The Start of the Grand Line

Several days' sailing and a very short triste into the Calm Belt brought the Going Merry to the base of Reverse Mountain and its current that flowed upward. Nami tried to explain to the crew how it was the temperature difference between the warm water from the Calm Belt and the cold waters of the East Blue that caused a current force strong enough to force water up the mountain, but no one else really seemed interested. Getting on the right path was risky, but they made it work with Luffy's rubber powers, quickly reaching the peak of Reverse Mountain and following the flow down. Their first sight of the Grand Line was shrouded in fog, the layer of white hiding the base of the mountain from them as the Merry gained speed.

"Woo!" Luffy cheered, an arm wrapped around the top of the mast as the wind resistance caused his body to flail backwards like a flag. "This is the best!"

"My ears!" Coby cried, the sudden ride up and the subsequent descent causing his eardrums to pop painfully.

BWOOOOOO

"Did you hear that?" Nami screamed, her voice being ripped away in the wind.

"What?" Usopp yelled back, clinging to the railing.

"Was it the sound of my love?!" Sanji swooned, releasing his hold on the ship. The wind pressure launched him backwards, slamming him into the wall by the kitchen's door and pinning him there.

BWOOOOOOOO

"No, that!" the navigator yelled as the sound echoed over the mountain. "You heard it that time, right?!"

"I heard something!" Coby offered. "Was it a foghorn?"

"Oh shit!" Gin yelled, fighting the wind to grab Nami's arm as a black lump began to emerge from the mist. "It's surfaced at tha bottom o' tha moun'in! Iffin we don' stop, we're gonna crash!"

"What's surfaced?" Nami demanded.

"Tha Island Whale!"

"A whale?" Coby demanded. "Running into one of those at this speed could crush the Merry!"

"What?" Luffy gasped, all the fun sucked away at that declaration. "Usopp! Coby! Sanji! Get to the rudder!"

"Right!" The trio slipped and slid toward the meal room where the rudder was located, quickly grounding themselves before pushing the rudder to the right as hard as they could. Unfortunately, the current was just too strong, the opposing forces causing the rudder to give way, breaking with a sharp crack!

"We're getting closer!" Zoro yelled.

"The rudder broke!" Usopp pancaked.

"Why didn't you mention the whale before?!" Nami shouted at Gin.

"It was still sunk las' time!" Gin snapped. Luffy ran to the cannon under the figurehead as the ship grew closer to the bottom, his crew's screaming in the wind. Lucky that they kept it loaded, he lit the fuse and fired, the opposing momentum slowing the Merry just enough to avoid sinking. It was not, however, enough to stop the impact. Everyone on the ship was thrown to the deck as the Merry came to a halt, her figurehead snapping off and falling to the deck with a thump. Luffy didn't seem to care that they were lucky for only that amount of damage, though.

"You bastard!" he shouted at the whale, a large, black mammal whose entire nose was covered in great, crisscrossing scars. Zoro and Gin jumped for the oars, rowing around the large sea mammal as fast as they could to try to avoid an incident.

"That was my special seat!" the rubber teen yelled, not caring about the worries of his crew. The captain threw his arm forward, nailing the giant in its giant eye.

"You idiot!" everyone yelled, Nami going the extra mile and hitting her boyfriend over the head as hard as she could. The hit dropped Luffy like a sack of potatoes, leaving the captain all but sunk into the wooden paneling of the deck. The whale's mouth opened as it cried in pain, sucking in hundreds of millions of gallons of water, and the Going Merry with it.

The Straw Hats had just been eaten by a whale.

The ride down the whale's gullet was anything but fun, the Merry bumping into the walls and being tossed to and fro from the waves sending the seven-person crew tumbling end over end. Sanji, Usopp, and Coby were somewhat safe in the dining room with the now-broken rudder, but those on the deck were not as confined. The rocking threw Zoro into the railing where his head lodged between two of the posts. Nami screamed as she tipped over the ship, but a quick stretch of Luffy's arm brought her back to the mast where Luffy was secure. The captain, however, did not have time to do the same for Gin, the former-Krieg getting thrown by a bad collision with the wall and sent into the water below.

"Man overboard!" Zoro called from the railing. Unfortunately, the Merry was just too chaotic at the moment for anyone to do anything other try to find Gin's head bobbing in the current behind them. Their momentum, however, was all but halted in a moment as the rush of water hit the bow, emptying into what appeared to be a yellowish lake. The Merry tipped forward as the opposing forces equalized, falling back with a definitive splash.

"Help!" Gin yelled as he was carried into the lake by the current, the flowing water sending his head under. Luffy jumped to his feet, Nami wrapped in one arm, and hurried to the stern.

"There!" Nami told him, pointing at a grasping hand in the lake. Luffy responded by throwing his free arm forward, the hand latching onto him before he pulled back.

"Look, guys!" Luffy joked as he hauled the Man-Demon onto the deck. He was panting and soaked, his clothes with new holes that looked like they were getting bigger as the cloth dissolved from whatever was coating him. "I caught a big one!"

"Now isn't the time for jokes, Captain Luffy," Coby whined as he and the others stumbled out of the dining room, a large bruise on the right side of his face from where some of Usopp's flailing had been too close. Seeing no immediate danger, most of the crew took in their surroundings while Sanji eyed Luffy's left arm, which was still around Nami's waist, with disdain.

They seemed to be on a yellow-green sea. Fluffy white clouds hung in an azure sky. Birds could be seen soaring through them, but their calls were nowhere to be heard. A tiny island seemed to bob in the water, a tiny house atop it.

"Where are we?" Usopp wondered, taking in the still sky. "I can't hear or see the mystery current at all."

"There isn't any wind either," Nami added.

"Tha water burns," Gin moaned, trying to shake himself dry.

"Didn't we get eaten?" Zoro questioned, finally pulling his head free. "Luffy punched that big whale-"

"That's ridiculous, Zoro-sensei," Coby laughed. "We… We didn't… Did we?!"

"Maybe whoever lives in that house can give us some answers?" Sanji suggested, lighting a cigarette, only for their view of the island to vanish behind a giant, pink beast.

"Giant squid!" Nami, Coby, and Usopp screamed, the latter two grabbing each other in fear and the former grabbing the captain. The monster trio smirked, ready for a fight. Three harpoons sprouted from its head in three spurts of blood before the squid fell backwards, dead. Following the lines from the projectiles, the crew found a man in the doorway of the house.

