IMPORTANT NOTICE!
Before we get into the chapter, I've got a few points I want to cover as we get into the swing of things:
The poll.
The extended crew.
Romances.

First off, the poll:
Poll: Both extended crew and pairings has won out with 51 votes!

The extended crew:
Thanks to ChunkyFunkyMunky's reviews (Which have been in length and detailed which it awesome, thank you so much for reviewing!) I have realized that I haven't really explained myself concerning the extended crew.
So as not to overwhelm myself when writing and making overly two dimensional characters that serve no purpose but as extra muscle on a crew that dosen't really need any more muscle, I will be limiting the extended crew number to three.
Shipguard.
Lookout
Treasurer.
I was always intending to make the extended crew this small, but I failed to explain that. That's on me. My bad. Now, you can leave a suggestion in the reviews for who you want to see get what position, the characters with the most requests will be put up in the poll. Just please don't vote for someone who dosen't make sense, but be aware that as this is a fanfic, I can alter certain details so that certain characters do end up joining.

Romances:
Any and all romance will be very slow burn, we'll probably not see anything significant until Sabaody at least, but it'll get there. It'll take so long because these characters have never shown any romantic interests (Sanji dosen't count) so if there is to be any organic feeling to it, it'll take a while. Also, I don't do harems. They don't make sense to me.

In the mean time, Chapter 4.

Zoro panted heavily as he took up his stance once more, sweat beading his forehead. Eyes narrowed, he gripped the hilt of his nameless blade tightly, knuckles white as he focused. He needed to put all his intent, all his will behind making this man bleed, otherwise it would merely end in failure once more. Gritting his teeth, he lifted his blade and lunged forward.

Zoro grunted in exertion as he brought the steel down with all his might, meeting the ebony sheen of his opponents wrist once more. With the sound of steel on steel and the splitting of wood, the small boat rocked back and forth under the shift in momentum. Stumbling slightly, Zoro nearly fell from the loss of balance before staying himself.

"Could you two idiots please stop rocking the boat?!" Nami shouted in frustration. Zoro spared her a sidelong glance before shrugging. Looking back to Luffy, he found his sword embedded a quarter way through his arm, the teens haki having saved his hand being removed completely. Not that he couldn't have just grown it back, being a tree man and that Zoro's blade didn't hurt his flesh and blood body as his sword wasn't imbued with haki.

"But we need to train." Luffy pouted childishly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Luffy's right." Zoro agreed. "Besides, you could probably stand to learn this stuff too."

"You can train when we find an island! I don't know about you, but I don't fancy being thrown overboard because you two idiots went and capsized us!" Zoro had to concede her point. After all, Luffy, having eaten a devil fruit, would simply sink like a rock. Slowly, he sheathed the nameless blade and made to sit down, Luffy whining as he did so.

"She's got a point, Captain." Zoro sighed, reclining with his hands behind his head and eyes closed. "After all, you ate a devil fruit."

"But I made stabilizers..." Luffy sulked, nevertheless Zoro felt the movement of the boat as he sat down.

Opening an eye, Zoro spied the 'Stabilizers'. They were connected by two arcing arms each that grew out of the side of the main boat, and were in the shape of a thin row boat, providing a greater balance, although with the force of Zoro's blows, they didn't help as much as any of them would have liked. Originally, Luffy had made them to help explain devil fruits to Nami, having already done so to Zoro before they even made it to orange town.

Nami had, at first, adamantly believed everything she saw in the fight between Luffy and Buggy had been but a bad dream, but after further demonstration from Luffy, she had been forced to believe what she had been told. Then came the conversation that Zoro had been looking forward to the most. Haki. They were taught the fundamental basics, being that Armaments haki was an extension of their spirit as an armor to defend or strengthen their attacks with, while Observation haki was essentially a sixth sense of the world around them, allowing them to predict certain acts done towards themselves.

Zoro had then felt something he hadn't in a long time. A pushing in his gut. A drive, burning with brilliant flames of need. He needed to master these abilities. He needed to use them to become stronger, and then he would be able to challenge Them. The burning need to master something hadn't been this severe ever since he'd finally mastered his own three sword style. He missed that feeling.

The sound of movement was soon followed by the feeling of the boat made a small adjustment to the starboard side. Cracking an eye open, Zoro observed as Nami stared intently at the small telltales on the sail, little strands of wool that had been attached to help to owner read the movements of the wind. She was good, Zoro would give her that, and he was glad that she had been convinced to join them on their merry little crew.

It had been an interesting conversation, to say the least. She had been apprehensive, Which was something Zoro could understand after she had woken up from her Kings Will induced sleep to find herself on a small fishing vessel with two pirates, one swinging a sword at the other, who didn't seem to be able to die as he survived hundreds of slashes. She had screamed quite loudly.

But that was when things grew odd to Zoro. After a brief explanation as to who they were, Nami having run into Luffy before apparently, and the revelation that they had stolen nine and a half million Berri from Buggy, the remaining half a million going to the town to help the rebuilding process, she became much more co-operative, even going as far as to offer her services as a navigator.

Zoro shrugged. So long as no one was stabbed in the back and his Captain was fine with it, he wouldn't raise any concerns. Slowly, he directed his open eye to his Captain, and frowned. The kid was somewhat of an enigma. He had explained his powers and his goal, but beyond that, Zoro knew nothing about him. The same could be said vice versa. Zoro just felt that the members of the crew ought to know who they were going to be fighting and living beside for the foreseeable future.

It was then that a particular possibility of topic crossed the swordsman's mind. "Hey Luffy, if you can't be hurt without the use of haki, then you had to have fought someone with haki to get that scar under you eye, right?" Zoro questioned, Luffy eyes widening before diverting suspiciously to the left. "Bet there's a story there." Luffy, however, seemed the have found the boat's deck to be very interesting.

Zoro spied Nami giving the Captain a curious look out the corner of his eye.

"Nope, nothing much to tell there." Luffy denied, his arms folded over his chest as he looked every which way but at his crew mates. Zoro and Nami shared a cruel sinister grin at the sight as they discovered in unison a glaring weakness that could be used to exploit their Captain.

"You're a terrible liar." Nami said slyly.

"I am not!" Luffy cried out with all the maturity of a toddler arguing the existence of light.

"No use denying it. You're as clear as glass." Zoro said smugly as he closed his eyes and leaned back into a comfortable position. "So hurry up and spill."

"No!"

"Luffy..." Nami pressed.

"Nu-uh." Luffy shook his head.

"You can deny all you want, but we'll know if you lie, so we'll just keep pestering you until we get something." Zoro pointed out.

"Not happening."

"Well if not, then I guess that we're gonna have to make up something that would fit." The navigator suddenly felt something akin to a sugar rush run up her spine as possible stories sprouted in her mind like weeds. "Hey Zoro, I bet it was something super lame, like maybe..." She pretended to ponder as Luffy started to sweat. "He ran through a glass door as a kid." Luffy looked both relived and insulted.

"No no no." Zoro smirked, drawing back up Luffy's nervous bout. "A guy that trashed a marine base? He totally slipped on a wet floor and landed on a sharp pebble." And Luffy relaxed again.

"The one to put down Buggy's tyranny?" Luffy began to fidget uncomfortably, Zoro watching his nervous mood swings with growing amusement. "He had to have gotten close-lined by a tree branch." And once more, Luffy deflated at the insult, but before Zoro could pitch anymore ideas, it seemed Luffy had had enough of his emotional roller coaster of their guessing game as to the pathetic ways that Luffy could have gotten his scar.

"Alright, fine!" Luffy finally caved, pulling his hat down over his eyes as if to sulk. "I stabbed myself in the face when I was a kid."

Zoro and Nami turned to glance at each other and blinked once, twice before looking back to their Captain.

"You stabbed yourself in the face?" Zoro deadpanned. A slight nod from Luffy was the final nail in the coffin as the swordsman leaned his head back and let out loose roaring laughter, Nami failing miserably to hide her own laughter as she fell, covering her mouth all the while. "You dumbass! Why did you do that?!" Zoro managed through his laughter as he wiped away a tear as both he and Nami tried to get control of themselves.

"Well you see, there was a pirate crew stopping at my home village when I was little..." Luffy mumbled, his hat still covering his face but both his crew mates could see the tugging of a smile underneath, yet both Zoro and Luffy missed the dark look to cross Nami's face. "And these guys were really cool. They had parties a lot, told me stories of their adventures and all the places they had been to." Slowly, Luffy leaned back, shifting his hat until he was looking up into the blue sky.

"I tried to convince them to take me with them. To take me on their great adventures, but they'd always laugh me off, saying I was too young, just a kid. So one day, I got the bright idea of proving how brave I was and that I was man enough to go with them. So when they stopped for supplies, I ran up to them and announced that I was a man. They laughed as always, until I pulled out a knife and stabbed myself." Luffy chuckled as the memory as he kept a hand on his hat, the feel of it bringing not just comfort, but fond memories.

"That's why he's the way he is." Nami thought. "Not because he wants to pillage, but because he was raised thinking pirates as people just wanting to have adventures and fun." In some ways she envied he Captain, but in others, not so much. "The wake up call of reality of what most pirates are like must have been a hell of a shock to him, but he's still looking for an adventure... Why?"

Zoro snorted. "You went a very smart kid." He grinned.

"No." Luffy laughed. "I wasn't."

"You're lucky you know." Frowning, both Luffy and Zoro turned to look at Nami. She was stared intently down at the wooden deck, her right hand clutching her left shoulder tightly. "The pirates that came to your home town. You're lucky that they were like they were, not like A-" Nami caught herself, eyes widening somewhat. "Not like others. Not like Buggy."

Luffy's smile dropped, adopting a much more scrutinizing look. He hadn't missed the signs. Zoro simply returned to his neutral scowl as he studied the orange haired girl, sensing the possibly dangerous waters about to be braved. "Yeah, I guess your right." Luffy said somberly. "But I think it's better that they were. Without them, I would be a very different person compared to who I am today." He admitted.

"After all, they were carrying the devil fruit I ate. Their Captain, Shanks-" Both Zoro's and Nami's eyes widened at the name. "-helped train me to control my powers and even taught me about haki. He taught me what it means to be a man, and that freedom of dreams, freedom to dream, should be valued above all else." He said, removing his hat to stare down at it with pride and reverence. "That, and he made me a promise. This hat symbolizes that promise."

"When you say Shanks..." Nami began cautiously.

"Red Haired Shanks? One of the Emperors of the Sea?" Luffy grinned cheekily. "Yeah, but he hasn't visited my home since he took up the title. He's been really busy." Luffy waved off.

"Shanks..." Zoro muttered, an oddly determined gleam in his eyes a he stared off into nothing.

"What do you know of him?" Luffy asked, eager to hear what others had to say of his childhood idol.

"That he's one of the most powerful swordsmen in the world." Zoro said. "He and Dracule Mihawk, the Warlord, regularly duel on an even basis. They're what every swordsman worth his blade aspires to be. What we aspire to beat." The reverence in Zoro's voice made Nami feel like he was talking about the religion he subscribed to, the respect was dripping off his words.

"Yep." Luffy chuckled, placing his hat back on top of his head. "That's Shanks alright." Nami rolled her eyes at her Captain, but couldn't feel something regarding his experiences. Red Haired Shanks, one of the four most powerful pirates in the world, had trained him, had visited him as a child and Luffy of all people got to know him like a Fun Uncle.

She couldn't help but feel envious. "What if it was Shanks that had come to my home instead of Arlong? How different would things be?" Nami wondered somewhat melancholy to herself. But that dull cloud over her head was cracked by a smirk. "Belle-mere probably would have tried to call the marines on him as soon as he showed his face."

A change of the wind, ever so slight, seemed to snatch her from her fantasies. Whipping her head around, Nami spied a few clouds sitting atop a botch of green and brown in the distance. "Land ho!" She announced, scrambling to steer the ship while ordering Luffy, or more accurately his wooden limbs, to reconfigure the sail to her specifics.

All the while she couldn't help but picture her mother chasing one of the most infamous pirates in the world around Coconami Island with a kitchen knife while on the transponder to marine HQ, Shanks holding his hat to his head as he high tailed it from the angry woman all the while.

Garp sighed heavily, arms folded over his chest as he stood in quite contemplation. He had a lot on his mind, such was the life of a Vice Admiral, but now he had the troubles of his family on top of that. He stood alone atop the roof of a ruined marine base. It had once been well maintained, standing against the stem of time with pride and strength, garrisoned with brave and loyal marines willing to give everything to see justice prevail.

Or so he, and so many others, had thought.

He could see it before they had even made landfall, the 153rd Marine base had been destroyed. Entire buildings missing, crumbled to rubble, walls having been torn apart and the marine base structure wasn't even touching the ground, but hovering some three or so meters above the dirt, suspended by the density of the jungle that looked to have grown through the entire base, leaving it in disrepair. They'd have to tear it all down and rebuild, yet the only thought to have gone through his head when he saw it was one of pride. "Yep. Luffy's been here."

But it only got worse from that moment on.

Not long after he had arrived on the island, he had been met by fear from the common people. They shrunk away at the sight of him, cowering, while non dared to look him in the eye. It wasn't right, and all the marines with him knew it. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Garp was seen as the hero of the marines for his legendary battles with the infamous pirate king, Gold Roger, yet at that moment, he felt like the pirate king himself.

It hadn't taken long to figure out why. A brief few questions to the local marines had revealed all, and Garp was furious. He had found this 'Captain Morgan' in a makeshift infirmary, heavily bandaged from an apparent lost fight. He had cowered before Garp as well, but unlike the townspeople, he gave Morgan a reason to to so.

Without so much as a greeting, Garp had seized Morgan and thrown him out of the medical bed and out into the streets before dragging him down the streets, verbally tearing him apart as he did so, loudly proclaiming him to be imprisoned before the entire town and then throwing him form the street and onto the his ship. But he hadn't finished there. Garp had turned to the people of Shells town, tears in his eyes, and bowed in front of them all, apologizing profusely for Morgan's actions and promising swift justice.

Garp sighed as he imagined the report he was going to have to write up for Sengoku. He had a headache already, and his pen hadn't even touched paper yet, nor had he heard Sengoku venting. He cringed at either thought.

"Vice-Admiral Garp, sir?" Garp's back straightened at the voice, turning to see a young man in perfect dress code giving the hero of the marines and proud salute. "We've finished clearing up the market district, sir!" He announced.

Nodding, Garp looked back over his shoulder at the town beneath. They had been there for a day and half now, the people of the town still not trusting the marines yet, but he couldn't blame them. Morgan had left more than a stain on the marines good name, he had left a horrible scar upon the trust of the people the marines were supposed to protect.

While Garp was glad his grandson and his apparent new friend, a guy named Roronoa Zoro, had beaten down the corrupt bastards, it meant he had to witness a town who saw pirates as the heroes, while marines were to be feared and hated. It may not have been much, but Garp had ordered the men under his command and those previously under former Captain Morgan to assist with anything the townspeople might need, which mostly amounted to manual labor, cleaning and repairing whatever was broken.

It left a bittersweet taste on his tongue.

"Move on to the docks and industrial districts next." Garp ordered, his gravelly voice uncharacteristically subdued.

"Sir, yes sir!" The marine then took off, relaying Garp's orders to his fellow marines as he went.

Garp returned to his melancholy state of thought, eyes focusing on the blue horizon that was the ocean. "If Morgan was the first marine that Luffy cam across, then he'd refuse to join without a second thought." Garp thought with a sigh. "Can't say I blame him though."

"Sir!" Rolling his eyes, Garp turned about once more, only to pause. The kid, because someone that small could only be described as a child, barely came up to Garp's knee. Granted, Garp was nearly ten feet tall, but this runt was just ridiculous. The pink haired runt was trying to give Garp a salute, but his shaking knees and trembling arms made him look somewhat pathetic, yet he wore a marine uniform, and Garp could respect anyone that was brave enough to put one that on.

"What is it marine?" Garp grunted, but was taken aback by the glimmer of pride in the boys eye at being addressed as such.

"Sir, I'm delivering a message from your ship sir! We've received orders to head to Orange town on the nearby Organ Islands! Apparently Buggy the Clown has been subdued, sir!" The boy reported.

Garp frowned, looking back out onto the water again. "Organ islands? I know them, they're not too far from here... Was this Luffy again? Maybe... Best go and see for myself." He decided. "Alright marine." Garp began, looking back at the pink haired runt. "I want a request sent out to HQ for a new commanding officer for this base. One who respects and works for the people. When that's done, we're heading out with a small retrieval group to Orange town to take Buggy in. Prep three ships for departure. I'll wait here until the new Captain has arrived. Got it?" He asked.

"Sir, yes sir!" The boy shouted excitedly.

"Dismissed." Garp muttered, watching the boy snap a crisp, confident salute this time before rushing off to follow his orders. Garp felt a smirk creep onto his face at the sight. "Good kid. Bit skinny and short though. Wonder if he's been trained right..."

Sand and stone ground against the bow of the small boat as it came to a lurching halt. Small waves lapped at the beach as three sets of feet swung off the edge and sunk into the soft, warm sand. Luffy sported a large grin as he looked about the island, making no effort to hide the child like excitement and wonder he felt. Zoro arched backwards, arms reaching high as he twisted his joint with loud, satisfying pops.

"Ah, good to be back on land." He grinned to himself, subconsciously readjusting the swords at his hip.

"According to this map." Nami muttered as she unfurled a large, square piece of paper. It was worn and old, the edged being somewhat ratty, but she could read off of it what Luffy and Zoro could only dream. "There is a village on the island, but it's not the big."

"Cool, I could use something to eat." Luffy smiled, inspecting their surroundings. As far as his eyes could see, the beach was walled off from the rest of the island by sheer stone cliffs that looked to be about ten meters tall. Not a problem for him, but he could see the natural defenses being an advantage against attacks. It was a wonder this island wasn't more populated. But ahead of them, having been spotted by Nami as they approached, was a pathway caved into the cliff directly into the island, looking like a ramp from the beach to island interior.

Zoro was yawning when he noticed the twitching bush, his eyes immediately sharpening. With a blur of movement, his hand was on the scabbard of one of his blades, slowly pushing it free with his thumb. "We've got company." He said in a dark voice, eyes never leaving the bush. Luffy frowned as Nami looked up from her map, taking a precautionary step behind Luffy, just in case.

Luffy pushed out with his senses and felt them roll out across the area around him. The beach, the boats behind him, the sea and finally up the cliff and foliage, where he locked onto four distinct presences. He felt the biggest one maneuvering himself around a tree while the small three seemed to be getting ready for something. Luffy frowned. "Wonder what they're doing..."

A breif rustle from the bushes lining the cliff was all the warning the trio got before short sticks were raised, a black cloth bearing a skull and crossbones upon each. "Huh..." Zoro grunted as, slowly spreading through the bushes, more black flags appeared and, Zoro noted, all being raised in groups of three. "Well I'm pretty sure I've got a bearing on how many there are..." He gave Luffy a questioning look, his hand resting firmly on the hilt of one of his nameless swords.

"Nah." Luffy waved off, a mischievous grin on his face. "I wanna see where this is going."

"Suit yourself." Zoro shrugged, folding his arms over his chest as a lone teen with a tall stick in one hand waving a generic pirate flag while the other held a slingshot. "This is going to be entertaining..."

He was a skinny teen underneath his brown overalls, with black wholly hair kept under a cap. However, Luffy's first thought was of his most striking feature. "Wow, what a nose..." It had to point directly out at least three inches.

"I am the leader of the great pirate crew that conquered this village, Usopp!" The newcomer boldly declared. Behind him, Zoro could hear Nami sigh, covering her face with her hand in secondhand-embarrassment. "Everyone praises me and addresses me as Captain Usopp!" The curled haired boy continued. "If you're thinking of attacking this village, you should just save your strength, otherwise my 80 million me-"

"There's four of them." He stated blandly. Immediately, Usopp faltered, his face paling as he took a fearful step back.

Zoro gave his Captain a pointed look with a raised eyebrow. "Haki?" Zoro smirked as Luffy nodded, the swordsman turning back to the now panicking boy atop the cliffs. "Damn that haki stuff is convenient. Gotta learn that..."

A bush bustled with movement and out spilled three children, each trembling and staring at three pirates with fearfully wide eyes. "How did he know?" Came the high pitched cry of the child furthermost to the left, the other two gripping each other tightly.

"Witch!" Shouted the boy on top, decidedly pointing at Nami.

"Why are they shouting at me?!" Nami gnashed out in a burst of anger. Her outburst, however, threw the children into a state of panic. The three boys clutched each other and shrieked before turning tail and running.

"Run away!"

"The witch is gonna eat us!"

Luffy chuckled, Zoro not containing his own smirk, as they heard Nami growling over the top of the sound of her teeth grinding together.

"Hey! Don't just leave me!" The oldest of the quartet shouted, yet when his companions failed to even spare him a glance over their shoulders, he slumped in defeat.
"Guys..." He muttered, and Luffy couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. Yet he recovered from his bout of betrayal with miraculous speed, rounding from behind the tree to face the three pirates, a slingshot help high in his hand his hand as he muttered. "Alright, well if that's how it's gonna be..."

"It doesn't matter if I'm alone or with an army at my back! I'll protect this village from pillaging pirates with my life, so if you want to get to my home, you're gonna have to go through me!" The teen boldly declared, shouting it out across the beach with an iron will that would have been impressive, had it not been for his knocking knees and quivering hands as they held his slingshot tightly.

"Um, we're not here to pillage." Luffy pointed out rather lamely.

"Oh, really?" The teen asked, seemingly taken aback at the favorable turn of events. "So... you're not pirates?"

"Oh we are pirates." Luffy clarified. "But we're not here to pillage anything." He then chose to ignore Nami's fist bouncing off of his shoulder, as she couldn't reach his head.

"Idiot! Don't just go around advertising it like that!" She shouted at him, shaking her now sore fist. Punching a tree man hurt.

"You know, you look kinda familiar..." Luffy muttered as he squinted at Usopp, wounding to Nami's pride at being ignored causing her growl behind him, shaking her aching fist threateningly at him. Several faces passed through Luffy's mind as he studied Usopp for a brief moment, before he was struck with realization. "Hey, do you know a guy named Yassop?"

Nami's eyes narrowed a she watched Usopp. His eyes had widened at the name, but now they were scrunched up with the rest of his face, as if he was torn between being seen as an indifferent hard-ass, bouncing in emotion or weighed with sorrow. It was an odd look, to say the least. But nevertheless, her hand inched to her hidden bo-staff, the fire in the teens eyes making her nervous.

"Y-Yeah, that's my dad. Why? Do you know him?" He asked uneasily, clearly unsure how to feel.

"Yeah I know him." Luffy said easily. "I grew up hearing all the stories he told about you. He's on the pirate crew that visited my home a few times!" The pirate grinned, pointing his thumb over his shoulder out to sea, seemingly oblivious that his home island was in a completely different direction.

"R-Really?" Usopp managed as, surprising all three pirates, tears began to leak from his eyes. "You know my dad? What's he like? My mother always told me that he set out to sea as a pirate in search of adventure, so I never really got to meet him, but..." He paused, looking down at Luffy from the top of the cliff with a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Do you think you could tell me what kind of man my father is?" Nami relaxed at Usopp's words and from the corner of her eye, she could see that Zoro had been in much the same mind as her.

"Yeah, sure!" Luffy grinned easily, the way Usopp's face glowed at the words made Nami feel bad for thinking he was going to be hostile. "I could tell you loads of stuff about him! But could we get some food while we're at it?"

"Yeah, sure!" Usopp readily agreed, pointing to the center of the island behind him. "There's a great little food store in the village. Come on! My treat!" Luffy grinned at the declaration and Nami felt a pang of guilt for what was to come. If what little she knew of Luffy was true, then he was going to make Usopp regret those words.

"My dad's the marksman of Red-Haired Shanks's crew..." Usopp sighed with a wistful look on his face, leaning on the table and propped up by his elbow. He sat at the end of the table, Nami and Zoro to his right while Luffy took up the entire side of the booth to his left. Luffy had just finished regaling the eagerly listening Usopp of all of his fathers stories and achievements, including the time he had shot the wings off a fly behind him aiming through the reflection of a mirror.

Usopp grinned, sitting up just a little straighter. "To disregard his own life and indulge himself in the vast and endless sea..." He said to himself, his eyes looking far off as he nodded to himself. "I'm proud to call him my father."

It had been entertaining to hear of Yasopp's exploits, and heart warming to see the pride and admiration written on Usopp's face, though Zoro could see Nami wanted to move the conversation on to more important matters. Her smile was tight lipped and her eyes, while kind, glowered with impatience.

"Say Usopp." Luffy began, setting the bone from his recently finished ham leg down on his plate. "I know this isn't a very big village, but I was wondering if there was anyone here selling a ship, or anything bigger than what we've got?" He asked, curbing the subject with the tack of a bull in a china shop. But nonetheless, even Luffy caught the way that Usopp seemed to sit straighter, his eyes widening fractionally.

"I-I'm sorry, but there's no ships on this island." He offered weakly.

"Really? No one?" Nami asked, her earlier impatience now squashed in light of new conversation, and her hopes of a ship being bought brought out her cat-thief side as she leaned in closer to the local, looking every bit the damsel in need.

"N-Nope, sorry. No o-one at all." Usopp stammered out, his eyes looking everywhere but at the three pirates.

