AN: Well this took forever and a day to actually get finished. Part of that was my fault as my original plan was to have chapter 5 be an interlude from the perspective of the 'raven'. So that was all written out and ready to be edited then it was pointed out that it would have been a bit jarring to the narrative if I did things that way. So that got shoved to the next chapter which also meant that I had an entire new chapter to write!

Bouts of writer's block, depression, life, a new co-author, lack of motivation to edit, all combined to make this chapter take so long. You might notice that this chapter isn't as long as the previous ones. I've decided going forward to split the chapters into roughly half the length that they were. This is for ease of reading and totally not because I haven't managed to edit the other half of the chapter yet and wanted to get something out before the end of the year.

Chapter 5

No one spoke as we marched towards Arlong Park, all of us silent except for the soft crunch of dirt beneath our feet. Luffy was at the center of the group and slightly ahead of everyone else. Just behind, but still flanking him, were me and Zoro. I was on Luffy's left and Zoro his right. Usopp and Sanji rounded out our group, Usopp on my left and Sanji on Zoro's right.

While I was as outwardly silent as the rest, inwardly my thoughts buzzed as I struggled to recall what I could about the coming fight. Well that and trying to ignore the heaviness of my body. I wasn't especially succeeding at either task.

The heaviness I felt was the exhaustion from my earlier fight against the Holder Pirates making itself known. Along with that was the stiffness and soreness in my shoulder from where I had been shot. Like a piece of fabric getting caught on a splinter of wood, my brain got caught on that thought. It hadn't really sunk in yet that I had been freaking shot!

Sure I had cursed and grumbled about it at the time, but otherwise I acted like it wasn't that big of a deal! Hell I'd passed it off as a minor irritation, about as much of a problem as stubbing my toe. Even now I was basically ignoring the fact that, in addition to being shot, I had gotten more than a little cut up.

I gave myself a firm mental shake and wrenched my attention back to the present and not that continued line of thinking. Just in time to, as we had just reached just the stone wall that surrounded the park, and the gate that as far as I knew was the only land entrance into the park. Luffy took in the gate and the wall before he took a step forward and rested the palm of his left hand against the gate. Fingers curled into a fist he stretched his right arm back, the limb making a kind of rubbery twang as it stretched. He didn't bother to shout out the name of an attack as he punched the gate.

The stone door of the gate exploded inwards in a spray of rocky shards and dust. The dust briefly obscured us as we stepped into the square one by one. I let the other four take the lead as I hung back to better remain unnoticed, not that I should have bothered hiding as all of the Fishmen's attention was fixed on Luffy as he cracked his knuckles.

Since I was effectively invisible for the moment. I took the time to see if Arlong, Chew, Kuroobi, and Hachi were still wearing the golden necklaces that they had taken from me earlier. I was guessing on Hachi's part as I couldn't see him through the crowd.

"Which one of you is Arlong?"

"That would be me." Arlong replied from where he slouched in the only visible chair. He didn't even look like he had bothered to react to our sudden intrusion.

"I'm Luffy."

"Is that so? And what's a Luffy?" Judging by the way Arlong straightened up in his chair he seemed to take Luffy somewhat seriously.

"A pirate."

During the conversation Luffy hadn't stopped walking towards Arlong. Until a pair of fishmen stepped into his path that is. Not that Luffy gave them a chance to talk. He didn't even break his stride as he grabbed the back of their heads and slammed them together with a crack. The Fishmen gasped in shock as Arlong's eyes first went wide and then narrowed with rage. Teeth grinding against each other as he snarled out his next words.

"And what business do you have with me, pirate?"

Luffy's response was to punch Arlong in the face, sending the Fishman bouncing across the ground until his sudden flight was ended by his collision with the stone wall. A cloud of dust shrouded Arlong as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

"You made our navigator cry!" Luffy shouted at Arlong.

"Get him!" One of the Fishmen who had, until then, been standing around shouted. The closest Fishmen charged towards Luffy as the command cut through their shock and surprise. None of them even managed to get within arms reach of him as the rest of the crew, largely ignored until then, reacted. They fell swiftly to Sanji's kicks, Zoro's blades, Usopp's slingshot, and my chains.

