AN: BATTLE-SCENES. Y U NO EASY TO WRITE?
You know, I remember telling people like two months ago "oh yeah next chapter'll be out this month". You guys wanna know a secret? This isn't "this" month. So sorry for the long wait, guys. This chapter is... Well, let's say I've been a nervwreck when writing it. I've rewritten lots of parts multiple times and it appears as though the increasing amount of followers (thank you all so much btw ;w;) makes a decreasing amount of my self-esteem. I kept on thinking "oh no this is too rushed" and "oh no this is too crappy" and sometimes when I read through I thought "well it isn't that bad" but when I stopped writing to do something with my life (haha good one) I thought it was total crap again. So I am deeply sorry if it isn't a joy to read, but at least know that I tried really hard to make this good. I just want to thank you all for your support and the incredible amount of faves, followers and reviews! You guys are awesome. Anyways, I sincererly hope you enjoy this chapter in spite of my never-ending angsting over it uwu;;
Also sorry Mauritius, I changed some of the things you said I should do...
Zane(OC of mine): She really just wanted a joke out of the way, and maybe satisfy her inner BL fangirl.
Me: ... Why did I create such a douche? And the inner yaoi fangirl-thing is serious business! If I don't feed it little by little, it'll eat my soul! ... And that wasn't even part of the reason, bastard.

Chapter 4
~The King of Snipers~

"So", Nami began a bit reluctantly as she looked at the three men on the boat drifting alongside her own Buggy-boat, "what have you planned?"

The straw-hatted boy and the green-haired swordsman looked at her, slightly surprised at the question. "Planned?"

Sighing, Trafalgar Law heavily sat up as if the task of explaining things to his fellow crewmates was something he'd rather avoid. "She's asking what we have planned for the Grand Line. It is the greatest sea in the world, after all. We can't just stroll in there as we are now, believe me. Just getting there is hard, and the enemies that await over there are far stronger than any we've faced this far."

"You seem to know quite a bit about it", swordsman Zoro stated, cocking an eyebrow. "Have you been there?

"No. Just because most of the people here in East Blue see the Grand Line like some mysterious monster-sea doesn't mean that it's impossible to gain information from it", the doctor replied simply. "I knew some people who know a lot about the Grand Line, since, well, they've been there."

"Didn't Coby say people never come back from the Grand Line?" Luffy the straw-hat wearing teen interrupted, taking a bite from an apple.

Law snorted scornfully. "A dumb rumor. Marines and Yonkou enter and leave that place whenever they like."

The other three tilted their heads to the side. "Yonkou?"

Law buried his face deep into his palm. "Oh great... Let's just forget about that for the time being, okay? What's important is that we have to get a bigger ship and fix our lack-of-manpower-problem. The island we're heading to is inhabited, right Nami-ya?"

She nodded. "Yes. We should ask for a ship there, and look for some recruits. Perhaps a cook or a shipwright. If there's anyone there willing to join a pirate crew, that is..."

"Oh, and we need a bronze statue!" Luffy exclaimed happily, waving his arms in the air. "A big one! And a musician!"

"Why would we need that?" Zoro inquired, in spite of Law's warning of getting a dumb answer.

"Pirates love to sing", Luffy explained. "And we're getting a bronze statue because I want one!"

"I think it's more important to think about what kind of ship we should have and what kind of crewmates we need", Law said, glancing at the horizon. "I think I can see the island too, so it's better that we start talking about that instead of things you just 'want', Luffy. I say we get a submarine."

His crewmates frowned once again at him. "A submarine?"

Law nodded. "A yellow submarine. With a big laboratory where I can keep my experiments!"

Zoro grimaced. "Did you just openly announce that you plan on using us as experiments rather than treating our injuries...?"

"You're too suspicious, Limes", Law replied nonchalantly. "I'm pretty sure that I won't do any experiments on you or any future crewmates. As for our enemies, if we do get a submarine like that, there's a high possibility that their blood will stain the operation table."

"That's not even a bit less creepy", Zoro retorted while Nami tried to erase the mental images Law had unintentionally given her. Or perhaps it was mildly intentional.

"We're closing in on the island!" Luffy informed them gleefully.

The crew looked up to confirm what their captain had just said and indeed, they were almost at shore. A gritty slope was sandwiched between two steep cliffs looming high above the pebbly beach. Trees forming a forest were displayed on the top of those cliffs and a road probably leading to the village stretched from the top of the slope into the island.

Seemed nice enough.

They jumped onto the beach and looked around.

"No boats... Do you really think there's anyone around here who has a ship?" Law questioned doubtfully as his gaze wandered across the shore.

"Someone's got to have at least one ship, right?" Zoro said, thoughtfully looking at the cliffs. He pointed at some bushes on top of those cliffs. "There's someone over there, so maybe we can ask them."

The next moment dozens of pirate flags emerged from the bushes on the cliffs and a hail of supposedly bullets hammered the ground by Luffy's feet. Luffy managed to evade them by doing what resembled a tapdance as an obnoxious laughter filled the air. Their gazes fell on the peak of the cliffs above them to find out the source of the laughter.

"Leave now, Buggy Pirates! I am the great pirate fleet leader, Usopp, who is in charge of the security of this village!" a teenager possibly around Luffy's age with an extraordinarily long nose shouted. He was standing in front of one of the trees on the cliff with his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at them confidently. "I am also known as 'Captain', 'Captain Usopp'! It's best for you if you don't try to attack this village, because my 80 million followers will annihilate you!"

While Luffy was busy being stupidly impressed, Law and Nami raised one incredulous eyebrow each.

"There's no way 80 million men would fit on this little island without us seeing them", Law said in a patronizing tone. "And as far as I can see, you only have three little kids over there in the bushes. You don't really expect us to fight them, do you?"

Said three little kids let out terrified shrieks and ran off in fear, leaving their "captain" alone with the quatro of pirates.

Nami remained very skeptical and unimpressed with the long-nosed teen in front of them. "You're a liar, aren't you?"

"Aaah! I've been found out!" Captain Usopp yammered, doing some weird dance of despair. "This is bad planning! Bad planning indeed!"

"Haha! You're so funny!" Luffy laughed.

Usopp narrowed his eyes and brought up his slingshot, aiming it at Luffy threateningly. "Don't underestimate me! I am a man with high pride! They call me Usopp the Proud! It is true that I don't use pistols, but my skill with my slingshot is just as good as a pistol!"

Luffy bowed down his head slightly and pushed down his precious straw-hat a bit. "Since you mentioned pistols... Bet your life on it. It isn't some tool to scare people with."

Zoro and Law realized what he was doing and grinned simultaneously while turning their gazes to the long-nosed boy.

"The people in front of you are real pirates", Zoro said, revealing a bit of his katana's metallic surface. "Are you ready to risk fighting us?"

"Lies and games won't get you anywhere here", Law smirked, holding his usual if-he-comes-at-you-with-a-needle-you're-screwed demeanor.

It would appear to be a tad too much for Captain Usopp to handle and he fell to his knees, a tear visible in one of his beady eyes. "I knew it... A real pirate's speech is much more intimidating..."

The trio of males in the little group exchanged a glance and burst into laughter.

"I stole that line!" the captain of the crew confessed.

Usopp frowned in confusion. "Huh?"

The captain giggled before continuing. "You're Yasopp's son, aren't you?"

Law wondered how Usopp's skull didn't break like an eggshell when he fell head-first from the peak of the cliff to the gritty ground. Well, it wasn't a that big fall, so maybe he was just a bit disappointed. He wouldn't admit that out loud though - the others were so sensitive about stuff like that. Was it really that bad to want to see someone's skull crack open once in a while?

i...i

"So, you're looking for recruits and a big ship now?" Usopp queried a while after Luffy had told him the story about his (Usopp's) father Yasopp as they sat by the table in the restaurant in the village.

