The train has made several stops thus far to various islands. The final stop is Enies Lobby, but all other passengers will be completely alighted in the station right before it.
If they want to rescue Robin and Anne and get out, they'll have to do it now when the train is full of civilians, and escape into one of the islands. That's the plan.
"I'm really sorry… if you don't have a ticket for the VIP lounge, you can't go in."
Blueno hears the conversation coming from the door and frowns. Since this is a crowded car and not a special escort car, the most they've managed to do is saddle him, Robin, and Anne, along with a number of disguised guards, into the VIP restaurant car. It's a hardly ideal degree of protection, but his wards don't have the intention to run, which means it all should have been fine.
But what's going on now?
"Unbelievable!" the woman snarls, "do you not know who I am?"
"I—"
"How dare you," the woman says, and the worker hitches a breath. "I am royalty , completely incomparable to the likes of some rather well-off commoners. It should go without saying to have the lounge prepared for me, and yet, I had to walk myself here! How despicable! Is this what the world-renowned Puffing Tom has to offer? Irredeemable, irredeemable! I will tell father about this!"
"I- W— We are very sorry! We are— but—"
"But what? Open the door right this instant!"
The girl barges in, her bright turquoise hair an elegant sprawl upon her shoulders as she huffs, looking down upon all the curious eyes as she enters. She makes a show of scoffing, turning her nose up at them. She's wearing an elaborate masquerade mask, presumably to hide part of her face.
"Uncouth. Unsanitary. And infected with all these commoners , ugh," she walks around the bar and makes a face of disgust as she passes the table, "ah, you there. Get off that table, I want to sit there."
She snaps her finger at the elderly man sitting upon the corner table closest to the ventilation. "It is so stuffy here! Unbelievable."
People are shuffling away now, uncomfortable.
Anne glances upward, eyes firm with a strain. Robin's blissfully unmoving but that's strange in itself. She hasn't even looked up, at the girl drawing all attention to herself— and Blueno frowns. Is this her being tense? Or is this a ploy?
That looks like Princess Nefertari Vivi, but the princess is well-known to be caring, kind, and considerate especially to civilians. And Alabasta is one of the most well-known emblems of frugal royalty. And why would she hide her face while declaring her name, if not to obscure specific facial features and turn away questions? This must not be the princess, because the humble royalty of Alabasta would frown upon this beahaviour.
That must be an impostor trying to swindle their way to a free meal, he reckons.
It's not his problem.
"What are you waiting for!" the girl slams a foot on the table. "Get me a drink and a meal right now, you insolent man!"
Yeah. definitely not the actual princess. There's no way the princess of Alabasta would be all the way out here in Laguna season, anyways.
"How stuffy! Open the windows!" she demands.
"A- I- I'm so sorry your highness, that cannot be done for this is a restaurant car— we're very, very sorry for the inconvenience. We—"
"You're sorry? You dare think an apology can forgive your utterly unacceptable behaviour?!"
Blueno is glad he's the only CP-9 agent here. If it had been anyone else, they'd had silenced her already, mission and remaining undercover be damned.
On top of the VIP restaurant car, a single man sighs, masquerade mask resting upon his nose. He holds on tight to the overhead latch as the train picks up speed.
"T-minus sixty seconds… fifty-nine, fifty-eight…"
"Wait, we're in the Merry?" Luffy asks.
"We're in the what?" Zoro asks.
"WE'RE IN THE MERRY!" Usopp and Chopper declare bright and excitedly, "Merry! Merry! Merry! Merry!" they chant, and Luffy gawks around utterly baffled before joyously joining, "MERRY! MERRY! MERRY!"
"What the hell is going on and— wait who are you?!" Zoro turns to anyone else for an explanation but stops on Coby, Kiwi, and Mozu, and he bristles, sword forward.
Kiwi and Mozu strike a mortified pose, "heathen!" They declare, "what a vulgar heathen! We feel threatened for our lives!"
"Yeah, that's the point!"
"Oh! Easy there," Coby raises both his hands, "hi, Zoro-san! Let's put that dangerous thing away, uh—" he finds a cattail toy they've been using to play with Merry before this, and swings it gently before him, "uhm, let's play nice and put that dangerous thing away, okay? Please? Let's all get along!"
"Yeah, Zoro," Nami adds, holding out a stick of beef jerky, "let's all play nice now. Have some food, let's all be friends."
"Are you picking a fucking fight?!?"
"JERKY!" Luffy yells, diving over and eating it whole, Nami's hand included, "can I have it?!"
He gets socked in the face by a metal arm.
Luffy gets knocked back painfully and whines— but then he leaps right back up, "oh wait! COBY?! When'd you get here?! And who are the rest of you bozos on my ship?!"
"Luffy, Zoro already did that schtick, we're not doing it again."
