2/5

"Not your treasure! How could she!" The red-haired kid said sympathetically while piling a plate high with assorted sliced fruits.

"I know! I took it first - no one should just up and steal treasure from me!" Buggy agreed, hardly believing the audacity of the thief. It was always good to hear people agree with him, though.

"Treasure like your cool looking hat?" The red-haired kid asked curiously before chewing on a piece of sliced pineapple.

"Of course treasure like my cool-looking ha-WHAT!?" Buggy shouted, having now registered the fact that a random red (RED!) haired kid was sitting next to him eating fruit. "Where the hell did you come from!?"

"An island." The kid replied while barely pausing to swallow more food.

"Isn't this island supposed to be deserted?" Buggy demanded to the kid.

"Don't know. I only got here an hour ago. Are you a real pirate?" The kid asked in faux curiosity.

"Of course I'm a real pirate! Haven't you ever heard of Buggy the Immortal Clown?" He asked standing up to pose dramatically.

"No. Is that you then?" The kid asked and started eating the mango next. "I've never met anyone immortal before. Does it hurt?"

"Why would immortality hurt?" Buggy demanded.

"Because you'd never die no matter how bad something hurt you." The kid suggested causing Buggy to shudder in fear.

"Kids shouldn't think about such scary things. Who are you anyway, brat?"

"Medaka."

"Well, Medaka - it isn't smart to just stroll up to a pirate party on the beach - a brat like you ought to be scared and run away from pirates - not towards them." Buggy scolded, trying to sound menacing before curiosity overrode his plan. "What are you doing on a cursed island all by yourself anyway?"

"My crew isn't scared of any curse! I'm a pirate too, you know." Medaka argued.

"Really? You're a pirate?" Buggy asked, showing his complete disbelief in his tone and expression, "You and your little friends shouldn't be playing pirates so far from home or you'll run into real pirates who'd rather shoot you than talk to you. You're lucky I'm not interested in crushing brats for no reason. (Even if you do have red hair.)"

Medaka scowled at him and said, "I'm a real pirate apprentice, you know! I may be just an apprentice but my captain thinks I'll be a super pirate one day. I'm going to find seven treasures here first so don't look down on me, ya hear?"

This mention of treasure piqued Buggy's interest. He knew there was supposed to be a treasure on this island but didn't know anything specific, just in case it was too tempting for him to go after. Since he was already on the island though he might as well learn what it was and so faux innocently he asked, "Seven Treasures did you say?"

Medaka eyed Buggy with slight suspicion for a split second (before hiding a mischievous grin) and said, "Yeah, we stopped here to go treasure hunting today and I was told of seven treasures there are here to find. One each as red as a ruby, orange as amber, yellow as gold, green as jade, blue as sapphire and purple as alexandrite, and most important of all: a six colored treasure that is five times the worth of either ruby or jade alone."

Buggy looked towards the cursed jungle and made a pitiful sound of longing. (Being cursed would be worth something like that, right?) Medaka finally dropped her plate and stood to face the jungle, "It was interesting meeting you Mr. Buggy but I'm already way behind my captain and crew and need to catch up before they beat me to the treasures. It's finders keepers when it comes to treasure finding, isn't that right?"

"Hold up brat." Buggy ordered before she could leave and Medaka had to hide her grin as he turned to his skeleton crew (who were still cheerful and drunk themselves) and said, "Men. Hold guard over our ship. This little pirate brat has never gone looking for treasure and is treasure hunting for the first time in a cursed forest. Does this brat have a chance at succeeding? I don't think so. But I happen to be the best pirate at treasure hunting in this entire sea. So in exchange for a simple very low(*actually high*) finders fee, I'll be imparting my skills to the next generation. You all stay here."

"Aye aye, Captain Buggy!" His skeleton crew called back enthusiastically as Buggy walked into the jungle with the kid.

"You'll really help me learn how to look for treasure?" Medaka asked excitedly.

"Of course! I've done a lot of treasure hunting in my life so we'll get those seven treasures for sure. Just listen to what I have to tell you - got it, you brat?" Buggy ordered.

