The crew stared at Zyuu.
"So?" Chopper asked, eyes shining with excitement.
"So...I won." Zyuu sat back. Robin nodded.
"So, if you won. Where's Alice now?" she asked. Nami stood.
"That's right! Alice should be able to help us."
Zyuu shook his head. "Absolutely not!" he said. "I promised myself that I would never let Alice return to Wonderland...for anything." The crew walked away and talked amongst themselves quietly. They looked back a Zyuu, and the man now had his arms defiantly crossed across his chest, looking at them with a blank stare. They went back to him.
"What if your super sister wants to go?" Franky raised a blue eyebrow. Zyuu stopped. He hadn't considered this.
"Well...uh... No!" He shook his head.
Nami knelt in front of the cage.
"Zyuu, was it?" she started. "Luffy is like a little sister. She's the captain of this ship." She sighed. "Annoying, naive, playful, strong, everything." Then Nami's stare got dark. "And we're bringing her back. Not just her, but her first mate, and our cook, AND her brother." Nami's teeth became sharp and pointy, barred at Zyuu who flinched back at her harsh voice and snappy attitude.
After a while, Zyuu still refused to speak. Nami turned to Robin.
"Hey. I remembered something from his story." She smirked.
"Is that so?" Robin smiled.
"It is. What's the nearest island from here?" she asked.
"WHAT!?" Zyuu blurted out. He finally got where she was going with this. Nami simply smiled at Zyuu.
"Well, since you refuse to speak, and you said it was an island near here, I'll go there and ask Alice myself." Franky jumped to the wheel.
"What a SUPER plan, Nami-aneki!" He laughed. Zyuu growled to himself and looked down, and Usopp and Chopper smirked from just outside the cage bars.
"Not so tough in the cage, are you?" Usopp let out a hearty laugh as the ship started sailing. Chopper smiled too.
"Yeah!" He laughed along.
"Yohohoho! We might just get Luffy-san back ourselves!" Brook sung, playing a tune on his violin. Nami barked out directions as Robin read peacefully. Zyuu looked back at the whirlpool and sighed.
Nami had navigated to the nearest island. The docked and stared at the busy town in silence.
"So, Alice might be on this island now. It makes sense." Nami nodded to herself.
"I'll guard the ship then, yohohoho!" Brook scurried back and the rest of the crew hopped down and spread out among the town.
Chopper scurried through the town. He stopped at a fruit shop where an old woman was handing out fruit samples.
"I'll take one!" Chopper smiled. The woman bent down and handed him the soft fruit with a kind smile.
"It's called a 'Fairy Fruit' around here, you know," she said in an old, shaky voice. Chopper popped it in his mouth.
"It's really good!" He smiled. "How come I've never tried this before?"
"It's a Fairy Tale specialty, you know!" She announced. "There are many herbs and plants that only grown on this island, you know." she smirked.
Chopper's eyes shined and he nearly bounced with anticipation.
"Would anyone mind if I took some herbs? I'm a doctor, so it would be for research, you know!" Chopper said, picking up the woman's medicinal plants. The woman smiled.
"Take as much as you need. You seem like a lovely dog, you know." Chopper froze.
"I'm not a dog! I'm a reindeer!" he shouted.
"My apologies, doctor. We don't see animals like you very often, you know," the old woman said.
"That doesn't make it better at all, you fool! Stupid..." Chopper blushed and danced at bit at being called a doctor. The woman gave him a full fruit and he went on his way to collect more herbs from the near by forest, forgetting about his search for Alice, "Ah! Wait!" Well, almost forgetting. Chopper yelled, turning back and running to the old woman again.
Robin was very intrigued. All the books in the only bookstore of this Fairy Tale island were exactly that: fairy tales. Princesses and princes, dungeons and dragons. No science, history, mathematics - nothing of that sort. She stopped a librarian, a young boy with glasses who seemed very klutzy.
"Can I ask where I could find 'The Legend of Wonderland'?" she asked. The boy pushed his glasses back up his nose, setting down the pile of books in his hands.
"That old thing? What for?" he asked.
"Just a bit of research I'm doing," Robin half-lied.
"Ah, I see. Well, it's pretty old so..." the boy trailed off. "Ah! I got it! Follow me." He waved and Robin followed. The two made their way to the back of the store.
The books in the back of the store were very old. The boy, again, had to push his glasses back up his nose as he looked through the shelves. "Here we are." He smiled, pulling out two books.
"Two?" Robin inquired.
"Well, this dusty one's the newer version, this flimsy looking thing is the older one." He laughed to himself. Robin didn't bother to say she owned a copy of the new one. "It's a shame no one reads them anymore. They were such good stories," he said as he walked off. Robin brushed the dust off the new one.
