If Shiki'd had any brainpower to spare for the Straw Hats the day after his defeat, he would have been livid to see that, quite unlike Alabasta or Enies Lobby, the full force of his assembled armies hadn't managed to inflict enough damage and fatigue to keep the Straw Hats down past a good night's rest. With two exceptions: Bartolomeo was still recovering and would be without use of his arms for the foreseeable future, and Luffy was under doctor's orders to take it easy, but that was it.
That meant that when the sun rose the next morning, there were now two infamous ships with two infamous crews sailing alongside each other toward the end of Paradise, with two individuals from Merveille sticking around. Heaven help whoever got in their way, because no earthly power was going to.
On the Cannibal, Ever was having trouble establishing her place in the Barto Club for lack of specialty. It wasn't a huge deal, of course, her crewmates were perfectly welcoming, but… well, it was a rare individual who was happy to live the pirate life as a grunt.
Meanwhile, on the Thousand Sunny, the situation was being handled a bit more smoothly.
"No, you are not going back, do you hear me?" Nami ground out, her foot tapping impatiently on the lawn. "You are parking your feathery ass right here and staying with us, got it?"
… Relatively more smoothly.
"B-B-But!" the electro-duck blubbered, flapping his wings uselessly. "I-I'm a coward, I'm ham-beaked, I've never left Merveille, I don't know most of you! I-I'd just weigh you down, g-get you in trouble and—!"
CLONK!
Billy ducked his head with a pained whimper, wings nursing the fresh lump growing on his skull. "Awawah…"
"Billy," Nami stated, leaning in close to the fowl's head. "You might have run at first, but that doesn't matter because then you came back. You came back, you helped us when we really needed it, and you even helped Luffy beat Shiki. Heck, I'd go as far as to say you're one of the biggest reasons we won."
"Also, having more emergency food supplies won't hurt," Sanji added as he strolled by, a fresh bag of food on his shoulders.
ZZT!
And then down he went, smoking from more than just his mouth with a bag of deep-fried supplies on his shoulder.
"Ignore that idiot," Nami sighed, not missing a beat. "The point is, you came back to help, so all of those things you listed? They're irrelevant, as far as I care. So you're going nowhere, got it?"
"Quaaa…" Billy squirmed uncertainly. "And… if I actually wanted to go?"
Nami donned a catty grin. "Then I'd shanghai you, regardless of whether you wanted to stay or not. After all, we are still pirates!"
Billy stewed that over for a second before giving her a shaky grin. "Then in that case… I suppose I might as well go along with you, huh?"
"Got it in one!" Nami chuckled in agreement, reaching out to ruffle his comb. "Now, if I let you go, are you going to go flapping for the horizon?"
"Nah, I won't."
"Good," the navigator nodded, removing the cloud she'd been using to pin Billy's tail and waving for him to follow her. "Now c'mon, let's see about getting you a cool saddle like Carue, alright? I've even got an idea or two for it."
"Okay!" The duck perked up eagerly, waddling after his new best friend.
Nami, however, was obviously in no hurry to go and took a second to glance around the deck before reluctantly heading out into plain view. While most of her crewmates were out and about and treating her like normal, having apparently had the patience to hear her message through to the end, Nami had yet to locate the three dunderheads who, as far as she could tell, hadn't. But as reluctant as she was to face that particular firing squad, she couldn't very well leave her newest friend (her own animal companion! It was taking all she had to keep from bursting out into ecstatic squees!) twisting in the wind either.
As such, she set out across the deck and strode, with confidence, to the Sunny's pavilion, already a center of activity. Once they'd all rested up, Merry had unloaded the prodigious amount of loot that she'd filched from Shiki's palace. While the vast majority was mundane odds and ends of varying usefulness that Merry had stolen in the throes of a thieving spree that Nami recognized from her own youth, there was a sizable pile of gold—another 100 million at face value, probably more once appraised—and a massive cache of weapons that Usopp, Lassoo, Mikey, Franky, and Merry were excitedly poring over. Conis was standing off to the side, mostly succeeding in concealing her own excitement.
"Enjoying yourselves, I take it?" Nami chuckled.
"Soooo tempted to dry-hump!" Lassoo panted eagerly as he nuzzled up against a particularly large-bore rifle.
"Do it, and I'll neuter you!" Usopp snapped, jabbing a wrench at the hound.
"Down, boys, don't make me separate you," Conis chided, her hands continuing to polish her recently modified bazooka.
"Take it as a yes," Franky chuckled, nodding at Nami. "So, anything we can help you with, Big Sis?"
"Mm-hm!" Nami hummed, jabbing her thumb at Billy. "Seeing as I've gotten myself a mount to match Carue, I'm going to need a saddle, too. Insulated against electricity and heat, of course. Aaaand while I'm talking mounts…" She grimaced uncomfortably. "My Waver. How likely…?"
"Well, I could rebuild it, but it'd take a lot of time and effort; we'd have to start from scratch… a better option would be another idea of mine, putting the two projects together," Usopp suggested, looking at Nami with a glint and a grin. "I've been working on the plans for Carue anyway, and I think that you'll really like them. Does that work for you?"
Nami glanced back at Billy and nodded when he nodded. "That's fine, do it… after I examine every last page of the blueprints."
