"There's no point staying on Water Seven anymore," Rob Lucci says.

"We can't exactly let them go all the way to Enies Lobby just to tell the higher ups we failed, too…" Kaku sighs.

Kalifa sighs, stepping out of the Galley-la building, peeling off her blood-stained gloves.

"Done?" Lucci asks.

Behind her, bodies are shrewn across the building and slumped across debris, blood spraying into a magnanimous art piece across Galley-la Headquarters' every corridor.

Kalifa rolls her heel over Tilestone's arm, but he doesn't react. Swiping her bangs back with a sigh, her fingers catch the end of her hair now loose from the bun.

"I need a change of clothes," she declares, shedding the blood-stained jacket and tossing it aside with nonchalance.

She pries off her shirt too, right then and there in the middle of the road, and then extends a hand in Kaku's direction.

She stares, very pointedly, and simply waits.

Kaku looks at her face. Then her hands. Then literally, anywhere uncompromised. It takes a long moment of exasperated silence before Kaku obediently takes off his jacket and shoves it in her direction.

"You can't keep getting away with this," he says.

"Your jacket stinks, this is sexual harrassment," Kalifa responds, not even missing a beat.

"You're unbelievable!"

Rob Lucci doesn't deign that interaction with a response. He simply sits on the crate, deep in thought. They've lost Egin, lost the Strawhats, lost Iceburg and Franky's gone with them, too.

"Are you sure I should have just let Egin go?" Kaku asks.

"You wouldn't be able to get him either way," Kalifa says.

"That was one time," Kaku insists.

"One time is more than enough to determine the skills of a Chaser," Kalifa retorts. "Egin's out of your league. He's trained with 503-R, and you've never been able to beat him."

"I can best 503-R now!" Kaku insists, offended. "And he's not here anyways, we can handle the other two easily if he's not around!"

"We all know if he stayed, he'd have been chosen over you," Kalifa scoffs.

"I could say the same to you, you outmode!"

"If anyone's an outmode here, it's you! " Kalifa snaps. "You've failed your end of the mission countless times and we're in this situation because you couldn't hold onto 361-N to save your damn life—"

Kaku snarls, "you can't even do anything until you're activated! How have you contributed any more than I—"

"Enough, you two."

Lucci's warning silences them immediately. The civilians aren't going to show up until morning— so there's no more value in staying here. All people of importance are out of the city, and attacking Water Seven so close to Aqua Laguna only makes needless marine sacrifices. The government are sending people to pick up CP9, but there's no sense waiting for them either.

They'll have to catch up to the sea train and head to Enies Lobby. If Lucci's group takes up the rear, the Strawhats will have no chance to escape, either.

"They're doing us a favour and delivering themselves to judgement," Lucci says. "We may as well take advantage of it."

They've already eliminated all witnesses in Galley-la.

"And that fruit…" Lucci frowns, remembering the figure of the gigantic monster cat. "It's one of the two Mythical Zoans held in Joker's New World auction."

"What? The one Spandam was kicking up a fuss about?" Kaku asks. "The one that Charlotte Smoothie couldn't get the other of?"

"The Strawhats have such connections?" Kalifa frowns. "Could it be the Burglar Cat? The line of gold… That would make sense, but it would also mean that we're declaring war against the Whitebeards right now."

"No, it's not the line of gold," Lucci says. "The one that won the fruit wasn't anyone identifiable. Someone who didn't exist in records or guest lists, and yet, he snuck his way into the most highly-guarded auctions of the New World and won the best prize."

Kaku and Kalifa frown.

Joker wouldn't let such an important fruit go to some nobody. His line may work on the premise of money, but his work has never been sloppy.

Joker allowed them to win it, because there was benefit in allowing him to win. A curry of favour, a clue to someone no one has managed to identify or even truly put a pin on their whereabouts before…

"The Fifth Deva!" Kaku pieces together. "The Strawhats must have connections to the Seer… that throws a wrench in things. The influence of the Seer is incomprehensible, we don't know who we're antagonizing."

They're the government. They shouldn't have to fear anything— but Information Devas, they have the capability to turn anything over its head.

Lucci sighs.

"Our hands are tied. Let's see how Spandam ruins the rest."

"Ugh, what's all this noise…"

Gin croaks, rubbing his aching head against the heel of his palm as he shakily pushes himself up— huh, this leather jacket he's using as a blanket looks nice— wait.

