This Bites! (One Piece SI)

[Roaming_Guardian]

And cross gets the single highest bounty in the history of WG and a special level is added to impel down just for him XD and it will never be used.

Click to shrink...

You act like this will bring any more heat against the Straw Hats than they already have.

It HAS to be author fiat that keeps the world nobles from ordering Kizaru to teleport up and down the Grand Line til he finds the Straw Hats.

 

[EB-the-GAMER]

Chapter 60​

So, let me set the stage. The canon Straw Hat Pirates (including Merry), Billy, my partners, and myself. Two of our most dangerous allies, that nobody else on the crew had met before, both of whom had connections to the old Sun Pirates, looking on with interest tempered by resigned bemusement. Three ex-Sun and Arlong Pirates, the strongest and only repentant one of which was pinning the other two to the ground. One somewhat ditzy mermaid and a genius designer starfish who looked mostly confused by the whole scene.

And one blue-haired Marine swordswoman glaring at our first mate with her sword drawn, plus her strange maul-toting animal companion. Said first mate looked rather flat-footed, which did not prevent him from drawing Wado halfway out of its sheath. Let's also not forget that we had three more ex-Sun Pirates on the Sunny, due to whom we would soon meet the past royal knight, present Warlord, and future Straw Hat.

Bottom line? The punchline was neither concise nor particularly funny. Though there were a few laughs to be had before the drama took over.

"Oi!" Hachi shouted, still keeping a firm hand each on Kuroobi and Chew, which left four free to gesticulate and cross in denial. "No swordfighting in the restaurant except during the squinja migration! And I don't see any black-clad squid around here!"

…wait, what.

"I'm sorry, the what?" Koala asked the unspoken but generally shared question.

"The squinja migration," Hachi repeated, as if that explained everything. "Every spring and fall, the squinja clans migrate through here on the way in between their hidden villages."

"…OK, you can't tell me now that I'm not dreaming," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose in an unsuccessful attempt to wake up.

Through my fingers, I saw Tashigi visibly pondering something. Whatever it was, though, she soon discarded it in favor of an even tighter combat stance. "I'll pay whatever damage we cause out of my own pocket, just let me fight—!"

"Kyuun," the rabbit-wolf thing behind her growled before leaping up, slapping his paw upside the back of her head and—

~o~

"Lieutenant, are you sure about this? You're not going to have more than pocket change for the rest of the year if you buy all of this," a uniformed Marine asked around the package of weights in his arms.

"I need to improve myself to have any chance to achieve my goals," Tashigi firmly replied, carefully balancing her own packages as her other hand emptied her pockets of cash. "I don't care what it costs me, I will become strong enough to face him!"

In short order, she led a small group of Marines out of the store, all laden with arms full of exercise gear. In equally short order, they were helping Tashigi pick her own burden up after she tripped on a stray pebble.

~o~

—in the space of a couple of seconds, downloading a burst of memories into… pretty much everyone's mind's eye, if the way everyone was reeling back was anything to go by.

"What in the actual—?" I started to ask.

"—skin you alive, you walking handbag! How many times have I told you to stop doing that!?"

My attention was snagged by Tashigi, who had just finished snarling at her companion. Which, need I remind you, was something she generally reserved for Zoro. Said companion's reaction was to blatantly yawn at her, one paw covering its mouth.

"Devil Fruit?" was the obvious question.

Fuming, Tashigi spun around and actually saw just how many people were actually present. Her eyes darted across the crowd before landing on me. "You… don't recognize him?" she asked carefully.

I took a moment to think about it, then shrugged casually. "I… think you mentioned him to me once before? The wolf-rabbit thing that was being difficult, ri—?"

CLANG!

"GAH!" I yowled, hopping on the leg that didn't feel like it'd just taken a sledgehammer to the shin. Which wasn't that far off, judging from the size of the maul the wolf-rabbit thing was holding in his paws, but still! "How the hell did that hurt, you little shit?! I'm wearing at least an inch of armor here!" I demanded.

"Quarter-inch."

"BITE ME, LONGNOSE!"

The wolf-rabbit's response was to chuff in a clearly satisfied manner. The smug smirk on his face was a big clue.

"To answer your question," Tashigi spoke up, drawing a sidelong glare from me. "He didn't actually hit you. What he did was revive the memory of past pains in your leg, making it feel like you were reliving that pain all over again. Reviving memories is his ability. Though, I should mention that this guy isn't an Ability-user."

She swept her hand over the fluffball. "Allow me to introduce Popora, chief of, as he calls it, The Sealed Island. He's essentially a consultant for the Marines who's been helping us with his mnemonic abilities…" She scowled at the hybrid creature, who returned the look with a flat stare. "As often as he hinders us with them."

"Well, it looks to me like this time he decided to help you, seeing as he just showed us all that you're flat broke," Hachi cut in, giving her a decidedly unimpressed look.

Tashigi twitched before turning her glare back on Zoro. "Then I'll clean dishes if that's what it takes, but no matter what, I am going to split this bastard in—!"

"Language, Tashigi."

That got Tashigi to freeze right up, before glaring venomously at my snail. "That was a cheap trick, you little shit."

"It saved your ass last time we met, and this time around as well," I shot back. "And right now, I'm doing my best to help you out too. Zoro."

My crewmates parted under the annoyed glare I shot between them, revealing the swordsman mid-crane stance, clearly trying to sneak out through the crowd. I facepalmed.

"Oh, for the love of—!" I snapped my hand up and pointed at Tashigi. "Just hurry up and fight her seriously, man."

"Cross—!"/"CROSS—!" Zoro and Sanji snapped at me.

"You, shut it," I ordered Sanji, shrugging off his volcanic expression. "You're not a swordsman, this doesn't concern you."

The cook—and to my brief dismay, his foot—twitched, but that was all, his cigarette visibly shrinking.

"And as for you," I said, going back to Zoro. "Yes, I know, you'll crush her like an ant."

"Hey!"

I ignored that, levelling my hand at the first mate. "Zoro, listen to me: This is all pretty much a protracted 'dagger' for her, you understand? This is all a 'dagger' for her, and that's just not fair, not to her and not to…" I hesitated briefly before jerking my head to the side. "Well, to her."

Zoro scowled, but though it looked like he was about to take a swing at me, by fist or by blade, he didn't look like he was going to argue either. That would do.

"Look," I continued, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder at the Marine. "You want this to end? You want her off your back? Give her what she wants. Give her 'Yoru'. She is begging you for it, she chased you into the damn Grand Line for it, so there's no problem with it. Once she has that… well, it won't be closure until she takes your head, but it'll be better than nothing."

"…damn it, why did I make the one mistake everyone makes and let you open your mouth?" Zoro growled to himself, kneading the bridge of his nose. He then snapped a scathing glare at Tashigi, which she met and matched. "Alright, fine. You wanted a fight, you have one. You, me, on the Sunny. Now. Chopper, sorry for the mess."

"Nooo, it's perfectly fine!" Chopper responded with a smile and visage that was far too pleasant, prompting the rest of the crew to take two steps away from him. "You see, I'm wrapping up my research on the transmogrative properties of Zoan-flesh, and I just found a new project to start on once I'm done!"

Everyone's caution proved particularly prudent when Chopper snapped into his Human Point, his eyes blazing. "HOW SWORDS APPARENTLY CUT TWENTY POINTS CLEAN OFF THE TOP OF A PERSON'S IQ AND SLAUGHTER SAID PERSON'S SENSE OF SELF-PRESERVATION!" he roared at the top of his lungs, before shooting Zoro a particularly sickly grin. "Oh, but don't worry, I won't research you or anything! After all, I can't rightly use you as a constant, seeing as I suspect that this penalty is accrued for each sword a person wields, THEREBY MAKING YOU AN EXTREME OUTLIER!"

"Ah… you… do realize that I am a sword, right?" Funkfreed spoke up, vibrating nervously in his scabbard.

Chopper waved his hand with a dismissive snort. "Yes, but both your previous and current wielders were suicidal idiots before they got their hands on you, so I consider you to be the exception."

"Withdrawn," the elephant sighed.

"Protested!" I interjected.

"Ignored," Zoro said as he walked by me, Tashigi following. Well, for two seconds before a sharp rap on the floor drew Tashigi's attention back to Popora, who waved his maul at the fishmen. Tashigi blinked. And then, wincing, remembered why she was here in the first place.

"Right… that does come first," Tashigi admitted, moving over to the counter. "Er, as I was saying before… all of this, I called to confirm that you had the resources to prepare food for a crew of two hundred twenty-five?"

"Yes, we can handle that… assuming that Hachi here is actually going to let us go sometime today?" Chew snapped, shooting a venomous glare over his shoulder at his boss.

"Hard to say, really." Hachi glared right back, crossing his free pairs of arms. "Can I actually trust you not to start anything, or am I going to have to tie you to the anchor chain? Again?"

I glanced at Soundbite, the both of us mouthing 'again!?'.

"We'll be good," the fishmen groused, prompting Hachi to let them up.

"Alright, that's perfect," Tashigi sighed in relief, though she didn't stop tapping her hilt, and glanced back at Popora. "Uh, do you think you could—?"

The wolf-rabbit chuffed and waved his maul with an impatient roll of his eyes.

"Thank you!" she cried in relief, shooting out the door with far too much gleeful anticipation for the asskicking she was about to receive, and Zoro and Chopper marched out after her, each wearing their own brand of weariness.

Chew and Kuroobi warily watched the trio leave before giving Popora a doubtful onceover. "So… I guess the snail will be translating for you?" Kuroobi inquired.

"NOOOT REALLY, Seeing as A. he's yet to say shit, and B, even if he DOES SAY SOMETHING, I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT HE IS! I WOULDN'T BE PACKING THE KEY TO WHATEVER HIS MOUTH WOULD BE SLINGING!"

Popora rolled his eyes and started moving his wrist in a familiar motion.

"Though I don't need to understand him to get that he can WRITE."

"That works, chew," Chew nodded, pulling out a notepad and holding out. "Here, do you—?" The smelt-whatever was cut off by a piece of paper waving in front of his face. He plucked it away and gave it a quick once-over before heading into the back. Kuroobi made to follow him, but was stopped by one of Hachi's hands grabbing his fin.

"Chew can get things ready. You are going to go out and get the orders of everyone who stayed on the pirate ship waiting outside," the octo-chef ordered.

"Actually," Franky said, raising a hand. "Another fully loaded ship should be here any second now. Friends of ours."

There was the briefest flash of absolute despair, and then Kuroobi nodded. Double-checking his notepad stock, he bundled them up in his arms and headed out the door, Chew already safely ensconced in the back of the restaurant.

Hachi nodded in satisfaction. Then Nami stepped up to the front of the line and looked him dead in the eyes. "Nyuu… m-may I help you?"

Nami deliberately exhaled, her clouds gray and… clenching, for lack of a better word. "How about you start by telling me everything that you've been up to since the last time we saw you?" she calmly requested.

The octopus swallowed, glancing nervously towards his other employees, who'd been standing around on her tail and him on her shoulders, getting more and more confused the entire time. "Ah, K-Keimi, Pappug, could you go in the back and help Chew? J-Just for a bit?"

"You know, crossing paths with the Straw Hats, I was expecting a lot of ridiculous excitement and wacky hijinks. Not secret conversations and deep, emotional drama," Pappug dryly remarked.

"Buddy, the amount of things the public doesn't know about us is almost equal to what the World Government doesn't know in general," I deadpanned.

"Of course, if you want to listen to an entirely different and much less enjoyable kind of insanity, be our guest," Robin carelessly offered. Well, it would have been careless if she weren't cleaning her fingernails with her knife.

Pappug stared at her for a long moment, eye twitching. Then he wheeled around and darted for the kitchen with more than a little fear in his step. Keimi waddled right behind him, shooting a final doubtful glance over her shoulder before the door shut behind them.

The look on Hachi's face as the door closed was almost begging, but with it closed he had no choice but to face Nami. Four of his hands poked their indexes together while a fifth scratched the back of his head. "W-Well… I g-got away from the M-Marines," he began weakly. "B-B-But I haven't been hurting anyone, I-I swear—!"

"Because Arlong isn't around to tell you to?" Nami finished for him.

"Nyu!?"

"Assume she knows most everything about you," I glibly informed him. "Y'know, because I know most everything about you?"

Hachi wrung two of his hands, then pointed at a nearby booth with the other four. "Can we… take a seat, maybe? It's a bit of a long story."

Nami nodded curtly, walking towards the table. I made to follow, but short wall of cloud stopped me, and she gave me a dismissive wave. "I can handle this on my own. I'm sure that you have other things you want to discuss…" She glanced at Sandersonia and Koala. "With other people, as it were?"

"…good point," I conceded, turning my attention to the aforementioned two, who looked thoroughly amused with the whole situation.

The rest of the crew, fortunately, had decided to make themselves comfortable while waiting for the food, though they all had their eyes on Nami. Aaand by 'comfortable', I mean I really hope Hachi was feeling charitable towards us, because if we had to pay for the 'fun' the Kiddie Trio was having with the condiments out of Nami's horde, she was going to kill us before the New World could!

"So, how have the raids and revolutions been going?" I asked, leading them to a booth of our own. I shot a particularly cheeky smirk at the wide-mouthed Amazon. "And the chief bitch herself for that matter."

"Hey!"

"How many baby animals has she kicked, again?"

"Oh, no, not what I was going to say," Sandersonia waved me off before donning a massive (on her, anyway) smirk, "I was just going to correct you in that that's queen bitch to you, peasant."

I snickered. "Point. How's the queen bitch doing, then?"

"…honestly?" Sandersonia relaxed into her seat with a smile. "Happier. Fact of the matter is, before you started the SBS, she was…" She grimaced and shook her head. "We all were frigid. Detached. We… honestly didn't even truly treat our crewmates as… well, crewmates. Soldiers, yes, but not comrades. They didn't even know about…" She gestured to her back, which had Koala laying a sympathetic hand on the Kuja's shoulder.

That drew a small smile back out of Sandersonia, which she then graced me with as well. "But… ever since the SBS started, our world has expanded! Beyond the hate and darkness we lived with for so long, that we suffered under…" She looked out the window and beamed at the Cannibal's figurehead. "And we found friends and light beyond it all. And our crewmates, well…"

She let out a happy sigh, leaning her chin on her fist. "They don't know the… details, but they know the 'Gorgon's curse' is really just Devil Fruits and some… scars that we don't want anyone to see. It might not seem like much, but compared to what we almost did to the last person that found out…"

Koala, Soundbite and I all exchanged wary glances at that little tidbit, and I slowly raised a tentative finger. "Yooou wanna tell us what you did to that person?"

"NO REASON, we just wanna know whether to spring for the GET WELL SOON CARD or the gravestone wreath," my snail leered.

"H-Hey, hey, no need to get so testy!" Sandersonia waved her hands defensively. "I-I'll have you know that Marguerite's spine was perfectly fine! Eh…" She suddenly refused to meet our eyes. "Eventually…"

Now that almost got me out of my seat. "Did you just say Marguerite!?"

"Uh…" Sandersonia blinked at me in surprise. "Yes, I did. She was a member of the watch on Amazon Lily, but after—" A coughing fit suddenly overtook her. "A completely excusable series of unfortunate events, my sisters and I took her onto the crew-proper. Initially she was only an apprentice, but after she showed some admirable initiative, we gave her her own raiding party, and she's been doing quite well, so—!"

Sandersonia's smile froze for a second before she gave me an incredulous stare. "Waaait, you knew her name!? But how—wait!" The amazon leaned forward with an eager grin. "You could only know her name if you knew her from the story! You didn't just learn about us, you actually come to Ama—MRGH!?" Sandersonia's scary accurate ramblings devolved into a panicked squawk when I hastily grabbed her distressingly accurate tongue.

"Not where the moron can hear us," I hissed, glancing back at Luffy. Thankfully, he was more concerned with trying to shove wasabi up Usopp's nose than anything else at the moment, so—wait, wasn't I holding something just—?

THWAP!

"Grk…" I winced as I got tongue-whipped. "IIII deserved that."

"No clap, you liddle bathtard!" Sandersonia hissed, frantically wiping her tongue. "Do you ever wash those damn things!? And what in the name of Nidhogg's rotting tail did you think you were doing to begin with!?"

"I was thinking that you were going to blow something I definitely don't want blown yet!" I snapped back. "I can't let Luffy know he's going to—grah!" I clamped my jaws shut, but judging from the poleaxed expressions on Sandersonia's and Koala's faces, I was a bit late on that front.

"I'm sorry, I think I had some seafoam in my ears. Did you say Luffy was going to Amazon Lily?" Sandersona demanded incredulously. "As in, alone!?"

"As in, where are the rest of you going to be!?" Koala asked.

Running a hand over my face, I snapped the fingers of my other one. Static promptly filled the air. "Neither of you are going to say a word to Luffy or anyone else… or else I'm going to tell your sisters and your comrades…" I narrowed my eyes menacingly. "About that… and that."

The pair immediately paled, the utmost of horror flashing over their faces.

"Mum's the word, just don't let them know! Hancock would strip my scales from my hide!" Sandersonia squeaked, clamping her hands over her mouth.

"The gunpowder… so much gunpowder…" Koala whimpered, sinking into her seat.

…holy hell, I was just taking a shot in the dark. Noodle incidents and seer status for the win! "Anyway," I said, relaxing back into my seat as I signaled for Soundbite to drop the blurring. "If you're done with your traumatic flashbacks, where were we?"

The pair composed themselves with admirable speed, and Koala raised her hand. "It was my turn to answer your question," the Revolutionary said, smirking. "And for your information, I've been dealing with a lot less stress the past few months since I finally got around to decking you for calling me cuddly."

I gave her a flat look while Sonia raised an eyebrow. Then I smirked, closed my eyes, and pressed my fingers to my brow. "I'm seeing, I'm seeing… your very first reaction to seeing Hachi again was—!"

"Alright, alright!" Koala's cheeks flushed and she looked away before continuing. "Aaanyway, we've been milking the CP9 operational intel for all that it's worth, and the way you've kept publicizing it with Funkfreed—"

"Or as he likes to be called, DEEP NOSE."

"I have told you time and time again, stop calling me that!"

"—has only helped. Your piece on the Caligostan Theocracy was particularly…" Koala hummed thoughtfully. "Poignant."

I donned a cocky grin. "I take it it was effective?"

"Super effective?"

"Given that our last reports have the ex-congregation sacking the citadel and putting a torch to the 'holy' texts?" Koala summarized, her expression falling flat. "Very." She then perked up, sporting a cocky grin. "Still, destructive tendencies aside? You've boosted the Revolutionaries' membership to the highest it's had since its conception! We're still a long ways off from our main goal, but that's fine. You might have accelerated things, but we were ready to wait however long we needed to see things through, and we're still ready now."

Sandersonia stiffened up a bit and suddenly snapped a wary look back at me. "Wait, I thought you two were just—! Jeremiah Cross… how close of an ally are you with the Revolutionary Army?"

The pieces clicked into place in a second, and I felt a smirk grow on my face. "Close enough that I could get a meeting with Dragon in person if I needed to. We're not involved with each other's plans… but we are allies."

"'Hand-in-hand but not conjoined', I believe were your exact words?" Koala added, almost impishly.

Sandersonia's eyes widened, then narrowed, and then went back to normal. I could almost see the gears turning. "Well, in this case, seeing as I've been presented with the opportunity… Koala." She leaned forward, steepling her hands under her chin. "Could you tell me what, precisely, the Revolutionary Army's end goal is?"'

…wait, what? I looked between the two in confusion. "The Revolutionaries' —? What? I thought it was to overthrow the World—?"

"Not… quite?" Koala blinked at me in honest surprise. "I mean, that's the public image we present, but it's just that. I'd have thought you of all people would know the details?"

"A little more than halfway through, remember?" I pointed out. "The most detail I've seen of the Revolutionary Army was Robin introducing you guys as the 'opposition' to the World Government, the invasion and liberation of Tequila Wolf—didn't see any details, no clue what the bridge was for," I pre-empted her question, which drew an annoyed tsk. "—as well as you, Hack, and Sabo helping us bust up Doflamingo's weapon-smuggling ring, but that's pretty much it."

"Wait, Doflamingo has a weapon-smug—Doflamingo is Joker!?" Koala hissed incredulously.

"… well, at least you know now," I said, wincing. "Though, for the record? Take any extra precautions you can for agents infiltrating Dressrossa, and have their missions physically documented in triplicate. Doffy's packing a memory censor, you've… honestly probably lost dozens of agents by now and not even realized it."

Koala's face flashed through a rainbow of expressions before finally settling on tortured resignation. Sinking into her seat, she massaged the bridge of her nose. "Anyway…" she bit out. "Getting back on track… I really thought you knew based on what you said when we met you, Cross. We're not anti-World Government, we're anti-World Noble."

She suddenly sat up and stared at me with no small amount of panic. "That-That's not a problem or anything, is it?" she asked with honest concern.

I only had to think about things for a second before shrugging. "Honestly? At this point, I think it's all semantics. You're going top down, we're climbing bottom up, but in the end it's the same opponent. For now, I vote we quibble over where we start cutting after everyone's trussed up for the chopping block. Aye?"

"Aye," Koala sighed in relief.

"Aaaye…" Sandersonia mused, chin cupped in thought. "I'm going to need to talk with Hancock about this…" she hissed under her breath, something I only heard thanks to Soundbite feeding it to me.

It briefly occurred to me to comment on that and start what I'm pretty sure was a necessary discussion, but the sound of a chair screeching on the floor almost covered up by rumbling thunder demanded my full attention. As it did everyone else, judging from the sudden silence in the room.

I looked over and winced at the sight of Nami looming over a cowed and defensively reeling Hachi.

"Put a pin in catching up until after we're sure our navigator isn't going to deep-fry our host?" I requested.

"Oh, you go right ahead, we'll just keep talking behind your back, most likely about you," Koala replied with a perfectly innocent grin.

I opened my mouth, and clamped it shut with a hissing sigh. "Well, at least you admit it." It was on that note that I got up to go face the tempest.

"I must have misheard you," Nami bit out, enough venom to put down a Sea King in her voice. "Did you just say that they tricked you into handing over a mermaid to sell into slavery? Are you serious!?"

I didn't even need to look back at the booth to tell that Koala and Sandersonia were looking our way. The screaming of abused wood combined with the kind of ear-scratching hiss you only hear from a snake on the verge of biting your face off were kinda big clues.

"Nyuuuu…" Hachi whimpered, obviously longing for a pot he could disappear into. "I-I did say that they tricked me and I had no idea about the slavery thing, right? R-Right?!"

"Hatchan… you know my penny-pinching tendencies as well as anyone. Better than most, actually, seeing as you helped cause them," Nami said in a deceptively calm tone. "I know what's a good buy and what isn't. So what makes you think that I'd even sniff the crap you're trying to sell me!?"

"Well… maybe because it's not that hard to believe?"

All eyes turned toward Usopp, who barely flinched. I mean, he still flinched, of course, but not much. "I-I mean, I still remember back at Arlong Park, I was trying to distract Arlong with my Rubber Band of Doom bluff, but it worked on him instead… for about thirty seconds straight, even. It was almost awkward. If he could fall for something like that…"

Nami kept up her glare for about half a minute, at which point she hung her head in defeat. "Damn it, I wish I didn't agree with you."

Hmm… to help Hachi or not to help Hachi… Oh! I could split the difference with one little incident.

"Usopp's right," I announced, fighting to suppress a broad grin. "Ask Hachi about the first time he met Zoro."

Hachi stiffened, and then slumped down with a groan of embarrassment and I think a blush, though it was kind of hard to tell with both his natural pigment and the hands covering his face. "Can we… really not?" he pleaded. "A-Anyway… I really didn't know about the slavery! I thought they were just a kidnapping gang and—!"

"And that's somehow supposed to be better," Nami flatly stated.

"…in my defense, ex-pirate and I only knew her for about half an hour at the time?" he pleaded weakly.

Nami fell into a brooding silence again, and I privately hoped that Nami was reflecting on her years as a thief and the people that she'd had to use to get what she wanted, rather than any of Sanji's takoyaki recipes. Thankfully, that 'hope' was borne out when Nami sank back into her seat with a defeated groan. "…Only because she's chosen to work for you all this time, for whatever reason," she conceded.

Looking stricken, Hachi began to raise his hands, only to stop and start wringing them. "I… I know my words mean less to you than dirt, Nami…" he said softly. "But… but I want you to know that I am sorry. For all of it. Every time I go over those days in Cocoyashi, I just want to reach back in time and punch myself until I stop! Being! Stupid!"

Nami's eyes widened as several of Hachi's hands clenched into fists, but a second later they unclenched.

"But. I know that I can't. All I can do now is try and live my life the best I know how, and try and make up for the past. Try and beg for your forgiveness, and the forgiveness of everyone I've wronged."

By this point, Nami's head was bowed, her Tempo and hairline both shadowing her eyes. "…I'm not just going to give you that," she said quietly.

"Never expected it!" Hachi hastily replied. "I-I just, I just…"

"You know, I can't speak for what kind of hell you must have gone through," a new voice mused thoughtfully. To Nami's visible surprise, Koala plopped down on the seat next to her, a serene expression on her face. "But Hachi genuinely is trying to turn things around. Has turned things around, really. It's the only reason that I'm giving him a chance."

Nami stared at her in complete confusion, and Koala blinked before looking at me.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have privacy standards," I drawled before she could open her mouth. "And something like what you went through? That blows right past those standards like there's a Marine ship on its tail."

She nodded, turning back to Nami with a somewhat sheepish expression. "Sorry, that probably didn't make sense. Let me explain." She twisted in her seat and raised her shirt, flashing the red sun that Fisher Tiger had burned into her flesh. "I assume you know what this mark means?" she asked.

Nami blinked, visibly confused. "I-I missed the explanation on the Sun Pirates that Robin gave the crew earlier, but I know that they were a crew made only of fishmen, that most of the Arlong Pirates were originally on their crew… you were one of them?"

"…The significance of this sun goes beyond the Sun Pirates," Koala explained softly, a wistful look on her face. "This symbol came to be recognized for hope and light because it was specifically designed to cover up the Hoof of the Flying Dragon…" Koala's fingers clenched, digging furrows in the counter. "The slavery brand of the World Nobles."

Nami and everyone else in the crew stiffened, Hachi's eyes closed as one of his hands drifted up to his forehead, and out the corner of my eye I saw Sandersonia shivering in her seat, hugging herself.

"Fourteen years ago, a well-respected sea bream fishman named Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line to Mariejois where so many of his fellow fishmen were suffering, and burned the entire city to free the slaves that were imprisoned there," Koala continued. "All of the fishmen he freed and all of the fishmen loyal to him on Fishman Island came together and formed the Sun Pirates; he used the mark of the sun to cover all of the slave brands, and branded everyone else to sail on the crew to make it clear that they were all equals."

Koala closed her eyes and took a deep, deliberate breath. "I was one of the slaves that he freed. And three years later, when the Sun Pirates came to an island where I was staying, they agreed to transport me back to my home. It took a lot of work for me to break out of the… conditioning, but Fisher Tiger…"

A wistful smile came over the Revolutionary's face, her fingers tapping on the counter. "Tiger… he made it clear that I had been freed. And even though I was a human, the rest of the Sun Pirates were nice to me. They reminded me that I was alive, that I no longer needed to be afraid." She turned a kind smile on Hachi, laying a hand on his shoulder that drew a smile from him in turn. "Hachi was particularly nice. He always made lots of delicious takoyaki, and his antics were hilarious, and they kept everyone smiling and happy."

Hachi twitched and glanced away, chuckling weakly. "'Antics', right…"

Koala chuckled fondly. "They were my friends, my crewmates…" And then, Koala's good mood was bushwhacked by a dark frown. "Except for Arlong." Hachi flinched again, this time looking down in shame. "Even back then, he was… dark. Scary. He made it clear that as far as he was concerned, I wasn't and would never be welcome. I remember him saying that if 'Big Bro Ti' hadn't been around, he wouldn't be holding himself back as much."

The mood darkened between them for a few moments. Koala finally looked back at her.

"The point is, the Sun Pirates were the antithesis of slavery, but among them, Arlong was the outlier. And once Fisher Tiger died, Arlong fell away from them and their ideals, and everyone loyal to him went along with it, because without Fisher Tiger, they were lost, and he was one of the last pillars of strength they had. It would take a lot to make me willingly give any of them a chance… but Hatchan has been making the effort."

Nami sighed. "Okay, so, I already admitted once today that I don't have as much of a grudge against him as the rest of them… but you can actually understand what it's like, to have that much pain inside for so long."

Koala nodded solemnly, her hand tentatively moving to rest on Nami's shoulder. "I understand, and I don't expect you to forgive him right away, or anytime soon. Just… keep in mind, Hachi… he's a good man. Arlong you can hate with all your heart, but leave Hachi on the periphery."

Nami bit her lip, and her Tempo writhed in time with her inner discord, but when she finally let out a tired sigh, it settled as well. "I… I'll try. For Hachi." And then, just like that, her aura was bristling again as her gaze re-sharpened. "But as for those two."

Much to my surprise, and Hachi's too for that matter, Koala's expression became an icy mirror of Nami's. "Yes, they are a separate matter entirely."

"HACHI!"

Our eyes turned to the doorway, where Kuroobi was standing with an expression of utter fatigue on his face, and Pappug standing on his shoulder. "We've got another few dozen orders, and the dragon that they have onboard wants enough for five fishmen! And on top of that, Mohmoo is with them, along with half a dozen junior sea kings!"

"Nyuu?! They recruited Mohmoo!? I gotta—! Er…" Hachi wilted sheepishly, shooting Nami a tired but sincere smile. "Can we pick this up later?"

"Go on, go on," Koala waved him off, Nami inclining her head in agreement. Gratefully, Hachi made his way back to the grill, Kuroobi on his heels. The expression probably wouldn't have been grateful had he heard what Nami muttered under her breath the minute his back was turned:

"Maybe we should just cover one of the fishmen in batter and serve him up. Be easier."

I mean, I didn't exactly disagree with the sentiment, but wow, that was a bit much.

With that, the mood turned from somber to awkward, nobody really sure what to say while we waited.

"Hey, uh… Koala?"

Until said Revolutionary turned to our uncharacteristically hesitant captain. And I mean seriously hesitant, like 'hat literally in hand' hesitant. Seriously, if he didn't learn that from Makino or one of his brothers, then I'd eat my hat.

"You said you were pretty high up in the Revolutionaries." The Rubber Man inquired sheepishly. "So… Does that mean you know Sabo?"

Koala cringed… and then sighed before giving him a defeated smile. "Yes, I do. I'm partnered up with him often, and—!"

"REALLY!?" Luffy cut her off gleefully, suddenly so close to her Koala had to lean perpendicular in her seat to avoid a collision, with no small amount of panic on her face. "TELL ME ABOUT HIM, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE'S LIKE NOW!"

"I see the family resemblance…" Koala noted weakly.

"No concern about spoilers, captain?" I asked in surprise.

"The last spoiler about him was that he was alive after I thought he was dead for ten years!" Luffy whispered excitedly. "I was supposed to be there for seven more years before he went his own way, so I need to catch up! Besides, this isn't about the future, it's the past, so what does it matter!?"

I blinked several times. Honestly, that was saner than most 'Luffy logic' I was used to.

"Actually, I'd like to hear more about him, too," Sanji added… as he casually kicked our captain off the Revolutionary. "We met Ace in Alabasta, but Luffy having another brother is news to us. Anything to learn how our captain went from a cute, cuddly kid we're almost certain he once was—"

"Fat chance!" Soundbite 'subtly' coughed.

"Bullshit!" I 'surreptitiously' agreed.

"—into… well, this," our cook gestured at our captain's… everything.

Sighing in fond exasperation as she righted herself, Koala smiled. "Well, the first thing to know is that ever since he got his memory back, he flies off into a gloating session about Luffy every time his name comes up…"

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed as he pumped his fists happily.

"But anyways, I suppose that for Sabo's little brother… I can return the favor. Now, let's see… ah!" Koala snapped her fingers and smiled as she leaned back in her seat and started to reminisce. "I'll start at the start, with the very first mission we went on together. It all began in the Headquarters of the Revolutionary Army, nestled in the cliffs of Baltigo…"

And so it went, Koala's smile never faltering as she proceeded to pass the time with tales of her and Sabo's varying—and quite frankly, insane even by our standards—adventures. Honestly, how the hell Sabo had managed to get so much mileage out of a corkscrew and a clam shell… well, I suppose I know better than most that some things aren't meant for the human mind.

This all went on for about ten minutes or so, until storytime was finally brought to a crashing halt… Literally on account of the minor shockwave that suddenly slammed into us, swaying the boat but good.

"Looks like Zoro's done," Franky observed, getting to his feet and stomping toward the exit. "Sunny had better have been left pristine, or I swear—!"

"Keep your man-panties on, Iron-Ass, I didn't touch the Sunny," Zoro grunted as he stalked in past our shipwright, rolling his shoulder with an expression of immense satisfaction. "Tashigi, however, I touched very thoroughly. And Swirly, if you want to make an issue of that?" The first mate spread his arms invitingly. "Bring it on, I welcome it!"

Sanji… actually paused mid-kick and blinked at the swordsman in confusion. "You're… surprisingly tolerable for once, Mossy."

"Finally beating Kuina in some capacity felt cathartic as hell, didn't it?" I half-stated.

"Mmm," Zoro shrugged as he sunk into a seat. "It wasn't bad. Put up more of a fight than I expected, but still nothing close to what she could have done at that age if she were still alive. Better than nothing, I guess."

"And to confirm, Tashigi is…?" Koala began.

"Now listen here, you green-haired, metal-swinging troglodyte!"

"Surprisingly intact," I commented with a cocked brow as the Marine barged in.

And indeed, Tashigi was in seemingly pristine condition. You know, apart from the fact that she had half her body covered in bandages, with a particularly bloody swathe tied around her waist.

And a bunch more being wrapped around her forehead by Chopper, who was in hybrid form standing on her shoulders.

"First off, I did perfectly fine, thank you very much!" Tashigi hissed as she jabbed her finger at our first mate.

"Hold still, before I fasten this eyepatch on with surgical staples," Chopper tersely ordered as he tugged a strip of gauze taut over the lieutenant's left eye. "And be glad that this is only temporary, got it?"

"Second," Tashigi went on, seemingly ignoring Chopper. "I still want to know where the hell you got the legendary dragon-slaying O Wazomono-Grade sword Shusui—!"

"I re-killed Ryuma's corpse, which Moria was using as an undead soldier."

"…oh, how I wish I could actually not believe that," Tashigi groaned, rubbing her unwrapped temple. "And third! If you're wielding Shusui, then where the hell's Yubashiri!?"

Zoro's normally stoic expression twisted like he was sucking on a lemon and half a grapefruit at once. Otherwise, he didn't respond.

After a moment, Funkfreed asked, "If you don't want to tell her, can I do it?" Zoro turned towards me… and slowly nodded. At that, the elephant-sword shifted into his hybrid form to slide from his sheath and curl up on the ground sort of like a snake. A massive snake whose frame could take up half the room, but still.

"It got wrecked on the Bridge of Hesitation," the hybrid weapon explained, waving his trunk remorsefully. "Not beyond repair, but enough that he had to leave it at a blacksmith on Water 7. I mean, at this point, if you want it that badly, then…" He shrugged helplessly. "I guess it's all yours?"

Zoro snapped a glare at my sword and opened his mouth, presumably to cuss him out. Instead, after a moment he shut it and glanced down at his waist. He gripped Shusui's hilt before hissing out a defeated sigh. "…fine, damn it, fine! I'll give you the ticket the smith gave me. I don't like it, but damn it, I owe Yubashiri its right to fight again. And…" The swordsman glanced aside with a scowl… and a blush!? "And… better you than someone else, I guess."

"God help us I THINK THAT'S THE CLOSEST she'll ever get to a pr—!"

SHING!

"I SAY NOTHING!" Soundbite yowled, eyestalks twisting to keep an eye on the snow-white blade hovering between him and Zoro.

Grimacing, Tashigi turned away from the byplay, rubbing the back of her head.

"I am conflicted…" I just barely heard her mutter. She raised her voice a few moments later. "Ah… before anything else though, how did a sword of that quality, in…" She grimaced slightly, as though the next words burned her throat. "In hands as skilled as yours, ugh, get—?"

"Some Navy bastard with the Rust-Rust Fruit," I said.

Aaand just like that both Tashigi and the air in the room stopped, and the Marine slowly turned to look at me, Blair Witch-style.

"Someone in the Navy has the power of the Rust-Rust Fruit…" she intoned, her voice devoid of life. "And he came that close to destroying the legendary Ryo Wazamono-grade Yubashiri with them. Without even a hint of remorse."

"Um…" I briefly thanked my lucky stars that she wasn't actually pissed at Zoro or me this time. And because this wasn't directed at us… "Yes?"

It could have all ended there if Funkfreed didn't choose to raise his big fat trunk.

"Just so you know? That wasn't the first Grade-sword Captain Shu's gotten his hands on, and none of the others had Cross's forewarning to save them."

That was apparently a step too far.

I swear that an unholy inferno lit up around the lieutenant, her face becoming a shadowy mask of rage as she strangled Shigure's hilt.

