The Rainbow Mist

One month had passed since the events of the Dead End Race. Nami was still rolling in money, one of the foremost reasons being Nami's constant haggling whenever she went shopping and the sale of both the ivory they'd gotten from Little Garden and all the extra they'd taken from Gasparde. The Straw Hats had been able to live like kings, buying only the best ingredients and whatever they wanted from the islands they visited. The combination of the best food one could ask for, hard physical labor, and age actually caused Coby to begin a growth spurt, the boy coming up to his captain's shoulders by the end of the month. Grace had grown, too, but she only reached Coby's chin, making her just over half of Luffy's height.

Now, though, a run-in with the Navy had changed their course (again), leaving the pirates with nowhere to go but the island of Luluka, a small bit of land whose only interesting features were a small town and a tower that was under construction on the far end of the island. Finding a harbor, the Straw Hats sailed the Going Merry to a free area blocked from view by a larger merchant ship and disembarked. Zoro stayed on the ship, napping, while Amy dragged Grace off the ship to spend some "sister time" with her.

"Halt!" a man in purple spandex ordered as they stepped onto the dock. "If you're going to dock your ship here, you'll have to pay a Docking Tax."

"What?" Nami instinctively questioned. "How much and on whose orders?"

"200 Beris and on orders of Mayor Whetton," the man answered.

"Well I guess that's not so bad," Nami huffed, reaching into the orange purse she'd bought on the last island. While she kept the Clima-Tact on her person, Nami had taken to keeping several hundred Beris, measuring equipment, and her old wooden bo in her purse. However, she only kept her purse on her when all she planned on doing was shopping, usually dragging Luffy along with her so he couldn't cause a ruckus. The rest of their money, around 400,000,000 Beris, was hidden throughout the ship by Nami in case the Merry was boarded. Pulling out the requested money, she reluctantly handed it over to the patrolman who wished them a pleasant stay. The native glanced at their ship, his eyes widening as his vision passed over the sails. He hurried away.

"I'm going shopping," Nami announced as the man left. "Anyone what to join me?"

"Oh Nami, my sweet!" Sanji swooned. "I'd walk through Hell if it meant I could watch you shop!"

"Sanji," Luffy warned.

"Don't worry, Don Luffy," Gin insisted. "I'll go with him to make sure he stays out of trouble."

"We'll go, too," Amy announced, dragging Grace along by the collar of her shirt. The younger girl's eyes passed from one crewmember to another before coming to rest on Coby.

"Help me," Grace mouthed. The boy could only shrug in response. Amy scared the crap out of him.

"Good," Luffy nodded. "Anyone else?"

"I will," Chopper raised his hoof. "I need some medical supplies anyway." The reindeer being the last one, Nami, Sanji, Gin, Amy, and Chopper walked off toward the city's market while Grace was literally dragged along. Luffy, Robin, Usopp, and Coby were about to go exploring until an unknown voice called out above them.

"Hey! New people! Do you know anything about the Rainbow Mist?" The person standing on the cliff over the pirates was an older man with brown hair and a moustache like Bieria's. His Hawaiian-style clothing was partially hidden by an open lab coat and a bulky machine of some kind was strapped on his back, the size of the machine pronouncing the short stature of the man carrying it.

"We're afraid not," Robin called back. "Would you care to enlighten us?"

"Humf," the man grunted. "Follow me. I know a restaurant where we can talk." The scientist, or that's what the pirates assumed he was, led them to a small building just within the town boundaries. The man studied the four as the group placed their orders and the proprietor brought their food.

"I hope you have money to pay for this," the owner scowled, placing a plate of pasta in front of the scientist.

"My friend here is paying," he replied, gesturing to Usopp who sputtered in denial. "So," he began, ignoring the slurping coming from Luffy, "my name is Henzo, the genius inventor of Luluka."

"Nice to meet you," Luffy muttered through his spaghetti.

"You said something about a Rainbow Mist?" Coby prompted.

"Yes. The Rainbow Mist is an anomaly that appears around this island without any set pattern. Anything that goes into the Mist and doesn't come out before the Mist disappears vanishes without a trace, but the Legends say that the inside of the Rainbow Mist holds the Golden City of El Dorado."

"I've heard of it," Robin coincided. "Is the center of the anomaly not called the Land of the Gods?"

"That's only a myth," Henzo waved off. "The center of the Rainbow Mist was named Ape's Concert when it first appeared."

"But why are you studying it?" Coby asked. "There are a lot of unexplainable phenomena here in the Grand Line."

