So, my computer had an accident and needed to be sent away for repairs. I don't know how I managed to everything done on time, but I suppose strife breeds innovation. Anyway, here's your next chapter.

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Now, on to the chapter!

Chapter 39:

Uncomfortable Circumstances

The air around Fusha Village was calm, the windmills for which the village got its name turning slowly in the breeze. The streets were not packed, but they still contained a hustle and bustle found in many small towns across the world. The sun dipped low, casting its light across the sky in such a way as to paint it with streaks of reds, yellows, and oranges, the clouds tinged pink as they drifted to far-off places. The grass was a healthy green, vibrant against the well-trod brown roads that led hither and yon. Among the rest of the setting and settlement, everything else was its own, appropriate color, shade, and hue. Altogether, a picturesque scene.

The patrons of a certain bar ambled home as they finished their evening revelry, a buzz burning through their nerves and smiles stretching their faces. The owner of the bar, one certain green-haired woman, calmly swept the floor in preparation for business the next day. She hummed to herself, remembering times before when her establishment had been filled with the rowdy laughter of friendly pirates. The thought brought her short, her head turning until she spied her pride, the wanted poster that hung behind the bar of a smiling teen with a straw hat and its pair containing a smile woman she had never met.

A pounding at the door shattered the calm serenity of the fading evening, the bang bang bang echoing through the bar's interiors.

"Makino!" the voice of an old man called between the noise. "Makino! Are you in there‽"

"I'm coming!" the woman called, setting her broom aside and making her way across the floor. She turned the deadbolt, opening the door. A short, frazzled man with grey hair stumbled across the doorway, barely catching himself to avoid falling. "Mayor Woopslap? Why are you being so loud? And after close, no less."

"You need to see this, Makino! I don't know how you did it, but I'm blaming you for this!"

"What are you talking about, Mayor?"

The man raised his hand, waving a thin newspaper crumpled in his grip.

"This! That little brat you babied all these years and never dissuaded from becoming a pirate is besmirching the name of our great village again! And he's managing to follow in your footsteps while he does it, even from halfway around the world!"

"Oh, is this paper about Luffy?" A smile spread over her face, the woman snatching the paper out of Woopslap's hand. "It's been too long since we've heard anything about his exploits, though I suppose it doesn't help that we're so far out of the way. I was getting worried."

"Don't celebrate!" the mayor frowned. "That boy isn't living the life of any good, self-respecting person! He's out there killing and pillaging and stealing and any manner of other horrible things!"

"Pish posh," Makino waved off. "Luffy's not like that. You should know better."

"He should know better!" Woopslap argued. "And yet he went off and became a pirate, so I can't say I trust anything that boy's ever done!"

"I wonder what he could have done to get you in such a twist," Makino giggled, her musical laugh dancing through the air. "Now be quiet while I look this over, unless you want to be the one calming my baby down after waking from their nap?"

"No, I'd rather not," Woopslap muttered, his eye darting to the wall that hid Makino's living arrangements. The same living arrangements that were no longer hers alone.

"Then hush." Makino flicked the paper, straightening it out. It was dated to several days before, but such was not uncommon for news just reaching their little town. Her eyes skimmed the headline, widening as she slowly comprehended what she was reading. "…What?"

"Exactly," Woopslap nodded.

"He…?"

"Yes."

"Then that girl…?"

"Seems like it."

"I can't believe it." Makino leaned against the bar, her eyes darting as she read the article. "It feels like just yesterday Luffy was a little kid running around screaming at Shanks that he was going to be a great pirate."

"Believe it or not, that was more than a decade ago, Makino," the mayor of the town said.

"And you're still a grumpy old man."

"I am not grumpy!"

"But you aren't denying being old," the bartender chuckled. She opened the paper, her eyes falling on the yellowed poster held within. "Oh Goda, he's adorable!"

"He looks like a little hellion," Woopslap muttered. "Only relief I get is that he's not here to do something like stealing my cane or raising a ruckus in the market."

"Now, Woopslap," Makino admonished. "Luffy and his brothers only did that once." She looked back at the poster, her gaze moving over the name. "…oh."

"What?"

Makino didn't respond, leaning more weight on the bar as she slid onto a stool.

"Makino?"

