Shaska lay on her side in the throne room, giggling to herself. Isha stood over her, eyes bloodshot, stifling giggles of her own.

"Sh… Shaska… get up…" said Isha. "You gotta follow… shit…"

Isha rubbed her forehead, trying to focus. Then, she got an idea. As the smoke continued to billow into the room from the statues, Isha reached into her lab coat and pulled out a syringe labeled "adrenaline". She jammed the needle into Shaska's thigh, and Shaska shot straight to her tentacle feet like she had a rocket up her ass.

"WOO! HOLY CRAP!" Shaska shouted as she darted her head around. "I feel good, I feel good, I feel GOOOOOOD!"

"You… like… gotta get after him…" Isha muttered as she put the syringe away.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Shaska exclaimed. She continued to dart her head and upper body around, then asked "where'd he go?!"

"That… is that a door? Yeah… it's a door by the, uh… throne…" Isha said, pointing in that direction.

"I'M GONNA KICK HIS ASS!" Shaska shouted, pumping her fists in the air before taking off toward the door by the throne.

As Shaska bolted for the door, Isha just stood there, taking in the smoke. She reached into her lab coat and pulled out another lollipop and unwrapped it, then sat down on the floor.

"Mmm… strawberry…"

—-

Zinnia and Ren stood next to each other, both rubbing their stomachs.

"We… should have gotten candy from Isha…" Ren muttered.

"Need… food…" Zinnia muttered.

"We need… to beat giant man," said Ren. "But… munchies are sooo clooose…"

"And, pray tell, why do you need to defeat me…?" Ashurba asked with a sly smile.

"Because… Mister Ford… grass…" Zinnia muttered. "Minus World…"

"Shurarara…" Ashurba giggled. "You chicks can't handle your Happy Happy Grass."

His fists turned even blacker and became shiny. "Allow me to smoke you out…"

"Sir, that is Haki, not sm–" Zinnia tried to say before being punched through the wall, leaving a Zinnia-shaped hole.

"Hm… you broads must be tougher than you look," Ashurba commented. "Even a giant would be turned into a fine, red mist by an attack like that."

Zinnia emerged from the hole in the wall, blood running down her face. "Sir… the Kuja… are not to be trifled with…"

"I dunno what a 'Kuja' is, but I know you're not gonna live to see those munchies you want so bad," Ashurba said.

"Hey… ape… guy…" Ren said, squaring up. "I'm still here…"

"Indeed you are. You two are being kind of a buzzkill, if I'm being honest," Ashurba said, raising his giant gorilla hand.

He swiped his hand down and grabbed Ren, then picked her up and threw her as hard as he could into the opposite wall, where she again shattered into glass upon impact.

As Ren reformed on the ground, Zinnia hobbled over to where Ruth had fallen asleep. She began to nudge the curled-up snake with her foot, saying "Ruth… Ruth… please… wake up… I require… your assistance…"

Ruth raised her head and opened her eyes a little bit; like everyone else's they were bloodshot. She let out a hiss that was halfway between contented and annoyed and uncurled herself, then slithered up around Zinnia's torso and gave another hiss.

"Ruth… I love you, too… but I need you to–" Zinnia tried to say before she, too, was picked up by Ashurba and thrown at full force into a wall, leaving a lot more than just a Zinnia-shaped hole.

In true gorilla fashion, Ashurba hopped up on the table and began beating his chest. "SHURARARAAAA! See?! You two can't stand up to me! Minus World will reign supreme! The time for utopia is nigh!"

Ren shot a wave of razor glass from her location toward Ashurba, but he managed to dodge, though the glass wave covered a very sizable portion of the dining table.

"Shurara! I'm tougher and faster than you! You two might as well surrender now and be my girls! That glass power of yours will come in very handy for our Happy Happy Grass business!"

"Think… I need to… think…" Ren thought, struggling to not just plop down and relax in the smoke. "Statue is… statue is making us this way… I must… destroy it…"

Zinnia and Ruth were knocked unconscious for the briefest of moments, eyes whiting out from the shock of being thrown through a wall by a giant gorilla. The pair quickly came to, however… and Zinnia realized where they were on the other side of the wall.

"This is…" she said, looking around. Her mouth began to water. "A kitchen…"

Ruth hissed in her ear, to which Zinnia responded "I will check to see if they have any mice for you, Ruth…"

The kitchen, while not as big as the dining hall, was naturally gigantic. There were all sorts of islands for preparing food, plus a multitude of ovens and other equipment. Of course, all Zinnia was concerned with at this point was the pantry, which she promptly began searching for.

Ren, on the other hand, was still in the dining hall. She used her glass powers to make a staircase up to the top of the table and began running for the statue that was billowing smoke.

"If I seal off statue, we'll sober up!" she thought.

