2/2

Ann moved into the coop in order to look closer at the bizarrely pretty pair of chickens roosting in the back. They each had a very soft, fluffy appearance like fur or down rather than true feathers which meant they likely were unable to fly. One had a pastel ombre pattern going from blue on her head down to indigo and purple through her body and tail, all in lovely vibrant hues while the other had pink on her head down to orange and yellow through her body and tail. Even for their small sizes, they were both sitting comfortably on top of a nest full with dozens of white eggs, apparently roosting for the other chickens in the coop. For a pair of roosting birds, they had shockingly calm and friendly temperaments.

Ann grabbed the feather-dust hummingbird still hovering in front of her, turning it back into a pile of black dust. Sensing that the dust had a little more power in it then decided to wing it and asked a question with a magic request. "May the roc of the sky grant a boon to this flock. Please answer my question to receive this boon: what makes you treasure and what makes you fierce protectors?"

After she sprinkled the remaining feather-dust over the flock of chickens (including the two colorful ones) the two fluffy chickens each nudged out a single egg from their pile and Ann carefully picked them up. The eggshells were very pretty with a mother-of-pearl sheen on it over base colors that were a swirly pastel yellow and pastel blue. The eggs were each only two inches long and three inches around or so but seemed surprisingly heavy for their size. One of the legions of white chickens pecked at her hand causing Ann to drop the egg she had been holding. The egg fell to the ground and cracked open but the resulting mess on the ground had Ann gaping and feeling a bit lightheaded.

Aside from the fact that the white of the egg was shimmery and white and the yolk was equally shimmery (only over a creamy yellow color) there was a thumb-sized nugget of what seemed to be solid gold laying in the middle of the mess.

Apparently, these fluffy birds were of the gold egg-laying variety, which was almost stupidly rare and tended only to be found around very powerful nobles or were carefully kept secrets in completely remote lands practically impossible to get to (like the nearly mythical giant island, Elbaf). How she had ended up finding two just randomly roosting with an ordinary flock of chickens on a random island in the East Blue was almost insanely lucky even if she had been boosting her chance with a little bit of magic. Bird magic really was the best magic. Now she just had to find out what made the white chickens and rooster wrathful and find a way to use that.

While Koby was running from the marines he heard a lot of shouting and orders being thrown about but one order in particular to him stood out. "Let's go to the docks and secure any boats left there so they can't escape!" One of the marines called out to his fellow squad mates causing Koby who had been ducking in an adjacent alley to freak out a bit.

"Oh no! They'll capture Dawn and then Luffy and Ann won't be able to escape from town!"

"Wait. What?" Dawn through the seagull lure asked while Koby ran away from her towards the docks. Dawn used the lure to rise up higher in the sky and then used it to look around. She glided about and used it to spot her body where she thought she had placed herself, further down the shore away from the docks for now. Koby must have forgotten she was a living ship and could easily unmoor herself and sail herself away to hide if she needed to. The human thought process was something she could only vaguely recall but being a multitasking plant did make things hard to explain to people so she had largely given up trying, looking through lures and controlling them was more like playing with a bunch of puppets that had speakers and cameras than actually being present in each body.

Speaking of lures her shark lure was feeling a bit more waterlogged and she needed to add another air pocket to help its buoyancy. She would need to pick a better plant material in the future to make sea creatures because that one was swelling up to a very unwieldy size.

When Koby got down to the dock there he saw marines everywhere and Dawn (the boat) was gone from where she had been moored.

"Oh, this is bad! Dawn's been taken by the marines already!" Koby shouted as he reached up to pull on his hair out of stress and morosely despaired over the bad situation. He felt almost as bad as the blond teenage boy wearing a tacky purple suit (actually a special uniform meant for special recruits like nobles or royalty who wanted to be in the marines) sitting on the far end of one of the empty docks looked. He seemed to be crying miserably and pressing his hand into a blackened eye. He was holding an official marine transponder snail in his other hand.

Koby marched down the dock over to him and said, "Hey you! Civilians aren't allowed to have marine issued equipment like that transponder snail."