"Mayor, did you read this?"

"Eh, I couldn't stomach it," the old man waved off. "Why?"

"Luffy… He named his kid Ace." A tear rolled down the woman's cheek as she studied the picture. "Oh, Luffy. I'm so happy for you."

Woopslap sighed, a wan smile coming to his face as Makino continued to study the photo. "Let's hope that kid isn't as much trouble as Luffy was." Woopslap stopped. "Actually, no. I hope the kid is a lot of trouble. Luffy deserves a taste of his own medicine for all the trouble he gave us."

"Oh, I'm sure they're on some fantastical adventure like the ones Shanks would tell when he and his crew were here."

"And I'll tell you again, Makino, that those tales they told are simply impossible. Devil Fruits might be real, but islands in the sky? Water that rises out of the ocean like serpents? Men that can cut ships in half with a butter knife? Such things do not exist."

"Well, I believe in them," Makino huffed. "Oh, I can't wait to see Dadan's face when she learns about this. Now get me that stepstool over there. I need to pin this poster up."

The constant, echoing buzz of clanking, groaning, and moving machinery was all that filled the trash room below the laboratory of Punk Hazard. The lighting here was subpar at the best of times, but more often than not were the rolling mounds of trash covered in darkness. The rank stench of rotting material floated through the air, a nasty undercurrent where the only air that could be called fresh carried with it another load of garbage to add to the mountains.

"Zzzzzzzzz."

And atop one of these mountains laid the sleeping form of Monkey D. Luffy, the pirate captain spread out over the refuse like one might nap on a hillside after a filling picnic. His striped coat bore stains of questionable origins, but the smells and sensations of the trash room did nothing to reduce the man's salivation as he snored away, his mind's eye dreaming of an endless buffet of dragon meat and dragon omelets.

"C'mere derg'n," the sleeping pirate muttered, his hands reaching upward. "I jus' wanna bite. Jus' one. Gimmie!"

He shifted, the pile beneath him giving way in such a manner as to send him rolling to the floor. The cold stone did not manage to awaken him, but the shifting trash succeeded where the floor failed, the falling mountain eliciting a gasp as it landed on the man.

"Hey!" Luffy yelled, his exclamation garbled beneath the refuse. "The Hell? I'm not" —he bust upward, flinging garbage hither and yon— "a piece of trash!"

"Piece of trash… trash… trash…" His voice echoed off the walls. Luffy cast his gaze around, finding nothing but darkness and garbage. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the lighting, but all he found were mountains of machine parts and food waste. He frowned, his eyebrows knitting together as he tried to remember where he was and why he was here, counting such things on his fingers.

"Let's see… We explored the burning island… We crossed the lake… We met the crocotaur… Zoro got lost again… We met the boss guy and— Hey! That boss guy drugged us! Coby! Robin! Merry! Usopp! Any of you here‽"

"Here… here… here…"

"…" Luffy blinked, recognizing the voice as his own. He shrugged. "Well, they're tough and'll be fine. Hello‽ Anyone here‽"

Something clattered in the distance, Luffy's head whipping around to zero in on the direction. His adventure senses tingling (or maybe that was just boredom), he followed the sound, jumping up to climb the closest mountain of machine parts.

Even from the new vantage point, mountains and rounded grey walls were all he could see. There were no doors anywhere, the only openings being circular holes along the ceiling or what appeared to be thick, sliding doors set high along the walls. Hanging from the ceiling were half a dozen cranes of different sizes set into a crisscrossing network of lines between the trash chutes. Luffy was somewhere near one of the sides, but terminology like north or south were smart things only Nami understood and he nodded along to, even at the best of times. As it was now with no contact to the outside, the pirate didn't have a chance of finding his directions.

"Well, nothing to do but explore!" Luffy laughed to himself, taking a step forward to slide down the mountain. He cast his eyes around to see all there was to see, his mind trying and failing to figure out what the scrapped machines had done and what happened to them to make them wind up here.

He walked for several minutes, his boredom growing with each. He tried dancing, singing songs, and even arguing with himself (No, Me! It doesn't matter than Sanji said meat isn't a food group!), but it was only after reuniting with his crew and family did Luffy realize how truly he hated being alone. Popping the joints in his neck and loosening his arms, Luffy prepared to escape.

He stopped. Something was watching him.

"Hello?" he tried again, turning his head further than any normal person could in an attempt to get a glimpse of whoever or whatever had its eye on him. "I know you're there. Come out."

Luffy's discerning eye finally caught onto something, two lines of brown sticking out over a pile of metal. Finding this odd —as any sane person would even though Luffy's sanity was questionable— the pirate captain launched his stretchy arm forward, taking hold of one of the lines. It turned out to be a horn, the retracting of Luffy's arm pulling with it a creature that was long and pink.

"Waaahhhh!"

The creature hit the floor, rolling in over itself like a scaly coil of rope. Luffy frowned, trying to identify what it was. The thing's skin was covered in pink scales, four clawed appendages confirming it was not a snake, but it must be some kind of lizard. Fringes and flairs lined its face and body with accents of yellow, such including two barbels that looked like a funny Fu Manchu. The end of its tail had a yellow accent shaped like fire and the brown horns each boasted two rounded points.

"That hurt!" the creature yelled, surging upward to get in Luffy's face. "What kind of person drags others around by their horns‽ What manner of demon are you?"

"I'm not a demon!" Luffy laughed, wholly unconcerned that this creature could talk. "I'm a pirate!"

"You look nothing like a pirate! Pirates are 15 feet tall with horns and big beards and they break everything and kill people slowly after lying to them! You look like a normal human." He paused. "Ah, why are you salivating?" He was answered with a growl from the older being's stomach. The creature fled backward, hiding himself behind a particularly-large piece of discarded metal. "I am not food! Not for you, not for that horrid master, and not for any normal person, either!"

"I'm not normal, though!" Luffy reached upward, hooking his fingers into the sides of his mouth and pulling. This, as it always had, stretched his mouth beyond normal limitations. "I'm a rubber-man!"

"Rubber-man?" the pink creature echoed, recoiling from the sight. "I have never heard of such a yokai, much less encountered one before. Where you also created by that foul fiend with delusions of deityship over the waking world?"

"I didn't understand any of that, but you're weirder than I am. I mean, you're a talking eel."

"I am not an eel and that horrible man never got his hands on me!"

"Woah there, slow down." Luffy urged, his voice falling into the same pattern he'd use on Ace periodically. "Let's start from the beginning. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm probably not going to eat you."

The creature eyed him warily, slowly coming out from behind the metal. "…Momonosuke."

"Ok Momo—"

"Momonosuke."

"—What are you doing way down here? I got drugged by some weird gas monster and separated from my friends."

"My story is a little more complicated than yours, Mr. Luffy. See, I never wanted to be on this island in the first place, My… father and I were on an island together and I got swept up with a group of children. These men insisted we were sick and that we needed to be taken to a hospital to be cured. I did not want to go with them but was given no choice. I refused to eat or drink anything they had to offer and, eventually, I escaped from the room. While wandering, hungry, I stumbled across a fruit in a glass container. My hunger got the better of me and I stole it, but it tasted nasty. When some of the guards found me, I panicked and somehow changed into this form. I thought I'd escaped by hiding in a trashcan, but they dumped me down here. I have been stuck here in this form for the last many hours. Days, possibly." He looked up from his reminiscing, trying to be certain he did not leave out any important details, only to find the rubber-man digging wax from his ear. "Where you not listening to me‽"

"Nah, I think I got most of it," Luffy waved off. "So, you got down here after eating a Devil Fruit, right? Like, an Eel Fruit or something."

"I'm not an eel!" The not-an-eel pulled himself up to his full height, reaching Luffy's chin while pulling up a face that Luffy guessed was supposed to be proud. "I am Momonosuke, heir of the great Kozuki clan!"

"Never heard of you." Luffy finished picking his ear, flicking the wax away. "Eh, maybe Coby or Robin have. They're the smart ones that know the names of all the famous people. Anyway, if you don't what to be an eel, why don't you just change back?"

"I can change back? How?"

"I don't know," the pirate shrugged, leaning against a flat piece of metal. "You ate a weird fruit and transformed, so that was probably a Zoan Devil Fruit. I'm a Paramecia, so I don't do the whole 'turning into an animal' thing, but Coby, Chopper, or Kaku should be able to help you once we find them. All of them are Zoans."

