We didn't really learn much about world history in school.

The one mention Germany got (besides WW2, and that was in English class!) was that during one of the Crusades, the German Emperor (Even though there was only the HRE) drowned and the Germans refused to go on without him. Italy was known as the place where Columbus came from, and where the Roman Empire was located. Spain established all their colonies, and allowed Columbus to seek water passage to Asia (more or less). France helped America in our Revolution and had their own. Russia… we didn't even learn a thing about how Communism came from it to China. China we learned about Emperors and Mandate of Heaven (Cool!), and that it was extreme Communist and how bad it was. There was nothing on Japan, Austria, or Hungary. I didn't even know Belarus was a country until now. I thought Prussia was a misspelling of Russia.

We probably did learn more, but most of the year where we learned the most… it's kind of a blur. It was a boring class… Wish I could take it again now that it's more relevant!

Chapter 38 (Robin POV)

Luckily, Canada was not killed by Russia's pipe due to a timely intervention on the part of Belarus. She tackled Russia from the back, declaring her desire to marry him in her language, so Canada scurried off before any lasting harm could be done. Ussop was cowering in the corner at this point, and Nami gravitated to his spot to avoid Russia and Belarus. Not as intimidated, I scanned the area. "We should be looking for Luffy and the others," I said.

"Luffy?" repeated Belarus. "He is your captain, da?"

Canada nodded. "Please don't kill him…"

"He has been good to us," Russia said, surprisingly calm in the face of the one he feared most. Then again, she was his sister.

"Dude! I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with Russia for once!" shouted America.

"But where is he?" Nami asked the world at large.

"Maybe…" Ussop said. "Maybe he found the lab where they make the zombies! A-and maybe they gave him some kind of weird voodoo root and fish that turned him into a zombie, too!"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Nami. "Th-there's not way…"

"You're shaking too," I commented.

"C-come on!" Nami protested. "Robin, if Luffy's a zombie…"

"It'll be all right," I said. "Luffy should be able to handle a bunch of voodoo priests. Besides, what are the chances that he'd run into them?"

"But then… Where is he?"

X (Tashigi POV)

My first impression of Germany was that he was definitely not a child. He was mature (unlike his brother), serious (unlike his brother), and stubbornly tough (maybe like his brother). As for Italy… well, he's more like an overgrown teenager. He hit on me at least every sentence, even comparing me to a plate of pasta. "C-cut it out!" I shouted, embarrassed at his constant flirting.

Italy looked downtrodden, but he didn't even say anything. "I-It's okay," I said, feeling bad. "I don't hate you or anything…"

"Ve? Really?" he asked, perking up like a puppy that was just adopted.

"Y-yeah…"

"ITALIA~!" Spain sung, and he hugged Italy.

"VE~~!" Italy moved his hands so rapidly that I was sure that they'd fall off from the strain.

"Why do you have red eyes?" Luffy asked Prussia.

"Because I vas born vis zem!" he shouted. Must be something he gets a lot.

"Eh? Then why doesn't Germany have them?" Luffy persisted.

Prussia shrugged, irritated. "How should I know!? Zat eeiz just how I vas born!"

"But why?"

"Ciao, bella!"

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Germany shouted. To my great surprise, complete silence fell over the room. All of Smoker's cigars fell out of his mouth in shock. "Ve must look for ze ozzers, especially Romano! He eeiz ze vone zat I um most vorried about."

"Si," said Spain, his evil aura coming back.

"Now all ve need to do eeiz find out vhere he eeiz-"

"Ve~ he's behind that wall!" Italy shouted.

"And how do you know this?" Smoker asked skeptically.

"Ve~ It's because we're twins!"

Germany looked at the wall. "Now all ve need to do eeiz break eeit down-"

SMASH! Prussia and Spain both hit the wall at the exact same time, blowing it into tiny dust particles. Germany stood there with his mouth open for at least thirty seconds until he said, "Fine."

