I do not own Bleach nor One Piece. I am not going to say anything witty to that effect about what would be if I did for either or preferably both...because I'm greedy like that!With that said, this story is for entertainment purposes only and I hope you I hope you enjoy this whilst I brood.

A Reaper amongst Straw Hats

Chapter 5: On the way to Enies Lobby

Water Seven

"AAAA—!"

WHUMP!

"GAAA—!"

SMASH!

"STOP THIS—!"

THWUMP!

"MY NU—!"

GRRT!

"GOOPH—!"

It had to be old architecture designs. It had to be for it to have lasted this long in the stonework of Water Seven. The old, deep and most likely forgotten type of works that would explain why no one bothered to rectify a LOOP of all things within a water way!

How was that even practical?!

Not the mention of course the sudden pitfalls, rollercoaster tracks of a waterway... they could all swear the train even spun around at one point doing an aileron roll once somewhere along the line. Maybe even a barrel too given how not once but twice they were sent tumbling about in midair inside the tenderbox.

Even when it all seemed to have stopped for at least a moment, the train having hit the sea if the splash and subsequent roar of the ocean meant anything, they dared not to get up too soon from their sprawled out positions. For better or worse their paranoia wasn't without merit as something caused the train the lurch back for just a moment, causing them all the smashed into the back wall in a confused mass of limbs and groans. And for the longest of moments they unwittingly thought of the exact same thought of simply staying there for the rest of the ride now that the train was outside and on the move, otherwise they might get shunted back into this exact state once more when they least expected it.

Like before their consideration wasn't without merit as a wave seemingly knocked the train up into the air only to crash against something that only tilted the sea train for a brief moment.

"Urgh..." Ichigo groaned. "Next time I'd rather argue with Iceburg."

"I'm regretting this too," Paulie admitted with his own groan. "And can someone get their knee out of my ribs?"

Bang!

"Never mind! Ribs! Ribs!" he squeaked in a barely constrained squeal of pain.

Ka-Clam!

And then, without warning, the train's already ludicrous speed tripled, the sheer momentum of the rush flattening them against the wall long before they knew it.

"That's it! I'm going for the car!" Lulu's hand shot forth and planted itself the car as he slowly but surely pulled himself from the compressed pile of bodies. "If I'm going to suffer then I'd rather be smashed against the back of a seat!"

"ME TOO!"

"Urgh! It'll be too late for them to kick us off anyway!"

"Oh shut up!" Ichigo grouched as he and everyone else followed Lulu's example with grit teeth and determination. Eventually they managed to untangle themselves from each other as they adjusted to the new rhythm of the settling, running train. Not long afterward they peeled the cover of the tender box back and climbed out just in time for Kokoro to spot them on her own way to the train car.

XVX

Train Car

"Ah.. I thought I'd die," both Luffy and Chimney managed to say in perfect synchronization as they sat at the one and only couch within the entire car, leaving all but Nami and Kokoro to sit on the hardwood floor.

"Well, obviously! Geez! I told you didn't I? I said you'd get blown away!" Kokoro reprimanded them as everyone, including representatives of the Franky Family, were recovering from their own abuse from the sea train.

"Anyway, that acceleration was sure crazy," Luffy added, receiving a 'humph' from.

"YEAH, REALLY, THAT SCARED ME!" Tilestone joined in as well. Meanwhile Lulu was rubbing his back.

"I hit my lower back," he complained.

Paulie turned to him with a seething scowl. "As if you have something to complain about!" he groused as he protectively kept his lap covered with both hands.

Zoro, sitting next to them, meanwhile spoke up without either looking nor at least opening his closed eyes. "Hang on a sec... there are some weird guys in here."

"What?! Who are they?!" Ichigo slapped his face and bit back a groan at the combined obliviousness of both Lulu and Tilestone whereas Paulie contented himself with clenching his eyes and groaning out a growl.

Letting it sink in for them with sullen but amiable peace for a time, Paulie turned his attention to Luffy who had whipped out a piece of meat from his pocket and began to munch on it.

"I decided to go with you guys."

Everyone's attention turned to him save for Luffy who kept his attention on his snack for a moment longer on behalf of biting it.

"No matter how hard I tried to stop you, you didn't stop. The enemy you'd go this far to rescue your friend from is also the culprit who tried to kill Iceburg." His already stern face become a tad more serious. "In addition , there are lots of things I want to say to them!"