Usopp ground his palm into his forehead. "Why can you not let that go?" Usopp groused. "And by the way, this time, make sure you actually pay me upfront before I get more than halfway through this thing!"
"I'll take it into consideration," Nami muttered, before casting her eyes over the rest of the assembled arsenal. "So… any stand-out pieces in all this hardware? Besides the obvious, I mean," she added, raising an eyebrow at the sight of Merry cuddling the rotary gun she'd yet to let go of. Actually, she had yet to change out of the outfit she'd donned as they charged the palace, too. From the way she'd tossed it right back on after it was washed, where everyone else stored theirs away, chances were it would be replacing her raincoat and leggings as her normal attire.
"The obvious is all we need!" Merry squeed, hefting the massive hunk of metal above her head. "Do you know what this is? This is the M66 JINGO rotary cannon. It is one of the top firearms in all the six seas, and it's going to be my new main weapon, eeee!"
"Uhhh… seriously?" Nami questioned incredulously. "I mean, that thing's twice your size, isn't it?"
Merry's expression flattened. "You do see me holding it above my head like it was made of cardboard, right?"
"Aheh, r-right…"
"It is actually the perfect weapon for her, sis," Franky interjected with a big grin. "She can handle the firepower without flinching, and with a few mods from yours truly, it'll be a hell of a blunt instrument for cracking skulls, too. Cool, huh?"
"Mm… well—wait," Nami cut herself off mid-sentence, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the rotary gun's ammo drum. The very large ammo drum. "I might not know a lot about guns, but what I do know is that guns only take ammunition that works for them. And I'm guessing that a gun like that does not pack normal ammunition. How many berries does a cannon like that suck down?"
Cold sweat suddenly glistened on Merry's forehead, complete with an inability to meet Nami's gaze. "Uhhh… I-I don't—"
"Let's see," Conis tapped her chin thoughtfully, completely missing the panicked look Merry snapped at her. "From what I remember, the M66 JINGO weighs one hundred fifty kilograms and fires twenty-thousand beri, custom-tooled cartridges at ten thousand rounds per minute. So by my calculations…" The angel counted down on her fingers before nodding. "It costs forty million beris to fire this weapon for twelve seconds."
One silent second later, Conis blanched as she realized what she'd just said. "Oooooh, dear."
"RAAAAGH!" Nami loosed a possessed howl, grabbing the gun from Merry's hands with her Eisen Tempo and hauling back to throw it as far as she could manage. "DIE, EVIL THING!"
"MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINEMINE!" Merry declared, grabbing back the cannon from the cloud's clutches and shoving it inside her coat the moment that she had it in her grip again. She then began running around the deck. A prudent move considering that Nami was after her, iron hands outstretched and grasping furiously.
"GIVE ME THAT METAL MONSTER SO THAT I CAN DROWN IT, RIGHT THE HELL NOW!" Nami screeched.
"NOT ON YOUR LIFE, BITCH!" the ship-girl shot back. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY TICKET TO BADASSITUDE!"
"AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO USE SOMETHING THAT'LL EAT THROUGH OUR COFFERS FASTER THAN LUFFY AT AN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET!" the navigator-cum-treasurer spat. "WE ONLY MISSED THE POORHOUSE ON WATER SEVEN THANKS TO CROSS'S KNOWLEDGE, I'M NOT LETTING YOU LAND US IN THERE WITH THAT THING!"
"OK, FIRST OF ALL, THAT SIMILE IS COMPLETE NONSENSE, AND YOU KNOW IT. OUR CAPTAIN IS INSTANTANEOUS, WHILE MY GUN WOULD TAKE MINUTES! AND SECOND, YOU TOUCH ME, I'LL SCREAM BAD TOUCH!"
"YOU CAN DENT METAL WITH YOUR FISTS, PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THAT WHEN PIGS FLY!"
"GRAAAHHH—hang on, damn it!" Planting her feet, Merry spun around and raised her hands, both women skidding to a halt. "Listen! The gun's expensive, yes!"
"Diiiiie—!" Nami rumbled, madness gleaming in her eyes.
"BUT!" the ship-girl continued in a panic. "It won't actually affect us for ages! None of them will! I filched Shiki's entire magazine; he had a dozen drums of rounds for this beast!"
The navigator paused in her fury, frowning questioningly. "And how long do you expect that to last?"
"Um… so long as I'm measured and cautious in my use—!"
"Give."
"Hey!" Merry bristled indignantly before hanging her head with a defeated groan. "Alright, so I might see where you're coming from…" She then snapped her head up with big, watery—
CLONK!
"OW!" Merry yelped. Cradling her new goose egg, she nodded frantically. "Alright, alright, I legitimately promise that I will ration the ammo I have and keep my eyes and ears peeled for any opportunity to steal more, and if we do need to buy more, it comes out of my share. But if we run into another bastard like Shiki, all bets are off. Deal?"
Nami turned that over in her mind.
"…Fine," she sighed, her gaze sharpening intently. "But we are hammering things out right here, right now."
Merry readied a sarcastic retort, only to transition into a shit-eating grin. "Yeah, I don't think that's gonna be happening anytime soon. Shoulda watched your volume, girly."
It took Nami five seconds to process that statement, two to pale, and one to slap a hand to her face. "They are right behind me, aren't they?"
"Face the music, IT'LL JUST BE EASIER ON EVERYONE."
"Me included~" Merry sang as she rocked back and forth on her heels, a slightly crooked halo above her head.
Sighing, Nami turned to face the expected sight: her captain, flanked by the first mate on one side and the third (plus Soundbite) on the other, all standing behind her, arms crossed and expressions livid. But rather than cower, she simply matched them expression for expression.
"Before you take a strip out of my hideout of some misguided sense of injured pride, let me ask the four of you one question," she said before any of them could open their mouths. "Did you listen to the entire message I left on the Tone Dial? Including the part that only someone who was with us on Thriller Bark would understand?"
The quartet paused, glancing uncomfortably at each other.
"Not even the so-called 'god', huh?" Nami sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Didn't think so. If you had bothered to listen to the whole thing, you would know that the last thing I said was, 'That's why I'm begging you to forgive me for doing something stupid and reckless again, and expecting it to turn out like last time.'"
She pulled back, observing the dumbfounded looks on her fellow mates' faces. "You. Complete. And utter. Idiots. Luffy's reaction is no big surprise; I half-expected it from him. But I expected more sense from you three."
"There's just one problem with that, Nami."
The five of them turned back toward Merry, who was looking at them with a fond smirk.
"Would you have spared enough time for sense if you were in their shoes and Nojiko was in yours? Or, hell!" she asked innocently. "Did you think for even a second when you hauled off and pinched me?"
Nami raised her finger and opened her mouth, and held that pose for a second before snapping her mouth shut. "You… make a very annoying, annoyingly accurate point."
"I learned from the best~!" Merry sang as she walked off, proudly tugging on the lapels of her greatcoat as she went. The three mates and the captain turned back to each other, no one speaking for a few moments.
"…Call it even and never let it happen again?" Cross suggested, tilting the brim of his hat down to cover his eyes.
"Fine by me," Nami said, smiling pleasantly.
"Agreed," Zoro nodded, his brow twitching furiously.
"Sorry?" Luffy said.
"And moving RIGHT along," Soundbite chirped.
"In inadvertent aid of that," interjected Donny, sliding up beside Cross. "Two questions for you two. First off, just for the record, what's Billy's voice?"
Cross rolled his eyes, but didn't seem too exasperated this time. "I'd complain, but it actually fits him. Carue got his voice from Donald Duck, Billy got his from Donald's nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie."
"EVEN I don't know WHICH ONE IT IS!" Soundbite snickered.
"Triplet nephews, if you didn't catch it," Cross clarified.
Donny nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Other question: what was that about needing to talk to Sanji and me?"
Cross snapped his fingers and headed for the kitchen, gesturing for Donny to follow. "Right, thanks for reminding me. Do you still have the outfit from that psycho you fought on Thriller Bark?"
Donny twitched viciously. "Only because I can't burn the damn thing and our penny-pinching witch—!"
"Bite me!" Nami threw over her shoulder.
"—Won't let me toss it in the ocean like I wanted to," he finished.
"Perfect, and convenient for you, seeing as we'll be getting rid of it as soon as Sanji gets something for me."
With much more enthusiasm, Donny followed Cross into the kitchen.
-o-
Not far away, Robin knelt beside her flower garden with a warm smile, tending to a week's worth of neglect. Her fellow academic knelt beside her, hooves sifting through the soil of a long and vacant pot, packing in the IQ plants he had retrieved from Indigo's laboratory.
"So, what did you get?" the reindeer asked curiously, jotting down a few notes on the miraculous plant in his notebook.
"Mm, nothing truly earth-shattering, sadly," Robin sighed, shaking her head. "Some evidence on corrupt bases, names of moles, leaks, and even some particularly virtuous Marines. Quite useful for Cross. But the most I could find otherwise was some history of the island and of Shiki himself." She scratched at a bandage on her cheek, drawing a pained grimace. "The payoff was only barely worth the pain."
She leaned down to take a closer look at the flower. "I take it that your endeavour was far more successful?"
Chopper grinned sunnily as he nodded. "Way more! Indigo's notes, along with what I put together from what I saw on Merveille, have given me so many ideas that I don't know where to start! The obvious first step would be to actually use these plants, to manufacture my own serums… ah, without the horrendous side-effects, of course."
"Of course," Robin chuckled.
"Beyond that…" The doctor tapped his hoof to his chin, humming in thought. "Painful as it was, that fight did give me one or two ideas on my own brand of chemical warfare. With the right combinations…" Chopper trailed off into a wide grin. "But honestly? What I'm looking forward to the most is the sheer insight that this experience has given me on biological manipulation, both in concrete and analyzed evidence, and my own…" The reindeer cut off into a frown. "I'm going to define it as a 'revelation', but I want to clarify that I mean that in a strictly philosophical manner, not a spiritual one."
"I wouldn't assume anything else from you, good doctor," the archaeologist replied, giving him a contemplative look. "Though tell me, what does this new experience add up to?"
Chopper snapped his eyes up, a glimmer shining in his eyes. Not the familiar glimmer of madness, mind, the glimmer of academic ambition. "A dissertation," he whispered reverently. "A paper on Zoan morphology specifically, and biological auto-manipulation through biofeedback in general! The first of its kind, it's going to be revolutionary! I'm not going to rewrite the biology textbooks; I'll be inspiring entirely new ones! Eeheehee~!" Descending into giggles, the Zoan started eagerly wiggling in place.