"Say, there was a large mansion on top of the hill back there." Zoro drawled, cleaning out his ear with his pinky. "We could talk to them. They might know someone who has a ship for sale somewhere." Luffy nodded, thinking the idea a good one. Usopp looked all the paler for it, however.

"Yeah, we could ask them." He muttered as he scratched his chin. "Hey Usopp, you wouldn't happen to know them, would you?" The tree man inquired.

"You can't go there!" Usopp snapped, slamming his hand down on the table with a thunderous look on his face. All three pirates turned to look at him, curious as to what could cause such a ship in the boy, and with all three pirates looking at him, Usopp suddenly reverted to the shaking boy that had met them atop the cliffs on the island coast. "I-I suddenly remembered!" He announced, standing up so fast his chair collapsed backwards. "I've got somewhere I need to be right bow so I gotta run, bye!" He announced, dashing from the small eatery faster than most would have thought he could run.

Luffy blinked, almost disappointed as he leaned out of the booth and out the door to see Usopp's shrinking form disappearing into the distance. "Huh." He frowned. "That was weird." Nami rolled her eyes at the simple observation.

"Thank you for that, Captain obvious." She mumbled.

"No, I'm Captain Luffy. I don't know any Captain obvious."

'Whack!'

"Oww!"

"Why are you crying? You're the one who hit me!" Luffy accused indignantly, pointing a finger at Nami as she shook her sore hand.

"Because you're made of wood!" Nami shouted back furiously. "It hurts when you hit wood!" The snickering beside her earned Zoro cool glare that promised pain if her didn't silence himself.

"Well if it hurts so much, then maybe you shouldn't hit me." Luffy pouted, crossing his arms over his chest while Nami ground her teeth and growled feral enough to scare any fearsome beast. Whatever retort she was about to make was cut off when the doors slammed open.

"The Usopp pirate crew is here!" Announced a high voice. Nami glanced up, seeing the old man manning the counter reading a newspaper. The old man looked up from his reading, glanced at the door and smiled a kind, grandfatherly smile before going back to his reading.

"Huh." Nami thought as she leaned out of the small booth and looked to the door, curious as to what the ruckus was about. "What's going on?" She muttered as she spied three children holding up what looked like short wooden swords. As soon as they caught sight of her, however, they seemed to freeze.

"T-The Captain's not here..." One of the boys, the one with a red bandanna, stuttered.

"Don't tell me..." The boys were glasses whimpered meekly. The boy in the lead, wearing a light green shirt, dashed forward until he stood a the end of the table, his toy sword still held in the air.

"Hey, you pirates!" He shouted, his voice cracking and quivering in a way that Nami almost felt sorry for him as his knees knocked. "What have you done to captain Usopp?!" His two friends then rushed forward to stand beside him, shuddering in fear all the while as they shouted similar demands.

Nami eyed the kids curiously, then turned to look at her own crew, only to stop short on Luffy. She didn't like the evil glint in his eye as he gave Zoro a grin. Feeling awfully like she'd been left out of any loop here, Nami narrowed her eyes at the two. Luffy leaned back and yawned, his knees knocking the bottom of the table to rattle the pile of plates and bringing them to the attention of the children.

"Man, that meat sure was good." He smiled, watching as they slowly grew pale, evil thoughts surfacing in their minds.

"Your Captain." Zoro began as he leaned forward on the table, a malicious smile bearing down on the three boys as their eyes widened. "Was delicious!" Nami sighed and rolled her eyes.

All thee boys shrieked in fear before simultaneously pointing at Nami. "Witch!" They screamed in accusation.

"Why are you shouting at me?!" She shouted back, her fist delivering a solid 'Thump' to each of the boys heads and they fell back onto the ground in shock, Luffy and Zoro roaring with laughter. "Don't you laugh!" She wheeled about to face them, both fists raised before delivering the same punishment. With a loud Crack, Nami grit her teeth, all laughter having stopped as Luffy and Zoro's faces were bent down to face the desk. The navigator would have felt somewhat proud of managing to hit Luffy's head, even if he had to be sitting down for her to do it, but the thought was overshadowed by the throbbing pain in each fist.

"You know." Luffy quitely muttered, lifted his head back up. "You should stop doing that before you really hurt yourself."

"Agreed." Zoro grumbled as he sat straighter.

"What are you two made of?!" Nami shouted in frustration, cradling her aching hands as both Luffy and Zoro howled with laughter again.

"Hey Luffy." Zoro began, still wearing that insufferable grin. "You sure you still want to teach us haki? Cause I can't wait to see what Nami does when she learns that armament stuff." Luffy's laughter died in his throat, eyes wide and skin paling as he looked to see Nami smile a sweet, innocent smile that was betrayed by the shard of evil in her eyes.

Luffy stared up at the large walls of the mansion, the pearly white marble standing tall and proud. The walls looked thick and heavy, a flare of carved decal sprouting in well made flourishes where the roof met the walls and above the doors. Imposing as it was, surrounded by a black iron fence and unreasonably large gate with two guards posted outside, Luffy had only one thought.

"If someone can afford a house like this, then why are they living in such a small village." He asked, looking to Zoro and Nami as they walked beside him.

"Peace and quite?" Nami offered after Zoro's lazy and uncaring shrug. His First Mate's attitude was one he then mirrored, shrugging as he lost interest in the subject.

"If you can't find the captain around this time, he's probably here." Said Pepper, one of the three boys that had led Luffy and his crew to the mansion. The small trio had introduced themselves as the Usopp pirates, with Usopp being their Captain. Pepper was the boy with the glasses, while Onion was the one in the green shirt and Carrot was the tallest one with a red bandanna. Luffy had found their names amusing.

"Yeah? What for?" Luffy asked, never taking his eyes from the mansion as he wove his fingers together behind his neck.

"He comes to lie." Carrot stated simply. Zoro raised an eyebrow at the boys.

"Lie? But that's a horrible thing to do!" Nami said, looking almost horrified by Carrot's words as she ignored the bland stares of judgement Luffy and Zoro sent her, their want to call her out on the hypocrisy burning in their eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Onion spoke up. "It's different." He said, looking to pepper for support.

"Right, it's different." The boy supplied.

"Care to explain?" Zoro asked, his arched eyebrow returning.

"Lady Kaya lives in this mansion." Pepper began, looking to his friends to help him, something Carrot did gladly.

"A year ago, her parents came down with a sickness. They died." He said somberly. "She's been depressed ever since. Despite all the money she has, there was nothing the cheer her up." Luffy then idly noticed a pattern in the order in which the boys spoke as Pepper took up the story.

"That's why the Captain makes up outrageous lies. He makes her laugh." Onion, the shortest boy, suddenly straightened in what looked to be pride, a beaming smile on his face "Captain's lying ability is first class." He boasted.

"Huh." Luffy looked to his crew mates, Nami looking more thoughtful after the telling of the story, while Zoro just looked bored. "So he's actually a pretty good guy..." The wood man muttered, all three of the boys nodding in agreement.

"I like the way he meddles in other peoples business." Pepper declared, and Nami's left eye twitched. That should not be something a child looks up to.

"I like the way he over reacts to everything." Carrot admitted, Nami wearing a smile as she listened, understanding how children could find that amusing.

"I like the way he lies." Onion announced, and Nami's smile became much more strained. That was definitely something a child should emulate. Maybe she should have a talk with Usopp concerning his behavior around kids...

"So he's been cheering this Lady up?" She asked, pushing past her thoughts as she bent down to look the boys in the eye.

"Yeah, she has!" Pepper grinned, Luffy silently confirming his theory that the three kids seemed to take turns at talking.

"Cool, then let's go ask her for a ship!" Luffy grinned his wide grin.

"It was Usopp that cheered her up, not you." Unfortunately, Zoro's reminder went ignored by everyone there.

"But getting in is impossible." Carrot mumbled dejectedly, Nami and Zoro immediately picking up on Luffy's straightening at what he most likely took as a challenge. "The fence is too high to climb and there are two really big bodyguards by the gate at all times." The young boy said. "Only Captain Usopp knows the secret way in."

Luffy slowly turned to look at his crew mates, and Nami felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she looked to see his feet having vanished into the soil as Luffy's skin turned to tree bark at his ankles. "Then I guess we'll just have to take the other secret way in."

Nami paled at his words. "Oh no. No no no n-"

The sound of the earth tearing cut her off and drew the attention of everyone that was not Luffy. Whip like wooden lashes sprouted out of the soil, binding around one another like snakes as the thick, bark covered wood of small trunks emerged, fusing together into a singular, solid trunk that grew higher and higher until it towered taller than the fence and as thick as Zoro's shoulders. Slowly, Nami watched as it stopped growing and started tilting. Almost gently, the wooden spire leaned over the fence to touch down on the immaculate laws on the other side.

Seeing the large trunk gently arc over the fence, the Usopp pirates watched with jaws on the ground, their eyes having almost left their sockets. Along the sides of the trunk, green buds burst into life. Thin, bright green growth grew in meter long intervals, growing upwards until they reached a uniform length, where the tips of the greenery parted in either direction to link up with the growths on either side.

"Come on." Waiting less than a second since its quick construction, Luffy took off, his feet now flesh and bone once more. The group remained still, however, watching in awe as Luffy took the first step onto the wooden construct. The wood bent and compressed upon itself under his foot until it was a single flat platform. Luffy took another step, and another. Each time, the wood would react the same: pressing in on itself to create steps up the gentle curve of the trunk. Stopping at the top of the trunk's arc, Luffy looked to his crew and new friends. "Well what are you waiting for? Come on!" He grinned easily.

Wordlessly, Zoro marched off to join his Captain, taking the steps with ease. Seeing this, the Usopp pirates let out carefree cheers at what they had just seen, wearing the largest smiles they had even managed as they scrambled up the steps.

"I really hope I never get used to this..." Nami heard herself mutter before she set off after her captain. Once on the other side of the fence, Nami let out a whistle of appreciation at what she saw. This garden was kept immaculate! The lawn was soft under her sandals, almost sponge like, and was trimmed tidily whenever it met the garden or the path winding through it. Hedges lined the walls of the mansion, sheered into a perfect square shape. All number or flowers bloomed in a vast array of beautiful colors from the dark, rich soil of the garden. And the tre-. "What are you doing?" Nami nearly screamed as she caught sight of her Captain.

Turning about, Luffy gave his navigator the most innocent look he could. "I'm helping with their gardens..." He said with a pout. Nami probably would have let him off the hook with that alone if not for what was behind him. Zoro stood straight and proud, Wado Ichimonji gripped tightly with his other swords remaining in their sheaths as he held the sword to the sky, the swordsman's face set in a noble glare that one would expect to see on the statue of a great warrior. Unfortunately, the small shrubbery tree next to him, having been a perfect sphere and the last in a line of trees along the pathway not seconds before, was now a perfect, life sized replica of the swordsman.

"You moron!" Nami growled. "You've gone and ruined their tree! Turn it back!" She demanded hotly.

"Aw man." Luffy moaned, planting his roots once more to connect with the small shrubbery tree. "Do I have to change those ones back too?" He asked, pointing his thumb at the line of shrubbery trees along side the pathway, each one shaped like a different person, and Nami found her voice lost in her horror. The recognized the first one, a grand image of Monkey D. Garp, the hero of the marines, standing proudly with his fists on his hips and a beaming smile.

The next one would easily be recognized as Red Haired Shanks, one of the four emperors of the sea. He wore a long cloak that covered much of his body, but Nami could see that the inside and had been sculptured out too to allow you to see the three pistols and the cutlass on his belt, along with the cheeky smile and lighthearted look that was suspiciously close to Luffy's.

The next was of the greatest pirate known to history. Gold Roger, the king of the pirates. He stood atop the figure piece of his ship, the Oro Jackson, with a sword drawn and a look of pride and excitement, like he was off on some great adventure. The next tree was shape as Luffy, his straw hat being held in place as he grinned mischievously, wind blowing his vest out being him. But it was the last one that surprised her.

It was her. Nami. Standing tall with a large sack over her shoulder proudly displaying the Berri sign, the glint of misdeeds in her eyes and the victorious smirk on her lips being an astoundingly accurate depiction of her. She felt touched. Despite being a member of Luffy's crew for barely a day, he already seemed to hold her in high enough opinion as to include her among his friends and idols when shaping tree sculptures. While it might not seem much to others, Nami had never truly had any friends before. Stealing from pirates, despised in her home village and a prisoner of Arlong meant that her only friend she had ever had was her sister, Nojiko. To her, it was a heart warming display.

But before she could comment, a voice drifted over from a nearby window of the mansion.

"Oh, hello there. Who are you?" Came the soft voice of a young woman. Startled, the small group wheeled about to see a pale girl with platinum blonde hair leaning out a window next to the thick branch of a tall tree so that, if Nami had to guess, she could talk face to face with the teen sitting on the tree branch: Usopp. Usopp himself looked wide eyed, clearly surprised to be seeing his recent acquaintances with his close friends, let alone seeing them all here.

