Chapter 7

Now that we'd arrived at Little Garden, I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to start briefing the crew; maybe the answer would come to me mid-explanation.

"Hey, guys?" I called out. "I need to warn you all about something."

Everyone gathered round, expressions ranging from wide-eyed to skeptical.

"Without giving too much away, there's an enemy trick you'll need to know about very soon."

"Wait, are you saying there's an enemy on the island?" Vivi asked.

"Exactly. Now, after we get off the ship, we may get split up. If you see another crewmember, call out to them, but do NOT approach them unless they call back. Got it?"

I got a lot of dull stares.

"That sounds kinda like bullshit," Sanji said.

"Look, I'd love to give you all the details, but the captain doesn't want any spoilers. So just remember to call out to anyone you see, okay?"

"…Alright," he relented. "Well, there's no telling how long the Log Pose will take to reset, so I'm gonna go hunting."

"Hold up, Cook," Zoro mocked. "I'll do the hunting, otherwise you might hurt yourself."

"What did you just say, Moss-head?! I can take down bigger creatures than you could ever dream of!"

"Then prove it," the swordsman challenged him. "Whoever brings back more meat wins."

While sparks flew between the two of them, I decided to try and change this part, at least a little.

"Come on, guys." I wrapped my arms around their necks as if we were all old friends. "If you have a contest like that, you'll just end up arguing over whose meat is bigger."

I got even more dull stares.

"I'll do the honors, everybody," Fencer said from her place on my shoulder. She let out a little fire through her paws, singing my collarbone as punishment for my cheesy joke.

I grit my teeth through the pain and continued. "Anyway, I have a different contest in mind for you guys."

That got their attention.

"How about, instead of seeing who can bring back the most meat, you each kill the single biggest beastie you can find and see who can get theirs back to the ship fastest… Sound good?"

The words had barely left my mouth before they both shot out of the ship and into the forest. Mission accomplished. Now we wouldn't have to listen to them argue about whose beastie was bigger.

I turned to my crewmates. "Well, I'm gonna go out and see some dinosaurs."

"THERE ARE DINOSAU—" Luffy stopped mid-sentence. "Wait, Declan, you're the ship guard. You're not supposed to leave the ship!"

Fair point, Luffy, fair point. In response, I summoned Skeleton Buddy to my side.

"I'm ready for guard duty, captain," he said with a salute.

Luffy looked satisfied with that. As I departed, I knew Luffy and Vivi would soon be in for some big surprises… Then I remembered something.

"Oh, wait a second!" I called out. I hopped back onto the ship, headed into the kitchen, grabbed a couple of our baby transponder snails, and tossed one to Vivi, keeping the other for myself. "I almost forgot about these things," I said to both her and myself.

If all went according to canon—or even if it didn't—it would help to keep in touch.

As I walked through the jungle, I gave some more thought to how the Little Garden arc would play out for us. Since I had gotten rid of the alcohol tainted by Mr. 5, we didn't have to worry about it hurting the giants—which was good. Also, we were finally making use of those transponder snails I'd bought. I thought things were going pretty well for us so far, even if it was a bit early to celebrate.

Before I could think more on the subject, I started to get distracted by the scenery. I was surrounded by dense, green jungle with the occasional clearing here and there. Bugs were a constant presence, but since I was a skeleton, they couldn't bite me, and any bug that tried biting Fencer got set on fire. At first, it got kind of swampy, but then something unexpected happened: a vine lashed out and ensnared my arm. I pulled it off of me, but more vines appeared, more than I'd be able to handle. Fortunately, Fencer had my back and burnt the vines into nothing.

"Heh, Fire-Type beats Grass-Type," I commented.

"Did living vines show up in that comic of yours?" Fencer asked.

"No, no they didn't."

Eventually, I started spotting the creatures I wanted to see: dinosaurs.

"Wow, a Compsognathus," I guessed. It was either that or a realistically small Velociraptor. It didn't have feathers, but I wasn't sure if that was because it was from this universe; for all I knew, none of the dinosaurs here were the same as the ones I knew about.

But as I journeyed further, I saw some more familiar faces: the three 'lophosaurs,' Dilophosaurus, Monolophosaurus, and Cryolophosaurus. The Monolophosaurus was the odd man out, for having the tamest-looking head crest. The three of them seemed to be engaged in a turf war.

