"I want to find Nico Robin."

Mod blinked in shock at what Rosan just said. "Y-You want to find Robin-chan?" She repeated quietly and when he nodded without hesitation, an immense amount of warmth flooded her body and she stifled a happy sob.

Rosan had long since stopped hating the girl who he thought betrayed him and when he figured out about the virus, it had turned into... not quite guilt, considering he had no emotions, but certainly a familiar self loathing for allowing himself to fall victim to it.

Even when he had his emotions, the hate he carried had gone away after his talk with Meiko. She had helped him see reason and the redhead had reluctantly agreed that it was not her fault at all that they were separated. More and more, the logical redhead had begun to see how irrational his anger had been and it tore at him nonstop.

But the damage had long been done. Rosan had lost his hatred for her but over the years, he realized more and more, how much he wronged his best friend.

His irrational anger for Robin was one of the few things Mod was disappointed in Rosan about but... but it had been her fault in the first place for never informing him of the virus and that had given the Devil Fruit crushing guilt of her own.

If she had just trusted him and told him about her other side... he'd have known something was amiss and could have prepared for it accordingly but she didn't.

Rosan didn't make it clear, but Mod knew some part of him doubted her capabilities now and he adjusted accordingly, putting up his guard even more.

It hurt. It hurt so much that she had caused this but the Devil Fruit was too afraid to have a confrontation about it because it was her fault in the first place. At the end of the day, she didn't trust Rosan enough to divulge this information and it had turned him against his closest ally that wasn't Mod herself.

Rosan loved Robin dearly and because of her...

It was why she wasn't privy to his thoughts about Nico Robin... Rosan chose to keep it to himself and that really hurt but she understood that he needed some privacy and that... and that the virus was still her.

But even with the knowledge that he was keeping it to himself, it had still been many years... so why now? She was elated that he made the decision on his own but why did he make the decision?

"What brought this on?" Mod asked gently.

She watched her wielder close his eyes and let out a quiet sigh, which made her own gaze soften.

"I've actually wanted to do it since I was 18 since you said I'm not allowed to go to the Grand Line until I'm an adult," Rosan admitted.

Mod bit her lip at hearing that.

S-She had said that hadn't she…?

"Since I became Reaper, I haven't heard news about Robin in the Blue Seas for years. I'm very sure that she's in the Grand Line and since I already agreed to join Luffy's crew, I decided to wait until he set sail," he explained to her, causing her to nod.

Rosan raked a hand through a bun and shook his head. "I... I've wronged Robin more than I'd ever like to admit," the man told the purple haired woman. "She's thought I've been dead for 16 years and I never made a move to correct it."

Mod's eyes went soft as he spoke but she remained silent.

"She's probably been in a lot of pain for a long time and yet I never reached out to her, even once. Even if the virus played a part in it... I still allowed myself to actually think she betrayed me," the redhead sighed and Mod put a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"Rosan... it's impossible to prepare for a threat you had no idea about. What the virus did to you... please understand, that it's not your fault!" Mod pleaded, guilt welling up.

"Robin's going to be upset but Robin is also an incredibly intelligent and kind girl. She loved — loves you and that is not something that will change so easily with time. If you explain to her what happened I know she'll forgive you because no one understands better than she does about how self critical you can be."

Rosan pondered her words for a second. "I'm going to answer any question she asks of me, no matter what. She deserves to know about everything," he resolved.

"Even… Meiko?" Mod asked hesitantly for some reason.

"Even Meiko," the redhead replied without hesitation.

The Devil Fruit sighed fondly at her user. Leave it to Rosan to go above and beyond when trying to make things right for a person.

"The Grand Line is a big place. How will you find her?"

Rosan actually smirked a small smirk. "If I don't find her quickly, I'll just have to advertise it in the best way possible. I wonder if there is there a person alive with two separate bounties?"

Mod laughed beautifully at that. It had been a long time since Rosan let out a genuine smirk and she relished in it. "I wonder if they will combine your bounties if they find out you're Reaper," she mused.

500 million was already a hefty sum... if the World Government found out that not only was he the Reaper who killed Saint Jeremiah, but he had (and could control) Modification... Well, he might reach an unprecedented bounty that you'd normally see in the New World.

"Only time will tell. Reaper's identity coming out wouldn't be the end of the world unless it was too early," he replied with a shrug, idly rubbing a spot on the sleeping Ram's hair.

Done with their conversation, Rosan stood up, with Ram in his hands, and grabbed Mod, who yelped in surprise at the sudden action.

"Let's go to sleep. I'm tired after stealing all those resources," Rosan hummed.

"No you aren't! A-And stop dragging me! I can walk you know!" Mod complained to the pushy redhead.

The purple haired woman squealed as Rosan effortlessly hoisted her up instead and flung her over his shoulder. Ram grumbled a bit at being adjusted again but she didn't bother waking up, too comfortable to do so.

"Better?" Rosan hummed to the flailing woman over his shoulder, that was beating a tune on his back to no effect.

"I hate you. You're so lucky that I love you," Mod whined in defeat.

----------------------------------------

"Rosan, I'm hungry!" Luffy complained to his scout.

His scout in question, was deeply contemplating throwing him overboard, at the fact he asked after causing such a mess.

"I was asleep for a couple of hours and you guys managed to mess things up this bad?" Rosan asked the two idiots with a blank stare. "Luffy, I stole so much food... How did you finish it already? Who was steering the ship while I slept? How did we get so off course from our original course? I'm not even a navigator and I wanna vomit."

"Zoro steered while I ate!" Luffy exclaimed.

Rosan paused for a second. "Did you... cook?"

"Yep! It's a little messy in there," his captain exclaimed without hesitation.

Messy was an understatement. Luffy had somehow managed to get food on the ceiling.

Rosan closed his eyes and ignored that issue for a moment. "Zoro, haven't you been sailing alone? How did you get us so off-track?" He asked patiently.

"I'm sailing because I followed a pirate I was after out to sea and I couldn't find my way back to my village. I was following that one cloud right there," the green haired man explained, pointing towards the sky to emphasize his point.

"Oh so your sailing because you just got lost," Luffy said bluntly and Rosan sighed.

"Looks like we're gonna need a navigator as soon as possible because if we let Zoro or Luffy steer, we're gonna die and I don't wanna do it myself," the redhead muttered to himself but they heard him loud and clear.

Zoro felt a vein forming at their words. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT IT LIKE THAT!" He roared in embarrassment at the bluntness of the two.

Luffy simply laughed and Rosan kicked them both out of the kitchen.

"Get out, I'm gonna clean now. Don't do anything stupid," the redhead instructed, looking at the catastrophe that was his kitchen.

Angel would absolutely flip if she saw this. Luffy would have been put on punishment for the entire day, if the tidy girl had seen the mess he managed to cause.

The two nodded in unison and left the room, leaving the adult to deal with his captain's mess. He could have used Modification, but the redhead felt like doing some physical labor.

Using his Devil Fruit to solve everything, while convenient, would make him lazy and over reliant on it. Besides, cleaning was rather peaceful and he enjoyed doing it. Sometimes (whenever he was on the ship), he would assist his middle triplet in tidying up the ship and they'd spend bonding time while Demon studied.

Angel desperately needed someone to bond with. In hindsight, it was no wonder her and Maro managed to fall in love. Rosan wouldn't be surprised if his little sister ended up unknowingly liking his student first.

"I wanna heeelp," Ram suddenly said and his ring instantly transformed into the silver haired woman. She immediately jumped him and Rosan was too busy washing the dishes to stop her, causing yet another disaster to happen to his shirt this time.

"Oops," Ram said sheepishly at the sight of the water spraying everywhere. "Sorry Father! I didn't mean to get you all wet like that but at least uh... some people would really enjoy the sight of you in a drenched shirt?"

Rosan stared at her neutrally and merely pointed at a chair, causing the woman to sit down with a salute.

Helping woulda sucked anyways... she'd probably make things worse.

The man muttered and his hand glowed for a moment with his draconic flames. After a few seconds, there was no sign that he had been splashed and he continued to wash the dishes, without a dumb rubber boy or idiotic ring to disturb him.

"Problematic," Mod teased.

Ram scowled at her tone and ignored her with a, "Hmph."

Honestly, if not for the fact that she could be around her Father or Maro like this, Ram would almost never turn into a human. It offered her no inherent benefit over her weaponized forms and Rosan couldn't utilize her like this. Something about only using his enemies as human weapons.

It was solely a form for convenience, not fighting...

Ram hated that.

Still, she did love hanging out with her family in person so that didn't make this form the worst (that honor belonged to defensive weapons!) and causing chaos with Maro, Luffy, and Ace, was one of her favorite pastimes (even though Angel and Mod dished out punishment swiftly and harshly...).

It was still always a blast.

She just couldn't stay in it for very long because she got tired of being human really fast. They had so much useless things about their bodies that she had to deal with outside of Father's mindscape!

Speaking of which...

"Father, is all the food actually finished?"

"No, I knew Luffy would try something like this so I stored a majority of the food elsewhere. We should still have enough and I'll cook some of it soon or else my dear little brother will do something dumb —"

The door to the kitchen banged open and a panicked Zoro entered the room, cutting off what Rosan was about to say. He was about to speak but he took one look at Ram, and his jaw dropped in confusion.

Who... Who the hell was this? Had she been hiding on the ship the whole time? Did they have a fourth crewmate? No, Luffy never mentioned her… but Rosan wasn't even remotely wary about the tall woman staring at him idly.

Maybe she had been in Rosan's room? That was the one part of the nice ship he hadn't explored yet so maybe...

"I'll introduce you two later, I have some things I've been meaning to tell you anyways," Rosan said. "You seem like you're in a rush, what did Luffy do?"

Only his brother would cause a person they just met, to panic to such a degree... It was apart of his charm.

Zoro took a deep breath and said, "He tried to capture a bird and got taken away by it in the process."

The redhead paused his dishwashing as Zoro explained exactly what happened. Luffy, out of hunger, tried to get a bird so that they could eat it and had gotten his head stuck in its beak in the process when he grabbed onto it.

Ram burst out laughing and clutched her stomach from the hilarity of it all, causing their swordsman to look over in confusion. Wasn't Luffy their captain?! W-Why were they so lax about the situation?

"Why didn't he just ask me to capture it?" Rosan sighed. Honestly, if his brother thought for even two extra seconds, his life would be so much easier.

Zoro raised a brow.

"How would you have captured that bird if Luffy couldn't?"

"I can fly," he replied simply and his draconic wings burst from his back as proof. The scaly appendages flapped idly and curled up so as to not take up space.

Zoro's eyes bugged at the sight of the obsidian wings. "Wait, you're a Devil Fruit user too?!"

Rosan nodded and made his way out of the kitchen, Ram and Zoro in tow. "I was actually gonna tell you about it later today but now's as good as time as any. Please keep it a secret until I reveal it myself."

He pinpointed the Save Point located on Luffy and steered the White Rose in that direction while telling Zoro about the Mod Mod no mi.

Mod-chan was right, he needed to be able to trust his crew and what better place to start then their first crewmate.

Zoro listened with a clearly interested expression but he seemed even more interested in Ram than his Devil Fruit.

"So she's your weapon?" The green haired man asked curiously, pointing a finger at the smirking silver haired woman. She nodded eagerly and jumped on Rosan before morphing into a ring that he placed neatly on his finger.

Zoro's eyes widened in recognition at the amethyst ring and he whistled as it transformed into a hammer, sword, gloves, etc.

"You're a swordsman?" His eyes gleamed in interest.

"Not really, the sword is one of my least favorite weapons to use," Rosan admitted truthfully and Ram transformed back into a glove. "It's not stylish enough for me and too many swordsman exist so that makes it boring. But, I am fairly good at it."

The swordsman grunted in understanding and the two's conversation was interrupted at the sound of screaming in the water. They both glanced over and saw 3 men struggling to stay afloat. It seemed like they had been there for a while because the trio looked visibly tired and would probably go under soon enough if no one helped them.

It was just their luck that Luffy had gotten snatched away then because that meant they could help. They noticed the approaching ship and they're eyes lit up.

With the prospect of help right there, the trio began immediately begging for help.

Zoro sweatdropped at the sight of Rosan glancing at them momentarily before looking away as if they weren't there and keeping the momentum of his ship going.

"WE KNOW YOU SEE US!" They roared in indignation.

The redhead sighed. "I guess we can help them," he muttered, stopping the ship and allowing them to board. The three looked utterly pathetic right now so he'd throw them a bone despite their intentions.

"Were you actually planning on ignoring them?" Zoro asked with a deeper sweatdrop. The redhead before him was like a stone and always spoke politely but he was actually pretty rude, wasn't he?

"They're gonna attack us once they board so yes," Rosan replied simply, not even remotely bothered by the prospect and the swordsman raised a brow at his nonchalance.

"Really?" He asked curiously.

This would be funny.

"You were actually planning on ignoring us!" One of the thugs yelled angrily after boarding the ship.

"...Sorry, I thought you guys were particularly ugly fish," Rosan replied gently, as if he were trying to not hurt their feelings.

"CUT THE BULLSHIT!" They roared, before pulling out their blades.

"Stop the ship!" They threatened. "We're members of the Buggy the Clown-sama's crew so this boat is ours now."

