Last time:

"You won't lay a finger on the princess!" he yelled. "On my name as Captain of the Arabasta Royal Guards, you won't!"

"Igaram!" Ms. Wednesday cried.

"Captain of the Arabasta Royal Guards, Igaram," Mr. Five continued. By the sounds of it, he's unaffected by the bullets. Which would mean only one thing... "And Princess Nefertari Vivi. By the order of the Boss of Baruque Works, you are both to be eliminated."

Despite the fact that bullets doesn't seem to work on the two newcomers, Mr. Eight, or Igaram, kept shooting out bullets from his curls. "Hurry, Vivi-sama! Escape while you still can!" he told his princess.

"Igaram!" Ms. Wednesday, or Vivi, cried, not moving an inch from her spot.

Through the dust clouds, I can make out one of the figure, most likely Mr. Five since Ms. Valentine has an umbrella, flicking something towards Igaram. When the thing made contact, it ex- EXPLODED!? Either he flicked the world's smallest bomb or he's a devil fruit user because there is nothing, that's so small, that can explode like a bomb! A second later after the bomb exploded, Igaram fell.

"Igaram!" Vivi cried.

"Don't bother," came Ms. Valentine's voice. I looked up and saw her floating. The next thing you know, she suddenly fell and would've kicked the princess' face, if she didn't duck, making the blonde woman hit the hair bead instead. She then landed safely next to her partner.

I was ready to jump in when I heard, "So you were a princess, Ms. Wednesday!" from a certain man.

"Stop being ridiculous, Mr. Nine!" Vivi shouted at her partner/ex-partner, who is bowing down to her, wiggling his butt.

"This night's getting dangerous! You guys have some fun! Later!" came a familiar voice. I turned to the source to see Zoro running off to somewhere with our captain. Wait, how did Luffy get in this situation? And with a ridiculously big stomach, too.

"I'm surprised they actually let him be," I whispered to myself.

"Vivi-sama..." Igaram breathed, signalling the fact that he's alive.

"Igaram! Are you okay?" the princess asked in concern.

"Vivi-sama, don't worry about me... Please hurry up and flee from this place! For the sake of our homeland... Without you, the Arabasta Kingdom will... Now, quickly!"

Now that I think about it, I did remember reading something from the old newspapers in Tanoshi Island about Arabasta's horrible condition. One being the cause of the lack of rain. But seeing the situation before me, I'm starting to doubt it.

"Don't even think about escaping," Mr. Five said. And he is picking his nose because!?

"Don't underestimate me!" Vivi yelled, spinning her Peacock Slashers.

"I can't even begin to understand the circumstances," Mr. Nine spoke, standing between the princess and her enemies with a bat out. "But because of our long relationships as partners, I'll buy you some time. Now go, Ms. Wednesday." Heh. Now that's being loyal, even though they were partners. "I'm a pretty good guy, aren't I? Bye-Bye Baby!" With that good-bye, he backflipped his way over to Five and Valentine to fight them. It's a pain to keep saying Mister and Miss.

"The only thing we should need is the willingness to carry out our missions," Five said, taking a booger out of his nose. And again, why did he pick his nose? In fact, why did he bother taking out a booger? "All this nakama bullshit does is invite death. Now understand this yourself! Nose Fancy Cannon!" As he finished calling that attack, he flicked his booger at Nine... only to have it explode!

'Now I know that he is a devil fruit user,' I mentally said, as Nine was blown into the sea.

"MR. NINE!" Princess Vivi cried out.

'All right, bad habit. If I somehow die, I'll be blaming you,' I thought, as the said habit was crying out, "Come on, already! You have to help her!".

"Carue! Run!" she told her duck, riding on it to get away. Not wasting a second on planning how to beat those two, I quickly climbed up a building and jumped from one to the other to follow the princess, when I just remember about the bullet in my leg.

'I'll get it out later!'

*MEANWHILE**GENERAL'S P.O.V*

"Far to the east lies the Kingdom of Arabasta!" Igaram informed Zoro, for he requested him to take his place to take Vivi to Arabasta. "If you bring the princess there safely-*Cough!*-there will most certainly be a handsome reward! I beseech you this one request! Please protect the princess!"

"Quit screwing around!" Zoro objected with shark-like teeth. "You just tried to kill us, remember?! Do you want me to cut you again?!"

"A handsome reward, you say?" a familiar female voice repeated. "I like the sound of that! How about B1,000,000,000?"