"Of course! I'll even let you keep the really good stuff when we're done looking if you want." Medaka offered and Buggy ignored the shot to his heart that asked why he was taking advantage of a kid's innocence by squashing it flat. It was better the kid learn about pirate betrayal from someone somewhat nice like him rather than some other scum of the seas. Even if the kid went crying to his captain he was sure he could take the other captain out to boot. Plus if the kid was a good student he could be inclined to take him on as his own pirate apprentice.

"Now the first lesson in searching for treasure is to look for unusual landmarks to get your bearings -" Buggy said as he began his lesson while Medaka paid close attention to what he said.

Dawn, while using her monkey lure, had very quickly come across a group of clownish pirates who were tromping around the jungle and being loud and destructive as they searched for a thief of some kind.

The largest and chubbiest one was wearing a blue jester style hat with white bells on the ends. Another skinnier, shirtless one wore a pointed, orange, and red striped hat, with a white ball on the top. The third average-sized one was wearing a panda hat and finally, the last one was wearing a dark blue bandana.

The four of them had come up with the brilliant plan of using actual treasure to bait a trap for the thief which Dawn saw were three very overflowing crates and plain-looking boxes. She dropped both her lures onto one of the crates and acted out being a pair of curious monkeys as she picked at and around the treasure.

"Are those green monkeys?" The pirate in panda hat asked as he watched the curious primates get attracted to the shiny things in the open treasure crate.

"They're kind of cute, right? Maybe if I catch one of them I could keep it as a pet before 'ol Mohji gets to it." The pirate with the striped orange and red hat said, looking at Dawn's monkey lure with adoration in his expression.

Dawn ignored him and used her first lure to pick up a gold coin and stuffed it into her mouth. It was pretty nice - about 95 percent gold, and 5 percent of silver in order to give it a bit of rigidity. The blue bandanna wearing pirate aggressively hit her away from the treasure chest though and shouted, "Hey! Don't let them touch any of the treasure! Captain Buggy will kill us if he finds out we lost any of his treasure - even if we are using it for bait right now."

Dawn scowled up at the pirate who hit her and purposefully approached the treasure chest again to poke at it while staring him down. When the pirate drew his two swords and pointed them at her (even with the striped orange and red hat-wearing pirate asking him not to hurt her) she decided to make his day go very badly while giving her beloved captain and crew a much more fun search.

Dawn, using both of her lures, reached into the treasure chest, grabbed a whole bunch of treasure, and scurried up and away into a tree in order to go drop the shiny objects somewhere in the forest for one of the treasure hunters to find. The bandanna pirate chased after her lures in hot pursuit with a shout of fury. Dawn was satisfied and using the two lures interchangeably with each other began to make arrangements for a much more entertaining afternoon.

Who knew that a deserted jungle island could attract so many pirates to it? Nami had always pegged all pirates in her mind to be on a spectrum of those just as ruthless, greedy and wicked at heart as Arlong himself or else just as stupid and muscle headed as Hatchi. She had never met or encountered any pirate who had proved her wrong in the eight years she had been stealing treasure and money from them. The 'nice' pirates were always the worst ones because they were always either faking it or else were a puppet to someone even worse.

This pirate Luffy, who was happily wandering aimlessly around while picking up anything that he spotted with a splash of a bright color like an idiot, was obviously the stupid muscle headed type.

The only reason she hadn't already ditched him by now was because he kept coming across loose gold coins and cut gems scattered in random areas of the jungle and kept handing them over to her without a single complaint or protest. When he passed her a thumb-sized gemstone that she was positive was an emerald cut diamond she finally became fed up and curious enough to break her silence and ask.

"Why are you giving me this? Don't you even know how much it's worth?" Nami demanded as she waved the gem under his nose, causing him to go cross-eyed as he looked at it.

"Less than this shell with six colors that I found," Luffy said as he proudly showed Nami an empty whelk shell that vividly blended from red at the lip all through the entire spectrum up to the spire, which was purple. Nami privately admitted to herself that the shell was indeed pretty but definitely wasn't worth more than such a nice diamond.

"This diamond has to be worth at least 5,000 beris minimum and the shell is worth 1,000 beris at the most. What game are you playing at here?" Nami demanded.

"Treasure Tag," Luffy answered as he reached up into a tree and picked a shiny red fruit that looked like a grapefruit-sized raspberry. "A good red one! Now I need something orange!"