"Buggy the... Clown...?" Zoro muttered.

"Your... ship?" Rosan asked.

This was his ship. He wouldn't even give it up to even Luffy and his captain knew that. Who did these thugs think they were to try and claim his property?

It was clear that these three needed to be taught a lesson.

----------------------------------------

"We're very sorry, sir! We won't make such a mistake again, sir!"

"Good, make sure you clean every inch of my ship. You missed a spot right there."

Zoro watched with a sweatdrop as the three thugs, who were very clearly in pain, rushed to follow Rosan's orders.

He thought his redheaded crewmate was not a fighter, but the ease at which he had brutalized and cowed these three, dashed many of his doubts.

After the redhead had nearly broken all their backs with brutal stomps, he had given them an alternative. Get thrown overboard with those injuries or follow every single one of his orders until he was bored with them.

It was obvious which one they picked.

"#1, go get me a cup of lemonade," Rosan requested calmly, lounging on a chair while reading a book about various weapon ideas.

"M-my name's —"

"Your name is #1 right now. Is there a problem with that?"

"No sir! I'll get your drink right away sir!" He saluted and dashed off.

"GET ME SOME SAKE TOO!" Zoro yelled to his retreating back and was satisfied at his backwards salute.

"You're pretty relaxed," the swordsman said to the scout.

He hummed as he flipped another page. "We're heading right to Luffy right now and he's strong so I'm not worried about him," he replied.

His brother's Save Point was loud and clear so he wasn't drowning right now and if he wasn't drowning, he was fine.

His servant came back in record time (Rosan praised him for finding the kitchen so quickly) and handed the both of them their drinks.

"Thank you," Rosan said and then he gestured for the goon to sit down. "Sit, I have some questions for you, #1."

The bruised man was thankful that he was being allowed to rest and he gleefully took the offer.

He took a sip of his drink and nodded at the taste, pleased that the man was not dumb enough to poison him. "How did you three end up in the sea?" Rosan started off calmly.

"We got our boat and treasure stolen by a girl…" the grunt answered, frowning at the memory.

"Girl? Did this girl happen to have orange hair?" Rosan questioned and #1's eyes widened in recognition.

"Y-Yea! Do you know her? Where she could have went? We need to get that treasure for Buggy-sama or else we'll die!"

The world worked in funny ways. Rosan didn't deign to answer the man and simply took another sip of his drink.

"Who's Buggy?" Zoro asked instead,

Rosan gestured for the man to answer but the other ones cleaning had stopped in surprise.

"You two don't know Buggy?!" #2 gaped in disbelief

Zoro shrugged and replied, "Nope."

Rosan did due to his bounty poster but that was about it so more info would be nice.

"He's the captain of our crew and he's eaten one of the Devil Fruits too! He's a terrifying person and you don't wanna get on his bad side or else he'll kill you!"

"A Devil Fruit user," Rosan thought to himself. That was interesting but he wasn't too fascinated in a user who still resided in the Blue Seas.

Actually, he wasn't too interested in a lot of things.

"Buggy the Clown… Is he at the island we're about to arrive at?" Rosan asked.

The three hesitated to answer, causing him to stare blankly at them for a moment.

"Do not think he will protect you three from me. Your lives belong to me until I decide otherwise. Now, stop trying to withhold information from me or I'll begin teaching you guys how to hold your breath underwater," the redhead informed them softly.

"And I didn't tell you to stop cleaning."

They squeaked at his threat and began telling him everything he wanted to know.

"S-Scary," the three thought in terror. He was terrifying in a different way than Buggy. He didn't have to show it... just his words and the low volume were threatening enough.

Zoro shot the redhead an impressed look. Rosan was pretty effective and did a great job at getting information for them.

He quite liked his methods.

----------------------------------------

No matter what he did, he just couldn't escape the mouth of this giant bird! Luffy's head was firmly stuck in between its jaws and it was content to leave the struggling boy there.

Did it even notice him? Well, that didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was that he was completely trapped…

Well, he was completely trapped, but a friendly cannonball crashed into the bird and he was freed as a result of it!

The rubber boy was sent plummeting to the floor headfirst and it was a good thing he ate the Gomu Gomu no mi because he'd probably be dead otherwise!

Still though… "Who just shoots cannonballs in the sky for fun…?" He wondered in confusion. "At least I'm safe now… That was actually pretty fun!"

He wouldn't mind doing that again!

The rubber boy dusted himself off and made sure his straw hat was secured on his head, patting it just in case. Now how was he gonna find Rosan and Zoro…?

Actually, his brother would just find him so he had nothing to worry about! He could just explore the area until he did show up!

The sound of someone saying, "He's not injured?!" Made him aware that he was not currently alone. There were a couple of guys and one orange haired girl looking at him in shock.

Nami's shock turned into a sneaky gleam as she looked at him and a smirk appeared on her face, idea formulating instantly.

"B-Boss! You came to save me!" She exclaimed in joy, rushing up to the straw hat stranger.

"Huh?" Luffy replied in confusion. He was pretty sure he had never seen this person before in his life… was Rosan disguised as this person right here…?

He didn't think Rosan ever called him boss before (he was sure the redhead never would). His brother also didn't like changing his appearance.

So this was probably not Rosan... he thinks.

"Who're you?" The rubber boy asked the stranger but she was already running away from them all.

"I'll let you deal with those guys!" She exclaimed, vanishing from their view.

"She's getting away!" One of the pirates yelled.

"It's fine, we got her boss right here and that's even better!" Another pointed out.

Luffy scratched his head in confusion and looked at the remaining people there. "You guys know someplace to eat?" He asked. While waiting for Rosan, he may as well get that long awaited meal and these guys probably knew a place so he'd ask them!

Their response was to rudely hit him and send his hat flying.

The captain's eyes darkened at that and he immediately put the offender to rest, with a fist to the skull. He glared at them all and simply told them, "Don't touch the hat."

The remaining two began to sweat nervously at the strength he displayed but didn't let that affect them. With a roar, they gripped their sabers and tried to swing at Luffy.

It only took the captain two more punches, one for each, to silence them as well and he checked to make sure his hat was fine.

"Wow! So strong!" A voice called from the roof and he looked at the source, only to find the same girl who had ran away from before. "You managed to beat those guys barehanded!" She grinned at him.

"You're… who are you?!" Luffy repeated in genuine confusion.

"The name's Nami! I'm a thief who specializes in robbing pirates!" She introduced before continuing. "Wanna team up with me?!"

"Nah, I don't feel like teaming up with you," he replied bluntly and he began to walk away from her.

Nami blinked in confusion before it morphed into surprise and she hastily moved to follow after the strange boy. "W-wait, hold on a minute!" She called to his back.

Luffy suddenly remembered a key detail and collapsed onto the floor. "I'm starving…" he whined pitifully and the orange haired girl took the chance to seize the opportunity.

"I can treat you to some food!" Nami beamed.

The rubber boy rebounded instantly.

"Really?!" He exclaimed excitedly and she flinched slightly at his sudden energy, not expecting him to suddenly be so friendly.

"Y-Yeah!" She replied hesitantly.

"Well, let's go!" He rushed her impatiently.

Nami smiled in victory.

----------------------------------------

"They still haven't caught the thief?!"

Someone gasped in fear at the grave tone and hastily sought to appease him. He stepped up to the clown and said, "They should be pursuing her as we speak, Captain Buggy!"

Buggy held his cheek with a fist and glanced at the man with visible annoyance. "How did the map get stolen so easily in the first place?!" He barked out and was satisfied to see them flinch.

He sucked his teeth. "Just when we were about to enter the Grand Line and raise some hell too…"

The man laughed nervously and said "The key to the map room got left in the lock and only the robber knows —"

"What did you just say?!" Buggy cut him off and his subordinate blinked in slight confusion.

"I-I said only the robber knows —"

"WHO HAS A RUBBER NOSE?!" Buggy roared in fury, mishearing what his poor subordinate said and immediately closing the distance between the two.

"Does my nose look funny to you?" The clown asked lowly, grinning with no amusement in his eyes.

"N-No I never said that cap'n! I said it was a mistake!" The man pleaded with bugged eyes. How had his words gotten completely misinterpreted?! He had been speaking about the thief! He would never insult his captain's nose!

Clearly, Buggy wasn't aware of that.

"NOW IT'S A STEAK?!" Their captain screeched in disbelief, eyes bugged with rage. "UNACCEPTABLE! NOW YOU FLASHILY DIE!"

The man tried to plead that it was a misunderstanding but his words were caught in his throat rather forcefully, due to the fact that his neck was being gripped with tremendous force.

"He's using the Devil Fruit power…" The crew muttered in fear. There was nothing they could do to save the poor guy and they could only send looks of pity at his unfortunate soul.

"Ready the cannon," Buggy ordered, taking a seat in his throne like chair in boredom. He rested a fist against his cheek, as he said, "Blast him to pieces!"

"I-I… I NEVER SAI — PLEASE SPARE ME!" The man begged, still being choked violently. He watched with tears in his eyes, as his crewmates began hesitantly setting up the cannon and his pleas increased tenfold.

Eventually, all he could do was scream in terror and the cannonball fired.

The following explosion, was utterly deafening and they could only thank the stars that it wasn't them at the receiving end of that.

"Go get me my map," Buggy ordered with a grin. "And make sure you take everything of value from this town!"

His crew shook in utter fear, with sweat pouring down their features and said, "Aye aye, Cap'n!"

----------------------------------------

"Seems like we're here," Rosan hummed, glancing at the deserted island with half lidded eyes. It wasn't impressive by any means which is probably why the clown had decided to take it over.

"Luffy's on this island right?" Zoro asked curiously and the redhead nodded without hesitation.

He pointed a finger in a direction and said, "He's that way. I can feel him."

Out of the corner of his eye, Rosan saw his 3 servants flinch and immediately turned his attention towards them. "What? Is your captain over there?" He asked them and was satisfied to see them answer without hesitation this time.

"Yes sir! That's the location that Buggy-sama chose as his base!"

Good, at the moment, they feared him more than Buggy. How that would change when they actually met him? He didn't know nor did he care. They had fulfilled their purpose.

"So Luffy has already encountered him huh?" Rosan mused.

Both he and Zoro paused, at the sound of an explosion taking place exactly where he pointed at.

"Oh cool!" Ram gushed at the sight of an entire row of buildings being taken out in one blow.

"We should go get him," the redhead muttered and his crewmate agreed immediately.

Hopefully Luffy wasn't messing around too much, his little brother had a tendency to do that and it made things much more difficult then it had to be.

----------------------------------------

Nami had not expected her plan to go so haywire. She just wanted a map to the Grand Line so that she could get more money!

After learning that the mysterious boy she wanted to team up with was a pirate, Nami had been justifiably turned off at the idea of them teaming up and immediately rescinded her offer. She couldn't stand pirates at all and the idea of becoming allies with one, made her sick to the core.

So, she decided to sacrifice the weaker pirate to the stronger one in order to get in the stronger ones good graces! It was a natural course of action that ensured her chances at survival, while giving her an opportunity to get even more treasure.

It had worked out wonderfully. Buggy had accepted her into his crew (what an idiot) and they didn't suspect her due to her turning in her "boss". Now, they were throwing a party and getting blackout drunk in the process while the straw hat kid was tied up in a cage.

Soon, they'd be too intoxicated to process anything and she'd rob them for everything they had!

...Or that was supposed to be the plan. Nami had never intended to get the straw hat wearing boy killed! Worst, she was supposed to be the one to do it! With the Buggy Balls! The power of the cannon balls left her white in fear and knowing she had to use it on the prisoner, made her skin crawl.

She would be no better than the pirates if she killed him so she wouldn't. The orange haired girl would not stoop to their level and so, when one of the pirates in Buggy's crew snatched the match out of her hand, to light up the cannon himself, Nami grabbed her staff and knocked him clean on his head.

She wasn't even sure why she did it. There was no way she could handle this entire crew of pirates but to go along with what they said… that would make her even worse then them!

Now the thief was desperately trying to fend off the oncoming pirates while the cannon got closer and closer to obliterating the imprisoned pirate.

Thinking quick, Nami ducked under a swing and sprinted over to the cannon. Reaching it in record time, she did the only thing she could think of and put her hands over the fuse.

"AGHHHHH!" She couldn't contain the scream of agony at the searing pain and the caged Luffy looked at her in clear surprise before his eyes widened.

"Look out!" Luffy yelled.

She looked back to see a group of pirates leaping at her with their own respective weapons and Nami tried to whirl, but it was far too late. There was no time to react the swords swinging down towards her—

"How many people do you need to take on one girl?" Zoro called out, stopping all the charging offenders with the flat end of his blades.

"Zoro!" Luffy called in joy at seeing his crewmate.

"Zoro…?" Nami whispered to herself. This was one of his other crewmates? The pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro? But how did he convince him to become a pirate?!

"Wow, this must be fate," A familiar deep voice called and Nami's eyes widened in dread at the sound of it.

She knew that voice but she really wish she didn't.

"Three meetings so soon, Orange? Perhaps it's destiny having us see each other so often," Rosan waved at the orange haired girl and she nearly groaned at the sight of the redhead sitting on top of Luffy's cage.

"Just kidding, I don't believe in fate. It would make me a lot more angrier if I did and that wouldn't be good for anyone."