"Nami?" Zoro called in a confused tone.

"O-one bill-*Cough*-Ma-ma! Maaah!"

"Weren't you passed out?" the swordsman asked the navigator.

"Hey, now. A suspicious town that throws a party when pirates come by? What kind of idiot gets smashed in a place like that? It was all an act. An act. I can take loads more!" she told him.

"Heh. Good for you."

"Well? Will you offer me the billion belli, Guard Captain? If we don't help you out, you princess will die, right?" Nami asked, an evil smirk on her face.

"I wouldn't say that," Zoro interrupted.

"Why would you say that?"

"I saw Xion earlier before that guy with the crown sacrificed his life for that princess. And we all know what her bad habit is, since she saw the whole thing here."

Screaming a little in realization, Nami hastily ordered Zoro to go after Xion and tell her about the price for helping the princess, the former asking the navigator why he has to go.

"Man, you're so stupid~," she insulted. "The money is my money, but my agreements are your and Xion's agreements."

"Like hell! I might understand Xion, but since WHEN did a brat like YOU become MY boss?!" he irritatedly asked.

"What? All you have to do is deliver the message to Xion and help her beat those guys up."

"I'm not a messanger and I hate being used like this! Why don't you tell her that yourself?!"

"So you're saying that you can't deliver a simple message and you're too weak to beat those guys?"

"What was that, dammit?! Say that again!"

"SO YOU'RE SAYING THAT YOU CAN'T DELIVER A SIMPLE MESSAGE AND YOU'RE TOO WEAK TO BEAT THOSE GUYS?!" Nami repeated, louder than the first.

"I don't mean it literally!" Zoro told her. As they argued, Luffy woke up to do a small business.

"Have you forgotten? You owe me a debt."

"Huh? What debt?"

"Back in Loguetown, you said you wanted to buy some katanas, so I loaned you B100,000."

"But I gave you back that money," he corrected. "I got the katanas for free, so I didn't spend any of it."

"However, when you borrowed it, you promised to pay me back three times the amount. So you still owe me B200,000," Nami corrected.

"But I gave you the same amount of money back right after you gave it to me!"

"Too bad. You can't even keep a single promise, can you?" Hearing those words from the navigator's mouth made the swordsman snapped. "If you do what I say, we can call it even~."

"I hope you die a horrible, horrible death..."

"That's right. I'm going straight to hell." That said, Zoro ran after Xion, Vivi and Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine.

"Such humiliation..." Igaram spoke. "If only I'm stronger, then I could just protect the princess myself..."

"Don't worry," Nami assured. "Zoro's so strong, it's stupid. As for Xion... well... Whenever she hears anyone asking for help or if she sees anyone that wants help, she just rushes in and helps them. No one in our crew knew how long she's been having this habit, exactly or why she has it. Though it's a good thing that she does. Otherwise, your princess wouldn't live through the storm that we went through."

"The princess... If anything happens to Vivi-sama, it will spell the end of Arabasta Kingdom!" Igaram continued, ignoring Nami's words. "She MUST survive!"

*BACK TO VIVI AND CO.**XION'S P.O.V*

I can't believe how fast that duck is! No wait, it can't be called a duck since ducks don't run. Then again, this is the Grand Line, so maybe it is possible. Anyway, I continued to follow Vivi and her killers to find an opening of any kind to stop them from going after her and trying my best to not put any weight in my left leg. However, that part seems to be impossible if I want to run. And since one of them can use his boogers as a bomb, it's taking me a while to form a plan. Not only that, when I looked behind the princess and her duck, I can't seem to find Five and Valentine.

'That's strange. Where'd they go?' I wondered. My question was answered by the sound of an explosion. I looked ahead and saw one of the duo in front of Vivi. 'When did he get over there?!'

"Carue, this way! Hurry!" I heard the girl order her ride, as they ran off at a different direction. I turned to the explosion man and saw that he disappeared.

'Man! This is a pain in the neck in more ways than one!'

"Hahaha! I thought someone was following us," came a voice from behind me. I turned to see Valentine smirking at me. "You want to play spy? You have to do better," she said, going for a kick. I blocked the kick with my Keyblade.

"You seem really light," I said.

"Oh? And so what if I am?"

I smirked at the reply as it gave me an idea. "Then fly away! Aero!" At that wind spell, Valentine was actually blown away, like a paper.