Nami pressed a hand against her forehead and said, "Stealing that map is becoming less and less worth all this trouble..."

"Just another treasure map? That's boring." Luffy said before pulling off one of the round fruit protrusions and biting into it. He stuck his tongue out in disgust and as he puckered his lips and said, "Yuck - that's sour."

"It's a map to the Grand Line actually. I want to sail there, steal as much as I can from pirates there, and come back stupidly rich." Nami said, "I'll get in and out without any problems."

"Does that mean you know how to navigate?" Luffy asked, finally looking interested in what Nami was saying.

"Of course I know how to navigate! Don't look down on me because there aren't a lot of people who know more about navigation than I do." Nami said with confidence, "Especially since I love the sea."

"Wow, that's great!" Luffy said pumping a fist into the air in his excitement (his other held the shell and sour fruit and so was already occupied) "My crew and me want to go to the Grand Line!"

"Really!?" Nami asked, excitedly since she hadn't encountered very many pirate crews around the East Blue who were actually interested in leaving the East Blue.

"Yeah. Hey, you can come and join in as one of our crew. You can be our navigator! I'm sure you'll like everyone and love my ship!" Luffy offered.

"On a pirate crew? No way!" Nami refused instantly. "You are a pirate! Didn't I just tell you that I steal from pirates! I only like tangerines and money - especially gold."

Luffy scowled at her refusal and said, "No fair. Gold isn't worth that much anyway."

Nami rolled her eyes and said, "What a weird pirate you are. What could possibly be worth more than gold?"

Luffy stubbornly folded his arms and said, "Lots and lots of things. Dawn told me that since humans can't eat gold their desire for gold isn't really for the gold. It's for buying what it gives people: benefits and freedom. I see treasure everywhere even though most people just can't see it very well. Don't you treasure something even better than gold?"

Nami huffed and deciding to ignore Luffy's question said, "Being a pirate isn't a game you know. I hate pirates the most - they took the life of someone very dear to me."

Luffy looked like something (finally) clicked in his rubbery head and said, "Oh! You mean that kind of pirate. You're interesting. You aren't allowed to help me find something yellow!"

"Weren't you looking for something orange?" Nami asked.

"Nah! I'm good - I found it already." Luffy said with a shishishi and bounded further into the jungle with Nami still right behind feeling as though she had missed something.

Zoro felt that he was making great strides forward in his training but no matter how much stronger or how precise he was in his technique he still couldn't cut all the way through the real chain that had once been used to hold him down - steel.

'I've pushed myself so hard and for so long. I've been to the brink of death a hundred times so what is it that I'm lacking?' Zoro wondered to himself as he ran faster down the edge of the shore swinging his blades through the air as he went. How could he make cutting through steel as seamless as cutting through the air?

Zoro almost didn't notice the group of pirates who were partying on the beach but seeing as he nearly tripped over one who was fallen-down drunk he reoriented himself and wondered where he'd ended up. Hadn't Ann said the island was deserted? These guys must have just arrived.

"H-hey it's a new guy! Pull up a seat, join the party and grab a drink, pal!" One of the pirates urged as he handed Zoro a bottle filled with some alcohol that was probably sake of some kind based on the scent.

"Thanks." Zoro said as he took the free alcohol and within moments smoothly drank it down to the last drop before he looked around the revelry and asked, "What's the party for?"

"For the captain's triumphant capture of the thief and our future cabin boy!" The pirate cheered.

Zoro looked at the cheerful drunk and said, "A cabin boy? Our crew just got a cabin girl so maybe they'll meet up and play the treasure hunting game together."

Another pirate drunkenly laughed and said, "Oh yeah! The kid we found was brass as hell and just walked up to captain Buggy without a care and told him about the treasure in the jungle."

"Captain took the kid into the forest and is showing him the ropes." The first pirate agreed, "He was a good kid. He'll be a feisty lil' guy - redheads usually are ya know."

"A redhead?" Zoro said, "Was this 'little guy' named Medaka by any chance?"

"Medaka? Yeah, that was it." The second pirate agreed before he took another gulp of his drink and said, "Of course if the kid is an idiot and says anything about Captain's you-know-what instead of recruiting him Captain'll definitely murder the kid instead."

"Yeah."