They brush past the town again, but nothing can stop a catbus from frolicking through the nighttime cityscape. Luffy indulges himself by crawling up to Merry's cathead, snuggling in the space between the horns. Chopper's wrapped up his injuries for now as the rest of the crew get their situation up to date.
"Is it really okay to not know where Sanji-san and… Vivi-san, was it?" Conis asks, "is it okay to not know where they are at the moment?"
"Well, Sanji knows what he's doing," Luffy grins, "and if he's with Vivi, then all the more so!"
"Ahh, I can't wait to see Vivi again," Chopper says. "Kinda wish we had better circumstances, though."
"No, these are the best circumstances," Zoro says, "I bet that Shit-cook's completely distracted and lost sight of the damn goal a long time ago. Vivi knows how to take things seriously."
Neither of them are picking up their Den Dens, but Nami isn't too worried.
Iceburg observes the crew as they converge and converse, a moment of peace in the otherwise anxious situation. He interests himself with looking over what Wyper is doing, picking out parts of metal and wood and masterfully creating parts to structure a prosthetic arm.
"Want to add a laser beam?" Iceburg suggests in a stage-whisper.
"I've been trying to," Wyper says, "but Nami gets really mad when I try."
Iceberg hums, "ah, a tough crowd, fairy enough. You can do it subtly and hide it in part of the design. She won't know if she doesn't see it."
Wyper considers that.
They turn to stare at Nami, who's busy directing Merry's running course with Paulie, since he knows the layout of the city better. Usopp is busy making some drug-packets with Chopper. Conis, Kiwi and Mozu are on the sides of the ship, chatting with Luffy as they marvel at the sights. Zoro is supervising Luffy just in case he falls off like an idiot.
Suu is staring at the two mechanics, Tyrannosaurus and a flame dial on her back.
Wyper and Iceburg nod at each other. What Nami doesn't know, she won't know.
There is suddenly some screaming from Luffy and the entire crew spins around, alarmed. Even Merry jumps, all her fur bristling upright at the sound and disturbance to her forehead.
Coby, however, simply follows everyone's gazes, confused.
Luffy had been laying splayed out, stomach up and headfirst toward the sky, when something feathery, warm, damp, loud, and covered in clunky metal, just plunged into his face at the speed of wet rat.
Luffy screeches, understandably mortified.
Thankfully, the wind blowing in all their faces unlatches the terrified bird from him enough for her to scramble off and roll in the uncontrolled wind, and tumble into the vehicle. Kinoko clearly tries to claw at something, but she fails to grab at the fur, misses the handrail, and her wings are useless at the speed Merry is running.
And thus Kinoko rolls through the wind crying desperately until she finally manages to catch another face in her path. Usopp's. All finally falls silent.
Then as if this was nothing out of the ordinary, Usopp carefully peels his bird off and holds her heavily shivering, utterly traumatized figure in his hands, gently rubbing her back as she rests in his lap.
"Oh hey, Kinoko," he says. "I was wondering where you went."
Luffy is still screaming, but he's finally manages to pull himself up and glare at the interior of the vehicle with bloodshot eyes, "KINOSUKE! YOU!!"
Paulie and Iceburg look between all of the Strawhats, flabbergasted by their nonplussed behaviour. Conis and Chopper have come by to inspect the bird, but Zoro and Nami only look mildly annoyed. Wyper didn't seem to care at all. Luffy launches into the bus to get his revenge only to be cleanly held away by Nami. The bird covers her head with her wings, shellshocked.
"Look at her, you traumatized her!"
"SHE traumatized ME?!?"
Is this normal? Is this normal in the standards of the Strawhats?
"Welcome to the Rocketman!" Chimney greets, saluting. "How many are you?"
"Uh—" Nami's slightly surprised to be asked, "a lot?"
"A lot!" Chimney beams, "Okay, A Lot of passengers, right this way please!"
Is she playing usher?
They rapidly alight from the Merry, wasting no time to hop onto the Rocketman to explore the interior.
"Hurry on now!" Granny Kokoro blows the whistle, "train's leaving immediately, watch yer step, cause I definitely ain't!"
"Wait, we're going in?" Wyper asks. "Into the steel steam monster of hell?! WAIT?!"
"What, you're scared of a train?" Paulie grins, smug. "That's fine. You can stay behind."
Instantly riled up with unbridled fury, Wyper made a running start and plunged right into Paulie's face footfirst, sending them flying right into the Rocketman and directly through the other end of the cabin.
"Hey come on now!" Chimney is upset, "don't make more holes than necessary! I don't like the cold draft!"
"Sorry!" came two voices in the debris.
"Ah wait—" Zoro leans back out the doorway once everyone's in, stretching out his arms. The train's already started to leave the rails as he hollers, "let's go, Merry!"
