Had a hard time actually writing this chapter, Mostly because, in the manga, this arc started out light and then everything went downhill fast …

Warnings: Alternate Universe, Mentioned Character Deaths, Trauma, friends being split apart, Angst … skipped/missing scenes- yeah, It's going to be Saboady compressed to one chapter, because I can't really spend too much time on this without feeling depressed myself. Oda-sensei did his job too well, I think.

Supernovas and Burn Out

"Guys, this is it, the Redline!"

Kaku joined everyone up at the helm. He'd only ever seen this part of the Redline in pictures, and they did not do the size of it justice. Somewhere up there, was Mariejois, and that reminded him that perhaps he should talk to Nami.

"We're halfway there!" Nami looked up at it, then at the lop pose that was pointing straight down. "But how do we go down to Fishman Island?"

"We can scout it out with the Shark Sub!" Franky suggested. "It can only fit three people, however, otherwise the air will run out."

"I want to go!" Captain Luffy grinned.

"I'd like to see Mermaids!" Brook added, which prompted Sanji to volunteer as well.

"Love-sick Idiot." Zoro muttered, and the two unsurprisingly ended up in a fight.

While they traded blows and insults, everyone, with the exception of Captain Luffy, drew straws. Robin and Brooke would join Luffy in the Sub.

"Now, you'll have to be careful." Nami's attempt to explain about water pressure went straight over the Captain and Brook's enthusiasim, and Robin just smiled and assured her that she understood how painful their deaths would be. While they got the sub ready to go, Kaku made a quick run for one of Nami's Navigation books that he knew would have a section regarding Marijois and Marineford.

"And they're off." Kaku watched the sub disappear, before looking at Nami. "Nami, I need to tell you a couple things about this area, we need to be on the alert while they're down there."

"Why's that?" Nami looked at him as he flipped open the book the page he needed.

"We're just a couple weeks away from a major Marine base, called Marineford. There's an important City up on that piece of Redline, called Marijois."

Nami nodded. "I know, I read about it."

"Well, it's what's not written that you need to be worried about." Kaku met her look with a grimace. "Marineford is Navy Headquarters, but they've got a smaller, but equally important base on another island called G-1 that's closer to our position. They don't mention that in any civilian maps, but it's always got an Admiral in residence." Kaku tapped the area where roughly the G-1 base should be. "They're a few days away I think, and while they primarily are to guard Marijois, they also do their best to keep pirates from making it to Fishman Island." Kaku rubbed the back of his neck as he passed the book to her. "That's the extent of my knowledge, I'm afraid, unless we had a mission, we didn't really learn much about locations."

"I see, that's something to avoid." Nami grimaced. "We'll have everyone on lookout be extra-viligant for Navy ships, but we might as well relax while we can; Franky, you said there is a Radio?" Nami asked, ending the conversation, Usopp and Chopper decided to go for a swim and Kaku decided it was safe enough to start work on the bottle version of the Sunny on deck.

It was disheartening to hear that even at the maxium depth the shark sub could go, there was no way for them to see Fishman Island.

Kaku packed up his kit anticipating the return of Captain Luffy, but groaned as a sea king decided to try eating the Shark sub. "Seriously, I need to talk to whoever wrote the books on sea kings, they did not do nearly the amount of research they think they did." His thoughts on the matter went ignored as everyone scrambled to positions, and then were forgotten completely as someone came screaming out of the sky and landed on Sanji.

Kaku stared at the tail for a long moment, before his eyes moved up to see the rather cute mermaid that had apparently been about to be eaten by the sea king. He was barely paying attention to the other's reactions, too busy trying to sort his own thoughts on suddenly being confronted by something he'd only seen in pictures in CP9 books and heard stories of from the old salts that came to Water 7. Oh, Kaku had known Kokoro was a mermaid, it was on the short list of Tom's workers and their qualifications that they'd all been required to read, but the idea that the woman he called Granny was a mermaid had never really computed in his head even when she explained how Chimney was such a strong swimmer one of the times he'd visited her.

And now he knew why- he might have been a CP9 agent, but there were just some fantasies that were almost inherent for men, especially those that listened to the stories told by old salts about gorgeous mermaids who would either save you from drowning or just drown you out of spite. (And for once, he was grateful for Sanji's reverence towards women, there were just some things men did not want to hear even if they wondered about it.)