Prussia clicked a button on a stopwatch and said, "Zat vas thirty-seven seconds. Ve should do better next time," he said to Spain. "Vot vas ze record? A full minute tventy? Vot vas eeit for again?"

"The time we told Belarus that Russia was sleeping in his bed?" said Spain. "Or was it the time we- wait, you're the one who writes everything in your diary!"

"You keep a diary?" I asked incredulously. "I stopped writing in my diary when I turned ten."

"I haf been writing in my diary for every day since I vas f-" Germany slapped his hand over his mouth before Prussia could finish his sentence. Prussia struggled free of his grip. "Oi, you're just jealous since you don't have enough to write about! Kesese~!"

Germany smacked him. "Bruder, you live in my basement. In my house."

Prussia shrugged arrogantly. "Vot can I say, I AM-"

"Ja, ja," said Germany offhandedly.

"Hey, can I try?" said Luffy ambiguously. Before anyone could ask what he meant, he smashed a random door with his fist.

Germany looked at him and asked, confused, "Vot vas ze point of zat?"

"I wanted to see your shocked face again," said Luffy dejectedly. "Where's-"

"Third door on the right," said Italy. "Fratello is in there!"

SMASH! Spain kicked the door in, leaving no evidence that it was ever a door at all. To my horror, he smiled. "Hola!" he said, to someone invisible from my angle. There was a noise like an axe cutting through metal, and the stench of someone urinating. Prussia grabbed Italy and Germany and dragged them both a safe distance away; giving us room to see what was going on.

There was no way I was sleeping tonight. There wasn't any blood or gore like last time, but the sight of anyone with half that much bloodlust was enough to drive anyone who could see auras to tears. Spain was smiling, but-

THWACK! Prussia kicked Spain in the head, knocking him to the ground. "H-hey!" Spain said, rubbing his head. "What was that for?"

"Huh," Prussia shifted his zweihänder from his shoulder, and said arrogantly, "Stop smiling, you look like zat Scheißkerl Russland." Spain opened his mouth to say something, but then he saw Prussia's expression. Despite his seemingly lighthearted words, Prussia was sweating. "Y-" (A/N you don't need me to translate what Prussia called Russia)

CRASH! A small object collided with Spain's stomach, making him groan like a normal person. To my complete and utter shock, he hugged the object, which bashed its head against his. "Stupid Tomato Jerk!" it shouted. That was the voice of a…five year old boy? The boy grabbed Spain by the scruff of his neck and shook him vigorously. "What have you been doing this whole time, Tomato Jerk!?"

"VE~~!" Italy shouted, and threw himself onto the child. "Fratello!"

The boy rounded on Italy, shouting and cursing for a full minute. Italy put up no resistance, although it seemed more like he was afraid of this kid rather than anything else. After exhausting his supply of air, the kid took in a deep breath, and said, "Stupid little brother."

Little… brother? "Uh… by any chance…" Smith began. "Are you… de-aged? Like Hungary and Prussia and Germany?"

The kid glared at Smith and shouted, "Of course I am! Why else would I be calling him my little brother!?" He drew himself up to his full height, which shouldn't have been that impressive when he's wearing a dress, but was, and said, "I'm Italy's older twin brother, Romano."

"Twins?" a deranged-sounding voice said. "By any chance, are you two infected with a strange virus that alters aging? Ah, no matter."

CREAK… there was a sound like a rusty lever being pulled… Cripes. BOOM! The floor fell from underneath Italy and Romano. A trapdoor! "VEEE!" "CHIGIII!"

In an instant, Germany grabbed both of them by the ankle, but he slipped and-

CTCH! Prussia grabbed his brother by the waist, and pulled both him and the twins to safety. "You are too careless, Vest," he said.

"Coming from ze vone who can never dodge Ungarn's frying pan," said Germany. "Und remember vot happened ven you tried to fight both Litauen und Polen?"