The next dino I saw was a little harder to identify, but I'm pretty sure it was a Coelophysis, which, to my surprise, was friendly enough to let me pet it. After that, I saw an Ankylosaurus…or maybe it was a Euoplocephalus. Either way, I made sure to steer clear of its club tail.

"Wait," Fencer stopped me as I was in the middle of explaining the Euoplocephalus to her. "How the hell do you know all these dinosaur names?"

"The answer to that is simple, Fencer: I. Love. Dinosaurs. Always have, ever since I was a little kid."

"So you're a dino geek?"

"Yep, and I'm not afraid to admit it. In fact, I'd like to see some dinosaurs around here that are a little less mainstream."

As the old saying goes, speak of the devil, and he shall appear—except replace devil with dinos because after another minute of walking, we saw a Shunosaurus. Then, not long after, an Albertosaurus chased us until we found a good hiding place. It roared in frustration, which Fencer translated as You haven't seen the last of me, eh!

Once the Canadian T-Rex was gone, Fencer realized something, "Wait, why didn't I just burn that thing?"

That, in turn, made me realize something too, "Yeah, and I could've sent that thing running with a few punches."

"Um, are we idiots?" she asked.

"We sail around with Luffy for a captain, so, yeah, probably," I answered.

And so, we continued exploring. Now that I stopped to think about it, it was fucking awesome to see dinosaurs. It's a shame Oda barely used them in this arc. They were dinosaurs, there had to be plenty of things they could be used for besides a hunting contest and a couple throwaway gags. The sound of a crack made me pause. Looking down, I saw that I'd just stepped on an egg.

Almost immediately afterward, rumbling footsteps began approaching us. First, a head popped out from among the trees, followed by a long neck, and then eventually the rest of the body.

I wasn't sure exactly what sauropod this was, but it looked pissed that I just killed one of its babies. The giant dinosaur swung its neck at me, which I dodged by jumping up.

Fencer took it from there, leaping off my shoulder and onto the dino's neck. From there, she ran along its back, letting her bladed tail drag and rip into its flesh.

Unable to shake off such a small passenger, the sauropod could only roar as Fencer tore up its back.

"Wait!" I yelled, holding out my hand.

My fire ferret stopped and looked back at me, "Why?"

"It's just pissed we broke an egg. We don't need to kill it," I explained.

Fencer thought about my words for a second before hopping down and dashing back over to me.

The sauropod wasn't done, however, and reared up to try and stomp us. To dodge, I simply took several steps to the side and counterattacked by thrusting my palm into its side. Hopefully, the beast would be smart enough to recognize a warning shot.

Unfortunately, it didn't, so I followed up with a punch-kick combo. This finally got the point across, and the dino relented.

With that done, Fencer and I went on our way. After another few minutes of walking, we came across a pond. I decided to hide nearby and see if any animals would approach for a drink. A few minutes later, and something actually came out of the pond, or rather, its head and neck did.

"Another long-neck?" Fencer observed.

"I think it's a Tanystropheus."

"I don't know what that is."

"A reptile with a long neck, that's what it is," I answered simply. "Not sure why it's in a pond, though."

The Tanystropheus sank back into the pond. As if on cue, a Protoceratops walked out of the woods, clearly looking for a drink. Once it got close enough, the Tanystropheus' head shot out of the water. Wrapping its neck around the little dinosaur's neck, it quickly dragged the Protoceratops into the pond.

Fencer and I just sat there, stunned in comical silence. "Well, that's different than whatever it did in my world," I muttered.

"You wanna just go?" my ferret asked.

Moving away from the pond, we heard a couple of roars moments later, followed by a pair of stegosaurs running by us. I could tell that neither one was an actual Stegosaurus by their small stature and their shoulder spikes. They were being chased by what was either an Allosaurus or an Aerosteon; it was hard to tell, since both species are similar in size and have ridges over their eyes.

After that little analysis, I reached a decision.

"Fencer, I am going to tame those dinosaurs. If you don't want to help, get off my shoulder now."

Fencer looked at me incredulously. "Before you do, I have to ask, did you suddenly go nuts in the last thirty seconds or something?"

"I'm not crazy, Fencer. I'm just off my meds."

Back on the Merry, Skeleton Buddy's post was noticeably empty. He was having a nice time though. Brogy—the giant—had invited him, Nami, and Usopp for a meal of dinosaur meat, and he'd decided to go for it. Although he was supposed to be watching the ship, he knew nothing would happen while he was away—though he did grab the last transponder snail, just in case.