Seeing that trouble is out of the way, for now, I resumed following Vivi, only to see Monday standing next to her and Carue. Vivi and Carue ran off again, leaving Monday behind. Seeing this made me assume that she's also on the princess' side. Getting myself out of my thoughts, I continued to run after Vivi.

When I heard yet another explosion, I turned back and saw that Five is next to Monday, his right sleeve rolled up. It made me think that it's not just his boogers that can explode.

'Nine, Monday, I promise not to let either of your sacrifices be in vain,' I mentally swore.

"I can make any part of my body explode. I'm a Bombman. Using the ability of the Bomu Bomu no mi, I never failed to complete a mission," Five explained.

"Hahaha!" I looked up to the source of a familiar laughing sound and saw Valentine. It made me confused on how she got here so fast when I could've sworn that she was blown away. "With my Kilo Kilo no mi power, that traitor Ms. Monday shall now be crushed into the ground. I can freely change my weight at will. Right now I'm light enough to float with the wind. Now watch as I get heavier."

Hearing that, I decided to get Monday out of there instead or just prevent her from being crushed. I looked up and saw that Valentine is falling fast, which tells me that I have no time to get Monday out of there.

The moment I got to the fallen girl, the weight-changing one is falling too fast for me to use a spell. But that doesn't mean that I can't block it, or does it? Gambling on it, I blocked Valentine with Starlight.

The impact of her unbelievable weight to my Keyblade was insane! If my weapon is a normal one, it would've broke and I could've died! Thankfully it isn't a normal weapon.

As the dust subsided, I was face-to-face with Valentine, using all my strength to push her and my Keyblade away from me to prevent getting crush. Despite that, I can still feel pain. And I don't want to repeat from where. The blonde girl seemed shock to see me between her and her prey, blocking her attempt to crush Monday.

"You're-!" Valentine spoke. "When did-?! How did-?!"

"Hmm? It seems we have another rat to exterminate," Five spoke. "And of what I can see, she can't hold on for a few more seconds."

"Shut up!" I spoke, gritting my teeth.

"Oh? Hahaha! Well, if that's true, I'd like to see how much longer you can hold on. Preventing me from crushing Ms. Monday, that is." That said from her mouth, she stayed on Starlight, watching me suffocate.

"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing?!" I heard Vivi ask. "Why are you protecting me after what I did to you?!"

"Do you think... that I..." I tried to speak, only to have me suffocate more.

"What?!"

"I said... do you really think... that I can just... let a princess DIE?!" I repeated, as a fireball was emerging from the tip of my Keyblade. "Homing Fira!" The fireball was shot at a random direction, having Valentine and Five laugh at me.

"What was that? A desperate attempt to stop us?" Five guessed.

"Maybe..." I breathed, earning confused looks from those two. The fireball came back and hit its target: Valentine. And that impact forced the said girl to get off of my weapon.

"Ms. Valentine!" Five called. Not wasting any time, I grabbed Monday and ran to the princess' side.

"I don't have time to fight you!" Vivi shouted, obviously getting the wrong idea.

"I never said that I wanted to fight!" I corrected, coughing out a little blood. "And if anything goes wrong, I'm blaming my bad habit. Now let's hurry and-!"

"You won't get away with this! NOSE FANCY CANNON!" came Five's voice, as I turned to see a snot coming towards us.

I placed Monday down, attempting to use 'reflect' to block it and prevent getting exploded on, when a familiar figure beat me to it and cut it in half, having it to explode behind us.

"The pathway..." Vivi breathed, looking behind us to see that it is blocked.

"Who is that?" Five asked.

"AH! I just cut a snot!" he shouted.

"Zoro!" I called, relieved that reinforcements came.

"Oh, Xion. There you are."

'That was a quick recovery,' I thought when Zoro instantly forgot about the fact that he just cut a booger.

"Look. Nami sent here to tell you that if you help bring the princess back to her home, we will, or should I say she will, be rewarded a billion belli."

"Why can't she tell me that herself?" I asked.

"That's what I said, but no, the witch has to have me do all the dirty work," Zoro added.

"Aren't you the swordsman who cut up all the people of this town?" Five asked. "Why are you suddenly protecting the princess of Arabasta? Well, either way, you're an enemy and you're in my way."

"Hahaha. That's right. An obstacle," came Valentine's voice, as she was getting up.