Prussia turned a bright red. "I- I lost because Litauen pretended to run off so zat Polen could play ze bait until Litauen could hit me from behind…" [1]

"Exactly," said Germany. "Now, vot can ve do vis zis man?"

Man? Oh, right… "You are under arrest!" I shouted at the deranged man.

Unexpectedly, he laughed. "You think you can arrest me, Dr. Hogback?" he said. "The man who is under the protection of Gekko Moriah?"

Gekko Moriah? "Hey, isn't that the Shichibukai we were supposed to assess?" asked Mark.

"And he's protecting this guy?" asked Mark.

"Shichibukai or not, Moriah is still a pirate," said Smoker. "His interests may coincide with the World Government's, but-"

SLAM! Hogback hit another lever, and- "Get out of the way!" I shoved the other Marines back, preventing them from falling into the newly opened hole.

"AGH!" The others weren't so lucky. All of the newcomers- Luffy, Spain, the twins, and the brothers- fell into the hole.

"UWAHAHAHAHA!" Hogback laughed, and pulled another lever. The door to the left to us swung open, revealing another horde of- yes, more zombies. I drew my sword and thrust it into the heart of the nearest one, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Hogback was getting away. "He's getting away!" I shouted.

"Not now! Focus!" Smoker snapped. "As soon as we win- we're looking for the others!"

X (Sealand POV)

Of course, even in the best of times, something has to go wrong. And it looks like I'm the lightning rod for now. It's never very comfortable knowing that your grip on reality will slip, but at least I know why. Schizophrenia is much better when you know that you're currently insane.

And then, there was Hungary and Sanji. Spain was the only one to mention Hungary's name, and that was in Spanish, so no one recognized her name when she introduced herself. Not only that, they never got the memo that she was a girl. So Sanji, who was normally 'a gentleman' when it came to women, hated her for some strange reason. And Hungary hated him back, since it's hard for anyone to like someone who hates you. They hated each other so much Sanji didn't complain when Hungary rearranged the line so that he and Hungary were on opposite ends; making Sanji walk next to Zoro in the process. And then Zoro bumped into Sanji. As usual, another rally of arguments flew, and none of us really wanted to stop them.

Except for Hungary. She smashed both of their heads in with her fists alone, and shouted, "If you do not get along, zen stop making it harder on ze rest of us!" she snapped.

China groaned. "You know we are used to it by now?"

"Jerk-Arthur fights with everyone," I added.

Japan didn't say anything since he was too polite, but his expression said everything. And jerk-England couldn't make a scathing retort or argue like he usually did, since he was unconscious.

Hungary sighed. "But Sanji vas being annoying…"

Sanji glared back at her. "What about the stupid Marimo-head!? Why are you singling me out!?"

Hungary shrugged. "Because you are more annoying zan he is!"

They began to bicker, and no one really wanted to break it up. The only one who really would have been annoyed was Hungary, and since she was arguing, she couldn't do anything. And coupled with my sudden bursts of schizophrenia, this was turning out to be a very fine day indeed.

X (Tashigi POV)

All the zombies were now dead- or at least, not moving. Smoker called, "Is everyone okay!?"

"Aye," all of us answered in unison.

"Good! Now, did anyone see a staircase anywhere?"

We looked at each other. "Did you see any stairs, Mark?" "Nah, I must have missed them." "I saw some!" Four pairs of eyes were on Smith. "You didn't see them?"

Smoker patted him hard on the back. "Lead the way, then."

Mark brought us to a half-opened door in the middle of the hallway, and we descended down the stairs, expecting a trap. What I wasn't expecting was piano music. It was beautiful… No! Snap out of it, Tashigi! It's a trap! I kept on talking myself into avoiding the music, but it was almost impossible to stop listening… We continued along the stairwell until we reached a large room filled with musical instruments. There! At the center—a pedestal with a piano on it! Someone was playing it! Out of sheer willpower, I resisted the urge to relax and leapt forward, sword at the ready.