"I'm studying it because I lost my friends to it 50 years ago." Henzo started tearing up, recounting the tale of how his friend, the Pumpkin Pirates as they called themselves, tried to fight off a band of actual pirates when they appeared, only to end up stealing the pirates' ship and sail into the Rainbow Mist with the first mate and subsequently vanish, leaving him behind.

"Be careful," the owner of the restaurant warned as he took most of their plates and left another portion for Luffy. "Take everything this guy tells you with a grain of salt. He's nothing but a dog on Mayor Whetton's leash."

Before anyone could question the man's accusation, a drum roll sounded outside of the building.

"Hurry!" one of the patrons exclaimed. "The Tax Collectors are here!" Every native in the bar began furiously eating and drinking, shoving their meals down their throats so fast that many of them began to choke before suddenly stopping with the sound of the drum. The doors opened, revealing a redheaded man with big eyebrows and a thin mustache in a silk suit. The man and his entourage, other men in purple like the patrolman from the dock, entered the restaurant and surveyed the people there. His gaze landed on a man with a half-full tankard of mead.

"Enjoying some fine liquor, I see," the redhead commented with a smile. "You know that means you'll have to pay a Drinking Tax." Two guards grabbed the man's arms as a third started feeling him up, looking for his wallet.

"No!" the patron cried as the guard pulled out his money and handed it to the redhead. "Please! If you take that, I won't be able to support my family this week!"

"Such a shame," the redhead muttered. "You should have thought about that before you went drinking."

"Who's this bastard?" Usopp asked quietly.

"That's Mayor Whetton's son, Phillip," Henzo replied in an equally low voice. "He's in charge of making and collecting the taxes." Looking for another victim, Phillip's eyes came to fall on Luffy, who was shoving pasta down his gullet with reckless abandon, neither Nami or Sanji there to enforce his table manners.

"I see you've got a heaping portion right there."

"Yeah. I was hungry." Luffy swallowed. "Although Nami says I'm always hungry. Oh well."

"I'm going to need you to pay a Heaping Tax."

"Why?" the pirate questioned through his food. "I've never heard of a Heaping Tax."

"It doesn't matter if you've heard of it or not. You still have to pay it."

"He's paying," Luffy responded, pointing to Usopp.

"You bastard!" the sniper yelled. "Why am I paying?!"

"Because Nami didn't give me any money." As the two argued, Phillip's eyes found Henzo, the older man scowling at the younger.

"Ah, Henzo. How is your research going?"

"The same as usual," the scientist grunted unhappily. "We don't know when the Mist will show up again."

"I hope it does soon," Phillip commented, making sure to be loud enough that the rest of the bar could hear him. "After all, your research is being funded by all these taxes. And your Rainbow Tower isn't cheap."

"You don't need to remind me!" Henzo snapped.

"Humf. That's fine. Men! Collect all the taxes you can find before we go. Good luck, Henzo."

Gin was not having fun. Shopping with two women was bad enough, but having Sanji there only made it worse. Carrying several bags in his left hand, Gin's right was holding one of his tonfa, him using it to beat the cook over the head whenever he made a pass at either Nami or Amy. Grace was riding on Chopper in his Walk Point, a bag of paints and chemicals in one hand and rice crackers in the other; the two talking about how different chemicals reacted with the human body.

"Oh Nami-swaaan!" WHACK! "Oi! Cut that out!"

"Not until you stop flirting with the Donna," Gin shot back, referring to Nami as "Donna" due to her relation with Luffy. "Don Luffy would not be happy to hear about it."

"Yeah, yeah," Sanji waved off. "What's he gonna do, kick me off the ship?"

"Hey! You there!" a voice interrupted. With the sound of clanking, a robot with a large, round body with a window, two legs, and two black-and-yellow arms walked out, blocking their path. "I've never seen any of you before. Are you members of the pirate crew that just landed?"

"So what if we are?" Sanji questioned, falling back into a defensive stance. "And who the Hell are you?"

"I'm the grandson of Mayor Whetton, Link, and I need you criminals to pay a Pirating Tax."

"Like Hell we will!" Nami replied. "You aren't gonna get any more of my precious Beris!"

"Now let's just talk about this like civilized people," Link said, but his tone showed that he wanted things to escalate. "The tax is only 100,000,000 Beris-" The man's words were cut off when Sanji's foot struck his suit, electricity sparking from the point of contact. The cook hopped back, his shoe lightly smoking.

"Be careful," Nami warned him.

"Nami-swan cares for me!" Sanji noodled.

"I care about the bags!" the navigator corrected. That fact did not deter the chef one bit. While that exchange was happening, Amy analyzed the machine and followed the chords coming out of its back to a man on an exercise bike. Reducing her weight, the blonde floated over the man and dropped, crushing him and the bike into a crater.