He shook his head to clear it, and focused on the fact that the mermaid, Camie, was now offering a reward for saving her- that they would have to pay for. As she freaked out over her mistake, and her starfish pet/sensei chided her, Kaku turned to keep a look-out, realizing they'd all gotten distracted in an area they really shouldn't have, even though he knew they'd be able to handle it.

The ring of a transponder snail brought his attention back to the group, but he didn't pay attention when he heard the distress from the mermaid. Only looking back when he heard Captain Luffy give the order to go save the Takoyaki seller.

"Seriously?" Kaku asked Zoro walked by him, absently patting his face with the end of the towel draped around his neck.

"Yeah, Nami thinks we can get information about Fishman Island from them, and Luffy wants Takoyaki." Zoro shrugged, and some muscle in his jaw twitched.

"You alright? You haven't been training like normal." Kaku had been dying for a spar, but when he'd finally worked up his courage to go to the other, he saw Zoro only do half of his usual work out and be slightly out of breath. He had backed off then, realizing that the other had not been ready for it and the damage done by Kuma was far worse than what Zoro was letting them believe.

"I'm fine, Chopper just keeps interrupting my training, he doesn't want me to push it." Zoro dismissed him and Kaku let him, moving to join Robin.

"Worried, Kaku?" Robin smiled at him, and he just shrugged at her teasing.

"Not really." And he wasn't, because he trusted their judgement, and that realization felt like a sucker punch. He trusted Zoro to know his own limits, had trusted that even with the lack of a look-out they'd be fine, and had only really done it out of force of habit (CP9 always had one agent focused on outside threats while the others discussed the mission, and the job had often fallen to him if Blueno was needed to give a report). He had even trusted Nami with knowing the area, and had only been compelled to mention the G1 base out of a realization that it wasn't actually drawn on any maps she could access.

Kaku trusted the Strawhats, and that realization made him feel oddly, yet pleasantly, warm inside.

En route to the place the Takoyaki seller was being kept, Pappugu the starfish explained about the slavers and the new gang that had appeared recently called the flying fish riders that were supposed to be tough- though Kaku wasn't impressed with the handful that showed up briefly, obviously to check on their progress- or at least Caime's.

When they finally arrived to the base where the Takoyaki seller was being held, he was pleased to see he wasn't the only one that expected a trap. Though he was surprised to hear that the fishman was not only known by the group, but had escaped from the navy back in the east blue.

"Wait, Arlong, that was-" Kaku looked at Nami, whose eyes were shadowed by her bangs and one hand absently reaching for her shoulder, and remembered the log detailing the events surrounding Arlong's defeat having slight damage from water droplets scattered on the pages. While the captain's conviction was clearly torn between loyalty to Nami and desire for food, Kaku's focus never left Nami, even as Caime tried to save Hachi and was caught. He watched her lift her head and steel herself as she came to a decision.

"Everyone, let's save Hachi!" She said, and as everyone quickly went into motion, Kaku took a moment to brush her shoulder, and Nami looked up at him in bafflement.

"This crew really is made of extremely strong people, I'm glad to be a part of it." He smiled and then jumped to the railing to use Geppo against the Flying Fish riders that showed up. He'd been desperate when he came to this ship, searching for mercy that he'd known was unlikely to be given and far too beaten to bear a grudge to the Straw Hats for putting him in such a situation where he was hunted by the very people he had given nothing but loyalty to. It wouldn't have been unreasonable, and there had been days during his recovery where he had resented how cheerful this crew was, and the way they had of not giving any thought to those they had defeated.

Yet despite that, the spark of resentment never had a chance to grow, first because CP9 had extensive training to understand that grudges could distract an agent at the worst time and therefore one must understand that personal feelings had no place in a mission; and then because it was snuffed out by constant acceptance that Kaku was part of their crew, regardless of their history (his actions regarding Going Merry came to mind). It wasn't naivety or carelessness, but a unique strength that Kaku was just coming to respect and understand. It would have been perfectly reasonable for Nami to demand they leave Hachi and even Caime to their fate, for what he guessed to be years of mistreatment at the hands of Arlong's crew, even if Hachi 'wasn't that bad' compared to the rest. That she hadn't was rather awe inspiring, and urged him to keep moving forward as a member of the Straw hats.