----------------------------------------

"How on earth did he manage to get himself tied up and put in a cage?" Mod asked warily. Luffy was strong enough that sneak attacks wouldn't really work on him and she didn't think anyone here could successfully tie up the teen who didn't even look injured.

"How did you get tied up?" Rosan asked his captain. It was probably because of his easy going nature... It wasn't bad to be easy going but you probably didn't want to do that with enemies.

He idly eyed everyone there, checking for any potential threats and not finding any. The most notable person there, was the actual clown with a big red nose.

"Where do you think he bought that nose? It looks like it's perfectly glued on his face," Ram prodded curiously.

"I can ask him later," Rosan assured.

Luffy beamed at the question. "Our new navigator did it!" His captain explained.

The scout hummed at that. So they had a new navigator now huh? Judging by Orange's expression, she had not even remotely agreed to joining the group.

"I look forward to working with you," Rosan told her anyways and she roared, "I'm not your navigator!" in response.

"So you're Roronoa Zoro," Buggy called out to the green haired man and the swordsman turned his attention from them to the clown. "Here to collect my bounty?"

"Nah, I gave up on pirate hunting," Zoro said in disinterest, much to their surprise. "Rosan, can you open that cage?" He called to the redhead.

The man nodded in response.

"I can but I think it's funny to see Luffy trapped in here so I'll hold off on freeing him for now. Maybe I'll even eat in front of him for being so dumb and lax..." the redhead replied, causing his captain to begin complaining about how mean he was.

"DON'T IGNORE ME!" Buggy howled in fury before composing himself. "You're not interested, but I am. Killing you here will help spread my name even faster," the clown cockily said.

"I wouldn't try it, you'll die," Zoro said coldly, glaring at the captain while gripping his sword just a bit tighter. It was clear that words weren't going to work on him so he'd have to teach him the hard way.

"GET 'IM CAPTAIN BUGGY!" The surrounding pirates began chanting.

"CUT EM TO PIECES!"

Rosan watched the two square off with a neutral gaze. He was content to just sit here and see how the battle unfolded. The redhead had no interest in fighting anyone here so it would be good training for his crewmates.

If Buggy had an interesting Devil Fruit though…

The clown licked his knife eagerly and with a bounding leap he said, "DIE FLASHILY!"

Zoro's only response was to tense up and the swordsman instantly cut through Buggy like he were made of paper.

Nami gasped in horror at the gruesome sight and looked away immediately.

"Wow, he's so weak!" Luffy whistled.

"That was disappointingly easy," Zoro said. It wasn't even worth using two swords for, much less 3. Why was this guy so eager to die? He couldn't make sense of it.

"There's no blood," Rosan thought. The battle was not over but they were treating it as if it were.

That was not good.

"They let their guards down," Mod frowned in disappointment. She had taught Rosan since he was 4, to always be thorough until he was sure the battle was over. It was even more important that the redhead pay attention to it due to his diminutive size at the time.

The scout would have thought that the sudden laughter of the pirate crew would have raised their alertness, but it appeared only his brother realized something was amiss.

True to his thinking process, Zoro wasn't able to react in time to Luffy's warning call and was stabbed from behind as a result.

"ZORO!" The captain yelled in shock.

"!" The green haired man grunted in surprise and looked down unsteadily at the knife stabbing him through his back. What…? What was going on? How had he gotten…

The swordsman saw a floating hand holding the knife and his eyes widened in dread.

Fuck. He knew Buggy had a Devil Fruit but still didn't prepare for it. What was he thinking?!

"The Bara Bara no mi!" Buggy cackled, not looking dead or injured at all and those who weren't aware, watched in disbelief as his body reattached itself. "You can slice and dice me, but you can't kill me! I'm a chop-chop man!"

Not an interesting fruit then. All interest Rosan may have had, vanished at hearing about his Devil Fruit.

"Chop-chop man? That guy's a freak!" Exclaimed Luffy, the rubber man.

"Oh Luffy, never change," Mod sighed fondly at the rubber boy.

Rosan hummed and began moving in a way that didn't attract anyone's attention.

"I didn't hit any vital spot, but that wound is pretty serious! You never stood a chance, Roronoa Zoro! It's my win!" Buggy cackled in victory.

"BUGGY! BUGGY! BUGGY!" The pirate crowd chanted.

This was pathetic. Zoro had come to save Luffy but now he was the one who needed help. All because he had disregarded the fact that the man before him had a Devil Fruit.

"STABBING SOMEONE IN THE BACK IS FIGHTING DIRTY YOU BIG NOSE!" Luffy roared in fury. Who did this fat nosed clown think he was, fighting like this?!

Everyone froze simultaneously at hearing that.

Nami looked at the idiot in disbelief. Why?! Why would he say that out loud?!

The pirates were thinking the same thing because all the chanting had stopped and they began sweating nervously.

Buggy felt a vein throb in sheer rage at the audacity of the prisoner before him. "Who's… GOT A BIG NOSE?!" He roared. Without hesitation, the man gripped his knife tightly and sent his arm flying towards the straw hat prisoner.

"LUFFY!" Zoro yelled as the knife seemingly connected to his captain.

Buggy's eyes widened slightly in surprise, at seeing the kid effortlessly grab the knife between his teeth and crush it into pieces.

Oh? Quite the strong idiot they had.

Luffy grinned at the clown and said, "I swear I'm gonna kick your ass, Buggy!"

The chop-chop man threw his head back and roared in laughter. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You? Kick my ass? Don't make me laugh! You three are about... to… die... here?" he tapered off in confusion.

Wait. Three? Wasn't there... wasn't there a fourth person here?

No, he was sure of it. There was almost certainly another person here. It had been the one sitting on the cage.

The redhead. Where was he?!

"Wait, that's your real nose? You didn't buy it at a store?" A voice called out blandly.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the mostly silent redhead, who was inspecting the lit cannon pointed at the pirate crew.

The lit cannon pointed at the pirate crew.

The lit cannon pointed at the pirate crew.

"I'm so sorry that you were born with that on your face," Rosan apologized as the fuse reached the end. "At least it's red. Red is a fantastic color. Imagine if it were blue or yellow? That would be even more embarrassing."

No one had noticed his slits turn back into his tiny pupils… or that he had even made it to the cannon in the first place.

Buggy couldn't even howl in rage at the insult to his nose again, as terror crept into him. That cannon was loaded with one of his Buggy Balls! If that fired…

Luffy cackled in joy at Rosan's verbal assault. "Ha ha ha ha ha! I refuse to die! Good job Rosan!"

"Naturally," his older brother replied, moving towards the cage and hoisting it with no issue. He wasn't even paying attention to the cannon anymore and instead looked towards the green haired man who let his guard down.

Nami gaped at his casual show of strength. She had totally forgotten he was here until he had spoken again by the cannon. He had taken complete advantage of the chaos around him and they were gonna make it out alive because of it!

"Zoro, can you move?" He asked and his crewmate nodded after testing the extent of his injuries. It was bad but he'd survive after eating and getting some rest.

"Good, be prepared to move soon. Also, you should all cover your ears. That cannon is about to fire."

"Wait wait wait!" Buggy called in disbelief. "You can't fire that at us! I can't believe it's already lit! Wait I said! WAIT!"

The cannon fired and Ram whistled at the destruction.

"Germa's technology is more destructive but you gotta appreciate all forms of demolition," his unhinged weapon replied.

"You aren't wrong about that," Rosan replied softly, eyeing the debris for a moment. "We should go now, I have to eat a meal in front of Luffy before I break him out this cage."

"H-Hey!" His younger brother protested.

Nami looked at the crew of pirates in disbelief. They were all insane, this was why she hated pirates! She could never tell what went through their heads and it wasn't worth the trouble tying to.

"Are you coming, Orange?"

A vein of annoyance made its way onto her head. "MY NAME IS NAMI!"

----------------------------------------

"How is your injury?" Rosan asked Zoro, nibbling on a piece of bread that Luffy was desperately reaching for. Whenever he got close, Rosan would poke him with his sharp nails so that his rubbery hands would hastily retreat.

"I lost a lot of blood so I need some rest," the swordsman panted, falling due to his shaky legs. It was good that the scout was strong enough to carry that cage, it would have been troubling otherwise if he had been forced to do so.

"You let your guard down," Rosan reprimanded and the green haired man held his head slightly at that. "You should have taken into account that Buggy wasn't bleeding and you paid the price because you didn't. I even had his minions tell us about his Devil Fruit but you never showed a hint of wariness."

"So you noticed that Buggy wasn't dead…" Zoro mused. "You're right, it's my fault for being too lax and I lost because of it."

Rosan and Luffy had both noticed something was amiss but he had failed to do so. It was a mistake that could have potentially been fatal if the redhead hadn't intervened.

Losing to that sham of a pirate... How sloppy of him…

"Rosan, free meeee," Luffy whined pleadingly. This was too cruel!

His brother hummed for a moment at the caged teen, tilting his head in contemplation.

"Hey look, there's a dog right there," Rosan pointed and it was comical, how easily he diverted Luffy's attention to the animal.

If he released the rubber boy right now, Luffy would absolutely go do something stupid and the redhead wanted to finish his food first.

His captain's eyes glittered in excitement and he easily dragged the heavy cage over to the dog. It was a small white dog with thin ears, beady black eyes, and a short, brush-like tail. The little thing was riddled with injuries and Rosan idly wondered what happened to it.

It stared at them in a stationary position and it didn't move a single inch at all. It almost looked as if it were guarding the pet store behind it.

"Rosan, Zoro, it's not moving at all!" Luffy exclaimed after trying to make it laugh and failing to even make it move.

"The hell if I care. It can do whatever it want," Zoro groaned tiredly. He just wanted to get some rest right about now.

Rosan didn't respond, content to eat his meal.

"Maybe it's dead?" The rubber boy mused and he reached out to poke the dog. A moment after making contact, the dog gained an annoyed expression and immediately pounced onto Luffy.

Ram burst out laughing at the sight of Luffy's face being bitten.

Mod shook her head in amusement. Honestly, the rubber boy was too much sometimes. It was surreal how much he could enjoy every situation.

"Ow! Let me go you dumb dog!" The caged boy began brawling with the violent dog that was now chewing his arms. "Take that! And this!" The rubber boy flailed, swinging his fists to little success.

"BE SERIOUS, LUFFY!" Zoro roared in disbelief but his blood loss was making itself apparent right now.

"Is the middle of the street really the best hiding place you three could come up with?" Nami asked in worried confusion. She had separated momentarily from the pirates for unknown reasons but it appeared that she had come back.

"Hey! It's our navigator!" Luffy beamed and Nami felt a tick forming on her head. Now that she knew he was crew with the stupid redhead, it made sense why the rubber boy was so annoying.

It must have definitely run in the crew.

She took a deep breath and said, "I just wanted to thank you for saving me and I don't like owing debts."

Nami tossed the key to the cage and it landed on the floor with a tiny clang. Luffy beamed in excitement at seeing the key.

Now Rosan couldn't keep him in here any more! He was free to grab the food from his selfish older broth—

The dog took one look at the key and promptly consumed it in one gulp.

Everyone stared at the dog with a mixture of reactions.

Rosan almost smiled at how hard Ram was currently laughing and even Mod-chan couldn't hide her giggles at what just transpired.

"F-Father, I like this dog!" She cackled in glee. Since she had seen it, the dog had done nothing but entertain her so it was good in her books!

"It is a pretty funny dog," Rosan agreed with her sentiment.

Luffy's eyes bugged out of his head in fury and he began to choke the dog with all his life. "GIMME BACK THAT KEY YOU STUPID DOG!" He roared and the poor dog's eyes bugged from the pressure.

The two's brawling renewed in earnest and Rosan, at Ram's behest, decided to finally free his captain so that the dog would be spared.

That was put on hold though, as a presence approached and Rosan's gaze snapped to the person, trying to gauge if he was a threat and immediately dismissing him as one.

It was an elderly, bespectacled man, with curling gray hair distinctly bunched atop his head and down both sides of his neck.

"Stop bullying poor ol Chouchou you young'uns!" The old man yelled at the four there.

He introduced himself as the mayor of the village, Boodle, and after taking a look at Zoro's wound, had the swordsman put to rest in his home.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

He then explained to them, why the dog chose to stand guard in front of the pet shop. Due to his owner dying and him valuing it as if it were his own personal treasure, the dog had taken it upon himself to keep it safe.

To someone like Luffy, those words would strike a chord inside of because he also had a material treasure that he cherished.

Rosan could agree to some extent too. His own treasures, were the accessories he wore day in and day out. The ones he would never take off unless he was robbed in death. To honor what he had lost... and to remind himself of what he could lose.

Hm. Seems even an animal like this dog had things that it valued as well. The world was an interesting place.

The conversation that they were having about the fate of this town, at the hands of Buggy, was cut short at the sound of a loud roar grabbing their attention.

"W-What was that?" Nami asked in fear and the mayor's eyes widened in recognition. He hastily grabbed their navigator and the two promptly ran off after he said one thing —

"That must be Beast Tamer Mohji! We gotta get outta here!"

Rosan watched them go with a blank look on his face. "They were just gonna leave you here, Luffy. It's a good thing you're strong or else you'd die."

