4/5

"Don't you dare interfere in their fight, baldy!" Luffy snarled and with a somewhat vicious grin kicked away Cabaji who scrambled to escape his vicious stomping.

Once he was out of range from Zoro and was positioned in front of his subordinates Luffy grinned and stretched his arms further and further back until it felt right. "Rubber Bazooka!"

Luffy's arms snapped back out and it swept Cabaji, the Fuwas and the rest of the mishmash of minions high - high - high into the air before they vanished, landing somewhere on a tier of the island far below them. Luffy let out a whoop of delight and punching a fist into the air shouting in triumph. "I got 'em all!"

An idea switched on in Zoro's mind and he grinned viciously at Buggy, ready to fight again - this time without interference.

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! Well, Roronoa - let's see if you have what it takes to cut me yet! I have all day and while I fight you my men will gladly storm the rest of this island to get rid of these pesky animals for me! Gahk!"

In the middle of his gloating Buggy was startled when he felt a blunt chain wrap itself around him, pinning his arms to his sides tightly. He didn't like the gleam in Zoro's steely gaze all too much. "Uh...Roronoa? This isn't a sword."

"Yes, it is, Bug. A chain is just a flexible blade. Dragon Twister: Chain Style!" Zoro grabbed his end of the chain and began to spin it around - fast - faster. Soon the only thing that could be seen was a blur and the wind seemed to pick up, twisting fantastically until finally with as much force as he could generate Zoro loosened the chain from around Buggy and with a scream of terror Buggy went flying off in the same direction Cobaji and the other fodder had been sent by Luffy.

There was the sudden sound of a loud explosion and an even louder scream of pain cried out - echoing across the entire island.

Luffy let out a whoop of excitement and shouted, "I didn't know you could blow people up by throwing them hard enough."

"I didn't either," Zoro said and eyed his swords and chains suspiciously before deciding to think on it at a later time. (The wounds Buggy had given him seemed to be slowing their bleeding, he noticed. It seemed his wrapping his chains back around his haramaki was making a handy compression bandage together.) "I don't think that was me that caused the explosion though. It sounded like it came from the beach - let's go and check out what's going on down there Captain."

"Right! Let's go make sure those stupids don't try to hurt any more of Gaimon's friends! Right, Gaimon?"

The man in the box, now nearly moved to tears over Luffy's willingness to help him and his friends, put on his game face and said, "Right! Let's get to it, Straw Hat!"

Mohji and Richie had made it back to the beach in good time with the four other pirates right behind them. Mohji next rousted the hungover skeleton crew on the beach into some semblance of a functioning gunner battalion and sent Medaka to the 'important' job of fetching and carrying the Buggy Balls to each of the cannons on the deck of the ship.

Mohji regretted giving the kid the job when as Medaka passed beside him while carrying a Buggy Ball it 'slipped' from her hands and it dropped right on top of his right foot.

At his yelp of pain, she immediately apologized. "Oh, I'm so sorry - it accidentally slipped out of my hands."

Reminding himself that Captain Buggy actually liked this little brat so he couldn't feed him to Richie just yet he hissed through gritted teeth. "It's fine. Just be more careful - if those are too heavy get someone to help you."

"I can do it - just watch!" Medaka insisted and ran to the stockpile of Buggy Balls to grab another one. As she ran back through and approached Mohji again she 'stumbled' and dropped the ball again, crushing Mohji's left foot this time.

"Aargh! Watch out you little brat! I'll feed you to Richie if you do that again!" He snarled at Medaka who 'wilted' under his glare and nodded her head before rushing off to get a new ball again.

Medaka grabbed the third ball and once again focused on the current pirate supervisor, Mohji. As soon as she passed him again she quite intentionally 'accidentally' crushed his foot with a third dropped ball again.

Screaming in outrage (and pain) once again he grabbed Medaka from the back of her shirt and lifted her to glare into her eyes as though she were a misbehaving pet. "What did I say!?"

"That you'll let me feed Richie if I did that again," Medaka repeated back, purposefully misremembering to irritate him further.

Mohji actually nodded along and with a menacing tone said, "THAT'S RIGHT YOU LITTLE BRAT! You'll feed Richie alright. Richie! Food!"

