A/N

Sorry! I've been caught up with English class sonnets (they will all burn) and French class family trees, and worst of all, science fair. I also had some inspiration blocks, so please forgive my late, late, late update...

Enjoy!

Anni's POV

When I finally came to, my feet were stuck in a waxy substance that felt like a giant candle, but stronger. Looking around, I saw that I was trapped in the same material that had imprisoned Nami, Vivi, and Zoro. All three of them were to my right, but I noticed that none of my nakama were moving, and they had all seemed whiter than normal.

"Hey! Can you guys hear me?" I shouted.

Nami responded stiffly, "Barely. We're being turned into wax statues as we speak. Luffy is trying to break the candle, but he's only making it worse."

I nodded, feeling stiffer than usual. "So we're all dead."

Zoro turned his head a fraction of the way towards us. "Oi. You'd better strike a pose while you can. If you don't, you'll regret it later."

Stumbling over her words, Vivi stammered, "W-we have to believe in Luffy-san. We will not die here! I must stop the rebellion!"

Feeling slightly encouraged, I turned my attention to the fight going on in front of the candle. Luffy had splatters of paint all over him, and he looked out of breath as he faced the little girl I saw earlier. She painted a symbol in the air and it flew towards Luffy, only inches away from hitting him.

I assumed that the paint was the girl's weapon. My guess was proven right as she explained her ability. The paint controlled the emotions of the person that it touched, and their actions would be controlled by the emotion that they were feeling.

As she talked about emotions, I suddenly got a completely unrelated and wonderful idea. If this was candle wax, then shouldn't fire melt it? As Luffy continued to fight, I decided to try it.

Closing my eyes, I willed my powers to light me on fire. As the flames licked up my body, I focused on increasing the heat to melt the wax surrounding the four of us.

Slitting my eyes open, I saw Luffy still under the effects of the paint as he sat on a blanket drinking tea. Suddenly, Usopp burst through the bushes riding on a panicked looking Carue.

"Luffy?! What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled incredulously.

Luffy struggled to stand up. "I want to help... but I can't because of this shitty ability she has." He muttered in a strained voice.

Stepping out of the bushes was a man that I recognized as the one who had captured me. He was aiming a gun at Usopp, and the latter hadn't seemed to have noticed.

Shooting a stream of fire at the guy, I pushed him back into the woods. Turning around as best I could I yelled, "Oi! Watch out for crazy exploding people! I'm concentrating on getting the four of us out of here!"

Usopp nodded, turning to fire a flame shot at Luffy. I was about to yell, when I realized that he was burning Luffy's shirt, and the paint along with it.

Refocusing, I increased the heat of my own fire. My nakama that were stuck in the candle were hardening at a rapid pace. I willed the destructive power of the fire to be aimed at the wax, while the life-giving aspect would protect the people inside.

The candle around my feet was beginning to soften, and I yanked one of my feet out. Now I could fully turn towards my statue comrades. Raising both hands, I directed my flames towards the three of them. As the fire raged around them, they twisted and shook off the wax like it was flour.

Zoro, Nami, and Vivi all jumped to the ground as a huge white robot stomped out of the forest. The robot took one look at the giant candle and the lone figure still remaining there, while the others stood on the ground, and screamed.

"Noo! Why? How? It's not possible for anyone to break my Doru-Doru wax!"

Doru-Doru... Another Devil's Fruit? How many are there?

I smirked. "If it's anything like normal candles, the wax should melt. I have fire-style powers, so your wax is practically useless."

Gasping like it was a life-changing revelation, he looked around and yelled, "That's impossible! My wax is as hard as steel!"

Turning to the small girl, he instructed, "Miss Goldenweek! Paint my robot with your most powerful colours! Artistically." he added as an afterthought.

The little girl's paintbrush blurred through the air, sending paint flying towards the robot. The now colourful robot lunged at Luffy, who had sparkles in his eyes at the sight of the robot.

Deciding to tune out the battle, I turned my attention towards Brogy, who was still encased in wax. I forced my remaining energy to fuel the fire and aim it in the direction of the giant. Shooting a blast of fire, I hoped it would be enough to free him before I ran out of energy.

There was no way that this technique could kill me, but it could drain all of my energy and, as a result, I could black out. That was a definite disadvantage in a fight, so that's why I didn't use the technique often. Only for dire circumstances or when there was someone to back me up. Now, there was both, so I was safe for now.

The shell encasing his arm broke as he stretched and roared to the sky. Grinning at me, he stomped over to the robot and picked it up, squeezing it until it cracked. Unfortunately, one of the spikes on the robot pierced his finger, and Brogy dropped him, yelling in pain.

Meanwhile, I had run out of energy, and slumped to the ground. Then, I realized that I wasn't on the ground. I was still stuck on the candle, with one foot still stuck in the wax!

"Oi! Guys! I can't get myself out! If you have the time before kicking their asses, get me out of here!"

Jumping up to me, Zoro took in my predicament.

"I could cut off your leg. That would work." He stated bluntly.

I raised one hand to cover my foot, although I knew it would do no good if he decided to go through with his 'plan'.

"No. You've done enough to me today." I replied.

Glancing around to make sure no one was listening, he muttered, "I would appreciate it if you didn't mention that around the others. It's embarrassing."

I grinned, now equipped with blackmail ammo. "Heh. So if you don't want me to tell them, maybe you could figure out a different plan..."

I trailed off, looking at Usopp, who had given Carue a rope, but was now being sat on by a lady with a lemon dress and umbrella. The strange thing was, from Usopp's reaction, she weighed a lot. More than a normal human being would, for sure.

He glanced up at me and yelled, "Light Carue's rope! It's soaked in oil and will melt the wax!"

I had to admit, it was a good plan. The only problem was, we had no fire, and I would practically die if I used the same technique that soon after the last time.

Luffy's head snapped around at Usopp's yell. Turning back to the wax monster robot he was currently fighting, his eyes widened with an idea. Grabbing the man's hair, which had lit on fire like a candle, he started dragging it towards the rope, bringing the man along too.

"Noo! What are you doing to me? This is unfair! How can you even-"

He broke off as the flame touched the rope, and it sprang to life with flames roaring around the giant sculpture. Glancing down I noticed that Nami and Vivi were caught it the fire too.

Because the two girls below and Zoro weren't fire proof like me, and I was still stuck, I directed them to get out of the fire as fast as they could. Then, wrenching my ankle out of the softening wax, I followed them, jumping down from the candle that had imprisoned me.

As I got past the flames, I could see that Luffy, Carue, the candle man, and the little girl were gone. I suspected that Luffy and Carue had run into the forest and were gonna beat the other ones up.

Turning my attention back to our fight in the clearing, I saw that Nami and Vivi had taken down the lemon umbrella lady with a staff and spinney peacock pinky thingies respectively. To the other side, The explosions guy was pointing a gun at the three of them.

"Oi, guys! Look out for the gun!" Was all I could manage before subsiding into a fit of coughing.

Usopp turned and shot something into the man's mouth, making his face start to turn red.

"Ha! It was a tabasco star! You shouldn't expect anything less from the great Usopp-sama!" he yelled triumphantly, waving his catapult like a flag.

The man fell to the ground, panting. Then, looking up, he started to run forwards, yelling, "I'm going to kill you all with my full-body explosion!"

Just when he was about to explode, a flash shot by him, slicing him in half with flaming katana. Landing, Zoro sheathed his katana and said, "I could get used to using katana on fire. They're not half bad."

"Zoro!" The two girls and Usopp said with obvious relief.

Suddenly, the ground shook wildly. Spinning around in panic, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Brogy towering over us, yet still sitting. He glanced towards his fallen companion, then, with a look of determination, said, "We still need to get the other two. Let's go!"