"I am going to—!"

THWACK!

"—hug a cuddly bunny…" Tashigi slurred mid-sentence, a goofy grin spreading across her face as she bonelessly sank into the nearest seat. This revealed Chopper standing behind her with a dripping needle in his hoof.

"I have gotten far too good at eyeballing a person's weight so that I can properly sedate them," he grumbled to himself as he sank into a seat of his own and started massaging his eyes. "I've also stitched up far too much small intestine while my own is empty. Where's the food?"

"Ugh…" Chew groaned, rubbing at his eyes as he came back inside and started reciting something in a long-suffering tome. "We'll have your orders taken care of as fast as we can, chew. If you would just be patient—"

Chew opened his eyes and stopped speaking as he processed exactly how many glares he was receiving, the sheer amount of 'not damn welcome' they conveyed sending him powerwalking backwards back to the kitchen.

"Bunny… bunny-wolf—GAH!"

Tashigi broke the tense mood with an exclamation followed by a grumbled mutter of thanks to her companion, who was tucking a wasabi stem back into his coat. He(?) then pointed at me, and Tashigi did a double-take before smiling. "Oh, right. Cross. We really didn't expect to run into you again, but it's fortunate that we did; remember how Popora has mnemonic abilities?"

"Yeeeaaah?" I drew out, dreading any brand of interaction with the hammer-happy hybrid.

"Well," she gestured at his hammer. "If ever you wanted a chance to—and believe me, I am loath to say this—be as nigh-omniscient as you once were, we can give you that refresher you were hoping for."

The way Tashigi said that was just a little too eager for my liking, but quite frankly, I didn't care. I would let myself get zapped by Eneru again if it meant remembering the rest of the series. I nodded, kneeling in front of the rabbit-wolf… right as Tashigi got the last word in.

"Oh, and Popora? Feel free to hit him as hard as you possibly can."

"Kyuuuun."

"Wait, wha—!?" I snapped my head up right as the hammer swung.

~o~

"You and I will never meet again."—

—"We three sisters were once…"—

—"DRAGON IS YOUR DAD!?"—

—"STRAW HAT ISN'T A PIECE OF TRASH LIKE YOU!"—

—"Weaklings don't get to choose how they die."—

—"Would you do us the honor of exchanging sake cups?"—

—"Thank you, all of you, for loving me!"

Ace mortally wounded, a gaping hole in his torso.

A complete and total silence, encompassing all factions, friend and foe alike.

A Vivre Card burning away into nonexistence.

And then… and then—!

~o~

"MOTHER ALMIGHTY!" I gasped as I lurched back to reality and landed clean on my ass, the surge of images and emotions and-and-and everything that had just hit me taking me completely by surprise. Seriously, I'd been expecting a hell of a lot, but not that much!

With my senses properly rebooted (and believe me, that was an ordeal and a million), I realized that I'd all but curled up, my armored hands clamped around my skull and moisture on my face and chin. Opening my eyes, I saw everyone watching me with undisguised concern.

I really, really shouldn't have been focusing so much on that part of the manga…

I shook my head and started to get to my feet, but a tapping on my shoulder stopped. Looking up, I realized that it was Popora, who was… crying? Seriously, while the hybrid's expression maintained the stony impassiveness it had held the entire time I'd known him, he definitely had twin tear tracks coursing down his cheeks.

The wolf-rabbit wiped the tears off and pinched them between his fingers, eyeing them contemplatively before giving me a respectful look.

"Translation, he respects THE TRAUMA YOU JUST relived," Soundbite informed me.

"Uh… thanks?" I shook my head and pushed my way back to my feet. "It's—gugh—it's alright, guys, just a… really bad memory…" I wiped the last of my tears from my eyes and shot a sidelong glare at Tashigi. "It's not like what you just hit me with is relevant anymore, anyway."

The Marine had the grace to look away at that. Regrettably, nobody relaxed. Not that I could blame them, I didn't believe half the shit I was spewing myself. I couldn't help it, really, not after watching that.

Wordlessly, Luffy held out the Vivre Card that he had already withdrawn from his hat. Still perfectly intact. I saw it move… parallel to the Red Line? Did that mean he was on Sabaody? Huh, that would be cool, we might actually meet him in person… and that was most definitely not complete and utter desperation coloring my inner monologue.

I nodded in gratitude to Luffy, but his frown only deepened; he could tell as well as I that the difference between what was and what is didn't help that much…

"Ah… Cross?" Tashigi suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I don't want to add more bad news to this, but I just remembered some news Aquarius heard that I think you should know."

The lieutenant's hesitation contorted, mixing with disgust. "Apparently, someone high up in the Government decided that the best way to punish you for the SBS was to break your spirit. They've sent out a powerful task force with Cipher Pol-level intel-gathering skills with one goal: find the homeland of Jeremiah Cross, and unleash the Buster Call upon its shores unless your crew turns itself over."

The moment that the last syllable left her lips, she ducked her head, shaking with what looked like sobs but did not sound like it. The rest of the crew was making a similarly valiant but futile attempt to hide their own expressions, and Koala and Sandersonia in particular had their faces hidden in their arms, their shoulders shaking heavily. And as for me?

"Pff…"

I honestly couldn't hold it back for more than a couple of seconds.

"PFFHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I cackled, falling back onto the ground and pounding it.

"HEEHEEHEEHOOHOOHOOHAHAHAAAAA!" Soundbite howled in agreement.

That opened the floodgates. As expected, Zoro managed to keep his composure with just some snickering, but pretty much everyone else was laughing his or her head off, most of them unable to stay on their feet. As it was, Koala and Sandersonia looked to be in danger of reducing their tables to splinters from pounding on them so hard, and almost everyone in the room was a bad breath away from asphyxiating with glee.

And really, who could possibly even begin to blame them!? The mere idea that what could have been such a tragic, ruthless, absolute bottom-barrel tactic was instead a complete and total wild goose chase?! It was hilarious beyond all conceivable description!

"Dereshishishishi!" Robin guffawed into her fist, tears streaming from her eyes. "I never t-thought that the words 'Buster Call' could send me into a positive form of hysterics, but once more, this crew—Dereshishishishi!"

"M-Maybe next they'll try and arrest my ex-father! HAHAHA!" Sanji roared through his laughter, casually catching anything that bounced off the table he was pounding with a fist.

"No, no! They'll come after mine!" Chopper waved his arms over his head eagerly, a manic grin on his muzzle. "I'll even lead them right to him, make the introductions myself!"

"No! Conis's mothHAHAHAAA!" Nami was cut off mid-sentence when she tipped too far back in her seat and toppled over, though that didn't stop her laughter at all.

"PFHAHAHAHAAA!" I wheezed in a frantic, lung-burning gasp as I threw my arms wide. "Th-Those bastards want to burn my home to the ground!? Well, they're certainly welcome to try! PFHAHAHAAA!"

"Uh, please tell me we're missing something!?"

It was at this point that we all looked up and saw that the full staff of Takoyaki 8 had re-entered the room and were warily eyeing us, Hachi himself looking pretty damn stricken.

"I-I-I echoed the NEWS TO THEM—"

And then a sudden shrieking, cackling gale rocked the building.

"AND the Sunny!" Soundbite concluded gleefully. "I THINK VIVI'S GONNA START A TYPHOON, SHE'S HOWLING SO HARD!"

"I-I can hear Big Bro's laughing, too!" Merry wheezed out.

"Um…" Keimi nervously tugged at her collar. "I-I really hope there's a joke I'm missing here? Because if not, your laughing is… i-is…"

"I-I-IT'S THE MOTHER OF ALL WILD GOOSE CHA-A-A-SES, HEHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

My mirth was a little too much for me to spare a double-take at Bartolomeo's sudden presence, and instead I staggered over to him so that I could sling my arm around his shoulders and laugh in tandem with him. "GOOSE CHASE, GOOSE CHASE, LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE, HAHAHA!" I laughed in agreement with him.

"I-I'll explain," Koala chuckled, wiping away as she slowly came down from her own mirth. "See, Cross's home? It's not anywhere in the East Blue. Or on the planet. Or the moon, for that matter."

I slowly came down from my laughter high at that, sending her an annoyed look.

"And as for why I told you that?" she forged on, smiling far-too-innocently at the fishmen. "It's because no matter who you tell for the rest of your life, no one will believe you. And before you ask, yes, I did get pretty nasty in the Revolutionaries. It shows, don't it?"

"Actually, what I was going to ask is how that's supposed to be more unbelievable than anything else the Straw Hats have done," Kuroobi deadpanned.

"Nyuu, same problem," Hachi groaned, massaging his head with two hands. "The truth is just one more wild guess out of a million."

"Yeeeaaah, we're eeevil like that!" Nami giggled drunkenly, still coming off her laugh-high.

"Uh, excuse me. Who are you, that you know Cross's secret?" Tashigi interjected, cautiously eyeing Koala.

"Koala. Assistant Fishman Karate instructor of the Revolutionary Army and one of their top executives. I was there when he told Dragon the details," Koala explained, smirking. "In fact, I was the one who knocked his ass out and helped drag him to Dragon. No small feat, mind you."

"PFT!" Tashigi snorted into her hand, not trying very hard to hide that burst of laughter. I settled for merely rolling my eyes at the exchange. After all, I was mature, I could take it on the chin… Koala'd proven that for damn sure.

"And you're Tashigi, I believe…" the other half-Mason continued. "Or would 'Pisces' be more appropriate?"

Tashigi snapped into a far more guarded stance as Sandersonia practically slithered up to her and smiled lightly… or as lightly as someone like her could manage. "You're familiar with my sister, Cobra. You can call me Anaconda."

"MY ANACONDA D—! GYARK!"

"I suffered through the Spongebob song, I'm not suffering through that!" I snarled, doing my damndest to stuff the little pest back in his shell.

Sandersonia cocked an eyebrow at us. "Aaaaanyway…" she dragged out, looking around. "Seeing as no one's quite done it yet, I feel I should point out that this is quite the unprecedented event. Me, a member of a Warlord's crew. You-" She nodded at Koala, who smiled and crossed her arms behind her head. "An executive of the Revolutionary Army, and you-" Tashigi stood up a little straighter at the attention. "An officer in the Marines. By all rights, we all should be at one another's throats, but instead here we stand as the closest of allies." She bowed her head solemnly. "Truly, on this most momentous of occasions, there is only one viable course of action."

We all nodded along, at least until we all realized we were missing something. "Uh…" I raised a finger. "And that course of action would be?"

"Getting wasted, obviously!" Sandersonia whooped, pumping her fist.

SLAM!

The deck shook from our collective faceplant. Unfortunately, Sandersonia didn't wait for our reply, and as I stood I saw only the literal tailend of her as she shot out the door and transformed so she could leap onto the Sunny. "I'll go and get some booze to get us started!"

"No, wait!" I shouted after her. "My crew doesn't know there's—!"

Too late. Sandersonia had already slithered up the side of the Sunny. Cue, of course, a cacophonous mix of shouting, crashing, combat, and… party poppers?

"…a friendly Zoan here…" I completed with a groan, glancing at Soundbite. "Dare I ask?"

"Everyone else didn't know WHETHER TO PREPARE FOR WAR OR A PARTY so they prepped for both. NOT LIKE THEY'RE ACTUALLY DOING MUCH TO HER THOUGH, she's…" Soundbite's eyes widened in awe. "WOW, SHE'S AN UNDERLING? Sooo glad you stopped me from POTENTIALLY TICKING HER OFF!"

"Like forewarning would have made any difference? You're Cross's partner," Usopp noted dryly as he headed out towards the Sunny, most likely to stop any further waste of ammunition.

I sighed, exhaling the last of the lingering grief I had. "Well, that was… something. Anyway…" I shot a grateful look at my remaining accomplices. "Thanks, Tashigi, Koala. I needed that."

While Koala settled for snickering and flashing me a V-sign, Tashigi visibly hesitated, seeming to war with herself for a few seconds. Then she slumped in defeat and smiled back.

"What are friends for, Cross?"

-o-

Credit to Hachi, it was only a couple more minutes before our food was ready, and once we cleaned up the mess from Sandersonia's little… dive into the liquor cabinet, we kicked out the snake-Zoan and decamped to the Sunny's pavilion to eat.

What? We all wanted to eat together, and if we tried to pack all of our crews into Takoyaki 8, we'd probably blow the roof off the place sooner rather than later. Probably not even on purpose. We'd take a lot more care onboard our own boat, which was more sturdy anyway. Hachi had been grateful… right up until Nami insisted that the Takoyaki 8 staff join us.

Verbally, Nami said that she just thought it was fair that Takoyaki 8's crew all take a load off and share in the feast they'd prepared. And honestly? She did mean that statement. In regards to Keimi and Pappug, anyway. The glare that our navigator directed at the fishmen, however, said in no uncertain terms, 'You made me stay in hell at your side when I was an inch from death, now suck it up and do the same.'

And so it was that what would have been a return to our casual everyday insanity instead became a delicious feast with two of the relevant parties silently resenting each other's presence and giving the whole thing a tense (though thankfully hidden, so the affair wasn't quite as awkward as it could have been) undertone. And with Brook preoccupied with his favorite food and unable to provide the soothing undertones to help ease the tension, I think Nami was fully aware that something was going to give, and it wasn't going to be pretty. And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what she wanted: a round two, with at minimum two of the fishmen, and a chance to personally hand them their leathery asses on a silver platter.

Still, for now, most everyone else was blissfully oblivious of the weight hanging heavy in the atmosphere and Nami and the non-standard Takoyaki employees glaring at one another, and Tashigi and I were doing our damnedest to pretend it wasn't there. It wasn't really working.

"…So, uh…" I hid a quick grimace in my cup before addressing the Marine sitting across from me. "Tashigi, how's work going?"

"Er…" Tashigi took one glance at the line of soon-to-be-real lightning that was coursing between Nami and Kuroobi before turning back to me. "W-Well enough. Right now, the fleet's been working with a taskforce from Headquarters. We've been working on sorting out the remnants of the Golden Lion Pirates."

"Huh?" Luffy looked over and tilted his head in innocent, ignorant confusion. "You're still taking care of those guys? But wasn't that weeks ago?"

The lieutenant snapped a flat glare at our captain. "Well, the delays in prosecution might have something to do with our Judicial Island—no matter how bloody and unscrupulous it was revealed to be—being burned to the ground in a raging storm of hellfire."

"Eh?" Luffy's head tilted further, his expression becoming doubly confused. "But you guys did that yourselves."

Tashigi snarled to herself, the takoyaki stick in her hand snapping into splinters. "Must not punch, must not—!"

"Oh, no, go right ahead, it's very therapeutic," I interrupted.

"Wait, wha—?" THWACK! "MMPH!" Luffy mumbled through his heavily-puckered face.

"…wow, that was therapeutic!" Tashigi whistled appreciatively as she opened and closed her fist. "Anyway, yeah, processing has been a little slow lately, and there are a lot of them, so we've been pitching in to offer some space as everyone's shuffled around. Not exactly the safest or easiest job, as you can imagine, but we're putting a steady stream of them through the Court Ships, so we should be done in about, oh, a week or two? Thereabouts. Honestly, I could care less what we do about those degenerates…" The lieutenant sank into her seat with a blissful, euphoric sigh. "Because there are other parts of this process that I am enamored with…"

Well, it didn't take a genius to put those toddler-aged puzzle pieces together. "Found some Grade Swords, I take it?" I politely inquired.

"Seven Skillfuls and two Greats so far!" Tashigi outright squeed, clasping her hands and wiggling in her seat like she was talking about her crush… which, admittedly, wasn't that far off.

"Oh? That so?" I leaned forward, an eager grin on my face. That was actually pretty impressive! "Any particularly interesting ones in the—?"

Then the glorious moment came crashing down with a single noise.

"Tch."

With that single scoff, the whole deck went still, and the heavy air I'd been so close to successfully ignoring cranked up to new heights.

I slowly rotated in my seat to grace Chew with a perfectly flat look. "Something you want to say, chum?"

The smelt-whiting scoffed and turned up his nose (and lips). "Nothing for you if you don't see it already, idiot."

My eyes narrowed slightly. "You lost the right to call anybody an idiot the day Arlong Park fell."

He blinked, and then glared. "Why, because we made the mistake of challenging your crew?"

"No, because you fell for Usopp's 'Rubber-Band-of-Doom-flinch-and-run' trick."

Chew went crimson, and several others graced him with looks as painfully flat as mine. Including Kuroobi.

"I thought you said he used another smoke bomb," the ray growled, condescension and rage dripping from every syllable.

"And you're taking his word over mine!?" Chew snapped.

"USOPP RUBBER BAND OF DOOOOM!"

"GAH!" The fishman snapped his arms over his head with a panicked flinch. After about a second, he lowered them, expression thunderous and pointed anywhere but at Kuroobi and Soundbite. "I hate you, snail."

"HEEHEEHEEhoohoohoo!"

"Honestly, Chew, I expected that from Hatchan, but you?" Nami asked, a sadistic teasing hint in her voice. It helped that Hachi was once again covering his face with all six of his hands to hide a blush. Or maybe that was a sextuple facepalm. Hard to tell.

Everyone else was still busy trying to stifle their snickers, and for a minute, I thought that that might be the end of the trouble.

SMASH!

And then Kuroobi put his fist through the barrel he and Chew had been using as a table and we were right back to square one.

"The reason he scoffed was because of the blatant, unashamed hypocrisy you're showing right now, Jeremiah Cross," Kuroobi stated in a tone of utter hatred, glaring me dead in the eye.

…he went there. They actually went there. They were actually going to try and—?

Well. Alright, then. On their heads be it.

Moving slowly and calmly, I got out of my seat, slipped Soundbite off my shoulder, and firmly planted him on the table, my eyes never moving from the fishmen. "Would you care to say that to my face, sir?"

"With pleasure," Kuroobi snarled as he and Chew stood up. Slowly, we each took a step towards each other, then another.

"This isn't your fight, Cross!" Nami hissed in my ear, even though she was glaring at me from across the deck.

"It wasn't my fight when this was about your past with them!" I snarled back through grit teeth, and a quick sweep of my eyes to the side passed that message to the rest of the crew. "This? This is an entirely different beast, and it and them are MINE."

That prompted the crewmates who'd been gearing up for a fight to let go of their weapons and marginally relax, aside from the ones who silently (though not without force) prevented Hachi from stopping his friends. Billy, for his part, had draped his wings over Nami and was holding them there, I assumed at her request to keep her from lashing out. Meaning it was now just me… and them.

The three of us met up in the middle of the lawn, standing barely two feet apart from one another. The fishmen each towered two heads above me and used that to glare down at me like I was a particularly repugnant insect. Of course, I matched them ire for ire, so the effect was diminished just a tad.

"If you would be so kind as to repeat and elaborate on your statement, please," I 'requested'.

"I called you a hypocrite, Jeremiah Cross, because of your blatant fraternizing with a Marine when you've made it your life's mission to tear them down," Kuroobi sneered. "How do you think your adoring public would feel to find your words are as worthless as you are?"

I withheld my urge to roll my eyes at the ludicrously weak blow, and simply settled for crossing my arms and giving him a patiently unimpressed stare. "I hear what you're saying. You know nothing of my work, and clearly wouldn't know nuance if it slapped you in your face.

My stance has always been that the majority of the Navy's ranks are rotten and corrupt, and that there's a sizeable minority of just Marines who actually follow the ideals the organization was founded on. I've met the bastards you describe, but I also know Lieutenant Tashigi, who is a true and honest soldier of Justice. Simply put…" I tightened my grip on my forearms and laid down the gauntlet. "There are all kinds of Marines, good and bad. To dismiss the prior because of the existence of the latter is either stupidity or malice."

"Chew," Chew derisively spat to the side. "You're delusional. Bad is bad and good is good. That's all there is. All there'll ever be."

I allowed myself a slight scowl. "That so? Well then…" I pivoted to the side and pointed my thumb at Koala, who was staring the two with naked hostility. "What's your take on her, then, hm?"

Now that caught them off guard, effectively putting them on the backfoot. "Th-That's—!" Kuroobi started to protest.

"An exception?" I queried oh-so-innocently, nodding in agreement. "Aye, true enough, but here's the thing: You make an exception for her, you open up the floodgates so that not only can the whole of humanity be regarded with the rule…" I stepped up and jabbed the ray fishman in his chest, forcing him to take a step back. "But you allow for this rule to be reflected back on yourself. J'accuse, asshat."

"She's an exception because she knows the pain of the fishmen firsthand," Kuroobi retorted with depressing speed. I guess that his bigotry was as good a mental insulator as my indignant temerity. "She's not the only one who does, I admit that…" He raised his chin pompously. "But you are most certainly not in that group."

I waved him off impatiently. "I'm not, and I admitted as much before the world. But that sure as hell doesn't mean it's impossible for me to sympathize with the cause."

"Or, you know," Koala interjected coldly. "The rest of the very much human soldiers of the Revolutionary Army who respect my karate instructor Hack, who's a brocade perch fishman, and who are always pushing for us to set up a field office on Fishman Island. Just, you know, as an example."

I was grateful for Koala's comment, because the shocked and stricken looks the fishmen shot her way were the perfect opening for me. "As has been oh-so-nicely demonstrated, good and bad, however you define it, exist in all places and people, regardless of species. Folks like Hachi and Hack are perfect examples of the goodness in the fishman species…" I scowled as my grip on my temper started to fray. "Whereas there are still more bastards who serve as examples of everything wrong with your people. Bastards like you two."

"Bastards like Arlong," Nami snarled from the sidelines, the clouds around her crackling on the edge between cloud and raw electricity. And I'd bet a thousand beri that it was only Billy absorbing some of the voltage that kept it from tipping over that edge.

Chew and Kuroobi tried to glare at her, but the display of meteorological superiority made them decide to refocus their ire on me. And with the current subject at a standstill, I decided to backtrack a bit.

"Since I had to make that clear to you in the first place, I'm guessing that you didn't catch much of the SBS while you were in the slammer?"

Both of them glowered more.

"Everything we and Arlong did, it was justified by you damned humans, chew!" Chew snapped, slamming a threatening stomp down in my direction. "The abuse, the slavery—!"

"Ahem?"

The long-lipped fishman was cut off as all attention turned towards Keimi, who was staring down her co-workers (a classification I suspect she was having serious doubts about by this point). "Considering what your old friends the Macros were planning to do to me and have done in the past and how Mister Cross reacted to that, you have less of a leg to stand on than I do."

"Or," I butted in as Kuroobi started to open his mouth. "When you take into account the shit you bastards were involved in back on Conomi!"

As you can expect, by this point the both of them were red in the face from indignant fury, but it wasn't like I was much better either. I was used to fighting ignorance and bigotry via one-sided conversations and tirades. Facing bigotry head-on, face-to-face? This was an entirely different ballpark, and if it hadn't been for my friends backing me up, I don't think I would have been able to handle it. As it was, though, I was already getting dangerously—!

"You've shown the evidence of how humans can be yourself, Jeremiah Cross!" Oh, hey, there was Kuroobi stomping on the accelerator! "We may not have heard everything that happened in Enies Lobby, but we've heard enough! All of those operations, all of those assassins—!"

"Primarily committed against humans!" I cut in, but the ray-man summarily ignored me and plowed on.

"And I think the biggest proof you gave was the one in charge of it all. What was it, Spandam?"

"Oh, piss off!" I swung my hand out, my exasperation rapidly mounting. "Not even you can be stupid enough to think all humans are as bad as that walking waste of dust!"

"There are enough who are, chew," Chew responded, visibly trembling with outrage. "Enough that both of the most respected heroes of our race died at their hands! Big Bro Tiger, and Queen Otohime!"

…It might have just been the fact that my newly refreshed memories allowed me to see the late queen of Ryugu in all of her benevolence. Or maybe it was the memory of the hatred that tore her away from the world, or maybe it was the pain of the only person in the world who knew that secret. Frankly, it didn't matter which.

"You bastards are the ones who burned the petition for the Reverie!" Chew all but spat in my face, slamming his finger in my chest hard enough that I was almost definitely going to bruise. "You're the ones who assassinated Queen Otohime!"

I swear I felt a few wires short-circuit in my brain at the mere thought of being associated with that fucking tragedy, and I showed as much when I split my lips with a snarl. "That's a lie!"

I was vaguely aware of a clatter coming from where Koala was sitting, and I noted her hastily shoving herself to her feet. "Ah, Cross—!" she tried to intervene.

"Don't even try and deny it, scum!" Kuroobi shoved his roaring face in mine, Chew matching the motion as the pair cocked their shoulders back, undoubtedly in preparation to rush me. "Hody captured the—!"

ALRIGHT, THAT FUCKING TEARS IT, YOU WANT TO PLAY—! "THAT LYING BASTARD HODY JONES WAS THE ONE WHO SHOT OTOHIME IN COLD BLOOD!" I roared at the top of my—!

I knew I'd fucked up the second the words left my mouth, but by that point, considering how the entire damn deck froze, it was a little 'too little too late' on that front. I vaguely heard the crashes of anyone carrying anything dropping it, and I barely noticed Keimi, Hachi, and Koala all gaping at me from out the corner of my eye, but the two giants towering over me, paralyzed from pure shock, held my attention. For however long that shock lasted.

I slowly clenched my eyes shut with a tortured groan. "Ooooh, checkmate."

I braced for the inevitable and… I'll be frank, probably deserved by this point beatdown that was coming my way—

SLAM!

Only for a not-insignificant impact to shake the lawn (though not the boat) beneath me.

"I trust, Jeremiah Cross, that you have strong evidence to support such an accusation?"

My eyes snapped open at the unfamiliar but very stern and very powerful voice that had just rumbled above me. And considering that Kuroobi and Chew looked, if anything, even more stunned…

"…That was Jinbe landing right behind me, wasn't it?" I inquired tersely.

The pair of them slowly inclined their heads.

"…he's been here the entire time, hasn't he?"

"Most of it, but I thought you were on a DECENT ROLL…" Soundbite informed me regretfully before gulping audibly. "DIDN'T SEE THE CRIT COMING…"

I slammed my hand to my face and raked my iron-coated fingers down in despair. "Soundbite, my dear partner in crime… someday—possibly today—you withholding knowledge from me is going to get me killed. And I promise you that if it does…" I cast a sidelong snarl his way. "It will only be after I kill you first."

"Soooo noted," the snail whimpered.

"I am waiting, 'Voice of Anarchy' Jeremiah Cross. Waiting and recalling the not insignificant size of your bounty."

I very slowly and very deliberately took a deep breath and let it hiss out. Then I repeated the process, taking full advantage of the fact that Jinbe was a reasonable fishman to get my thoughts back in order. Then, when I'd managed to banish the majority of my panic from my mind and get half an idea of what I was going to say, I turned my back on the two bigots and eyed the infinitely more dangerous individual who was currently pissed with me.

The first thing that met my eyes was a kimono in orange and red with flame patterns dotted all over it, secured by an emerald green obi. The arms were crossed, pale blue fists on the ends of the sleeves, and my eyes darted down to see matching feet in a pair of geta. Then, with as much boldness as I could manage, I raised my eyes to look him in the eyes.

…Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I may have been reckless to the point of seeming suicidal, willing to taunt friends and enemies alike to my possible peril. But don't think for a second that I'm not still rightfully intimidated when I'm staring up at someone that I knew had at least a chance of taking on our entire crew and winning, most likely without even a scratch. Especially when said someone was four feet taller than me, outweighed me by what I'm pretty sure was a literal metric ton of pure muscle, was one of the strongest people on the face of the damn planet, and was currently occupied with glaring at me.

And worst of all, more pressing than any threats to my life possibly could have been… was that a bad first impression, specifically one as bad as this one was shaping up to be, could kill any chance of one of our (probably) future crewmates joining our ranks! And that just wasn't an acceptable outcome.

And so, with a not-insignificant amount of difficulty, I regathered the strength of will I'd previously mustered and set my jaws. I was still scared out of my wits, but I'd been scared when I'd faced down Eneru, and just like back then, I knew exactly what to say. I opened my mouth—

And then another thought struck me, and I snapped my head away from Jinbe to look at my captain instead. "Luffy…" I groaned desperately. Because while I wouldn't if he didn't want me to, I really, really, really wanted to! And practically needed to, at this—

"Say whatever you think you need to, Cross."

Luffy's response was so fast and sure that it brought me up short. Looking at him, I saw that he had his serious face on. Then, after a moment, he gave me a reassuring smile. Sighing in relief, I smiled back and then returned my gaze to the Warlord, staring straight into his eyes.

"With all due respect, sir…" I started in a cool tone. "What's more likely? That Otohime just so happened to get shot by a human the same day someone set fire to the petition box, and Hody was so overcome with rage he forgot his orders to not show the shooter…" I glanced aside to run the scene over in my head one more time. "Or that he put the box to the torch like he and the rest of his cronies had been torching other petitioners' houses and set the whole thing up?"

I could see the hesitation come into Jinbe's eyes, eclipsing the rage. I made to say something, and then another thought came to mind. Glancing at my partner, I whispered a few words. It would be a long time before he could look back and laugh at the reference:

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true," Soundbite rumbled in James Earl Jones' voice.

I nodded in innocent agreement. "The snail has a point. Bluntly worded, but a point."

"Bastard!" Soundbite hissed incredulously in my ear.

"Bite me!" I sniped back, but I hastily refocused on the Warlord at hand, taking a defiant step forward. "Again, a point: Jinbe, this isn't a surprise to you. You've known Hody for years, and for years you've known there's something wrong with him. And not like Arlong, either. Arlong started off good, relatively anyways, but circumstances pushed him over the edge and that's tragic." I shook my head. "But not Hody. From the start, he's always given you a bad feeling, and something always felt off about that day, about how everything went down. Think back, Jinbe! Remember the truth… or better yet—!" I snapped my fingers and pointed at the whale shark-fishman.

Thankfully, my message was well received, and before anyone could react, Popora had dashed over from halfway across the deck, leapfrogged off my head, and cracked his mallet down on Jinbei's head, and—!

~o~

"A human came into our kingdom! AND KILLED OUR QUEEN!"

~o~

—And left us all reeling from the surge of images and emotions that had just slammed us, Jinbe in particular clutching his skull with a groan.

"What the hell—?" he started, but I pressed the advantage before he could get any further.

"Look at him, Jinbe!" I demanded, cementing the image of the 'shooter' Hody was holding in my mind. "Come on, you've been a Warlord for near a decade now, you've seen plenty of humans! Does he look anywhere near right to you!?"

"Actually… he looks pretty damn familiar to me!" Sanji spoke up, his eyes blazing furiously. "Atrophied muscles, gaunt skin tone, sunken eyes? Yeah, that's something I recognize all too well. That man was the textbook definition of starved! If he ate anything over the week before that day, it was gruel! Thin gruel! He was a day from keeling over dead, easy!"

"Hrm, let's see…" Chopper hummed. "Extreme undernourishment. A slew of symptoms, including extreme weight loss, a bulging belly from edema, skin rashes from vitamin deficiencies, inability to concentrate—!"

"Wait, can't concentrate?!" Usopp squawked incredulously. "But you all must have been nearly a half-mile away from her, maybe even more! A shot like that, you don't make it by chance! It needs precision, timing, concentration! A crack shot! That guy? He'd have been lucky to hit the broadside of a decrepit sea king!"

"And that's discounting the biggest issue of all: motive," Vivi saidl. "What did a total stranger like him gain from killing the queen?"

"He didn't need a reason."

All eyes turned back to Kuroobi and Chew, the former of whom was shivering with rage. "He was a human, he—!"

"Are you going to try to turn this back on racism?" Vivi cut in. "Because there's a big problem with that if what Cross is saying about Hody is true. Recall, we've already proven that all individuals, regardless of species or organization, can have their morality run the gamut from positive to negative. But because the 'shooter' was killed upon capture, we'll never know where on the spectrum he fell. This Hody Jones character, however? From what I've gathered from this conversation, his stance has been clear for years."

She raised her palms up and level, weighing the options in each hand. "All that's left at this point is to apply Occam's Razor: who killed the queen, the human with neither the ability nor a clear motive, or the infamous criminal with more than enough capacity and every possible motive? The answer is clear if you ask me."

I took a moment to bask in just how gloriously on the ball all my crewmates were before picking up the torch to drive things home. Though with how tortured Jinbe was looking, I honestly didn't want to. But fuck it, if it meant I could make Hody suffer even one second sooner than when we'd plant our boots up his ass, then I'd take it!

"Jinbe," I spoke up, drawing his attention back down to me. "I know this hurts you like nothing else, and I'm sorry I blurted it out without warning… but you can't deny the truth. You can't deny what was missed all those years ago, and you can't deny what you've always known about him. The truth is plain for all here to see: Hody Jones was the one who killed Queen Otohime."

Painful silence descended on the deck. Then, all at once, every denizen of the deep (and one denizen adjacent) onboard opened their mouths, the same question echoed six times in their expressions, but before they could voice it-

SPLOOSH!

"WAAAGH!"

They were all interrupted as something breached the surface next to the Sunny, the resulting waves knocking about half of us on our asses. Before anyone could ask what the heck had just happened, a different, and far more pressing question was asked. And in a deep, attention-grabbing, and most importantly familiar Australian accent at that:

"H-How in the name of Oceanus do y'know who killed Queen Otohime!?"

In the time it took us to turn and identify the speaker, he asked another question:

"Wha—and how am I talking!? Wait...oh, no, I'm talking!"

I identified the original owner of the voice just as I identified who'd spoken, and both facts threw me for a loop, leaving me dazed on my feet and gaping like an idiot. "…OK, couple of things," I choked out, raising my hand to knead my forehead. "First, Soundbite, how the fuck? Second, however the fuck, you've grossly misjudged the person you're giving Bruce's voice to. And third and most importantly of all, this is getting ridiculous; things cannot possibly line up this well for me! I blurt out one of the biggest secrets of the century, and who else is here to hear me but not only the individual best suited for taking Hody Jones out of the picture, but also the only one who saw it happen!?"

And indeed, it was before my very shocked eyes that none other than… well, the royal megalodon, Megalo, was floating alongside the Thousand Sunny and staring at us in horror, his fins clamped over his titanic maw.

"ALRIGHT, WHO'S THE JACKASS BOTHERING OUR SEA KINGS!?"

The moment was a bit ruined by Barto's hollering from the deck of the Cannibal, but it was a short ruining.

"A VIP from Fishman Island popping up for a visit for some reason," I informed him. I hoped Barto would realize he had absolutely no reason to yell…

"WELL, DOES HE HAVE TO BE HERE!?"

But hey, dreams were made to be dashed.

"Seeing as he's a key piece to an impromptu plan I've only just stumbled into, yes!"

"...DAMN. ALRIGHT, JUST KEEP HIM AWAY FROM OUR GUYS, WILL YA!?"

"Will do." I shot Barto a parting thumbs-up before getting my head back in the game and voicing the first question that came to mind. "And getting back on topic, I'd very much like to reiterate my first point: Soundbite, how!?" I gestured from the snail to Megalo. "He's a fish! I thought—!?"

"I've been practicing FOR MONTHS, and I've been on the same ship as a vocal aquidae for THE LAST FEW HOURS," Soundbite answered, a little snappishly. "AND BESIDES, it's like LABOON; heck of a lot EASIER when they grow up surrounded by people WHO SPEAK HUMAN. DON'T QUITE HAVE THE LINGO FOR ANYFISH, but domestics are fine for now."

"?(°Д°≡°Д°)?" Gif queried, snapping her eyestalks back and forth between myself and the gigashark.

"I'm with the heli-snail, who is this and why should we care?" Su asked with a raised brow… as much as she ever raised them, anyways.

"That's Megalo," Pappug announced, hopping on the railing. "He's Princess Shirahoshi's pet, a retainer for the royal family, and one of my high-end customers. What brings you up here, Megalo? Need a new shirt?"

"Ah-I-ah…" the shark stammered. He shook his head, which seemed to break through whatever block he'd had. "I… I came here to see Hachi, but—!"

"NYUUUU!/GYAAAA! WE FORGOT!"

Everyone jumped as a pair of panicked howls rang out across the deck, and we all turned to see Hachi and Keimi in the process of completely flipping out.

"THE ROYAL FAMILY'S MONTHLY BANQUET!" the pair wailed.

That comment broke through the gravity of the situation for me; I whistled in awe, leaning towards Pappug. "Wow, you guys have been catering to the Ryugu royal family?"

"Mm-hm!" the starfish nodded proudly. "And we've even got you lot to thank for it! One of the royal guards stopped by to eat and listen to the SBS while he was on break, he took some leftovers back with him for later, aaand… well, one thing lead to another. It's been quite beneficial for us, let me tell you. Although…" He grimaced as he watched his co-workers panic. "There are still a few… barnacles to work out, so to speak?"

"IN ALL THE CONFUSION, WE FORGOT TO PREPARE IT!" Hachi hollered in dismay.

"AND BECAUSE OF THE MARINES' ORDER, WE'RE OUT OF FRESH INGREDIENTS AND THE FAMILY'S FAVORITE TOPPINGS!" Keimi wailed.

"What are those ingredients?"

Both fishman and mermaid paused in their panic long enough to stare at Sanji and the dugongs.

"What are those ingredients?" Boss repeated. "We may not be as fast as a mermaid, but we can cover a lot more ground with six of us regardless."