Mohji tossed Medaka down onto the deck at Richie's feet and when she spotted the rest of the crew conspicuously turning away from the soon to be gruesome scene didn't bother to hide herself rolling her eyes. The lion would be concerning if it didn't seem to be watching in curiosity instead of malicious intent. Medaka could see his whiskers twitch and he had been looking quite intently at her snack pouch since they had gone on deck and so enacted her somewhat haphazard plan.

Still flat on her back, she reached into her snack pouch and pulled out all the jerky she had on her and waved it under Richie's nose, immediately getting his attention. She quietly whispered, "I bet you're a hungry big guy. Here, you can have this if you promise not to hurt me."

Richie, who was a lion whose thoughts mostly lingered on food and mutiny (and sometimes both), gladly accepted her terms and even nuzzled her palm while he licked up the tasty treat she had provided willingly to him.

"Good boy, Richie. You're the smartest one on the crew besides the captain, aren't you?" Medaka cooed and laughed when Richie nuzzled her for more treats. "Okay, okay. I can't fool your nose can I? Here have my last ones. You're the king of the jungle, aren't you? Then don't let that bully Mohji boss you around so much."

Medaka got back up and walked over to the stack of Buggy Balls again. This time she marched in front of Mohji (who was surprised to see the kid was unmaimed) and looking him straight in the eyes she dropped the Buggy Ball straight on his foot. As Mohji yelped in pain again with a deadpan expression she asked, "Trying to kill me with your lion? How lame. Aren't you supposed to be giving me a lesson like Captain Buggy told you to?"

"Oh, I'll give a lesson to you, you little brat." Mohji snarled at Medaka as he grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her aggressively towards the back of the ship. "Want some advice? If you annoy a pirate you'll be punished."

He wrenched open the door to Captain Buggy's cabin and tossed her inside like a sack of flour before slamming the door shut and bolting it closed from the outside. He snarled "I'll let you out after Captain Buggy gets back so HE can deal with your nonsense, you little terror." He winced in pain as he walked away.

Medaka had been a little worried at first when Mohji spoke of punishment but once she looked around the cabin and found a window that could be opened she relaxed once more and began to explore the large cabin.

Buggy stuck to his circus aesthetic even in his personal quarters it seemed, as he apparently had even decorated his own room in the same style as the rest of his ship. There was a large combination vanity-desk with a very large mirror on one side of the room that was completely stacked with sponges, paintbrushes, and jars of paint in over a dozen colors and hues. He had a rigid hammock that was completely piled high with soft-looking blankets and a wooden trunk painted with a red and white triangular circus pattern that could double as a step to get in and out of the bed without getting entangled.

Next to the hammock there was a statue of a bear dressed up as a clown balancing on top of a ball that acted as a hat stand for several differently colored captain's hats with Buggy's jolly roger painted on each one. There was a very large cabinet on one side of the room that was gilded with gold and inlaid with shining gemstones of many colors with a golden lock sealing it shut. A comparatively plain-looking wooden wardrobe painted white that had carvings of elephants, bears, lions, and other animals mirrored the ornate cabinet on the other side of the room.

Medaka, seeing there was no lock on his wardrobe, began to fully explore it and was delighted to find a collection of quite a few silk scarves, handkerchiefs, and bandanas in over a dozen different colors. She helped herself in taking one bandana of each color she needed to win the game and folded them carefully before adding them into her quarter filled treasure collection pouch.

She contemplated going over to the fancy cabinet to fiddle with the lock but decided it would be best not to try to mess with it. Instead, she made her way over to the trunk underneath Buggy's hammock and lifted it a tiny bit to peek inside.

Medaka smiled widely and lifted the lid all the way open and watched as the sun shining in through the open window of the cabin caused the shining treasures in the chest to flare up like they were enchanted with fire. This had to be Buggy's stash of absolutely favorite treasure from his collection. There were flawless cut diamonds and other impressive loose gemstones, gold so pure she was sure she'd be able to pinch off bits of it by just using her fingers as if it were clay, fabulous and dazzling rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings of many styles and all of the highest possible value.