"You can leave the rabble to us, Luffy. Just focus on Arlong." Sanji said as he casually strolled over until he was standing beside Luffy. He stepped on the bodies of several groaning Fishmen in the process. Not that he seemed to notice or care.

"It's the Pirate Hunter, Roranora Zoro! I recognize him now! He tricked me into taking him to the village, wink!" I quickly shot a glance towards Zoro at Hachi's words. Zoro grunted and shrugged his shoulders in response. Guess he was just going to ignore the whole wink thing then.

A crunch of rock drew our attention back over to where Arlong had gotten back to his feet. He focused on Luffy first before his eyes flicked to the rest of the crew one by one. Arlong's eyes narrowed when they landed on Usopp, but not quite as much as they narrowed when they landed on me.

"You! How dare a weakling like you try to betray me! You think a group of nobody pirates can defeat us! Can, defeat me?! Don't make me laugh!" Arlong took a menacing step forward as he shouted, his presence pressing against me from all sides.

Undaunted, I took a step forward myself. My eyes met his unflinchingly as 4 chains extended out from my back, curling over my shoulders and out on either side of my arms. Across my body and over my jacket more chains began to appear. A recreation of the chain shirt that I had subconsciously created during my fight against the Holder Pirates. The only difference being that it was over my jacket rather than beneath it.

"Betray you?" I asked mockingly as I raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"In order to betray you, I'd have had to actually work for you in the first place."

I let that statement hang in the air for a moment before bringing a finger up to tap thoughtfully against my chin. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you fell for our navigator's lies so easily, she's gotten quite a lot of practice with it over the years." The snarl that Arlong let out made my lips curl wickedly.

"Oh!" I proclaimed as if something had only just occurred to me.

"I should present to you the crew. The name's Vebulus, quartermaster for the Strawhat Pirates, I ate the Chain-Chain Fruit so you could call me a chain-man. You're already acquainted with my captain and his fist. Zoro, firstmate and swordsman, was introduced by your octopus friend." Hachi's chest swelled with pride until Arlong shot him an annoyed look.

I gestured to Sanji and then Usopp as I continued to talk. Aware as the villagers of Coco village gathered by the gap Luffy had created in the wall.

"Sanji is our cook and Usopp is our sniper. Finally!" Here I paused once again before I stepped aside and dramatically swept my arm to gesture to the person at the front of the crowd.

"OUR navigator, Nami!"

Arlong's snarl of rage practically drowned out the gasps from the crowd and the choked sob that escaped from Nami. Luffy had turned his head towards me and just from the look in his eyes I could tell he approved. A sharp crack, akin to a gunshot, had all eyes focused once again on Arlong.

There was a jagged gap in Arlong's mouth where a tooth had previously sat. The fragments of it on the ground by his feet. Almost mechanically Arlong opened his mouth and stuck a hand between his teeth. A swift yank and the rest of the teeth clattered to the ground, new teeth already snapping into place. The whole time he hadn't said a single word or made any other kind of sound. Thus the sudden roar took us all by surprise.

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! TEAR THEM APART!" Arlong charged, not towards Luffy as I had expected but towards me. The rest of his crew joined the charge a moment later.

"Shihihihihi, you sure seemed to piss him off Veb." Luffy laughed as he caught Arlong's charge in a net made of his fingers.

"Apparently!" I shouted back as one of my chains swept out to smack several Fishmen away. "Let's hope this works then, Chain Strangle!" And with that, I raised one hand and clenched my fist tight.

Around the necks of those that wore them the gold chains twitched once before they suddenly tightened, links digging into the tender skin of the throat. The Fishmen that wore the necklaces were forced to abandon their attacks and claw at their throats. Oddly, I noticed that despite wearing one earlier Hachi no longer had a necklace. In fact, it almost looked like he was hanging back from the fight.

"Go! Those chains won't stall them for long!" A length of chain slammed into one of the Fishmen closest to me as I shouted. He swayed in place for a moment before collapsing in a heap, clearly unconscious. Absently I looked down at the chain in my hand, surprised that a single blow was enough to down one of them.