Once they arrived at Brogy's home, SB knew that since he was a skeleton, he couldn't have any meat himself—which was a little disappointing—but he could see that the others were enjoying it. However, once the island's volcano erupted, he had the consolation of witnessing Brogy's epic duel with Dorry, which ended in a draw, as SB had known it would. After barely an hour's break, the island's volcano erupted again, signaling the giants to resume their long-running series of duels.

And then everything went wrong. Dorry slipped, giving Brogy an opening to land the finishing blow.

The crew just sat in shock, but armed with his—or, well, Declan's—foreknowledge, SB felt as cool as a cucumber.

"That duel was sabotaged," he stated.

"What?!" Nami and Usopp shouted in unison.

"Dorry and Brogy are too evenly matched for something like that to happen on its own. And even if they weren't, this is the point in the comic where Mr. 3 sabotages the duel. We should regroup with the others before the Baroque Works agents find us."

"How? We don't have any idea where the others are," Usopp said.

SB pulled out his transponder snail, but before he could make a call, Usopp stopped him with a question. "Wait, where were you keeping that?"

SB answered with one simple word: "Hammerspace."

Before Usopp could question further, SB made the call. "Vivi, you there?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"You saw what happened with the giants, right?"

"I wish I hadn't."

"Me too. What's your location? We need to regroup."

"We're at Dorry's home. We can all meet th—" She paused. This worried SB.

"Vivi? You still there?"

"Yes. Hurry, the Mr. 5 pair is here!" she said before hanging up, alarming the three Straw Hats.

"Shit, I need to call the real me…" said SB. "Declan, do you copy?"

"Yeah."

"The Mr. 5 pair found Vivi and Luffy at Dorry's house."

"Shit, we need to get there fast. Use your super skeleton speed to dash over. I'll get there as fast as I can with my team of dinosaurs."

SB didn't question it, understanding perfectly. When the call ended, he turned to Nami and Usopp.

"Okay, I'm gonna speed off to where Vivi and Luffy are. You guys just follow the direction I head in." Before either one of them could respond or ask about the dinosaurs, SB disappeared in a blur.

Luffy and Vivi stared down their opponents, the Mr. 5 pair. The malicious duo had tortured Carue in an attempt to lure Vivi to them, but when the duck didn't scream for help, they decided to confront their targets directly.

"Just come quietly, princess. It'll be so much easier that way," Miss Valentine said.

Suddenly, from the edge of the jungle, they all heard a "HEY!"

Everyone turned to see that a bony figure had appeared on the scene.

"Have no fear, a living skeleton is here!" he said.

"Declan!" Vivi and Luffy looked relieved to see their friend, though they understandably mistook his double for the real thing. Miss Valentine, on the other hand, looked at him with venom in her eyes.

"You!" she hissed. "You're gonna pay for looking up my dress!"

Skeleton Buddy looked at Valentine and said, "I just said that to distract you." He noticed Vivi glaring at him. "Hey, I swear it's true!"

"Putting this topic aside, let's do what we came here to do, Miss Valentine," Mr. 5 said coolly. He picked his nose and flicked explosive boogers at Luffy and SB.

While the two male Straw Hats dodged the booger barrage, Miss Valentine took the opportunity to confront Vivi. The princess threw a horizontal slash, but Valentine ducked under it and swept out her leg, knocking Vivi over. Before the blue-haired girl could get up, Valentine hit her in the face with her parasol, knocking her out. Hoisting the girl over her shoulder, Valentine called out, "I've got her!"

When 5 heard that, he stopped shooting, ran over, and grabbed Vivi from Valentine. He stomped his foot on the ground, which resulted in an explosion, propelling him off into the distance. Valentine hopped into the air close behind him.

Luffy and Skeleton Buddy were left just standing there. Tied up with 5's booger barrage, they had allowed the enemy to get away with their friend. Luffy was frowning while SB felt disappointed in himself. He, or rather his original, barely played a role in fighting the Mr. 5 pair back in Whiskey Peak, and now he'd failed to stop them here.

"Hey, guys!" they heard. Nami and Usopp emerged from the forest, looking ready for a fight.

"Hey guys," Luffy said glumly.

"You're a bit too late," SB informed them. Nami marched over to SB and whacked him with her staff. "OW!"

