Twentyyyy nine! Wowser! Sorry to everyone I haven't replied to. I will get there. I just graduated so I was really busy, tired and cranky last week. Yay, no more school! -dance-

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Chapter 29: Cat's out of the bag

Ace strolled beside Smoker, his arms linked casually behind his head.

"So, what shall we talk about?" he asked, trying to strike up some conversation. It was rather boring just walking without saying anything. Smoker ignored him, turning into a small room, looking around and then moving on.

"Oh come on. Don't be so mean."

"Shut up Portgas, you're annoying the crap out of me." Smoker rumbled as he paused beside another door and peeked in. This time, he didn't just look in and continue. Smoker actually walked into the room and looked around.

"He's a tidy murderer." the older man muttered as he looked around the clean kitchen. Ace peeked in after him.

"I need a hat." he commented. Smoker choked and looked around at him.

"What the fuck?" he asked, annoyed and confused by the randomness of Ace's comment. Ace shrugged.

"I always used to wear a hat, I want one now." he replied. Smoker decided to ignore that comment and he went back to looking around before he moved out past Ace again. They walked in silence for a while before Ace sighed.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" he asked. Smoker frowned deeply, stopping to drop his cigars on the ground and grind them out before grabbing two from his arm and placing them in the corner of his mouth before lighting them.

"I'm looking for Kuro. Why the hell are you so interested?" and Smoker placed a hand on his hip. Ace shrugged.

"Dunno. Just curious." and he pushed his hands into his pockets, gave Smoker's cigars a slightly disgusted look and strode ahead. Smoker studied Ace's back, and frowned. He may have been protecting the kid, but it didn't mean he had to like him.

With a barely audible growl, he followed behind. The house was silent as the grave. But in the current situation, that was probably not the best terminology to use. Dark, dank and smelling of something really really… well, you don't want to know. It was a horrible smell all the same.

Ace strode ahead, looking around interestedly and warning Smoker against any holes in the floor, big ones anyway. Smoker fell through at least four small ones and had to be helped out by Ace, who was chuckling merrily. He was having fun at least. By now, Smoker was irate. Seriously pissed.

It wasn't just the fact that he had fallen through four small holes and it wasn't the fact that they had been walking around the same area for the past hour, it was the fact that Ace was baiting him. Purposely doing things to tick him off. And it was working. That was what he was so angry about. He was getting upset about a stupid boy disrespecting him. Finally, Smoker had had enough.

"Damnit Portgas! If we have to work together, and I assure you, I don't want to, we're going to have to goddamn well co operate. Right?" Smoker growled, teeth biting down on the cigars. Ace paused and turned back to him, face impassive.

"Yeah?" Ace replied, unsure of what was going on.

"Right. Then stop acting like an asshole and co operate." and Smoker strode past him. Ace blinked for a moment and then caught up to Smoker in a single bound.

"Acting like an asshole? Was I?" he asked innocently. Smoker frowned and glared at him before striding forward again.

"Oh come on taisa, don't be like that." and Ace sighed. Smoker spun around.

"Stop calling me taisa! I'm fucking older than you are, so show some goddamn respect!" he yelled, fists clenched. Ace smiled.

"Okay old man." and he grinned. Smoker slapped a hand against his forehead, turned and walked straight into a wall. How had he not noticed it you ask? Well, the simple fact that Ace was apparently acting like an asshole, had put Smoker off just a little bit, and it was enough to send the police captain into a wall. Ace blinked and sighed, shaking his head and walking forward.

"Be more careful next time old man. We're trying to be sneaky." and he walked through the door and into the next room. Smoker pulled away from the wall, and made a clenching motion with his hands, obviously wishing that they were around Ace's neck. Smoker apparently didn't like Ace very much.

---

Zoro didn't know what to say. He wanted to make Luffy happy by replying that it was, but if he did that, then Luffy would go bounding off after Ace, and that was the last thing they needed. He blinked down at the large eyes before him and sighed. It wasn't fair to Luffy if he kept the secret.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to go bounding off after him, alright?" Zoro asked. Luffy blinked and then nodded furiously.

"Yes. That was Ace." and Luffy grinned widely.

"I knew it! I knew he wasn't dead!" and he pushed past Zoro and made for the stairs.

"Luffy!" Zoro barked and the boy paused, turning back to Zoro with a sad look in his eyes.

"Oh… sorry Zoro. Forgot." and he moved reluctantly back to his friends. Zoro shook his head.

"It's alright." and he turned back to the others to once again see Sanji and this time, Nami, fixing him with sly smiles.

"We're going to have to give him the 'talk', aren't we Sanji dear." Nami said, turning to her new boyfriend. Sanji smiled back at her.

