And falling at us he was, with two other people.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, THIS ISN'T GOOD! WE'RE GOING TO FALL INTO GASTRIC ACID!" One of the two mystery people shouted.

I ran to the railing of the ship, an equally shocked Zoro by my side.

"Luffy?" He asked.

"Zoro?" Our captain seemed very cool headed for falling through a whale. "Is everyone OK?"

I nodded stiffly, "Uh... Yeah..."

Luffy glanced down at ever approaching the acid, "Oh! I'm going TO NEED A HAND HERE!" He shouted just before falling into Laboon's stomach acid.

Usopp leaned over the railing, "Luffy's not alone.. Who d'you suppose those two weirdos are with him?"

"Where'd Crocus go?!" Nami shouted, checking the door Luffy had fallen out of for the old man.

"Who cares?" I said pulling myself on to the railing of the ship.

"We need to save Luffy." Zoro said, joining me.

Sanji did the same, "I'll grab the idiot, you two get weirdo one and weirdo two."

I dropped back down to the deck as Sanji launched himself over into the fluid. Zoro glanced back, "Aren't you going to help?"

"The other two can swim, and they know what they just fell into." I said recalling the cry from earlier, "They'll surface in no time."

The swordsman gave me a thoughtful look, then dropped to the deck as well, "Good point."

Just as I said the two mystery people surfaced quickly, "EEWWW! GET ME OUT OF THIS!" Came a surprisingly girlish yell from the man.

"Usopp, get the rope from the hold." I gestured with my hand, and the man began crying how gross it was being in stomach acid. "And hurry."

The sniper was off in a flash and back in no time, I looked between the railing and the rope, then made a face.

"What?" Nami asked.

I bit my lip, "I... don't think I know how to tie a knot..."

"HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT!?" She shirked. "THAT'S BASIC SAILING SKILLS!"

I flinched, "I wasn't a sailor before my old captain picked me up!"

A tick mark appeared on Zoro's forehead as he snatched the rope from me, "Give it here."

I pouted as he quickly tied a knot to the railing and tossed the rope over. The two mystery people climbed up the rope and Sanji followed behind with Luffy slung over his shoulder.

The chef deposited the Captain on deck and he sprung to life, perching himself where Merry's head used to be. "Who're these two?" He asked staring at the two Mystery People.

Now that I could get a look at them I saw that the man had light brown hair, a crown on his head, a rather... flamboyant green jacket with a clashing orange cravat, matching pants and two nines on his face. The woman had long blue hair kept in a pony tail by a metal piece, and slightly lighter green long jacket with fur- not real fur though- lining the collar, a stripped shirt with dark and light blue stripes that... didn't cover much at all, a belt that looked very pricey, and very very short white shorts.

They backed up until they hit the railing, Sanji, of course, was kneeling by the blue haired woman's side. Ms. All Sunday? My brain was doing that thing again, where it recognized pepole and tried to guess their names. No... Ms. All Sunday looks different... Um... Ms... Ms. Friday? Thursday? No.. Oh! Ms. Wednesday! I smiled briefly, not really worrying about how I might have known that. I looked at the man, And he's... judging by the nines on his face... Mr. Nine. Bounty hunters...

I scowled. Zoro seemed to get a similar feeling off of them. "We've spared your lives... for now."

The two began to frantically whisper to each other... though very loudly.

"Mr. Nine these heathens are pirates!"

"That's very obvious Ms. Wednesday." He caught my scowl, "But if we appeal to their humanity maybe they'll understand."

"Are you two parasites still here?" I looked back to see Crocus standing in the door way again. "I won't let you lay a single, solitary, harmful finger on Laboon!"

Luffy looked at Crocus, "Who's the old guy?"

Ms. Wednesday laughed, grabbing a large gun and standing up, "You can't bully us into leaving, old man."

"That's right." Mr. Nine stood up, grabbing an identical large gun, "We're here on a mission, and you're not going to stop us!" He and Ms. Wednesday laughed heartily before he shifted his stance, "We're going to blow this whale a new blow hole, baby!" He raised his gun, "Ready, Ms. Wednesday?"

"Ready, Mr. Nine!" She called mimicking his action. They fired their guns at the whale's stomach lining.

I ran forward, "Ah!"

Crocus understood the danger and ran as face as he could, throwing himself into the line of fire. I looked away, hearing the impact.

"He... He jumped into the line of fire!" Usopp said, "Why?"

"Crocus was protecting the whale.." I shifted, "Even if it meant with his life."

The pair began laughing, "You'll never stop us. We're determined to finished our mission!" They turned away, a fatal mistake if I must say so. Luffy stood up suddenly, and smashed his fists into their heads.

