Legal stuff: All original One Piece characters, settings, and plot belongs to Eiichiro Oda and I did not receive any revenue or payment for writing this story. Enjoy Chapter 6!

Kigen decided that the tightness in his chest had nothing to do with his age, nor the thought of being in charge of this mission; no, request from King Gash. Kigen wasn't expecting a favorable result. Perhaps the idea of not finding the Princess was the reason his chest felt tight.

'I know that my sister wrote a letter telling me where she was going but the number of dissenters are growing. Mimi is well known, so I'm afraid she may be targeted. People might think twice about kidnapping or harming her if the Hero of the Sirens is with her.'

So Gash said; still, Kigen had his doubts.

Kigen glanced at the address on the slip of paper. Frowning, he looked back up at the corresponding house in all it's dilapidated glory. The door looked about ready to break into pieces. One of the window panes were shattered while the other window was missing entirely. The roof slanted down at an alarming angle while it appeared to be missing over half of the shingles. The more Kigen looked at the house, the more it seemed unlikely that Mimi was actually there. Still, he knocked imperiously on the frame. A slurred, "Id's open!" came from inside.

Kigen strode into the room, already deciding that if Mimi was indeed here that he would drag her back if he had to. This was not a place befitting a princess, even a princess as incorrigible as Mimi.

"Ah. Mr. General. Those two whelps warned me that you might visit. Only I imagined it'd be another week or two yet."

Kigen felt a chill at the man's words. He drew his sword, the solid weight of the hilt in his hand only a slight comfort.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "Where is Jotaro and Princess Mimi?"

"Sorry, Mr. General. I've been paid very well to keep my mouth shut about where those two are headed. As for my name, it's not really important," the man shrugged.

He growled, his calm facade snapping in half. Kigen rushed the man and pinned him to the wall, blade against his throat. Kigen felt slightly gratified when the man paled and his eyes widened.

"Maybe your name isn't important," Kigen's glacier tones made the man shiver, "the most important detail of this whole farce is the location of Princess Mimi and the boy. If you refuse to divulge that information," he paused for effect before continuing, "then I'm afraid that being arrested will be the least of your problems."

The man paled and became whiter than foam on the sea. He looked desperate enough to want to avoid Kigen's partially voiced threat.

"Now," Kigen began in an amiable tone, "please tell me where those children are. I will leave you be once you do so."

The man took in a shuddering breath. "Alright, they're heading to…"

…

"Luffy! Yeah! Luffy! Yeah!" Chopper and Usopp cheered and clapped.

Magina was sitting next to Nami by the stern. She smiled briefly. It was as if everything was finally back to normal again. Chopper allowed her to start fishing, they were sailing, Zoro and Sanji were arguing, and Luffy…

Luffy burst out of the door and popped a bag of flour. The white powder covered him completely and he froze.

"This is me frozen!" he said before hopping on one foot briefly and crashing into a wall.

Chopper and Usopp laughed hysterically while Luffy picked himself off the deck, brushing the flour off. He laughed and turned to his audience.

"So, was it anything like that?" he asked.

Chopper answered in between gasps of air, "Yeah, it was exactly like that!"

Nami shook her head in unbelief while finishing her bite of paille. "That's a very strange act for someone who nearly froze to death. Luffy, make sure to clean that up!"

Magina agreed that it was strange but it didn't surprise her that Luffy was play acting his near-death experience. Luffy was serious when it mattered but something in the past was material to make others laugh or smile, otherwise it was quickly forgotten.

Luffy snagged the railing by where Nami was looking at the main deck. He eyed the bowl of paille hungrily.

"What are you eating, Nami?"

Magina tried to smother her grin behind a yawn. After sleeping in for so many days, getting back to her fishing schedule was difficult. She was ready for a nap. Her usual partner was now engaged in an insulting contest with Sanji. Magina shook her head. Maybe today she would just nap by herself. Nami interjected her thoughts as well as Sanji's and Zoro's arguing.

"That's enough, you two. Sanji-kun, the Captain wants some paille."

"Right away, Nami-swan!"

Magina stood up quietly and wandered to Zoro's side. He gazed at her intently, the question barely contained by his song. She took his hand and squeezed gently.

"I'm going to take a short nap. I didn't want you to worry like a mother goldfish when I disappeared for a bit."

Zoro grunted and then frowned at her.

"Are you feeling alright? You don't usually nap."

"It can't be helped. This is the first dawn I've been allowed to really fish since Song Island. Somebody has been making sure that I'm sleeping past my regular fishing time." Magina grinned when Zoro growled in agreement.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired. It's nothing a few minutes of rest can't cure."

"Alright. Somebody will get you when we land on the next island. Nami says we're getting close."

Magina nodded. She left for the girls' quarters. She could feel Zoro glaring after her. She only waited until the door was closed to start panting painfully. She was pathetic. The stomach wound Sudo gave her should have healed already. Technically it had, there was only a scar left. Still…

Magina hobbled to her hammock and sank gratefully down. She wondered briefly how much Zoro knew. The way he was always watching her made her nervous.

Something was wrong, only she wasn't sure when or how to tell Chopper. Robin and Luffy had priority for now. Besides, it probably wasn't anything too serious.

