A/N: Hooray for posting another chapter! Things are finally getting started, and soon the pirates and Team Avatar will set sail!

Please enjoy the story and leave a review. ~X


Chapter Six: Rules of the Game

"A Lion of 1,000 Suns…" Aang said aloud.

"Hmm?" Zoro asked, but Aang just smiled at him.

"I'll explain everything later-" when he was cut off by a woman yelling. "Did that idiot invite more people to join the crew? Why didn't you stop him?"

"Oi." Zoro shouted at the woman, "Have you had better luck stopping him from doing stupid things?! Besides, it was captain's orders that they come."

"Don't talk to Nami-san that way, shitty Marimo!" a man with yellow-colored hair yelled at Zoro. "I didn't talk to her in any particular way, Ero-cook! I was just telling her what happened!"

The newcomers, who had no idea that this was normal, eyed the cook and the swordsman with uncertainty. Zoro, ignoring Sanji, nodded his head at them, "Let's go,"

"Oi, don't ignore me, Ma—" Sanji stopped at the sight of Katara and Toph, and hearts popped into his eyes. "Ladies~" Sanji started, and at record speed ran from the ship to suddenly appear before Toph and Katara, "allow me to introduce myself, and excuse the rude behavior of this shitty swordsman. I'm Sanji, the chef aboard this fine vessel. I welcome you."

"…Nice to meet you?" Katara said, somewhat confused by Sanji's words and actions.

"Allow me to guide you to the ship, Mademoiselles," he was saying, "you must be famished. It would be my pleasure to prepare whatever you desire."

"Fine, whatever," Toph said. "As long as I get something to eat, I don't care."

Sanji ignored the boys and guided Toph and Katara to the ship, while the boys followed rather awkwardly behind, with Aang giving Sanji's back a glaring pout. Aang mumbled something under his breath that went along the lines of, "She's my girlfriend…"

They followed him on board Sunny where they came upon the last bit of a conversation between Usopp and the copper-haired woman. Since Luffy had been distracted by the thought of food, Usopp had taken it upon himself to explain the situation to Nami.

"So you see, he didn't necessarily ask them," Usopp said, "But Nami-chan, they were shipwrecked, so we should just give them a ride. We can't just leave them here."

"Alright fine, welcome on-board the Sunny, everyone. I'm Nami, the navigator." she said, eyeing the newcomers with some piqued curiosity and wonderment. The five new people were covered with scrapes and dirt, had messy hair, torn up clothes, and dark circles under their eyes. Nami felt some pity for the group, and continued, "And just to let you know, I want compensation for our services. Three times the interest."

"You're charging us?" Zuko asked. Of course, these were pirates, so he shouldn't be surprised.

Turning to Luffy (who was stuffing his face with an adventure bento) Nami said, "I can't believe some of the things we let our captain get away with…"

"Hmm? Whm, mm?" (What? Who, me?) Luffy said through a face full of food.

Aang and the others stood shocked, finally registering who Luffy was. "He's the captain?!"

They stared in amazement at Luffy, and recalled Zoro hitting him… Why wasn't someone like Zoro the captain if he could get away with such things? Why was someone like Luffy in charge in the first place?

"That's right," Zoro said with a knowing smirk, "Sometimes we wonder why we decided to follow that idiot in the first place,"

"Excuse me Miss," a voice said behind them, "But would you mind—Ahhhhh!" Brook screamed when Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Zuko did, all of them jumping away from the living skeleton. Well, except Toph, who stood asking, "What's going on? Why is everyone screaming?"

The skeleton jumped back, and yelled "Why are you screaming like that? It nearly made me jump out of my skin… even though I don't have any skin. Yo, ho, ho, ho! Skull joke!"

"It's a skeleton… a walking, talking skeleton… with an afro…" Sokka stared in amazement.

Aang thought at first that he had to be a Spirit of some sort. He didn't think that was likely, but decided to ask about it later.

"There's a talking skeleton?" Toph questioned. She had laughed at Brook's "Skull Joke", and after recovering, she held out her hand, saying, "I'm blind; would you mind letting me feel your hand? I want to see for myself."

Brook complied with the request, and sure enough, the hand of a skeleton appeared in hers. At any other time, she would have thought that her friends were playing a joke of some sort (a talking skeleton, indeed) but judging by their genuine reactions, the skeleton was quite real.

"Cool," said Toph, after letting go of Brook's hand. "So, how'd that happen?"

