AN: Okay, this one's been sitting in the cooker long enough. Before we begin, as always, Reviewer Replies!

Waleon: Well I'm certainly glad to hear it! (^_^)

Sultan Asil Arslan-Hiatus: Huzzah! My curveballs are still catching my readers off guard!

Laughing Specter: Regarding Kuina, Robin and Hancock, such things are certainly not outside the realm of possibility. As for the impact Bones is having, I think you're going to like this one! As for a possible Devil Fruit for Bones, it is not weather, but you are correct that it will not be a Logia or Zoan if he gets one. Yes, the moustache stays. Excellent username by the way.

Curveball: Always happy to delight! Yes Christmas and New Year were... well honestly, I had to work both days so kinda boring, but I've received excellent news regarding my job since then and there's a light at the end of the tunnel I've been dragging myself through for the last year, so I'd consider myself on the mend. Oh yes, Shiki's in for the toughest fight he's had in decades. I'd imagine bright lights are indeed a touchy topic for Arlong. Given the quality of food sailors in the Age of Exploration dealt with, I expect they still carry a supply of Streussen's Unperishables just to be on the safe side, and yeah, he doesn't get out much anymore. Why would he? Do enjoy the steamy stuff! Yes, especially after everyone pointed out that Bones would look like a total ass if he didn't make good on slaughtering Arlong, there was absolutely no way I could let him miss that. Yes, Hatchi's off on his sea floor stroll, despite a slightly different starting point, he'll still enjoy the events of his cover story and meet Keimi. Yes Bones has definitely made an extremely favorable impression on Ain, and Garp considers him one of the better pirates he's dealt with. As for what the other marines think of him, read on and find out! Yes, Koala's correct, Bones pulled some straight up Emperor Shit there, the how though remains to be seen. Yes, Bones does actually still sincerely like all of the Strawhats, minus Luffy who he will now have a relationship not too dissimilar to how Luffy gets on with Kidd and Law. They can work together, but they damn sure don't like each other worth a shit. Yeah, I don't think anyone except the silliest of power scalers could've sincerely expected Sanji's East Blue kick to do anything to Bones, and I'm glad you enjoyed the bounty discussion. As for Garp's success/failure as a grandpa, well, let's let the old guy have his happy moment. As for what Sengoku thinks of Bones, HEH. I'm glad you enjoyed the scene with Bones interacting with the Strawhats, I had fun writing it. As for the Davy Back fight, no I wholly intend for it to be full on Foxy style, not the anime one that went on too long, the manga one. As much as I love it when things get serious, I also sincerely adore the goofy, wacky half of One Piece's Crapsaccharine World. As for Round 3 though, yeah. You can just about count on that being one of the ugliest fights in the whole story. Regarding Thatch living, don't you just love those butterfly ripples? Yep, my headcanon for the Tobi Roppo that are around the same age is that they, Jack and Yamato were all raised together and consider each other basically adopted siblings with Yamato being the exiled black sheep of the family after taking up Oden's will. Regarding Ain's de-aging ability, read on and find out! (^_^)

Renji1313: Lol, you think they don't want his head already?

Dub77: Yep, seems every OC in every story just falls in line with Luffy because they know he's the protagonist in the original, completely overlooking the fact that they're clearly in a different timeline where they exist. And no, Bones is no longer at all concerned with Luffy becoming Pirate King because as far as Bones is concerned, he. Will. NOT. Luffy took away Bones' dream of joining the Strawhats, Bones aims to retaliate by crushing Luffy's dream of being Pirate King. The man does not play around.

Guest: Very glad you enjoyed (^_^)

Makimass: If you've made it this far into the story, then I'm glad you're still enjoying. As for a different prologue, I do see what you're saying, but I find that to be the most utterly grating and difficult to chew through part of any isekai story, and it could also spoil one of the biggest reveals of the whole story, so no.

Guest2: Hell yeah! Glad you're excited!

Lazy Servant: I'm very glad you enjoyed, and don't apologize, you LEFT A REVIEW, that's more than like 90% of readers do! Thank you! It makes my day to know you enjoy my work enough to drop even a short comment saying so!

Dr. Devil Fruit: Upon review, I do believe you're right, the Vinsmoke siblings CAN swim, therefore they're not considered Devil Fruit users which in turn means they COULD eat a Devil Fruit. That said, I have absolutely no intention of Reiju eating one. She may surprise me, but it is currently not my intention. As for being stronger than Sanji, yeah, she's a LOT stronger right now. As for what Bones's Devil Fruit will be if he gets one, I'm really loving keeping everyone in suspense. I can't wait to see if someone will guess it!

Curveball's second comment: Oh I think you're going to like this chapter. That said, Yamato's Co-Captain, not First Mate.

Greer123: A very Happy New Year to you as well! Along with the upcoming 's Day/Easter/Passover/Holi/April Fool's/Eid al-Fitr and whatever other holidays may be approaching that you might celebrate. I'm very glad you're still enjoying! (^_^)

Orchamus: Yep, very VERY bad play by Luffy there.

FunkoHero15: Very glad you're enjoying! Yes, that is my intent.

Guest3: Very glad you're enjoying!