"Could it be?" Gin muttered before the man stepped into the light, his accent gone once more. He was an older man who was balding, but his lack of hair was augmented by the purple-and-yellow petals that made up a plume-like thing on the back of his head. A Hawaiian shirt and purple shorts covered his form, and a round pair of glasses sat on his face. "It is. It's Old Man Crocus."

"You know this guy?" Zoro asked, eyeing the stranger warily.

"Yeah," the former-Krieg pirate answered. "He greeted us the last time I entered the Grand Line and gave us a log pose."

"Hi!" Luffy waved, releasing Nami from his grip. "That was really cool, but can you tell us where we are?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the other man asked. "You were just swallowed by an Island Whale."

"We were eaten?!" Usopp panicked, again. "We're all gonna die!"

"Oh, calm down, boy," Crocus placated. "I can get you out easy enough, but-"

Boom!

An explosion blew the doors off a hatch somewhere up above, dragging attention to a pair of eccentrically-dressed figures, a man and a woman, on a metal balcony, both armed with rocket launchers.

The man had medium-length ginger hair, a dark green vest with a red ascot, and a crown on his head. Two marks like the number nine were painted on his cheeks, one under each eye and he also had green disco pants and shiny, black boots.

The woman had long, light blue hair in a single ponytail and pale skin. She was dressed in a purple and pale-blue zigzag crop top that accentuated her assets, a light green coat, and white shorts. She also wore heeled boots to make her the same height as her apparent partner.

As the Straw Hats and Crocus watched, the man of the pair posed, one hand touching his forehead with the weapon resting on his shoulder.

"We are claiming this whale!" he declared. "Its meat will be our saving grace!"

"To protect our town from hunger, we will take it to our living place!"

"To deny us is folly! It shan't work, so-!"

"We are all set! Rockets, go!" the woman finished, the pair firing their weapons. The rockets zoomed across the whale's stomach, exploding and leaving a scorch mark on the faux-sky mural. The whale cried out, the water around them turning into a dangerous, choppy lake.

"It seems that wasn't enough, Ms. Wednesday," the man commented, nonchalant.

"Indeed not, Mr. 9," Ms. Wednesday agreed. The pair prepped their weapons again, but they hadn't taken into account the people in their surroundings. While Crocus prepared to show up these chumps one more time why taking the whale was a lost cause, Luffy didn't see this before he acted himself. The teen's hands shot out, one grabbing the man's shirt and the other wrapping around the woman's waist several times. Both screamed, losing their grips on their weapons as Luffy pulled them to the ship. The sound of the rocket launchers falling into the water below was lost in the pained shout of Mr. 9 hitting the deck. Ms. Wednesday would have joined him, but Sanji caught her in his arms.

"My lady," Sanji muttered, hearts in his eyes.

"Ew!" the blunette gagged, smacking the chef for thinking he was having lecherous thoughts. She may not have been that far from the truth. Be that as it may, smacking the one holding her left Ms. Wednesday at the mercy of gravity, dropping her to the deck as well.

"Sanji!" Coby fretted, the boy's teacher rolling his eyes.

"Who are you people?" Ms. Wednesday demanded.

"You aren't in any position to ask that," Nami told her, grabbing a rope and quickly tying up their new captive. Once Wednesday was secure, Mr. 9 was quick to follow, though he was unconscious for the ordeal.

"The Mr. 9 pair," Crocus commented from the island, relaxing his stance. "That's what these morons call themselves. They've been trying to kill Laboon for the past few months."

"Laboon?" Usopp asked.

"The whale," Crocus explained, hopping onto the Merry with a single leap and directing them toward a metal hatch in the side of the Whale's stomach. "Some pirates left Laboon with me many years ago, but they haven't returned since."

"That's a hatch," Usopp gaped as the Merry sailed the short distance between Laboon and a little plateau connected to the Red Line where Crocus had another small house. "Is that… Does that hurt the whale?"

As Usopp questioned the morality of hollowing out a living whale, Crocus told the crew of his bond with Laboon and how he came to be the whale's caretaker. That was over 50 years ago and Laboon had been hitting his head on the Red Line for all that time, convinced that his friends, the Rumbar Pirates, were still alive and traveling.

"I keep telling him they're gone," Crocus sighed, Laboon wailing in the distance, "but he won't listen to me. Them being dead is the best-case scenario. Some rumors I heard said they fled into the Calm Belt."

"I know!" Luffy blinked, his arms wrapping around the Merry's mast. "I'll cheer him up!"

"Oh no you don't!" Nami yelled, Coby, Usopp, and Gin right behind her as two of them grabbed Luffy by the arms and the others by his head. "If you want to fight that whale, you can have at it, but you are not tearing apart the Merry to do so!"

"I wasn't…" Luffy began. "Oh, maybe I was. Oops! Shishishi!"

"Don, please think about this," Gin pleaded.

"That whale needs a reason to not hurt himself, right?" the captain asked, letting go of the mast and shaking his crewmates off. "I'll go give him one! You all can talk to Old Croaky."

"Crocus," Coby corrected. Luffy didn't listen, rocketing away and punching Laboon in his fresh wound.

"Aaaaand he's gone," Usopp sighed. While everyone else called Luffy an idiot for fighting the whale, they got to work repairing the ship, the most noticeable addition being the steel plate holding the figurehead in place, almost looking like a choker. Luffy's yelling mixed with the whale's calls, both echoing across the Red Line.

"These pirates are crazy!" Ms. Wednesday hissed, kicking her partner awake while the navigator had her back turned. "Come on!"

"Wait!" Mr. 9 cried, too late as both were already over the edge. He screamed as they plunged into the water.

"Are they going to be fine?" Gin asked, looking over the cliff down toward the bubbles that showed where the pair had gone under. Sanji joined him, the bubbles slowing to a stop. They froze, glancing at each other. "We don't have to-" Gin began.

"My poor mellorine!" Sanji cried, pushing Gin over the edge before tossing his coat aside and diving into the water. Coby stepped into the space they had occupied, bending down to pick up a strange sort of compass on a watchband.

"Hey, Nami," he said, turning to the only female crewmember as Sanji and Gin surfaced with the sputtering Mr. 9 pair. "Is this one of those log pose things you and Gin talked about a couple days ago?"