"It's a long story, Yo, ho, ho, ho!" Brook responded.

Within the course of a few minutes, they were introduced to Franky the shipwright, Chopper the reindeer doctor, Brook the skeleton musician, Robin the archeologist, and their guests, Kin'emon and his son, Momonosuke, and another pirate captain who was in an alliance with them named Trafalgar Law.

"We have to get the Sunny in the water," Franky was saying. "Thankfully, she isn't damaged."

"We can help with that," Katara said, and she took Aang's hand and led him behind her.

Katara and Aang took their stances at either side of the stern, and began to waterbend the ocean so that there was enough water to safely and easily sail away from the island. The pirates all watched in fascination (with Luffy and Chopper watching with stars in their eyes) as Aang and Katara worked together pulling and pushing the water to guide Sunny and drift out to sea. Once the ship was a safe distance away, Aang and Katara both breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" Luffy declared, his eyes beaming.

"So cool~!" Chopper squealed.

"That was SUPER~!" Franky said, striking a strange pose.

"How can you do that?" Nami asked, wondering just who exactly Luffy had invited onto their ship. She would have assumed Devil Fruit users at first, but seeing as how both Katara and Aang used the strange power, being the power of a Devil Fruit wasn't likely.

The sea monster that Aang and the others had seen a few days earlier rose up out of the water, its eyes clearly showed its intent of eating them. The creature swam towards them, with incredible speed.

"Oh, look. A sea king," Zoro observed casually.

"Maybe we can cook it?" Sanji said, lighting a cigarette. "But it'd be a waste because we couldn't possibly keep everything…"

"Hey! Aren't you guys like, going to like, sail away really, really fast or something?" Sokka asked nervously. The sea king was picking up speed as it swam towards them, and it opened its mouth wide, showing rows of sharp teeth.

"Let me handle it," Luffy said. He simply walked over to the railing, and said in a quiet and firm voice, "Leave."

Aang, Katara, Zuko, and Sokka all stared in shock as a look of sudden fear appeared in the sea king's eyes, and it whimpered as it looked at Luffy. It then turned around faster than it had come, diving into the water and swimming away. Luffy turned back to everyone with a big grin on his face. "There, that's done."

"What…was… that?" Zuko said, once he finally managed to speak up. "He just scared the sea monster away just by looking at it."

"Really" asked Toph. "How did he do that?"

Instead of answering any of their questions, Luffy called out, "Sanji! Food!"

"You just ate…" Sanji said with a quiet sigh, but he complied and brought everyone food. Everyone in Team Avatar was greatly relieved to finally have some real food, and it was among some of the most delicious food they had ever tasted. Sanji had made more than just fish, and Sokka actually had tears in his eyes as he ate, saying, "Meat! How I missed you!"

"Uh oh, Luffy," Usopp said with a grin, "It looks like you have a rival."

While they ate, Aang told their rescuers about their situation.

"I feel that I need to be honest with you;" he began, "we aren't from here. We're actually from another world. There are people like us in that world who can bend the four Elements, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. And me, I'm what's known as the Avatar, and only the Avatar can bend all four Elements." They had a brief intermission in the story for Aang, Zuko, and Toph to give examples of what being a bender and the Avatar meant ( and Katara saw no need for her to demonstrate her being a waterbender any further). "And Zuko is the Fire Lord (basically he's the ruler of the Fire Nation) before we came here, we were at a festival in the Fire Nation celebrating the first anniversary of the end of the 100-year-war. We were on a boat out in the water watching fireworks when something in the water swallowed us, and our boat came out in a pond on the island there. We didn't know where to go or what to do when we got here, so I decided to contact the Spirit World (as the Avatar, usually I can come and go between the real World and the Spirit World when I want) but I met a Flying Pig Spirit who told me that I was putting my life in danger by doing so."

The pirates and the samurai and his son listened in fascination.

"Oh, a flying pig?" Chopper asked, "I wish I could see it!"

"Shush, Chopper," Usopp whispered, "I want to find out what happens next."

Aang gave a small smile and continued saying, "Anyway, the Flying Pig Spirit told me about a Kelpie Spirit named Cyprus that is the Guardian of the Wood between the Worlds, and is most likely behind our ending up here. From what the Flying Pig Spirit told me, the only way to get to the Wood between the Worlds is to find it by accident, or be invited by Cyprus himself. He also said that a Lion of 1,000 Suns would be coming to our rescue, and would help us get home. And well, now that we're here… I'm afraid I don't know what to do or where to go, for that matter."