There was only one item that truly interested Medaka enough for her to actually pick up out of the chest though. A pure gold tiara that had seven arches in total attached to the band. The band and the arches of the tiara were encrusted in thousands of tiny crushed diamonds and on the top of each arch where seven star sapphires in every hue of the rainbow. It would be the perfect item for her to win the game with. She packed it into the very bottom of her treasure pouch, laying her shells, feathers, flowers, and silk bandanas on top of it and shut the treasure chest.

Feeling a tiny bit guilty she wrote a short note for Buggy using the paper and peacock quill on his vanity and stuck it on the inside of the door to his cabin for him to find when he came back. He may have been a little bit of an idiot who couldn't tell she was a girl, but he did take the time to give her a pretty good treasure hunting lesson.

(Her note read as such: To Captain Buggy, Thank you for the treasure hunting lesson you gave me. Mr. Mohji was a jerk and locked me alone in here so I decided to go back to my crew. I did borrow a tiara from you to win the game we were playing so if you want it back just ask if we see each other again and I'll return it. If you don't say anything I'll keep it as a memento to remember you by. Thanks again from Medaka. P.S. I'm a girl, not a boy.)

Medaka had figured she had been sealed in the cabin long enough and so now she would make her escape. She reached up into the hammock and pulled down all his blankets and began to quickly form a makeshift rope with them. Once she had about ten yards worth of knotted blanket she opened the window and fastened one end of the blanket securely to the hinge before climbing up to the window edge with the other end of the blanket rope in her hands. She would have one good shot at this if she wanted to sabotage the bombardment, otherwise, she'd end up in the water sooner than she wanted to be.

With her feet flat against the hull of the ship Medaka took off in a swift horizontal run up the side of the ship in a long arch. When she reached the top of the arch she let go of her end of the blanket rope and grasped the lowest edge of the rail with just her fingers before clambering the rest of the way up the side and heaving herself back up onto the deck of the ship.

Down on the main deck, Mohji was in the middle of finishing up preparations for the bombardment of the island. There were now carefully arranged stacks of round explosives ready and waiting next to each one of the five cannons that faced the island. On the other side of the cannons, there were boxes of flints, fuses, and barrels of black powder. As swiftly and nimbly as she could manage it Medaka ran to each cannon, ducking down to avoid the sight of Mohji, and stole all the fuses she could carry (while pulling free the prepped unlit fuses out of the cannons as she went along.)

She dumped the fuses she gathered over the edge of the ship and wasn't surprised when Mohji finally spotted her and with surprising speed rushed over to her and snatched her up by the collar of her shirt once again.

Mohji ground his teeth together and hissed, "I saw that you little menace. If you dare steal another one of those fuses and dump it in the sea I'll... I'll…"

"While you're still thinking up a threat to use should I be taking notes or is this lesson already over?" Medaka snarked and twisted around to remove herself from his grip, landing neatly back on the deck without a single stumble.

With a cheeky and definitely mocking salute, she jumped up to the top of the ship's railing and said, "Well this was fun. Good luck using those cannons without any fuses by the way! I hope your captain won't be angry with you when he makes the signal and you can't do your duty!"

She then swan dived off the edge of the rail and swam as fast as she could towards the beach, leaving Mohji up on the deck of the ship - absolutely fuming.

"This is why I hate kids! You! Get more fuses up from storage RIGHT NOW! I'm gonna blow that kid away before he can make it back to the forest!"

"But Mohji, there's a ship closing in on our position off the port side, shouldn't we defend against it?" One of his subordinates asked pointing out the rapidly approaching ship.

"Ignore it! I'm going for that brat! We'll deal with that crew when they get here. Now ready that cannon and FIRE!" Mohji ordered.

The crew scrambled quickly to fulfill his request and by the time Medaka had made it to shore and was running up the beach towards the trees everything was ready to go. Mohji gave a satisfied grin as he moved to fire the cannon.

There was a jolt of motion.

The Buggy Ball whooshed out and exploded on impact - and a blood-curdling scream of pain could be heard across nearly the entire island.

Nami and Ann's journey together to the edge of the island was interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion that seemed to shake the island from the ground up to the canopy of trees. Following the explosion, there was a loud scream and a cacophony of animal noises cried out from seemingly every part of the island.

"What was that!?" Ann shouted in alarm as the duck-turtle in her arms began to quack and hiss up a storm and she turned to face the direction the blast had originated from.

The answer didn't come from anyone but a loud voice Ann recognised as Dawn's was shouting from the direction of the beach in nearly as loud a tone as the explosion, "If you are a sailing with the ship under a flag with a big, stupid, red nose this is your one and only warning that if Medaka was so much as SCRATCHED from that explosion I will rip the keel from your ship myself and will FEAST UPON YOUR FLAG!"

"Medaka!?" Ann cried out in alarm before her eyes hardened in aggression, "If any one of those clownish morons even breathed aggressively on her I'll make them pay! Let's go Nami!"

Nami watched Ann speed up and rather than falling behind Nami was vaguely impressed with the other girl's ferocity and idly wondered if the bird-costume girl would actually mutiny against her own crew for hurting her friend. If that were the case it might be fun for once for Nami to sail with another person for a little while before she parted ways with her. Ann had seemed to be a genuinely nice person who had probably been swindled into joining up as a pirate from naivety.

Nami and Ann finally arrived at the beach and nearly bowled over a little girl with red hair, dressed as a pirate who was trying to sneak her way down the line of trees.

"Medaka! You're alright!" Ann shouted in relief and knelt down next to her to look her over. "What were you doing down here on the beach?"

"They were going to bombard the island to attack you all! I had to sabotage them so I tried to get rid of all their fuses." Medaka replied. "I made friends with their Captain's lion while I was on their ship and it knocked the cannon over when it was lit by Mr. Mohji - I'm alright though."

"Thank goodness you weren't hurt by them. I know you're a smart girl Medaka, but so help me, if you dare to approach an unknown bunch of pirates again without someone on the crew to back you up I'll...I'll...I'll ground you from playing and set you to scrubbing Dawn's decks for a week and even Luffy won't be able to stop me!" Ann scolded, her tone switching between concerned and scolding in a split second causing the girl Medaka to pout at her.

"Wait a minute. That isn't your pirate crew?" Nami asked feeling confused by the entire conversation.

"What? No! How could you even think that!" Ann denied before looking down at herself and slapping her hand to cover her blush. "Nevermind. No, I'm not one of those clown pirates - I'm a Straw Hat Pirate sailing under Captain Luffy."

"Straw Hat...Luffy...?" Nami echoed in a daze and cringed before in a genuinely regretful tone of voice said, "Oh! I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I watched him get shot in the forest before I ran into you."

"He was shot?" Ann asked and sighed in relief. "Oh, he'll be fine then."

"He was shot in the head." Nami deadpanned. "I watched him fall over."

"Yes, but don't you remember what I said earlier? My Captain's made of rubber." Ann explained again. "It might've knocked him over but he wouldn't be hurt by regular bullets because they just bounce right off him."

"You can't be serious," Nami replied, in complete disbelief.

Her disbelief in Ann's statement vanished upon the arrival of Luffy breaking out from the tree line with Zoro at his side and Gaimon and a stampede of the strangest animals she still had still ever seen at his heels.

Nami wondered if she actually had been killed in the forest and was now in the middle of a near-death hallucination. That had to be the explanation for such a strange situation - especially when a fluttering sparrow that seemed to be made up of woven vines and leaves fluttered over to them and began to speak. "There you are, Ann. You found Medaka, that's great! Are you hurt at all?"

"No. The Buggy Ball blew up in the air above the forest - I wasn't hurt at all. I did hear someone scream though so I think someone did get hurt by it."

Ann seemed to be counting as she pointed out each of her crewmates, "Let's see...there's Luffy...Zoro...Balloon's with Dawn...and Medaka. Well it does look like everyone on our crew is accounted for. It must've been someone from the other crew that got hurt or someone else - unless you had someone with you Nami."

"No, just me. Who got hit then?" Nami asked and let out a yelp when a singed and burnt clown stumbled his way out from the forest and coughed out a puff of smoke.

"Oh! That's Captain Buggy! He's the leader of the other pirate crew." Medaka said, recognizing him despite the damage he had. "How did he get hit with the bomb though when it exploded up in the sky?"