"And I'll help you on the griddle," Sanji declared, rolling up his sleeves. "You'll probably have to make the sauce yourself, though, I probably won't be able to resist stealing it."

"Y-You're guests!" Hachi protested. "I-I couldn't—!"

"Octopus," Sanji interrupted. "I'm a chef. I know about rushes. I couldn't call myself a chef if I let you face that alone."

"And it'll endear him to Keimi," Zoro added.

"And it'll endear me to—DAMMIT, MOSSHEAD!"

"As for us, the Flying Fish Riders clearly showed us that we need to work on our underwater speed," Boss picked up as Zoro and Sanji butted heads again, irritably grinding his cigar between his teeth. "This'll be a good first step."

"And it'll get us away from Cross's latest zany scheme!" Leo added, accompanied by a trio of nods. Hey, I… wasn't that bad!

"Ah… r-right, right…" Hachi muttered, counting on his fingers. "Right… okay, this can work! Dugongs! Follow Keimi's orders to a T! We don't want any poisoned customers!" Hachi ordered with half of his no-longer-flailing hands, while his other half gestured back at Takoyaki 8. "I'll fire up the grill and give Sanji a crash-course with what ingredients we have! GOGOGO!"

And with that, everyone involved leapt overboard, frantic to cook a feast literally fit for a king and his family. The rest of us watched in bemusement as they all but flew either back into Takoyaki 8 or overboard, slamming the doors and into the surf at breakneck speeds, and that bemusement lingered for a good few seconds.

Then I returned everyone's attention to the matter at hand with a conspicuous cough. Megalo froze under the sidelong glance I gave him, caught halfway to slipping into the surf. "You are not going anywhere, blubber-ass," I informed him. "You're the one who honked that foghorn, and believe you me, that's something you cannot take back. Now say it for the audience."

"H-H-How—!?" he stammered, in far more hesitant a tone than I think the original owner of his voice ever took.

"Not relevant and not something I want leaking beyond what's necessary, and stop trying to change the damn subject," I ordered.

And then I grimaced and glanced aside uncomfortably as I remembered why this was only coming up now. And as much as it killed me, I also knew how to break his vow of silence… maybe… hopefully? C'mon, bullshit, don't fail me now.

Acting based on my gut, I jabbed my el—er, right, he wouldn't notice that… I jabbed my fist in Jinbe's side and pointed out the megalodon. "Help me with this logjam, would you?"

The whale-shark-man glanced incredulously down at me, but he went along with it and cleared his throat, eyeing the real shark warily. "Megalo… all these years, you knew?"

"I… I…" Megalo curled in on himself with a tearful whimper, shaking his head miserably. "I saw everything… the whole thing…"

"And you didn't say anything!?" the Knight of the Sea suddenly roared. "Do you have any idea—!?"

"Ahem?" I coughed, eyeing him intently. "He did tell someone. Which is the exact problem."

I flinched under Jinbe's gaze, but it was a short-lived gaze. I could all but see the gears grinding in his head as he made the relevant connections: Megalo to Shirahoshi, and from there the crybaby princess to—!

The titanic Warlord loosed a massively tired groan, apparently overcome with an onset of overwhelming exhaustion. He sank into a sitting position on the lawn, miserably gripping the bridge of his nose. "Oh, damn it, Princess…" he lamented.

"A little exposition for those of us who aren't Cross would be nice," Merry cut in.

"I'll tell you all later," Koala replied. I shot her a look of gratitude, and the look I got in response made it clear that she was expecting me to fill in the blanks that she couldn't, which had me waving her off now. After all, at the moment I had bigger fish to—er, you get the idea.

"Megalo," I said, drawing the shark's tearful gaze. "I understand why Shirahoshi told you to do what you did, and I even respect it; it's taken more strength and responsibility than anyone her age should bear to stay silent…" I heaved a sigh of defeat. "But it also doesn't change the fact that she was wrong."

"HEY!" Megalo barked at full volume, snarling and displaying more aggression then I think I'd ever seen him show, be it in this life or my prior one. "PRINCESS SHIRAHOSHI WAS FOLLOWING HER MOTHER'S FINAL WISHES!"

"To the detriment of the Ryugu Kingdom!" I countered just as heatedly, emphasizing the point with a slap of my palm on the railing. "Look, I'm not insulting Shirahoshi, Megalo, nor the late queen! Otohime's last wishes were noble, and it's incredible that Shirahoshi's followed them all this time, but both actions were undertaken under the wrong context!"

Fury gave way to confusion, which I took as a sign to continue.

Or at least, I would have if Jinbe's rumbling growl didn't cut me off. "If Otohime's assassination had been a mere one-off. A lone, crazed gunman acting out of his own personal hatred, then letting him fade into anonymity, while ultimately undesirable, would be… Acceptable. Barely, but acceptable… Except…" He looked at me with a sad expression. "Except that this isn't that, is it?"

I shook my head in confirmation of the denial. "Not with Hody. Hody's hatred neither started nor ended with Otohime. Rather, she was an obstacle. He…" I hissed out a sigh, dragging my fingers through my hair. "In his own words, as Arlong proclaimed himself to be the rage of the fishmen, Hody Jones has literally become the incarnation of their hatred, the hatred they all hold towards humankind. His only reason for… for literally anything in life is to inflict pain on humanity. And he will stop at nothing to achieve that goal, all costs are acceptable. Even other fishmen, sympathizer or detractor alike. Queen Otohime wasn't a milestone for him, but a stepping stone. And he'll step on a hundred more, a thousand more, a million… as many as it takes, so long as it ultimately gets him what he wants. Mark my words: Hody Jones will not stop until he sees the human world set aflame… even if he needs to reduce Fishman Island to ashes to do it."

I leaned forwards and stared Megalo dead in the eye. "Trying to stop new hatred from being born won't work, Megalo. Not when we're still trying to fight the original strain from all those years ago! So please, please…!"

The titanic shark grimaced, visibly tortured by the decision I was forcing on it, and I was honestly a bit regretful for having to force it on him. But, well, to reiterate, I had to force it on him, for everyone's good.

And finally, Megalo curled in on himself with a tortured groan that I was most thankful for (and damn did it hurt that I was thankful for another sapient's pain, but desperate times and all that…).

"I-I… a-all these years, and it still d-doesn't feel real…" he said. "I-I was going for a swim when I heard about the fire, s-so of course I hurried to the Plaza as fast as I could. When I got there, though…" He shook his head. "I-I didn't know! He was a guard, he was in uniform, I thought he was putting up a perimeter, I thought…"

Megalo went silence for a moment before croaking on. "It was all so fast. I heard the bang, I heard the screams, I looked for the shooter…" His eyes snapped shut, massive tears dribbling down his cheeks. "And… there it was. A gun, in his hands, barrel smoking." The shark raised his nose and gazed into the heavens. "Then a hole opened up in the ground behind him, and that human was spat out. The guard, he shot him, picked him up and…" He concluded the tale with a massively tired sigh. "And then he showed him to the crowd and everything went straight to Charybdis. That's when I ran."

If Jinbe hadn't already been sitting down, I'm fairly certain his legs would have given out from that confirmation. Silence fell across the deck as the truth sunk in, the masquerade made to engender hate torn away and revealing the truth beneath. The anguish in the whale shark fishman's expression was plain to see; faced with Megalo's testimony, he could no longer deny the truth.

…If only his former crewmates were of a similar mind. But nooo, much to my chagrin, Kuroobi and Chew's hatred was ingrained too deep in them for them to accept such a blow to their worldview without exhausting every possibility first. And so began the chain of events that would eventually lead to what, in the future, my crewmates would affectionately refer to as 'The Verbal Blitz.'

"Th-The snail must be changing the words up, chew! He's lying! He must be!"

I could hear the desperation in Chew's voice, and the fact that he himself doubted his own words helped soften my rage, but only from 'apocalyptic' to 'infernal'. And I wasn't the only directing their anger towards the two remnants of the Arlong Empire, like, say, everyone on deck. One individual's ire was particularly pertinent.

"No."

"Who—?" Kuroobi started.

"I said no," Pappug repeated, waddling right up to the fishmen, his coworkers, and glaring them dead in the eye. "You may not be able to understand Megalo without Soundbite's translation, but I can. And I can tell you that all the snail was doing was echoing what Megalo was saying. No matter what you say, I'll take the word of a retainer to the royal family any day."

"…You… you sympathize with them, you could just be saying that to—"

Chew fell silent as Pappug, much like Megalo a couple of minutes ago, adopted a look fiercer than I ever imagined possible on his face.

"Don't you DARE. To insult my loyalty to my kingdom!" he snapped, jabbing his own chest with one of his arms. "I respect the Straw Hats to hell and back, yes, but I would never disgrace the memory of Queen Otohime by helping them lie about her demise!"

Chew's voice died. Kuroobi picked up the bargaining with a slightly less anger-inducing argument: "But he—! But this—! Jinbe, you can't believe them! They're talking about Hody! They don't know him like we do, they don't know what they're talking about!"

"No…"

The pair were stunned into silence by the solemn reply, and they could only gape as the whale-shark fishman slowly rose to his feet, turning to Kuroobi and Chew with a look that was more tired than angry.

"No," he repeated. "The only ones who don't know what they're talking about are you."

"Huh!?" they chorused.

Jinbe snarled, flashing his fangs. "Let me be clear to the both of you: You weren't there. You haven't been back to the kingdom in over a decade, so you have no idea what it's become like down there." The Warlord let out a sad huff. "You don't know Hody, not like me. You haven't seen what he's done, the monster he's turned into. You weren't at Gyoncorde Plaza, you didn't see his eyes that day. You didn't see the hate."

"Jinbe…" they pleaded desperately. Jinbe turned his back to them… and his face to me.

"Jeremiah Cross. In recent years, pirate ships have been disappearing en route to the island. Initially, I thought it was just the Flying Dutchman and its crew getting up to its old tricks, but now…"

"…if Hody hasn't reached some kind of agreement with Vander Decken yet?" I responded, my tone dark and quiet; I was still struggling to keep my anger under control. "Then yeah, I'd say it's most likely him. New 'recruits' for the New Fishman Pirates. After all, you can't fight a revolution without an army."

"You have a better word than 'recruits', don't you?" Sandersonia murmured, glowering at me over the lip of her mug.

"Yeah. 'Slaves'," I grinned madly as I spread my arms wide. "But hey, it's alright! Let's forget all about the generations of blood and tears that weigh down those chains and pick 'em right on up! After all…" my mad grin rotted into a scowl. "They're just humans."

That was the extent of how far their bigoted pride could blind them. The ray and smelt-whiting swayed, nearly falling over as horror and disgust wracked their frames. Words fell from their lips that I don't think they were fully conscious of…

"Why… why would he—!?"

That was the last thing I heard before everything got… blurry.

-o-

Luffy observed the goings-on between his crew, his old enemies, and the Warlord who seemed to be in the middle of it all with some reluctance. This was Cross's sort of thing, not his, but he knew that he couldn't say that. Not anymore. Even as he attempted to focus on current situation, his mind wandered to how things had changed.

Cross had been almost a spur-of-the-moment choice for Luffy way back in the East Blue; he and Soundbite were awesome, sure, and they had become even more awesome since then, but Luffy hadn't planned on inviting anyone else to join his crew before they left for the Grand Line. But when he saw the state that Cross was in, it was easy for him to put the pieces together thanks to his life on Mt. Corvo: whether he was shipwrecked or a runaway, he was lost. And Luffy had seen hope in his eyes when he met him, a hope that felt familiar thanks to his brothers. So he had extended the invitation, despite his crew's objections, and the conversation that followed confirmed to Luffy that he had made the right choice.

It was only a few weeks later that he learned exactly what was behind the hope in Cross's eyes. Luffy had known Cross was smart, but the whole 'other world' thing put everything in a new perspective. Learning the adventure ahead of time still repulsed him, so he was quick to keep Cross from telling them anything that wasn't really important. Maybe there would be something, but he didn't need to think about it too hard, right?

And then he found out that Sabo was alive and Ace would have died. Even after all of this time, the revelations about the two most important people to him before he found his crew shook Luffy to the core. And then he lost to Crocodile and almost died. Twice. He won the third time, but it stuck in his mind how far Crocodile pushed him. And then Vivi had been given a bounty for trying to save her country, and by the same bastards that killed—no… almost killed Sabo. He knew his journey to become the Pirate King wouldn't be easy, but he had trusted that everything would work out all right.

But Alabasta shook him. He was strong enough to protect his friends from anyone who tried hurting them with weapons or fists, but only barely; he had almost died three times. He needed to get stronger. And even then, he couldn't hurt the ones who hurt Vivi. But Cross could. The mystery bastard gave Cross the key to using his mystery knowledge to shake the entire world in retaliation. Luffy had let him. He had kept letting him, ignoring whatever spoilers he shared with Zoro, Nami, and Vivi so that he could do what Luffy couldn't. And at that time, Luffy truly understood just how much power Cross's knowledge gave him.

And then Cross started bringing others into the crew. Luffy had always planned on having a small crew, only about ten people, but that had changed along with everything else; his crew doubled in size when they left Alabasta and had grown more with every island that they visited, either in crewmates or in allies. Luffy was never mad about it; every single person or animal who joined was awesome, but in the aftermath of Alabasta, he'd had to re-evaluate his plans. He had assigned Cross to make the plans because he was smarter, and while Luffy's stance on that hadn't changed since Whiskey Peak, his outlook had. The journey was going to be harder and more out of control than he thought, and he needed to be stronger… and not just in body.

He took Cross's advice and started practicing with his Devil Fruit before they left for the Sky Island. It was thanks to that that he was able to save Conis and Su from Eneru, which eventually led to her joining his crew. That was proof enough that getting smarter was good despite the headaches thinking too much produced, but he got it hammered home after Navarone, when Cross matched wits with a Vice Admiral and won. Luffy had vowed to himself that day that he would actively try to be smarter… just so that he could potentially pay his grandpa back for all of the hell he put them through. He was a Vice Admiral too, so that would work, right?

The next island only added to his growing proof. Luffy's anger had been kindled from the moment that he met Foxy, and he chose to beat him at his own game. Wits and traps had allowed a weakling to push Luffy almost as far as Crocodile did in their last match. And then came Admiral Aokiji. Cross's knowledge was the only thing that actually hurt the admiral, and the admiral's parting words hurt his crew more than the beatdown he had given them ever could. That had been the final straw; seeing what a few choice words from an enemy did to his crew, seeing the despair in Robin's eyes, he did the only thing he could to prepare them against that in the future, and put his trust in Cross to forearm them.

Even with all of that, he almost died in his next big fight. He couldn't lose… but he did. The words of his friends and crewmates, the reminder that Lucci would hurt the ones he had vowed to protect, spurred him on and allowed him to win, but it had exhausted him to an extent that he hadn't known since Porchemy's interrogation. Then there was Merry. Cross had bargained for a miracle to save her, and he got it, but it shouldn't have come to that in the first place. Cross had done everything he could to forearm them and protect her and it hadn't been enough. Even knowing the future wasn't a guarantee that he could change it. Thriller Bark was more proof of that; Cross's plan went perfectly, and then everything went wrong. Luffy exhausted himself against Moria, leaving him out cold and unable to protect his crew when another Warlord showed up.

Luffy couldn't hold anything against Zoro, or Nami for that matter; it had sunk in that all of them would give their lives for each other, even though they wouldn't have to, because they would keep getting stronger and stronger. This time, like the previous times, Luffy's anger at what had happened and what his crew had to do was swallowed up in the relief that they still won, and they were all still alive. Even after all of this time, he still had that trust that everything would work out all right. Even when he came up against Shiki, someone who fought Roger himself, that was still the case.

But it was only now, seeing Cross's memory refreshed as he saw what Luffy knew, somehow, to be Ace dying, seeing Cross brought to tears just from the memory, that he made the connection in his mind: Cross felt even more of a burden than he did. Luffy's job as captain was to protect his crew, and to do that, he was the strongest of them all. He knew that he could protect them from whoever tried to hurt them. Cross didn't, and yet because of how much he knew about them and their future, he still felt like he had to… and his burden wasn't limited to just the Straw Hat Pirates, either.

And that was what broke through Luffy's mind once and for all. He knew that there were still things Cross could do that he couldn't, and he knew that he only told a select few of the crew his plans because they were good at keeping secrets. But if Luffy being ignorant was forcing an even heavier burden than his on Cross and those crewmates, then he was done with it. He knew well by now that Cross couldn't spoil the fun of the adventure by telling them about it ahead of time, and if that was the case, then he had no excuse to keep closing his eyes and plugging his ears.

So he watched and he listened as Cross fought and everyone reacted. He saw as a Warlord came onboard and heard him threaten his crewmate. He gave his consent for Cross to say whatever he had to without a second thought. He saw Cross slowly wear down their old enemies. He heard the ones who weren't on his crew help Cross until their old enemies couldn't deny the horrible truth anymore. He saw them sink to their knees, broken, and heard them speak words that were hardly coherent.

"Why… why would he—!?"

"Why…"

And then he saw and heard as, for the second time in all the time that he'd known him, Cross well and truly snapped.

"Why… why!? WHYYY!?"

Acting on his instincts and way too much experience with Ace (though this was the first time it actually worked), Luffy snapped his arm out and snagged his tactician by his collar. And not a second too soon either, as literally a second later, Cross roared in primal fury and lunged at the non-bastard fishmen on the deck, honest-to-goodness murder in every inch of his frame and his gauntlets still reaching for their throats. At the same time, he saw Zoro and Conis silently putting themselves in front of Lassoo and Funkfreed before they could go to their partner's aid.

Not that they really needed to, seeing as the weapon-Zoans (and how cool was that? Living weapons! His crew was just the best!) weren't doing anything more serious than just growling and pawing at the deck; they'd probably be a lot harder to stop if Cross actually called them…

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK, YOU BASTARDS!?"

Except there wasn't any chance of that happening because Cross was still out of his mind. Like, seriously out of it, white eyes and… was that—? Yeah, foam, just a bit, out of the corner of his mouth. Eesh, Luffy didn't think he'd ever seen Ace…? Oh, no no, now he remembered, it was that time one of the nobles just literally walked over him while they were sneaking through Goa. It didn't hurt or anything but that didn't stop Ace from almost ripping the guy's—

"Woops!" Luffy cursed under his breath and hastily resecured his grip on Cross's shirt instead of his jacket, on account of Cross almost slipping free of his outer layer. Deciding to avoid any more near misses, Luffy pulled his head out of his memories of the good old days and refocused on the good old present.

"YOU'RE THE ONES WHO FUCKING TOLD HIM TO!" Cross was raging, spittle flying without care or control. "YOU TOLD ALL OF THEM! HODY, DOSUN, ZEO, DARUMA, IKAROS! YOU PREACHED SCRIPTURE AT THEM AND THEY FUCKING FOLLOWED IT TO A T!"

"W-We never told them to—!" the ray-guy tried to protest, reeling back from the human half his size in terror.

"YOU DIDN'T NEED TO!" Cross cut him off, swinging his arms wildly as he did his best to get at their necks. "YOU SPENT THEIR MOST MALLEABLE YEARS TELLING AN ENTIRE FUCKING GENERATION THAT HUMANS WERE THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, THAT THEY WERE TO BE HATED AND DESPISED, NO MATTER THE COST! WHAT THE HELL ELSE DID YOU EXPECT?! THAT THEY WOULD JUST OH-SO-NICELY APPLY FUCKING NUANCE?! CONSIDER ANYTHING OTHER THAN HATE, EVEN IF IT HURTS THEM OR ANY OTHER FISH-OR-MERFOLK IN THE PROCESS?! MERCY, COMPASSION, COMMON-FUCKING-DECENCY! BECAUSE OF YOU, THOSE WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO THEM! THEY'RE NOT EVEN PEOPLE ANYMORE, JUST WALKING CORPSES FILLED WITH HATE! YOUR HATE!"

Wow, talk about a rant. Briefly, Luffy debated whether to stop this or not. On the one hand, it was going on kinda long. But on the other hand, Cross probably needed to get this off his chest, and all that talk about 'malleable years' was actually kinda interesting. Something to ask Cross about later?

"BECAUSE OF YOU WORTHLESS SKIDMARKS, HODY AND THE REST HAVE HURT THOUSANDS, WILL HURT THOUSANDS MORE, BUT NOT BEFORE I TEAR OUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUES AND SHOVE THEM—!"

Oops, okay, maybe it was time to stop things—oh, wait, no, that was Koala's hand grabbing Cross' neck. To Luffy's relief, his third mate immediately choked off into a gurgle and slumped over, unconscious. As a quick shake from Luffy confirmed.

"Phew, thanks, Koala!" the rubber-man grinned at the new friend.

The blonde shrugged casually as she hefted her unconscious ally onto her shoulder. "Not a problem, that was starting to get inappropriate even for this situation. If it's alright with you, I'm going to take him somewhere quiet, help him cool down before he hurts someone… or himself."

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great!" Luffy's grin extended into outright beaming, and he jabbed his thumb towards the Sunny's rear—er, aft. "Go ahead and use the Aquarium Lounge, I don't think there's anyone in there right now."

"Got it, thanks." And with that, Koala would have set off… if the repeat offenders on deck didn't choose to open their mouths one last time.

"Chew…" Chew audibly sighed in relief, wiping a layer of sweat from his forehead and smiling gratefully at Koala. He then walked forwards and made to pat his hand on the Revolutionary's shoulder. "Thanks for that, Koala. For a second there, chew, I was actually worried about the little—!"

SMACK!

And just like that, the tension ratcheted right back up to maximum as Koala batted the smelt-whiting fishman's hand away and fixed him with a chilling look. Not even angry, just cold and emotionless.

"Don't touch me," she ordered, and nearly everyone who heard the words shivered from the sheer level of utter contempt packed into the sentence. Luffy, though, just watched impassively.

"Buh-I-wha—?!" Chew sputtered incredulously, trying and failing to find the words for what had just happened.

Kuroobi, however, had no such (or at least less) problems. "What the hell, Koala?!" he demanded, stomping towards the Revolutionary. "It's been over a decade since we last saw each other, but now you're snubbing us! Treating us like—like we're—!"

"Like you're what?" Koala inquired in her still-placid tone, meeting his panicked gaze with her calm one. "Like you're enemies? The enemy? Scum of the earth, even? All inaccurate, I assure you. My opinion regarding you two is far below such lofty stations."

"Why are you saying this, chew!?" Chew demanded. "Koala, we're your friends!"

Luffy frowned. Why on earth did they think that? It was pretty obvious that she really didn't like them. The only conclusion he could come to was that they were idiots, so that was at least correctible. As the ambient temperature plummeted even further, he made his move.

"Uh, no, she isn't," he said in disdainful confusion.

"What he said. I have never been friends with you." The words were delivered calmly, clearly, and both weathered the stricken looks the fishmen shot her and aborted any attempt to protest Luffy's declaration. "You appear confused, so allow me to clarify: you see, I was friends with a ray fishman and a smelt-whiting fishman who were also called Kuroobi and Chew, back when I was younger. But they were Sun Pirates. Good pirates. Good people."

She shook her head in slow, disappointed denial. "But they're dead now. They died when Tiger died. And you? You might have their names and their faces, but you're nothing like them. You're Arlong Pirates. I wouldn't be caught dead being friendly with you. And I can't imagine there's a single self-respecting person above or below the seas who would be."

Koala punctuated the lecture's conclusion by repositioning Cross on shoulder and giving the fishmen a curt nod.

"Have a nice day."

In the silence that resounded following Koala's final statement, the closing of the lounge's door blasted out like a cannonball detonation. Still, awkward as the deck-wide hesitation was, Luffy was actually a little grateful for it. After all, it gave him a chance to catch up with things and actually (ugh) think about everything that had just happened.

"Mm… ngh!" Luffy grimaced as he hastily abandoned that ill-conceived course of action. Seriously, he had no idea why anyone else would do something so dumb like thinking; he'd save using his brain for life and death situations, thank you very much!

Tashigi broke the silence after a minute. "Popora, would reviving that many memories at once have amplified the feelings that he felt from them?"

The strange creature (rabbit-wolf! With a hammer! So cool!) folded his arms in contemplation. Then he shrugged and gestured to the door that had just closed.

"'Based on that, apparently'," Tashigi translated, sighing and rubbing her forehead. "I shouldn't have used up that mood-lifter so soon."

Luffy's grimace deepened briefly, but he shook it off; he would need to talk to Cross later, but his third mate was in good hands for now. With that problem done, his eyes scanned over the deck, and immediately fell on the only fishman onboard whom he hadn't met, and who seemed to be a good guy.

"Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates!" he said, extending a hand to said fishman.

Jinbe blinked, not doing anything, which was fine, because Luffy got that reaction a lot. Then he too broke into a smile and returned Luffy's handshake.

"Jinbe, Captain of the Sun Pirates and Warlord of the Seas. It's... honestly a pleasure to meet you, Luffy."

"Shishishi!" Luffy snickered as his grin extended to its normal, comfortable width. Honestly, all the complicated stuff and big emotions that were flying around could go soak their heads. If the rubber-man only knew one thing, it was that today was turning out to be a very good day.

-o-

With everyone's attention diverted to what could easily be defined as the World Government's worst nightmare coming to life, nobody paid much mind to the morally defeated fishmen as they stumbled aside, all but dead on their feet.

"How…" Kuroobi choked, images of someone he had last seen as a future member of their crew clashing with the form of their beloved queen; the smiling slave girl with the cold Revolutionary that scorned them; their sobbing captain as he lay dying with their laughing captain as he gloated over bringing another human into chains.

"…How could things have gone so wrong?"

Chew was in complete agreement, still unable to see how preaching their message about the past with humans and the way to treat them had carried over to murdering Otohime. Arlong himself would have led a lynching against anyone on their crew who would have dared to kill a fellow fishman, human sympathizer or no. And a threat to their queen? Arlong would have torn their throat out himself.

So… So for it to be someone who'd worshipped Arlong so thoroughly, who'd held onto his every word, who they remembered so clearly…

"I don't know," Chew sighed miserably.

"No?"

Both stiffened at the voice in their ears, and they snapped their heads around to stare at the other, previously neglected half of the Voices of Anarchy.

"You still don't get it? Well, then…" Soundbite swayed his neck side to side, piping in the neck cracks his body lacked the bones to produce naturally. "WELL THEN, LET ME HELP. Because if I need to listen TO CROSS GO THROUGH EMOTIONAL HELL, SO DO YOU. NOW SHUT UP, NUT UP, AND LISTEN TO how badly you fucked up."

Both briefly considered going overboard. That was immediately countered with the fact that Jinbe would catch them if they tried. That almost didn't stop them. Almost. In the end, the two of them decided not to try and were left with no choice but to await whatever the louder of the Voices of Anarchy had in store.

-o-

My first thoughts upon waking up were hastily shoved together, and the general gist was quick to slip out of my mouth: "I'M GONNA KILL THOSE—!"

THWACK!

Waking up for the second time, I was calm enough that I could fake being calm so I could try and get my gauntlets around a certain pair of scaled necks. "Okay, alright, I've calmed down, I'm ready to apologize—!"

THWACK!

Waking up for the third time, I reflected on the fact that, OK, so my tone there gave away that I was lying. But I wasn't lying anymore now, for real. In retrospect, I might have overreacted a bit. "Alright, now I'm calm, you can stop—!"

THWACK!

Fourth time, my ire at the fishmen was… eclipsed. "AND NOW I'M PISSED AGAIN!" I roared.

"That's what I was looking for. Now we can start to talk," Koala stated.

I opened my mouth to ask her what she was talking about. Then I noticed I wasn't on deck anymore. I was in the aquarium lounge, highlighted by the light dancing around the shadows and fish all around me. It really felt like we were underwater. Alone. With nobody else listening…

I slowly pulled myself to my feet and walked up to the aquarium's glass, staring into the pseudo-depths. Stared at a sight that so many others were familiar with… a sight that was the only sight so many had seen their entire lives. That would be the only sight many would see.

"…they were just children, damn it."

As she moved to stand next to me, Koala gave me a questioning look.

"Hodi and his bunch," I clarified, my eyes following the fish as they idly swam about, blissful in their ignorance. "They were... for God's sakes, they were just children. They… They weren't always like this. They weren't always monsters, they weren't always evil. They… once upon a time, they were children."

In spite of myself, a wistful smile crossed my face. "Innocent, hopeful, with the whole world spread out before them, nothing impossible to them. They could have done anything. They could have gone on to become builders, to become artists or heroes or... or anything at all. They could have been incredible…" And then, just as swiftly, my smile died and was replaced by a blistering scowl. "But that didn't happen. That didn't happen because they were corrupted. That didn't happen because their futures were stolen away, and their lives were ruined. And because of that… so many others were, too."

I lapsed into a heavy silence, and Koala was kind enough to simply wait for me to start speaking again.

"She was... she was close, ya know?" I smiled wistfully. "Otohime, I mean. She was so close. People were starting to give her the signatures she needed, she had the document, the Reverie was fast-approaching… if she hadn't… if she'd gone…" I chuckled as I tried, tried to rub the weariness from my eyes. "Hell, if she'd managed it sooner, if she weren't being dragged two steps back for every step forward… If just one thing had gone right…"

"You think we'd be equal today," Koala tiredly summarized, having probably long since thought the same thing.

I felt the sides of my mouth turn upward. Reaching up, I rested one hand on the glass. As expected the fish nearby immediately scattered.

"…no," I admitted. "I wish, but no. It wouldn't be that fast; there'd still be racism, still be oppression and inequality. There would still be so much work to do. But... But I think that they'd be here." I helplessly waved my free hand back at the rest of the world. "Fishmen on islands, walking on the same streets as humans. They'd be separate, yes... but damn it all, it would be a start. It would be the foot in the door for change. A foot in the door for peace and equality and tolerance, a chance for humans and fishmen to talk and know each other. I think that if one thing had been different, then we'd have the chance to start teaching a new generation. I think…"

From out of the depths of the tank, a lone fish swam up to my hand and started glubbing about it curiously. It was so small, so obviously young and… and I couldn't help but smile at it.

"I think that the children would play together," I whispered to myself. "Regardless of what poison or ignorance their parents might tell them, the children would play together because they would just be children. They wouldn't know anything of hate or prejudice, and they'd grow up knowing their parents' words to be dead wrong. And I think they'd go on to create a future more glorious than any of us could imagine..."

And for a few seconds, a few wonderful, glorious moments, I basked in the image of that wonderful, un-ironic Brave New World…

SLAM!

And then I scowled and rammed my fist against the tank, scaring the fish off.

"…but that didn't happen. That didn't happen because one fool, one reckless, hateful fool decided to spew his bile and his poison without a thought for the consequences, and he destroyed a generation because of it. And I…" I grimaced in shame, and it took me a second to muster up the words… but hell, what good was there in denying it. "I hate him for it. I hate him, I hate his senseless corruption… and most of all, I hate what he did. Arlong stole a most beautiful future from us, from the world… and I can never forgive him for that."

"… heh," Koala chuckled grimly, clenching and unclenching her hands. "Yeah, I'll admit, all of this is…it's…" Her smile became distinctly rictus-like as her fingers snapped into a trembling fist. "I really wish we knew where he was, so that I could have a talk with him. Ah…" She blinked, and looked at me curiously after a second of curious stillness. "But… You weren't even part of the crew for Arlong Park. In fact, you've never met him in person. But you still hate him that much?"

The rush of my rage drained out of me, leaving me empty and exhausted. I turned around and sank onto the lounge sofa, dropping my face into my hands. I was vaguely aware of Koala sitting down next to me as I spoke again. "How could I not? His actions speak for themselves, echoing out and affecting the world, even now that he's been defeated. I mean…" I waved a hand off into the distance. "Just look at the East Blue."

Koala grimaced. "Cocoyashi."

"It's not even about the adults," I lamented. "Once again, it comes back to the children. Right now, there's an entire generation out there that grew up fearing fishmen. And while that was with good reason, the problem is that now that the threat is gone, fear will become hate. And they will apply that hate to all fishmen, because fishmen like Arlong are all they have ever known. And once they grow up and have kids of their own?" I shook my head. "They'll tell them of the bad old days, of the monsters from the sea that once made mommy and daddy suffer…"

"And then those new kids will fear and hate an entire species, because that was what they were told growing up. Just like Hody," the Revolutionary sighed.

I yanked the brim of my cap down. No way was I locking eyes with anyone. Not now. "And hell, who knows. Maybe one will decide to become the hero humanity needs, and dedicate himself to exterminating the 'subhuman monsters', in the name of peace and justice." I spun a finger in the air. "Another spoke in the wheel. Hate rolls on unimpeded and we're back where we started, caked in more blood than before."

There was another break in the conversation, which Koala ended by giving me a quizzical look. "If you don't mind me saying so, even with all that, you're still taking this pretty personally, Cross. Too personally for someone who grew up in a world without fishmen."

"HA!"

Koala actually recoiled, but I couldn't blame her, seeing as I'd just barked like a mad seal.

"Yeah, you're completely right," I sneered venomously, disgust coating my every word. "There weren't any fishmen back on Earth. No fishmen, no mermaids, no minks, no nothing. Just us humans. But what does that change? Hate, racism? They're universal. So we didn't have any other species to hate, so what? We still had each other. A whole world of nothing but humans, what else would you expect us to do but turn on each other? Skin color, religion, politics, nationality, even sex and sexuality. Throughout history, we've found a million and one reasons to divide ourselves into an infinite number of factions, all at each other's throats at the same time. It's like no matter where you go… anyone who's 'different' is the 'enemy'."

I barely acknowledged Koala's hand on my shoulder.

I did, however, acknowledge her words: "Who was it?"

I'm… more than a little ashamed and embarrassed to acknowledge that my mind blanked a bit at that statement, and as such I acted on instinct and snarled as I smacked her hand off, shooting up to loom over her, a statue of indignance.

"'Who was it?'" I repeated, my voice surprisingly steady for the shakes that I had suddenly developed. "I can't just be a decent person with some fucking empathy? I need to have personally known someone who suffered? Bull! Shit! You don't need to fucking have bigotry happen to you, or someone you personally know, to know that it's a stupid, hateful thing that ruins lives! And the fact that that's lost on so damn many of my fellow humans pisses me off!"

Gritting my teeth, I reigned myself in, despite the effort of will it took. On the other side, Koala exhaled slowly and shook her head.

"Alright, I owe you an apology for that," she said. "I've thought the same for years, I shouldn't have assumed you weren't thinking the same way."

I really, honestly wanted to stay ticked at her, but at the same time, I knew I couldn't, and so I heaved a heavy sigh and dropped back onto the seat.

"…still," Koala eventually tried again, drumming her fingers on the cushion. "Even if something like that isn't your motivation, something is… ah. Let me try again: you tried what you've been doing here with the SBS back in your home, but failed?"

I slumped forward and all but cradled my head between my knees in shame. "Actually… the opposite. One thing you need to understand about my home? We were all connected. Everyone could speak at once and say anything they wanted… so as a result, little of worth was ever truly said. If I'd ever spoken up, I'd have been one voice lost among millions, a statistic. I couldn't 'fail' because I never even started. I couldn't speak up and make people realize just how inherently stupid they were all being, how-how asinine it is to discriminate on the physical, where such differences are ephemeral, when true evil is and always will be a mental construct, and—!" I cut myself off mid-sentence; I'd been building into a lecture… or, more realistically, a rant.

Once I'd calmed down and felt that urge leave, I changed tracks. "But here… I'm the voice. Here, I know that people are actually listening to me, that I'm reaching people…" My head sunk lower as I considered the reality of things. "Even if it's only because they have to listen to me…"

"And what are you forcing them to listen to?"

I didn't answer. Didn't look up. What was there to say?

"Cross, listen to me." I looked up, just as Koala put her hand on my shoulder again. "Back on Skypiea, when you first proved to the world that you had the kind of guts it takes to do anything close to what you're doing, you said something that baffled a lot of us. You called yourself ordinary because you stuck up for what you believed in and would try helping someone who needed it. I'm guessing you saw it happen pretty often in your story, but just to be clear. How many times did it happen when the Straw Hats weren't involved?"

"I, uh… well…" I hesitated slightly at that specification, and I wracked my mind, thanking Popora for the memory refresh. "There was Otohime… King Riku… the Nefertaris… Gan Fall… Dalton—"

"So royalty," Koala interrupted.

An interruption I barely even noticed. "Oh, yeah, there were the Drum citizens who went to help him out…"

"Oh, yeah, heard about that," Koala muttered, which brought me out of my thoughts. "But that's a country that had to learn to stand on its own when its entire government and army bailed on them. They're not normal, at all. Besides, if you and they were the norm, the Revolutionary Army would have achieved their goals years ago. Hell!" She threw her hands up with a despairing laugh. "One of our executives has the Cheer-Cheer Fruit, meaning that she can turn an oppressed town full of cowards into a rebel mob just by waving a flag and saying a few words, and she struggles to create a lasting impact. Maybe the norm is for people to be good, but it's not for them to be brave."

I had a rebuttal ready, myself, but that wasn't the point here. Instead, I sat back and waited for her to continue, even as she gazed longingly into the aquarium behind us.

