Joey let out a few short, watery coughs as he was unceremoniously dumped onto the cold stone terrace of Arlong Park.

  “Why the hell did you do that…” Nami muttered, glaring down at them. Though visibly strained, she had still somehow managed to drag all three of them out of the water- apparently, people in this world were even stronger than Joey had given them credit for.

  Either that, or he and Usopp were just… not really all that difficult to push around.

  “Zoro, what the hell was that for?!” Usopp hissed, shivering at the chill touch of his soaking wet clothes. “I’m all for escaping by water, but we were tied up! We could have died!”

  “Did we, though?” the swordsman responded, still smirking even after all that had happened.

  “Nami… what exactly… is going on here?” Arlong asked, frowning. “You said you didn’t care what happened to these three. Am I to believe that you lied?”

  To Nami’s credit, she appeared entirely unfazed by this suspicion, turning around to face Arlong with a calm, neutral expression. “I had a feeling that you would prefer to kill them yourself- that’s why I pulled them out.”

  “I’d take that with a grain of salt,” one of Arlong’s commanders said- a large bulky man with fins on his forearms, whom Joey couldn’t recall the name of. “Nami’s specialty is betrayal, remember. Who knows what’s going on in that head of hers.”

  “Hey!” Nami shouted indignantly. “I’m close to raising the amount we agreed on, remember. Why would I throw all that away over a stupid stunt like this?”

  “You know what? Fine, that’s fair,” Arlong admitted. “You have a right to be angry when you’ve been nothing but loyal to us for the last eight years. And you’re right, you know. These three would be better off-”

  Before the sawshark fishman could finish his sentence, however, a loud dopey voice came from behind the pagoda, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “Hey, Arlong! Momoo’s not showing up for lunch, so I was just looking for him, and… uh…”

  “Hachi…” Arlong said slowly. “You’ve arrived at a rather inconvenient time. I was just in the middle of dealing with these three.”

  “Um… maybe I should just go for now?” the octopus fishman Hatchan said, shuffling backwards awkwardly.

  Arlong shook his head, sighing, and waved Hatchan forward. “No, Hachi, you can finish whatever it is you were saying. As long as it was important, that is.”

  “Well, like I said, I was looking for Momoo, and I saw a flying ship!”

  Zoro, Usopp, Joey and Nami all immediately tensed up, going pale with fear as they guessed, with varying degrees of certainty, what Hatchan had seen. Even without the benefit of future knowledge, anyone who knew Luffy well enough knew such an entrance was characteristic of the rubber pirate.

  “What?” Arlong said, staring at Hatchan with his eyebrow raised. The six-armed fishman, however, was silent, a helpless look on his face as he tried, in vain, to articulate what he had seen. Joey, meanwhile, was frantically squirming in order to get a better look at the sky above Arlong Park, accidentally kicking Usopp in the back as he did so. The latter’s yelp of pain, and subsequent complaints, were promptly drowned out, however, as a loud crashing sound from the field behind the pagoda reverberated throughout the surrounding area.

  “That idiot…” Zoro and Nami groaned in unison.

  ‘How have I already fucked up the timeline that badly?!’ Joey thought in alarm, his mind reeling from the potential for disaster this new development had brought about.

  “Kuroobi,” Arlong muttered, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his long, saw-like nose. “Go and figure out what the hell Hachi saw. If you find any humans who claim to be with Roronoa, or otherwise show hostility… you have my permission to kill them. In the meantime, I still need to deal with these three.”

  “On it,” said the same fishman with fins who had spoken earlier. He turned around and walked behind the pagoda, giving the still-dumbfounded Hatchan an indecipherable look as he brushed past him.

  Then, Arlong gingerly lifted himself out of his chair, and began striding forwards menacingly. “Now… I was planning on letting Nami take your heads, and making a big show out of it. However, plans change, and I still have much to do today. So how about I make this as fast and painless as possible, and take care of you right here and now?”

  “Like hell we’re dying here,” Zoro growled, writhing around in his restraints in an attempt to slip free- the ropes were tied too tightly, though, and all he managed to achieve was annoying Usopp and Joey.

