Cutting scenes - Chapters that didn't make the cut

by Sharry93

This is his collection of scenes that didn't make it into the trilogy maybe it was fate, maybe just bad luck (Protecting Dream, Enduring Decisions, Keeping Secrets), but still want to be posted. Some of the one-shots (or sometimes two-shots) are alternative versions, cut-out scenes that happened during the trilogy, and others happen after the end of the trilogy.

23. Chapter 23

Hello everybody,

the last weeks have been busy but I feel like it's definetly time for another chapter and I hope you will have fun with what will happen ;-)

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Chapter 22 - The Fountain of Youth

-Zoro-

"And what do we do with it now?"

"We could just throw it overboard, right?"

"Well, the locals said it was a gift with unique benefits. And according to their customs, throwing away a gift unused brings bad luck."

"But I don't want such an ugly thing on deck."

Zoro rolled his eye as he heard half the crew arguing. He just wanted to take his well-deserved nap, but that was impossible while Nami was upset about the gift the islanders had given them as a thank you for chasing away the demons — pirates who had taken up residence in the mountains. Why did they even call themselves pirates? – and that's why the storm had cleared – yes, that had certainly happened because they'd beaten up a bunch of land pirates.

"How are you supposed to use this thing at all? What is that anyway?"

"Looks a bit like a crushed torture stake..."

"Or like a goblet from which Gecko Moria would drink."

"Urgh, I haven't thought about him in ages."

The previous night they had partied for a long time – of course – but Zoro was glad that they were now back on the high seas. This time they had been ashore for a long time, almost as long as they had been back then, in Alabasta, and Zoro had missed the sound of the waves. But not only that.

"So Hawkguy called yesterday, didn't he?" Luffy dropped down beside him. Until now he had been talking with the others down at the meadow, Zoro had retreated to the main deck between the orange trees, a good place for napping.

"Mhm," he grumbled, not quite willing to wake up yet.

"Is he coming to visit us again? I feel like I haven't seen him in ages. Shishishi, I kind of miss his nagging."

Zoro snorted, "I could do without that." Then he yawned, opened his heavy eyelid, and leaned forward. Luffy squatted across from him and grinned broadly. "He's actually around. Sometimes I feel like he's chasing us like some stalker."

Luffy laughed again, ignoring Zoro's remark, "Did you tell him to come over?"

"Luffy," he grumbled, "it's not like..."

"Tell him to come over while he's around!"

Zoro looked at his captain in surprise, he hadn't expected such a clear request, but Luffy just grinned. Shaking his head, Zoro grabbed the straw hat and pushed it deeper into Luffy's face, which only made him laugh as he flopped down on the bottom of his pants.

"Come on, Zoro, admit it." Luffy grinned at him from under the brim of his hat. "You want him to come by, too."

Zoro blushed and lowered his eyes. "I don't know if that's possible. You know how complicated log pose..."

"He can work that out with Nami, she'll make it work."

"Why do you even want to...?"

"Luffy? Zoro? Where are you? Come here. We have to decide what to do with this ugly skull."

Zoro didn't like that feeling in his chest. That feeling when it got too warm, when he became too aware of his feelings. He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't ignore it either.

Mihawk had been extremely surprised when Zoro had asked if he would like to check with Nami in case their routes intersected somewhere, and Zoro had immediately insisted that it had been Luffy's idea.

It wasn't always easy for him to have that warm feeling, and he often didn't understand how he was reacting. But whenever Luffy grinned at him, he felt this strange feeling, and when his senses caught that one presence, he felt much too warm. It was a disgusting feeling, he thought to himself with a slight smile. But that was okay, after all, his crew had already gotten him used to this disgusting feeling.

A soft laugh made him look up. Jinbei looked at him knowingly, but didn't say anything, didn't need to say anything. So Zoro just snorted softly and lowered his gaze to the sail in his hands as his cheeks warmed.

The next moment, the door slammed open, and Brook stood shivering in the doorway, soaking wet despite his rain jacket.

"Dinner is ready," his teeth chattered. "How far are you with the sail?"