"You have friends that can also transform?"

"Yup! Coby's a dinosaur, Chopper's a reindeer, and Kaku's a giraffe."

"So you… you really think I can regain my human form?"

"Oh, yeah. No question!" Luffy nodded with a smile, the tension in Momonosuke's body unwinding. "See, the thing about Zoan Fruits is they normally give you three body things: human, animal, and something in between a lot of people call hybrid. All the Zoans I know call them different things, though. Chopper calls his Points, Coby calls his Modes, and Kaku… I don't actually know what he calls his. Eh, doesn't matter. Point is, Zoans can do a lot of weird things with their bodies, and that's coming from me when I'm made of rubber. Shishishi!"

"Then I can change," Momonosuke breathed. "That is a relief."

"Anyway, Momo—"

"Momonosuke."

"—do you know how to get out of here? I don't remember getting here in the first place. I was asleep or something."

"If I knew, I wouldn't still be here! Ah, I apologize for my outburst, but that was a foolish question. If I could escape on my own, I would have by now."

"Well, let's work together to find a way out," Luffy suggested. "Coby and Nami say two heads are better than one. I don't really know what that means, but this seems like a time when they'd say that."

"Mommy, this is boring."

Nami closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm her growing anger. She was currently still in the 'annoyance' stage, but not for lack of unconscious trying on the part of her son. He was sat upon her shoulders, his hands fisting her hair like he would while riding Luffy's shoulders in a way the young mother did not appreciate. His head had been on a swivel from the moment Gin revealed his disregard of previous orders, but the novelty of the inside of the lab quickly lost its luster after the third silent, unknown machine. Maybe if said machinery had been active it would have been different, but the lab's first floor was surprisingly barren and quiet. There were no walls save the rounded exterior, but all the machinery made up for such by creating a sort of maze of metal and wire.

"Not every part of an adventure is fighting or running, Ace. Remember, we're exploring right now."

"But it's boring," the boy repeated. "Real exploring has cool animals and big plants and holes and things! Where's the fun stuff? Where's the bad guys?"

"I don't know, Ace," Nami said, thankful that her baby could not see the way her eye was twitching. "That's why we're looking."

"Will they come out if we yell?"

"We don't want that, Ace. We want to find them, not the other way around."

"But Daddy and Uncle Stupid Moss said—"

"Daddy and Uncle Stu… Uncle Zoro are also freakishly strong, so they don't need to think," Nami interrupted as Sanji bit off a laugh. She let out a sigh. "Listen Sweetheart. Sanji and Gin are strong enough to do that, including not think, and maybe Kaku is too, but you and I are not. And even with how strong they are, the bad guys could easily beat us if they attack before we know they're there. It would be better if we found them first."

"But that's boring!"

"It wouldn't be boring if you really knew how dangerous this is," the young mother muttered, but of course she couldn't tell Ace that. He just wasn't old enough to understand the downsides of adventure. Sure, it was probably her fault for glorifying their journey and telling him about all the highlights without mentioning how terrifying they were in the moment, but she hadn't wanted to give him nightmares.

Now, perhaps, that would have been for the best. Hindsight is everything.

"I found a stairwell," Smoker grunted, interrupting the woman's thoughts. She, the other pirates, Kaku, and the samurai turned to the man, his constant cigar smoke forming a path that took off toward their right. "It seems to rise to the top floor."

"Do you have Fruit powers, old guy?" Ace questioned, causing a vein to pulse on the government man's forehead.

"I am not old, child," he said. "And my name is Marine Commodore 'White Hunter' Smoker. I am only 36."

"Old Man Garp says he's not old even though he's really, really old."

Smoker paused. "You have met retired Vice-Admiral Garp?"

"We saw Old Man Garp on Fishman Island! He's funny, but he doesn't have cool Fruit powers like Daddy or Auntie Robin-sensei or Choppy or Uncle Coby or Auntie Grace or Uncle Gin or Auntie Amy or Grandpa Brook. Do you have cool Fruit powers, Mr. Smokey?"

Smoker turned his eye on the pirates, his frown deepening. He sighed. "Yes, child. I possess the powers of the Plume-Plume Devil Fruit. I am a smoke-man."