The other teen stopped crying for a moment in order to glare at Koby and say, "Don't be an idiot. I am a marine."

"You're a marine?" Koby exclaimed with his eyes bulged wide open and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Of course I am!" The other teen snapped back and admitted while still sniveling. "I'm supposed to monitor the outgoing calls so no complaints from the lower worthless ranks get out to marine headquarters. I set the transponder snail's line to go out to East Blue Branch One right now. I was thinking of asking to request to dispatch me to marine headquarters since dad wants to execute a little kid but I don't want to get yelled at or get dad in trouble."

"You're the Helmeppo who started all this?" Koby shouted in surprise.

Helmeppo nodded and seemed to reach for the snail received before he lost the willpower and went back to sounding miserable and pathetic as he warbled. "I'm only ranked as a Seaman Recruit but I started as a chore boy and signed on so I could live on base with my dad, you know. He's in charge so everyone had to listen to my orders too. I really, really don't want to be yelled at."

Koby, feeling angry over the entire situation that this kid and his father had caused everyone, squared up and snapped his fingers in front of Helmeppo's face as he scolded. "Stop whining already. Your choice was your choice and you can't change the past. But even if you make a mistake you can always fix it if you try. So what are you going to do about this mess you made?"

Helmeppo curled in on himself with his face gleaming with nervous sweat, his lower lip wobbled a bit before he sucked in a deep breath and said with a shaky voice. "I can call Marine Headquarters to tell them what my dad has been doing to this town."

"Well then, let's go," Koby said as he reached his hand out for Helmeppo to take. "As a future marine, I can't let a group of pirates do more than me to help this town. It would be too embarrassing to be left out of everything, right?"

Helmeppo wiped his face with his sleeve and let Koby help him up to his feet. Once Helmeppo was standing though a contemplative expression crossed his face before he used all his strength to shove Koby off the end of the dock into the water below. He haughtily looked down and said. "Pirates you said? You idiot. I can just report that this town is full of pirate sympathizers and then my dad's extreme actions won't be punished at all. Even him executing disobedient marines and reporting them as dying in the line of service will make more sense then. He'll finally be proud of me!"

Koby watched helplessly as Helmeppo began to reach for the mouthpiece of the transponder snail but stopped with his jaw dropped open and eyes blown wide as he stared at something beyond Koby further out in the sea.

Koby turned in the water and saw the giant purple shark fin slicing through the water for only a split second before Dawn-the-shark, now over twenty feet long for some reason, launch herself out of the water towards a now screaming Helmeppo who dropped the transponder snail in his terror, and swallow him down in one massive gulp before landing with a splash on the other side of the dock. Dawn-the-seagull landed on the edge of the dock, looked down at Koby, and asked with a concerned tone of voice. "Are you alright, Koby?"

"You ate him!" Koby shouted up at the seagull and scrambled to get out of the water once he remembered a giant shark was nearby and shouted some more. "How could you just go and eat a human like that!? Not to mention how did you get so huge!?"

Dawn-the-seagull looked exasperated as she said. "Don't fret about so much, I didn't eat him. Really. I'm just holding him for a little while, he already fainted in the air sac so the lure won't be damaged. Have you ever heard a story about a guy named Jonah who was eaten by a big fish? I'm going to have the lure spit him out onto shore on the other side of the island and he'll be perfectly fine (though maybe a bit traumatized)."

Koby finally made it to the top of the dock and carefully picked up the dropped transponder snail, patting it on its head to make it feel better. Dawn the seagull pecked at his hand to get his attention and said, "Here - you can use that snail to call in and report Morgan's actions while I meet up with Ann in order to bring her to where Luffy and Zoro are. You can handle this and take steps to be the next great Marine Hero, right little jarhead?"

Koby gaped up at the seagull and then down again at the happily (purring?) transponder snail twice before he nodded with conviction and said. "I'll take care of it, Dawn! You can count on me!"

Once Dawn flew away Koby steeled his nerves and picked up the receiver to make a report.

