Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


"Stay back!" one pirate shouted. Zan was surrounded with a wide circle of sword-wielding, pistol-aiming ne'er-do-wells aboard the Buster Pirate's unnamed flagship. Zan stood calmly, even happily, grinning down at the floor ignoring the threatening presence around him. Rez wasn't pointing his weapon at him, nor did he seem to care that he was really an assassin.

"Why do you want to kill us?" Bard shouted.

"I can hear you if you don't yell" Zan said. Bard jumped down into the circle and faced down the stowaway.

"Well, what did we do?" Bard asked. "If anything, we were helping back on the Islo Artefickal...place...right?" Bard's inability to pronounce the island's name or comprehend how badly he did it amused Zan, who extended his grin to a smirk that looked much more evil that it really was.

"Well, yes" Zan admitted. "You did help. A lot, actually Bard." Bard reeled back and gasped.

"How'd you know my name!?" Bard demanded.

"You told it to me...when we first met..." An awkward silence followed which was broken by the crashing of the waves and then a sick groaning from the ship's rail.

"Uuuughhhh..." Araly moaned.

"Oh, yeah" Marco started, "she gets sick real easy, doesn't she?" but his concern was ill given, because in the brief time the crew had refocused on the sick girl, Zan vanished. "CRAP!"

"Where's he go?" someone shouted. "Rez! Is he up there with you?" Rez was already back steering the ship away from the myriad of unseen threats on the sea.

"Nah" Rez shouted, "He's probably down below." The pirates all screamed in astonishment in unison and rushed over to the nearest door to below the deck. Bard didn't care, so he rushed over to Araly.

"Are you alright?" Bard asked. The answer was obvious when he flipped her over. She looked like a dead fish with a long stream of drool running down the side of her face and whited-out eyes. Bard grimaced as he picked her up and carried her over to the bedroom in the aft deck.


"Hoo!" Zan shouted with impression. "This is a fancy ship." Zan had situated himself within the mechanism that controlled the Grand sail from below, positioning his oddly flexible joints between all the spokes and gears while resting. "It must be an experimental model" Zan mused, "I've never even heard of something like this." He heard the stampeding of pirate feet from the other side of the large paneled tube and decided to proceed away. He phased only slightly to bulge out the wood and peek out as the pirates searched around in muted voices.

"Time to skedaddle" Zan said to himself, fusing down to the under deck of the ship. He flipped over and dropped down into the crew's quarters, which was lavishly decorated with crimson rugs and golden ropes tied to royal purple hammocks. "...jeez. Either some wealthy sailors or some freaking lucky pirates must've owned this ship before." The walls were lined with large hammocks, big enough to situate two pirates at once. Zan lifted his brow at the overly nice atmosphere of the crew's deck and astonished at the ridiculous decorations around the room when the door flew open.

"Here he is!" one large pirate shouted, brandishing a crossbow with a bayonet. Zan darted his head over and glared. The man didn't flinch and aimed at Zan's head. Zan didn't panic, and he didn't bother to try to dodge, he just smiled and started to sink down into the floor. The pirate fired, just barely skimming over Zan's head. It would have missed entirely, but Zan could only sink down to his shins. The crew's deck was too close to the hull of the ship, which was in the ocean, and the ocean was bad for Zan.

"..." was Zan's grinning, frozen response. He could feel the chilly drag of the ocean against his leather booties getting more intense. He jumped up out of the floor, much to the pirate's astonishment, and landed with his legs in a near split balanced on his index and middle fingers on one hand.

"See ya!" Zan shouted. With a monstrous push, he vanished up through the ceiling, leaving the crossbow pirate's jaw gaping wide.

"Where is he?" Marco said, arriving too late. The pirate slowly pointed up and Marco followed it up. "He went up top, let's go! Protect the Captain!" A loud battle grunt followed as the crew ran up to the deck.


"Are you feeling okay now, Araly?" Bard asked the lifeless looking lump of pale flesh that was Araly in the hammock. She groaned to confirm her signs of life and went limp in the sling. Bard draped her hanging arm over her midsection carefully. "You shouldn't try to walk around, you know. You always get really sick." Araly gurgled a little, but straightened herself out in the hammock now that her sickness was fading.

"I'm never used to feeling sick" she admitted. Bard chuckled at her.

"Yeah" he said. "You remember when we were kids? Me and your brother ate a bunch of fruit from the mainland and we couldn't leave our houses for two whole days?" Araly picked up on Bard's reminiscence and thought back to when she was that young.

"But I ate twice as much and didn't get sick" she said nostalgically. "I thought you guys were just faking to get out of playing with me." She and Bard shared a brief moment of happy laughter before reality set in again. A cold silence followed as she tried to sit up to face Bard.

"I miss my family" she said sadly. Bard looked away, knowing he couldn't really do anything about it and not wanting to bring that that fact up. Bard wanted to say something, but his hairs stood on end and he felt a jolt of fear across his skin like an army of ants. He darted his entire body around to watch as Zan slowly rose up from the floor boards, extending his arms out as he surfaced and landing daintily on his toes. Zan gazed over at the astonished boy and the frightened girl and waved at them without breaking his pose.

"Yo" Zan greeted.