Bonk: Well I hope I didn't keep you waiting TOO long. Enjoy!

TheWolves1331: Hmm, you mean fighting Bones and Yamato while those two are visiting the Straw Hats or fighting the Strawhats alongside them? Or a big three way brawl? Whichever way, the answer is that it depends on the day! They really are all quite the chaotic bunch! I'm very glad you're enjoying.

trollord3000: Look no further, for the next chapter is here!

Anonrelic: It's working just fine for me, did it ever go through for you? I hope you're still able to enjoy!

And now with all that out of the way, ON WITH THE SHOW!


CHAPTER 12 - Growing Ripples

…~-~-~-~-~…

Sengoku sat back in his chair, his jaw slack with shock.

"It's really something ain't it?!" Garp laughed, his hair dark, his face unwrinkled and his physique back to the shape it had been in when he'd been able to set the yet-to-be-crowned Pirate King to flight.

"I've got my arm back!" Zephyr declared for the fifth time, waving the restored limb with the biggest grin Sengoku had seen on the man since his wife and son's murder. Admittedly, Sengoku mused, he looks close to the age he was when that happened, she may have reverse aged him back past it?

"Is it permanent?" Sengoku asked.

"Nah, if we use our haki much, it'll break the effect and we'll be geezers again," Garp explained, "But Zephyr's arm stays, apparently Ain's ability doesn't follow the same set of events that led to him losing it when it slings him back forward. I haven't been able to test whether or not I'll be able to throw a good punch with haki yet, didn't wanna wreck the harbor, but Shiki doesn't use haki, so we should be fine."

Ain did a double take, "He doesn't?"

Zephyr nodded, "That's right, Shiki's always believed the air superiority his devil fruit gives him along with his maneuverability and the other abilities from it, intelligence and sword skills were all he needed. Admittedly, he wasn't wrong for most of his career."

Sengoku took a deep breath, "A very, VERY large part of me wants to join this expedition now. Ain, how many people can you affect at a time?"

Ain blinked, "I don't know sir, I've never gone for mass quantity with the de-aging aspect of my ability, I've only ever used it as a debilitating effect. That said, I can transport massive numbers, so, it's possible my de-aging effect is the…" she missed a beat as the door flew open, "…same. Sirs." She nodded in greeting to Admirals Aokiji, Akainu and Kizaru, who had all burst in at once with quite a lot of other very highly ranked officers behind them, and all of them had looks of wonder on their face.

"So it's true," Akainu breathed as Zephyr waved to them with his freshly restored hand.

"We aren't back in full. We can't use our haki without breaking the effect," Zephyr clarified, "But we're in far better shape than we were."

"So cool!" Aokiji gushed quietly, looking almost as excited as his heroes.

"I do believe Shiki is about to have an extremely bad day," Kizaru drawled with a grin of his own.

"With all five of us, there's no way even a single one of Shiki's crew will escape!" Akainu declared excitedly.

"Four," Sengoku corrected with a sigh, "You're not going Akainu."

That earned a double take from everyone in the room except Ain who already knew. Akainu's jaw dropped. As he picked it back up, his fist clenched, but he kept his voice level, "I have a different assignment, sir?"

Sengoku held up a bounty poster, "Yes you do."

Garp met Sengoku's gaze as Sakazuki stepped forward to accept the bounty poster but said nothing as Sengoku glanced over to Ain.

"Commodore Ain, you are currently the only Marine who has actually dealt with Whitebeard Jr., I'm trusting you to give Admiral Akainu a full debrief on his abilities," Sengoku instructed firmly before turning to Akainu, "Whitebeard Jr. is currently an unknown of maximum priority. I consider him a growing potential threat on par with if not greatly surpassing Shiki. Take as many ships as you believe you'll need and stake out the entrance to the Grand Line. Feel free to crush any other pirates that attempt to come down Reverse Mountain while you're there, but it is imperative that Whitebeard Jr. not be allowed to wreak havoc.

"If he escapes you," Sengoku continued, "or if you believe him to be worthy of it, then we will be offering him a Warlord seat when one becomes available as he has expressed extreme contempt for other pirates and based upon our information, we believe he could be trusted to hunt them rather than civilians. Hell, if it means keeping him under control, we may just make another seat to give him."

"That's a pretty big stretch," Aokiji mused, "Mind if I ask what intel led to this decision, sir?"

"Simply put," Sengoku replied, "He has outright admitted that the only reason he's not a Marine is because he hates the World Nobles more than anyone and does not believe the Marines as an organization are capable of truly enforcing justice properly so long as the World Government serves at the will of the Celestial Dragons. Also, he's aware of some of our more drastic classified operations which has apparently only hardened his opinion on the matter."

"And you trust that?" Zephyr asked sharply.

"Considering he cited it as his reason for handing us Shiki's location, plans and the details of his forces, along with having already slaughtered three separate pirate crews in the East Blue for preying on civilians," Sengoku replied tiredly, "I think if this operation nets us Shiki then we have to believe him."

"We're trusting a pirate's word about the location and forces of another pirate?" Kizaru asked, "While I'm inclined to believe you wouldn't be acting on it without good reason to believe it, that does raise the possibility of this being a trap."