He turns around to the huge, oversized smile of a cat staring at him from two inches away.

The cat opens its maws, breath hot and humid, to reveal a single book in the center of his tongue. Emerald City, carefully protected, somehow without a drop of saliva on it.

"Oh, thanks," he says, reaching in and picking it up. Then, when the cat beams, he sincerely adds, "what the fuck?"

Mayor Iceburg sips on some tea, sitting calmly beside him. "Don't think too much about it," he says. "Your doctor said your injuries aren't too bad."

"Want some tea?" Chimney asks, holding out a cup.

"Uhh," Gin takes it, sipping carefully. His head is pounding, his body is so exhausted his hands are trembling— but he's very sure his cognitive abilities were still decently functional. "What is… that?"

"It's green tea!" Chimney says.

There is a gigantic cat the size of a carriage in this room, curled around him with its paws huddled there's no space for anyone to walk. The cat huffs a breath that blows Chimney's hair up for a moment, but the girl remains undisturbed

Gin rubs his eyes and looks up again. It's still there. "No, I'm asking. What is… that ?"

"It's good tea," Iceburg insists.

"I don't get it," Franky says, "You're saying Nico Robin strung you up on display and you still want to go and save her? Are you stupid?"

"It's ridiculous to just forgive her," Iceburg frowns. "You're pirates, but you're awfully naive, aren't you all…"

"Who said she's forgiven?" Zoro grumbles lowly.

"Excuse you," Usopp says, slamming his hand against the empty wall, opposite of where they'd set up the hastily-sketched map of Enies Lobby. "I have a bone to pick with her. You think I'm letting the damn marines do the judgement for me??"

"Usopp-san, wrong side," Coby says.

Usopp switches hands immediately. Appropriately, he repeats, "I'm not letting her go past no damn gates of justice! Impel Down is cold, and Robin didn't bring a jacket!"

"I'm sure she still has the gloves Zoro gave her," Chopper says.

"I think this jacket would look best on her," Conis says, lifting the material in her hand, "oh! And I have her hat too."

"Great," Gin says. "Now make that jacket read 'I was being an idiot', we are putting that thing on her and she's not taking it off until we conquer Paradise."

"Make one for Anne too!" Wyper says.

"Hers should read 'Lost Child'," Zoro says.

"Make a matching one for Zoro that reads 'Lost Marimo'!" Luffy cheerfully contributes.

"Scratch that," Zoro immediately says, "Give me one that reads 'mutiny'. Right now."

The Strawhats were all seated in a semicircle for their strategy meeting, an unwilling Paulie, Iceburg, and Franky in the midst. Even Luffy's seated obediently among them, and they're all munching on some meat and wine, changed into fresh clothing generally consisting of leather or denim combinations.

"Don't forget Anne too," Zoro says, "she's somehow found the opportunity to make this worse ."

"They stole two crewmates!" Conis huffs, annoyed, "what's with them!"

Gin sighs, sitting up and slumping against the very fluffy Merry. It's so soft, Anne would dearly love all of this fluff, she adored Carue too…

He sighs deeply. Anne …

"See? Gin's depressed now!" Usopp displays. "We need to get Anne back!"

"Gin's always depressed," Chopper says. "Honestly I'm starting to get worried."

"Plus, Anne," Luffy says, "she just went without saying anything! Unbelievable! Does anyone actually think I'm captain here?! I've had enough!"

"This is WAR!" Wyper snaps, finally letting the anger explode. He has been making purple and gray idiot bands for the past hour and honestly no one has the heart to ask him why. "I'm dragging them by the foot and tying them to the damn flagpole!"

"...why do I have a vivid image of Aisa getting subjected to that?" Usopp says, a little worried.

"Speaking of punishment, I could really use some help filling in my medicine tubes and rumble balls," Chopper says. "It's pretty strenuous work and we all use it up so fast around here."

"I… want to put Robin-san in a long dress…" Conis says, "she doesn't let me dress her in anything… Anne too…" .

"Honestly, if Robin and Anne think this is enough to get us off their backs, they've got a lot coming for them," Gin says, "especially Anne. She's probably got a plan that involves putting herself in danger like this and this is not the first time I can't fucking believe she's still doing it she learned nothing from getting sliced to pieces by fucking Crocodile…"

"Gin, calm down! Calm down! Your heart can't take the stress right now!" Chopper yelps, "Merry, do you have my pillboxes?!"