"That was for ditching us!"

"What exactly happened here?" Usopp asked. Before Luffy and SB could answer, they all heard a chorus of mighty roars.

"This is just like my team from Fossil Fighters: Champions," I said to myself. I had miraculously tamed some of the dinosaurs I had encountered—granted, Fencer had helped a little too.

"What the hell is Fossil Fighters?" Fencer asked.

"Uhh, it's a card game from my world." As with TV, I didn't think I'd be able to properly explain what a video game was when none existed in this world. "Anyway, are you sure you smell our friends in this direction?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said. "I'm also sure we'd get there faster if your stego-whatevers weren't so damn slow!" I didn't have a defense for that, so I just kept moving, choosing to instead think about how awesome my new dinosaurs were.

After taming my dino team, I was able to get a closer look at them and deduced that I had an Aerosteon (which I was currently riding), a Tuojiangosaurus, and a Huayangosaurus. It was admittedly pretty difficult to tell; I'd seen skeletons of the two aforementioned stegos before, but even those looked similar to one another. Not to mention the artist restorations I'd seen were equally unhelpful. The look and texture of dinosaur skin in the movies and TV were basically educated guesses, which made me doubt my ability to really identify these dinosaurs. For all I knew, I could be totally wrong. But still, it felt so good to be able to make some practical use of all my dino knowledge. I felt a bit like a real paleonto—

"Wake up!" Fencer's voice cut off my inner monologue.

"Huh?"

"You've been zoning out for the last two minutes… Also, we're here."

True to her word, we emerged from the woods right in front of our friends. The moment they saw us, Nami and Usopp's jaws dropped; SB's jaw literally dropped off his head. Luffy, on the other hand, had stars in his eyes.

Feeling cooler than I ever had, I figured it was now or never. I had my Aerosteon turn sideways and I slid down its tail. "Yabba dabba doo—oof!" I yelled, tumbling on the landing.

My friends stared at me blankly. I decided to get serious. "I'm too late, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Luffy answered.

"Well, that means there's only one thing to do."

After several seconds, Nami broke the silence. "Well? Tell us already!"

"Alright, alright, I was just pausing dramatically. We'll do just what happened in the comic, which is find the bad guys, kick their butts, and save our friends."

"How do we find them?" Fencer asked.

Instead of answering her question, I took her off my shoulder and looked over to our captain.

"Luffy, throw me straight up in the air." Luffy, with some hesitation, grabbed me and proceeded to do so. Once in the air, I had a look around but saw nothing before falling back to the ground. Understanding now, Luffy threw me up in the air again almost immediately, and this time I found what I was looking for.

"There! It's pretty far away, but there's a huge pile of wax being made way over there!" I gestured towards the woods.

"Okay, let's head that way and kick those guys' asses," Luffy said, clenching his fists, but then he had a thought. "Hey, Declan, can we ride your dinosaurs?"

"I thought you'd never ask! Let me introduce them to you guys. These two are Cain and Abel." I pointed to my Tuojiangosaurus and Huayangosaurus respectively. Then I gestured to my Aerosteon. "And this one here is Seth."

Everyone except Luffy seemed skeptical at my choice of names, but I was too elated to care.

"Alright, now let's make like chapped lips and split!"

"I'm telling you, you should get in a cool pose," Zoro said, holding a sword above his head. He and Vivi were stuck up to their calves in Mr. 3's candle service set and nearby, Brogy's hands and feet were bound to the ground with wax. To make things worse, the service set was sprinkling more wax down on them from above.

Vivi looked at him, aghast. "Why would you focus on that at a time like this?"

"Are you perhaps hoping that your friends will arrive and save you? Because I certainly am," Mr. 3 chimed in. "I could use some more additions to this set."

"That's what you think!" shouted a voice in the distance. Out of the forest came Luffy and Usopp riding on Seth. The therapod halted for a moment to allow his passengers to get off of him, baring his teeth at the Baroque Works agent.

3 blinked at the sight. "Riding in on a dinosaur? Color me surprised."

"I can arrange that," deadpanned a little girl with red pigtails from beneath the brim of her sunhat. In her hands were a paintbrush and palette.

"We're dealing with the enemy right now, Miss Goldenweek. You can do stand-up later," 3 groaned.

Valentine chose to enter the conversation then. "You two!" She pointed at the two Straw Hats. "Where's that skeleton of yours?"