"That's true."

"I'll drink to that truth." The pirates agreed with each other.

Upon realizing Zoro had vanished without them seeing where he had gone the pirate who had invited him to join in the festivities said, "Hey, I wonder where my new pal went? Maybe to get more drinks?"

Buggy was having a really great time all things considered! Not only was the jungle apparently not-as-deadly as he thought it would be but the kid was turning out to be a real quick study in the ways of treasure hunting.

The kid was also one of the luckiest brats Buggy had ever encountered in his life. The kid's idea of 'treasure' was sad really as he was climbing trees to collect colorful empty bird eggs, digging up fluorescent bright flowers, and was finding seashells in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Buggy had been thinking the kid was a lost cause but Medaka was also finding egg-shaped rubies sitting in the nests, gold coins amongst the flowers, and assorted cut gems among the shells.

Buggy would've already been moved to do something unspeakable due to jealous rage if the kid hadn't also just been handing him the shining real treasures without a care in the world. Buggy could already imagine using the kid to look for treasure in all the rumored treasure-filled areas around the sea and come up at the end of it all stupidly rich!

What Buggy hadn't expected was to run into four of his men who were dragging a bloodied and groaning Mohji with them while being chased by Richie.

"Down Richie!" Buggy ordered and swatted Richie across the nose, startling the lion into compliance before he turned to Mohji and growled, "Mohji! Don't tell me that little thief got the drop on you!"

"I'm so sorry Captain Buggy." Mohji groaned in a mixture of pain and embarrassment. "She must've actually led us to this island as a trap. I ran into two of her lackeys - a bird-woman and a green bush-man who attacked me when I went after them to find out where the thief was hiding."

"A thieves guild!? Of course! A mere thief couldn't have just stolen from me it must've been a whole group!" Buggy said in realization and gritted his teeth. "It's even worse than bounty hunters! Those thieves! I'll kill all of them! Mohji! Go back to the ship and fill all the cannons with Buggy Balls! At my signal, we're going to send this entire thief island stronghold straight to hell!"

Thinking quickly (and assuming that the 'bird woman' and 'green bush-man' meant Ann and Zoro) Medaka raised her hand and said, "Captain Buggy! Will you let me go and see the cannons? Our ship doesn't have one so I'd like to see how one is used."

"Of course, my boy!" Buggy said with a clownish laugh. "Mohji! You show this kid here the power of the Buggy Balls and keep an eye on him while I find where those damned thieves are hiding!"

Mohji scowled over at Medaka with unhidden contempt and protested, "But Captain- you know I'm not great with kids. Why are you with a little brat anyway? He could be a spy!"

Medaka purposefully ignored him and instead allowed her eyes to show excitement as she turned to look closer at the gigantic lion with a pale pink mane that was sitting calmly now next to Mohji and said, "Your lion is so cool, Captain Buggy! You just swatted him once and he listened to you! Can I feed him, please?"

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! Of course, young Medaka. Richie likes both fish and beef so give him some of this pike jerky my chef made." Buggy chortled and handed Medaka a handful of fish jerky. (It was great to see that the kid realized who the boss of his entire crew was - including the animals).

"But Captain Buggy! I'm the one who feeds Richie!" Mohji complained and scowled when Medaka reached her hand up to Richie's mouth to feed him the treat while she scratched at his ear at the same time with her second hand. Richie chuffed in absolute rapture over the attention he was receiving and liked up the treat he was offered in a split second.

"Well it's about time you learned how to share your responsibilities with someone who I'm sure will be a fantastic pirate apprentice for the crew. You make sure to teach him how to load my special cannons properly now - Medaka needs a few more lessons about being a pirate. Now get going you two - I have a den of thieves to find."

Medaka was thankful these pirates weren't very bright. She would do what she could to keep her crew from getting hurt by unexpected cannon bombardment. Medaka was lifted by the back of her neck and placed on the giant lion by Mohji who begrudgingly acknowledged his captain's order and said, "Of course, Captain Buggy! Come on brat we've got a cannon to prepare to fire and I've got a lesson or two to give to you."

The so-called island guardian was still diligently guarding Ann's every move. She scowled and twitched a bit when she heard the sound of distant shooting and unintelligible shouting going off in different directions.