Merry proceeds to open her gigantic mouth to reveal a huge storage chest.

"Yeah, that!"

"WOAH! Merry's got a fourth dimension in her mouth!"

"Seriously?" Franky groans. "None of you want to take this seriously?"

"We are very serious!" Nami insists, loudly slamming a hand on the map. "Now, listen up, ya maggots! Coby's going to give us a rundown of the layout of Enies Lobby and all the Devil Fruits we're facing. Then we'll split into groups!"

Beaming brightly as he sits under the map, cradling his notebook like the happiest man on earth, "I'm Coby! I know everything, nice to meet you!"

"YEAH!" the Strawhat crew immediately roar back in affirmation, with varying degrees of motivation ranging from anger to excitement. Even Kinoko raises a wing and Suu sings in agreement, Tyrannosaurus echoing it all with the Den Den Mushi family.

"Hey, why're we listening to your orders anyways?!" Franky snaps.

"Shut up and sit down, Bakanky, if you keep retorting to everything like that you'll run out of energy before we get there," Iceburg says.

"No one's going to question this positive energy?" Paulie murmurs, unheard. "Am I too old for this shit?"

"Purupurupuru… Kachack. "

"Hi, this is Belle's Tangerines, reporting for a business shipment to Morning Glory," the lady's voice rings out clear and confident, the Den Den Mushi sitting calmly at the top of the train. "Regarding the purchase order set to ship today to San Faldo, we'll need a window of arrival to ensure there's a reception at the door."

A face smashes into the hatch right beside the snail, the soldier knocked right out cold with a broken nose.

Sanji sighs, planting his foot upon the man's back. Vivi comes by with a rope, looking between the snail and Sanji, baffled.

"Oh dear, I was expecting you a little later," Sanji says, his voice lilting despite the raging winds around him, "We can't do the pickup at San Faldo due to the ongoing festival, plus some mechanical difficulties and obstruction to the train tracks… I'll have to advise the next delivery date and location, please hold on."

Sanji nudges his chin forward, and Vivi hustles forward, tying up the man quickly before latching him onto Carue's back along with several other unconscious soldiers.

"Back to the last carriage with you," Vivi whispers.

Carue nods, rushing forward, the poor unconscious soldiers getting flung around behind him, knocking into everything along the way.

"We can do St Poplar, the last station," Sanji suggests. "Evening today would work for you?"

"Alright, see you then," the lady on the other end of the phone says.

"Watch out for derailments! The weather's not looking too great, and I would hate for any of the stock to be damaged. And of course, yourself as well."

"Well aren't you a charmer. Stay safe as well."

Sanji hangs up.

Vivi balks, "is it just me, or you didn't agree?"

"Exactly," Sanji says, "I can't lie to my dear Nami-swan."

Vivi nods mirthfully, "you know what, that's very fair."

Sanji slides the baby Denden toward Vivi, who tucks it under her jacket. There's a thick bind of bandages heavy around her chest, and the makeshift cast and brace around Sanji's foot is good enough for now.

Sanji lets his cloak unlatch and fly off in the wind, and they affix their masks one more time.

In the distance, the Sea Train is steadily slowing down, the island with an ongoing Masked Festival, San Faldo, in a visible distance.

"The plan begins once Carue unlatches the last carriage with all the animals in it," Sanji says. "All the love and luck to you, Miss Wednesday."

"This is really bad! No one noticed the last trail car when it was cut off, that cart had exotic animals on it that were going to be used for the parade! Now the circusmaster and performers are furious!"

Blueno frowns. He'd wondered why the train had a delay in setting off. It wasn't the weather after all.

San Faldo is bustling, the festival's cheer roaring through the town with fanfare. Most of the passengers alighted from the train here, a crowd of costumed figures weaving through costumed figures right beyond the window.

The soldiers were reorganising themselves-– the only passengers left are businessowners and miscellaneous tourists headed to St Poplar, so they've pushed them all to the cars at the end, and left an empty car's space between the prisoners and the civilians.

The soldiers also seem to be uneasy, though no one's reported the situation to him yet.

Blueno looks outside, frowning.