CRASH! I miscalculated the force of my jump and ended up just flying tackling the man on the piano. Maybe 'just' wasn't the right word; I knocked him straight off the pedestal.

"Tashigi!" Smoker called. "What are you doing!?"

The man playing the piano got up and dusted himself off, looking disgruntled. His glasses were askew, and there was one very noticeable curl on the top of his head. "Vy did do zat?" he asked disapprovingly. "All I vas doing vas play ze piano, vy vould you even sink of tackling somevone on a piano?" As he spoke, he became increasingly angry. "Vere you disrespecting ze piano? You do not disrespect ze piano!"

Smoker finally got a word in edgewise. "Weren't you the one who stopped me from getting Straw Hat Luffy?" he asked.

The man on the piano gave him a look. "Ja," he said at last. "Vot about it?"

"You-"

"Bonjour, belle," said someone in the corner that I didn't recognize. His greeting reminded me of Italy somehow… "My name is France…"

"AAAH!" The doctor of the Straw Hats, Tony Tony Chopper, was cowering in the corner, between a trombone and a set (was it called a set?) of bagpipes. From the look of the drool on his face, it looked as if he had been sleeping. After breathing heavily for a few moments, he seemed to calm down. "Ah… and I was having such a nice dream, too…"

The man who was formerly on the piano glared at him. "You vere sleeping vile I vas playing ze piano?!" Without me detecting any movement, he suddenly disappeared from the space right in front of me and somehow teleported in front of the piano. "I vill now express-"

WHAM! France suddenly tackled the man on the piano. "Je suis désolé, but zis eeiz for your own good," he apologized. And then his hand dragged itself to the piano man's belt-

SLAP! The piano man slapped France; not a powerful strike, but it caught him by surprise. He then had enough time to drag himself out of France's reach, and plop himself back onto the piano chair.

Chopper groaned. "We've been sitting here for the past five hours just listening to your music, Austria! Aren't your fingers tired by now?"

"Nein, I am never tired ven I play mu-"

"Austria!?" I burst in. "Then you're the person Hungary came for!?"

The aristocratic man nodded. "Zen Ungarn eeiz here, also?"

Smoker stood up straight. "You already know."

Austria gave him a look. "I do. So you do not mess around vis vords, und get straight to ze point?"

Smoker and Austria had an intense staring contest for a few moments. Prussia was right in calling Austria an aristocrat, I realized. Unlike his straightforward…friends, for lack of a better word; Austria talked differently, acted differently, heck, he even dressed way differently than the others! Who wore clothes like that today, anyway!? But anyway, he was much more… lofty. Especially compared to the angry, arrogant Prussia…

Smoker relented. "Fine. We're not here to fight you. We're trying to find your friends."

"You're not going to fight?" Chopper said in disbelief.

"No," said Smoker. "We have too much on our hands as it is. Gekko Moriah has betrayed the Marines. You saw the zombies? We can't afford to fight you right now."

Chopper gave a sigh of relief. France then took this as another sign to hit on me. I ducked behind an understanding John, and Mark asked Austria, "So why's Hungary looking for you, anyway?"

Austria gave him a condescending look. "Eeiz it not obvious? Ve are not family, und… vait, vas Ungarn de-aged?"

"Yes, he was," Smith replied. "But what does that have to do with anything?!"

Austria looked almost uncomfortable. "Vell… you see, Ungarn is actually a-"

CRASH! The wall behind us shattered, stone crumbling and mortar powering away. Out of the dust emerged a metal monster with glowing eyes… SLAM! A fin on the side of the monster flapped open, and a young man stepped out from behind it. He looked straight at us and shouted, "What are you waiting for!? Get in!"

I gaped at the machine. "Where… where do we get in?"