"Hi!" Luffy waved with that cheeky grin of his. "I'm Luffy, and this i-"

"Ah, it's you guys!" Usopp quickly interrupted, the sudden nervous sweat that broke out across his brow earning him a suspicious look from both the swordsman and the navigator as Usopp turned back to his friend. "Don't worry about them, they heard how great I was so they came to ask to join the Usopp pirates!" He announced as he proudly puffed out his chest.

"No, that's not why we're here." Luffy stated with such simplicity that Zoro smirked as he watched Usopp deflate like a balloon. "We came here to ask you something."

"Ask something?" The young woman, who could only be assumed as Kaya, suddenly straightened her posture, surprised by the declaration. "From me?"

"Yep!" Luffy said easily, "We're looking to bu-"

"You there!" The sharp, commanding voice cut through the conversation quickly and precisely. "What are you doing here!?" The group looked to their right to find a tall and skinny man dressed in an immaculate, finely pressed black suit with golden decorations. Nami, looking the man over, felt a pang deep in her mind, like a memory struggling to surface, yet brushed it off. It was probably the butlers greasy, slicked back hair that set him off. The look just screamed creep.

"Klahadore..." Kaya mumbled, putting a name to the face.

"You're trespassing." Klahadore snapped sourly with a sneer as he brought his hand up to his glasses, using the joint of his palm and wrist to fix the positioning of his glasses.

"Yeah. This guy's a weirdo." Nami firmly decided.

"And you're causing trouble." Klahadore finished, the sour look not budging as he looked down his nose at the pirates. He probably would have tried to look down at Luffy too, had the young pirate not been a half foot taller than him, but instead just had to settle for ignoring him.

"Who's this guy?" Luffy asked, looking over his shoulder to Usopp and Kaya as he jerked his thumb at the butler, something that greatly irked him if the twitch in his cheek was anything to go by.

"Excuse them, Klahadore, these people are-" Kaya began, but was promptly interrupted.

"You don't need to tell me now." Klahadore interrupted Kaya. "I will listen to your explanation later. For now, I would like all of you people to leave this area. Or do you have something to say?" He asked as he peered down his nose at the group in front of him, Usopp doing his best to slowly slip out of sight and hide behind the tree he was perched in.

Luffy, hearing the offer, grinned down at the butler. "Well yeah. You see, we'd like a ship-"

"Definitely not!" Klahadore snapped, looking like up at Luffy as though he'd just found something rather foul on his shoes. "Usopp!" The butler the whipped about to glare at the tree as the long nosed liar peeked through the branches, looking rather sheepish at having been caught. "I hear rumors of you all the time. You're rather infamous in this village, are you not?"

"Really?" A proud, yet shy smile graced the teen's face.

"So you have faced all kinds of danger before? That's really something at such a young age." The butler muttered, and Usopp's chest swelled with pride, although the three pirates below glared at the bespectacled butler as they caught the undertone of mockery.

"You can address me as Captain Usopp!" Usopp proclaimed. "That will help spread my name around."

"Captain, eh? I've even heard stories about your father." Klahadore sneered, something that Zoro noted he seemed to like doing. It was a wonder he didn't wear a permanent sneer.

"What?" Usopp faltered, looking somewhat heated now as he narrowed his eyes at the butler.

"Klahadore, stop this now!" Kaya demanded from her window.

"You're just the son of a common, piece of scum pirate!" Klahadore said with a rich layer of passionate hatred. Luffy's eyes widened at the venom in the butler's voice. He really had something against pirates. "Although anything you might do won't be much of a surprise, but you would do well to stop pestering my Lady."

"You would call my father common scum..?" Usopp's teeth gritted together, a fury igniting a small flame in his eyes as his hand twitched towards his slingshot.

"You come from a completely different world to my Lady." Klahadore sniffed, pushing his glasses back up his nose with his palm. "Is it money you want?" He tautened. "How much?"

"That's enough Klahadore!" Kaya cried out as she leaned further out the window, he look of pained frustration as her caretaker carelessly lobbed insults upon her closest friend. "Apologize to Usopp at once!"

"Hey Kaya, don't lean out the window like that, it's dangerous." Usopp warned, holding out a hand to her as he urged her back inside.

"Why should I apologize to such a barbaric man, my Lady? I am only speaking the truth." The smugness oozed from Klahadore's voice as he grinned a wolfish grin up at Usopp. "I do sympathize with you, however. You must be filled with hatred and anger for the father abandoned you and your mother to loot and plunder as a pirate."

"Klahadore!" Kaya shouted, sounding scandalized.

"You bastard, one more insult to my father..." Usopp growled through gritted teeth as he simply dropped down from the tree, landing in a crouched as he glared hotly up at the butler, fists clenched in rage.

"Usopp..." Kaya muttered. It seemed no matter her efforts to play peacemaker, the two people closest to her wouldn't stop.

"Why are you so agitated?" Klahadore siad, taking a step forward to meet Usopp, who marched directly towards him. "It's times like these that you just do what you do best; Lie. You could say that you have nothing to do with your father, or that you're not blood related-"

"Shut up!" Usopp roared, fist swinging to land a solid punch to Klahadore's cheek and toppling the taller man.

"Captain!" Carrot called out in worry. Zoro gripped the sheath of one of his nameless blades, thumb pushing against the tsuba to inch the blade out, only to be stopped by Luffy's hand resting on his wrist. Looking to his captain, Zoro raised an eyebrow, but the message was clear: We're seeing how this plays out. One thing was for sure though, Luffy noted. Usopp needed to be taught how to really punch.

"See that?" Klahadore grinned as he propped himself up from the ground with an elbow, his cheek begining to burn red with the starting of a large bruise. "He immediately turns to violence. It's jut like they say, 'Like father, like son'."

"Shut up!" Usopp roared. "I'm proud that my father is a pirate." He declared loudly. "I'm proud that my father has the drive to sail out into open sea to chase his dreams! I'm proud that he became the sniper of Red Haired Shanks and one of the best shooters in the world! I'm proud that my father amounted to more in life than just some no named butler on some backwater village like this!" Kaya and the Usopp pirates recoiled at this, surprised by the declaration while Klahadore hissed at the insult. "Yes, I have pirate blood in me, and I'm proud of it! And some day, I'm going to be just like my father! I'm going to sail away from here and become a great warrior or the sea! I'll somebody known the world over! That's the pride I have in my father!"

"Shows what you know." Klahadore glowered as he slowly rose, brushing his suit off as he stood straight. "Your ideology is naive and childish. You see pirates as someone to emulate, when in reality, they are despicable people. Murderers, rapists and thieves. Pirates are the lowest of the low, and saying such things as you have, it merely proves that the barbarian blood of such scum flows through you're veins." The butler snarled, picking a blade of grass from his shoulder. "If you truly feel that way, Usopp, then leave. Leave this house and never come near it again."

"Fine." Usopp bit out tersely as he glared at the taller man, his very bit of fury roaring in his eyes like a wildfire. Without a word, Usopp roughly brushed past the older man, marching towards his hidden entrance with so much as looking back.

"Usopp!" Kaya called after her friend, pained as she watched his seething form disappear through the small hole in the hedges. "Please, Usopp, come back..." He said weakly, her hands twitching as though she wanted to reach out to him.

Hiding his triumphant smirk behind his hand as he once again pushed his glasses back p his nose with the ball of his palm, Klahadore shifted his piercing eyes over to Usopp's friends. "I would have you leave as well." He stated simply, ignoring the glares that Zoro and Luffy shot him as they slowly made their way past him. With the disturbance taken care of, the butler of the mansion almost gave him a pat on the back, but he couldn't allow himself to relax. He had a meeting long in the waiting to attend to today.

He always found himself staring out at the ocean when he felt he needed quite introspection. Sitting under a tree atop the cliffs of his home island's coast, breathing in the saltine air and watching the horizon, the distant organ islands but a fuzzy outline in the distance. Usopp took a deep breath, his eyes closed as the sound of the waves on the beach soothed his tension, and slowly breathed out as he leaned against the rough bark of the tree.

"Yo."

Usopp's head whipped around to look behind him. There stood Luffy, a grin on his face and hat atop his head as he leaned against the same tree. "Oh, it's just you." Usopp sighed, relaxing back into the tree again.

"So this is where you went." The pirate said as he looked about and nodded in appreciation. "Nice. I like it."

"So what's it you're here for? What do you want?" Usopp asked, keeping his eyes out on the sea.

"Nothing really." Luffy shrugged, pushing off the tree and sliding into a cross legged position and flopping down onto his back. "What about you? What do you want?" He asked back as he lay there beside Usopp, staring up at the gentle sway of the leaves as beams of sunlight danced between them in a hypnotic fashion to the beat of the lullaby of the beating waves. "This would be a good place for a nap..." Luffy idly noted.

"That damn butler..." Usopp sneered, hunching forward as he did so with his elbows resting on his knees. "Insulting my father like that..."

"Yeah. Didn't like that guy either." Luffy offered. "Not with his whole 'Holier than thou' attitude. And I don't care what anyone says, Yasopp's a great pirate, and a greater man." The pirate said with a soft smile. He missed Shanks and his crew, but that would make the day that they met up once more even greater in his mind.

"Isn't that so?" Usopp grinned, his funk seemingly vanishing at the praise of his father. "In this great age of pirates, my father sails the ocean without knowing what's ahead. I feel really proud of him. I feel proud to be his son." Usopp frowned then, slowly standing as his fists clenched. "But then that bastard went and stepped on that pride..." He seethed. "I'll get him back for that. I promise."

"But are you going to see that Lady again?" Luffy asked offhandedly, but he could see Usopp flinch out of the corner of his eye and smirked. This wasn't about Usopp's pride in his father, not entirely. It was more about that butler, Klahadore, getting in between Usopp and his friend, and doing that he used Usopp's pride against him. It was a dirty move, but who was Luffy to judge? He was a pirate.

"Don't know." Usopp admitted, trying to come off as uncaring, but the waiver in his voice gave him away. "If that butler comes begging for forgiveness, then I might consider it." He grunted.

"Good luck with that." Luffy snorted, watching Usopp's shoulders sag at his words. "That guy would probably need it beaten into him, in anything." He threw out offhandedly. "Speaking of which, you need to learn how to punch properly. Don't get me wrong, that was a solid hit back there, but you're thumb needs to be on the outside of the fist, or else you're going to punch someone and break you thumb." Usopp looked surprised, but nodded. He understood. "Still, how are you gonna get that butler guy to beg for forgiveness? If you do anything too drastic then that Lady won't want you around anymore."

Usopp slowly slumped back against the tree and slid down, a the frown he sported suggesting deep concentration. It couldn't be violent, otherwise that would just prove to Kaya that the damn butler was right. It couldn't be anything too lighthearted, either, otherwise the pompous ass wouldn't take him seriously. He would have to do something that would wear him down over a period of time. Something to slowly drive Klahadore over the edge until he snapped, without Usopp catching the blame. This would be hard, but oh so worth it.

"Well whatever you're going to do, you can do it now if you want." Luffy spoke up, starting the local troublemaker from his thoughts.

"Eh?" Usopp raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the lazing pirate. Luffy hadn't moved, still laying on his back and staring up at the leaves of the tree, but his hand was raised and he was pointing at the beach.

"Down there." He said, slowly pushing himself up, but keeping low. "Come on, and be quite." Unsure and confused, Usopp followed Luffy, crawling about on his belly as they inched over to the edge of the cliff. Below, nearly thirty meters down, walked the immaculately dressed Klahadore, frowning behind his glasses as his fine pressed suit was creased as he awkwardly, carefully placed his feet over rough rocks of the islands shore. Usopp's fists tore at the soil beneath him in anger, but he reeled himself in as curiosity won out.

Behind him followed a man in heart shaped glasses and a outfit that resembled a hippie wizard, his over sized shoes making the trek for him difficult as well, the stranger wobbling and stumbling nearly every step of the way, but he managed. Usopp frowned as he watched them. "What are they doing here? And who's that weird looking guy? I've never seen him before..." Usopp muttered.

"Dunno." Luffy muttered back. "But they're saying something. Keep quite, we might here them." Nodding, Usopp did his best to listen into the seemingly private conversation that they had stumbled upon. Slowly, as words drifted up to the top of the cliff, Usopp's eyes widened, fists white knuckled under the strain. Be it in fear of what might come should what he had just heard come true or anger at what they were planning, he didn't know, but he did know this: He would stop them.

Gritting his teeth, Usopp watched as the two men slowly made their way back the way they came. Growling, he pushed himself off the grass, intent on letting the entire village in on what Klah- No, Kuro, and this Jango man thought was a secret. He would tell his village, the ones he loved, and they would stop this heinous plan. They had to, else everyone would die.