Sengoku nodded, "It does. That's why we're sending the amount of force we're sending and why Cipher Pol has already been dispatched to Merveille to confirm the validity of this tip. I'm sure you read the briefing on Shiki's expected forces. If that's an understatement, then we'll need all the fire power we can get. Commodore Ain will be on standby to bring reinforcements if they are needed. However, if everything is exactly as Bones has told us, it also means that he very likely has equally compromising information about the Marines and World Government, and if provoked could put it to as devastating a use as what he's unleashed on Shiki."

Sengoku stood up and every marine below the rank of Admiral (minus Garp) snapped to attention, "Understand this, all of you. This was no mere tip off. In revealing Shiki, Whitebeard Jr. has thrown down the gauntlet. If his information is accurate, then he has just proven that whatever information gathering capacity he has exceeds our own, that his claimed knowledge of information that could cripple or outright topple the World Government is most likely very real, and that he is capable of bringing devastating amounts of force to bear on the weak points of those who stand against him with little to no effort. The information at his disposal and his ability to send us directly where he wants us, going at who he wants us sent at, with information that he knows very well we can't afford not to act on is proof that he possesses the ability to manipulate and devastate us. We will not raise his bounty yet to avoid public alarm or potentially luring more support to him, but we can NOT afford to underestimate him.

Sengoku looked at Akainu, "Should he refuse the Warlord position, you are to consider his capture or extermination your absolute top priority, but do not under any circumstances engage him near a civilian population unless he is already attacking them. Endangering civilians is a self professed 'berserk button' of his, and a surefire way to goad him into bringing everything he's got to bear against the World Government should he escape. Given the reports we've had of his nature and the unknown quantity and quality of his preparations, it is not inconceivable that he could have measures in place to get revenge should he be taken down. Treat this operation with the utmost caution and seriousness. Do I make myself clear?"

Akainu raised an eyebrow, "Yes sir." He turned to Ain, "Commodore? Would you mind giving the briefing now where we can all hear? I would not like for anyone to encounter a threat of this magnitude uninformed."

Ain nodded, "Of course, sir. Fleet Admiral, may I borrow your vis-snail?" Sengoku nodded and gestured to the best wall for projections. A moment later, Ain was projecting my bounty poster onto the wall, "This is Bones, real name and origin unknown. He is known as Whitebeard Jr. due to his immense resemblance to a young Whitebeard in both appearance and strength. Despite the resemblance, there is no known blood connection between the two, and our sources have confirmed that neither Whitebeard nor his so-called junior claim one.

"As of a week ago he possesses no Devil Fruit, however we confirmed this morning that he is fast enough to run on water with ease and do so for hours on end. Additionally, his body possesses the same abnormal durability as the likes of Kaido and Big Mom and appears to be growing steadily more durable. The upper limits of this durability are currently unknown, but rounds of higher velocity than standard cannon fire have been confirmed to be utterly useless against him as anything more than an annoyance, and his physical strength is confirmed to be on par with that of pirates bosting bounties over five times his. He is also a capable practitioner of at least three of the Six Powers: Soru, Geppo and Shigan, and has adapted the Tobu Shigan for a focused long range punch capable of maiming and decapitation which he is capable of unleashing in rapid fire volleys. We suspect he knows the rest but have not yet confirmed this."

Ain took a breath and continued, "What we have confirmed is that he possesses at least rudimentary Observation Haki, although it is currently unknown if he possesses Armament or Conqueror's Haki. It should be noted that he has exceptional resistance to Conqueror's Haki even if he doesn't have it and is likely learning Armament at an exceptional rate thanks to the influence of his partner," she swapped out my picture for one of Yamato with her hair dyed black during our bank heist.

"…the daughter of Kaido: 'World Tour' Yamato," Ain explained, "She is not as strong as her father, but again, easily comparable to pirates with bounties of over a billion, physically resilient enough to shrug off cannon fire as easily as snowflakes, and confirmed to be a skilled user of all three types of Haki, on top of having a Devil Fruit which I believe to be a Zoan type, likely ancient or even mythical given her father's resources. Between her and Bones, she is likely more physically formidable and will definitely put her life on the line for Bones as would he for her, however we should consider dealing with Bones a much higher priority."

"He's the brains of the operation, and more importantly, as Fleet Admiral Sengoku pointed out, he has access to extremely classified information," Ain continued, "How and how much we don't know, but what we do know is that he has enough dirt to potentially destabilize the World Government if he goes public with his information."

"Do we have any ideas of what information may be at his disposal?" Kizaru asked.

"At the very least he knows the abilities and weaknesses of several high ranking officers, the nature of the Pacifista project and what Ohara was Buster Called for, the last of which I've understood to be enough to merit a massive bounty all on its own," Ain declared tersely, "And he's royally pissed about that incident. We don't know if he possesses information on the Ancient Weapons, but I would not bet against it."

"So we should consider him a threat equal to Nico Robin?" Akainu asked.

"Do you believe he could be another survivor?" Aokiji mused.

