Chapter 5: A Carnival of Animals 1/4

A Good Ship

Xipholynx

Summary: Reincarnation doesn't always land you in the same type of body as your previous one. Luffy sets sail from his home in a living ship and goes on a journey to "to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures, and to become King of the Pirates." AU

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

"There is all the difference in the world between treasure and money." - Roderick Townley

The sun had only just peeked above the horizon when Dawn felt feet shuffling staggardly across the deck in the direction of the forecastle. It was the third morning in a row this had happened. It appeared to now be proven that the youngest member of the crew really was an early riser.

When Medaka went into the med bay instead of the galley, however, Dawn spoke up, startling the girl into jumping a little.

"Is something wrong, Medaka?"

Having been reminded of Dawn's omnipresence on the ship Medaka said, "I'm looking for something to take to make me feel better since I have a stomach ache again this morning. Do you have any spearmint leaves in here? My dad would always give me that if I felt sick like this."

"Hmm... no, I haven't ever eaten any mint before so I can't reproduce it. Come into the kitchen though and I should have something I can give you that might help," Dawn said while simultaneously opening the doors of the med bay and the galley.

Once she was in the galley Medaka looked around in curiosity and asked, "What are you going to give to me?"

"Look over here." There was some movement to one side of the galley next to the sink where a vine was beckoning over towards a shelf with three levels that had ceramic pots filled with soil and sprouting up with various plants.

"What are all these plants for?" Medaka asked as she wandered over and knelt next to the long, shallow pot on the lowest shelf that the vine was pointing towards.

"These? Oh, I'm starting to grow some herbs and spices so when we finally get a cook you all can have more flavors to choose from. Check on the lowest tray - the plant down there is ginger and there's a short knife in the knife rack that you can use to cut a bit of root out."

"Ginger?" Medaka asked as she fetched the mentioned knife and went to work, "What am I going to do with it?"

"I'll peel the root and I think it will make you feel better if you chew on it or I can heat some water for tea."

"I'll have it as a tea then. How do you know ginger will help?"

Medaka watched in fascination as a few vines grew down from the ceiling and grabbed a kettle and filled it with water from the sink before bringing it over to heat up on top of the hot stove range. The other vines took the bit of ginger root and knife from Medaka and quickly peeled and minced it up before dropping it into a ceramic mug.

As she worked Dawn said, "Some things about humans I've known my whole life but other things I will either remember randomly or else something will remind me of something I've forgotten. You mentioned your dad gave you spearmint when you were sick and that reminded me that ginger can help with motion sickness in humans."

The vine took the now steaming hot water and poured it into the mug on top of the minced ginger and cautioned, "Let it cool down and then drink up! Seems like Luffy is waking up now too."

From all the way across the ship, Medaka could hear Luffy's voice shout, "Dawnie! Let's play Treasure Tag today! It's fun and will be good pirate practice for Medaka!"

"You just want to play a game," Dawn accused, but not harshly, as her voice reached Luffy and Medaka at the same volume. "Why don't you start after everyone's eaten breakfast?"

As Luffy crashed around urging Zoro and Ann to wake up faster, a vine nudged the cup of warm water and minced ginger towards Medaka. She picked it up and sipped it only to pinch her eyes shut in a slight grimace. Warm water with a hint of ginger with a minced up pulpy pile of fresh ginger at the bottom of the cup. This ship was nice but didn't know a thing about how to make a good cup of tea.

Ten minutes later Luffy had pestered Ann into making a quick breakfast. Ann was still wearing her pajamas which (thanks to Balloon's black and white feathers which were sewn into them) made her look like she had some kind of bird body with a human head and limbs. The tailfeathers certainly didn't help the image. She thought it would be fine since it was only pajamas but she had severely underestimated the maturity of her crewmates. Zoro's loud laughter when he spotted her was the loudest that she had ever heard from him so far which just spurred Luffy into laughing the same way. With Balloon cawing up in the crow's nest in equal amusement at her predicament Ann blushed and she wondered if it would be worth it to get revenge on them for teasing her.