"What's this?" Robin looked at the authors name. It simply read 'Alice'. Robin smirked, "How convenient," she said, setting the new book down and grabbing the old one, walking to the check out station with some cash and questions of her own.
Usopp snuck around the town with a large cloud of suspicion over his head.
"This is the place that bad-tempered king guy came from..." he muttered to himself as if it were a mantra. He slipped out of the surprisingly-small town and into the woods. "Like hell I'm looking for this Alice person..." He breathed when he was far enough away, then let out a laugh. "She'll probably come to me! 'Oh, Usopp! You've found her! What a genius you are!' they'll say!" he yelled, walking farther into the woods as he bellowed with hearty laughter. He pushed some branches out of the way with the same cocky smile on his face, still stuck in his fantasy land. "- Oh, of course I'll be captain, Luffy! No problem. It must have been so hard for a young girl like yourself." He spoke in an 'I-told-you-so' tone. He sniffed the air, smelling smoke. "Hm? Smoke?" he muttered, he looked up and saw a small house in front of him.
Usopp looked at the woman who had come outside and began hanging clothes on the lines. She was about Luffy's age, and had blonde hair that was tied up with a blue ribbon. She wore a blue dress and a white apron, and when she turned, she noticed Usopp.
"Oh! Another visitor?" She smiled brightly.
"I-I guess so," Usopp muttered.
"Come in, come in! Are you a pirate!?" she pushed, and Usopp nodded. "Oh! So lucky! I want to hear all about your travels!" The girl grabbed Usopp's arm and dragged him into her home with a hurried attitude.
Franky took matters into his own hands, playing detective and asking around about Alice.
"Such a sweet girl," an old woman had said to him.
"So talented and smart," a shopkeeper had replied when he asked.
"Alice is the bestest, most nicest, babysitter ever!" the children cheered at the sound of the young lady's name.
Franky walked through the town some more "This Alice must be one SUPER girl," he said.
"Alice?" a man said.
"You know her?" Franky asked.
"Sure do! She babysits my kids when I go out fishing." He smiled.
"SUUUPPPPEEERRR!" Franky posed and yelled, the man looked at him strangely.
"Yeah, uh, are you looking for her?" he asked.
"Sure am!" Franky responded.
"She lives near this village, a little house just north of here. Can't miss it!" The man smiled. Franky nodded and took off down the street.
"SUUUPPPEERRR!" he yelled as the man watched nervously.
"Why wasn't he wearing pants…?" he muttered.
Nami had asked a bartender where Alice lived. She went straight to the small cottage in the woods and knocked lightly on the door. A girl about Luffy's age answered, and her blue eyes lit up excitedly.
"Oh! I'm just getting all sorts of visitors today!" She smiled. Nami smiled at her childish behavior. The girl led her down the hall. "There was a cyborg, a long-nosed fellow, an adorable reindeer, and a very smart and pretty woman." She hummed as she walked, opening the kitchen door so Nami could see her friends were all seated comfortably in the small kitchen, eating snacks, drinking tea and talking amongst themselves. Usopp looked over.
"Oh! Nami!" He smiled.
"Nami! We found Alice!" Chopper cheered.
"And she is one SUPER hostess!" Franky mentioned.
"Indeed, and quite knowledgeable of our problem." Robin added. Nami looked at the girl, Alice, whose face had suddenly darkened.
"So...you lost your captain to Ryuu?" she muttered.
"Um. Yes." Nami said softly. "But, we have your brother!" She perked up. Alice looked up hopefully.
"Zyuu? You have my brother!?" She smiled widely. "Show me! I want to see him!" She bounced slightly.
The crew, in addition to Alice, returned to the boat. Everything was in ruins. The grass was burnt in some places, there was a crack in the mast, the cage that held Zyuu was broken, and metal bars were lodged in doors and walls.
"What the..." Franky looked around angrily.
"Brook!" Chopper rushed over to where the skeleton was lying motionless on the ground. "I can't tell if he's alive... Brook? Brook! Hey!" Chopper shook him.
"Yo...ho?" Brook groaned.
"Brook? What happened? Where's Zyuu?" Nami asked.
"The wedding... He went to stop the wedding..." Brook stood shakily.
"Zyuu did?" Alice muttered. She clenched her fists. "We have to help him! He can't have gotten far." She looked out at the sea.
"He took the Mini-Merry." Brook said.
"WHAT!?" Usopp dismayed.
"Focus. We need to go after him, like Miss Alice said," Robin cautioned the group.
So they all set sail. Nami, Usopp, Brook, Franky, Chopper, Robin, and Alice all went after Zyuu, and to Wonderland, to where the wedding was slowly being prepared, to where Luffy was unknowingly falling for Ryuu, to where Ace, Zoro, and Cheshire's plan was setting into action, to where Smoker and Mouse were making their way to the castle. And closer to this dramatic stories ending!