Chapter 22: Little Garden

Sooooo. There wasn't an update on Wednesday... but there is one now! I hope you people are ready for a surprise. I don't think anyone has done something like what you will see in this chapter and I really do want to hear what you think about it. If you don't like it for whatever reason, too bad. What happens next as a plot point. Enjoy!

Chapter 22:

Escorting the Princess, Little Garden

"Thank you for doing this," Vivi Nefertari muttered to the Straw Hat Pirates, Whiskey Peak shrinking into a dot on the horizon behind them. The crew plus one human and one duck were sailing away after defeating all of the townsfolk and the Mr. 5 pair. "I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"Money is always nice," Nami hinted without shame. "I'd say one billion Beris would do."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Vivi responded in a whisper. She told the crew about how her kingdom, Alabasta, was in a state of civil war started by Baroque Works, who the leader was, and how he claimed for their ultimate goal was to create an ideal country only for that to be a lie.

Of course all but Luffy, Zoro, and Gin had panicked when they'd heard that Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords, was running the show.

They'd panicked again when a black-haired woman showed up on their ship.

"You better watch out for the rocks in the fog. They've been known to sink ships." The woman, who was sitting on the second-level railing, was about 5' 8" and dressed in a purple skirt and vest that exposed her stomach. Her feet were dressed in white boots and a white cowboy hat rested on her head, shading her blue eyes and the top of her neck-length black hair from the sun. A long, white, fur coat hung from her shoulders to her feet. All the pirates instantly readied whatever they fought with.

"M-M-Ms. Allsunday," Vivi squeaked. "Wh-What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?" Luffy asked.

"She's gorgeous!" Sanji swooned, doing his noodle dance.

"I saw your friend Mr. 8 just a little bit ago," Ms. Allsunday said, disregarding the other questions. "He wasn't looking very good."

"What did you do to Igaram?" the princess demanded.

"Nothing" Ms. Allsunday waved off. "I really didn't need to; he had enough injuries to kill a normal person."

"Vivi, who is this woman?" Nami asked.

"That's the partner of Mr. 0: Ms. Allsunday. We followed her to learn his identity."

"I let you follow me," the woman corrected. "I just want to see what will happen: will the princess be able to save her kingdom from the predator or will it crumble despite her best efforts?" There was some small motion and suddenly Luffy's hat was flying through the air toward the female agent. She plucked the hat up and plopped it over her own.

"Give me back my hat!" Luffy raged.

"I've heard quite a bit about you, Monkey D. Luffy," Ms. Allsunday chuckled, a hint of mirth working its way into her voice. "Any other pirate crew, I know they would ultimately fail, but this one? Things are going to get interesting. Please take this eternal pose to Namiwasho and skip Little Garden. If you go there, we wouldn't need to lift a finger to end your resistance."

"Keep your pose," Luffy responded, stretching his arm forward to take his treasure back. "I'm the captain and I don't trust you. We're going to Mini Garden."

"Little Garden," Coby corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"That's fine," Ms. Allsunday responded with a shrug. "I think you'll find a way to Alabasta anyway. Goodbye." She hopped off the side of the ship and onto the back of a large turtle with a saddle. The turtle swam off, leaving the pirates to their devices.

(Five days later)

Vivi had been integrated into the daily life of the Straw Hat Pirates. There had been giant dolphins and strange weather, but she'd slowly gotten used to the happy-go-lucky tune of the Going Merry. They were just pulling into Little Garden when tensions started to rise. The island was covered in a thick jungle that buzzed with the energy and sounds of the native wildlife. Two huge white mountains stuck out of the foliage in the distance, their surfaces covered in large holes. It only got worse when they saw a tiger five times larger than any should be kneeling over and dying from claw marks.

"I don't think we should explore this place," Usopp suggested. "I think I can feel my Don'tGoOnThatIsland disease acting up."

"This'll be great!" Luffy exclaimed in his usual manner.

"No way!" Nami argued. "We should just stay on the ship and wait for the log pose to reset!"

"I'm afraid we can't," Sanji told her, lighting a cigarette. "Our food stores wouldn't get us to the next island. We need to either find a town here and stock up or hunt everything we see."

"Sanji," Luffy called. "Make me a big pirate lunch to go. I'm going to go exploring."

"May I go with you?" Vivi asked. "I want to see what's out there, too."

"No way!" Nami denied again. "For one thing, Luffy's my gullible idiot. I'm not going to let him walk around with another woman alone. Two, we've been charged with protecting you until we get to Alabasta and we don't know what's out there."