If only she could use the aggressive bravado she had learned to use during unsafe situations the same way as when she was genuinely getting along with people she liked. She had lived so defensively before meeting Luffy that it felt a little odd for her genuine personality to be coming out more and more often. With minor revenge in her mind, she decided to just make eggs and toast without any jerky or bacon in to attempt to rebuff Luffy but one miserable face was enough for her to crumble and add jerky to the breakfast menu after all.

This was necessary, she convinced herself as she added the jerky to the menu, in order to try to slightly curb Luffy's never-ending-never-satisfied appetite for meat. Now that she had opened up about being a magic-user she was much more comfortable about using magic openly and so with a spell had duplicated the two eggs that Mango-Tango and Very-Berry had laid that morning from two to a dozen. (Only the two original eggs contained gold, the duplicates were just colorful eggs.) Ann passed the two nuggets absently over towards Medaka, who added them to her pocket to add to the crew's treasure chest later.

Zoro had woken up that morning from Luffy jumping on him only to find Berry had been sleeping next to his head on his futon with no explanation on how she had escaped the bird coop and entered their cabin and was still brushing blue and purple fluffy feathers out from his hair. After having a laugh at Ann's choice in clothing he had settled down and was using a spoon to eat warm ginger mush out of a cup that Medaka had handed to him as he entered the galley. "Aren't these birds supposed to be magically drawn to you? Why does Berry always find me when I go to sleep?"

"Who knows? Very-Berry likes sleeping so maybe she sensed a kindred spirit in you." Ann said with a shrug as she added a shake of salt to the cooking scrambled eggs. "Birds do tend to like me fine thanks to my magic but they can like someone more than me just from their own personal preferences."

Luffy in the meantime had been twisted up into a curtain of vines that Dawn had sprouted between the top and bottom of the door frame of the galley that was effectively keeping him out of the way so he couldn't keep sneaking away pieces of jerky while Ann cooked.

Medaka crouched next to him and asked, "What's Treasure Tag?"

Luffy stopped in his struggle in the vine curtain and enthusiastically said, "It's super fun! A treasure hider has a list of things that the treasure hunters are after. The one who hides the treasure is allowed to set traps or fight if they want to get the treasure back if the treasure is found by the treasure hunters. The winner is either the treasure hunter who gets all the treasure first or the treasure hider wins if they hide the treasure to well or if they fight and gets the treasure back from the hunters."

"Fights?" Medaka said and knowing how hard she'd seen him hit in a fight said, "No thanks."

Luffy pouted in disappointment and said, "Don't be so boring! It's fun."

"He means 'tags' by the way," Dawn said, "His brothers always fought him when they played because Luffy kept trying to cheat and used to say he didn't feel it when they tagged him. He's rubber so hitting him doesn't hurt him(unless it's his grampa)."

"That's because I can bounce," Luffy said with a grin and shameless shishishi.

"The food's ready," Ann called as she handed Medaka and Luffy each a plate piled with food. Luffy's had more jerky and Medaka's had more toast. Medaka ate her jerky first so Luffy wouldn't have a chance to steal it away from her.

Upon learning about Medaka's seasickness from earlier Ann prepared her a proper cup of ginger tea (including adding a teaspoon of sugar to it with a secretive wink to Medaka) and admonished her to let her know if she was feeling unwell since they were sharing a room.

Once everyone had eaten and Luffy was completely untangled from the vines he stood up and said, "Dawn give us the list for today's Treasure Tag."

A sheet of paper fluttered down from the ceiling in front of the human crew, which Luffy eagerly snatched up before it could land on the floor. He squinted at the paper and slowly read out loud, "Six treasures in six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple."

"Yep, this is a new version of Treasure Tag now that we're sailing," Dawn piped up, "Instead of hiding away stuff I already have onboard you and everyone else are going to find new treasures at the next island we stop at. I'll give you points for each category: one point for minerals, two points for plants, and three points for animal byproducts (that means: shells, feathers, shed skins, and things like that, Luffy). Plus if you find one thing that has all six colors you get five bonus points no matter what it is. You can have multiples of a single color but the first one to collect something of each color and brings it to me finishes the match."

Ann laughed and said, "Then by your rules rubies and emeralds would be worth fewer points than flowers or feathers, right?"