"I think so my love. I don't think it's possible that he's ever got laid before." and both of them burst into giggles. Luffy blinked and tilted his head before shrugging and looking interestedly at Tashigi. She really didn't look at ease around them. He wandered over to her.

Meanwhile, Zoro was swearing, smashing things (namely Sanji) and blushing all at the same time. It was a rather incredible, and frightening sight. Luffy tilted his head at Tashigi and his eyes took on a suspicious expression.

"Hello Monkey D." and she bowed. Luffy grinned.

"Hi!" he announced, "How do you know my name?"

"I heard Roronoa mention it while I was following you." she replied, and as much as she tried to deny it, she smiled. Normally, she would have kept her face expressionless, but this time, she had to smile. After all, no one could resist smiling when Luffy smiled. The boy shrugged.

"Cool. So, are you gonna help us?" he asked.

"Mhm. I will certainly try." Tashigi replied politely. Luffy bounced once on the spot.

"Yay! I heard that Smoker guy say that we're looking for a dude called Kuro, right?"

"Yes. That's his name." and Tashigi watched Luffy carefully for any kind of deception. She may have been ordered to help Roronoa, but that didn't mean she had to trust them. And her superior officer wouldn't want her to. Smoker was always against trusting anyone that had once been your enemy. And whatever Smoker told her, she still believed that it had been Roronoa who had killed Miki and Trent.

"AHHHH!" Luffy cried, making Tashigi jump as the boy grabbed the edges of his hat and jumped around before he turned and ran along the hall and jumped onto Zoro.

"Your swords! I-I lost them!" the boy cried, grabbing the front of Zoro's collar as he held on with his legs, wrapping them around the swordsman's waist. Zoro blinked and looked down at his hip before raising an eyebrow at Luffy.

"Err, they're right there. Tashigi…" and here he fixed the blue haired woman with a venomous stare. Tashigi glowed red and turned away, "stole them out of the car when we got here." and Luffy blinked before sighing.

"Oh, okay then. I thought I lost them and I didn't want you to be mad and so that's why I didn't tell you." Luffy reeled off. Zoro smiled and put a hand on Luffy's shoulder.

"I wouldn't have been mad. Just pissed." and he gently pushed Luffy of him. Luffy giggled as his feet touched the floor again.

"They're the same thing silly." he said. Zoro smiled.

"Right." and he turned back to the group, "We need to stay together. This guy is dangerous, and from what Smoker's told me, he's under government protection. It won't be hard to expose him though." Zoro explained.

"Oh won't it?" a sly, spine chilling voice asked from nearby. Everyone looked around, desperately trying to spot the speaker. It was Luffy who spotted him first.

"Hey! It's the dude from the place with the stuff!" he cried. Everyone just looked at him.

"What place?" Zoro asked, not taking his eyes off of where the man was standing on the railing on the other side of the stairs, in the shadow.

"Umm… the place where people drink and then go silly." Luffy replied. Zoro blinked for a minute before realizing what Luffy was talking about.

"You mean a pub?"

"Yeah!" and Luffy bounced forward, "You're the Clahadore fella!" and he grinned.

"That's Kuro." Tashigi said, her sword held out in front of her already. Zoro quickly followed suit, and just for a bit of an extra touch, he grabbed a piece of material that he had wrapped around his arm at the jail (some sort of number or something so they could identify him) and tied it around his head like a bandana.

"Gonna start a new trend?" Sanji asked, moving to stand in a threatening position beside him. Zoro grinned around the bone handled sword in his mouth.

"You better believe it." he replied. Luffy had paused beside the stairs and he was watching the man, who had stepped down from the railing and was now standing in a very strict position, half in shadow, half out. Luffy's grin faded.

"You're Kuro? But, then you lied to me, and told me to come here because-"

"Because I planned to murder you." and Kuro smiled and flicked a spec of dust from his expensive black suit's sleeve. Luffy took a step back and frowned.

"Why?" he asked. Kuro raised an eyebrow and adjusted a pair of sparkling glasses with the heel of his hand.

"Why you ask? Simply because… I felt like it. I wanted to. A whim you might say." he replied. Zoro moved to stand beside Luffy protectively. No way was he going to let this bastard kill his friend.

"A whim?" Nami asked, also moving forward to stand beside Luffy, her clima tact out and assembled.

"Yes. Whim, passing impulse: a sudden thought, idea, or desire, especially one based on impulse rather than reason or necessity. Do you understand now?" he asked, a cruel smile licking at the corner's of his lips. Nami frowned.

"I don't need you to patronize me." she hissed. Sanji was at her side as soon as Kuro had spoken to her, and he looked ready to kill. Chopper had ballooned into his big form and Usopp was standing shakily behind them all, but the hand levelling the gun at Kuro was steady.