"He'll be here soon, and so will the rest of our friends!" Luffy exclaimed.

"That's right!" I announced, riding into the clearing with Nami, Carue, and my trusty clone on our stegosaurs. Sitting on them wasn't an easy feat considering the plates on their backs.

Mr. 3 gave us all a once over before noticing something was off. "Hold on, Mr. 5 said you had a fire ferret with you. Where is it?"

I pointed to the weird, cake-like sculpture Zoro and Vivi were trapped in. "She should be right over there."

As soon as I said it, the sculpture started melting, freeing our trapped friends. Once it had completely dissolved, Fencer came into view behind it, ceasing her flamethrower attack.

"Good plan, Usopp!" I said, giving him a thumbs-up. Zoro unsheathed his other swords while Vivi took out her peacock slashers.

SB looked at the assembled Baroque Works agents. "You're facing all of us now!" he said, beating me to it by one second.

3 kept his composure, saying nothing. 5 pulled a revolver out of his coat and blew into the cylinder. Their partners looked a little nervous. Those of our crew who were still on dinosaurs dismounted, resulting in a moment of silence as our two sides squared off.

Then things got started.

5 fired several shots at our crew, forcing us to scatter. Zoro charged 5, intending to take him out, but the swordsman's instincts told him to jump to the side. As soon as he did, Valentine hit the spot he'd vacated hard enough to make a crater.

I rushed at Valentine and threw a punch, but she ducked under my arm, giving 5 a clear shot at me. But before he could fire, one of Usopp's small metal pellets hit his hand, making him drop his gun.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over all of us as Seth leaned down to bite Mr. 5. When the Aerosteon got close enough, 5 spit on its nose, causing an explosion that sent the therapod staggering backwards. The blast knocked Zoro and I down as well, and for a moment, I lost my bearings.

Valentine attempted to crush me while I was down. I narrowly evaded her bone-shattering blow—too narrowly. Without a moment to catch my breath, I had to dive out of the way of her mega-stomp again…and again and again.

Zoro recovered just in time to see that 5 had retrieved his revolver. The swordsman was up and on him in a flash, but 5 stomped his foot on the ground, causing another explosion. 5 himself was unharmed, but Zoro was caught in the blast, flooring him once again.

Before the glasses-wearing agent could take aim at the Straw Hats' swordsman, they heard Usopp shout something from the side: "Special Attack: Ketchup Star!"

Another pellet from the pirate crew's sniper hit him in the face, splattering ketchup all over him. Unfortunately, the condiment assault didn't slow him down at all. He quickly removed his red-spattered glasses and started firing his revolver nonstop at Zoro and Usopp, forcing them to dodge like a pair of Russian folk dancers.

5 was so busy firing and reloading that he hardly noticed the ground rumbling behind him. He took aim at the Straw Hats yet again and, with a mighty crunch, Seth's jaws closed around his shoulder. Mr. 5 roared in pain. Before the dinosaur could withdraw and bite again, 5 summoned all his strength and threw an explosive punch at the Aerosteon with his good arm, knocking him out.

"Oni Giri!" Zoro went in for the kill. The agent had only seconds to turn his attention back to the swordsman before he was struck by his finishing move. Once he collapsed, Zoro and Usopp took a moment to catch their breath.

"Thank god that's over," Usopp sighed in relief.

Zoro glared at him. "What are you whining about? He barely attacked you!"

"Hey, I helped!" the sniper insisted.

Zoro just groaned. "Whatever. How did you guys get these dinosaurs to help us out?"

Usopp grinned. "Well, Zoro, let me tell you how I, the great Captain Usopp, brought these dinos under my command."

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Here we go."

While Zoro, Usopp, and Seth had their hands full with Mr. 5, I was trying to bring down Miss Valentine. Valentine must've had a lot of practice attacking so quickly, because she never gave me a chance to counterattack. Every time she hit the ground, she instantly hopped back up into the air to come at me again. When I finally stumbled, I knew that second was probably all the time the lemon lady needed to lock on to me. I was ready for the end when—

"QUUUUUUAAAAAAAACK!"

I looked up to see that Carue had leaped into the air. He flew over my head and dropkicked Miss Valentine, knocking her away from me. When they separated, Carue landed on his feet while Valentine landed on her side, bouncing like a stone on the surface of a pond.