"Aren't we supposed to be going to the Grand Line instead of stopping all day on an island?" Zoro interjected dryly. He didn't really mind stopping for a little bit since he wanted to test out his swords against cutting through steel. During his practice the night before he had finally gotten up to at least being able to shave the steel but still couldn't cut all the way through yet.

Dawn said, "Well Ann, This is just to teach Medaka the important pirate skill of knowing how to spot and collect treasures that aren't only shiny things. (Though shiny things can be nice to have around since they can taste good). We'll get to the Grand Line before you know it, right Luffy?"

"Right! Help us find the nearest island, Ann!" Luffy urged insistently, "The faster we get there the faster we can start our Treasure Hunt!"

"Are we allowed to take any treasure that someone else already found?" Medaka asked, "Like if Luffy finds a six colored clamshell and I want to take it from him."

"You better not take my shell," Luffy argued back immaturely, "or else I'll take your six colored flower."

"I don't have a six colored flower though," Medaka retorted.

"And I don't have a six colored shell yet but that doesn't mean I'll just let you take it! It's still Treasure Tag so if I catch anyone taking my treasure and tag you then you have to give it back, so there." Luffy argued, punctuating his statement by sticking his tongue out (by a foot causing him to look like he was mimicking a frog) at Medaka with a 'nyeh'.

"Fine, fine," Ann agreed and said seeing as her Captain was now in the middle of an argument with their youngest member, "Please go on and grow one of those lures and I'll take it up with me."

"Don't cheat and land on the island before we get there," Luffy demanded as a lizard lure was handed to Ann by a vine as she exited the galley to head up to the crow's nest and take Balloon up to find the nearest island.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Ann said with a teasing grin as she and Balloon took off.

Medaka rushed out to the deck and watched with fascination as Ann and Balloon flew off up into the sky. Within moments they were so high in the sky they were just seemingly a dot and Medaka said, "It looks so much fun to fly."

"Yep. But only if Balloon isn't carrying you with his beak," Luffy said with a knowing nod while Medaka began to look contemplative.

Ann kept an eye out in all directions looking for any sign of an island as she and Balloon flew around for about twenty minutes before she spotted something out on the horizon. She urged Balloon forward and double-checked to make sure it was a proper island and not a knoll or just a small spit of land and whooped in delight when she got a good look at it.

Ann shielded her eyes and peered down in the direction of the island. It was a surprisingly tall island and seemed to be tiered like a large multi-layered cake with different levels all covered in jungle except for the very top plateau which was bare stone. There was a very thin beach reaching almost all the way around the island that only reached as far as ten feet into shore before it turned into tropical plants and more cliffs. It looked like she had found the perfect island for their day of fun.

"Dawn, let everyone know I found an island. It doesn't look inhabited but we should still be able to play Luffy's game there. I'll be back in ten minutes or so and it'll only take about an hour for you to get there by sea."

"We'll see you when you return," Dawn said through the lure, "Luffy says we'll start heading in your direction though."

As she and Balloon veered away she missed it when a brightly colored ship with a flashy purple hull sailed in from the opposite direction from where she left. It dropped anchor at the island next to a smaller ship that Ann hadn't seen from up above only a few minutes later.

It actually took a little longer than an hour for the straw hats to arrive at the island and then disembark because Ann was insistent that Medaka couldn't go running around an unknown island barefooted and still in her pajamas. Medaka agreed on the condition that Ann would have to wear what Medaka picked for her in exchange. Ann regretted her promise when Medaka asked that Ann stay in her pajamas for the rest of the day.

Ann, figuring their stay on the island would last a few hours minimum, packed up trail snacks including jerky (extra for Luffy), dried fruit, and crackers for everyone to have a snack in case they couldn't find any ripe fruit while exploring around the island.

Once they were all gathered onshore, with Medaka wearing a loose-fitting orange and white striped shirt with brown pants along with a red bandana tied around her neck, a pair of sturdy deck shoes, and a leather belt with her snack pouch tied on one side and an empty pouch meant for her to hold onto any collected treasure attached on the other. Ann helped pull her hair into a low hanging short ponytail and then asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"In a bit. LUFFY!" Medaka shouted as she ran up to him.