"Hey" Bard replied gleefully. Araly ducked down in her hammock with a glare on the man who spun around to properly face the Captain with an impressed air.

"This is a fine ship, Bard" Zan said. "You must be happy about it."

"Yeah, I am" Bard said, rubbing his neck. "I'm kinda confused as to how I got it, but I'm glad I got it for free."

"Free's a pretty good deal for a battleship like this" Zan said with a chuckle. Bard chuckled back in civility while Araly watched on with deep confusion.

"Hey, I was thinking" Bard started, "why are you here?" Zan shifted his hands into his pockets and looked up at his oddly tall questioner.

"I'm not really sure" Zan admitted. Bard looked down curiously, trying to silently egg Zan on about why. "I'm not entirely sure as to why I came to Paradiso Isola, or why I helped you, but I have a theory." Bard sat down, eager to hear what it was. "As you know, I'm an assassin."

"Oh! That was true?" Bard exclaimed, surprised that he was admitting to his title so laxly. Zan nodded and Araly ducked back even more.

"Before I came to Isola, I was sent on a mission by the leader of the Revolution himself, Monkey D. Dragon." Even news of that man had reached Bard's town once in a while, so at least he knew what Zan was talking about. "Right now, the Marine higher-ups are trying to decide between two very powerful men who want to claim the open title of Shichibukai. One of those men is a Revolutionary deserter and one of our greatest enemies, Jack Aguila. I was sent on a mission to assassinate him, and I almost succeeded." Bard's eyebrows shot up, knowing how powerful these Shichibukai can be. If there was ever news regarding some fight between two world-shifting entities, Bard was always the fist in town to know about it and the last to ever shut up about it.

"But you didn't" Bard said, beings suddenly objective. Zan nodded.

"I wasn't supposed to" he explained. "Dragon demanded that I pull out and only deliver a warning, leave someone else to finish my job...it was the first time Dragon ever told me to not kill someone." Bard was staring intently through Zan, trying to picture how such a scenario would have played out. An assassin, born and trained to kill or be killed, retreating from an enemy only an inch away from a killing blow.

"Who is supposed to finish it then?" Bard asked. Zan shrugged casually. The conversation ended there, as Zan started fusing down and away at the sound of rushing, stomping feet as the crew made its way into the captain's bedroom.


"Where is he!?" one armed pirate shouted. A rifle was fired, right at Bard, who's instinct forced him backwards at the waist to dodge the bullet by a hair. Araly screamed as the bullet just barely went under her hammock. The pirates were silent, except the one who went sulking forward to check on his captain.

"C-captain? Are you alright?" Bard twitched a few times from the strain his abs and his back. "Captain?" he asked with more worry. Bard's body snapped forward, delivering a vicious head butt to his accidental assailant and sending him flying across the room and off the sturdy wall behind the frightened group of pirates.

"What the hell, MAN!?" Bard shouted at the quivering, unconscious lump on the floor. His crew mates gathered around and picked him up to take him down to the impromptu sick bay. Bard stood rubbing his head after downing the bone-thick forehead of his underling while the present members of the crew were staring at him with horror.

"I think he's more dangerous than the assassin" one guy whispered. Everyone nodded and shuffled out of the room. "Sorry to trouble you sir..." on said as he shut the door. Bard caught the door before it could be shut and marched onto the deck, where the pirates were all standing at attention in case the assassin came back. Bard reeled back and drew in a deep breath.

"ZAN!" he shouted to the heavens. "IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO GO, THAN JUST STAY HERE JOIN MY CREW!!" The crew all made the same horrific gasping faces as their Captain straightened up and crossed his arms impatiently. Zan heard him from below the deck and melded his way up, right in front of him. Everyone readied to fire or charge or do whatever to defend their captain and themselves when Bard extended his hand. Zan took it and they shook. Then, no one charged.

"I've got nothing better to do" Zan said. "What the hell, sure." Bard grinned his wide, happy grin, and everyone calmed down a little.

"Storm!" Rez shouted. The crew all perked up at once, like a flock of geese to the sound of a gun, and they all went scurrying about. Most of them went down below, but the bigger, stronger guys stayed up on deck, pulling ropes and tugging on lines, trying their hardest to get the massive sail up. Zan watched them with a varied astonishment, that such a rag-tag group was so well coordinated at a moment's notice.

"What do I do?" Zan shouted over to Bard.

"Are you better with heavy stuff or confusing machinery?" Bard shouted back. Zan thought for a minute before solidifying his answer.

"Machines" he yelled.

"Go down below and talk to Marco" Bard shouted before he hopped over, being blown slightly by the increasing wind. "He's the one with the bandanna." Zan nodded and went down below, surprising the other crew members.

"Where's Marco?" Zan asked.

"Grab that lever next to you and crank it!" a voice shouted at Zan. Zan followed the order, cranking the lever repeatedly, which moved the gears inside the mechanical tube he was inside earlier, which raised the huge heavy ropes that held the Grand sail. Bard steadied one side while his five strongest crew men steadied the other. Rez, being the most sturdy member, continued to steer ahead with the log on his wrist.

"Like a damn machine!" Zan exclaimed. The waves became rough, the winds became harsh, and the Buster Pirates flagship was ready to plow through yet another storm surge on the Grand Line.