While I was somewhat distracted by that revelation, the rest of the crew had joined the fray. Zoro, with Wado in one hand and the sword I had given him in the other, cut down every Fishman that got between him and Hachi, his apparent target.

Those that ended up in Sanji's path didn't fare any better. Generally, all it took was a single kick to drop them or send them flying. Into the wall, over the wall, skipping across the pool like a stone, whenever a Fishman was sent flying it was always impressive.

Luffy of course was still fighting Arlong, who had pulled himself free of the finger net. Arlong dodged out of the way of Luffy's next attack at the last second, the missed blow shattering the stone where Arlong had stood. In return Arlong slammed his fist straight into Luffy's chest, but because Luffy was, well, Luffy and made of rubber, it didn't have the expected impact.

Around me numerous chains whipped and danced, creating a spot that the Fishmen were struggling to get past. Behind me Usopp peppered the crowd with shot after shot. The two of us made quite an effective team; I acted as the mobile wall that kept the enemy back, which left Usopp unmolested to take shots as needed. The only problem was that by sheer weight of numbers we were steadily forced back and were running out of room to maneuver.

The reason why was simple enough, Hachi hadn't summoned Moomoo, which meant that there were more Fishmen still able to fight then in canon. I couldn't do anything about that now though, which left me with no other option then to do the best I could. Good thing that was what I had been planning on doing since the beginning.

One of the Fishmen lunged forward in an attempted attack, earning a smack across the face with a chain just as a shadow passed overhead. A quick glance gave me the impression of a very large bird diving out of the sky. That moment of distraction was all it took for a pair of Fishmen to dodge past my chains and try to attack me.

"Class Change! Monk!"

Neither attack ever landed, instead being countered by a punch and a kick from the tall brown-haired man that had landed just slightly in front of me. The force from his blows sent both Fishmen stumbling back with cries of pain.

"Sorry I'm late!" The man said cheerfully, as if he hadn't just swooped down in the middle of a fight. Also, as I couldn't see any sign of wings I had to wonder... How was he flying a moment ago?!

Blissfully unaware of my thoughts, the man continued speaking. "Being stuck in a cage for three days, I spent a little too long stretching and lost track of time."

The Fishmen snarled as my eyes widened, and one yelled out, "Who the hell are you, human, and where did you come from?!"

Which was an excellent freaking question because what?!

"I can answer both at the same time~!" The man answered in a sing-song tone.

Oh god please don't start singing. I thought desperately. Thankfully he didn't, not that what he said next was actually any less bewildering then if he had started to sing.

"I am known by many names! The Feathered Menace! The Caged Bird! Dad! But to you, I am Aaron Ganaron, The Wandering Warrior," he flicked a quarterstaff off his back, where the hell had that come from?, and slowly seemed to expand with feathers, becoming more massive and muscular, his face transforming into something hawk-like, "and I won't let you hurt this man."

Thepair stared in bafflement at Aaron before one raised a hand to point at Aaron. "Okay, but you didn't answer the question of where you came from."

"... Crap." Aaron responded while visibly deflating.

"...What?" If anyone had been around to judge it then the sheer flatness of my statement combined with the amount of confusion that I managed to express in just four letters and one question mark would have won me some sort of record. If we hadn't been in the middle of a fight I would have probably face palmed. I was barely resisting the urge as it was.

I had expected a certain level of nonsense when joining up with Luffy and prepared for it as best I could. The world that he lived in was all kinds of insane after all. V had apparently cranked the insanity meter up a few notches just to keep things interesting.

Something in my tone, I can't imagine what, had Aaron look back at me and then nod like he had decided on something. "That's a perfectly reasonable question to ask and I will answer it! Once this fight is over!"

"So, is he like a friend of yours or something Veb?" Usopp asked as he waved at Aaron. Usopp's story about being saved by a random bird person was sounding quite a bit more believable than it had earlier.

"Yes? No? Maybe? You know what, sure!" I shouted in exasperation before I pointed a finger at Aaron. "You and I are gonna have one hell of a talk after this is all over Aaron!"

"Moomoo!"

Oh now Hachi called for the Sea King. It was certainly a unique way to end the current conversation between me and fights across the courtyard paused as the huge cow sea king surfaced. A massive welt from his earlier tussle with Luffy and Sanji visibly rose from its head.

Moomoo swung its head to gaze down at everyone, only to flinch back when it noticed Luffy. Clearly he remembered what had happened the last time and wanted nothing to do with it. A fact that pissed Arlong off. At the same moment a stray thought floated to the front of my mind. So of course I asked it of the closest person visible to me.

"Aaron, does being a cow sea king mean that Moomoo could be considered a sea cow?" I distractedly asked while Arlong was threatening Moomoo to stop cowering and fight.

Equally confused as he was intrigued, Aaron took a moment before he replied. "Probably?"

"Does that mean he counts as a mammal?"

"... Where are you going with this?"

I paused to consider the question while keeping any Fishmen back with my chains, even as Moomoo decided that Arlong was scarier than Luffy and started to advance upon us. "Originally nowhere. But now I'm wondering if Moomoo can be milked. So good job?"

Thankfully for everyone within hearing distance any further debate about whether or not Moomoo counted as a mammal was cut off by a shout from Luffy. It unfortunately also ended my thought about why talking to Aaron felt so natural. He couldn't possibly be the same person that I knew, could he?

Usopp looked back and forth between Vebulus and Aaron as the pair wondered if the giant sea king counted as a mammal or not. It was clear to him that Vebulus and Aaron somehow knew each other just from the way they chatted like old friends. So why were they acting like they didn't know each other at first?

Then there was the letter that he had received from Kaya on his birthday last year, one which had been in the care of her family for years. A letter that had been written by someone who claimed to be a future version of him along with schematics for weapons that he designed. At the time he hadn't understood who the weapons could have been for, they didn't make sense for anything that he'd ever met, it was only when he had met Luffy, Zoro, and Nami that he figured it out.

Then there was the final sentence of the letter that he hadn't been able to make heads or tails of, it didn't make any sense in the context of the letter until just now as he observed Vebulus and Aaron talking.

"One last thing past me, and this is super important even if it won't make sense. The Chain Man and the Hawk Man are from another world."

Through a gap in the crowd of Fishmen I could see as Luffy slammed first one foot and then the other straight through the stones of the courtyard. Luffy's arms shot forward, spiraling around and around as they stretched, so that when he finally grabbed Moomoo by the horns, his arms resembled the tines of a screw.

There was just enough time for Moomoo to adopt an expression of comical surprise before Luffy lifted him up out of water and onto the air. Luffy then used Moomoo as a very large and impromptu spinning dervish to bludgeon most of the fishmen that were still fighting. Before he started there were roughly 20 to 30 fishmen fighting against us, after he was done there were seven; Arlong, Hachi, Kuurobi, Chew, and 3 other Fishmen that I kind of vaguely recognized from earlier at Coco village. One of whom was wielding maracas of all things. Weapons in One Piece were weird. Sure they could have been completely normal maracas and I was the weird one for immediately considering them as actual weapons. Of course with how crazy this world could be and the way things had been going, I'd find out those maracas weighed like twenty pounds and were full of iron ball bearings or something like that.

Arlong, who was still in a rage over my earlier statement, went absolutely ballistic at the loss of his men. He rushed over to where Luffy was trying to pull his feet free and with a mighty heave tore a chunk up. A chunk that of course included Luffy.

"Sink to the bottom of the ocean and drown!" Arlong hurled Luffy high through the air and straight towards where the pool met the ocean.

"Chain Anchor!"

A pair of chains, each with a three pronged hook at the end shot out from my hands. They reached Luffy just as he hit the high point of his flight and wrapped around both him and the rock. I hauled back on the chains with every bit of strength I had. It was just enough to save Luffy from a possible watery grave. Instead he crashed into the ground beside me, the impact kicking up a thick cloud of dust that obscured both of us.

I stifled a cough as I waved the dust away until I was able to see what state my captain was in. Luffy to my surprise was still stuck in the stone, even if it had quite a few cracks in it now, and was bobbing rapidly back and forth like a struck cat toy. Impossibly his hat remained perfectly fixed on his head until the bobbing had stopped.

