, sending his body through scaffolding with room shaking force. The impact broke the beams and sent them rolling everywhere creating a frequency of vibrating metal that muffled Luffy's groans.

Meanwhile

*Phone Rings

*Ring, Ring, Ring

"We've got a tip finally. Noise complaint near one of their old places" a man yelled from his seat in his cubical after hanging up the phone. He was in an office alone and repeating a series of numbers under his breath as he jotted something on a post it only to tear it off and put it in his shirt's front pocket.

His partner answered from the hallway as he walked back from wherever he had been. "Let's go check it out then, maybe finally bring this maniac in for good, hm?" the second man said grabbing keys to their Impala cruiser.

Luffy

"Not an object?! Who are you kidding runt, we're both men and I know you've seen her body…" Arlong began as he walked towards the bleeding Luffy. The teen spit out some blood and struggled to one knee with a groan. Every step that Arlong took towards him, every word he spoke with his smug tone angered Luffy.

"She's a whole roll of dimes in a bag full of pennies. I know you've thought about how you'd handle all that... How you'd use her for maximum pleasure. She's probably a first class show Shahahaha!"

"Use her? What is she to you?!" Luffy croaked killing Arlong's laughter. His smile remained though as he responded with a bounce in his voice. Like those commercials with over excited advertisers who see to live for the product.

"She's my toy of course. Something I hang onto for entertainment. Her facial expressions when I bring up her dead mom, the one I killed!" The gag she has when I get too close and her crying face. I just love it; it's my drug and I'm a proud addict" he began, recalling how he fiddles with her strings in ecstasy. Luffy's fists tightened until his knuckles turned white as he watched Arlong continue towards him at a leisurely pace.

"You killed her mom?" Luffy asked rhetorically. "Nami was so close to her mom's murderer this whole time?" "What kind of monster-..?" he began to ask; his rage building within him. He almost didn't want to listen to this maniac anymore but the fight was far from over.

"Yeah I did and you know what champ, I'd do it a thousand times over" he laughed. "You wanna know why? She almost took Nami from me. Just like you're tryna do now. Dangerous business kid."

Luffy couldn't help but shout at Arlong in disgust, "Why? Why torture Nami for so long?"

"Because I could. It's been fun. Honestly it was bad timing for her, our meeting I mean" Arlong admitted. "But like I said she turned into a babe just like i thought! Lucky" he answered cheering for his luck at the end. "She's like a juicy piece of meat that makes my mouth water. Her making me wait to use her until graduation only makes me want her more. Born to be used for my satisfaction is how I see it. I'm counting on that Stock Holmes thing too. She'll love me eventually! Shahaha I'm so pumped for it!"

"Nami is better than meat, dumbass!" Luffy responded without thinking. "And if that's all you see her as, then you're missing so much." Luffy stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth and chin. How could someone think to use another person that way? He was finally realizing how much of a monster this man really was and what hurt more was thinking about all of the years Nami dealt with him, alone.

He thought about her, the complicated 'new' girl in school he'd befriended because something made him gravitate to her. The girl who loved cartography and had the most eye catching, heart stopping smile. Luffy thought of that smile he saw, that night after the trial of courage and how happy she looked at the amusement park.

He realized that Arlong would never see her smile like that. That he could never make her look as happy as she was in that moment. All Luffy wanted to do was see it again. Maybe even top it if that was at all possible.

"I'm here to take back something precious to me that you took. Usually, I don't show anyone what I hide behind my smile?" Luffy muttered to himself with a tone that reached sub-zero. "But you made the mistake of hurting those closest to me."

Arlong stopped walking when he heard what Luffy had said, his skin feeling prickly and cold. "You were just on the ground bleeding. I don't know where you find all you're strong talk" he said calming himself with reason. "Maybe you're distracting yourself from your impending death. Point is, I own the tramp and you're too weak to stop me!"

Arlong rushed his attacks because of his anxiety making it easier for Luffy to counter. He blocked his punch and then hit Arlong in the quad with a reverse spinning kick. It was quick and something Arlong wasn't expecting. It was becoming harder to walk for the thug as his quad throbbed from the blow.