Ain pulled up short, "I had not considered the possibility of him being a survivor of Ohara, but yes, I believe that is a credible theory. As for being a threat equal to Nico Robin…" She snorted, "No."

Sengoku raised an eyebrow at her as nearly everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. Those people all then promptly sucked that sigh back in with their relief turning to horror as Ain added, "He is so much worse."

She then went on to explain every detail that didn't make sense about me if one didn't believe the isekai explanation, and I'm told more than one marine in that room was as white as the coat on their back. Akainu was reportedly no longer displeased at all about being entrusted with my capture, and apparently everyone believed Sengoku entirely about me being every bit as big a threat as Shiki.

I'm not sure if I should be proud of that or not, but Ain says Akainu looked as scared as she'd ever seen him, which admittedly isn't very, but it was noticeable so I'll chalk it up as a win.

…Cocoyashi Village, Near Midnight…

The party had not let up in the slightest. Even the lightweights and kids were still going strong in the town wide celebration. Really, it was probably the entire archipelago at this point, runners had been sent to all the towns in the Conomi Isles to let everyone know the great news that Arlong was at long last really and truly gone.

It was a beautiful night, clear with a gentle breeze and the moon shining down bright from overhead. The air was just warm enough to be pleasant without being too warm or too muggy. The tangerine booze flowed and buffets were everywhere throughout the town that glowed with lights and buzzed with the sounds of good cheer. Mosquitoes, midges, fleas and other such nuisances weren't native to the Conomi Islands, so there weren't even biting insects to swarm the lights and partygoers.

The only people not celebrating were, strangely enough, the Strawhat Pirates. Sanji and Zoro found themselves slumped on the ground across from each other in a comparatively quiet alley next to the doctor's office, with Reiju and Usopp next to them. Luffy was currently inside the doctor's office getting looked over and whining about how he wasn't going to be able to eat meat until his jaw healed as Sabo promised the doctor he'd make sure Luffy behaved and obeyed the doctor's orders.

Nami was celebrating with her sister, and nobody begrudged her that. Koala, Gin, Johnny and Yosaku were also enjoying the festivities, nobody begrudged them that either. This was a problem for the Strawhat crew, and Gin, Johnny and Yosaku had stuck around this long out of solidarity for their friends even though none of it concerned them in the slightest.

Zoro had a bottle of sake, Reiju and Sanji had a bottle each of the local tangerine wine, and Usopp had a bottle of rum. An uncomfortable silence hung over them, their earlier encounter with me weighing heavily on their minds.

Finally, Zoro asked the question they had all been mulling over quietly, "What the hell's a Davy Back Fight?"

"Zeff told me about it once," Sanji explained after a moment to gather his thoughts, "Said it's some kind of crazy competition between pirate crews where the winner of each round gets to take one of the loser's crewmates. The only way to get a crewmate back is to win them back in another Davy Back Fight round, and if the losing crew runs out of members the winner wants, the winner can even take the loser's Jolly Roger. Once that happens, the losing crew can never again sail under the Jolly Roger they'd been under or use the pirate crew's name they'd had."

"And it's not a challenge that can be ignored either," Usopp added, "If the challenge is issued and refused, or if the loser goes back on their word, then they're considered lower than scum by all pirates."

"So if Bones does challenge Luffy to a Davy Back Fight, Luffy can't back down without giving up his chance to be Pirate King," Reiju pointed out quietly, "He can't be Pirate King if he backs down from a challenge that no pirate would, and if he accepts then Bones can cherry pick our crewmates away as he likes or even crush Luffy's honor as a pirate outright."

"That's if he wins," Zoro pointed out.

"He'll have himself, World Tour and likely your girlfriend back in top form on his side, along with whoever else they pick up between now and then," Reiju pointed out grimly, "Does that sound like a fight we can win?"

Zoro sucked in a sharp breath that made pain flare through his chest wound. Reiju nodded, "Yeah, that's what I thought, especially since, correct me if I'm wrong Sanji, isn't the final round always a one on one fight between the captains with whatever crewmate gets claimed in that round being the sole exception to the 'you can win your crewmate back in another game' rule? Anyone think Luffy can beat Bones one on one as he is now?"

A round of grimaces confirmed that no, nobody thought Luffy could win that fight. It might've been a different story if they hadn't seen Bones bypass Luffy's immunity to blunt force trauma, or if they'd seen Luffy win more fights. As was though, even Reiju and Zoro had only seen Luffy fight three times, and against Buggy, who had been the toughest opponent they'd seen him face, he had spent most of the fight getting made an absolute fool of. If it hadn't been for Nami's quick thinking, Buggy might very well have killed Luffy without breaking a sweat. Thanks to the forewarning my notes had given them allowing them to handle threats before they could develop and spin out of control, and my own interference along with Reiju's, the camaraderie and confidence that was supposed to be built in Luffy across the East Blue Saga… had never grown.

Strength grows best in adversity, and trust is nourished by overcoming difficulty together. It hadn't been my intention at all, but for all that my efforts to help and smooth their path had been successful, the lack of struggle had left the Strawhat crew with a much, much more fragile bond… a bond that Luffy's violent rejection had infuriated me enough to take a hammer to.