"How nice of you to drop in, captain. Let's try to avoid any more surprise swimming lessons today shall we?" I deadpanned even as chains wrapped tight around the stone until it shattered with a sharp crack.

"Shihihihihi! No promises!" Luffy shouted back at me as he bounced off towards where Arlong was waiting for him. Either that or Arlong was glaring daggers at me for being a nuisance. Cheekily, I gave him a wave before needing to jump aside as he threw a rock at me.

I decided right there that continuing to taunt an enraged Arlong wasn't a good idea if I wanted to remain alive. I took a quick glance around to fix everyone's positions in my head. Zoro and Hachi were vanishing around the corner of Arlong's place. Sanji was exchanging blows at the edge of the pool with Kuurobi.

Missing, however, was any sign of Usopp, Aaron, Chew, and the other 3 Fishmen that had still been standing. Thinking that they were likely engaged in battle somewhere behind me, I spun around. They weren't.

What was behind me however was the Fishman with the maracas, one currently in mid-swing at me. Instinctively I jumped back to avoid the blow as a surprised yelp escaped from me. The strike narrowly missed rather than braining me as the Fishman had intended.

A chain deflected his follow up strike away as I snapped up a kick towards his side. He was fast enough to dodge the kick and we broke apart from our brief clash. This gave me the opportunity to take in more than just the appearance of his weapons.

Blue skin and large lips, which I had begun to notice was kind of a theme with male Fishmen. They either had almost no lips or large ones. There was probably some reason for it, probably related to them being part fish, not that it mattered in the slightest bit right now.

Across his well muscled torso he wore a purple short-sleeved shirt with a pattern of pink stars across the front and sides. The shirt hung open at the front exposing the red star tattoo across his chest. Did it conceal a brand of the Celestial Dragons like Hachi's sun did or was it just a copy to show his dedication to his captain. It didn't matter either way right now, for the moment he was my enemy.

"I just know that I'm going to regret asking this somehow but, who the heck are you?"

"They call me Pisaro-Pete and I'm the king of the rumble beat~

Arlong appointed me as the musician of crew to keep up morale and break down the style~

You may have left him hoppin' mad, but once I've got your head on a platter it'll be nothin' but laughter~"

For the second time in less than an hour my brain momentarily stopped as the insanity of what I just heard registered. It wasn't just the singsong quality of Pisaro's words, or the way that he jumped between three different songs and styles. Taking the whole thing however was just slightly too much to process.

I didn't freeze enough that I couldn't still defend myself as Pisaro tried to be as good as his word. He hammered at me with blow after blow from his maracas. Each swing in time to what I was increasingly confident was the rhythm of the song Cuban Pete.

My chains blocked or deflected many of the strikes and the ones that did make it through I was able to dodge. What I wasn't managing to accomplish however was open the distance between me and Pisaro. Which I really wanted to do as those maracas packed a wallop behind them. Not to mention the fact that it felt like Pisaro was herding me in exactly the direction he wanted.

One could say he was controlling the rhythm of the fight. The very thought, almost enough to make me groan at the pun. Instead I directed the energy to quipping.

"What the hell are those maracas made out of!?"

"These are custom Pisaro style maracas, made for playing music and beating up fools! Each one weighs 20 pounds and is filled with ball bearings to give them that rattling beat."

I could feel the sweatdrop forming as he finished his announcement. It was hard to say if it was because I had been right about the maracas or if it was the pride in his voice. While we had been talking Pisaro had continued his attacks, slowly but steadily herding me towards the pool. I lashed out with a chain, the end cracking like a whip as it forced Pisaro to briefly abandon his attacks and back off. I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Chain clutch!"

Chains shot out and wrapped around Pisaro, pinning his arms to his sides as they tightened. I yanked back on the chains then, hauling him high up into the air before reversing direction and slamming him back down. That was my intention at least.

At the very apex of his forced flight, Pisaro flexed, snapping the chains that were holding him. So instead of slamming into the earth like I had planned he splashed into the waters of the pool. Absolutely the last place I could have wanted him to end up. Hopefully, Aaron and Usopp were having better luck in their fight.