All right guys, I am sorry. I fail you all as an author. I will be going on a trip for spring break. Will just be today thru Monday I think. I don't know if there will be WiFi, so I may not be able update. I'm sorry. So I made this one extra long for you guys to enjoy.

Zoro sets me down and I wince at the hotness that flares through my bare feet. Franky asks.

"You ok Rose-sis?"

Luffy hops around on his sandals.

"It's as hot as last time."

Robin gives me a sympathetic look.

"Rose, your feet."

I look down and sure enough steam is emitting from my feet. I take a deep breath, concentrating. The pain is nothing. The pain is nothing Rose. Ignore it. I smile.

"No, it's ok."

Brook laughed.

"This heat is burning my skin, but wait I am just bones. Skull Joke! Yohohohohohoho."

Usopp gasped.

"Rose, your feet are going to burn."

I shake my head, raising up one of my feet.

"No they aren't. See?"

During the summertime, I walk around barefoot 99% of the time. Because of that, I walk across tough surfaces such as gravel and black asphalt that burns me underfoot. My feet adapted and became tough and impervious to walking across those things so I can do it no problem. My mom is like that too, so I probably got it from her.

Anyway, it was in the middle of July when I left my world and my feet can take hot surfaces with minimal pain now, even a frying pan like this. I can still feel it, just not as bad as a normal person. I walk over to the edge and look down at the smoke and fire below us and whistle.

"Dang."

Nami shed her shirt and pants, leaving her in a bikini. Robin does the same and Sanji almost has a heart attack.

"Oh Robin-chwan, Nami-swan, you all are so beautiful!"

His nose erupts into a nosebleed. Zoro scoffs at him as he takes off his own shirt.

"They have the right idea Nosebleed. You might want to be careful, we can't give you a transfusion down here."

Usopp takes off his shirt too, leaving him in shorts. Zoro cuts his pants off at the knee, giving him shorts as well. Sanji follows suit, doing the same to his clothes. Brook keeps his clothes on because he is a skeleton and they don't sweat apparently and isn't bothered too much by the heat. Luffy takes off his shirt too. Chopper lies limply in Robin's arms panting.

"Sorry guys, I can't help you on this floor."

I pet him sympathetically.

"Don't worry Chopper, you can help us on the fifth one I promise."

Chopper nods a little before going back to his almost comatose state. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Everyone else is preparing for level four, and I really should too. I am nervous as I slowly loop my fingers around the hem of my shirt. For goodness sakes Rose stop being a baby.

I swiftly rip the shirt over my head and toss it lightly to the ground. I shimmy out of my shorts and sit them on the ground next to my shirt. It feels a lot cooler, but I feel a heated flush come to my cheeks as I feel all of the crew's eyes. I groaned.

"Come on guys stop staring."

Nami loops a thin arm around my shoulders, giving me an encouraging smile.

"No need to feel embarrassed Rose."

Sanji had been recovering from Nami and Robin's change of clothes but when he saw me he almost passed out.

"Rose-swan is so cute!"

Nami knocked him over the head.

"Baka, you are making it worse."

Brook says seriously.

"Thank you ladies for letting me see your panties."

Robin is the one who gets there before Nami, using six hands to smack him in a wave of slaps.

"Please do not say that again."

I struggle to ignore Zoro's eye on me but I finally can't stand it anymore and turn giving him a sheepish smile, trying to keep my hands from covering up my exposed tummy. He just gives me a nod and follows Luffy, who is not caring about my transformation to the edge of the pit.

I relax. Now that the initial embarrassment is over, I can focus on the fight ahead. I gesture to Robin.

"Here, give me Chopper. I can hold him while you fight."

Robin nodded, handing the doctor over to me. His fur is burning up, and he must be overheating. I grip him tightly, murmuring encouragements to him.

"Hey Rose-sis."

I look over at Franky. He has opened his mini fridge with his cola bottles.

"Stick him in here."

I cock my head to one side.

"Are you sure? You can't fight without cola."

He grins.

"Nah Sis, I can still fight. He takes up about a bottles worth of space in here. It will keep him cool and I can protect him. You need to protect yourself."

I hand Chopper over to him.

"If you are sure, here."

He stuffs him in the cooler and shuts the door. He chuckles.