Before he could get off the ground though, Luffy reached over and placed a firm hand on Usopp's back, keeping him there beside the pirate. "No, wait." He said in a voice of iron. "We need to think about this first."

"What?" Usopp asked incredulously as he stared at Luffy. "You heard what they just said, what they're planning to do! We have to go warn the village! To let everyone know that they're in danger!" He argued, intent on saving his home.

"Would they believe you?" Luffy asked, and Usopp felt his drive to save his home crumbling at the lone question.

"B-But..."

"Go to Kaya." Luffy instructed. "Tell her and whoever else is in the mansion about what we heard. Even if they don't believe us completely, they might just believe enough to be more suspicious of Kuro. I'll go get my crew and tell them what's going on. We'll help you out. We'll meet up at that cafe you took us to." Usopp blinked at the taller teen. It made sense. He could warn the people closest to him, even if they didn't believe him he could still say he tried his best, and then he and his new friend could save his village together.

"Alright." Usopp nodded.

"Good." Luffy smiled. "Now get going. You need to get there before Kuro does."

Zoro was bored. This island was boring. Sunny, peaceful and lazy. He hated places like this, with nothing to ever do. Leaning against a wooden fence with Nami sitting atop it beside him, he began contemplating this whole pirate business. Mihawk is a pirate, a warlord at that. Shanks is a pirate, one of the most powerful people in the entire world, and emperor of the sea. Both were the greatest swordsmen in the world, constantly dueling for superiority in clashes of steel that songs were sung about and epics told of. For someone who's ultimate ambition in life was to become greater then either of them, it had made sense to become a pirate too.

But perhaps he had been hasty. He had been offered to join small crew before, but he had never really had a reason to say yes. But then Luffy stumbled along. Some kid with weird powers and a happy go lucky attitude that saved his life. It only felt right to repay him, and he was certainly strong enough for Zoro to deem him someone worth following. Not to mention he was actually pretty fun to be around when they were aimlessly drifting, and that endless supply of fruit and his being able to patch up any hole in a boat was pretty damn handy. He was a good kid.

He had followed him here, to this peacefully little island in the middle of nowhere, not worth mentioning to anyone other than somewhere to stop for supplies, and now he was bored. Being bored with no one to spar with or anything to train with left him with one thing to do. A very dangerous thing to do: Think. And thinking never lead to a good place for Zoro. He always ended up overthinking everything, so he tried to think as little as possible. But it seemed unavoidable now, as one large question constantly circled his brain.

Should he have waited to join someone with more direction and a plan?

Shaking his head free of such treacherous thoughts, Zoro pushed off of the fence and let himself drop to the ground, catching himself before his face hit the dirt. And like a well oiled machine, he began pumping him arms, pushing himself off the ground and easing himself back down. Again and again, Zoro distracted himself from his thoughts with push ups. "I don't regret joining Luffy." He told himself. "I'm just bored and a bit antsy. I only got to fight some run of the mill thugs back when Luffy fought buggy."

"Um, what are you doing?"

Zoro paused mid way through his ninetieth push up. Nami was looking down at him from her perch atop the fence, clearly confused. "I'm bored." He stated, returning to his workout. "I need to do something." The swordsman grunted.

"Uh huh..." Nami didn't look satisfied by the answer, not that Zoro cared.

"Hey mister, how many of those can you do?"

Looking up, Zoro found the three kids watching him, seemingly amazed as he continued his routine. "A couple thousand." Zoro said offhandedly.

"Wow, really?" Asked the one with the bandanna. Carrot, was it?

"Yep."

"Wow, that's so many! You must be really strong!" Onion praised, and Zoro felt himself smirk.

"If you want to help make him stronger, why not sit on his back?" Nami offered with a sly smirk.

"That sounds like fun!" That one was Pepper, right? Zoro shook his head. Their names were weird.

"Why not?" Zoro breathed out. "It'd add a bit of weight. Might help." The three kids took this as an invitation and eagerly bounded forward, Zoro holding himself halfway through pushing himself back up as they climbed onto his broad back. "Hold on." Zoro grinned, and without further warning, he dove back into his workout with renewed vigor The strength he put into pushing himself up was so forceful the kids actually lifted off from his back each time, the three boys laughing every time it happened.

Zoro was smiled as he continued. He was only into the three hundreds at the moment, and he was beginning to feel the warm tingle that came before the pleasant burn of a good workout. Normally he didn't that little warning until he got into the five hundreds. Perhaps he should by some weights to go on his back when he was doing push ups when they got a bigger ship.

He had just pushed past one thousand when Nami tapped his foot with her own. "What is it?" He asked, stopping midway once more, much to the disappointment of the kids. Following Nami's nod down the path, Zoro could make out a vaguely human shape in the haze of the heat waves. "Sorry guys, looks like the fun's over." He muttered, getting a small chorus of groans that let him with a guilty smile. He didn't want to end their fun, but that looked like his Captain. Perhaps they'd finally be getting off this island.

"Hey Luffy, where have you been?" Nami asked as she slid off the fence. Luffy wore a grim look as he stopped in front of the group, a hand on his hat.

"Hey, where's the Captain?" Carrot asked as he looked up at Luffy.

"Yeah, where's the Captain?" Onion joined in.

"Something's come up guys." Luffy said, looking from Zoro to Nami, the steel in his eyes causing Zoro to straighten his back as his right hand drifted down to Wado Ichimonji's hilt. Seeing this, Luffy nodded once, and Zoro grinned a feral grin. "Usopp and I were out by the cliffs talking when we heard voices down at the beach. We looked over the edge and saw that butler guy with some weirdo that Usopp hadn't seen before." Luffy began, the attention of the small group focused solely on him. "We overheard their conversation and... well the butler guy isn't actually a butler. He's a pirate named Kuro." Nami stiffened at this while the three kids reeled back in shock. Zoro, however, didn't know if the wolfish grin on his face could grow any more.

"Kuro? Are you sure?" Nami asked, almost disbelieving. Luffy simply nodded. "Crap." She sore. "Kuro was one of the big three in the east blue a few years back. He was worth sixteen million berri's, and is known of Kuro of a thousand plans. Apparently he always had a back up plan. But he was supposed to have been killed three years ago. Some marine named Morgan caught an they executed him."

Zoro scoffed. "Morgan caught him? No wonder Kuro's still alive." He chuckled to himself.

"They actually talked about that too. Apparently it was one of Kuro's crew that resembled him that got executed while Kuro slunk away, winding up here." Luffy sighed. "He sure as hell has a pair on him. Hiding out here, not even a full day's sail from the place where he supposedly died." He smiled a humorless smile. "Kuro's been here for three years gaining every ones trust. Now, his crew is going to attack the village tomorrow at dawn. Apparently the weirdo with him is supposed to hypnotize Kaya into writing her will to leave everything to Kuro." Shocked and outraged looks danced across the faces of Nami and Zoro, respectively, while the thee kids looked horrified.

"Hypnotized?!" Pepper cried out. "Wait, that weird guy who walking backwards! He hypnotized us into sleeping!" He turned to his two friends, each looking scandalized. Luffy looked to Zoro and Nami for an explanation.

"Yeah, that happened." Zoro said. "But he also hypnotized himself into sleeping as well." He recalled fondly. That had been a laugh.

"Right. So it was probably him that Luffy saw down at the beach." Nami rationalized. "Well then, if we know who it is that's going to hypnotize her, then we know who we need to take out, and we need to do it before he can get to her." Luffy and Zoro nodded in agreement before Nami looked up to Luffy. "We are helping, right?"

"Oh yeah." Luffy nodded. "I told Usopp to go warn Kaya about Kuro. I don't think that she'll believe him after this morning, but it'll put a bit of suspicion in the back of their minds. I hope." Luffy sighed. "We know when they're attacking, we just need to know where they're attacking from." Luffy said as he began to walk towards town.

"Hey, where are you going?" Nami asked, jogging to catch up as Zoro followed stoically behind. Carrot, Pepper and Onion each chased after the pirates. They may have been young, but they knew what was going on, and that these three were probably stronger than the people in the village. If they wanted to stay safe, they'd be sticking around these guys.

"I told Usopp to meet us at that cafe from earlier." Luffy told her as she tried, and failed, to match his long strided pace, cursing tall people all the way.

"Hey Luffy." Zoro began as the kids moved shuffled about behind him like a group of chicks following a mother hen, heads swiveling this way and that as though Kuro and Jango would jump out at them any second. "Why didn't you just wrap 'em up in those trees of yours? It would've saved us a lot of time and effort." The swordsman pointed out.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you don't want to fight." Luffy grinned as he looked at Zoro over his shoulder.

"Ha! Yeah right." The oldest of the party laughed heartily. "I was bored out of my mind earlier. Now that I get to fight one of the strongest pirates in the east blue. I'm happy." He grinned. "Just make sure to leave me someone to fight this time."

"You got to fight those guys at the docks back in Orange town, didn't you?" Luffy pointed out.

"Oh please, those guys were push overs. I need a real fight."

"Alright." Luffy smiled. "But Kuro is mine. You can take out the rest of the crew if you want." He couldn't see it, but Luffy could almost feel Zoro's grin as the village came into view. "But if I had fought them there on the beach, the rest of the village would just see it as some pirate kid who came to their island and picked on a respected butler and his friend. They need to know he's the bad guy first." Luffy said.

"I'm surprised. That was good thinking Luffy." Nami smirked, watching as Luffy sputtered in indignation.

"Hey! I can be smart!" He protested. The group laughed at Luffy's expense, the Captain's continuous defense of his intelligence only bringing more laughter as they came into sight of the small village, dusk slowly turning the sky a bruised purple as they entered the small shop to find Usopp, sitting in a booth with his head in his arms and melancholy on his face. Immediately, the group's joyous mood grew somber.

"Captain!" Cried the three boys in joy at seeing their leader. "We were so worried!" Carrot announced.

Usopp's downtrodden look vanished, replaced by a smile for his three friends. "Hey you guys! Sorry about that, the great Captain Usopp was laying the foundation for his greatest triumph yet! I needed to convince everyone of the evil in their midst before it could lash out at them!" He announced, puffing his chest out as he stood, one foot on the table top and and the other on his seat as he struck the pore of legends.

"Wow!" Onion had stars in his eyes as he looked up at the confidence Usopp radiated.

"So cool..." Pepper whispered.

"Hey Usopp." Luffy said, breaking the leader of the Usopp pirates out of his moment of self greatness. "How'd it go?" He asked, although from the look he'd seen on the other teen when they walked in, he could easily guess.

Usopp deflated slightly at the question, returning back to his seat. "Not good." He muttered, clearly disappointed in himself as a gloom hung over him. "It was just like you said: They didn't believe me after what happened this morning." He said dejectedly.

Luffy nodded. He had his hopes that they'd hear Usopp out, listen to him, but he had expected this. "Alright then, we need a plan." He said firmly, taking the seat opposite the local liar. Zoro nodded in agreement. He lived to grow stronger, to find and fight more powerful foes. To be fighting one of the strongest pirate in the East Blue was something he was eagerly looking forward to.

"Right." Usopp said as he looked the most determined Zoro had seen since meeting him. His loved ones were in danger and he would be damned if he was going to roll over and let that happen. Zoro respected him for that. "So then, what have you got?"

Suddenly, all eyes turned to look at Luffy, who felt very out of place.

"I..." He began, everyone leaning slightly close as he spoke. "Have no idea." He admitted, and Zoro felt a very string urge to strangle his Captain.

Whack!

"Ow!"

Apparently Nami's urge to hit him was even stronger, though the amusement of watching Nami shack her sore fist as she glared bloody murder into the back of Luffy's head had Zoro smiling broadly.

"Well I don't know the island!" Luffy defended himself with a childish pout, something that the swordsman sincerely hoped wouldn't become a regular occurrence. How would anyone take him seriously if he followed a Captain who pouted like a kid so god damn always? "Besides, all we know is that they're attacking at dawn. We don't even know which direction from!" Usopp and his young friends slumped forward, a cloud of misery and impending defeat looming over their heads, but out of the corner of his eye, Zoro caught Nami perk up.

"You know, he's right." She said, looking as though she had just come to realize a great and surprising truth of life while the Usopp pirates seemed to sink deeper in their misery at the declaration. Either doing a very good job of ignoring them or she was ignorant to their emotional plight, Nami pressed on. "When we arrived on this island, you guys were waiting up on the cliffs for us, right?" The locals nodded, their air of depression not leaving. "How much of the island's coast is walled by cliffs?" Nami asked firmly.

"Pretty much all of it." Usopp mumbled into the table, the only thing keeping his face from hitting the hard surface being his extraordinarily long nose.

"Yeah." Carrot seconded.

"And they're really tall and steep too." Onion moaned. "They're really hard to climb."

"They surround the entire island." Pepper added. "There are only two places you can really walk up."

"Only two?" Luffy frowned at this, pinching his chin in thought. "Damn." He muttered. "If only we knew which one they were gonna use."