I ran over to Vivi's duck. "Where have you been this whole time?"

"Quack quack quack."

"Oh. I just remembered I can't understand you."

"Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" We looked over to see Valentine back on her feet. She changed tactics and simply charged at us. I raised my right leg and snap-kicked her in the stomach, but to my surprise, the force of my blow didn't overcome the sheer momentum of her charge. She tackled me to the ground with her hands around my neck bones.

"10,000 Kilogram Choke!" she yelled, and the pressure increased exponentially. At this rate, I knew she'd break my neck.

"Do something, Carue!" I yelled. Thankfully, I was able to speak just fine since I didn't have a windpipe to be crushed.

The duck answered my call and kicked Valentine in the face. The hit caused her to let go of my neck, giving me the chance to do something I'd wanted to do for a long time. I pointed my fist at her and cried, "Rocket Punch!"

My fist launched off my wrist and hit her in the face. That seemed to do the trick, knocking her out instantly. I got up and walked over to the supersonic duck, putting a hand on his head.

"Thanks, man. If you hadn't helped me out, I would've been toast. Warm, buttery toast."

Carue drooled at that, while I just sighed. "I miss being able to eat stuff."

Suddenly, we both heard a shout of, "Gum-Gum Rifle!" and looked behind us just in time to see Luffy landing the finishing blow on Mr. 3.

A few minutes earlier, Luffy had tried punching this 3 guy, but all he got for his efforts was his hands encased in wax. Then, when Mr. 3 was about to make another move, something struck him sharply in the back of the head.

He turned around angrily and shouted, "Wax-Wax Harpoon!" as he fired his attack at his aggressor, the Straw Hats' navigator. Nami wasted no time in dodging the projectile. She looked around for Fencer, knowing the fire ferret would be a big help.

"Hey, Fencer, where are you?! Why aren't you fighting this guy?"

"Well, I'm enjoying this nice tea," Fencer said, sipping from a cup she'd seemingly gotten from nowhere.

Nami's eye twitched at the sight. "Why the hell are you drinking tea at a time like this?"

"The same reason you're laughing," said Miss Goldenweek. Before Nami could react, she burst into peals of laughter, unable to stop.

"Colors Trap," Goldenweek announced to herself.

Vivi looked at Nami in confusion, then at Goldenweek. "What did you do to her?!"

The artsy Baroque Works agent seemed to stare through her. "That was Laughter Yellow. And I already hit your skeleton with Sadness Blue."

She directed Vivi's gaze with her paintbrush, pointing at Skeleton Buddy. He was sitting down, hugging his legs to his chest, a gray storm cloud hovering over him. Giving him a quick once over, Vivi saw that he had a blue sigil on his skull.

"You're next," Goldenweek warned.

Vivi went on the defensive, gracefully dodging every splash of paint Goldenweek threw at her. Once she got close enough, she delivered multiple cuts with her peacock slashers. Goldenweek collapsed, and the Straw Hats under her spell suddenly came to their senses.

"You did it!" Nami congratulated Vivi after she had recovered from her laughing fit.

"Does anyone else feel like she went down too easily?" Fencer asked, sipping some tea from the cup she held with her tail. The others just looked at her. "What? Just because I was brainwashed doesn't mean this isn't good."

"Guys, look out!" shouted Luffy suddenly.

The group turned and saw a gigantic wave of wax careening towards them. They all leapt out of the way as Mr. 3 glared at the crew.

"Alright, I'm through fooling around," he snarked. Wax billowed from his hands, and he shaped it around his body to create a giant suit of armor. "This piece is my Candle Champion, and it will be the last thing you ever see!"

"Who cares?" Fencer said smugly. "I'll just melt this one, too!"

She launched a stream of fire from her mouth, but 3 sidestepped it with more agility than his armor's size would suggest. Charging the group, Mr. 3 began throwing powerful punches. Everyone avoided him as well as they could, except Luffy, who attempted to counterattack.

"Gum-Gum Twin Pistol!" His one-two punch broke the wax covering his own fists, but 3's armor was too thick for it to have much effect. The Baroque Works agent tried to swat him away, only for Luffy to backflip away from him, narrowly avoiding his waxy arms. SB attacked next, but rather than damaging 3's armor, his punch just hurt his own knuckles.