That said, his muscle memory of jumping after Lucci was definitely going to get him killed one day. Kaku hadn't even thought about his devil fruit until a split second before he hit the water as he dove after Luffy who'd started goofing off trying to ride one of the Flying Fish. The sensation was much worse than it had been in the bath- there it had been more shock at the sensation than the actual odd weakening of his limbs that had kept him immobile; the actual sea on the other hand, was about a thousand times worse. Fortunately, though his muscle memory had gotten him into this situation, it also kept him from completely exhaling, though he still inhaled some water despite himself.

He wasn't sure who pulled him out, more interested in gasping for breath.

"I can't believe you idiots!" Nami snapped at them, and Kaku blinked at the sight of a soaking Chopper and Brook.

"Yeah, Giraffe-bro has an excuse, but you two don't!" Franky agreed staring down at them.

"Sorry!" Kaku apologized with Brook and Chopper, even though he did have the excuse of just recently eating his fruit, and being the one designated to fish Lucci out at Water 7, he still should've kept it in mind. Luffy and Zoro had moved to free Hachi, Luffy bouncing back from his near drowning quicker than them. Kaku reluctantly decided to wait a moment as he recovered from his first dunking in salt water, and watch what the others did.

"Here's dinner tonight!" Sanji and Luffy took down one of the flying fish, and Kaku smiled. He was also very interested in what those stupid flying fish tasted like at this point, even while Robin decided to examine it.

"What am I doing?" Brook suddenly demanded, but he was talking to himself. "Here I am with a chance to prove myself, and I become a burden? This is unacceptable." He pushed himself up, and whipped out his violin. Kaku blinked at the lullaby, absently relaxing before realizing what Brook was up to as the Flying Fish and their riders fell asleep- including Captain Luffy who hadn't learned from his first attempt of trying to ride one of the flying fish and ended up crashing into one of the buildings.

"Boss!" One of the alert riders called out. "That was the Boss's room!"

"Of course it was." Kaku sighed. He launched himself back into the sky with Geppo to use Rankyaku to take out a couple of Flying Fish riders that had been underwater during Brook's lullaby. He landed roughly on the forwards deck of the Sunny. There was a crashing noise, and Luffy came out being chased by the Boss of the flying Fish riders.

"Iron Mask Duval, huh?" Kaku sighed. After Moria, this whole fight was getting a little pathetic, though it was a little interesting when the guy declared he had a grudge against just Sanji though. "What sort of restaurant did Sanji work at?" Kaku wasn't expecting an answer, and dodged the harpoons that started leaking poison once they hit the deck, quickly helping Franky and Usopp try to mitigate the damage they were doing.

"We're not talking ancient History here!" Duval yelled at Sanji.

"Then I have no clue." Sanji blinked, baffled, even as Usopp yelled at him to remember.

Kaku didn't know if it was to defend Sunny, but Luffy suddenly attacked Duval, knocking off the man's helmet, and treating them all to a surprise.

"How the hell does that even happen?!" Kaku blinked at the sight of Sanji's wanted poster, that totally looked like Duval. "Wait, he's attacking us because he looks like the Wanted Poster? How does that make sense?"

"You've got a point there." Nami agreed, but still just as shocked as everyone else.

Of course, Duval then had to give them his tragic backstory, and Kaku sighed as he got the last harpoon out of the ship. He honestly was starting to not care about the fight that followed as Sanji attacked Duval in a rage, and it seemed he wasn't the only one as he heard Captain Luffy tell Sanji they were going on ahead and leaving Duval to him. Of course, by now the flying fish riders were awake, and quickly dragged Sanji into the water.

"I'll get him!" Camie called out from her position, and dove into the water; Duval shouted out to the remaining flying fish riders to raise the anchor, and the size would have been impressive if it wasn't about to drop down on them. It was probably from some Giant ship that got wrecked.

"Everyone hold on!" Franky called, and Kaku grabbed onto the nearest rail as Franky continued to shout, "Secret Technique, Chicken Voyage!" and used the figure head to push Sunny backwards and out of harm's way.

"Is there anything you didn't think of, Franky?" Kaku couldn't help but grin, so many ships came into Water 7 with prow and keel damage because they couldn't avoid a reef or sea king, the Chicken Voyage would help so much with that.