Luffy smiled at her as she approached and said, "Medaka! You ready for Treasure Tag?"

"I want to challenge you!" Medaka declared as she stood straight and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes, "As an extra challenge we'll race each other to find seven treasures, one of each color AND one with all six colors to win. Whoever one of us gets all the treasures first gets to have a ride on Balloon with Ann next time she goes up!"

"Awesome! I've wanted to go flying again for a long time! It's a deal - I can't get help from anyone on the crew and neither can you though." Luffy said, adding on his own rule.

"Fine. It's a deal." Medaka said as she and Luffy shook on it.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ann asked but when the two kids turned their puppy dog eyes on her she relented and said, "Fine. I'll join the challenge too but if I win then you both will have to wear one of these feather outfits the next time we land on an island instead of me."

Dawn chuckled and said, "Well I can't make three lures to see who gets their treasures first so the first one to come back to me with all their collected treasures will be the winner. I'll find something to do while you all have your contest."

Two green lures grew out of the hull of the ship - identical-looking capuchin-like monkeys with green leaf fur, purple faces, and golden eyes. Each lure waived at the group and went into the forest to begin to forage for interesting materials for her to bring back.

Dawn's figurehead grinned at the crew and she said, "Alright. Game players get ready! The game is set to begin in three...two...one...GO!"

Luffy immediately took a long bouncy leap straight into the forest (landing up on the second layer of the island 'cake' in an instant before taking another giant leap) whooping in excitement with Ann following him in shortly after with Balloon right at her side.

Medaka, on the other hand, ran down the shore straight to Zoro and asked, "Will you help me beat Luffy?"

"You're the one who issued the challenge to him so I refuse. I'm going to go and train for a while," Zoro replied as he began to walk up the shoreline to find a place to finally get a breakthrough in cutting steel. How could he be the greatest swordsman in the world if he couldn't even do that?

"Hey, that's not fair!" Medaka complained to Zoro who snorted and walked further up the shore.

"You should seek victory in your challenges, not fairness."

"Fine then! You'll see it! I'll find a way to win even without you!" Medaka hollered back before she left in the opposite direction of Zoro. It had been a long shot to ask Zoro but she really wanted to win. She would need a good plan and a lot of luck to win the Treasure Tag game but she knew she could do it! If she won it would certainly prove her worth to the crew and show them they hadn't made a mistake by bringing her along with them!

Nami had really bitten off more than she could handle during this last quick job she had pulled. Why did she ever think that the captain of the three pirate clowns she had swindled would be equally as useless as his subordinates? She cursed to herself in frustration as she nearly tripped over a tree root. It was amateurish of her to have assumed so and had been as if she assumed Arlong was the same as Hatchi was just because they were on the same crew.

She had managed to escape from Orange Town, barely getting away from the goons Buggy the Immortal Clown had sent after her. Once she was on the open sea it should've been as easy as ever for her to shake off her pursuers but it seemed that Buggy was a special case since he immediately had come after her and wouldn't be shaken from her trail. Even after four days, he hadn't stopped his pursuit of her.

If he was after her like this just for stealing one little map she should've just helped herself to some of his treasure when she had the chance as well!

Now she was running around a (supposedly) cursed jungle island trying to escape from even more of the clown pirates who had been sent after her. Nami wasn't very superstitious so hiding out on an island surrounded with horrifying rumors had seemed like a good idea at dawn but now...

Nami flinched when she heard one of the pursuing pirates slice through a tree and ducked behind a further one. What was with this guy? He had looked pretty dumb for riding a unicycle into the jungle but if you could cut through trees like a hot knife into butter who cared how dumb you seemed to other people? The six men he had with him cheered him on like he was a celebrity.

"She's up ahead!" One of the goons called out, spotting a flash of her orange hair, and Nami veered to the right with only sheer luck allowing her to avoid the swing of a blade as it bisected another tree.

Unluckily for her a split second later she was circled by the ragged group of pirates in an arc with a tree preventing a quick escape.