"She's a lady. Don't call her that?" Luffy chivalrously said kicking Arlong in the ribs with a powerful roundhouse that Sanji would be proud of. He blocked most of it but the force behind the blow left his arm bruised. Arlong was getting angrier with every blow he took. The thug zealously attacked the stoic teen, planning and succeeding in overpowering him with his strength as he broke his defense with a running start shoulder slam which pushed Luffy stumbling back towards more scaffolding.

Getting flashy, Arlong sent a wide punch towards Luffy but it was countered when Luffy blocked it. He used Arlong's brute-esque momentum to throw him into the wood and metal structure that he was recently pinned near.

"Bastard" the goliath grimaced trying to hit Luffy with a knee strike. Luffy blocked it with both hands before it could gain momentum and he followed that by using Arlong's large frame as a springboard launching himself towards the top of the scaffolding units.

"He's heavier than a sandbag. Maybe getting some high ground will help" Luffy thought trying to gain some kind of advantage in the fight. The move stunned Arlong, knocking the wind out of him but he quickly recovered, grabbing Luffy's foot just before he could get both feet on the platform making him stumble.

The escaped convict grunted trying to pull the teen down by his leg along with the rest of the scaffolding. Luffy kicked the man in the nose, making him let go of his foot and recoil as his hands came to his nose in pain. Blood began to leak from both nostrils, his nose broken and misshapen now looking almost saw-like.

Luffy regained his footing as he stood up straight and caught his breath atop the wood and metal beamed structure. "Storage closet?" he thought getting a better look at the room around him including a door at the far side of the room. Arlong whimpered some as his eyes watered and began to swell which enraged him further. He grabbed one of the support beams that provided the foundation for Luffy and ripped it off its hinges with one try, collapsing the structure and making Luffy fall into the metal debris.

"SHIT!"

Arlong reached under the pile and picked up the downed martial artist before and lifted him off the ground by his neck. Luffy punched him twice quick, a left hook and then a right and although they were at awkward angles, the latter punch knocked out a tooth. Arlong ate the blows with little recoil and smiled before he slammed the younger man's smaller body onto the ground shattering the wooden floor into a splintered mess.

Luffy knew his back was cut but he'd begun to focus on his heartbeat and breathing. The slower his heart the slower the bleeding… or so was his plan as his shirt stuck to him with sweat and blood.

Meanwhile, the thug stood over Luffy as menacingly as anyone with their size mismatch could. He let his tongue trace the gum where his tooth used to be alluding to the iron taste of blood that tickled his taste buds.

"Damn that hurt" Arlong complained spitting out excess blood. His vision went fuzzy for a second as adrenaline flowed through him. "Congrats you're officially top 3 on my to-kill list so kid. Good thing once Nami graduates, we're out of here. Cops won't be able to pin your death on me, Shahaha" he said.

Luffy was contorted in pain on the floor, his hands trembling as he held his back, his eyes watery from the force of the blow. He knew if he tried to speak now he'd have no voice.

"DIE!" Arlong yelled resuming his frenzied assault.

He starting stomping on Luffy's downed form. Each hit ached more than the first and Arlong laughed his evil laugh. The sound of his laugh hurt more than the blows making Luffy put his hands up for defense.

"Nami… I won't let this maniac ruin your life anymore. We're all supposed to smile together again!"

"Killing you is icing on the cake. I love being free. Shahahaha…Nami!" he fitfully lashed out, senseless in his rage as he continued to stomp the downed form of the straw hat wearer.

Luffy's hand caught the brute's foot mid kick in a vice grip before sweeping the back of Arlong's knee with his leg bringing the man's muscular body crashing to the ground beside him.

The young martial artist quickly transitioned into a full mount, elbowing the recovering Arlong in the jaw gashing it open in a kind of gruesome glory that only a doctor such as Chopper would love. From there, he hit Arlong twice across the bridge of his already serrated nose before blocking Arlong's attempt to grab onto Luffy.

Arlong growled in pain and blocked Luffy's next punch before he tried to hit Luffy in the stomach, desperate to get better positioning. He flailed his massive limbs even though Luffy had him pinned and managed to deliver an unexpected shove into Luffy's stomach making him spit in Arlong's face from projectile recoil.

"Fucking brat!" Arlong yelled disgusted using his larger mass to roll forward to throw the teen off of him. Luffy skidded on his heels but was able to keep his balance. The delinquent used his shirt to absorb the blood, saliva, snot, and tears that mixed on his damaged face which stained his yellow hula shirt red.

Arlong regarded Luffy as he stumbled slightly, taking a step back in order to lean against some construction equipment that was propped beneath an elevated chain of platforms. He coughed up blood as his eyes met the brunettes.

"You think you've won? You haven't won shit… my friends… they probably killed your friends" Arlong said trying to force a laugh but he could only spit the blood that built up in his mouth.

"Doubt it" Luffy said with unshakable confidence. Arlong shook his head at his comment with a malevolent chuckle.

"Even if they managed to win and you save your precious Nami, what if she figures out she don't want ya no more? Huh!? What then!? Ya gonna end up like me before you lose her, Shahaha."

"If one day, things don't work out… I can't make her happy or she leaves me or whatever happens, her happiness is all that matters. As long as she's smiling" Luffy answered silencing Arlong's menacing laugh. He coughed up some blood he swallowed and looked at Luffy with such hatred, his adrenaline spiked.

"I hope my friends butchered your friends. I'll feed them to ya! You know what the fuck I'll do after, kill you and take Nami somewhere so I can use her till the day I die! Shahaaa-..." he spoke snapping under his rage before he wiped the blood from his mouth and chin.

He stood back up but Luffy wasn't going to let the madman ramble, disrespect his friends, or annoy him and he was doing all of that at the moment. He ran at Arlong who took another step forward, "I can't WAIT to use her" he incited as he shakily got ready for Luffy.

"No one will ever use my Nami, ARLONG!" Luffy yelled sprinting towards the thug. Arlong stood ready for the running teen but didn't expect Luffy to lunge into the punch. He stepped into the blow and hit Arlong with all of his strength and loathing. Arlong crashed backwards into the scaffolding breaking it under his thunderous size and Luffy's crushing attack.

The boards from the structures above were sailing down like bringing concrete, metal beams, and sandbags which causing dust and debris to litter the floor; they cracked tile, broke tools and even thundered the building's halls with noise. It seemed as though the whole place was coming down as links of planks and makeshift platforms fell like dominos, breaking everything they landed on.

Meanwhile

"LUFFY!" Nami screamed as she was lead from the rumbling building and into the courtyard of the warehouse by Zoro. She looked around anxious in disbelief. They made it seem like the building was going to collapse? The building remained standing although much worse for wear as the entrance was besieged by dust and fallen structures.

"We're alive! Screw you, warehouse" Usopp taunted laughing thankful to be alive.

"But Luffy…" Sanji said, his voice hushed under the tension of this whole mess. The entrance was partially blocked by fallen sheetrock and wood paneling and still, Nami's eyes found crevice that she could fit through and resolved herself to not wait any longer.

She went and hugged Nojiko tightly which shocked the unsuspecting blunette and before anyone could stop her, she ran to the cloudy entrance screaming, "Luffy!" before disappearing through the medium sized opening. This caused Chopper to fall into Usopp's arms with exaggerated surprise.

"Doctor" Usopp said calling Chopper as if he were dying for real in his arms.

"Oi Nami! Wait" Nojiko yelled behind her sister.

"He's fine. The building's still standing" Zoro barked with a laugh before a pang of pain caused him to cough and trace his bandaged wounds with his hand subconsciously yet his eyes were still in the fight. "Let's go drag Luffy's ass out of there."

This comforted Nojiko slightly but it was taking a lot for her to not run after her sister. The group smiled collectively at Zoro's comment but before they could act on it, a sharp, stern voice interrupted them.

"No one else inside. We'll be going in next and closing the scene off to the public." The group of friends turned to see a man standing there in a black suit and a bolo hat holding a golden badge that reflected the sun's descending beams. This was the only indicator that he was a figure of authority aside from his strict demeanor as his clothes gave him more of a shyster look.

"But the door's blown off the hinges so and blocked by debris-…" Brook said pointing out how silly closing off an already closed scene was. The man regarded the comment with a look that said he didn't appreciate the joke. Chopper hid behind Robin and Usopp hid behind the both of them although it didn't escape the man's calculating eyes as he regarded the group.

"I don't want to go to jail" he yelled with a hushed tone to Chopper who was also nervous. "We ditch the cops and then…..then we run home!" he continued to say getting way to excited over the idea. He paused for a moment remembering Nami and Luffy still inside the building and he silently cursed the fact that they weren't there. "Damn I'll have to warn them of my escape plan."

"Let me see that badge" Franky yelled making sure this agent was on the up and up. He walked towards the man disgruntled, mumbling something about bullshit and terrible timing. Brook tried to warn him of the man's killer eye but didn't have time to form the words before his friend was next to the agent holding his badge in his hand.

"You do realize we took a bus here, right?" Chopper asked dumbfounded at the stupid suggestion his friend made. "It's like… the last stop dude. Plus half of you have open wounds and I have short legs!" he finished scolding the dumb idea.

"Luffy was it?" a voice from outside the courtyard said with a laugh. Another man who matched the clothes of the first entered the scene and walked towards his partner. Franky looked from the man's badge in his hand to the arriving agent and pointed to the badge with a scrunch of his nose.

"Yours too pal!" Franky loudly demanded yet the desperation in his tone showed he was defeated by their shiny badges and too stubborn to admit they were actually agents.

"That must be fate then" the second agent internally noted making his thin shaved face contort into a smile.

Luffy

"I thought I was the one who attacked him? Why did I get hurt then" he thought unburying himself from some debris both annoyed and slightly disoriented. "I can't see a damn thing!" The room was an ashen bog of dust and smoke making it impossible for Luffy to see anything at the moment. He used his knee to help him stand and looked around to see the hole he made in the wall was helping to ventilate the air.

His senses were on high alert expecting a sneak attack from Arlong through the fog. He noted all the fallen scaffolding structures around him and hoped his friends were okay. "This is only a victory if we all make it out of here…please be okay, Nami…everyone" he thought slightly worried before he noticed a figure's outline across the room.

He walked cautiously towards the figure, maneuvering pipes and circumventing the detritus of battle that lay destroyed across the floor. The plume of smoke gradually turned transparent no longer hindering his eyes as they adjusted slightly.

There with his entire arm and forearm crushed under a massive collapse of pipes was Arlong as he sat propped against his inhibitor with a discarded belt of tools half destroyed in his lap. He groaned trying to pull his arm from its tomb but to no avail. Luffy stopped a few feet from the man and their eyes met.

"You bastard! I'll rip your arm off in exchange for mine! Then I'll kill you with it!" His tone carried a blood lust that made Luffy thankful that the man was trapped. He regarded the behemoth as he sat there screaming about revenge. How he looked like a trapped animal. How he was a trapped animal.

"I don't know why you decided to infect other people's lives with your evil or if something drove you to this…I'm just glad that with everything that's happened to me in life, in the end, I didn't become you" Luffy said, his eyes still connected with Arlong's. But what he saw in them brought a smirk to his face as he turned around and began to limp back towards his friends.

Arlong's eyes were clouded over much like the room had been a minute ago and they rolled sporadically in his head as he tried to remain conscious. The adrenaline he probably received from his injury was most likely drying up and his substantial wounds threatened to make him pass out. His eyes fluttered once more as what Luffy said repeated in his head, his smirk embroiled as if by a molten brand.

