A/N: Le sigh…I may just have to move this fic up to an M rating as I have been posting many a warning in recent chapters. In this chapter, and overall arc, crude language and heavy curse words make themselves present.

Please let me know if this does in fact need to move up a rating. Thanks!

Big thanks go out to everyone who left such kind reviews and for those who have followed and faved – You are awesome! Much love and I hope you enjoy this arc.


Chapter 24: The Floating Islands Part One: Do Tattoos Hold Some Form of Power?

**Countdown: Two Months, 11 days left**

Nami felt an odd mix of relief and annoyance as the next island came into view; relief that they had come across another island rather quickly, and annoyance because it wasn't the one that was their intended goal. Of course, Luffy was quite excited about the island, an enthusiasm shared by Toph. They both chorused, "New island, new island!"

Robin looked amused, and said, "I've heard of this island, actually. It's called Bháite Island, also known as the "Floating Islands." I must admit I've always been quite curious about it."

Sokka looked out, fully expecting literal floating islands, instead he could only see a large mountain peak that towered out of the water for at least twenty feet, along with several smaller peaks, and instead of just one single island, and there were large flat disks of various sizes dotted around the mountain peaks. Each of the disks was abundant with plant life, and each had houses and shops on them, with simple, but well-built wooden fences around the perimeters of the disk islands. He could also make out bridges which connected each of the residential disks to each other. Toph apparently shared his expectations, because she questioned Robin, "So, are they literally floating islands?"

Robin chuckled, "No, in truth Bháite used to be a very large tropical island; but it sunk into the sea around a hundred or so years ago. The mountain tops are all that can be seen of the original island now. Because the mountain hasn't fully sunk, the magnetic fields are still just as strong. The people simply adapted by creating their own islands and connecting them to the mountain, so nothing gets blown away or lost. I've heard they lined the bottoms with sea stone to prevent any Sea King attacks."

"Wow…" Aang admired the people's tenacity to stick around even when their homes had most likely been lost all those years ago. As they sailed closer to the island, Aang pointed at the water beneath them. "Look at that! You can see the ruins from the island!"

Sure enough, the water was so clear that they could see far down into the depths for miles. Hundreds of thousands of fish of various sizes and colors swam among the ruins of old buildings, and they could see many very thick and heavy chains in the sides of the mountains which were connected to the Floating Islands. Katara described the amazing view to Toph.

As they sailed closer, they passed an old fisherman who was sitting out on his boat casually reeling on his fishing rod. He gave them a brief glance, chewed on a toothpick and spoke with a sort of drawl, "Pirates, ain't welcome here, y'know."

He reeled and tugged on the fishing rod once more, "'Course, Pirates aren't really welcome anywhere these days, d'pendin' on the place I s'ppose. But whadda I know? I've never left this island."

He spit out his toothpick with a loud hack, and then pulled a new toothpick from the pocket of his faded jacket and placed it between his aged-yellow teeth. "Ya didn't hear this from me, but…there jest may be a tradin' post on the far northwest side of the island. But I oughtta warn ya, the people who own that place are fiercer'n some pirates I've known in my time, and I've been alive for quite a while." He chuckled, very likely thinking of the sailors who had been brought down at the hands of mere shop owners. "But what do I know? I'm jest an old fisherman, who talks to himself and the fishes."

"Oh! Thanks fish-grandpa!" Luffy called out, and the old man just waved a hand absentmindedly.

"Oh, and the Marine base on the far south end of the Floatin' Islands oughtta discourage any trouble, y'know."

"Wait, Marine base?" Nami suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and Aang and the others noticed how the Pirates visibly stiffened at the information.

"G-24, if my memory serves me well, I forget things easily, y'know. Ya don't cause trouble, ya don't get their attention. But I'd be more worried about the folks at the tradin' post. They won't think twice about collectin' a bounty or two. 'Course, all the Pirates they ever turned in h've always been dead. Least, that's what I heard. People talk quite a bit."

Usopp gulped loudly, and he knew that everyone would want to go to the trading port. He began to feel a sense of panic as he thought of huge burly men ripping him apart and then taking him to the Marine base to collect their reward. He then remembered that his wanted poster was Sogeking, so maybe he didn't necessarily have anything to worry about. But still…he had been recognized as Sogeking by others in the past.

"Well, I'm off." The old man said. He gave them one last glance and a wink, "I'm a crazy old man who has never left this island, an' knows nothin' much of the world. And my eyes aren't as good as they'sed to be. Ya could be travelin' merchants fer all I know."

And with that, he pulled in his rod and started to row away towards one of the smaller islands that had a few older looking houses on it.

"…Marines?" Aang questioned, and Nami sighed.

"Basically, the Marines uphold the law in this World. They'll try to capture us if we draw any sort of attention to ourselves. We've got to lay low." She then quickly added, "So you guys," she was talking specifically to certain attention-drawing crewmembers, "behave. We don't need the Marines coming after us when we can't leave easily."

"Alright…" Luffy said, but he was grinning. "Let's go to that trading post, I wanna meet these people! They sound interesting! Shishishishishi!"

"Let's just hope they don't cause us any trouble either," Nami responded, and quite a few members of the crew had to agree with her.

"What if they kill us and turn us over to the Marines?!" Usopp cried in panic. "I think I'm suddenly contracting I-can't-go-on-this-island-or-I'll-be-cut-up-disease…"

"What's the big deal?" Sokka asked, "It's just a trade post with a few crazy sounding people."