"If Bones finds us," Reiju declared grimly, "we'll almost certainly lose at least one member of our crew, possibly as many as three. Maybe more if Luffy thinks he can win a second set of games and makes the attempt, or if he puts his pride as a pirate ahead of whatever common sense he has and Bones challenges him repeatedly."

"Depending on who he takes, he could cripple any chance we have of surviving in the Grand Line," Sanji pointed out, "If he takes Nami, there goes our navigator. If he takes Reiju, we have no doctor and our back up navigator's gone. If he takes me, no cook and Luffy's appetite will starve everyone as he eats all the ship's provisions faster than they can be replenished or get himself poisoned."

"And those are exactly the three he probably wants," Usopp pointed out.

"Why would he want me?" Sanji asked curiously.

"To make Reiju happy," Zoro agreed, "I think Usopp's right. He went to a lot of trouble to reunite you two, he won't want to waste that effort."

"And he knows you're an incredible cook," Reiju added, "I don't know if he can cook, but he knows you can, and he definitely still wants me."

"I mean, not saying you're wrong but are you sure?" Usopp asked, "I mean he is married, right? I mean, I have Kaya waiting for me back home, so I'm not sure I even could reciprocate if someone else came on to me you know?"

"He makes a good point," Zoro mused, "You are seriously amazing Reiju, but I'd never cheat on Kuina."

Reiju took a breath to reign her temper in at what could have been taken as a pass on her attractiveness and then let it out, "Yes, I'm aware, but he also said that Yamato is willing to jump in bed with both of us at the drop of a hat and actually prefers women with him being the sole lucky exception. I swing both ways, so I'm okay with that. Frankly I would probably have jumped his bones tonight if he hadn't shot off back to wherever Yamato is after Luffy set him off like that. Sanji don't give me that look, if he were a girl as into you as I'm certain Bones is into me then you'd be falling all over yourself."

Sanji flinched and grimaced, then he seemed to curl in on himself and Reiju's focus zeroed in on him. That's the same way he used to curl in on himself when our brothers were about to attack him, "Sanji?"

"I'm… actually trying to work on that," he muttered.

Reiju leaned on his shoulder, "Why? It's adorable to see you get so excited. I can tell you're barely able to keep from jumping for joy whenever Nami smiles at you. What girl wouldn't love to have a guy swooning over her beauty and bending over backwards to make her happy?"

Sanji took a deep drag on his cigarette before exhaling it as a plume of smoke and couldn't meet Reiju's eye, "Apparently a lot of them."

Reiju leaned on him a little harder as a switch of realization flicked in her head and a very subtle but very murderous look entered her eyes, "I'm gonna need some names then."

Sanji stiffened and looked at her in horror, "Wha…?"

Reiju gave him her most insistent pout, "Who hurt you this time? I couldn't do anything about it with Dad, but I can damn sure do something now."

"Um, please don't," Sanji felt a bit of sweat breaking out. Reiju would absolutely hunt down and murder anyone who pissed her off. Of this he was completely certain. Y'know, maybe I shouldn't have brought this up?

"Then at least tell me what happened," Reiju insisted.

"Seriously, you seem to be a total ladies man Sanji, I'm having trouble seeing how you haven't got girls falling all over you," Usopp mused.

"Well…" Sanji started before stopping himself, "Um… I didn't… hold myself back until a week or two before you guys showed up. Ah, you've heard that saying that love's a hurricane right?"

Zoro made a face and covered it by taking a long drink, he'd heard it. He knew the degree of idiotic lovestruck tomfoolery that usually went with it too. He sincerely hoped Sanji and Reiju couldn't hear him think Oh thank whatever gods there are he stopped doing that before I met him…

Usopp nodded, "Yeah, I've heard that one. Ah… generally not the most successful approach I've heard. I know Kaya looked at me like I'd lost my mind when I tried that one Valentine's Day."

"Zero out of five thousand, five hundred and ninety seven," Sanji confirmed, his voice sharp with discomfort as he curled a little bit more in on himself.

Zoro nearly choked on his booze.

Usopp's jaw dropped.

Reiju sucked in a sharp breath, she knew herself and she knew her brothers. He was remembering rejections the way she remembered kills and Ichiji, Niji and Yonji remembered insults. If Sanji remembered having been rejected that many times, then he was still hanging on to at least a bit of the hurt and upset from every. Single. One. Before Sanji realized it, Reiju had wrapped him in a hug.

Sanji blinked in confusion as Reiju's boobs pressed into his face and silently thanked the Gods of Love that it did absolutely nothing for him. How awkward would that be? he mused to himself idly before pointing out, "Um, for what it's worth, Bones did say in that letter of his that there was a literal princess who'd be super into me in the New World…"

Reiju pushed him back upright to look him in the eye, "In case you've forgotten little brother, I'm a literal princess, and I know the one he's talking about and from what I know of her I agree with him."

Zoro and Usopp both tilted their heads in shock and confusion as they asked in perfect unison, "Wait, what?"

Sanji grimaced and Reiju glanced over at them, "Did I not tell you that?"

"No," Zoro replied, "I don't recall having heard anything about that. I think I'd recall that!"