The man sighed, and pulled a few more fins… no, wait. Those were doors. France and Austria appeared to be nonplussed by the presence of the machine, and walked straight up to it. Austria entered without a fuss, but France stopped in front of the man I didn't know. "Ah, you look much more sexy when you're-"

"Chigi!" The young man stepped back, and then said in an angry yet shaky manner, "Y-you thought you could do that to me, huh, Wine Jerk?!"

France stepped back, and entered the machine next to Austria. Chopper followed nervously.

I turned to Smoker, along with Smith, John, and Mark. "Well, Commodore?" Smith asked.

"Fine. He doesn't seem to be an enemy. Let's go," Smoker ordered.

John was the first to enter, with Smoker following. Mark and Smith hopped in next, and I was about to climb in until the man stopped me. "There's no more room back there," he said, blushing. "But you can sit next to-"

Austria grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. "You try to hit on a voman at a time like zis?!"

The man shrunk back. "H-hey! You forced Fratello and I into dresses!"

That seemed to strike a chord with Austria. "I-I sought you vere girls… But you are still not sitting vis her alone!"

"Fine," said the man, and he got into the machine.

Austria said, "Take my seat, I vill sit next to him. Just avoid France…"

"I know," I said disgustedly. The inside of the machine held several chairs bolted to the floor. France was showing the others this mechanism that tied them in their seats. "You will need it," he warned. When he came to me, I told him not to even think about it. He went away quietly.

"Everyone in?" the young man called from the front. There was a murmur of yeses. "Ch, you'd better not be lying… it's your funeral."

"What do you mean byyy- AIAIII!" I screamed. What was this thing!? It was going so fast! MY TEETH WERE CHATTERING FORM THE SHEER SPEED! I peered to the side, where Smith was groaning about motion sickness and Mark. Mark looked as if he was trying to throw up, but his stomach was moving too quickly. John was overtaken by fright and began to hug Chopper, who was screaming, "NOT AGAIN!" France was moaning, and I could barely hear Austria's unhappiness from the front seat.

Only Smoker was unaffected by the sudden speed. "Hey. Who are you, anyway?" he asked.

The young man cocked his head to look at us, until Austria forced him back while shouting, "LOOK AT ZE ROAD VEN YOU ARE DRIVING!"

The man made a half choking, half sputtering noise, and shouted, "SO YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE ME, HUH?!"

"W- Have—we—met?" Mark managed between coughs.

"TEN MINUTES AGO! TEN—FREAKING—MINUTES!" roared the young man, who didn't seem to be particularly worried about the speed we were going at. I could have sworn that we crashed into a zombie just then…

"Aha!" Smith somehow managed amidst the din. "I remember now!"

I couldn't see from this angle, but I could have sworn that the man grinned. "Hah! You finally remember…"

"How can I forget a temper like yours?" Smith smirked. "Romano, right?"

X

A lion-headed man walked invisibly behind the procession of super-powers, siblings, cowards, archeologists, and thieves. Eyeing two of the girls, he said. "Yes… yes… soon they will be mine!"

"Say, Mattie? Did you hear that?" America asked.

"No…"

"Oh. Never mind."

TO BE CONTINUED!

[1] Lithuania, Poland, and Prussia, Poland playing the bait- a reference to the Battle of Tannenberg strip.

I originally said that there were a whole bunch of Marines, but now there are only five; Tashigi, Smoker, John, Mark, and Smith. When I visualize those last three, I think of John as a veteran Marine, and a middle-aged man. Mark is a cocky, sarcastic fun-lover. Smith is more of an angry guy who's disdainful of Hungary.

Re-cap time!

Nami, Robin, Ussop, Russia, America, Canada, and Belarus are together. Absalom is stalking them.

Sealand, China, Japan, England, Hungary, Zoro, and Sanji are together. Hungary and Sanji hate one another.

The Marines meet France, Austria, and Chopper. They are picked up by Romano, but why?

Why is Romano an adult now? Where did he get the car? And when will Absalom be put in his place?