Wham!

"Ow!" Nami complained, shaking her fist after it had bounced of the top of Luffy's head.

"Idiot." Zoro growled. "There are four of us who can fight." He reminded his Captain, ignoring Usopp's panicked inquiry about who the fourth person is. "We split up, two at each entrance, and we'll have the place covered." He stated confidently as he folded his arms over his chest.

Usopp frowned. "Wait, wouldn't that just leave two people to fight off the entire crew of their own?" He asked, a slight tremble in his voice as he played such a scene through his head.

"I could do it." Both Luffy and Zoro said easily, glancing at each other as if they hadn't thought the other would speak up.

Thump!

"Ow!" Nami winced as she shook both hands. "Not everyone is suicidal like you two!" She barked, seemingly forgetting her hurting fists immediately. "Besides, any normal person would have trouble with just a handful of pirates, let alone a whole crew, but if we send you two together, that leaves the other two to take on an entire pirate crew." The navigator reasoned.

"Right." Usopp nodded. "We need to send one of you two with one of the other two, to even it out."

"Well alright." Luffy blinked. "So who do you guys want to go with?" He asked, looking from Nami to Usopp. Nami frowned, while Usopp gulped, looking both scarred at being included as a fighter and determined to defend his home at all costs.

"Well I don't know about you guys." Nami began. "But I want to make sure that this Kuro guy dosen't get his hand on the treasure I have in our boat." She said, looking about the small gathering with a gleam in her eyes that spoke of riches and a wrath unlike any other that would be unleashed should someone touch her gold.

"I'll take the shore near where Luffy and I saw Kuro meet that weirdo guy." Usopp said as he stared at the table. "There's a lot of high ground around there so it'll be easy to find a good position." Looking up, Usopp held Luffy's stare. "I think that's where they'll most likely come from."

"I'll go with you then." Luffy said quickly, Zoro grunting in annoyance. Luffy got to fight Kuro of a thousand plans while he got stuck on guard duty with the money hungry navigator.

"Alright, that's settled." Nami grinned. "Although, I wonder if these pirates will have any treasure on their ship..." A sly, greedy grin grew as Nami daydreamed how many riches such an infamous pirate crew would have aboard.

"Hey guys." Usopp said, snapping Nami out of her reverie. "What if they have some really strong guys on their crew? What if whoever they fight gets overwhelmed?"

"Don't worry Usopp." Luffy grinned that carefree grin of his. "Zoro and I are really strong. We'll take care of them."

"I'm not saying that you're not strong." Usopp pressed. "I'm just saying, we should be prepared in case they're more than we could handle."

"You know, that's not a bad idea." Nami said with a thoughtful look. "We could use something to fall back on, just in case, you know?"

"Like what?" Luffy asked, looking to Zoro and Nami uncertainly.

"We need a warning system..." Usopp sighed, running his hand down his face, until his eyes widened. Slowly, he looked to the Usopp pirates. He was hesitant, he didn't want anyone getting hurt, least of all his closest friends. Yet his home, their home, was in danger. "Hey guys." The three youngest of the group turned and looked up at the village liar. "You wanna help?"

Luffy's mouth opened unnaturally wide as he yawned, arms reaching for the first grey streaks of light in the dawn sky. He really should have gotten to bed earlier last night, but who was he to deny his First Mate's need to get stronger? Zoro had been relentless. He moved faster than Luffy, striking and vanishing like rabbit beast hyped up on caffeine.

Luffy had thought he had managed to get a decent grasp on Zoro's abilities from their late night training. Having been taught by Shanks, he knew how to judge a swordsman, and he could see the skill, speed and raw power Zoro had, but that was what set him apart from Shanks. He could see Zoro's skill, he couldn't see Shanks'. That being said, he could also see Zoro's potential, something that the former bounty hunter had in spades.

Unfortunately, Zoro had become frustrated easily last night at his lack of progress in Haki. His determination was admirable, his drive unchallenged, but he had been approaching Haki all too wrong. He had thought it a skill one could learn like a new grip on his sword. Luffy had to stop him, to tell him it was more like building up a muscle that most people didn't even know existed yet. But to build it up, he had to find it first, and then discover how to exercise it. That he had understood.

They had then spent the rest of the night in a pose similar to meditation as the pirate Captain explained how he felt in his mind when he used Haki, then what his body felt. The swordsman had been remarkably more complaint as a pseudo-student than he had been as a sparring partner, and Luffy was happy about that. It meant that Zoro was willing to learn, something Luffy attributed to his drive to become stronger. Those who were willing to learn were more likely to become stronger.

His head rolling over to his left shoulder, Luffy spied Usopp, the local's eyes peeled as he stared out onto the murky ocean unblinking, the water roiling in black wrath under the last vestiges of the night, the grey lines in the sky now touched with gold and red. The promise of sunrise. Sitting back to back with Usopp was Carrot, the bandanna wearing boy matching Usopp's gaze of unblinking observation as he watched the center of the island behind them.

The plan was simple: The Usopp pirates would split up, Carrot with Luffy and Usopp, Pepper with Nami and Zoro as they moved Nami's treasure, and Onion in the middle of the island. If either Luffy and Usopp or Nami and Zoro caught sight of the enemy ship, the Usopp pirate with them would then use the large slingshot Usopp spent last night making to fire a pellet into the sky over the island. The pellet would explode into fire and red dust, alerting both Onion and the group on the other side of the island. In case the pellet went unseen by the group who had not fired the pellet, Onion would fire his own pellet into the sky above them.

And now here they sat, the first true rays of the sun begining to burn their way across the sky as two watches kept a sharp lookout and the third member of the little party tried to keep his eyes open. Luffy idly wondered if Zoro was suffering from the same problem as he was. Though, considering just how Zoro lazed about when he wasn't training, there probably wouldn't be any difference. Zoro was always ready to break into a heavy slumber.

A sharp crack ripped through the air, and everyone bolted to their feet.

"The signal!" Carrot shouted as he pointed to the sky. Wheeling about, Luffy and Usopp could only just make out the red cloud against the light grey sky. Another crack pierced the sky and another plume of smoke blossomed, this one much closer to them. Onion and Pepper had done their jobs just like the plan needed them to.

"We're on the wrong side of the island." Usopp muttered. "But they met here! Why would they attack from the other side?" He asked aloud.

"Doesn't matter." Luffy said as his feet sunk into the ground, his roots tearing through earth faster than he could run. "What matters is that the plan worked. Now we have to get over there!"

"Right." Usopp nodded, determination set in as he began running. "Come on Luffy! We've got pirates to beat!" He shouted over his shoulder, Carrot racing after him. Luffy smiled as he felt his roots nudge the concrete foundations of the village buildings.

"I'll see you there!" He said as he knelt down. "Don't worry Usopp, Zoro and I'll have most of them beat before you get there." Rocks and buried decay pushed aside, Earth and roots shift and offer room as his reach grew and grew, right until he found what he searched for. Usopp had finally vanished from sight and into the small woods of the island. Roots splitting into hundreds of smaller, more delicate off shoots, Luffy searched the wall, mapping out each and every weakness in the seaside stone before, with a wide grin, he gave one, final push, and the wall came crumbling down.

The mansion was eerily silent so early. It would be another hour before the chef awoke to prepare Lady Kaya's breakfast. As Merry listened to the last delicate footsteps fade into nothingness and the gentle creak of the front doors closing, he let out a quite, strained breath that came out more of a rasp. Oh the fool he felt. Usopp had been right. The entire time, that no good, lying fantasiser had been right, and it made Merry all the more the fool.

Everything ached as he reached out in front of himself, the smooth marble cold beneath his body as he grasped at the gap in the tiles and pulled. He felt so pathetic as he slid across the polished floor, his impeccable shoes squeaking as they were dragged along with him. He could see the snail from where he lay. It sat atop a small table in the entrance foyer across the room, little stalked eyes watching him curiously, as though he was some animal it had never seen before.

Gritting his teeth, Merry reached out and pulled himself across the floor once more to the sound of his shoes squealing. His coat and trousers were slick with blood, proving an excellent lubricant as he dragged himself further, although he was loath the hear how Lady Kaya would react at seeing his blood smeared across the floor like this. The poor girl, she didn't have the heart for such things. He hoped the chef would be wise enough to keep her from the sight.

It was painful, and he was sure he'd cracked his teeth from the strain, but he finally managed to reach the legs of the table. He seized the closest one tightly in his cold, clammy hand. The metal of the table leg was cool, smooth and daintily curved Truly it was of a design worthy of his Lady's home. Sighing, Merry pushed as much strength he could muster upwards, throwing the table off balance and sideways. With a crash of wood and metal on marble and the clatter of the the draw flying open and the snail falling to the floor, Merry smiled.

Slowly, he pulled himself along the pale marble one more time, once more his shoe squeaked behind him. He sincerely hoped that he wasn't leaving a trail of black scuff marks behind him. The blood stains would be bad enough. Reaching out, Merry pulled the transponder snail to him. Picking up the receiver in one hand and dialing the short, simple emergency number of the marines in the East Blue, Merry sighed.

The dial tone only rang one before it was answered.

"Hello, this is the marines emergency line, how may I help you?" Came the voice of a young man, and Merry suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to cry.

"P-Please... Please help." He rasped. "He's here, on the island..." He wheezed, feeling out of breath, a chill settling in the pit of his stomach. Quickly, Merry held a hand over his gaping wounds, doing something, anything, to staunch the bleeding.

"Who is, sir? And what island are you on?" The operator asked, suddenly sounding more urgent.

"I-I'm on G-Gecko Island, in Syrup village." Merry managed. "He was right. He was right, Kuro's alive. K-Kuro's alive a-and he's go-going to kill the village. Pl-Please, Kuro's alive, and he's going to ki-kill them all." Merry sobbed. "He'll kill them all. Just l-like he's killed m-me."

Coby watched the waves break off of the hull of the ship to their port side, the white foam barely visible in the low light of such an early down. The first rays were just starting to touching the sky, and yet the ships were already a buzz of activity. He had been woken up three hours ago, performed his duties and then had breakfast, only to then do another round of his chores. Only now, for the past ten minutes, had he had time to take a breather.

He stood next to the railings, out of the way enough for sailors to do their jobs as quickly and efficiently a possible without them tripping over him, yet easy enough to find should he be needed. The three ships that made up what would normally constitute as a patrol sailed in a wedge formation, with the ship he stood aboard in the lead. It was only fitting, seeing as it carried the her of the marines.

Garp was a far cry from what he had expected of such a legendary figure. He had thought of him to be valiant, orderly and formal. Instead, Garp tended to be loud, obnoxious and easily bored with professional conduct. It had caught Coby off guard so much that he had wondered if he had actually met Garp's not-so-well-known brother.

But that wasn't to say anything negative about the Garp he had fallen under the command of. In fact, he was a kind man, humorous and somewhat grandfatherly. In the few days that he'd known Garp, he had firmly cemented himself within Coby's mind as a good man. In fact it had happened so fast that Coby was quite intimidated by the fact.

Sighing, Coby smiled as he turned away from the railing of the ship and headed back to Garp's cabin. Garp liked to eat. He had told Coby that when out on the open ocean, you never knew when you'd eat next, so you should always eat as much as you could whenever you got the chance. Coby had thought it sound advice, right up until he saw just how much Garp ate. Eating such quantities of food so fast... Such a thing should not be possible. Although it explained why Garp was so tall and muscular.

"Ah, cabin boy! There you are!" Garp grinned merrily as he slurped at a bowl of noodles. "I was afraid you'd miss breakfast!" He chuckled.

"Sir, you finished breakfast two hours ago..." Coby pointed out uneasily. He was still a little saw at how he had immediately been thrown into the position of Garp's personal cabin boy, that same position being the one he had suffered under Alvida's wrath for two years, but Garp was friendly enough, so that more than made up for it. Maybe, if he paid good enough attention, he could pick up the necessary skills needed to be a great marine.

"Ha! So I did!" The hero of the marines laughed heartily. "Well come here, I got you a bowl." Garp said as he nodded to a steaming bowl sitting opposite him. Coby wasn't really hungry, but Garp's advice stood, as so as he looked down into the bowl of noodles, diced vegetables strips of beef and sauce, he quickly dug in. "That's the spirit!" Gar grinned.

Coby smiled around his mouthful at the Vice-Admiral, earning uproarious laughter from the old man.

"Now then, the main reason I was gonna go looking for you." Garp began, his face darkening as he looked as serious as he had when he had heard of Morgan's deeds. "I don't know how long you've been a marine, but you don't look that old to me, which makes me wonder: How much training have you gone through?" He asked before shoveling another mouthful of noodles into his mouth.

Swallowing, Coby answered. "I-I had only signed up a day before you arrived, Sir." Coby stammered, nerved by the sudden shift in Garp's demeanor. "I-I haven't had a-any training, Sir."