"Does that mean you'll free me?!" His brother asked excitedly. Would he finally get out of this cursed cage?!

"Let's see what we're dealing with first, then I'll consider it," Rosan replied, glancing at the dog for a moment. If it didn't leave now, it was probably going to die.

The redhead didn't really feel like protecting it. He didn't care at all about its story, his heart didn't resonate with it whatsoever.

He shrugged at it's steadfast demeanor and turned away from the animal... only to be greeted by... two(?) more.

A shadow loomed over the two and Rosan knew that Ram was gawking at the site of the person before him.

Honestly, Angel had been a horrible influence on his weapon the moment Ram had unlocked her human form. The two hung out almost nonstop after the discovering and now she was frequently wondering what was wrong with people and their getups despite wearing the same style outfit for 12 years.

Beast Tamer Mohji was a man with muscular torso and thick lips. He wore a white fur vest that covered the area of his chest, blue pants held up by a yellow sash, and shoes in the shape of animal white fur feet.

The animal tamer was on top of a menacing large lion with green fur and a purple mane which was probably where he got his epithet from.

"Quite the exotic appearance," Rosan commented idly, nodding his head in greeting to the odd individual.

"Why does he have on such a weird animal suit?" Luffy asked in curiosity.

"I'm not sure but maybe it's to make his Captain feel like he belongs. I know if I was born with a nose like that, fellow circus freaks would make me feel better about myself," the redhead replied seriously.

The lion rider felt his head throb in annoyance. "DON'T BE SO DAMN RUDE!" He roared before catching himself and coughing lightly.

These two were some of the rudest people he met. They actually kinda hurt his feelings with their toxic words and this was the first time they ever met!

"I am Beast Tamer Mohji, and this is my hair."

"That's your hair?" Rosan asked curiously. Why? How? What? What was he thinking?

"That makes it even weirder," Luffy said bluntly. Buggy's crew sure did have a bunch of weirdos in them.

Mohji desperately tried to stifle his rage and surprisingly, the pirate turned towards the nonchalant redhead. "I have no interest in taking that caged boy's life. You're the one I'm here for. Buggy-sama wants you for what you've done."

Rosan blinked at that and tilted his head. "He wants me? Tell him I'm not interested in my enemies when it comes to that but I appreciate the offer."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" Mohji roared in fury, fed up with their antics.

Richie charged and swung a massive paw at him that Rosan deftly dodged, landing on top of Luffy's cage in the process and shooting a raised brow at the charging lion. Unfortunately that had the effect of leaving the pet store in its path behind him and the Lion effortlessly smashed into it with the attack meant for him, destroying it in the process.

"Oh," The 24 year old said.

He glanced impassively at the sight of the dog barking in fury and doing a suicidal charge towards the lion. Chouchou howled futilely and jumped up to bite Richie.

With one brutal swipe of his massive claws, Chouchou was sent flying in a spray of blood and landed in a heap, struggling to pull itself up and dragging its broken body towards the ruthless lion.

"Rosan," Luffy said in anger at his brothers actions, or lack thereof. "You could have stopped that!"

His brother had a tendency to treat things like this... as if people's lives were just a game and it had been prevalent even when they were kids. He could have stopped the building from being destroyed and the dog from being attacked but he did neither, content to passively watch despite being the target!

"It's stupid of me to stop an attack without knowing what it could do. So I dodged it instead," he replied ruthlessly, utterly unbothered by what just took place.

Rosan didn't care about the treasure of someone else. He had no empathy for people he didn't love and that meant he wouldn't go out of his way to help them unless he somehow resonated with them, which had a near 0% chance of happening.

"I don't understand... isn't it his fault for being weak?" The redhead replied simply, getting up with a small shrug.

Whatever, he didn't feel like dealing with an upset Luffy when it came to things like this. There was not a soul alive that was more stubborn then his youngest brother and Rosan knew Ace and himself.

Though the two were naturally more stubborn then their youngest brother, when Luffy actually did want to be stubborn, it was impossible to change his mind.

Besides, despite being weak, the dog really looked like he was about to die fighting for what he cared for.

Rosan could respect that. He'd also drag his broken body to a fight he couldn't win just to keep his treasured items intact.

The Mod Mod no mi user effortlessly picked up Luffy's cage, much to the surprise and trepidation of Mohji, and slammed it right on top of the lion's head, immediately embedding it into the ground.

"Woah!" Luffy yelled dizzily at being taken for a trip by his scout.

Blood sprayed from Richie's head, as he was bludgeoned by a heavy cage and the lion roared in pain. It reared its body back up and was about to swing wildly at Rosan, but he suddenly stopped as they made eye contact.

"Richie?! What's wrong?" Mohji asked in confusion. Had the hit to his head been stronger than he anticipated? Was he going to be alright? That damn... red...head?

Red and purple slits stared back at the lion, daring it to make another move. It was a warning that only an animals instincts could feel.

The warning of messing with an apex predator.

"I'm something of a beast tamer myself," Rosan said idly. Mohji didn't notice that his eyes had changed into those of his dragon's and that was why the lion had stopped whatever it was doing.

An animal's first instincts were to survive after all. Dealing with a stronger creature went against that natural impulse like a blaring sign.

"Sit."

Richie obeyed despite Mohji's orders and when Rosan began approaching the two, the lion made no effort to stop him… Almost as if he feared the consequences of doing so. It stared at the redhead with a bead of sweat rolling down it's features and submissively held its head.

"Paw."

The lion held out a massive paw and the redhead idly palmed it with his own big, though much smaller in comparison, palm. "Good boy," he praised softly, idly heating up his hand to uncomfortable levels and staring at the increasingly nervous lion.

"So Buggy sent you to deal with me?" Rosan asked calmly, finally directing his attention towards the owner and removing his hand. "I planned on just having Luffy deal with everything... but I guess I can entertain you specifically since you were polite enough to meet me face to face."

The Beast Tamer stepped back in fear at the declaration made by the redhead. "Wait! I'm sorry! I'll give you anything you want so please spare me!"

"But you're the one who attacked me? If you didn't want me to hurt you, you shouldn't have tried to strike me. I would have left you alone, if you had left me alone," Rosan said matter-of-factly.

The redhead paused and raised a brow, as the lion fought against its instincts to protect his master.

Richie growled timidly but eventually let out a roar and stood tall, facing down certain doom with a look of bravery.

"Richie!" Mohji said in awe, touched that his lion was moving despite the overwhelming terror it felt.

"How admirable," Rosan said apathetically, watching the suicidal charge with a neutral gaze.

Before Richie could even think to reach out a claw, a black sneaker planted itself on the lion's nose with a sickening crunch and it sent him and Mohji, who he collided with, soaring a great distance from the original battlefield.

The lion had been knocked unconscious instantly from the power of the blow and, as Mohji struggled to get from underneath him, a terrifying shadow loomed over him that made his heart squeeze. Those merciless dual eyes of his predator bore into him without a hint of expression and it sent tremors through his entire body.

"Please—"

A stomp to the ribs, cut off his plea abruptly and Mohji spat out a river of blood, letting out a strangled screech at the sensation of his ribs being crushed beneath that cruel heel.

Rosan removed his black sneakers from the man's chest after cleaning them with his broken body and tutted. "No one has good survival instincts these days. I left you alive so make sure you tell your captain to not throw his life away."

The redhead took his time walking back towards Luffy's cage, inspecting the barren town all the while. He palmed the cool steel and glanced at his silent brother. Eyes glowing, he easily modified the steel and forced it open, making a hole big enough for his captain to walk through.

The rubber boy stared at the computer man. They continued to stare at each other silently, until Rosan conceded with a sigh.

"You're lucky you're my brother."

Everyone was lucky that he didn't have his emotions, actually. Maybe if he ever got them back, he'd show them how insufferable he could be.

Yeah, that sounded like a great idea. Robin and Mod-chan didn't deserve to be the only ones who dealt with the full terror of Portgas D. Rosan.

"I'm so touched," Mod said flatly, no hint of amusement in her tone.

Nami and Boodle left their hiding spot, shocked at what they had witnessed and they looked at the redhead with a bit of fear in their eyes.

Well, anger in Nami's case.

"All you pirates are the same!" She shouted angrily. "You take and take and you never stop. No matter what it is, even a person's treasure means nothing to you! I oughta kill you two right here and right now before you can go pillage some innocent town."

"As if you could ever kill me," Luffy said, sticking his tongue out.

"You're just on a long list of many who've made that claim and failed," Rosan uttered, disinterested in her anger.

"LETS GO RIGHT NOW!" Nami roared in fury. She didn't think she could take the redhead but she could definitely take the straw hat wearing boy on.

As Reaper, Rosan had never pillaged a town (he had permanently borrowed many things as a child though). He was a bounty hunter and townsfolk didn't have bounties. Besides, he had a steady source of income that more than made up for all his needs. If he ever pillaged, it would be solely for fun but he had more fun things to do.

He didn't think he was anything like pirates, but clearly this girl had been scarred by them so he wouldn't try and change her mind. It's not like he cared enough to do so anyways, crewmate or not.

"You aren't. Comparing you to the standard pirate is an insult I can't allow you to take," Mod frowned. She would never have aligned herself with Rosan if he were like Buggy or any other of those pirates. The Devil Fruit had raised him better than that.

"Yeah! You're way better than them!" Ram beamed.

He approached the broken dog that was crying and barking in front of the destroyed building slowly, making sure not to set it off. "Fighting an opponent you know you can't beat just for the sake of protecting what you love… I've been there before," Rosan said simply and he approached the wreckage.

Placing one palm on the building, Rosan thought, "Modification: Repair."

Wrapping his ability around the pet shop, he began the process of fixing it into the state that it was at before. He hadn't taken a look at the exterior but it shouldn't be a problem.

It was a good thing he helped Maro with her island's buildings all the time. That made this alot easier to do.

They all watched in shocked awe, as Rosan restored the building to its previous state with... Magic?!

D-Did he have one of the Devil Fruits too?

"Revealing some of my fruit for a dog," Rosan muttered quietly to himself, stepping back and assessing the building. It looked fine to his eyes and so, he would stop here.

"How noble of you," Mod teased. She was sure that Rosan would have attacked Luffy first before agreeing to restore the building but maybe part of him did sympathize with the cute little dog.

"Quiet," Rosan replied before glancing at Chouchou. "There, you have your treasure again. Keep protecting it but make sure you don't neglect yourself in the process. Your friend wouldn't like that, would he?"

The dog rubbed it's head affectionately on Rosan's pants and barked in affirmation glancing up at him with a gaze of acknowledgment.

Seems it really was as intelligent as the mayor said because it began walking away from the building it was guarding forever, presumably to get its injuries tended to.

"Satisfied?" He asked his captain and the rubber boy nodded cheerfully, all anger forgotten.

Rosan sighed.

He should have really become his own captain… or stayed with Maro. Maro wouldn't make him do stupid things like fix a building because of a dog...

Actually, yes she would. His family was full of idiots.

----------------------------------------

Mohji managed to miraculously drag his broken body back to where Buggy was stationed. He needed to urgently tell him about the monster with red hair and not to underestimate him.

"Mohji! I sent you after the redhead and you lost to Zoro?!" Buggy screamed in disbelief. Zoro could wait, the redhead had personally offended the clown with his insults and had gotten one up on him and he needed to pay.

Redheads… Buggy hated how annoying they were. All of them were a pain in the ass.

"Not Zoro… it was… the redhead," Mohji gasped out, his ribs were broken right now and it was a miracle that he could muster up the energy to do anything.

"THE REDHEAD DID THIS TO YOU?!" Buggy roared. That damned redhead really wanted to make his life difficult...

Of course he would, he was a fucking redhead.

"Spared me to... warn you. Don't underestimate the… monster…" the beast tamer tried to say but the pain proved to be too much and he collapsed .

Buggy stared at the unconscious body with a fury in his eyes. "If it gets out that my first mate was beaten by a nobody… OUR REPUTATION WILL BE RUINED!" He howled.

Beaten to the point where he was forced to call some random redhead a monster? There's no way this was getting out if Buggy had anything to say about it.

"MEN, LOAD THE BUGGY BALLS! WE'VE GOT A TOWN TO DESTROY!"

"AYE, AYE, CAP'N," They chanted.

Buggy couldn't kill one of the redheads he hated but this one would kind of make up for it.

----------------------------------------

"I'm sorry for yelling at you two!" Nami apologized with a smile and the two waved her off.

"No need to apologize to someone who wasn't offended," Rosan replied simply.

"Yeah! It's obvious you lost someone dear to you because of pirates," Luffy nodded. "I don't wanna hear about it though."

The redhead nodded in agreement. He couldn't care less about her past.

"I CAN'T STAND IT NO MORE!" The Mayor suddenly yelled, grabbing all their attention. "Those darn bullies! Chouchou and these young'uns fought so bravely but I, the Mayor, am just standing here and letting my town be destroyed!"

"Mayor, please calm down!" Nami said. He was going to get himself killed with his current train of thought!

"Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!" He replied gravely. "Isn't that right, you two?!" The old man asked the two brothers.

Luffy grinned excitedly. "That's right! You said it old man!"

"DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM!" Nami roared in disbelief.

"There's no way your making it out alive, but at least you can die with what little honor you have left," Rosan nodded in agreement.