He's in luck that the infiltrating… whoever those masked people were, probably Strawhats… revealed themselves early. He took care of them quickly enough, so they shouldn't—

—ah.

Miss Wednesday smiles from the other side of the glass window, glancing in and winking cheekily, right at Blueno. She follows the crowd and disappears into it so quickly, Blueno's breath halts, eyes widening in surprise.

Blueno stands up immediately, throwing open the doors of the next train car.

It's not empty.

The train whistles, signalling its departure, and Blueno frowns at the blond man in a mask that covers the top half of his face. He's damp from the rain and seawaters, but he lights his cigarette and takes a heaving drag.

"Greetings," he says, "oh, you can call me Mister Prince, by the way. I am the uh… mysterious, coolest and most gentlemanly of the— nevermind, how does Usopp do this so easily? Give me a second, I didn't think it'd be this hard to come up with a backstory—"

"How did you survive?"

Mister Prince lifts his head, and in a farce of innocence, beams.

"Oh, and I unlatched the other trains back there," like it's no big deal, "it was kinda tough work getting them all in there, but it's okay. The civilians are safe in the undisturbed middle car and they'll figure out what's wrong soon, no biggie."

The train departs. No one opens the door behind Mister Prince.

He got thrown off the train at top speed. His foot was broken. The woman had been stabbed by Finger Pistols— they shouldn't have managed to make it here, at the very least not so soon.

"I am a Prince, you see, it is my job to surpass myself and save my Princess," he says, grinning cheekily. "Be it hell or high water, knights in shining armour don't complain about the tides and the—woAH!"

He jerks aside when Blueno lashes out a Rankyaku in his direction, severing sharply through the door.

"Hey c'mon now!" Prince chides, "don't you know interrupting a Prince is heresy? And I thought I was doing pretty good, considering I made that up on the spot and all!"

The rushed departure from Water Seven was a mistake. Now Blueno's surrounded by incompetent men, and he's not capable of—

—his eyes widen as he realizes that the woman must be in the other train car with Nico Robin and Marianne.

"Curses—!!"

Miss Wednesday is standing in the center of the car, tossing something— a dial— forward and onto the ground. It rolls and bounces against the chairs, cluttering sharply and getting lost under the seats, filling the room abruptly with some gaseous substance.

Robin stands up with a sigh, and Anne climbs to the backrest, perching upon it with an amused hum.

"Don't move!" Miss Wednesday declares. "The gas I've just thrown is flammable," she lifts a lighter in her hand. "You want your hostages alive, don't you? Not a move out of you, and if you create any of your air doors, I'm blowing all of us up."

Blueno stills. "You expect me to believe you're capable of just performing group suicide this second? You must think I'm a joke."

"Oh, of course not. None of us are dying," Miss Wednesday smiles. "But Puffing Tom will stop running. And from there, you will have no train to Enies Lobby… at least, none that can bring you there before our crew gets here."

Blueno scowls. "You really think the rest of your crew are coming?"

"We don't think," Mister Prince says, lighting up a cigarette with a smirk. "We know."

They grin, confident, as Miss Wednesday steps forward. "Now, you're going to tell me what you've got over Robin and Anne's heads. And once we deal with whatever nonsense it is…" she extends a hand in Robin's direction, "we'll be dragging our little flower back to the Going Merry with us all, aye?"

Robin sighs, loud and disappointed.

Miss Wednesday pauses in confusion— and confusion warps into alarm when arms sprout from her sleeves, weaving between her palm into the base of her fingers before— it morphs into fear , when Robin sharply twists her wrist out of place, forcing the lighter out from her grip.

Her weapon strings hidden under her sleeves are plucked out quickly, and the multitude of arms form a colliding rope to wrench her limbs painfully outward her body, her shoulder loosing a dangerous pop as she gasps and stumbles.

And then— and then the pain blooms and Miss Wednesday wails, face grinding against the ground as robin shoves her flat against the floor.

Mister Prince's cigarette falls.

"...wh– what? Why— Robin!" he hisses.

"It's unbelievable I still need to make myself clear," Robin says, her tongue lapping through her words with disgust. "I want nothing to do with this crew any longer, and this is not a joke!"

Blueno turns around— and the tables have flipped once again.

Mister Prince clicks his tongue.