"Shouldn't you be off scaring more people away from those rare animals of yours? I thought you were supposed to be the 'Island Guardian'." Ann suggested falsely calmly, feeling both frustrated and trapped.

There was a long pause before the island guardian began to run off cursing under his breath before he shouted back and said, "Don't move from that spot girl! I've got friends to protect!"

After the Island Guardian was gone for a full minute and Ann was certain he wasn't returning any time soon she cradled the duck-turtle, whose breathing was more labored than she thought ought to be healthy, closer to herself and began to recite a spell while gently petting its soft feathery head.

She removed one of Balloon's magically imbued feathers out from the shoulder of her pajamas but as it was an older feather it didn't have as much extra power and as a minor sideeffect her eyes softly glowed white while she used her magic and spoke her spell. "Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop, and let these wings be healed. Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop, and let these wings be healed. Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop, and let these wings be healed."

She repeated the spell three times to get as much power into it as possible since she was hoping that the little hybrid was bird enough for the broken wing spell to heal it. She was completely surprised however when something extra happened.

A white light shone around the duck-turtle, the spell working to try and fix what was broken. Once it was over though she immediately winced in embarrassment because apparently, the duck-turtle had just enough of its own magic that its magic reacted with hers and transformed its shell from just turtleish to a hybrid turtle-beetle type shell with a split down the middle that would protect its new fully functional set of bird wings like armor.

Ann hadn't done an accidental transfiguration in years. At least there was good news in that the duck-turtle was now fully healed and wouldn't be dying anytime soon from her injury.

"I know what you are!" A man's voice accused from just inside the clearing.

There was also the unfortunate bad news that she had a witness to her performing magic who wasn't one of her crewmates.

A somewhat tall man with darker green hair than Zoro's in an unusual half-shaved hairstyle was staring intently at Ann with an expression that made her break into a cold sweat. He took a step forward and the six men behind him followed suit. Ann's eyes darted around looking for a viable escape route - this guy was possibly a witch-hunter or something more horrible.

"You! You're a siren aren't you?" The guy said sounding sure of his assessment.

The comment lessened Ann's fight, flight, or freeze response just a tiny bit. A siren?

One of the men with the dark green-haired guy echoed her inner confusion as he said, "I thought siren was another word for a mermaid though? She doesn't look like a mermaid."

"You fool. Mermaids are in the sea but sirens are in the sky. My beautiful dove, it was fate that has brought our paths together. I am Cabaji, a simple and poor pirate but if I could have but a single kiss from you I would die the richest pirate of all." The pirate Cabaji talked as he walked closer and by the time he had finished speaking, he was only two feet in from of where Ann stood still, now frozen in mortification.

Cabaji reached his hand out, intending to take Ann's in order to pull her in to kiss it but his hand movement finally triggered the fight response in Ann. With a loud shriek to cover how red-hot she was blushing, she grabbed Cabaji's outstretched arm and, with the duck-turtle still tucked under her other arm, yanked him up and over her shoulder, throwing him into the trunk of a tree as she shouted, "Feather Sleep!"

As he slumped over in unconsciousness she turned and ran away into the jungle without a single glance behind. The six underlings didn't move for a moment as they waited for Cabaji to get up but he laid still as a statue until the silence was broken by his distinct snore. The takeaway from the event that the men with Cabaji arrived at?

"Sirens sure are scarier than mermaids, aren't they?"

"You've got that right."

"Shishishishi - look at this funny looking rabbit," Luffy said even as he picked up a long, fluffy white-furred snake with rabbit ears to show it off to Nami who herself was watching as a fox with a rooster's tail, comb, and waddle made an odd mixture of hiss and crowing noise at her while it seemed to glaring intimidatingly at her.

"Weird is right but it looks more like a weird snake than a weird rabbit to me," Nami replied. "And take a look at this fox with rooster feathers."

Luffy pointed at a large pig with the mane of a lion and with an excited laugh he said, "Look at that funny looking lion! What a cool island."

"Lion!? That's just some strange breed of pig isn't it?" Nami retorted. "There's something odd going on with this island and I'm starting to think that it isn't a curse."

"DO NOT COME ANY FURTHER!" A loud voice that seemed to surround them ordered thunderously. Luffy and Nami reacted in completely different ways.