"BE MORE ENCOURAGING!" She roared again. What was wrong with these two?! They were completely insane!

Boodle explained to them about hey they had spent 40 years building up this town into what it currently was and how it was all the citizens treasure. He then hoisted up a makeshift weapon ("Wow he works pretty quick, Father!) and prepared himself for an already lost battle —

----------------------------------------

"FIRE THE BUGGY BALL!" Buggy roared.

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—Only to get blown away from the force of a Buggy Ball being shot directly in their vicinity.

Luffy and Rosan remained rooted to their spots, as Nami and the Mayor fell from the explosion.

"They even destroyed my house!" The Mayor snarled in disbelief.

"ZORO WAS SLEEPING IN THERE!" Luffy shouted in realization and his mouth in shock. There was no way he lost his first crewmate already!

"I'm afraid he's been killed…" The Mayor said in resignation.

They heard a tired groan from the destroyed building and Zoro held his head in exhaustion. Surrounding him, was a wall that mostly protected him from the explosion and all of them regarded it in confusion.

"Who the hell put a wall here?" he muttered.

Rosan hummed, glow in his eyes vanishing, as he turned towards the direction of the explosion.

"H-How are you still alive? Where did that rock come from?" Nami muttered in shock, looking at the otherwise fine man. Were all of them some kind of freaks? First there was the redhead lifting cages, that shouldn't normally be lifted by one person, demolishing a gigantic fucking lion after cowing it into submission... and magically fixing up a destroyed building from nothing?!

Now, the green haired swordsman was just casually waking up after sleeping inside of a house that had been utterly decimated by one of the Buggy balls. Even with the wall blocking it (seriously, how did it get there), he didn't even look phased!

Not only that, he simply wakes up after sleeping off a gruesome injury that would have put anyone out of commission!

This Luffy was really good at recruiting monsters! No wonder he wasn't worried at all about dying. If she had these guys defending her all the time, she wouldn't be worried either!

"I refuse to let them get away with this for another second!" The Mayor suddenly declared. "I won't let 40 years of hard work go to waste to some scum!"

With that, the Mayor tried to run off, only to be stopped by a clearly concerned Nami.

"You won't accomplish anything getting yourself killed! You're just being reckless!" The thief exclaimed, trying her best to hold him back from doing something stupid.

"I KNOW I'M BEING RECKLESS!" He roared with tears in his eyes and the pain on his face was clear to see. He knew full and well that he was going to die in his attempt to stop the Buggy Pirates but to him, it was better to die fighting then to let his treasure be destroyed.

To be so weak and stupid... Rosan just couldn't understand why these people never attempted to get strong in a world like this, leaving themselves open for even the most mediocre of fighters to take over.

It was better to find out you had no affinity to getting strong then to never even attempt it.

"The Mayor was crying…" Nami pointed out.

"It didn't look that way to me!" Luffy grinned eagerly.

"Things are getting exciting," Zoro nodded with a grin.

"This isn't something to laugh about!" The thief chided worriedly. The Mayor really was going to die if they did nothing about it!

"Don't worry I like that old man so I'll make sure he doesn't die," the captain reassured confidently.

"I'll let you handle the rest then, Luffy," Rosan said softly, not interested in fighting the circus act any further then he needed to. "Please protect my innocence from the clown who wants me."

Luffy nodded easily enough. "Right!" His captain agreed, not minding in the slightest.

"Y-You're not gonna fight?" Nami asked in clear surprise. Their chances of winning, drastically lowered if the redhead didn't participate in the battle… Though she wasn't sure he could take on Buggy after seeing what the clown was capable of.

Rosan didn't see a point in fighting the clown so he opted not to. It was fine if they continued to underestimate him and Luffy.

"Luffy and Zoro can deal with it. There's no need for me to involve myself any further," the 24 year old replied calmly. He had no need to further involve himself.

The redhead wouldn't have even fought the beast tamer, if not for the fact that it was he that had been specifically requested for.

"Z-Zoro? With that injury?!" Nami stammered in confusion. How heartless was this guy to let his injured crewmate fight over him.

"He's eager to fight," Rosan simply said, not at all worried for what might happen to their swordsman. "That injury won't hold him back."

"I'm more worried about my reputation than my guts," Zoro grinned viciously, wrapping his bandanna firmly around his head.

None of them were taking this serious. Luffy was laughing merrily without a care in the world, Rosan was actually preparing to not do a damn thing in this fight and Zoro was risking his insides to battle.

"Do you wanna see me battle that badly? I'm touched," Rosan hummed and she felt a dreadfully familiar annoyance rising whenever she spoke to him. "You should get used to it, Nami. I don't fight very often. Too much boring people."

"U-Used to it?" Nami gaped in disbelief. They really were just slotting her into the crew despite the fact that she had rejected them every single time.

"We're headed for the Grand Line! We'll steal that map back and then we can go together so join up with us!" Luffy beamed.

Nami let out a sigh of defeat. He was utterly relentless.

"I won't become a pirate but we can "join forces" and work together for a common goal!" The navigator finally said.

Luffy's grin widened and they high fived to solidify the deal.

"Alright! I can't wait!" The rubber boy exclaimed, cracking his knuckles eagerly. Being locked in that cage had made him restless… and hungry.

"You're always restless and hungry. That's why I hid the food on the ship," Rosan chastised him.

Luffy blinked at that. "WE STILL HAD FOOD?!"

Nami held her head in her hands.

----------------------------------------

"The second salvo is ready, Captain Buggy!"

Buggy grinned.

"Alright! Fire!" The clown commanded. He wanted this town destroyed completely. Then he'd find that annoying, shitty redhead along with that stupid rubber boy with the infuriatingly familiar straw hat and hang their heads on his wall, laughing at them all the while.

A redhead and a boy wearing a straw hat? Who the hell decided to give him two reminders to that shitty bastard Shan —

"GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW, BUGGY THE CLOWN," A voice roared, cutting off his internal musing.

Who the hell…?

"Who are you? What's your death wish?" Buggy asked in annoyance at the fly buzzing around outside. This old man wasn't even worth his time and had just come running to his death.

"I'm Mayor Boodle! I've been running this town since you were pillaging nurseries and I won't let you lay another hand on our treasure! I challenge you to a fight!" He declared.

The pirate crowd roared in laughter at the sight of the old man challenging their captain and his second mate, Cabaji, tried to fight him instead.

Buggy wasn't having it though. He was the one who was challenged after all and so, he'd personally deal with this dumbass.

It was time to stave off some annoyance anyways.

Everyone knew that the only thing that could qualify as treasure, were gold, silver and jewels. Unless this town was made of that, it was nothing but garbage and that's why Buggy was destroying it all.

Buggy, from his perch far above the old man, detached one of his hands and had it wrap around the Mayor's neck. He watched in amusement as the gray haired dumbass punched his offending hand unsuccessfully and the clown tightened his grip, causing blood to begin gushing out of the man's mouth.

Despite that, the old man was still fighting with every inch of his pathetic life.

"COME DOWN AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" He choked out resolutely, even as his eyes began rolling to the back of his head.

"You're not worth the effort," Buggy sneered, only to pause at the feeling of a new sensation on his hand. "Huh?" He muttered in confusion. Who the hell was gripping his arm that harshly?! The clown looked back down only to widen his eyes in recognition.

"The straw hat kid?!"

The red vest wearing boy was holding his detached hand with a grin on his face. "Buggy, I'm here to kick your ass, just like I promised!" The rubber boy exclaimed.

----------------------------------------

"Remember, I'm only here for the map and the treasure," Nami reminded them. She had no interest in fighting these pirates. She did not want to die.

"Whatever," Zoro shrugged.

"How fun, that means we get to speak more," Rosan said dully and due to Nami not knowing about his emotional circumstances, it came off as sarcastic to their navigator (it absolutely was).

"You are so annoying!" the orange haired girl growled. This tall redhead had been nothing but a headache since they met on the other island! Did she really have to sail with this one?!

"Why are you young'uns here?" Boodle asked in confusion, coughing from the pain of being choked. "Stay out of this. You're outsiders!"

Rosan could never understand why some weak people were hesitant to ask for help. There was nothing wrong with receiving it, especially if you couldn't do it by yourself. Luffy had been unbelievably weak and never hesitated to ask for help when he couldn't do something, but others simply had too much pride?

This was why he never offered to help people on his own volition. No, only after asking would he contemplate giving it.

Luffy grabbed the screaming old man and smashed his head into the wall, knocking him out cleanly, much to the shock of the onlookers.

"Good, he was getting annoying," Ram sighed. Weak people pretending to be strong never failed to irritate the weapon.

"What the hell?!" Nami shouted in surprise. "Whose side are you on?! Why did you attack the mayor?!"

"He was in the way!" Luffy grinned.

"Good thinking, he was gonna get himself killed otherwise," Zoro nodded in agreement.

"If Luffy didn't do it, I would have. Not to keep him safe but because he was just talking too much," Rosan added.

"THERE'S OTHER WAYS TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS! ARE YOU ALL CRAZY?!"

Rosan shrugged and Luffy laughed before stepping up to regard Buggy. The captain took a deep breath before screaming, "HEY BIG NOSE!"

Nami gaped at how idiotic this boy proved to be time and time again, while Zoro's eyes widened in disbelief.

Rosan casually sipped a cup of tea that he got from who knows where, truly set on not interfering in this battle.

The clown's crew had their mouth opened in shocked dread and Buggy's eyes went white in fury. "KILL THAT FLASHY IDIOT! GIVE 'IM THE BUGGY BALL!" He roared.

Without wasting any time, the cannonball that they had meant to shoot into the town again, was instead fired towards the 4 with a terrific BOOM.

Their navigator and swordsman watched with open mouths, as their deaths fired towards them in real time.

"You and Luffy are very good at annoying people," Mod commented idly. Luffy's approach was much more simplistic then Rosan's (and much more unintentional) but in a way, that made it even more annoying since that simple approach successfully got under their skin.

Rosan nodded in agreement because Luffy's antics extended to even his own allies. Nami and Zoro were currently shouting furiously at the unbothered boy for his stupid actions and his brother only grinned.

"That measly cannonball won't do anything to me!" The captain said before inhaling deeply. "Gomu Gomu no Balloon!"

Before their very eyes, Luffy inflated like a balloon and caught the cannonball with his enlarged stomach, before bouncing it back to the ones who shot it. Their enemy pirates looked on with bugged out eyes at the reversal and they didn't even have time to move before it exploded on them.

"Do you remember the first time Luffy did this technique?" Mod asked in amusement.

"We played kickball with him," Rosan replied at the memory. Surprisingly, it was one of the techniques that Luffy didn't have to practice too much but Ace had still found a weakness and the three older brothers had punted the helpless seven year old around the field.

Oh how time flew. Now his youngest brother wasn't the helpless little boy who needed his brothers to do everything for him. He was strong all on his own and that made the oldest brother rather proud.

Ace would be glad to see that he had been proven wrong. Luffy's fruit wasn't useless in battle. His captain had actually made it pretty useful with some inspiration from Rosan in the form of three years of torture training.

Maybe he wouldn't be too happy to hear about that training portion. Ace had become rather protective of Luffy ever since the bear incident and he even tried striking Garp to defend him.

Rosan helped because he didn't like Garp but he digressed...

He shouldn't have made his dislike of the Marine so blatant. He had some interesting techniques that he nor Ace never bothered to ask about.

Luffy on the other —

Ah, he was getting sidetracked. It was best to focus on what was going on right now despite how disappointing he was going to end up.

Nami was currently yelling at Luffy for not giving them a heads up and his brother was being as intelligent as ever about it, but their attention was grabbed from the devastation of the Buggy Ball.

"You've got some nerve trying to flashily do me in," a voice called out gravely from the wreckage.

"He's using his men as shields…" Nami whispered in horror.

"…" Rosan tilted his head at that. Even if they were clones, the redhead would never consider using Angel or Demon as shields. Human shields were reserved for his enemies only, not his allies.

What a gross abuse of leadership.

"Cap'n, this is the worst disgrace we've suffered since you formed our crew," a man with black hair said. He was holding the lion that Rosan had just destroyed as a meat shield to keep himself safe.

"I'm so mad, I can't even speak," Buggy said lowly. This group had managed to piss him off to a degree he hadn't felt in a long... long time in only one day and he had it up to here with them.

"Ugh… Where am I… What the hell happened?" Someone groaned and it was revealed to be the Beast Tamer themselves. He had suffered serious injuries from Rosan and he was barely holding on to the realm of consciousness.

"Mohji, you're still alive?" Cabaji asked with a slightly raised brow, still holding onto the lion.

Rosan raised a brow at watching the supposed second mate cow the first mate but then again, this was a circus. Mohji made eye contact with the redhead and the man's eyes bugged in fear at the one who had effortlessly defeated him.

"Cap'n Buggy, watch out for the redhead! He's a monster that was able to tame Richie with one look! I think he has Devil Fruit powers like you!" The first mate warned Buggy, before letting out a sharp gasp of pain and clutching his ribs. His eyes rolled to the back of his skull again and he collapsed.

Rosan shot them a short wave. "You don't have to worry. I won't be fighting," he assured the crew. "I'm flattered that you were looking for me but I really don't think someone with such a glaring red nose, is something I'm interested in. Still a great color by the way."