  ‘Maybe I could get out of these ropes with aura? Somehow?’ Joey thought, closing his eyes as he tapped into the aura plane- his vision was not impeded by this, however, as he could still sense the presence of every life form nearby. He liked to compare his ‘aura-vision’ to a heatmap, or a UI in a video game; blobs of light indicated each major source of aura, and a faint blue mist represented the rest that was spread out evenly throughout his surroundings.

  As such, he was acutely aware of Arlong growing closer and closer to them, and began to panic.

  “Come on, come on… surely there’s some way out of here,” he muttered, trying desperately to think of something. Usopp and Zoro were still now, waiting to see what Arlong would do, and ready to stand up and make a break for it if necessary- but all three of them knew that course of action was unlikely to end well. They were outnumbered, had limited mobility, and were deep in enemy territory. Sweat began to course down Joey’s brow as he focused as much of his energy as he could on getting free- but without knowing how to do so, it was all for naught.

  “Understand now, foolish humans,” Arlong spat, placing his webbed foot on Zoro’s neck. “It was a mistake to come here. There is no way you can stand against the might of nature itself.”

  ‘Goddammit!’ he screamed in his head, gritting his teeth as he prepared for whatever was to come next. ‘I just need to be- anywhere but here, I don’t know!’

  Then, suddenly, a flash of blue light engulfed his vision, and he felt a vague feeling of displacement. He opened his eyes in alarm, only to find himself somewhere completely different.

  “Where the hell are we?!”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “W-what was that?”

  “Fuck shit fuck shit fuck-”

  After taking a couple of seconds to recover from the shock, Joey looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened. Almost immediately, however, he recognized the giant shark-head statue that loomed above them, and the color drained out of his face, as. Somehow, they had teleported to the top of Arlong Park’s central pagoda. And- as if it wasn’t bad enough already- he was still bound to Zoro and Usopp, meaning that unless they could perfectly coordinate their movements, getting anywhere, let alone off the roof, was almost impossible. In short? They were out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

  “Um…” he said, gulping nervously.

  “What is it?” Zoro growled.

  “I’m… scared of heights.”

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

  Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, they all noticed something rather alarming- they were slowly but surely slipping down the roof, sliding over the dark red tiles like a pat of butter courtesy of a surface slickened by yesterday’s rain.

  “Crapcrapcrapcrap!” Joey yelled, scrambling for purchase as they began to move faster and faster. These movements only grew more panicked the closer they came to the edge of the pagoda- this, however, was to his detriment, as the wild swings he made at the nearby tiles were too frenzied to properly grasp anything. As they began to tip over the edge, he murmured a string of jumbled up prayers to himself in panic- most of which he didn’t even know the meaning of.

  Then… they fell.

  What followed was a speeding descent that reminded Joey of a roller coaster ride; if said roller coaster was detached from its rails and spinning head over heels at a sickening rate. And he didn’t even like normal roller coasters. His vision was quickly filled with a churning froth of colors, ranging from the light blues and wispy greys of the sky above to the garish yellows and reds of the pagoda underneath.

  A fun fact about pagodas? They lent themselves perfectly to rolling down them like a tumbleweed. Many a time had he looked up at the curved roofs of the houses in Ecruteak City and wondered whether or not it would be fun to slide down them, and now he had his answer. It most certainly was not.

  The trip was frightening beyond belief, very bumpy- thanks to the odd tile here and there that jutted out just a little bit- and, top it off, filled with a cacophony of screams and pleas for help from all three of them. It especially didn’t help that every so often, they would drop down to a lower part of the roof, which gave Joey the very unwelcome feeling of his heat dropping into his stomach.

  And, to top it off? Throughout the whole trip, they were all squirming around, making futile attempts to either stop their fall, slow down their blistering pace, or at least escape their bonds and gain some independence from each other in their final moments. All this did, however, was tire them out even more, and it wasn’t long before they reached the end of the lowest level- the one with the largest curve- and Joey realized with a growing dread that their descent would not end quite so well as he had hoped.

  The pagoda roof had acted like the perfect ramp, and they had just reached the end of it.