Garp's dark look suddenly turned predatory. "Is that so?" He grinned, and Coby felt the urgent need to run from the cabin at top speed and throw himself overboard. "Well that's good!" Garp laughed. "I don't train marines like the regular training schools do. I don't think those piss poor excuses for marines are good enough! We need strong, hard and tough gritted marines willing to do whatever it takes to serve the people."

Coby's eyes lit up at this. Normally, whenever he heard marines talking with such reverence as to how a marines should be, it was about absolute justice or greater power than the criminals they fought, and it was those marines that turned out like the former Captain Morgan. Cold, cruel and obsessive to the point of violence that frightened those they were sworn to protect. To hear anyone, let alone such a high ranking and revered marine like Garp the Hero talk about serving the people instead? That lit a fire flamed by hope in Coby's heart.

"So." Garp continued. "Without any previous training, it means you don't have any of those sissy habits academy marines do. You're a blank slate. Clay to be shaped, and I intend to put you through all nine yards! The whole ringer!" Garp laughed, and Coby's hope was soon crushed by dread. This did not sound like it was going to be enjoyable.

It was then that the conversation was interrupted by the sound of the transponder snail on Garp's desk. Sighing, Garp almost looked as though he dreaded the sound as he spared the snail a few seconds of a glance before picking it up.

"'Ello." He sighed into the receiver. Coby managed to make out a muffled voice on the other end and Garp frowned. "Thought he was dead?" Garp asked casually as he began picking a piece of a beef strip from between his teeth. "Really?" He asked, and it seemed to Coby that he was growing more serious the more the person on the other side spoke. "Alright. I'll be there as soon as possible." Garp said firmly before placing the snail receiver back on the snail. "Change of plans." Garp sighed tiredly as he stood up and made for the door, his noodles forgotten.

"S-Sir?" Coby stammered. "What's happening?" He asked, turning about in his seat to see Garp pause in the doorway. Slowly, the legendary marine looked over his shoulder.

"You might just end up seeing you first real conflict between a wanted pirate and the marines." He said, a humorless grin on his face. "I'm sending one ship on ahead to scoop up Buggy while we and the other ship head over to Gecko Island." With that, Garp pushed through the door, but not with Coby catching his last, distant words. "We've got a dead man to hunt."

Zoro had to admit, he preferred his own crews glorified dingy over what he saw in front of him now. It was large, with a rounded hull painted a dark red. That was fine and all, Zoro actually liked the color, but the real off putter was the figurehead. It sat atop the keel far too proudly for what it was, grinning as its beady green eyes stared on ahead. In truth, the cat head looked constantly surprised, whether it was intentional or not was up in the air for the swordsman, but nevertheless, he thought it a lesser work of craftsmanship.

"Crap!" Nami cried as she hauled another treasure laden bag over her shoulder. Zoro had been helping her carry the small yet heavy sacks of gold and jewels up the incline that lead to the center of the island. He had thought it to be a good warm up for the fight to come, and he had been right. He grinned, gripping the hilts of his nameless blades as the first wave of pirates lowered small dinghies down from their ship, loaded with grinning and cheering pirates. They seemed to be in a good mood.

"Nami." Zoro began, not taking his eyes off of the closest of the small boats that had begun relaying pirates from the ship to the shore. "How much do you have left?" He asked.

"Two more after this!" The navigator called out as she hastily scrambled up the slope to hide her current load with the rest of her stash to stow away with Pepper in the undergrowth above them.

Zoro grunted, a feral grin growing as he drew two of his swords. So, cut down the pirates while keeping Nami safe as she hid the last of the treasure? Good. The more challenging, the better. Not that there looked to be a single man in this crew who could challenge him. His knees bent and muscles coiled, Zoro watched as the first boat scrapped along the rocky beach in its landfall.

"So it begins." He begun, arms crossed and swords held pointing into the air over his shoulders. "And so it will end." Pushing off from the ground, Zoro sped towards the first boat across the short beach, its passengers only just begining to jump out, when the swordsman repositioned his swords. "Bull Needles!" He called out, not four feet from his first target.

In a chorus of cries in both surprise and pain, Zoro slid to a stop in knee deep water. Behind him, six men fell into the water, mixing morning sea foam with fresh blood."What the he-?!" The oarsman began, but his words fell into a panicked cry as the small boat suddenly caved in half, a perfectly smooth cut slicing it in two. Zoro grinned in satisfaction, but faulted when he saw a man floating past him, bleeding as he went.

"Are those... Cat ears?" He thought as he studied the head pieces on the downed man. Zoro looked up, to his left and right, only to shudder at the discovery. These were hardened, murdering and pillaging criminals. An they were wearing cat ears. "All of them..." He bit back his confusion. He was going to fight them because he had so desperately wanted a decent battle, but now he'd do it on principle. "What kind of self respecting pirate would wear such things..."

"All right, who's next?" He wondered aloud, looking up and down the beach. Four more boats had reached the shore. More lambs to the slaughter

"Hey! Who the hell is that?" The voice of outrage swept down the beach and within moments, the attention of each and every Black Cat pirate was firmly on Zoro.

Zoro grinned as he slowly backed up onto the beach. He had never fought on a beach before. Loose footings, the waves should he get too close, and now two dozen men brandishing weapons? This would be good practice. He looked to his left and right, enemies on all sides. Good. He liked that. It meant he could fight them in whichever direction he pleased. He felt like going to the left first.

Dashing forward with quick feet, Zoro found the loose sand difficult to run on, but nevertheless, it seemed his speed took them by surprise. Good. Without a second thought, the swordsman leaped into the fray. They tried to fight back, they really did. They swung swords, clubs and struck out with spears, one man even tried to brain him with a hammer.

But Zoro's swords blurred in speed, twirling about as his feet shifted only ever so slightly, keeping his stance low and unmovable. Steel met steel in horrible screeches, sparks flying and men roaring in challenge. Flesh tore, bone broke and blood spilled as death in human form slowly danced to the sound of the choir of battle.

A large man with a sword as wide as he swung the heavy blade down at the bloodied Zoro, intend on rending him in twine. Zoro merely held his swords above his head in an X form, catching the clumsy blade with ease before he shifted to his left and left the slab of steel slam into the gorund and kick up sand like a geyser. With such a wide invitation, Zoro lazily spun about and opened up the man before continuing on, not even deigning his last enemy worth his glance.

"Fire!" Came the furious cry from down the beach. Zoro's head snapped to the sound in an instant. Just in time to see the line of riflemen pulling their triggers. Acting as fast as he ever had, Zoro brought up his twin swords. With a quick flurry of movement and burst of sparks, Zoro stood panting. He had done it only a few times before, and it never failed to wear him down, but he could do it. The bullets, flattened from their impact against the flat of his blades, were proof enough of that.

Glaring down the beach at the men, fright draining the color of their faces, Zoro snarled. He could rush them, charge with his bloody blades and carve them, but the distance was great. They'd get another volley in soon. But Zoro gave pause. Grinning, he twirled his blades, as though taunting them to try again. With gritted teeth, they leveled their rifles again. Glaring down the sights of their barrels, they failing to notice the threat from behind. Zoro felt satisfaction well up inside him as he watched the line of men being mercilessly beaten over the heads by a blue staff, Nami venting her frustrations out on the now whimpering pirates.

"What are you idiots doing!" Came a furious cry from the waves. Looking out over the small waves, Zoro spotted another boat ferrying more men to the shore, but at the head of this boat stood someone that man Zoro's grin all the more devilish. He remembered the hypnotist, and he knew that the hypnotist was the one that Kuro had discussed his plans with on the shore. This was the second in command. Good, he might be able to put up a fight. "How hard is it to kill a few pests?!" The hypnotist shouted in frustration. "Kill them already!"

Orders given and hate fueled, the remains of the Black Cat pirates swarmed in a frenzy, each jeering insults and and roaring. As it seemed, they didn't like it when their friends got cut down in droves by a single man. Go figure.

Zoro took in a deep breath, a thin film of sweat and grim building up under the blood that had dried on his skin. There had to be at least thirty men coming at him at once, nothing overwhelming to him, but his late night training with Luffy, the focus and concentration it took to block the earlier bullets and the constantly shifting ground beneath his feet were slowly starting to ebb away at him. He grunted, shrugging his weariness off. He could still take them.

Sliding Wado Ichimonji out of its scabbard, Zoro bit down on the hilt and readied himself. He frowned as he contemplated how to handle the situation. He could probably take most of them in one attack. Yes, that would be best. One attack to end the largest bulk of what was left. Twisting his hips and bringing his swords behind him in preparation to swing, Zoro hissed out past the hilt of his prized sword. "Dragon..." He began, corded muscles tense with power, but a single sound silenced the entire battlefield.

It sounded like thunder. A rumbling crack so loud that it could have been a mountain splitting in half. Zoro frowned. His enemy was distracted, now was his chance. "Twister!" With a roar, he lunged forward, blades a blur as a tornado tore apart the beach, sending stones, sand and pirates hurtling into the air, many screaming in either pain, shock or fear at being thrown into the air.

Zoro grinned to himself, eyes the hypnotist on the boat as it scrapped ashore, the two men behind him clambering out after him, but they froze. All three of them stood staring, wide eyed and confused. Zoro frowned. He wouldn't fall for it. He was a man of focus, brutal skill and sheer will. He would not b-. "What the hell is that?" Nami wondered aloud, her staff raised as she stood ready to continue her merciless beating of the bloodied and battered man trying to crawl away from her.

Slowly, Zoro turned to look over his shoulder. It wasn't difficult to see what they were looking at. The cliff face of the islands coast was usually tall, strong and pale stone. Usually. The cliff behind him now sported a large crack nearly ten meters long, looking like a dark maw that feed into the belly of the island. The startling thing about it was the mass of creeping greenery crawling out of it. "That wasn't there before..." Zoro thought, before it clicked. "Oh."

Another rumbling crack, like an iceberg shattering, and the air trembled, the earth shaking beneath his feet. It was the only warning Zoro received, but the only one he needed. The swordsman ducked low and dived towards Nami mere moments for the entire cliff face exploded in a shower of rock and writhing mess of tendril like roots snaking around one another.

The hypnotist let out a not so manly squeal of panic as the serpentine roots lashed out, slamming into the ground and disappearing beneath the surface as they pulled themselves from the cliff like some deranged prisoner that finally had freedom within reach. It took a single second, but in that second what looked to be hundred of meters of roots had clawed their way out of the cliff, all connecting together once on the ground to coalesce into a tall, scrawny looking human shape.

Slowly, green growth set into place, rough brown bark smoothed and lost much of its color, a straw hat and clothes forming, the details of a face became more defines and the ends of the branch like arms tied off together in long, thin knots that grew into fingers. Zoro had to admit, as he watched the last of Luffy form on the beach, an eager smile on his face, his Captain knew how to make an entrance. There wasn't much of the cliff face left.

"Captain." Zoro greeted with a small smile, amused as he watched Luffy's own smile fall as he took in the scene before him.

"Zoro." Luffy whined, much like a child would. "You didn't leave any for me!" He said accusingly.

"Well there's those three there." Zoro said around the hilt of Wado.

Luffy gave him a bland look, clearly unimpressed. Nevertheless, he raised his right leg behind him, as though to kick. "Willow Whip!" He announced, swinging his leg around in a wide circle. Zoro had to duck as Luffy's legs grew into a large, thick tree branch that swept the entire beach. The hypnotist and his two goons watched, having yet to pick their jaws up off the beach after Luffy's arrival. Unfortunately, the two lackeys seemed to have more of a brain than their leader, as the two clearly saw the danger and ducked just in time to avoid being picked up off the sand by the kick, much like their leader was, and sent flying into the ocean.

Zoro winced at the impact, the kick landing squarely on the hypnotists chest and the sound of ribs creaking and groaning under the strength of the kick was not difficult to hear, nor was the mans screaming as he sailed through the air, only bounce of their ships ridiculous figurehead and into the ocean. The two goons followed their leaders trajectory with open awe and fear.

Slowly, they turned to stare at Zoro and Luffy, Nami smiling as she walked up behind them, brandishing her staff across her the back of her shoulders in an attempt to look as innocent as possible. Zoro rolled his eyes at her.

"M-M-monster..." Said the scrawny man with swirly fashioned green hair, trembling as he inched backwards.

"D-D-D-Demons!" Cried the much rounder man not wearing a shirt. They both sported the same cat ear headpieces as the rest f the Black Cat crew, but these two wore gloves fashioned to look like cat paws, claws and all.

"Yep." Luffy smiled, seemingly pleased with the kick he had delivered to the second in command.

"Probably." Zoro grinned, swinging his swords at the crimson sand to free his blades of any blood. The ocean tide was rising, foamy waves creeping up the beach slowly washing away the sand. It would take a few hours, but Zoro suspected the beach would look as clean and not-so-murdery by lunch.