The snail rang twice until an audible 'Kat-cha' was heard. The bored expression of the answering marine mirrored on the snail as he dully said. "You've reached East Blue Marine Branch One. Please identify your name, rank, and ID number before relaying your message."

"Oh, well I'm not a marine yet but my name's Koby and I arrived at East Blue Branch 153 in Shells Town to join up. I need to make an emergency report though! Captain Morgan, the base commander here, has been executing town citizens and is right now probably losing a fight against one pirate attacking the base in order to free some town citizens he was getting ready to execute. It's a big mess here and I need to report it so Morgan can't get away with it!"

The face mirrored on the snail had switched from bored to irritated halfway through Koby's report and the other marine said, "How did you end up with marine equipment? Return it to the nearest marine and know that it's illegal to prank call a marine base. I don't want to hear from you again, kid."

Koby's jaw dropped when the line disconnected but he was determined to do what he needed to and so he called in again. The snail had the same expression of boredom but switched quickly to irritation when Koby began to speak again. "This isn't a prank, I swear! I just want to make a report because it isn't even just the citizens in town Captain Morgan is terrorizing and executing, its other marines too! Seaman Recruit Helmeppo confirmed it that the marines Morgan executes are reported as dying in the line of duty and it isn't criminals killing them it's Morgan!"

Ka-lick. The line disconnected again and for a third time, Koby called in and didn't notice the expression mirrored on the transponder snail wasn't bored and irritated anymore but serious and grim-faced.

Koby started up again, this time fed up enough to start shouting. "This is not a prank! I want more than anything to be a marine who protects people and who catches bad guys. Captain Morgan isn't protecting the town or the marine's here - he's hurting them! I'm not a marine yet so you need to help me so I can help them! You're a real marine, aren't you? Take responsibility and stop things from getting worse!"

"Hey, kid. Who did you say you were?" A different voice on the transponder snail asked gruffly.

"I-I'm Koby and I want to be a marine, sir. I don't want to stand and do nothing while a pirate does all the work saving people here."

There was a muffled scratching sound of some kind before the gruff voice spoke again. "I'll ignore that talk about a pirate for now. How old are you, Koby?"

The official age requirement for joining the marines was seventeen so Koby lied and said, "I'm seventeen, sir."

There were more scratching noises before the voice said, "You realize that you'd start out in the marines as a chore boy cleaning the head and polishing up the walls, floors, and hull of the ship. You wouldn't be permitted to go out of your way to catch bad guys or be a hero at all. Can you really accept that, kid?"

"It doesn't matter what my rank is! I'd try to help save people even if I were ranked a chore boy my entire life!" Koby said, feeling completely serious in his statement.

The way the voice laughed didn't sound comforting but his next words caused Koby's jaw to drop again. "Well consider yourself conscripted into the marines, kid. Can you believe your application to join as a chore boy coincidentally just appeared on my desk right now? My stamp of approval looks like it just dried on the corner here. I'm Captain Smoker, the base commander for East Blue Marine Branch One in Loguetown, and I like marines like you. For now, your assignment is to do what you can to gather intel at that base for the next two weeks until I send one of my men to pick you up. Let me know about what happens regarding that pirate attack once everything settles. Your ID for the next time when you call-in is EBR21682 by the way. Get going, chore boy. Your first assignment is to help to 'clean up' Branch 153 even if it means working with a pirate for now by my permission. Go and do your assignment, marine."

The transponder snail disconnected and Koby felt a bit numb. Huh. Apparently, he was a marine now even after he shouted at another Marine Captain. Remembering his new mission Koby slapped himself in the forehead and began to run as fast as he could towards the base. He was allowed to help Luffy and if by the most insignificant chance possible that Luffy ended up failing in taking down Captain Morgan he would jump in and hope he could make a difference.

Luffy - despite running around an ugly marine base and being attacked (uselessly) with guns and (weak, easily avoided) swords was having a grand old time. None of these marines were anywhere close to being as tough as his grandpa. He bet even wimpy Koby could probably beat a few of them. One marine yelped as Luffy pulled him close and said, "I'm looking for Zoro's swords! Help me find them!"