"At least give us a decent explanation," he grounds out. "This is a pirate crew! You can't just leave without a word, that's not how it fucking works around here!" he snaps. "You know better than anyone that if you want to leave an organisation like this, you better burn it down on your way out or we're never letting you go!"

Robin reels, a look of pure astonishment flashing across her eyes before it shifts quickly into frustration.

"You don't know," the words tear out of her, filled with so much more than just a sheer grudge. "You don't know what on earth you're even fighting against. All you know to do is follow the orders of our all-knowing Navigator and Sharpshooter… what will my explanation do for you, when you've come this far being so blind?"

Anne glances toward Robin— toward Miss Wednesday, struggling to lift her head and glare toward her– toward Mister Prince, who's at a loss for words, and toward Blueno, who comes back to this car with an air door.

Anne breathes in, and breathes out, and she recognizes the smell of this perfume well.

"That's why I said…" Anne says, "it's useless, you know. You can't win, neither in this train, nor later when Rob Lucci arrives."

As long as Anne is here, and as long as Rob Lucci is in charge of this case… Anne and Robin will be sent to Enies Lobby, and they will walk through the Gates of Justice. Maybe last time around, they busted through with sheer effort— but Anne cannot foresee a logical path of escape where they can all get out of this alive.

These efforts are pointless.

("Things will always go the way I imagine them to," she had said so long ago, her face unmoving and her lip pulled thin. "I understand emotions, conceptually. But reasonably, I believe they have no purpose. Thus, I discarded them.")

Anne has always been gray and monotonous. As a member of Baroque Works, Anne found colours, and as a Strawhat, she found emotions.

Left with a sketchbook on the Sea Train, Anne doesn't miss them.

Anne forgets, very easily, how to miss anything at all.

That's nothing out of the ordinary. She's manufactured to be as efficient, productive, and clear-cut as possible. Remembering emotions had just been a temporary bug in the system.

(Blueno made her throw out her accessories. The bangles, that used to click subtly with each movement, they're no longer there. She'd taken off her pendant, and left it with the others. Does it matter any longer?)

Now, colorless and gray, things are just as they should be.

There is nothing wrong with any of this.

Blueno picks up Miss Wednesday by a fistful of hair, dragging her up just as Mister Prince steps into the open doors of the train car. He opens a door to his left and to the ground, retrieving the Breath Dial before promptly shutting it off.

Mister Prince fixes his glare on Robin, then, on Blueno.

"Fine, don't make me understand," Mister Prince says.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Blueno warns, as Robin lets go of Miss Wednesday only for Miss Wednesday's free hand to vainly reach upwards, weakly clawing at Blueno's hand— but the grip is tight, and the Breath dial is close. "I'm fairly certain none of us will die if you light this train car on fire. But the first to go… you understand," he shatters the dials, a jet of gas bursting right upon Vivi's torso, showering her with the mildly condensed perfume.

Mister Prince clicks his tongue. He has a lighter, but he'd snubbed the lit cigarette out at the further door and he doesn't think Robin will let him try anything else.

"This won't be enough to stop us," Prince declares. "Don't think for a second that any of us will give up with just this much."

Blueno scoffs. "Ridicu—"

"I'm not talking to you!" Prince snarls. He's glares at Blueno, seething at the way he handles Miss Wednesday, but then turns his attention fully to Anne and Robin. "We will win this war. I don't know shit about how that's possible, what we'll have to go through to get to it, and what that even means… but we'll win this war."

Robin's fists ball. "How naive can you get?!"

"Call me naive or stupid all you want," Prince says. "I don't care if you don't trust any of us, I don't care if we're jumping into fucking hellfire with no reasonable hope to win! We have nakama that went through that fucking hell and they came back to make sure we weren't left behind, isn't that enough reason to trust?!"

Anne's eyes widen, just slightly.

Robin bites down on her bottom lip, infuriated. "Didn't you see what I did to the Sharpshooter? Don't you remember what I did to Alabasta?" she says. "Enough. Nothing's worth this. I would do it all and worse again without hesitation, so just leave me alone!"

You could hear a pin drop in that train car, the waves lapping furiously as the sea train steams on forward to their next stop, the conductor none the wiser.

Blueno heaves a breath, exhausted. He's not in the mood for this stupid internal conflict in the Strawhats, but at the very least, it's working in his favour.