Merry lifts, and in a cloud of bluish wisps and smoke, she shrinks as she leaps, falling right in place for Zoro's arms to receive. She nears his palms as a considerably average-sized kitten—
—and then immediately explodes in a puff of smoke, emerging as a child with little arms and a head of exuberant white curls, plunging right into Zoro's chest.
Zoro nearly drops her immediately in surprise.
"Wha— what?!" he balks, spinning to the safety of the Rocketman's speed only to realize he's holding a young girl in a raincoat. "You could do that? Since when?"
Merry, in perfect huggable child size, simply nuzzles into Zoro's chest with a light purr. She's swamped by her white hair, brown ram horns framing her temple. Tall white cat ears twitch at the crown of her head.
Everyone loses their absolute shit.
"What is that?!" Nami turns to her, bewildered, grabbing Zoro's shoulder to get a better look, "nooo way! I wanna hug Merry too!"
"Me toooo!" Luffy whines, poking just his head all the way into the cabin.
Chopper's at Zoro's leg now, "let me see, let me see!"
"That is so cute!" Conis is holding the door closed. "What is that?! What is thaaaat?!"
"Is it transformed?" Wyper raises a brow. He's got Suu and Kinoko tucked under one arm, Chimney and Gonbe in the other. All of them were very prepared to fly off in the wind before Wyper decided to be rational.
"All of you, stop mobbing me!" Zoro snaps, "didn't you hear the Granny, we're hitting water soon, brace yourselves!"
"It's not fair you get to cuddle Merry!"
Zoro snarls, "I want to put her down too, but she's clinging like a koala! And she's— are you drooling on me?! Merry!"
"Wait, how does that work?" Usopp asks, "if it's a cat-ship, then he should only have a cat form, a ship form, and a catship form, right?"
"Merry's a Bakeneko, so I think anything works?" Coby says.
Coby looks down, to Usopp making grabby-hand motions at his side, clearly trying to restrain himself.
"Yes, she's super cute," Coby says.
"Stop it! It's too dangerous for me to run at them and demand a hug now!" Usopp whines. It's taking all his leg strength to keep stable on this train cart.
Coby laughs, happily describing her for Usopp, from the mounds of curly white hair that pooled down to her waist, to the long sleeves of the spotted blue raincoat. The raincoat ends around the middle of her thighs, but the rest of her feet are thick with weighted, nail-studded rain boots. As a human form, she's only slightly bigger than Chopper.
Coby notes the way Usopp clings, so carefully, to his arm. His grip is firm, grounding, and Coby doesn't know why at first.
It's not until Coby starts internally reminiscing upon their situation, that he understands he needs the contact, too. It obstructs his ability to sign and gesture, and it holds up most of Usopp's limbs that he needs for proprioception.
But they both need it.
They need, for a moment, to remember who they once were, if only to truly accept what's happening now. Usopp's injuries from what robin did to him just this morning are fresh and tender, but he puts on a coat for the journey ahead and hides, hoping no one would call attention to it.
And no one did.
"Ah, that's interesting. Her skin's dark. So maybe she's imitating you, Usopp?" Coby wonders, "like a baby chick imprinting. If she imitated Chopper a little more, maybe she'd look more like an anthropomorphic animal."
Usopp immediately loses his composure to swoon , "what is thaaaat, that is illegal! That cuteness is illegal" he makes grabby motions with his arms, "I wanna hug Merry too!"
"Nuh-uh! I had dibs!"
"Me first!"
"How about we ask Merry who she wants to be hugged by?"
The rumbling is violent and rough. They're only two hours to daylight now, and the tunnel is seconds away from breaking out into the open sea. It's rattling, loud and visceral, and Paulie's teeth chatters just trying his best to hold on. Iceburg is faring a little better.
It's a turbulent ride.
And yet, the pirates have the energy to indulge in cooing over their ship-turned littlest, quarreling over custody until she willingly pawns herself off to Luffy, and they're at the head of the Rocketman, Luffy hugging her to his lap like a strange role reversal of how they were seated before when Merry used to be a ship.
Iceburg and Paulie's eyes meet across the train.
All things considered, this did not feel like a hostile trip to one of the three great Marine strongholds. This did not feel like the death sentence Iceburg had always thought was inevitable for him. He had no idea if any of them properly understood exactly what they were getting into at all.
And yet— it felt appropriate.
They don't think. They just did, because the tactics of it didn't matter. They had something to do, and they were doing it.
Their nakama needed them— that was all the initiative they needed to take action. The rest of it was just them as a crew, living to their fullest.
Living with a Don .
"WHO SAID YOU COULD JUST HOOK ON?!"