"What's the big deal? What's the big deal?" Usopp was pushing his face up against Sokka's. "We've got not one, but two of the most wanted men in the World on our ship, not to mention one of them is a former Warlord," he pointed at Law in an accusing manner, "He was a Warlord?" Sokka tried to ask, and Zuko, Katara, and Toph remembered Leyla had briefly mentioned it. But Usopp continued, ignoring all questions in his worry. "And Luffy is the son of one of the most dangerous and wanted men in the World! And all of us, except for Kin'emon and Momonosuke have bounties on our heads! Do you realize that means if we go to that trading post the chances of us getting killed and turned over to the Marines is drastically high! Who wouldn't want to have a chance of collecting over 840,000,000 belli?" He turned to address the likes of Luffy, Zoro, and Law, with tears in his eyes. "Why did you guys have to draw so much attention to yourselves?!"

"How much money is that, exactly?" Toph asked. From what she had gathered in the first town while they were shopping, the Straw Hats were definitely a notorious crew of sorts. Nami responded, "Quite a lot. A person could be considered somewhat rich even with just 100,000,000 belli."

"Are the Marines dangerous?" Zuko asked, figuring they should at least put the potential danger at the top of their priorities. When they had first met the Straw Hats on that mushroom island Usopp had been worried about the possibility of them being Marine spies.

"Not if we don't draw their attention," Robin said. "Although if they caught us all of us would surely be executed in the most violent fashion for the entire World to see. Even you and your friends would be killed, Flame-kun, for associating yourselves with us."

"That seems harsh…" Aang rubbed his neck as he imagined a noose around it.

"I'm too young to die!" Brook lamented, "Even though I'm already dead! Yohohoho!"

Since Robin didn't answer Zuko's question directly, Law responded, "The Marines in the New World are much stronger than in any of the other four Seas. We'll likely be killed or severely wounded if we attract their attention."

"That doesn't exactly give me peace of mind," Zuko muttered, while Usopp was now freaking out about how casual Law was. Usopp began complaining that he was the only one to worry about their situation, to which Toph told him that he worried far too much.

"You'll be bald by the time you're in your thirties," she informed him. This caused Luffy to laugh and comment, "You'd look really funny bald, Usopp."

As Franky guided the Sunny around to the northwest side of the island, sure enough they saw it; a slightly larger island that had a rather large building that was obviously both a residence and a shop was built in such a way that it seemed to precariously hang over the edge of its island and over the ocean. There was also a large storage shed, a barn, and a variety of animals such as sheep, cows, and horses that were surrounded by a fence.

There was a large windmill on the island, and it creaked loudly in the wind, and a weathervane that looked very much like some kind of dragon rested atop the residence. There were four docks that stretched for almost a mile from the island to the sea, and upon seeing it, Sanji nodded and pointed, "We aren't the only ones here,"

He was referring to another Pirate ship, although none of them could recall the Jolly Roger which was displayed on the flag. Franky expertly weaved and dodged mountain tops that stuck out of the water by the docks. They docked at one of the ports further away from the other Pirate ship, and Luffy excitedly lead the way as Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Brook, Zoro, and Aang and his friends following close behind.

One of the first things they saw as they embarked onto the island was a very noticeable sign, and carefully printed on it in painted red letters with thick black underlines was;

*No Lying

*No Cheating

*No Stealing

*No threatening the staff

*This is your one warning*

Scrawled across the bottom in black ink was, Feel free to try at your own risk ;)

Of course, they all glanced at each other with mild concern, while Luffy simply grinned, "What an interesting sign! I wonder what would happen if we tried taking up any of those challenges."

"Don't even try it!" Usopp berated, and Nami shook her head.

"Let's not…" Nami didn't want to risk any unnecessary attention, and was mildly annoyed that Luffy hadn't seemed to catch the part about the trading post workers killing and turning in wanted Pirates.

As they walked along the dock, they came upon a girl who looked to be around 12 or 13 years of age, and she was currently sitting on a boulder cleaning a rifle that was nearly as big as she was. A few other guns were placed around her feet, and upon seeing the visitors, she greeted them with a friendly smile.

"Good day, weary travelers, and welcome to Vidu's Trading Port! Might I request you wait out here for a moment as business is currently being transacted within the store, and of course some matters are to be kept private, I'm sure you understand."

Katara eyed the girl curiously, and wondered why she had a large circle tattooed at the center of her chest. It was surrounded by an elaborate twisted pattern that wound around her arms and neck. Smaller circles were tattooed on her shoulders, and the elaborate tattoo was evidently connected to the tattoos on her hips and legs. All of this was evident due to the bikini top and shorts she was wearing.

"Hey, little sister!" Luffy greeted in his friendly manner. He frowned in thought for a moment before saying, "You know, your tattoo looks familiar; have I seen it before somewhere?"

He was asking that last part mostly to himself, but the girl continued her smile. "Many people have tattoos, like your bald friend there. So it isn't really all that uncommon."

Nami felt that Luffy was right; the tattoo somehow did look familiar, but she just couldn't place it. The elaborate portions of the tattoo certainly didn't help with jogging her memory.

"So do your tattoos have any special powers?" Luffy questioned, and the girl stopped smiling only because she was caught off-guard by the question. The smile was gone for only a moment, but her smile returned as she asked, "Whatever do you mean?"

"His tattoos glow, it's really cool!"

Aang awkwardly waved at the girl as she glanced at him curiously, "Do they now? I suppose that is really cool; I've never met anyone whose tattoos were capable of such feats. But no, my tattoos hold no special power; they are merely decorative. I quite like them."

She held the gun in a firing position, being mindful to keep it pointed at the ground, and she put her eye to the scope, and seemed satisfied with it, and moved on to the next gun which she started to take apart and clean.

Aang admittedly felt somewhat awkward, so he introduced himself, "Uh, I'm Aang."