"I just hope I don't act like him when he is in there."

I chuckle too but follow after Zoro and Luffy. They leap onto the little walkway and saunter over to the edge. Everyone looks down and wince at the screams coming from the prisoners below.

"Welcome to level four I suppose."

I shudder as I say as sarcastically as possible. Brook asks.

"Rose-san, what should we expect on this floor?"

I try to count up all the enemies we will probably see.

"Magellan, Hannyabal, Saldeath, and Sadi-chan, plus the normal blugori and guards."

Usopp groans.

"Who are Sladeath and Sadi-chan?"

I glance down again, trying to see our enemies, but can't with the smoke billowing up out of the pit.

"Saldeath is over the blugoris while Sadi-chan, the most sadistic person I have had the unpleasure of seeing, is over the demon guards. There were four of them last time. The minotaurus, minokoala, minorinoocerus, and the minozebra. Can't miss them because they are pretty big."

Sanji leaned a cigarette over the edge and it burst into flame.

"I will take care of them."

Zoro subconsciously grabbed his swords.

"Me too."

Franky cracked his massive knuckles.

"I got them too."

Robin stated calmly.

"Me too I suppose."

Luffy nerved himself.

"Be careful when you jump. You have to land on the walkways or you will fall into the boiling blood."

The serious way he said that made me shiver despite the heat. Then he leaps and a split second later I leap after him with no hesitation to the fight below.

The air whistling past my ears was only about a degree cooler then the actual air around me. I keep my eyes open and try to aim for the walkways like Luffy said, but there is no room. All of the walkways are crawling with guards and blugoris. I guess I am landing the same way I landed in the last floor.

I tackled three blugori to the ground and leapt up, holding my broken quarterstaff. This isn't going to work. I need a new weapon.

I suddenly feel my sixth instinct tell me that something was about to hit me and I instinctively duck. A rifle sweeps over me like the person was going to club me with it. I jerk my hand up and wrench the gun out of the guard's hands. He gives a cry of surprise as I return the favor, knocking him flat on his back. My crew has landed around me and has also started fighting.

I pick up the gun and hold it correctly with delicate hands. I hadn't shot a gun in a very long time, and I hope I can still remember the skill.

When I was younger, my grandfather taught me how to shoot a gun. I live in the city so we used a BB gun, but I learned very valuable lessons. One: always act as if the gun is loaded, even when you 'know' it is not. Two: never point it at something you don't want to shoot.

These guns are a little different then from my world, but a gun is a gun. I hold it up to my shoulder, take a deep breath, and line up the sights. I pull the trigger and a blugori falls with a bullet wound through its leg. I don't want to kill anything so I will aim for arms, shoulders, and legs. Once I run out of ammo, I will resort to using it as a club. I cocked the gun; I have no idea how much ammo this thing uses, so I'm just going to go until it runs out.

I settle beside Usopp, who is struggling. He yells frustratedly.

"It's too hot to grow my plants down here."

I look over at where he had been shooting. Several of his bamboo javelins had wilted from the extreme heat. I place my back to him.

"Can you still fight?"

He nods.

"Yeah, I have gunpowder stars left. They explode better with the fire."

I stay close to him, just in case. I wipe sweat off of my forehead as I point the gun at another guard, taking a deep breath and pulling the trigger while counting in my head. I mutter to myself.

"Crap, five seconds. I need to be much faster."

I cock the gun, sight my target, and fire. It was now four seconds. Ok, but I need to react quicker.

Nami electrocutes a group of guards nearby and turns to us.

"Where do we go Rose?"

I glance around, trying to discern where we are. Man, I wish I could have reviewed the Impel Down arc recently. If I remember correctly we go straight and turn right at some point. I point.

"Come on Nami, stay in our group. We are moving that way."

Nami joined Usopp and me and we made a triangle, guarding each other's backs. I felt the heat from their electricity and gunpowder and we steadily started moving toward level five.

After about ten shots, the gun failed me. I clicked it repeatedly only for no bullets to come out. Great.

I open the chamber just to make sure before I discard it carefully. Lesson 1: always act like the gun is loaded. I focus on hand-to-hand combat for now, trusting Nami and Usopp to cover my back while I take care of the people in front of me. My mind narrows until only thoughts regarding the battle fill it.