"Is that why your name is Smoker?" Ace asked. "Did you change your name?"

"Well, no…"

"Did you look for your Fruit power because of your name?"

"No, child. That—"

"Why's your smoke white? Isn't smoke black?"

"There are different kinds—"

"Is your smoke white 'cause your hair's white? Why's your hair white if you're not old?"

"Child!"

Ace ducked behind his mother's head, clinging to her hair. Nami felt an instinctive glare come up as her child's little hands quivered. Tashigi laid a hand on the handle of her sword, prompting Gin to run sparks through his cornrows. Smoker closed his eyes, waving for Tashigi to stand down.

"My apologies, child, but your questions do not have answers save that that is how it is. I did not look for my Devil Fruit, nor is it connected to my name. One could consider it an ironic joke from Goda himself, but that is the way of the world sometimes."

"Who's Goda?" the boy asked.

"Goda's th' Author o' Fate, Young Master," Gin supplied, folding his arms into his sleeves. "He brought th' world t' life with th' stroke of a pen. He makes each person an' tells each story."

"Sounds like a super-big job." Ace blinked. "So he made Mr. Smokey?"

"Tha's right."

"And Mommy and Daddy?"

"Them too."

"And you and the rest of the crew?"

"Goda made us all," Gin nodded.

"Wow!" Ace's eyes sparkled. "Where is he?"

"In th' world beyond, Young Master."

"There's a place past the Grandy-Line?" the toddler gasped. "I bet it's even cooler and crazier than here! I wanna go there some day!"

"That's not…" Gin trailed off, resting his face in a hand. "Y'know, I think we'll have this talk again when you're older, Young Master Ace."

"Finally," Smoker grunted. "Can we get moving now?"

"I suppose," Nami replied, letting her glare drop. Tashigi relaxed slightly but kept her hand on the handle of her sword. "We just need to follow your smoke to the stairs?"

"Correct. Captain Tashigi, lead the way."

"Yes sir!" The woman stepped forward, leading the group while remaining on the lookout for any dangerous obstructions that may block their path ahead. Kin'emon hand-walked himself over to Gin's side, questioning him about his religious knowledge.

"I don't get it," Ace said. "If the pretty lady's a captain, why's she listening to Mr. Smokey? Daddy's a captain and he only listens to Mommy. Are the pretty lady and Mr. Smokey also married?"

"Not in the slightest," Smoker answered, trying to hold back his visceral response to being called Smokey, even with the honorific of Mister ahead of it.

"Usually, a captain is the head of a ship," Tashigi began, her voice softer than Smoker could ever hope to make his. "That's why Straw Hat… ah, your father, is called a captain by you pirates. For the Marines, however, Captain is just one of many ranks. Commodore Smoker ranks above me and I respect him, so I follow his orders. He's my boss and has been since I joined the Marines as a Seaman Recruit."

"That's silly!" Ace laughed. "No one can be higher'n a captain! Oh, 'cept a king or a queen. My Daddy's gonna go from a captain to a king. That'll make me a prince, 'cause that's how that works, but captains're above princes."

"So queens are also above captains?" Tashigi enquired with a small smirk at the sight of Kin'emon's visible confusion.

"Yeah!" Ace nodded. "Queens are over kings, too! That's what Mommy says, 'cause Daddy'll only listen to Mommy and no one else! If someone doesn't wanna listen to Mommy, she'll make 'em listen to Daddy, so they do what she says anyway."

"How scary," Smoker commented with a sideways glance. "To be able to bring one of the Monkey family to heel, perhaps your bounty should go up. That's a feat no one else has managed to my knowledge."

"Well, it took plenty of time and work," Nami chuckled as the group rounded a corner, a metal door coming into view. It stood at just over eight feet tall with a handle like a ship's wheel in the center. The trail of Smoker's smoke led through the cracks between the door and the doorframe, showing that it was not airtight. At least, it was not currently if it could be made so.

"Pardon, Mademoiselle," Sanji offered, stepping ahead of Tashigi. "Allow me to check to see if this door is trapped. I would not put it past the lowlifes that live here and it would pain me if I allowed even a single hair on your head to be damaged."

