I would not begrudge my crewmate's reaction time. Weapons were drawn and at the ready by the time the woman had finished speaking. Even I'd pushed myself into something that could be considered standing, if it weren't for the fact everyone could tell I was one stiff breeze from falling right back over.

"Ms. All Sunday," Ms. Vivi snarled. "What are you doing here!"

Another member of this crazy group? She looked fairly normal, with long black hair and tanned skin. The cowboy hat that rested atop her head looked almost out of place. Sweet seemed to be running down Mr. 9's face, and the other newcomer looked nervous as well.

"Isn't that Mr. 0's partner?" Nami asked, looking unnerved. If that was true, then this was a warlord's right-hand woman. A position she had to have earned through any combination of skill, intelligence, and strength. And if she was willing to at least get this close to us? Then I was willing to bet the answer was all of the above.

And that was before Sanji and Ussop got unceremoniously flipped over the railing, while the sword, bat, and staff were knocked out of their respective owner's hands. Screw this. The sun was up. Up enough. I didn't know how she was doing that, but Accelerock had to be quicker on the draw. If it was enough to just take her off guard for a few seconds!

I called on my power, only to get, nothing. Lyconrock would not come to me. It only took a few seconds for me to realize why, the Going Merry rocking beneath my feet. Shit.

That was, bad. Aqua Jet was a thing, but while I was willing to pick a fight as something with Lyconrock's attack, I wasn't sure how something with fewer attack points could handle something like this. If I failed to knock her out in a single hit, then I was going to be in for a world of hurt.

Then again, given how she disarmed everyone without so much as moving, who's to even say that such an attack would work in the first place? If she could disarm Zoro, she likely could deal with a fast-moving wolf and some rocks.

"Please, don't point those at me. Don't you know that's dangerous?" Ms. All Sunday sounded as if she were teasing us. She wasn't taking this seriously in the first place. Still, I felt her gaze fall between Luffy, the unknown woman, and me. As if she were sizing us up. Luffy, likely because he was Luffy. I didn't know what the woman's deal was, but she looked physically strong, and she wasn't holding a weapon.

As for myself? Did she notice my willingness to attack? Or had she observed the entire fight in the town? Then she had to know that I could shape-shift. Was that enough to mark me as a threat? I felt something tickle at the back of my spine, but before I could turn around, the feeling was already gone.

Some type of Devil Fruit power? It had to be. There was little else it could be. I didn't know much about them, but there was little less that could be blamed. But what type of power would allow someone to disarm multiple people at the same time? Control over wind, maybe?

"Don't get too worked up," she continued to taunt. "I'm not here on assignment, so I have no reason to fight you. Even if your Log Pose wasn't pointed towards Little Garden." She shook her head. The name didn't sound dangerous. But that was far from the case because of how Mr. 9 stepped back and Vivi's grinding teeth could be heard from where I stood.

I'd have to ask later, but right now, that was a problem for future us. Right now, we still have to deal with this.

But if she didn't want to fight. She had the advantage here. She'd probably watched us fight, with Luffy being the only real unknown to her. But how did he stack up against her unknown powers? On that front, I wasn't sure. Luffy was strong on his own, and she was outnumbered.

Instead, the new woman leapt forward, fist aimed at the face of Ms. All Sunday.

"Ms. Monday, was it? I expected better from you," Ms. All Sunday didn't move one bit. Instead, the now-identified Ms. Monday's body, was contorted, bending in ways that could only be described as uncomfortable. Why?

Limbs. Arms, to be specific. Sprouting out of Ms. Monday's body with the causal ease a plant grew out of the soil. Each moved together, grabbing hold of limbs and twisting in ways a grappler could only dream of, as Ms. Monday growled out in pain.

Screw this! It was undeniable that Ms. Monday took the first swing, but fuck it!

By the time Ms. Monday had landed on the deck and everyone else had gone for their weapons, I had finished transforming. One simple attack was all I needed.

Aqua Jet!

Coating myself in a layer of water, I smashed into the arms, causing most of them to vanish upon impact. I came to a skidding stop, leaving water in my wake, breathing heavily. But the form quickly fell away. That, wasn't good. I figured I was still drained from the fighting at Whiskey Peak, but this wasn't a good time to find how just how much that was true.

"That was, interesting," Ms. All Sunday glared down at me. Hand suddenly erupted all around my body, twisting my body in a way it wasn't meant too, even if I had been flexible. I grit my teeth, trying to stop myself from opening my mouth from the pain. It felt like everything was breaking!

"Let him!"

POP.

Then everything stopped. Even Luffy, who's fist was already pulled back, stood in place. Ms. All Sunday seemed to blink in surprise, her grip suddenly loosening. I let out a sigh of relief. Not because I was no longer being bent around like a demented pretzel. No, it was because the dull ache in my lower back was suddenly gone. I'd thrown it out sometime last year at work, and sometimes it just didn't feel right, and sleeping on the Going Merry hadn't done it any favors.

"You know, if you didn't want to work for a criminal warlord, you could make a killing in the massage industry," I offered, before clamping my mouth shut. Really shouldn't start snarking at the woman who could literally break my spine the way I ate popcorn. Vigorously and with great ease.

Thankfully, I don't think Ms. All Sunday had any idea how to respond to that. The arms vanished completely, and I let myself breathe a sigh of relief.

"How old are you?" I heard the woman mummer, shaking her head.

"I'm twenty-seven," I crossed my arms, huffing. Ms. All Sunday looked down at me again, as if trying to judge if what I said was true.

"How! I thought you were the youngest person on the ship!" Mr. 9 shouted, pointing at me.

"Should have grown a beard," Zoro shook his head as I narrowed my eyes at him. I was about to protest, as beards were itchy and a pain in the ass, but an even more pointed look from Nami made me click my mouth shut. Now really was not the time to be arguing over such topics.

"You should be able to bypass Little Garden with little effort with that Eternal Log Pose," Ms. All Sunday said, one of said Log Pose's appearing in Vivi's hand. "It leads to the Isle of Nothing, which is only a stop before Alabasta. Even Baroque Works agents don't know about this route."

That seemed, oddly suspicious. Why would she give us this? I could understand her not killing us right now. We were going to an island that she considered dangerous, so might as well let nature do the dirty work. Fair enough. But if she wanted to give us a pass, why spare us? It didn't make a lick of sense. Sure, she didn't see us as a threat to her boss, but why take that chance in the first place? Or it could be something else. Maybe an attempt to unseat the boss and lead the organization herself?

I mean, it was certainly a trap, I was in complete agreement with Zoro on that one. But for whom?

Of course, it didn't take Luffy any longer than a single second to grab the Eternal Log Pose from Vivi's hands and smash it to pieces. Something that earned the man a swift kick in the face from Nami. While it was probably a trap, having access to one of those would have been a boon. Even if we never went that route in the first place, it would be nice to know a place where we might be able to resupply consistently.

"She's not deciding what course we're going to take!" Luffy declared, and that was the end of that. I didn't exactly trust the woman, so I was more or less chill with whatever had been chosen.

"That's too bad," Ms. All Sunday smirked. "We'll meet again, if you manage to survive."

I wasn't disappointed to see her go, even if her transport of choice, a giant turtle, was a surprise. How did something like that actually swim along the Grand Line? It was a sizable turtle, but that didn't exactly mean much. A storm would mess it up, as would just about any predator that desired turtle meat. And while Ms. All Sunday was strong enough to clean my clock without much contest, I highly doubt growing arms, while an excellent power at restraining human foes, was something I imagined would be far less effective at restraining and defeating the various Sea Kings and other threats.

But beyond that, I was exhausted. The moment she vanished over the horizon, I slumped down, utterly exhausted. I wanted to close my eyes, but with the sun beating down on my face, I knew unless I was past the point of no return, I wasn't going to be getting any shut-eye. No matter how desperately I just wanted to close my eyes.