Concentrate on one enemy at a time. Take a deep breath to recenter your focus and to replenish oxygen sources after every enemy. A blugori coming at you from the front. It is stronger then you, and quick too. I sweep under the huge fist, slamming my foot into the blugori's knee as hard as I could. It gave a groan and collapsed on its uninjured knee. I elbowed it hard in its face and it fell against the ground.

I take a deep breath, but I am starting to breathe hard. This endless enemy thing is really wearing down on me, and not only me but Nami and Usopp as well. It is only surprising that it's so quiet. I expected with Luffy vs. Magellan and the demon guards vs. Zoro, Robin, Franky, and Sanji it would be a lot louder.

A huge boom erupted from a few hundred meters ahead of us. I spoke too soon.

I glance in that direction and my eyes process the scene in front of me in a split second. Zoro was locking his swords with the horns of the minotaurus in a stalemate. Robin was smashing the minozebra into the pavement with giant hands. Sanji was kicking the minorino with his flaming feet, while Luffy was tackling the minokoala. I did a double take. Why was Luffy fighting the demon guards? I thought he was going after Magellan.

Never mind. Fight now, ask questions later.

I turn around toward the direction where we had been coming from to see Franky and Brook fighting back to back. Franky was using his colossal fists and strong left and right to push enemies out of the way while Brook cut them with his cane sword. The ice attacks were ineffective with the heat, but the keen sword made up for it.

I lost sight of them as another wave of enemies came at me and I quickly forgot about them. One guard rushed forward, intending to run me through with a trident. I dodged, pulling the trident forward and smacking it out of his hands. He gave a cry of surprise before I whacked him over the head with the butt of it. I twirled the trident, feeling its weight. A quarterstaff, a rifle, and now a trident; I was picking up weapons left and right. Oh well, I will use anything to win.

A gasp behind me caused me to turn slightly. Nami had gotten grazed with a trident and had fallen on one knee while three guards triple teamed her.

"No."

I muttered and I slashed forward with my own trident, blocking theirs from killing her. They looked up in surprise and I smacked the offending weapons away.

"Nami are you ok?"

I asked urgently.

"Yeah."

Came the weak reply. I took a second to look over the graze. Blood was running down her side, too much blood. I bit my lip as I turned back to the enemy. We can't bandage or do anything with it now.

Usopp fell back with us, grasping his kabuto so tightly his knuckles were white.

"We can't keep doing this."

I had to agree. We are pretty strong, and as in we I mean they, but even we have limits. Even I am getting tired from bashing heads, and we have two more floors to reach Jinbe. We can't lose all of our energy and stamina here.

Suddenly a blugori came out of the ranks, punching Usopp into the ground.

"Usopp!"

I yelled in panic and concern. I quickly swung the trident with all my strength at the blugori's ankles, but it leapt over it.

"Crap."

I cursed as I retracted my trident swiftly. Now Nami and Usopp both were injured. There is no way I can protect both of them and myself at the same time. I can't win this fight unless Luffy or Zoro or someone else came and helped us.

No, I am done relaying on them. Luffy keeps asking me to join the crew, and I have to meet the standards of being a Straw-hat. I know Zoro told me that I don't need to be strong, but it sure can't hurt my chances.

I straighten, twirling the trident in my hand dangerously. I will win, if it kills me. I just need to work a little harder to protect us, that's all. They take priority; both have dealt with more pain in their lives then me, and I can handle pain. I grin wildly, almost luffyishly, at the enemies surrounding me.

"Nami, Usopp, stay close to me until you recover."

They scooted closer. Nami smiled reassuring as she tried to get up.

"I will be fine Rose. You need to rest."

I gave her a smile with confidence that I didn't feel.

"No I can handle it. You forget we have a couple floors left. You relax, I will take care of these bozos."

The guards started chuckling.

"Oh come on guys, its one girl."

"We can take her."

I stiffen in anger and my grin got wider. There is nothing in the world that motivates me more then when someone underestimates me. When it happens, my entire being works twice as hard to prove them how wrong they are. I will teach them that they aren't just taking on just any girl.

Light on your feet Rose, stay relaxed. Quick and speedy more then strength.

I swiped the guard's feet out form under him with the trident butt, almost breaking his kneecaps. He falls with a cry of pain. I spin the trident and slam it head first toward his neck. He yells in surprise and fear as I effectively pinned him with the trident, his neck in between the spikes.

