The thing with long chapters is that they take so long to write, so by the time I get to the end, I can't remember what I wanted to write a note about.

The Marines take center stage for this section.

I can't believe that I forgot to upload chapter 35! What happened to me!?

Chapter 36 (Tashigi POV)

Ugh… my leg… "REPORT!" roared Smoker.

"Tashigi… here…" I groaned.

"John, here…"

"M-Mark- GYAH, WHY ARE YOU POINTING THAT GUN AT ME?!"

"Smith… wait, who're there!?"

Prussia was standing on Mark, and held a gun threateningly.

I slapped it out of his hands with my sword. "Why are you-"

"Es tut mir leid," he seemed to apologize. "I just go crazy vhenever someone says ze vord…"

"Ma-" Smith tried to supply the missing word, but then we all shouted, "DON'T SAY IT!" to stop Prussia from going wild again.

"Hey, where's He- I mean, Hungary?" asked John.

I glanced around. We were in a dungeon-like setting, but there was no sign of him. "All right, Prussia, lead the way," said Smoker.

Eh? "Commodore, why him?" I asked. "He's totally immature and crazy, even though he is older than I am…"

"It is because I AM AWE-"

"Please, don't say it," said Smith irritably. "We've had enough without you here."

"ZEN VHY DID YOU LET UNGARN COME VIS YOU, ANYVAY?!" shouted Prussia.

"There's someone on this ship that Hungary wants to find," I said. "What was his name again…?"

"Österreich," he answered. "Zat eeiz heiz name eein our language. You can call him Austria. Here, I have a painting of him." He rummaged though his bag and produced a large canvas.

"Why does he look like he was just beaten up?" asked Mark.

"Becauze I vas ze vone who beat him up ein ze first place!" shouted Prussia. "I hired a painter to paint his defeated-"

"Tashigi is right, you are crazy," said John.

Prussia sighed. "I have been called vorse," he said. "You haven't been insulted until you have met Süd-Italien, or as you un-awesome people would call him, Lovino Vargas. Even at ze age of five, he cursed and kicked like a pirate. Now… he's still as angry und aggressive as ever. But he's veak, so zat's okay."

"Weak?" I repeated. "Why would you say-"

"It's the truth," he said. "Vell, he could hold his own if necessary, but ozervise he's veak."

"How old is-"

"Twenty-one," he said. "And if you think he's crazy, wait til you meet my best friends."

"You have friends," said Smith. "Yeah right. They must be as crazy as you are."

"Hah, almost!" Prussia agreed. "One's a complete pervert/rapist, and the ozzer eeiz vone of ze few who actually can put up vis Lovino. He's alvays happy, unless… he eeiz also ze most bipolar person I know."

"Bipolar?" I repeated.

"Vell, not actually bipolar, but-"

"GYAAA-" THUNK! Noises were coming from behind the other side of the wall!

"Come on!" shouted Smoker, already dashing along the corridor. "There might be someone in trouble!"

We followed him, along twisting corridors and winding passageways, blindly running after Smoker's trail. At last, we came to a door.

"P-please-" THUM! More groans of agony echoed from behind the door. "It's not locked," said John. "Are you ready?"

We nodded. "Then let's go!" he kicked the door open, pistol raised-

And stared at the scene before us. We were in a gigantic room, with so many details that I had trouble seeing where to start. The walls appeared to formerly have been white, but there were so many splatters of blood all over the place that the original color had faded. There were several doors on the opposite side, but I had trouble seeing it. A mountain of corpses blocked out view, each with a terrified expression over their faces. "D-don't kill me!" shouted a vaguely humanoid shape.

SPLAT! A hunched over figure in front of it whirled a large axe, and its blood flew everywhere. A few drops caught on my glasses, but I was too shocked to care. The murdering figure stood up straight, and I caught the first glance of its eyes… green as fields in summer, yet totally cold and merciless…

"I VILL SEIZE UND OCCUPY YOUR VITAL REGIONS!" shouted Prussia. How did he get behind it?!

"P-Prussia! R-run-"

Too late. I heard a loud crunching noise, like a bone being broken and- "Prusia! You look like a ten year old again! It's been too long!" shouted the figure, glomping Prussia to no end.

"Kesesese~! I know, Spanien!" replied Prussia. They knew each other?! "Where have you been all zis time?!"

"Ah, I'll tell you all about it!" said the figure happily. "I can't believe you still wear that thing!"

"Vhait til you see vhat Schwiez vears to bed!" laughed Prussia. "Frilly pink pajamas zat Liechtenstein sewed for him!" (A/N Switzerland is Schwiez in German)

Time to stop the joyful reunion, I thought. "Who is this, anyway?"

Prussia looked at us. "Zis eeiz ze friend I vas talking about!" he shouted. "Ze bipolar vone, Spain!"