Paulie is treated to the very liberating sight of Mayor Iceburg screaming his head off. Which is fair, Franky did just shoot javelins into the back of the sea train. And then he decided to just hold onto the runaway train with two King Bulls and a wagon three times their size with five times the people.
Without an invitation.
Franky screeches right back from the head of his mobile house. "I SAID I COULD! FUCK THOSE GOVERNMENT SHITS!"
"WHAT IF WE CAPSIZED, DUMBASS?!" Iceburg hoots back.
"OF COURSE I DID THE CALCS YOU SHIT. I'M NOT STUPID!"
"YES YOU ARE!"
"NO, YOU ARE!"
"HEY, STOP SWEAR'N! THERE ARE KIDS!" Granny Kokoro yells through the loudspeaker.
"SORRY!"
"MY BAD!"
Honestly, even all of the Strawhats had to stand by and watch in baffled silence as the oldest few in the group started arguing like children. It was incredibly awkward for all of them, Franky Family included. Chimney and Gonbe had their hands over their ears like some sort of routine. This is clearly not the first time for them.
Meanwhile, Kiwi and Mozu tearfully reunite with their brothers, and they're lovingly welcomed home as if they went on a pilgrimage rather than an errand.
Zoro turns to Nami very judgmentally when Franky mentions getting revenge on the government for setting his house on fire.
Franky seethes. "They want me, don't they?! I'm giving it to them!"
"YEAH!" his family hollers right back.
Zoro continues to glare at Nami, who stage-hushes him. "Do you want us to capsize? Don't tell him! Please don't be mad at me! It was a necessity!"
Zoro is very put off by this. "I am not mad," he insists.
"Then please look at me!"
Zoro looks at her like she's a despicable creature.
Somehow, after Iceburg and Franky yell at each other for five minutes straight, they've run all the fight out of their system and Franky leaps down to the Rocketman, entering the cabin.
"We have one last bone to pick with you monsters," Franky snarls, once they've settled their differences for the strategy planning to come. "Where's the asshole known as the Man-Demon? He dead?"
Immediately, all good mood in the train car dwindles as everyone levels him with a firm glare. Frnaky's family members have been injured, heavily and some permanently— and the situation was only made worse when their houses were set on fire.
They've had a very bad day.
It is, surprisingly, Conis that speaks up first.
"I don't think we should hold grudges, if we are to fight together against the world government," she says. "We should put aside our grievances—"
"Little girl," Franky speaks up, cold and firm. "I wasn't talking to you."
Conis crumbles immediately.
"Ah— right, I- I'm sorry—"
"Don't apologize, Conis," Luffy says, reaching into the cabin once more with a glare ingrained in his brows. "You're Franky, right? Where's our cash?"
Franky scoffs. "You guys are the dumbasses that had the gall to ask me to make you a ship?" he points at him with snark, "tough luck! I spent it all on one big purchase, it's gone! You gave it to me, and I agreed to nothing ."
Luffy's teeth grinds, "you bastard! Nami trusted you!"
"And she trusted the wrong person," Franky scowls. "Why the hell would I help someone who beat up my boys to begin with? You never thought of that?"
"Why does that matter!" Luffy snaps. "You fought Gin and stole our money, it's fair game he hit you back!"
"Well then I'm hitting back on you hitting back!"
"Okay fine! Now I'm gonna hit back on you hitting back on me hitting back, clench your damn teeth!"
"Not if I hit you back for hitting me back about hitting you back for hitting you back first!"
"You're CONFUSING!"
"No, I'm FRANKY!"
Absolutely baffled, Zoro steps between them, sheathed swords coming right down on the heads with a loud thwack.
"Oh for fuck's sake, shut the fuck up! Do I have to do everything around here!" he yells. "If you wanna duke it out with Gin, fucking do it when we're done saving Robin and Anne!"
Franky groans, and Luffy pouts.
"Saving Robin?" Franky twitches. "You want to save her, the Devil's Child? You pirates are in over your damn heads!"
"You're going too!" Luffy accuses.
"You have no idea who you're up against!"
Luffy's fist tightens and his voice raises sharply, "why do you bastards keep saying that? Who are you to tell me if I know what I know?! Nami and Usopp are one thing, I don't even know you!"
Nami and Usopp flinch at that. Conis and Wyper give them a side-eye, but they don't say anything.
"I'm going to save Robin and Anne, and if you guys are going to come along, don't get in my way!" Luffy yells. "I don't care what you're here to do! That's Nami's job!" he points sharply, "but don't bother her either!"
"What the—" Franky balks, "I'm talking to you here, Captain of the Strawhats!"
"Well I don't wanna talk to you!" he snaps, clearly irritated at this point. "And don't talk to Nami either! You're a bastard if you just wasted all our money!"
The Strawhats are looking between them all nervously, they had absolutely no idea Luffy could get this petty. It is, however, highly amusing.