Robin smiled as well at his enthusiasm, not having the heart to bring him down by pointing out that it may be better to keep that information to themselves for now. He was young and impulsive, not an idiot, so he'd undoubtedly figure it out himself. But as the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly shifted ever so slightly, she realized that bringing someone off of a euphoric high was unavoidable.
"If there is any assistance I could lend when you start, I'd be glad to, Chopper," Robin said warmly, getting to her feet. "If you could excuse me for just a moment? I need to take care of something."
"Mmhmm, sure, sure," Chopper waved her off, not even looking up from the notebook he was fervently scribbling in. "I can handle this on my own, don't worry."
Robin was made to leave, but paused and frowned as a thought occurred, and she tapped him on the shoulder with a new arm to get his attention. "The last time I left you alone with potentially hazardous research, there were almost… consequences. This time, please make sure you don't conduct any research without someone nearby. If only for my sake?"
Chopper blinked up at her, confused, but then the penny dropped, and he glanced down at his notebook, grimacing uncomfortably before stuffing it away in his knapsack. "I'll be careful. And… Robin?" The grateful smile he sent her way would've melted the heart of a lesser woman. "Thank you. Truly."
Robin nodded, making to slip away, but paused again as another thought occurred to her. "By the way, you never did say what happened to Indigo."
Chopper's eyes flashed cyan as he snarled, "I guarantee you that the bastard is rotting. Whether he's doing it in Hell or Impel Down, I couldn't tell you, but either way?" He shook his head. "The world's a better place for it."
-o-
Dr. Indigo's mind was a blur as he marched between a pair of guards. A cloth was wrapped around his eyes, and handcuffs that he wagered were made of sea prism stone held his arms behind his back. He could have broken free in a moment; he had enough chemicals on hand. But he knew too little. His genius mind was sure of only three things about his present situation: he had been captured; he was being kept alive, at least for the moment; and he wasn't in the presence of Marines. The last of those he could discern by the fact that he had not been informed of his crimes the moment his captors saw that he was lucid. He had been ordered to walk and not speak, and with no alternative, he did so, finding as he did that his captors had taken his favourite shoes as well.
More light streamed through his blindfold, and he felt a gentle hand lift a corner. The face he could see was framed by blonde hair and had eyes the colour of glass. She was smiling pleasantly, but the moment she spoke, Indigo identified the same sadism that his captain held.
"You have been spared from perishing along with your captain and the rest of your crew due to your expertise. From this point forward, you are in the employment of the World Government. You will be provided with adequate room and board, as well as all the resources you need to continue your research. Everything you have discovered to this point and everything that you discover from this point on is forfeit to the Government. Resistance and retaliation will be punished."
Indigo took a few moments to respond. Said response started with a twisting sneer, but the scathing retort transformed into a gasp of pain by the bullet that pierced his shoulder.
"Do not misunderstand, Doctor Indigo: you do not have a choice in this matter, and you are forbidden to die until the World Government can make no further use of you. And do not think that that ensures your safety from punishment. You know as well as anyone that even if we can't kill you…"
"AAAAAHHH!" Indigo screamed in agony as no fewer than a dozen holes turned his left arm into Swiss cheese.
"It's quite surprising what a person can live through. Now, why don't you make this easy on yourself? I'd like nothing more than to keep shooting you full of holes, but the less we have to spend on patching you up, the better."
Indigo had thought that he knew the meaning of hatred when he was upstaged by an adolescent reindeer who was only intelligent because of his Devil Fruit. But this was nothing short of his worst nightmare: he had all the resources that he needed to accelerate his research beyond how he could dream of… and all of it was forfeit to the Government. His brilliance would fade into the Government's dominion, reinforcing their imperialism rather than proving his genius.
But he had his captain's patience. He would read his situation and consider the details. And he would listen to what his senses told him; his pride in his abilities remained strong, but he wouldn't pick another fight that he couldn't win.
"By your command," Indigo mumbled with a hint of steel. He winced again as that steel earned him another blow into his side, then the blindfold fell back over his face.
"Good. But try to get rid of that little shadow of defiance in your eyes. It's not healthy to consider resisting, you know."
A blow hit him from behind, sending him through a pair of steel doors and flat onto his face. The doors closed behind him, and as his handcuffs were removed, he heard a derisive snort.
"She just can't keep her hands to herself," an androgynous voice growled, before actually growling in annoyance. "Hogback, get to patching him up!"
"Yes, sir," squeaked a much more familiar voice. Indigo used his good arm to rip away the blindfold just in time for a pair of hands to help him to his feet. He immediately recognized Doctor Hogback's face, one of the few medical geniuses in the world he could accept as an equal; he lacked the chemical mastery Indigo possessed, but his surgical abilities were far superior to the clown's.
"Welcome to the grind," the surgeon muttered as he led Indigo to his operating table. "I think you and I will get along swimmingly."
The badly hidden message made Indigo smile briefly, but it faded when lying down on the table let him see the other man in the room. He resembled a sumo wrestler, clad in red and with a massive battle axe on his back.