"Don't worry. I'll take Carue with me." The duck tried to protest, but Vivi ignored him. "That would make it three of us and Carue is the leader of the Super Sonic Duck Squadron back in my home country, so I'm sure he's faster than anything in the jungle." Nami backed down, but she wasn't happy about it. The three left after Sanji outfitted them with backpacks of food (or a smoothie in Carue's case).

"I'm going for a walk, too," Zoro announced, hopping off the ship.

"Bring back some meat, would you?" Sanji asked him.

"Sure. You know I could take down way more than you could. Hell, Shrimp could take down more than you could."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe it is, Crap Cook."

"Challenge accepted, Marimo," Sanji declared, jumping onto the island. "You're taking Shorty, so Gin will be my plus one. The group that brings back the most meat wins."

"Good. Shrimp! Let's go!"

"Wait up, Zoro-sensei!" Coby yelled, scrambling down the ladder. Gin followed and the two duos split up, leaving a worried Nami and Usopp alone on the ship.

Coby didn't like this island of Little Garden. He and Zoro had soon learned that Little Garden was populated by creatures that had been thought extinct several millions of years ago. Upon learning this, and using his limited knowledge of dinosaurs, Zoro had run off to fight some of those "big-ass lizards". This left a very lost Coby in the middle of a dinosaur-infested jungle.

"Zoro-sensei!" the boy yelled, trying to find his way back to either his teacher or the Merry. "Zoro-sensei!" He heard a stick break somewhere to his right and bolted in the opposite direction. The young swordsman sprinted for a good five minutes before trying to take a sharp left and running headfirst into a tree. He fell, but, still scared of the indigenous animals, decided to climb the tree to get a better view and to get away from the ground.

It turned out that the tree was some sort of fruit tree, probably some predecessor of apples or pomegranates. While climbing, the rosette's stomach growled, causing him to remember that Sanji had not packed either him or his teacher any lunch. Deciding that it would be best to eat something rather than try to find his way back on an empty stomach, Coby reached out and plucked a red, cantaloupe-sized fruit from a branch. The fruit was sweet, a mix of citrus and apple tastes dancing over his tongue. Taking another, Coby proceeded to eat several of the prehistoric fruits.

Having loved their taste so much, the boy never noticed that the next fruit he plucked was different than all the rest. Its color was more of a greenish-grey, swirly patterns dancing over the skin. Three white stem-like protrusions poked out of one side in a triangular formation, two on the top and one underneath. Coby bit into it and promptly turned green at the taste.

It was the worst thing Coby had ever eaten in his short life. Nevertheless, he swallowed out of instinct. A strange, tingly sensation filled his being as the remainder of the fruit fell from his hand. Small scales, the same color the fruit had been, sprouted over Coby's form. He gained weight, quickly becoming too much for the branch he was on the hold. The boy's mouth elongated, his lips hardening into a sort of beak while his forehead extended upward and flattened out, his hair shrinking into his altered head and his glasses widening to reach his now-slitted eyes. Coby's hands and feet changed as well, his middle and ring fingers fusing together and his thumbs twisting around to become the only projection on the opposite side. A tail tore through the backside of his pants, becoming half the length of his body. Finally, three horns grew from his face, two out of his hardened forehead over his eyes and one from his nose.

Coby hit the ground not as a human, but as a dinosaur. He panicked, trying to stand on his back two legs, but he was too top heavy for that now. All Coby managed to do was stumble around and get his third horn, the one on the bottom, stuck in the fruit tree he'd been climbing. After a few minutes of uncontrollable fear, his rational mind finally regained control.

Coby took in the situation. He was a dinosaur, a triceratops to be exact. His clothes, with the exception of his shoes, were still on (thank Goda), though now several sizes bigger. His weapons were still strapped to his back, the straps holding each sheath on having lengthened like his clothes. He came to one conclusion. He must have accidentally eaten a Devil fruit, most likely the Ancient Zoan: Model Triceratops.

In hindsight, it's not that far-fetched for an Ancient Zoan to be on Little Garden as it was an island of dinosaurs untouched by human civilization, but this thought was not relevant to Coby's problem of being stuck in a tree. The young swordsman tried to sift through his memories of the transformation to see if there was anything he could use to try to change back into his human form.

There had been a sensation; a tingly one right before it started. He latched onto that, willing it to come again and alter his form, but he didn't quite succeed. The young swordsman shrunk until he was just over his average height and his hands and feet changed back to normal with the exception of being slightly larger and having scaly skin. His tail was still there, but smaller, now only about a foot long and slowly wagging back and forth as he shifted his balance. His lips had not returned and were a small beak, a miniature curve still present. The fringe of a forehead had shrunk and sprouted his hair, said hair in the back and hidden from the front, and the triad of horns were half the length they were before but just as sharp, about half the length of his swords. Now in this new hybrid form, Coby was able to pull himself from the tree.