Laughing, Tilestone added his two cents. "PAULIE! WE'RE NOT GONNA LET YOU STEAL ALL THE GLORY! THINKING WE'D FIND ICEBURG'S ASSASSINS IF WE FOLLOWED YOU TWO, WE HID IN THE TENDER BOX WITH YOU!"

"So... it seems we were right," Lulu interjected. He reached up to his hair with one hand and pressed down on the cowlick that stuck out from it. "Let us join you guys in this battle." The cowlick vanished from his head only to abruptly defy all logic and protrude itself from the back of the very hand that pressed down on it.

... How that was possible would always remain a mystery to everyone both in and out of Galley-La.

"And, of course, those guys took Big Bro Franky as well!" the one and only male Franky member spoke up. The other two to represent his gang were none other than the women Ichigo had seen earlier with Franky Himself.

"That's right! And we clearly know who they are!" the woman in red spoke up as well. Her twin in yellow followed afterward. "Hey, Galley-La! How're you gonna take responsibility if something happens to Bro?!"

Immediately Tilestone pointed at Ichigo much to the latter's confusion. "WE CAN GIVE YOU ICHIGO'S BANK ACCOUNT!"

BAM!

Not even a full second later Tilestone was sprawled out onto the ground sporting a large welt to his head, his eyes rolled back and what could only be assumed to be his soul fighting between returning to his body and ascending toward the heavens through his mouth.

"Not on your life!" Ichigo snarled as he upheld his smoke fist.

"Shut up!" Paulie yelled back at the Family members, utterly ignoring Tilestone, Ichigo and Lulu who was trying to revive the fallen man. "It's Iceburg who's endured the most!"

"Huh?" Tilestone groggily sat back up, clutching his head with a tear in his eye. "Wha-? Oh right! What're you guys on about?!"

"Huh... he's not yelling," Ichigo idly noted as he looked at his still balled fist. "I didn't think I hit him that hard."

"PAULIE! EXPLAIN TO US WHAT'S GOING ON!" Tilestone yelled with his usual uncontrolled vigor.

Scowling a contemplative scowl and furrowing his brow, Ichigo cocked his fist back and tried to gauge the power of his punch only to be interrupted by Lulu's intervention by grabbing his arm while turning his attention to Paulie.

"He's right Paulie." The aforementioned man turned to them with a small scowl of his own. "You," he paused long enough to glance at Ichigo before letting go of his arm. "Both of you," he corrected himself, "know who the true culprits are, don't you?" He canted his gaze down to the floor. "Just tell us."

"We're not that dense. We have a rough idea as to who it is. We're not going to be surprised."

Sighing, Paulie looked to the floor as well in defeat. "Well, I guess you could guess if they suddenly disappeared for no reason," he relented. "I'll tell you straight." He looked to them as Ichigo, while scowling a deeper scowl than normal, leaned against the wall of the cabin. "The true identities of those masked men are... Lucci, Kaku, Kalifa and Blueno from the bar. It was them who tried to kill Iceburg!"

In a flash both men had come together, their skin pale from shock and shrieking out to voice said shock.

"WHAT?! YOU NEVER EVEN GUESS THAT?!" Paulie roared as Ichigo once again palmed his face, groaning all the while in aggravation.

"B-BUT YOU SAID THEY WENT BACK TO THEIR HOMETOWN'S" Lulu roared back in electrified confusion.

"You're both idiots," Ichigo grumbled as Paulie screamed "WHY WOULD THEY" at them.

"We thought it was Michael and Hoychael from the backstreets!" Lulu tried to defend themselves from Paulie's ire.

"THAT'S RIGHT!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE THEY?!"

"What?! You don't know them?! They're famous in the backstreets!"

"THEY EVEN CHALLENGE ICHIGO EVERY OTHER DAY!" Tilestone remarked.

"I fight gangs every other day! I don't even have a clue as to who they are either!" Ichigo snapped at them.

"All right!" Luffy suddenly announced without warning. He hunched over with a smile on his face and clapped his hands on his knees, the bone from the meat he was munching on still gripped in his hand as well. "I'm finally full!" He stood up with an "oof" and turned to see most of them with a smile on his face.