Magina cleared her throat once. The scratchy sensation persisted and soon forced her to cough. The hacking tore at her insides and tears soon streamed silently down her cheeks. Magina coughed violently one more time, her hand covering her mouth. She pulled her hand away. Blood shone dully in the dim cabin light. Magina swallowed down the metallic taste nervously. It was probably nothing serious at all.

…

Mimi was sullen a lot of the time. Jotaro didn't quite understand why. The room was nearly as nice as hers back on Song Island. The food was amazing and the city was cool. He wanted to explore but Jotaro couldn't, in good conscience, leave his best friend in the mood she was in.

"Mimi, why don't we get some fresh air? It's not good to stay inside all the time," he tried to say coaxingly. Outside had to be more fun than looking at the same four walls.

Mimi sighed at his suggestion, "I don't know, Jotaro. If we can't find a Captain who is willing to help us, we might be stuck here until Onii-chan sends someone after us. And I won't go back until I've seen the Straw Hats!"

Jotaro looked at her in bewilderment. Something didn't seem right. What did Mimi want with the Straw Hats? He knew that they weren't like other pirates; they were kind and helped people a lot. That didn't explain Mimi's fascination with the Straw Hats though. Whenever the matter of being forced home was brought up, she always sounded so determined, so desperate. It worried Jotaro, to be honest.

Mimi already knew why he wanted to see the Straw Hats. Gash told him stories about the Straw Hats navigator's skills and how he had never seen her equal. From someone whose skills were so great…what Jotaro wouldn't do to learn from someone like that! But Mimi refused to tell him why she wanted to see the Straw Hats and it bothered him that she avoided telling him the truth. Why was Mimi keeping it a secret? Jotaro thought that they were best friends. Best friends didn't keep secrets.

Jotaro turned to see Mimi staring intently out the south window towards the sea. He took a deep breath. He was going to ask her; today he'd finally know why Mimi wanted to meet the Straw Hats!

"Mimi, why do you want to…"

"Jotaro!" Mimi interrupted excitedly, grabbing him into a brief hug.

He was so stunned for a moment that he lost his train of thought. His cheeks flushed slightly and he held her at arms length.

"What is it? Why are you excited all of a sudden?"

Mimi beamed at him, "We might not have to find a Captain to take us to the Straw Hats after all!"

"Huh?" he asked in confusion.

"The Straw Hats are coming to us!" Mimi danced him around in a circle, unable to contain her glee. "Come on, let's leave this stuffy room. I think I want to ride those bull things!"

Jotaro was pulled along, Mimi's excitement infecting him as well.

"Yeah, let's go!" Jotaro grinned happily.

…

Zoro ate his paille quietly. His mind kept wandering to the supposedly slumbering siren below deck. Napping…Magina was actually napping without her being ordered to or coerced into it; he just couldn't picture it. Well, at least she was resting when she was tired. That was a start. Still, maybe he should tell Chopper. Zoro took another bite of paille…and almost choked on it. As soon as his mouth cleared, he leaned over the railing and called to those on the main deck.

"L-Luffy! There's a frog doing the front crawl! Look for it when it comes your way!"

"Come on, Zoro. You shouldn't believe anything that stupid Admiral told us. I mean, a frog doing the front crawl…IS RIGHT OVER THERE!" Usopp shouted in surprise.

Immediately, Luffy started giving orders to go after the frog. The Going Merry lurched to one side as they started rowing. It looked like Magina's nap was going to be cut short. No one would be able to sleep when Merry tilted like that. Zoro bent his strength to the task of rowing the ship. He didn't think she'd mind having a short nap when there was an adventure already starting. It wouldn't be long before she came on deck.

"What is going on?" Magina asked at the same time that Nami demanded, "Why did you change course?"

"Well, you see there's a giant frog with a ton of scars doing the front crawl. Now we're chasing it so that we can eat it for lunch!" Luffy exclaimed with drool on his chin.

"That's why we're chasing it?" Zoro wondered out loud.

He wasn't too sure that he wanted to eat frog. It sounded disgusting. Of course Love Cook immediately started planning how to best cook the slimy creature while Nami was trying to get Robin to agree with her to leave the frog alone.

"It's the Captain's orders. You shouldn't be trying to fight it, Nami. It's going to happen anyway," Robin said cheerfully.

"That's exciting! A giant frog! Though if we do catch it and Sanji cooks it, I might pass on actually eating it," Magina wrinkled her nose at the idea.

"You and me both," Zoro agreed heartily.

All of a sudden, Merry rammed into something. Everyone was thrown back. Zoro managed to catch Magina before she crashed into a wall. He caught a glimpse of her pained grimace, her face as white as a sheet. Zoro could detect a slight metallic scent from Magina that he recognized. Why was he smelling blood? He was about to call Chopper over when a clanging bell interrupted him. The claxon continued as everyone started to get to their feet. Nami began shouting orders as a different sound insistently started.

"Turn the ship around! 180 degrees! Quickly!"

Everyone scrambled to the oars and hurried faster as the bells and whistles grew louder. What the hell was going on?

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for Chapter 6. It's been crazy around home lately. Hope you all are keeping cool and that writing is going well for you too! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favorites. I really appreciate it. See you for Chapter 7!