"Yup!" Luffy replied, tugging at a big chunk of meat.

"Do you know anyone who might have a big ship?" Nami asked.

"Well, there's a mansion not far away from this village up on the hill which belongs to a wealthy family", Usopp said, glancing out the window. "The ship is owned by that mansion's owner. The owner of the mansion is weak and sick girl though who always lies in bed. They say she got her sickness from depression after her parents died in other sicknesses, leaving her a large inheritance, a mansion and over ten servants. But even though she's rich, she can't get rid of her sorrow..."

Nami, who was a sane and understanding person, decided that they'd go look somewhere else for a ship before her crewmates said something unintentionally insensitive. The other three sat still, mentally groaning in disappointment. Luffy pouted and turned to Law. "Hey, Law, do you think you could cure her? You're a doctor after all."

"I'm a doctor, yes", Law repeated, a hinting towards irritation in his voice. "A doctor who specializes in surgery. She's sick because of depression, something I can't help. I'm not very good when dealing with people's troubled minds. No good at all, actually. In this case, I bet even you or Nose-ya could do better than me."

Luffy's pout grew more miserable. "So we really won't get our ship, huh..."

Usopp raised his index finger significantly. "You said you were looking for companions to join your crew too, right?"

Luffy nodded, brightening up a little. "Mh. Is there anyone who wants to join my crew?"

Usopp grinned confidently and pointed at himself with his thumb. "Let me be the captain, and I'll join you!"

The pirates hung their heads, disappointed. "Nevermind..."

"What kind of attitude is that!?" Usopp blurted out, offended. He glanced at the clock and stood up. "Ah, sorry. It's time. See ya! Good luck with finding a ship and companions! I know the owner of the restaurant quite well so you can order as much as you want!"

With that said, he left the little restaurant and the quatro.

"'It's time'... what does that mean?" Zoro wondered.

"Don't know. Time for lunch?" Luffy suggested.

"He just had lunch with us", Law pointed out.

"Hmm... then snacks?" Luffy proposed instead.

"I don't think it has anything to do with food, idiot", Nami grumbled irritably.

The door opened and the three boys who were Usopp's underlings or something stormed inside with their wooden swords raised in the air. "Usopp Pirate Group is here!"

"Who are they?" Luffy asked.

"I think it's those kids who were with Usopp earlier", Law noted.

"H-Hey pirates! What did you do to our captain Usopp?!" the three boys questioned loudly. "Give us back our captain!"

"Aaah! What delicious meat!" Luffy complimented the flesh of the dead and cooked animal he had just consumed, oblivious to the untimeliness of that compliment and petting his belly.

The boys froze in fear and stared wide-eyed at the quatro. "M-Meat? W-Was... the captain..."

Nami tried to stifle her giggles while Law and Zoro caught sight of an opportunity. Dark auras of evil surrounded them as they grinned devilishly.

"Your captain... was eaten", said Zoro, making sure to look like a maniac.

Law chuckled. "Don't be stupid. There's no way we would do something so barbaric." The boys calmed down a bit at this, but their blood ran cold as he continued. "We just finished cutting up his scrawny body... We can give you that obnoxiously long nose of his as a memento, if you like... I'm keeping the organs though, so don't think about taking them."

That hit the bullseye of fear on the kids. Luckily they hadn't drunk anything earlier, so their pants stayed dry. However, they were stuck with their blood turned to ice in their veins, tears running down their cheeks and their mouths gaping in silent screams.

For once, only Nami sweat-dropped instead of she and Zoro. "Don't you think that's a little over the top?"

Law rolled his eyes. "Fine. You may have one organ, if it's so important to you."

His female crewmate's sweat-drops multiplied. "No, that's not what I meant..."

"You're actually pretty funny sometimes, Law!" his captain and green-haired crewmate laughed.

The third mate could only stare at them in disbelief, wondering what kind of sense of humor dwelled within their minds.

i...i

Once the three boys had been convinced that Law was just kidding (if you could call it that; perhaps tormenting them for his own amusement fit better) they told them what Usopp had meant by 'it's time'.

"Wow! He's a great guy!" Luffy exclaimed.

"So to restore her spirits he's been going for a year to amuse her with made-up tales?" Nami smiled.

"Yup", the three boys confirmed.

"Then, the ojousama is feeling better, right?" Luffy questioned hopefully.

"Yup! All thanks to Captain!" the purple-haired boy of the trio, the one called Ninjin boasted.

"All right! That means we shall go to the mansion and ask for a ship!" Luffy declared enthusiastically.

"No! Didn't you just say you'd give it up?" Nami blurted out indignantly.

"He already left, Nami-ya", Law said as he rose from his seat to follow their captain who indeed had already left the restaurant. "He isn't a very good listener, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Since we can't stop him we'll follow him", Zoro said, clearly a bit amused by their captain's sudden change of mind.

Nami reluctantly followed them with a heavy exhale. "What have I gotten myself into..."

They went through the village with the three vegetable-look-alike kids leading the way to the hill where the mansion was. There they stopped in front of the gate.

"Good afternoon, please lend us a ship..." Luffy said a bit awkwardly to no one. After a few seconds of even more awkward silence he got tired of waiting and said "Let's just go inside..." as he carelessly climbed over the gate and jumped onto the other side.

"What's the point of that greeting?" Piiman, the boy with the dark green hair asked.

Law didn't even wait to question the fact that they were illegally trespassing which probably wouldn't work in their favor if they wanted a ship and just uttered "Room" to warp himself inside of the mansion's properties, causing the three boys to shriek in surprise.

"So you can warp, too", Zoro stated. "But only one person at the time? That's a bit lame."

"No, I'm pretty sure I could've warped you two and the vegetables as well, I just didn't feel like it", the fur-hatted doctor responded simply.

Zoro and Nami scowled bitterly. "Jerk."

Law's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Get your own teleportation powers if it's so important."

The five people remaining on the other side climbed gruffly across the gate and went towards the mansion where Usopp was sitting by a tree and talking to a frail, pale-skinned blonde girl who was listening very intriguedly to whatever he was saying.

"Hello, ojousama!" Luffy greeted loudly to the girl. "You are the ojousama, right?"

The frail girl turned to Usopp with a questioning look. "Who are they?"

"Oh, they heard of my greatness and came a long way just to join my crew", Usopp lied, walking over to put an arm on Luffy's shoulder.

Luffy gave Usopp a frown. "No, that's not it. We came with a request for you!"

"A request for me?" Kaya interrupted, resting her arms on the frame of her window.

"Yeah, we need a big ship!" Luffy said, gesturing with his arms.

"What are you doing here?!" a sudden voice demanded.

The pirates, the Usopp Pirate Group and the frail girl turned their heads towards the source of the voice. A rather tall and slim man wearing in a black suit with two golden markings on it came walking towards them. He bore a stern expression on his face and walked with determined steps. "You can't just barge into the mansion like this!" he said once he had halted in front of them.

"Kurahadol, these people are-" the frail girl began, but the man stopped her.
"You don't have to explain. I will ask about it later." He turned to intruders. "Please get out! Or is there something you need to say?"

"I want a ship..." Luffy tried with a big smile while Nami assured Law that the butler wasn't trying to order him around to keep him from rearrenging the other, but Kurahadol rejected him as soon as the words left his mouth.
"No way."

While Zoro and Law patted the disappointed Luffy some-what comfortingly on his back, Kurahadol spotted Usopp when he was in the process of trying to sneak away. "You... You're Usopp-kun. I've heard rumors about you. The villagers talk about you all the time."

"That's right! You can call me Captain Usopp! Everyone calls me that", the long-nosed boy stated proudly.

"The guards said you were lurking around the gates..." Kurahadol continued without acknowledging the boy's words. "What do you want here?"