"This is an ideal stage to show you Sunny's secret weapon," Franky grinned, and started barking orders at him and Usopp. Kaku quickly went down and put the barrels in, and came back up in time to see Usopp enter the prow.

"Franky, what are you-" Kaku's voice was cut off as Usopp fired at the base, and instead of a cannonball, a beam of energy came out.

"Gaon Cannon!" Franky announced, but while the others were impressed, Kaku was struck by something else. Franky was an undisputed mechanical genius, and he'd had the Pluton blueprints for years, more than enough time to study and memorize them. While Franky wouldn't have made it exactly, Kaku was willing to bet the Gaon Cannon was a modified version of the ancient weapon Pluton. He couldn't help but glance at Robin who glanced over at him, Kaku could see the same conclusions in her eyes. Kaku just shook his head.

"I'm impressed, Franky, you're full of surprises." He said, and glanced back at Robin who gave him a wry smile and also agreed on how impressive the Gaon cannon was.

"It eats up about three barrels of cola, but Sunny is more than able to defend himself." Franky grinned.

"Everyone! It's terrible!" They all looked over the side to see that Camie had returned with Sanji.

"What is?" Nami asked.

"Sanji-chin is bleeding! I thought he was fine, but then, all of a sudden!" Camie showed Sanji to them, blood leaking from his nose and a silly smile on his face. While Chopper freaked out at the blood, Nami turned her back and sighed.

"Just leave the idiot." Nami looked at Kaku. "Still glad to be on the crew?"

"I'll admit it does have its flaws." Kaku grimaced. As Sanji was tended to, Duval started yelling about the bull he was riding and its horns. Which were actually way too short to reach Captain Luffy when it charged them. What happened next though, was a mystery to everyone that witnessed it.

It looked like the Captain just spoke to the bull, which suddenly started shaking and trying to run away before it passed out in terror. Everyone quickly started suggesting theories when Captain Luffy answered that he had no idea what just happened to the Bull.

"Maybe it sensed the Captain was a more dangerous predator?" Kaku suggested, tilting his head. "I mean, Captain Luffy is pretty animal like."

"Hmm, you think so?" Robin asked with some amusement.

"You didn't see him on Merville, if he wasn't so set on being King of the Pirates, he'd be perfect as King of the Jungle." Kaku retorted. As they were talking, Sanji recovered, and proceeded to kick Duval into the middle of next week in his anger. Once the flying fish riders were distracted by their boss' fate, they quickly headed out to the spot where Hachi's Takoyaki boat was drifting.

Personally, Kaku preferred red meat over seafood, but Hachi's Takoyaki was making him revise his opinion on octopus. It was amazing, and Hachi's extra arms were just barely keeping up with their requests for more (or at least the captain's, the rest of them were eating at a more sedate pace).

"So, does she like it?" Hachi suddenly asked, sounding nervous and glancing at Nami. Kaku almost swallowed wrong as he remembered their history. Nami might have had the strength to put their past aside to save Hachi from the slavers and the flying fish gang, but that didn't mean she didn't still resent the octopus fishman.

That said, it was obvious that Hachi did feel guilty about it. Even as Nami responded that she wasn't going to forget what he had done and Hachi agreed but asked her opinion anyways, it was clear that her answer was going to be a small drop of forgiveness to Hachi.

"It's good." Nami answered, and as Hachi returned back to work Kaku grabbed a couple containers and went to sit next to her. "I don't want to talk." She warned Kaku, who just nodded.

"Yeah, I know. I just thought I'd keep you company for a bit- Captain Luffy keeps stealing my food." Nami gave a small smile at that, and accepted Kaku's offer of seconds.

As everyone finally reached their fill, Hachi began cleaning up his work area. It was only a matter of time before everyone was on Sunny and the trio of fishman, mermaid and talking starfish began to explain how to cross the red line. The first option being to petition the world nobles and get a new ship on the other side, which was obviously not an option for pirates. The trio agreed, and then began to explain there was a way for them to reach Fishman Island but they would have to go to Saoboady Archipelago in order to get a coating from a guy that Hachi knew.

"Saoboady Archipelago? I've heard of that place." Kaku blinked.

"Really? What's it like?" Nami asked, and Kaku felt a little bad at taking the spotlight from Hachi.