"Looks like it," she nodded, taking the device from the roset. Off in the distance, Luffy's fight with Laboon came to an abrupt end, the pirate ruling it a draw. In the end, Luffy painted his disfigured drawing of the Straw Hat jolly roger on the whale's scarred head, forcing Laboon to stop beating it against the Red Line lest the skull-and-crossbones be ruined and their deal for Luffy to return be off.

"Hey!" Mr. 9 cried out as Gin and Sanji finished scaling the cliffside, the captive agents slung over their shoulders. "That's my log pose! Give it back!"

"Pirates~!" Nami taunted, poking her tongue out at the disgruntled agent. "Oh, Sanji! Would you please get lunch started?"

"Yes, Nami-swan~!" the chef answered, noodling away.

"I see you've got yourself a log pose," Crocus grinned, unfazed by having watched its reacquisition. "It's a necessary tool here on the Grand Line. Normal Compasses don't work, and while you can tell directions by the sun, that's not going to get you to the next island. See, the islands in the Grand Line have an unusual amount of magnetic ore in them, and this causes each to have its own magnetic field. This messes with regular compasses, but the log pose is designed to lock onto an island's field until you get there. Then it will take a certain amount of time to reset and lock onto the next island, though every island's reset time is different. Also, these magnetic fields don't interact with each other well, causing the weather between islands to do things that would be otherwise impossible. Be careful. This first stretch is the hardest part until you go past the Sabaody Archipelago and reach the second half."

"That's wild!" Nami blinked, checking her compass. Just as Crocus had explained, the compass' needle was spinning endlessly, unable to track north.

"Dinner's ready!" Sanji called. "Nami-swan~! Wednesday-chan~! I've prepared you a delicious feast! Oi, shitheads and old guy! Come get food!"

Everyone gathered at the chef's call with various levels of enthusiasm and soon were all eating, drinking, being merry, and defending their plates rather well from Luffy's thievery, minus the agents. Ms. Wednesday was seated in a chair with Mr. 9 on the ground beside her. Both of them were still tied up, resulting in neither being able to feed themselves. Sanji was doing his best to feed Ms. Wednesday, but she refused everything he offered, staring out over the ocean. Her stomach rumbled.

"Could..." she began, swallowing her pride. "Could you please take us back to our home?"

The woman seemed pained by the words.

"No' un'il you apol'gize fer tryin'a kill Laboon," Luffy answered instantly through a mouthful of fish. Nami smacked him, slamming the captain's head into the table. He popped up, laughing.

"I cannot apologize," the blunette responded. "We were hunting the whale to help feed our home because there is a food shortage. I can only promise that we will not hunt this whale again." Her stomach growled again, causing the woman to blush.

"I guess I can understand that," Luffy blinked. "Okay. Coby, cut their ropes. I'm inviting them to eat with us."

"Are you sure that is wise, Don Luffy?" Gin questioned as Coby stood, taking his plate with him due to the knowledge that it would be raided if he left it. Two swift cuts freed the duo from their bonds. "I don't think they're trustworthy," Gin finished.

"Might I remind you of your origins before joining this crew?" Zoro pointed out, stabbing Yubashiri into the table milimeters from Luffy's fingers.

"...Touché."

Ms. Wednesday shuffled in her seat, Mr. 9 standing beside her. Sanji stood, setting a glass before the woman and pouring her some wine. She eyed it carefully, Nami accepting a refill without preamble.

"So what happened to your boat?" the navigator asked as Mr. 9 sat on a lawn chair at the table, hesitantly filling a plate of his own.

"It was destroyed by a storm," the other woman scowled.

"And you thought you could carry the whale back without a ship?"

"Yes."

"Oh... Uh, where do you live?"

"A town called Whisky Peak. It's one of the first islands in the Grand Line."

"Then tha' sounds like er des'ination," Luffy interjected. Nami smacked him for talking with his mouth full again.

"So you'll take us home?" Ms. Wednesday blinked, wide-eyed.

"Sure," Luffy shrugged. "Why not? We need to pick a route anyway." That settled, lunch became a more subdued affair. Luffy continued to snag food from all but Nami, but he became less successful as the meal went on.

With lunch over and the Going Merry repaired, they crew plus two prepared to depart on their first adventure into the Grand Line.

"Let's go!" Luffy cheered from his special seat, Crocus waving and Laboon calling out his own goodbye. "Onward! To Whisky Peak!"

"Batten down the hatches and tie off the sails!" Nami screamed, praying to whatever deity would listen that her words would reach the mast only a dozen feet ahead of her. Thunder boomed and the wind howled, everything in nature seemingly out to achieve one goal: sink the Going Merry. Everyone on the ship – except for Zoro but including the crew's passengers – screamed, running to and fro at the behest of the navigator, every one of her directions saving them from capsizing by inches.

"Gum-Gum Balloon!" Luffy yelled, his inflated torso catching a boulder-sized hailstone that would have smashed through the Merry's deck had he not acted. A sea king surfaced as he deflated, the monster eyeing the ship like one eyes an unwatched cupcake on a table. It gave a roar, only to be struck by a bolt of lightning that would have otherwise struck the Merry's mast. Usopp screamed as the wave from the falling sea king rose and the surrounding temperature plummeted. The seawater froze, turning to snow that splashed over the ship, blanketing even the sleeping swordsman in fine, cold powder.

Somehow, Zoro snored on.

Nami breathed a sigh of relief, the storm disappearing in moments, leaving only sunshine and a nice spring breeze with the faintest whiff of mint. The snow began melting.

"We're alive," Gin whispered as he hugged the mast to stay on his feet, his pupils little more than pinpricks against the whites of his eyes. Tears built, threatening to run down his cheeks. "W-We're actu'ly alive. It's just a storm. We're alive. It's jus' a storm…"

"What's his problem?" Mr. 9 asked, slumping against the railing

"Bad memories," Usopp answered, a rope tied around his waist to prevent falling overboard, again.

"Enough chat!" Nami yelled. "It's back!"

"But the storm-" Coby began, only for the sunlight to vanish mid-word. Lightning flashed. "Withdrawn!"

"How the Hell is the mosshead asleep?!" Sanji demanded. No one had an answer, nor did they have time to wake him as fish started raining sideways.

The Going Merry bobbed in the water, Whiskey Peak in the horizon as the sun just touched the sea, a light fog dancing over the island in the distance.

"Holy shit," Gin cursed, a half-crazed grin stretched over his lips. "We did it. We did it we did it we did it…" He cackled, repeating his words again and again as if that would help him come to terms with the fact that this little caravel just did what 50 galleons had not, though there was no Warlord this time.

"What a good nap," Zoro yawned, standing. He turned, eyeing his crashed and muttering crewmates. "Come on, guys. We're on the water. This is no time for everyone to be sleeping."

"Go chew on a sword," Nami wheezed, her voice strained.

"Geeze," the swordsman shrugged. "Come on. It's a beautiful day and the water is calm. The trip here can't have been that bad."

"Zoro-sensei, I respect you a lot," Coby panted, pushing himself up from where he was lying face-down, "so I think you know what it means when I say screw you, you lazy bastard!"

"Well, anyway!" Mr. 9 called, him and his partner flipping onto the railing. "We really must thank you for the ride-"

"But we really must be going," the female finished.

"Bye bye, Baby!" the two exclaimed together, diving off the side of the ship and swimming the rest of the way to the island.

"Well that's one way to make an exit," Nami commented, confused. The Merry continued her course, sailing into an inlet of the island. Shapes danced in the mist on either side, dropping an eerie feeling on the crew.

"I don't like this," Gin muttered, his weapons fidgeting in his hands. "It feels like we're walking into an ambush."

"Be ready for anything," Zoro ordered, him and his student readying their weapons. "This could go downhill real fast."

The fog lifted...

…

… to reveal a cheering crowd welcoming them to Whisky Peak.

"Welcome to the Grand Line!"

"Pirates! Warriors of the high seas!"

"Thank you for coming!"

"They have some pretty cute crewmembers!" one woman called.

"Dibs on the blond one!" another shouted.

"No! He's mine! I saw him first!"

"Are people really this welcoming on the Grand Line?" Coby asked, lowering his blades.

"Look at all the cute girls!" Sanji exclaimed with hearts in his eyes, dancing his noodle dance. "I've never seen so many in one place!"

The Going Merry dropped anchor at a small dock, allowing the pirates to disembark. A large man with blond hair shaped into three layers of curls that wrapped around his entire head and a suit stepped up to them.

"MA, MA, MAAA!" he called, clearing his throat. "I am Igarrapoi, the mayor of this town."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Luffy. I like your curls."

"Thank you. We have heard of your exploits, 'Straw Hat' Luffy, so la... MA, MA MAAA! So let us welcome a celebrity such as yourself with a party!" The townsfolk threw up a cheer and swept the pirates away one by one.

"Shrimp," Zoro hissed, grabbing Coby by the arm as Sanji was all but carried away by a pack of women. "Don't let your guard down and don't leave my sight. I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Yes, Sensei."

Luffy ate himself full for once in his life, but it took three chefs and four hours for him to do so. Usopp began detailing his many adventures to anyone who would listen and fell asleep while recounting when he'd fought a giant goldfish at five years old for the seventh time that night. Sanji was flirting with 20 girls at once before falling asleep while lying across the laps of several of them. Nami, Gin, and Zoro were dragged into a drinking contest with a prize of 100,000 Beris while Coby watched. The final two, Zoro having passed out after his thirteenth cup and Gin his fourteenth, were Nami and a dark-skinned nun.

"Yer already droppin' out?" Nami questioned with a drunken slur. "Gin, you wuss."

"There is no shame in dropping out now, my child," the nun insisted, trying to hold her composure. "Goda, the Author of Fate, will still love us all equally."

"Not on yer life, sister," Nami responded, a heavy blush over her cheeks. "I nivver g-give up when money's involv- *hic* involved." The two chugged another cup. Nami swayed and the nun smirked, only for the religious woman to collapse to the table, snoring.

"Haha!" Nami laughed, fumbling for the sack of money. She stood once she got a hold of it.

"Nami, be careful," Coby advised, stepping forward to offer some help.

"I'm fi… fi… fiiiinnne," she stuttered, trying to take a step only to wobble as if her legs were made of jello. The roset led her to where Luffy had passed out on the floor and the navigator promptly fell next to him, curling up into his side and snuggling with her winnings.

Coby smiled down at the scene as the lights dimmed, the party the locals had thrown coming to an end. Nodding to himself, Coby wandered over to the sofa where Zoro lay. He flinched, the boy's hand shooting to his neck to cover the point where it felt like something stung him. His vison blurred, darkening on the edges until he crumpled, unconscious.

"Oi, Shrimp," a voice muttered, Coby's eyes flinting back and forth as the voice's owner shook him. "Wake up. We've got to deal with something."

"Ugh," Coby groaned, his head pounding. He rolled onto his side, the roset trying to not lose his dinner as a wave of nausea washed over him. "Wha' h'ppened?"

"They hit you with a dart," Zoro answered, moving on to Gin. "I don't know what was in it, but it took you out in moments. That's what happens when you let your guard down. It's been three hours."

"S'rry." Coby shook himself awake as Gin came to, just as groggy. The room around them was empty of all the locals, only the Straw Hats inside. Luffy and Nami were huddled on the floor, the captain, having shrunk down to normal size, hugging the navigator from behind while she hugged her sack of prize money. Sanji was laid out on a couch, all the women absent. Usopp was slouched over a table, a small puddle of drool building on the floor below. "What now?"

"I think I know who these guys work for," his teacher responded. "They're bounty hunters, and they probably want to claim our bounties, but we aren't going to let them. This will be a good test of where we all stand in relation to hoards of opponents. You two up for it?"

"Yes, Sensei," Coby muttered, not quite certain.

"Yeah, sure," Gin blinked.

"Good. Follow me." Zoro walked toward the back door without another word, the two fighters following him just as silently. Just outside was a ladder to the roof, one Zoro had already found, it seemed, since he climbed it without preamble. Once on the roof, the swordsman led them to the other side, a meeting in progress in the street below. In attendance were the Mr. 9 pair, Mayor Igarrapoi holding a saxophone, and the nun from the contest. The lattermost had shed her religious robes to show that she had pink hair and more muscle definition than Zoro.

"I'm sorry to say that our mission was a failure," they heard Mr. 9 sigh.

"It's not a problem," nun-lady waved off in a rather deep voice for a woman. "It's not like anyone had high hopes on you actually getting the meat."

"Hey!" Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday shouted in indignation. "Why don't you try to go kill that damn whale yourself?!"

"Keep it down, you two," Igarrapoi scolded. "We shadn... MA MA MAAA! We shouldn't wake the pirates."

"I still don't understand why we wasted so much food for this one crew when we could have just ambushed them at the harbor," nun-lady commented. The three eavesdroppers tensed. It was an ambush.

"Look at this," Igarrapoi answered, offering copies of the wanted posters for Luffy, Zoro, and Gin, the prices on their heads clear as day.

"WHAT?!" the other three shouted.

"That moron's worth 30-million?!" Ms. Wednesday questioned.

"That other man was 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro?" Mr. 9 added.

"And 'Man-Demon' Gin of the East Blue?" the faux nun muttered.

"Don't be foolish," Igarrapoi chastised. "Appearances can bu... MA MA MAAA! Can be deceiving. That goes for all of you."

"Sorry about that," Ms. Wednesday apologized.

"It matters not. What matters is that our prey is trapped. For now, take everything of value from their ship."

"Hey!" Zoro interrupted, standing. He pulled out Wado Ichimonji, causing the four on the ground to gasp. "Sorry, but do you mind letting my friends sleep? Apparently, they've had a rough day."

"Mr. 8!" some no name called from a doorway into the building. "Ms. Monday! Some of the pirates are gone!"

"One of them is right there," Ms. Wednesday sighed, rubbing her face.

"You wretch!" Igarrapoi - Mr. 8 - growled as a crowd grew around him. "Why are you not asleep like the others?"

"A good swordsman never lets his guard down," Zoro smirked, Coby and Gin walking up to stand by his side. "Plus, I took a nap earlier. Judging by the scowls and cheap disguises, I'm guessing you're all bounty hunters and that your specialty is robbing drunk pirates after they succumb to your hospitality. It's original, I'll give you that."

"Zoro-sensei. I count about a hundred, give or take," Coby offered.

"Good. We could use some exercise, don't you think, Baroque Works?"

"How do you know that name?!" Mr. 8 demanded as panic bloomed around him.

"I got a letter a couple years ago when I was still a bounty hunter inviting me to join. Naturally, I declined. Do the same rules still apply? Cheesy code-names and nobody knows anyone else's identity?"

"If you know all our secrets," the faux mayor began, "then we'll just have to kill you. Of course, then we couldn't let the other two just go. Looks like we'll be adding three more gravestones to the Cactus Rocks tonight. KILL THEM!"

"Shrimp, Gin, take the grunts. I'll take Big Hair, Crown Boy, Muscles, and Wednesday."

"Yes, Zoro-sensei," Coby answered as Gin nodded. The boy hurried to the side of the building, hopping down onto some boxes and into a clear alleyway. His mind set on defending his crew, Coby readied himself to take on the foes that would come to him.

Unlike Coby, this was not Gin's first curb-stomp, the Man-Demon hopping onto the building's ledge with his tonfa stretched to either side and a crazed grin widening. His head tilted.

"Kehehe," Gin giggled, pupils dilating as he let go of his restraint. The Voice whispered to him, dark justifications solidifying in his mind. "Ye're threatenin' mah Nakama. Ya wanna turn us over ta tha World Government. That's bad, see? See, Don Luffy doesn't like killin', but Don Luffy ain't here. An' what Don Luffy don't know won't kill 'im. Spinnin' Death!"

With his laughter echoing through the air, the Man-Demon jumped from his ledge, tonfa swinging. He twisted, avoiding the shotgun spray a man fired at him by millimeters, simultaneously bringing the weighted ends of his weapons down on said man and a hook-nosed woman with a katana. An audible crack echoed, sizable dents in the agents' foreheads and streams of blood coming from their facial orifices. The crowd backed away as Gin stood from the fresh corpses, his arms hanging limp and his grin seeming to reflect the moonlight as he looked over his shoulder.

₸ᴎ℟ℯꜭꞆƾ؛ Ӄᴵ℄℄ ꞎꟸℰᵯٳ

"Yes," he said to himself, or to whatever the Voice inside him was. "It looks like y'all will need more'n three tombstones iffin ya wanna kill us!"

"'Man-Demon' Gin," one of the braver men growled; he must have been well-versed with the wanted posters. "Wanted for 12-million Beris, formerly a pirate under the command of 'Commodore' Don Krieg – arrested – and now serving under 'Straw Hat' Luffy. You will die here and now."

"I don' think so," Gin smirked, ignoring the guns and swords pointed at him. "Ya see, Ah just got ta tha Grand Line and Ah've no intention o' stoppin' on only tha first island… It's been so long since Ah could cut loose. Die fer me, would ya?"

Gin rushed forward, his weapons nothing but a blur in the moonlight. He twisted to the right, his left tonfa smashing into the ribs of a swordsman with a blade wider than his own form. It was far too heavy for the man to raise in time, so his ribs were smashed by the force of only one of Gin's tonfa.

Another man came in swinging the same type of mace Alvida favored, much to Gin's delight. He sidestepped the blunt weapon by only half-an-inch, spinning his body to bring both tonfa down on the spiked club's handle. The metal cracked and fractured under the stress, its owner only having time to whisper a prayer wanting his mother before his nose was crushed.

There was a reason Gin had been given the moniker of 'Man-Demon', as the agents were now learning the hard way.

A maniacal laugh tore from Gin's throat as he crushed a man's head between his tonfa, leaving the corpse to fall to the ground. The hoard around him lost their forward momentum, horrified by the display.

"Keheheh! AHAHAHA! Ya've threat'ned mah Nakama," Gin chuckled into the silence. "Ya wanna kill us er hand us over ta public execution. Ah can't allow that. We've got dreams ta fulfill, ya know." He lunged forward, tearing through his enemies.

Another insane laugh tore from his throat, matched by a laugh only Gin himself could hear.

"Alright, Coby, you've got this," the roset whispered to himself, lightly bouncing his swords in his grip as he searched for smaller groups of foes to fight. It sounded like Gin was having fun with the main crowd, but that was not something Coby wanted to touch with a 29-and-a-half-foot pole. Trying to ignore the screams, Coby eyed the shadows around him, squeezing the Alabasian leather of his swords' handles. The dark ahead shifted, giving Coby only a moment of warning before three grunts rushed him with swords. The teen settled into a low stance as they approached, his swords held parallel to the ground in front of him, one at chest height and the other at eye level.

"Two Sword Style," he muttered, suppressing his fear. "Streaming Wolf Swords."

He leaned out of the way as the first sword cut through the air where his face had been a second before. This was nothing new; Zoro had started using his real swords in training to help Coby adjust to his weapons' new weight, so he'd had several close calls and was no longer fazed into stillness. The next slash was aimed for his left arm, but the boy swept his appendage inward and twisted to stab that attacker in the arm. Coby gave no heed to the grunt's cry of pain as he avoided the third man's thrust by shifting his body. He twisted around, slamming the bottom of his right blade into the base of the man's neck. He went down, unconscious, but there was no time to celebrate.

The first attacker came back, aiming to cut the boy to ribbons with a yell. Using his shorter height, Coby ducked under his horizontal slash and swept the man's legs out from under him with a basic move Sanji had taught him. Wanting to incapacitate him for as long as possible, Coby kicked the grunt between the legs, causing the only other conscious opponent to whine in pity and cover his own family jewels.

Leaving that agent to squirm in agony, the pink-haired boy faced down his last foe of this match, said foe growling as a red stain grew around his shirt sleeve where Coby had stabbed him. The man charged with an overhead slash, but Coby was ready, catching the sword with a cross block and shocking the agent with his strength.

"You guys are nothing compared to Zoro-sensei," Coby smirked, pulling his blades apart and forcing the man's sword up and over his head. With speed developed through hours of training, the boy twisted his swords into a reverse grip and brought them up by his head. "Bull Needles!"

He lunged forward while the grunt was off balance, the ends of the blades plunging into the shoulders of the Baroque Works agent, severing the tendons and rendering his arms useless until given time to heal. To finish, Coby pulled his swords out of the man's joints and kicked him in the gut, causing the man to hit a wall behind him. The man slid to the ground, out cold and bleeding, but alive.

"Now where is Zoro-sensei?" Coby asked himself over the sounds of battle echoing through the streets. Unfamiliar with the terrain of the town, the boy decided to follow them. He ran through the streets, glancing through each side road to keep an eye out for any more enemies. As luck would have it, some enemies found him.

"Oi!" a voice yell from behind, Coby spinning around to face its origin. "We've got the kid! He's in this alley!"

Coby bolted toward the other end, but it was already blocked off by two more thugs. The roset planted his feet as they seemed to materialize out of the buildings on either side.

"Nowhere to run now, punk," the man blocking his entrance grinned, someone behind him. "Those are some pretty nice-looking blades. Got a name for them? You know, something to remember you by when I use them myself. I'm Mr. Collector."

"The Sabaku no Kiba (Desert's Fangs)," Coby answered, glancing back at the two other approaching agents.

"Oh, strong name," he grinned. "What do you say you give me those swords and we'll let you go?"

Coby tightened his grip on his weapons.

"You want my swords?" the pirate muttered as he fell into his ready stance. "You can pry them from my cold, dead hands."

"Whatever works," the man shrugged. He lunged as the pounding of footsteps reached Coby's ears from behind. He ducked under the first sword swipe from the front and kicked backwards into the gut of the man behind. That man stumbled into his friend, the two tripping over each other. Coby jumped, instincts ingrained into him from Zoro's training screaming. They saved his life, a pair of overly-sharp nails cutting through the air where his head had been.

The person connected to the weaponized nails was a woman whose only defining feature in the darkness of the alley – other than her nails – were the red triangle-shaped tattoos on her cheeks. She sneered at the boy and swiped with open-hand attacks, one of her attacks cutting four parallel lines into Coby's left forearm, her thumb just missing. Pain dulled through adrenaline reached his brain, but Coby had no time to pay it any mind.

Zoro's apprentice spun around, trying to imitate his teacher's Dragon Twister. The same power wasn't there, but the spin did force his attackers away. The girl with the nails used them to slow her momentum, digging gouges into the walls on either side, but she seemed to underestimate how deep they would go.

"Ha!" the woman yelled, wrenching her arm forward. Only her shoulder moved, all movement in the alleyway pausing as they registered her predicament.

"Ms. Inu," the sword collector blinked. "Do you-?"

"Go eat a dog treat, Collector!" the woman snapped.

Coby ran forward, unconcerned with the agents' bickering, and kicked the woman in the stomach, using her as a springboard. In the air, he kicked off of a wall and landed on another man's face, knocking him unconscious with the force of his head hitting the ground. Coby ran off, leaving the disoriented/unconscious quartet behind.

Zoro vanished from the roof after watching his companions hop to the ground, reappearing between his chosen opponents. The four jumped, each reaching for their own chosen weapons as Zoro grinned.

"This'll be a good test for my new swords," the pirate mentioned, unsheathing a sword and pointing it at Igarrapoi. "First up, Yubashiri. Bring it on."

"Igarrapa!" Mr. 8 shouted, bringing his instrument up to his lips. A horrid noise, like cats in a blender, erupted from the mouth of the saxophone along with a hail of bullets. Zoro jumped out of the way, the projectiles moving on to pepper some agents looking the other direction.

The swordsman ran forward, his sights set on the dangerous instrument, but a flash of bright blue and brown forced him to break off his attack. Mr. 9 was armed with a pair of metal baseball bats while Ms. Wednesday had several crystals on strings, each sharp enough to cut though to bone.

"Do you really think you can take on four number agents on your own?" Mr. 9 taunted. "Though we are not Officer Agents, we are still the best of Millions! We are the Frontier Agents!"

Ms. Monday did not care for such trivialities, punching the ground. The land below her shattered under the force, cracks widening and spitting up chunks of earth. Zoro growled, hopping away from the attack, inadvertently giving an opening to lesser mooks who held the hope of moving up through the ranks by killing the Pirate Hunter.

Zoro, deciding they would only be a nuisance until he got rid of them, raised his new sword. He spun, Yubashiri cutting through air and flesh as easily as paper.

"Light and well-balanced," Zoro commented, flicking blood off the blade. "I like it."

Yubashiri seemed to sing as he fought, cutting down several more adversaries and dodging the endless agents' attacks. The blade forced Ms. Monday to keep her distance while Mr. 9 and Ms. Wednesday went on a closer offensive, Mr. 8 providing long-range support. Ms. Monday chose to guard her partner, much to Zoro's chagrin considering she had the skill to catch his blades on her steel knuckles. Having enough of that, he pulled Kitetsu III from its sheath.

"Let's see what you can do."