"Well," Coby told himself before the panic could return. "I didn't like swimming anyway."

"My dino is obviously bigger!" Zoro yelled, nearly butting heads with the swirly-eyebrowed chef and pointing at the T-rex-like dinosaur said chef and Gin had killed. "It's got way more meat on its bones than that pathetic excuse of a lizard!"

"Not possible!" Sanji argued, gesturing to the swordsman's three-horned beast. "That thing is just fat and mine is longer!"

"Would you two please calm down?" Gin tried to reason. "And where is Coby?"

"He ran off and got lost," Zoro told him, not worried in the slightest for his pupil. "He can take care of himself, but that means I hunted this alone while you had help, so you can only claim half of that meat. That means I win."

Sanji growled, but he couldn't come up with a counter point. Lucky for him, he didn't have to. A shockwave of epic proportions rolled through the area, its epicenter two dueling giants, one armed with a sword and the other an ax. They did not appear to hate each other. As a matter of fact, they seemed to be having a friendly conversation while fighting to the death. None of the three could hear what they were saying, though.

"That doesn't look good," Zoro sighed, "and knowing Luffy, he's probably dragged Vivi into that somehow."

"Let's go check it out," Sanji agreed before going into noodle mode. "Vivi darling! I'm coming to protect you!"

"Gin!" they both shouted at the same time. "Take my dino back to the ship!" They took off toward the battling giants, leaving the former Krieg pirate with two giant dinosaur corpses.

"Great," Gin moaned. "Pack mule duty. Just what I wanted." He turned in the direction of the ship, taking one horn in his right hand and a tooth in his left. He started his slow journey back to the Merry, dragging both large beasts.

Coby felt rather than saw the ripples in the air from the start of the giants' battle. His new instincts from his Devil Fruit were screaming at him to run in terror, but if traveling with the Straw Hats had taught him anything it's that, if you are lost, go toward the most danger and you'll find everyone. He tried to change back into his human form, but only managed to go back to what he decided to call Dino Mode. Sighing, he decided that it may just be quicker that way and started heading west, getting used to running on all fours.

He felt the ground shake as the giants called their dual a draw (for the 73,466th time). As he fell, his body shrunk and turned human. Apparently it was done adjusting to his new ancient form. Now with the ability to change to each of his three forms if given time to think, Coby switched back to his Dino Mode and tromped off, following the sound of strange laughing.

"GEYAK-YAK-YAK-YAK!" Dorry the giant laughed, downing barrel after barrel of alcohol from the Merry that he had gotten from Broggy who had gotten it from Nami and Usopp. He, Luffy, Vivi, and Carue where at his campsite where he'd lived for over 100 years now. The Giant stood at nearly 500 feet tall with tanned skin. His red clothing was covered by a spread of either armor or chainmail and a black beard stretched down from his chin to the point where is brushed against the ground. His weapons of choice, a sword and shield, were laying off to the side beside his old helmet.

"So Broggy's guests are friends of yours?" Dorry asked. "I guess that makes sense since we don't get a lot of visitors on this island. They're a man with a long nose and a woman."

"That's Nami and Usopp," Luffy confirmed with a smile.

"Hey, Luffy?" Vivi questioned. "I've been meaning to ask you, but are you and Nami... together?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean like together together."

"Yeah," Luffy answered.

"May I ask how?"

"Yeah." There was silence.

"...Well?"

"Well what?"

"How did you get together?" Vivi asked with some annoyance in her tone.

"Oh. This fishman bastard named Arlong was holding her village hostage and forcing her to be his navigator, so I jumped in and kicked his fishy, blue ass. She kissed me after the battle and I kissed her back."

"That's so romantic," Vivi gushed. That's when an explosion ruined their talk. The alcohol Dorry was drinking blew up inside his stomach, brutally wounding him.

"Dorry!" Luffy and Vivi yelled. They and Carue ran over to the injured giant. He was breathing heavily, blood flowing from his mouth.

"Are you ok?" Vivi asked.

"Who did that?!" Luffy raged. "I'll kick their ass!" The volcano erupted before they could say more, signaling the beginning of another dual.

One that Dorry was too injured to win.

End of Chapter 22

Yes, that just happened. I've decided to call the Devil Fruit that Coby ate the Ancient Zoan: Model Triceratops since I couldn't find any reference to someone using that fruit in Canon. Tell me what you think!

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods