I don't really have anything to add here, but there will be some info at the end of this, so for right now...enjoy! Well, actually, one thing: everybody (except when I introduce Franky, and obviously Brook) are based on their post-timeskip appearances. That's it! Now you can enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of One Piece's characters mentioned in this fic.

Warning: This is AU. Basically, all that remains are their names, faces, and a few personality traits, but other than that, the characters in this story are mostly OOC.

Re-uploaded: June 4, 2015

"Zoro."

Something sharp broke through his consciousness, but he pushed it away, too tired to care.

"Zoro!"

Now it was sharp and loud, but he still didn't wake.

"Zoro!" followed by a slap.

"OW!" the green-haired sleeper shouted as his eye immediately opened. "What the hell do you want?!" It sounded like he was talking with gravel and sand in his throat.

As his mind switched from sleepy to awake, he noticed how hot he was, like he was burning from the inside out; his head was throbbing as well, and his throat felt like someone cut it up before pouring lemon juice down it. Unfortunately, he knew what that particular sensation felt like; Mihawk could be extremely…creative with his training when he put his mind to it.

"Zoro." His brain finally caught the frightened edge in Perona's voice and looked up at her, eyebrow cocked in question. "Look."

Zoro followed her pointer finger before he blanched. Something in his mind finally kickstarted, waking him up instantly, but he still just stared at the sight in front of him. It seemed the deer thing was awake, but now he looked…really different. Definitely different. And he wasn't the only one awake—it seemed the woman decided to join the land of the living as well.

But that's not what had Zoro stumped.

He blinked. He blinked again. He did it repeatedly before everything finally clicked into place and he dropped his head back, letting out a loud groan that instantly morphed into a coughing fit. Of course. Of fucking course. Now he realized what it was he saw last night after the storm cleared up—the thing that tickled the back of his mind the whole way back that he ignored since he was so damn tired—because now he saw it, loud and clear, surrounding the two beings in front of him—flashes and sparkles that looked like fireworks exploding in the sky; he could finally comprehend what it was now that he'd had some sleep and the morning light was filtering through the partially-drawn curtains, giving the room some faint light from the windows. His Sight was telling him this same exact thing last night, but since it was in its "Passive" mode, the only thing it could tell him was that these people were not Human, but that's about it. Yet he still ignored it. Stupid! Stupid!

"They aren't Human, are they?" Perona finally whispered to Zoro, hand gripping his bicep tightly.

Zoro just shook his head.

The deer thing that came back with them had…transformed, for lack of a better word. He was now a humanoid-looking creature, a good three or four heads taller than Zoro, covered in the same golden tan fur as the deer form, and with the antlers (though there's a metal plate bracing the left antler at the base they didn't see last night), but he's now standing on two legs, and instead of hooves, there were feet and hands, and around his neck was a thick, pale sandy-colored ruff; weirder still was the fact that the nose was blue and he's wearing a hat—a sky blue bubble cap that had a ring of dots around a light pink circle with a white sideways "x" in the center, a thick light pink bill, and a pair of buckles hanging down—and a pair of dark maroon shorts.

Now, the woman was a different story. To regular people, she appeared to be young and rather beautiful, nothing too strange about her. She stood maybe an inch shorter than Perona and had wavy, hip-length hair the color of tangerines with choppy bangs and two chest-length strands framing her face, burgundy-brownish eyes, fair skin, sharpish canine teeth, and a slender, well-endowed, hourglass figure; around her left wrist was a gold bracelet, in her ears were pale lavender pearl studs, and covering her left deltoid was an indigo tattoo that might represent some sort of pinwheel and maybe a tangerine at the top. She's dressed in what looked to be a short, tattered orange dress and was barefoot while some kind of brown band was circling her right upper-thigh, holding three short, cyan blue metal tubes of some kind.