"Hola!" he greeted us, a broad smile in his face. His eyes had changed, warmer and friendlier. But deep down in his eyes, I saw that he was either totally innocent or completely psychotic. Or both… "By the way, I'm not actually bipolar, just passionate."

"B-but… you just killed all these people…" said Smith.

"No, look," said John. "They're all zombies!"

He was right. There were stitches on every one of them. How could I have not seen this earlier?

"But… vhy did you go into you psycho-conquistador mode?" asked Prussia. Psycho-what now? "I mean, you're only like zat vhen…"

Spain's aura reverted back to its menacing, cold state. "They kidnapped Romano…" he said icily. The words "They will pay" hung in the air, unspoken.

"Vhat happened to you, anyvay?" asked Prussia. "I vas here ze whole time, killing zombies, drinking beer, eating vurst, and generally being awesome. Ungarn's here, too."

"Really!?" shouted Spain enthusiastically.

"You tell me vhat happened first," said Prussia.

"Well, some of us were de-aged and we were drifting for a few days on Peter's ship," began Spain, "and we met these pirates at some island, I can't remember what it was called, but anyway Inglaterra was there! But we can only can him Arthur because he lost his memory."

Prussia made an irritated noise. "You mean zat he can't send us home?!" he shouted. He paused. "Und you left me to hang out vis two hyperactive kids, my little brother, ze tvins, your ex-husband-"

"Ex-husband!?" I repeated.

"Prus~sia!" shouted Spain. "Austria forced me to marry him, it's not like I wanted to do it!"

Ex…husband… "Are you… a guy?" asked Mark. [1]

"Yes," he said.

"That's weird."

"So is he."

"Vait til you see vot he did vis Italy," said Prussia. "Forced him to dress like a maid until he hit puberty. Zen again, he sought zat he vas a girl… by ze vay, I sought you hated pirates, Spain. Vhy vere you vis zem?"

"I do hate pirates, but they were nice," he said. "The captain was some kid, I think his name was Luffy or something…"

Luffy!? "Straw Hat Luffy!?" shouted Smoker. "You mean you were with him!?"

"Si," he replied. "Is there a problem?"

"Only that he's one of the most notorious pirates around!" I said vehemently.

"Why, what did he do?" he asked.

Let's see. "First, he's a pirate… he defeated several other pirates, and then… he attacked the Marines several times… and he freed the criminal Nico Robin."

"She's a criminal?" repeated Spain. "But what did he do wrong? Did he loot villages or ships or…?"

I looked at Smoker. "Commodore, what did he do, anyway?"

He was silent. "Commodore?" I repeated.

"Arthur… that names sounds familiar…" he said. "What is his last name?"

"Kirkland," said Spain obliviously. "Why?"

Smoker whipped out his jutte, miraculously restored. "You're under arrest for association with a criminal!" he shouted.

"Eh?"

"W-wait, what do you mean?" I said. "Who's this Arthur Kirkland?"

"He's a legend in his own time," began John. "You may not have heard of him, but he was a Yonko back in his day."

"I thought he was dead," said Mark. "It's been how long? Twenty years?"

"Maybe he isn't the same person," said Smith. "How common are those names, anyway?"

"Nine, he eeiz ze same person," said Prussia.

"Not helping!" shouted Spain.

"But this Arthur… is he here?" I asked.

Spain nodded. "Somewhere… I think. Everyone who was in the meeting room with us back then should be here somewhere."

"And Ungarn somehow got here," said Prussia.

"And I think that someone named Lukas was involved somehow," I added. "I don't think he's here, but I think he might have teleported Hungary here."

"Noruega?" repeated Spain.

"Norwegen?" said Prussia. "But zen… eeif he could get Ungarn here, zen vhy didn't he tey to get us out?"

"Who knows," said Spain resignedly. "Hungaria came to find Austria, right? But maybe he thought that someone else would have wanted to look for someone else we came with, so he didn't leave so that he could help whoever came."

"But who vould come all zis vay to search for someone?" asked Prussia. "Besides Ungarn. Who vas vis us zat has somevone zat cares a lot about zem?"

"There's Italy," suggested Spain. "He and Romano have another brother. And there's Russia, and Peter, and…"

Prussia and Spain broke out in faces of pure terror. "Oh (unidentified word)."

X (Nami POV)

"This is probably Prussia's doing," said Canada, as we walked down the hallway. "This trap, I mean. Flying daggers shot periodically that sign 'I am awesome' in Morse code? That's him, all right…"

"He sounds crazy," I said. "But that is a cool trap."

"Wait til you see the one with the liverwurst and the water-powered landmines…" said Canada.

"How does that even work?" asked Robin.

"I don't know, but he managed to make it," he replied. He stopped suddenly. "D-did you hear that?" He whipped out his hockey stick. "It sounded like… a scream…"

Yah… it was faint, but I heard an echo from far off. "I hear it too," I said, Clima-tact in hand. Yaa… "I think it's getting closer."