Franky blubbers, absolutely taken aback. "So I can't talk to you and I can't talk to your navigator, how can you be so selfish?!"
"I'm not listening!" Luffy loudly declares, spinning right around until he finds Merry saddled between Conis' arms to comfort the older girl. He beams, "oh, Merry! Wanna go back to the front with me?"
To which Conis forgets herself and whines, clutching Merry closer, "no fair Captain, you're hogging her!"
Usopp dryly remarks, "it's actually my turn for the hug."
"Oh shush, I'm Captain, my orders are first!" Luffy declares.
"If you can't share, none of you get to hug her!" Zoro threatens. "Merry, get over here! Stop indulging those spoiled lots!"
"So can we get back on track yet?" Zoro asks, changing the topic.
And Nami recovers immediately. Because, priorities.
"Okay, this is just the first phase over," Nami says. "We should be safe this time, since the Aqua Laguna isn't here yet. But… well," she chuckles, which unnerves everyone, "we'll be okay! I mean, things worked out last time!"
If Nami was trying to send the fear of the horizon into everyone, well, it certainly worked.
"Nami, I'm having a relapse of If-I-don't-know-what-happens-next, I-will-die-disease because I wasn't here last time either," Usopp raises his hand. His other arm is whiteknuckled over Coby's and, judging by Coby's very strained expression, he's cutting off bloodflow, "any other violent cases of turbulence I should know about?"
"I-w-w- I would like to know too," Conis squeaks, clutching Suu and Chopper and holding onto Wyper by the foot. Wyper is very annoyed, but he's doing all he can to stand extremely still like an anchor.
"Well… I don't really remember either," Nami says.
"Don't tell me!" Luffy hollers from outside. His hands are raised like someone on a rollercoaster, and Merry in his lap is doing the exact same pose, incoherent 'AAAHH' included. "This is so fuuuuuun!!"
"Wait a second," Paulie looks out. "Wait a minute. Is that— oh no."
"What is it?!" Usopp squeaks. "Please stop being vague! I'm blind!"
"Ah, I know now!" Nami beams, luxuriating in the way the entire crew's faces go completely pale at her happiness. "So, do any of you remember that frog that was doing the front crawl?"
"FRIEND!" Wyper declares, leaping out the window on his Waver Skates, to Conis' terrified wail, "I will fight the steel monster with you, comrade!"
"What the— No, Wyper, don't!"
"At this point, I think we should just leave them be," Iceburg says, dryly.
Terrified shrieking ensues.
Nami is having so much fun.
Zoro is the only one composed enough to grit his teeth, holding onto the windowsill with a dry curse."Dammit, Gin's not here, so it's back to me with this," he deems. Then, appropriately, "fuck. We're all going to die."
Meanwhile, Gin has been running for hours at full speed and he's ready to have a heart attack and die.But first, "bitch, you shit," he hisses at a terrified factory worker, "water. Now."
"y-Yes, sir!" the man, Happa Yamao, yelps, scrambling into the building as Gin leans on a wall, struggling to catch his breath.
"Hey, isn't that the Strawhat Pirate?"
"The Man-Demon, right? Should we take him?"
"Maybe call the shipwrights!"
"He looks exhausted."
"I think we can take him, if he's weakened—"
Gin glances up with the promise of bloody murder in his eyes and they all immediately shrink away in alarm.
"Nevermind! We apologize! Would you like some food too, sir?!"
"What the— you wimp!"
"We don't have backup right now! You want to face the wrath of the demon?!"
"We outnumber him like twenty to one!"
"Well do us the honour and jump him first, then!"
"Nuh uh! Not me!"
"Not me!"
"Not me either!"
"Can you guys make your noise quietly!" Gin curses.
"YES SIR!"
"...how do we be noisy quietly?" someone whispers.
"I don't know, we just gotta do it!" another hisses back.
Happa comes back with a plastic bottle of water and Gin twists it open only to immediately drain about two thirds of the bottle.
"Thanks," he grounds out. Looking up, he scowls. "Which way's the train station?"
"...you're just expecting me to tell you?" the man asks. He's afraid of Gin, and out of his league thus incapable of obstructing him, but there are too many people around, and plenty enough to send word and lay an ambush. "I mean… I'm not going to stop you, but it's not like any trains are active. And all ships are preoccupied stopping the damage in the junkyard."
"That's my problem!" Gin snaps. "Hurry up, I don't have time to waste!"
Happa pauses, surprised.
Then he raises an arm, "straight that way. No turns if you go right over the buildings."
Gin leaps off immediately, no doubt in him at all. Happa is genuinely baffled by that. He could have so easily given him wrong directions, and yet…
"Train station, right!" the crowd around them gives chase, "anyone calling the shipwrights? We'll corner him there!"