"Eek! They'll either be in the barracks, in the contraband room, or in Master Helmeppo's room!"

The marine yelped again when Luffy pushed him in front of him and shouted, "Take me to all those places! I need to find his katana so he'll be on my crew! The Pirate King! The name's gonna be mine and he can't be the world's greatest swordsman without a sword!"

The marine pointed out the way to the barracks where Luffy picked up five katanas, ran with him to contraband where Luffy picked out two katanas and finally dragged the hapless marine up to the officer quarters where Helmeppo stayed and found three katanas. Luffy huffed and scratched at his head feeling confused.

"There are three katanas here...I keep finding katanas everywhere but which one is Zoro's though?" Luffy asked out loud though the marine couldn't answer since he had already passed out (or was faking it in order to avoid fighting the monster pirate captain) so he took all three of them. Out of the ten katanas he had picked up around the base one of them had to be Zoro's by now right? It would be easy to find Zoro in order to check. All he had to do was follow the sound of destruction and screaming that he wasn't causing.

Two floors down and five halls to the left he found Zoro fighting through a bunch of harried-looking marines with only the chains shackled around his wrists and Luffy cheerily shouted, "Zoro! I think I won the race!"

The sound of his shouting distracted Zoro from his defense and so Luffy tackled Zoro out the window to get both of them away from the shots the marines fired from their rifles.

Once they landed in the courtyard filled with statue rubble Luffy showed Zoro the bouquet of swords and said, "I found a lot of katanas and didn't know which one was yours so I brought all of them."

Zoro looked at the swords and selected three out of the group. "These three belong to me because I use three sword style."

Dozens of marines came out from the base and showed up with Captain Morgan from town and surrounded them. Morgan was furious over the destruction on base and the absolute lack of respect or fear Luffy or Zoro had in their eyes. "Kill that pirate and Zoro! They're traitors to my rule!"

With a grin Zoro took his three swords, his chains still jangling with his movements. "Allow me to demonstrate my skill, Captain."

The surrounding platoon of marines shouted and yelped in panic as Zoro spun around like an enthusiastic grim reaper while Captain Morgan raged at both him and his marines in the back of the group.

"That's enough! The two of you who have betrayed me will die here!" Morgan pointed at Luffy and ordered "FIRE!"

The shots hit their target but Zoro had nothing to worry about as Luffy stretched and bounced the bullets away completely unharmed. The bullets actually kind of tickled as he shouted. "It's no use! Hahahaha!"

"What kind of human are you, Captain?" Zoro asked even as he kept fighting the lackeys of Morgan. They were kind of pathetic to be losing so badly to Zoro when he felt this tired and hungry.

"The one who will become the Pirate King. And call me Luffy because we're friends now, right?" Luffy ordered causing Zoro to grin around his sword wider.

Zoro replied in a scary way. "I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman! I don't care if my name is clean or not. Bad guy, good guy, it no longer matters! As long as my name is known worldwide and reaches heaven and hell! If you ever do something that gets in the way of my goal I will have you cut open your stomach to apologize. Got it Luffy?"

"Got it Zoro," Luffy said with a satisfied smile as he bounced around acting as a bullet catcher so Zoro could fight unimpeded.

"If guns don't work on that rascal use your swords! Do I have to think of everything!?" Morgan shouted as though the rushing marines being stopped cold by Zoro were doing nothing.

"Zoro duck!" Luffy called out and immediately swept a long stretched kick around the courtyard of the base, kicking droves of marines at waist height and knocking them over while Zoro ducked low under his leg.

Morgan finally jumped in to attack Luffy, shouting all the while. "People like you without any status in the world have no right to oppose me! I am Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan!"

"My name is Luffy. Nice to meet you." Luffy said since that was what you were supposed to say when introducing yourself.