Nami was sure that they knew his red nose was a sore spot, yet they still continued to aggravate him with that topic. There was something seriously wrong with these two and she didn't know what it was! Did she really have to travel with suicidal idiots like this? Was that really the greatest idea?

Buggy went red in the face at the anger he was currently feeling. "Won't be fighting?! YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT, COWARD!?" He shrieked, shooting one of his hands out towards the offending redhead.

"He's so lucky Luffy already promised to kick his ass," Ram sneered, watching in slight satisfaction as Rosan grabbed it out of midair and squeezed, eliciting a howl of pain from Buggy.

"Like I said, I really don't feel like fighting you so take the beating from my captain instead," the 24 year old told him gently, heating up his palm as warning and getting another howl out of the clown. His tone completely contrasted the steel like grip he had on Buggy's floating hand and try as he might, the clown could not recall it.

"This has nothing to do with cowardice. You should honestly be glad. I'd much rather fight Luffy then me and if you keep trying to attack me, I'm sure you'll find out for yourself," he informed them all, releasing the hand and allowing it to float back to its weary master.

Zoro began internally reassessing Rosan's strength. He knew the scout wasn't a pushover like he had thought before, but he wasn't sure just how strong the redhead happened to be. The swordsman had learned a fair bit about the bronze man and whatever he said, he generally meant.

Was he really just a humble scout like he claimed to be…?

Cabaji had enough of the insult that his crew was facing and immediately lunged forward on his unicycle. The acrobat had Rosan in his sights, who held out his hand to obliterate the idiot, but Zoro jumped in the way to block his blade.

"If it's a sword fight you want, I'll clash blades with you," the injured swordsman grunted.

Rosan placed his hand down.

"Is he sure he wants to fight with that injury? He doesn't seem to heal as fast as you or Luffy. Stressing it could be bad for him," Mod frowned at the reckless actions of the swordsman.

"Hey, Zoro. You should rest and let me deal with them," Luffy warned in worry, fully taking stock of his swordsman's wounds. The injury was still pretty fresh and if it was aggravated, his friend could be in trouble.

The green haired man simply shrugged him off and said, "Stay out of it."

Rosan watched with a stony demeanor as Cabaji took full advantage of Zoro's wound. The acrobat was rather ruthless when it came to picking at the spot.

He spat out a gout of flame that caught Zoro off guard before kicking him violently on the wounded spot. The scream of agony their swordsman let out, made Nami cover her eyes. She couldn't watch this torture anymore, it was too much.

The injury was too inhibiting for Zoro and he was unable to go on the offensive due to that.

Cabaji took full advantage of that, planting yet another kick on the man's wound and sending him crashing to the ground.

"AGHHH!" Zoro roared, rolling in agony and clutching the injury tightly.

"What's wrong?" The second mate taunted, with a smirk on his face. "A grown man shouldn't be squealing like that."

Nami listened to the cruelty displayed, with abject horror. "Aren't you two going to do anything about this?!" Their navigator hissed in disbelief. Luffy was staring at the battle going on with a neutral expression while Rosan glanced disinterestedly.

Neither looked like they had any intention of interfering and it baffled her.

"He told us to stay out of it," Rosan deigned to answer. "And didn't I say I'm not going to fight? You're a bad listener, Nami."

"E-Even if he dies?" The orange haired girl gaped in disbelief.

"Do you really think that acrobat, who preys on a wound to stand a chance, will be able to put down someone with Zoro's resolve? If that were the case, I wouldn't save him regardless. He can just die here from his shame," Rosan informed her coldly.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing... w-weren't they apart of a crew? Why would they treat each other so coldly?!

Luffy remained silent, eyes on the battlefield and Nami had to wonder what she got herself into.

Cabaji grinned victoriously and prepared to charge the, in his eyes, defeated pirate hunter. As he got closer to his prey though, he was taken by surprise, as Zoro batted him aside with the butt of his sword.

"Is poking at my wound that fun to you? How annoying," Zoro grumbled, unamused.

The swordsman grabbed his own blade, only to dig it into his wound, effectively making it even worse and getting a grunt of exertion out of the man.

Everyone gaped at the suicidal display from the swordsman.

"Seems like Luffy is good at recruiting fellow psychos," Mod himself, the rubber boy had managed to recruit Zoro and Rosan back to back! He had a penchant for insanity!

"I like this swordsman!" Ram grinned eagerly.

"Is that enough of a handicap for you?" Zoro asked with a demonic grin on his face. "Now I'll show you the difference in our levels."

"Cool!" Luffy beamed.

"So cool," Rosan nodded in agreement.

"My swords aim to be the greatest in the world. I can't lose even once to anyone who calls himself a swordsman!" The swordsman declared.

"Ah, your strong resolve keeps you going," Cabaji said in realization. "You don't have to worry though, wounds as bad as yours will be more than enough of an excuse when you lose to me."

"To hell with that," he scoffed. "If I lose to someone like you with injuries this light, then I may as well give up my dream right now!"

Rosan nodded in approval. He momentarily side eyed the thief as she informed them of her plan to steal the treasure and map, before deciding against sending a bug to track her.

She could do what she wanted.

"You don't trust her at all, like you do Zoro," Mod pointed out.

"It's hard to trust someone that has 0 trust in you. I won't be the one to extend my trust first. I have much more to lose to someone that will probably jump ship. Besides, I don't want to be forced to kill someone that Luffy's interested in."

"That's fair. She's not as single minded as Zoro is so it's more difficult to get a current glean on her character."

Rosan hummed in agreement and dropped the topic. The battle between the acrobat and Zoro was wrapping up it seemed. After declaring that this was his ultimate technique, Cabaji had taken out some spinning tops and flung them all at the swordsman.

While Zoro slashed them all into pieces, the man probably did the most impressive thing to Rosan yet and rode his unicycle up a building. He then leapt high into the air and in an incredibly obvious and telegraphed attack (seriously, anyone with half a brain could stop this) began descending onto the swordsman.

This was such a joke of a fight. Were they really fighting a band of traveling clowns?

"Don't you have a similar technique as this one? I remember you used it on Maverick all those years ago," Mod prodded with a teasing smile.

"I can fly and my technique is much faster, even as a child. Besides, I only do it when my opponent is fully incapacitated, like against Kenzo and like against Maverick," Rosan replied blandly. It was stupid to waste stamina on a move that someone could dodge when you could do something else.

The clown tried to interfere by holding Zoro down but his brother had already scouted him out and was stomping on his foot rather eagerly. This allowed the swordsman to avoid the attack just barely and Cabaji connected with nothing but concrete.

"Ahh… I'm getting tired," Zoro grunted.

The acrobat grinned victoriously at that statement.

"So you've finally given up huh?" He asked eagerly, only to flinch as Zoro glared at him coldly.

"You've got it all wrong. I'm tired of your shitty ass circus tricks. I expected better out of a swordfight and got this instead," he declared.

Cabaji felt a vein form from annoyance and sneered at the injured man. "Fine, no more tricks. I'll deal with you using my real swordsmanship!"

With that, the acrobat charged Zoro at full speed, who glared at him before getting into position to deliver his own attack.

Zoro crossed his two swords across his chest and placed the blade in his mouth horizontally behind them. "Oni…" the man began tensing his muscles at the quickly approaching acrobat, before dashing forward himself.

"...Giri!"

Three cuts appeared on the second mates chest and his eyes rolled back at the power of the swordsman who had crushed him.

"How could we, the Buggy Pirates, lose to some common thieves," Cabaji groaned as he collapsed on the floor in defeat.

"Shoulda stuck to your tricks, circus man," Rosan thought idly.

"We're not common thieves...," Zoro informed him, taking his bandanna off and inhaling deeply.

"...We're pirates!"

With that, the man collapsed on the floor. "I'm goin to sleep now! You can handle the rest," he said, already preparing to rest right there.

Rosan sighed and went to go move the man. He had nothing better to do anyways.

"You took too long to defeat him," the redhead said, hoisting him up on one shoulder.

Zoro groaned tiredly. "Gimme a break. The amount of blood I'm losing is making me dizzy."

Rosan snorted quietly. "I'm no doctor. Suck it up for now and I'll try and wrap a gauze around it when we board the ship. That's the best I can do for you."

Maybe he should have had Demon teach him a few things (curse his arrogance for absolutely refusing to learn the skill). With the Philosopher's stone, he didn't really see the need to learn about medicine. The boy was scarcely able to sustain an injury that required medical attention and he didn't care enough about anyone else to learn medicine for their sake (barring Ace and Luffy but they healed abnormally quick like him).

It was pretty useful… For him at least.

Zoro had already fallen asleep and Rosan dragged him to some vacant building so he could rest up.

"Why do I feel like such a babysitter," he muttered.

"I think Maro had a big part to play with that! It's almost instinct now! Should we start calling you Mama Rosan?"

"I'll make Ram call you grandma since that's what you actually are."

"I-I was just kidding! Ram! Don't you dare get any ideas young lady. You'd listen to Rosan over me?!"

"H-He's my Father! I can't just say no to him!"

"Yes you can! You are physically a grown woman!"

"No I can't! And what do you mean by physically?! Are you saying I'm mentally a child? That's rude, Grandma!"

"I told you not to call me that!"

"You two are like children. Maybe you should start calling me Mama Rosan because the amount of people I have to maintain, including the two inside my body…"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT FROM YOU, PORTGAS D. ROSAN!"

The sheer outrage in Mod's voice, made him crack a small smile.

----------------------------------------

When Rosan had arrived onto the scene again, the battle between Luffy and Buggy was well underway and impressed him as much as he expected to be, which was not at all.

His brother had the clear advantage and only Buggy's unknown tricks (and Luffy's playfulness) with his Devil Fruit, were keeping him in the battle.

"Oh, Rosan!" Luffy exclaimed, noticing the redheads arrival. "This clown knows Shanks!"

Rosan slightly raised a brow at that. "Is that why you haven't knocked him unconscious yet? You want information on him?"

Last he had heard, the man had become a Yonko sometime after leaving Foosha. He and his crew seemed to have gotten quite powerful (not that they were weak before) and they all sported hefty bounties. Other than being impressed that he became a Yonko despite losing an arm, Rosan didn't care enough to get more information on the man who had sailed on a ship with his father.

Shanks was Luffy's idol, not his.

Speaking of which…

"Your straw hat," Rosan pointed out, glancing at the 3 knife marks. Seems his brother had been too lax and the hat paid the price. "This is why I always tell you to stop being so playful. Give it here so I can repair it."

"So that is Shanks' straw hat, I knew it looked familiar," Buggy sneered. "Not only that, both of you know him… We used to board the same ship as apprentice pirates," the clown said.

Rosan's attention was suddenly grabbed by that as Buggy told them the tale of why he would never forgive Shanks.

The clown pretended to eat a Devil Fruit so that he could sell it off for 100 million beri and at the same time, find the treasure that a map had pointed out. Unfortunately for him, Shanks had caught him by surprise and caused him to accidentally eat the Devil Fruit.

To make matters worse, he had lost the treasure map in his rage and it vanished into the ocean. Buggy dove for it but due to eating the fruit, he could no longer swim and Shanks had to save him.

"Ah, so Shanks saved you!" Luffy smiled fondly.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY!" Buggy roared in indignation.

"That is by far the dumbest way to have obtained your Devil Fruit powers ever. You panic swallowed the fruit? Are you stupid?" Rosan asked genuinely, causing Buggy to splutter in indignation.

The clown fumed at his choice of words. "I was in a flashy heat of moment! It was a split second decision!" He argued.

"You understand that even one bite of a Devil Fruit, gives you its abilities... right? How the hell did they let an idiot like you on Roger's ship? Not only are you dumb, you and Shanks were apprentices at the same time and his crew is so much stronger than yours, that it's laughable," the redhead finished, shaking his head at the hopeless clown taking resident on a random island in the East Blue.

If he were even half of Shanks' level, he'd have to take Luffy and flee but that wouldn't be necessary because the clown was weak. He was merely relying on his Devil Fruit but even now, his captain was quickly figuring it out.

Luffy was a genius in battle and Buggy was just another pirate that Reaper would have cleaned up from the ocean if he were active. Rosan had put his captain through many different scenarios over the years and his brother had began excelling under the conditions.

Buggy zeroed in on one specific part of what Rosan said and felt the world freeze around him at the redhead's statement.

How did he know who his captain was?

He... He never... Did he mention Roger being his captain?

"Shanks told me, obviously. As for why he did… That's not something I'm willing to disclose to a "flashy" idiot like you."

Buggy actually took a long look at the redhead for the first time.

"You're not Shanks long lost brother or something right?"

"Are you really dumber than I already think you are?"

The clown withheld an annoyed snarl at that. He would take great joy in interrogating the accursed redhead. There had to have been a reason Shanks told him about sailing with the Roger pirates so he'd leave him alive for now and get his answers later.

After he dealt with the equally annoying straw hat boy, this tanned dumbass was next.

But before even dealing with the straw hat —

"I don't tan. That's a rather rude assumption. You wanna know what's not an assumption? The fact that you have a massive red nose that you're deeply insecure about."

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE INTERRUPTING MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT!" Buggy roared, launching a knife at the redhead.