He pulled at his hand to get freed one more time but he was still completely stuck. Arlong groggily looked at Luffy's retreating back and then at the tool belt in his lap. He used his free hand to pull a cordless nail gun from one of the belt buckles and pointed it at the exposed Luffy.

Nami

"Please be okay. If Arlong killed you, I don't know what I'd do" Nami repeated to herself frantically as she maneuvered fallen debris and the dust riddled warehouse. She knew the outline of the building slightly but had no clue where Luffy and Arlong were.

The smoke didn't make it easier for her as she hugged the wall in order to remind herself where she was. Suddenly she heard a voice that she loathed but could recognize anywhere.

"You bastard!" she heard Arlong yell. "I'll rip your arm off in exchange for mine! Then I'll kill you with it!" His threats reverberated throughout the hideout, echoing through the unfinished walls and doorways.

"I'm coming" she thought now running towards Arlong's evil voice. She hugged the wall still but soon, the dust settled and she was able to find a door that she knew led to Luffy.

She opened the door quietly. If Arlong and Luffy were still fighting, she knew it would be dangerous to interfere. Walking into the room, a wave of unyielding happiness washed over her as she saw Arlong pinned under fallen debris and Luffy, limping but alive, as he made his way towards the hole in the wall.

She wanted to call to him but she noticed something that made her stomach drop and the happiness she felt fade. Arlong's eyes met the tool in his lap and the cloudiness glimmered with murderous intent.

He took the cordless nail gun from the belt and felt the weight in his hand with a nefarious grin. The grin mixed with his damaged nose and bloodied face is an image Nami will never forget.

She wanted to warn Luffy but the words never came. She wanted to move but her feet were frozen in place, afraid. She hated that Arlong had that spine chilling effect on her. He had her stuck in place since she'd met him.

He pointed his tool turned weapon at Luffy's exposed back, his finger etching closer to the trigger as he lined up his death shot.

"No" she thought. "He's going to kill Luffy." That thought scared her more than Arlong ever could.

"NO!" Nami finally croaked. As if it were her caught tongue that held her in place, she sprinted towards Arlong as fast as she could. Her mind was blank and she was there quicker than she thought.

She punched Arlong as hard as she could and with years of suffering backing the blow.
"You won't hurt me or anyone else I care about ever again!" she thought as her fist made contact with the man's cheek. His eyes rolled back for good this time as he was forced into unconsciousness, dropping the gun with a clang.

"Nami?" Luffy said turning around in time to see the girl in question punch Arlong and knock him out. His jaw could have hit the floor, he was so shocked and when Nami realized he said her name, she turned around. Her brown eyes met his before falling back to Arlong's unconscious figure. Her brain felt like it was trying to punch its way out of her skull as the fact that everything was over finally settled in.

Luffy walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist while he rested his chin on her shoulder. "It's over. We got him" he said with a face splitting grin. "Thanks for the save Nami."

Her eyes brimmed with tears and it seemed as if all those years of stress, heartache, and adversity were washing away. She'd never felt lighter in her life yet still, knowing Arlong came back once before still worried her. Why not again? But Luffy's hug was more than enough assurance for her to feel safer than she'd felt since before Arlong.

She turned to face Luffy and hugged him back. The pounding in her head moved to her heart and she cried tears of relief. Luffy stroked her orange hair as he rocked slightly to try and comfort her. When she calmed down, he pulled out of the hug enough to look him in the eyes.

"Damn girl that was some punch. I knew I liked you for a reason" he smiled, his face inches from hers. She smiled back at him and responded suavely while interlocking her fingers in his.

"I got something else you might like." She brushed her bottom lip against his, testing the uncharted waters cautiously. They held their position for a blissful eternity as electricity seemed to bind them there. When they broke away, Luffy rested his bruised forehead on hers. He wiped a small trace of blood from Nami's lip, most likely residue from his battle scarred face and went to speak but was cut off by a familiar voice.

"Cute girl you've found there, Luffy" the second agent said as he and his partner walked into the room. Luffy could feel his heart skip a beat before he pulled Nami closer to him.