"Well then. Although we got in fights with both the Frankly Family and Galley-La shipwrights, we're all going after the same enemy now. The strongest one among the guys we're gonna fight is the pigeon guy." His grin was lost to a serious frown. "He's mine. I'm definitely gonna beat him up."

"Yeah," Zoro said. "This is a battle to get back what those four they took from us. In any case, if we don't reach them, nothing will end."

"Ah! Grandma! Grandma! It's Aqua Laguna!" Chimney yelled from her spot at the window, having migrated there some time ago without notice.

"Oh? It's here already?" The older woman opened a bottle of wine and took a swig of it.

"Chimney! Let me see!" Nudging them aside, Nami had walked over and opened the window to peer outside. Immediately she pulled her head back in and regarded Kokoro under managed panic. "Is it okay for you to leave the engine room at a time like this?! We somehow need to dodge that wave!"

The older woman laughed a short laugh. "I told you didn't I? That we can't control Rocketman. Even when we want to operate it, nothing works, including the brake. My job ended when the train got onto the railway."

Already Ichigo was out the door and soon coated by his fullbring the moment he heard that. Gripping his machete in hand, he leapt up onto the roof of the engine room and gaped for just a moment at the titanic wave barreling down on them. Eying it alone, it was roughly a third of the height belonging to the one that nearly drowned his before but no less destructive for a sea train and its passengers.

He took a side step back and held his blade aloft to his side just as the shouting started, cannon fire following soon after in a desperate hope in knocking down an unstoppable force of nature. Gritting his teeth, his sword was coated in blue spiritual energy that only arced and crackled wildly like electricity as both its size and intensity grew by the second as he collected and stored what he could along the blade as he eyed the towering wall rushing towards them. Growling slightly to himself he soon noticed the chimneystack still in front of him, in essence blocking his shot by a slight margin, forcing him to abandon his spot by carefully scooting toward it— as much as he would've liked to think it wouldn't matter in the least, there was a remote chance that either he accidentally did more harm than good in destroying the chimney by some unknowable means caused by the sheer shock alone or worse yet it, by some stroke of twisted luck, lessened the power of his attack by some margin.

As the rate and roar cannon fire increased in frequency as more and more people grabbed and fired what mortars, bazookas and manned actual cannons, he carefully jumped off of the rooftop and landed on the hull of the engine itself with a grunt. In short but agonizing order he carefully shuffled his way to and past the chimneystack as his 'electric' sword grew as equally powerful as it was out of control, scorching the metal beside him in wild lashes as he continued to build and maintain the burgeoning power. The moment he was in front of it he assumed his stance once more, his brow wet from both profuse sweating and the rain that buffeted the entirety of the train, and could've sworn he heard someone talking behind him as he aimed towards the base yet just above where the railroad might be. In all honesty though he couldn't bring himself to care as he held his sword back, readying to hurl the supernova of a bolt begging to be released.

"All or nothing!" he shouted to no one but himself.

"Getsuga... TENSHO!"

"—CANNON!"

With herculean effort despite it being his own attack, he launched the wave of energy with such force he almost launched himself forward to follow his own attack. Regardless though he did stumble and slip along the decorated nose of the train, barely noticing his attack working in conjunction with another attack that came from behind his position. As curious as he was however, his eyes did not dare leave the wave as both forces slammed into it at the exact same spot, putting a sizable dent into the wave alone from the sheer impact in the first few seconds of contact... It was barely a moment later that that section of the wave emitted a sizable and identifiable ripple from the blow and caved in as the driving force of the blow drove deeper into the wave.

In less than a moment later, in the span of a heartbeat the entirety of that portion of the wave was obliterated, leaving only a gaping chasm in its wake, a bare track and a disintegrating 'roof' that is the cresting top of the wave.

As much as they would've celebrated or at least grinned at their efforts, without any 'grounding' to hold the malleable track aloft, the track violently dipped in a rapid plunge to the bottom. It was only natural for the train to follow it.

While he couldn't see or hear what everyone else was doing, he didn't doubt in the least that, like himself, everyone was scrambling to find the first ledge or railing to desperately cling to as the train's speed quadrupled in mere seconds... Unlike him however they weren't afflicted with the cost of a fullbring. He barely realized the railing he had grasped was ripped from his hand the moment the train jolted along the tracks in its descent. He barely even had the strength to snatch his badge from the air the second his fullbring disbanded itself, much less hold onto it as his arm whipped about in the wind along with himself.

SNAP!