"Ahh... I heard that there's a mole inside the mansion!" the boy quickly lied. "So I wanted to see it for myself!"

The butler chuckled lightly. "Hahaha... I see you lie quite well. Well, that's no surprise since you're the son of a filthy pirate. But you had better stay away from ojousama!"

Usopp winced and scowled in anger. "Did you say filthy...?!"

"You and the ojousama belong to completely different worlds", Kurahadol went on. "Is it money you're looking for? Name your price."

It would seem that he crossed the line for the ojousama. "That's enough, Kurahadol! Apologize to Usopp-san right now!"

"There is no need for me to apologize to this uncivilized person!" her butler argued. "I'm just telling the truth!" He looked at Usopp with a pitiful look. "I feel sorry for you. You hate your father, don't you? Because he's a dumb treasure hunter who abandoned his family and village."

"I won't let you say another bad thing about my father!" Usopp growled, baring his teeth.

"Why are you so angry?" the butler asked, smirking mockingly. "You're not very smart, are you? You should've just told your usual lies... That you were not related by blood or that he was a travelling merchant..."

Snap. The sound of Usopp's restrained anger breaking loose was almost audible as he dashed forward and gave Kurahadol a good punch in the face, shocking his little underlings and female friend. "Shut up!"

Slowly, Kurahadol shakingly dragged himself into a sitting position. "Urgh... See... you're so violent! Like father, like son!"

"Shut up!" the long-nosed boy repeated, seething in anger. "I'm proud that my dad's a pirate! I'm proud that he's a brave warrior of the sea! You're right that I like to lie, but I'm proud of having a pirate's blood in me! I don't have to pretend that I'm not! I am the son of a pirate!"

The butler glared at the boy, adjusting his glasses with his palm. "Pirates are brave warriors of the sea? Don't make me laugh! Pirates are nothing but pathetic scoundrels!" He calmed himself a little bit and continued with a satisfied smirk that he only half-heartedly tried to hide. "However, the product of that barbarian is still you. Whenever you're upset, you use your strength to hit others", Kurahadol snarled. "After all, the only reason you are close to Kaya is her money. That is enough. Get out of here. This is not a place for a barbarian like you! Don't you ever come near this house again!"

Usopp snorted disdainfully and walked away. "You don't have to tell me that."

"Captain!" the Usopp Pirate Group blurted out in dismay. That dismay quickly turned to anger as they whipped around to face the butler. "You idiot! Our captain is not that kind of person! You are stupid! Very, very stupid!"

"Idiot!" Luffy agreed loudly and gained a light hit from Zoro on his head.
"It's none of our business. Keep quiet."

"All of you! Get out!" Kurahadol was about to shout, but at the letter A Law turned on one foot and left due to his own interests. He did not want to stay so he would've left anyways. He was not about to make it look like he left simply because that butler told him to. Childish, perhaps, but it was either that or he killed the butler in a wonderfully brutal way.

i...i

Later, when they had left the mansion, Law, Nami, Zoro and the Usopp Pirate Group were situated just outside town by a small patch of fence.

"Well that was an incredibly rude butler", Law remarked, leaning on the fence. "It's not like the ship is his. A sick girl doesn't need a ship, does she?"

"That's why I said we should've gone somewhere else to look for a ship", Nami told him matter-of-factly. "As rude as he was, I'm sure he had his reasons. Anyways, where's Luffy and Usopp?"

"The Captain must be 'there'", Ninjin said. "At the coast."

"Yes, he goes there whenever he has to clear his mind", Piiman confirmed. "Do you want to go there?"

"No", the pirates replied. Nami blinked twice in slight surprise when she noticed something. "By the way, where's your other friend? The one with orange hair."

"Tamanegi?" Piiman questioned. "He always disappears."

"And comes back overreacting over something", Ninjin finished.

And, just as they said, Tamanegi came running while screaming "It's horrible! Danger! We're in trouble now! There's a weirdo walking backwards!" frantically.

"Liar", his friends decided when he halted in front of them.

"It's the truth! Look!" he defied, pointing accusingly at a figure coming towards them further down the road.

Indeed, there was a man who looked spookily a lot like a certain celebrity only a tad weirder, wore a cowboy-hat and and had one of those things pharaohs had on their chins that no one ever bothers to find out the proper name of on his chin. Turning to the boys and the pirates, he revealed to be wearing heart-shaped sunglasses as well. "Hey, who told you I'm a weirdo? I'm not weird. I'm just a regular hypnotist."

"A hypnotist?!" the boys exclaimed, impressed. "Can you show us some tricks?"

"Don't be stupid", the hypnotist retorted. "Why would I show my tricks to someone I don't know? You shouldn't show your tricks to someone you just met." In spite of that, he picked up a big, metallic ring which he held out in front of the boys on a string. "Listen! Look at this ring..."

The three pirates sweatdropped. "He's showing them anyways?"

Once he did perform the trick, however, not only the three boys fell asleep but himself as well, causing the pirates to become sort of annoyed with him. "Why the hell are you sleeping, too?!"

i...i

When Usopp had come running with a strange expression on his face with Luffy nowhere in sight, Law had asked the Usopp Pirate Group to lead them to the coast. At first, they did not see Luffy until Tamanegi spotted something on the beach. "There's something there!"

Law, Zoro and Nami looked at the pebbly beach below them from where they stood at the top of the cliffs. Down there lay a certain red-vested boy facedown with his behind in the air and his straw-hat on the ground.

"He can't have survived such a fall", Piiman said fearfully. "Poor Straw-Hat guy... This must be why Captain was running off in panic..."

The three pirates stayed quiet, not sure how to react. That was until Law spoke up. "So... does this mean I'm the captain?"

"Are you the devil?!"

"I'm kidding. It's not like a rubberman could die from that, either way", he assured them, rolling his eyes. "He's probably asleep. Let's just go down there and wake him up." Once that was said, the small band of pirates plus the pretending-to-be-pirates made their way down the slope and went up to the unconscious rubberman.

And, as Law had suspected, a loud snoring came from the teen. Not wanting to wait for him to wake up normally, Nami tried prodding him awake. "Luffy, wake up."

Luffy's eyes instantly opened and he sat up with drool streaming down from his mouth. "Huh? Breakfast? Meat?"

His first mate's lips curled downwards in a disgusted grimace and he pushed Luffy's head further away with the nodachi's hilt. "Stop drooling. We might give you meat if you explain why you were sleeping here."

"Sleeping? Last thing I remember was- Oh right!" Luffy widened his eyes in realization. "Right, right! You need to hear this. The ojousama and the village are in danger!"

He explained what he had heard when listening to Kurahadol and a weird guy who the others guessed was the weird hypnotist they had met earlier. It turned out that Kurahadol was in fact a pirate called Kuro and that he had a plan to kill Kaya and take all her properties.

"That's a horrible plan..." Nami scowled, being reminded of just how despicable pirates are.

Law quirked an eyebrow. "Really? I think it's quite good. Not really complex perhaps, but other than that it's pretty good."

"She meant that it's a horrible plan because it's cruel, idiot mushroom", Zoro told him.

Luffy's face got a serious look all of the sudden. "That's not important right now. What's important is that Usopp must've gone and warned the village by now, so we need to hurry and buy some food before the butcher runs away too!"

i...i

As the four pirates went towards town again to meet up with Usopp (and maybe buy food before the butcher ran away), Law was surprised to hear him confessing to lie about the whole Kurahadol being a pirate-thing. Or, well, "confess". The vegetable-kids, in spite of knowing the long-nosed boy longer than they had, bought the story and stormed off, disappointed in their "captain".

The Luffy pirates, however, stayed with Usopp and went to the coast where Luffy had fallen asleep earlier. Law fixed the wound that the long-nosed boy had gained from a gun. It was a pretty painful process for the boy, though, and many complaints came from him.

"Ow!" he yowled as Law fixed the wound. "Can't you be a bit more gentle? I've never been shot before..."

"Too bad", the pirate doctor said impassively. "It's either this or you leave it open and filthy. More importantly, why did you lie?"

Usopp looked down, fixing his gaze at his shoes. "Because I'm a liar, no one will believe my story. I tried to warn everyone, but they think it's a lie. They think tomorrow will be like any other day. So I will wait for them here and make that happen. As a liar, it's my duty to make sure my lies stay lies."

Law quirked an eyebrow. That was possibly the most strangely noble thing he'd heard.

"I was chased by the villagers..." Usopp continued, gripping his now-bandaged arm. "I was even shot... But I love this village and I want to protect everyone... Otherwise... All of them will be killed without knowing anything... I can't stand it."

Zoro grinned. "Never thought you were that kind of guy. Ditching your friends so you could fight off the enemy by yourself."

"Let me get this straight - all treasure will be mine", Nami warned.

"Yosh, we'll lend you a hand", Luffy decided.

"Sounds like a good way to kill time", Law smirked.

"Y-You guys... are willing to fight with me?" Usopp sniffled, tears running down from his eyes. "Why?"

"Because you're outnumbered", Luffy replied.

"If you're scared, you can reconsider", Zoro added.

This caused Usopp to jump to his feet and wipe away his tears. "Me? Scared?! It doesn't matter how many they are, it's fine by me! I'm captain Usopp! I have the blood of a courageous warrior of the sea in my veins!" He stopped himself and looked down at his viciously trembling knees. Frustrated with himself, he desperately began to hit them while repeating the words "Stop shaking, damn it!". With the realization that his fear was revealed, he looked up defiantly at the pirates. "What are you looking at?! They're captain Kuro's pirate fleet! Of course I'm scared! But I won't accept anyone's sympathy! Just go away!"

Law's gray eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at the long-nosed liar. "Sympathy? Don't insult me. I think you should've realized that I'm not one to be sympathetic."

"We're not sympathizing, either", Zoro agreed. "We're rather commending you for having courage."

"Do you really think we would risk our lives because of sympathy?" Luffy put in.

Tears filled Usopp's eyes once more. "Damn... You guys..."

i...i

"So, they're going to attack from the coast, right?" Law said as they repeated the pirates' plan.

Usopp nodded. "Mh. This is the only way into the village, after all."

"Did they specifically mention this coast?" Law questioned further. "We have our boats at another coast like this, remember?"

"I... did not think of that", Usopp said, baffled.

Nami let out a short shriek of worry. "I have my treasure there!"

Law sighed, knowing that it would be up to him to come up with a plan. "So we don't know which coast they're going to attack from. Well, shouldn't be much of a problem. We'll split up. Since we can't really communicate from two different sides of the island I suggest we get a signal ready for each side. Nose-ya, do you have anything we could use?"

"I have fireworks. Do you think that'll work?" Usopp said, picking up a couple of flares from his bag.

The doctor nodded. "That should be fine. Now, how should we split up?"

"I'll go to the northern coast", Nami decided. "I won't let them touch my treasure!"

"I can go there, too", Luffy offered.

"I'll go with you and Nami", Usopp replied.

"I can stay here", Zoro added.

"Then I'll have to stay here, too, then", Law decided slightly reluctantly, exchanging a glare with the swordsman.

"What are you guys good at, by the way?" asked Usopp.

"Slicing!" (Zoro)

"Stretching!" (Luffy)

"Stealing!" (Nami)

"Dissecting." (Law)

"Hiding!" (Usopp)

"You'll be fighting too!" three of four pirates shouted as they took stranglehold on the long-nosed boy while the fourth one merely stood some feet away and sweat-dropped.

Once the long-nosed boy assured the pirates that he'd be fighting as well, he got some more useful equipment, namely some barrels of oil. "If we spill this out on the slopes, they won't be able to get up. This is good for me since I'm a long-range fighter."

"Oooh, nice plan!" Luffy said admiringly. "You're just as smart as Law!"

One of Law's knitted eyebrows twitched slightly, offended. "I really don't want to be put on the same level of smarts as someone who tried to fool us into thinking that he had 80 million followers..."

"Of course! I have a lot of confidence in myself!" Usopp said, crossing his arms over his chest and either ignoring or not hearing Law's comment.

"The sun will be coming up soon, so we better hurry to our coasts", Zoro alerted.

At that, they parted ways to prepare themselves for battle.

i...i

Sunlight climbed its way upon the sea and Law grabbed his nodachi and got to his feet. "Sun's up. They should be coming soon."

"I know", Zoro replied. "But it doesn't look like they're coming. Do you think they're at the other coast?"

"Possibly", said Law. "We'll have to wait for the signal though and hope that there is some fun to be had."

"You're right about that. Oh yeah, by the way Lemons, where is that northern coast?" Zoro asked.

Lemons cocked an eyebrow with a sarcastic look on his face. "I don't know, north, maybe?"

What happened next caused Law to question Zoro's intelligence for all eternity. Namely, he frowned and looked up. "How the hell will we get there?"

Law's reaction to this was basically the same as his reaction to how Luffy sees alliances in canon.

Zoro noticed this and frowned. "What?"

The doctor was silent for a moment. "... You're serious?"

"Serious about what? I'm always serious."

"You think... north and up are the same thing?"

"Well, they are, aren't they?"

"Good grief..."

"What?!"

i...i

"Roronoa-ya, you're going the wrong way", Law informed Zoro for possibly the hundredth time. His upcoming headache was souring his mood and had stopped him from using the nickname for his fellow swordsman about a minute ago. The signal had been fired several minutes ago and yet they were getting nowhere thanks to a certain swordsman's sense of direction. Or, rather, lack of it.

"Your directions were confusing!" Zoro snapped, whirling around to go (what he thought was) the correct way.

"How is 'continue straight forward' confusing?" Law queried, not even caring enough to be annoyed anymore. That, of course, did not mean he couldn't take his time to insult the green-head. "Do you want me to hold your hand? Maybe then we'll get there before Luffy whipes the sun goes down again."

"Shut up, idiot mushroom! I know where I'm going!" was the green-head's retort.

"Oh, great", the doctor responded, being, unneeded to say, sarcastic as hell. "If what you're saying is true, then explain why you're going back the way we came."

From then on Zoro decided it was best that he followed his crewmate closely. Just this once.

i...i

While that was going on, Usopp had held back the Kuroneko pirates a long time with his great sniping skills and when they had managed to get closer, Luffy had beat them all down again.

"They're all pushed into a corner! Well done, Luffy!" Nami cheered, standing protectively over her treasures.

Usopp was staring baffled and bewildered at the straw-hatted teen. "You're this strong...?"

"Of course I am!" Luffy stated proudly. The sound of incoming running footsteps caused him look back and his face immediately brightened. "Law! Zoro! Welcome back!"

The next moment skidded said teens to a halt beside them. "Yo. How's it going?"

"Well, I already beat down all of them, but that weirdo is doing something weird with that ring", Luffy reported dutifully.

Law cast a glance at the weirdo, namely Jango the hypnotist, and instantly got an idea. "Luffy, look at that ring."

Luffy quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"It will distort your mind to its will and..." The doctor trailed off when he noticed his captain's blank expression and decided he should change his manner of speaking. "What I'm trying to say is that it's a mystery ring that will lend you mystical powers."

"Really?! Awesome!" Luffy exclaimed and eagerly fixed his eyes on the ring.

"Look at this ring, men", the hypnotist said. "When I say One, Two, Jango, you will become stronger... all your injuries will be healed and you will become stronger and stronger."

"Hypnotizing them into getting stronger... that's crazy!" Nami said. That was when she realized something and turned to the doctor with a horrified face. "Wait a minute. You just told Luffy to look at the ring... you don't mean..."

The doctor just smirked. "It's just a little experiment."

"One... Two... Jango!"

It was quiet for a moment. Then the air exploded with the roars of the Kuroneko pirates. One of them wanted to show their new-found strength and smashed his hand into the cliff beside him, making it crumble with ease.

"They can destroy the whole cliff with just one punch?!" Zoro blurted out, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull. "You gotta be kidding me!"

Law on the other hand wasn't in particular impressed with their strength, he was more focused on the whole hypnotizing-thing. Law had seen pretty messed up stuff, after all, so that could be the reason why he wasn't easily impressed. "Hoh... how interesting. I wonder if it's the belief that they're stronger or if their bodies are simply forced into it. In that case it'll probably put a strain on them..."

"Whatever... Nami, Usopp! You stay back and we'll take care of it", Zoro ordered, putting his white katana in his mouth. "Hey, Luffy!"

No answer. Zoro frowned. "Luffy?"

Now there was an answer. It was a loud battlecry sounding like "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!". In other words, not exactly the answer Zoro would've wanted. "You're hypnotized too?!"

Law's smirk grew wider. "Ah, it worked."

"This isn't the time for you to be all 'Ah, it worked'!" Zoro snapped irritably. "Why did you tell him to get hypnotized? If you say it was an experiment then I will cut you down on the spot!"

"What if I say it was for science, then?" the doctor asked, his voice void of seriousness and filled with only amusement. "Don't deny it, this will be interesting to see."

As always, Law was right. Luffy charged forward through the oiled ground (while only almost slipping multiple times) and attacked the pirates with a storm of punches. Even in their fit of rage and thirst for battle they were frightened by the boy's monstrous strength and cowered in fear of him to the point that when he ran at them once more they fled to their ship. To everyone's surprise, however, ran Luffy straight past them and headed straight to the stem of the ship. There, he grasped it and began tearing it away from the rest of the ship.

"Does he intend to destroy the ship?" the pirates murmured, getting ready to flee again.

Finally, he broke the stem off the ship and turned his head around to glare at the pirates with narrowed, rolled-back eyes. He let out another battlecry and staggered towards them with the stem still in his grasp. Realization and a tad more fear struck the pirates. "No... he wants to whack us with it! Captain Jango! Do something!"

The hypnotist Jango quickly picked up his metallic ring and started to swing it from side to side. "One Two Jango and you'll be asleep! One! Two! Jango!"

Obediently following the hypnotic orders fell Luffy to the ground, snoring peacefully while the stem tumbled down over him and some pirates who weren't fast enough to get out of the way before it was too late.

"Well, I say my experiment was a success and my hypothesis was correct", Law decided after a moment of awkward silence.

"As long as he isn't dead, that is", Zoro commented, trying to hide his grin that had emerged from the scene he had just witnessed.

"Wait, wait, wait, how did his arms stretch like that just now?" Usopp asked, bewildered. "No normal person can do that! I was going to ask earlier, but then you two came."

"Of course no normal person can do that", Law retorted irritably. "That should be obvious. He's a rubberman, a Devil's Fruit user."

"Devil's Fruit...? Aren't they supposed to be myths?" Usopp inquired.

Law didn't answer, for a couple of new voices joined in. "Hey, look, Buchi! Our ship's stem has disappeared!" "You're right! Where is it?"

"There's more people on the ship..." Zoro murmured, unintentionally mimicking Law by resting his katana on his shoulder.

One of the Kuroneko pirates threw his head back and laughed, even though he was lying on the ground with severe injuries from Luffy's punches. Narrowing his stormy gray eyes into slits, Law glared at him and waited for him to speak. His words were surprisingly confident for a beaten man. "Hahahaha... you'll die..."

"Come down here! Nyaban Brothers!" Jango yelled.

Upon hearing this, two figures jumped down from the ship and Law and Zoro tensed to see whatever kind of creatures they were.

The figures came into light, revealing themselves to the crowd outisde.

They were two men, a rather scrawny hunchback with green hair in weird curls and a rather fat man with a dumb appearance who wasn't even wearing a shirt.

Oh, and they were both dressed up like cats.

'Fucking East Blue', Law cursed underneath his breath.

"Sham, Buchi, I need you to take care of these people", Jango instructed. "We need to get past this slope no matter what. Can you take care of them?"

The reaction he got was not what the Luffy Pirates were expecting. Sham and Buchi immediately began to make up panicked excuses, saying that the pirates were too strong for them and that their job was just to protect the ship.

"Aren't they supposed to be their trump cards?" Usopp questioned. "They look like they're about to jump out of their skins..."

Jango shouted at Sham to go and attack them, and Sham obeyed with tears in his eyes.

"They sent that weakling to fight us?" Nami muttered. "What are they thinking?"

"Be prepared!" Sham shouted, which sounded more like a plea to spare his life rather than a threat. "I will cut you all into pieces!"

"If you come any closer, I'll kill you!" Zoro warned, flustered by the situation and therefore missed an incredolous glance from his fur-hatted crewmate.

Sham jumped high into the air to avoid getting caught in the oil and Zoro noticed a sudden confident smirk spread across the cat-man's face. "If you can kill me, that is." Zoro managed to block a surprisingly powerful attack from the cat-man's claws with his katana just in time to stop them from reaching his chest. He pushed Sham off of him so the skinny man fell into the oil, but the skinny man gracefully slid down onto dry ground and got his footing back. "Heh, you're stronger than you look."

"He's not weak?!" Usopp exclaimed, too surprised for Law's liking.

"Seriously? You all bought that?" the dark doctor groaned irritably. He then blinked in surprise as he noticed something different with his fellow swordsman. "Oi, Limes. I think he stole your swords."

"What? Me? As if I'd do such a terrible thing like stealing..." Sham purred and licked his gloved hand, to which Law grimaced and muttered 'fucking East Blue' under his breath again.

"Return my swords now!" Zoro demanded.

"Return?" Sham repeated, playing dumb. "Your sword is in your hand, right? I don't see why I should return them to you."

Law huffed, annoyed with Sham's act and the fact that Zoro had just asked the enemy to return his swords instead of taking action like he should've done, and raised his hand, letting a blue sphere surrond him, Zoro and Sham. The skinny cat-costume-wearing man was cut into pieces and the two swords were teleported into Law's hands and then thrown into their green-haired owner's arms. "There. Be less careless next time, will you?"

"Don't throw my swords like that!" his fellow swordsman shot back.

"You're welcome, no problem, Limes." Adding some pretty foul-mouthed insults and a promise that the green-haired swordsman would be missing some bodyparts in a near future only audible within his mind, Trafalgar raised his index finger and the oil on the ground was moved out of the way. "They'll just jump over it anyways and it's distracting if we're supposed to fight them."

"What did you just do?!" the Kuroneko Pirates blurted out, staring wide-eyed at the dark doctor while Buchi rushed forward, dragged Sham's parts away from Law and put him back together.

"So... one each", Zoro murmured through gritted teeth.

"So it would seem", Law replied. "A nice warm-up before their Captain Kuro comes. I'm guessing he wouldn't be happy about them not doing the job that was assigned to them."

"Which means we'll have to kill you as quickly as possible so that does not happen!" Buchi snarled, rushing forward and jumping into the air. "Cat... STOMP!" His body crashed down feet first and broke the ground where Zoro and Law had stood a moment ago before they jumped out of the way.

"The ground broke!" Usopp and Nami burst out, horrified.

"If I got hit by that, it'd break all my bones..." Zoro muttered.

"Indeed you would", Law stated calmly, a hand on his hat to keep it from flying off from the small blastwave that had erupted from Buchi's attack. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he blocked an attack from Sham just in time before his claws reached his chest. With next to no effort at all, he pushed the darkly green-haired cat-man off of him and summoned a swirl in his free hand. However, the cat-man appeared to have realized that his power needed concentration and attacked him again before he could summon a full room. That or he really just panicked. Well, with or without his Devil's Fruit ability, Law still was a swordsman and a powerful one at that so he soon easily defeated the cat-man.

In the meantime Zoro was finishing off Buchi with only a little effort. "Heh... After you did that stomp thing I actually thought you'd be more of a challenge."

Suddenly, just as Law and Zoro were about to move on to the weird hypnotist, Jango flinched and began to tremble violently. "T-This feeling...!"

"Ca... Captain Kuro", the rest of the crew said breathlessly. "We're gonna die."

Zoro, Law, Usopp and Nami all followed their gazes and looked at the one man standing on top of the slope. They all either widened or narrowed their eyes when they saw who it was. "What the hell is this, Jango..." the cold voice of Captain Kuro said slowly. "I come here and find you all beaten to the ground? By kids? It's far past dawn! What the hell are you doing?! Don't tell me you actually have been stopped by these brats! Have the Kuroneko Pirates become a bunch of weaklings?"

"B-B-But, Captain Kuro, you said they wouldn't be any problem!" Jango protested desperately.

A groan came from Buchi's direction and the two swordsmen of the Luffy Pirates turned to see the fat cat-man drag himself towards Jango. It looked as if he was offended at being called weak, but since he was cut and barely staying conscious, he didn't have much of an arguement against what Captain Kuro had said.

"What's this... Limes, didn't you finish him off?" Law asked.

"It's probably because of his fat..." Zoro muttered.

"Don't worry, Captain Kuro, I'll get rid of them soon..." the fat cat-man panted. "Captain Jango! H... Hypnotize me into getting stronger!"

"I'll give you five minutes", Kuro promised after some hesitation. "If you don't manage to defeat them within five minutes, I'll kill everyone here with my own hands."

"Don't bother", Zoro said. "I'll defeat you before that time runs out." He prepared to use his special technique and rushed forward to the man formerly known as a butler. "Oni... giri!"

However, to everyone's surprise, he cut through only thin air as Kuro had disappeared and reappeared some meters behind him. Zoro widened his eyes. "What...?!"

Law frowned. "This technique... Roronoa-ya! Go take care of the fat cat-man instead. He'll be a nuisance. I'll take care of this guy."

"What did he just do?" Zoro questioned, glaring at the pirate captain. "What are those weapons?"

"Not sure, but the technique seems like a slower version of Soru", Law replied, his frown growing deeper as not-too-fond memories crawled their way to his mind. A swirl appeared under his left hand which quickly expanded into a blue sphere surrounding him and Kuro. "As for his weapons, that's not important is it?"

"True... You sure you can handle him?" Zoro inquired, not bothering to ask about 'Soru' since it wasn't really the time for those kind of questions.

"Whether I can or not is unimportant. Now, aren't you supposed to be taking care of the fat cat-man?"

"Since when did you get to order me around?"

"Just go and do what I told you to do, will you? It's your own fault for not finishing him off properly. Is being ordered to finish someone off really that bad, anyways?"

"Fine, fine..."

"Good. Ah, but if you ever try to give me an order than your bodyparts will definitely be mysteriously misplaced."

"If you can."

"There's no question about that."

While their little argument was settled, Kuro calmly pushed up his glasses using the palm of his hand (surprise surprise) and observed Law's Room. "What's this supposed to be?"

"I'm sure you'll understand soon enough", Law simply said, unsheathed his nodachi and slashed through the air. Kuro, already alarmed by the sphere, used his Stealth Foot just in time before he was cut into pieces like Sham had been earlier. However, left in the room lay a lonely right arm dismembered into four different pieces - shoulder, elbow, hand plus wrist and upper arm. On the hand was a fuzzy glove with smaller katanas attached to each fingertip.

A bit dismayed at the loss of his right arm, Kuro glared at Law. "I see... so you have the power of a Devil's Fruit. I thought those things were myths."

"Well, the sea is a mysterious place", the younger pirate replied, sort of tired of hearing 'I thought Devil's Fruits were myths' whenever he or Luffy revealed the fact that they had indeed eaten two of the many Devil's Fruits. He spun his nodachi on his hand and expanded the Room to its current biggest form. It was nothing compared to how it would look after two years of training, but it covered around six-seven meters. I think. Because it's Law it's hard to tell. "But it isn't the time to be thinking about that, is it?"

"You're absolutely right", Kuro agreed, disappearing and reappearing behind the pirate doctor with his only hand raised, "and I hope you don't get cocky just because you have this power." He struck down his Cat Claws, intending to sink into Law's flesh but the five katanas cut through only air and Law had moved to the side and was about to cut him. Kuro noticed this and got out of the way, but the blade cut a nice little gash running from his left temple to his jaw.

Brushing off the blood with his only wrist Kuro observed Law who was in the middle of the Room while he was some meters away from it. "I see... so you can only dismember me while I'm inside of that sphere. So while you're inside of that sphere, if I'm not quick, I won't be able to attack you without taking the risk of being cut. So..."

He was cut off by a loud crackling sounding like earth breaking. Their attentions were drawn towards Buchi's and Zoro's fight where Buchi had used his powered-up Cat Stomp which caused the cliffs and ground to crumble.

"He isn't aware of his own strength..." Kuro muttered and cast a glance Law's way, raising an eyebrow in an emotion that resembled surprise. "You don't seem very impressed by this, unlike your crewmates."

Law didn't answer, merely glancing back and raising his hand to create a new Room.

Kuro used Stealth Foot to get in front of Law, giving him less than a heartbeat to dodge the Cat Claws and an opportunity to cut him in half but unfortunately missed due to Kuro using Stealth Foot yet again, this time reappearing behind him which gave Law even less time to react. Switching places with himself and a part of the broken ground saved him from any vital wounds, but the Cat Claws had left three deep, bleeding marks on his right arm.

Law let a small breath out, glancing at the three wounds covering his upper right arm. "Whew... He's a bit tougher than I thought. His speed's getting really annoying."

"This isn't the time to ramble with yourself, is it?" Kuro pointed out, pulling his claws out of the piece of broken ground, careful not to break them. "If you're going to talk, at least use your words wisely. They will, after all, be your last wo-"

A rock was flung up from the ground and hit Kuro hard on the chin, causing him to bite his tongue due to Law flicking his index finger and reminding him that he was still on the "operating table". This threw the man formerly known as a butler into a subtle rage and he dashed forward in his superhuman speedy fashion to once again give Law less than a heartbeat to make sure his head was not pierced by the Cat Claws and block them with his own blade.

"Kurahadol!" shrieked a familiar female voice, disrupting all of fighters' concentration and drawing their gazes backwards. On the top of the slope stood miss Kaya, clad in a brown coat and looking frailer than ever. "Kurahadol! Stop this at once!"

Kuro showed surprise at seeing his former mistress and questioned her presence there. The Kuroneko pirates were relieved with the realization that they wouldn't have to go to the village to finish the job they'd been assigned.

Kaya bit her lip and it was visible that she gathered courage to speak up. "I heard everything from Merry. Please stop this, Kurahadol. I'll give you whatever you want, as long as you leave the village and everyone here unharmed."

"I'm sorry, miss Kaya, but that I cannot do", Kuro replied sternly. "You misunderstand me. I want your money, of course, but I also want a peaceful life. The villagers here have trusted me for three years and I do not wish to lose this peace. It's become part of my life and I want to keep it. My plan will succeed when I acquire both peace and your wealth."

"K-Kaya! What are you doing here?!" Usopp shouted. "Run away! He won't stop even if you talk to him! He is not the caretaker you used to know!"

"Usopp-san, you're alright... thank goodness", Kaya said breathlessly. Then she collected herself and put on a brave face. "I can't! You're fighting, aren't you? Even though we treated you so badly... You still fought for us. I can't run away now..." She picked up a gun from her pocket (or wherever the hell she held that thing) and aimed it straight at Kuro. "Leave this village now, or I'll shoot!"

"You've become stronger these three years", Kuro remarked as a friendly look entered his eyes. "Do you remember? Since your parents' passed away, we've been together everyday. We were sailing together. We were going to the town and went shopping together. When you were sick I was the one who took care of you. We were happy and sad together. I've tried very hard to do everything for you." The friendly look vanished and his face darkened. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it was? I've spent three years doing these stupid things. Everything I have done for you, I have done calming myself with the thought that I would one day get to kill you."

Usopp bared his teeth at Kuro. "You...!" The long-nosed boy got up and dashed at the former butler with his fist prepared for a punch. He, however, ducked Usopp's punch and prepared to slice him up real good. "I do owe you for that punch yesterday..."

Suddenly, a fist made of rubber embedded itself into Kuro's face and knocked him over. "If you hated it so much, I'll give you one hundred more!"

While Kuro had spoken to Kaya, Nami had rushed over to Luffy (and tripped over Jango with her bo staff(1)) and woken him up by stepping on his face. He had awaken just in time to give Kuro a damn good punch to the face and prevent him from giving Usopp five nice wounds.

The Kuroneko Pirates started yelling in confusion because somehow, even though they had just been beaten by the same stretching fists they hadn't noticed the fact that they had been beaten by the same stretching fists. By that I mean that they somehow didn't notice that Luffy's arms can stretch.

"Welcome back, Luffy", Law 'greeted'. "Did you have a nice nap?"

His captain ignored his friendly greeting and pointed accusingly at him. "Law! Why did you tell Nami to step on my face?!"

Flinching slightly, the doctor frowned at the orange-headed navigator. "What..?"

In response, she just shrugged innocently as to say 'I have no idea what he's talking about'.

While Law got the unnerving feeling that if people blamed him when they had caused physical pain to someone else the someone else would probably believe them due to his sadistic nature, somebody shouted "NOW!" and the three vegetable boys jumped out of their cover of the forest with one 'weapon' each in their hands. They dashed forward to the fallen body of Kuro and began beating him with their weapons.

"I told you not to come!" shrieked Kaya.

"What are you doing here?!" Usopp burst out.

Much to their dismay, the kids began beating at Kuro's head violently with their weapons, completely ignoring them.

"What are those crazy kids thinking?" Zoro frowned.

"Mashing one of East Blue's most famous pirates' face in?" Law suggested.

Once the vegetable trio finally stopped trying to mash Kuro's face in, they turned to face their captain. "You did come after all, Captain! Why didn't you tell us? That's dirty! No, it's dishonest!"

"It doesn't matter!" Usopp tried desperately. "You'd better escape now! Run away!"

"No!" the vegetable trio protested. "We won't run away! We'll fight with you! The Usopp Pirates shouldn't run away!"

Just as they made this brave proclaim, the beaten butler rose to his feet and pushed up his glasses only to have them shatter. This instantly caused the three boys to scream in fear, believing that it was the end for them, but Kuro passed them without as much as a glance. To everyone's surprise, he instead went for Usopp and kicked him in the stomach.

"It hurt a little bit, I admit", Kuro said to Luffy. "You ate a Devil's Fruit just like your captain, didn't you?"

"My captain?" Luffy repeated, tilting his head to the side in confusion. "I'm the captain."

"... Really?" Kuro queried, glancing at Law and Zoro for confirmation. The two nodded matter-of-factly in response while they were mentally wondering if this was going to become frequent. Kuro frowned and took a short moment to comprehend the fact that two very capable swordsmen were following a scrawny-looking brat. "Okay... Jango. I'll kill..." There was a pause and his gaze darted between Law and Luffy, trying to decide who was the best one to kill. After a few seconds of pondering, he came to a decision due to his own beliefs. "... I'll kill that kid. Tell Buchi to kill his subordinates and make sure miss Kaya writes her will. After that, kill her. The three worms too."

Jango placed his hand on the rim of his hat. "Roger."

"Stop right there. I won't allow you to get through here", Zoro warned, blocking the path.

However, due to Zoro not having finished finishing Buchi off just yet, Jango could sic the angry hyponitzed fat cat-man on him and that angry cat-man used the Cat Pounce once again, much to the poor ground's dismay. Roronoa and Trafalgar, once again, needed to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed by the cat-man and/or the big rocks of the shattered ground.

Law, being annoyed with the fact that Zoro still hadn't finished the fatty off yet, decided that his crewmate should take care of it himself and instead went casually for Jango while giving Zoro a, as we would say on the internet, "hardcore judging you" glare. He was stopped dead in his tracks though as Jango was bombarded by Usopp's pachinko balls and eventually fell to the ground. The long-nosed boy made a pretty speech to his three underlings about how they had to protect Kaya and get her to a safe place. Which basically was the same thing as telling them to run away.

But, nonetheless, it was a speech they could not say no to and they followed his orders without question. Admittedly, Law was both a bit impressed and surprised at the cowardly boy's choice of words once again. After all, the amount of seventeen year olds who could handle situations like these were and put other people's safety above their own utterly few. Either way, Law was much more focused on watching Kuro's reaction to all of this.

In Law's eyes, Kuro's flustered face of watching the latest three years of humiliation and his prim plan falling apart in one swoop was absolutely hilarious. Even none-sadists must agree on that, right?

Though, it appeared as though Kuro didn't find it the least bit amusing and lunged for Law with a wild look in his eyes that Law recognized as a milder kind of temporary insanity - the kind when you just really needed to hear the dying gasps and flooding blood of whoever had dared to anger you. "How dare you laugh at me?!"

His attack was interrupted yet again by a stretching arm and a fist embedded into his face. "Your opponent is over here!"

While Kuro was busy recovering from the third hit to his face that day, Law frowned at Luffy. "... Is this revenge for the whole Buggy thing? ... Whatever. Luffy! Can you handle this yourself?"

"Of course! You go do whatever you like(2)", Luffy replied while having his stare-down competition with Kuro who had gotten back on his feet.

Law nodded in return and turned to Usopp and Zoro. "Okay. Then, I'll go get provisions and you two can go and make sure miss Kaya and the three vegetable midgets are safe or something."

Zoro had a brief quiet moment of contemplating whether he should do as the mushroom-head suggested or take his time to argue because it sounded a little bit like an order. The moment was brief though and he complied, after asking a teeny tiny wee bit insulting question to the doctor. "What happened to -ya? Or did you realise how retarded your way of referring to people sounds?"

... Huh. Law's mouth and eye actually twitched and his brows knitted in an angered expression (3). This was very much to Zoro's glee, so he had to add something smug before leaving. "Hoh, truth hurts, doesn't it?"

"You tell me. I've already told you the truth, after all", Law sneered, to which Zoro scowled "what truth?" and Law concluded, as he began his stroll towards town: "That you have an astonishingly low intelligence, of course. What else?"

Normally, Zoro would've been furious at this kind of insult, but since he had managed to get a reaction out of the doctor which he had only succeeded to do once before, he had already experienced one of the happiest moments in his life anyways.

i...i

The things that happened next could easily be summarised in a few sentences. Usopp and Zoro found Kaya and the vegetable midgets safe and sound, Luffy beat Kuro, Nami saw Luffy in a new light, Law got provisions and treated everyone's injuries.

However, things didn't end there, of course.

Luffy and his crew were eating a victory dinner in the restaurant. Nami was telling Luffy that normal people don't try to eat the bones of the fish as he had almost choked on a fish bone and Zoro suggested that they'd leave the island now that they'd eaten. Just as they were about to rise from their seats, the door opened and miss Kaya stepped inside.

"You're here", she said, giving them a very obvious piece of information.

"Yo, ojousama", Luffy greeted, oblivious to the obviousness of her statement.

"Are you fine walking around like this?" Nami inquired.

"I'm fine", Kaya told her. "My illness was caused by the loss of my parents. With Usopp-san, who always cheers me up, I will try harder to recover."

Trafalgar raised both of his eyebrows. "So, the stress of having a man you trusted trying to kill you cures illnesses caused by depression... I'll remember tha- Ow!" He was stopped by a certain red-head's elbow shoving itself into his stomach and he glared at her, offended. "What the hell, navigator-ya?!"

Miss Kaya was a bit appalled at this action, but Nami just waved for her to continue ("Ignore him, he's just a weird creep") and she, a little hesitantly, did so. "Well, putting that aside, you told me you wanted a ship, right?"

All of the four pirates' faces brightened up. "You'll give us a ship?"

A ship they were promised and a ship they got. It was a caravel with a sheep's head with curled horns that resembled its creator, Merry's hair and a cannon sticking out of the front of the ship. It was, as presented by Merry, known as Going Merry and was designed by him. Although it wasn't a submarine, it was nice.

As Luffy was, for whatever reason, telling Kaya she "stepped on us and kicked us" (it's a japanese pun, so of course it doesn't make sense in english), a distant rumbling and a familiar voice screaming came to their ears. The cause of this noise was, drum roll, Usopp coming rolling down the slope with a way too big backpack. Before he crashed into their new ship, the three men of the crew stopped him with one foot each on his face (Law needing to crook his leg a bit more than the other two due to his tallness).

"T-Thanks..." Usopp managed to press out.

"You're welcome", the trio replied and let go of him.

Turned out that Usopp was leaving too to become a pirate and he had a chat with Kaya about it. Once he was done, he turned to the crew who had practically saved his life the other day. "I wish you to remain healthy. Maybe we'll meet again someday."

Luffy raised his head from the railing he was leaning on. "Why?"

"Teh- Why? We are both pirates", Usopp explained, flustered, "so we might meet someday again at sea."

"Just shut up and get on the ship", Zoro snapped, pointing down at the deck.

"We're nakama, right?" Luffy pointed out.

Usopp took a moment to comprehend this statement - or fact, more likely - and then jumped into the air in joy. "I'm the captain!"

"Don't be stupid! I'm the captain!" Luffy shot back hotly.

Law shook his head and chuckled lightly. "Idiots."

Omake (yes, omakes will be put here now, so don't freak out when bonus chapters disappear. They are placed at the end of previous chapters. It's for the greater good ((cloaked people: The greater good!))):

A few days later...

"Luffy! Roronoa-ya! Clean the men's quarters!" Law ordered, having reluctantly left his seat and his book by the kitchen table.

"Eh?! Why?" both of them protested, Luffy bearing a childish pouty face and Zoro an irritated (yet still childish) expression. "Why us? Why not you and Usopp?"

"Usopp's cleaning the cannon and I've made dinner and dished every single night", Law explained patiently.

Luffy's pout loosened a bit at this, stroking his chin thoughtfully with his right hand. "Well, Law's food is pretty good..."

Flashback!

"Finally we have a kitchen and someone who can catch normal fish!" Nami exclaimed in glee. "Now we can eat good food!" In the span of a milisecond, her face suddenly turned devious and evil. "Though, none of you can cook, now can you? Well, you're in luck! For the right price, I'll cook for you!"

Three out of the four male crewmembers winced at the greediness in her smile while the fourth was busy reading a book (and not giving a single shit). That's when Luffy got an idea. "Wait a minute! We can't cook, but there's one who can!"

Nami frowned. "Who?"

Usopp, Zoro and Luffy all turned their gazes to Law, who now noticed the attention drawn to him and looked up from his book. "What?"

So, later that day, Law ended up cooking the fishes that Usopp had caught and serving his four crewmates food. For free. "Here. Eat up and be damn grateful."

Zoro poked his food suspiciously with his fork. "It seemed like a good idea at first, but... Are we sure this isn't poisonous?"

Law scowled and exhaled through his nostrils. "I can assure you that it is healthy. I may not be the kindest doctor, but I am one of the best." When Zoro still looked doubtful, he added, "I can also assure you that it won't taste bad. I made it with hatred and death in mind."

Luffy let out a cheer, startling the others. "Yay! Law's hatred-and-death food is the best!"

This did of course earn him a very confused frown from each and every member of his crew except for his first mate. His first mate just pulled down the rim of his fur-hat over his eyes, performed a very calm oh-my-god-my-captain's-an-idiot facepalm and took a seat.

End of Flashback!

As the brief moment of flashbacks was over, Luffy's pout returned and Zoro's expression remained irritated. "But still! What's the point of cleaning the room? It'll just get messy again!"

The fur-hatted man glared at them through half-lidded eyes and drew a sigh and imitated their whiny-ish voices (without any exaggerated movements of course - all he did was raise his shoulders slightly and roll his eyes). "What's the point of treating your wounds? You'll just get injured again!"

Thus, there was an awkward silence between the three until Zoro and Luffy fully realised that they had no good arguement whatsoever against this and grudgingly went to clean the men's quarters.

Nami, who had been watching the whole thing, stared in fascination at Law. "... Seriously, how do you do that?"

"Patience and experience", Law shrugged, glancing back at her. "I must say that I am impressed with how well you handle them yourself for someone who doesn't seem used to this level of idiocy."

"An amount of common sense helps, I guess."

"Ah, I see. Well, I'll give you my appreciation of having you aboard, Nami."

"I'm unsure whether I should be creeped out or flattered by that, really."

"It means that if I ever need an organ to my collection, you're last on the list."

"... Creeped out it is, then."

AN: I'M DONE. I really hope you enjoyed, 'cause, as I said, I've been rather angsty about this chapter. If you didn't, tell me in the reviews what I should've done different. Other than that, I must say I had fun writing the omake here, especially. I don't know, I just did. There's not much else I have to say about this, other than that Law-Luffy interactions still seem rare. But it feels like from the POV of the crew in the Syrup Island arc, there was little Luffy if you think about it. But anyways, here are the number explanations!

1: Yeah, I always thought that the whole Nami just running past Jango thing was kind of... dumb. Seemingly unarmed or not, it's still an enemy, so why not trip him over while you're at it? Jango of course got up and sent a ring flying into the back his head (this is manga-verse in the later parts, so it's a bit more gruesome than catching in the mouth). Since it's Law's POV he was a bit more caught up in fighting Kuro and everything.

2: One of the main reasons Law would follow Luffy. Other than the whole "Thou shalt not deny Luffy's invitation to his crew" rule (since most Straw-Hats refuse at first, and though I know he's asked many others that don't end up joining, it still seem like one of the ten commandments in One Piece), Luffy is not one to make undeniable orders, as we all know. He listens to his crew and lets them do what they want, as far as even accepting that Zoro'd kill him if he got in the way of his goals. Not that he ever would and Zoro would later make one of the most badass scenes ever by contradicting his old self. So this would be a bit of my way of showing why Law would even consider working under someone else.

3: This might seem like a rather small thing to get mad for, but I think Law wouldn't take the mocking of his -ya thing lightly because he might see himself that it would sound rather stupid at like Kaya-ya and some other names. Even though his voice actor has an incredibly sexy voice (srsly - Law and Rivaille/Levi from Attack on Titan? My heart. Take it.) and an awesome way of saying this rather weird -ya thing, I think that even if he said it then Kaya-ya would sound... well, a bit stupid. Say it aloud and see what I mean.

Well, that's everything. I, the maker of probably the longest ANs ever, will now go peace out! See ya next chapter! *scoots off*