"I know I haven't," Usopp declared, "That's a seriously memorable detail. It does explain how you've got the Fleet Admiral of the Marines on speed dial and that comment about your father being able to whip Cipher Pol into a frenzy trying to find you though…" he mused.

"Well, don't go treating us any differently," Reiju instructed with a gentle smile, "I want to just be Reiju and leave my family name out of it."

"Same," Sanji confirmed, "I left by mutual agreement."

"So what made you start holding your enthusiasm back?" Reiju asked without changing her tone or expression or obviously directing the question to Sanji.

"I heard Maddy and London laughing at me after I let them skive off paying because they were cute," Sanji answered absently, not really realizing what had just happened until he almost felt Reiju's mood shift to 'openly violent' and he clapped his hands over his mouth in horror that he'd let names slip in front of his murderously overprotective sister.

"Did they now?" Reiju asked in a very dangerous tone.

"That's low," Usopp declared, "Taking advantage of someone's affection like that is bad enough, but straight up mocking them afterward? Sanji, you are so lucky you heard them and found out what they were really like. The last time I saw something like that, one guy ended up dead, the girl got run out of town and the other guy ended up in jail!"

"Seriously," Zoro agreed before taking another drink and adding, "It takes a real scum bag to prey on peoples' affections like that."

"Save the enthusiasm for the bedroom Little Bro," Reiju advised sagely, prompting Zoro to once again nearly choke on his booze.

Before anyone could respond to that, Koala, clearly tipsy and with a three quarters empty bottle still in her hand, let out a sound somewhere between a wheeze and a whine before nearly collapsing as she doubled up with laughter. "I was not expecting that!" Koala cackled, leaning against the wall and sliding down it to keep herself from falling. It took her a few minutes to quit laughing, but when she did, she smiled and patted Sanji on the shoulder, "Sanji, how much would it cost for you to write a cookbook? You're an awesome cook and I want to learn how, and maybe teach Sabo. Great opportunity to flirt with him, you know? He's so dense!"

Her mood shifted and she started to rant, "Like, I KNOW he's into me, and everyone can tell and everyone knows I'm into him so why the hell won't he do anything about it?! Like FUCK ME DAMMIT! WHY IS HE SO…" she blinked as Sabo seemed to materialize out of thin air to pick her up in a bridal carry with a very strange but soft smile on his face, "Sabo-kun?"

Sabo held her a little closer and leaned in, still smiling as the brims of their hats bumped and pushed up, "Haven't you had a little too much to drink?"

Koala immediately blushed redder than her hair and found her voice suddenly not working.

Sabo just smiled, "Come on, let's go find you a bed. In the morning when you're sober, we'll talk okay?"

Koala's answer was to reach up and tug Sabo's face down close to her own, "Why're you such a gentleman?"

"Only the best for the best," Sabo replied with a grin, "That's you, you know?"

Sabo found himself on the ground a moment later being kissed like there was no tomorrow, and Sanji, Reiju, Zoro and Usopp all quietly slipped out of the alley to give them some privacy.

…Meanwhile, the Shore Near Shimotsuki Village…

"Glad to see you decided to take us up on our offer," I declared in a voice of forced calm as I skidded to a halt in the sand, half burying my boots in it as I turned to force my momentum into the sand. The moon was high in the sky overhead and by my guess it was nearly midnight as I set down the sack that I'd brought the raw ham melons back in.

The heavily bandaged man Yamato and I had asked to join our crew smiled from the lumber pile he was passed out on top of with a bottle in his hand, "Haha, well when people of your capability suggest pulling off some outrageous stunts, how can I refuse? It's just second nature to me I suppose. So this is to be our ship? I hope you don't mind me dozing on the lumber, the mattress smelled… a bit lived in."

I nodded as I straightened up, "I'm in the midst of modifying it. The ship not the mattress, which yes, Yamato and I would've been highly displeased to find you sleeping on it since it's ours. I had to take off this morning to go deal with some…" I grimaced, "rather unsavory characters in the Conomi Isles. My apologies for not being here to greet you on your arrival."

He laughed as he sat up, "Wow, you're already treating me better than my old captain! This is gonna be a fun voyage! Are there any rules I should be informed of?"

I sat down on a different lumber pile across from him, "First thing's first, I don't tolerate rape or the harming of children. Plunder is fine, but we take only from the richest targets and those who attack us first."

"Wow, so you're actually something of a goody goody, huh?" our new crewman mused, "Well that's fine, I'd rather work for someone with morals than another psycho. The last one didn't turn out too well!" he gestured to the wounds that were sure to scar crisscrossing his still heavily bandaged body, "That maniac's plan nearly got me done in, and I'm under no delusions that he'd have hunted me down to kill me himself if I'd told him to get stuffed or simply not shown up!"

I snorted, "Well, rest assured, we're not like that. It'll take outright mutiny or breaking one of my big three rules to make me that angry. Don't come at us and you won't get hurt. Next thing, disputes aboard ship will be settled civilly. I'll not have our crew tearing itself apart over flared egos. If any two crewmates are just truly incapable of getting along and can't be near each other without coming to blows, we'll be setting at least one of them off at the next port. That said, I do not expect that to happen frequently if at all."