Then, without any warning, he looked over at the other giant again and started to bawl. There were tears falling everywhere. Cringing against the downpour, I limped over to the other four, who were also bracing themselves in case a big one hit them and knocked them out.

Wincing, Zoro muttered, "It's like a waterfall."

"I've never seen someone cry this much." Nami said in awe.

Vivi simply stared at the gigantic tears falling from the sky while Usopp sniffled in pity.

Then, from the forest we heard a rustle and a shout of, "Look! A rainbow! Cool!"

None of us needed to turn to know that it was Luffy and Carue, returning from their 'beat up the bad guys' adventure. As they stepped into the clearing, I glanced at the fallen giant, then did a double-take. He was supporting himself on his sword and kneeling, but most shocking, he wasn't dead!

"Dorry!" Brogy shouted in surprise. "What? How..."

Dorry grumbled, "I guess that I was unconscious this whole time."

He paused, thinking, then continued, "I'm sure it was your weapon. Fighting for all these years must have dulled the blade."

Brogy laughed, still crying. "I'm so happy you are alive! Kaapapapapaa!"

Suddenly, I remembered that we hadn't seen Sanji in a while.

"Hey... has anyone seen Sanji? He left to look for Nami, but he isn't here."

Silence.

"Oh yeah. Where is Sanji?" Luffy asked.

Zoro sighed. "Man. I bet he went and got himself lost in this damn jungle."

I sat down on the grass, suddenly feeling the fatigue that I had been pushing away throughout the fight.

"Ghaa... He'll be alright." I groaned. "If anyone wants to look for him, you should do it now. If not, let's party!"

"Yeah!" They all shouted.

Nami looked up at the giants. "By the way, how long does it take for the Log to set?"

I turned my head in her direction. "What's a Log?" I asked.

"Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting that you haven't been here for the past adventures. The Log Pose is this." she held out her wrist, where there was a hollow glass ball, with a compass needle inside. "It adapts to each islands magnetic field, pointing us in the direction of the next island."

"Oh, okay." I said, suddenly wondering why I didn't ask about the directions sooner.

Brogy leaned over us. "It takes a year for the Log to adapt here on Little Garden."

"So, is that normal?" I asked, feeling that it was a long time to wait.

By the look on Nami's face, it was not a normal wait time. "Whaaat?" she screamed. "A year?"

The rest of the crew sighed at the news.

Luffy, getting over it first, brought out a package of senbei and yelled, "Anyways, lets have a senbei party!"

Usopp sighed. "It won't be a party if we only have senbei."

"What? We can kanpai with them, right? So it's fine."

As they continued with whatever they were doing, Nami slapped her hip. "Ow!"

"What's wrong?" Vivi asked.

"Nothing, just a bug bite." Nami replied.

Suddenly, a black blur nearly trampled me on it's way over to Nami.

"Nami-swan! Vivi-chwan! Look! I have an Eternal Pose to Arabasta!"

More silence.

I glared at him from the ground.

"Three questions. One, where the hell did you go? Two, what the hell did you do? Three, why the hell did you nearly run me over?"

Suddenly looking suspiciously serious, he picked me up from the grass.

"Ah. I did not mean to hurt such a beautiful lady like you. Let me make it up to you somehow..." He said, leaning close to me.

I ducked away from him. "No. Just no."

Nami punched the back of his head. "Oi, baka. Do you mind telling us how you got an Eternal Pose to Arabasta?"

Sanji launched into a detailed explanation of his adventure. He had gotten distracted by a small hut with tea, that he later found out was Mr. 3's (the name of the candle guy). He had picked up a Den Den Mushi call from Mr. 0 (the head of an organization trying to take over Arabasta) and had pretended to be Mr. 3, saying that he had completed the mission. Then, a vulture and a chipmunk/beaver thing had tried to kill him, and after he had defeated them they dropped the Eternal Pose meant for Mr. 3.

Luffy's fist shot up in the air. "Yosh! So is there anything else we need to do here? 'Cuz now we can go to Arabasta and stop the rebellion!"

Everyone cheered and Vivi ran over to hug Sanji. "Thank you Sanji! Now we can set sail and save my kingdom!"

"Oh, it wasn't anything really..." Sanji replied with a perverted grin on his face.

"SENBEI PARTY!" Luffy yelled enthusiastically.

As I walked past Sanji and Zoro, Zoro said, "Hey, you guys didn't forget about our hunting contest, did you?"

I smirked. "No. How could I forget about my prize?"

"Hey! I won!"

"No, we haven't judged them yet!"

A thought suddenly struck me. "Yeah, isn't that why we came all this way? To get the judges?"

The three of us turned to Nami and Usopp with fake grins. They flinched and said together, "L-let's wait until we get back and can see them for ourselves..."

The giants spoke up. "A hunting contest?"

Brogy turned to Dorry. "Is that what it was?"

"I think I remember now. That was it." Dorry replied.

"What was what?" I interrupted.

The two giants grinned. "Our fight." They said.

"We were leaders each of our own tribe. We were hunting and we both brought back giant monsters, but then a little girl asked which one was bigger. We couldn't agree on the winner, so we came here to decide the winner."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Absolutely incredible. All this over a hunting contest"

XxX

"No, mine's bigger!"

"Yeah, well mine's fatter!"

"You're both idiots! Mine is the biggest!"

Nami looked down from the side of the Going Merry.

"Anni, weren't you the one who said that getting mad over a contest is not worth it?"

"SHUT UP! I didn't understand how smart those giants were until this happened! You just don't understand it yet." I yelled back.

Luffy hung over the railing. "I'm hungry... Can't you guys just load up all the meat and be done with it?"

Usopp and Vivi nodded in agreement.

"But then what are we supposed to do about the prize?" We said together.

"IGNORE IT! We're just gonna set sail to Arabasta!" Nami shouted, fed up with our antics.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine."

Lifting the meat onto the ship was a tedious process because Luffy kept wanting us to store more of it so that he could eat it. Finally the ship was full, and we set off to the moaning of 'can't we have more meat?' from Luffy.

XxX

Reaching the end of the river, the two giants were standing on either side of it, waiting for us to pass through.

"You guarded our honor with your lives. We shall do the same to you." boomed Dorry.

"Believe in us and continue straight ahead, no matter what should appear." continued Brogy.

"Alright!" Luffy said, with a determined look. "We go straight ahead, no matter what!"

As the ship exited the river, the sea started to swell in front of us. Then, from the waves, an enormous red goldfish burst out of the sea. Looking back, The weapons of the two giants started to glow, red for Brogy, and blue for Dorry.

Nami screamed, "Quick, turn the helm or we'll get eaten! Hurry!"

Usopp shook his head. "No, we're going on ahead, right Luffy?"

Luffy nodded in agreement. "Yeah. The giants told us to, so that's what we're going to do."

The fish opened its mouth, ready to swallow us. I gripped onto the railing, prepared to be eaten.

"Straight ahead! Straight ahead!" Luffy yelled.

Suddenly, a force blew clean through the fish, propelling the ship out and onto the open sea. Running to the back of the ship, I yelled to the giants, "Thanks!"

Laughing, we continued on our journey to Arabasta.

"Kaapapapapaa!"

"Gyaagyagyagyagyaa!"

"Kaapapapapaa!"

"Gyaagyagyagyagyaa!"

A/N

I'm so sorry for being late with the update. I'm kinda busy with school, but you guys are so amazing that I had to upload this chapter at the expense of my homework. I'm probably not gonna update for a week or so, just until I get my science fair project over with. To all of you with the same problem, good luck.

If you guys wouldn't mind leaving even a small review on where I should go with this story, please do. I'd love to know what you think of the story so far, and have your ideas of what to do next. This is so that I can plan out something while I'm doing homework, and you guys will keep enjoying the story.

See ya!