O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
"This coat is so warm," Annabeth exclaimed, watching the children play in the snow in their new winter clothing, "This has gotta be a devil fruit power."
"Yeah," Nami agreed, "Kind of a weird one though."
"We have a reindeer with us who can talk because of a devil fruit," Franky pointed out, "There are weirder things in the world."
"Hey! You guys!" Luffy cried happily.
"LUFFY!" Chopper cheered, "I'm so glad to see you!"
Nami nudged Annabeth, "Hey, look who it is."
Annabeth gasped and took off towards the giant centaur at a sprint. But instead of throwing herself into Percy's arms, like the others expected, she gently helped him off the centaur and laced her fingers through his.
"Percy," she said urgently, "Percy look at me."
"Woah, blondie," said Usopp, "Leo said to let him ride it out, whatever it is."
"It appears to be an episode of PTSD," said Chopper, "Though where he got PTSD is a mystery to me…"
"I did say that," Leo agreed, "Because you're not Annabeth."
Miraculously, Percy's foggy eyes became clear and teary, "Annabeth?"
The two embraced in a fierce kiss, causing the children to gag and cheer.
"Annabeth," said Usopp, "Why does that name sound familiar?"
"She's Percy's girlfriend," Robin supplied helpfully.
The two demigods broke apart. Immediately, Annabeth punched Leo in the arm.
"Ow!" Leo whined, "Is this gonna be a common thing with you guys?"
"It is when you come back from the dead," Annabeth said before flinging her arms around the son of Hephaestus' neck, "It's good to see you, Leo."
"We all have many questions," said Robin, eyeing what at first glance, appeared to be her boyfriend, Franky, "Let's go set up camp out of the snow."
The first thing the group did once out of the snow was give Kin'emon back his legs.
"My legs!" he shouted joyfully, "I'm almost whole again!"
The samurai danced circles around the campfire, almost tripping over Leo in his excitement.
"Hey, Kin'emon, Leo's the only thing keeping this fire going," Annabeth said in a threatening tone, "You'd better not interupt his concentration."
"I missed you, Annabeth," Leo said happily, coaxing the campfire to grow another few inches.
"Alright," said Annabeth, taking charge of the situation, "Let's start with the basics. I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. This here is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and this hothead is Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, the god of the forge and fire."
Annabeth gestured at Nami, Sanji, Chopper and Franky, "A man claiming to be my brother used his devil fruit power to switch the bodies of these four; Nami is in Franky's body, Chopper is in Sanji's, Franky is in Chopper's and Sanji is in Nami's."
"Happily so," Sanji said dreamily, twirling a lock of orange hair between his fingers.
Nami held up a giant fist with an evil glint in her eye, "Watch it, Sanji."
Zoro winced. He knew from experience that a blow to the head from Franky was not a fun experience; the idiot cook had better keep his guard up.
Annabeth held out her sword to stop Kin'emon in his tracks, "This is Kin'emon. He is a samurai from the Land of Wano. He is on Punk Hazard looking for his son, Momonosuke."
"From the Land of Wano?" said Zoro, curious.
"This is quite interesting," said Robin, "Isn't it?"
Annabeth gestured behind her at the children, "These are children we found in the laboratory. They asked us for help, so we took them with us."
A couple of children threw themselves on Nami.
"Do a trick!" they cheered excitedly.
"NOT NOW!" Nami shouted.
The children flinched before remembering.
"Right; not him," said one of the children before they all got bored and continued playing in the snow.
Sanji shoved his twitching hands in his pockets. Man, he'd kill for a-
"Here," said Nami.
The box of cigarettes looked positively miniscule in Franky's giant hand, but to Sanji they looked like a gift from the Gods.
"A-Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly.
Nami gave him a small smile, "Yeah. I know you like to smoke when you're stressed, so smoke."
Once more, Sanji was reminded of what a truly wonderful person Nami was. Seriously, what had he done in his life to deserve someone like her?
"Nothing," a voice that sounded an awful lot like his father hissed in his ear, "You're a pathetic loser; how could anyone love you?"
Nami's kind face filled his vision (it was kind of hard for her not to; she didn't quite yet understand how large Franky was) and cut off his thoughts of self-loathing, "Sanji?"