"A year ago," she reminisced, her tone wistful. "When Hack and I liberated an island, we stayed behind for a week to help oversee the return to stability." Her face then scrunched up in a mask of disgust. "Over that course of time, the children would throw stones at Hack, call him names, dare each other to touch the creepy fish thing, and then chase each other yelling about infecting them with the fishy diseases. People whispered behind his back, others said it to his face, and at one point the town's mayor politely asked him to leave because his presence was, and I quote, disturbing the peace."

She looked forward again and stared at her trembling fists. "The entire time, I wanted nothing more than to bash their brains out, to force them to get on their knees and apologize, for every slight, every glance. I wanted to take out eleven straight years of abuse and misery on the entire island, all at once. But I reined in my temper, because I knew that they weren't like me. They didn't know, couldn't know. No matter how much I hated them for what they did, it wasn't their fault."

I was momentarily tempted to give her a comforting hand like she'd tried for me, but before I could, she suddenly perked up, beaming with unchecked glee.

"And then you happened. You, and everything you've done." Stars bloomed in her eyes, and I was forced to actually reel back on account of just how blinding they were. "Three months ago, we liberated an island, we stayed to keep the peace. The children stared… but this time it was in awe. They whispered about how cool Hack was, they asked if they could feel his muscles, he even signed autographs. The people, they were always asking him if he could help out around the town and striking up conversations with him; twice he got asked if he was seeing anyone, once someone actually asked him on a date."

I really tried to compose myself—yeah, no. I snorted in amusement at the thought of Hack getting propositioned, by a human no less. "Did he go through with it?" I inquired between snickers.

Koala giggled. "You mean after Sabo and I dragged him back when he tried to make a break for it? Four dates and then they broke it off rather than go for long distance, but they still keep in touch. I honestly think that after everything—GWAH!" Palms met cheeks, leaving behind red marks. "A-Anyway, getting back on track…"

"Really, I think the clincher was when the local schoolteacher came up to him. Came right up to Hack and asked him if he could stand in front of his entire class and tell them about fishmen and Fishman Island… because they were asking so many questions the teacher didn't have answers to, and because the teacher wanted to know those answers, too." Koala craned her head back, tears of bliss shining in her eyes. "And then the parents asked if they could attend the next day, and the parents' friends, until pretty soon Hack was giving lessons in the local park because that was the only place with enough room for everyone. I'm pretty sure that everyone in that town attended at least once."

I stared at her, shellshocked, trying to process just the sheer… everything she'd hammered me with. Teaching. In a park. Because the entire town wanted to know. WHAT.

While I tried to process that, Koala stayed lost in the memories before wiping her tears away and turning to lock eyes with me.

"You told us that both sides needed to reach for each other, Cross. Well, guess what? For the first time in living history, humanity is reaching out. The ordinary side of humanity that never experiences half of the madness that we have. And that's all because of you and your. Big. Mouth." Each word was emphasized with a shove of her finger into my chest.

Any time else, I'd have been a bit freaked out by how she was almost looming over me with manic glee in her eyes, but at the moment? I was too busy making sure I heard every word.

"You're not a normal person, Jeremiah Cross. You're a Straw Hat. You have an earthshaking dream and the guts, power, and friends that you need to get there. You may not be able to fix the generations of hate between humans and fishmen in a day, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything. Just think about what you can do, and who you can ask for help. And then… do it. And I assure you, whatever it is you do… will be glorious."

I smiled as she finished. Honestly, I had been thinking a little too hard about the crew's upcoming separation to consider much about the slave houses beyond 'don't let Keimi get captured' and 'Luffy is still going to punch out Charloss either way.' But having that pointed out to me, I really did have the resources to do something… more…

"More?" I muttered to myself as the pieces clicked together at Mach 10 in my mind. "Try 'freaking spectacular'."

"Huh? Cross, did you—OOF!"

I cut off Koala's words by grabbing her in a hug. With the ideas she had just sparked in my mind, I had a moral obligation to do no less! "You brilliant, wonderful dropbear, I could just about kiss you right now!" I cheered gleefully.

Before she could react, I let go of her, sprinting for the door to the deck. Halfway there, I heard Koala finally get her wits back about her.

"That's not much better than 'cuddly,' Cross! And what the hell are you talking about!? Hey, get back here!"

I didn't pay much attention, however, as I was far more focused on enacting the first step in my newest master plan that would well and truly hit the World Government right where it hurt. But, in order to actually go through with this brilliant (if I do say so myself) plan, I needed to take advantage of a window of opportunity that would be closing any second now.

SLAM!

"MEGALO! You beautiful blubbery bastard!" I proclaimed, bringing all conversation on deck to a screeching halt. I noted the bigot-some twosome in particular jumping in surprise and summarily ignored them. I also noticed that Luffy and Jinbe had apparently been chatting; that got filed away for later. For now, there were schemes to be had!

"Quit your moping and get your head in the game!" I declared as I walked to and picked up my slimy partner-in-crime. "I've got a malevolent masterplan manifesting, and for it to come to fruition, I need your opinion and expertise regarding politics!"

"He's BA-ACK!" Soundbite crooned eagerly.

"And don't you forget it!" I cheered as I slapped him back onto my shoulder.

"Yeah, apparently he bounces back after he gets an idea," Koala added as she walked out behind me, giving me a wary eye I politely chose to ignore.

Several eager grins and several pale faces met that declaration.

"WELP!" Sandersonia suddenly shot up off her barrel with an overly wide and twitchy grin. "I, ah, I think I've overstayed my welcome! Places to be, evil pirates to sink, puppies to get out from under my sister's foot, things like that!"

"Likewise!" Tashigi yelped, adjusting her bandages to maximize her mobility as she powerwalked (not fled, as she'd later insist) for the railing. "Come on, Popora, we've got to pick up the the food so that we can deliver it to the pirates and get back to arresting our men!"

Popora flatly cocked an eyebrow at her.

"YES I KNOW WHAT I JUST SAID JUST HURRY UP AND RUN BEFORE—!"

"Oh captain my captain?" I inquired, snapping of my fingers.

"Shishishi!" said captain snickered as he started wheeling his arms. "You got it!"

"BOOK IT!" Sandersonia wailed, leading Tashigi in an attempted leap over the edge of the Sunny. And seeing as she of all people tried to leap into the sea, I suppose she really was quite terrified of whatever I was cooking up; I was honestly a little flattered she thought so highly of me.

Key word in that action being attempted, mind, on account of Luffy's arms shooting out and dragging them back onto the deck, no matter how furiously they tried to squirm their way out.

"Now now, quit your squirming, you two," I chided as I stood over them, tapping my foot impatiently. "For my plan to achieve maximum effectiveness, I'm going to need you both to chip in. Sandersonia, your Warlord-grade strength is a definite must-have for this kind of shindig. Pluuus, I think you're going to forever hate yourself if you're not part of this, you'll love it so much."

Sandersonia's struggling ended alongside a positively inquisitive hum. "Mmm?"

"And you, Tashigi, I need your help legalizing this endeavor so that I can better embarrass the military service you've pledged your life to. And you can't refuse because if you do, you'd be leaving a lot of innocent people high and dry to suffer."

Tashigi hung her head with a defeated groan. "Oooh…"

"Er… Cross?" Koala inquired, slowly edging towards the railing, most likely in an attempt to avoid my scrutiny. "Just wondering, but is there any truly pressing reason you need me around?"

I decided to throw the poor Revolutionary a bone and waved my hand dismissively. "None that I can think of at the moment, no."

"Great! Later, losers!" Koala cheered, shooting her less fortunate cohorts a parting salute before attempting to bolt.

'Attempting' because, on a whim, I changed my mind. "Oh, Nami?"

"Eisen Tempo," said witch deadpanned, and her cloudy halo shot out—

"GWAH!?"

—and snagged Koala by her ankles, swinging her around to hang in front of me.

"Hiya!" I sang, waving cheerily at her.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU JUST SAID YOU DIDN'T NEED ME!" Koala yowled, trying—and failing by a good foot—to wring my neck.

"I know, but would you believe I simply enjoy your company?" I inquired with innocent curiosity.

"FUCK YOU!"

"Fine, then I'm just greedy." I waved her off dismissively as I turned my back on her. "Nami, drop her with the rest."

"OOF! Son of a—! Uh…" The Revolutionary shrunk in on herself as she looked at her two new and newly leering friends who were very much projecting a desire to wring her neck. "Hi there, losers?"

Megalo, meanwhile, had watched the whole thing with a gaping mouth and twitching eye. That continued for a few seconds more before he tentatively raised his flipper, expression not changing on whit. "So, uh, you said you wanted to talk?"

I attempted to contain myself, truly I did, but when I thought about what was to come, of the truly unprecedented undertaking we were about to undergo—!

"Ah, screw it! I can't takes it no more!" I cackled, pumping my fist before wheeling on Luffy and dropping to a knee before him, clasping my hands in supplication. "Captain! I've got a plan that'll plant one right up this world's tailpipe, and I'm itching to let it loose! I can talk with Megalo on the way, but for now, can we get going? Can we can we can we?"

"Well…" Luffy tilted his head. "That depends: What's there to see at the Sasparilly Archaeos?"

"Uh…" I wracked my brain as I thought up all the defining features of the Archipelago. The most prominent being an unchecked slave market, rampant xenophobia, and… "There's an amusement park?" I tried. "With a ferris wheel?"

"FERRIS WHEEL!" Luffy threw his arms—"AGH!"/"YEEK!" Along with Sandersonia and Tashigi—up in the air. "Alright, let's go!" He eagerly grinned at me. "You wanna give the order?"

"HELL YES!" I raised my foot to prop it on the nearest barrel, and as I felt the wood beneath my sole, I called out our heading. "CREW, WEIGH ANCHOR! SET SAIL FOR THE SABAODY ARCHIPELAGO!"

"BELAY THAT!"

Aaand chalk up one more friend showing up, as a familiar bird interrupted us by fluttering down onto the railing and saluting me. "Good to see you as always, Cross."

"I'd like to say the same, Coo, but you're kind of ruining my moment here," I replied, the bulging vein on my forehead visible out of the corner of my eye. "And on a related note, I'm guessing that this is one of the more unfortunate early editions?"

I deliberately ignored the wooden surface under my foot that had shoved the barrel aside as she shuffled away with a blush on her face, muttering about 'old times' and 'force of habit.'

"Mmm, not so much 'unfortunate' as 'inconvenient'," Coo stated, thoroughly unruffled by my protests. That meant the annoyed frown on his face was due to something else. Great. "At least, as far as you guys go. Now, let's see… yo, white-hat." He angled his beak at Tashigi. "I'm assuming you've already told these guys about the privateer armada your people have been hiring?"

"Er… yes?" Tashigi carefully confirmed, obviously dreading where this was going as much as we suddenly were. "HQ's spent a small fortune on those lowlifes, but that just stopped."

Coo snorted derisively as he tipped his newsie's cap down. "The reason they 'stopped' was that they've hired all they needed, and the reason I'm here is that they've deployed them all. You all can't go to Sabaody for the exact reason that nobody on the wrong side of the law is going to Sabaody anytime soon: the Marines have deployed their cutthroats all around the Archipelago, and have effectively blockaded the entire thing. Or, at the least, enough of it that anyone who wants to get around it will wind up sailing straight into the Marine garrison. I hate to break it to you, but you're not getting anywhere near that island without a fight."

Complete shock rippled across the deck, and what was left of my earlier euphoria fled for South America.

"Not… part of the plan…" I gurgled weakly. "I know they hate us, me especially, but this bad!?"

"Weeell, kinda," Coo hedged. "They're trying to stop you, yeah, but not 'you' specifically. More like 'you' in general, if you catch my drift."

"Pirates," Robin calmly interrupted, thoughtfully adjusting the brim of her hat. "The rest of the Supernovas. They're reaching the Red Line at the same time as us."

"And the last thing anyone sane would want is the most infamous pirates of your generation all in the same place at the same time," Jinbe nodded sagely. "The Government is already prodding us Warlords to handle you swiftly and decisively, and, no offense, I can't rightly blame them. The New World is a delicate balancing act of power as-is. The idea of even one of you crossing the Red Line and potentially provoking an Emperor into going to war is quite frightening indeed."

"Guh…" I moaned nervously under my breath, tugging nervously at my collar. Did it suddenly get hot out here?

"I have a bad feeling in my gut…" Brook whispered to Franky. "Which, considering how I don't have one, is impressive! YOHO—!"

"Not to ruin your joke, old man, but really not the time," the cyborg said.

The literal bonehead shrugged casually. "Fair enough, it was a low-hanging one anyways."

"Well, if that's how it is, then I suppose there's nothing we can do about it," Nami sighed. "We're in no rush, so we can just find an island where we can hole up, let everyone else bash themselves to pieces against the blockade, and then once the Marines have lost interest—"

"My master plan involves us doubling our net worth, at minimum, and without the Supernovas we can't pull it off," I deadpanned.

"I'LL TURN THOSE TURNCOATS TO ASH!" Nami howled furiously. Lightning crashed down in concert with her ire, causing everyone's hair to stand on end and causing the fishy twosome to leap back in supremely satisfying terror. Still…

"As incredible as that idea sounds, I don't think it's a viable one," I carefully pointed out.

"Cross is right," Vivi interjected, gnawing on her thumb as she gazed out to sea. "The primary issue here isn't the blockade, it's how close we are to Marine Headquarters, Marineford. If we get tied up in one place too long, making too much noise, then they're liable to send reinforcements. And even ignoring how any set of reinforcements from Marineford would match a Buster Call in strength, Vice Admirals and everything, there'd almost certainly be one addition to the lineup that would mean certain death."

"…An Admiral."

I blinked in surprise, because that was the exact reason we needed to be careful. I looked around for who said it, and nearly fell to the deck when I realized that everyone else was looking at Luffy in surprise

Luffy's gaze suddenly stared at me from the shadows of his hat, and I instinctively stood to attention. "We can't just run into this without thinking," my captain stated gravely. "Cross, can you think of a plan?"

"Um…" I hesitated for a moment, taken aback by the sudden attention, but only for a moment before putting my mind to the problem. Because really, the question was, could I? After all, we needed to not only get ourselves past the blockade, but the rest of the Supernova as well. That meant outright breaking the blockade, and that… that was an entirely different beast.

Luckily, I was saved from having to answer by the clearing of a throat. An avian throat, to be specific.

"Uh, Captain Luffy?" Coo, well, cooed. "This probably isn't the best place or time to hash out a plan. Which, actually, is why I'm here. So that I can tell you the best time and place."

"Huh?" Luffy curiously regarded the seagull. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well see, fact is," Coo explained. "You've done really well, you and your crew, but you're not the fastest pirate crew in Paradise. That accomplishment goes to the Kid Pirates and their beast of a ship, the Iron Tramp. They ran face first into the blockade, and they tried to break through. Tried and failed, I might add. They raised a hell of a fight, but when the horizon started burning, they had to flee."

Coo donned a cocky smirk. "Which was most fortuitous, because while they were licking their wounds, the Sonic Speed of Sound caught up with them, and the Kid Pirates told us of the impending trap… er—" Coo glanced aside with a cough into his wing. "After they stopped attacking us, of course…"

"Of course," I sighed, dragging my hand down my face. Because if there was any pirate who was going to work out his frustrations on the first schmuck to come within eyesight, it was Kid.

"And so on for every Supernova that came near?" Chopper guessed.

"Not quite," Coo said. "When my captain (that's still weird to say, wow) found out about the blockade, the first thing he did was make a call." And just like that, Coo's smirk was back in full force. "A call to the only person this side of the Red Line that would be able to provide a place for over a dozen infamous pirates sailing for Sabaody this close to Sabaody while we come up with a plan to get through that blockade."

He regarded me with a grin, slyly tipping his cap. "I trust you know what the right order is now, Jeremiah Cross?"

It took me a few seconds to put the pieces together, but once I did, I couldn't keep my jaw properly shut. "You—You can't really mean—!" I cut that sentence off midway through as I realized that, holy shit, he did! "WOO!" Wheeling around, I jabbed my finger out to sea. "EVERYONE, WEIGH ANCHOR! WE SAIL! FOR SKELTER BITE!"

"BELAY THAT!"

"Oh, what now!?" I snapped, throwing up my hands.

"ME NOW!" Tashigi snarled, shooting to her feet and jabbing me in the chest. "Now you listen to me, you insufferably irresponsible degenerate, and you listen good! I admit that I'm just as much of an outlaw as you, I'm at peace with that, but no matter what, the world still sees a Marine when they look at me! Meaning that if I set foot on a pirate haven, I'm liable to be lynched! Or as you swashbuckling types like to put it, walk the plank!"

"That punishment's actually fallen out of favor in recent pirate culture due to it being regarded as archaic and ineffective on anyone but Devil Fruit users," Robin idly noted with a serene smile. "Nowadays, we just shoot people in the street."

"I realize that you're his sister, but must you demonstrate it at every occasion?" Conis lamented, her palm alighting on her forehead.

"She's been at that shtick longer than I've been in this world, don't blame me," I waved her off.

"SHUT IT!" Tashigi belted out, before crossing her arms and regarding me with the utmost disdain. "You and your crew can go and have fun in your pirate hellhole, but so long as I'm a Marine, I'm not going within a nautical mile of Skelter Bite alive!"

I stared blankly at her, and then I grinned widely, my expression punctuated by the smack of several hands hitting faces.

"Hm, now there's a thought…" I mused oh so innocently as I strolled over to the other side of the deck.

"OW!"

I then jumped in what was most definitely and totally genuine shock as Tashigi yelped, grabbing her foot with a grimace after I brought my steel-clad heel down on her foot… completely by accident of course. The injury was honestly pretty negligible… buuut it was enough for my purposes.

"YOU RAGING PIECE OF—! WHAT THE HELL, YOU ASS!?" the Marine raged as she cradled her compacted toes.

"Oooh, that looks nasty," I crooned in a nice and exaggerated voice as I leaned forward and eyeballed her foot. "You'd better keep off it for awhile. Say, Usopp, think you could fashion a pegleg for her? Custom job~"

"Uh… sure?" Usopp drew out, side-eyeing the irate Marine. "Any specifications?"

"Yeah." At this point, I allowed my underlying malevolence to seep into my grin. "Just make sure it matches her new eyepatch."

That statement froze the deck cold, and Tashigi was especially paralyzed, her fury forgotten in favor of horror. "Cross," she whispered weakly, slowly shaking her head in denial. "Don't. You. Dare—!"

"CONGRATULATIONS!" I proclaimed at the top of my lungs, grinning like a loon as I clapped my hand on her shoulder. "You may now consider yourself shanghaied! Welcome to the Straw Hat Pirates, Cabin Girl T. A. Shigi!"

"Chuff…"

"Ah, right. And your furry parrot, too," I deadpanned.

"KYUUUN!?"

"That's the best you're getting, take it or row back to Smokey on your own."

"Kyu…"

"YOU DESPICABLE SON OF A—!" Tashigi screeched, lunging at me. Seeing as she was limping, I dodged with ease. That didn't deter her; she just switched targets to hop for the railing. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS ONE DAY, CROSS! MY WRATH WILL BE SWIFT, TERRIBLE AND—!"

"Merry?" I requested.

Said shipgirl grinned maniacally and rammed her fist into the nearest mast.

KERWHACK! "GYAGH!"

And in short order, the 'ex'-Marine was strung up by a few strands of rope wrapped around her uninjured ankle, and in equally short order, Vivi and Conis had positioned themselves beneath said 'ex'.

"Ladies, if you'd be so kind?" I requested.

"But of course," Conis serenely stated.

"We'll see what we can do," Vivi agreed, before leering at me. "And I hope you know that the only reason we're helping you with this is that 'a lot of innocent people suffering' line you said earlier."

"I'll take my licks as they come, the end result's worth it!" I swore. "Now drop her and get this woman kitted out in some more… appropriate attire."

"YOU'LL SUFFER FOR THIS, YOU—WAGH!"

And quick as the wind beneath their wings, the duo grabbed our latest 'recruit' and spirited her away to the girl's cabin.

"Well, that's that, and all without any repercussions whatsoever," I sang, dusting off my hands. Yeah, I was tempting fate like nothing else, what of it? Who was gonna stop me?

-o-

Elsewhere on the Grand Line, Smoker was struck with a sudden urge to punch someone in the face.

Fortunately for him, he had just come across a grunt who was assembling a collage of revealing pictures of Tashigi.

-o-

"Now…" I eyed the rest of the people on the deck. "Anyone else have a problem with our new destination?"

Sandersonia and Koala had to know that they were high above above our weight classes, so I couldn't forcibly coerce them like Tashigi. Fortunately, neither of them were Marines, either.

"I'd be very interested in getting a look at Skelter Bite," Koala said, throwing up her hand. "More than a few potential recruits go pirate before they go Revolutionary!"

"Likewise," Sandersonia agreed, nodding eagerly. "All those pirates, all that booze! It's going to be the biggest blowout I've ever been to!"

Sadly, however, not all of the reactions were quite so positive, as demonstrated by Jinbe hanging his head with a defeated sigh. "I think it sounds interesting as well, but unfortunately, even if we ignore the stir that a Warlord's presence would bring, I have a little more that I need to take care of in light of today's revelations. I still haven't even gotten to the main reason I came here." The Warlord's expression darkened. "Now, if one of you would be so kind as to escort me to the brig?"

"Right, I'll lead you to them," Nami offered, getting to her feet and waving a hand for him to follow her. "We've got them in one of our spare channels, you can head straight into the ocean once you've got them secured."

Jinbe nodded, and turned his eyes to me. And damn if that didn't scare no small amount of shit out of me. "Jeremiah Cross… I didn't expect us to meet like this, but you have my gratitude for what you've told me… and for what you've done." I pretty much felt the relief flood off of him as his fangs turned upward in a smile. "Your words have reached the new generation of fishmen and merfolk, and I will endeavor to make sure it keeps reaching them in the future. Thank you for what you've done, and for everything that you will undoubtedly do in the future."

With only the mildest trepidation, I removed my right gauntlet and held out my unarmored hand. "The pleasure is mine, Jinbe."

He shook my hand with a gentle grip that in no way impeded the impression that he could pulverize me in one second, and then turned to my captain and dropped his hand on the rubber man's shoulder. "Monkey D. Luffy, you're every bit as incredible as your brother told me you were. And I swear, I'll tell you even more stories of your brother's escapades soon enough…" He donned a massive grin as he crossed his arms proudly. "When I greet you in person on the shores of Fishman Island."

I instantly froze every muscle in my face at that statement. It was the only thing that kept me from grimacing in dismay at the thought of how we wouldn't exactly be seeing him again as 'soon' as he thought.

Ignorant of my thoughts, Luffy beamed and crossed his arms behind his head. "Shishishi! See you later, Jinbe!"

Jinbe smiled back, the smile remaining even as he followed Nami into the depths of the ship, though it definitely faded not long after.

"Alright, anyone else…" I mused, flexing my fingers as I resecured my gauntlet.

"Yeah, right here!"

"Oi, these guys…" I snapped my hand into a fist as I turned to face the cowed but apparently still willful fishmen with us.

"Cram it, Cross!" Kuroobi snarled, puffing his chest out as proudly as his battered ego would actually allow. "We don't want to be here any more than you want us to be here, so thank you for shopping at Takoyaki 8 and have a nice—"

"HEY, HACHI!" I yelled, letting my voice carry to the other ships. "WOULD YOU HAPPEN TO BE INTERESTED IN HOCKING TAKOYAKI TO THE MOST PROMINENT PIRATES OF THE GENERATION!?"

"WOULD I!?" came the joyful response, causing Kuroobi and Chew to slump over in depression.

"AND BARTY, YOU'RE COMING TOO, RIGHT?" Soundbite called.

"Like hell I would be missing a chance to check out the new pirate haven! Count me in!" Bartolomeo called back. "YO! SHITBIRDS! GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND HOP TO IT YOU—!"

"Then it's unanimous," I grinned. I made to move dramatically again—

"By the way, that jumbo shark there is a friend of yours, right?"

—only for Coo's slightly nervous tone to bring me up short again.

"Oh, thank you, Coo, I almost forgot. Megalo…" I grinned impishly at the shark, to his wariness. "We need to talk as we sail, but before anything else, important question for you, one in which dozens of lives hang in the balance. …how good are you at puking on cue?"

-o-

While the ships all scrambled to prepare for departure, a few pertinent details went overlooked in the process, as such things are wont to happen.

One of these pertinent details was the fact that while they were waiting to depart, one of the larger and older (but still juvenile) Sea Kings that had been helping to tow the Cannibal had slipped away from his impromptu pack and disappeared into the waves, swimming for the briny deep as fast as his tail could propel him.

Another detail was… weeeell…

-Less than Fifteen Minutes Later-

Five ships had long sailed off. Six heads broke the surface and took in that fact.

[DID THOSE RAGING BASTARDS FORGET US!?]

"NOT AGAIN! THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS MO-O-OOONTH!"

[Don't suppose there's a Man's Romance about this, is there, Boss?]

[OH, THERE'S GONNA BE A ROMANCE ALRIGHT! MY FLIPPER DOWN THEIR THROATS!]

[GO, BOSS, GO!]

-More than Fifteen Minutes Later-

Ten thousand meters below the surface, the royal megalodon returned to his mistress with two uncomfortable missions to accomplish. As per usual, the doors of the Hard Shell Tower cracked open to allow Megalo to slip inside, and he hastily swam up to Princess Shirahoshi's side as the doors closed behind him, keeping a keen eye out for any ill-timed 'gifts of the heart' as he went.

"Megalo, welcome back! How was your trip?" Shirahoshi greeted, hugging him with a smile. That melancholy smile had been the most he ever saw on her face since her mother's passing and her imprisonment in the tower…until the reprieves brought on by the SBS began. Knowing that he would be alleviating her suffering even more, he resigned himself to the discomfort of the first of his tasks.

[Eventful, and… more than a little maddening,] the titan-shark informed her with a wary (and toothy) smile. [I, uh, also have something for you, Shirahoshi.]

The massive mermaid sat up with a grin, clapping her hands. "I know! The Octavio-endorsed 88 Skewer Special, right? With extra dipping sauce?"

Megalo hesitated for a second, actually feeling a sweatdrop flow off him into the water. [Ah… right, I went out to get the takeout… feels like a lifetime ago, so I kinda—ah, I think I left it back with the rest of the food, with Fukaboshi and your dad. Sorry.]

"Aww, really…?" Shirahoshi slumped onto her hands, her face a mask of disappointment.

[Ah, but-but-but!] Megalo hastily added. [I-I'll go get it for you, I promise! But before that, I have something you'll like even better! Just, ah… just gimme a second…] He trailed off into a whimper, and before Shirahoshi could ask what he meant, he wheeled about and swam into the corner where he triggered his gag reflex. With expert control, he emptied the contents of his mostly empty stomach, among which was nestled a large brown bottle.

"Wh-What the…" Shirahoshi blinked in shock as she swam around her wheezing friend, eyeing the bottle in confusion. "What is this, Megalo? Did you eat some flotsam or—?"

[Open it,] the shark wheezed. [Break it if you need to! Hurry!]

With much trepidation, but also absolute faith in her age-old friend, Shirahoshi clutched the bottle between her fingers and began shaking it out. It didn't take long before a rolled piece of paper came out. It was small, but this wasn't the first time Shirahoshi had dealt with items meant for people a few scales smaller than herself. As such, it was without too much trouble that Shirahoshi grasped the slip and unfolded it, holding it up to her eye so that she could read the words upon it…

Words that, the moment they registered in the Princess's brain, sent her scrambling to her Tower's doors as fast as she could swim. "GUARDS!" she hollered, pounding on the doors desperately. "SEND WORD TO BROTHER FUKABOSHI, I NEED HIM IN HERE IMMEDIATELY! HURRY!"

As Shirahoshi hollered and the Minister of the Right desperately pleaded for her to calm down before anything… untoward could happen, Megalo took the opportunity to reread the message he'd carried in his stomach. A message he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would serve to write the pages of history itself.

"To the Beautiful Princess Shirahoshi:

I humbly request that you pass this note to your eldest brother and have him call me at the following number posthaste. The fate of many lives, fishman and human alike, rest in your hands and his alike. Together, I believe we can change the course of this world forever.

708-632-473

Jeremiah Cross, Tactician of the Straw Hat Pirates

P.S. Feel free to call us whenever you yourself feel like it as well. We're always happy to lend an ear."

Spoken AN: I honestly never expected to say this, but we discovered several missing hands during proofreading. Keeping track of Hachi's choreography was a pain.

Patient AN: What was decidedly not a pain was telling our fans that Cross was going to watch Ace die in this chapter and then watching their reactions. Not a pain for us, anyway.

Click to shrink...

This Bites! / Fanfic Recs - TV Tropes

C:

 

[YuffieK]

It HAS to be author fiat that keeps the world nobles from ordering Kizaru to teleport up and down the Grand Line til he finds the Straw Hats.

Click to shrink...

Aokiji is busy dealing with Blackbeard and Akainu is stuck raising havoc on the New World side of the Red Line. Kizaru is the ONLY Admiral available to put out any brushfires so to speak, and while he's fast, he CAN'T be everywhere at once.

 

[Otritzi]

And the Strawhats are up there, but it's not like Kizaru can get anywhere near the Strawhats at this point.

They never approached Sabaody in here. The World Government doesn't have enough control over all their territories that they can afford to let Kizaru be anywhere but at Mariejois right now protecting the Gorosei.

Or at least that's the justification I can see the Cross-brain using.

 

[Roaming_Guardian]

And the Strawhats are up there, but it's not like Kizaru can get anywhere near the Strawhats at this point.

They never approached Sabaody in here. The World Government doesn't have enough control over all their territories that they can afford to let Kizaru be anywhere but at Mariejois right now protecting the Gorosei.

Or at least that's the justification I can see the Cross-brain using.

Click to shrink...

Thing is, he moves at the speed of light and the number of things in Paradise that can even touch him can be counted on two hands. He could easily set himself on a spiralling grid pattern centered on the last known position of the straw hats making split second jumps of a few miles and screen half of Paradise in a few hours, taking the time to vaporize anything flying a skull and crossbones.

Thinking about it though, that does require someone getting him to actually do it. Hes not as bad as Aokiji but it's still going to be some doing.

 

[YuffieK]

Thing is, he moves at the speed of light and the number of things in Paradise that can even touch him can be counted on two hands. He could easily set himself on a spiralling grid pattern centered on the last known position of the straw hats making split second jumps of a few miles and screen half of Paradise in a few hours, taking the time to vaporize anything flying a skull and crossbones.

Thinking about it though, that does require someone getting him to actually do it. Hes not as bad as Aokiji but it's still going to be some doing.

Click to shrink...

Considering that Nami is one of the people in Paradise that can deal with Kizaru (even if she did it by accident, faceplanting into the Red Line like he did is not something he's going to forget anytime soon, barring brain damage), that may make him a little wary. Especially if he's going to flitting around half of Paradise with minimal Marine support.

One lucky shot with some seastone to knock him into the water, and a few minutes later there might be an odd looking tangerine on one of Nami's trees.

 

[Roaming_Guardian]

Considering that Nami is one of the people in Paradise that can deal with Kizaru (even if she did it by accident, faceplanting into the Red Line like he did is not something he's going to forget anytime soon, barring brain damage), that may make him a little wary. Especially if he's going to flitting around half of Paradise with minimal Marine support.

One lucky shot with some seastone to knock him into the water, and a few minutes later there might be an odd looking tangerine on one of Nami's trees.

Click to shrink...

While I find the odds of someone nailing Kizaru with seastone in the few moments hes in one spot rather unlikely given the reaction times involved, Kizarus Haki, and how rare seastone is, I had forgotten Nami faceplanting Kizaru into the Red Line.

Taking that into account I can see Sengoku being wary of sending Kizaru out solo. Best not risk further embarrassment when the Straw Hats pull something else out of their collective ass.. Point retracted.

 

[EB-the-GAMER]

Chapter 60​

So, let me set the stage. The canon Straw Hat Pirates (including Merry), Billy, my partners, and myself. Two of our most dangerous allies, that nobody else on the crew had met before, both of whom had connections to the old Sun Pirates, looking on with interest tempered by resigned bemusement. Three ex-Sun and Arlong Pirates, the strongest and only repentant one of which was pinning the other two to the ground. One somewhat ditzy mermaid and a genius designer starfish who looked mostly confused by the whole scene.

And one blue-haired Marine swordswoman glaring at our first mate with her sword drawn, plus her strange maul-toting animal companion. Said first mate looked rather flat-footed, which did not prevent him from drawing Wado halfway out of its sheath. Let's also not forget that we had three more ex-Sun Pirates on the Sunny, due to whom we would soon meet the past royal knight, present Warlord, and future Straw Hat.

Bottom line? The punchline was neither concise nor particularly funny. Though there were a few laughs to be had before the drama took over.

"Oi!" Hachi shouted, still keeping a firm hand each on Kuroobi and Chew, which left four free to gesticulate and cross in denial. "No swordfighting in the restaurant except during the squinja migration! And I don't see any black-clad squid around here!"

…wait, what.

"I'm sorry, the what?" Koala asked the unspoken but generally shared question.

"The squinja migration," Hachi repeated, as if that explained everything. "Every spring and fall, the squinja clans migrate through here on the way in between their hidden villages."

"…OK, you can't tell me now that I'm not dreaming," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose in an unsuccessful attempt to wake up.

Through my fingers, I saw Tashigi visibly pondering something. Whatever it was, though, she soon discarded it in favor of an even tighter combat stance. "I'll pay whatever damage we cause out of my own pocket, just let me fight—!"

"Kyuun," the rabbit-wolf thing behind her growled before leaping up, slapping his paw upside the back of her head and—

~o~

"Lieutenant, are you sure about this? You're not going to have more than pocket change for the rest of the year if you buy all of this," a uniformed Marine asked around the package of weights in his arms.

"I need to improve myself to have any chance to achieve my goals," Tashigi firmly replied, carefully balancing her own packages as her other hand emptied her pockets of cash. "I don't care what it costs me, I will become strong enough to face him!"

In short order, she led a small group of Marines out of the store, all laden with arms full of exercise gear. In equally short order, they were helping Tashigi pick her own burden up after she tripped on a stray pebble.

~o~

—in the space of a couple of seconds, downloading a burst of memories into… pretty much everyone's mind's eye, if the way everyone was reeling back was anything to go by.

"What in the actual—?" I started to ask.

"—skin you alive, you walking handbag! How many times have I told you to stop doing that!?"

My attention was snagged by Tashigi, who had just finished snarling at her companion. Which, need I remind you, was something she generally reserved for Zoro. Said companion's reaction was to blatantly yawn at her, one paw covering its mouth.

"Devil Fruit?" was the obvious question.

Fuming, Tashigi spun around and actually saw just how many people were actually present. Her eyes darted across the crowd before landing on me. "You… don't recognize him?" she asked carefully.

I took a moment to think about it, then shrugged casually. "I… think you mentioned him to me once before? The wolf-rabbit thing that was being difficult, ri—?"

CLANG!

"GAH!" I yowled, hopping on the leg that didn't feel like it'd just taken a sledgehammer to the shin. Which wasn't that far off, judging from the size of the maul the wolf-rabbit thing was holding in his paws, but still! "How the hell did that hurt, you little shit?! I'm wearing at least an inch of armor here!" I demanded.

"Quarter-inch."

"BITE ME, LONGNOSE!"

The wolf-rabbit's response was to chuff in a clearly satisfied manner. The smug smirk on his face was a big clue.

"To answer your question," Tashigi spoke up, drawing a sidelong glare from me. "He didn't actually hit you. What he did was revive the memory of past pains in your leg, making it feel like you were reliving that pain all over again. Reviving memories is his ability. Though, I should mention that this guy isn't an Ability-user."

She swept her hand over the fluffball. "Allow me to introduce Popora, chief of, as he calls it, The Sealed Island. He's essentially a consultant for the Marines who's been helping us with his mnemonic abilities…" She scowled at the hybrid creature, who returned the look with a flat stare. "As often as he hinders us with them."

"Well, it looks to me like this time he decided to help you, seeing as he just showed us all that you're flat broke," Hachi cut in, giving her a decidedly unimpressed look.

Tashigi twitched before turning her glare back on Zoro. "Then I'll clean dishes if that's what it takes, but no matter what, I am going to split this bastard in—!"

"Language, Tashigi."

That got Tashigi to freeze right up, before glaring venomously at my snail. "That was a cheap trick, you little shit."

"It saved your ass last time we met, and this time around as well," I shot back. "And right now, I'm doing my best to help you out too. Zoro."

My crewmates parted under the annoyed glare I shot between them, revealing the swordsman mid-crane stance, clearly trying to sneak out through the crowd. I facepalmed.

"Oh, for the love of—!" I snapped my hand up and pointed at Tashigi. "Just hurry up and fight her seriously, man."

"Cross—!"/"CROSS—!" Zoro and Sanji snapped at me.

"You, shut it," I ordered Sanji, shrugging off his volcanic expression. "You're not a swordsman, this doesn't concern you."

The cook—and to my brief dismay, his foot—twitched, but that was all, his cigarette visibly shrinking.

"And as for you," I said, going back to Zoro. "Yes, I know, you'll crush her like an ant."

"Hey!"

I ignored that, levelling my hand at the first mate. "Zoro, listen to me: This is all pretty much a protracted 'dagger' for her, you understand? This is all a 'dagger' for her, and that's just not fair, not to her and not to…" I hesitated briefly before jerking my head to the side. "Well, to her."

Zoro scowled, but though it looked like he was about to take a swing at me, by fist or by blade, he didn't look like he was going to argue either. That would do.

"Look," I continued, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder at the Marine. "You want this to end? You want her off your back? Give her what she wants. Give her 'Yoru'. She is begging you for it, she chased you into the damn Grand Line for it, so there's no problem with it. Once she has that… well, it won't be closure until she takes your head, but it'll be better than nothing."

"…damn it, why did I make the one mistake everyone makes and let you open your mouth?" Zoro growled to himself, kneading the bridge of his nose. He then snapped a scathing glare at Tashigi, which she met and matched. "Alright, fine. You wanted a fight, you have one. You, me, on the Sunny. Now. Chopper, sorry for the mess."

"Nooo, it's perfectly fine!" Chopper responded with a smile and visage that was far too pleasant, prompting the rest of the crew to take two steps away from him. "You see, I'm wrapping up my research on the transmogrative properties of Zoan-flesh, and I just found a new project to start on once I'm done!"

Everyone's caution proved particularly prudent when Chopper snapped into his Human Point, his eyes blazing. "HOW SWORDS APPARENTLY CUT TWENTY POINTS CLEAN OFF THE TOP OF A PERSON'S IQ AND SLAUGHTER SAID PERSON'S SENSE OF SELF-PRESERVATION!" he roared at the top of his lungs, before shooting Zoro a particularly sickly grin. "Oh, but don't worry, I won't research you or anything! After all, I can't rightly use you as a constant, seeing as I suspect that this penalty is accrued for each sword a person wields, THEREBY MAKING YOU AN EXTREME OUTLIER!"

"Ah… you… do realize that I am a sword, right?" Funkfreed spoke up, vibrating nervously in his scabbard.

Chopper waved his hand with a dismissive snort. "Yes, but both your previous and current wielders were suicidal idiots before they got their hands on you, so I consider you to be the exception."

"Withdrawn," the elephant sighed.

"Protested!" I interjected.

"Ignored," Zoro said as he walked by me, Tashigi following. Well, for two seconds before a sharp rap on the floor drew Tashigi's attention back to Popora, who waved his maul at the fishmen. Tashigi blinked. And then, wincing, remembered why she was here in the first place.

"Right… that does come first," Tashigi admitted, moving over to the counter. "Er, as I was saying before… all of this, I called to confirm that you had the resources to prepare food for a crew of two hundred twenty-five?"

"Yes, we can handle that… assuming that Hachi here is actually going to let us go sometime today?" Chew snapped, shooting a venomous glare over his shoulder at his boss.

"Hard to say, really." Hachi glared right back, crossing his free pairs of arms. "Can I actually trust you not to start anything, or am I going to have to tie you to the anchor chain? Again?"

I glanced at Soundbite, the both of us mouthing 'again!?'.

"We'll be good," the fishmen groused, prompting Hachi to let them up.

"Alright, that's perfect," Tashigi sighed in relief, though she didn't stop tapping her hilt, and glanced back at Popora. "Uh, do you think you could—?"

The wolf-rabbit chuffed and waved his maul with an impatient roll of his eyes.

"Thank you!" she cried in relief, shooting out the door with far too much gleeful anticipation for the asskicking she was about to receive, and Zoro and Chopper marched out after her, each wearing their own brand of weariness.

Chew and Kuroobi warily watched the trio leave before giving Popora a doubtful onceover. "So… I guess the snail will be translating for you?" Kuroobi inquired.

"NOOOT REALLY, Seeing as A. he's yet to say shit, and B, even if he DOES SAY SOMETHING, I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT HE IS! I WOULDN'T BE PACKING THE KEY TO WHATEVER HIS MOUTH WOULD BE SLINGING!"

Popora rolled his eyes and started moving his wrist in a familiar motion.

"Though I don't need to understand him to get that he can WRITE."

"That works, chew," Chew nodded, pulling out a notepad and holding out. "Here, do you—?" The smelt-whatever was cut off by a piece of paper waving in front of his face. He plucked it away and gave it a quick once-over before heading into the back. Kuroobi made to follow him, but was stopped by one of Hachi's hands grabbing his fin.

"Chew can get things ready. You are going to go out and get the orders of everyone who stayed on the pirate ship waiting outside," the octo-chef ordered.

"Actually," Franky said, raising a hand. "Another fully loaded ship should be here any second now. Friends of ours."

There was the briefest flash of absolute despair, and then Kuroobi nodded. Double-checking his notepad stock, he bundled them up in his arms and headed out the door, Chew already safely ensconced in the back of the restaurant.

Hachi nodded in satisfaction. Then Nami stepped up to the front of the line and looked him dead in the eyes. "Nyuu… m-may I help you?"

Nami deliberately exhaled, her clouds gray and… clenching, for lack of a better word. "How about you start by telling me everything that you've been up to since the last time we saw you?" she calmly requested.

The octopus swallowed, glancing nervously towards his other employees, who'd been standing around on her tail and him on her shoulders, getting more and more confused the entire time. "Ah, K-Keimi, Pappug, could you go in the back and help Chew? J-Just for a bit?"

"You know, crossing paths with the Straw Hats, I was expecting a lot of ridiculous excitement and wacky hijinks. Not secret conversations and deep, emotional drama," Pappug dryly remarked.

"Buddy, the amount of things the public doesn't know about us is almost equal to what the World Government doesn't know in general," I deadpanned.

"Of course, if you want to listen to an entirely different and much less enjoyable kind of insanity, be our guest," Robin carelessly offered. Well, it would have been careless if she weren't cleaning her fingernails with her knife.

Pappug stared at her for a long moment, eye twitching. Then he wheeled around and darted for the kitchen with more than a little fear in his step. Keimi waddled right behind him, shooting a final doubtful glance over her shoulder before the door shut behind them.

The look on Hachi's face as the door closed was almost begging, but with it closed he had no choice but to face Nami. Four of his hands poked their indexes together while a fifth scratched the back of his head. "W-Well… I g-got away from the M-Marines," he began weakly. "B-B-But I haven't been hurting anyone, I-I swear—!"

"Because Arlong isn't around to tell you to?" Nami finished for him.

"Nyu!?"

"Assume she knows most everything about you," I glibly informed him. "Y'know, because I know most everything about you?"

Hachi wrung two of his hands, then pointed at a nearby booth with the other four. "Can we… take a seat, maybe? It's a bit of a long story."

Nami nodded curtly, walking towards the table. I made to follow, but short wall of cloud stopped me, and she gave me a dismissive wave. "I can handle this on my own. I'm sure that you have other things you want to discuss…" She glanced at Sandersonia and Koala. "With other people, as it were?"

"…good point," I conceded, turning my attention to the aforementioned two, who looked thoroughly amused with the whole situation.

The rest of the crew, fortunately, had decided to make themselves comfortable while waiting for the food, though they all had their eyes on Nami. Aaand by 'comfortable', I mean I really hope Hachi was feeling charitable towards us, because if we had to pay for the 'fun' the Kiddie Trio was having with the condiments out of Nami's horde, she was going to kill us before the New World could!

"So, how have the raids and revolutions been going?" I asked, leading them to a booth of our own. I shot a particularly cheeky smirk at the wide-mouthed Amazon. "And the chief bitch herself for that matter."

"Hey!"

"How many baby animals has she kicked, again?"

"Oh, no, not what I was going to say," Sandersonia waved me off before donning a massive (on her, anyway) smirk, "I was just going to correct you in that that's queen bitch to you, peasant."

I snickered. "Point. How's the queen bitch doing, then?"

"…honestly?" Sandersonia relaxed into her seat with a smile. "Happier. Fact of the matter is, before you started the SBS, she was…" She grimaced and shook her head. "We all were frigid. Detached. We… honestly didn't even truly treat our crewmates as… well, crewmates. Soldiers, yes, but not comrades. They didn't even know about…" She gestured to her back, which had Koala laying a sympathetic hand on the Kuja's shoulder.

That drew a small smile back out of Sandersonia, which she then graced me with as well. "But… ever since the SBS started, our world has expanded! Beyond the hate and darkness we lived with for so long, that we suffered under…" She looked out the window and beamed at the Cannibal's figurehead. "And we found friends and light beyond it all. And our crewmates, well…"

She let out a happy sigh, leaning her chin on her fist. "They don't know the… details, but they know the 'Gorgon's curse' is really just Devil Fruits and some… scars that we don't want anyone to see. It might not seem like much, but compared to what we almost did to the last person that found out…"

Koala, Soundbite and I all exchanged wary glances at that little tidbit, and I slowly raised a tentative finger. "Yooou wanna tell us what you did to that person?"

"NO REASON, we just wanna know whether to spring for the GET WELL SOON CARD or the gravestone wreath," my snail leered.

"H-Hey, hey, no need to get so testy!" Sandersonia waved her hands defensively. "I-I'll have you know that Marguerite's spine was perfectly fine! Eh…" She suddenly refused to meet our eyes. "Eventually…"

Now that almost got me out of my seat. "Did you just say Marguerite!?"

"Uh…" Sandersonia blinked at me in surprise. "Yes, I did. She was a member of the watch on Amazon Lily, but after—" A coughing fit suddenly overtook her. "A completely excusable series of unfortunate events, my sisters and I took her onto the crew-proper. Initially she was only an apprentice, but after she showed some admirable initiative, we gave her her own raiding party, and she's been doing quite well, so—!"

Sandersonia's smile froze for a second before she gave me an incredulous stare. "Waaait, you knew her name!? But how—wait!" The amazon leaned forward with an eager grin. "You could only know her name if you knew her from the story! You didn't just learn about us, you actually come to Ama—MRGH!?" Sandersonia's scary accurate ramblings devolved into a panicked squawk when I hastily grabbed her distressingly accurate tongue.

"Not where the moron can hear us," I hissed, glancing back at Luffy. Thankfully, he was more concerned with trying to shove wasabi up Usopp's nose than anything else at the moment, so—wait, wasn't I holding something just—?

THWAP!

"Grk…" I winced as I got tongue-whipped. "IIII deserved that."

"No clap, you liddle bathtard!" Sandersonia hissed, frantically wiping her tongue. "Do you ever wash those damn things!? And what in the name of Nidhogg's rotting tail did you think you were doing to begin with!?"

"I was thinking that you were going to blow something I definitely don't want blown yet!" I snapped back. "I can't let Luffy know he's going to—grah!" I clamped my jaws shut, but judging from the poleaxed expressions on Sandersonia's and Koala's faces, I was a bit late on that front.

"I'm sorry, I think I had some seafoam in my ears. Did you say Luffy was going to Amazon Lily?" Sandersona demanded incredulously. "As in, alone!?"

"As in, where are the rest of you going to be!?" Koala asked.

Running a hand over my face, I snapped the fingers of my other one. Static promptly filled the air. "Neither of you are going to say a word to Luffy or anyone else… or else I'm going to tell your sisters and your comrades…" I narrowed my eyes menacingly. "About that… and that."

The pair immediately paled, the utmost of horror flashing over their faces.

"Mum's the word, just don't let them know! Hancock would strip my scales from my hide!" Sandersonia squeaked, clamping her hands over her mouth.

"The gunpowder… so much gunpowder…" Koala whimpered, sinking into her seat.

…holy hell, I was just taking a shot in the dark. Noodle incidents and seer status for the win! "Anyway," I said, relaxing back into my seat as I signaled for Soundbite to drop the blurring. "If you're done with your traumatic flashbacks, where were we?"

The pair composed themselves with admirable speed, and Koala raised her hand. "It was my turn to answer your question," the Revolutionary said, smirking. "And for your information, I've been dealing with a lot less stress the past few months since I finally got around to decking you for calling me cuddly."

I gave her a flat look while Sonia raised an eyebrow. Then I smirked, closed my eyes, and pressed my fingers to my brow. "I'm seeing, I'm seeing… your very first reaction to seeing Hachi again was—!"

"Alright, alright!" Koala's cheeks flushed and she looked away before continuing. "Aaanyway, we've been milking the CP9 operational intel for all that it's worth, and the way you've kept publicizing it with Funkfreed—"

"Or as he likes to be called, DEEP NOSE."

"I have told you time and time again, stop calling me that!"

"—has only helped. Your piece on the Caligostan Theocracy was particularly…" Koala hummed thoughtfully. "Poignant."

I donned a cocky grin. "I take it it was effective?"

"Super effective?"

"Given that our last reports have the ex-congregation sacking the citadel and putting a torch to the 'holy' texts?" Koala summarized, her expression falling flat. "Very." She then perked up, sporting a cocky grin. "Still, destructive tendencies aside? You've boosted the Revolutionaries' membership to the highest it's had since its conception! We're still a long ways off from our main goal, but that's fine. You might have accelerated things, but we were ready to wait however long we needed to see things through, and we're still ready now."

Sandersonia stiffened up a bit and suddenly snapped a wary look back at me. "Wait, I thought you two were just—! Jeremiah Cross… how close of an ally are you with the Revolutionary Army?"

The pieces clicked into place in a second, and I felt a smirk grow on my face. "Close enough that I could get a meeting with Dragon in person if I needed to. We're not involved with each other's plans… but we are allies."

"'Hand-in-hand but not conjoined', I believe were your exact words?" Koala added, almost impishly.

Sandersonia's eyes widened, then narrowed, and then went back to normal. I could almost see the gears turning. "Well, in this case, seeing as I've been presented with the opportunity… Koala." She leaned forward, steepling her hands under her chin. "Could you tell me what, precisely, the Revolutionary Army's end goal is?"'

…wait, what? I looked between the two in confusion. "The Revolutionaries' —? What? I thought it was to overthrow the World—?"

"Not… quite?" Koala blinked at me in honest surprise. "I mean, that's the public image we present, but it's just that. I'd have thought you of all people would know the details?"

"A little more than halfway through, remember?" I pointed out. "The most detail I've seen of the Revolutionary Army was Robin introducing you guys as the 'opposition' to the World Government, the invasion and liberation of Tequila Wolf—didn't see any details, no clue what the bridge was for," I pre-empted her question, which drew an annoyed tsk. "—as well as you, Hack, and Sabo helping us bust up Doflamingo's weapon-smuggling ring, but that's pretty much it."

"Wait, Doflamingo has a weapon-smug—Doflamingo is Joker!?" Koala hissed incredulously.

"… well, at least you know now," I said, wincing. "Though, for the record? Take any extra precautions you can for agents infiltrating Dressrossa, and have their missions physically documented in triplicate. Doffy's packing a memory censor, you've… honestly probably lost dozens of agents by now and not even realized it."

Koala's face flashed through a rainbow of expressions before finally settling on tortured resignation. Sinking into her seat, she massaged the bridge of her nose. "Anyway…" she bit out. "Getting back on track… I really thought you knew based on what you said when we met you, Cross. We're not anti-World Government, we're anti-World Noble."

She suddenly sat up and stared at me with no small amount of panic. "That-That's not a problem or anything, is it?" she asked with honest concern.

I only had to think about things for a second before shrugging. "Honestly? At this point, I think it's all semantics. You're going top down, we're climbing bottom up, but in the end it's the same opponent. For now, I vote we quibble over where we start cutting after everyone's trussed up for the chopping block. Aye?"

"Aye," Koala sighed in relief.

"Aaaye…" Sandersonia mused, chin cupped in thought. "I'm going to need to talk with Hancock about this…" she hissed under her breath, something I only heard thanks to Soundbite feeding it to me.

It briefly occurred to me to comment on that and start what I'm pretty sure was a necessary discussion, but the sound of a chair screeching on the floor almost covered up by rumbling thunder demanded my full attention. As it did everyone else, judging from the sudden silence in the room.

I looked over and winced at the sight of Nami looming over a cowed and defensively reeling Hachi.

"Put a pin in catching up until after we're sure our navigator isn't going to deep-fry our host?" I requested.

"Oh, you go right ahead, we'll just keep talking behind your back, most likely about you," Koala replied with a perfectly innocent grin.

I opened my mouth, and clamped it shut with a hissing sigh. "Well, at least you admit it." It was on that note that I got up to go face the tempest.

"I must have misheard you," Nami bit out, enough venom to put down a Sea King in her voice. "Did you just say that they tricked you into handing over a mermaid to sell into slavery? Are you serious!?"

I didn't even need to look back at the booth to tell that Koala and Sandersonia were looking our way. The screaming of abused wood combined with the kind of ear-scratching hiss you only hear from a snake on the verge of biting your face off were kinda big clues.

"Nyuuuu…" Hachi whimpered, obviously longing for a pot he could disappear into. "I-I did say that they tricked me and I had no idea about the slavery thing, right? R-Right?!"

"Hatchan… you know my penny-pinching tendencies as well as anyone. Better than most, actually, seeing as you helped cause them," Nami said in a deceptively calm tone. "I know what's a good buy and what isn't. So what makes you think that I'd even sniff the crap you're trying to sell me!?"

"Well… maybe because it's not that hard to believe?"

All eyes turned toward Usopp, who barely flinched. I mean, he still flinched, of course, but not much. "I-I mean, I still remember back at Arlong Park, I was trying to distract Arlong with my Rubber Band of Doom bluff, but it worked on him instead… for about thirty seconds straight, even. It was almost awkward. If he could fall for something like that…"

Nami kept up her glare for about half a minute, at which point she hung her head in defeat. "Damn it, I wish I didn't agree with you."

Hmm… to help Hachi or not to help Hachi… Oh! I could split the difference with one little incident.

"Usopp's right," I announced, fighting to suppress a broad grin. "Ask Hachi about the first time he met Zoro."

Hachi stiffened, and then slumped down with a groan of embarrassment and I think a blush, though it was kind of hard to tell with both his natural pigment and the hands covering his face. "Can we… really not?" he pleaded. "A-Anyway… I really didn't know about the slavery! I thought they were just a kidnapping gang and—!"

"And that's somehow supposed to be better," Nami flatly stated.

"…in my defense, ex-pirate and I only knew her for about half an hour at the time?" he pleaded weakly.

Nami fell into a brooding silence again, and I privately hoped that Nami was reflecting on her years as a thief and the people that she'd had to use to get what she wanted, rather than any of Sanji's takoyaki recipes. Thankfully, that 'hope' was borne out when Nami sank back into her seat with a defeated groan. "…Only because she's chosen to work for you all this time, for whatever reason," she conceded.

Looking stricken, Hachi began to raise his hands, only to stop and start wringing them. "I… I know my words mean less to you than dirt, Nami…" he said softly. "But… but I want you to know that I am sorry. For all of it. Every time I go over those days in Cocoyashi, I just want to reach back in time and punch myself until I stop! Being! Stupid!"

Nami's eyes widened as several of Hachi's hands clenched into fists, but a second later they unclenched.

"But. I know that I can't. All I can do now is try and live my life the best I know how, and try and make up for the past. Try and beg for your forgiveness, and the forgiveness of everyone I've wronged."

By this point, Nami's head was bowed, her Tempo and hairline both shadowing her eyes. "…I'm not just going to give you that," she said quietly.

"Never expected it!" Hachi hastily replied. "I-I just, I just…"

"You know, I can't speak for what kind of hell you must have gone through," a new voice mused thoughtfully. To Nami's visible surprise, Koala plopped down on the seat next to her, a serene expression on her face. "But Hachi genuinely is trying to turn things around. Has turned things around, really. It's the only reason that I'm giving him a chance."

Nami stared at her in complete confusion, and Koala blinked before looking at me.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have privacy standards," I drawled before she could open her mouth. "And something like what you went through? That blows right past those standards like there's a Marine ship on its tail."

She nodded, turning back to Nami with a somewhat sheepish expression. "Sorry, that probably didn't make sense. Let me explain." She twisted in her seat and raised her shirt, flashing the red sun that Fisher Tiger had burned into her flesh. "I assume you know what this mark means?" she asked.

Nami blinked, visibly confused. "I-I missed the explanation on the Sun Pirates that Robin gave the crew earlier, but I know that they were a crew made only of fishmen, that most of the Arlong Pirates were originally on their crew… you were one of them?"

"…The significance of this sun goes beyond the Sun Pirates," Koala explained softly, a wistful look on her face. "This symbol came to be recognized for hope and light because it was specifically designed to cover up the Hoof of the Flying Dragon…" Koala's fingers clenched, digging furrows in the counter. "The slavery brand of the World Nobles."

Nami and everyone else in the crew stiffened, Hachi's eyes closed as one of his hands drifted up to his forehead, and out the corner of my eye I saw Sandersonia shivering in her seat, hugging herself.

"Fourteen years ago, a well-respected sea bream fishman named Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line to Mariejois where so many of his fellow fishmen were suffering, and burned the entire city to free the slaves that were imprisoned there," Koala continued. "All of the fishmen he freed and all of the fishmen loyal to him on Fishman Island came together and formed the Sun Pirates; he used the mark of the sun to cover all of the slave brands, and branded everyone else to sail on the crew to make it clear that they were all equals."

Koala closed her eyes and took a deep, deliberate breath. "I was one of the slaves that he freed. And three years later, when the Sun Pirates came to an island where I was staying, they agreed to transport me back to my home. It took a lot of work for me to break out of the… conditioning, but Fisher Tiger…"

A wistful smile came over the Revolutionary's face, her fingers tapping on the counter. "Tiger… he made it clear that I had been freed. And even though I was a human, the rest of the Sun Pirates were nice to me. They reminded me that I was alive, that I no longer needed to be afraid." She turned a kind smile on Hachi, laying a hand on his shoulder that drew a smile from him in turn. "Hachi was particularly nice. He always made lots of delicious takoyaki, and his antics were hilarious, and they kept everyone smiling and happy."

Hachi twitched and glanced away, chuckling weakly. "'Antics', right…"

Koala chuckled fondly. "They were my friends, my crewmates…" And then, Koala's good mood was bushwhacked by a dark frown. "Except for Arlong." Hachi flinched again, this time looking down in shame. "Even back then, he was… dark. Scary. He made it clear that as far as he was concerned, I wasn't and would never be welcome. I remember him saying that if 'Big Bro Ti' hadn't been around, he wouldn't be holding himself back as much."

The mood darkened between them for a few moments. Koala finally looked back at her.

"The point is, the Sun Pirates were the antithesis of slavery, but among them, Arlong was the outlier. And once Fisher Tiger died, Arlong fell away from them and their ideals, and everyone loyal to him went along with it, because without Fisher Tiger, they were lost, and he was one of the last pillars of strength they had. It would take a lot to make me willingly give any of them a chance… but Hatchan has been making the effort."

Nami sighed. "Okay, so, I already admitted once today that I don't have as much of a grudge against him as the rest of them… but you can actually understand what it's like, to have that much pain inside for so long."

Koala nodded solemnly, her hand tentatively moving to rest on Nami's shoulder. "I understand, and I don't expect you to forgive him right away, or anytime soon. Just… keep in mind, Hachi… he's a good man. Arlong you can hate with all your heart, but leave Hachi on the periphery."

Nami bit her lip, and her Tempo writhed in time with her inner discord, but when she finally let out a tired sigh, it settled as well. "I… I'll try. For Hachi." And then, just like that, her aura was bristling again as her gaze re-sharpened. "But as for those two."

Much to my surprise, and Hachi's too for that matter, Koala's expression became an icy mirror of Nami's. "Yes, they are a separate matter entirely."

"HACHI!"

Our eyes turned to the doorway, where Kuroobi was standing with an expression of utter fatigue on his face, and Pappug standing on his shoulder. "We've got another few dozen orders, and the dragon that they have onboard wants enough for five fishmen! And on top of that, Mohmoo is with them, along with half a dozen junior sea kings!"

"Nyuu?! They recruited Mohmoo!? I gotta—! Er…" Hachi wilted sheepishly, shooting Nami a tired but sincere smile. "Can we pick this up later?"

"Go on, go on," Koala waved him off, Nami inclining her head in agreement. Gratefully, Hachi made his way back to the grill, Kuroobi on his heels. The expression probably wouldn't have been grateful had he heard what Nami muttered under her breath the minute his back was turned:

"Maybe we should just cover one of the fishmen in batter and serve him up. Be easier."

I mean, I didn't exactly disagree with the sentiment, but wow, that was a bit much.

With that, the mood turned from somber to awkward, nobody really sure what to say while we waited.

"Hey, uh… Koala?"

Until said Revolutionary turned to our uncharacteristically hesitant captain. And I mean seriously hesitant, like 'hat literally in hand' hesitant. Seriously, if he didn't learn that from Makino or one of his brothers, then I'd eat my hat.

"You said you were pretty high up in the Revolutionaries." The Rubber Man inquired sheepishly. "So… Does that mean you know Sabo?"

Koala cringed… and then sighed before giving him a defeated smile. "Yes, I do. I'm partnered up with him often, and—!"

"REALLY!?" Luffy cut her off gleefully, suddenly so close to her Koala had to lean perpendicular in her seat to avoid a collision, with no small amount of panic on her face. "TELL ME ABOUT HIM, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE'S LIKE NOW!"

"I see the family resemblance…" Koala noted weakly.

"No concern about spoilers, captain?" I asked in surprise.

"The last spoiler about him was that he was alive after I thought he was dead for ten years!" Luffy whispered excitedly. "I was supposed to be there for seven more years before he went his own way, so I need to catch up! Besides, this isn't about the future, it's the past, so what does it matter!?"

I blinked several times. Honestly, that was saner than most 'Luffy logic' I was used to.

"Actually, I'd like to hear more about him, too," Sanji added… as he casually kicked our captain off the Revolutionary. "We met Ace in Alabasta, but Luffy having another brother is news to us. Anything to learn how our captain went from a cute, cuddly kid we're almost certain he once was—"

"Fat chance!" Soundbite 'subtly' coughed.

"Bullshit!" I 'surreptitiously' agreed.

"—into… well, this," our cook gestured at our captain's… everything.

Sighing in fond exasperation as she righted herself, Koala smiled. "Well, the first thing to know is that ever since he got his memory back, he flies off into a gloating session about Luffy every time his name comes up…"

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed as he pumped his fists happily.

"But anyways, I suppose that for Sabo's little brother… I can return the favor. Now, let's see… ah!" Koala snapped her fingers and smiled as she leaned back in her seat and started to reminisce. "I'll start at the start, with the very first mission we went on together. It all began in the Headquarters of the Revolutionary Army, nestled in the cliffs of Baltigo…"

And so it went, Koala's smile never faltering as she proceeded to pass the time with tales of her and Sabo's varying—and quite frankly, insane even by our standards—adventures. Honestly, how the hell Sabo had managed to get so much mileage out of a corkscrew and a clam shell… well, I suppose I know better than most that some things aren't meant for the human mind.

This all went on for about ten minutes or so, until storytime was finally brought to a crashing halt… Literally on account of the minor shockwave that suddenly slammed into us, swaying the boat but good.

"Looks like Zoro's done," Franky observed, getting to his feet and stomping toward the exit. "Sunny had better have been left pristine, or I swear—!"

"Keep your man-panties on, Iron-Ass, I didn't touch the Sunny," Zoro grunted as he stalked in past our shipwright, rolling his shoulder with an expression of immense satisfaction. "Tashigi, however, I touched very thoroughly. And Swirly, if you want to make an issue of that?" The first mate spread his arms invitingly. "Bring it on, I welcome it!"

Sanji… actually paused mid-kick and blinked at the swordsman in confusion. "You're… surprisingly tolerable for once, Mossy."

"Finally beating Kuina in some capacity felt cathartic as hell, didn't it?" I half-stated.

"Mmm," Zoro shrugged as he sunk into a seat. "It wasn't bad. Put up more of a fight than I expected, but still nothing close to what she could have done at that age if she were still alive. Better than nothing, I guess."

"And to confirm, Tashigi is…?" Koala began.

"Now listen here, you green-haired, metal-swinging troglodyte!"

"Surprisingly intact," I commented with a cocked brow as the Marine barged in.

And indeed, Tashigi was in seemingly pristine condition. You know, apart from the fact that she had half her body covered in bandages, with a particularly bloody swathe tied around her waist.

And a bunch more being wrapped around her forehead by Chopper, who was in hybrid form standing on her shoulders.

"First off, I did perfectly fine, thank you very much!" Tashigi hissed as she jabbed her finger at our first mate.

"Hold still, before I fasten this eyepatch on with surgical staples," Chopper tersely ordered as he tugged a strip of gauze taut over the lieutenant's left eye. "And be glad that this is only temporary, got it?"

"Second," Tashigi went on, seemingly ignoring Chopper. "I still want to know where the hell you got the legendary dragon-slaying O Wazomono-Grade sword Shusui—!"

"I re-killed Ryuma's corpse, which Moria was using as an undead soldier."

"…oh, how I wish I could actually not believe that," Tashigi groaned, rubbing her unwrapped temple. "And third! If you're wielding Shusui, then where the hell's Yubashiri!?"

Zoro's normally stoic expression twisted like he was sucking on a lemon and half a grapefruit at once. Otherwise, he didn't respond.

After a moment, Funkfreed asked, "If you don't want to tell her, can I do it?" Zoro turned towards me… and slowly nodded. At that, the elephant-sword shifted into his hybrid form to slide from his sheath and curl up on the ground sort of like a snake. A massive snake whose frame could take up half the room, but still.

"It got wrecked on the Bridge of Hesitation," the hybrid weapon explained, waving his trunk remorsefully. "Not beyond repair, but enough that he had to leave it at a blacksmith on Water 7. I mean, at this point, if you want it that badly, then…" He shrugged helplessly. "I guess it's all yours?"

Zoro snapped a glare at my sword and opened his mouth, presumably to cuss him out. Instead, after a moment he shut it and glanced down at his waist. He gripped Shusui's hilt before hissing out a defeated sigh. "…fine, damn it, fine! I'll give you the ticket the smith gave me. I don't like it, but damn it, I owe Yubashiri its right to fight again. And…" The swordsman glanced aside with a scowl… and a blush!? "And… better you than someone else, I guess."

"God help us I THINK THAT'S THE CLOSEST she'll ever get to a pr—!"

SHING!

"I SAY NOTHING!" Soundbite yowled, eyestalks twisting to keep an eye on the snow-white blade hovering between him and Zoro.

Grimacing, Tashigi turned away from the byplay, rubbing the back of her head.

"I am conflicted…" I just barely heard her mutter. She raised her voice a few moments later. "Ah… before anything else though, how did a sword of that quality, in…" She grimaced slightly, as though the next words burned her throat. "In hands as skilled as yours, ugh, get—?"

"Some Navy bastard with the Rust-Rust Fruit," I said.

Aaand just like that both Tashigi and the air in the room stopped, and the Marine slowly turned to look at me, Blair Witch-style.

"Someone in the Navy has the power of the Rust-Rust Fruit…" she intoned, her voice devoid of life. "And he came that close to destroying the legendary Ryo Wazamono-grade Yubashiri with them. Without even a hint of remorse."

"Um…" I briefly thanked my lucky stars that she wasn't actually pissed at Zoro or me this time. And because this wasn't directed at us… "Yes?"

It could have all ended there if Funkfreed didn't choose to raise his big fat trunk.

"Just so you know? That wasn't the first Grade-sword Captain Shu's gotten his hands on, and none of the others had Cross's forewarning to save them."

That was apparently a step too far.

I swear that an unholy inferno lit up around the lieutenant, her face becoming a shadowy mask of rage as she strangled Shigure's hilt.

"I am going to—!"

THWACK!

"—hug a cuddly bunny…" Tashigi slurred mid-sentence, a goofy grin spreading across her face as she bonelessly sank into the nearest seat. This revealed Chopper standing behind her with a dripping needle in his hoof.

"I have gotten far too good at eyeballing a person's weight so that I can properly sedate them," he grumbled to himself as he sank into a seat of his own and started massaging his eyes. "I've also stitched up far too much small intestine while my own is empty. Where's the food?"

"Ugh…" Chew groaned, rubbing at his eyes as he came back inside and started reciting something in a long-suffering tome. "We'll have your orders taken care of as fast as we can, chew. If you would just be patient—"

Chew opened his eyes and stopped speaking as he processed exactly how many glares he was receiving, the sheer amount of 'not damn welcome' they conveyed sending him powerwalking backwards back to the kitchen.

"Bunny… bunny-wolf—GAH!"

Tashigi broke the tense mood with an exclamation followed by a grumbled mutter of thanks to her companion, who was tucking a wasabi stem back into his coat. He(?) then pointed at me, and Tashigi did a double-take before smiling. "Oh, right. Cross. We really didn't expect to run into you again, but it's fortunate that we did; remember how Popora has mnemonic abilities?"

"Yeeeaaah?" I drew out, dreading any brand of interaction with the hammer-happy hybrid.

"Well," she gestured at his hammer. "If ever you wanted a chance to—and believe me, I am loath to say this—be as nigh-omniscient as you once were, we can give you that refresher you were hoping for."

The way Tashigi said that was just a little too eager for my liking, but quite frankly, I didn't care. I would let myself get zapped by Eneru again if it meant remembering the rest of the series. I nodded, kneeling in front of the rabbit-wolf… right as Tashigi got the last word in.

"Oh, and Popora? Feel free to hit him as hard as you possibly can."

"Kyuuuun."

"Wait, wha—!?" I snapped my head up right as the hammer swung.

~o~

"You and I will never meet again."—

—"We three sisters were once…"—

—"DRAGON IS YOUR DAD!?"—

—"STRAW HAT ISN'T A PIECE OF TRASH LIKE YOU!"—

—"Weaklings don't get to choose how they die."—

—"Would you do us the honor of exchanging sake cups?"—

—"Thank you, all of you, for loving me!"

Ace mortally wounded, a gaping hole in his torso.

A complete and total silence, encompassing all factions, friend and foe alike.

A Vivre Card burning away into nonexistence.

And then… and then—!

~o~

"MOTHER ALMIGHTY!" I gasped as I lurched back to reality and landed clean on my ass, the surge of images and emotions and-and-and everything that had just hit me taking me completely by surprise. Seriously, I'd been expecting a hell of a lot, but not that much!

With my senses properly rebooted (and believe me, that was an ordeal and a million), I realized that I'd all but curled up, my armored hands clamped around my skull and moisture on my face and chin. Opening my eyes, I saw everyone watching me with undisguised concern.

I really, really shouldn't have been focusing so much on that part of the manga…

I shook my head and started to get to my feet, but a tapping on my shoulder stopped. Looking up, I realized that it was Popora, who was… crying? Seriously, while the hybrid's expression maintained the stony impassiveness it had held the entire time I'd known him, he definitely had twin tear tracks coursing down his cheeks.

The wolf-rabbit wiped the tears off and pinched them between his fingers, eyeing them contemplatively before giving me a respectful look.

"Translation, he respects THE TRAUMA YOU JUST relived," Soundbite informed me.

"Uh… thanks?" I shook my head and pushed my way back to my feet. "It's—gugh—it's alright, guys, just a… really bad memory…" I wiped the last of my tears from my eyes and shot a sidelong glare at Tashigi. "It's not like what you just hit me with is relevant anymore, anyway."

The Marine had the grace to look away at that. Regrettably, nobody relaxed. Not that I could blame them, I didn't believe half the shit I was spewing myself. I couldn't help it, really, not after watching that.

Wordlessly, Luffy held out the Vivre Card that he had already withdrawn from his hat. Still perfectly intact. I saw it move… parallel to the Red Line? Did that mean he was on Sabaody? Huh, that would be cool, we might actually meet him in person… and that was most definitely not complete and utter desperation coloring my inner monologue.

I nodded in gratitude to Luffy, but his frown only deepened; he could tell as well as I that the difference between what was and what is didn't help that much…

"Ah… Cross?" Tashigi suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I don't want to add more bad news to this, but I just remembered some news Aquarius heard that I think you should know."

The lieutenant's hesitation contorted, mixing with disgust. "Apparently, someone high up in the Government decided that the best way to punish you for the SBS was to break your spirit. They've sent out a powerful task force with Cipher Pol-level intel-gathering skills with one goal: find the homeland of Jeremiah Cross, and unleash the Buster Call upon its shores unless your crew turns itself over."

The moment that the last syllable left her lips, she ducked her head, shaking with what looked like sobs but did not sound like it. The rest of the crew was making a similarly valiant but futile attempt to hide their own expressions, and Koala and Sandersonia in particular had their faces hidden in their arms, their shoulders shaking heavily. And as for me?

"Pff…"

I honestly couldn't hold it back for more than a couple of seconds.

"PFFHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I cackled, falling back onto the ground and pounding it.

"HEEHEEHEEHOOHOOHOOHAHAHAAAAA!" Soundbite howled in agreement.

That opened the floodgates. As expected, Zoro managed to keep his composure with just some snickering, but pretty much everyone else was laughing his or her head off, most of them unable to stay on their feet. As it was, Koala and Sandersonia looked to be in danger of reducing their tables to splinters from pounding on them so hard, and almost everyone in the room was a bad breath away from asphyxiating with glee.

And really, who could possibly even begin to blame them!? The mere idea that what could have been such a tragic, ruthless, absolute bottom-barrel tactic was instead a complete and total wild goose chase?! It was hilarious beyond all conceivable description!