The unicycle riding pirate pointed his sword at her and as he sneered down at her said, "I've got you now, you thief! No one steals from the Buggy Pirates and gets away with it!"

So this was it. Nami was going to die alone and forgotten on a cursed island from getting herself killed by pirates. Her only regret was that she hadn't yet freed her village from Arlong. Just before the dumb-looking unicycle acrobatic swordsman pirate could slice her into pieces though both he and Nami heard something that made them and his accompaniment of men freeze in motion.

"Heeeerreee IIIII gooOOO!" Thanks to the doppler effect everyone heard the interloper before they saw him.

With a surprisingly heavy sounding crash through the tree branches above, a straw hat-wearing guy fell out from the sky and landed in the middle of the clearing right between Nami and the pirates.

There was a single moment of silence before the unicycle acrobatic swordsman pirate demanded, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here!?"

An opening to escape! Finally! Nami put on her best acting skills and exclaimed, "Boss! You really came to save me! Thanks so much!"

The new guy had just enough time to say "Eh?" before Nami fled into the jungle and the unicycle pirate turned his attention over to the interloper.

"So you're the boss of that thief! You'll pay for what she did! Breath of Death!" While he was still blinking in confusion Luffy took a fire blast to the face but proved to be unscathed when he retaliated by kicking the unicycle out from under his attacker.

His face was slightly singed and he caught a whiff of his hat smelling slightly smokey and with a scowl said, "Hey! Don't you dare ruin my hat - you baldy!"

"Baldy!? How dare you insult me! I'm Cabaji, the Chief of Staff of the Buggy Pirates! I'll slice you into pieces!" Cabaji threatened and swung his sword down, "You've got a real attitude problem!"

Luffy easily ducked his blade and sassed back, "Well you've got a real hair problem, baldy! Leave my hat alone!"

"I'll kill you, you stupid straw-hat thief! You don't know when to quit, do you?" Cabaji said as he charged towards Luffy.

Luffy didn't falter a single moment and he retorted, "Neither did whoever cut your hair."

Nami didn't see the details of what happened next but she did see the end result when Cabaji and the six pirate goons with him were sent flying down to a lower level of the island thanks to her coincidental scapegoat turned savior. Nami could hardly believe her good fortune!

Nami came out from behind the trees where she had been hiding and said, "Wow, you're really something else, aren't you? I'm Nami, a thief who steals from pirates. Want to team up with me to escape this island?"

"No," the tough guy replied, "I'm busy but you can look for treasure with me if you want."

"Really?" Nami asked excitedly, "I want you to split it 80/20 since finding treasure's my specialty. I want to make 100,000,000 beri so I can buy a village so I need a bigger cut. What's your name anyway?"

"I'm Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates! Now let's go! I've got treasure to find!" Luffy said as he pointed into the jungle. Nami pushed her hands into her face and stifled a scream. Not another pirate! Today was just not her lucky day.

It sure was Ann's lucky day! She had only been going through the jungle for a little less than fifteen minutes and she had already attracted a blue lorikeet, a yellow lorikeet and a pair of green-winged lorikeets. The only issue she was currently having was transportation. The yellow lorikeet was perched on her head, the blue one was on her shoulder and the two green ones were sharing an arm as a perch but she was almost out of room on herself for birds to perch on.

Balloon had already refused to allow the interlopers to touch him and he was currently snubbing her by settling down against a large tree and refusing to budge for thinking of the random ordinary birds as potential 'treasures'.

"I really don't appreciate your attitude today, Balloon," Ann said to Balloon to which he snapped his beak at her in irritation in return and ruffled his feathers at her.

"If you aren't going to be helpful you might as well as go back to Dawn and keep her company. You're being awfully broody." Balloon squawked at her in a huff and turned off in order to fly off in the direction where Dawn was anchored while Ann forged onwards. A few hours or so outside the company of each other wouldn't do any harm and Ann knew if either she or Balloon were truly in trouble each of them would come to the other's side as soon as possible.

It was an adjustment to know the same was starting to bleed over to the rest of the crew. Balloon would always be her dearest treasure but she had very quickly become fond of Luffy, Zoro, and Medaka. Ann sighed and decided Balloon was right (again) and so loosened the willful projection of her magic that was keeping all the ordinary birds extra attached to her. Using magic to give herself an edge against Luffy and Medaka wouldn't be playing their game fairly.