"Aw, how cute. You're all going to fight me." and he chuckled darkly, "Sorry, I'm only here for one of you." and with that, he dived forward, swords glittering at each fingertip and his speed unmatched by the rest of the group. Luffy wasn't ready for the sudden attack, and as punishment for his lack of reaction, he received a sword through the shoulder.

The same one that had been shot before. He cried out as Kuro wrapped a gloved hand around his throat and pulled him backwards, hugging him to his chest. Tashigi made a jump for the two, but Kuro dodged her and she stumbled, too slow to turn back and face the thin cat claw swords that came for her.

Before they could strike, Zoro was there, his own swords ringing from the impact of Kuro's. The cat like man smiled as he twisted the blade in Luffy's shoulder and made the boy in his grasp, twitch.

"Well done Roronoa Zoro. I didn't realize you were so agile with those… things." and Kuro laughed as he twisted the sword in Luffy's shoulder again, discouraging all movement. Zoro advanced slowly, swords held at his side and eyes narrowed and dark beneath the new bandana he wore.

Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Usopp and Tashigi were standing behind him, ready to attack, but not sure if they should lest Kuro simply pull his hand back and slice Luffy's throat open. Zoro's eyes glanced from Kuro to Luffy and back again.

"I've been practising for a long time." Zoro replied finally. Kuro gave a slight incline of his head before looking down at Luffy and pulling the blade out, but not all the way. Just far enough so it wasn't all the way through.

This was no act of mercy though, for a soon as he had done this, another sword found it's way through the thin shoulder and both were buried deep. Luffy grit his teeth, his breathing haggard.

"Zoro…" he gasped and looked at his newly found love. Zoro paused, watching Luffy carefully. Something was changing, Luffy was becoming… stronger. He could see it, and he was sure that Kuro couldn't.

Too focused on the pain twisting Luffy's features, to notice the hand clenching, the foot lifting and before he knew it, he was flat on his back at the other end of the corridor, two swords broken off and still in Luffy's shoulder. Zoro blinked.

"Whoa…" he muttered. Luffy grabbed the blades, their sharp edges slicing into his hand, and pulled them both out and dropped them to the ground. Dark blood was soaking the shirt Luffy was wearing, but the boy didn't notice.

He just kept advancing towards Kuro. The murderer was sitting up, sporting a pair of broken glasses and a black eye. Before he knew what was happening, Luffy had him by the collar and was pulling him up.

"You're threatening not only me, but my friends. You framed my best friend. For that, you deserve to die." and Luffy pulled a fist back. Kuro acted quickly, stabbing Luffy through the stomach. The boy stumbled backwards, pulling away from the pain as quickly as he could.

Zoro darted forward, hoping Luffy would be okay but focused on Kuro. He slashed out, but his swords only caught a jacket. Kuro was swaying on the spot, his jacket having been thrown at Zoro in an attempt to confuse him, and it had worked.

"What the…?" Zoro asked as Kuro moved like a puppet, his arm swaying and his head tilted forward before he disappeared completely.

"Shit!" Sanji swore behind him. Next thing, Chopper had been thrown back against a wall, slashes running over his right side. He growled in pain and shrunk down to his normal size, the rips twinging painfully as he did so. Tashigi screamed as she was thrown over the railing.

Zoro ran over and saw her laying on the floor, breathing but obviously unconscious. Her arm looked broken. He twisted around to see Sanji dodge out of the way and slam a leg into mid air, catching Kuro and making him re-appear. The murderer was thrown backwards, where Luffy levelled a heavy punch at him, despite his injuries.

Kuro was slammed into the railing, and he took a deep, deep breath before standing up again, swaying for a moment as blood trickled from his mouth. A smile was still on his lips, and twin strands of hair had come loose from the perfectly slicked back hair on his head.

"Very nice. Didn't expect that." he muttered, pushing his broken glasses up his nose and leaning backwards slightly.

"We'll do the unexpected." Luffy threatened and then his eyes narrowed, "And we'll kill you by doing so."

"What do you have against me boy?" Kuro asked, wiping his blades on a rag he had pulled from his pocket. Luffy paused and then shrugged.

"You framed my best friend, you tried to kill me and you killed innocent people." he replied, "What do you have against me?"

"I was… told to kill you. It is none of my business, but between you and me, I really don't like my boss." and he smiled, "But, he gives me immunity against the police. I can do whatever I want and no one questions me. I get paid enough money to be able to live in a wonderful home. I get all my meals, my food and drink, free, wherever I go. I like that. But soon, that idiot Morgan, will die. I don't follow orders well, and I usually kill a few more people than I'm supposed to, and for that, he locks me in here. So, I plan to get my revenge."