"I don't really know, I just listened to the sailors that came through Water 7, depending on the guy it was either a really fun place or a really dangerous one." Kaku shrugged. "All I know about it is hearsay, I think Granny Kokoro mentioned it once too." He rubbed his head. "Thing is, I can't remember what she said about it, I mentioned having a conversation about it to her, and then- oh." Kaku remembered what happened during the conversation.

"What?"

"Paulie came running by trying to escape from a group of debt collectors." Kaku winced. Kokoro had been doing her shopping and he'd been helping her, she'd been safe by being in a doorway, but he hadn't been able to jump away at the time without using geppo and had then ended up trampled. Lucci had been surprisingly understanding about that incident.

"Which time was that?" Franky asked. "I heard you got in trouble a couple of times like that because of Paulie."

"The first time." Kaku grimaced. By the fifth time, Lucci's passive aggressive comments on Paulie's life style began to start their daily fights as the older man got fed up with Paulie. The others, now realizing that Kaku didn't have any new information they'd need, they'd turned back to Hachi and the other two. But thinking back, he was sure Granny Kokoro had said something important about the Archipelago, Kaku frowned absently, trying to remember.

"Something wrong Giraffe-bro?" Franky noticed.

"What Kokoro said, she was serious about it." Kokoro had actually lost her perpetual smile for a moment, but once he'd been trampled she'd returned to being her normal self and he hadn't thought to press because their mission was the pluton blueprints, not island gossip.

"Well, don't stress yourself too much, it'll comeback if you don't think about it." Franky suggested.

"Yeah." Kaku sighed, and turned his attention to listening to Hachi's description of the Archipelago. Which reminded him of something else. "Hey, Hachi, do you know if there's a newspaper office on the Archipelago?"

"A newspaper office? What for?" Nami asked.

"After you guys got knocked out, I tried to charge Kuma, but before he knocked me out, he said that another CP9 agent had survived Enies Lobby. I figured I'd put a message in the newspaper to let them know I'm alive and maybe they'll be able to do the same once they see it." Kaku explained, and wondered what their reactions would be.

"Oh really?" "Well then, good luck!" "Would they join the crew?" Was the chorus, and Kaku blinked before smiling.

"I doubt it, since it could've been a trap set by Kuma, and since we're going to Fishman Island they probably won't be able to find us, but at least I'll have done what I could and they'll know I'm okay." Kaku answered.

"That's fine." Luffy waved off, but Nami had a different concern.

"But it'll probably cost, right?"

"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask for a loan."

"Don't do it!" The guys who had been on the crew the longest (save Sanji) yelled suddenly, surprising Franky, Brook and Kaku, as well as Hachi, Camie and Pappug.

"She'll charge 300% interest!" Zoro added.

"Well since it's important, I'll just charge a hundred percent interest." Nami smiled sweetly. The aura that was coming off her, however, clashed a bit with the attempt.

"Ah, thanks." Kaku blinked. "But it shouldn't be more than our usual allowance, so I'll just use that."

"Hey guys, we're coming up on a bunch of trees!"

Hachi and Camie began to explain how the trees worked as markers, and it was the bubble producing sap that would help them get to Fishman Island. Kaku focused more on writing the ad, deciding to keep it short.

'Lonely guy looking for companion from the Water Ball. Found your purse.' It wasn't the best, but whoever it was would recognize the mission call sign they'd used for their time in Water 7. That done, he joined the others that were going on the island.

"I don't know where the newspaper office is, but I'm sure my friends will, they live on the island." Hachi said as he began to lead them through the island.

"Thanks." Kaku waved it off. Hachi's warning bugged him, but it was quickly ignored as he realized that Hachi and Camie were disguised, Hachi going so far as to wrap bandages around the mark on his head. It brought to mind Kokoro's reaction to the Archipelago, but he didn't know why.

After Nami and Robin went off to do some shopping, the race between Hachi and Luffy was cut short by someone causing a commotion. A man was freaking out, begging for help, and the bystanders were trying to ignore him- up until a beeping sound reached them and the man freaked out worse, tugging on a collar until he was caught in an explosion.

"What's going on?"

Hachi tried to urge them away, before quickly forcing them to bow with the rest of the people as a strange group approached. Captain Luffy was not pleased, and Kaku didn't blame him, he didn't like this awkward position either, but Camie had grabbed onto the front of his shirt to keep him from getting back up. Brook was knocked down by Pappug.

