Cliffs and Hangers! Excitement!

~Eraser~

The kids seemed a bit frightened at first, but relaxed after seeing the cyborg. Then continued a weird chant of—

—"Superrrr!" as some of the others pulled at my scarf and goggles,

'What is this place? A daycare? In a place like this?'

"Guys, we need to keep moving. Those soldiers are going to be here soon."

Sanji noted as I removed the child from my shoulders, we started running as some of the kids followed. One of the kids asked the cyborg some questions before proceeding to ask for help.

"What does he mean?"

Nami questioned the child's words.

"Help us! Please!"

The kid pleaded.

"Why is he saying that?"

Sanji asked, puzzled.

Looking around the room.

'This place doesn't look like a daycare, why would these kids be here, anyway?'

"Then this is not a daycare?"

Chopper spoke in an unsure tone of voice.

"Sis! You have to help us! Please!"

The girl pleaded.

"Please!"

They all pleaded at the same time.

Stopping along with Nami, I gazed over the kids before landing on the suited soldiers running towards us.

"Nami-san, don't stop!"

Sanji called.

"Take us out of here! Please!"

The kids practically begged.

"Nami-san, let's go!"

Sanji spoke in a hurried tone.

Nami seemed unsure and conflicted as she made herself look away from the kids, she begrudgingly took off running again as I looked at the kids. They had tears in their eyes as my blood seemingly came to a boil; I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth.

"Please, scarf guy! Help us!"

The kid pleaded.

"Eraser! Come on, let's go!"

Nami called out.

Taking a deep breath before sighing.

"We can't just leave these kids here, they don't seem safe and they're begging for our help. I get that you guys are pirates, but you don't seem heartless. I also understand that we need to escape, but as a hero, I cannot turn my back on these kids. You can stay and help, or go to the others, these kids' safety is my top priority right now. My universe or not, I am a hero above all else."

Stating, the kids' faces immediately lit up in hope. Nami stopped in place as she looked back at me and the kids, Sanji was seemingly annoyed but showed a somewhat softness in his eyes.

"Let's help these children!"

Nami decided with a certain determination as the edges of my lips raise a bit, lightly coughing and putting a hand over my mouth. Looking away before returning my attention to the kids as my gaze lifted towards the soldiers approaching quickly, Sanji argued a bit but gave in fairly easily considering his favorability with Nami.

"So, plan? Or are we just going to kick some butt?"

Sanji questioned.

Chuckling before remarking.

"Don't hurt them too badly, I'm sure they'll end up crying if you break anything."

The soldiers started preparing to fire at the kids, Nami's eyes widened as she ran to stop them. Sanji quickly took action as he took out the soldiers, joining him along with Chopper and the cyborg. Wrapping one of the soldiers in my scarf before spinning him around and knocking him into his friends, unwrapping him into the pile, Sanji told Chopper to protect Nami and take the children out of here as he held the soldiers off.

"If Cyborg and you are staying I might as well leave with them, I trust you can deal with these guys. Meet back up with us after you're finished though, I have a bad feeling about this place and we wouldn't want to stay longer than needed."

Voicing to him as he nodded.

"I'm blaming you and Chopper if Nami-san gets hurt."

He noted, my eyes rolled as I smiled softly. Quickly running to catch up with Nami and the children.

Chopper was talking to the kids about their supposed "sickness" when one of them revealed that they were perhaps kidnapped.

"Some strangers took them here without letting them see their parents? That could only mean... You're really very sick!"

Chopper states in shock and worry when Nami hit him.

"What are you, stupid?"

She berated.

"And a reindeer…"

Adding as she glared at me from the side.

"Are you all doing okay? If any of you can't run, I'll carry you on my back."

Chopper mistakenly offered as they all then proceeded to dogpile on him causing us to stop.

"They all look fine."

Nami panted.

"Yes, we are! The Master has been treating us."

One of the kids informed.

"The Master?"

Nami asked.

"Uh-huh, the Master."

Another replied.

"But it's been over a year, hasn't it? Chopper, why don't you examine them later?"

"Yeah, okay."

Chopper replied as the children crushed him, after clearing the dogpile and continuing to run for a while, we reached a door, Nami tried to open it to no avail.