As Ren bolted toward the statue, Ashurba wasn't having it. He raised his Haki-covered gorilla fist and brought it down on her, crushing her and smashing the table in two. He raised his fist again to find Ren completely unconscious, but still intact. Her eyes had whited out, her face was covered in blood, and she was missing several teeth, but she was miraculously still alive.

Ashurba picked her up by the back of her shirt and simply said "pathetic…"

He threw her unconscious body through the wall as hard as he could, coincidentally into the kitchen where Zinnia and Ruth were. She flew through the wall and blasted through a cabinet, where she landed in a bag of flour, still unconscious, the flour being stained with her blood.

"Oh… oh dear…" Zinnia said as she witnessed this.

She paused for a moment, then remembered "oh yes… we have an… enemy… to defeat…" as Ashurba lumbered into the kitchen, giggling to himself as Happy Happy Grass smoke billowed in, as well.

"Ruth… please… use your secret technique…" Zinnia whispered to her beloved snake companion. Ruth had to think for a moment, then obliged, uncoiling herself from around Zinnia and slithering toward Ashurba.

Ashurba was too large to notice the snake, however, and continued to lumber toward Zinnia, cracking his giant gorilla knuckles as he did so.

"Last chance, girlie…" he said.

Zinnia said nothing, being slower on the uptake than normal. She simply sat down and waited for Ruth to work her magic. And she did. Ruth slithered over to Ashurba and bit him on his toe, causing him to yelp in pain.

"SON OF A–" he shouted, shifting back to his normal giant form. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"

"Ruth's fangs secrete a powerful neurotoxin capable of disabling most targets instantly. More likely than not, you will need to have that leg amputated, sir," Zinnia explained like normal. However, Ashurba didn't completely double over from the pain or the effects of the poison, and continued to move around like normal.

"Hm… that definitely stings a bit, but I don't think I'll need it amputated…" Ashurba calmly said, shifting back to his half-gorilla form. Zinnia's eyes shot as open as they could at this as the realization dawned on her.

"Oh… oh dear…" she thought. "He must be too big for the venom to have any serious immediate effect…"

Ashurba lumbered over to Zinnia, only slightly favoring his non-poisoned foot. He picked her up and looked deep into her eyes, though she averted his gaze as his giant gorilla face contorted into a sinister grin.

"You and I are gonna have a lotta fun…" he said.

"Somehow, I doubt it will be fun for me…" Zinnia replied, sweating.

And she was right. She quickly found herself thrown through a wall again.

—-

"Hey… bird… guy…?" Salvatore asked, eyes half-open and bloodshot as the smoke continued to billow into the library.

"My name's… oh forget it…" Johnson replied. "What's up…?"

"You got Haki…? Make things a lot easier…?" Salvatore asked.

Johnson blanked out for a moment, then said "nah… nah, I don't…"

"Crap… looks like you're gonna have to distract him then…" said Salvatore, coating his fists in Haki.

"I can hear you, you know," said Hanmura, puffing on his Happy Happy Grass "cigarette". "I know why you're here… you're here to destroy our Happy Happy Grass production like you did in the Mercury Collective…"

He blew his smoke and continued with "I'll have you know that Happy Happy Grass is perfectly legal under World Government law."

"And… crap…" Johnson said, trying to gather his thoughts. A black cloud above him began to rumble with electricity, and lightning dropped on top of Johnson, though he managed to dodge again.

He landed in front of Hanmura, who began to stretch out his legs. Johnson then remembered what he was trying to say "it might be legal now… but what you're doing with it is, like… wrong… you're using it to control people…"

Hanmura's expression soured at this, and he replied with "what's wrong with you Worldwide Smoke guys? Don't you want a utopia…?"

"A 'utopia', by definition, can't exist…" Johnson said. "You people are completely… what's the word…? Insane…"

"Not sure I like your tone, little bird…" Hanmura said, holding his hand out over Johnson. The hand turned into a hand-shaped black cloud, and a gigantic hail stone fell from it.

Johnson managed to avoid the hail stone as it shattered on the ground with a loud crash, hopping out of the way. As he landed, he stumbled a bit, the effects of the Happy Happy Grass making him woozy.

"Ooh… wow, this stuff is strong…" Johnson muttered. He began to giggle a bit, but calmed himself, saying "you guys smoke this stuff every day…? How do you function? You have a problem…"

Hanmura blew smoke and said "it's only a problem when we run out," with a smile.

Salvatore pulled his leg back and kicked at Hanmura with the force of a hurricane. The shockwave tore through Hanmura's body, but he quickly reformed with his clouds and puffed on his "cigarette" again.

"No, really… why don't you want what we want…?" Hanmura asked, blowing smoke. "Just ima—"

"No, I will not do that," Johnson interrupted.

Salvatore teleported up to Hanmura's face with a Shave technique and delivered a Haki powered kick to his jaw. As Hanmura reeled from this, Salvatore Shaved on top of Hanmura's head and began pulling the color from Hanmura's toupee, shaping it into a bundle of arrows and a quiver for the bow he had formed earlier.