"Right! Everyone, get there! We might be faster on the Yagaras!"
A second later, the water bottle clatters against the ground, empty. Happa sighs, picking it up. He hopes Gin makes it out safely. He'll need to chew that guy out for littering, when all this is over.
The fire in the scrapyard is put out. The waves are turbulent, and the skies are grimy with ash. Gin runs through the streets and hears people a distance away hollering for signs of him.
Fires and pitchforks, flashlights and watching Den Den Mushi— he breathes, and runs, the soles of his shoes burning against his sore feet. He scales buildings, ignoring the hordes of people slowly, surely, cornering him against the edge.
"He's over there!"
"He's headed to Third Street! Surround him and—!"
They have the advantage, they're familiar with the routes. So there's no way Gin would be able to run for long. They're leading him somewhere, he's very sure of it. And eventually, Gin will be captured.
(But that's fine. He's just buying time— as long as they made it out safely he'll be fi—)
No. Wrong situation.
Where's Kaku? He's not sure, and he doesn't think he has the liberty of finding out, either. He's just glad Kaku's nowhere near him, because that'd be a fight he'd definitely lose right now.
(They'll come and pick him up.)
Yeah. Kinoko's not here anymore, so it should be any moment now. He'll look out toward the sea and—
—and pauses at the train station's roof, just in time to see a metal rail shoot through from one end of his vision to the other, dragging two oversized sea bulls and a loud party of bomber heads with it.
He takes a moment to realize what just happened.
"Wait, was that—"
Did he just miss— the people around him also take the moment to glance over, startled by what they just saw. Puffing Tom already departed the station, there shouldn't be another. And yet… was that the Franky Family?
"...what are they doing with those buffoons?" Gin mutters. "Why are they on our ride?"
"OH, GIN! CRAP! WE MISSED HIM!" a very faraway shout comes from the speck in the distance. It sounds suspiciously like Luffy.
Gin barely sees a rubber hand trail over before it's right in front of him, palm open. It's slowly drifting away, picking up speed— oh, he'll miss it if he doesn't— in a lapse of judgement that he will blame on his exhausted current state, he takes the hand— and is abruptly launched through the air like a relapsing rubber band.
Gin has a lot of regrets and this is currently the top of his list. He will deny that high-pitched scream to the end of his life.
In the wagon of the Puffing Tom, saddled between the luggage and other exotic pets headed for carnival island, is Carue.
The elephant beside him grumps something incorrigible, and Carue scowls at the language, flapping a wing in chide. The zebra grunts in annoyance, and the parrot bursts into incomprehensible laughter.
Sighing in defeat, Carue stands up, unhooking the latch of his cage with his wing and a tactical arrangement of a hair pin. It's something he's learned from his time helping Vivi in Baroque Works.
Everyone in the cart jumps in surprise. How did you do that?! A peacock is not taking this information well, and the weasels scream for answers. The horse is staring, baffled, and the elephant is terrified of his power.
Everyone watches horrified as Carue simply casually, comfortably, opens his own cage, steps out, and politely locks it back. Then he toddles his way to the next train car, ignoring everyone.
Blueno's eyes drift close for just a moment as he sighs.
And then, he immediately realizes something is wrong. The occupants of the restaurant car have dwindled once the 'princess' made herself a noisy spot in the corner and demanded everyone be quiet for her to enjoy the ambience, but the bartender has returned to the back, and the remaining occupants of the room are asleep by their drinks. Even the few soldiers in this car that were stationed as extra guards— they were resting against walls and chairs, not attentive at all.
Something's wrong.
Robin's head is hung, silent. Anne's been nursing that cup of tea in her hands for the past while, hands strayed from her sketchbook she so insisted on taking.
He didn't sense anything. See anything. Smell anything. Hear anything.
Anne sighs audibly, placing down her cup of tea, crossing her legs and looking with lidded eyes at Blueno.
"You're not very quick on the uptake, are you?" she says. "I understand now why you were chosen to be the fourth in their three-man cell… you probably have an interesting Devil Fruit power. And that's about it."
Blueno stands up.
He has no time nor opportunity to respond to a child's attempt at a taunt.
Anne reaches for her sketchbook— and lifts it to the side of her head just as the windows smash in. Dress shoes yank its way in and twist, soaring right for Blueno's figure— Blueno leaps back, and the figure slides right in fully.
The figure with a thick masquerade mask, adorned with a cloak just as showy— he lands smoothly upon the deck, snatches up Anne, and pulls her to his chest as one would a child on one arm.
Blueno spins around to him immediately, launching a foot right out at him, but he immediately pulls back, throwing himself right back out the window.
Blueno curses, not pursuing, stepping back briefly to spread an arm out over Nico Robin just before the false princess leaps over the chairs with stringed blades soaring out of her sleeves.