I lost my weapon, but at least they know not to underestimate me again, which could be a bad thing.

They started to come at me three or four guys or blugoris at a time. What was good was that the blugoris hated the heat with their fur as well so they moved slower and hit weaker, which I was grateful for. Even with that I was hard pressed. I got hit several times but I rolled with the punches, literally. I was not going to win, but I sure as heck wasn't going to give up.

I was too focused to hear anything but battle noises. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't think anything but move faster, hit stronger, and dodge quicker.

I feel something trip me and I fall to my knees in surprise. Before I even knew it, four guards and two blugoris leapt at me, brandishing weapons and fists. I froze, my mind trying to process a way, any way, out of the situation I was currently in. They almost moved in slow motion and the suspense made my heart race. My hands were rising too slowly to block it. It's over. I am so dead.

Suddenly, a voice boomed over the battle.

"Enough!"

Then I felt it, the same hair-raising feeling that seemed familiar for some reason. I felt a sudden weight fall on my mind, threatening to crush it before it lifted, leaving me perfectly fine. The blugori and the guards all collapsed, leaving only ten people standing up straight in the entire level. I glance around, trying to discern where my savior was. I saw Luffy's shoulders relax and his eyes narrow back to normal. Luffy saved me with his Conqueror's Haki.

I was so relieved I fell to my knees, gasping for air. My body was shivering from adrenaline, terror, and relief.

Get over yourself Rose. You aren't hurt or anything, so stand up and be strong.

I took a deep breath and stood. My injuries weren't bad, but they did smart a little. I smiled at Luffy.

"Thank you."

Luffy brushed off his hat and replaced it on his head. He nodded.

"No problem. I was getting tired of them anyway."

Zoro sheathed his swords and hopped off of the completely incapacitated Minotaurus. He saw me, breathing hard and looking completely worn out and was instantly by my side. I wiped blood from a busted lip and smiled at him, brushing my arm against him to tell him I was fine. He relaxed slightly. Robin walked up, not a scratch on her, but did look a little tired.

"Is everyone all right?"

Franky trampled several blugori to come join our group.

"Ow, these guys were strong."

Brook had a few cracks in his bones, but otherwise looked fine.

"Yohohohoho, I worked my poor muscles to death, if I had them. Skull joke."

Usopp helped Nami limp over and I immediately sigh. Idiot Rose.

"Hey Nami Usopp, hold still. I can bandage you up."

I reached inside Franky's cooler and stole Chopper's medicine bag. I unrolled a few bandages. Chopper was out of commission right now, and we can't bandage these in level five so I can do it, no big deal. Nami sits still as I wrap the cloth around her graze. I ask Luffy.

"No Magellan?"

Luffy shook his head.

"No, he wasn't here."

I finish tying the bandage off and sigh.

"He must be on six then."

I stand and pull Nami to her feet. Sanji gritted his teeth.

"Those bastards, how dare they hurt Nami-swan."

I shrug and glance around. The jailors were starting to regain consciousness, and we needed to move. Luffy had the same idea, because he started to walk toward the door that led to level five. I moved after him, ignoring my soreness and my worries.

"Hey Rose, sorry."

I glance at Nami, who looked guilty. I chuckle easily.

"Nah, its ok. I would rather get hurt then you guys."

Usopp nodded in admiration.

"Thanks a lot Rose."

I just smile in response. Franky whistled.

"I never want to be hot again."

I chuckled ironically.

"Careful what you wish for Franky. We are about to the oxymoron level next."

Robin asked calmly, swiping some sweat off of her forehead.

"What is the next level?"

I cross my arms.

"Frozen hell."

Sanji chuckled.

"Are you serious Rose-swan?"

I nod.

"Yep, its like a winter island down there. Oh, and there is a wolf pack that tries to rip you to pieces too."

Nami groans.

"Why does this prison act like it is trying to kill us?"

I chuckle but fall silent.

I take a deep breath and start to build up my mental defenses. Physical is only limited by the mind. I can do anything I want to and push through any adversary if I just think I can.

My heart rate and my breathing had returned to normal. I have a few injuries that won't affect me. A little mental preparation and I will be ready to face level 5.