"Uncle Pervy Cook's flirting again," Ace stated, the blond whipping around to stare at him aghast. Gin snorted, devolving into full-blown laughs as Kaku shook his head with an amused smile. He'd tried to warn Sanji that Zoro would not take his pettiness lying down, after all.

"What?" Tashigi questioned, instinctively reaching for her sword again. She paused. "Actually, go ahead. If it is trapped, better it hit a pirate than a marine."

Getting over his shock at Ace's moniker for him, Sanji shook his head and stepped up to the door. He raised his leg and pushed, the wheel handle spinning until it hit its limit with a loud clunk. The door swung open, creaking on its old hinges, but no trap appeared.

"Looks like we're in the clear," the man commented, sticking his head in to follow the stairs with his gaze. "We've got three or four levels in total."

"Sunny said she sensed Don Luffy and th' others on th' third floor," Gin reminded them. "I'm not sure I wanna see what's on th' other ones."

"I do!" Ace offered.

"Not until we find your father," Nami denied.

'I see what the other floors have to offer,' Rum commented within Gin's head, making the monk flinch. 'They are delightfully twisted. Fighting them will make us stronger. In fact, they almost seem… familiar?'

"Oh, I don' like that."

"What is it?" Kaku questioned, turning the marines' attentions to the ex-agent and robed pirate.

"My, er, mantra," Gin began, tapping his temple with a finger to avoid giving away too much to those not in the know, "is pickin' up some nasty stuff somewhere. It feels familiar, but I can't place it."

"Nasty stuff?" Ace asked. "Is it worms? Worms are super nasty. Oh, or not-clean bathrooms. Those are nasty, too. Oh, oh! Is it like squashed buggy parts all over your hands? That's the worst ever."

"No, Young Master," Gin chuckled. "I'm talkin' 'bout monsters that're real strong."

"Strong monsters?" the toddler echoed. "Let's go fight them! Daddy got real strong fighting monsters and I wanna do that, too!"

"Not right now," Nami said, hoping her statement would quietly become 'never' once they sailed away from the island. "Gin, can your… mantra… sense the others?"

'Rum?'

'You have received all I will give, my dear oaf.'

'Damn you,'

'The feeling is mutual. Kukuku.'

"No luck, Donna," Gin said aloud with a shake of his head. "I can't find 'em."

"I'd try, but I'm not at the point where I can track people," Sanji admitted, having long ago missed the crew talk about what Haki any of them possessed. "Battle is my focus, I'm afraid."

"Well, let's climb the stairs," Nami sighed, letting Sanji happily lead the way.

"Monsters~ monsters~" Ace sang, reminding Nami of the silly songs Luffy would make up until Brook joined the crew. "Mon-mon-mon-mon-monsters~ Punch 'em in the head~ punch 'em in the gut~ and~ get~ strong~!"

"Kaku?" Gin muttered, walking alongside the tagalong. "I gotta ask, d'ya think we're bad influences on th' Young Master?"

"I can't say," the square-nosed Zoan replied with a shrug, one hand rising to rub his chin. "I mean, I was raised by the government. That didn't do me any favors. His is certainly a better song than the ones we grew up with."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was this one about all the toxins and their effects on the human body. For instance, one verse is about the venom of this wandering spider, which causes men to experience very painful e—"

"I think I get it," the monk interrupted.

"Point is, I'd trade my childhood for the one he'll have in a heartbeat."

"Don't know if I would or—"

GRAAAWHOHOHH!

"The Hell was that?" Smoker growled, one hand reaching up to grab the handle of his jutte. His eyes followed the sound, landing on the door to the second floor.

"Monster!" Ace supplied, helpfully.

"It's something not friendly, that's for sure," Sanji commented.

"We aren't going to get out of here without whatever that was getting loose, are we?" Nami muttered.

"Not iffin th' boss has a release switch," Gin agreed. "Let's leave that for when we're all back together, yeah?"

"But big monsters!" Ace argued.

"As if there was any doubt about him being Luffy's kid." Sanji gave a melancholic chuckle with a shake of his head.

"There is something coming down," Smoker commented, prompting the others to follow his lead and look up. Tashigi went so far as to put her glasses back on.

"It looks like a green cloud?" she said, squinting. She flinched, flecks of something brown falling from above to bounce off her lenes.