"Ms. Valentine, are you alright?"

"Yes, Mr. Five."

"Gee, what did you say about nakama?" I asked, recalling that he said having one results death.

"I only care because Mr. 0 expects to have the both of us to return," Five said.

"FOUND YOUUU!" came a familiar voice, from behind Five and Valentine. "ZOOROOOOOO!"

"What now?!" Valentine asked.

"Luffy! If you want to help, we don't need one," Zoro told him. And it's a wonder how his stomach is still so big. "Or do you owe that woman money too?"

'Is that one of the reason why he did what Nami told him to do?' I asked myself, having no doubt that he must've borrowed money from our navigator.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS! LET'S ROLL!" Luffy just yelled, bringing me and his 'challenger' to confusion.

"What do you mean, Luffy?" I asked our captain.

"Stay out of this, Xion! Zoro, you ungrateful bastard! I'll kick your ass!"

"Like Xion asked, Luffy. What are you talking about?! Just what do you mean by ungrateful?!" the swordsman asked.

"They threw a nice party for us and you went and sliced up every single one of them!" Oh, the bounty hunters.

"Well... It's true that I did that..."

"I won't forgive you!"

"Is he a complete moron?" Vivi asked.

"In a way... yes, he is," I answered.

"They're namaka? How depressing..." Five spoke.

"Hahaha! Let's just kill them. Like everyone else who interferes with our missions," Valentine suggested.

"Like I'll let you!" I shouted, charging in at them. "Zoro! I'll leave Luffy to you!"

"Say what?!" was the reply I got from him. "That woman... Hey, Luffy. Listen up. Truth is those guys-"

"I DON'T WANT YOUR EXCUSES!" Luffy interrupted, as he jumped, no, leaped over me and my opponents to get to Zoro.

"WHAT?!" I didn't pay attention to anything further than that, for I was then busy taking out Five and Valentine.

"It's a wonder how you can still fight," Five said, as he and Valentine dodged all my attacks.

"What do you mean?!" I asked.

"You think that we didn't notice that bullet in your left leg?" Valentine asked back. My eyes widen as I looked back down to see blood still coming out of my leg.

"Now then... I wonder what would happen if I insert a finger in there," Five spoke.

I was about to say something when I felt something coming from behind me. I jumped out of the way and saw that it was Luffy, who crashed into my opponents.

"Idiot! You almost crashed him into me!" I yelled at Zoro, when I landed.

"You deserve it in the first place!" he yelled back.

It wasn't long until we heard an explosion from the building that Luffy and the other two crashed into. Out from the smoke is Valentine.

"Now you made me mad!" she yelled. "You will now die from my Kilo Kilo power! Hahaha! Prepare yourself! I was able to ride on the explosion because my weight is a mere one kilogram!"

"Man. I can't tell when she'll change her weight," I muttered, knowing that the blowing away plan won't work twice.

"Mr. Bushido! Starlight Blade! Get out of-"

"Shut up!" Zoro interrupted Vivi. "I don't have time for this."

I looked at where he's looking and realized what he meant. Coming out of the smoke is Luffy, whose stomach returned to its original size, and Five, who is beaten up and being dragged by the former.

"Ah. That was good exercise. Finally got rid of all that food," the captain said, patting his stomach. "I can finally get serious."

"Geez, captain. Of all times you choose to be serious," I grumbled. "Anyway just listen, Luffy. This island is full of bounty hunters. In other words our enemies. They-"

"Shut up, Xion! Enemies don't give you food!"

"Just how old are you, thinking that?!"

As soon as I questioned him, I had a feeling like something is going to land on me, having me to side-stepped to the right. As I did so, something crash-landed on the spot that I was on. I looked in the hole and saw that it was Valentine.

'How was it that I can sense her attack?' I wondered.

"Now I'm gonna try to kill you!" I heard Zoro yell at our captain. And is he serious?! Did he forget our objective here?! "Don't come crying to me when you wind up dead!"

"Bring it on!" Luffy agreed.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a second! How the hell did it come to this?!" I questioned.

"Starlight Blade is right! Aren't you two nakama?!" the princess agreed. Unfortunately for us, these two boys are going to start their rumble, with me in the middle of it!

"Gomu Gomu no..."

"Oni..."

"Bazooka!"

"Giri!"

Reacting fast to prevent them from killing each other, I blocked both sides' attacks; my Keyblade to Zoro's swords and my free arm to both of Luffy's hands.