"Oh no! This door is locked! We have nowhere to go!"

Nami despaired as everyone replied with upset "What?"'s. The kids started worrying, telling us we needed to hurry up and that the soldiers were coming.

"Nami, step aside!"

Chopper said as he broke the lock and kicked the door open.

"It's open. Wachaa."

He posed as the children gave him praises and Nami complained about the cold, wrapping the scarf tightly around my neck.

'At least I dressed for the occasion.'

Pulling on the thick and slightly baggy outfit while sighing.

'Though my previous outfit would have been fine as well, and more comfortable…'

Grumbling to myself, my brows furrowed as my eyes switched back and forth from wall to wall and ceiling to floor, gazing down the icy hallway. Nami and Chopper began running down it towards the other door as the kids stayed still.

'I have a bad feeling about this place.'

Scanning around the hallway a bit more as one of the kids shouted about them not liking the place and being scared.

"What? What's wrong, kids?"

Nami was puzzled.

"Let's go! They're coming!"

Chopper called.

Nami looked at me in confusion.

"Eraser?"

My eyes trailed around the icy cavern when they landed on something in the ice, they slowly widened as the girl continued talking about how they first entered through this way.

'That's haunting, especially for children.'

The thought crossed my mind as my eyes drifted over at the other people frozen inside the ice. They seemed to be prisoners, or at least, they were wearing prison uniforms. Nami and Chopper had seemingly looked around because now they were freaking out.

"Huh?! What's going on here?! Dead bodies in ice?! There are more up there!"

Nami pointed out.

"Down there, too!"

Chopper exclaimed in terror.

"No!!"

They both screamed as they took off running past us, huffing in annoyance and following along, the kids calling out for us to wait.

After a lot more running, we met up with Sanji and the cyborg. They seemingly had a fun time with the soldiers.

"I've had it with this place!"

Chopper wailed.

"But look! There's a door! We can get out!"

Nami informed us as we bolted towards it. Chopper took the initiative by kicking the door fully open.

"I made it out!"

He shouted in relief.

"Outside?! It's freezing!"

Nami shivered, coming to a stop to inspect the situation. We clearly interrupted, there was a group of Navy soldiers and an unknown man. He seemed annoyed and shocked.

'He doesn't look like the "Master" so who is he? It looks like we disrupted something important.'

The guy with the leopard print cap looked at me in confusion as his eyes drifted to the children, they all seemed shocked and confused. Which was understandable, since even I don't have a clue as to what was happening.

My attention returned to Nami and the man when she said he looked familiar, she seemingly assumed he was the one who took the children. But that did not seem to be the case, Sanji was surprised by the Navy and seemingly recognized "Smoker" as he said.

And the lady beside him, he proceeded to tell the children that they couldn't escape through this way and to find another. They started running back inside, I stood back and watched the supposed "threats" when the marine spoke.

"You lied! You weren't the only one here!"

"Smoker" shouted at the man.

"Seems like I wasn't. I'm also surprised."

The other replied.

"To be fair, we haven't been here long. Though the soldiers and children have seemingly been here a while, either way, he wasn't telling the entire truth."

Commenting as the man glared at me from the side.

"Who are you?! Another part of straw hats crew?"

Smoker questioned, sighing and rubbing the back of my neck before offering an explanation.

"No, more like a hitchhiker being dragged along against his will."

Saying with an obvious annoyance in my voice.

The girl beside Smoker quickly realized something and jumped into action, putting her hand on her sword and telling the soldiers what to do.

"Everybody, let's catch the straw hats!"

She said as the others cheered.

"No, wait!"

Smoker shouted as the leopard print hat said something, a large blue bubble formed around the area as I stood back and watched.

"Those fools...They brought trouble! Takt!"

He said, most likely referring to the "fools" running back down the hallway.

'I don't get enough sleep to deal with things like this.'

Sighing as the man picked up the marine ship along with the bottom of the river with his power, he held it in the air before continuing to speak.

"I can't let you leave the island now. I'm sorry that I said no one's here."

He apologized as Smoker prepared to fight, the marines cheering him on.

"Are you going to stand there and watch or go run with the others?"