Zoro lifted his head back up, blinked the rest of the sleep from his eye, and finally switched to Active Sight. The deer thing looked the same as before, since he's already pretty odd-looking to begin with—the only thing that remained were the flashes surrounding him. But the woman…Zoro could see her clear as day now. Sticking up from her hair were upright, triangular, dark orange-furred ears, her eyes were glowing and more burgundy with vertically oval pupils, the canines of her teeth were extremely sharp and a bit longer, her fingernails looked more claw-like, and sticking out from under her dress, lazily making figure-8s, was a long, bushy dark orange-furred tail tipped with white. But that's not the only thing he saw as his gaze wandered down to the still-unconscious ones, just to confirm his suspicions.

Great, Zoro let out another groan, again followed by a coughing fit.

"Quit doing that!" Perona scolded, lightening her grip on his arm and looking at him with concern.

Zoro ignored her as the truth of what, exactly, they brought into their house with them hit him. Hard. Like several bricks to the face.

"Demons," Zoro muttered. "We went and brought fucking Demons into the house."

"What did you just say?" The two snapped their heads over when they heard a voice, not their own, speak, seeing that it was the orange-haired woman who did so.

Zoro let out a sigh as he pulled himself up into more of a sitting position and looked between their two awake "guests".

"I have no doubt you just heard what I said." Zoro said, throat still killing him, but ignored it. "But I'll repeat it anyway. I said I can't believe we brought Demons into the house."

Perona's eyes opened in shock as she looked between Zoro and the strangers while the other two just stared at Zoro in confusion.

"What are you—" the orange-haired woman started, but was cut off by Zoro.

"To be fair, he's," Zoro pointed to the deer creature, "not a Demon. I'm guessing a Shifter, given that you came into here in a different form than this one. But the rest of you…yeah, definitely Demon." Zoro's gaze locked with the woman's. "You, in particular, are a Kitsune." He smirked. "You're the first one I've ever seen in person, actually."

The woman looked close to having a fit while the deer creature stared at him in disbelief.

"How?!" the woman finally screeched out. "I'm in my Human form!"

Perona looked away from Zoro to the woman. "That may be true, but you can't hide from someone with the Sight."

. . .

"You!" she exclaimed, pointing at Zoro. "You have the Sight?!"

"Didn't she just say that?" Zoro said rhetorically before he started coughing even harder.

"Dammit, Zoro, stop doing that!" Perona exclaimed before moving her hand to rest on his forehead and hissing. "You're burning up! You got sick, didn't you?!"

"I'm just fine, Perona." Zoro grumped, even as his voice sounded otherwise.

"I can't take it!" the deer creature finally exploded, causing everyone (awake) to look at him in surprise—Zoro and Perona from the fact he could talk and the orange-haired one that he actually talked at all.

"Chopper, what are you doing?" the woman asked plainly.

"This idiot's sick, Nami, and he's doing everything he can to make it worse!" Chopper, apparently, said, pointing at Zoro.

"Who the hell are you calling an idiot!?" Zoro shouted, though regretted it when he started coughing again.

"Stop talking!" Chopper shouted.

"I will not take orders from a talking, shifting deer!" Zoro said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"Reindeer!" Chopper yelled. "I'm a reindeer, dammit! Why does everyone get that wrong?!"

The Kitsune, Nami, just shrugged.

"Deer, reindeer, doesn't matter!" Zoro said, shaking his head. "I'm just fine either way."

"You are not fine!" Chopper said, stomping over to him and laying a hand over his forehead, despite Zoro's struggles. "You are running a high fever and coughing and you sound like your talking through glass shards. You have a cold."

"Do not." Zoro stated.

"How the hell did you manage to get one?" Nami asked, head cocked to the side.

Zoro's one eye narrowed into a glare that he leveled at the woman. "Saving your dumb asses in the middle of a torrential rainstorm!"

Nami blinked in surprise. "Oh. Is that how we ended up here?"

Perona nodded her head.

"Hm." Nami said, looking around the room, but said nothing else.

"Get off me!" Zoro shouted as Chopper tried to hold him down, brandishing a thermometer he got from…somewhere.

"Not until I take your temperature!" Chopper yelled back, struggling to keep his grip on Zoro.

Perona merely blinked before getting out of the way, moving to stand near the back door—she didn't want to be in the middle of…whatever that was. She then heard a few scratches at the door and looked down, eyes widening some when she saw Wadō and Kumashi sitting in front of it, staring back up at her. She had forgotten she let them out earlier since they kept sniffing at the strangers and she didn't want the two disturbing them. Should she let them in or…

Her thoughts were cut off when, after a particularly loud shout from Zoro, another head popped up, this time from the floor, and started looking around.

"Breakfast time? Where's the meat?" he asked, blinking sleepily as he looked around before his sleepiness quickly morphed into confusion. "Where am I?"

Nami looked down at the ground in surprise before a smile lifted her lips. "Luffy! You're awake!"

Perona blinked before following the Kitsune's gaze and looked over this "Luffy".

He looked to be around her height and had mediumish, messy raven black hair with choppy-spiky fringe, chocolate brown eyes, light tan skin, and a lean, muscular body; he also had two visible scars: a horizontal scar with two stitches underneath his left eye and a large X-shaped burn scar over his chest. He's dressed in some sort of red long-sleeved top—that'd been ripped down the center—and black pants, and hanging from a chin-string over his shoulder blades was a straw hat with a red ribbon circling it. She briefly wondered what Zoro would see if he looked at the guy…

Before anything else could be said, however, Nami's happy expression quickly turned into a truly frightening one as she stomped over to the ravenette before harshly bashing him over the head.

"Ow! Nami!" the boy whined out, grabbing onto his head, though his actions were more of someone who was used to this treatment.

"We're in the Human Realm, you moron! How the hell did we end up here?!" Nami shouted, fists propped on her hips as she stared the ravenette down.

Luffy blinked owlishly at her before scratching the side of his nose and simply saying, "Don't know."

Nami's face turned a dangerous shade of red before she screamed out in aggravation and threw her hands in the air, turning away from him—no one noticed how some of the lights flickered with her rage. "I don't know why I even bother anymore!"

"Shishishi."

Nami whirled back around. "This isn't a laughing matter, Luffy!" She then pointed at Perona. "These people risked their lives bringing us back to their home, and they didn't even know who we were!"

Zoro finally wedged his legs in between him and Chopper, planting his feet on the Shifter's stomach, before pushing, sending him flying back into the opposite wall.

"Finally." Zoro groaned out, shaking out his arms; he's going to have bruises later thanks to the harsh grip the reindeer had on him.

Nami then moved her finger to Zoro, who blinked back at her in confusion. "And he's sick because of it!"

Luffy followed her finger, but when his gaze landed on the green-haired guy, he froze, his heart and breathing stopping almost completely. A feeling, one he had never felt before in his life, gripped him tight as thoughts started whirling so fast through his head that he couldn't even begin to decipher them, and before he knew what he was even doing, he was whispering the ancient mantra beneath his breath; the power of the spell started to swirl inside him before the feeling of something inside of him splitting in two occurred, and that's when he let that collected energy go, feeling half his soul leave him and headed toward the green-haired one, the bond sealing immediately once it was done. Zoro flinched when he felt something hot and almost sharp sting the area between his hip and lower-back, on the right side. But before he could investigate it further, or get a good look at the new awake one, the stupid Shifter was coming back at him, still waving around that damn thermometer.

"I said keep that thing away from me!" Zoro grunted, giving Chopper one hell of a glare.

"Would you stop acting like a child, Zoro!" Perona called out, walking over to the porch door to finally let in Wadō and Kumashi. "He's just trying to help."

"Help my ass." Zoro said, still glaring. "I'm just fine!" The coughing fit he went into after disproved his statement.

"Idiot." Perona muttered, opening the door and stepping back when the Hell-animals came zooming in.