"Go to hell, straw hat!" Morgan yelled as he swung his axe prosthetic at Luffy, who simply jumped over it. The attacks that Morgan was striking out with were tearing up the ground and cutting holes along the walls as he constantly missed hitting the bouncy pirate. He was all power with no accuracy. Luffy bounced around and with both his feet pushed out kicked Morgan in the chest, knocking him over onto his back.

Morgan pushed himself up off the ground and snarled. "You little bastard! I'll kill you!"

He struck out at Luffy two - three - four more times, missing his target on each strike and Luffy called him out saying, "I'm not dead yet!" and punched him in his stupid-looking metal jaw as hard as he could as he shouted, "High Caliber: Rubber Pistol!"

Morgan swayed on his feet once - then twice and toppled to the ground knocked completely unconscious. The marines stopped fighting and dropped their weapons in numb shock. Morgan had been completely defeated by this out-of-nowhere pirate.

"Captain Morgan lost! He's been defeated!" One of the marines shouted to the rest in shock.

"If you still want to execute me come and try!" Zoro said before he suddenly staggered and began to collapse. Fatigue, exertion, and starvation had all suddenly caught up to him and he couldn't stay conscious. The last thing he noticed before he completely blacked was the appearance of Ann and Koby. The hundreds of chickens he thought he saw following after them might have been a hallucination from the hunger.

The shock over Morgan's loss ended and the marines erupted into cheers of joy and relief.

"Hurrah!" "Yes!" "We're free!" "We're free from Morgan!"

Koby smiled with satisfaction over the reaction of the other marines. They were just as happy with Morgan's defeat as the townsfolk would be once the news reached them.

"Wait. What? You mean it was all Captain Morgan and his son and not all the marines at this base causing problems for the town?" Ann asked as she watched the marines celebrating over the utter defeat of their boss.

"Yeah, the marines here were just as scared of Morgan as the townsfolk were. Isn't that great?" Koby asked in delight since his dream of good guy marines wasn't completely crushed after all. He couldn't wait to tell them he was a marine now that it wouldn't be embarrassing.

Ann winced and said, "Maybe the escape plan I started up was a bit overkill then."

Koby was about to ask what Ann meant by that but was distracted by the sound of a loud and long rooster call followed by hundreds of white chickens that suddenly began flooding into the marine base. The (terrifying?) hoard of chickens began to peck at and scratch at anyone wearing a marine uniform - including the unconscious Morgan. Koby rushed to help the marines control the situation by trying to herd the chickens away from the base.

Making use of the extra distraction Ann helped Luffy haul Zoro back to his feet in order to lead him away from the base to find him somewhere he could eat something. Dawn the seagull was flying above watching the group in satisfaction over the fact that no one was really hurt. Luffy, of course, noticed the pair of fluffy colorful chickens that Ann had strapped securely but gently to herself with a strip of calico linen and said, "Are you going to make grilled teriyaki chicken?"

Ann shook her head and said, "No. I'm taking them so we can have fresh eggs while we're sailing. Plus you told me to make a way to escape and get the treasure and these girls are real treasure troves, believe me."

"Yummy! Let's make some omelets then!" Luffy cheered, his stomach growling in agreement.

The group came to a sudden stop though when Balloon landed in front of the crew and gave Ann a particularly annoyed expression. He winced in pain when Rika yanked on his feathers in her rush to get to the ground. Her mother was just as quick to dismount but far more gentle in handling his feathers.

Rika was immediately talking about how amazing Luffy and Zoro were. "You destroyed the statue! You beat Morgan! You're amazing!"

The sound that came from Zoro's stomach was more beastly than a mere growl which spurred Ririka to take action as only a mother and a cook could - she began to prepare to feed a group of hungry (and one actually starving) teenagers. She ushered them into her restaurant and immediately began preparing food.

Zoro revived when a bowl of soup was placed in front of him and then there was not much he remembered about the food in detail other than how satisfying it was to finally eat something. The only thing he remembered aside from the initial soup was the dish the little Rika had made for everyone - sweet rice balls. He was close to having a duel with Ann over the last one due in part to the fact that she looked so happy over him eating it but mostly because starving made anything and everything taste amazing. Ann simply liked the sweet-salty taste she got when combining Rika's rice balls with her mother's salt seasoned ones.