"Ah, I think it's dangerous," Gin warned, pointing to the edge of the cloud itself. The metal stairwell wherever the gas touched quickly turned brown and began to fall apart. As they watched, a section of the landing above gave a groan as its loadbearing capability fell below its own load. The post holding it up snapped, the whole thing crumbling as it began its downward journey. The walls seemed mostly unaffected.

"I'll take the monsters over that!" Nami shouted, grabbing the handle to the second floor. Gin and Kaku matched her speed, the three working in tandem to get the portal open. Nami was the first one through, the rest of the group following in her example before Sanji swung the door shut. Barely had the door finished closing before it gave a kerthunk. The stairs loudly fell apart on the other side.

"Did that just…?" Tashigi muttered.

"Yeah," Sanji nodded, testing the handle. "We just got locked in."

"Oh, oh!" Ace said, one little arm waving. "I know what we say when this happens! Old Man Garp taught me!"

"Huh?" Nami blinked. "What are you—?"

"Shit!"

"What a pain. Yeti Cool Brothers, attack."

The two white-furred giants shifted, pulling the triggers of their guns to fire on the spot where Amy stood. The massive projectiles hit the ground with a boom, the earth shaking with the impact. Snow, once settled, rose into the air once more as the localized air pressure increased and decreased in rapid succession. Law stood some distance away, his sword unsheathed at his side and his other hand out, ready to call forth a Room when needed.

"Kyahahaha!" Amy laughed, her voice echoing from within the snowcloud. The wind picked up, blowing away the precipitation the attack had kicked up. She stood in a small crater, her Haki-coated hands each holding a projectile similar in size and make to a small cannonball. "I know our bounties haven't been updated for a couple years, but I really hope you didn't think something like that would do any of us in."

"Do not blame me for being hopeful," Law replied, a sphere of blue extending from his hand to quickly encompass the battlefield. "Room."

"Don't think turning things blue is going to help you!" Amy warned, launching herself forward. "Master Fist!"

"Shambles!"

And Law disappeared, one of the giants filling the space where he'd been. Worse than that, whichever of the brothers it was was in the middle of an uppercut upon the switch. Amy only had time for her eyes to widen before the giant fist impacted, blasting her backward. She hit the ground quickly, carving a trench through the snow and dirt.

"Amy!" Chopper and Brook cried as the marines and children yelled "pirate lady!"

"Ow," the giant muttered, shaking his hand.

"Don't hit my Nakama!" Sunny roared, her cannons firing in a quick B-B-B-BOOM. The projectiles met their target, engulfing the giant's upper body in black smoke.

"Scotch!" the other giant yelled with a deep, rumbling voice. He spun his gun, holding the barrel like one holds the grip of a baseball bat. "I'll get you for that, pirate ship! I'll smash you to kindling!"

"You won't touch her!" Chopper denied, placing himself between the unhurt giant and the Sunny in his Kung Fu Point. "I won't let you! Wa-chaw!"

"Is that a new form, Chopper?" Brook questioned.

"Oh, you haven't seen it yet!" Chopper realized, turning away from the giant to look at Brook, one hoof rising to rub the back of his head. "Yeah, I learned this one during our time apart."

"Less talking, more fighting!" Amy grunted, climbing to her feet. "Also, look out, Chopper."

"Hmm?" The doctor turned to see the giant he was facing had raised his new club over his head. Chopper's eyes popped out. "Aaahhhh!"

The human-reindeer dove out of the way as the weapon hit the snow where he'd been standing with a crunch. Chopper rolled, leaving a divot in the snow as he jumped back the direction from which he'd come, landing on the giant's weapon.

Amy, meanwhile, sized up the giant who had been identified as Scotch, now discernible from his brother by the ash streaked into his upper hair. The same giant that punched her.

"Alright Big, Tall, and Ugly," she said. "You and me, let's go."

He didn't reply, only running forward as if to stomp on the blonde pirate. The ground shook with every step, but Amy only smirked. She dropped into a squat, balling her fists as she coated them with her Haki and increased her mass to the limit.

The giant's foot came down, and Amy surged upward, her fists pushing up against the Scotch's arch. There was a satisfying crack before he let out a sound of pain, the sort of sound someone might say after stepping on a Lego. Scotch recoiled, hopping on his good foot as he cradled the other.