Leopard print questioned me, crossing my arms and leaning against the door.

'I could use a break….'

"…I think I'll stay, I have enough of a headache just being around them. Might as well watch what happens here."

Answering as he nodded slightly.

"Very well."

He unsheathed his sword.

The pieces of rubble flew through the air as the marines simply watched, they seemed quite nervous. Though I would be too, faced up against this. I don't even know if my quirk would work the same way here as it does back in my universe, It might not work at all.

The leopard print turned and looked back to where the others ran back as he left his back turned to the marines, seemingly unbothered by the chance that they could attack.

"That was the samurai...And the straw hats. I can't let them escape."

He recapped as his eyes drifted towards me, my brows furrowed.

''Room."

He moved his hand as the bubble encased us, moving in front of him to block the others. He seemed unbothered by my interjection.

"I cannot let them escape."

He said in a stern tone.

"And I can't let you stop them, sure they're pirates. But they're helping those kids, and stopping them means stopping them from helping."

Asserting just as stern while sliding my goggles on and grabbing my scarf.

"I don't know how different my powers work here, so forgive me if things go wrong."

Warning him before readying in a defensive position.

-Fight cliff hanger (; sorry not sorry!-

"They are…" Robin started.

'They are what? Finish your sentence!'

"They're all centaurs!" Luffy finished her sentence, whether it was the intended comment or not.

"I wonder if they wanna join us too!"

He exclaimed in excitement, the sigh easily leaving me as if prepared in advance.

"I'm sure they don't! They're obviously prepared to fight us!"

Usopp shouted, clearly done with Luffy's whole recruitment agenda.

"I'm sure that doesn't make much of a difference to Luffy...Enemy or not, the only thing that matters is how interesting they seem."

Informing of the already seemingly forgotten knowledge.

"They're colleagues of the man who sent out the emergency signal, aren't they?"

Robin said.

"Someone's perceptive."

Remarking sarcastically.

"Yeah, they must be! We have to clear the air before they start to fight!"

Usopp stood up and started waving to them.

'This is going to go wonderfully.'

Humming and sighing while leaning back in the seat.

"Hey! We're here to help you, people! Let's talk first!"

"I don't think listening is on their list of things to do, Usopp. You might as well be trying to give angry bees honey, we are technically trespassing on property, so we are in the wrong. Who's going to listen to criminals?" Denoting.

"You're lying through your teeth! You're with the samurai! So there's no doubt that you're intruders!"

The large centaur shouted.

"Samurai?"

Usopp questioned as he looked at Zoro.

"He's talking about you!"

Usopp looked back at the group of centaurs.

"No, he's not a samurai- he's a swordsman! He's a dumb meathead who picks fights without thinking sometimes but...He's not the one who attacked your people!"

Usopp shouted back, the remark making me snicker.

"Who did you call "dumb"?!"

Zoro glared at Usopp.

"Help! He's gonna kill me!"

Usopp screeched in terror as he ran around the boat.

"I'm not gonna kill you! Stop saying that!"

Zoro shouted as Usopp continued to scream.

"Usopp, you're really not helping our case here, they aren't going to be convinced now that you're screaming that he's going to kill you...Probably thinks you're having a falling out and your previous statement was just a ploy."

Sighing in annoyance when Zoro suddenly cut the cannonball heading towards us.

"They're so dull."

He claimed.

"I could say the same to you, dull with everything but blades."

Turning my head away to act as if I didn't say or hear anything as he garbled and shouted angrily at me.

"Good job, Zoro-kun! I have to compliment you!"

Usopp patted his back happily, thankful we weren't sunk.

"Hey! I got leg-maro too!"

Luffy exclaimed unhelpfully.

"And they need to know that, why?"

I questioned pointlessly.

They fired more cannons as the boat rocked viciously.

"We can't clear the air!"

Usopp shouted in exasperation.

"And who's fault do you think that was?"

Narrowing my eyes at him with obvious ill-intent.

"They look like they're dumb, so…"

Robin started.

"What does that say about you guys then?"

Raising a brow.

"We should be friends! Gum-Gum leg-maro balloon!"

Luffy said, causing my eyes to roll, man, all this eye rolling really tires your eyes….