Kumashi did a surveying lap around the room before gracefully jumping up and landing on the fireplace mantle, sitting right next to Perona's head while Wadō…well, she could see Zoro was distressed, so she did what she thought was right: she immediately got in between Zoro and the threat, crouching down and letting out a low warning growl.

Perona giggled, reaching a hand up to pet Kumashi. This should be interesting.

"Wadō," cough cough "calm down. Everything's" cough "okay." Zoro said, still hacking up a lung.

Chopper had backed away as soon as he saw Wadō—still remembering last night—while Luffy merely looked at the animal with curiosity. He looked at Wadō, then at Zoro, then back down, then over at Zoro, then back down at Wadō.

"What are you doing, Luffy?" Nami finally asked, rubbing her temples.

"Uh…I wanna ask a question but you told me never to say our true selves aloud in front of Humans." Luffy said, blinking innocently.

Nami rolled her eyes; trust him to listen to her now. "Don't worry about these two, Luffy. They know." When Luffy looked at her, wide-eyed, she merely pointed at Zoro. "That one has the Sight. He can see our true selves regardless."

"Ahh." Luffy said, banging his left fist in his open right palm. "That's why you guys have a Hellhound and Hellcat."

Zoro just nodded, feeling really sleepy, but fighting off the feeling all the same. Again, he's very stubborn.

Luffy could see this happening and, not wanting him to suffer (though no idea why he felt this way), he sighed out before squinting his eyes in concentration and suddenly flaring them open, sending out a short burst that directly hit Zoro and knocked him out immediately; he was too weak to fight it, which was what Luffy was hoping for, 'cause he didn't think it'd work otherwise. Wadō looked behind her, letting out a low whine at Zoro's state, before looking back up, growling again. Luffy did the same thing again, causing the Hellhound to stand down or risk being overwhelmed.

Luffy smiled and walked passed her, patting her on the head. "Good girl." He then turned. "Chopper! Come get him now. He should be more cooperative."

Chopper looked at Luffy with confusion before rushing over; he could question the boy later. He stuck the thermometer (finally) in the Human's mouth before moving to scoop him up, looking back at Perona a second later. "Where's his room?"

"Up the stairs, first door on the right." Perona said, now heading to the kitchen. "I'll bring up a bowl of water and a washcloth." Zoro didn't seem all too worried about these people, even if they were Demons, so Perona wasn't going to worry much until Zoro lets her know otherwise.

After a look from Luffy, Nami walked over to the pink-haired girl. "Let me help." When Perona looked at her questionably, she added, "It's the least we could do." Perona shrugged and then the great room was empty, save Luffy and Wadō; Kumashi had followed behind Perona.

"So, what is a Hellhound doing with a Human?" Luffy asked, moving to sit down in front of Wadō, indian-style. "It can't just be because he has the Sight. It takes something very special for a Hellhound to imprint on a Human." He looked in the direction the girls went. "A Hellcat too. At least, that's what Ace told me once." He looked back at the Hellhound. "So, what happened?"

Wadō cocked her head before leaning it down, inviting him to place his hand on top; she recognized who this boy was the moment she felt his power, so she had no doubt he understood what she's asking him to do. Luffy pursed his lips in contemplation before doing what the Hellhound asked of him. After placing a hand on her head, he closed his eyes and let himself be drawn into the memory Wadō was pulling up. The memory of the day she met Zoro…

Four Years Ago

The Hellhound let out a low whine as she dragged her tired, beaten body off into some bushes, immediately changing into her "regular dog" form so she wouldn't draw any attention. She couldn't go home, not now, not after killing nearly every single Hellhound her stupid cousin sent after her, as well as said stupid cousin. She let out another whine, resting her head on her front paws. She didn't even want to be the next Head of Family; it wasn't her fault she was the oldest, nor that she's female—which was really the whole problem. She turned her head to lick her wounds some; she'll plan her next move once she heals up. It seems staying in the Human Realm was her smartest (and only) option right now.

"Shit." The Hellhound's head popped up when she heard a deep voice some feet away from her hiding place. "Where the hell am I?" A deep groan. "I got lost. Perona's never gonna let me hear the end of it."

There was some leaves crunching and the sound of branches being pushed back before the noises ceased immediately. The Hellhound remained still, not wanting to be discovered; she's in no shape to protect herself and who knows what this stranger will do to her? Not all people in this Realm are bad, but the stories she had heard were enough to make her cautious.

"What are you doing here?" the voice sounded from above her.

The Hellhound twisted her head to look up before letting out a low warning growl that tapered off into a whine as her movements agitated her wounds. The green-haired Human stopped at the sounds, pausing slightly before moving forward again, shifting the bushes to get a better look at her.

"You don't look so good." The male muttered, eyes wandering over her body.

She let out another growl, but it sounded weak, even to her.

"Why aren't you healing already?" the man asked, squatting down next to her. "Hellhounds have fast recovery rates, or so my dad tells me."

She blinked, looking at the Human in shock. She's in her "normal" dog form, yet he knew she's a Hellhound. Did that mean…

The male must have noticed the confused look on her face—yes, she can make an expression like that—because he then said, "I have the Sight, so I can tell you're a Hellhound." He reached a hand out, but stilled when she let out another growl. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you."

The Hellhound gave him a scrutinizing look before laying her head back down, giving him permission.

He then moved his hand down and laid it gently on her side. He sifted through the fur, carefully feeling out the bumps, bruises and gashes along her body, stilling every so often when she'd let out pained noises. After some time passed by, he removed his hand and rocked back onto his heels, head cocked as he studied her.

"The wounds are healing, but slowly. Very slowly." He pursed his lips. "You were attacked by another Hellhound, weren't you?" She nodded very slowly. "I thought so, but seeing as you're here and still alive, I'm guessing you won that particular fight, huh?"

She let out a proud woof.

He chuckled. "I like that. You're strong, I can tell that by the strength of the flames covering your body. Old, too." He sighed. "Since you can't talk, that's about all I can tell about you. I'm Zoro, by the way. I didn't mean to stumble on you, but I got a…bit turned around when I was heading home and ended up here. I guess it's a good thing, though."

She lifted her head up some to look at him before her eyes glanced at the sky quickly. Oh great, it's about to…

"Ah, hell." The male, Zoro, groaned as the sky opened up and it started pouring. "That's just fantastic." He glanced down at her, studying her, and seemed to come to some kind of decision before removing his jacket and laying it over her.

She lifted and craned her head back, ignoring the pain that action caused, and gave him a confused look.

"I can't leave you here." Zoro said, his tone basically calling her stupid. "I'll bring you back to my house and have my dad look you over." He spread his feet before slipping his arms underneath her, pushing himself up while cradling her in his arms. "You can take your time and heal. After you're better, you can do whatever you'd like."

She let out a whine, the shifting causing her injuries to throb, before looking up at the Human. He's really going to help her? Bring her somewhere safe and warm? She didn't have the luxury of questioning it, nor could she fight back, but something inside her told her this man meant her no harm. She finally let out a long breath as her eyes slipped closed, slipping into unconsciousness.

"I see." Luffy said as he removed his hand from her head. "He saved you, brought you back with him, and because of it, you imprinted on him."

Wadō looked up at him before nodding.

"And now you protect him." Luffy finished. "After what happened to you, I'm not surprised that you wouldn't wanna go back to the Demon Realm." Luffy tilted his head in curiosity then. "Did something similar happen with that Hellcat too?"

Wadō nodded.

"Interesting." Luffy murmured, eyes straying over to the stairs that Chopper disappeared up a little more than an hour ago.

Bark!

Luffy's gaze switched back to the Hellhound, eyebrow raised. "What was that?"

Wadō narrowed her eyes some before letting out several barks, but to Luffy, he could understand what the Hellhound was saying like she was speaking normally to him.

"You could tell that already?" Luffy asked, a little surprised. "The scent aura shouldn't have taken hold for at least a few more hours."

Another bark, this one sounding slightly insulted.

Luffy let out his signature laugh. "Yeah, I guess you'd have better senses than most others."

Wadō let loose another string of barks, this time sounding slightly demanding and maybe a little protective.

Luffy sighed, wrapping his arms around his legs before resting his chin on his bent knees. "I don't know how it happened, or why. I just felt this need grip me when I looked at him. Before I knew it, I was casting the bonding on him."

Wadō's eyes narrowed as her head cocked, studying the Demon in front of her.

"He now owns half my soul and doesn't even know it." Luffy said, almost self-deprecatingly, before letting out an unhappy grump. "The bonding is supposed to be done by two people who know what's going on, so that the soul transferring is done by both. Having it this way makes everything unbalanced." Luffy cocked his head thoughtfully. "Well, that's what Shanks told me once. I didn't think I'd ever use the bonding, so I didn't really pay much attention when he was telling me about it. Shishishi."

Wadō was still studying him, trying to figure him out, before finally concluding this Demon was no threat to Zoro. She'd never heard of a bonding done without both parties talking extensively about it before going to a private location to cast it, but it seemed it could happen. Plus, with this particular Demon and his…position in the Demon Realm, anything was possible, she guessed. So, she gave out another series of barks, these a lot more friendlier.

Luffy gave her a slightly surprised look before a wide smile overtook his face. "Really? You're okay with it?"

Wadō just gave him a stern look before another bark.

"Shishishi. I won't hurt him. I don't think I could, to be honest." Luffy said, head tilted, before saying, "He called you Wadō, right?" She nodded. "That's a nice name. Mine's Luffy."

A bark, a bit condescending.

"Well, given how old and powerful you are, I'm not surprised you know who I am." Luffy sighed out. "And you know who my Family is, right?"

A confirming bark.

"Right, right." Luffy nodded, propping his chin on his fist. "And you're still okay with the bonding thing, even knowing all that?"

Wadō just looked at him.

"Yeah, I guess there's really no choice, huh?" Luffy glanced at the stairs again but immediately jolted when a head nudged his side. "What?" he asked the Hellhound, confused.

Another nudge, followed by an encouraging bark.

"You want me to go upstairs?" Another bark. "To Zoro?" A confirming bark. "Okay, okay. I'm going." Wadō nudged Luffy's side again. "Stop pushing!" Luffy laughed, giving the Hellhound a smile before springing to his feet, heading over to the stairs.

Wadō laid down onto the ground, closing her eyes. She'd give the Demon some privacy for right now, but then she'd go up there in a little bit to check on Zoro. Wadō had a feeling she'd end up really liking this Demon, regardless of who he actually was.

Well, there you have it. We met Nami, Luffy and Chopper (again), and you got some background on Wadō.

Okay, as for the bonding...when a Supernatural "bond" with someone, half their soul is literally given to that person, and in return half of that soul goes back (so each one has half-and-half soul made up of both parties). The half of soul "blankets" over the "bondee" (for lack of a better term), covering them with the scent and letting others know this one has been claimed, called a scent aura. On the body of the "bondee" a mark appears, which is the "bonder's" initials, looking kind of like a scar or raised fleshed, you can't really see it unless you look for it, and an identical one appears on the "bonder" when the "bondee" returns their half of the soul. If the "bondee" has a "normal" lifespan (like a human), that individual will stay alive until the "bonder" is dead. It usually happens when both parties agree to it before going to a secluded location and casting the age-old mantra that needs to be said to start the process (no one really knows what the words are in the mantra, just know to use it), the "bonder" starting it by giving their half of soul over before the "bondee" finishes the mantra and returns their half of soul.

Oh, and Luffy can understand what Wadō is saying because he has the ability to hear the "Voice of All Things" (like in the show). He can do that with all different things, and only one other person had it before him, which was Gol D. Roger. The whole "Family" thing will be explained in the next chapter, so be patient. Oh, and Robin will make an appearance finally! Well, that's it for now! Please let me know what you think.