"Xion! Get out of my way!" they both demanded at the same time.

"I'd rather die than let you two kill each other!" I yelled at them.

"Then die with him!" both responded.

"Tatsu-!" Zoro was about to shout his next attack name, when I interrupted him with a spin attack.

"Aero Blast!" Thanks to that attack, both sides were blown into a building behind them, since I was wrapped in wind. "God, now they're both out of their mind!"

"Um... Hey..." came the princess' voice. "Are they alright? Can we go across?"

"It'll take more than that to kill them. And unless if you hurry, those two will wake up and-" I stopped mid-sentence when the pain in my leg suddenly became irresistable, getting me onto my knees and clutching it. It hurts so much, it's almost like it's going to be seperated.

The princess and Carue noticed my pain and ran to my aid. "Are you-?!" the princess was suddenly interrupted by a certain duo, who just had to resume fighting. But this time, it's not with each other. IT'S WITH ME!

"DAMN YOU, XION!" they cursed in unison. "I'll handle Zoro/Luffy later! Die!"

"Why am I the target?!" I asked. "But right now, RUN, PRINCESS VIVI!" I yelled, pushing her and the duck out of the way. I saw through their attacks and blocked them, trying to go more easy on my leg.

"Oh. So your weak point is your left leg." What did I do to give that away?!

"We are the Baroque Works agents! You can't make a fool out of us!" came Five's voice.

Being ganged up on like this, I've lost my mind!

*VIVI'S P.O.V*

Seeing the situation that Starlight Blade is in, I can't help but want to help her. But... even so... those two are like monsters! And with Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine, there's no way that I'll stand a chance!

"Will you just KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!? GRAVIGA!" came Starlight Blade's voice. All of a sudden, the straw hat boy, Mr. Bushido, Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine instantly got crushed onto the earth's surface, face-first. I don't know what Starlight Blade did, but it was strong enough to have the four of them make a human-shaped hole. I can even feel Carue trembling at the scary sight. "FOR GOODNESS SAKE! I WOULD UNDERSTAND WHY TWO OF YOU GUYS WANT TO KILL ME, BUT THE OTHER HALF JUST WANTS TO KILL ME FOR PROTECTING YOUR OPPONENTS! ARE YOU ALL CHILDREN OR SOMETHING?! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M IN A CREW MOSTLY FILLED WITH IDIOTS! No wait! Scratch that! None of you are the idiots! I'm the idiot for joining this crew!" After she said that, those four slowly got up and brethed heavily.

"Xi-on..." straw hat boy and Mr. Bushido growled, and they seemed to be glaring at the girl.

"Don't you 'Xi-on' me! Gravity!" Instead of all four this time, only straw hat and Mr. Bushido got back in their human-shaped hole. "As for you two!" Starlight Blade called, having Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine to flinch. Even Carue and I flinched at the tone of her voice. "Get out of my sight! Tornado Tracer!"A gust of wind suddenly came and brought the Mr. Five duo to be airborn. "Wind Sweep!" While they were in the air, she attacked them with a jumping spin attack and blew Mr. Five and Ms. Valentine away.

I stared at Starlight Blade in awe as Carue just stared in fear. Truthfully, I'm scared of her myself. All of a sudden, she went on her knees.

"Starlight Blade!" I called, having Carue to run to her. "Are you alright?"

"It's just a bullet," she told me.

I didn't know what she meant when she said that, until I remember our fight earlier. "Oh, that's right! The bullet that Igaram gave you! I apologize in his place," I said.

"Don't worry about it," a female voice came. "It'll take more than a bullet to kill her."

"Uh-oh," Starlight muttered. I was confused on why that isn't a good thing. She's another one of her nakama.

"But still... YOU ALMOST COST ME A BILLION BELLI!" All of a sudden, the navigator punched Starlight Blade in the head, having a bump to form and knocked her out. That unbelievable strength had Carue to tremble again.

"But... wait... What are you talking about? Why did you save me?" I asked the navigator.

"Oh right. We need to talk about that. Would you mind negotiating into forming a contract with me?" she asked, getting the straw hat and Mr. Bushido out of their hole, only to have them continue to fight each other, with only fists.

"Contract?"

"Quit struggling!" the navigator scolded, punching both of them in the head, knocking them out as well.

'If I refused, I might end up like those three,' I thought. 'Might as well see what the contract is.'