Shots rang out, Camie and Chopper both started crying, and Hachi had to bodily pin the Captain from attacking.

It took far too long for the group everyone was bowing to to move on, and still another long moment before they all got up.

"What was that?" Captain Luffy finally demanded as they moved on.

"The Celestial Dragons." Hachi explained that they were world nobles and Kaku absently tugged on his cap as Hachi explained about slavery.

He could remember dozens of lessons on how the world worked, how the hierarchy of the world was. How he was expected to uphold the world order set by the celestial dragons as an agent of justice and CP9. Kaku even remembered believing in every word that his teachers had spoken about absolute justice and the necessity of dark justice.

No one had ever told him about slavery being acceptable if the Celestial Dragons did it- they were supposed to bust pirates and the slavery rings they ran, and now … "That was what I was fighting for?" he asked, and Brook looked down at him. "People no better than the worst pirates we were trained to fight?" He was shaking, and didn't notice the others looking at him sadly, even Captain Luffy had a serious expression. "What was even the point of saying 'no one escapes justice' if people like that are the exceptions?" It was bad enough that Spandam could order them to death for their failing to stop the Straw Hats to cover his failure; and while Lucci was known to kill those he considered weak, the biggest difference was that while Lucci had killed Nero for being incompetent, it had been because of Nero's own incompetence and attempts to cover it, not Lucci covering his own mistakes.

It might not have been much of a difference to some, but there was one.

"Kaku-san, I'm sorry." Brook whispered, and the others took that as a cue to start speaking.

"Why's Kaku-chin so upset?" Camie asked.

"He used to work for the government and was supposed to hunt down really bad criminals." Chopper explained. "But if those guys are the world government, then they're not much better than pirates."

"At least pirates don't try and hide it." Kaku muttered, trying to pull himself together. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, let's just find this mechanic guy!" Captain Luffy grinned.

The Bar Hachi lead them to was definitely interesting, for one it was small and slightly out of place, for another the woman that ran it was able to beat up grown men larger than herself.

She also was extremely tolerant of the Captain raiding her refrigerator, and flirted with Brook. He didn't know if he believed she was really old, but he definitely wasn't going to ask and end up dead.

As she started to explain about the Supernovas that Luffy and Zoro were apparently apart of, Kaku tried to remember if he'd heard any of the names before. X. Drake had been noted as potentially needing to be taken out when the former Rear Admiral had become a pirate, but they'd been putting their attention on Iceburg and had ignored it.

"So, I'm definitely rooting for you, Monkey-chan." Shakky smiled.

Kaku reached down to the small ad he meant to place in the paper. Would it even be worth it? Seeing those he was taught were paragons to be followed and obeyed acting worse than those he was supposed to kill … would any of the others understand?

"Kaku, weren't you going to ask about the newspaper office?" Hachi asked.

"There's one in grove 10." Shakky immediately offered, but seemed to pick up something was off. "Something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, no." Kaku shook his head. "I'm second guessing myself."

"Kaku." Captain Luffy said, and Kaku looked over to him as he quickly swallowed his food. "You never know until you try, right?"

"I suppose not." Kaku smiled, Captain Luffy just grinned at him. "Grove Ten you said?"

"Yes." Shakky nodded. "You can't miss it."

"Thanks, I'll meet you back at the ship later." Kaku added.

"Sure thing!" Luffy laughed.

In the end, it didn't take long to place the ad itself, but he was distracted by a conversation two newshounds were having, though he didn't get all of the conversation due to an argument some other reporter was having with the editor.

"I still can't believe it, the marines picking a fight with Whitebeard?"

"I can't believe it either, but the rumor is they have" Clang! The reporter slammed something against the wall, and the shouting got louder so all Kaku heard was "ace." He didn't give the conversation much thought as he left, concluding to himself that the marines must've had a hell of a trump card if they were going to take on Whitebeard.

He decided to wander before he went back to the ship. His thoughts apparently decided to do the same, and he came back to the memory of Kokoro looking upset about the Archipelago.

