The Previous Day…

"I've never seen anything like this," Usopp said, kicking at the junk littering the shore. The beach was packed with a layer of trash so thick you could hardly see the sand.

"If you find anything that looks valuable, bring it straight to me!" Nami called from Sunny's deck.

"Like we're sorting through this garbage," Zoro scoffed, kicking at an old sake bottle.

"Luffy, that's disgusting!" Usopp cried.

Luffy apparently didn't have any qualms about sorting through the garbage. He dived in, coming up with a few old hats and what looked like a broken cane.

"But look at all this cool stuff! You can find tons of great stuff in the trash!"

"Were you raised in a dump or something!?" Zoro asked, looking a little disgusted himself.

"Something like that," Luffy replied, distracted by the bag of old food that spilled out beside him.

"Don't even think about it!" Usopp said, slapping an apple out of Luffy's hand, "that thing's half rotten!"

"Then the other half of it was still fine!" Luffy argued.

"I give up!" Usopp sighed, shaking his head, "I'm heading into the village with the others, this beach smells terrible."

Zoro found a tree far from the shore and settled down for a doze. If he was on Luffy duty, at least his captain was content being in one place for a while. Every so often Luffy would declare a new "awesome" find: an old pirate flag, a cup, a fish skeleton.

When a shadow fell over him, the swordsman squinted open his good eye. Luffy was grinning down at him, looking like he'd hit gold.

Zoro raised an eyebrow as Luffy proudly held his newest discovery before him.

"It's a sponge..." he deadpanned. Luffy nodded, his eyes bright with excitement.

"It's not just any sponge, Zoro," the captain explained, poking the slimy mass, "it's a lucky sponge!"

"A lucky sponge?" he asked.

"That's right, I'm going to keep it for a pet."

Zoro shrugged, closing his eye once more. As far as pets went, they were lucky if all Luffy wanted was a dirty old sponge.

"Let's go into the village. I want to show everyone!" Luffy said, already heading toward the ship.

"If you go into the village smelling like that, they'll chase you out with pitchforks," Zoro warned.

Ultimately, Luffy admitted that Zoro might have a point. He conceded to a quick bath with his sponge. Zoro stared at it sitting on the edge of the tub. The thing was round, grayer than any sea sponge he'd ever seen. If it weren't for the dimples and nooks, it could pass for a rock. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, it gave him the creeps.

It wasn't long before Luffy, now damp but significantly less smelly, was rushing off the ship toward the village. The sponge was a bulge in his pocket. Just as Zoro caught up, Luffy stumbled over a rock, lost his balance, and rolled right into a tree. He got to his feet with a confused expression.

"Where did that rock come from?" he wondered, adjusting his hat.

Zoro ignored him, chalking it up to typical Luffy clumsiness.

It wasn't until the fifth tree that Zoro began to wonder.


By the time they found their way to the village, Luffy had walked into five trees, stepped on a hive, and nearly had an animal trap take off his foot. He was quite a sight, with leaves and twigs sticking out of his hair, and red and swollen hornet stings covering most of his body. Zoro, on the other hand, had avoided most of the hornets, all of the trees, and yanked Luffy back from the animal trap just in time.

"Young man, what happened to you!?" a stranger asked, rushing toward the pair. The stethoscope hanging around his neck was the only hint of him practicing medicine. He didn't look like a typical doctor, not that their crew could speak. The man looked like he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed, with untamed hair and wrinkled, uncoordinated clothes.

"Vees," Luffy muttered between swollen lips.

"Please, follow me. Right this way, I have a tonic that will reduce the swelling very quickly!"

Luffy and Zoro exchanged looks before they both shrugged. Luffy wasn't sure he could eat very well with his face like this, and Chopper wasn't anywhere in sight.

The doctor led them to a shack of a house, with a roof that looked like it was a rainstorm away from collapsing. The inside didn't look much better. Medicine bottles and medical tools were strewn around without rhyme or reason.

The room was dimly lit, with a dozen candles sitting on all types of surfaces around the room, and a few old oil lamps hanging from the rafters. There were two beds squeezed into the modest home, one slightly larger than the other. The doctor gestured to the smaller bed, and Luffy plopped down on the edge.

"Here, drink this," the doctor poured a honey-colored liquid from it's glass vial into a very small cup.

"Are you really a doctor?" Zoro asked, looking around the room skeptically.

"Of course I am! I'm the only doctor."

Luffy handed back the empty cup. He poked at his face and grinned when he noticed the swelling start to go down.

"Hey, thanks! That stuff really works!"