Luffy simply looked up into the sky and said, "Huh? Are you a plant-like Dawn?"

Nami, on the other hand, spun on her heel in a slight panic and shouted, "Who said that? Where are you?"

"I...AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST! THE GOD OF THIS ISLAND!"

"The god of this island?" Luffy asked out loud sounding confused, still looking up into the many branches of the trees above him.

"THAT'S RIGHT! IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU'LL LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE! Oh, by the way - kid with the straw hat. Are you a pirate?"

"That's right," Luffy answered, still twisting his head back and forth while he tried to figure out where the voice was coming from.

"I knew you seemed like a pirate!" The voice of the forest guardian said, sounding less and less imposing the longer he talked.

"Why would an island guardian god even need to ask that? Aren't most gods supposed to be omnipotent?" Nami asked suspiciously.

"I don't like your tone, lass. Listen up. If either one of you takes one more step into my jungle you'll have to face my judgment."

Luffy scoffed at the voice's threat and said, "Like I care, why are you even asking all this? This guy is very weird."

"What did you say, straw-hatted boy?"

"I think there's something wrong with you." Luffy said bluntly and began to walk in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from, "I think I can see you over here."

Shouting once more the voice boomed, "I WARNED YOU NOT TO COME ANY CLOSER! NOW YOU MUST FACE THE JUDGEMENT OF THE ISLAND!"

Bang!

"Ahhhh!" Nami's voice screamed as the bullet hit Luffy in the forehead with enough force that he toppled over, head over heels, dropping his multicolored treasures over the ground as he did so.

He laid still for a split second before he sprang back onto his feet, completely unscathed and glared in the direction where the shot had come from. Feeling irritated he glared into the forest and yelled, "Hey you jerk! You made me drop my treasures!"

"Wh-what the hell are you?"

"I'm a rubber man. I ate a devil's fruit." Luffy said, demonstrating this fact in his usual way by sticking a finger into the corner of his mouth and stretching his face two feet to the side and letting it snap back into place.

"A devil's fruit? That's impossible! Back when I was a pirate, I'd only ever heard rumors about them."

"When you were a pirate?"

"N-no way, I'm not reminiscing about the past - you are." The guardian of the island accused.

"I don't care about talking about the past. You're the one who's talking about it. Oh, there you are." Luffy said and walked purposefully towards the odd-looking human-plant that he spotted.

Having realized Luffy was onto him and had indeed spotted him, the guardian of the island stood up and tried to run away. In his haste to do so though he accidentally knocked himself over his own two feet and tumbled down onto his back.

At this point, he snarled and said, "Shut up you! Help me up!"

"Don't get so angry," Luffy said as he walked over and helped him back onto his feet, thinking the island guardian was weird but funny.

"I'll forgive you today." The bush haired man in a box conceded.

"This is the first time I've seen a man who lives in a box. Are you a boxer?" Luffy asked.

The island guardian nodded solemnly and thinking of his backstory gravely replied, "Of course. Since I was a little boy I've been in traini-THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! I can't even get out of this box. I'm Gaiman. I've lived stuck in this box for 20 years. Look at how my hair and beard have grown. Even my eyebrows have joined. It's hard for me to tell the pirates from the poachers. Are you the captain of the blue-haired bird feathered lass who tried to help one of my friends?"

"Ann? Yeah, she's my lookout. She's good with birds. I've got five other crewmates: Dawn, the best ship in the world. Balloon, a really smart bird. Zoro, a swordsman who uses three swords. Medaka, our fun new pirate apprentice, and Nami, our new navigator. Hey… where is Nami anyway? She was just here." Luffy counted out on his fingers as he proudly revealed his crew one by one. A whole hand of Nakama now, how amazing was that!

"The ginger-haired lass you were here with? She ran off as soon as I shot you (not that shooting you worked anyway)."

"Ah! I should go after her then. I wish I had something to carry my treasures with in case I need to fight again." Luffy said as he turned, intending to go after her. (He couldn't win the game if she wasn't with him after all.)

He heard a rustling noise followed by a soft barely audible thump noise as a vine woven sack landed at his feet.

"Here," Gaimon said, turning his face away from Luffy in embarrassment. "Have it as a token of apology for shooting you in the face."