Blueno jerks to attention, confused. Why are the other passengers not reacting?
He realizes why, very quickly.
The wind zips out the broken window and yanks fresh air in—
—and Blueno's head clears, released from a spell he hadn't even realized he was in. His shoulders lift, his eyes open— and his next breath fills him with strength.
Poison. Some scentless, tasteless poison. No… just something to dull his senses and make everyone unaware of what's going on. Strong enough to even affect him ?
He deflects the blades with Iron Body. The woman ducks under his arm in his moment of vulnerability and reaches for Robin.
"Let's go!" she hisses.
But when she grabs Robin by the sleeve, Robin does not move. The woman staggers in surprise, turning around with horror to see Robin's cold expression glancing down at her, uninterested in her attempt at aid.
They don't have much time. The occupants of the train car are slowly regaining their senses, and they're still trying to stay in the downlow.
Blueno takes the opportunity to wrap his fist around her throat, dragging her forth and shoving her against the wall. If this were the real princess, it would be troublesome, but luckily, this is definitely a fake lookalike, and Blueno has no intentions on confirming this. He raises a single finger— and the woman's eyes widen with horror.
"Finger Pistol."
Sanji gasps when Vivi's body is thrown out of the window, and blood spewing from her mouth and staining her clothes. Carue is running forth from the other train cars, and he'd just set Anne on the top of the train car as they both gasp at the sight.
"Vivi—!!" his words cut short.
Anne has a hand on his coat, lightly pulling him in place.
He turns around, confused. "Anne! I need to get her, just go with Carue for now—" Sanji's voice dies at the sight.
"That was a decent plan," she says. Her voice is cold, unemotional, and her eyes are blank. Empty, and soulless. She fixes the position of his masquerade mask carefully with one hand, "but it's not good enough, you know?"
Sanji doesn't know why she's looking at him like that.
He needs to save Vivi— then recoup and get Robin. He can't hesitate now!
"We'll talk later! I need to—"
"You're not going anywhere," Anne says.
Sanji freezes for just a second, but the stinging crunch is palpable as Anne plants her foot firm and sharp into his bent ankle, wrenching it in the wrong direction as it gives in and he howls , crumbling onto his arms.
"Sanji. Your plan was never going to work," Anne says. "Robin has no intention of escaping, and I can't go anywhere either."
"What…" Sanji's fists ball.
He lifts his head with effort in a glare— a glare he's sending toward a girl, toward a child, and he's trying his best not to feel so utterly furious. There must be a reason. There must be a reason she's doing this, Anne wouldn't—
His gaze wrenches toward where Carue was supposed to be— but he's not there.
"We can't win," Anne says. "Not right now, not on this train. Not as long as the superior version of me, Rob Lucci, exists."
"She's right."
Sanji's eyes widen as the air before him warp, ever so slightly— a seam runs through in a line, in a circle— and then it pushes open, connecting interspacially to what appeared to be the inside of the train car.
Blueno stands, scowling.
"Get back in here, M-429."
Anne nods, turning back to Sanji for only a brief moment. "Mister Prince, you need to die here," she says. "Just get lost. I don't need your help."
Her foot comes down harshly at Sanij's heel, eliciting a pained gasp— and then she shoves him in the face, right off the top of the train into the tracks below.
Sanji's eyes are wide with horror as he falls, arms unable to reach anything to hold onto before he plunges fully into the deep blue waters.
Carue gasps for breath after finally, just barely, paddling to the surface again, Vivi on his back and Sanji latching on the edge of his wing, Carue desperately kicks and paddles and—
—the Puffing Tom is whipping right through at such a rapid pace, one car after another is blitzing by.
"Don't, Carue! You stay here, I'll jump back on myself!" Sanji shouts.
He's furious. His voice is gritty and loud and infuriated . He clambers onto Carue's back and they bobble in the waters, but he whimpers at the slightest strain of his foot against the waves.
He can't jump back alone. They can't abandon Vivi, who's unconscious. If they leave now, their entire infiltration plan would be pointless.
Carue didn't come along with Vivi just to be a companion. He's here to help, at least, he hopes he can. He's here to deliver Vivi to her destination at the best speed, he's a super spot-billed duck, masters at high-speed courier services in Alabasta.
He doesn't have strength, or courage, or even opposable thumbs.
If there's anything he's got, it's Tenacity.
With a roar, Carue lunges forward, faster, leaping and forcing his way past the waves as fast as he can go. He's the fastest duck on land because of his leg strength. He doesn't have practice in the seas, but surely, that track record means something in the ocean as well, right?
His bill comes down sharply, painfully, so painfully, on a side handle of the Sea Train's doors.