I would damn the sun, but that leads to a path of utter madness. There was no way to fight something like that.

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"Is he okay?" Nami looked down.

"I think he's just napping, pipsqueak," a muscular hand slapped against her back. "Given everything, I can't say that I blame him."

Nami's frown only grew, as she rubbed her back. "Nathan doesn't take naps."

One would think such a light sleeper would take several throughout the day. But Nathan didn't. Once it was early enough in the morning, he wouldn't go back to sleep for anything. Not until it was nighttime.

Ah, screw it, Nathan had been through the ringer, and she'd probably have to do something about his arm. But if he was sleeping, there wasn't any harm in letting him. It wasn't like something was going to happen right this second.

The moment the thought passed through her head, she saw something in the distance. It looked like a fin, sticking out of the water. She shuttered, even if it was far away.

Then it surfaced, leaping out of the water and nearly enveloped the sky.

Right, this was the Grand Line, how did she forget? They were already about to start sailing, only for her to watch as a rubber fist fell through the air, punching the giant dolphin in the eye.

"That little!" Nami would have gone on, but her voice was cut off by a laugh.

"Hohoho!" Ms. Monday laughed deeply. "I think I'm going to like it here!"

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I wasn't sure how I had managed to catch some sleep. Sleeping during the day was not something I normally did. Unless I was incredibly exhausted. That went double for sleeping on moving things. And someone put my arm in a sling. It still felt sore, and I wouldn't be surprised if the bone was cruised, so it was for the best that I wouldn't be using it for a while, even if it made me more useless.

Healing it was going to be priority number one. I needed to test my limits. And figure out how to fight. On their own, my forms could be pretty damn strong, but if I hadn't knocked them into Zoro and Sanji's fight, then I wouldn't have won in the first place. No shame in using teammates to score knock-outs, but that was going to be a problem going forward.

Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine were not the strongest Baroque Works had to offer, if their naming scheme worked the way I thought it did. Odds were I wouldn't be fighting Crocodile at all, but it damn well wouldn't hurt to prepare to try. If he was one of these Seven Warlords, a title which screamed important, there had to be some degree of information about the man. How he fought, what type of abilities he had, potential weaknesses, those sorts of things.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

There was just one little problem with my nap. If Mr. 9 and Ms. Monday had introduced themselves by their real names, I'd completely missed it. I had no idea if they had in the first place. With Ms. Vivi, it did make sense why she'd tipped her hand, but with the other two, I was unsure how to approach the topic. Nor did I know if their original names were a sore spot for either of them.

But I could still tell there was a bit of tension in the air. Luffy didn't care much, that wasn't a surprise, as the man was far more concerned with snarfing down his food. And I kinda agreed with him. Sure, there were three former enemies currently on the ship, and while Ms. Monday was likely more dangerous than Vivi and Mr. 9 were, it wasn't likely by much. Sure, it'd taken Zoro, but I imagine since he and Sanji more or less handled the other pair of field agents with little difficulty,

Still, part of me cursed my social awkwardness. I could read the room, but had no idea how to exactly defuse it. And I knew Zoro was at least interested in the scale of what I could hypothetically do. Sure, I hadn't promised anything, but the general unspoken understanding was it would be best for Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday to be off the ship before I revealed that sort of hand.

I don't think any of us expected that they would become our allies, much less pick up another plus one. And it wasn't like I was exactly comfortable telling my allies yet. Sure, I couldn't use them at the moment, but that was a good thing. Even trying to explain the scale and devastation of some legendaries operated on. Hell, Primal Reversions were their own massive can of worms. Groudon wouldn't be too bad, the sea level could probably be dialed back a notch or twenty, but Primal Kyogre would easily get plenty of people killed just by existing. If Whiskey Peak was any indication of what towns were like, it would be easily flooded in a matter of hours.

That type of power scared the piss out of me. And those were only two of the more terrifying things in my hypothetical arsenal. Yveltal was its own can of nightmare worms, as was Eternatis. Really, just any of the box art legendaries, the other members of their respective trios were going to be an absolute nightmare.

"Sorry if I may have missed it," I started, my voice cutting through the partial silence. "I missed you guy's names, if you gave them to us." The silence hung in the air for a brief moment. Before Ms. Monday let out a hardy laugh.

"I don't think anyone asked. But then again, I think a fresh start would do me some good!" She grinned. "You can call me Norris. Norris Gegumi." I did my level best to stop myself from making any Chuck Norris jokes. I tried really, really hard not to go for that low-hanging fruit.

"I do suppose you're right. A fresh start would, beneficial, if nothing less," Mr. 9 sighed deeply, as if somewhat lost in thought. "My name is Griffin Thomas. It is a pleasure to use that name again."

"It is nice to be formerly introduced to the two of you," I responded, smiling slightly. There was still a bit of unease in the air, but it seemed a bit less now. Conversation was slowly starting to pick up.

"I am interested in how you picked up those new forms," Zoro said, seemingly out of the blue.

"I'm a bit curious as well. In my line of work, I've seen a few Devil Fruit users, but I've never quite seen anything like that before," Norris said, crossing her fingers on the table.

"As far as we know, it isn't a Devil Fruit, Ms. Norris," Sanji said, eyes fluttering as he put another dish in front of her. Normally I would complain, but she looked more built than Zoro.

"I didn't eat a fruit, and I can swim just fine," I said, slightly omitting the fact I hadn't done so while not transformed. I wasn't going to be swimming in Grand Line waters without it. Sure, I knew how to swim, but I hadn't been to the pool in years. While the ocean was a different animal altogether. Never mind, this one. "Though I do have a working hypothesis for what happened, Zoro."

"Remember how each island on the Grand Line has its own magnetic signature?" I got a lot of nods from everyone, even Luffy, who seemed to slowing his eating slightly. "I think a similar idea is what's happening with my powers. Each island is attuned to a particular attribute, and while on it, I can use forms of that attribute. I don't think I hold onto it entirely. I tried to bring Lycanroc out against Ms. All Sunday, but it didn't work."

"The bipedal wolf thing you used against Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine?" Usopp asked. "Don't get me wrong, it seems useful." The rest didn't need to be stated. She could probably snap its bones before I could get into counter distance.

"Lycanroc is, an interesting case. Its appearance depends on the position of the sun upon the moment of its evolution. The sun is down, you get the bipedal one. Sun is up, you get a faster, and more wolf-like form," I frowned. I never really considered how to put this before.

"And evolution is?" Zoro frowned.

"Evolution is what it's called, but metamorphosis would be a better term. When certain conditions are met, usually simply getting stronger, there is a transformation into a new, more powerful, form," I said. I wasn't sure how stone or other item evolutions were going to work, much less trade evolutions. But like many things, that was a problem for future me. "Tying it back in, evolution is what's keeping a lot of my new forms from being immediately relevant. I did some experimenting before dinner. I still have access to the type, I just need to combine it with water first."

Presumably normal as well, but there weren't any rock/normal types to my knowledge. Which was a damn good thing, because that combination would stink. Sure, steel/rock was just as vulnerable to fighting-type attacks and had an additional four times ground weakness, but at least you got the offensive coverage spread that included fairy types.

"Really?" Luffy leaned in excitedly. "What'd you get?"

"Dreadnaw and Relicanth are going to be only two relevant at the moment," I said. Corsola probably had some defensive use, but everything else was meh. I wasn't kidding when I called them useless until evolution. I was stuck with a bunch of first-form fossils and Binacle. Binacle! I only remembered that one through sheer luck! I mean, latching to someone's face like a face hugger as Kabuto could probably scare someone pretty bad, but that was about it. "I think you'd like Kabutops, Zoro. It has sword arms."

The grin on his face told me that was the absolute worst thing I could have said.

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"You want to get training?" I couldn't quite read the look on Zoro's face. I think it was surprise.

"I mean, I can't do a lot right now," I moved my arm which was still in a sling. Nami's orders. Which by all respects would likely be more terrifying than any doctor. "But I know for a fact I'm the weakest person here. And while my powers can compensate, all it takes it being caught with my pants down once, then my goose is cooked."

That was a fair enough assessment of the situation, and I wasn't afraid to admit it. When it came to strength, I was the weakest member of the crew by a long shot. Yes, my powers could counteract this, but there were always going to be situations they simply wouldn't be available, or I couldn't use them quickly enough.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. And until I could turn into a laser-spitting water serpent, then at least being able to punch someone better was the least I could do. As for why Zoro?

Besides Luffy, he was the strongest person on the crew. And while I wasn't sure what Luffy's method of training was, it was probably something no sane human should attempt. Zoro's at least seemed simple. The weights were outside my ability, but the basic ideas and principles? Those should be simple enough to apply.

"Very well," Zoro sheathed his swords, as Thomas let a sigh of relief from his pool of sweat on the deck. I wasn't sure if Zoro decided that the man would make for good training practice, or if he had the same idea I had. If the shape he was in was any indication, I was already starting to have second thoughts. Norris might be a better choice. She seemed to be a hand-to-hand fighter, and it wasn't like I was using a weapon myself. "Since I don't think you can do a push-up right now, start running laps around the deck."

That sounded simple enough. I ran regularly. Five days a week had been my old standard, weather permitting, and took steps to make sure it did. I'd been slacking inside Laboon, admittedly, but there were good reasons for that. Even with a busted-up arm, it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was very much a big deal. Zoro told me to run. Fair enough. He probably meant, to stop when I couldn't continue anymore. But I wasn't exactly the smartest when it came to things like that. When it came to when I first started to pick it up, I would have to describe my approach as very, Dark Souls. Beating my head into a brick wall until the wall came crumbling down.

Which wasn't a good thing. Even without the messed up arm, I was still resting with my back against the Going Merry's deck, surrounded by a small pool of sweat. An early bath was clearly in my future, as were a change of clothes. I didn't like to get cleaned so early in the day, but it was better than stinking up the place.

Pushing myself up with a groan, I decided that was going to be enough for the time being. At least until tomorrow, at any rate. Then I'd right back to it.

"Nice to see you're putting some effort into the basics, squirt. Most would try to rely on their powers exclusively," Norris approached as I finally got to my feet.

"Thank you," I said, pausing for a moment. "I have a question for you, if that's okay?"

"Sure, ask away," she responded.

"How much do you know about Little Garden?" Nami was our navigator, and she was probably a better person to ask. But I remember her reaction to Ms. All Sunday telling us where we were going.

"Not much. The World Government considers it a nature preserve, where nobody is supposed to go, which all but guarantees it's some sort of deathtrap. It's supposedly got a lot of creatures that can't be found anywhere else, some of which haven't otherwise haven't been seen in a long time outside the island," she frowned. Sounded, pleasant.

"As in like Dinosaurs or something?" I asked offhandedly, not really expecting a response.

"I do think there are Dinosaurs, yes," I don't think I heard anything else. I. Was. Going. To. Get. To. See. Dinosaurs. In. Person.

EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

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"Karoo, is there something wrong?" Vivi asked, the Supersonic duck suddenly perking up, a slightly pained expression on his face. Almost ignoring her comment, he left the room, leaving her to follow behind, curious to the sudden change.

"I don't know what happened!" It was Norris Gegumi, if that was the woman's real name, speaking. "I just said where we were going might have dinosaurs, and he just, stopped."

"He has to be doing something. His mouth is open," Usopp commented, as Vivi finally caught a glance of the look of pure glee that covered Nathan's face, something that made him look even younger than he already was. Normally, she could believe that he was the oldest of the Straw Hats, but right now, that was not the case.

"Quack!" Karoo suddenly leapt through the air, landing on Nathan's shoulders with ease, before trying to sit down, seeming to become more comfortable.

Was? Nathan making a sound only ducks could hear?