"YAAAAAA!" an earsplitting screech bounced off the walls, effectively paralyzing us. "YAAA-"

SQUELCH! A sound like a knife stabbing a sack of liquid reverberated, and ended the noise. "Это научит вас, зомби," said a female voice. (A/N That will teach you, zombie.)

Canada shuddered. "Oh, maple… Robin, Nami, run. Don't look back or else-"

WHANG! Another knife flew past, and landed inches from Canada's face. "Вы ... Вы Канаде, не так ли?" said the same, quiet female voice. (A/N You… you are Canada, are you not?)

Canada shuddered even more. "Da," he replied. "Вы не Беларусь?" (A/N Aren't you Belarus?)

"Da," replied the voice. "Где ... где ты прячешься мой старший брат!" (A/N Where… where are you hiding my big brother!?)

Canada backed off slowly. "Я не знаю!" (A/N I don't know!)

THUNK! A figure thrust a knife right next to Canada's face. "M-maple!" shouted Canada.

BLOOM! Robin used her power to restrain the figure, who, in the light, looked like a- "Six year old girl!?" shouted Robin. She let go.

"G-guys…" stuttered Canada. "Th-this is Russia's little sister… Belarus."

I had absolutely no trouble seeing why he was so terrified of her. Even though she looked like a little girl, with a cute dress and a ribbon in her hair, she had a knife stained with the blood of countless people…

X (Chopper POV)

I wondered to myself how we were sitting here for… an hour? Two hours? There was no way this was good for my body…

X (Sealand POV)

"All right, so I admit that it would be a bit of a shock to find yourself on a small platform," I said. "But it was still bloody hilarious watching your expression!"

"Hmph," said jerk-England. "Then shut the bloody hell up."

"Harsh, aren't you?" said Zoro.

"To anyone and everyone," I said. "Except for you guys and Robin."

"But why are you harsh with Peter and not with Robin?" asked Franky.

"Idiot! It's because Robin-chan's a girl!" said Sanji.

"…No. No, that's not it," said jerk-England. "Something happened while I was gone… something big… Why… am I crying?"

Tears were dripping down my older brother's face. "C-Canada? France…? A…Am…Americ-c-c-ca!?"

The American Revolution? Was that what he was remembering?! "C-calm down!" I shouted. That was the most traumatic time of his life! [2]

"A…America?" England uttered one final word, and fainted dead away.

"Arthur!" all of us shouted at the same time. "ARTHURRRRR!"

X (Germany POV)

"One of my Devil Fruit users who was in here?" repeated Luffy.

"As eein, vone of your vorld's users," I clarified.

"Ve~ I think it was," said Italy unhelpfully.

"How should I know!?" shouted Luffy.

"How can ve know?" I retorted.

"True," said Luffy.

I slapped my hand to my head. This guy… he's just like Italy… almost.

"HEEEY!" roared a random zombie. Another one? "You, with the stupid curl!"

"Ve?" said Italy cluelessly.

"FIGHT ME!"

"V-VVE~?!"

The zombie smirked. "Of course, not a real fight… just a fencing match."

"…" Liar, I thought. He was definitely lying.

"Phew," Italy sighed a sigh of relief. "Ve~ for a moment I thought I'd really die from fighting you!"

"Have a fun fight!" said Luffy.

"V-vait…"

The zombie drew a rapier from its sheath- in its own body… Eugh. "Let's start, shall we?"

He sprinted forward, before Italy even had a sword in his hands- "ITALY!"

Never in my life had I seen such an incredible burst of speed from anyone, let alone Italy. He wasn't even running away and… well, I'd best describe it now.

The next moment I saw, the zombie was sliced at several irregular angles, and fell to the ground in pieces. Italy was standing in front of it, rapier in hand. "Ve… I'm so sorry!" he shouted, freaking out. "Th-that was a friendly match, wasn't it?! I'm, sorry I cut you up like that!" [3]

Italy… he's that good at fencing!? When he's not afraid, he has no limits…

Little did we know that someone was watching us from afar… "So that woman's name is Italy, eh?" said an invisible lion-headed…thingy. "Such power, charm, and beauty… She, Thief-Cat Nami, and the Devil's Child Robin… all three of them will become my brides~!"

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Spain and Austria's marriage- unlike Austria and Hungary, Spain married Austria by way of their bosses. Their bosses (or relatives of them) got married, and Spain because under the House of Hapsburg.

[2] America Revolution, most traumatic- I am trying not to be biased when I say that America leaving is the most traumatic thing in Iggy's life. The thing is, America was the first person (besides his mother, Britannia) who he really opened his heart to.

[3] Italy and fencing- supposedly, Italy is extremely skilled at fencing. Also, he and Romano are not actually weak, but afraid to used their strength. I just wanted to give them that scene.

Why did Iggy pass out? Where is Hungary? And when will Austria stop playing the piano?