I rolled my eyes and began untying the rope. I motioned for Zoro to help as I looped it around the two hunters. He tied the knot, pulling the rope taut as he did so.

"Why did you hit them?" Nami asked.

"Because I felt like it." He seemed angry, and he was. Luffy definitely cared whenever anyone was ready to give their life for something. Zoro personally carried the two hunters to Crocus's boat home and the rest of the crew, except I, followed.

As soon as Luffy got onto the small home he began climbing the fake tree out of frustration, Usopp grabbed him to try and rein the rubber captain in. I sighed.

"Oh dear... I lost connection there for a moment." The voice from before spoke again.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It wasn't the nasty voice that seemed to be there every moment of weakness. It was a different voice, familiar, yet... not.

"I'm sorry, dear. I must have scared you." I remembered now, this was the voice that called me Jennifer. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Aziraphale." I bit my lip, tensing up, "Don't panic, I'm not here to harm you, and I'm not like that other voice you've been hearing lately."

I clenched my jaw, glad I hadn't left the ship like the others.

"Ah.. What name are you going by? Leanah, was it? Well, I'm here to help you, you just have to trust me."

I stared down at the now calming down scene on Crocus's home island-boat. Mr. 9 and "Ms. Wednesday" (My brain at the time didn't feel like that was really the blue haired girl's name. I was eventually right) had been taken care of, and from what I could see they were still out cold.

I sighed... Licking my lips.

"Now that I seem to have your attention-"

I cut off Aziraphale, staring down at Crocus, "Hey... What's Laboon's story?"

An eery feeling settled in the whale as even Luffy stopped what he was doing. Crocus

"That was quite rude, you know. Just interrupting me like that." Pause. "Or am I the rude one for just barraging in on your thoughts like this? Oh dear... I do apologize." I wished he would stop, but he continued on, "I'm not really used to this, but Crowley thought this would be more interesting than what we would have normally done in this situation." I wanted to tell him to shut up, But Jesus he was talking so much I couldn't even get a thought out. "In fact, I actually objected to this plan. You were far too weak for what we did, it's not surprising I lost track of you for this long. Then again, I do suppose that even if you had ended up where I had intended it would have been up to your own free will if you had gone with them or not." There was another pause.

The crew was already boarding the ship again, I pouted internally angry at Aziraphale for making me miss Laboon's story. Of course now I remember what his story is. Laboon, whale from the west blue, followed a band of pirates he had bonded with into the Grand Line. Pirates, worried for Laboon's safety left him with Crocus, and promised they would be back in three years... 50 years ago.

We sailed a little ways into the internal caverns in Laboon, on our way out. "This is some canal." Zoro said, "It's amazing he's still alive with a hole like this in his body."

Sanji flicked his burnt out cigarette down on to the deck. "I assume you're responsible for this?" Asking Crocus.

"Just a doctor's playful mind." He answered simply.

"Doctor?" Usopp seemed very surprised.

"Yep, legally certified, I also ran a clinic on the cape once upon a time. And before that I was a ship's doctor."

I rolled my eyes, knowing the inevitable was coming in 3... 2... 1... "Really!?" Luffy asked leaning over the railing of Merry, "You should join our crew then, we're looking for a doctor."

I rubbed my temples, "Luffy..."

"Don't be rediculous," Crocus said as his house boat came to a stop next to a ladder attatched to the metal wall. "I know longer have that kind of energy." He began climbing up the ladder. "Exploring the seas is a young man's burden." He had a point, but for as old as he was, he sure was climbing that ladder pretty fast.

"What kind of doctor hollows out the inside of a whale?"

I shrugged. Nami and I said almost the exact same thing at the same time.

"It's probably a part of the treatment."

"Maybe it's a part of the treatment."

Crocus turned around, having reached the top of the ladder, and said, "The girls are right. With a whale this side it's virtually impossible to treat him from the outside, so I devised a more drastic method." He turned and walked along the metal platform to a turn wheel. "Here's the door to the outside." He briefly pointed to to the large metal door in front of our ship, then turned the wheel.

The door groaned loudly as it opened, and I breathed in a breath of fresh air. Nice, clean, not from the inside of a giant whale, air. We were happy to see the real blue sky.

Out of the frying pan.

Author's Note:

Phew. Another Chapter down, and we're that much closer to a major plot point for Dear Leanah, and not to far from revealing the significance of SE. (^^;) The fault is mine that unless you read the first draft of my story (more specifically really read how I described Leanah) You might not get what SE stands for as I haven't done much hinting at it. Still, you're welcome to guess to your hearts content, and who knows, if someone gets it right I might do something special for them. Just to help a little SE stands for two hyphenated words.

Your ever willing author,
Kari910