"Dacho," the girl said, "pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!"

"Oh, I know who you are, and it is quite the fantastic thing to meet someone as infamous such as yourself, Straw Hat-san. I never thought I would ever experience the fortuitous event, and yet here you are."

She eyed Luffy carefully, and said, "Many stories have been told about you and your crew; my family speaks very highly of them, and even the merchants and Pirates who have traveled through here speak of you. Why, the Marines have many a delightfully hateful tale about you and the events from two years ago. But the most fantastic of these tales has to be what happened almost a month ago."

Her eyes glimmered, "Donquixote Doflamingo and the country of Dressrosa. Quite an exciting story I must say, although the juiciest of details was left out of the papers I'm sure, quite a disappointment I must say for those of us who aren't there to experience such exciting events firsthand."

Zuko looked at the Straw Hats out of the corner of his eye, trying to read their expressions. There were those whose expressions were unreadable, but others noticeably stiffened and looked worried, while others sort of glanced away from Dacho, not meeting her piercing gaze. But Luffy continued to grin. Just who was this Doflamingo guy? Plus, there was something about how this girl talked that stood out to him. She spoke in a manner that seemed very mature for her age; and not necessarily as someone who was raised to speak properly.

"Oh, it was exciting!" Luffy seemed to be the only one present who recalled these events with fondness. He began talking about Dressrosa, a coliseum, various fighters and so on, when their conversation was interrupted by a shout and a burly man tumbled out of the store, followed by a very angry looking girl who looked to be 17 or 18 years of age. Her pale blue eyes peered dangerously down at the man who was holding a hand to his bloody head while he was slumped on the ground.

"What the hell is this shit?!" the girl demanded, and through a few shiny gold rocks at him. "Are you seriously trying to rip me off?! That shit is fool's gold! It's fucking worthless!"

"I-I-I'm not trying to cheat you! Seriously!" the man fumbled through his words.

"Then why were you so insistent on paying with that particular gold? You kept prattling on about how high of quality it was, and shit. You seriously take me for an idiot, don't you?"

The man shook his head quickly, replying, "Seriously, I don't! I got cheated too; I thought the gold was real gold, honest!"

"Then you're an idiot." The girl crossed her arms, and narrowed her eyes. "Anyone who sets out for treasure in this world should be able to tell the difference between what's of true value and what shit is."

Another man appeared behind her, with a flintlock pointed at the back of her head. "Look missy, we weren't looking for trouble, but now that we're here…" he sighed, and cocked the pistol. "We'll be taking our goods and leaving, or we'll be taking your life and our goods and then leave. Which will it be?"

The girl didn't even react to the man with the pistol; she only glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Sanji was about to attack that flintlock-wielding bastard for pulling a gun on a cute girl, when suddenly, the man's hand was forced down by some sort of black fluid and he shot himself in the foot. He fell to the ground screaming, and a dark-haired boy who appeared to be the same age as the girl walked out of the store, an eerie and twisted smile was on his face. "Now, now, see what happens when you aren't careful with guns? People have lost entire limbs and their lives thanks to improper gun handling. At least you only lost a toe."

"Aw, thanks Ebony-nii-chan," the girl grinned at the young man next to her.

"Sure thing, Eury-nee-san," the boy only nodded, and he seemed quite pleased to be on the receiving end of the glare the wounded man was giving him.

"Tell me, Captain Maxwell," Eury squatted down to stare the man in the eye. "Do you trust your crew?"

"What do you mean? Of course I trust them!" Captain Maxwell responded indignantly.

"Then," Eury grabbed the wounded man and forced him to his feet, ignoring his groans of protest. "Your man here will take me on board your ship and give me what I am owed. If he tries to sail away, I can easily escape, but unfortunately that leaves you in a rather precarious situation; no crew, no ship, having pissed off a family you shouldn't have, while being stranded on an island with a Marine base when you also have a bounty on your head. Ebony-nii-chan, just how much is our friend Captain Maxwell here worth?"

"165,000,000 belli, abysmally low for New World standards, I must say, considering how you got your start on this side of the Grand Line itself, with your home island being Gunton." Ebony spoke quite condescendingly at the Pirate Captain. "The only reason it's even that high is because of civilian casualties, and not necessarily any sort of threat level. But look on the bright side!" he smiled quite optimistically, and spread his arms wide. "We'll kill you before turning you over to the Marines. That way, you won't be put on trial, or sent to Impel Down, or even be publicly executed. See how lucky you are!"

Captain Maxwell's eyes widened and he said to his subordinate through gritted teeth, "Hurry back and don't you try anything!"

Eury and the wounded man boarded the other Pirate ship, with the ever-smiling Ebony standing guard, and about fifteen minutes later; Eury came back carrying a few sacks that were plump with gold, given by how the contents jingled with every step she took. Eury had a happy grin plastered on her face, and she held the sacks up above her head in victory, "Look, Ebony-nii-chan! They paid for everything! Let's get their purchase onto their boat!"

Robin noticed as Eury walked away from them, her back also had a large circular tattoo, but there was a sort of strange combination of swirling Celtic knots and tribal patterns around the circular tattoo, and the tank top and short shorts she wore revealed the rest of her tattoos; her right arm was covered in the strange swirling pattern which cut across her back and down the entirety of her left leg.

"Oi, Jed! Orin! Captain Maxwell here paid everything in full, time to get their stuff loaded! Jed, bring the chart, please." Ebony called into the store; meanwhile his sister was hugging the sacks of money lovingly.