When the loud roar of some kind of big cat suddenly bellowed from somewhere nearby all the birds using her as a perch immediately took off in flight to hide up in the tree canopies.

Ann cautiously began to look for a place to take cover herself when there was a rustling in the jungle underbrush and an unusual looking creature suddenly darted out in front of her. The creature had the head, neck, and tail of a duck but the body, shell, and legs of an aquatic turtle. It's neck, tail and head had iridescent black-green feathers while it's shell was solid dark forest green with a vivid yellow pattern like paint splatters on top.

Even though it was moving quickly Ann could see that it was severely injured with a large crack across the top of its shell that was seeping blood and a mangled back leg that was hanging limp - either it was too painful to move or it was possibly paralyzed since it looked like it had been crushed. Ann immediately went over to help it even as it hissed threateningly at her as she approached it.

"You poor little darling - what could've done this to you? Here, let me help you." Ann avoided getting bitten by its snapping beak and winced sympathetically when she felt a parallel crack on the duck-turtle's yellow underside shell. 'Would a wing healing spell work to fix this duck hybrid's shell and injuries?' She wondered silently to herself, but before she could try there was a loud thump followed by an even louder roar as a huge lion entered the clearing.

"There it is Richie! And the thief who stole Captain Buggy's map is there too." A very oddly dressed man who was riding on the back of the lion and was now looking at Ann in confusion. "Huh? Why did the thief put on a bird costume?"

"Mohji that's not the thief - the thief had orange hair." Along with the lion and its rider (Mohji?) about four other clownishly dressed men followed after them into the clearing as well.

"That girl's hair is orange." Mohji the lion rider insisted.

"What are you, colorblind? My hair is blue." Ann argued back feeling frazzled and frustrated over this bizarre confrontation. Hadn't this island been deserted when she surveyed it only about two hours ago?

"He is colorblind." One of the men in the posse admitted. "He can't tell the difference between orange and blue."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. You heard me bird-girl. Hand over the turtle! Richie is still hungry and was getting a snack for more energy to hunt down the thief." Mohji demanded while Richie growled in agreement and licked his chops.

"No way you jerk," Ann said fiercely, holding the semi-aquatic bird-turtle closer to herself protectively. "Feed your pet a proper diet and don't you dare try to hurt such a special bird."

Mohji laughed at her reaction and said, "Who do you think you are, the Guardian of the Island? I'll have you know I love rare animals and making myself their master. As soon as we take out that thief I'll gather all the rare animals I've been seeing and anything I don't care much for (like that turtle) gets to be a snack for Richie instead."

Before Ann could respond to the statement a terrible booming voice, even louder than Richie's roar called out, "GET OUT OR BE CURSED FOREVER!"

"Huh?" "What was that?" "Who's there!?" The clownish gathering all panicked slightly, talking over each other in their alarm.

"I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE ISLAND!" The voice boomed again. "IF YOU WISH TO LIVE YOU WILL LEAVE THIS ISLAND AT ONCE!"

"Don't pay attention to that voice men - this bird-girl is obviously throwing and disguising her voice in order to trick us all! We shouldn't fear a simple voice trick!" Mohji said, full of bravado and completely sure of himself.

"A NONBELIEVER? THEN TAKE MY HEAVENLY JUDGEMENT!" The voice called out and with a sharp crack, Mohji flinched away saving himself from a fatal shot but fell gracelessly from where he had been perched upon Richie and groaned in pain as he pressed his hand down to cover his now bleeding shoulder. The smell of fresh blood, even if it was that of his master, caused Richie's nose to twitch.

"It's the Heavenly Judgement!" One of the men cried out and ducked down to cover his head with his arms like a child. "Spare me, Guardian of the Island!"

Another had been looking in the direction the crack had come from and with a shaking hand pointed his finger and stuttered out, "T-the Guardian of t-the Island t-took the form of a-a-a giant land marimo ball! Run before it catches us!"