"Uh, don't ask," Zoro grumbled, rubbing his tired fingers. "We'll be working on that for the next week."

"Well, then come over. As I understood Nami, it will probably stay rather calm in the coming days due to the wind. So you still have plenty of time the next days."

Jinbei and Zoro exchanged a glance, resigned themselves to their fate, and rose groaning after the hours they had spent crouched over the sail.

"Go ahead, Jinbei, I'll take it back downstairs."

"Remember to put on a jacket," the other advised him before following Brook.

Zoro took his time to climb into the storage room under the men's cabin, quietly cursing this annoying but necessary task that stole so much time, he would rather use to train – or sleep – but at some point, he still had to make his way into the rain. It had gotten cold the last few days, and they had gotten caught in a storm or two, but it was only today that it had started to rain, pour, and apparently not stopping for a second.

Cumbersomely, Zoro put on his raincoat and stepped out. In fact, he liked the weather. Even if it meant that the crewmembers couldn't avoid each other as well and Luffy in particular liked to get jittery, the world outside seemed a bit quieter, even though the rain was beating down loudly on wood and sea.

He stopped for a moment, the strange stake was still leaning against the mast in the middle of the deck. Robin had insisted that they wouldn't throw it into the sea just yet, even though neither Nami nor Usopp were particularly keen on it. Zoro couldn't really do anything with the strange thing. At first glance, it looked like a stone cross, but the vertical bar was made up of rows of skulls that grew larger and larger from top to bottom, and Usopp was convinced that they were real, even if they looked more like carved into the stone to Zoro. The uppermost one, about at Zoro's eye level, was almost the size of his fist, but at the level of the forehead, the skull had been cut off, as if someone had wanted to take out the brain. Now the rainwater sloshed where a brain actually belonged, while the skulls stared at Zoro with empty eyes. These islanders had a peculiar taste.

Then a slight greenish glow distracted him from the corner of his eye, and he looked at the sea. Undisturbed by the choppy waves, the coffin boat approached the Thousand Sunny, the candles flickering as if the rain could not harm them. Again, there was that warm feeling that Zoro still hadn't quite gotten used to.

He crossed his arms and waited the few minutes in the rain. As the rope slapped over the railing, he grabbed it and quickly secured the coffin boat.

"Why are you waiting here in the rain?"

Mihawk had jumped aboard, water dripping down the brim of his hat, but his eyes were as sharp as ever, even in the semi-darkness of the storm.

"I just happened to be outside," Zoro replied to the brusque greeting, withstanding that gaze as usual. "You're right on time. Food is ready."

Mihawk made no reply but looked at him the way Zoro was accustomed to as the rain pelted down on them. Then Mihawk stepped aside and Zoro took the lead towards the galley.

"Oh, what is that?" remarked Mihawk as they walked across the muddy meadow.

"A gift from our last shore leave," Zoro explained dryly.

"Oh, I remember. Lion Island, wasn't it? It is an interesting culture based on the concept that water is the source of all life, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, sounds great," Zoro grumbled and just trudged on, while the other walked up to the torture stake and mumbled something about how Robin had certainly had an exciting time, which was true. "Come on, or Luffy will eat it all."

He was already walking up the stairs when he realized that Mihawk was not following him. Rolling his eyes, he turned.

"Just let that weird... Mihawk?"

The meadow was empty, except for the torture stake.

"What the...?"

No, that wasn't true. Under the empty eyes of the skulls, Zoro trudged back to the meadow. Right next to the strange gift lay Mihawk's hat and coat. Stunned, he stopped.

"What the hell...?"

-Sanji-

"Where did you leave the Marimo?" he grumbled discontentedly, since the idiot had already missed breakfast.

"He just wanted to put the sail away and then follow right after, I swear," Brook said apologetically.

"I assume he's still waiting for our visitor," Jinbei said with a loud laugh. It was absolutely inexplicable to Sanji, but Jinbei... liked Hawk Eyes, at least it was deep respect, which Sanji could understand even less.