A stocky young man who looked to be a few years older than Ebony and Eury, in spite of being shorter than them came out followed by a tall and thin Fishman that had the appearance of a anthropomorphic pale green eel whose face slightly stuck out and the tips of needle-like teeth peeked out from his lips came out of the store just then. The stocky young man must have been Jed, because he handed the desired chart to Ebony, and the trio walked over to the large storage shed to get ready and load the cargo, while Eury carried her beloved payment into the store.

Captain Maxwell glowered at the girl, and spat, "Crazy bitch!" to which she responded without hesitation, "Go suck a donkey's cock!"

With that, Eury headed into the store, slamming the door quite loudly as she did so. The Captain flinched in anger, and the Straw Hat Pirates and those of Team Avatar watched in curiosity, although Katara had to wonder at the language Eury had spouted out. Toph snickered, and Nami made a face of slight disapproval, as if she was wondering if the girl actually had to speak in the manner that she did. Aang, Zuko, and Sokka all exchanged glances of curiosity, and silently wondered just what the other women of this World were like.

"It will be just a few more minutes," Dacho said, examining a small pistol. "Ebony handles all of the orders, so once he's done with Jed and Orin, you can go in."

"Great!" Luffy replied. "Oohh! You've sure got a lot of guns here,"

"I quite like them," Dacho examined her pistol carefully. "The coldness of the metal, the heat of the bullets, and the power behind every shot…it's rather exhilarating."

She spoke of the weapons with a strange sort of loving tone in her voice. About twenty or so minutes later, Jed and Orin greeted Captain Maxwell in an air of obvious false politeness and gratitude, and loaded his ship with his desired cargo without any trouble. It was when the pair was headed back towards the storage shed that the Captain pulled out a pistol, cocking it as he did so. He didn't seem to care or even acknowledge the people who were just a few yards from him, and before he could even prepare to aim at whichever intended target he had in mind, a shot rang through the air.

Captain Maxwell fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding leg and screaming in pain.

"Oh dear," Dacho said, with an eerie smile on her face, "Such terrible misfortune has befallen you for your very poor decision-making."

Everyone stared wide-eyed at her, while the likes of Orin and Jed simply ignored the transpiring events as if they weren't even happening.

Dacho held her beloved small pistol in one hand, and she easily picked up a rifle that closely matched her height with its length, causing it to look as if she was holding her own personal cannon, and she spoke once more, the tone in her voice clearly saying she was not the type to mess around, along with a sign of mockery. "The next shot will kill you, and I am of the opinion that the world would be much better off with one less fool in it. Be thankful you can still walk without assistance. You may take your leave."

"You people are crazy!" Captain Maxwell growled as he shakily stood dragging his injured leg behind him, and he turned to leave while Dacho smiled and replied in a sinisterly chipper tune, "Thank you for using Vidu's Trading Port! Have a nice day!"

As soon as Captain Maxwell was on his ship and it was evident that they were leaving without further incident, Dacho settled back onto her seat, ignoring the stares that she was getting from the likes of Aang, Sokka, Katara, Zuko, and Usopp (The first four had no idea a girl Dacho's size was capable of such amazing feats of strength while Usopp was imaging the girl gunning them all down). In a now-friendly chipper tone, she announced, "You can go into the store now, as things have settled down."

The group went into the store with a mix of anxiety and anticipation, and saw that Eury had her back to them and was currently counting out and weighing the gold with delicate love and care that could rival even that of Nami. Upon being able to examine her closer, they noticed that she was very well toned, her light hair was rather messily cropped in such a fashion that the left was shorter than the right, with her hair on that side nearly reaching her shoulder (it was also quite evident that she had very likely cut and styled it herself) and a pair of diving goggles were around her neck, and her skin was tanned.

Ebony was now sitting at a desk facing the entrance while he was reading a book, and he was rather the opposite of his sister; reading glasses, pale skin, long, inky-black hair that reached the middle of his back and was pulled into a ponytail, he had a thin scar that came up from his lower right jawline almost to the inner corner of his right eye, and he had the same piercing blue eyes. He wore a white undershirt that was slightly opened, and he was also heavily tattooed, as evidenced by what was on the left side of his neck and what could be seen from under his shirt, but his had what could be best described as a jagged and squared tribal pattern. The ink that formed his tattoos seemed almost alive, as those observing him could have sworn that it looked as if the pattern was rippling on, or possibly underneath his skin. A small black and white colobus monkey sat atop his shoulder, looking down at whatever his master was reading.

The walls were covered in various maps, papers and pictures of places that were very likely major cities and well-known islands (as one of them depicted Water 7 and another Logue Town), various goods that did not need to be bought in bulk were stacked in crates and on shelves, and the place actually was surprisingly bigger on the inside then it had looked on the outside. Another young man reclined on one of the closed crates, he too had tattoos, and the top of his circular tattoo that everyone who worked here seemed to have peeked out from the V-neck collar of his shirt. He was whittling on some little wooden figure, and he waved at them without even looking up.

Sokka had evidently noticed the running trend that the people working at the trade post had, and he not-so-discreetly leaned over to his sister and friends, then whispered, "What, are tattoos a requirement to work here or something?"

"Shh!" Katara hissed, and she pushed Sokka away.

Zuko only shrugged, perhaps they were. He had met people during his three-year journey to find the Avatar who had tattoos signifying that they were part of a local gang or something or other. These people worked with Pirates, so perhaps there was in fact some sort of underworld dealings going on.

"Ebony, customers." The whittling young man said, and he blew on the little wooden figure and carefully inspected it. He quickly and carefully added a few little minute details, and went to work on carving slightly bigger chunks out of the figure.

Upon seeing the siblings closer, Robin felt a strange sense of familiarity about them, but she couldn't place it.