"That place, huh? There would be conflicting reports … For me though, it's a place of …" Kaku sighed, "a place of what?" Obviously nothing good, next to nothing fazed Kokoro, and she'd been upset about it. And that's not counting the celestial dragons ability to enslave- oh crap. Kaku paused mid stride. He suddenly had a bad feeling about being here. "Why people don't just come out and say what's wrong with a place and why they're worried instead of leaving us to figure it out!" Kaku complained as he jumped onto the next building he came to and started to build up momentum. Though to be honest, the Captain wouldn't care about the danger that much, but still …

He was about halfway back to the bar when one of the flying fish riders flew up to him. "Hurry up and get on! You've got trouble!"

Kaku was on the back of the fish before the man had finished speaking. "Explain as we go!"

"Ah, right!" The man nodded, getting over his surprise at Kaku's jump, and explained that Camie had gotten kidnapped and the others were going to the auction house to save her.

"Great, and the noise will draw the marines with our luck, because there's no way they'll leave much of that place intact." Kaku looked down as they approached, and saw exactly what he didn't want to see- Marines getting into a formation and heading in the same direction. The Auction house was straight ahead, and he saw Usopp and the fish he was on go crashing into the ceiling. "Right, I've got it from here!" Geppo had him landing at the front door, so he quickly ran in, defeating the two guards that tried to block the door.

Somehow, he really wasn't surprised to see the chaos, or two of the three celestial Dragons unconscious. Though the guy addressing his captain and telling him about the marine blockade was less important.

"Door's clear." Kaku spoke up, and then used shigan on the first idiot that tried to charge him. "You made another scene, Captain."

"You surprised?" Robin asked him in amusement. Kaku just grinned and conceded the point.

"Wait! S-stop!" A man who could only be the head of the auction house was trying to stop the female Celestial Dragon from attacking Camie, who was trying to stay out of the way of the gun. The woman was having none of his attempts and shot him in the shoulder as she shouted at him, and Kaku saw red for a moment. As she brought the gun towards Camie, he kicked out with rankyaku, hitting and destroying the gun at the same time the woman suddenly fainted, the gun going off as it pointed to the air.

"What the- I don't think I did that?" Kaku blinked, before kicking one of the guards, and suddenly the back of stage opened up, and the strangest old man entered … though given the crew he was on, Kaku really needed to evaluate his standards of strange.

Especially after the guards and other civilians suddenly collapsed the same way as the woman.

"Now hold still." Hachi's friend apparently was also allergic to explaining things and loved to give people heart attacks. Though Kaku was glad the collar was off Camie.

"Silvers Raleigh." One of the two other pirate captains noted.

"I prefer Ray around here, I'm retired." Raleigh responded. Franky tossed the keys he found to the other slaves still hanging around, and Kaku hoped that meant they could get out of here sooner instead of later.

Or not, as the Marines finally got there and accused the two other pirate crews of being their accomplices.

"We're innocent bystanders, not accomplices." Trafalgar Law corrected.

"Got to see Strawhat do something crazy so that's something." Kaku blinked and looked over at the guy that spoke, Eustass Kidd. "But I'd rather not tangle with an admiral."

"Fine by me but if you expect me to help you'll be disappointed, I've used too much power already." Rayleigh informed him.

"I don't need an old man to help me. And I'll defeat the marines for you guys as well." Kidd turned to leave, and Kaku ended up jumping to the side as Luffy and Trafalgar Law followed, both glaring at Kidd.

Kidd's crew remained behind as the two captains followed, clearly aware that following would be a bad idea.

"Sorry you guys got dragged into this." Nami apologized to the two crews.

"Don't worry about it. Seems like your captain is a handful." The masked man on Kidd's crew waved it off. Mortars were fired outside. "And there they go."

"Your captains are insane." Was the opinion of one of Trafalgar Law's crew.

"Is yours any better?" Kaku asked, and then jumped over to the stage.

"Hey!"

"Chopper, I've got Camie, you get Hachi out of here." Kaku called over, before shifting into his full Giraffe form and letting Camie pull herself onto his back. He paused briefly when Nami also climbed up, but didn't bother complaining.

"What the- and your captain questioned Bepo on our crew?" The guy with the penguin hat stared at him.

"Your point?" Kaku glared at him.

"Let's get going before more trouble comes," The masked man suggested, "Or our captains start fighting each other."

"Yours run straight into trouble too?" Usopp asked.

"Ours doesn't." Bepo the bear offered.