"Welcome to the World Government's research and development laboratory," he said unsmilingly. "My name is Sentomaru, your officer, enforcer, bodyguard—" The word was sneered out as though it was vile in his mouth. "—If necessary, which I hope it isn't… and executioner." The sneer turned into a smirk. "If it comes to it, which I hope it does."
His smirk faded, and he continued speaking, sounding as though he were reciting a script.
"You will receive your first set of orders as soon as you are fit to work; upon reception, you have twelve hours to submit a report of the resources you require to do your work, including an explanation for each component, and the amount of time you require to complete it. Dr. Vegapunk will review and verify your report before your requests are granted. Any attempt to falsify any part of the report will be punished.
"You will be monitored at all times," he continued, gesturing to the Visual Transponder Snails in every corner of the room. "If your progress does not match your estimations, you will be punished. You will be provided with your own laboratory and all of the necessities for your life. You may submit requests for luxuries if you maintain your progress. Finally, you are not permitted to leave your laboratory alone without express permission from me or another authority. Failure to follow any of these rules will result in punishment."
Sentomaru glared at Indigo as Hogback began patching up his arm. "Any questions, Doctor Indigo?"
The clown pressed his lips together and was privately relieved that Sentomaru didn't bash him for that show of discontent. It seemed he was no happier about this arrangement than his captives. That was a small mercy, at least.
"Will I be working alone or with others?" he asked at last.
"Hmph, an actually reasonable question," Sentomaru grunted. "You will be working with Hogback often. You can also expect to be acquainted with this lab's mechanical expert, Ratchet. To head off any complaints about his more luxurious conditions, he was enlisted, not arrested. Aside from that, you may request assistants if you deem it necessary. But any attempts to use them as guinea pigs will be met with…" Sentomaru tapped his knuckle against the blade of his axe. "Severe punishment."
Not ideal, but not unreasonable. At least the Government knew that one could not expect a genius to provide superior work under inferior conditions.
"…No further questions."
Sentomaru nodded and exited the room.
"I hear you're a genius who's good at long-term planning," Hogback whispered.
"Likewise," Indigo whispered back.
"They won't keep our genius chained up forever," they breathed in unison.
SLAM!
Hogback leapt back from the table with a shriek when Sentomaru's battleaxe buried itself between the two doctors.
"Did I mention that those feeds are live and your watchers can read lips?"
'But they can hold us for a hell of a long time…' the pair mentally groaned.
-o-
Off the stern of the Thousand Sunny, the winds swirled and surged in ways that were completely unnatural. Typically speaking, this was a perfectly normal state of affairs on the Straw Hats' ship, given how they were 1. In the Grand Line, and 2. Navigated by a woman, the world was 95% convinced that it was an actual, real-life witch. Not that the crew was more than slightly less skeptical on that front.
This time, though, the source was not Nami, nor the Grand Line. Instead, Nefertari Vivi sat on the railing of the aftmost balcony, her legs dangling out over the waves and her gaze focused on something only she could see. The 'checked out' look she was projecting was only reinforced by the way her hands were moving, drifting to and fro as though she were conducting an orchestra. In a dream, granted, but that was a good comparison, the princess's fingers were waving and gesturing to some tune that only she could hear.
But for all that the gestures made no apparent sense, there was in fact a method to the illogical actions, or at least, a purpose: for every twitch of Vivi's fingers, the air swirled in response, coiling around Vivi's fingers and body like thread from a divine, invisible loom. Strands of invisible currents of conflicting heat and cold responded to her every movement, extending into everything around her. A twitch of her fingers could cause a refreshing breeze on a summer afternoon. A casual wave of her hand could blow someone's hat off. An offhand wave of her arm could knock someone over.
And that was while she was barely even trying, merely twitching her powers in the slightest of ways.
"Alright…" Vivi breathed, her eyes narrowing as she returned to reality. "Now, how far can I—?"
Something cold touched Vivi's arm, and she gasped as debilitating fatigue washed over her, as though she had just tried a hundred-meter dash against Carue and Usopp. That was all she had time to properly process before her entire world went spinning and she was slammed into the deck, gasping in pain from her arm being wrenched behind her back, compounded by someone else's arm clenching tight against her throat and coming a few psi away from entirely cutting off her airway. The entire scenario was completed by a sensation that Vivi had grown far too familiar with over the years, that of a blade pressing against her throat—!
"What the hell, Robin!?" Vivi wheezed.
"The hell, Princess Nefertari, is a practice commonly known as a 'reality check'," Robin responded frigidly, not budging from her kneeling position on the small of Vivi's back. "You've been playing with your abilities ever since we woke up, and it has come to the point where even I could feel the winds moving. And while I can personally understand that you would want to experiment with them…"
The Demon Child chuckled wryly and shook her head before sobering up. "This experimentation inevitably leads an ability user to think that they're invincible, a god, until they get a reality check, somehow, that reminds them that they are. Are. Human. The message doesn't sink in as well for some as it does for others, but it happens to every Paramecia, it happens to every Zoan…"
Vivi's expression had frozen in shock one sentence into Robin's lecture, and by the final word, she had gone completely limp in Robin's grasp. "But… But not Logia…" she whispered hoarsely. "Logias… never dissuade themselves of that notion… Can't be dissuaded, and they go their whole lives thinking of themselves as gods—"
"Until someone forces a reality check on them. Until someone reminds them that they're still as normal and human as anyone else," Robin completed smoothly, removing her knife from Vivi's neck and standing off of her, allowing the princess to flip onto her back and stare up at her. Up at the hand that Robin had extended to her, as well as a kind smile.