"That is a problem…" Robin said, putting a finger to her chin, as if she were trying to think of some sort of solution.

"I wonder if that Pig Spirit was behind Sunny getting dragged here." Sanji said, taking in a puff of his cigarette. "I mean, how would he know that we would be coming?"

Aang quickly came to Dēji's defense, saying, "He didn't have anything to do with it. Many of the Spirits have great wisdom, and I got the impression from him that he can make future predictions."

"If you say so," Sanji replied skeptically.

"Your ship was dragged here?" Sokka asked, wide-eyed.

"Yeah," Nami said with a nod. "For the past two days, the Sunny was dragged here by a giant wave. Although a few days earlier, something kept pulling us off course until it just grabbed our ship and took us here."

Luffy suddenly fell over and was snoring, and his crew members sighed because of it.

"Oh well, we'll explain things to him later," Nami said shaking her head. She began to get to work to set their course back on to Zo.

"You said you were a doctor, right?" Aang asked Chopper, "Would you mind looking at Momo? You see, the animals on that island all look like mushrooms of some kind, and when Momo ate the fruit from there, he started growing all of this." Aang motioned at all over Momo's body.

Chopper took a look at Momo for a few minutes, and then said, "I believe he should be fine, as long as he doesn't eat anymore of the food from the mushroom island. The mushrooms Momo has growing on him now should fall off."

"Oh, thank you!" Aang said gratefully, "I'm so happy! You're the best, Chopper!"

"Asshole," Chopper said, doing a little dance, "I'm not happy at all that you complimented me. Idiot!"

Aang smiled, but he had somewhat of a confused look. But you seem really happy about it…

Robin had looked extremely fascinated by their story, "Excuse me, Avatar-kun, but what—"

A new and very strange voice interrupted her. "Oh, I am so glad you found each other, that is a relief, yes, quite a relief indeed."

They turned and saw a man who was just over a foot tall with a pointy red hat and white beard. His eyes glistened dangerously, and he seemed very confident in himself despite obviously being outnumbered.

"You!" Zuko was the first to recover from the surprise and speak up. "You're the man who was… you're the man…"

Zuko couldn't recall why he was so mad at this little man, but every fiber of his being was telling him that he should be.

"Impressive memory," the short little man said flatly, making it sound more like mockery than a compliment if anything.

"Juk Poo?" Toph asked, then stood and pointed an accusing finger, demanding angrily, "That was his name, right? What's going on here?!"

"Toph, he's to the right." Zuko whispered. Toph immediately turned to her right, and demanded, "Well?"

"My name's not Juk Poo or Puk Joo; but rather Pukje," the little man said (he made a face as he put emphasis on the incorrect saying of his alias) "I am the Spirit of malevolency and chaos. Well, not chaos, but I deserve that title anyway. Troublemaking is my specialty."

"Is that some kind of garden gnome?" Luffy asked (no one was sure when he had woken up), and Pukje made a face at the comment, "I'm a Spirit, boy. I'm more than just some silly gnome."

"Oh, so you're a mystery gnome."

Pukje looked irritated for a moment and he was about to reply, when Aang interrupted him.

"I am the Avatar!" Aang spoke up, feeling confused and angry at Pukje, but he wasn't sure why he should be. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him that he should be careful of this particular Spirit. He was about to order Pukje to answer some questions, when Pukje said something that stopped Aang in his tracks.

"So… what of it?" Pukje replied casually, the look on his face clearly showing he did not care who or what Aang was. He simply waved his hand as if he were flicking something away. "It's all in good fun. The Spirits were bored, so I thought up a little game for you to play for their entertainment. Well… mostly mine."

He pulled a sack seemingly from nowhere and tossed it on the deck, and explained, "That is for your navigator," he motioned to the sack, "it contains special Eternal Log Poses that I made just for you. Here are the rules and directions for the game:"

Words then scrolled across the sky at another wave of Pukje's hand.

The pirates must help the Avatar get home. Your goal is a summer island that is aligned with the summer solstice, Ha Chi Island.

Only one Eternal Log Pose can be used at a time.

Once one is pulled out, it cannot be put back.

The needle must be recalibrated to the island it points to. Afterward you will be able to go on to the next island. It will take three days at most for recalibration.

Your personal Log Pose will be rendered useless until the game is over.

Ha Chi lies to the south east; therefore the islands on your route are all in this general direction, making your quest easier.