"Why don't you just quit?" Nami asked from beside Chopper.

"Ha, why quit when I can have it all? I'll take over the police force, and then this town, and then who knows." and he shrugged, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, but another trickle just replaced it. Luffy frowned.

"Of course, you won't live long enough to see any of that, and that is a shame." and Kuro began swaying again. Zoro dived forward, spinning around and slashing out with his swords but Kuro was gone already and the swordsman cursed, turning to try and track him.

---

Ace paused and Smoker ran straight into him.

"Portgas!" he growled, rubbing at his nose and glaring furiously at the boy before him. His cigars were bent back towards his face and he frowned even more deeply at that. Ace turned to face him and grinned.

"Sorry. But, I heard something." he replied. Smoker turned around.

"That way?" he asked. Ace nodded and moved past him before collapsing to the floor. Smoker raised and eyebrow and shook his head, sighing.

"Stupid bastard…" he muttered, picking up the softly snoring boy and throwing him over his shoulder and moving towards the stairs that led back upstairs.

---

Nami was next, and she was thrown against the same wall as Chopper, sharp slashes on her shoulders and legs. Sanji kicked out again, but this time he wasn't as lucky and his shot went wide. Kuro darted around his leg and slashed Sanji's thighs wide open. The chef yelled and fell back to the floor.

His legs might have been like steel, but they weren't the real thing. He could still be hurt and Kuro had found out the weakness. He didn't stop there with Sanji though, and soon the chef lay on the floor unconscious, slashes running all over his legs, and up his stomach, one across his cheek. Usopp watched in horror.

He levelled the gun and let his eyes un-focus, hoping that his marksman senses would kick in and he would be able to catch Kuro off guard. He fired a shot when he heard a small hiss and looked up to see Kuro staggering back, blood running from the top of his arm.

The murderer narrowed his eyes and performed his dance again, barely avoiding Zoro's kick and Luffy's punch. Usopp was smashed into a wall… repeatedly, until he was thrown to the ground by an unseen assailant, and then slashed until Zoro reached the scene, and lashed out with his swords. There was a loud yelp of pain and Kuro reappeared further down the hall, the front of his shirt ripped wide and a deep slash running over his stomach.

"You're starting to catch on." he muttered, his voice betraying no hints of whether he was in pain, or frightened. Nothing. He was a rock, except for the slightly quivering hands and the sharp breaths he was taking. That was a dead giveaway. He was a little frightened, and a lot hurt. He swayed, performing his strange dance.

Luffy leaped forward and slammed a palm into Kuro's chest, flinging him backwards down the corridor. He slid to a halt at the end of the hall and lay there for a moment before getting to his feet, coughing, smoothing back his hair and discarding his broken glasses.

"I'll have to up the ante!" he yelled and performed an even quicker dance. He disappeared and Luffy and Zoro were left alone in the corridor.

It was the quick and sharp gust of wind that alerted Luffy to Kuro's incoming attack. Luffy prepared himself, clenching his fists and bowing his back ever so slightly. He moved one leg further to the left side and kept his right steady. There was a sharp snarl and Luffy jumped to the side, his eyes glancing around just in time to see Kuro stop, his feet placed back on the floor and his hands outstretched. Zoro blinked and Luffy's eyes widened.

That hadn't just happened. He hadn't just let Zoro take the fall for him. Zoro just blinked and then looked down at himself, studying the man in front of him as eight blades pulled from his stomach. Luffy shook his head as Kuro backed away, smiling triumphantly.

"What have you done child?" he whispered in a haunting voice as Luffy hurried over to Zoro. The swordsman was hanging onto consciousness best he could, his eyes watering and his mouth gasping. One sword he could handle, two swords even. But eight. Luffy grabbed the taller's shoulders just as he was about to fall back, and he lowered him to the floor.

"Zoro?" Luffy asked, sensing that his friend was barely awake. The man managed a small smile.

"I'll… be alright… you just go… and get… Kuro." he gasped, hands shaking a little harder than normal. Luffy nodded and placed a soft kiss on Zoro's forehead just as the older man fell into unconsciousness. He lay Zoro's head down and stood.

"Kuro…" and Luffy pushed his hat down on his head, cracked his knuckles and then slammed a fist into his open palm, "You're going down."

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Hey hey, don't kill me! Argh! I love and hate doing cliffhangers, and I know you guys love and hate it too, but, I'll tell ya what. I'll post the next chapter a little earlier, alright? I'll post it tomorrow, which is Sunday for me. Okies? So, yeah, don't kill me or throw random Monkey D Luffy's at me. Luffy really doesn't appreciate it. Thx! -grins- oh, and yeah, please leave a review!