  “FORTHELOVEOFARCEUSWHY?!!!!” he yelled, frightened tears streaming down his face as they were launched into the air and sent sailing over the large field behind the pagoda. The ground underneath them blurred into a mix of earthy browns and bright greens, and he could feel the wind whipping across his face as they sailed through the air like a torpedo. His mind was empty now, the frenzied beating of his heart drowning out his thoughts like a drum. He could feel his soul leaving his body as he drew closer and closer to the grassy field down below.

  All he could do now was pray to Arceus that he came out of this alive… oh, wait, Arceus didn’t even exist here. He was screwed, then. If it was any consolation, he was pretty sure those ropes wouldn’t survive the impact with the rapidly approaching boat wait oh shit he was about to crash into the mast-

  “Hey, guys!” Luffy said, a wide grin on his face. “Have you found Nami yet?”

  “That’s the first question you ask us…?” Joey groaned, lying on the ground in a daze. He was no doctor, but he had a feeling that being able to count the number of places where you felt intense pain on both hands was bad.

  Zoro, meanwhile, was slowly sitting up, seeming only a little worse for wear- out of some sort of insane durability that Joey still didn’t understand, but was growing used to seeing. Even Usopp, who had landed on his side and was bruised in more places than he wasn’t, was able to prop himself up on his elbow and turn to face everyone else.

  “Let’s… never do that again…” the sniper groaned.

  “Agreed,” Zoro conceded.

  “Yeah, we found Nami,” Joey said, trying his best to get up like the other two had, ignoring his body’s violent (and painful) protests. “But, well… it’s not as simple as just taking her with us.”

  “Why not?” Luffy asked, tilting his head in confusion.

  Zoro winced, and rubbed his head with the palm of his hand. “Because she’s with Arlong’s crew. She was planning to betray us the whole time.”

  “Nami would never do that!” Luffy protested.

  “Except she clearly did.”

  The rubber pirate shook his head, his face set in determination. “I trust Nami. She’s still part of our crew, no matter what, and we need to get her back.”

  Sanji chose that moment to clamber out from underneath the rubble, dusting a few wood shavings off his suit. “Nami-swan is ninety-five percent of the reason I decided to join your crew, so you bet your ass I’m going after her.”

  “Can it with your lovey-dovey crap, shit-cook,” Zoro grumbled as he rose to his feet.

  “Watch it, mosshead,” Sanji snarled, leaning towards him threateningly.

  “What’d you call me?!”

  “Mosshead. ‘Cause it looks like moss is growing on your head.”

  “I know what it means, swirly-brows!”

  “Listen, as entertaining as it would be to watch you shout at each other all day…” Joey cut in, “I think we have some company.”

  The two of them, and everyone else shortly after, looked over to where he was pointing- there was a figure growing closer and closer towards them, coming from the direction of the pagoda.

  As the figure drew closer, however, Joey stiffened, realizing that it was not who he had expected to appear. The silhouette grew to be much larger than an average human, and he could make out a few odd protrusions that definitely weren’t normal. In fact, the closer and closer he came, the more Joey began to pale in horror.

  Kuroobi was walking towards them- and to make matters worse, he was dragging an unconscious, bloodied Johnny behind him.

  “Oh… oh no…” he breathed. Gasps sounded out from among the group, as they saw what was coming their way- even Sanji had a grimace on his face. Out of the corner of his eye, Joey noticed Yosaku climbing up from underneath the rubble, appearing somewhat dazed- but it didn’t take long for the bounty hunter to read the room, and collect himself.

  “What the hell did you do to Johnny?!” Zoro shouted, glowering at Kuroobi. The fishman looked down at him with disdain, and tossed Johnny’s unconscious body on the ground with a thump.

  “He got in the way. I took care of him. That’s all. I admire his bravery, but it was ultimately a foolish endeavor. He should have stayed hidden.”

  Needless to say, Zoro did not take too kindly to this.

  “Johnny was my partner,” he said, a shadow crossing his face. “My friend. And you tossed him aside like a piece of trash.”

  “You’ve made a big mistake, fish-bastard,” Yosaku growled, stepping up next to Zoro.

  Kuroobi scoffed. “I don’t believe you quite understand what you’re doing here. You want to fight? Be my guest, but it’s your own life you’re throwing away.”

  At this, Zoro’s hand moved to Wado Ichimonji’s hilt, and he slowly began to draw the sword out.

  “We’ll see about that.”