"Where are we heading for next, Luffy?" Ann asked as they (finally) began slowing down their consumption of Ririka's entire restaurant while she casually fed the chickens dishes containing whole grains and shellfish which seemed to be their favorite foods.

"To the Grand Line, of course!" Luffy declared and instantly amended. "Or to find a musician first."

"Can I come with you Luffy? I want to be a great pirate like you. I could be your cabin girl." Rika begged earnestly which Luffy seemed genuinely conflicted over. It reminded him of when he asked Shanks the same thing. He didn't see Ririka shaking her head behind Rika, though that wouldn't have stopped him from asking his next question.

"How old are you, Rika?"

"I'm eight but I'll be nine in only ten months!" Rika said firmly.

Luffy shook his head and said, "You're too little, then. You need to be at least eleven to come out to sea with me to join my crew because that's how old Shanks was when he started."

Rika pouted and her mother looked relieved while both Zoro and Ann nodded in agreement. Most traditional apprenticeships started at eleven years old so Luffy's policy made sense even if it insinuated they might be getting a pirate apprentice while on Luffy's crew. The door to the restaurant pushed open and Koby rushed in, breathing heavily since he had been running around town looking for them.

"I can't believe you've just been sitting in here eating," Koby said, sounding more than a little stressed out as seemed to be usual for him. Koby produced a set of keys he had grabbed from the base and went around unlocking and unshackling Rika, Ririka, and Zoro's chains and shackles. Rika and Ririka gladly returned their cuffs and chains to Koby but Zoro looped his chains around his waist like a belt over his haramaki and then held out his hand toward Koby and said, "I'd like to keep these for training. Give me the key, I'll need it until I can cut and break steel."

Koby gave it to him without a second thought and then began to babble at the crew.

"There's mass hysteria all around town. People are running in the streets cheering and spreading the news about Morgan being defeated while the other marines are on the defense against a weirdly tough attacking flock of chickens and roosters that showed up!" Koby blurted to the crew (Ann tried not to look guilty. The chickens here and their progeny for the next dozen generations would now always attack any marines that they spotted in exchange for her boon that they would be almost impossible to kill unless it was from natural causes so they wouldn't be able to be killed easily. All because of her jumping the gun to curse the marines in this town without realizing that Morgan had been the source of everything bad). "I think now will be the best time for all of you to escape since everyone's distracted."

"Let's get going then," Luffy said as he stood and stretched his arms over his head (but not all the way up to the ceiling since Makino never liked it when he did that). Zoro, Ann, and Balloon followed Luffy out the door and got an eyeful of the chaos that Koby had mentioned. People really were running excitedly all around, the citizens shouting happily about their new freedom, the chickens running wild in the streets and the marines defending themselves against the agitated poultry that seemed intent on attacking them mercilessly.

The crew came down to the docks and as they boarded Dawn the ship (who seemed to have grown about one meter longer and half a meter wider and now had a new coop seat grown on the deck for Ann's chickens to have a place to nest in which Ann gave Dawn's figurehead a pet of gratitude over) Koby told them he was officially a marine now and then hesitatingly asked. "Luffy, even though we just met and I'm a marine now will you still consider us friends if we meet again?"

Luffy grinned at Koby and said, "Of course, Koby! Even though we have to part, we'll always be friends. I believe you'll be a strong marine in the future so work hard."

Koby saluted Luffy and said, "Of course I will! Thank you very much! I will never forget you for the rest of my life!"

Zoro grinned and said, "I've never seen a marine salute a pirate before."

"Koby! We'll definitely meet again someday!" Luffy called out with a grin and laughed in delight as they began to sail away. Chaos reigned, the treasure had been pillaged and Luffy had new Nakama. It had been a good afternoon.

