"A school field trip?" Swirling the toothpaste around in your mouth, you spat it out and frowned at the phone pressed against your ear, not liking this abrupt news.

You knew you were probably going to miss something important, after skipping school yesterday to concentrate on feeding Cracker- but what Ace was talking about sounded pretty crazy to miss.

"Yeah.." the raven's voice was calm and a slight hint of bitter, something you haven't heard unless Garp was in the same room as him, "the whole school is going on a field trip to the Kiseichu sterilization centre.." in that moment you felt Cracker coagulate into a lead ball in your guts.

Oh shit..

"Apparently the education system thought it was necessary to 'inform students of the dangers surrounding us' after the whole tantrum Kidd had at school.."

You felt an anxious, sombre weight bear down on you- or more accurately, you could feel Cracker become more and more heavy inside of you, as if each of Ace's words brought on more weight.

(Y/N)..

Rubbing your stomach in a hopefully comforting manner, you took in a deep, shaking breath as your nerves began to short circuit, "is- is the field trip mandatory?"

Even though the man answered you immediately afterwards it still felt like time was slower than it should, and Ace was taking longer for you to bear, "it's not obviously, but I wouldn't.." he trailed off, and you could barely gulp down dry nothingness without choking on your fear.

He was right, even if nobody cared that you happened to have been sick, some nosy idiot could decide to stick their nose in, and then they'd probably stumble across the numerous close calls you've had in the past, and worse case scenario the cops and Kiseichu Depurators would be knocking on your apartment door to investigate.

"I see.." your voice came out more fearful than you wanted to but- how couldn't it? This had to be the worse thing ever, the biggest risk of being discovered, going into the fucking territory of everything that went against what you and Cracker stood for- the very deathbed of all Kiseichu kind.

Fleeing from the bathroom, not wanting to see how sickly you must have looked in the mirror, you escaped onto the balcony and tried to remedy your stress with the cool air of the city sky.

Your knuckles were bone white as you clutched onto the phone, "is Luffy and the others okay?" You already assumed you were the last one to know, since you knew you were the only one who skipped school, and the others must have been more of a mess by now.

"Luffy and Katakuri are doing the best out of everybody actually, I guess they're really confident about how strong they are- uh, Kidd's pretty worked out though, Law's been causing him to feel pretty green and he's been getting sick ever since, Zoro said Sanji's not doing so bad but.."

A shadow hung over your face, on the line it sounded like Ace was barely keeping himself from falling over the edge, and Cracker didn't seem he was doing any better.

Swiftly shaking your body in some kind of strange dance, a smile forcefully broke out and you laughed heartily, "hahaha! Why do you sound so glum? You're making it sound like the end Ace! There's no way something crazy would happen on a school trip! Tell that to the others too!"

To your relief, the weight in your stomach slightly gave up, and you felt Cracker squirm a little, Ace though kept silent.

"I haven't been to that place since they took Sabo from me.."

Like that your carefully built up positivity went down the drain, and an empty, numb sensation overcame you.

Then this time, it was Ace and Cracker making a fuss over the line when you didn't respond, "a-ah wait! I mean- you're right (Y/N)! We should be positive!"

(Y/N), we're going to be alright!

Smiling down at your stomach, you patted it happily, "that's right Cracker, we're too strong for those guys"

Soon Ace hung up after a final warning, and you were left alone to your thoughts with Cracker, the air soon became strained with the new very big issue in your life.

(Y/N)..

You rubbed your belly affectionately, "yeah buddy?"

Can we take over tonight...?

You paused for a moment, more caught off guard by the question than hesitating to answer, but nonetheless you relaxed your body against the floor and smiled tiredly, "go ahead man"

The headache was brief, and before you knew it you were out like a light, allowing yourself a few hours of rest from this mess while Cracker vented out his stress.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cracker stared down at the city from where he found a comfortable spot on a skyscraper.

Down below there were various fires, half-crumbled stores, and garbage dotted around the streets, the police and fire fighters were moving swiftly to fix the damage he caused- no, to treat it, there was no fixing what he did, but he didn't care anyway.

The humans below swarmed to the danger of police tape like bugs, it was always humorous to him of how they claimed to have been longing for the end of destruction, how they were so apparently scared of violence, and yet they were drawn to it, they loved it, relished in it.

Such a species of contradictions if he had a say in it.

Watching them move in excitement below made him feel the slightest bit better, but it wasn't enough.

Nothing could ward off the unpleasant sensation coiling in the tissues of his very being, the feeling of something stretching him out, turning him into a bottomless pit that could implode on himself.

He never liked this feeling, it was something that liked following him around lately these days- but now with the news of the 'field trip' it was stronger than ever.

"We..." there was something he had to say, he didn't know what, or who to even say it to, but he just knew there was something he had to say, something that would make him feel better, something that would make everything okay- or at least a little more okay.

Cracker opened your mouth to say anything, anything that came to mind at all, but all the words died before they sounded out and he just crumpled.

"We've been looking for you.." blinking, startled at the familiar deep voice, Cracker turned to see Katakuri leaning hazardously over the side of the building, only being kept from falling by his grip on the ledge, behind him he could spot Law and one of the Sanji boy's Kiseichus leaning back indifferently and losing themselves to the sight of the stars.

"You caused quite a bit of damage" Law's silver eyes glanced from the side to watch them, but quickly went back to staring numbly, not seeing anything above, like the dead.

"We see you still haven't gotten over your habit of taking your anger out on weaker lifeforms.." Katakuri's tone wasn't disappointed or disapproving, not even amused, he was just stating facts, but for some reason it still made Cracker feel some remorse.

"We don't like this.." the green haired Kiseichu growled behind Katakuri, "none of us do.."

Cracker groaned tiredly at that, how long has it been now since he took over? Three- no four hours? Ugh, he was tired.

"None of us likes it, but the best we can do is protect them" all of them turning to Katakuri, the Kiseichu sat over the ledge with his legs crossed, looking like a boss- it was hard to imagine the intimidating titan being anything near related to Luffy- but that was the truth behind the Kiseichu, and honestly nobody would have it any other way.

Especially with how Katakuri was before Luffy.

With a powerful firmness in his steeled eyes, Katakuri glared into the horizon, and Cracker knew what he was about to say next was the straight truth, no matter how ridiculous it was.

"We will protect Luffy no matter what, he is our territory" the purple haired Kiseichu felt a spark as the others agreed with the larger creature.

"Heh, we've been defending Kidd for this long, we aren't going to give up on him now"

"Sanji may be an annoying host... but for Zoro, we'll do whatever we can, besides, it's not like there's any other human out there that could accommodate the four of us"

Staring off into space, Cracker fazed out a little as the blazing lights below became blurry, but when he finally came out of it, he saw the other's watching him, and somehow the words he needed the most just fell out of his lips with absolute confidence.

"We will protect (Y/N)- no matter what"