"I worked with Crocodile for four years. I spoke with Eneru for ten minutes. And through that, I know how bad Logias can get, and I will not let you become like them, Vivi. Any time your mind gets lost in your powers, I will do my best to remind you that you are mortal and draw you back. I promise."
As she stared at Robin's hand, Vivi's eyes watered up, and she lunged at it as though it were a lifeline, pulling herself up and wrapping her other arm tightly around her crewmate, sobbing into her shoulder.
"…thank you. Sincerely, thank you, Robin," Vivi wept, her body wracked with terrified sobs.
Robin nodded, patiently rubbing her crewmate's back. "I could be an optimist and assume you won't need another reminder, but realistically? One day, you're going to go stark raving mad and try to wipe out some kingdom or other with a superstorm you whip up with your bare hands. And when that happens—!"
Vivi pulled back and gave Robin a teary smile. "You'll be right there to stick a knife in my back."
Robin's expression flattened, and she tapped the butt of her knife against the princess's forehead, and not gently at that. "No, I'll be there to smack some sense into you. Really, please, try and do me the courtesy of listening better."
Vivi smiled sheepishly.
"And really… if you ever need any help with handling your powers, just ask," Robin gently assured her. "My first few days with a power were intensely disorienting, and I would have given anything for some help…" the archaeologist grimaced and shuddered in disgust. "Especially with the taste…"
"Oh, Ra, don't even mention 'taste' to me!" Vivi gagged, facing herself out towards the ocean and slapping a hand over her mouth as she kept from heaving. "I've eaten a variety of cuisine over the years, and a lot didn't agree with me, but that was… was…"
"Rest assured, that will be the most horrific taste you will ever know in your entire life," Robin gagged, idly rubbing her thumb over her throat. "To this day, I can't get the taste of fertilizer composed of human feces, human ash, and actual humans out of my mind."
"Yeah? Well, I honestly think that eating it so small made mine worse," Vivi hung her head with a tortured groan. "That air was smaller than my fingernail, but the second it hit my tongue, it was like the air from a thousand compacted balls of swamp gas expanded into being inside my mouth all at once. And I can still taste every one of them!"
Robin shook her head with a weary chuckle. "To reiterate, I do know what it's like. As do many others on this crew."
Vivi sobered up slowly, and her gaze turned pensive as she looked down at her hands. "Yeah. But, you know… I understand a lot more now," the princess said.
"Understand?" Robin queried, leaning on the railing.
"…I don't think you can imagine the power rush that being a Logia gives you, Robin," Vivi explained, watching her palms and fingers fade in and out of gusting air. "Even I can't fully understand it. To come apart at the seams on a whim, to split your senses everywhere just like that, become untouchable… It's unfathomable. And… the sensation…" Her eyes turned heavenward, gazing into the deep blue of the sky. "I can feel… pretty much every breeze around us for several metres, without focusing, and the only real reason I didn't feel you coming was that I wasn't actually trying. And while I'll admit, I might be biased because of how broad a spectrum 'wind' is…"
Her fists coalesced and clenched. "What Crocodile and Eneru became is inexcusable, but if they were feeling the same way that I was, the way that I am, feeling so… so connected to the world like this, a connection that's going to be there for the rest of my life… I can see where it came from. So, again." Vivi looked Robin dead in the eye, this time with her usual steel. "Thank you for reminding me that I'm not invincible, Robin. I needed that. And, seeing as you've volunteered yourself for this?" Vivi gave her tutor a smirk. "I'll be relying on you to keep me humble when I need it. I warn you, that is a full-time job."
Robin returned the smirk with a perfectly serene grin. "Oh, I'm sure the rest of the crew won't mind helping as well. Especially if you're going to be even more of an airhead."
"HAHAHA HEEHEEHEE HOOHOOHOO!"
Soundbite's laughter echoed around them. Neither woman reacted to it.
Or, well, bodily reacted to it, as Vivi's eye was twitching furiously.
"…on the one hand," she ground out, her voice set to snap. "I could be responsible and only use my abilities in the most dire and critical of situations. On the other hand, we're Straw Hats. So thank you, Nico Robin." Vivi extended a clawed hand into the air. "For so kindly volunteering."
"Oh?" Robin cocked her brow in honest amusement. "And what, precisely, have I just—GYAERGH!"
Said amusement died a moment later as she suddenly choked on her own spit, her eyes bugging out as she vacillated between flushing and paling. Unconsciously, one hand darted down, clawing at her pants.
The reason for this was that Vivi had cut her off mid-sentence by yanking her hand upwards with a tangible burst of air. The princess then smirked and began to examine her nails primly. "To act as my guinea pig. How does 'Divine Touch' sound for a name?"
Where once Vivi's eye had been twitching, Robin's everything was spasming, jaw working soundlessly. Once she regained some motor control, the archaeologist pinned her student with a downright hellish glare. "…juvenile pranks, princess?" she hissed like a woman possessed. "Really?"
A shrug. "I consider it a step in the right direction. You?"