Miss Wednesday chuckles, light and dry.

"You know what, Robin, you've got a point," she admits, her dislocated arm hanging limp against her lap, her cloak resting weakly upon her figure, slowly sliding off. Her hand reaching toward Blueno's grip in her hair eases, slumping slowly downward. "You've committed so much crime, ruined so many lives. How could anyone you've faulted ever forgive you? How could Vivi, the Princess of Alabasta, even fathom the idea of anything but the worst fate for you?"

She lifts her head into a cheeky smile.

Robin turns around in surprise when the door toward the conductor's room slams open behind them, Carue squawking loud and feral at them all. Blueno whirls around in alarm, his free arm reaching into a door.

But something else wrenches his attention back.

Miss Wednesday allows a string blade to slide out of his sleeve, into his hands. Her eyes never leave Robin.

"You know, Robin. Luckily, the one that came to save you is neither someone that can hold a grudge against you, nor someone that has been personally faulted by you," she says.

She's a liar. What a liar. Unhesitant, unflinching, unashamed lies through her teeth—

( So why is she smiling? Robin doesn't understand why Vivi is smiling at her, so genuine, so sincere, and so close to bursting to tears. This must be killing her inside, to be helping the one person that was so crucial to her suffering. So why is she smiling? )

"The one that came to help you is Miss Wednesday, your old subordinate who owes you a favour, you know?"

Carue crashes into Blueno's Iron-Body augmented feet, right as something ignites by Sanji's feet. It's not a cigarette, it's not a lighter, but Blueno can't tell what it is before the blade loops around Miss Wednesday's hair and lops it right off beneath Blueno's fingers.

The surprise takes Blueno off guard— and that's all the seconds they need. A heel comes up so quickly, Blueno barely activates Iron Body only for the heel to smash right through the barrier to a resounding, barely held-together crack at his neck.

It's when he's reeling over that impact Miss Wednesday falls, using her teeth to get an angle with her strings— and sends the poisoned blade plunging right into Blueno's eye.

And then Mister Prince is wrapping his arms bodily around her, Carue's desperate advance not stopping for even a second as pain erupts in a groan of rising flames.

—and the explosion rocks the seas, ruptures the train car into several pieces, and sends the entire cabin soaring off the rails.

"We may not be able to win now, but mark my words."

Blueno runs so fast and so far, all his energy to catch Anne and Robin in his air doors before he loses sight of them. He escapes to what's left of the first car.

The conductor has finally noticed the commotion and he's sincerely freaking out, and Blueno doesn't entertain him. Nico Robin and Amrianne are by his side, Marianne holding onto Miss Wednesday's fallen cloak, and Nico Robin sighing in bafflement.

Mister Prince's voice rings out loud and clear, and so reverberating, he can hear it echoing in his door dimension, haunting him.

"With just two members, we tore this Sea Train down to this miserable state," Mister Prince snarls. "Once the rest of our crew get shere, you better be ready for us to pick you and your shitty government apart bit by bit, even worse. If you're lucky, we'll leave you with just your head on a silver platter."

It's not an empty threat.

Those crazy bastards, they're serious. They didn't think twice to blow themselves up to get to this point— they'll do it. They'll declare war on the World Government, completely unhinged.

"Mark my words."

"S- Sir?! Sir! Are you okay, you're bleeding!' the conductor panics. "We need to stop the train and get back to— no, it may be faster to stop at St POplar, it's a minute away, I'm so sorry. I'm so— oh my god the train exploded—"

"Don't stop at St Poplar," he says.

"...huh. What?"

"Go straight to Enies Lobby," Blueno says, his voice low and haunting as he tears the blade from his eye and tosses it aside. "No more detours."

"B- But…" he clamps shut at Blueno's frosty glare. "Y- Yes sir! Will do!"

"Go sit inside, Nico Robin, Marianne," Blueno grumbles. "No more tricks, or you'll be dead before we get there."

Robin obediently follows.

"Are you going to be fine with the poison, Mister Blueno?" Anne drapes Miss Wednesday's cloak around her shoulders.

"It's none of your business," Blueno snarls, "and you're not allowed any unchecked clothing other than your hat."

Anne obediently strips off the cloak and chucks it, ornaments and all, into the ocean blue. There didn't seem to be any tricks on it.