"Oh, Hawk Eyes is coming today?" came from Franky, who turned to Nami, who nodded curtly. "That's why Zoro was so tame today," he remarked with a laugh.

"Don't let him hear that," Usopp said dryly. "You know he... Uah!"

With a soft scream, Usopp had jumped to his feet when suddenly the door slammed open and none other than the Marimo himself stood in the doorway, wind and rain tearing at his coat, in the crook of his left arm he held a pile of dark laundry.

"Hey!" He sounded unusually loud and was obviously searching for words, because with his mouth open he gestured outside with his free hand. "Uh... Uh..."

"Whom do you have there, Zoro?" Robin asked, and she craned her neck to get a better look at the door.

Whom?

Sanji stared at the pile of clothes and then he recognized the black hair that almost disappeared in the bundle of dark clothes.

"Uh... I believe... I think that's Mihawk," came from the Marimo, who then awkwardly lifted the ball of clothes and held it out to them.

"What the...?" Sanji whispered, almost dropping his whisk.

The others reacted similarly confused, and now Sanji could understand Zoro's speechlessness.

Wrapped in the soaking wet clothes, a black head peeked out, and now that Zoro was presenting it so openly, they could all see it, the sleeping child in the middle of the ball of clothes.

"Like... what do you mean?" Nami asked, irritated. "How is that...? What happened?"

"I don't know, he was behind me, babbling about the torture stake, and at some point... he stopped talking. So I turned around and... That's all there was?"

For a moment, everyone was quiet.

"And what do we do now?" Franky asked the question they all seemed to be asking, all except Robin.

"Maybe it would make the most sense to examine him, just to be on the safe side, and maybe put dry clothes on him," she suggested, and Chopper jumped up instantly.

"Exactly, that's what we do. Zoro, take him to the sick bay, I'll examine him, and he can have clothes from me. They should fit."

The Marimo grumbled something under his breath but followed Chopper without hesitation.

The rest of them exchanged uneasy looks, except Luffy, of course, who continued to eat as carelessly as if he hadn't even listened. Which was probably the case.

"Okay, just so I understand... this kid just now is... Hawk Eyes?" murmured Franky with a skeptical look.

"Apparently," Usopp said no less suspiciously.

"Great," Sanji grumbled and turned back to his task – preparing dessert. "How annoying do you think he is when he realizes he's turned into a midget?"

"Sanji," Nami scolded him, but he saw the corners of her mouth twitching, "this is serious. We need to find out what happened and if it... is permanent."

"Oh," several of them murmured, realizing at that moment that this could actually become problematic.

"Robin, you said that you had studied the culture of Lion Island in depth. Did you... So, were there any indications of such a thing?" asked Jinbei.

She made a thoughtful sound and put a finger to her chin. "Actually, I had... oh."

"What?" Sanji asked.

"They named the stake Canaleta, which means rain catcher, if I'm not mistaken."

"So what?" Usopp looked at her confused.

"Well, it's raining," she replied, rising slowly, as if still in deep thought, "and water plays a fundamental role in the Leon culture. Maybe the rain triggered something?"

"You mean that if you touch the torture stake now, you'll become a child again?" Brook asked curiously.

"Oh cool! I wanna try!" Luffy had jumped up before anyone could say anything.

"No, Luffy, wait!" Nami quickly grabbed her jacket and rushed after him, followed by Jinbei and Robin, the latter two at a more leisurely pace.

"Well, sounds like we're all going to look at a piece of stone in the rain right now," Franky said with a shrug and stood up as well.

"You want to go out there, now?" said Usopp, even more skeptical than before. "Why?"

"Why not? Sounds interesting."

Usopp and Sanji exchanged a doubtful look while everyone else left.

Just as the door slammed shut behind Brook, Zoro came in from the sick room, carried the boy, who must have been Hawk Eyes, over to the sofa, and laid him there.

"Where is everybody?" He sounded unusually brusque.

"By the torture stake," Usopp replied helpfully.

"Oh dear, someone has to stop Luffy, before we end up having a whole kindergarten," the Marimo grumbled with a soft groan and followed the rest of the crew, only waving it off when Usopp explained that the others would be watching.

Again, Usopp gave Sanji that look that said more than words, but Sanji just rolled his eyes and continued with his task of whipping cream. He could do without a new drama between the two swordsmen.

"Pretty bad luck, isn't it," Usopp said, completely undeterred. "That thing has been standing around for days and it feels like every one of us has touched it at some point – or whatever else was responsible for this mess – and Hawk Eyes of all people is the one..."

"Yes, yes," Sanji grumbled and glanced sideways out the window, but the rain made it almost impossible to see anything, even though the sun hadn't actually set yet. He really wasn't in the mood for what was to come as soon as the fine Mr. Snob woke up and realized that he had shrunken to half his height. "But couldn't all this have waited until later? After all, we're in the middle of..."

He froze.

"Don't move or I will kill him."

Usopp stared at him, sheer panic in his eyes. The knife that had just been stuck in the loaf of bread was at his throat. Behind him, a yellow eye flashed out of the shadows, the half face that Sanji could see, deadly serious, far too serious for a child, but clearly the way he knew Hawk Eyes.

And then Sanji understood, and Usopp's toneless sound told him that Usopp had also put two and two together.

He doesn't remember!

It wasn't Hawk Eyes who was holding a knife to Usopp's throat, it was Dracule Junior, some rich kid or whatever Hawk Eyes had been before he'd become the man the stories of whom most of them had grown up with.

"Okay, I won't," Sanji replied, raising both hands. He had to quickly de-escalate the situation, because at the latest, when the others would come back, it could otherwise become quite the hassle. "But do you really think that's efficient? Even if you kill him, do you think you can stand up to me and the rest of the crew?"

Usopp looked at him with even more panic, but Sanji knew what he was doing. He didn't know Dracule Junior, but he knew Hawk Eyes well enough to know that he wasn't going to pull off senseless acts of desperation; he just hoped that the same was true for the young version.

"Killing him makes zero sense, except if you're going to go down anyway and you want to take as many of us with you as possible. But none of us intend to kill you, so it would be really nice if you reciprocated that gesture."

That one eye stared at him suspiciously, while Mini-Dracule was still standing halfway behind Usopp, who was still sitting at the table, not moving. The kid seemed to think long and hard about his words.

"No sense," he finally murmured.

"What?"

"It makes no sense. The word sense is an uncountable noun, making zero an inappropriate quantifier, you uneducated pirate."

So he had always been an annoying know-it-all.

"And you seem to be really stupid if you didn't even tie me up."

Sanji's eyebrow twitched.

"Now listen, you cheeky little..."

"But as if that had done any good," Usopp interrupted Sanji with a warning look. "As if a few simple shackles would stop the grand Dracule Junior. No, we're not that stupid either, and as Sanji said, none of us intend to do anything to you, so why should we have tied you up?"

It seemed as if this sycophancy was bearing fruit, for the blade was no longer quite so close to Usopp's neck.

"Then why am I here? Didn't you kidnap me?"

"What? No!" Usopp continued, but even though he was telling the truth, even Sanji felt like he was lying. "We have... found you."

"Where?" the other asked suspiciously.

"Well, on a boat. It's outside, you can go and have a look. It was drifting around on the sea. I don't know how you got there."

"You're a really bad liar," Little Hawk Eyes judged harshly, and the blade immediately applied pressure again.

"I'm telling the truth," Usopp complained, and, in fact, he wasn't even lying.

Little Hawk Eyes was about to reply, but then the door to the deck opened, and in a flash the midget jerked Usopp and his chair around to put him between himself and the newcomer; of course, it was the Marimo, of all their crewmembers.

He remained standing in the doorway while the wind and rain blew in, the voices from outside barely intelligible, and stared at the scene with an expression as if Nami had laid out a dress for him again.

"What the hell are you doing?" he growled so deeply that Usopp shuddered softly and the hairs on Sanji's arms stood up. "Do you really think it's appropriate to threaten my crewmates?"

"Um, Zoro, it's..."

"Are you the captain of this ship?"

"... What?"

Okay, time to intervene.

"No, he's not – luckily, because he's not exactly the smartest… not that our actual captain is – but he's our swordsman and he found you on this strange boat," Sanji jumped in and stepped out of the galley, still both arms raised. "That's why we know who you are. Our broccoli head here immediately realized that you must be a Dracule, a family of outstanding generations of swordsmen, didn't you, Marimo?"

With a fake smile, he elbowed his crewmate in the side, but Zoro just stared at him as if he doubted Sanji's state of mind.

"What the...?" And then something like realization slid over Zoro's face, only for a fraction of a second, before it became rock hard, which was never a good sign. But he only closed the door behind him, and his gaze drifted back to the knee-high swordsman. "And I don't care what family you're from, put the toothpick away or I'll do it."

"Zoro!" came from Usopp, as past de-escalation efforts automatically vanished into thin air.

"You won't dare," replied Hawk Eyes1/3, "if you know who I am, you know my father, Vice Admiral Dracule, and of course my sister, the Queen of Swordsmanship. If you dirty lot dare to lay a finger on me, you will... Uah!"

"Oh gosh, you sure talk a lot, Mini-Dracule," Zoro growled, standing up and with an elegant movement he put the bread knife back into the loaf. "I told you, put it away or I'll do it."

"You're going to regret that!" The kid jumped up. "My sister will..."

"Calm down." Sanji and Usopp exchanged a glance as Zoro took off his soaking wet coat and threw it on the sofa before slumping down onto a chair next to Usopp. "You've already noticed that we're pirates. We don't have it that way with polite customs, so you better get used to it quickly, because no one here will kowtow to you just because you are proud of being some nobleman's son. And as for the rest..." Suddenly, he showed such a dangerous grin that Sanji only knew from really fierce fights. "I wouldn't mind fighting your sister. Who would pass up such an opportunity?"

Sanji and Usopp exchanged a glance again. It was the first time he'd heard that Hawk Eyes had a sister, and it only took him a breath to understand why he'd never heard of it before.

"So that's why you kidnapped me? To blackmail my sister into a fight!"

"Sure," Zoro grumbled sarcastically, casually shrugging his shoulders as he cut himself a slice of bread, as if there was nothing wrong with the current situation... strange. "I don't do that kind of crap. If I want to fight someone, I challenge them directly. A swordsman doesn't need a cheap reason to seek a fight with another swordsman."

"Then why didn't you just challenge her? I've never seen someone like you in our home."

Zoro paused for a moment, then continued to make his sandwich.

"You're pretty curious," he said. "The Dracule mansion is on the other side of the Red Line, and we're in the New World, so we can't just turn around simply because I feel like dancing. But you'll have to ask our navigator for more details, I don't know anything about this stuff."

"New... New World?", the midget gasped in obvious surprise.

As if on cue, the door opened again and Nami walked in. So now the game would start all over again.

"You woke up," she said, then showed a friendly smile as she took off her jacket and threw it next to Zoro's. "That's good, we were already worried. What does a kid like you do all alone on the high seas? And then in such a small boat? Zoro said you're a Dracule, is that true? Were you with your parents?"

Okay, okay, so the game didn't start all over again. For a second, Sanji was confused, then he realized that Robin had probably been playing fly on the wall, so they knew what was going on. But unlike the Marimo, Nami played along perfectly, and her words seemed to unsettle the shrunken Hawk Eyes, even if he tried to hide it.

"I'm the one, asking the questions here," he grumbled defensively, and it was really hard for Sanji not to laugh out loud about it, noticing how Usopp was also struggling, and with the corners of their mouths twitching, they quickly averted their eyes from each other. The grown-up Dracule might be able to intimidate with his gaze alone, but this kid was still at least ten years away from that, really cute.