Rosan idly plucked the blade out of midair and disintegrated it, tilting his head at the clown all the while. "My apologies, you can continue with your train of thought. I won't interrupt anymore."

The clown coughed, ignoring the sight of the redhead vaporizing his knife, and thanked him. Now where was he...

Oh, right!

"I couldn't get all the treasure underwater because of that bastard redhead but that just means I'll have all the treasure on land!" Buggy suddenly declared before splitting his upper half from his bottom half.

"It doesn't matter who you are, if you put your hands on my treasure, I'LL FLASHILY KILL YOU!"

—He would deal with that damn traitorous thief!

"Don't think you can get away from me, Nami! I'll flashily chop you up!"

Nami gasped in terror and tried to run away faster but the pirate was quickly approaching. She had gotten too caught up in the fight between them and now he was about to strike her down.

Right as Buggy reached her, he let out a squeal of pain and his eyes rolled to the back of his skull momentarily. The reason for this, was due to the fact that Luffy had ruthlessly planted a sandal right on the man's crotch.

"Nice shot," Rosan praised with a light applause. When he was younger, he did crotch shots all the time. It was his right as a child to use everything at his disposal to win and it was the adults right to accept it.

Buggy moaned in agony, tears rolling down his face at the excruciating pain he was going through. "M-My balls…" he groaned pitifully.

T-That was dirty, attacking his lower half! That damn rubber boy. He had it up to here with this entire fucking crew! From the traitorous thief, to the bastard redhead and finally the shitty straw hat.

"Don't forget that you're still dealing with me!" Luffy grinned before glancing at Nami. He pointed a finger at the thief and said, "You should drop that treasure and run, he won't stop chasing you!"

The look of sheer outrage on Nami's face, after hearing Luffy's suggestion, could be framed and placed on a wall.

"No way am I gonna leave my treasure behind!"

"Your treasure?!" Buggy asked in disbelief. There was no way she said what he thought she said.

"That's right! My treasure! I'm a thief who steals from pirates and I just stole it! It's mine, mine, mine!"

"You know... I can respect that. Sticking to her values even in the face of someone that can certainly kill her, is rather admirable."

"Don't ever show her your treasury, Father."

"Okay."

Buggy chose to still not heed Luffy's advice about paying attention to him because he was specifically targeting Nami now for stealing his treasure.

Rosan held his sigh in. These fights really weren't interesting at all. They were far too silly for someone like him, who brutally murdered all his opponents.

The clown split himself into many pieces and began chasing Nami down. While the girl desperately ran for her life, Luffy noticed that Buggy's feet weren't flying with the rest of his body and grinned mischievously.

The clown was unable to properly do anything to Nami because Luffy tickled, stomped, and yanked the skin of his feet constantly. The poor thief was getting even more spooked due to being unaware of what the straw hat wearing boy was doing and just assumed that Buggy was getting increasingly more terrifying.

"CUT IT OUT!" Buggy roared to the rubber boy.

"No, you knock it off!" Nami screamed, slamming her bag of treasure right into him.

Or at least that's what she was planning to do, but Buggy managed to catch it and they struggled back and forth for it.

"I guess this is what we should have expected fighting a circus crew. Luffy was never going to take such goofy people serious so I should have just eliminated them all while he was in the cage still," Rosan muttered, watching his captain plant a boot in the clown's face.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. "If he's insecure about his nose, why is he even dressing up as a clown and recruiting circus performers? Shouldn't he just buy a mask or something?" The redhead asked aloud.

"I'm not too sure actually. Maybe he's unsuccessfully trying to conquer his insecurities?"

"I think he's just dumb."

Rosan had to agree with Ram.

"SHUT UP YOU FUCKING REDHEAD!" Buggy roared, facing Rosan. "THAT'S IT! I'M GOING TO FLASHILY DO YOU IN SO YOU CAN FINALLY SHUT UP"

The clown tried to recombine his body, only to blink in startled confusion at finding himself much smaller. The diminutive clown turned in disbelief and was greeted by the smugly grinning Nami who was next to his tied up limbs.

"Pft," was all the redhead said at the sight and Ram began cackling at his simple show of amusement.

"Even Auntie Mod is laughing at him!"

"If something is funny enough to make Rosan laugh, what chance do I have?!"

Luffy laughed joyously and began to stretch both his arms behind him. "Way to go thief!" He praised before focusing his attention on Buggy.

"See ya, Buggy!"

"Word of advice, try not to split your attention on so much people," Rosan advised.

"S-Stop!" The clown said with bugged eyes. Was he seriously going to lose here without getting even a single victory over these randoms?! Was this how the Buggy pirates LOST?!

Luffy grinned mercilessly and Buggy paled dramatically.

"Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" He yelled before sending Buggy flying high into the sky.

"I win!" Luffy cheered.

"You could have ended that much faster. Was the clown that entertaining to you?" Rosan chided.

His captain laughed merrily as a response, waving him off with a beaming grin.

The redhead hummed before handing Luffy his repaired straw hat. "There. Try to take better care of it in the future. I need this hat intact as much as you do."

"Thanks, Rosan! You're the best!"

The 24 year old simply nodded before he turned to go retrieve Zoro.

"You'll join my crew, right?" Luffy asked the lone person there.

Nami sighed in exasperation. "Fine, for the time being. I can probably make a fortune if I stick with you guys."

This kid seriously couldn't take no for an answer.

----------------------------------------

Rosan hoisted up the groggy Zoro, unbothered by the blood leaking onto his outfit and began the march towards the White Rose.

"Is it over?" Zoro asked, his head was hunched over Rosan's shoulder and he was thankful that the redhead was bothering to carry him because he couldn't really move right now.

"Yeah, Luffy dealt with it," Rosan answered calmly, walking towards his ship.

The swordsman nodded at that and they walked in a comfortable silence before he thought of something. "Yo, Rosan…"

His target hummed in acknowledgment.

"Could you have taken out Buggy too?" Zoro asked curiously. Not once did the redhead seem stressed about the situation. In fact, he seemed rather relaxed, from not releasing Luffy from his cage to saying that he wouldn't need to interfere.

Rosan glanced at him for a moment. "I realize I never told you this but my emotions are currently locked away. That's why you hardly see me react to anything. I'm mostly incapable of doing so, though I am getting better."

His eyes widened at the revelation and he looked at the scout like he were a puzzle to be solved. No emotions? Locked away? Did it have to do with his mysterious Devil Fruit? All the users he had met so far, had displayed some bizarre abilities so he didn't discard the idea.

"To answer your question... Yes, I could beat Buggy. In one hit if I wanted too. Luffy could do the same but he was playing around too much like he always does. I take my battles much more serious then he does and they tend to end in deaths, which is why I said he would prefer to fight my silly little brother."

"Just how strong are you?" Zoro raised a brow. He had never actually seen the redhead in action, besides crushing the back of those three previous pirates and he was curious about what he was capable of.

What was his preferred style? How did he use his weapons? What was his most used weapon? Zoro wanted to know these answers because unlike Luffy, this man was a complete enigma.

He almost thought Rosan wasn't going to answer with how silent he stayed but the redhead eventually replied.

"I'm not sure. I haven't gone all out in a very long time... I've had a pretty eventful life so I'd say I'm a little strong. I doubt anyone in the East Blue could defeat me or Luffy but who knows."

----------------------------------------

Rosan and Zoro weren't so sure why Luffy was getting chased by the citizens of this town but the redhead deftly avoided them in case they chose to redirect their ire towards him.

He had no interest in slaughtering civilians.

When they made it to the shore, they saw Luffy and Nami being confronted by 3 familiar faces.

"Thinking you could rob us and get away with it huh?" #1 asked smugly, expertly hiding the pain in his back. "Looks like we have to teach you two a lesson!"

"Yeah!" #2 grinned maliciously. "This'll teach you not to steal from pirates!"

"We're bound together by fate now! You can't get rid of us that eas —."

"What are you three doing?" A dreadfully familiar deep voice asked, freezing them to their spot and making all three go pale. "Why are my servants harassing my captain? Did I release you from your duties too soon? You know Buggy's been defeated, right?"

The three pirates turned white at the voice and all eyes turned to Rosan. He was staring at Buggy's subordinates with that empty gaze that terrified them so much in such a short span.

"I asked you 3 a question."

"WE'RE VERY SORRY, SIR! WE HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS YOUR CAPTAIN, SIR! PLEASE FORGIVE US, SIR!" They saluted and bowed repeatedly.

J-Just their luck for these two to be allies with their tormentor. Even worse, his claims of Buggy not being able to protect them were true because he had marched right to their captain's base and come out unscathed.

Rosan hummed in contemplation.

"Seeing as you haven't come to blows yet, I'll forgive you and let you stay free," he informed them and they sagged in relief.

"But."

They froze again.

"You have to successfully escape from me. If I capture you, and I will capture you, you will be my eternal servants, doing whatever I want until you die because I won't die," Rosan explained softly, tilting his head to the side.

"Word of advice, I can't swim so if you start now, I won't bother chasing you."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They didn't even think twice about questioning his advice and his former maids swam away without any hesitation. He could still hear them screaming in the water.

"They should save their breaths, they might drown if they keep screaming like that."

"I wonder where they'll swim off to," Ram mused.

Zoro and Luffy laughed heartily at the scene and Nami looked at Rosan with an utterly baffled, if not fearful, expression.

"Despite having their backs nearly broken in half, they still cleaned my ship quite well," Rosan mused.

Their navigator actually took one step away from him. "Scary…" she whispered.

"They were good maids," Zoro agreed, as Rosan dragged him on top of the White Rose.

"You need to get some rest. Demon would kill you if he saw what you were doing with that injury," Rosan muttered.

"Demon?"

"My little brother. He's a doctor. You'll meet him one day."

Zoro was too tired to question the fact that Rosan and Luffy had even more siblings so he just didn't bother.

"This is a nice ship," Nami awed, looking at it with wide eyes. She had been on many ships before and this one was one of the nicest yet!

She wondered how much treasure was stored on it...

"Thank you," Rosan replied. "Don't try and rob me, I'll stomp your back into pieces."

She squeaked in fear and nodded rapidly, putting a safe distance between the two in the process.

"WAIT!" A voice called in the distance. Their ship had already set sail so the four looked back at the noise to see who was calling them.

It was the Mayor and he looked like he had ran all the way here, if the way he was breathing was an indication.

"Thank you! We're in your debt!" He grinned joyously, tears streaming down his face.

"Don't worry about it!" Luffy grinned. "Take it easy!" The rubber boy called out. He waved merrily at the joyful mayor and smiled cheerfully.

----------------------------------------

"YOU LEFT ONE OF THE TREASURE BAGS?!" Nami screeched in rage. This little damn —

"Yeah."

"Just one was worth 5 million, you know?!"

"But they needed it to fix their town."

"5 million isn't even that much," Rosan said calmly. "Just go hunt someone with that bounty. Should have kept Buggy and turned his in. Triple profit right there."

Zoro nodded in agreement. It's what he did.

"NOT THAT MUCH?! YOU THINK THAT'S NOT THAT MUCH?!" Nami actually looked like she was about to strike the redhead for his insane statement. "I'M NOT SOME MONSTER LIKE YOU THREE! I CAN'T JUST HUNT DOWN A PIRATE WORTH 5 MILLION!"

"So weak. Can you do anything for yourself?" The redhead muttered to himself, making it loud enough for them all to hear.

Their navigator flung herself at him with all the fury of a wild animal.

Since they had met, this damn, annoying, poker faced idiot had been grating on her nerves and she was fed up! Nami would have her justice right here and right now!

Rosan simply blinked at her and grabbed the orange haired woman with one hand. He placed the flailing girl down gently on her stomach, patting the feral girls head all the while (much to her fury), and left the deck.

Nami darted up to pursue him but the redhead came back a moment later and dropped a heavy bag in her hands that made her pause.

"There. 5 million. Could you stop crying now?" he told her simply. It really wasn't that big of a deal but she had her reasons.

It was like a switch had been completely flipped. Nami's eyes turned into stars and she said, "Thanks Big Bro! You're the best!"

The redhead looked at the gushing navigator hugging him and deduced that she was probably insane. There was no other explanation for someone to mood swing this quickly at something like money.

"You know, I really don't think you have the right to call anyone insane."

"I disagree."

"I agree with Auntie Mod! You're also pretty insane!"

"Ram, I order you to disagree with Mod-chan."

"What?! But that's not fai —"

"I disagree with Auntie Mod! Father is not insane!"

"It's 2 on 1, you lose Mod-chan."

"...When you enter the mindscape you are in so much trouble."

"Seems like I won't be entering for a while then."

"?! Why must I be punished for doing what you said! You're entering tonight and I won't accept any other outcome!"

"...Okay."

Mod grinned victoriously.

Rosan sighed audibly.

----------------------------------------

Bonus

Aiko is 30

Akemi is 29

Rosan is 19

Maro is 18

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"N-No one told us there was a monster protecting this damn island!"

"WELL NOW YOU KNOW WHY NO ONE SUGGESTS RAIDING IT, DUMBASS!"

A low growl interrupted the hiding pirates and they went white as a sheet, slowly turning around to face the monstrous sight before them.

"Calling someone a monster is rude. I'm a Queen, you little trolls," they snarled in contempt.