Two of the four clownish men had enough sense to grab their leader and they all fled in fear of the Guardian with Richie the lion stalking right behind him, drawn by wounded prey and forgetting for the moment that he was hunting after his master.

Ann cautiously watched the 'marimo', still holding the duck-turtle and after nearly a minute of silence said, "You aren't one of my crewmates but thank you for the help."

The booming voice, many decibels quieter now but still loud nevertheless, let out a bizarre laugh and said, "You tried to help one of my friends so I just returned the favor, girl! What are you and your crew doing on my island?"

"Playing Treasure Tag with my captain and our cabin girl." Ann said and jumped back when she heard the revolver crack, just barely avoiding the bullet shot at her.

"I've been guarding that treasure for 20 years girl so that treasure is rightfully mine!"

"We don't want YOUR treasure, you moronic moss ball! We're playing a game to collect things." Ann shouted in frustration, "We're just looking for plants, rocks, and shells and such to show our pirate apprentice how to look for treasure."

The bush began to audibly sniffle and in an even quieter voice, he said, "What a good pirate crew you youngins are! Taking the time to show the next generation the skills needed to make it as a pirate. I'm so proud of you all! I'll let you go if you give my duck-turtle friend back."

Ann looked down at the duck-turtle, who was now dozing off in her arms and said, "I need to go back to my ship first in order to patch her up. I think she was bitten by that lion."

"She sure was. The rest of her flock got away in time but that one was snatched up. Once a duck-turtle's shell is cracked though it's too late to save them. That poor one there will die before the day is through without a doubt. I just want to make her comfortable before she passes and I don't want you to steal or cook her once she's passed away. You aren't moving an inch, or my name isn't Gaimon the Guardian of the Island." The small bush haired man (was he in a planter? a box?) pointed his revolver at her, leaving the two at an impasse.

Buggy the Immortal Clown was a simple pirate with very simple pirate desires. He loved treasure the most, including but not limited to shiny things, sparkling things, and valuable things. He also secretly treasured a good drink, wild parties, and a loyal crew but that was honestly secondary to material treasures to him due to his unending greed over shiny things.

He was also a coward to the core and so he was currently torn by his circumstances.

The vile thief who had stolen his map to Paradise had run away to one of only two places he had always purposefully avoided traveling to - the Cursed Treasure Island. (The other place was the Conomi Islands since he liked his devil fruit powered self undrowned by Fishman pirates, thank you very much.)

He couldn't just let the thief get away with stealing from him though. He had his pride as a pirate captain after all! Just because he had heard rumors for years about people dying as soon as they stepped foot in the jungle of the Cursed Treasure Island didn't mean he could shy away from making landfall with his men at least.

He did (instead of risking the curse himself) decide to send some of his men into the jungle under the leadership of both Mohji and Cabaji with enough men kept behind to sail as a skeleton crew just in case the rumors of curses and death were true. Getting replacements of Mohji and Cabaji's caliber here in the East Blue would be a chore but at least if they were cursed or killed they wouldn't be forced to mourn for their dear captain and die within five minutes of Richie the lion taking over as the next captain (seeing as neither Mohji nor Cabaji would be skilled enough to be captain following his demise.) The Acrobatic Fuwas had also formed their own group to go after the thief and had brought along a few boxes with them that they claimed contained 'bait' and assured Buggy that their plan for catching the thief would be foolproof.

He had given his men until sunset to return with the thief but staying on the beach of a cursed island was making him restless and so to take his mind off the fact that he was standing on a cursed island (the jungle less than ten feet from the shore) he ordered the rest of his crew to start up a party (in order to celebrate their soon-to-be-completed revenge, he insisted)

Having a party was an excellent way to forget your fears for a short while, he soon found out, as he and his men drank, gambled, and laughed with each other as they chatted and sang dirty sea shanties together. With his men very quickly getting drunk Buggy took the time to go on a long and loud rant about treasure and the pursuit of it being the hallmark of a great pirate before transitioning to gripe about thieves. He and his crew didn't even notice it at first when an uninvited guest wandered into the party and joined in on eating alongside them.

"I can't believe that thief thought she could get away with stealing one of my treasures away from me!"