"Shanks…" he said shocked. His eyes were filled with more animosity now than during his fight with Arlong.

"No dad? That's to be expected. Anyway we'll handle the cleanup… and be in touch. For now, there is an ambulance waiting to take you and all of your friends to the hospital outside" he said professionally as he and his partner approached Arlong's body.

"Dad?" Nami thought. "This is Luffy's dad that disappeared on him? What a crazy day" she thought looking at Luffy in order to try and gauge his response to this big event.

His aura was cold as he looked at the man that shaped who he is. But his eyes showed how he really felt. They showed betrayal making Luffy feel anxious. The longer he looked at the man, the more he felt angry.

"You earn the title of dad. And you haven't. Let's go Nami" he said monotone as he led Nami out of the door. "What are the chances" Luffy thought shaken by the suddenness of recent events.

Nami took his hand in hers as they approached the now cleared doorway. Their friends were standing as close to the building as the feds would allow, all of them choosing to wait for Luffy and Nami before getting into the ambulance.

The scene outside was blocked off by hazard-yellow, keep out tape and the bright lights from the sirens colored the atmosphere. Their high pitched song riding the wind and echoing loudly.

"HE LIVES!" Brook yelled pointing at Luffy with his slim pointer finger. They reached the courtyard with sheepish smiles as all eyes were on them.

"I'm so glad you're okay I was so worried. Always worrying me, I'm going to get wrinkles early!" Nojiko said as she ran crying into Nami's arms. Nami couldn't believe how hysterical she was and although she felt bad that she had caused it, it was still nice to know someone worried for her wellbeing.

"Sorry" she sheepishly replied hugging the blunette tighter. "I'm going to come completely clean with everyone" she thought with a smile. She looked over her sister's shoulder to see Luffy get tackled by the much smaller Chopper.

"Are you hurt? Let me look at you" he ordered looking Luffy over meticulously for injuries.

Luffy laughed at his friend's antics. "Maybe don't tackle people who you think are injured" he recommended. Nami laughed at his comment while hugging Robin and Vivi who patiently waited their turn.

Zoro and Sanji smiled to each other grateful that everything was going to be okay. Luffy noticed how injured they were and his eyes fell on their bloodied bandages as well as Franky and Usopp who were also injured. His friends risked so much just because he asked them to.

"Thanks for everything. You're all irreplaceable to me" he declared as if they didn't already know that. They all embraced in a massive group hug only for it to be cut short by the grimacing faces of everyone who was injured. But it was a pain they didn't mind.

"Can we save all the mushy stuff for the ambulance ride to the hospital?" Robin asked trying to rush the group because of their injuries. Luffy sheepishly smiled at this and they piled into the ambulance.

"I need to come clean about some things too" Nami said as paramedics closed the doors of the ambulance behind them. The sirens gradually disappeared the further they drove from Arlong and the mess they made.

Meanwhile

"Glad we finally tracked you. You shouldn't be free, you're a monster, Arlong" Shank's partner said to the unconscious thug. "So that's Luffy? Think he's mad?"

Shanks looked at his partner with a sour look. "Is that even a question? What I did won't be easy to forgive." "Maybe even impossible" he thought solemnly, getting ready to handcuff and take Arlong into custody.

"Shanks" Arlong said groggily waking up from his Nami induced slumber. "You're now only number two on the list of people I hate."

"Your list doesn't scare me, I've been on it for years. And where you're going, there won't be any use for your list" Shanks responded before Arlong passed out.

"I'm calling in some back up because we have a huge mess to clean" his partner told him with a reassuring pat on his back. Shanks smiled knowing his son made this mess he was talking about. He would be lying if he said he wasn't proud.

"And a lot of paperwork ahead of us" Shanks said thinking about all that was to come.

Author's Note 2: Hope you enjoyed this roller coaster of a chapter! This will be posted not long before chapter 13! The finale to the finale. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did or didn't, I'd love to hear your thoughts either in a review (long or short) or a P.M. Any and all will be appreciated! What a crazy chapter what could be next?