Ebony didn't look up right away, but he bookmarked the section of the book he was reading and closed it. Finally looking up with a bright smile, he said, "Hello, valued customers and welcome to Vidu's Trading Port an…" his voice trailed off and his smile disappeared when he realized just who was standing in the store.

"Eh…Eurynome…" he said slowly, and looked back at his sister, only to quickly glance back at the Pirates. Nami, Usopp, Brook, and Sanji quickly became nervous (while Sanji prepared himself for the possibility of a fight), wondering just what Ebony's intentions were. They were thinking of Captain Maxwell and how casually Ebony seemed to have been in his willingness to kill the Captain for not paying his dues. "Eury-chan!" he said more insistently.

"What?" she asked and Ebony pointed at the Pirates. "Look at who is in our store. The Straw Hat Pirates are in our store."

With that comment, the young man who was whittling away and Eurynome both looked, and her eyes widened, while the young man whispered, "Holy shit..."

In two seconds flat she had left her seat and was now standing in front of Brook, and stars sparkled in her eyes. "Soul King Brook! I love your music! You probably hear this all the time, but," Eurynome gushed without taking a breath, "I have every one of your albums and I so wanted to attend your final concert at Sabaody Archipelago, but I couldn't go due to circumstances, but I've supported you from afar and I think you're amazing and would you sign my albums?! I have to go get them!"

She quickly retreated behind the desks, turned a corner and loudly clomped up a flight of stairs before Brook could say a word. Sanji sort of glowered at Brook, showing a hint of jealously that a skeleton of all things was getting more admiration than him from a cute girl.

"Straw Hat Monkey D. Luffy, ocean of origin, East Blue, home island, Dawn Island, current bounty of 400,000,000 belli," Ebony was saying excitedly to no one in particular. "Currently has nine crew members; each with a bounty – totaling 800,000,050." He was now obviously addressing Luffy. "I was so excited when you resurfaced after two years! And you're allied with the Heart Pirates…"

Ebony stopped for a moment, looked away briefly and grinned sheepishly at Luffy, and introduced himself, "I'm Losbreken Ebony ." He pointed to the monkey on his shoulder. "This is Saul. It's so amazing to finally meet you! I've heard so much about you…and, ah, I'm sounding like a ridiculously obsessed stalker right now…"

Luffy laughed. "You actually aren't that bad – I met a guy who said he was my follower or something…he was weird. But I liked him!"

"That's a relief, to be sure," Ebony chuckled, and he scratched the back of his head. Now that the shock of meeting the people he obviously admired had worn off, he was much more casual and calm. His casual smile appeared again, and he asked, "Hey, would you and your crew be willing to sign your wanted posters for me? I'll take a percentage off of your total for every signature I get."

At those words, Nami was suddenly standing beside Luffy and smiling, "Of course, we'd love to!"

"Ah, Cat Burglar Nami – your wanted poster doesn't flatter you at all…it doesn't do you justice! You're so much cuter in person." he looked away from her awkwardly as he said this and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Nami laughed seeming to be flattered, and waved her hand. "Oh, it's quite embarrassing, really. There's a story behind that picture…"

"I wasn't aware that you had new crewmates though…ah, but of course, you haven't done anything as of late to garner any newer attention. I suppose that's a good thing, though, considering."

He pulled out the crew's wanted posters from a carefully organized binder, and laid them out across the desk. Ebony then eyed Sanji's wanted poster, and then Sanji, and his eyes looked back and forth between the two a few times. His expression went from confused to incredulous. "Black Leg Sanji…?"

He said it slowly, almost as if he was trying to figure out if the wanted poster had been a bad joke or an attempt on Sanji's part to doctor his own wanted poster that had somehow backfired or had been overlooked and made official by the World Government. Sokka noticed the confusion and the strange expression on Sanji's face, so he went over to inspect the wanted posters.

"Who is that?!" Sokka asked, pointing at Sanji's drawn poster. He looked back and forth between the two, and with equal curiosity, Aang, Katara, and Zuko came over to look as well. Sanji's discomfort and embarrassment grew even more.

All four of them burst out into howls of laughter, and in between bursts of laughter, Aang choked out, "It looks like something Sokka drew!"

Sokka was laughing too hard to take any offence at what Aang had said.

Zuko honestly had only laughed this hard a select few rare and precious times in his life. The more he looked at the poster and the angrier that Sanji got, made him laugh all the more.

"His-his-Sanji's wanted poster is hand-drawn!" he managed to gasp out to Toph. "It doesn't even look like him!"

"…Zuko…" Sanji growled quietly.

"Well, I think it looks just like him, the resemblance is uncanny." Toph replied casually, and she shrugged. "I don't see what's so funny about it."

"Toph-chan how can you say that, if you look at it you can tell that…" Sanji's voice trailed off as he stared at the mischievously grinning, blind Earthbender.

"That wasn't very kind, Toph-chan…" Sanji said almost miserably. He seemed to have dark clouds floating around him as he sighed heavily with his shoulders slumped.

"It is so funny when it's not happening to me," Sokka seemed to be saying that last bit to himself as he laughed. Toph's joke and Sanji's reaction made things all the more hysterical, and they found themselves laughing even harder. Even Luffy, Brook, and Nami had to laugh, while Zoro laughed as well, but he was laughing more at Sanji's reaction to Toph's comments.

Sanji would have refused to sign his wanted poster and would have even denied it being him, but under a combination of wanting to please Nami and not be the subject of her wrath (she had glared at him and through gritted teeth said, "Sign it.") So he begrudgingly did so.

Aang and everyone else eyed the rest of the wanted posters curiously, and Sokka looked from Zoro's poster to him, and said, "So, that's how you look with two eyes. You don't look any less scary."

"So," Aang started, "what exactly do the bounties mean? Like how are they even determined?"

Ebony went into an explanation of how the bounties worked, saying that a bounty over 100,000,000 was a great achievement for any Pirate, meanwhile Eurynome returned with a stack of albums and a pen, and although she smiled excitedly at Brook, she seemed to be much calmer as well. A girl with short, dark purple hair in small pigtails who appeared to be a year or two Eurynome's junior was right behind her. "Oh my…wow! It is them!"

"See, I told you Saya!" Eurynome turned to her friend, and then back to Brook who gladly took the pen and began signing his albums, while Saya stood back against the wall and shyly admired the people of the crew from afar.

Glancing over at his sister, Evony nodded to himself, "Now, with your entire crew's signatures and if Soul King Brook-san signed my sister's albums, that's a decent half off right there. But from what I understand, you've also got Heart Pirate Captain Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law with you too, right? I've heard he was traveling with you. If I get his signature as well, I'd say that bumps a good 55% off of your total order."

"I'll be right back." Nami said, "The rest of you, sign those wanted posters." Dark shadows passed over her face, showing she meant serious business (the one she got whenever money was involved) and she ran out of the store. In less than ten minutes, voices of protest were heard, and the rest of the Straw Hats tumbled into the store (which thankfully still held more than enough room for all of them, even Franky) followed by Nami dragging a protesting Trafalgar Law with her. She then roughly shoved Law over to the desk where Ebony grinned up at him, "Surgeon of Death Trafalgar Law, Captain of the Heart Pirates and former Warlord with a current bounty of 440,000,000 belli. Ocean of origin; North Blue, although it's unclear which island you're from and…I'm doing it again…anyway…"

He quickly pulled out Law's wanted poster, and placed it on the desk in front of him. Law glanced from him to Nami, and begrudgingly signed the poster, and Ebony gave him a look of genuine thanks.

"This is awesome! I now have all of the signatures from those of "The Worst Generation"! This day could not get any better! Your crew is going to have to come back through here sometime soon so I can get their signatures as well!"

"'Worst Generation'?" Zuko was becoming more and more curious about the stories the Pirates hadn't told them.

Ebony carefully placed all of the posters back into their respective places in the binder by his desk, and as he did so he asked, "So, Surgeon of Death-san, that polar bear that's on your crew, he isn't a pet, right?"

"No-"

"Wait, you have a polar bear on your crew?" Zuko asked, although he figured that he probably shouldn't have thought it to be so strange considering the World they were in, and the fact that the Straw Hats had a reindeer doctor on their crew. Ebony pulled out the wanted poster of Bepo, and Katara clasped her hands, "He's so cute!"

"See, I told you Java," Ebony said to the whittling young man, "he isn't a pet. He has too much intelligence in his eyes to be a mere pet."

"Okay, okay," Java held up his hands in mock surrender and he sported a cocky grin. "You were right, I was wrong. You were also right about Cotton Candy Lover there too. I won't be saying anything more when animals show up in a Pirate crew."

So were talking animals showing up in Pirate crews actually a normal thing? More questions arose in Aang and his friends.

Now that the wanted posters and the albums were signed, and both she and Sanji were able to order quite a bit extra of everything that they needed, Nami got right down to business.

"Alright, 55% as promised," Ebony said, as he pushed over piece of paper which listed everything that Nami and Sanji had ordered. All she had to do now was sign.

"How about 75%?" Nami asked, and she took on a sort pleading pout.

"55%." Ebony's smile was gone, looking rather serious, and he sat with his hands folded in a practical manner.

"Oh, come on…" Nami leaned forward so that Ebony could get a better view of her chest. "What about –"

Ebony looked at Nami's chest briefly, (looking rather unimpressed as he did so) then back to her face before he spoke, "Seriously, Cat Burglar-chan, 45%."

"Wait, you took away-"

"Yes, but only because you added," Ebony reasoned, "You see, we're a rather large family, and we have to make a profit. I'm being considerably generous taking 55%, even something like 40% is really generous. So, please make me an offer where I at least earn something."

Nami narrowed her eyes, and Ebony narrowed his as well, but he seemed to be doing it in a more joking manner.

"60..."

"53,"

"Fine." Nami said in defeat. There was obviously no winning this.

"Oh, I'm so glad we could come to such a wonderful understanding! I'll have Jed and Orin carry your items out to your ship."

"Thanks…"

Just as if they knew that they were the topic of discussion, Jed and Orin came into the store just then, and Orin the electric eel Fishman greeted everyone with an enthusiastic "Hello!" while Jed gave all of them a grin and a salute.

Aang thought of the Fishman he had encountered previously, and thought of the contrasting differences in both their appearances and personalities.

The employees greeted the pair, with Ebony telling them that they had to load another (considerably large) order onto the Straw Hats' ship.

"Sure, sure," Orin said, and he grinned at the customers, his needle-like teeth housed in his wide grin contrasted his friendly manner, "We'll take care of it!"

"You guys are the real deal, huh?" Jed crossed his arms as he looked them up and down. Turning to Luffy, he commented, "You're shorter than I'd thought you'd be,"

"You're one to talk with him being taller than you," Java said with a smirk.

"Hey! I'm not that short!" Jed shot back.

"What?" Java put a hand to his ear. "You need to speak a little louder; it's hard to hear you from all the way down there."

"You bastard!" Jed ran at him and drew back a fist, and Java quickly and easily dodged, winding his way in between the crowd.

"Come on, Jed!" Java taunted, "We both know those short little legs of yours can't keep up! Huzazazaza!"

Jed managed to tackle Java and the two toppled over each other with Saya cheering, "Java, use your wits and speed!"

Orin grinned and sat down in a chair in the far corner, leaned back and put his bare webbed feet up on a chest. He took a swig out of a large flask, and quietly observed the ensuing chaos with a look of amusement.

Ebony watched as Java and Jed wrestled and spewed out insults. "Jed's doing it all wrong, you know. He's not targeting any of Java's weak points, so Java isn't taking him seriously."

Eury simply stepped to the side as the boys rolled across the floor, not even giving them a second glance.

"What's with all the ruckus in here?" a woman's voice carried over the din. An old woman followed by an old man exited from a back room. Although they both were old, they both looked as if they could easily rival even the likes of King Bumi in a fight. The old woman was thin, and she carried a flintlock and a small saber at her hip, and the old man wore a muscle shirt that revealed several battle scars and tattoos.

"AHEM."

The old man loudly cleared his throat, and Java and Jed quickly stopped their impromptu wrestling match and both stood quickly and grinned at him sheepishly. The upheaval stopped all together, and the old couple looked expectantly at those who could provide them with an appropriate response.

"Nana-san, O-jii-chan, it's the Straw Hat Pirates and Heart Pirate Captain!" Saya marveled from her position by the stairs.

"Is that so!" O-jii-chan smiled warmly at them, which contrasted his scarred features. "It's definitely a pleasure to serve you, and finally meet you; both of you." He was obviously addressing Law and Luffy. He looked very much like that of a grandfather who was greeting someone from his own family.

Zoro had to admit it was quite strange in how they were acting. These people obviously dealt with Pirates on a day-to-day basis, and yet they were making meeting Luffy and Law a very big deal. He felt that there was something here, something quite obvious, and he just wasn't seeing it. He didn't feel a sense of panic or anything, and hadn't been given a reason to do so. Maybe he was just overthinking things.

"Oh, dears," Nana-san said and very much like a grandmother she beckoned all of them to have a drink and a few snacks because they had to be famished. She disappeared back into the backroom which was the kitchen from what they could make out as the door swung open and shut.

"Oh, great," Java said, "you guys aren't gonna be leaving all that easily now." He laughed. "As soon as Nana-san gets it into her head that she's gonna give guests refreshments, you guys might as well accept your fate and eat and drink your fill, and then some."

"Last time she did this, it was with the Kid Pirates." Jed brushed himself off. "I honestly felt sorry for Captain Kid as Nana-san showered him with her comments and refreshments, and the poor guy looked as if he had never dealt with a Grandmother before."

"And there she was, talking to Killer," Java took on a mock old-woman's voice,

"'You're far too thin, dear. You should be eating more. Look at the sight of you; if you're going to be going up against New World Pirate crews and Marines, you need to have extra meat on those bones! Now don't complain and eat this too, dear. It'll give you muscles just like the Giants of Elbaf.'"

Java and Jed laughed about the whole ordeal, while Law silently wished he had been there to see Kid completely out of his element.

Eurynome carefully placed all of the signed albums onto her desk, and when she turned around, Brook was suddenly standing before her. "Yes?"

She didn't sound the slightest bit worried, surprised, or concerned, only curious.

"Excuse me, Eurynome-chan…but may I see your panties?"

Those who weren't used to hearing Brook ask such things stared in bewilderment at him, and Nami was shouting, "Don't be asking her stuff like that!"

Surprisingly, Eurynome laughed, "Well, I would – but I'm not wearing any. You see, I'm a deep-sea diver for a living and panties are so uncomfortable, they tend to ride up quite a bit when I dive and-"

"Why are you answering him?!" Nami demanded.

Meanwhile, Brook, Sanji, Kin'emon, and Momonosuke had slightly bloody noses. Saya came up and pulled Eurynome aside, and was whispering to her, and Saya giggled while Eurynome only rolled her eyes and frowned in a manner as if she were asking, "Seriously?"

Nana-san came back with juice, tea, and coffee for everyone, along with a variety of cookies and even some cotton candy for Chopper, looking genuinely glad as she did so. "Oh, I must say that it is so nice to have this many young people here!"

Just then, Eurynome approached Law, looking completely serious. "Surgeon of Death Law-san," she began, once she had gotten his attention. "I'm not saying that I'm attracted to you or anything, but if you ever want to retire your life as a Pirate and want a wife, or if you simply want to pass on your bloodline, I'd be more than happy to volunteer for the job." She slapped her hips as she continued, with Law looking extremely uncomfortable and incredulous, and Sanji was glaring at Law now. "These are child-bearing hips. They run in the women in my family."

"Uh…I…" Law started, as he was unsure of how to address the issue. No one had ever talked to him like this before. She was completely different from that headache-inducing Siren, and Law lowered his head in the hopes that his ruffled collar and hat would hide his features while he thought up an appropriate response. Then with a grin, Eurynome punched his arm playfully and she laughed, "Just jokin' with ya Surgeon of Death Law-san."

She turned away and Saya was laughing, with Saya pointing at Law, "The look on his face is priceless!"

"Okay, cough it up," Eurynome held out a hand to Saya, and Saya through fits of teary-eyed laughter gave Eurynome 500 belli. Eurynome kissed the money and stuffed it into one of the pockets in her shorts.

"Oi, oi," Ebony said as he casually leaned against his desk and rested his chin in his hand. "What if he seriously took you up on your offer?"

"Easy," Eurynome shrugged and formed her fingers into the shape of a gun. "Take a gun and fire a few to the head and to the heart, bury the body somewhere at sea. Problem solved."

"You have worrisome and escalating ways of solving your problems…" Evony sighed as he shook his head.

Nana-san then spoke up with a loud voice, "You see, Eury-chan, this is exactly why you're single! A room filled with perfectly eligible men and you go joking about killing one of them." She then rushed over to a shrine which the Pirates nor the Avatar and his friends had not noticed before, located by the far wall which was decorated with crosses, candles, and beads and a picture of a pretty, smiling blonde woman.

"Oh, God!" Nana-san began as she clapped a few times and clasped her hands, "please guide a nice young man who can handle the craziness and free spirit of Eury-chan! Frida! Please help guide your daughter! Please let this man be able to handle living under the fear of constant and impending death!"

She continued in prayers and incantations, while Eurynome protested.

"Nana-san!" Eurynome said in an almost whining tone, "I already said that I don't want to get married…"

She reacted more to the fact that Nana-san was saying she should get married, rather than the fact that Nana-san seemed to be thinking that any of the men on the Straw Hat crew or even Law would be a good fit for Eurynome.

"Considering how it's you, we'll need all the prayers we can get. Even then it won't be enough." Java said to Eurynome as he threw an arm around her shoulders. "This whole family is crazy. The poor guy would off himself before any of us could."

Jed nodded in agreement. "Yes and the last poor bastard who showed his interest in you ran away with his tail between his legs when Java here told him that he would arrange for his burial at sea if he ever hurt you (although I don't think you told us the full story, Java) and Ebony said that he would write a beautiful eulogy for him. It certainly didn't help either that you threatened to gut him like a fish, Eury-chan. At least if any of the guys here want to date you, they know what they're getting into."

Eurynome narrowed her eyes dangerously, "You're about to be gutted if you don't drop this whole 'Eurynome dating' shit."

Meanwhile Nana-san was now standing before Ebony pointing a long finger at his nose. "And don't think you've gotten out of the conversation either, Ebony!"

"What-what-what-why…" he stammered, and then he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "This is about grandchildren, isn't it?"

"This isn't about me or Vidu, you know that; this is about your future happiness."

"But I'm not attracted to women…" Ebony said with a shrug. "I mean, if I see one who makes me take a serious second look, then sure, I'll ask her to marry me right then and there. Of course," he looked thoughtful, "if she's that good looking, she's probably already taken. Is there even such a fantastic woman who exists with those standards and qualities? If she looks that good, she's probably very shallow. But if you've seen one woman, you've seen 'em all."

Katara and Sokka had to laugh at the family's antics, as it reminded them of home, and Aang smiled as he was reminded of the energy the Air Nomads had possessed. Zuko actually found himself enjoying the craziness. There was a strange sense of longing; he almost wished that his family possessed this type of crazy instead of the kind Azula or even his father had. Toph was laughing at Law and commenting about how she had felt his heartbeat and even Toph had to admit to herself that she almost wished for her parents to be like that of Vera and Vidu. Their thoughts were interrupted when Nami suddenly spoke up, and she was glaring at Ebony and leaning over his desk.

"What do you mean you aren't attracted to women?" she was thinking of his comments about her beauty.

"You liked hearing it, right?" Ebony shrugged. "You women like being told you are pretty…but in all honesty…all of you are just kind of…there." He spread a hand out before him dramatically as he spoke, "As far as I'm concerned, you all look pretty much the same."

Java was now laughing, "That's part of why Jii-chan has him in charge of manning the shop; no lady can successfully flirt with him. Me on the other hand, I'd hand out stuff for free if a cute girl so much as looked in my direction. You know," he spoke as if he were telling a tragic tale, "it became noticeable when he got to be the healthy age of twelve; I snuck him into the ladies' bathhouse for his birthday, and he wasn't impressed. He saw all the voluptuous…"

Java stopped when he realized that Vera was eyeing him rather dangerously, so he just finished quickly, "Anyway, he was bored very quickly and he said he would much rather read books about Pirates and science and stuff like that. But I guess ladies do like a well-educated man."

Java continued laughing about the whole thing, with Jed commenting that Ebony had missed out on one thing or another due to him always burying himself in books, and by this time, Saul had moved himself from Ebony's shoulder over to a perch by one of the windows where he could look outside. He suddenly started chirping and bouncing, and in a few quick leaps, he was hugging Ebony's face.

"Saul?" Ebony questioned, and Saul jumped back to his perch and desperately jumped up and down, and pointed his little hand to one of the bridges that connected the islands. As he was the closest, Java ran over to take a look, and his eyes widened.

"Oh, shit. It's the Marines."


Next Time: While the Sunny's crew is waiting for the Log Post to set, they begin to make friends very easily with the workers at Vidu's Trading Port, while Robin could swear she knows a few members of the family from somewhere.

Thanks goes out to a guest reviewer who pointed out to me the theory that Bepo and Pekoms might be of the Minkmen race (something silly ol' me did not realize or at least I did not pay attention. I do that...) Maybe we'll get some kind of confirmation in this arc? (Pretty please, Odachii-sama?)

Just to let everyone know, I had these characters in mind long before the ever awesome Bartolomeo came along. We all fangasm in our own ways, I'm sure.

I felt that someone at least had to address Zoro's one eye. I mean, seriously, if I hadn't seen or heard from a friend or family member for two years and they only had one eye when I saw them again, the first thing out of my mouth would likely be, "What the heck happened to your eye?!"

Reasons why Japanese is more fun than English: The naming of the monkey is a slight homonym-like pun. The Japanese pronunciation of Saul is Soru, and the Japanese word for monkey is saru. If Ebony was speaking Japanese, he'd be using both saru and Soru indiscriminately. Oh, and hey another thing - Ebony's name is a slight pun in naming the character - Ebony is a dense black wood which is dense enough to sink in water. Yay for all the punnage!