But for what he lacked in strength for the moment, he was nevertheless aware of the rubberman's hand, wrist and arm coiling around his own arm. For a brief moment Ichigo gave out a thankful smirk sent towards his apparent rescuer as he began to tug his arm back.

Of course that's when he noticed exactly where he was going to land thanks to Luffy...

BAM!

"Sorry about that, Strawberry Guy!" Luffy chuckled.

"I... Hate... You..." Ichigo managed to drawl just before everything went black for him.

XVX

Inside the cabin, minutes later

"Quick, lay him down!"

"What did you do to him you idiot!?" Nami roared. She only refrained from smacking the back of his head until after Ichigo's limp body was laid out on the floor.

"Hey! It was an accident!" Luffy whined only to be chopped on the head once again. Meanwhile, Chopper sighed in relief after performing a quick examination on his newfound patient.

"Head injury aside, it appears he's just exhausted for now. He should be alright with some rest."

As opportunity would have it Paulie and the other foremen filtered into the room in time to catch the gist of Chopper's diagnosis.

"Hey," he spoke up, catching the attention of the Straw Hats, "how long do you think it'll be before he wakes up?"

With a concerned frown Chopper addressed him. "It's hard to say really. I would personally recommend at least giving him an hour at the utter least before waking him up if it can be helped."

Saying nothing, he stood still for a moment with a serious look of contemplation before relenting with a sigh, closing his eyes as he did so while running a hand through his hair. "Crap."

"It may definitely be a problem," Lulu offered as he and Tilestone sat against the wall.

"Huh? Why do you say that?" Nami inquired as she leveled a concerned glower on the three of them. A moment later Zambai, the Family representative and the 'sisters' rejoined the occupants of the car at last. "What are you guys talking about?"

Paulie sat across the room from his coworkers and took out a lighter. He paused for a moment and looked up at the nearest window. Grunting to himself he got up long enough to open it before sitting back down and lighting the cigar in his mouth at last. It was only after taking a small drag of his vice that he decided to answer them at long last.

"I'm sure you all know by now that he has powers of some kind." He waited only long enough for vague comments and hums of agreement to be sounded by everyone but the other members of Galley-La. "While we don't know what it is exactly, and he ain't exactly keen on giving us a straight answer about it, what we do know is that it takes a lot out of him."

Lulu from across the adjust his shades in contemplation.

"There was an incident almost a year ago where a number of security guards were granted permission for a vacation on a nearby island connected by the sea train, leaving an entire warehouse district we have with nothing more than a skeleton crew to watch it. Unfortunately one of them was in cahoots with a gang of criminals who were working alongside a group of pirates who were in a financial pinch. The guards stationed there were completely overwhelmed and were held hostage for insurance as they looted the warehouses. All together they numbered roughly one hundred men, the captain of the pirates and some of his subordinates having devil fruit powers, the captain personally being a logia type. As we were scrambling to gather a force together and get the guards back on vacation, Ichigo went in by himself."

Frowning, Nami looked over to Ichigo. "Are you telling me...?"

"Yep," Paulie interrupted. "He kicked all their asses, captain included with those weird powers of his."

"That's so cool!" Luffy and Chopper squealed with stars in their eyes. Luffy immediately tried to revive Ichigo to animatedly ask him to join his crew only to be tackled by Chopper to let the teenager rest.

"At any rate, some of the crew managed to get away during the fighting, some of whom having powers. Rather than risk them showing up while the area was undefended, he kept using his powers for about four hours straight since then before collapsing from fatigue," Paulie spoke up after blowing out another plume of smoke. "And I can assure you that at one time or another everybody in Galley-La seen him do entire shifts without taking anything more than a lunch break without using those powers of his."

"Is he going to be alright then?" Nami suddenly asked in concerned as she crossed her arms.

Paulie and the others shrugged. "I don't think anyone seen him use an attack that large before on anything," he offered. "That said, we may have to do all the heavy lifting without him for a while."

"Great," she sighed as she ran a hand through her hair.

"HE MIGHT EVEN BE TOO TIRED TO STAND UP WHEN HE WAKES UP!" Tilestone suggested, loudly.

"Just great..."

"Right. I guess we have no choice then." Everyone from Galley-La tookout their wallets and produced the entirety of the cash they had on hand.

"What are you doing?" Nami asked curiously.

"Yeah, what are you doing?" Nami asked curiously once more. Even Luffy tilted his head at the sight whereas those affiliated with Franky were scratching their heads both figuratively and literally speaking.

"I got a thousand."

"SIX!"

"I have three on hand."

"Ten thousand..." he mumbled before sighing. "Well, it should be enough."

"Wait, are you seriously thinking about bribing him to stay put?" She stole a scornful glance at Ichigo. "Lucky..."

"Yeah, yeah," Paulie waved her off. "Like his powers, he ain't keen on telling us why he's hoarding all the money he can get his hands on. In fact he'll do just about any odd job he can find during his off hours till night falls!" They scooted closer together and pooled their money together into a small stack of bills. "Whatever his reasons are, with luck his little code of honor won't let him accept money for a failed 'job' in this case."

Each of the men began to rummage through their pockets till they produced a rubber band between them. A moment later they banded the money together in a secure roll. Looking between themselves, at the Franky Family and the Straw Hats, Paulie sighed and lobbed the roll of money at Nami who caught it readily enough. "Just in case," he stated. "If he won't listen to you then you can at least bribe him to rest. That'll stop him from killing himself on us before something big happens if nothing else does."

With a sigh she stowed the eight thousand berries into her shirt for safe keeping. "I understand." She looked over to Luffy with a disapproving glare who somehow gotten himself another piece of meat to happily munch on while no one was looking. "I only wish certain other people could be as reasonable though."

"Huh? Like who?" he asked with a full mouth.

"Idiot," she grumbled. Shaking her head, she grabbed at the hem of her shirt...

XVX

Plaza, Enies Lobby, later

CRASH!

To his credit despite having his face flattened against the wall of the car along with his crumpled body, Ichigo slowly opened an eye that ultimately glared out at nothing.

"This is the last time I get on a sea train," he muttered darkly to himself.

"Tell me about it," Nami groaned from her own spot on the floor. It wasn't long after that the familiar sounds of a mass mauling filtered through the cracks in the walls and the open door to the sea train.

Grunting and ignoring what amounted to a muted conversation barely rumbling through the portal, Ichigo groggily stood up whereas Nami sat up, groaning much like Ichgio as she did so. For a moment he nearly fell over on the spot only to barely balance himself out with the drunken waving of his arms. Even after regaining his balance he soon found he had to fight for it literally every step of the way to Nami as she pushed herself up with a frown on her face which only grew worse as she spied his current state. She opened her mouth to comment on it—

BOOM!

—only to tumbled into the wall along with Ichigo as the train car lurched to the side thanks to a volley of explosives.

"... am I right to assume we've arrived?" he muttered.

"Y-yeah," Nami coughed as she got up and brushed at the denim jacket she wore that he hadn't noticed earlier. He made to get up too only to have Nami's hand pat his shoulder and force him into a sitting position against the wall.

"Overdoing something in a pinch is one thing but don't expect me to look the other way if you are going to fight when you can barely walk as it is!" she reprimanded him. He mildly glared back at her but ultimately offered nothing in retort. Regardless, she shook her head and sighed. "I'm going to go ahead and help those blockheads outside. When I get a chance I'm going to send Chopper in here to make sure you're okay. Just stay here till then, alright?"

The two stared at one another

"... Fine," he relented.

"Good!" She beamed him a smile before withdrawing a set of blue pipes from her coat, each one having one end fashioned with a ball. "Sit tight!" She soon dashed out the door.

Being left alone and already feeling drowsy already, his eyes began to close on their own as she crossed his arms and at least tried to make himself more comfortable.

Rumble!

"Hm?" His eyes opened just long enough to look out the window for him to realize that the storm cover of Aqua Laguna had dissipated in favor of pure, unadulterated sunlight. It was marred however by a growing black cloud that seemingly grew on the spot as what appeared to be red and blue balls floated up to it, feeding it as it were. And then they abruptly stopped for no discernible reason in favor for a lone, crackling yellow orb to fly up, making contact with it.

Crack!

Faster than his mind could process it, one of many bolts of lightning snapped through the air, rushed through the door and found its mark with his unsuspecting form.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

A/N: Well, here's a chapter after something of a two month hiatus from writing altogether. Sorry if it's... lacking. Been distracted lately between my personal life and work as of late. I hope you enjoyed it though!

Monkeybandit2, making off with your attention! No refunds.