"Alright, can the comedy, we need to get going." Rayleigh got them back on track.

Leaving and evading trouble was surprisingly easy, and the trip back to Rip-offs was fairly short.

Kaku slumped into one of the booths, not wanting to move unless he had to. He wasn't the only one. Kaku listened with half an ear as Rayleigh revealed he knew about Luffy, through the Yonkou Red-Hair Shanks, who'd been an apprentice for Gold Roger, or as Rayleigh said, Gol D. Roger.

Apparently, the Yonkou liked the kid, and Kaku had a feeling that if the Marines had any idea, they would either change Luffy's bounty to dead on sight or would run off in the opposite direction. Before he knew it, Kaku ended up drifting off.

Kaku woke up to the Captain shouting. It took him a moment to process what was happening.

"I'll quit being a pirate right now! I don't want to go on a boring adventure!" Captain Luffy declared, and Kaku blinked as Usopp apologized.

"What I miss?" Kaku rubbed his eyes.

"Here." Shakky put down a cup of coffee in front of him. Kaku nodded his thanks.

Rayleigh told them it would be three days before the coating was done, and gave them each a vivre card and told them to lay low.

They didn't even make it three minutes, Kaku later lamented.

Admirals and Pacifistas were too much for them, and it was only Raleigh's intervention that kept Kizaru from killing or capturing them, Kaku still couldn't believe that Zoro was in such bad shape.

"Retreat! As we are, we can't beat them!" Luffy's order was a shock, but Kaku obeyed, for Luffy to order a retreat, they were really in trouble. He kicked out, sending away several marines with perhaps the dullest rankyaku that he had ever done.

The real Kuma had arrived, Kaku watched in horror as Kuma's raised hand came down, and Zoro disappeared.

Shamefully, Kaku froze at that moment, unable to process what he had just seen. Zoro had been there and then gone. No.

Brook disappeared. Just like Zoro. Then Usopp. Kaku used Soru just as Sanji disappeared, and Kuma moved towards Franky and Nami. Franky was gone, but Kaku kicked out as he threw himself in front of Nami.

No more, please, no more!

"Kaku!" Nami shrieked, and he didn't have time to grab her and run, instead kicking out at Kuma again.

"Run!" He managed, and he thought he heard Luffy scream his name as Kuma's hand came down.

Then he was flying through the air in some sort of bubble. It took a moment for him to realize he wasn't dead, and then he started trying to escape the bubble that was carrying him away from the others.

The bubble didn't break, and with each failure of his techniques, he lost more and more focus on the present, until he was back in Enies Lobby again.

The Buster Call was destroying everything. Kaku saw the Straw Hats jumped into the sea, but his focus was on Lucci, Jyabura yelling at him to carry the leopard zoan because his own bones were broken.

They made it to the ship, and all he could do was hold onto Lucci's wrist after setting him down, the bodies of the others laid out on the deck.

"What happened here? Oi, we need medical attention!" Jyabura yelled, but Kaku noticed something odd. Blueno had multiple shots to the back. Fukuro only had one. Kumadori- he couldn't tell, some of his hair was more red than pink, though.

Spandam began to rant, but Kaku saw it wasn't just him the medical personel were working on.

"It wasn't our fault, it was your orders!"

"Which you were too weak to carry out! I won't tolerate Failures! Kill them!" Lucci's body jerked in Kaku's grasp, blood splattering as multiple gunshots hit.

"Kaku!" Jyabura pulled him away, but Kaku tried to move back, the deck tilting awkwardly as he did so. "Run! Survive!" And Jyabura threw him over the side, turning into a full wolf and howling as he charged the shooter. As Kaku fell, he heard the howl cut off.

But he was going to hit the water, and he couldn't get his body to move- air was shoved out of his lungs as he hit the ice. Hattori suddenly flew past his eyes, taking the bullet meant for him with a shrill call as Kaku managed to roll to his feet. Hattori dropped like a stone onto the ice, but Kaku had to run. Back into the inferno that was the result of the Buster Call. If he could get to the tracks on the other side, he'd be free.

Well, that's that. Again, some details are missing from this flashback, but part of it is Kaku only remembering what he was focused on at the moment.

To those of you that wanted Kaku to go with Luffy, I'm sorry, but that just wasn't possible. He's got his own side adventure already planned, I'm afraid.