"Igarrapa!" Mr. 8 yelled, another dissonant chord firing a hail of bullets toward the pirate. The spray chased him up a latter and onto the room of one of the town's many clay buildings. Waiting on the roof were several agents, each with a gleam in their eyes. The first, a man with a cannon on his shoulder, fired a cannonball. Zoro's eyes widened, Kitetsu III seeming to rise of its own volition to cut the projectile in two. The pirate slashed the agent across the chest with Yubashiri, cutting up the others with barely a thought. They'd live… probably.

"Swords should only cut when their masters tell them to," Zoro scolded his weapon, not fazed in the slightest that it had moved independently. "You may be sharp, but you'll listen to me now."

Light danced off the unmoving blade, whether in agreement or argument was anyone's guess. Zoro nodded, the issue apparently settled, only for a shadow that wasn't his own to catch Zoro's eye, causing him to duck.

Ms. Monday swung a ladder, the improvised weapon going over the pirate's crouched form. The ladder shattered on impact, shards and chunks raining down on the unconscious agents. Zoro turned to confront her, only for the woman to grab him by the neck.

Steel glinted in the moonlight as the agent raised her fist, bringing it down on Zoro's face. She moved with the force, slamming her foe into the rooftop. The combined force of Zoro's body and the punch cracked the structure, testing the limits of its integrity. She stood, Zoro left in the dent.

"Huh," she grunted. "I thought he was some important guy. I guess he was overhyped pirate trash."

Ms. Monday turned, a smirk on her lips, only to freeze as a hand grabbed her by the scalp. She screamed, scrambling to grab the wrist of the man who had turned the tables in her moment of overconfidence.

"You hit pretty hard," Zoro told her, his grip unrelenting no matter how much she struggled. He started squeezing. "That knocked me out for a moment there. Too bad; if it's a contest of strength, you lose."

He waited until the woman went limp in his grip before tossing her form aside, turning to the other Frontier Agents below. Blood trickled down his face from where Ms. Monday had punched him, the life-giving liquid only causing him to seem even more intimidating.

"This that the best you have to offer, Baroque Works?" Zoro asked. "Well, I shouldn't be surprised. That Mr. 7 I killed years ago was just as much a pushover as any of you."

"But…" one of the women gasped. "Ms. Monday… This is-! No way! This guy must be the real captain!"

"Igarrapa!" Mr. 8 shouted, his sax making that Goda-awful noise again, forcing Zoro to duck behind the building's railing.

"Get away from him!" Gin snarled, his bloodied tonfa on a collision course with the deadly sax. Hearing his yell, Mr. 8 cut his attack short and backpedaled, trying to stay out of the Man-Demon's range. Zoro smirked as Gin chased Mr. 8 into the distance.

"Come here, Carue!" Ms. Wednesday called with a whistle, giving away her position behind Zoro on the rooftop. The pirate spun as a large, yellow duck landed beside the agent. The fowl had an aviator helmet, a water bottle around its neck, and a saddle on its back. It lowered, wings spread threateningly.

"Wah!"

"Really?" Zoro questioned. "A duck?"

"You get distracted too easily!" Mr. 9 yelled, charging him from the side. "How will you defend against my Bloody Bats?!"

The swordsman smirked, Yubashiri rising to catch both bats without strain. He locked eyes with Mr. 9 as the man pushed against the blade fruitlessly. The verdet sheathed Kitetsu III, taunting the agent. With a roar of rage, Mr. 9 pulled back and charged again, only for Zoro to step out of the way. The Frontier Agent only had time for his eyes to widen before his momentum carried him into and over the building's railing, screaming.

"And that's another one down." Zoro grinned as a crash echoed from below.

"We're not done yet, Mr. Bushido!" Ms. Wednesday called from where she stood on her duck. She began swaying her body to and fro, the air becoming hazy with the stench of perfume as her zigzag-patterned blue shirt turned almost hypnotic.

Zoro covered his mouth and nose in an attempt to hold off the paralytic, but there was so much of it. The swordsman coughed, falling to one knee as his vision began to darken.

"This is the end, Mr. Bushido," Ms. Wednesday taunted, her duck approaching the incapacitated swordsman step by step.

"Dragon Twister!" a squeaky voice yelled, a small ripple of air pressure catching the agent and her mount by surprise, The air pressure wasn't nearly as much as Zoro could have produced, but the training Coby had received was more than enough to push both the agent and duck over the side of the building. Mr. 8, ragged but breathing and with one gun poking out from each curl, soon followed her down as Gin threw him from the second story above them.

"Finally," Zoro muttered, sheathing his blades and shaking off the weird perfume. "That was a good one, Shrimp. You're getting close to making a full twister. That's not a surprise since I'm the one teaching you."

"Thanks, Zoro-sensei," Coby panted. Gin, dropping next to them, stepped over Ms. Monday's unconscious form.

"Now we can get some peace and quiet," Zoro yawned, sitting on the edge of the building. Mr. 8 and Ms. Wednesday were moaning and groaning below, Mr. 9 silent beside them. "I thought that 9 guy would have come back, though."

"I caught him by surprise," Coby offered, taking a seat beside his teacher. "He wasn't too hard to beat by taking him from behind. Almost landed on me, though."

"That was a good workout," Gin commented, flicking the blood off of his tonfa and sitting on Zoro's other side.

"Kyahahaha!" they heard a woman laugh. The trio glanced down to see that the three agents they'd just defeated were being confronted by two more.

"Mr. 5," Mr. 9 wheezed, holding his head. "Ms. Valentine. Wonderful. With you here-"

"Kyahahaha," the woman cut him off. She was on the shorter side of five feet and had straight blond hair cut short covered in a yellow hat with an orange rim. She had a slim waist with assets accentuated by her lemon-themed dress, the outfit showing off her long legs. Pale skin flowed down her legs and arms, her hands covered in white gloves. Pale blue eyes shined with sadistic mirth as she twiddled with a yellow umbrella the same color as her lemon earrings. "What happened to you all?" she mock pouted. "Two pirates and a brat?"

"Did you come here to laugh at us?" Mr. 8 growled.

"Nope," the man, Mr. 5, grunted in a smooth voice. The agent had wild black hair in a short sort-of afro and a closed, brick-red overcoat that went well with his darkly-tanned skin. A box 5 sat on the left breast of his overcoat and a pair of sunglasses rested on his nose, hiding his eyes. "We're not here to help you at all. Laughing's just a bonus."

"Did you really think we'd come all the way to the beginning of the Grand Line just the help you clowns?" Ms. Valentine added.

"Th-Then why are you here?" Ms. Wednesday asked, a waiver in her tone.

"The boss sent us," Mr. 5 answered, a finger idly trailing into his nose. "Said someone had learned his secrets. Don't know what secrets. Don't want to know. Obviously, someone else did. We've come to tie up all the loose ends and eliminate all of the intruders from that kingdom."

"Now wait a second!" Mr. 9 jumped. "I'm not a king or anything. I just wear a crown because it's a hobby!"

"Not you, you moron," Mr. 5 growled as his partner laughed. "We're here for the princess of Alabasta, Vivi Nefertari."

"She's here‽" Mr. 9 yelled. Mr. 5 pointed, the crown-wearing agent's gaze following his finger until it landed on the blunette. Carue the duck made as close to a growling sound as ducks could, jumping in front of the apparent princess protectively. "…Ms. Wednesday?"

"No, that's…!" she tried to deny.

"You will not harm the princess!" Mr. 8 shouted as he shot to his feet, his thumbs laced through the bow around his neck. "Not as long as I, Igaram, the head of castle security, am still breathing! Igarrapapa!"

He pulled the knot, firing the guns still poking out of his hair. Only Ms. Valentine moved to dodge, jumping impossibly high and opening her umbrella. Her spot empty, the bullets raced for Mr. 5. When the projectiles connected with the male agent, however, he literally blew up. The explosive force was caught by his partner's umbrella, carrying her higher into the air. She deftly maneuvered herself, floating as if weightless until she was over Ms. Wednesday. She closed her parasol.

"10,000 Kilogram Press!" She dropped like a stone, Carue and the princess fleeing. Even so, they were still knocked over by the shockwave Ms. Valentine caused when she landed, a crater forming with her at the center. The princess pulled out her weapon, the weird pinky rings she called her Peacock Slashers, and tried to retaliate.

"Wha's goin' on out here?" a voice yawned, Luffy wandering out of a building while rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Woah! Where'd that crater come from?"

"Kyahaha!" Ms. Valentine laughed, hopping out of the indent and floating ten feet into the air. "You're pretty quick, Princess Vivi, but our orders are to eliminate you. Nothing personal."

While the princess did her best to avoid the weightless woman and Mr. 8 fought Mr. 5, who had not died from exploding like most would have, Zoro leaned over to Coby.

"Shrimp. Get down there and tell Luffy what we heard. I don't want him doing something stupid like thinking we attacked the townspeople for no reason. We'll let the captain decide what to do next."

"Yes, Zoro-sensei," the roset answered before hopping down. Zoro glanced at Gin, the Man-Demon staring at the blonde with the parasol.

"What's up, Gin?" Zoro smirked. "Window shopping?"

"...No," he muttered, refusing to look at the swordsman. Zoro's face didn't change, keeping its skepticism open. "I just have a thing for sadistic chicks, OK?" Gin relented.

"I'm not judging," Zoro shrugged.

"I'm not quite sure what's going on," Mr. 9 commented, jumping away from a crumbling wall that had been the latest victim of Mr. 5, "but we've been fighting together for a long time, Ms. Wednesday. I'm on your side! Bloody Bats!"

The agent backhandspringed toward the explosion-man. Mr. 5 responded by digging in his nose and pulling out two boogers, flicking both at his foes. One hit 'Igaram, the Captain of Alabasta Castle security' and the other hit the acrobatic batter. Smoke engulfed both as the boogers exploded with the force of two sticks of dynamite. Mr. 9 rocketed out of the smoke a scant second later, covered in soot and limp as a ragdoll.

Terrified, the princess hopped on her duck and took off. Mr. 8 swayed as the smoke cleared, falling in his back hard. He opened his eyes with a wince, looking up at Gin and Zoro on the edge of the roof. Apparently, he was made of sterner stuff than the younger agent had been.

"Please," he rasped. "Save the princess. Please. There could… could be a reward in it for you."

"We'll do it!" Nami shouted, running out of another building, the word 'reward' drawing her out of her looting like a moth to a flame.

"Nami wants it," Luffy declared, barely understanding Coby's well-worded explanation. "She's coming with us. Coby, get the others and take her to the ship. Zoro, Gin, and I will meet you there. We're leaving as soon as we kick these guys' asses."

"Aye, Captain Luffy," Coby saluted, rushing into the building where the party had happened. Outside, he vaguely heard Luffy yell "Zoro, Gin, take Afro Guy! Nami, go help get the ship ready to sail! I'll go after the girl and the other girl!"

Following his orders, Coby walked in to see that Sanji had squirmed off the couch and was holding Usopp's hand, still muttering about beautiful women. The boy dashed over, grabbing their shoulders and shaking them none-too-gently.

"Time to go," he told them. "Short version: town of bounty hunters, a hiding princess, we're taking her home and risking our necks. Get up."

Sanji woke and noodle danced at 'hiding princess'. Usopp woke and panicked at 'risking our necks'. All in all, not abnormal, though they were forced to flee out the backdoor as the front of the building exploded.

"Go ready the Merry!" Coby told them. "I'll go get the princess."

"But-" Sanji began.

"She's fighting a woman," Coby cut him off, taking the wind from his sails. Seeing the two on their way, the roset followed the sound of terrified quacking. He found Carue running away from Luffy and Ms. Valentine's fight; the agent trying to fall on the captain only for his rubber body to prevent her attacks from doing any damage.

"Get back here!" the smooth voice of Mr. 5 demanded.

"You won't touch her!" Ms. Monday cut in, her feet cracking the road as she landed between 5 and the princess. "Get out of here, Wednesday!"

"This way!" Coby called out to the blunette and duck. Vivi urged her mount on, running past the boy who managed to grab a hold of the saddle as she went by. Explosions continued in the distance, nearly covering the boy's voice. "Take a left up here!"

The Going Merry came into view after the turn, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji already on the deck scurrying about.

"Thank you," Vivi whispered, tears falling down her face as she imagined the faces of Mr. 9 and Ms. Monday. "Thank you for everything."

"Let's get the Hell out of here!" Nami yelled, Luffy, Gin, and Zoro jumping for the ship as the Merry raised anchor and fled into the night.

They never noticed the otter and vulture watching silently from the rooftops, the former sketching the pirates' faces into its notebook.