Robin jerked her head forward so that she was nose to nose with Vivi, lips split in a snarl and her voice on par with the Blue Pheasant's. It was an image somewhat ruined by the fact that she was still fiddling with the waistband of her pants.
"What you just did is a crime that the laws of Ohara considered punishable by death."
"NEEEEER—!"
Robin snapped her hand into a fist.
"—GYERGH!"
"As such…" she continued, heedless of the interruption. "I consider it carte blanche. You have no idea of the Pandora's box you've just opened."
Vivi raised her chin proudly. "Bring it."
The twitching intensified before she suddenly stilled to a nigh corpse-like state and pinched her eyes shut, a rictus smile on her face. "I trust that you've finished your homework, your highness?" The words crawled their way from Robin's lips.
Vivi's confidence faded into the wind even faster than she did, shrieking in horror as she rushed to find her notebook.
Robin stared after her with a satisfied smirk before reverting to a pained grimace. "The sheer amount of agony and nonsense I go through for my friends…" she groaned to herself.
And so it was that the world-infamous Demon Child made her way back to her quarters, waddling as she fiddled with her waistband.
-o-
Two of the most seasoned Marines in the Navy stood beside each other with identical looks of satisfaction as they watched another detachment of their troops return from Merveille. Serving as the Straw Hat Pirates' cleanup crew again or not, they could hardly help the good mood that only seeing fifty of the most infamous crews this half of the Grand Line trudging onboard in chains could produce.
Shiki himself was already en route to Impel Down thanks to the unexpected but welcome help of Boa Hancock, and those of his crew who had survived were being collected as well. Those not present were presumed dead from the fall of the islands, but were noted just in case.
Perhaps the best part of it was precisely why they were able to set foot on the land where hundreds of beasts still dwelled, collect all of the criminals, and be on their way. The Elder Stars themselves were pleased with the new development, and though Sengoku felt a twinge of annoyance, he had little doubt that the benefits would far outweigh the costs…
~o~
"You up for this, Sengoku?" Garp asked, cracking his knuckles as he faced down the beasts lined up on the edge of the newly-settled coast of the island, or 'archipelago' as it were, given how the impact with the ocean had been decidedly unkind to the island. It was a veritable menagerie of Merveille's beasts: big, small, fast, slow, armoured, flying, all these and so many more ready and waiting for the Marines to make landfall so that they could enjoy themselves a fresh meal.
"I am in severe need of a way to relieve my stress, and this serves as a perfect excuse," the Fleet Admiral responded, his fingers drumming over a borrowed shinai; his skill with such a weapon left something to be desired, but as he was expected both to take things easy and to take out the survivors among Shiki's monsters, he needed something that would strain his body a bit less.
"Then let's get to it!" Garp laughed to himself, marching forward as he pounded his knuckles together. The monsters on the shore snarled at them, clearly ready to pounce, soar, charge, or dive at them to tear them apart.
"Horohorohorohorohoro…"
Or at least they were until a round of aetherial laughter halted Sengoku and Garp in their tracks. Not out of any kind of terror, of course, but because of how, in response to the laugh, the monsters on the shore all suddenly stilled, the beasts all falling quiet as they looked around with varying degrees of nervousness and admiration.
Both men looked straight up. And both men saw a familiar face.
"You… Perona. You were one of Moria's subordinates. Then you joined the Straw Hat Pirates."
"Past tense, Fleet Admiral," the spectre said, floating on her back. "I cut my losses when the Straw Hats beat Moria and talked them into letting me sail with them until I could find somewhere else that I could live in luxury. And with that tyrant gone, I decided to take over his palace and help myself to all of the adorable pets that I could ever want!"
Several Marines sweatdropped as they watched the beasts on the shore swoon loyally in Perona's direction. Garp and Sengoku's eyes narrowed, however.
"Nice story, brat. But you don't think that your 'pets' are going to be able to slow Garp and me down, do you?" Sengoku demanded.
"Of course not!" Perona giggled. "If I did, I wouldn't be here to negotiate, would I?"
The top-ranked Marines exchanged wary glances before glaring at her. "Negotiate what, brat?" Garp asked.
Perona smiled impishly. "The Government was left with no choice but to strip my former master Moria of his Warlord title thanks to what Jeremiah Cross revealed on the SBS. And last time I checked, you still haven't filled that slot. Sooo~ I'm putting my name in for consideration."
The Vice and Fleet Admirals both stiffened, and a chorus of whispers and shouts filtered in from the nearby battleships.
They were all silenced when Sengoku took a stomp forward, the deck of his ship splintering beneath his boot. "And why should we consider your application—you, a no-name, no-bounty minion, and associate of the Straw Hat Pirates—for a position in what is literally the most exclusive task force in the whole of the World Government instead of swatting you?" Sengoku demanded, two seconds away from blinding the insolent spectre, heart condition be damned.
"Well, let's see here…" Perona crooned, holding up a finger as she dropped into a sitting position. "Well, normally I'd save the best for last, but since you asked nicely: Unlike the ones that you had to fire thanks to the Straw Hats, and some of the ones you still have on the roster, I don't have any ambitions. I just want to live my life in luxury and safety." She laced her fingers beneath her chin and smiled in a cutesy way. "Isn't that just wonderful?"
The grind of Sengoku's teeth was answer enough.