Sanji took the pack of smokes gratefully, "You are too good to me, Nami-swan."
Nami, beautiful, sweet, kind Nami, was nice to him. For now, that was all Sanji could ask for.
"Hey, Kin'emon."
One of the many people taking this overflow of information remarkably well was Percy. With his arm around Annabeth, the son of Poseidon looked happier than the Strawhats had seen him in weeks. It filled their hearts with warmth to see Percy look so relaxed. Without a doubt, Annabeth was more than worthy of becoming a Strawhat.
"Do you come with a torso?" Percy continued, "Or do people just look like that in Wano?"
"Bu! Of course I have a torso!" Kin'emon snapped, getting up in Percy's face, "And when I find it, I will tower over all you puny outsiders, bu!"
Percy patted him condescendingly on the head, "I'm sure you will, but I think Brook has something to say to you about that torso."
Brook blinked. "Oh yeah!" The Soul King's cheeks flushed dark pink, "That was you? I almost died!"
"You mean you found my torso?" Kin'emon charged at Brook, causing the skeleton to shriek and run around the campfire, the samurai chasing him the whole time, "I demand you return it to me at once, bu!"
"Slow your role, short stuff," Percy said easily, "We don't have it. Your torso chased us up a hill, then tripped and fell into the sea."
Kin'emon sat (how, Percy had no idea), and sighed, "That explains why I feel so cold, bu."
"You're the reason for the distress signal," Zoro guessed, "You fought the centaurs."
"Yes," said Kin'emon, "But only because they were in the way of me rescuing my son, Momonosuke."
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
deep within the recesses of the laboratory, Trafalgar Law pried a cold, steel door open to face his conspirator.
"What have you done this time, Law?"
"If anyone should complain, it's me, Caesar," Law grumbled, slipping into the dimly-lit room and shutting the door behind him.
The gaseous man known as Caesar hung up his Transponder Snail.
"I've just gotten permission to kill them all," he said smugly, "No matter who we kill, whether it's the Strawhats or the Marines, Joker will make sure the losses are officially announced as accidents at sea."
"Like you did with the children," Law reasoned, "You are a bastard, aren't you, Caesar?"
"Shurourourou," Caesar chuckled, "Careful who you're talking to, Law; I could report you to Joker at any time."
"Whatever," Law left the room, clearly bored with this conversation.
"I don't think he likes you very much."
Caesar may have been a trusted associate of Joker, feared by all his subordinates, but whenever he heard that voice, the voice that breathed to life the silent sound of snow burying its frozen corpses in icy tombs, even Caesar had to shudder a bit.
"His opinion is of no importance," Caesar assured the woman sitting by Monet, "All he's done is confirm that your targets are here."
The woman brushed a lock of dark, inky hair behind her pale-white ear and hummed thoughtfully, "Five demigods all on the same island. On the Four Seas, no less. Quite the occurrence."
She glided towards Caesar, leaving a trail of fresh snowfall in her wake, "With no eyes on the Grand Line, it would be a shame if they all met their demise to the monsters roving this island."
"Are you saying you won't kill them yourself, Lady Khione?" Caesar asked nervously. His logia fruit had no affect on her godly powers and Caesar was not in the mood to be flash frozen again.
"I would if I could," she said with a small pout in her colorless lips, "But my powers do not work as they should while I am here. As…" dark, angry splotches bloomed on her cheeks as she bit out, "as a minor goddess, simply existing here takes all of my concentration. No matter; my brothers have sent soldiers to carry out my wishes."
"And then?" Caesar asked hopefully.
"You shall have your pathetic bounties and test subjects," Khione sneered, "Your mortal wishes are of no concern to me. But the demigods are mine to play with. I will make them regret ever leaving the reach of their parents' protection."
A centaur fell through the open door, half-frozen to death.
"Please, master! We were robbed by pirates! They took Boss Brownbeard!"
Caesar circled the frostbite-ridden centaur like a vulture, "Oh, dear. Of course we will save the others, but first, let's get you some of the new medicine we've been testing next door."
The centaur's eyes filled with tears, "Thank you master, you are so kind to us!"
The centaur didn't notice the Goddess of Snow, or the dangerous glint in Caesar's eyes.
"There, there. Master will make it all better."