Amy suspected she'd broken it with that much localized force.

"Found you," Law muttered as the Weightless Woman turned her eyes on him. He had his eyes closed, one hand extended toward the Sunny. "Come to me, Heir of Chaos. Shambles."

A form appeared from thin air, but it was not that of the captain's son.

"Yo! What the Hell man?" Franky questioned, his speedo-clad form not dressed for the weather in any way. He was crouched down as well, one mechanical hand pointed to show the blowtorch he'd installed in one of the fingers. "I was super in the middle of something!"

"You are not Straw Hat's child," Law blinked.

"You bet your ass I'm not!" Franky unnecessarily confirmed, striking his signature pose. "I'm the one and only super 'Cyborg' Franky! Suuuupppeeerrrrr!"

"Super!" a host of the male children and a couple marines echoed, striking the same pose.

"Tricked you, raahaha!" Sunny laughed, manifesting herself in her own rigging. Her smiling, minimalist face looked down as she pointed at the Warlord. "The prince you're looking for is in another castle, Surgeon of Death! That castle!" Her finger moved, pointing at the building on the other side.

"Then this is pointless," Law growled. "Yeti Cool Brothers, we need to retreat."

"Uuugh…"

Law's eyes widened as the brothers fell, one before the other, each covered in bruises. Amy sat on the shoulders of Scotch, the blonde cackling away at his pain, whilst Chopper struck his own celebratory poses on the other.

"I guess size isn't everything, huh?" Amy laughed. "Kyahahaha!"

"And that's the power of my Kung Fu Point! Wa-chaw!"

"Scotch… Rocks…" Law sighed. "I guess that's two less problems to worry about, but I can't have you all getting in the way until it's time. Pardon me. Tact." He reached forward, pointing at the Sunny.

"I won't give you a chance!" Amy warned, only for her charge to come to a screeching halt.

"I don't like this!" Sunny cried, clinging to her rigging. The pirates turned at the sound of her voice, their eyes bulging as they saw her whole ship rising out of the water and flipping over itself.

"This is scary!" Brook agreed, his arms wrapped around the mast.

"Lay off Sunny!" Franky ordered, reeling back for a Strong Right. Law only glanced at him before disappearing, substituting himself with a flake of snow several feet away.

"Now, Mass Amputation."

His sword, Kikoku, glinted as Law swung, the force of his swing affecting the air pressure around. He stood still, his long odachi unsullied by anything. He nodded to himself, slowly sheathing the blade.

Before him, every pirate fell to pieces, quite literally. Such pieces varied in size and parts, but not even Sunny was spared as her hull was split in thirds, her masts separated at their bases, and her figurehead popped away from its place. With her body in parts, so too did her manifestation reflect this, the Klabautermann similarly splitting. Law gestured with his hands, laying the pieces of the Sunny across the land, away from the water.

"What?" Amy gasped. her mouth squished between a thigh and an arm. "You're the sorcerer that samurai was talking about!"

"I've been dissected!" Chopper cried, his little arms flailing like worms writhing in dirt.

"Not super, bro!" Franky yelled, one mechanical hand releasing its smaller mechanical hand to flip Law the Bird.

"I can see my bones!" Brook screamed. "Wait, I can always do that."

"My work here is done," Law commented to himself, ignoring the cries of shock and terror rising from the pirates. The Warlord turned his eye on the marines, giving them a silent warning to stay out of his way lest they meet a similar fate. They seemed to get the message, only glaring at him as he stepped into the darkness of the laboratory.

"…so, ah," Franky began, surprisingly nonchalant at the whole 'cut into pieces' thing as he shifted half of his face to see the marines and the other half to see the children. "You guys gonna help put us back together or what?"

End of Chapter 39

Fusha Village finally gets the news, and the mayor is not happy! Remember, all this is happening on the same day. Luffy meets a strange creature, but now they need to escape. The rescue group now find themselves trapped on the second floor; what horrible things await them there, I wonder? And finally, Law shows his skill as a Warlord and leaves quickly when he cannot reach his goal. I'm sure his first meeting with these Straw Hats won't bite him at some point! Let me know what you think, so:

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods