I do not own One Piece

Warning! There are some dark parts in this chapter.

.......................................................

3rd POV

..........................................................

If Katsu had known her Captain was going to shove the legs onto the back of himself and then continue to refuse to let Zoro hold her, she would have stayed on the ship. Of course, that would have entailed that she knew about the wondering legs before she left the Sunny. Either way, now she's forced to still piggy back on her Captain awkwardly with a pair of legs practically underneath her as said Captain goes around claiming to be a Centaur. Thankfully Robin put a stop to the last bit, claiming he was being insensitive.

The few looks Katsu gave to Zoro were received with looks of pity. The first couple of times Zoro had offered to take Katsu, Luffy had shaken his head and claimed that he was instructed not to let Katsu down. After Luffy gave Zoro a dirty look the first mate gave up and instead just gave the artist apologetic looks.

"I don't know where these legs came from." Katsu groaned, pouting as she rested her head on Luffy's shoulder. "They're hairy. Couldn't we have just tied them up and dragged them around like we're doing with the dragon meat? I don't wanna touch it, it's weird."

Luffy laughed at Katsu's whining. "They're not that weird."

Katsu groaned again, giving up. She thought about mentioning the possibility of Law again, but the last two times Luffy had interrupted her so she wondered if she really wanted to bother again. It was just a 90% chance that it was Law's doing, the other 10% was iffy given that the legs actually managed to talk. She was pretty sure that was not supposed to happen.

"Hey! Get up here!" Katsu glanced upward to see Zoro standing up on some melted building. She didn't bother to react much as Luffy was already running over towards the swordsman.

However, when he got up there he let out a big 'Oohh' and Katsu sat up with an opened mouth.

Across from them was another part of the island. However, unlike the part they were currently on, that half was covered in snow and ice. A drastic change from this half that was covered in fire and volcanoes.

"Wow! What a neat island! It's snowing over there!" Luffy cheered, "It's so hot here I could go for some snow cones!"

"But you'll be cold by the time we get there!" Usopp blinked, shaking his head and looking over at Katsu as if she'll help reason with him.

Immediately Katsu sat up straighter, "Ah! When we get over there you can let me down Luffy!"

"Wait! No!" Usopp cried, looking around to try and find reason.

Luffy frowned skeptically, "Chopper said not to let you down at all..."

She nodded, "Yeah, on the fire side. The ice side is completely different."

Zoro gave her a look, "You gonna wear shoes?"

"Never!"

The answer pulled out a swordsman as he looked at her smugly. "Never." He replied back, his smirk growing when she gasped at him as if he insulted her.

"Katsu-san," Robin stepped in. "While on this side your feet would badly burn, on that side your feet will get severe frostbite. Unless you wear shoes you should not walk, the consequences will be just as bad."

She puffed out her cheeks, "Fine." Then she glanced at Zoro. "Can you carry me instead?"

Before Zoro could answer, Luffy stepped in. "No! Chopper left me in charge. He said I can't let her down until we're at the ship."

Zoro chuckled and shrugged from Katsu's look. The artist groaned and almost rested her head against her Captain's shoulders. However the feeling of being watched crept up on her and made her look upward once more. Her blue eyes narrowed on a winged silhouette. Just briefly she could make out a knowing and cruel smile of a woman with long green hair before her wings flapped and she was gone.

Even a moment after the woman was gone Katsu was still staring in the direction, a serious and concerned frown on her face. She knew she normally attracted bad luck, and this was most likely one of those times. There was absolutely no chance the woman was smiling because she planned to help them. Something bad was going to happen, and soon.

......................................................

A withered old man hummed in disappointment as he looked at the heart monitor. His round glasses were glared over, hiding his squinty black eyes and the white mask hid his wrinkled face. His hands were covered in blood stained white gloves, and his blue scrubs were also blood stained.

He pushed down on the small body's chest, seeing a small rise in the heart monitor then nothing again. A soft sigh escaped him and he turned away from the table. A body of a small child still laid there, his chest still cut open, and blood staining the table.

The man pulled off his gloves and tossed them in the trash as he exited the room, where two other people entered to clean up. His head lifted up to see a familiar face, one he helped train through the years. He pulled down his mask to shake his head at the male which appeared covered in gas.

"Another failure. They just don't seem to take up the higher immunity. I was so close too, just a few more steps and I might have done it." His voice was deep and raspy with age. As he reached down to wash his hands, he grimaced as he caught sight of his right hand. His pinky contained no flesh and was instead solid complete emerald. It made surgeries much harder to do, and he wondered if that was why most of them ended in failure.

Because of the emerald pinky he remembered. He remembered the island. He remembered the pirates. He remembered the first prototype devil fruit. He remembered the first tastes of success. He remembered his valuable experiment.

Caesar was with him, they both monitored the experiment with wide eyes. All the others had failed up until that child. Of course Caesar was more of an apprentice at that time, and he had shortly left due to other obligations, but they both relished in it. However, they had not been able to recreate it exactly the same since then. Each experiment ended up in failure.

He just wished he could get his hands on the first success. Then he could see how, why it was successful. Then lock it up away for all to marvel at, but never touch. Possibly enhance it more.

"I had an interesting chat with Monet." Caesar started, walking closer to the old doctor who looked up at him. "She saw five figures walking around." He started.

"She can take care of them." The doctor mused, "Or Law can, either way."

A grin started to pull at Caesar's lips as he pulled out a piece of paper and played with it for a moment. "She can, with four of them, but I think the fifth you might want."

The man paused as the paper unrolled to show a bounty. He froze, his eyes widening and he reached out to grab the piece of paper. Then he looked back up at Caesar to better confirm it.

"Was she sure?" He asked.

"Well, little experiment is currently in the Straw Hat crew, and those are the guys we have sneaking around. She appears to be close to her Captain, but that is no matter." Caesar shrugged, "I'll ensure she makes it here, just for you. I'm quite curious how she managed to survive all those experiments before, as well as that artificial fruit. But we'll leave Law out of that one."

This made the doctor pause to look at Caesar with curious eyes. "Why Law?"

"Word is that he's friend's with our experiment. Can't have that getting in the way." He grinned and a chuckle began to escape him.

The doctor nodded in agreement before turning away and walking off. "I need to start prepping. I want to get started right away when she arrives. I'll need to cleanse her once more, it appears that it has worn off."

Caesar watched as the doctor walked away with a grin. Perhaps finally he can learn how the man was so successful all those years ago. At least that experiment hadn't died. Not yet, anyway.

He turned and walked towards another operating room. Before she arrived he would like to set up some cameras so that he can monitor from another room. The Doctor didn't like others in the room with him typically. He wanted to be able to see everything this time.

..........................................................................


Katsu knew her Captain tended to make just about everyone his friend. She was normally fine with this, as it was the reason she managed to join his crew. However, with Luffy's new friend, Katsu was feeling quite uncomfortable.

Sure, she was already uncomfortable with the stranger's legs that were attached to Luffy's back underneath her, she was absolutely not about to touch that. Then her Captain spotted an actual Centaur and made the decision that he was to be friends with the human hybrid. That part was fine to Katsu, she was all about making new friends, especially cool looking ones, she was friends with Franky and Brook after all. The problem came in when the Centaur spotted Katsu on Luffy's back.

He made a big fuss about her being on Luffy's back. Saying something about how rude it is to use Centaurs as a source of transportation, and that Luffy is an actual person too, and that Katsu was being a big asshole and forcing Luffy to do such terrible things. To make matters worse, her Captain almost agreed with the Centaur, his eyes growing wide and he looked at Katsu as if she had the audacity to do such a thing. He looked insulted and accusing when he had glared at Katsu. Of course when Katsu tried to leave he remembered the real reason why she was on his back and forbade her from doing such.

This had happened five times so far. It was practically a repeat, and Katsu's patience was thinning.

Either way, the Centaur has a clear dislike for the artist. One that she shares as she glares back at the laughing hybrid. On occasion the hybrid man would look up and glare back at her, which only intensified her own glare.

That all came to an end when Luffy made a comment that he found the legs on the back of a dragon and had connected them to him. The look of shock on the man's face was enough to make Katsu smile before she gripped onto Luffy tighter as he was forced to move out of the way as the Centaur swung his spiked club at them, crashing the ground underneath them.

Luffy attacked immediately, sending out a hard kick to the man's face and knocking out his teeth. Katsu smiled at the sight, feeling quite satisfied.

"How careless of me..." He grumbled, looking seconds away from passing out. "I thought you were one of us!"

"Who says I'm not?!" Luffy huffed, frowning at the passed out hybrid. "I thought we were friends, but then you attacked me!"

Katsu leaned over Luffy's shoulder to scowl at the Centaur before turning her attention to Luffy with a frown. She hooked her finger in his cheek and streaked out his rubber face with a deadpanned one. When he glanced at her, she narrowed her eyes. "We can't make friends with these assholes."

He frowned, then blinked. "Can you draw them?"

Katsu nodded, still holding his cheek.

"And the dragon?"

She nodded again.

"Can you draw me riding the dragon?" His eyes widened and she could catch a sparkle in his eyes.

She paused thinking it over. The longer she stared t her Captain's face, the more she felt her resolve slip before she sighed. "Ah, I think I can do something."

His grin grew larger and he hopped in excitement, Luffy's cheek slipped from her grasp and snapped back into place. Their attention drawing in on the other three that had been inspecting the Centaur.

"Look at this baby transponder snail, it says 'CC' on it!" Everyone's eyes traveled over to Usopp, who was holding up a small snail while looking back at the others. "These aren't wild Centaurs. They must be in some kind of group."

Katsu nodded in agreement. Though the idea itself that Usopp thought of them as wild seemed odd in general. Considering how well they spoke, she had already marked off the idea of them being wild.

"Anyway, now we know there's no point crossing the sea of fire again since the Sunny won't be here." Usopp frowned, "We have no choice but to make our way over to the ice side. And four of our crew mates are missing!"

"I'd wager on them being captive, not just missing." Robin mused, which Katsu nodded in agreement. "Hopefully they haven't executed by firing squad yet..."

Katsu's bobbing head paused to look at Robin with her lip curling upward and squinting her eyes. "Sometimes your thoughts are fucking weird." She mumbled, making Usopp nod in agreement. "People don't use firing squads anymore. They'd probably just kill them a normal way."

"Stop that!!" Usopp shouted, glaring at both Robin and Katsu as the women made their comments.

"Guess it would have been quicker if we had gotten off on the other side to begin with." Zoro sighed.

"Yeah, but then we'd have never gotten to eat a dragon, have Katsu draw me on a dragon, and I'd have never met Ashimaro!" Luffy protested, the last name making Katsu's eye twitch.

"What the hell is 'Ashimaro'?" Zoro frowned looking at Luffy.

"He named the fucking legs!" Katsu shouted, her hands clenching into fists and her cheeks puffing out into a frown. Zoro looked at her and snorted, finding humor in how frustrated the artist was with the set of legs under her.

He found it especially funny that she was troubled severely with how hairy they were. That was how he learned she does not enjoy hairy legs.

"Change of plans! We're going to rescue our crew in the land of ice!" Usopp demanded, raising a fist into the air as if it was a battle cry.

"Do you think they sell winter coats anywhere along the way?" Robin mused.

.....................................................................

End of Chapter 83!

 2 chapters in one week!!

As I mentioned there was a small portion that got dark fast. This whole arc is going to get fairly bad,  as you'll get to see some of Katsu's memories with the marines... I will do my best not to add in too many details as to keep it from being too much, and I will also include warnings. Hopefully the ending bit helped it a little...

On another note... would ya'll be interested in perhaps a disney princess au? I've totally got some ideas...

Predictions? Thoughts? Let me know!

This is not edited.