"What is going on here?"

The voice was smooth, calculating, but carried an undertone of rage. The beach had been silent but for the cashing of the waves, the voice carried long and far, all the way down to the last remaining five people standing. The two members of the Black Cat pirates suddenly paled, trembling at the sound, while Luffy and his crew turned about, curious, to see Kuro, the Captain of the very crew they had just swept aside, standing atop the slope that lead into the island center with a small carry back in his hand.

"I never thought you would be torn apart so easily by a group of brats." He spat in distaste. "It seems the Black Cat pirates aren't what they used to be." The sneer on his lips was almost dripping poison. "So, it seems I must finish you three off by mys-" Kuro's head rocked forward as a small black cloud exploded against the back of his skull, cutting him off.

"Th-There's f-f-four of us h-here, y-you bastard!" Emerging from the trees, Usopp placed another pellet in his slingshot, pulled it back and took aim, prepared to fire again.

Slowly, with a glare that could put men six feet under, Kuro turned to face Usopp, the liar flinching away at his gaze. "Ah, Usopp." Kuro grinned cruelly. "Perfect. I owe you for that punch earlier, don't I?" Reaching down into the small bag, he unzipped it and slid his hand in.

"Gunpowder star!" Usopp cried out, loosing the pellet in the pouch of his slingshot. A blur of movement, a the pellet struck, exploding into another black powder cloud. Usopp let out a breath, lowering his slingshot as he watched the cloud slowly ebb away in the breeze to reveal nothing but the tattered remains of Kuro's bag. "Huh?" Usopp grunted, squinting at the empty bag. "I was sure I hit him..."

"Too slow." A cold voice whispered into his ear. Usopp couldn't even cry out before the soil beneath his feet exploded into the air, steel catching on twisting wood in a crash of strength. Usopp wheeled about, eyes wide as he stumbled back. Kuro stood, clawed gloves adorning his hands and now caught in the twisting knots of the wooden grain of the wall that had grown out from the grown in an instant.

"If you owe him for that punch..." Luffy's voice growled and slowly, like a demon from a fable of haunted woods and vengeful spirits, the pirates face slowly began to emerge from the blackening sheer that began to coat the wood. "Then you're gonna owe me a plot six feet under." With a sharp Crack! and a twist, the wood snapped about and folded upon itself, the wall of obsidian coated wood becoming a human in a fraction of a second. Luffy stood, head and shoulders bearing down upon Kuro, seemingly not caring for the five blades of Kuro's right glove that impaled his abdomen.

Usopp blinked, then rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. No, what he was seeing was real. It was happening right in front of him. Looking over his shoulder, Usopp peered down at the remaining four people on the beach. Nami, Zoro and those two weirdos from Kuro's crew. Right where Luffy was, however, was now a large hole in the rocky sand. Almost like Luffy had dug under ground, crept through the ground and popped up behind Usopp and in front of Kuro like some kind of weed. "But how... That's not possible!"

"Y-You..." Kuro stammered and, for the first time since Usopp had seen him, the pirate turned murderous butler was shaken. No, he looked afraid. "You ate a d-devil fruit, didn't you?" He managed.

"Oh yeah." Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles. "It's gonna suck to be you." Kuro paled. Luffy's hand grasped the former pirates arm in a vice like grip and, his abdomen blackening and twisting, he snapped off the rigid metal of the clawed gloves like sticks. Kuro jerked back, but Luffy's grip gave no quarter, and soon his fist had become encroached with thick brown bark, flesh and bone becoming unyielding hard wood.

Luffy's grin widened, watching as horror etched itself onto Kuro's face at what he saw. Wood started to grow from the pirates hand, reaching around like a serpent entwining it's prey and wrapped around Kuro's arm. Almost like a liquid, it enveloped him, creeping over his frantically panicked movements. It was almost like seeing someone sink into quicksand. It took but seconds, but it felt like hours to all watching as Kuro's right arm was engulfed in the quickly growing wood.

"Nyanban brothers!" Kuro cried out, voice shrill and panicked as sweat dotted his brow. "Help me!" She ordered, pulling at his shoulder with his left arm, almost as though he had hoped to escape by tearing his own limb off.

"Zoro, take care of them." Luffy said calmly, coldly, without so much as turning about to give his order.

Nami hadn't even turned to see what Zoro would do when she saw a flash of steel, sunlight catching blades and quickly silenced shrieks of pain before Zoro was flicking blood off his swords before slowly sliding them back into their sheaths. It had happened so quick, with no hesitation what so ever, that the navigator took a moment to take in what she had just seen. A ice cold pit settled in her stomach, a newfound fear of her 'crew mates' like a red hot poker running down her spine. It burned, it seared, but there was little she could do about it. She needed them. Needed their treasure.

Nami watched, taking in every detail of the cold man in front of her. Without even watching where he stepped, he marched over the bloody beach and to the slope the last of their enemies had been held on. Swallowing her sick, Nami forced herself to play the part and follow him, yet she never took her eyes off of Zoro. This was what she had grown up around. Hardened killers who butchered without care. This man... This was a pirate.

Seeing his last hopes fall, Kuro felt something in him die. The last vestige of pride, hope and ambition. It cracked at first, like the shell of an egg, before the yoke came spilling out, his fears overwhelming him.

"No!" He screamed, and with a frantic, panicked slash of his left hand, he fell backwards, screaming in pain. He fell to the ground, his hand gripping the stump where his shoulder used to be. "I won't die here! I can't!" He shouted, a tear leaking out from behind his glasses. "I planned this! Years of time and devotion!" He scrambled backwards, swinging his blades at Luffy as the tree man remained, not moving as the wood that had nearly engulfed the former pirate receded, letting his discarded arm fall to the ground uselessly.

"Four years I planned this!" Kuro screamed at the still grinning teen. "An entire years searching ans studying the right families! Another three making them believe I was to be trusted, loved! Three years!" He swayed, his steps hazardous and the left side of his clothes slick in fresh blood. "I will not let yo-"

"Klahadore?"

The fragile voice cut through the mania of Kuro's screaming rant, the nigh delirious schemer spilling about in surprise. Usopp scrambled up to his feet, desperately wanting to rush to her side and spare her the sight before them all, but the fear of Kuro's wild flailing and swaying held him in check. Luffy's grin vanished in an instant, replaced by a hard gaze, narrowed eyes and a tension that spoke of his readiness to jump in at a moments notice. Zoro and Nami, having fled the blood soaked sand, came to a stop upon seeing Kaya, the frail lady of the island in her beautiful white gown, with a pistol in her hands.

"Lady Kaya..." Kuro muttered, as though he couldn't believe his own eyes. A pregnant pause swallowed the group, no one sure what to do, But Luffy caught the sliver of a wolfish grin on Kuro's face. He lunged forward, left hand raised and claws gleaming maliciously for the kill. Kaya raised her pistol, Usopp dashed forward as fast as his legs could carry him. Neither would be enough. Neither were fast enough.

Luffy was

Kuro's lunge stopped mid way, a brief second of confusion on his face as he stopped mid air, before he was pulled downwards by his legs, his body slammed into the dirt like a rag doll. Spitting out soil and a tooth, the Captain of the Black Cat pirates looked down to find thick, twin roots had reached up from the ground and seized his legs up to his knees. Usopp had passed him in a second, Kaya left pointing at where Kuro would be.

"Damn you!" Kuro shrieked, his bloody suit becoming smearing in dirt and leaves as he was dragged backwards across the ground, towards Luffy. His eyes widened, watching as a nest of tendrils opened up the ground in front of Luffy like a pit of vipers lashing out. "No!" He screamed. "No! Four years! I will not lose!" He felt his legs become ensnared, his body lifted into the ground as branches engrossed him in bindings, fusing together to create an unmoving imprisonment. "My plan cannot fail!" Kuro cried out, his arm reaching out in desperation as his face was swallowed by the growing tree.

Silence slithered about the group, Usopp covering Kaya's eyes as the tree stopped growing, it's prisoner taken and task complete. "Luffy..." Usopp began in a dreading whisper.

"Don't worry, he's still alive." Luffy sighed, his feet returning to flesh and bone once again. "He just won't be moving for a while." The Captain could see the tension melt out of Kaya, Usopp and Nami. "He won't be hurting anyone else again, though. Not after what he did." He said gravely, pressing his hat down until it shadowed his eyes. "Not after threatening my friends like that."

"Friends?" Usopp spoke up, his hand finally falling from Kaya's eyes, yet his body still blocked her view of her former caretakers imprisonment. "You mean..?" He trailed off, looking to Kaya and then pointing at himself. Luffy grinned widely, his solemn mood swinging widely back to cheerful boy.

"Of course!" He chuckled. "You guys are my friends, and he was going to hurt you. I couldn't let that happen."

Behind him, Nami frowned at his back, then looked to Zoro. The stoic swordsman remained unmoving, not even flinching. The man seemed to be made of stone and steel, yet she could see it in his eyes, a certain softness. A warmth. "No, they're pirates, killers. A target. Nothing more." She scolded herself.

"I'd fight for any of you guys." Luffy continued, looking to Zoro and Nami, oblivious to the navigators inner turmoil. "You're all my friends." He smiled

Zoro, having fought to remain unfeeling during the touching moment, finally let himself crack, and smiled. Nami, however, waned to scream in frustration as she, too, couldn't help but smile. "This is not how pirates were supposed to behave!" She silently fumed as she restrained herself from tearing her hair out. "You can't just go from ruthless killing machines to goofy friends so quickly! It's not fair!"

"So..." Kaya began, a single tear escaping her wide eyes to flee down her cheek. "Kuro, he was really..." She fought back a sob, but couldn't stop the sniff.

"Yeah." Usopp said softly. "He was."

"Y-You were right." She managed, weakly choking back her emotion. "Now M-Merry..." It seemed too much for the young lady, and with a breif sway, she collapsed forward into Usopp's chest, tears flowing freely and sobs wracking her body.

"M-Merry?" Usopp began. He knew the butler, he was kind, if not a bit odd. Sure he had been rude to Usopp on occasions, but there were only four people in the village who hadn't been. "What happened to Merry?" He asked.

"Klaha-, no." Kaya caught herself, he grief and pain turning the world ending fury for the briefest of moments. "Kuro." She spat. "He hurt Merry, hurt him badly. The chef found him near the front door, a transponder snail near him. We think Kuro might have caught Merry on the transponder and-and." Another bought of sobs coursed through her, the stain of her tears and running nose growing on Usopp's clothes. "He's alive, but we don't know for how much longer. The chef did all he could but..."

Usopp nodded, his hand absently rubbing her back in steady circles as he tried to clam her. "He'll be fine, Kaya. We'll get him to the village doctor and have him fixed up and healthy in no time." He said, forcing a peppy voice and a smile. "Everything will be fine."

Behind them, Luffy and his crew had taken several steps back, Zoro inspecting the tree that contained Kuro with suspiciously narrowed eyes, as though expecting the former pirate to burst out of the tightly packed wood at any moment. Nami was standing off to the side with Luffy, the two watching Usopp and Kaya with heavy hearts. There was little they could do, but it was still painful to hear. Nami, having been roiling in her inner thoughts since she had Zoro had left the beach, turned to Luffy.

"Did you really mean that?" Nami asked, unsure if she was being skeptical or wanting to chase away any traces of her earlier thoughts. "That's you'd fight for any of us?" Luffy's grin softened, from childish and overactive, to tender, caring and understanding. He could lie, she knew this, but she had seen a thousand people lie, each spinning whatever story they needed her to believe, each failing miserably. Looking up at Luffy now, Nami could firmly state that he wouldn't have to try to convince her of what he he said. She knew he'd tell the truth.

"Of course I would." He said quitely, and Nami felt herself smile, and nodded to herself as she looked to her feet. By whatever passed as divine, she feel foolish now. It had been kill or be killed on the beach. Zoro couldn't afford to hesitate, and neither would Luffy had been, had he been there for more than the last few Black Cat pirates to fall. Nevertheless, she knew that Luffy's words weren't just the truth.

Those words were a promise.

"Marines!"

And it was that cry that broke the pirates moment of silent accomplishment and peace, as Carrot, Onion and Pepper came rushing down the path in a panic.

"Marines are coming!" Carrot fretted.

"Two ships! Really big ones!" Onion shouted.

"And there's an angry old guy yelling from the front of one!" Pepper cried.

And that's chapter 4.
I'm just going to quitely slink away, hoping that the super long chapter of 22,244 words is enough to make up for my two months of not updating. I know it won't, but hey, I can hope.
If there's anything you noticed out of place, mistakes or so then let me know, half of this was written between 10pm and 3am.
Fun fact, I got an email that someone was now following this story about ten minutes before I updated.
Make sure to leave suggestions in the reviews for which three you want to join the crew!
Till next time!
Toodles!