"I hate this island and everything on it." Buggy screeched up into the sky and turned to face his ship and crew. "What the hell are all of you still doing on the ship when there's a fight to be had here on the beach! Half of you get down here right now and the other half begin the bombardment of this island! I want nothing to be left unexploded here!"

"Ooh, he's very angry," Medaka said with a wince and Ann pushed her gently towards the direction of where Dawn (the ship) was settled in the water.

"You go and stay on Dawn's deck now, Medaka. I know you're a tough kid but you've already been lucky enough and it's my responsibility as your senior to keep you safe while teaching you how to survive at sea." Ann scolded.

"That sounds like something you made up," Medaka complained but complied with Dawn's lure tugging her in the direction where she was floating. "Don't lose Ann or else I'll never listen to your advice again."

Ann smiled and said, "Then it sounds like I have to win. BALLOON! Please come down and help me!"

Nami jumped back when a (huge!) black and white bird landed in the sand beside them and watched wearily as Ann showed it the duck-turtle she carried to let it examine the odd little bird. Balloon let out a chuffing warble and narrowed his eyes at Ann who grinned at him in return. "Sorry Balloon. I had to help her. She would've died otherwise if I didn't."

Balloon preened a few feathers on the little duck-turtle's head and now satisfied with his examination let out a 'gwark' and allowed Ann to smoothly climb on top of him and settle the duck-turtle between herself and his neck. She eyed the four clowns going for Zoro and Luffy and rushed over to help - Nami trailing behind her while wondering if it would be worth trying to make a break for it in the chaos of battle.

Zoro slumped against a tree once he and Luffy arrived down at the beach and with a grumble said, "My bad, Captain. I didn't finish him off. I didn't want to lose against someone like that."

"What are you talking about? You didn't lose at all." Luffy said. "You go ahead and rest. Even Medaka would be able to take care of these idiots so I'll take care of the cleanup down here."

Zoro snorted but complied with his captain's order, falling into a light snooze against a tree overlooking the beach battle. Captain's order or not, if he saw that he was needed during the fight he would be ready and waiting to go.

Gaimon, fed up completely with the mess Buggy and his crew was making on his island, was the one to lay down the continued challenge. "You! You're the boss of these men! Get yourself and your men off my island right now! I am the guardian of this island, Gaimon. I am here to fight for the sake of my treasure - which includes these animal friends of mine!"

Buggy, still singed, smoking, and irritated over being caught in the blast of his Buggy Ball, led out an angry growl and snarled, "Let's get this over with then! You call these animals your "treasure"? What a joke. Don't be stupid treasure is treasure and that's that."

"You could never understand how I feel!"

"Why should I bother to understand? I am the man who will get all the treasure of the ocean. All the treasure in the world is mine." Buggy bragged.

"And nobody but me can dare to own my treasure or define it for me." Gaimon retorted

"Well if you love this island and its stupid animals so much, then be prepared to die with them! I will crush you like an insect, you are like a mouse to me."

"I will never let you ruin my island, even if I die." Gaimon declared.

"Then I guess today's the day you die." Buggy quipped and began a brutal smackdown on Gaimon who refused to back away from protecting his animal friends.

Having finished off the Fuwa Acrobats and watching them run to their longboats to get back to their own ship Luffy, Ann and Balloon watched as Gaimon gave his all in his fight against Buggy.

"Why would he do that?" Nami asked as she watched alongside them, wincing when she saw how battered Gaimon was and he still wasn't giving in to Buggy's assault.

"That's what you need to do if you want to go up against a pirate," Luffy said with a grin on his face that was more determined than cheerful.

"To go against a pirate? Do you mean being prepared to just die pointlessly in a fight like it's nothing? Is that what going up against a pirate means to another pirate?" Nami demanded.

"No." Luffy said with a serious expression before his determined smile returned, "It means being prepared to risk your own life to fight for what you treasure most."

Nami huffed even though she could understand him felt intentionally stubborn and said, "Well if it's all the same to you I think I've had enough of all this. This is a fight between pirates now - and I'm not a pirate."

Ann looked like she was about to protest but Luffy smiled mischievously and said, "You'll need a boat if you want to leave, right? Go on and see if the landing craft on Dawn's deck is right for you before you do."