"Dereshishishishi!" Robin guffawed into her fist, tears streaming from her eyes. "I never t-thought that the words 'Buster Call' could send me into a positive form of hysterics, but once more, this crew—Dereshishishishi!"

"M-Maybe next they'll try and arrest my ex-father! HAHAHA!" Sanji roared through his laughter, casually catching anything that bounced off the table he was pounding with a fist.

"No, no! They'll come after mine!" Chopper waved his arms over his head eagerly, a manic grin on his muzzle. "I'll even lead them right to him, make the introductions myself!"

"No! Conis's mothHAHAHAAA!" Nami was cut off mid-sentence when she tipped too far back in her seat and toppled over, though that didn't stop her laughter at all.

"PFHAHAHAHAAA!" I wheezed in a frantic, lung-burning gasp as I threw my arms wide. "Th-Those bastards want to burn my home to the ground!? Well, they're certainly welcome to try! PFHAHAHAAA!"

"Uh, please tell me we're missing something!?"

It was at this point that we all looked up and saw that the full staff of Takoyaki 8 had re-entered the room and were warily eyeing us, Hachi himself looking pretty damn stricken.

"I-I-I echoed the NEWS TO THEM—"

And then a sudden shrieking, cackling gale rocked the building.

"AND the Sunny!" Soundbite concluded gleefully. "I THINK VIVI'S GONNA START A TYPHOON, SHE'S HOWLING SO HARD!"

"I-I can hear Big Bro's laughing, too!" Merry wheezed out.

"Um…" Keimi nervously tugged at her collar. "I-I really hope there's a joke I'm missing here? Because if not, your laughing is… i-is…"

"I-I-IT'S THE MOTHER OF ALL WILD GOOSE CHA-A-A-SES, HEHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

My mirth was a little too much for me to spare a double-take at Bartolomeo's sudden presence, and instead I staggered over to him so that I could sling my arm around his shoulders and laugh in tandem with him. "GOOSE CHASE, GOOSE CHASE, LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE, HAHAHA!" I laughed in agreement with him.

"I-I'll explain," Koala chuckled, wiping away as she slowly came down from her own mirth. "See, Cross's home? It's not anywhere in the East Blue. Or on the planet. Or the moon, for that matter."

I slowly came down from my laughter high at that, sending her an annoyed look.

"And as for why I told you that?" she forged on, smiling far-too-innocently at the fishmen. "It's because no matter who you tell for the rest of your life, no one will believe you. And before you ask, yes, I did get pretty nasty in the Revolutionaries. It shows, don't it?"

"Actually, what I was going to ask is how that's supposed to be more unbelievable than anything else the Straw Hats have done," Kuroobi deadpanned.

"Nyuu, same problem," Hachi groaned, massaging his head with two hands. "The truth is just one more wild guess out of a million."

"Yeeeaaah, we're eeevil like that!" Nami giggled drunkenly, still coming off her laugh-high.

"Uh, excuse me. Who are you, that you know Cross's secret?" Tashigi interjected, cautiously eyeing Koala.

"Koala. Assistant Fishman Karate instructor of the Revolutionary Army and one of their top executives. I was there when he told Dragon the details," Koala explained, smirking. "In fact, I was the one who knocked his ass out and helped drag him to Dragon. No small feat, mind you."

"PFT!" Tashigi snorted into her hand, not trying very hard to hide that burst of laughter. I settled for merely rolling my eyes at the exchange. After all, I was mature, I could take it on the chin… Koala'd proven that for damn sure.

"And you're Tashigi, I believe…" the other half-Mason continued. "Or would 'Pisces' be more appropriate?"

Tashigi snapped into a far more guarded stance as Sandersonia practically slithered up to her and smiled lightly… or as lightly as someone like her could manage. "You're familiar with my sister, Cobra. You can call me Anaconda."

"MY ANACONDA D—! GYARK!"

"I suffered through the Spongebob song, I'm not suffering through that!" I snarled, doing my damndest to stuff the little pest back in his shell.

Sandersonia cocked an eyebrow at us. "Aaaaanyway…" she dragged out, looking around. "Seeing as no one's quite done it yet, I feel I should point out that this is quite the unprecedented event. Me, a member of a Warlord's crew. You-" She nodded at Koala, who smiled and crossed her arms behind her head. "An executive of the Revolutionary Army, and you-" Tashigi stood up a little straighter at the attention. "An officer in the Marines. By all rights, we all should be at one another's throats, but instead here we stand as the closest of allies." She bowed her head solemnly. "Truly, on this most momentous of occasions, there is only one viable course of action."

We all nodded along, at least until we all realized we were missing something. "Uh…" I raised a finger. "And that course of action would be?"

"Getting wasted, obviously!" Sandersonia whooped, pumping her fist.

SLAM!

The deck shook from our collective faceplant. Unfortunately, Sandersonia didn't wait for our reply, and as I stood I saw only the literal tailend of her as she shot out the door and transformed so she could leap onto the Sunny. "I'll go and get some booze to get us started!"

"No, wait!" I shouted after her. "My crew doesn't know there's—!"

Too late. Sandersonia had already slithered up the side of the Sunny. Cue, of course, a cacophonous mix of shouting, crashing, combat, and… party poppers?

"…a friendly Zoan here…" I completed with a groan, glancing at Soundbite. "Dare I ask?"

"Everyone else didn't know WHETHER TO PREPARE FOR WAR OR A PARTY so they prepped for both. NOT LIKE THEY'RE ACTUALLY DOING MUCH TO HER THOUGH, she's…" Soundbite's eyes widened in awe. "WOW, SHE'S AN UNDERLING? Sooo glad you stopped me from POTENTIALLY TICKING HER OFF!"

"Like forewarning would have made any difference? You're Cross's partner," Usopp noted dryly as he headed out towards the Sunny, most likely to stop any further waste of ammunition.

I sighed, exhaling the last of the lingering grief I had. "Well, that was… something. Anyway…" I shot a grateful look at my remaining accomplices. "Thanks, Tashigi, Koala. I needed that."

While Koala settled for snickering and flashing me a V-sign, Tashigi visibly hesitated, seeming to war with herself for a few seconds. Then she slumped in defeat and smiled back.

"What are friends for, Cross?"

-o-

Credit to Hachi, it was only a couple more minutes before our food was ready, and once we cleaned up the mess from Sandersonia's little… dive into the liquor cabinet, we kicked out the snake-Zoan and decamped to the Sunny's pavilion to eat.

What? We all wanted to eat together, and if we tried to pack all of our crews into Takoyaki 8, we'd probably blow the roof off the place sooner rather than later. Probably not even on purpose. We'd take a lot more care onboard our own boat, which was more sturdy anyway. Hachi had been grateful… right up until Nami insisted that the Takoyaki 8 staff join us.

Verbally, Nami said that she just thought it was fair that Takoyaki 8's crew all take a load off and share in the feast they'd prepared. And honestly? She did mean that statement. In regards to Keimi and Pappug, anyway. The glare that our navigator directed at the fishmen, however, said in no uncertain terms, 'You made me stay in hell at your side when I was an inch from death, now suck it up and do the same.'

And so it was that what would have been a return to our casual everyday insanity instead became a delicious feast with two of the relevant parties silently resenting each other's presence and giving the whole thing a tense (though thankfully hidden, so the affair wasn't quite as awkward as it could have been) undertone. And with Brook preoccupied with his favorite food and unable to provide the soothing undertones to help ease the tension, I think Nami was fully aware that something was going to give, and it wasn't going to be pretty. And I'm pretty sure that's exactly what she wanted: a round two, with at minimum two of the fishmen, and a chance to personally hand them their leathery asses on a silver platter.

Still, for now, most everyone else was blissfully oblivious of the weight hanging heavy in the atmosphere and Nami and the non-standard Takoyaki employees glaring at one another, and Tashigi and I were doing our damnedest to pretend it wasn't there. It wasn't really working.

"…So, uh…" I hid a quick grimace in my cup before addressing the Marine sitting across from me. "Tashigi, how's work going?"

"Er…" Tashigi took one glance at the line of soon-to-be-real lightning that was coursing between Nami and Kuroobi before turning back to me. "W-Well enough. Right now, the fleet's been working with a taskforce from Headquarters. We've been working on sorting out the remnants of the Golden Lion Pirates."

"Huh?" Luffy looked over and tilted his head in innocent, ignorant confusion. "You're still taking care of those guys? But wasn't that weeks ago?"

The lieutenant snapped a flat glare at our captain. "Well, the delays in prosecution might have something to do with our Judicial Island—no matter how bloody and unscrupulous it was revealed to be—being burned to the ground in a raging storm of hellfire."

"Eh?" Luffy's head tilted further, his expression becoming doubly confused. "But you guys did that yourselves."

Tashigi snarled to herself, the takoyaki stick in her hand snapping into splinters. "Must not punch, must not—!"

"Oh, no, go right ahead, it's very therapeutic," I interrupted.

"Wait, wha—?" THWACK! "MMPH!" Luffy mumbled through his heavily-puckered face.

"…wow, that was therapeutic!" Tashigi whistled appreciatively as she opened and closed her fist. "Anyway, yeah, processing has been a little slow lately, and there are a lot of them, so we've been pitching in to offer some space as everyone's shuffled around. Not exactly the safest or easiest job, as you can imagine, but we're putting a steady stream of them through the Court Ships, so we should be done in about, oh, a week or two? Thereabouts. Honestly, I could care less what we do about those degenerates…" The lieutenant sank into her seat with a blissful, euphoric sigh. "Because there are other parts of this process that I am enamored with…"

Well, it didn't take a genius to put those toddler-aged puzzle pieces together. "Found some Grade Swords, I take it?" I politely inquired.

"Seven Skillfuls and two Greats so far!" Tashigi outright squeed, clasping her hands and wiggling in her seat like she was talking about her crush… which, admittedly, wasn't that far off.

"Oh? That so?" I leaned forward, an eager grin on my face. That was actually pretty impressive! "Any particularly interesting ones in the—?"

Then the glorious moment came crashing down with a single noise.

"Tch."

With that single scoff, the whole deck went still, and the heavy air I'd been so close to successfully ignoring cranked up to new heights.

I slowly rotated in my seat to grace Chew with a perfectly flat look. "Something you want to say, chum?"

The smelt-whiting scoffed and turned up his nose (and lips). "Nothing for you if you don't see it already, idiot."

My eyes narrowed slightly. "You lost the right to call anybody an idiot the day Arlong Park fell."

He blinked, and then glared. "Why, because we made the mistake of challenging your crew?"

"No, because you fell for Usopp's 'Rubber-Band-of-Doom-flinch-and-run' trick."

Chew went crimson, and several others graced him with looks as painfully flat as mine. Including Kuroobi.

"I thought you said he used another smoke bomb," the ray growled, condescension and rage dripping from every syllable.

"And you're taking his word over mine!?" Chew snapped.

"USOPP RUBBER BAND OF DOOOOM!"

"GAH!" The fishman snapped his arms over his head with a panicked flinch. After about a second, he lowered them, expression thunderous and pointed anywhere but at Kuroobi and Soundbite. "I hate you, snail."

"HEEHEEHEEhoohoohoo!"

"Honestly, Chew, I expected that from Hatchan, but you?" Nami asked, a sadistic teasing hint in her voice. It helped that Hachi was once again covering his face with all six of his hands to hide a blush. Or maybe that was a sextuple facepalm. Hard to tell.

Everyone else was still busy trying to stifle their snickers, and for a minute, I thought that that might be the end of the trouble.

SMASH!

And then Kuroobi put his fist through the barrel he and Chew had been using as a table and we were right back to square one.

"The reason he scoffed was because of the blatant, unashamed hypocrisy you're showing right now, Jeremiah Cross," Kuroobi stated in a tone of utter hatred, glaring me dead in the eye.

…he went there. They actually went there. They were actually going to try and—?

Well. Alright, then. On their heads be it.

Moving slowly and calmly, I got out of my seat, slipped Soundbite off my shoulder, and firmly planted him on the table, my eyes never moving from the fishmen. "Would you care to say that to my face, sir?"

"With pleasure," Kuroobi snarled as he and Chew stood up. Slowly, we each took a step towards each other, then another.

"This isn't your fight, Cross!" Nami hissed in my ear, even though she was glaring at me from across the deck.

"It wasn't my fight when this was about your past with them!" I snarled back through grit teeth, and a quick sweep of my eyes to the side passed that message to the rest of the crew. "This? This is an entirely different beast, and it and them are MINE."

That prompted the crewmates who'd been gearing up for a fight to let go of their weapons and marginally relax, aside from the ones who silently (though not without force) prevented Hachi from stopping his friends. Billy, for his part, had draped his wings over Nami and was holding them there, I assumed at her request to keep her from lashing out. Meaning it was now just me… and them.

The three of us met up in the middle of the lawn, standing barely two feet apart from one another. The fishmen each towered two heads above me and used that to glare down at me like I was a particularly repugnant insect. Of course, I matched them ire for ire, so the effect was diminished just a tad.

"If you would be so kind as to repeat and elaborate on your statement, please," I 'requested'.

"I called you a hypocrite, Jeremiah Cross, because of your blatant fraternizing with a Marine when you've made it your life's mission to tear them down," Kuroobi sneered. "How do you think your adoring public would feel to find your words are as worthless as you are?"

I withheld my urge to roll my eyes at the ludicrously weak blow, and simply settled for crossing my arms and giving him a patiently unimpressed stare. "I hear what you're saying. You know nothing of my work, and clearly wouldn't know nuance if it slapped you in your face.

My stance has always been that the majority of the Navy's ranks are rotten and corrupt, and that there's a sizeable minority of just Marines who actually follow the ideals the organization was founded on. I've met the bastards you describe, but I also know Lieutenant Tashigi, who is a true and honest soldier of Justice. Simply put…" I tightened my grip on my forearms and laid down the gauntlet. "There are all kinds of Marines, good and bad. To dismiss the prior because of the existence of the latter is either stupidity or malice."

"Chew," Chew derisively spat to the side. "You're delusional. Bad is bad and good is good. That's all there is. All there'll ever be."

I allowed myself a slight scowl. "That so? Well then…" I pivoted to the side and pointed my thumb at Koala, who was staring the two with naked hostility. "What's your take on her, then, hm?"

Now that caught them off guard, effectively putting them on the backfoot. "Th-That's—!" Kuroobi started to protest.

"An exception?" I queried oh-so-innocently, nodding in agreement. "Aye, true enough, but here's the thing: You make an exception for her, you open up the floodgates so that not only can the whole of humanity be regarded with the rule…" I stepped up and jabbed the ray fishman in his chest, forcing him to take a step back. "But you allow for this rule to be reflected back on yourself. J'accuse, asshat."

"She's an exception because she knows the pain of the fishmen firsthand," Kuroobi retorted with depressing speed. I guess that his bigotry was as good a mental insulator as my indignant temerity. "She's not the only one who does, I admit that…" He raised his chin pompously. "But you are most certainly not in that group."

I waved him off impatiently. "I'm not, and I admitted as much before the world. But that sure as hell doesn't mean it's impossible for me to sympathize with the cause."

"Or, you know," Koala interjected coldly. "The rest of the very much human soldiers of the Revolutionary Army who respect my karate instructor Hack, who's a brocade perch fishman, and who are always pushing for us to set up a field office on Fishman Island. Just, you know, as an example."

I was grateful for Koala's comment, because the shocked and stricken looks the fishmen shot her way were the perfect opening for me. "As has been oh-so-nicely demonstrated, good and bad, however you define it, exist in all places and people, regardless of species. Folks like Hachi and Hack are perfect examples of the goodness in the fishman species…" I scowled as my grip on my temper started to fray. "Whereas there are still more bastards who serve as examples of everything wrong with your people. Bastards like you two."

"Bastards like Arlong," Nami snarled from the sidelines, the clouds around her crackling on the edge between cloud and raw electricity. And I'd bet a thousand beri that it was only Billy absorbing some of the voltage that kept it from tipping over that edge.

Chew and Kuroobi tried to glare at her, but the display of meteorological superiority made them decide to refocus their ire on me. And with the current subject at a standstill, I decided to backtrack a bit.

"Since I had to make that clear to you in the first place, I'm guessing that you didn't catch much of the SBS while you were in the slammer?"

Both of them glowered more.

"Everything we and Arlong did, it was justified by you damned humans, chew!" Chew snapped, slamming a threatening stomp down in my direction. "The abuse, the slavery—!"

"Ahem?"

The long-lipped fishman was cut off as all attention turned towards Keimi, who was staring down her co-workers (a classification I suspect she was having serious doubts about by this point). "Considering what your old friends the Macros were planning to do to me and have done in the past and how Mister Cross reacted to that, you have less of a leg to stand on than I do."

"Or," I butted in as Kuroobi started to open his mouth. "When you take into account the shit you bastards were involved in back on Conomi!"

As you can expect, by this point the both of them were red in the face from indignant fury, but it wasn't like I was much better either. I was used to fighting ignorance and bigotry via one-sided conversations and tirades. Facing bigotry head-on, face-to-face? This was an entirely different ballpark, and if it hadn't been for my friends backing me up, I don't think I would have been able to handle it. As it was, though, I was already getting dangerously—!

"You've shown the evidence of how humans can be yourself, Jeremiah Cross!" Oh, hey, there was Kuroobi stomping on the accelerator! "We may not have heard everything that happened in Enies Lobby, but we've heard enough! All of those operations, all of those assassins—!"

"Primarily committed against humans!" I cut in, but the ray-man summarily ignored me and plowed on.

"And I think the biggest proof you gave was the one in charge of it all. What was it, Spandam?"

"Oh, piss off!" I swung my hand out, my exasperation rapidly mounting. "Not even you can be stupid enough to think all humans are as bad as that walking waste of dust!"

"There are enough who are, chew," Chew responded, visibly trembling with outrage. "Enough that both of the most respected heroes of our race died at their hands! Big Bro Tiger, and Queen Otohime!"

…It might have just been the fact that my newly refreshed memories allowed me to see the late queen of Ryugu in all of her benevolence. Or maybe it was the memory of the hatred that tore her away from the world, or maybe it was the pain of the only person in the world who knew that secret. Frankly, it didn't matter which.

"You bastards are the ones who burned the petition for the Reverie!" Chew all but spat in my face, slamming his finger in my chest hard enough that I was almost definitely going to bruise. "You're the ones who assassinated Queen Otohime!"

I swear I felt a few wires short-circuit in my brain at the mere thought of being associated with that fucking tragedy, and I showed as much when I split my lips with a snarl. "That's a lie!"

I was vaguely aware of a clatter coming from where Koala was sitting, and I noted her hastily shoving herself to her feet. "Ah, Cross—!" she tried to intervene.

"Don't even try and deny it, scum!" Kuroobi shoved his roaring face in mine, Chew matching the motion as the pair cocked their shoulders back, undoubtedly in preparation to rush me. "Hody captured the—!"

ALRIGHT, THAT FUCKING TEARS IT, YOU WANT TO PLAY—! "THAT LYING BASTARD HODY JONES WAS THE ONE WHO SHOT OTOHIME IN COLD BLOOD!" I roared at the top of my—!

I knew I'd fucked up the second the words left my mouth, but by that point, considering how the entire damn deck froze, it was a little 'too little too late' on that front. I vaguely heard the crashes of anyone carrying anything dropping it, and I barely noticed Keimi, Hachi, and Koala all gaping at me from out the corner of my eye, but the two giants towering over me, paralyzed from pure shock, held my attention. For however long that shock lasted.

I slowly clenched my eyes shut with a tortured groan. "Ooooh, checkmate."

I braced for the inevitable and… I'll be frank, probably deserved by this point beatdown that was coming my way—

SLAM!

Only for a not-insignificant impact to shake the lawn (though not the boat) beneath me.

"I trust, Jeremiah Cross, that you have strong evidence to support such an accusation?"

My eyes snapped open at the unfamiliar but very stern and very powerful voice that had just rumbled above me. And considering that Kuroobi and Chew looked, if anything, even more stunned…

"…That was Jinbe landing right behind me, wasn't it?" I inquired tersely.

The pair of them slowly inclined their heads.

"…he's been here the entire time, hasn't he?"

"Most of it, but I thought you were on a DECENT ROLL…" Soundbite informed me regretfully before gulping audibly. "DIDN'T SEE THE CRIT COMING…"

I slammed my hand to my face and raked my iron-coated fingers down in despair. "Soundbite, my dear partner in crime… someday—possibly today—you withholding knowledge from me is going to get me killed. And I promise you that if it does…" I cast a sidelong snarl his way. "It will only be after I kill you first."

"Soooo noted," the snail whimpered.

"I am waiting, 'Voice of Anarchy' Jeremiah Cross. Waiting and recalling the not insignificant size of your bounty."

I very slowly and very deliberately took a deep breath and let it hiss out. Then I repeated the process, taking full advantage of the fact that Jinbe was a reasonable fishman to get my thoughts back in order. Then, when I'd managed to banish the majority of my panic from my mind and get half an idea of what I was going to say, I turned my back on the two bigots and eyed the infinitely more dangerous individual who was currently pissed with me.

The first thing that met my eyes was a kimono in orange and red with flame patterns dotted all over it, secured by an emerald green obi. The arms were crossed, pale blue fists on the ends of the sleeves, and my eyes darted down to see matching feet in a pair of geta. Then, with as much boldness as I could manage, I raised my eyes to look him in the eyes.

…Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I may have been reckless to the point of seeming suicidal, willing to taunt friends and enemies alike to my possible peril. But don't think for a second that I'm not still rightfully intimidated when I'm staring up at someone that I knew had at least a chance of taking on our entire crew and winning, most likely without even a scratch. Especially when said someone was four feet taller than me, outweighed me by what I'm pretty sure was a literal metric ton of pure muscle, was one of the strongest people on the face of the damn planet, and was currently occupied with glaring at me.

And worst of all, more pressing than any threats to my life possibly could have been… was that a bad first impression, specifically one as bad as this one was shaping up to be, could kill any chance of one of our (probably) future crewmates joining our ranks! And that just wasn't an acceptable outcome.

And so, with a not-insignificant amount of difficulty, I regathered the strength of will I'd previously mustered and set my jaws. I was still scared out of my wits, but I'd been scared when I'd faced down Eneru, and just like back then, I knew exactly what to say. I opened my mouth—

And then another thought struck me, and I snapped my head away from Jinbe to look at my captain instead. "Luffy…" I groaned desperately. Because while I wouldn't if he didn't want me to, I really, really, really wanted to! And practically needed to, at this—

"Say whatever you think you need to, Cross."

Luffy's response was so fast and sure that it brought me up short. Looking at him, I saw that he had his serious face on. Then, after a moment, he gave me a reassuring smile. Sighing in relief, I smiled back and then returned my gaze to the Warlord, staring straight into his eyes.

"With all due respect, sir…" I started in a cool tone. "What's more likely? That Otohime just so happened to get shot by a human the same day someone set fire to the petition box, and Hody was so overcome with rage he forgot his orders to not show the shooter…" I glanced aside to run the scene over in my head one more time. "Or that he put the box to the torch like he and the rest of his cronies had been torching other petitioners' houses and set the whole thing up?"

I could see the hesitation come into Jinbe's eyes, eclipsing the rage. I made to say something, and then another thought came to mind. Glancing at my partner, I whispered a few words. It would be a long time before he could look back and laugh at the reference:

"Search your feelings. You know it to be true," Soundbite rumbled in James Earl Jones' voice.

I nodded in innocent agreement. "The snail has a point. Bluntly worded, but a point."

"Bastard!" Soundbite hissed incredulously in my ear.

"Bite me!" I sniped back, but I hastily refocused on the Warlord at hand, taking a defiant step forward. "Again, a point: Jinbe, this isn't a surprise to you. You've known Hody for years, and for years you've known there's something wrong with him. And not like Arlong, either. Arlong started off good, relatively anyways, but circumstances pushed him over the edge and that's tragic." I shook my head. "But not Hody. From the start, he's always given you a bad feeling, and something always felt off about that day, about how everything went down. Think back, Jinbe! Remember the truth… or better yet—!" I snapped my fingers and pointed at the whale shark-fishman.

Thankfully, my message was well received, and before anyone could react, Popora had dashed over from halfway across the deck, leapfrogged off my head, and cracked his mallet down on Jinbei's head, and—!

~o~

"A human came into our kingdom! AND KILLED OUR QUEEN!"

~o~

—And left us all reeling from the surge of images and emotions that had just slammed us, Jinbe in particular clutching his skull with a groan.

"What the hell—?" he started, but I pressed the advantage before he could get any further.

"Look at him, Jinbe!" I demanded, cementing the image of the 'shooter' Hody was holding in my mind. "Come on, you've been a Warlord for near a decade now, you've seen plenty of humans! Does he look anywhere near right to you!?"

"Actually… he looks pretty damn familiar to me!" Sanji spoke up, his eyes blazing furiously. "Atrophied muscles, gaunt skin tone, sunken eyes? Yeah, that's something I recognize all too well. That man was the textbook definition of starved! If he ate anything over the week before that day, it was gruel! Thin gruel! He was a day from keeling over dead, easy!"

"Hrm, let's see…" Chopper hummed. "Extreme undernourishment. A slew of symptoms, including extreme weight loss, a bulging belly from edema, skin rashes from vitamin deficiencies, inability to concentrate—!"

"Wait, can't concentrate?!" Usopp squawked incredulously. "But you all must have been nearly a half-mile away from her, maybe even more! A shot like that, you don't make it by chance! It needs precision, timing, concentration! A crack shot! That guy? He'd have been lucky to hit the broadside of a decrepit sea king!"

"And that's discounting the biggest issue of all: motive," Vivi saidl. "What did a total stranger like him gain from killing the queen?"

"He didn't need a reason."

All eyes turned back to Kuroobi and Chew, the former of whom was shivering with rage. "He was a human, he—!"

"Are you going to try to turn this back on racism?" Vivi cut in. "Because there's a big problem with that if what Cross is saying about Hody is true. Recall, we've already proven that all individuals, regardless of species or organization, can have their morality run the gamut from positive to negative. But because the 'shooter' was killed upon capture, we'll never know where on the spectrum he fell. This Hody Jones character, however? From what I've gathered from this conversation, his stance has been clear for years."

She raised her palms up and level, weighing the options in each hand. "All that's left at this point is to apply Occam's Razor: who killed the queen, the human with neither the ability nor a clear motive, or the infamous criminal with more than enough capacity and every possible motive? The answer is clear if you ask me."

I took a moment to bask in just how gloriously on the ball all my crewmates were before picking up the torch to drive things home. Though with how tortured Jinbe was looking, I honestly didn't want to. But fuck it, if it meant I could make Hody suffer even one second sooner than when we'd plant our boots up his ass, then I'd take it!

"Jinbe," I spoke up, drawing his attention back down to me. "I know this hurts you like nothing else, and I'm sorry I blurted it out without warning… but you can't deny the truth. You can't deny what was missed all those years ago, and you can't deny what you've always known about him. The truth is plain for all here to see: Hody Jones was the one who killed Queen Otohime."

Painful silence descended on the deck. Then, all at once, every denizen of the deep (and one denizen adjacent) onboard opened their mouths, the same question echoed six times in their expressions, but before they could voice it-

SPLOOSH!

"WAAAGH!"

They were all interrupted as something breached the surface next to the Sunny, the resulting waves knocking about half of us on our asses. Before anyone could ask what the heck had just happened, a different, and far more pressing question was asked. And in a deep, attention-grabbing, and most importantly familiar Australian accent at that:

"H-How in the name of Oceanus do y'know who killed Queen Otohime!?"

In the time it took us to turn and identify the speaker, he asked another question:

"Wha—and how am I talking!? Wait...oh, no, I'm talking!"

I identified the original owner of the voice just as I identified who'd spoken, and both facts threw me for a loop, leaving me dazed on my feet and gaping like an idiot. "…OK, couple of things," I choked out, raising my hand to knead my forehead. "First, Soundbite, how the fuck? Second, however the fuck, you've grossly misjudged the person you're giving Bruce's voice to. And third and most importantly of all, this is getting ridiculous; things cannot possibly line up this well for me! I blurt out one of the biggest secrets of the century, and who else is here to hear me but not only the individual best suited for taking Hody Jones out of the picture, but also the only one who saw it happen!?"

And indeed, it was before my very shocked eyes that none other than… well, the royal megalodon, Megalo, was floating alongside the Thousand Sunny and staring at us in horror, his fins clamped over his titanic maw.

"ALRIGHT, WHO'S THE JACKASS BOTHERING OUR SEA KINGS!?"

The moment was a bit ruined by Barto's hollering from the deck of the Cannibal, but it was a short ruining.

"A VIP from Fishman Island popping up for a visit for some reason," I informed him. I hoped Barto would realize he had absolutely no reason to yell…

"WELL, DOES HE HAVE TO BE HERE!?"

But hey, dreams were made to be dashed.

"Seeing as he's a key piece to an impromptu plan I've only just stumbled into, yes!"

"...DAMN. ALRIGHT, JUST KEEP HIM AWAY FROM OUR GUYS, WILL YA!?"

"Will do." I shot Barto a parting thumbs-up before getting my head back in the game and voicing the first question that came to mind. "And getting back on topic, I'd very much like to reiterate my first point: Soundbite, how!?" I gestured from the snail to Megalo. "He's a fish! I thought—!?"

"I've been practicing FOR MONTHS, and I've been on the same ship as a vocal aquidae for THE LAST FEW HOURS," Soundbite answered, a little snappishly. "AND BESIDES, it's like LABOON; heck of a lot EASIER when they grow up surrounded by people WHO SPEAK HUMAN. DON'T QUITE HAVE THE LINGO FOR ANYFISH, but domestics are fine for now."

"?(°Д°≡°Д°)?" Gif queried, snapping her eyestalks back and forth between myself and the gigashark.

"I'm with the heli-snail, who is this and why should we care?" Su asked with a raised brow… as much as she ever raised them, anyways.

"That's Megalo," Pappug announced, hopping on the railing. "He's Princess Shirahoshi's pet, a retainer for the royal family, and one of my high-end customers. What brings you up here, Megalo? Need a new shirt?"

"Ah-I-ah…" the shark stammered. He shook his head, which seemed to break through whatever block he'd had. "I… I came here to see Hachi, but—!"

"NYUUUU!/GYAAAA! WE FORGOT!"

Everyone jumped as a pair of panicked howls rang out across the deck, and we all turned to see Hachi and Keimi in the process of completely flipping out.

"THE ROYAL FAMILY'S MONTHLY BANQUET!" the pair wailed.

That comment broke through the gravity of the situation for me; I whistled in awe, leaning towards Pappug. "Wow, you guys have been catering to the Ryugu royal family?"

"Mm-hm!" the starfish nodded proudly. "And we've even got you lot to thank for it! One of the royal guards stopped by to eat and listen to the SBS while he was on break, he took some leftovers back with him for later, aaand… well, one thing lead to another. It's been quite beneficial for us, let me tell you. Although…" He grimaced as he watched his co-workers panic. "There are still a few… barnacles to work out, so to speak?"

"IN ALL THE CONFUSION, WE FORGOT TO PREPARE IT!" Hachi hollered in dismay.

"AND BECAUSE OF THE MARINES' ORDER, WE'RE OUT OF FRESH INGREDIENTS AND THE FAMILY'S FAVORITE TOPPINGS!" Keimi wailed.

"What are those ingredients?"

Both fishman and mermaid paused in their panic long enough to stare at Sanji and the dugongs.

"What are those ingredients?" Boss repeated. "We may not be as fast as a mermaid, but we can cover a lot more ground with six of us regardless."

"And I'll help you on the griddle," Sanji declared, rolling up his sleeves. "You'll probably have to make the sauce yourself, though, I probably won't be able to resist stealing it."

"Y-You're guests!" Hachi protested. "I-I couldn't—!"

"Octopus," Sanji interrupted. "I'm a chef. I know about rushes. I couldn't call myself a chef if I let you face that alone."

"And it'll endear him to Keimi," Zoro added.

"And it'll endear me to—DAMMIT, MOSSHEAD!"

"As for us, the Flying Fish Riders clearly showed us that we need to work on our underwater speed," Boss picked up as Zoro and Sanji butted heads again, irritably grinding his cigar between his teeth. "This'll be a good first step."

"And it'll get us away from Cross's latest zany scheme!" Leo added, accompanied by a trio of nods. Hey, I… wasn't that bad!

"Ah… r-right, right…" Hachi muttered, counting on his fingers. "Right… okay, this can work! Dugongs! Follow Keimi's orders to a T! We don't want any poisoned customers!" Hachi ordered with half of his no-longer-flailing hands, while his other half gestured back at Takoyaki 8. "I'll fire up the grill and give Sanji a crash-course with what ingredients we have! GOGOGO!"

And with that, everyone involved leapt overboard, frantic to cook a feast literally fit for a king and his family. The rest of us watched in bemusement as they all but flew either back into Takoyaki 8 or overboard, slamming the doors and into the surf at breakneck speeds, and that bemusement lingered for a good few seconds.

Then I returned everyone's attention to the matter at hand with a conspicuous cough. Megalo froze under the sidelong glance I gave him, caught halfway to slipping into the surf. "You are not going anywhere, blubber-ass," I informed him. "You're the one who honked that foghorn, and believe you me, that's something you cannot take back. Now say it for the audience."

"H-H-How—!?" he stammered, in far more hesitant a tone than I think the original owner of his voice ever took.

"Not relevant and not something I want leaking beyond what's necessary, and stop trying to change the damn subject," I ordered.

And then I grimaced and glanced aside uncomfortably as I remembered why this was only coming up now. And as much as it killed me, I also knew how to break his vow of silence… maybe… hopefully? C'mon, bullshit, don't fail me now.

Acting based on my gut, I jabbed my el—er, right, he wouldn't notice that… I jabbed my fist in Jinbe's side and pointed out the megalodon. "Help me with this logjam, would you?"

The whale-shark-man glanced incredulously down at me, but he went along with it and cleared his throat, eyeing the real shark warily. "Megalo… all these years, you knew?"

"I… I…" Megalo curled in on himself with a tearful whimper, shaking his head miserably. "I saw everything… the whole thing…"

"And you didn't say anything!?" the Knight of the Sea suddenly roared. "Do you have any idea—!?"

"Ahem?" I coughed, eyeing him intently. "He did tell someone. Which is the exact problem."

I flinched under Jinbe's gaze, but it was a short-lived gaze. I could all but see the gears grinding in his head as he made the relevant connections: Megalo to Shirahoshi, and from there the crybaby princess to—!

The titanic Warlord loosed a massively tired groan, apparently overcome with an onset of overwhelming exhaustion. He sank into a sitting position on the lawn, miserably gripping the bridge of his nose. "Oh, damn it, Princess…" he lamented.

"A little exposition for those of us who aren't Cross would be nice," Merry cut in.

"I'll tell you all later," Koala replied. I shot her a look of gratitude, and the look I got in response made it clear that she was expecting me to fill in the blanks that she couldn't, which had me waving her off now. After all, at the moment I had bigger fish to—er, you get the idea.

"Megalo," I said, drawing the shark's tearful gaze. "I understand why Shirahoshi told you to do what you did, and I even respect it; it's taken more strength and responsibility than anyone her age should bear to stay silent…" I heaved a sigh of defeat. "But it also doesn't change the fact that she was wrong."

"HEY!" Megalo barked at full volume, snarling and displaying more aggression then I think I'd ever seen him show, be it in this life or my prior one. "PRINCESS SHIRAHOSHI WAS FOLLOWING HER MOTHER'S FINAL WISHES!"

"To the detriment of the Ryugu Kingdom!" I countered just as heatedly, emphasizing the point with a slap of my palm on the railing. "Look, I'm not insulting Shirahoshi, Megalo, nor the late queen! Otohime's last wishes were noble, and it's incredible that Shirahoshi's followed them all this time, but both actions were undertaken under the wrong context!"

Fury gave way to confusion, which I took as a sign to continue.

Or at least, I would have if Jinbe's rumbling growl didn't cut me off. "If Otohime's assassination had been a mere one-off. A lone, crazed gunman acting out of his own personal hatred, then letting him fade into anonymity, while ultimately undesirable, would be… Acceptable. Barely, but acceptable… Except…" He looked at me with a sad expression. "Except that this isn't that, is it?"

I shook my head in confirmation of the denial. "Not with Hody. Hody's hatred neither started nor ended with Otohime. Rather, she was an obstacle. He…" I hissed out a sigh, dragging my fingers through my hair. "In his own words, as Arlong proclaimed himself to be the rage of the fishmen, Hody Jones has literally become the incarnation of their hatred, the hatred they all hold towards humankind. His only reason for… for literally anything in life is to inflict pain on humanity. And he will stop at nothing to achieve that goal, all costs are acceptable. Even other fishmen, sympathizer or detractor alike. Queen Otohime wasn't a milestone for him, but a stepping stone. And he'll step on a hundred more, a thousand more, a million… as many as it takes, so long as it ultimately gets him what he wants. Mark my words: Hody Jones will not stop until he sees the human world set aflame… even if he needs to reduce Fishman Island to ashes to do it."

I leaned forwards and stared Megalo dead in the eye. "Trying to stop new hatred from being born won't work, Megalo. Not when we're still trying to fight the original strain from all those years ago! So please, please…!"

The titanic shark grimaced, visibly tortured by the decision I was forcing on it, and I was honestly a bit regretful for having to force it on him. But, well, to reiterate, I had to force it on him, for everyone's good.

And finally, Megalo curled in on himself with a tortured groan that I was most thankful for (and damn did it hurt that I was thankful for another sapient's pain, but desperate times and all that…).

"I-I… a-all these years, and it still d-doesn't feel real…" he said. "I-I was going for a swim when I heard about the fire, s-so of course I hurried to the Plaza as fast as I could. When I got there, though…" He shook his head. "I-I didn't know! He was a guard, he was in uniform, I thought he was putting up a perimeter, I thought…"

Megalo went silence for a moment before croaking on. "It was all so fast. I heard the bang, I heard the screams, I looked for the shooter…" His eyes snapped shut, massive tears dribbling down his cheeks. "And… there it was. A gun, in his hands, barrel smoking." The shark raised his nose and gazed into the heavens. "Then a hole opened up in the ground behind him, and that human was spat out. The guard, he shot him, picked him up and…" He concluded the tale with a massively tired sigh. "And then he showed him to the crowd and everything went straight to Charybdis. That's when I ran."

If Jinbe hadn't already been sitting down, I'm fairly certain his legs would have given out from that confirmation. Silence fell across the deck as the truth sunk in, the masquerade made to engender hate torn away and revealing the truth beneath. The anguish in the whale shark fishman's expression was plain to see; faced with Megalo's testimony, he could no longer deny the truth.

…If only his former crewmates were of a similar mind. But nooo, much to my chagrin, Kuroobi and Chew's hatred was ingrained too deep in them for them to accept such a blow to their worldview without exhausting every possibility first. And so began the chain of events that would eventually lead to what, in the future, my crewmates would affectionately refer to as 'The Verbal Blitz.'

"Th-The snail must be changing the words up, chew! He's lying! He must be!"

I could hear the desperation in Chew's voice, and the fact that he himself doubted his own words helped soften my rage, but only from 'apocalyptic' to 'infernal'. And I wasn't the only directing their anger towards the two remnants of the Arlong Empire, like, say, everyone on deck. One individual's ire was particularly pertinent.

"No."

"Who—?" Kuroobi started.

"I said no," Pappug repeated, waddling right up to the fishmen, his coworkers, and glaring them dead in the eye. "You may not be able to understand Megalo without Soundbite's translation, but I can. And I can tell you that all the snail was doing was echoing what Megalo was saying. No matter what you say, I'll take the word of a retainer to the royal family any day."

"…You… you sympathize with them, you could just be saying that to—"

Chew fell silent as Pappug, much like Megalo a couple of minutes ago, adopted a look fiercer than I ever imagined possible on his face.

"Don't you DARE. To insult my loyalty to my kingdom!" he snapped, jabbing his own chest with one of his arms. "I respect the Straw Hats to hell and back, yes, but I would never disgrace the memory of Queen Otohime by helping them lie about her demise!"

Chew's voice died. Kuroobi picked up the bargaining with a slightly less anger-inducing argument: "But he—! But this—! Jinbe, you can't believe them! They're talking about Hody! They don't know him like we do, they don't know what they're talking about!"

"No…"

The pair were stunned into silence by the solemn reply, and they could only gape as the whale-shark fishman slowly rose to his feet, turning to Kuroobi and Chew with a look that was more tired than angry.

"No," he repeated. "The only ones who don't know what they're talking about are you."

"Huh!?" they chorused.

Jinbe snarled, flashing his fangs. "Let me be clear to the both of you: You weren't there. You haven't been back to the kingdom in over a decade, so you have no idea what it's become like down there." The Warlord let out a sad huff. "You don't know Hody, not like me. You haven't seen what he's done, the monster he's turned into. You weren't at Gyoncorde Plaza, you didn't see his eyes that day. You didn't see the hate."

"Jinbe…" they pleaded desperately. Jinbe turned his back to them… and his face to me.

"Jeremiah Cross. In recent years, pirate ships have been disappearing en route to the island. Initially, I thought it was just the Flying Dutchman and its crew getting up to its old tricks, but now…"

"…if Hody hasn't reached some kind of agreement with Vander Decken yet?" I responded, my tone dark and quiet; I was still struggling to keep my anger under control. "Then yeah, I'd say it's most likely him. New 'recruits' for the New Fishman Pirates. After all, you can't fight a revolution without an army."

"You have a better word than 'recruits', don't you?" Sandersonia murmured, glowering at me over the lip of her mug.

"Yeah. 'Slaves'," I grinned madly as I spread my arms wide. "But hey, it's alright! Let's forget all about the generations of blood and tears that weigh down those chains and pick 'em right on up! After all…" my mad grin rotted into a scowl. "They're just humans."

That was the extent of how far their bigoted pride could blind them. The ray and smelt-whiting swayed, nearly falling over as horror and disgust wracked their frames. Words fell from their lips that I don't think they were fully conscious of…

"Why… why would he—!?"

That was the last thing I heard before everything got… blurry.

-o-

Luffy observed the goings-on between his crew, his old enemies, and the Warlord who seemed to be in the middle of it all with some reluctance. This was Cross's sort of thing, not his, but he knew that he couldn't say that. Not anymore. Even as he attempted to focus on current situation, his mind wandered to how things had changed.

Cross had been almost a spur-of-the-moment choice for Luffy way back in the East Blue; he and Soundbite were awesome, sure, and they had become even more awesome since then, but Luffy hadn't planned on inviting anyone else to join his crew before they left for the Grand Line. But when he saw the state that Cross was in, it was easy for him to put the pieces together thanks to his life on Mt. Corvo: whether he was shipwrecked or a runaway, he was lost. And Luffy had seen hope in his eyes when he met him, a hope that felt familiar thanks to his brothers. So he had extended the invitation, despite his crew's objections, and the conversation that followed confirmed to Luffy that he had made the right choice.

It was only a few weeks later that he learned exactly what was behind the hope in Cross's eyes. Luffy had known Cross was smart, but the whole 'other world' thing put everything in a new perspective. Learning the adventure ahead of time still repulsed him, so he was quick to keep Cross from telling them anything that wasn't really important. Maybe there would be something, but he didn't need to think about it too hard, right?

And then he found out that Sabo was alive and Ace would have died. Even after all of this time, the revelations about the two most important people to him before he found his crew shook Luffy to the core. And then he lost to Crocodile and almost died. Twice. He won the third time, but it stuck in his mind how far Crocodile pushed him. And then Vivi had been given a bounty for trying to save her country, and by the same bastards that killed—no… almost killed Sabo. He knew his journey to become the Pirate King wouldn't be easy, but he had trusted that everything would work out all right.

But Alabasta shook him. He was strong enough to protect his friends from anyone who tried hurting them with weapons or fists, but only barely; he had almost died three times. He needed to get stronger. And even then, he couldn't hurt the ones who hurt Vivi. But Cross could. The mystery bastard gave Cross the key to using his mystery knowledge to shake the entire world in retaliation. Luffy had let him. He had kept letting him, ignoring whatever spoilers he shared with Zoro, Nami, and Vivi so that he could do what Luffy couldn't. And at that time, Luffy truly understood just how much power Cross's knowledge gave him.

And then Cross started bringing others into the crew. Luffy had always planned on having a small crew, only about ten people, but that had changed along with everything else; his crew doubled in size when they left Alabasta and had grown more with every island that they visited, either in crewmates or in allies. Luffy was never mad about it; every single person or animal who joined was awesome, but in the aftermath of Alabasta, he'd had to re-evaluate his plans. He had assigned Cross to make the plans because he was smarter, and while Luffy's stance on that hadn't changed since Whiskey Peak, his outlook had. The journey was going to be harder and more out of control than he thought, and he needed to be stronger… and not just in body.

He took Cross's advice and started practicing with his Devil Fruit before they left for the Sky Island. It was thanks to that that he was able to save Conis and Su from Eneru, which eventually led to her joining his crew. That was proof enough that getting smarter was good despite the headaches thinking too much produced, but he got it hammered home after Navarone, when Cross matched wits with a Vice Admiral and won. Luffy had vowed to himself that day that he would actively try to be smarter… just so that he could potentially pay his grandpa back for all of the hell he put them through. He was a Vice Admiral too, so that would work, right?

The next island only added to his growing proof. Luffy's anger had been kindled from the moment that he met Foxy, and he chose to beat him at his own game. Wits and traps had allowed a weakling to push Luffy almost as far as Crocodile did in their last match. And then came Admiral Aokiji. Cross's knowledge was the only thing that actually hurt the admiral, and the admiral's parting words hurt his crew more than the beatdown he had given them ever could. That had been the final straw; seeing what a few choice words from an enemy did to his crew, seeing the despair in Robin's eyes, he did the only thing he could to prepare them against that in the future, and put his trust in Cross to forearm them.

Even with all of that, he almost died in his next big fight. He couldn't lose… but he did. The words of his friends and crewmates, the reminder that Lucci would hurt the ones he had vowed to protect, spurred him on and allowed him to win, but it had exhausted him to an extent that he hadn't known since Porchemy's interrogation. Then there was Merry. Cross had bargained for a miracle to save her, and he got it, but it shouldn't have come to that in the first place. Cross had done everything he could to forearm them and protect her and it hadn't been enough. Even knowing the future wasn't a guarantee that he could change it. Thriller Bark was more proof of that; Cross's plan went perfectly, and then everything went wrong. Luffy exhausted himself against Moria, leaving him out cold and unable to protect his crew when another Warlord showed up.

Luffy couldn't hold anything against Zoro, or Nami for that matter; it had sunk in that all of them would give their lives for each other, even though they wouldn't have to, because they would keep getting stronger and stronger. This time, like the previous times, Luffy's anger at what had happened and what his crew had to do was swallowed up in the relief that they still won, and they were all still alive. Even after all of this time, he still had that trust that everything would work out all right. Even when he came up against Shiki, someone who fought Roger himself, that was still the case.

But it was only now, seeing Cross's memory refreshed as he saw what Luffy knew, somehow, to be Ace dying, seeing Cross brought to tears just from the memory, that he made the connection in his mind: Cross felt even more of a burden than he did. Luffy's job as captain was to protect his crew, and to do that, he was the strongest of them all. He knew that he could protect them from whoever tried to hurt them. Cross didn't, and yet because of how much he knew about them and their future, he still felt like he had to… and his burden wasn't limited to just the Straw Hat Pirates, either.

And that was what broke through Luffy's mind once and for all. He knew that there were still things Cross could do that he couldn't, and he knew that he only told a select few of the crew his plans because they were good at keeping secrets. But if Luffy being ignorant was forcing an even heavier burden than his on Cross and those crewmates, then he was done with it. He knew well by now that Cross couldn't spoil the fun of the adventure by telling them about it ahead of time, and if that was the case, then he had no excuse to keep closing his eyes and plugging his ears.

So he watched and he listened as Cross fought and everyone reacted. He saw as a Warlord came onboard and heard him threaten his crewmate. He gave his consent for Cross to say whatever he had to without a second thought. He saw Cross slowly wear down their old enemies. He heard the ones who weren't on his crew help Cross until their old enemies couldn't deny the horrible truth anymore. He saw them sink to their knees, broken, and heard them speak words that were hardly coherent.

"Why… why would he—!?"

"Why…"

And then he saw and heard as, for the second time in all the time that he'd known him, Cross well and truly snapped.

"Why… why!? WHYYY!?"

Acting on his instincts and way too much experience with Ace (though this was the first time it actually worked), Luffy snapped his arm out and snagged his tactician by his collar. And not a second too soon either, as literally a second later, Cross roared in primal fury and lunged at the non-bastard fishmen on the deck, honest-to-goodness murder in every inch of his frame and his gauntlets still reaching for their throats. At the same time, he saw Zoro and Conis silently putting themselves in front of Lassoo and Funkfreed before they could go to their partner's aid.

Not that they really needed to, seeing as the weapon-Zoans (and how cool was that? Living weapons! His crew was just the best!) weren't doing anything more serious than just growling and pawing at the deck; they'd probably be a lot harder to stop if Cross actually called them…

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK, YOU BASTARDS!?"

Except there wasn't any chance of that happening because Cross was still out of his mind. Like, seriously out of it, white eyes and… was that—? Yeah, foam, just a bit, out of the corner of his mouth. Eesh, Luffy didn't think he'd ever seen Ace…? Oh, no no, now he remembered, it was that time one of the nobles just literally walked over him while they were sneaking through Goa. It didn't hurt or anything but that didn't stop Ace from almost ripping the guy's—

"Woops!" Luffy cursed under his breath and hastily resecured his grip on Cross's shirt instead of his jacket, on account of Cross almost slipping free of his outer layer. Deciding to avoid any more near misses, Luffy pulled his head out of his memories of the good old days and refocused on the good old present.

"YOU'RE THE ONES WHO FUCKING TOLD HIM TO!" Cross was raging, spittle flying without care or control. "YOU TOLD ALL OF THEM! HODY, DOSUN, ZEO, DARUMA, IKAROS! YOU PREACHED SCRIPTURE AT THEM AND THEY FUCKING FOLLOWED IT TO A T!"

"W-We never told them to—!" the ray-guy tried to protest, reeling back from the human half his size in terror.

"YOU DIDN'T NEED TO!" Cross cut him off, swinging his arms wildly as he did his best to get at their necks. "YOU SPENT THEIR MOST MALLEABLE YEARS TELLING AN ENTIRE FUCKING GENERATION THAT HUMANS WERE THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, THAT THEY WERE TO BE HATED AND DESPISED, NO MATTER THE COST! WHAT THE HELL ELSE DID YOU EXPECT?! THAT THEY WOULD JUST OH-SO-NICELY APPLY FUCKING NUANCE?! CONSIDER ANYTHING OTHER THAN HATE, EVEN IF IT HURTS THEM OR ANY OTHER FISH-OR-MERFOLK IN THE PROCESS?! MERCY, COMPASSION, COMMON-FUCKING-DECENCY! BECAUSE OF YOU, THOSE WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO THEM! THEY'RE NOT EVEN PEOPLE ANYMORE, JUST WALKING CORPSES FILLED WITH HATE! YOUR HATE!"

Wow, talk about a rant. Briefly, Luffy debated whether to stop this or not. On the one hand, it was going on kinda long. But on the other hand, Cross probably needed to get this off his chest, and all that talk about 'malleable years' was actually kinda interesting. Something to ask Cross about later?

"BECAUSE OF YOU WORTHLESS SKIDMARKS, HODY AND THE REST HAVE HURT THOUSANDS, WILL HURT THOUSANDS MORE, BUT NOT BEFORE I TEAR OUT YOUR FUCKING TONGUES AND SHOVE THEM—!"

Oops, okay, maybe it was time to stop things—oh, wait, no, that was Koala's hand grabbing Cross' neck. To Luffy's relief, his third mate immediately choked off into a gurgle and slumped over, unconscious. As a quick shake from Luffy confirmed.

"Phew, thanks, Koala!" the rubber-man grinned at the new friend.

The blonde shrugged casually as she hefted her unconscious ally onto her shoulder. "Not a problem, that was starting to get inappropriate even for this situation. If it's alright with you, I'm going to take him somewhere quiet, help him cool down before he hurts someone… or himself."

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great!" Luffy's grin extended into outright beaming, and he jabbed his thumb towards the Sunny's rear—er, aft. "Go ahead and use the Aquarium Lounge, I don't think there's anyone in there right now."

"Got it, thanks." And with that, Koala would have set off… if the repeat offenders on deck didn't choose to open their mouths one last time.

"Chew…" Chew audibly sighed in relief, wiping a layer of sweat from his forehead and smiling gratefully at Koala. He then walked forwards and made to pat his hand on the Revolutionary's shoulder. "Thanks for that, Koala. For a second there, chew, I was actually worried about the little—!"

SMACK!

And just like that, the tension ratcheted right back up to maximum as Koala batted the smelt-whiting fishman's hand away and fixed him with a chilling look. Not even angry, just cold and emotionless.

"Don't touch me," she ordered, and nearly everyone who heard the words shivered from the sheer level of utter contempt packed into the sentence. Luffy, though, just watched impassively.

"Buh-I-wha—?!" Chew sputtered incredulously, trying and failing to find the words for what had just happened.

Kuroobi, however, had no such (or at least less) problems. "What the hell, Koala?!" he demanded, stomping towards the Revolutionary. "It's been over a decade since we last saw each other, but now you're snubbing us! Treating us like—like we're—!"

"Like you're what?" Koala inquired in her still-placid tone, meeting his panicked gaze with her calm one. "Like you're enemies? The enemy? Scum of the earth, even? All inaccurate, I assure you. My opinion regarding you two is far below such lofty stations."

"Why are you saying this, chew!?" Chew demanded. "Koala, we're your friends!"

Luffy frowned. Why on earth did they think that? It was pretty obvious that she really didn't like them. The only conclusion he could come to was that they were idiots, so that was at least correctible. As the ambient temperature plummeted even further, he made his move.

"Uh, no, she isn't," he said in disdainful confusion.

"What he said. I have never been friends with you." The words were delivered calmly, clearly, and both weathered the stricken looks the fishmen shot her and aborted any attempt to protest Luffy's declaration. "You appear confused, so allow me to clarify: you see, I was friends with a ray fishman and a smelt-whiting fishman who were also called Kuroobi and Chew, back when I was younger. But they were Sun Pirates. Good pirates. Good people."

She shook her head in slow, disappointed denial. "But they're dead now. They died when Tiger died. And you? You might have their names and their faces, but you're nothing like them. You're Arlong Pirates. I wouldn't be caught dead being friendly with you. And I can't imagine there's a single self-respecting person above or below the seas who would be."

Koala punctuated the lecture's conclusion by repositioning Cross on shoulder and giving the fishmen a curt nod.

"Have a nice day."

In the silence that resounded following Koala's final statement, the closing of the lounge's door blasted out like a cannonball detonation. Still, awkward as the deck-wide hesitation was, Luffy was actually a little grateful for it. After all, it gave him a chance to catch up with things and actually (ugh) think about everything that had just happened.

"Mm… ngh!" Luffy grimaced as he hastily abandoned that ill-conceived course of action. Seriously, he had no idea why anyone else would do something so dumb like thinking; he'd save using his brain for life and death situations, thank you very much!

Tashigi broke the silence after a minute. "Popora, would reviving that many memories at once have amplified the feelings that he felt from them?"

The strange creature (rabbit-wolf! With a hammer! So cool!) folded his arms in contemplation. Then he shrugged and gestured to the door that had just closed.

"'Based on that, apparently'," Tashigi translated, sighing and rubbing her forehead. "I shouldn't have used up that mood-lifter so soon."

Luffy's grimace deepened briefly, but he shook it off; he would need to talk to Cross later, but his third mate was in good hands for now. With that problem done, his eyes scanned over the deck, and immediately fell on the only fishman onboard whom he hadn't met, and who seemed to be a good guy.

"Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates!" he said, extending a hand to said fishman.

Jinbe blinked, not doing anything, which was fine, because Luffy got that reaction a lot. Then he too broke into a smile and returned Luffy's handshake.

"Jinbe, Captain of the Sun Pirates and Warlord of the Seas. It's... honestly a pleasure to meet you, Luffy."

"Shishishi!" Luffy snickered as his grin extended to its normal, comfortable width. Honestly, all the complicated stuff and big emotions that were flying around could go soak their heads. If the rubber-man only knew one thing, it was that today was turning out to be a very good day.

-o-

With everyone's attention diverted to what could easily be defined as the World Government's worst nightmare coming to life, nobody paid much mind to the morally defeated fishmen as they stumbled aside, all but dead on their feet.

"How…" Kuroobi choked, images of someone he had last seen as a future member of their crew clashing with the form of their beloved queen; the smiling slave girl with the cold Revolutionary that scorned them; their sobbing captain as he lay dying with their laughing captain as he gloated over bringing another human into chains.

"…How could things have gone so wrong?"

Chew was in complete agreement, still unable to see how preaching their message about the past with humans and the way to treat them had carried over to murdering Otohime. Arlong himself would have led a lynching against anyone on their crew who would have dared to kill a fellow fishman, human sympathizer or no. And a threat to their queen? Arlong would have torn their throat out himself.

So… So for it to be someone who'd worshipped Arlong so thoroughly, who'd held onto his every word, who they remembered so clearly…

"I don't know," Chew sighed miserably.

"No?"

Both stiffened at the voice in their ears, and they snapped their heads around to stare at the other, previously neglected half of the Voices of Anarchy.

"You still don't get it? Well, then…" Soundbite swayed his neck side to side, piping in the neck cracks his body lacked the bones to produce naturally. "WELL THEN, LET ME HELP. Because if I need to listen TO CROSS GO THROUGH EMOTIONAL HELL, SO DO YOU. NOW SHUT UP, NUT UP, AND LISTEN TO how badly you fucked up."

Both briefly considered going overboard. That was immediately countered with the fact that Jinbe would catch them if they tried. That almost didn't stop them. Almost. In the end, the two of them decided not to try and were left with no choice but to await whatever the louder of the Voices of Anarchy had in store.

-o-

My first thoughts upon waking up were hastily shoved together, and the general gist was quick to slip out of my mouth: "I'M GONNA KILL THOSE—!"

THWACK!

Waking up for the second time, I was calm enough that I could fake being calm so I could try and get my gauntlets around a certain pair of scaled necks. "Okay, alright, I've calmed down, I'm ready to apologize—!"

THWACK!

Waking up for the third time, I reflected on the fact that, OK, so my tone there gave away that I was lying. But I wasn't lying anymore now, for real. In retrospect, I might have overreacted a bit. "Alright, now I'm calm, you can stop—!"

THWACK!

Fourth time, my ire at the fishmen was… eclipsed. "AND NOW I'M PISSED AGAIN!" I roared.

"That's what I was looking for. Now we can start to talk," Koala stated.

I opened my mouth to ask her what she was talking about. Then I noticed I wasn't on deck anymore. I was in the aquarium lounge, highlighted by the light dancing around the shadows and fish all around me. It really felt like we were underwater. Alone. With nobody else listening…

I slowly pulled myself to my feet and walked up to the aquarium's glass, staring into the pseudo-depths. Stared at a sight that so many others were familiar with… a sight that was the only sight so many had seen their entire lives. That would be the only sight many would see.

"…they were just children, damn it."

As she moved to stand next to me, Koala gave me a questioning look.

"Hodi and his bunch," I clarified, my eyes following the fish as they idly swam about, blissful in their ignorance. "They were... for God's sakes, they were just children. They… They weren't always like this. They weren't always monsters, they weren't always evil. They… once upon a time, they were children."

In spite of myself, a wistful smile crossed my face. "Innocent, hopeful, with the whole world spread out before them, nothing impossible to them. They could have done anything. They could have gone on to become builders, to become artists or heroes or... or anything at all. They could have been incredible…" And then, just as swiftly, my smile died and was replaced by a blistering scowl. "But that didn't happen. That didn't happen because they were corrupted. That didn't happen because their futures were stolen away, and their lives were ruined. And because of that… so many others were, too."

I lapsed into a heavy silence, and Koala was kind enough to simply wait for me to start speaking again.

"She was... she was close, ya know?" I smiled wistfully. "Otohime, I mean. She was so close. People were starting to give her the signatures she needed, she had the document, the Reverie was fast-approaching… if she hadn't… if she'd gone…" I chuckled as I tried, tried to rub the weariness from my eyes. "Hell, if she'd managed it sooner, if she weren't being dragged two steps back for every step forward… If just one thing had gone right…"

"You think we'd be equal today," Koala tiredly summarized, having probably long since thought the same thing.

I felt the sides of my mouth turn upward. Reaching up, I rested one hand on the glass. As expected the fish nearby immediately scattered.

"…no," I admitted. "I wish, but no. It wouldn't be that fast; there'd still be racism, still be oppression and inequality. There would still be so much work to do. But... But I think that they'd be here." I helplessly waved my free hand back at the rest of the world. "Fishmen on islands, walking on the same streets as humans. They'd be separate, yes... but damn it all, it would be a start. It would be the foot in the door for change. A foot in the door for peace and equality and tolerance, a chance for humans and fishmen to talk and know each other. I think that if one thing had been different, then we'd have the chance to start teaching a new generation. I think…"

From out of the depths of the tank, a lone fish swam up to my hand and started glubbing about it curiously. It was so small, so obviously young and… and I couldn't help but smile at it.

"I think that the children would play together," I whispered to myself. "Regardless of what poison or ignorance their parents might tell them, the children would play together because they would just be children. They wouldn't know anything of hate or prejudice, and they'd grow up knowing their parents' words to be dead wrong. And I think they'd go on to create a future more glorious than any of us could imagine..."

And for a few seconds, a few wonderful, glorious moments, I basked in the image of that wonderful, un-ironic Brave New World…

SLAM!

And then I scowled and rammed my fist against the tank, scaring the fish off.

"…but that didn't happen. That didn't happen because one fool, one reckless, hateful fool decided to spew his bile and his poison without a thought for the consequences, and he destroyed a generation because of it. And I…" I grimaced in shame, and it took me a second to muster up the words… but hell, what good was there in denying it. "I hate him for it. I hate him, I hate his senseless corruption… and most of all, I hate what he did. Arlong stole a most beautiful future from us, from the world… and I can never forgive him for that."

"… heh," Koala chuckled grimly, clenching and unclenching her hands. "Yeah, I'll admit, all of this is…it's…" Her smile became distinctly rictus-like as her fingers snapped into a trembling fist. "I really wish we knew where he was, so that I could have a talk with him. Ah…" She blinked, and looked at me curiously after a second of curious stillness. "But… You weren't even part of the crew for Arlong Park. In fact, you've never met him in person. But you still hate him that much?"

The rush of my rage drained out of me, leaving me empty and exhausted. I turned around and sank onto the lounge sofa, dropping my face into my hands. I was vaguely aware of Koala sitting down next to me as I spoke again. "How could I not? His actions speak for themselves, echoing out and affecting the world, even now that he's been defeated. I mean…" I waved a hand off into the distance. "Just look at the East Blue."

Koala grimaced. "Cocoyashi."

"It's not even about the adults," I lamented. "Once again, it comes back to the children. Right now, there's an entire generation out there that grew up fearing fishmen. And while that was with good reason, the problem is that now that the threat is gone, fear will become hate. And they will apply that hate to all fishmen, because fishmen like Arlong are all they have ever known. And once they grow up and have kids of their own?" I shook my head. "They'll tell them of the bad old days, of the monsters from the sea that once made mommy and daddy suffer…"

"And then those new kids will fear and hate an entire species, because that was what they were told growing up. Just like Hody," the Revolutionary sighed.

I yanked the brim of my cap down. No way was I locking eyes with anyone. Not now. "And hell, who knows. Maybe one will decide to become the hero humanity needs, and dedicate himself to exterminating the 'subhuman monsters', in the name of peace and justice." I spun a finger in the air. "Another spoke in the wheel. Hate rolls on unimpeded and we're back where we started, caked in more blood than before."

There was another break in the conversation, which Koala ended by giving me a quizzical look. "If you don't mind me saying so, even with all that, you're still taking this pretty personally, Cross. Too personally for someone who grew up in a world without fishmen."

"HA!"

Koala actually recoiled, but I couldn't blame her, seeing as I'd just barked like a mad seal.

"Yeah, you're completely right," I sneered venomously, disgust coating my every word. "There weren't any fishmen back on Earth. No fishmen, no mermaids, no minks, no nothing. Just us humans. But what does that change? Hate, racism? They're universal. So we didn't have any other species to hate, so what? We still had each other. A whole world of nothing but humans, what else would you expect us to do but turn on each other? Skin color, religion, politics, nationality, even sex and sexuality. Throughout history, we've found a million and one reasons to divide ourselves into an infinite number of factions, all at each other's throats at the same time. It's like no matter where you go… anyone who's 'different' is the 'enemy'."

I barely acknowledged Koala's hand on my shoulder.

I did, however, acknowledge her words: "Who was it?"

I'm… more than a little ashamed and embarrassed to acknowledge that my mind blanked a bit at that statement, and as such I acted on instinct and snarled as I smacked her hand off, shooting up to loom over her, a statue of indignance.

"'Who was it?'" I repeated, my voice surprisingly steady for the shakes that I had suddenly developed. "I can't just be a decent person with some fucking empathy? I need to have personally known someone who suffered? Bull! Shit! You don't need to fucking have bigotry happen to you, or someone you personally know, to know that it's a stupid, hateful thing that ruins lives! And the fact that that's lost on so damn many of my fellow humans pisses me off!"

Gritting my teeth, I reigned myself in, despite the effort of will it took. On the other side, Koala exhaled slowly and shook her head.

"Alright, I owe you an apology for that," she said. "I've thought the same for years, I shouldn't have assumed you weren't thinking the same way."

I really, honestly wanted to stay ticked at her, but at the same time, I knew I couldn't, and so I heaved a heavy sigh and dropped back onto the seat.

"…still," Koala eventually tried again, drumming her fingers on the cushion. "Even if something like that isn't your motivation, something is… ah. Let me try again: you tried what you've been doing here with the SBS back in your home, but failed?"

I slumped forward and all but cradled my head between my knees in shame. "Actually… the opposite. One thing you need to understand about my home? We were all connected. Everyone could speak at once and say anything they wanted… so as a result, little of worth was ever truly said. If I'd ever spoken up, I'd have been one voice lost among millions, a statistic. I couldn't 'fail' because I never even started. I couldn't speak up and make people realize just how inherently stupid they were all being, how-how asinine it is to discriminate on the physical, where such differences are ephemeral, when true evil is and always will be a mental construct, and—!" I cut myself off mid-sentence; I'd been building into a lecture… or, more realistically, a rant.

Once I'd calmed down and felt that urge leave, I changed tracks. "But here… I'm the voice. Here, I know that people are actually listening to me, that I'm reaching people…" My head sunk lower as I considered the reality of things. "Even if it's only because they have to listen to me…"

"And what are you forcing them to listen to?"

I didn't answer. Didn't look up. What was there to say?

"Cross, listen to me." I looked up, just as Koala put her hand on my shoulder again. "Back on Skypiea, when you first proved to the world that you had the kind of guts it takes to do anything close to what you're doing, you said something that baffled a lot of us. You called yourself ordinary because you stuck up for what you believed in and would try helping someone who needed it. I'm guessing you saw it happen pretty often in your story, but just to be clear. How many times did it happen when the Straw Hats weren't involved?"

"I, uh… well…" I hesitated slightly at that specification, and I wracked my mind, thanking Popora for the memory refresh. "There was Otohime… King Riku… the Nefertaris… Gan Fall… Dalton—"

"So royalty," Koala interrupted.

An interruption I barely even noticed. "Oh, yeah, there were the Drum citizens who went to help him out…"

"Oh, yeah, heard about that," Koala muttered, which brought me out of my thoughts. "But that's a country that had to learn to stand on its own when its entire government and army bailed on them. They're not normal, at all. Besides, if you and they were the norm, the Revolutionary Army would have achieved their goals years ago. Hell!" She threw her hands up with a despairing laugh. "One of our executives has the Cheer-Cheer Fruit, meaning that she can turn an oppressed town full of cowards into a rebel mob just by waving a flag and saying a few words, and she struggles to create a lasting impact. Maybe the norm is for people to be good, but it's not for them to be brave."

I had a rebuttal ready, myself, but that wasn't the point here. Instead, I sat back and waited for her to continue, even as she gazed longingly into the aquarium behind us.

"A year ago," she reminisced, her tone wistful. "When Hack and I liberated an island, we stayed behind for a week to help oversee the return to stability." Her face then scrunched up in a mask of disgust. "Over that course of time, the children would throw stones at Hack, call him names, dare each other to touch the creepy fish thing, and then chase each other yelling about infecting them with the fishy diseases. People whispered behind his back, others said it to his face, and at one point the town's mayor politely asked him to leave because his presence was, and I quote, disturbing the peace."

She looked forward again and stared at her trembling fists. "The entire time, I wanted nothing more than to bash their brains out, to force them to get on their knees and apologize, for every slight, every glance. I wanted to take out eleven straight years of abuse and misery on the entire island, all at once. But I reined in my temper, because I knew that they weren't like me. They didn't know, couldn't know. No matter how much I hated them for what they did, it wasn't their fault."

I was momentarily tempted to give her a comforting hand like she'd tried for me, but before I could, she suddenly perked up, beaming with unchecked glee.

"And then you happened. You, and everything you've done." Stars bloomed in her eyes, and I was forced to actually reel back on account of just how blinding they were. "Three months ago, we liberated an island, we stayed to keep the peace. The children stared… but this time it was in awe. They whispered about how cool Hack was, they asked if they could feel his muscles, he even signed autographs. The people, they were always asking him if he could help out around the town and striking up conversations with him; twice he got asked if he was seeing anyone, once someone actually asked him on a date."

I really tried to compose myself—yeah, no. I snorted in amusement at the thought of Hack getting propositioned, by a human no less. "Did he go through with it?" I inquired between snickers.

Koala giggled. "You mean after Sabo and I dragged him back when he tried to make a break for it? Four dates and then they broke it off rather than go for long distance, but they still keep in touch. I honestly think that after everything—GWAH!" Palms met cheeks, leaving behind red marks. "A-Anyway, getting back on track…"

"Really, I think the clincher was when the local schoolteacher came up to him. Came right up to Hack and asked him if he could stand in front of his entire class and tell them about fishmen and Fishman Island… because they were asking so many questions the teacher didn't have answers to, and because the teacher wanted to know those answers, too." Koala craned her head back, tears of bliss shining in her eyes. "And then the parents asked if they could attend the next day, and the parents' friends, until pretty soon Hack was giving lessons in the local park because that was the only place with enough room for everyone. I'm pretty sure that everyone in that town attended at least once."

I stared at her, shellshocked, trying to process just the sheer… everything she'd hammered me with. Teaching. In a park. Because the entire town wanted to know. WHAT.

While I tried to process that, Koala stayed lost in the memories before wiping her tears away and turning to lock eyes with me.

"You told us that both sides needed to reach for each other, Cross. Well, guess what? For the first time in living history, humanity is reaching out. The ordinary side of humanity that never experiences half of the madness that we have. And that's all because of you and your. Big. Mouth." Each word was emphasized with a shove of her finger into my chest.

Any time else, I'd have been a bit freaked out by how she was almost looming over me with manic glee in her eyes, but at the moment? I was too busy making sure I heard every word.

"You're not a normal person, Jeremiah Cross. You're a Straw Hat. You have an earthshaking dream and the guts, power, and friends that you need to get there. You may not be able to fix the generations of hate between humans and fishmen in a day, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything. Just think about what you can do, and who you can ask for help. And then… do it. And I assure you, whatever it is you do… will be glorious."

I smiled as she finished. Honestly, I had been thinking a little too hard about the crew's upcoming separation to consider much about the slave houses beyond 'don't let Keimi get captured' and 'Luffy is still going to punch out Charloss either way.' But having that pointed out to me, I really did have the resources to do something… more…

"More?" I muttered to myself as the pieces clicked together at Mach 10 in my mind. "Try 'freaking spectacular'."

"Huh? Cross, did you—OOF!"

I cut off Koala's words by grabbing her in a hug. With the ideas she had just sparked in my mind, I had a moral obligation to do no less! "You brilliant, wonderful dropbear, I could just about kiss you right now!" I cheered gleefully.

Before she could react, I let go of her, sprinting for the door to the deck. Halfway there, I heard Koala finally get her wits back about her.

"That's not much better than 'cuddly,' Cross! And what the hell are you talking about!? Hey, get back here!"

I didn't pay much attention, however, as I was far more focused on enacting the first step in my newest master plan that would well and truly hit the World Government right where it hurt. But, in order to actually go through with this brilliant (if I do say so myself) plan, I needed to take advantage of a window of opportunity that would be closing any second now.

SLAM!

"MEGALO! You beautiful blubbery bastard!" I proclaimed, bringing all conversation on deck to a screeching halt. I noted the bigot-some twosome in particular jumping in surprise and summarily ignored them. I also noticed that Luffy and Jinbe had apparently been chatting; that got filed away for later. For now, there were schemes to be had!

"Quit your moping and get your head in the game!" I declared as I walked to and picked up my slimy partner-in-crime. "I've got a malevolent masterplan manifesting, and for it to come to fruition, I need your opinion and expertise regarding politics!"

"He's BA-ACK!" Soundbite crooned eagerly.

"And don't you forget it!" I cheered as I slapped him back onto my shoulder.

"Yeah, apparently he bounces back after he gets an idea," Koala added as she walked out behind me, giving me a wary eye I politely chose to ignore.

Several eager grins and several pale faces met that declaration.

"WELP!" Sandersonia suddenly shot up off her barrel with an overly wide and twitchy grin. "I, ah, I think I've overstayed my welcome! Places to be, evil pirates to sink, puppies to get out from under my sister's foot, things like that!"

"Likewise!" Tashigi yelped, adjusting her bandages to maximize her mobility as she powerwalked (not fled, as she'd later insist) for the railing. "Come on, Popora, we've got to pick up the the food so that we can deliver it to the pirates and get back to arresting our men!"

Popora flatly cocked an eyebrow at her.

"YES I KNOW WHAT I JUST SAID JUST HURRY UP AND RUN BEFORE—!"