He hopped off Hanmura's now gray head with his Moon Walk technique and nocked an arrow while coating it with Haki.

"Easy target…" he muttered.

Salvatore loosed the arrow, and it passed straight through Hanmura's giant skull. Unfortunately, Hanmura was so big that even a direct headshot like that didn't do very much damage. As Salvatore landed on the shelf of a nearby bookcase, the giant stood up, rubbing his head where the arrow had pierced him.

Hanmura looked at the (relatively) small trickle of blood on his hand, then glared at Salvatore.

"Not cool, bro. Not. Cool," Hanmura growled as he stood up and raised his gigantic hand toward Salvatore.

Hanmura swiped at Salvatore, who got smacked from the bookcase into the ground. Johnson seized on this opportunity to bolt toward the statue and attempt to destroy it.

Johnson ran as fast as he could (not exactly top speed, due to the Happy Happy Grass) in his full ostrich form, through Hanmura's legs and up to the statue, where he used his momentum to jump and plant a mighty ostrich kick in the statue's mid-section. The metal statue was heavily dented by the attack, and the smoke that was billowing out of it slowed to a trickle.

Johnson landed on the ground in front of the statue, shifting back to his half-ostrich form, huffing and puffing as he did so. Hanmura looked away from Salvatore and down at the bird man, glaring all the while.

"This fight's far from over, you little runts…" Hanmura said, puffing on his "cigarette". "I'm still five times your size!"

Salvatore struggled to his feet. "Well… it's gonna be a hell of a lot more… uh… even… when you're not cheating and getting us hooked on your drugs…"

"Happy Happy Grass is so much more than just a 'drug'..." said Hanmura, blowing smoke. "It's medicine! It's sooo much better for you than alcohol."

"Yeah… all it does is make you join cults…" Johnson snarked.

Hanmura was unimpressed by this, and held out his hands (making sure to hold his "cigarette" in between his fingers). Black clouds began to billow out, soon filling the room completely with lightning clouds.

"Let's see you runts dodge this," he growled as the clouds began to rumble.

Lightning dropped from every cloud, blanketing the entire library with electricity.

—-

In the conservatory, the fight between Giruga and the pair of Schwarz and Lulupo continued in earnest. Schwarz warped from chair to couch to chair as Giruga repeatedly slashed at him. As this was happening, Lulupo sat on the ground, distracted by his own hair.

"Darling… my hair can move…" he said as two tendrils snaked their way across his vision.

"Lu… Lulupo… you gotta… like…" Schwarz said as he warped down to Lulupo's location. "Crap… I keep forgetting what I was gonna say…"

"Stand still, you tiny… PEOPLE!" Giruga shouted. "Let me cut you!"

"Why the hell would we do that, darling…?" Lulupo asked, finally looking up. He noticed Giruga's sword, seemingly for the first time, and exclaimed "oh my! A giant sword!"

As Schwarz warped himself and Lulupo up to the top of a plant, out of Giruga's sight. The giant darted his head around, shouting "where'd you go, pretty boys?!"

Schwarz and Lulupo huddled together on the leaves, planning their next move.

"Okay… Lu… Lulupo…" Schwarz said, turning to his compatriot with his eyes bloodshot and half-open. "What's… what's the plan, man… queen…"

Lulupo paused, slack-jawed. He finally said "I feel like I've left my body, darling… it's… that statue…"

Schwarz looked down at the Ford statue that continued to blow Happy Happy Grass smoke into the conservatory. Then, the correct wires finally crossed in Schwarz's mind, and he thought of a use for his Hole Hole Fruit powers besides teleportation: his Negative Edge technique.

He spawned a hole in his hand and its companion hole right behind him, then hopped off the plant as far as he could toward the statue. He enlarged the hole as big as the statue's width, then dropped the hole over the statue, before finally closing it halfway down, slicing the statue clean in two and somehow severing the mechanism that pumped the smoke into the room.

The upper half of the statue landed behind the plant with a loud clang. Schwarz landed on the ground with a huff and puff, looking at his handiwork with a smile.

"Hoo… not too bad now…" he said.

He was promptly met with a slash in the back from Giruga's sword that, in addition to slicing his back open, sent him flying through the glass wall of the conservatory.

"You haven't won yet," Giruga growled.

Lulupo came to his senses somewhat and hopped down off the plant, using his hair as a parachute. He walked up to Giruga and assumed a fighting stance. "It's my turn now, giant darling…" he said with a half-cocked smile.

—-

Shaska ran at top speed down the hall attached to the throne room.

"I'm gonna get you, grass man! Just you wait!" she shouted in her head.

Her wound, which covered the entire right side of torso, began to open, and blood began to trickle out, staining her bandages.

TO BE CONTINUED