"Really? This isn't a trick?" Nami asked and remembered that this was a pirate who stopped at an island to play a GAME with his cabin girl. If it was a trick it would probably be harmless.

"Go ahead. You didn't officially meet Dawn anyway and I think you'd like to see her at least." Luffy said, and focused back on the fight between Buggy and Gaimon.

Nami was quick when she desired to be and before long she was scrambling up the side of Luffy's ship. He called it Dawn, right?

The landing craft didn't look very special in comparison to the lovely cedarwood and brass ship with green paint that she now stood on. It hardly looked like a pirate ship in fact. No cannon, no stolen loot, and no flag.

"What kind of pirate ship doesn't have a pirate flag anyway?" Nami asked as she looked up at the sails.

"That's a good point, Nami. I'll be sure to remind Luffy about it soon." A voice came up from the deck of the ship and Nami gaped in shock when she spotted the bow of the ship seem to twist in order for the figurehead to smile at her.

"No way! You're alive!?" Nami cried out and felt faint when she watched the figurehead of the ship follow its smile and cheery wink.

The green sparrow fluttered down and steadily hovered at eye level to her before both it and the same voice came from the ship. "I'd say so. I have Medaka up in the crow's nest right now so I'm keeping away from that other ship's cannons. You seem to like treasure so before you escape I wanted to let you know that those Fuwa Acrobats left Buggy's treasure out on the beach when they ran for their ship."

"And you don't care if I go after their treasure?" Nami asked.

"Luffy's not the type to hide what he means. The greatest treasure being fought for right now isn't in those boxes - it's the treasure Gaimon is fighting to protect. You seem smart - I know you understand what he means."

"Of course I do!" Nami snapped back before gritting her teeth. "I'll stay - but I'm still going to go after those boxes you mentioned. I'm not one to sit around while everyone else is distracted by fighting."

"Have fun looting and pillaging!" Dawn called down as Nami jumped back in the shallows and ran towards the beach again.

"I'm not a pirate!" Nami refuted back at the ship.

Back up on the deck of the Big Top, Mohji had finally managed to gather more fuses and looked at the shore to figure out who to focus his attack against. He spotted his captain fighting the rather stupid-looking green-haired man in the box who had shot him earlier and took precise aim.

Buggy heard Mohji's distinctive sounding whistle and leaped back away from Gaimon to watch what his second-in-command had in plan.

Ba-Boom!

A Buggy Ball exploded at Gaimon's feet, sending him flying high up into the air and Buggy let out a delighted cackle at the pained expression crossing over Gaimon's face.

"Gaimon!" Luffy shouted and reached into the air in order to grab the man and cushion his fall. The force of the Buggy Ball's explosion though was enough to send them back up over the trees and into the forest with a crash. Buggy scanned the beach and let out a snarl when he spotted (that THIEF) Nami bagging up items from his treasure that should've been safely secured on his ship.

"Oh no you don't, you miserable little thief!" Buggy growled and shouted, "Chop! Chop! Festival!"

Nami yelped and clutched onto her collected items while trying to fight away Buggy's separate body parts that had been split into tiny chunks and were flying all around them. He pummeled at her using his free-floating body parts at intense speeds.

"Nami, drop that loot and get out of here or else he'll keep coming after you," Ann shouted over at her.

Nami glared over to where Ann was now perched on top of Balloon and shouted, "No way! You want me to leave the treasure? I'd never do that! Why should I give up my treasure?"

"What do you mean 'my treasure'?" Buggy snarled.

Nami turned to him and shouted, "That's right! I am a master thief who steals from pirates! And I stole my map and my treasure!"

"No way! Those are mine!" Buggy shouted back.

Nami scoffed and said, "It isn't yours unless you get away with it! That's a basic fact about pirating!"

"A criminal lecturing criminal, what a joke. You need to be taught a few lessons yourself it seems." Buggy grumbled.

"What? I'd never stoop so low as to take lessons from you!" Nami shouted back.

"Then suffer the consequences, you thief!"

"Damnit, he's all over the place!" Ann shouted watching in concern as Buggy focused his relentless attack against Nami.