"You're no one doing anything here." It was a bit surprising how hard Zoro was on him. Or was it his normal behavior and Sanji was just surprised because he wouldn't be so tough in such a situation? "You're on our ship, you're wearing our crewmember's clothes, and you're completely lost without us. So stop acting like that. Besides, you're certainly hungry. Sit down and eat something before our captain comes and there's nothing left."

Sanji didn't want Usopp to look at him, or he would have to laugh again about how little Hawk Eyes was staring at Zoro, who was unabashedly biting into his sandwich and then reaching for the water jug. Obviously, the nobleman's son was not used to such associations, and probably Zoro knew it, and that's why he treated him that way. Perhaps.

"Where are the others?" he asked Nami, ignoring the indignant look on Hawk Eyes' face.

"Oh, they're coming in a minute," she replied and sat down to continue eating as well, playing along with Zoro's ignoring game. "Robin wanted to go to the library and the others were all soaking wet, so I told them to change."

At that moment, the door slammed open, and the rest of the Straw Hats came in, talking, as usual, and no one paid any attention to the ankle-biter standing next to the sofa as they sat down again at the table, not even interrupting their conversations. Chopper was with them, perhaps he had heard what had happened from the sick bay and warned the others.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sanji watched Little Hawk Eyes as he turned back to his task. The latter stood there stunned and could hardly believe that no attention was paid to him.

"How dare you, wretched pirate pack? I demand that you take me back to the Red Line immediately!" He was almost trembling, was it fear or anger? "I am a Dracule! You should treat me with respect! My father is...!"

"But you're not your father, your sister, or anyone else," Zoro interrupted, without even turning around. "And that means you're not in a position to ask for anything here."

Luffy laughed softly.

"And what's so funny?" growled Little Hawk Eyes, and he almost looked like he was about to cry. Sanji felt a bit sorry for him, could understand how it must feel for this kid to suddenly wake up on a pirate ship, far away from home; especially if you were a spoiled nobleman's son.

"Shishishi, I don't like you," Luffy said with a broad grin and looked up from his steak.

"Careful!" No, Sanji wasn't imagining it, no, Zoro was unusually tough, whether it was a child or Hawk Eyes. Just now, the tip of his blade was under the chin of the enchanted swordsman, who must have wanted to do something. "You're talking to the captain now."

"Zoro!" came from Nami, horrified. "Don't do that! Take down the sword. Not at dinner."

"Tze." He just snorted and put it away. Little Hawk Eyes, however, stood there in shock, still staring at Zoro, pale as a corpse.

"Okay, that's enough now!" Nami stood up. "Zoro, Luffy, behave yourself and stop scaring him."

"Then tell him to behave," Zoro growled, unimpressed. "After all, he started it."

"Which of you two is the adult, huh?" Then she looked at the frightened midget. What a strange situation. "Well, he may be the older one, but you seem to be the smarter one, so it would be nice if you behaved accordingly."

"Hey," Zoro grumbled, while Luffy just laughed out loud.

Little Hawk Eyes was silent for a moment, then folded his arms.

"Alright, I will cooperate. What do you want to know?"

Inwardly, Sanji breathed a sigh of relief, things seemed to relax a bit. He had no idea what exactly had happened to Hawk Eyes, but if the others were playing this game, it seemed like a problem that wasn't going to disappear in the next few minutes.

Nami smiled and sat down again.

"First of all, how did you end up on the boat? What's the last thing you remember?"

What was the point of this question? But then he realized that there might be a reason why Hawk Eyes had shrunk and lost his memories.

He looked at Nami with wide eyes.

"I... I don't know," he replied, and for the first time he didn't sound quite so arrogant. "I don't know what boat you're talking about. I didn't go to any. What day... Whose clothes am I wearing? What happened to mine?"

"Oh, these are mine," Chopper said helpfully. "Yours were all tattered and soaking wet. Therefore, I gave you some of mine after I examined you."

Now Hawk Eyes looked at him with wide eyes.

"You are a... Reindeer?"

"No! I am a... um, exactly, a reindeer, right."

"Chopper is our ship's doctor," Luffy explained, grinning broadly.

"You're a strange bunch," Little Hawk Eyes muttered, examining them all closely.