The last remaining pirates, who had foolishly tried to pillage her island, could only shriek in terror, as the near 7 foot behemoth wrapped her giant paws around each of their heads and smashed them together.

Blood spurted out of their skulls, as they were knocked blissfully unconscious and Maro tossed them to the side like they were made of garbage.

"Honestly, these North Blue upstarts are way too cocky for their own good," she muttered, transforming back into her human form and grinning bashfully at the applause.

"GET EM QUEEN MARO!"

"SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS!"

"BOW TO YOUR MAJESTY!"

"Is anyone hurt?" Maro asked the cheering crowd. Most shook their head but a small voice spoke up.

"I... My leg hurts," a small child whimpered, clutching the appendage with a pained expression. The little boy was desperately trying to hold back tears and Maro quickly rushed over to them in a flash.

"Shhh, it's gonna be alright," she soothed. Hoisting the child up, she cradled him and marched off towards the hospital.

It was definitely broken and she spent the entire trip distracting the small boy with little fire tricks.

The citizens watched her with fond smiles.

"The Queen really does it all..."

"Honestly, she's a one woman army."

"I wish there was a way we could take more weight off her shoulders..."

"Even though she doesn't mind, Maro-sama really does do a lot."

It was why they never minded her frequent trips off the island. It was her downtime and it was good for her.

Still though... dealing with every single pirate that invaded the island... They would need some assistance soon.

----------------------------------------

Maro stretched and waved goodbye to the little boy, making her way back to her office with an amused sigh.

Damn pirates and hurting the sweet little kids. They were lucky that her citizens had been watching else they'd have faced even harsher punishment from her, courtesy of Daisy!

The woman sat in her seat and let out a sigh.

She wanted to visit the Grand Line again, this time not on Government business. Maybe Master and Luffy would let her join on one of their journeys one day...

The sea was fascinating and weird and totally awesome, having the wildest shifts in weather and generally not making any sort of sense. She enjoyed every second of it and was disappointed that Grim and Reaper hadn't lasted until they were adults so they could visit it.

She even managed to keep some things called a Log Pose as a souvenir! The government had been nice enough to let her keep it.

Yeah, she was definitely going back there one day. Luffy had no choice in the matter.

The Queen's internal musing was cut short, as her Den Den Mushi began ringing and she curiously picked it up.

"Hey there, this may or may not be Maro! Oh... I guess you would know my voice if you're calling me~" She beamed to the voice on the other line. "Hm? You want me to shut up? Gotcha! Oh? You've also got something to show me? Sure, I'll be right there!"

----------------------------------------

Maro and Rosan hummed their own tunes as they waited on Fregate for someone to greet them.

Aiko had called the duo to discuss something important with them and they made their way over almost instantly (after Maro had contacted Rosan). Now, the duo patiently waited for the leader to show up, doing their own things in the process.

Rosan idly flipped a pen that belonged to Aiko and transformed it, with Modification, in the process into various objects. A steel pencil, a wooden knife and a laser pointer were some of the few things he chose.

Maro watched it with interest, idly molding her blue flames into a picture of Angel in the process. Once she did that, she put an illusion over it so that it could look exactly like her wife and sighed fondly.

"That's perfect. How long do you stare at Angel for you to have not made a single mistake?" Rosan mused, poking the mechanical cat that was the pen and getting it to pur. After a moment, he modified it again and gave it the appearance of a real cat, making it purple in the process.

Maro cooed at the adorable sight, grabbing it out of his hand to pet it on her own.

"I uh, I stare at her a lot. Let's just say that," she muttered, blushing slightly at the question.

Wanting to quickly change the subject, the Queen said, "Where the hell is Aiko?! She's never been late before... or did we just show up really early?"

"You showed up really early, dumbasses," an irritated voice called out. "I called you two twenty minutes ago... Why are you just always ready to be on the move?"

Aiko, along with Akemi and Hiroshi, walked through the door and stared at the former bounty hunter duo.

"I'm not one to waste time and I was free today," Rosan grunted. Ace and Luffy were off hanging out with the twins and Makino while they were out so nothing too crazy should happen.

"Hiroshi? I haven't seen you in a long time!" Maro grinned cheerfully, bounding up and marching over to the group of three. "How's the wife? I recently got married too you know!"

Hiroshi grabbed her hand and shook it, smiling all the while. "Queen Maro. Congratulations! My wife is doing fine and we actually caught your wedding. A real catch you managed to find, huh?" He prodded, getting a brilliant blush out of the blue haired Oni.

"Oh you're just teasing!" She gushed, holding her cheeks and swooning.

"Hiroshi," Rosan nodded as greeting. "What's the occasion? Have you made a discovery that you'd like to discuss with us?"

Hiroshi nodded, shaking the redhead's hand in the process, and indicated for Aiko to explain.

The leader of Fregate cleared her throat and got straight to the point. "Hiroshi's development of the first batch of clones are finished and they've reached adulthood. I don't plan on using them and I decided long ago that Maro could have them so take em off my hand," she said.

Maro's eyes glittered.

"Who did you use to develop them?" Rosan asked in interest.

"Some of those high bounties I had you collect and not kill after you retired Reaper. We needed strong bodies as baselines to produce good clones and they were already criminals so why not," Aiko said, shrugging.

The redhead nodded at that. He figured she wanted something done with the bounties he captured so to know it was for this, made it all clear.

"We've adjusted they're body types accordingly. Some are built for strength, speed, etc so that they can accomplish multiple tasks," Hiroshi commented.

"My very own clone army," Maro sighed in happiness.

Celadon didn't have an official army. Their citizens, as much as Maro loved them, weren't really all that strong and that left her to do most of the fighting (there were some citizens that chose to be soldiers and they did have weapons to try and defend themselves) when pirates decided attacking her island was a smart idea.

They quickly found that fighting a Dokkaebi was never in their best interests and she quickly handed them off to the nearest Marines, collecting their bounty and increasing Celadon's prestige in the process.

It was a good thing she had a lot of stamina and Rosan.

She refused the Marine's offer to have a base built there so that they could be stationed on her island because Celadon hadn't needed them before and they didn't need them now beyond the alliance with the World Government.

Now, she didn't have to worry about it!

"She was worried about not having enough soldiers?" Rosan mused to himself. It was a valid concern... Maro was powerful but she was practically the sole guardian of Celadon and he had raised her to not be arrogant at all...

Alright, when he set sail with Luffy, he'd be on the lookout for any interesting people that could benefit her. After some convincing (or overhauling) he'd send them to her and she'd have more than just the clone army to defend her.

"Are you... not gonna discuss this with her? You know... to actually get her opinion on the matter?" Mod asked incredulously.

"No, I'll just surprise her every time."

"There is genuinely something wrong with you. I hope you know that."

----------------------------------------

Maro gazed at her new soldiers with an appraising eye.

Cloning was so fascinating to her because Angel and Demon were clones but they were so very different from the army before her.

For one, despite being clones, these guys functioned practically as humans. The only abnormal thing about the clones created by Hiroshi, were how fast they had been aged into adults and the fact they couldn't reach old age.

Angel and Demon looked human, felt human and acted human but they weren't. Maro wasn't sure what the details were, but she was sure that they weren't made from Rosan's DNA. Her teacher created the two clones with a genius use of Modification on a whim and over the years, refined them more and more until he was satisfied...

Kami, she hated that genius sometimes. Who the fuck just does that? She had the rarest class of Devil Fruit but Modification was honestly ridiculous.

At least his stroke of genius had ended up being her future wife and doctor...

Ah! She was trailing off... The long silence must have been pretty awkward.

Chancing a glance at them, the queen flushed a bit at how visibly nervous they were. The clones all gave her their undivided attention and were fidgeting at the expression, or lack thereof, on her face.

There was not a single unique face among them, though they didn't all look like each other. An array of men and woman were standing at attention, looking a lot like some criminals her and Master hunted years ago, and focusing on the ruler of one of the most prosperous islands (and rising!) in the North Blue.

Time to break the ice a bit...

"You guys don't have to be so nervous! I don't bite, promise!" Maro beamed, flashing her pearly whites at them and making some go slightly lax. "I'm Queen Maro and I'm happy to meet you all, soldiers!"

"I like to think that I'm a pretty fair queen and as such, I'll never ask you guys to do something I wouldn't want to do! All I ask is for your cooperation and help in keeping Celadon and it's citizens safe, alright?"

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY!" They chanted at once, saluting.

The queen grinned at that. "Great! Now... we need uniforms for you all, not to mention a place where you can all stay..." She mused loudly.

They would both be pretty easy to achieve. She just needed her good ol Master to help make the building for them all.

"Kanna, go to Mai's Clothing Store and set a down payment for a huge amount of uniforms. Tell her to prioritize it, please," Maro requested from her assistant. She wanted to eventually commission Hiroshi so that they could get lesser raid suits. It took too many resources to make the ones her and Rosan had so Hiroshi had instead concocted a plan to use less resources to make more raid suits at the cost of some of the features Rosan and Maro had.

That was fine. It would be a bad idea to advertise their raid suits so freely after all so this was actually pretty genius of the scientist.

"She would have done so regardless and for free too," Kanna smiled.

Maro grunted and tapped her tiara. "I know that's why I'm telling you to place a downpayment. My citizens are too damn cute and I have no intention of taking advantage of their hospitality!"

Kanna nodded at that, jotting down something on her clipboard.

The little assistant jumped with a small squeal, as Rosan suddenly arrived in front of the two with a tilted head.

Ugh, she was never going to get used to that.

"You called?" Rosan greeted, messing up Kanna's hair apologetically and getting an embarrassed slap from the assistant.

The queen nodded enthusiastically, jumping on the redhead eagerly. "I want your input on what I should design as my armies uniform aaaand I want to make a really big building for them to all reside in," she requested.

He nodded, eyeing the curious clones. "I think they should wear your signature colors. Maybe blue and white bodysuits with a mask that hides their face."

"Sounds good to me!" Maro beamed, watching as Kanna jotted it down. "Alright, follow me so we can make that base! You guys are free to do whatever you want for the day!"

That last part was directed towards the clones and with a slight slap on his shoulder, Rosan walked off with Maro on his back. He was far too used to her antics to ever be bothered by them anymore and just let her do what she want.

The clone army couldn't help but watch their carefree queen with slight sweat drops.

"You'll get used to it," Kanna assured calmly. "Queen Maro is rather eccentric!"

----------------------------------------

Maro was bored.

Well, Maro was always bored when it came to these meetings because they talked about the most mundane things and she had to be here to oversee it.

Ugh, Ace, Luffy and Master were probably sparring right now and she was listening to this. She nearly crashed her head into the table but she couldn't do that because Queen and all that jazz.

She wondered if she could learn more advanced teleportation like Master did. She could displace herself but could she increase the range —

The door to their room burst open and one of her guards rushed through the door. "Urgent message for the Queen! We're currently under attack by a group of pirate—"

His words were cut off, as Maro immediately vanished with a crazy glint in her eyes.

Everyone at the meeting watched the spot with a shake of their head. Leave it to Maro to take any and all opportunities to sprint away from her more, tedious duties.

Their beloved Queen should not be so eager to dive straight into the frontlines but that was what she wanted and they'd never go against her.

"—But they've been dealt with by the... She didn't let me finish..." The man muttered, scratching his head in confusion.

----------------------------------------

"ALRIGHT! WHERE'S ALL... the... action?"

An excited Maro watched in confusion, as some of her non official (she was still working on it) army, surrounded a group of tied up pirates. The clones looked perfectly fine and the surrounding area looked fine as well. Her citizens were cheering for the clones and they simply blushed bashfully, pleased with their job.

"Oh, Queen Maro!" One of the clones spotted her, jumping up and saluting. "We know we aren't technically on duty yet, but we couldn't help but jump in to stop these pirates from causing any damage!"

The other 5 (there were six of them here) nodded in agreement, gauging the Queen's reaction with nervous eyes.

...

"Your majesty?" Another clone called tentatively.

Maro jumped a bit at being addressed and whirled towards the clones, who flinched. She held out her hands placatingly and said, "I'm not upset with you guys, really! I'm super glad that you managed to stop them before they could cause damage... It's just... I was bored a-and I wanted to beat them up and you guys already did it."

Everyone watching, blinked at her words before faceplanting, clones included.

The Queen was visibly sulking now, much to the citizens amusement. "I like having an army b-but it looks like they're too good at their job and that means they might make me stay in the castle more... W-What if my skills rust?! Ace and Master would make so much fun of me and wouldn't let me live it down," she muttered to herself, walking off in despair.

This was the worst! I-If she gave Ace and Master fuel, those two demons would let her hear it for years to come! S-She needed to go spar with them now to avoid going soft!

"Keep it up, you guys... I'm really proud of you. Now, I'm gonna go bother my Master and have him bring me to his island for a bit..."

They sweatdropped heavily at the genuine sadness in her tone and looked between the pirates and the Queen.

"You guys did nothing wrong," the citizens assured delightfully. "Our queen is just a spoiled brat. We're really happy that you guys are here to take some of the load off her shoulders. She does everything around here."

The clones were finally coming to terms with that. Watching the Dokkaebi be supportive of them, despite wanting in on the action was quite the sight. It was... endearing in a way and made them respect their Queen even more then they did.

Maro truly was an eccentric ruler and they wouldn't have it any other way.