"He's doing something again-bu!"

The legs spoke in obvious exasperation, even he seemed to be getting tired of all the action.

"Why are you adding him to your move?!"

I stupidly questioned something Luffy did, because literally everything he does already has an answer. Because it's Luffy….

"Leg-maro has nothing to do with it!"

Usopp shouted as the cannonballs bounced off of Luffy and away from us.

"They're gonna shoot again."

Zoro informed, I sighed and looked back at the annoying barrage.

"They'll never learn. I'll be counting on you guys!"

Usopp said.

Staring at him with a deadpan expression and remarking.

"Don't you have some sort of magical plant in that bag of yours that will help? Or are you simply here for moral support?"

He looked at me before awkwardly smiling and holding up his thumbs.

"You got this!"

He cheered, I don't know what I really expected to be fair.…

"Wait! They're aiming at the water! They're gonna try to sink the boat!"

Robin informed.

"What?! We have two Devil fruit eaters on board!"

Usopp shouted stupidly.

"I think that's the point, it looks like we'll have to swim after all."

Voicing as I made sure my jacket was on tight.

"Damn!"

Luffy cursed.

"Here they come!"

Usopp called as everyone held tightly to the boat, it rocked viciously as the waves splashed water on board.

"Let's get behind an iceberg!"

Robin quickly advised.

"All right!"

Usopp cheered as they started rowing unbelievably quickly.

"That was close."

Luffy sighed in relief.

"Why aren't you two rowing?"

Usopp questioned, shrugging in reply as the iceberg suddenly cracked and collapsed, the hostile group continuing to fire.

"Tch, Dammit. They just won't let up!"

I groaned in annoyance.

"Let's go back!"

Usopp tried to convince.

"What're you talking about, Usopp?! Advance!"

Luffy cheered carelessly.

'If I don't die by this I will die sometime after, and it'll be because of this annoyingly, adorable, stupid kid.'

"You have no idea what's going on, do you? They're trying to make us fall into the lake!"

Usopp shouted at Luffy, who didn't seem bothered at all. The giant centaur started saying something that I didn't care much to pay attention to.

"Who are you, again?"

Luffy questioned, seemingly not having listened either. The centaur shouted back about his meaningless former bounty, before repeating his name over and over with too many extra unneeded "Sama!"'s. To which everyone seemed confused.

"We've never heard of you!"

Luffy shouted back after doing a headcount of everyone who shrugged or shook their head.

I chuckled a reply.

"Damn kid, what a way to put him down "easy."

The guy sulked to his deflating ego, when he suddenly shot a cannonball at us. Causing the boat to fly and tip over.

"Damn, those bastards!"

Luffy exclaimed.

"We're gonna fall!"

Usopp wailed.

"Astute observation Usopp! Quite astute!!"

I shouted back.

"Oh no!"

Robin gasped as we fell into the water, quickly studying my surroundings before swimming towards Luffy. Grabbing him and pulling him, Zoro grabbed Robin and we swam up, now we're stuck in a worse position than before.

"It's cold!! My body's gonna turn to ice in a matter of minutes!"

Usopp's teeth clattered.

I cycled heat throughout my body to keep me at least above practical hypothermia, though it didn't really help much with our current predicament.

"Dammit!"

Zoro cursed at the unfortunate outcome.

"I'm losing my strength…"

Luffy mumbled.

I groaned at the continued annoyance of this damn kid, choosing to lift Luffy higher onto my shoulder rather than punch him….

"You could've fought back, Duffy!"

Usopp shuttered.

"But you didn't shtop recruiting zem! Oh no! My mouth is freebing!"

"Would you shut up? We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't so badly convinced them that it was a ploy!"

Reprimanding the long nosed sniper.

"Zorry. I give up. I don't need zem to join our crew."

Luffy mumbled tiredly.

"That's not the point! Okay, partly, but besides that. We need to get out of the water, I can dry us off and heat you guys up. But those guys won't stop firing for us."

They aimed their hand cannons at us, as the brown beard guy ordered.

"Hey, Usopp! Hold Robin!"

Zoro said before passing her to the freezing man.