Nami and Vivi had been poised to jump into the action as well, but once they saw the enemy hold fast against two of their heaviest hitters, they fell back, knowing they wouldn't have any luck either. The crew was forced to stay on the defensive. Fencer's fire attacks would have been useful, but Mr. 3 was taking special care to keep an eye on her, evading her attacks with ease.

"Where the hell are those stego-whatevers?!" Nami shouted in frustration. The whole crew took a split second to look around and saw the two stegosaurs eating some nearby bushes.

SB called for them, "Cain, Abel, sic 'em!"

Recognizing their master's voice—or in this case, the clone of their master—the dinos started lumbering towards Mr. 3. The Baroque Works agent let out a laugh.

"Really? Sending a pair of brutes who're slow in more ways than one? This is your plan for a comeback?" he said, rearing a fist.

The dino duo realized an attack was coming and turned around as quickly as they could. As Mr. 3 threw his punch, Abel swung his tail in retaliation. The two attacks met in the middle, and 3's wax fist shattered into a thousand pieces. Cain went next, swinging his tail at 3's torso, crushing his wax armor just as effectively.

"I didn't know they were that strong," SB muttered to himself.

Luffy, while amazed, wasn't too stunned to act. He leapt toward the now unarmored Mr. 3, coiling his arm like a spring.

"Gum-Gum Rifle!" The punch hit the wax man square in the face, breaking his glasses and knocking him out cold.

Everyone sighed in relief. The fight was finally over.

I ran over to Seth and whacked him lightly on the snout, waking him up. Together, we walked over to our captain and the others. I dispelled Skeleton Buddy, taking his place in the circle.

"Hey, guys! We beat the Mr. 5 pair!" Usopp bragged.

"Sweet. We just beat that 3 guy," Luffy replied. "He tried to cover us in his sticky white stuff, but we still won."

We all cringed at his choice of words. Remembering that our giant friend was still pinned down, I sent Fencer to free Brogy's limbs.

"Hey, did anyone get any bug bites?" I said. We'd been so busy fighting Baroque Works that I'd forgotten one crucial detail from this arc.

"Why does that matter?" Luffy asked.

"Bug bites can do some pretty nasty stuff to you, Luffy. You could get an unimaginably horrible rash from another dimension." Luffy and Usopp both paled at that.

"Your skeleton friend is right," Brogy agreed, rejoining the group. "Back before Dorry and I began dueling, we lost multiple crewmates to bug-related diseases. It was humbling to see mighty warriors like ourselves felled by such small creatures."

"Ugggh, what did I miss?" Dorry said, waking up from his not-so-fatal injury.

"You're alive?!" Everyone except me shouted in surprise.

After spending a minute recovering from the shock of Dorry's resurrection, the giants deduced that Dorry had survived their fight due to the dull weapons they were using—and Sanji finally arrived with the Eternal Pose to Alabasta.

"So, everyone is sure they haven't been bitten?" I asked as we walked back to the ship.

"Yes, no one was bitten." It sounded like Usopp was getting annoyed by the repetitive questions. Then we heard a light smack and saw Nami take her hand off her wrist.

My bones were naturally white, so that saved me the trouble of turning pale. I whispered two faint words to myself: "Oh, fuck."

Fencer resumed her perch on my shoulder. "What? Why fuck?"

"You're gonna find out why, Fencer. Trust me." I told her. Trying to ignore the future issue, I decided to tend to the matter of my dinosaur team.

"Well, guys, this is goodbye," I said. I always knew I'd have to leave them here, since they obviously wouldn't fit on the ship.

Seth made some vocalizations, which Fencer kindly translated as, "What do you mean, master?"

I looked at Seth. "I'm leaving with my friends, and I can't take you with me. You won't fit on our ship."

Cain 'spoke up' next. "Will master leave forever?"

I shook my head. "Not forever, but a long time."

"So, master will come back?" Abel 'said.'

"Someday, yes. But while I'm gone… I'll miss you guys." This discussion was starting to make my heart ache. I gave each one of them a final pat on the head and started walking back towards the ship.

"Thanks for translating," I told Fencer.

"No problem…" she said kindly. "But you owe me a belly rub later."

Dorry and Brogy instructed us to sail straight forward. Although I knew what lay ahead of us, I stuck to Luffy's 'no spoilers' policy. I was a little worried about Nami's upcoming illness, but I also felt rather excited about our future.

After all, I knew we'd get another crewmate soon.