That got me a nod, "Seems reasonable. How will we be divvying up the loot?"

I raised two fingers, "Officers take one and a half shares, that includes the Captains, me and Yamato. Crewmen take one share. It's all moot until we get actual crewmen of course."

"So I'm an officer right?"

"You were competent to run a ship and crew right?" I confirmed before adding with a smirk, "There wasn't some other member of your crew I don't know about holding the reins right?"

Jango gave me a very dry and slightly offended look, "I was the fifth finest active pirate captain in the East Blue, thank you."

I chuckled, "That's what I thought. Welcome aboard Quartermaster Jango. We're sailing into the sea of madness to the glory beyond, we'll be relying on you."

Jango raised an eyebrow and actually lowered his glasses to get a better look at me. Then he smiled broadly, "Why thank you very much Captain! I look forward to working with you!"

"Leave the raw power to us," I instructed him with a grin, "And we'll rely on your experience in handling a ship and crew."

Jango nodded, "Right. Do you have any crewmen in mind yet or are we just taking any old scallywags we can gather?"

"I have several in mind, a few we'll need to gather on the way, but when we get to…" I tilted my head as I heard someone calling me, "Excuse me a moment."

I got up and strode to edge of the ship and sprang up, ducking into the cabin and the mirror I'd picked up on Mirror Ball Island so we could communicate with Brulee as needed. It was serving its purpose nicely now because Brulee was on the other side in her witchy form rather than the shockingly pretty form she'd worn to the party. Which was her real face I'm still not sure of, but in this instance it was irrelevant, "Brulee, is everything alright?"

"No, no it isn't," Brulee replied quickly, "Are you docked? I need a safe space to bring out somebody really big. Can I step out? I'll probably need to make a mirror big enough for this."

I nodded, "Of course." I extended a hand and Brulee reached out of the mirror, took my hand and stepped out of the mirror as I instructed her to mind her head. A moment later we stepped out onto the sand and Brulee looked around fretfully, "Crap…Bones is there anything we can use to make a mirrored surface?"

I looked at her, "How big do we need?"

I heard something like someone knocking on glass, Brulee pulled out a compact and Katakuri told her to let him out. She turned the compact away from herself and a moment later Katakuri oozed out through it, in less than a minute he created a massive pan of haki coated mochi and scooped up a large amount of seawater. He glanced at Brulee, "Hurry, it won't hold long."

Brulee set her hand to the surface of the water and as it suddenly became perfectly flat and still barked, "HURRY! BRING THEM OUT!"

A massive cohort of pawn troopers suddenly started hopping out of the mirror pool, heaving with all they had to tow out a form I wasn't overly familiar with of someone I had grown at least passingly familiar with. As the pawn troopers hauled the first skiff and its occupant to the side, and began hauling out the next one, I looked at Brulee who was trembling faintly and Katakuri who looked extremely tense. Unless I missed my guess, he was furious.

"Who the hell did that to Ulti? And why?" I asked quietly. I couldn't see her injuries clearly, but I knew even hybrid zoan forms weren't supposed to be bent up like that, and I could see a crater in her side mixed in with several bloody gashes on top of the other obvious wounds and blood covering her. I wasn't wrong in guessing that most of it was hers.

Brulee was shaking outright now, "I don't know. All I know is what I found when we got there after one of my mirrors reported Ulti begging me for help through her compact. I think she and Page One tried to get between Kaido and what he wanted. They're barely breathing and I don't know if they're going to make it. I don't know what he did to them, and I don't think I want to know. I know we're not supposed to help each other beyond information and minor negotiations, but… this…" she trailed off, shaking her head in horror and fury.

I stood there, ghost pale and furious as the pawn troopers hauled out Page One, who was also unconscious and in actually worse shape than Ulti. Then the third victim of Kaido's little rampage started to be hauled out and Katakuri and I had to help the pawn troopers because they were actually struggling a bit. When I saw her, I almost lost my grip in shock at the extent of what had been done to her. "That fucking asshole…" I snarled as I helped pull Black Maria, or what was left of her, out onto the sand. I could tell from the stench mixed in with the smell of blood that should never be associated with anything except mutual pleasure, he hadn't stopped at beating her.

I turned to Brulee, "Have you contacted Marco yet?"

Brulee shook her head and turned with a stricken expression, "We'll go now, and I'll ask, but I don't know if he'll help…"

"He will, but if he won't then find Dr. Kureha of Drum Kingdom," I told her firmly, "She's quite likely the best there is. Her prices are weird, but I'll pay them."

"If she'll save these kids, I'll pay no matter how weird they are," Brulee declared, tears starting to form as the pawn troopers and Katakuri slipped back into the mirror as the pool started to collapse from the water.

As soon as Brulee slipped back beneath the mirrored surface of the water, the pool dissolved. Jango looked over at me as he sidled up, "So uh…you know some interesting people huh?" He glanced at Black Maria and grimaced, "What a waste! Such a beauty and someone did that to her?"

"She might've deserved a bit of a pummeling, but not like this," I declared quietly as I took in the scope of her injuries.

"Did I?"