(He doesn't notice the Baby Den Den Mushi crawling on the inside of her wrist, sliding quietly into the gaps of her beret.)

(When she turns to head into the conductor's car after Robin, there's a gentle smile on her face, and a forlorn look in her eyes.)

"Hey, Robin. People are fascinating, aren't they?" she says.

Robin turns to her inquiringly, and Anne's shoulders droop with ease.

"I give up, when things seem pointless and impossible, I was built that way," he turns back toward the sea, the wind whipping her hair around violently as she holds onto her beret, and the train whistles to continue trucking on its rails.

She breathes and the world moves, on and on. She closes her eyes and sighs, but her resignation is no longer tired and heavy.

"People are meant to struggle, aren't they," Anne muses, "struggle, struggle… and come out of the fires of hell alive."

Robin tenses at the phrasing.

"I never get tired of watching what they'll do," Anne says.

Robin frowns.

"I am. I'm sick and tired of it, so much I hope they'd just never get back up again."

Anne nods, turning around and heading into the conductor's car, stealing the one spare seat and looking at the sea forward.

She says nothing else.

Robin turns away, deigning conversation meaningless herein.

Neither of them were going to fight. Robin didn't quite know if her situation was similar— she didn't know if Anne still had any fight in her at all.

Even if she did, it'd be extinguished quickly.

That was just inevitable, after all.

"What's that?"

"STRAW HAAAATS, LOOK AHEAD, AHEAD, TWELVE O'CLOCK!"

"There's a train!"

"WHAT?"

"Is it Sanji and Vivi?! Did they succeed?!"

The Rocketman goes into chaotic mayhem— even more than before, that is— when they spot a loose train car before them. It's still a far distance away, barely a speck in the horizon, but since it's on the rails and not moving, it's not that hard to notice.

Luffy squints, confused.

"I'll go look," Wyper suggests, leaning partially out the window. He's already got his Wavers on, bazooka in hand.

Yokozuna croaks, confused. How?

"Nah, I'll go," Luffy says, even though he'd just gotten comfortable with a fluffy cat Merry neck pillow and all, "I wonder if it's Sanji and Vivi!"

"Hmm…. I hear a lot of voices," Coby frowns, "there are a few humans, but I can't really identify them…"

"Dude your range what the hell ," Nami says, "I thought I was being humble. I was not. I suck. I'll go out on a limb here and say you're the best we've met thus far."

"I have been humbled…" Usopp covers his face, "I will never brag about being all-seeing again…"

"Am I the only one that thinks something is wrong with those sentences?!" Zoro's voice conveyed so much exasperation that Iceburg sulkily patted him on the shoulders in sincere empathy.

"Wait, you're going? How?" Conis asks.

"Just hurry up," Gin says, "I don't think it's them, but no harm in checking."

"Do you have a Baby Den Den Mushi, Luffy?" Chopper asks, "tell me immediately if someone's hurt, okay?"

"NOPE! ONLY ANIMALS AND MARINES HERE!"

The Den Den Mushi is picked up to a fluffy of gunshots, screaming, absolutely chaotic frantic shouting of orders to apprehend that pirate! That's a pirate! Oh my god bullets aren't getting him?! Stop him!!! To no avail.

"These animals honestly look super yummy. We should grab one for our pre-battle snack," Luffy suggests.

"Agreed," Wyper says, "We can't go into war on an empty stomach."

"Vetoed, because what the fuck," Gin says.

"I'm hungry, so I'm for it," Zoro says."Zoro, you can't flip around the roles of rationality like this, you're going to drive Gin's blood pressure through the roof," Chopper says. Kinoko caws in resigned agreement.

"I- uhm…" Conis hesitates, "I… honestly think it'd be a good idea to eat well before a battle…" Suu enthusiastically agrees, raising a paw.

"Conis-san is right! Energy is important!" Coby agrees.

Merry raises both arms and noisily bleats an incessant tune. Chimney and Gonbe, sporting similar wide toothy smiles, follow Merry on the food chant. They are both very disappointed at Usopp's next words.

"Forget it, Luffy, Sanji's not around," Usopp says.

"Yeah, I'm not in the mood to cook in this humidity, my arm's killing me," Nami says. "And no, we are not starting a fire in this train car to cook your damn giraffe."

"Wait, how'd you know I was thinking of grabbing the giraffe?!"