"Oh captain my captain?" I inquired, snapping of my fingers.

"Shishishi!" said captain snickered as he started wheeling his arms. "You got it!"

"BOOK IT!" Sandersonia wailed, leading Tashigi in an attempted leap over the edge of the Sunny. And seeing as she of all people tried to leap into the sea, I suppose she really was quite terrified of whatever I was cooking up; I was honestly a little flattered she thought so highly of me.

Key word in that action being attempted, mind, on account of Luffy's arms shooting out and dragging them back onto the deck, no matter how furiously they tried to squirm their way out.

"Now now, quit your squirming, you two," I chided as I stood over them, tapping my foot impatiently. "For my plan to achieve maximum effectiveness, I'm going to need you both to chip in. Sandersonia, your Warlord-grade strength is a definite must-have for this kind of shindig. Pluuus, I think you're going to forever hate yourself if you're not part of this, you'll love it so much."

Sandersonia's struggling ended alongside a positively inquisitive hum. "Mmm?"

"And you, Tashigi, I need your help legalizing this endeavor so that I can better embarrass the military service you've pledged your life to. And you can't refuse because if you do, you'd be leaving a lot of innocent people high and dry to suffer."

Tashigi hung her head with a defeated groan. "Oooh…"

"Er… Cross?" Koala inquired, slowly edging towards the railing, most likely in an attempt to avoid my scrutiny. "Just wondering, but is there any truly pressing reason you need me around?"

I decided to throw the poor Revolutionary a bone and waved my hand dismissively. "None that I can think of at the moment, no."

"Great! Later, losers!" Koala cheered, shooting her less fortunate cohorts a parting salute before attempting to bolt.

'Attempting' because, on a whim, I changed my mind. "Oh, Nami?"

"Eisen Tempo," said witch deadpanned, and her cloudy halo shot out—

"GWAH!?"

—and snagged Koala by her ankles, swinging her around to hang in front of me.

"Hiya!" I sang, waving cheerily at her.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU JUST SAID YOU DIDN'T NEED ME!" Koala yowled, trying—and failing by a good foot—to wring my neck.

"I know, but would you believe I simply enjoy your company?" I inquired with innocent curiosity.

"FUCK YOU!"

"Fine, then I'm just greedy." I waved her off dismissively as I turned my back on her. "Nami, drop her with the rest."

"OOF! Son of a—! Uh…" The Revolutionary shrunk in on herself as she looked at her two new and newly leering friends who were very much projecting a desire to wring her neck. "Hi there, losers?"

Megalo, meanwhile, had watched the whole thing with a gaping mouth and twitching eye. That continued for a few seconds more before he tentatively raised his flipper, expression not changing on whit. "So, uh, you said you wanted to talk?"

I attempted to contain myself, truly I did, but when I thought about what was to come, of the truly unprecedented undertaking we were about to undergo—!

"Ah, screw it! I can't takes it no more!" I cackled, pumping my fist before wheeling on Luffy and dropping to a knee before him, clasping my hands in supplication. "Captain! I've got a plan that'll plant one right up this world's tailpipe, and I'm itching to let it loose! I can talk with Megalo on the way, but for now, can we get going? Can we can we can we?"

"Well…" Luffy tilted his head. "That depends: What's there to see at the Sasparilly Archaeos?"

"Uh…" I wracked my brain as I thought up all the defining features of the Archipelago. The most prominent being an unchecked slave market, rampant xenophobia, and… "There's an amusement park?" I tried. "With a ferris wheel?"

"FERRIS WHEEL!" Luffy threw his arms—"AGH!"/"YEEK!" Along with Sandersonia and Tashigi—up in the air. "Alright, let's go!" He eagerly grinned at me. "You wanna give the order?"

"HELL YES!" I raised my foot to prop it on the nearest barrel, and as I felt the wood beneath my sole, I called out our heading. "CREW, WEIGH ANCHOR! SET SAIL FOR THE SABAODY ARCHIPELAGO!"

"BELAY THAT!"

Aaand chalk up one more friend showing up, as a familiar bird interrupted us by fluttering down onto the railing and saluting me. "Good to see you as always, Cross."

"I'd like to say the same, Coo, but you're kind of ruining my moment here," I replied, the bulging vein on my forehead visible out of the corner of my eye. "And on a related note, I'm guessing that this is one of the more unfortunate early editions?"

I deliberately ignored the wooden surface under my foot that had shoved the barrel aside as she shuffled away with a blush on her face, muttering about 'old times' and 'force of habit.'

"Mmm, not so much 'unfortunate' as 'inconvenient'," Coo stated, thoroughly unruffled by my protests. That meant the annoyed frown on his face was due to something else. Great. "At least, as far as you guys go. Now, let's see… yo, white-hat." He angled his beak at Tashigi. "I'm assuming you've already told these guys about the privateer armada your people have been hiring?"

"Er… yes?" Tashigi carefully confirmed, obviously dreading where this was going as much as we suddenly were. "HQ's spent a small fortune on those lowlifes, but that just stopped."

Coo snorted derisively as he tipped his newsie's cap down. "The reason they 'stopped' was that they've hired all they needed, and the reason I'm here is that they've deployed them all. You all can't go to Sabaody for the exact reason that nobody on the wrong side of the law is going to Sabaody anytime soon: the Marines have deployed their cutthroats all around the Archipelago, and have effectively blockaded the entire thing. Or, at the least, enough of it that anyone who wants to get around it will wind up sailing straight into the Marine garrison. I hate to break it to you, but you're not getting anywhere near that island without a fight."

Complete shock rippled across the deck, and what was left of my earlier euphoria fled for South America.

"Not… part of the plan…" I gurgled weakly. "I know they hate us, me especially, but this bad!?"

"Weeell, kinda," Coo hedged. "They're trying to stop you, yeah, but not 'you' specifically. More like 'you' in general, if you catch my drift."

"Pirates," Robin calmly interrupted, thoughtfully adjusting the brim of her hat. "The rest of the Supernovas. They're reaching the Red Line at the same time as us."

"And the last thing anyone sane would want is the most infamous pirates of your generation all in the same place at the same time," Jinbe nodded sagely. "The Government is already prodding us Warlords to handle you swiftly and decisively, and, no offense, I can't rightly blame them. The New World is a delicate balancing act of power as-is. The idea of even one of you crossing the Red Line and potentially provoking an Emperor into going to war is quite frightening indeed."

"Guh…" I moaned nervously under my breath, tugging nervously at my collar. Did it suddenly get hot out here?

"I have a bad feeling in my gut…" Brook whispered to Franky. "Which, considering how I don't have one, is impressive! YOHO—!"

"Not to ruin your joke, old man, but really not the time," the cyborg said.

The literal bonehead shrugged casually. "Fair enough, it was a low-hanging one anyways."

"Well, if that's how it is, then I suppose there's nothing we can do about it," Nami sighed. "We're in no rush, so we can just find an island where we can hole up, let everyone else bash themselves to pieces against the blockade, and then once the Marines have lost interest—"

"My master plan involves us doubling our net worth, at minimum, and without the Supernovas we can't pull it off," I deadpanned.

"I'LL TURN THOSE TURNCOATS TO ASH!" Nami howled furiously. Lightning crashed down in concert with her ire, causing everyone's hair to stand on end and causing the fishy twosome to leap back in supremely satisfying terror. Still…

"As incredible as that idea sounds, I don't think it's a viable one," I carefully pointed out.

"Cross is right," Vivi interjected, gnawing on her thumb as she gazed out to sea. "The primary issue here isn't the blockade, it's how close we are to Marine Headquarters, Marineford. If we get tied up in one place too long, making too much noise, then they're liable to send reinforcements. And even ignoring how any set of reinforcements from Marineford would match a Buster Call in strength, Vice Admirals and everything, there'd almost certainly be one addition to the lineup that would mean certain death."

"…An Admiral."

I blinked in surprise, because that was the exact reason we needed to be careful. I looked around for who said it, and nearly fell to the deck when I realized that everyone else was looking at Luffy in surprise

Luffy's gaze suddenly stared at me from the shadows of his hat, and I instinctively stood to attention. "We can't just run into this without thinking," my captain stated gravely. "Cross, can you think of a plan?"

"Um…" I hesitated for a moment, taken aback by the sudden attention, but only for a moment before putting my mind to the problem. Because really, the question was, could I? After all, we needed to not only get ourselves past the blockade, but the rest of the Supernova as well. That meant outright breaking the blockade, and that… that was an entirely different beast.

Luckily, I was saved from having to answer by the clearing of a throat. An avian throat, to be specific.

"Uh, Captain Luffy?" Coo, well, cooed. "This probably isn't the best place or time to hash out a plan. Which, actually, is why I'm here. So that I can tell you the best time and place."

"Huh?" Luffy curiously regarded the seagull. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well see, fact is," Coo explained. "You've done really well, you and your crew, but you're not the fastest pirate crew in Paradise. That accomplishment goes to the Kid Pirates and their beast of a ship, the Iron Tramp. They ran face first into the blockade, and they tried to break through. Tried and failed, I might add. They raised a hell of a fight, but when the horizon started burning, they had to flee."

Coo donned a cocky smirk. "Which was most fortuitous, because while they were licking their wounds, the Sonic Speed of Sound caught up with them, and the Kid Pirates told us of the impending trap… er—" Coo glanced aside with a cough into his wing. "After they stopped attacking us, of course…"

"Of course," I sighed, dragging my hand down my face. Because if there was any pirate who was going to work out his frustrations on the first schmuck to come within eyesight, it was Kid.

"And so on for every Supernova that came near?" Chopper guessed.

"Not quite," Coo said. "When my captain (that's still weird to say, wow) found out about the blockade, the first thing he did was make a call." And just like that, Coo's smirk was back in full force. "A call to the only person this side of the Red Line that would be able to provide a place for over a dozen infamous pirates sailing for Sabaody this close to Sabaody while we come up with a plan to get through that blockade."

He regarded me with a grin, slyly tipping his cap. "I trust you know what the right order is now, Jeremiah Cross?"

It took me a few seconds to put the pieces together, but once I did, I couldn't keep my jaw properly shut. "You—You can't really mean—!" I cut that sentence off midway through as I realized that, holy shit, he did! "WOO!" Wheeling around, I jabbed my finger out to sea. "EVERYONE, WEIGH ANCHOR! WE SAIL! FOR SKELTER BITE!"

"BELAY THAT!"

"Oh, what now!?" I snapped, throwing up my hands.

"ME NOW!" Tashigi snarled, shooting to her feet and jabbing me in the chest. "Now you listen to me, you insufferably irresponsible degenerate, and you listen good! I admit that I'm just as much of an outlaw as you, I'm at peace with that, but no matter what, the world still sees a Marine when they look at me! Meaning that if I set foot on a pirate haven, I'm liable to be lynched! Or as you swashbuckling types like to put it, walk the plank!"

"That punishment's actually fallen out of favor in recent pirate culture due to it being regarded as archaic and ineffective on anyone but Devil Fruit users," Robin idly noted with a serene smile. "Nowadays, we just shoot people in the street."

"I realize that you're his sister, but must you demonstrate it at every occasion?" Conis lamented, her palm alighting on her forehead.

"She's been at that shtick longer than I've been in this world, don't blame me," I waved her off.

"SHUT IT!" Tashigi belted out, before crossing her arms and regarding me with the utmost disdain. "You and your crew can go and have fun in your pirate hellhole, but so long as I'm a Marine, I'm not going within a nautical mile of Skelter Bite alive!"

I stared blankly at her, and then I grinned widely, my expression punctuated by the smack of several hands hitting faces.

"Hm, now there's a thought…" I mused oh so innocently as I strolled over to the other side of the deck.

"OW!"

I then jumped in what was most definitely and totally genuine shock as Tashigi yelped, grabbing her foot with a grimace after I brought my steel-clad heel down on her foot… completely by accident of course. The injury was honestly pretty negligible… buuut it was enough for my purposes.

"YOU RAGING PIECE OF—! WHAT THE HELL, YOU ASS!?" the Marine raged as she cradled her compacted toes.

"Oooh, that looks nasty," I crooned in a nice and exaggerated voice as I leaned forward and eyeballed her foot. "You'd better keep off it for awhile. Say, Usopp, think you could fashion a pegleg for her? Custom job~"

"Uh… sure?" Usopp drew out, side-eyeing the irate Marine. "Any specifications?"

"Yeah." At this point, I allowed my underlying malevolence to seep into my grin. "Just make sure it matches her new eyepatch."

That statement froze the deck cold, and Tashigi was especially paralyzed, her fury forgotten in favor of horror. "Cross," she whispered weakly, slowly shaking her head in denial. "Don't. You. Dare—!"

"CONGRATULATIONS!" I proclaimed at the top of my lungs, grinning like a loon as I clapped my hand on her shoulder. "You may now consider yourself shanghaied! Welcome to the Straw Hat Pirates, Cabin Girl T. A. Shigi!"

"Chuff…"

"Ah, right. And your furry parrot, too," I deadpanned.

"KYUUUN!?"

"That's the best you're getting, take it or row back to Smokey on your own."

"Kyu…"

"YOU DESPICABLE SON OF A—!" Tashigi screeched, lunging at me. Seeing as she was limping, I dodged with ease. That didn't deter her; she just switched targets to hop for the railing. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS ONE DAY, CROSS! MY WRATH WILL BE SWIFT, TERRIBLE AND—!"

"Merry?" I requested.

Said shipgirl grinned maniacally and rammed her fist into the nearest mast.

KERWHACK! "GYAGH!"

And in short order, the 'ex'-Marine was strung up by a few strands of rope wrapped around her uninjured ankle, and in equally short order, Vivi and Conis had positioned themselves beneath said 'ex'.

"Ladies, if you'd be so kind?" I requested.

"But of course," Conis serenely stated.

"We'll see what we can do," Vivi agreed, before leering at me. "And I hope you know that the only reason we're helping you with this is that 'a lot of innocent people suffering' line you said earlier."

"I'll take my licks as they come, the end result's worth it!" I swore. "Now drop her and get this woman kitted out in some more… appropriate attire."

"YOU'LL SUFFER FOR THIS, YOU—WAGH!"

And quick as the wind beneath their wings, the duo grabbed our latest 'recruit' and spirited her away to the girl's cabin.

"Well, that's that, and all without any repercussions whatsoever," I sang, dusting off my hands. Yeah, I was tempting fate like nothing else, what of it? Who was gonna stop me?

-o-

Elsewhere on the Grand Line, Smoker was struck with a sudden urge to punch someone in the face.

Fortunately for him, he had just come across a grunt who was assembling a collage of revealing pictures of Tashigi.

-o-

"Now…" I eyed the rest of the people on the deck. "Anyone else have a problem with our new destination?"

Sandersonia and Koala had to know that they were high above above our weight classes, so I couldn't forcibly coerce them like Tashigi. Fortunately, neither of them were Marines, either.

"I'd be very interested in getting a look at Skelter Bite," Koala said, throwing up her hand. "More than a few potential recruits go pirate before they go Revolutionary!"

"Likewise," Sandersonia agreed, nodding eagerly. "All those pirates, all that booze! It's going to be the biggest blowout I've ever been to!"

Sadly, however, not all of the reactions were quite so positive, as demonstrated by Jinbe hanging his head with a defeated sigh. "I think it sounds interesting as well, but unfortunately, even if we ignore the stir that a Warlord's presence would bring, I have a little more that I need to take care of in light of today's revelations. I still haven't even gotten to the main reason I came here." The Warlord's expression darkened. "Now, if one of you would be so kind as to escort me to the brig?"

"Right, I'll lead you to them," Nami offered, getting to her feet and waving a hand for him to follow her. "We've got them in one of our spare channels, you can head straight into the ocean once you've got them secured."

Jinbe nodded, and turned his eyes to me. And damn if that didn't scare no small amount of shit out of me. "Jeremiah Cross… I didn't expect us to meet like this, but you have my gratitude for what you've told me… and for what you've done." I pretty much felt the relief flood off of him as his fangs turned upward in a smile. "Your words have reached the new generation of fishmen and merfolk, and I will endeavor to make sure it keeps reaching them in the future. Thank you for what you've done, and for everything that you will undoubtedly do in the future."

With only the mildest trepidation, I removed my right gauntlet and held out my unarmored hand. "The pleasure is mine, Jinbe."

He shook my hand with a gentle grip that in no way impeded the impression that he could pulverize me in one second, and then turned to my captain and dropped his hand on the rubber man's shoulder. "Monkey D. Luffy, you're every bit as incredible as your brother told me you were. And I swear, I'll tell you even more stories of your brother's escapades soon enough…" He donned a massive grin as he crossed his arms proudly. "When I greet you in person on the shores of Fishman Island."

I instantly froze every muscle in my face at that statement. It was the only thing that kept me from grimacing in dismay at the thought of how we wouldn't exactly be seeing him again as 'soon' as he thought.

Ignorant of my thoughts, Luffy beamed and crossed his arms behind his head. "Shishishi! See you later, Jinbe!"

Jinbe smiled back, the smile remaining even as he followed Nami into the depths of the ship, though it definitely faded not long after.

"Alright, anyone else…" I mused, flexing my fingers as I resecured my gauntlet.

"Yeah, right here!"

"Oi, these guys…" I snapped my hand into a fist as I turned to face the cowed but apparently still willful fishmen with us.

"Cram it, Cross!" Kuroobi snarled, puffing his chest out as proudly as his battered ego would actually allow. "We don't want to be here any more than you want us to be here, so thank you for shopping at Takoyaki 8 and have a nice—"

"HEY, HACHI!" I yelled, letting my voice carry to the other ships. "WOULD YOU HAPPEN TO BE INTERESTED IN HOCKING TAKOYAKI TO THE MOST PROMINENT PIRATES OF THE GENERATION!?"

"WOULD I!?" came the joyful response, causing Kuroobi and Chew to slump over in depression.

"AND BARTY, YOU'RE COMING TOO, RIGHT?" Soundbite called.

"Like hell I would be missing a chance to check out the new pirate haven! Count me in!" Bartolomeo called back. "YO! SHITBIRDS! GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND HOP TO IT YOU—!"

"Then it's unanimous," I grinned. I made to move dramatically again—

"By the way, that jumbo shark there is a friend of yours, right?"

—only for Coo's slightly nervous tone to bring me up short again.

"Oh, thank you, Coo, I almost forgot. Megalo…" I grinned impishly at the shark, to his wariness. "We need to talk as we sail, but before anything else, important question for you, one in which dozens of lives hang in the balance. …how good are you at puking on cue?"

-o-

While the ships all scrambled to prepare for departure, a few pertinent details went overlooked in the process, as such things are wont to happen.

One of these pertinent details was the fact that while they were waiting to depart, one of the larger and older (but still juvenile) Sea Kings that had been helping to tow the Cannibal had slipped away from his impromptu pack and disappeared into the waves, swimming for the briny deep as fast as his tail could propel him.

Another detail was… weeeell…

-Less than Fifteen Minutes Later-

Five ships had long sailed off. Six heads broke the surface and took in that fact.

[DID THOSE RAGING BASTARDS FORGET US!?]

"NOT AGAIN! THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS MO-O-OOONTH!"

[Don't suppose there's a Man's Romance about this, is there, Boss?]

[OH, THERE'S GONNA BE A ROMANCE ALRIGHT! MY FLIPPER DOWN THEIR THROATS!]

[GO, BOSS, GO!]

-More than Fifteen Minutes Later-

Ten thousand meters below the surface, the royal megalodon returned to his mistress with two uncomfortable missions to accomplish. As per usual, the doors of the Hard Shell Tower cracked open to allow Megalo to slip inside, and he hastily swam up to Princess Shirahoshi's side as the doors closed behind him, keeping a keen eye out for any ill-timed 'gifts of the heart' as he went.

"Megalo, welcome back! How was your trip?" Shirahoshi greeted, hugging him with a smile. That melancholy smile had been the most he ever saw on her face since her mother's passing and her imprisonment in the tower…until the reprieves brought on by the SBS began. Knowing that he would be alleviating her suffering even more, he resigned himself to the discomfort of the first of his tasks.

[Eventful, and… more than a little maddening,] the titan-shark informed her with a wary (and toothy) smile. [I, uh, also have something for you, Shirahoshi.]

The massive mermaid sat up with a grin, clapping her hands. "I know! The Octavio-endorsed 88 Skewer Special, right? With extra dipping sauce?"

Megalo hesitated for a second, actually feeling a sweatdrop flow off him into the water. [Ah… right, I went out to get the takeout… feels like a lifetime ago, so I kinda—ah, I think I left it back with the rest of the food, with Fukaboshi and your dad. Sorry.]

"Aww, really…?" Shirahoshi slumped onto her hands, her face a mask of disappointment.

[Ah, but-but-but!] Megalo hastily added. [I-I'll go get it for you, I promise! But before that, I have something you'll like even better! Just, ah… just gimme a second…] He trailed off into a whimper, and before Shirahoshi could ask what he meant, he wheeled about and swam into the corner where he triggered his gag reflex. With expert control, he emptied the contents of his mostly empty stomach, among which was nestled a large brown bottle.

"Wh-What the…" Shirahoshi blinked in shock as she swam around her wheezing friend, eyeing the bottle in confusion. "What is this, Megalo? Did you eat some flotsam or—?"

[Open it,] the shark wheezed. [Break it if you need to! Hurry!]

With much trepidation, but also absolute faith in her age-old friend, Shirahoshi clutched the bottle between her fingers and began shaking it out. It didn't take long before a rolled piece of paper came out. It was small, but this wasn't the first time Shirahoshi had dealt with items meant for people a few scales smaller than herself. As such, it was without too much trouble that Shirahoshi grasped the slip and unfolded it, holding it up to her eye so that she could read the words upon it…

Words that, the moment they registered in the Princess's brain, sent her scrambling to her Tower's doors as fast as she could swim. "GUARDS!" she hollered, pounding on the doors desperately. "SEND WORD TO BROTHER FUKABOSHI, I NEED HIM IN HERE IMMEDIATELY! HURRY!"

As Shirahoshi hollered and the Minister of the Right desperately pleaded for her to calm down before anything… untoward could happen, Megalo took the opportunity to reread the message he'd carried in his stomach. A message he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would serve to write the pages of history itself.

"To the Beautiful Princess Shirahoshi:

I humbly request that you pass this note to your eldest brother and have him call me at the following number posthaste. The fate of many lives, fishman and human alike, rest in your hands and his alike. Together, I believe we can change the course of this world forever.

708-632-473

Jeremiah Cross, Tactician of the Straw Hat Pirates

P.S. Feel free to call us whenever you yourself feel like it as well. We're always happy to lend an ear."

Spoken AN: I honestly never expected to say this, but we discovered several missing hands during proofreading. Keeping track of Hachi's choreography was a pain.

Patient AN: What was decidedly not a pain was telling our fans that Cross was going to watch Ace die in this chapter and then watching their reactions. Not a pain for us, anyway.

Click to shrink...

Can't really say I'm appreciative of what happened when I shared that link above with you, and the fact you don't say anything to me about it doesn't help. But, I understand that I shouldn't have self promoted on the recommendations page and asked for your permission to share my fanfic

 

[Sir Plusse]

Can't really say I'm appreciative of what happened when I shared that link above with you, and the fact you don't say anything to me about it doesn't help. But, I understand that I shouldn't have self promoted on the recommendations page and asked for your permission to share my fanfic

Click to shrink...

Probably should've asked for permission to write it, too, since not all authors appreciate having other people "invade" their settings. Yes, that's probably an overly-strong word, but some authors certainly feel that way.

The self-recommendation certainly drives some people away, too; I, for one, might've at least considered giving it a look if it hadn't been shameless self-promotion. (By the way, I'm pretty sure it isn't there anymore.)

One last thing: There's no need to quote anything you aren't addressing specifically; if you're talking about someone else's story (even one in the same setting), don't use quotes at all. It'd probably frustrate most users to get an alert that they've been quoted only to find that it has nothing to do with what they wrote.

 

[EB-the-GAMER]

I kind of figured all that out, and yes its not there any more. I want to keep writing it though...the efforts gone to waste then I suppose.

 

[EB-the-GAMER]

Probably should've asked for permission to write it, too, since not all authors appreciate having other people "invade" their settings. Yes, that's probably an overly-strong word, but some authors certainly feel that way.

The self-recommendation certainly drives some people away, too; I, for one, might've at least considered giving it a look if it hadn't been shameless self-promotion. (By the way, I'm pretty sure it isn't there anymore.)

One last thing: There's no need to quote anything you aren't addressing specifically; if you're talking about someone else's story (even one in the same setting), don't use quotes at all. It'd probably frustrate most users to get an alert that they've been quoted only to find that it has nothing to do with what they wrote.

Click to shrink...

and also theres some confusion here for me, and I'm not angry or anything.

but isn't fanfiction by definition made unofficially in the first place? you could argue what I did is no different from what Xomniac did with One Piece and Oda, add characters that invade the plot of another story. by your logic Cross-Brian should have asked Oda's permission to do their story. is it different if its a fanfiction's fanfiction? the fanfiction entry that replaced mine is also inspired by This Bites as well (says as much in the title), and they also didn't get permission based on the foreword.

doesn't change the fact that I broke a rule, even if it was out of ignorance and even if I pointed out I was shamelessly self-promoting as a joke.

ah, also I read that fanfic, its "Copycat Isn't a Compliment" by NightFlowerLuv, Its pretty good, and I would recommend it too.

 

[Sir Plusse]

As far as I'm aware, asking for permission is mostly a courtesy thing, really; while they don't own most of the stuff in their stories and thus can't exactly stop you from using it (at least without looking hypocritical), their original stuff (Cross and Soundbite, for example) DOES belong to them, even if it's not exactly "official." I can't exactly cite specific examples of fanfic authors who took offense at other authors writing stories based on their works (mostly because I don't remember seeing any personally), but all considered I'm sure it's happened.

 

[Monshroud]

When the Strawhat Crew is inevitably separated, either Cross will go with the Revolutionary Army along with Robin...

OR, he'll be "shanghaied" by one of the other Supernovas because of his legendary skills as tactician, and cunning manipulator!

Odds are, if it's the Heart Pirates, Soundbite will get his chance to sing "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles, and Cross will get his chance to become the "Jacque Cousteau", (besides as THE Number 1 Political Tattletale), of the One Piece World for a time, sharing tremendous insight with the world of the undersea kingdoms of The Grand Line!

 

[Ellf]

let's not air private issues in public

Can't really say I'm appreciative of what happened when I shared that link above with you, and the fact you don't say anything to me about it doesn't help. But, I understand that I shouldn't have self promoted on the recommendations page and asked for your permission to share my fanfic

Click to shrink...

@EB-the-GAMER , this seems like something that would be better dealt with in a PM. While this isn't exactly rulebreaking in of itself, it could easily be very disruptive, which would violate Rule 4.

I'm only going to give you a staff notice for this. Please be more considerate in the future.

 

[Xomniac]

@Everyone, a reminder. The deadline for submitting an entry for the Top 5 Art Contest is ten days from now. If you are interested in submitting an entry, your time is running out fast. We look forward to announcing the winner.

 

[Hye]

Omatsuri Island

Click to shrink...

My god... I've spent the last two hours reading this, and I so fucking regret it!
It is 4 am and I am scared of going to sleep! Fuck, this was nightmarish and absolute pants-shittingly scary. I haven't been so scared from written text since I read "Duma Key". It was so good damn thrilling and a rollercoaster of emotions, so much that I am still shedding a few tears.
Kudos, you magnificent bastards. Kudos.

 

[Neruz]

While I find the odds of someone nailing Kizaru with seastone in the few moments hes in one spot rather unlikely given the reaction times involved, Kizarus Haki, and how rare seastone is, I had forgotten Nami faceplanting Kizaru into the Red Line.

Taking that into account I can see Sengoku being wary of sending Kizaru out solo. Best not risk further embarrassment when the Straw Hats pull something else out of their collective ass.. Point retracted.

Click to shrink...

It's also worth mentioning that while Kizaru moves at light speed, as has been shown multiple times in the canon story and previously in this fanfic at Enies Lobby, he thinks at normal speed. So Kizaru can't actually zip around from island to island at will. Because if he is even the tiniest bit off on his trajectory or timing then the best case scenario is he faceplants into the Red Line, the more likely scenario is he ends up extremely lost in the middle of an ocean somewhere with no idea where land is, and the worst case scenario is he ends up somewhere in space with only the most infinitesimally small chance of ever finding the planet again.

Kizaru needs to be able to see his target and plot his trajectory before he launches, because with the speed he moves at there is literally no room for error. So while he can jump to anywhere he can see super fast, he still needs to sail to within sight of his target the normal way first. In addition, at the moment in this fic he's the only available admiral, as Akainu is currently leading a merry band of marine psychopaths on a volcanic adventure throughout the New World and Aokiji is both busy dealing with Blackbeard while keeping Ace on ice, as well as being even lazier and more loose-cannony and unreliable than Kizaru (which is saying something.) So the marines simply can't risk sending Kizaru away from Marineford and Mary Geoise for any significant length of time, out of fear that someone might notice the weakness and show up to sack the place. Doubly so given that Sengoku has been having heart problems and thus cannot be relied upon to actually fend off a serious attack without dropping dead mid-battle.

He could probably pop over to Sabaody if they received confirmation that the Straw Hats were there, since I imagine that he's probably figured out a few 'blind jump' trajectories and timings from Marineford to important nearby locations like Sabaody, but they can't risk sending him off until they get that confirmation. And even then they might be hesitant on account of the very real possibility that the Straw Hats showing up at Sabaody is part of a plan to draw Kizaru away and leave Marineford and\or Mary Geoise open to attack from a third party.

Basically, until they either recall Akainu or they launch the War of the Best and either execute Ace or have him escape (gods I hope he doesn't do the stupid and get himself killed over pride after the verbal beatdown Cross gave him earlier) and thus free up Aokiji, Kizaru is pretty much grounded at Marineford and Mary Geoise.

 

[Sir Plusse]

Let us not forget that there is also a non-zero chance of Kizaru winding up UNDERWATER if he attempts a blind jump or miscalculates his trajectory (which would be the REAL worst-case scenario for him, since a certain lightning Logia has canonically proven that space is survivable in One Piece, at least for guys like himself and monkey-boy).

 

[Neruz]

Let us not forget that there is also a non-zero chance of Kizaru winding up UNDERWATER if he attempts a blind jump or miscalculates his trajectory (which would be the REAL worst-case scenario for him, since a certain lightning Logia has canonically proven that space is survivable in One Piece, at least for guys like himself and monkey-boy).

Click to shrink...

Worse for him sure, though he's liable to reflect off the water rather than end up in it, but not the worst for the World Government. I guarantee that the WG has a huge stockpile of whatever fruit the Glint Glint Fruit develops from, so that in the event of Kizaru's death they're extremely likely to get it back. Thus, 'lost and alive, but unrecoverable' is actually a worse outcome for the Marines than dead.

 

[Sir Plusse]

If he got launched into space, he could theoretically use the same warping ability that sent him there to get back home. All he'd need is some sort of reference so he'd know which way to go, and I wouldn't be surprised if he carries an Eternal Pose at all times for that exact scenario.

On the other hand, if he drowned then even if the World Government managed to get his fruit back (with a non-zero possibility of it actually appearing on some uninhabitable island where they'd have to send an admiral to harvest it- which, as previously mentioned by others, they have none to spare) they'd still have to train his replacement from scratch- mastery of that kind of power does not come instantly, and they'd have to find someone they considered an acceptable candidate (which could take YEARS, potentially) before they could even start.

In short: Kizaru warping off-planet is merely a temporary setback easily fixed by just waiting a few days for him to find his way home. Kizaru warping underwater is a near-mortal blow to their warpower since he can only be replaced through a decades-long training regimen in addition to however long it'd take to find both a viable Admiral candidate and the respawned fruit... and even then it's possible that they'd lose the fruit outright, either due to it just happening to appear in a pirate's possession (I'm sure there're pirates who carry as many kinds of fruit as they can find for the sole purpose of stealing Devil Fruits) or due to some ambitious underling stealing it from storage for his own purposes.

 

[Neruz]

Eternal Poses still work off of magnetic fields, if Kizaru ended up in space an Eternal Pose wouldn't do anything for him, because he'd be way too far away from the planet's magnetic fields for it to work. And 'heading back in the same direction' runs into the same problem; if he's even the slightest, tiniest fraction off angle or timing then he misses the planet entirely. Every second he covers just under three hundred thousand kilometers; if he slips and ends up in space, he's probably not going to be coming back for months at the very least, if ever.

You are underestimating just how big and empty space is, and how utterly impossible it is to navigate with visual means. Unless he has happened to memorize every major constellation and is exceptionally good at advanced mathematics, once he's in space he is gone.

If he dies instead, then assuming the WG has done their best to eliminate all non-government owned sources of whatever the base fruit for the Glint Glint Fruit is (and I see no reason why they would not have done this, especially given they have Vegapunk and all his Devil Fruit knowledge) then they can fairly quickly get the fruit to a promising 'unfruited' Vice Admiral and rush through a promotion. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.

The Glint Glint Fruit is by far the most dangerous fruit to its wielder out of all the Devil Fruits seen thus far in canon, he's bloody lucky that he only face-planted into the Red Line in this fic. In short, Kizaru would need to be desperate or suicidal before he'd be willing to 'warp' to anywhere outside of his immediate line of sight. Because it's just that risky for him.
If he knows Moon Walk then he could possibly 'flicker' through the sky from point to point, but given his attitude and how much he relies on his Glint Glint powers, I'd be surprised if he bothered to learn it. Certainly I can't recall any instance in canon where he has demonstrated knowledge of any of the Six Powers, and apart from that one very niche usage of Moon Walk he doesn't really have any reason to learn any of them either.

And of course even if he can do that, then he still has the standard Grand Line navigational issues, meaning he needs an Eternal Pose for every island he plans to visit. Not exactly practical. And if he happens to hit the wrong patch of air and refract in an unexpected direction (like the border between layers of hot and cold air that causes mirages, a situation that is infinitely more likely given the insane weather of the Grand Line) then he ends up in the Red Line, underwater or space again.

All in all, it's just not worth the risk.

 

[Sir Plusse]

Most of the travel time I estimated on that "few days" thing was essentially him using a series of micro-warps so he can adjust his aim in order to prevent... pretty much exactly what you just said (and don't say he couldn't, since he's demonstrated the ability to jump to places that're still in sight of his starting point). And all considered, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a convenient stargazing hobby that gives him enough astronomical knowledge to navigate with.

Put simply: You're overestimating the likelyhood that he would STAY in space if he ever wound up there.

And wiping out an entire species of plant except for a single farm's worth is likely nowhere near as simple as you assume (though I WILL concede that it isn't unlikely for the World Government to attempt it); for one thing, there's climate concerns (and I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least one plant that can only grow on one specific island, since this is One Piece), and for another, all it takes is one stray seed and suddenly there's an unknown, unaccounted-for colony of fruit-bearing plants that's completely outside their control... and the Straw Hats have demonstrated that that doesn't even need to involve an island, so that raises the possibility (no matter how remote) of some pirate having a potted version of the exact plant they'd need to steal the Glint-Glint Fruit.

Plus, to go back to the electro-lunatic, that fruit's stated to be at the very least on par with the Glint-Glint Fruit in every way, and the World Government didn't do a thing to ensure that it'd wind up in their control (and with THAT much power, I'm sure that it'd be incredibly well-known so it's quite likely that they'd know exactly what kind of fruit it's derived from).

 

[Xomniac]

Greetings, loyal fans. The following is a portfolio of all of the fanart submitted for the contest in the time frame. To remove bias, we of the Cross-Brain will not disclose our chosen winners until after the fans have spoken for theirs. This does mean that if you submitted this art, you may vote for your own.


Here's the portfolio for you to peruse:


This Bites! Art Contest Portfolio


We have a total of 14 entries here. Bear in mind that three will win the grand prize and seven will win the second prize. The remaining four will all receive special notice; you went to this trouble for us, so you will receive some prize for it.


Now, the rules: you have until October to choose a winner. You may cast your vote on as many of these entries as you wish. To cast your vote, write your chosen username in the corresponding comment section to each picture that you would like to vote for. You may also leave a comment alongside each of your votes if you wish; compliments and constructive criticism are welcome, flames are not.


All comments that fail to follow these rules will be ignored,. You may not vote twice for the same picture, and if we catch any attempts to use multiple usernames to vote multiple times, all such comments will be ignored. We also discourage turning the comment threads into sources of conversation about the story. We already have forums for that, after all.


Lastly, if you did draw or commission this art, we cannot stop you from making such knowledge public if you wish. You will not be disqualified for doing so, but we request that you hold your peace until October to minimize bias.


That's all there is to it, loyal fans. Oh, except for one last detail: if you're not caught up with the story, beware of spoilers. We'll announce the winners on SB and SV and post the artwork there within the first week of October. Best of luck, and again, thanks to all of you.

Edit: we have removed one of the pictures upon realizing that the artist did not, in fact, submit it as part of the contest and has no interest in the prize. However, we will appoint said picture as an honorable mention when we conclude the contest.

 

[Ash19256]

Can we vote for multiple ones? There are a few I like equally.

 

[Cid-McConroy]

Number 9, I vote for number 9