My heart skipped a beat and I saw a pair of blue eyes each as big as my torso, peering out between swollen, bruised black eyelids and leaking tears. I exhaled, "You're sadistic, vain and selfish. Poor qualities in a person one and all, but no Maria, you didn't even come close to deserving this. Nobody deserves..." I glanced at the wreckage of her naked body with a grimace, "This."

I sighed, "Is there any part of you that isn't hurting so I can give you a consoling pat with the reassurances that you're going to be okay?"

Maria thought for a moment and then the tears started leaking fresh as she choked out, "No…"

I nodded and gently patted the air directly in front of her broken and bloody nose, "There, there. Everything's going to be alright. Brulee's gone to find a doctor. That glorified trout can't get to you here. Nobody's going to hurt you. You're perfectly safe. Would you like to see a trick?"

Maria tried to smile as she let out a little huff that made her wince with pain, "Sure… why not?"

I glanced at Jango, "Jango? Think you can help the lovely lady with the pain?"

Jango tugged out his chakram with a smile, "You got it Cap'n."

I nodded and stepped back as Jango stepped forward, showing Maria his chakram pendulum as he explained that on the count of Jango she wouldn't feel her injuries anymore. As he started counting gently, I strode over to where Yamato was standing at the end of the path back towards Shimotsuki Village, frozen with horror in the moonlight.

"Marco's coming," I told her quietly as I heard Maria sigh with relief in the background and thank Jango, "Him or the best doctor I know of if Brulee can find her."

"Kaido loved those three," Yamato declared quietly after a moment, "He loved them like he loved me until I said I was going to take up Oden's will."

"There's a reason he's the World's Strongest Monster not the World's Strongest Man," I replied grimly.

"If I had taken my cuffs off, or left Onigashima…" Yamato trailed off for a second, "…those cuffs really would have killed me, wouldn't they?"

"I think you might've survived the blast. You're kind of amazing like that, but whatever ship you were on wouldn't and you'd drown," I confirmed quietly.

"I'm gonna kill him," Yamato declared grimly, her eyes bulging with fury as she strangled the hilt of the new katana at her side, "I. Am going. To kill him."

"I don't think we can pull it off just yet, and definitely not in a straight fight," then I took a deep breath, "But you mark my words: His days are numbered."

Yamato took a shuddering breath to steady herself and then nodded, "How did things go with Arlong?"

"Fucker ran back to Conomi before I got there," I snarled, "Had to chase him down. Barely caught him before he made landfall because I went to Loguetown first to make sure he hadn't. Was nearly sundown when I got there. Handed his and his crew's heads to Nami about two minutes after I caught up to him."

Yamato finally tore her eyes away from her adopted siblings and looked at me, "You sound really angry, what happened?"

I took a deep breath, swallowed and took a second to choose my words, "After I collapsed from exhaustion, turns out running full tilt all day and then a few minutes of pest extermination really takes it out of me, Sabo and Koala were carrying me back towards Cocoyashi. Nami made a joke to Luffy that she might ought to join us instead of Luffy since I was the one who killed Arlong for her. Luffy took it seriously enough to try and hurl me into the sea over it. I woke up flying through the air and got back to them just in time to hear Luffy say he didn't want me anywhere near his crew."

I turned to face her fully as I saw her do the same and gape at me, "What?! What, why would he…You… you've done nothing but try to help them at every turn!"

I nodded and looked her in the eye, "You know how well I took that too."

"Are any of them still alive?" Yamato asked only half jokingly.

I snorted, "Oh I broke his jaw and sent him flying for it. Heavily considered killing him on the spot, but I didn't because Sabo and Ace are still our friends and I really don't feel like having Red Haired Shanks out to return the favor. Armament works when I'm pissed by the way, but I left, after making a declaration that I wish I could've consulted you about first." I pulled her hand up between us and looked her in the eye, "If I become King of the Pirates, will you be my Queen?"

Yamato blinked in surprise and then blushed so red she glowed faintly in the dark. Her jaw dropped. A little bit of steam might've boiled out from under her hair. Finally she glanced away and scratched at her cheek with a shy smile, "Dummy… you can't just spring questions like that on me… especially not when you already know the answer…"

I did. That didn't stop me from grinning ear to ear anyway, "Well then, to the top we go!"

Yamato grinned back at me, "What's our plan, King of the Pirates?"

.

.

"I know it's romantic as hell but if you keep moving around, you're going to aggravate your injuries even worse! Hold still dang it!" Marco snapped from next to Maria, Ulti and Page One who were all three covered in veritable bonfires of Marco's blue and gold healing flames, sitting up already much largely recovered from their beatings. All three plus Brulee and Jango had their hands over their mouths and looked like they were only narrowly holding back a massive squeal as they watched us like the climactic declaration of love between the main characters after at least a season of 'will they-won't they?' on their favorite romcom.

Marco sighed, "Brulee please god tell me you got a picture of that. That was the sweetest thing I've seen since Thatch's last bake sale."

"Fifty million beris a copy!" Brulee replied happily as she waved her little snail camera.

"Done!" Yamato and I called in unison before swapping a glance and bursting out laughing.