"Hey, Sanji?" Grace yawned. "Can I try something?"

"Uhh, sure," the cook nodded, confused by the girl's request. It was very unlike her to offer to do anything. She nudged Chopper to carry her over to the machine, the man inside taken aback by the little girl on a deer.

"Colors Trap: Acid." Pulling out her pallet, Grace painted a circle with an X on the machine with her corrosive black paint. The liquid bubbled, eating away at the steel and glass until four even pieces fell off. Chopper was forced to jump away lest both he and Grace be crushed by the debris.

"Wh-what did you do?!" Link demanded, utterly confused by what has just happened.

"Very well done," Gin praised as the group started to walk away. Link tried to follow in a vain attempt to get them to pay the tax, but the remains of his suit tripped over what was left of the window. The satisfying crunch of metal twisting and the noise of shattering glass brought a smile to the faces of Gin, Nami, Amy, and Grace.

It seemed the little artist was becoming more like her big sister.

"Goda damn it," Usopp cursed as he, Luffy, Robin, and Coby followed Henzo through the town. The unfortunate sniper had been forced to pay for not only his meal, but for Henzo's and Luffy's meals and Luffy's Heaping Tax as well. Now he had nothing left of the island allowance Nami had given him.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Henzo apologized.

"No problem," Luffy waved off. "I like you."

"I'm glad to hear that," the older man sighed. "Very few people do nowadays."

"Ship!" a villager yelled, running toward the group and away from the harbor. "There's a giant ship pulling into the docks!" He ran past, not even glancing over to see if the people he'd just passed had heard him or not. Their curiosity peaked, the group of five ran down to the docks.

Slowly floating into the harbor was a galleon-sized warship with a red bull figurehead. The sails were nothing but rags hanging from the masts and large chunks were missing from the haul. Waving in the wind on the remains of the sails were bits and pieces of what once was probably a pirate flag.

"The Tally Ellison," Henzo whispered in awe. He dashed away, leaving Luffy and his group behind in the growing crowd. He reappeared a moment later driving a one-person car down the pier. He reached the end, but did not stop, the vehicle changing from a small car to a small boat in seconds.

"Come on, guys," Luffy called. "I smell adventure!" Before either Usopp, Robin, or Coby could react, their captain's left arm was wrapped around them and his right had a grip on the ship. With the men's screams echoing off the buildings (Robin was completely silent) and the townspeople watching, the group of four landed on the Tally Ellison.

"Rapanui!" Henzo's voice called from somewhere below the deck. As the Straw Hats went looking for him, other names floated through the air. "Isoka! Pukau! Rongo! Akibi! Where are you!"

The pirates found the scientist in the kitchen, plates of half-eaten food on the table. Henzo had taken the machine off his back and set it on the floor, but was now on his knees sobbing.

"I wish I had gone with them," he whispered to himself.

"There is still the possibility that they're alive," Robin pointed out, startling the older man who hadn't heard them come in.

"What gave you that idea?" Usopp asked.

"The food on these plates. It's warm. Whatever happened on this ship must have happened recently. I'd say within an hour."

"But that's impossible," Henzo growled. "This ship is over 50 years old."

"Wow," Coby admired. "It's in pretty good shape if it's that old."

"This ship-" the old man began. He was cut off, however, by a siren coming from his machine. "The H1 is reacting! The Rainbow Mist is here!"

Without even a side glance at the pirates, Henzo grabbed his machine, the H1, and ran out the door, leaving the Straw Hats to catch up. Arising from below deck, the pirates were shocked to see a fog rolling in, colored with every hue imaginable. Robin responded with polite curiosity, a chance to learn something she didn't know before.

A thump alerted them that Henzo was no longer on the ship. Looking around, Usopp noticed that a very familiar black flag was just visible over the deck of the Tally Ellison. And that flag was moving.

"He's taking the Merry!" the sniper shouted angrily.

"What?!" Luffy yelled. The group of four dashed to the side and, taking a leap of faith, jumped over the railing. Landing next to a sleeping Zoro who barely moved, Coby spotted Henzo on the deck. Luffy saw him moments afterward.

"You bastard!" the captain yelled. "You're trying to take our ship!" Henzo spun around, surprised by their presence.

"Th-this is your ship? Ahem, well. I'm borrowing it."

"That's not something you say after taking it!" Usopp and Coby yelled in unison.

"Well it's too late now," Henzo responded. "We're almost in the Rainbow Mist."

Within seconds, the Rainbow Mist swallowed the Going Merry and the vessel, along with all of its passengers, faded from sight.