Dawn the ship reabsorbed the seagull lure and shark lure into her hull and told Luffy the story about what she had done to Morgan's son, who was still unconscious on the shore on the other side of the island getting a sunburn. The story caused Zoro to laugh with an almost scary gleam in his eyes when she got to the part where she swallowed him whole and only seemed a little disappointed that he was spat out instead of actually eaten. It would take the crew very little time to learn to tell the difference between a gleam of threat or glee that shone in his eyes.

Once they were far away from shore the two chickens Ann had taken from the town were finally placed on the deck so Luffy took the time to pick up the pink-orange-yellow chicken and rubbed it against his face grinning in absolute delight. "He's soft and fluffy! I'll name him Fluffy-Bunny-Bird! The other guy can be Fluffy-Kitty-Bird!"

"Better than what I was going to pick. I would've called them Yellow Chicken and Blue Chicken." Zoro said as he shrugged nonchalantly and sat down on the deck to rest up since he was getting tired.

Ann scowled at their contributions and said, "Those are terrible names! Not to mention I already named her Mango-Tango and her sister is Very-Berry. I found them so I get to name them - that's the rule."

Dawn laughed loudly and after a few moments to calm down she got ahold of herself and spoke with her voice rising up from the deck, "Everyone on this crew is awful at naming things. Luffy tried to name me "Lion Talking Plant" and "Hungry Snake Plant" and about fifty other things before I let him pick Dawn in the end. Believe me, being named after an island is the best result he could come up with."

Luffy nodded his head in agreement, still snuggling against the fluffy bird that seemed oddly fine with being nearly smothered by him. "That rule is fine. I found Dawn and named her and you found Tango-Mango and Berry-Very so you get to name them."

Ann shook her fist at Luffy and shouted, "You're doing that on purpose aren't you?"

"Doing what?...Very-Cherry isn't going to stay here all the time will it?" Zoro asked with a slightly mischievous grin as he looked down at his lap where the blue-indigo-violet chicken decided to settle in for a nap with him. What a weird crew he had joined to have a talking ship and so many birds around. Though it would be nice to have some companions around again at least.

Ann threw her arms around Balloon's neck and screamed in frustration into her friend's feathers. Her crewmates were ridiculous! She could tell Balloon was laughing at her too when he cawed in amusement at her actions like a drunk crow. She wouldn't admit that it was funny but for now she decided to give them all a cold shoulder to make herself feel better.

She was out like a light within a few moments and Balloon grumbled at her before he preened back her bangs. He had been too far away from her today and she had fallen into her usual bad habit. She had used too much magic in a short amount of time and now she had to use her body's energy to recover. Two feather spells and a curse was a lot of energy to use in only an hour or so and she would likely wake up even hungrier than she had been in the restaurant in a few hours. She really did seem happier being on this ship though and so for that Balloon was happier for now as well.

Balloon watched as Luffy bounced about the deck, still holding his claimed fluffy chicken as he chatted excitedly to Zoro who seemed to be settling in to nap with his own bird though he listened with one ear anyway.

"Dawn tells the best stories! Since Zoro's a swordsman tell us one with an awesome swordsman in it!"

"Alright. We begin in a time hundreds of years ago when wars neverending ravaged around the world. During this time there was one swordsman of ultimate power and grace known as the legendary and dangerous assassin "Hitokiri Battosai." As the wars came to an end however, he grew weary of killing and found an appreciation of life, and thus, he vowed never to kill again taking up the name of Kenshin. In his personal path for self-redemption, he now used his skills to help those in need and fight for the weak that were oppressed by wicked swordsmen who still craved senseless bloodshed. With the use of a "reverse-edged" sword, Kenshin managed to fight utilizing his awesome sword skills without having to break his vow of non-killing."

To be continued…

Up next: A pirate and his crew have taken over a town. Luffy is separated from the crew and meets a redheaded girl with attitude while Zoro and Ann are left to deal with the townsfolk wary of pirates.

Another round of thanks to those who are following my story, who have favorited it, and who have reviewed it. They are really nice to see and I'm thankful for any that come by. The next chapter will likely be a little bit delayed due to busy things in my life from now until the first week of December but I'll get it out as soon as I can. Best wishes to you all until I get the next part out.