You have three months from now to reach Ha Chi. It must be sunrise in order to open the gate back to the Avatar's home world.

If you have not reached your destination by the designated time limit, the Avatar will be unable to return home.

Ha Chi will have a marker to let you know when you have arrived.

The pirates are free to go when the game is over.

Robin read the instructions out loud, and when she was finished, the reality dawned on everyone: They were being forced into playing this Spirit guy's game. While the Straw Hats would have been willing to try and help Aang and everyone else even when they didn't necessarily know what to do, they were being forced into helping while under a very restrictive time limit.

"Hey! You can't plan out our course!" Luffy said angrily, but Pukje only laughed at him.

"Of course I can. I can do what I want, when I want, to whomever I want when the very thought of it strikes me." Pukje replied with a casual shrug.

Law was annoyed by this little man, and decided to take action. He would force this creature to tell them where to go. Perhaps he had something to do with the invisible entity. Three Swords-ya had cut the thing that had dragged the ship here. Perhaps this little man could be cut too.

"Room," Law started calmly, and a dome surrounded them. Pukje was obviously taken aback, and when Law sliced him with his nodachi, the look of surprise on his face showed that he hadn't exactly expected that these people would have the nerve to attack him, or resist for that matter. Everyone who wasn't familiar with Law's abilities stared with wide-eyed shock. "What's going on…? What's that noise?" Toph asked, unsure of what she should be doing.

"I'm not sure…" Sokka said slowly. "That Law guy did something. There's like, a huge circle around us. And he just cut up Pukje into pieces without killing him."

Law held Pukje's head in his hand, and said calmly, "Now, how about you tell us where this summer island is, Troublemaker-ya? We're on a tight schedule."

After Pukje recovered from the initial shock, he grinned, "How about not?"

His body shot at Law's stomach, slapping some sort of curved paper seal onto Law, and he doubled over in pain. "Nice ability," Pukje said mockingly, as his body walked over and picked up his head. "But I'm able to disassemble and reassemble myself at will."

As if proving his point, he simply placed his head back onto his shoulders and cracked his neck. Law stared wide-eyed at Pukje for a moment, before he started retching.

"Tra-guy!" Luffy called, running over to him.

Katara was the first to reach Law; her concern far outweighed any fear of him she might have had. Sokka joined them and bent down on the other side of Law, and asked, "Hey, are you alright? What did he do to you…?"

Law wasn't able to answer; he gagged and hacked as he continued to vomit.

"Why are there letter "C's"?" Chopper asked tentatively, both confused and worried. Pukje laughed, "Because he's C-sick!" Pukje continued to laugh at his own joke, ignoring the ship's passengers.

If looks could kill, the look that Law was giving Pukje in the momentary lapse of his C-sickness would have made the Spirit drop dead where he stood. Law started throwing up again, and Sokka remembered that on Law's shirt was the paper seal that Pukje had placed there.

Moving quickly, Sokka looked for the seal, and tried to grab a corner of it so that he could peel it off. Sokka tried peeling off the seal, but to no avail. Another idea struck him, and he wasn't even sure if it would work, but it was worth a try.

"Take off your shirt!" Sokka said to Law (who was attempting to gasp for air by now) "I can't peel that thing off!"

Law only nodded, and with Katara's help, the siblings pulled off the shirt just as another bout of sickness was starting. As soon as Law was free from his shirt, the sickness stopped. He was left coughing and greedily gasping for air. The C-seal slowly turned to dust, as did the "C's" that Law had thrown up.

Law glared at the Troublemaker, as did the other pirates. Luffy ran at Pukje shouting, "You bastard!"

But Zoro grabbed his shirt, saying "Luffy, wait! Look at what he did to Law! You think you can do any better? There's nothing we can do," He leaned in close to Luffy and whispered, "… for now."

Even though Zoro had stopped Luffy, he had a hand on his sword, ready to draw.

Luffy stopped, taking in the advice of his first mate. Luffy glared at the Spirit, and said in a dangerously low voice, "I'm gonna kick your ass."

Pukje sensed something he had never sensed before; something quite dangerous and genuine about the threat that had been given him, and he hoped that the fear that tingled down his spine at the sight of the Straw Hat captain's glare didn't show on his features. He quickly recovered (at least he hoped so) from the glare.

He pulled out an hour glass that was bigger than he was by about half, and said, "This is your timer," the hour glass was quite odd, as the sand which was in the upper part, and did not flow down to the bottom. "I suggest you leave now, time is short you know."