He gasps when his teeth scrape through the bars and comes loose. His chest crash painfully against the deck with a loud bump, and he gasp, accidentlly letting go. He scrambles, wings and talons, but he's thrown loose from the train and sent flygin back to the sea.
He wails when he regains his bearing, but thankfully, Sanji gasps on his back, grip painful among the now-bleeding feathers. He's held onto Vivi, so neither of them have fallen off. Carue makes the split-second decision to try again.
"Don't, you stupid duck, are you trying to die?!" Sanji yells, but Carue is also building up his momentum once more, barely latching onto another train door handle before being yanked fiercely forward with the momentum.
This time, however, Carue screams as he hangs on, just barely, hooking his talon upon the guards at the end of train car, diverting their force just a little to the side, just enough to all go unceremoniously whirling inward and crashing full-frontal at the next train door with a painful yelp.
Everything instantly goes black for Carue.
Before they fall completely back into the waters, Sanji trips on his bad foot, bites back a scream, and grabs onto the guard rails desperatelywith his hand latched upon Vivi's cloak and Carue's bag strap.
Carue's weight pulls them back down as Sanji unwillingly staggers and all weight presses upon his foot. He howls, unable to hold on—
And then, Vivi, jerking awake just in time, lunges forward to catch the end of Carue's wing and drag them both toward the door with a loud heave. They all collapse altogether into the door that opens inwards.
Their breaths heave, heavy and laboured and so, so painful. Vivi cringes at the wound at her chest, closely resembling gunshots despite having only come from fingers. Her breaths come out in worrying wheezes, and she can't even lift her head.
Sanji quickly pushes himself up on his arm to the sight before him. Crap, they're inside a train car! This could be bad!
A giraffe, a zebra, and several weasels stare back at them.
There are no humans in this car.
Relieved, Sanji drops back on top of Vivi's figure, struggling to catch his breath, too. Neither of them even had the energy to care about their position, Carue's feathery appendages uncomfortably in the mix of their pile.
Miraculously, while their cloaks were ruined by the water and disheveled, their masks were intact and still attached well.
"Well," Sanji wheezes, "that went horribly."
Vivi hums noncommittal.
"I might have just reawakened my very deep-seated and eternal grudge against Miss All-Sunday," Vivi says, dryly. "And if that guy wasn't still slightly under the effects of my hallucinogen, he'd have hit my heart. I am not okay. I want to go home."
With a low whine, Sanji's head planted into Vivi's shoulder, in deep sympathy.
"Anne rejected me and indirectly called me useless. She was so rude. I am so heartbroken, I am going to cry too."
They lay right there, in that position, for the next two undisturbed minutes, stared at by all the animals.
Then, Sanji lifts his head, "alright, back to square one," he says, reaching for the rucksack on Carue's back, for the first aid kit. "We're getting healed up and then it's onto Plan B."
"It'll be difficult. The less people there are, more soldiers can guard them," Vivi says, stripping off her coat and pressing up gauze against her injuries, "we don't want to deal with the soldiers before fighting that guy again."
They found valuable information— the fact that the CP9 are trying not to get civilians involved, the fact that Anne and Robin cannot willingly run away, and the fact that there aren't as many soldiers guarding their prisoners as they would like.
And of course, the fact that Blueno's the only CP9 agent onboard, and that Vivi's poisons worked on him.
"How many stops are left before Enies Lobby?" Sanji asks.
"Three," Vivi says. "We're reaching the next island anytime now…"
So they only have two more chances to fight Blueno. Yeah. That's plenty. Sanji readjusts the mask on his face— and finds a note, tucked between the ornaments. He vaguely remembers Anne touching it before…
Noticing that, Sanji laughs out loud.
"Miss Wednesday dear, you were a bounty hunter in Baroque Works, weren't you?" Sanji asks, a smile tickling the corners of his mouth.
Vivi raises a brow. She's turned away, topless, as she treats her own injuries, and she looks back in confusion.
"What about it, Mister Prince?"
"Well, I was just thinking we should start living up to our titles, return to our roots, and everything," Sanji says.
Vivi's still confused. "You're not a member, though? Mister Prince never was?"
"And no one needs to know that," Snaji says. "By the way, you know how turning in bounty-less pirates can still get you a bit of consolation bounty? Do you think marine soldiers would be worth about as much as that too?"
"Sanji-kun, what are you talking about?"
Sanji hands her the note.It's a sketch of several seeming civilians on the train, and Sanji immediately knows what they are— soldiers. Undercover soldiers, all clear and pictured right here.
Vivi balks. "You want to try taking down all of them without being noticed?! T- but this is out of my league… I'm a bounty hunter, not an assassin!"
Sanji twitches at that, but manages to put a strained smile on his face anyways.
"You know, ironically enough… that's right up my alley."