"Strong words from a midget floating in a shoebox on the open sea," Franky replied, pulling the chair next to him. "Come on, kid, sit down and eat something. Can't watch having you standing around like that."

"Dracule."

"What?"

"My name is Dracule."

They all exchanged a glance – with the exception of Luffy and Zoro, of course – but no one questioned it.

"Okay, Dracule," Nami said then. "So, you don't remember what happened?"

"No."

"Well, then that's just the way it is. We should think of a way to get you back home. Zoro said you live on the other side of the Red Line? This is exactly in the opposite direction of our current course. So we can't bring you back."

"That won't be necessary," he answered, again in that blasé voice that a boy shouldn't have, and sat down next to Franky, without even looking at him. Apparently, he had decided that only Nami was an appropriate interlocutor. "There are islands all over the world that are under the influence of my family. You can drop me off at one of these, and I will come home from there. What is the current course?"

Nami answered, but Sanji looked at Zoro. He ate as if nothing had happened. As if this was really just some child they had picked up by chance. Then he noticed Robin's gaze, she showed a knowing smile and he just hoped that she had a plan, and maybe an explanation of what exactly had happened.

At some point, Nami and Little Hawk Eyes were interrupted when Franky couldn't watch it any longer and loaded food onto the guest's plate. The midget looked anything but enthusiastic, but his stomach rumbled loudly and at Luffy's even louder laugh, he finally began to eat, actually looking like a normal child for that moment. Even if he still eyed them all suspiciously.

But Sanji also knew how to play the game, and those bright hawk eyes suddenly shone like any child's eyes as Sanji brought his newest dessert creation to the table, which he had modified a bit from his original plan.

Again Luffy laughed at Mini-Hawk Eyes' face and again he blushed, obviously wanting to remain suspicious, to stay serious, to look grown-up and stern, but that was hard to do in this crew, and no matter how tough and close-lipped this boy wanted to be, Luffy could crack any shell. Even before the dessert was completely eaten, this tough boy showed an unintentional grin while Jinbei teased Zoro, who only grumbled about it. Apparently, the young Dracule's shell was much softer than the adult's, and Sanji wondered how this arrogant, but somehow innocent child could become a man like Hawk Eyes.

At that very moment, he laughed out loud at Luffy's grimace, then interrupted himself and sat down properly at the table again, as if someone had lectured him. Jinbei and Franky had to laugh at this, and Usopp explained to Little Hawk Eyes that pirates didn't think much of table manners, which Nami agreed to with a sigh. Somehow... this dinner had a surprisingly good vibe.

"So, what happened?" Sanji grumbled as he cleaned up. Nami had sent Little Hawk Eyes to take a bath with Zoro, Chopper, and Luffy so they could talk openly.

"It seems like we were all wrong," Robin explained with her mysterious smile as she cleaned up. "It's not just a simple gift we've received, it's a chalice."

"A chalice?" asked Usopp.

"That's right, Zoro and Brook remembered that the top skull was still filled to overflow from the rain this afternoon. But when we were outside, it was empty, and it didn't refill, even though it continued to rain. I think the artifact's power was activated by the rain, and when Dracule touched it, he triggered it."

"What power?" Sanji didn't like the way it sounded.

"The power of the fountain of youth."

"What?"

"And will he stay like this forever?" murmured Usopp, who was already thinking further than Sanji.

"Probably not. I don't think the Leons would put us in such danger – at least not without warning – it's probably some kind of ritual that is practiced on Lion Island to get in touch with your own child again. It will probably only take a few days."

"Only?" Nami snorted softly. "It's going to be really exhausting. What do we do when we encounter enemies? Or he sees the newspaper? Or anyone lets something slip?"

"Another question. But now the thing doesn't work anymore, right? Not that somebody else turns into a child by tomorrow."

"Nothing happened to Luffy and he kind of hugged the thing," Nami said dryly.

"Okay, so to cut a long story short. We're supposed to babysit for a weeks now, and not just anyone, but Hawk Eyes himself? Well, that's going to be fun."