The doctor beamed with pride, "it's my very own mixture. The hornets on this island cause lots of trouble, they're usually fatal when a person is stung as many times as you were. You're lucky I was here!"

Luffy opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. His hands shot to his throat, which looked to be rapidly swelling.

"What the hell!?" Zoro yelled, glaring at the doctor, "what did you give him!?"

"He's having an allergic reaction to the antivenom!" the doctor cried, turning around and rummaging through the bottles on his shelves. Meanwhile, Luffy was turning a sickly shade of blue.

"Hey, do something before he suffocates!"

"It's here somewhere," the doctor muttered, pulling out drawers and tearing through the contents. Zoro was about to run for Chopper when the doctor called out in victory. He pulled a syringe and needle from the drawer and stuck Luffy in the thigh.

After a moment, Luffy wheezed and he sucked in air. Soon, he was gasping and panting, his knuckles white as he clutched the side of the bed.

"What the hell was that!?" Zoro demanded.

"I've never seen someone have a reaction like that to the antivenom. Never! He's the very first! You're lucky I had a dose of adrenaline on hand!"

"You're lucky you found it," Zoro growled.

Luffy looked exhausted. Zoro put a hand on his shoulder and pushed. The rubber captain fell back into the bed without a fight.

"Stay here, I'll get Chopper."

"But… Zoro! I… don't...need...Chopper!" Luffy choked out the words between gasps. Zoro ignored him and headed to the door.

"Stay here," he ordered, speaking to both Luffy and the questionable doctor.

When Zoro was gone, the doctor sighed and collapsed down on the larger bed.

"I'm sorry about the tonic," he said, shaking his head, "if I hadn't found that syringe in time, you'd be a goner!"

"You're really messy for a doctor," Luffy wheezed.

"I'm afraid I've always been this way," the doctor sighed, "my patients always trust my judgement, but perhaps it's time I organize this place."

Luffy shifted on the bed, trying to make himself comfortable. He really was tired, but he knew some food would get him back on his feet in no time. Until then, he didn't mind taking some time to catch his breath. His elbow knocked into a glass on the bedside table, spilling out some of the contents. It dripped down the wall until it danced under the flame of a burning candle.


"Excuse me, where's the doctor's house?" Nami asked a passing woman. Zoro had found her and Chopper in the center of the village, and briefly explained Luffy's reaction. Chopper had panicked, but was relieved to hear that Luffy was with a doctor. Still, he wanted to see his captain right away, just to be sure there were no lingering effects. Of course, neither trusted Zoro to reliably lead them back to the doctor's house, much to the swordsman's ire.

"Five houses down, with the worn roof," the woman responded, pointing down the street from where they stood. Nami spotted the house and thanked the woman. As the trio approached, a loud crackling sound erupted from the house, followed by a blinding, red hot explosion.

"The house!" Chopper screamed, terrified.

Zoro kicked in the front door, intent on rushing in to help Luffy and the doctor. Smoke spilled out from the doorway, burning their eyes. A shadow emerged, coughing and squinting, dragging a prone figure with it.

"Luffy!" Nami cried in relief.

Zoro took the doctor from their captain, and Luffy collapsed onto his backside a few feet from the door. He coughed hard, but waved Chopper away when the reindeer came to check on him. Luffy knew that the village doctor was in worse shape than he was. After the fire started, the doctor insisted on trying to gather as many supplies as he could carry. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the fire found one of the oil lamps, and both of them were burned.

"What the hell happened in there?" Zoro asked, but Luffy still couldn't find his voice. What started off as a great morning was quickly getting worse and worse. Luffy put a hand in his pocket and pulled out the sponge. Was it mad he picked it up?

He decided that he'd put it right back where he found it. Once he caught his breath, and helped put out the fire.


"There! You're back home. Sorry I took you," Luffy said, looking down at the sponge. It was sitting atop a small heap of garbage.

"Is he talking to a sponge?" Franky asked, shooting Robin a confused look.

"Our captain's done stranger things," Robin smiled.

"Ain't that the truth," Franky nodded in agreement, turning around to head back to the ship.

"NAMMMIII-SWAAAAAN, ROOOBBBIN-CHWAAAN! Your lunch awaits you!"

At the word "lunch", Luffy forgot all about the not-his-pet sponge.

Until half way through the meal.

"Luffy, get that nasty thing off the table!" Sanji scolded.

Luffy looked down. The sponge stared back up.

"Huh? But-" he started, but was interrupted by the sound of snapping wood. On the floor, laying beside his broken chair, Luffy glared up at the sponge. It was laughing at him!

If he couldn't get rid of it, it was time for plan B.