Still smiling cutely, Perona moved on, holding up a second finger. "Moving right along to reason number two, you may be able to swat my pets. You may somehow be able to fight off my powers. But you don't have to; it would be more convenient for all of us if they were on your side. Less trouble, less fuss, less men fed to beasts who were literally bred to eat them. I don't know about you, but that sounds like the most logical military decision, no?"
Once more, the lack of response was deafening, the subordinate officers cautiously—not nervously, never nervously—eyeing their bestial opponents and then their own men.
Up came the third finger. "I have all of the captains and most of the crews of everyone who was stupid enough to follow Shiki here with me, in the palace, and I'll gladly hand them over if you accept. And really, at this point, can you afford anything less than live captures, if you really want to save face?"
By this point, Sengoku's might as well have been carved from stone.
A fourth finger joined its brethren. "My powers could help you with that stress relief that you just mentioned."
This time, Sengoku actually did blind Perona for a moment. "Never."
"Okayokayokay!" Perona reeled back, waving her hands in frantic panic. The light faded, and the panic did as well, the ghost-girl levelling a flat glare at the Admiral of the Marine Fleets. "Alright, no more screwing around. You want serious? Let's be dead serious: You, if we're being completely honest, can't afford anyone other than me in that position at this point. Not after two lemons in a row."
As Perona shifted into a reclining position, she let a playful smirk spread on her face. "So, shall I continue listing reasons, or have I made my point?"
Sengoku's eyes twitched, leaving Garp to stare up at the ghost. "Let's say, for the sake of argument and nothing more, that you get the title. What are you expecting in return?" the Hero asked, growling.
Perona's smile didn't budge, though she did move her hands so that her fingers were splayed against one another. "Oh, not much beyond what comes pre-packaged with the Warlord position: immunity to the law as long as I don't terrorize civilians, like my predecessors have oh so frequently and flagrantly flaunted in the past; no Marines set foot on this island without my express permission; and no attempts to take any of my pets, or samples of the IQ plant." Her gaze sharpened at that last stipulation. "Shiki almost levelled the East Blue with his serum. I'm not letting that genie uncork itself if I can help it."
Her eyes suddenly widened, and she snapped her fingers. "Oh, and I also want a promise that you won't make me do anything that takes me more than a few nautical miles away from my island for the first three months. I just got this kingdom, after all, and I need some time to properly build it up. Plus…" She grimaced, letting her head loll back. "In case you've forgotten, I've spent the majority of my life in a support position. I can be as much of a threat as my… colleagues, but I need a little time to get there first. As it is, I'm no good to you on the front lines."
Again, Sengoku's eye twitched, but he also began to seriously consider the offer. And the more he thought about it, the better it seemed. Only one potential issue.
"How are you controlling them?" Sengoku asked, nodding at the monsters, the 'Can they slip their leash?' floating unspoken.
"Horohorohoro. That's quite simple, Fleet Admiral." Perona snapped her fingers, and one of the many boars in the crowd trotted up in the wake of a sobbing Hollow, snuffling at the floating ectoplasm with clear eagerness. "A combination of the carrot…"
The hollow shot through the boar, the porcine beast letting out a contented squeal and rolling over to expose its belly. A belly that Perona floated over to and began 'scratching', to the clear delight of the porcine titan.
Perona's expression then flipped to cold. "And the stick." Holding up her hand, she summoned a cackling Negative Hollow. Immediately, the entire crowd of creatures flinched back, besides the gleefully oblivious hog below her.
The Ghost Princess produced another Positive Hollow and started rotating the pair of them around her raised hand. "Euphoria as an incentive to behave. Anguish as punishment for disobedience. Shiki and Indigo made them strong, tough, and fast… but they're just like your grandson when it comes to brains, Vice Admiral Garp: meatheads who are only smart when it comes to fighting."
Garp's expression shifted to that of a man who dearly wanted to object but knew he had no leg to stand on.
With a wave of her hand, Perona dismissed the hollows. "Some of them are still a little rebellious, sure, probably the smarter ones. But I've yet to meet a beastie who hasn't reacted to one of my Hollows. When you can control how much or how little joy they feel at a time, it's easy to bring even the proudest, mightiest beast to heel. I wouldn't advise letting them leave Merveille's shores anytime soon, not without me around, but apart from that?" She raised a finger. "One month, and every biological weapon on this island, without exception, will be at my beck and call."
Sengoku remained silent for several moments. He could already tell that this brat was going to be a pain to handle, but that was about the only negative that he could see. He'd had a headache all week, and while he could fight off those beasts and the ghost girl, a chance to not fight them and still arrest fifty of the biggest problems in Paradise was a much more appealing option. And if she was honest about her motivations—which he believed she was, from what he knew and from her stipulation regarding the IQ plants—then it may be that she would be more like Mihawk than Hancock. And if worst came to worst, the beasts were landlocked now, no threat to anyone…
Suppressing a sigh, Sengoku withdrew a Transponder Snail from his coat and dialled a number that few in the world knew.
"Marine Code 95000, Fleet Admiral Sengoku," the Fleet Admiral recited, throwing a scathing glare at the arrogantly triumphant phantom. "I have found a replacement for Moria."
"We are listening," a stern older voice prompted as Perona grinned from ear to ear.