"I'm gonna slice them up!"

He smirked --though clattery--

"Please hurry up...O-Or I'm gonna…"

Usopp was cut off by Zoro.

"It won't take long!"

He suddenly got pulled underwater.

"Huh? Hey, what happened, Roro?!"

Usopp called in shock as we both dove our heads under to see Zoro being dragged by a shark. We both lifted our heads back up as Usopp immediately began freaking out.

"Sharks! Why are sharks in a lake?! Zoro! Sharks! Scary! Sharks! Zoro got bitten by a shark!"

Brownbeard suddenly went into an explanation of the island, to which I had tuned out.

"Calm down and hold Luffy! Damn fish, why is it always fish?"

Sighing before diving underwater, quickly grabbing Zoro and one of his swords, to which he greatly disagreed with. After stabbing the shark and tossing his sword back, Zoro took care of the rest of the sharks as we swam back up. The centaurs were seemingly distracted by something, so we took this time to swim to land, or rather, an iceberg. But anything was better than the water, the centaurs seemingly questioned where we went when they became less distracted.

"We're here!"

Luffy shouted.

"You're just in time, Brook."

Robin said in relief.

"I'm glad that you're okay! I was chased by a strange thing and happened to come this far."

The skeleton explained, I sighed at his words before continuing to defrost the others, trying my best not to think of what that "strange thing" could entail.

"Nice try, you part-Human-part-Animals! But sharks can't stop us! We're way stronger than that!"

Zoro shouted bravely.

"Tell that to Usopp, he was practically crying his eyes out."

I said as I defrosted them.

"But no matter.…How strong we are.…We can't stand the cold!"

Zoro shivered.

"Whimp, don't tell me I'm going to have to be your guys' personal heater the entire time."

Groaning at the thought.

"It's freezing! I'm gonna turn to ice!"

Luffy shivered as I finished defrosting his arms, Usopp mumbled something about telling us so, but it was too clattery and airy to understand.

"But look. We're lucky. We should be glad we ran into them. Along with having Dabi join us."

Robin stated.

"Great, glad to be here."

Voicing sarcastically while finishing defrosting the rest of Luffy and Zoro, moving to defrost Robin partly before making sure Usopp didn't get hypothermia.

"He looks good! I'll take the fourth guy from the right."

Zoro started first.

"All right! I'll take the guy next to him."

Luffy joined.

"I'll take that one. The girl at the far left."

Robin resided in her decision as well, seemingly in agreement with the somewhat morbid conversation.

"I feel like you guys aren't talking about what I think you are…."

Confirming my suspicions by scanning the people they called dibs on before chuckling.

"Ah, I get it now. Well don't leave them with nothing, wouldn't want them freezing."

Smirking as I finished defrosting Usopp's legs.

"Their clothes look warm!"

All three of them said at the same time.

"You guys are like wolves."

Chuckling and shaking my head, Usopp mumbled something again, probably wanting a jacket as well. After finishing defrosting Usopp and Robin, I dried my clothes, sliding my shirt and coat on. Cupping my hands around my mouth like a megaphone before shouting.

"Might want to run! Before you're stripped naked!"

Warning them as Brownbeard started saying something about Luffy's hat.

He continued whatever he was saying when a loud—

—"He is fire fist's brother!"

Could be heard, my brows furrowed.

'Hm, Ace? Seems like Luffy's fairly well known, I guess I haven't seen if he has a bounty or not. He's just always too goofy to take seriously, but when you think about it, he wouldn't have a crew like this one if he wasn't strong or notorious.'

They said something about 400 million, to which I assumed was how much Luffy was worth. I expected a lot but not that much, guess my bounty's pretty measly then. They started running away as Robin, Zoro, and Luffy all took action to get their designated prey.

"You'd better not fight back! Then I won't have to hurt you so bad!"

Zoro told them as he tore through their weak defenses. Standing next to Brook as we watched the chaos ensue.

"Got any tea?"

I proposed.

"It might be a bit cold."

He said before pulling his skull to the side and pulling out a tea cup, he offered it to me, after staring at him and the cup in conflict for a moment. I accepted the cup with a shrug and listened as brown beards screams of terror echoed into the distance.