"There's actually a giraffe in there?!" Nami's voice conveyed so much surprise that Usopp burst out laughing.

"What's a giraffe?" Wyper asks. No one answers him.

"Awwwwh," Luffy whines, before huffing in resignation. "Okay fine. We'll find something else to eat. Sanji's not here, so the food won't be good anyways."

"Okay, good," Nami says.

"When has the quality of food ever stopped him?" Gin asks, mortified.

"Uhm…" Paulie hesitantly speaks up, having been looking between all of them for the past entire conversation being utterly baffled. "Hold on, are you guys seriously just… accepting this all in stride?"

Iceburg, meanwhile, has only had his palm in his face for the past hour or so.

Utterly flabbergasted, the rest of the Franky family compose themselves with weapons and manpower.

"Don't worry! Uh! Bros! There's literally a carriage of marines before us but it is absolutely NOTHING to worry about!" Zambia declares, incredulously. "At your orders, Franky-aniki!"

"YEAH it's SUPER nothing to worry about!" Franky declares, "on it, men, get the cannons ready— avoid the animals though! I have fifty-seven charges of public indecency over the past month but I draw the line at animal cruelty!"

"Ooooyyy, ZOOOROOOOO!"

Everyone falls confusedly silent when Luffy hollers at them from the distance waving enthusiastically for attention, even though he should know that the Den Den Mushi is connected.

Zoro yawns, deciding to finally get up from his spot.

"Yes, captain?"

Everyone can literally hear the grin on Luffy's face as he says his next words.

"This thing's in the way! So cut it!"

"Fuck. Son of a fucking, BITCH. Bloody fucker he should DEAD, shitbiscuits maryland dante hippocampus damnation fuck f—"

Carue whines.

Does he seriously have to deal with this noise two inches from his broken beak?

"FUCK ow OW," Sanji roars louder, face desperately shoved in his hands just clutching onto Carue's neck to avoid just sinking down into the deadly waters as he croaks , "fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK. Fuck. AAH." It goes on.

"Sanji-san…"

Vivi is draped over Carue's back, Sanji clinging to the duck's neck firmly with his casted leg just barely laid over trembling and trembling over the raft they've managed to cling onto. Carue is desperately waddling to keep afloat. The raft is helping. They're all dizzy and their heads are killing them and—

"Sanji-san… what possessed you to kick Blueno in the face with your broken foot?"

"I d-on't even knOW, OKAY," he wails, still suffering the wrath of the gods apparently. It must be serious if he isn't speaking politely to Vivi. He isn't even turning to look. "What possessed you?! Hair… your haiiiiiiiir… Nami will kill me if I don't kill myself first…"

"Ehehe…" Vivi's eyes are closed as she nurses her killer headache and cringing burns against Carue's feathers. Her voice slurs, almost sleepily, "hehe, you know, actually, I've wanted to do something like that for a while… it happens a lot in the swashbuckler genre and stuff…"

"...like the drop-dead gorgeous bounty hunter, Moulin Rouge?"

"Yes. Her stories are mainly what I modeled Miss Wednesday after, actually. I love stories like that. Stories in general… oh. How's the logbook after I left? How much do I have to salvage?"

"So you did it just to look cool ," Sanji sobs. He doesn't care anymore. The water is soaking through everything and if they don't drown they will straight up die from the pain.

"Yes and I regret nothing…"

Carue squawks, absolutely annoyed. Shut up already! There's a fine line between humans that are on the verge of death and humans that are deliriously drunk, and Carue hates that he's bearing witness to this right now.

"Thank you stupid duck," Sanji drawls, as Carue furiously paddles them toward the rails, squirming his way up the rails onto some form of purchase. Sanji weakly pats Carue on the head, though it comes like a series of weak thumps, "you're great. I'll cook you good food later. Ow."

He heaves when Carue dips his head and Sanji goes heel over bottoms flopping down on the raft as it rests on the rails.

"Ow. That really hurt. Ow. You are killing me shitty duck. Ow."

"Love you Carue…" Vivi murmurs.

Carue doesn't care. He angrily quacks for one of them to make themselves useful damn it you have opposable thumbs! Do I have to do everything around here! Carue drags the raft with Sanji on it steadily across the rails bit by bit, grunting with effort.

St Poplar is just barely visible in the distance.