"Wait one moment!" Nami shouted at the Troublemaker. "You say that we have three days for each island, but what about the time in between? Plus we have to reach this Ha Chi place at sunrise. What if we end up having to go back the way we came because the Log Pose is pointing to an island that we already passed? There's no guarantee that we'll reach the island in that amount of time. A three month limit isn't enough!"

"Then I suggest you start your voyage, and hope for the best of luck when drawing Log Poses," Pukje said, his grin wide and cold. "Bon Voyage,"

And with that, he turned the hour glass upside down, so that the sand flowed up from the bottom, into the upper part of the glass. He set it on the table, and gave the group a mock salute. He jumped off of the ship and onto a waiting Kelpie (which in comparing its size to anything would be a King Bull, if not a little smaller), and when Aang realized it, he shouted, "Wait, that's the Kelpie Spirit! Wait! Cyprus!"

Cyprus stopped for a moment and looked back at the people on the ship for a moment, focusing his eyes on Zoro. A look of anger mixed with fear clearly showed on his features. The two Spirits dove into the water and disappeared in a flash, leaving the Straw Hats and Team Avatar with no choice but to play whatever game this was that Pukje had forced them into. Sokka just stood there somewhat still in shock over what had just transpired. Katara couldn't help but notice the thick bandages that were wrapped around Law's shoulders, back, and chest.

"Could I have my shirt back please?" he said in a raspy voice to Sokka after catching his breath. Sokka realizing he was still holding Law's shirt quickly handed it to him, with a "Sorry."

I can't believe I underestimated him… Law thought to himself. I let my guard down.

"Are you alright?" Katara asked, looking worried. "Do you need help or anything?"

"I'm fine," Law replied with a grunt as he put his shirt on. "I've had worse happen."

The waterbender girl did not look convinced, but she left him alone after he gave a look of confirmation.

The Heart Pirate captain swore that if he ever ran into that Troublemaker again, he was going to make the Spirit regret ever meeting him. Now that he had somewhat of an idea of what the Spirit could do, he could think of a few counter measures that would ensure a victory next time.

To the Straw Hats, Law, and Kin'emon and his son, all of them had at first perceived Pukje to being the equivalent of an annoying little sprite, and not the level of threat that he actually presented. To them, he looked like something that had walked right out of a children's storybook. They now had some understanding about what these "Spirits" were that Aang had spoken of.

Aang stood at the railing of the ship looking numb. He was thinking about the events that had lead up to this. So… what of it? Pukje's voice rang in his ears.

"…Aang?" Zuko finally spoke up, getting his attention.

Aang turned to the pirates, and gave them a bow. "I'm sorry about this," he started. "But it seems that you were dragged into our problems. If you help us get home, we'll do whatever we can to assist you along the way and pay back everything that you do for us."

Nami looked quite serious and said, "This is taking time from our goal to reach Zo, but we'll help you…" she then smiled like a mischievous child, "And in return, I want gold; lots of it. Remember; five times the interest."

"Wait, you're charging us more?" Zuko asked, dumbfounded.

"You're important people, so it shouldn't be that hard to get." Nami replied very matter-of-factly.

Zoro had noticed a fairly recent-looking scar on the Kelpie's left shoulder. "So it was him," Zoro said, the others looked curiously at him. "The Kelpie was the one pulling Sunny. I would know the scars my swords leave behind anywhere."

Obviously, the Spirits could be wounded, or at the very least physically attacked. If they ended up meeting any other Spirits, they could easily defend themselves if need be. And if that was the case, they weren't going to make the mistake of underestimating any of them anymore.

"Yosh~!" Luffy said. "Tra-guy, sorry but we're going to have to wait to reach Zo. We have to take everyone home. You don't mind, right?"

Although he looked somewhat irritated, Law agreed with a slight nod of his head. "Let's just do it."

"Set sail for Ha Chi!" Luffy said with a shout.


So, is Pukje dislikable/likable or what? Please let me know!

I already have an idea on how this is going to end, and I have a few ideas for what goes in the middle. It's just a matter of filling it all in.

A bit of a plot hole here (and it won't be acknowledged ever again after this). I figure that Team Avatar can't read English, although in the One Piece world, English writing is used in abundance. This is why they wouldn't understand letters/words written in the English alphabet. Aang and the others may not even speak the same language as the pirates... so plot convenience is convenient.