Back on the Sunny, Luffy was jumping up and down, "Woah!! You were so cool!! I wanna fight you next! Lemme do it! Lemme do it!!"

"You want to fight me?" Katara raised a brow.

"Yesyesyesyes."

"Okay, bring it on then." Katara said, having some water rise from the sides of the boat, floating them like huge snakes alongside her.

"Woah thats even cooler than this morning!" He marveled, jumping back and forth.

"You talk a lot!"

"Shi shi shi! I know!!" He shouted, jumping at her with a fist, not using haki because he knew she couldn't use it.

Katara dodged and was surprised when the punch let following her. She sent a spear of ice towards it but it didn't hit because it snapped back into place. She completely forgot how weird this man and his abilities were.

"Come on! Come at me! Don't be scared! I can handle whatever you've got!"

Katara still wanted to learn more about luffys abilities, so she decided to be nice and not use his curse against him. At least not yet. She rose the water up next to her, making it into spears, all pointed at luffy. His mouth dropped. He saw her use ice earlier when she was in front of the sea king, but it was different to see it up close.

She shot her attack at him with full speed, leaving some extra spikes to attack once he dodged or tried moving away. She scratched him twice and when he jumped upwards, she got a good shot at his stomach. It directly hit.

But so did the fist to her cheek. She stumbled back

"You good?" Luffy looked at her with a quizzical eye. Surely she wasn't down already?

"Yeah." She nodded, bending the water into a fog, surrounding the deck of the sunny.

"Woahhh what's happening?" Luffy stuck his hands out to the blurry stubstance. Katara grabbed him with a water tendril and spun him around. "WoAh woAoh WoaH wOwah!"

Katara let him spin into the wall, hitting himself hard with the centrifugal force. He bounced off it and stumbled his way back up to two feet. "That was a bad ending." He complained as if it was a carnival ride she would modify with his review on it.

"It was the nice ending believe it or not." She laughed.

"Mmm I'll believe you. Make it nicer next time though!"

"Uh.. sure?" Katara used her water, throwing sharp circular discs  to him. He dodged again despite not being able to see. Come one! Try something cooler!"

Katara kept giving him attacks, being able to feel where he was in the fog. She had no idea how he was able to dodge without seeing. It's not like he was able to feel her through the floor like toph. He was wearing sandals after all. How he managed to fight with those not flying off his feet, she will never understand.

Ussop and nami watched the battle unfold, sharing a bottle of wine. "Why do you think they're both holding back?" Ussop asked.

Nami shrugged, "They probably just don't want to hurt each other."

"Yeah but if that's the case, why fight?"

"Because he gets to see what she can do. I'm very curious as well. Plus I think she's wondering about him too. She could have tossed him out to sea or just put him in a blob of water, but instead she's fighting with a spear or a slice."

"Luffys never tested anyone else before?"

"No, he hasn't..." Nami thought back to how Katara was always looked down upon the male educators and got a little upset with the situation. Not that luffy meant any harm in any way, but it could ring an uncomfortable bell. "But not that many people have hidden talents like her I guess?"

"That's kinda lame."

"I know." She frowned., taking a good sip of her wine.

Luffy ran at Katara, finally finding her in the fog. "Gum gum!!! Pistol!!" He shot striaght where he thought she was.

With some water, she held a blob in front of her, making the top layer of ice curve to the side so she could redirect the attack. She made sure to make it nice and slippery. It worked.

Luffy however had other plans and jumped at her causing her to scream. Never had someone done that to her before. Well, maybe momo but that was different. They fell on the floor, the icy water also have been moved to push on his chest, successfully making him limp.

"Fair game." Katara said, not really declaring victory. She was still pinned on the ground despite luffys lack of triumph attitude because of the elements.

"Fair game." He agreed, calling a truce.

Katara tossed the water overboard with a flick of the hand as luffy got off her, offering a hand. She took it and stood up with him. Luffy was the first to ask, "Did you avoid using water on me on purpose?"

"Yeah. I thought it would be more fair that way."

Luffy heartily laughed. If only she knew how easy he went on her. He felt like Ace for a brief moment. He remembered getting laughed at because he'd try to use his gum gum pistol against him but end up ricocheting and punching himself in the face. Ace would dodge and laugh at how goofy he was, not trying his all to fight but to give luffy a chance to figure stuff out.

—-

Back on the neighboring pirate ship, the captain was coming up with a plan. "I want that girl. She is powerful and able to tame the sea. I've never seen anything like it. If we can control her powers, we will be unstoppable. GEHEHEHEHEH"

"Yes captain! I'll set up the traps right now!"

—-

Ussop, Luffy, and Katara all walked down the doc towards the town. Katara wanted to see what more people looked like and acted like here. The culture was vastly different from her home and it was fun to explore new things!

Luffy, the certified tour guide led them to his favorite places, "Over here are the food vendors!! Everything's so yummy here!" His mouth watered at the smells and thought of eating from here once again. Or just eating in general.

"Such a simple man." Ussop laughed before he felt a tug on his waist. He looked down seeing a tan rubber arm circling around him and Katara. "Uh oh. Not again."

They were flung back to their captain and luffy shoved stolen food into Ussops face as he ran, "ITS SO GOOD!" He shouted to the boy who tried his best not to choke on the dumplings being shoved in his mouth as he was being held. "Your turn!"

Katara yelped and squirmed to get away, only succeeding in elbowing Ussop in the face as they were carried under luffys arm as he ran in the opposite direction from the now angry vendors. "I'm okay luffy! I don't want one!"

"But it's yummy!! And sanji says I gotta share when I eat!" Luffy argued, using his free hand to wave the handful of dumplings in front of her face.

Katara glared at him, only to be met soon with the ground, luffy toppling over for some reason with a shout.

Shoving the uneaten food in his mouth to free his hand, he held onto the other two with his outstretched arms as best as possible so they wouldn't get hurt because of his stumble.

Katara grumbled as she tried to sit upright on the floor, finding herself trapped underneath Ussop. "Ow, get off me."

"I can't, there's some net that we ran into. I'm stuck. Luffy, you move first. The opening is probably at your feet or behind you since you ran into it head on."

"I don't see anything. Just your butt." Luffy shrugged lazily.

"Luffy?" Worrying that the boy may have gotten hurt on the way down, Ussop turned his head the best he could to look at the boys face.

What he saw was that lax expression luffy would have when thrown overboard. Maybe this was made with sea prism stone. He looked back at the net to inspect its design more, not recognizing it as the same from the other ones he's seen in the past. His hypothesis came to a stop when he heard luffy ask,"Did someone pee?"

"HOLD IT IN!" Katara yelled, not liking where this was going since she was the only one fully lying on the floor.

"IM NOT PEEING???" Ussop yelled back quickly, astonished he'd be accused of such a thing. "LUFFY YOU HOLD IT!"

"I don't need to go? My foot is just all wet."

Katara looked to her right and saw his classic sandals on top of her (now) torn through water canteen she made by hand with the remains of a seal. "Awe no..." She frowned, getting pretty upset that one of the few things she had from home was now broken.

Footsteps approached and a foot hit luffys back, kicking them forward towards the decline of the hill.

From the bottom they could hear a faint laugh of "GEHEHEHEH."

Tumbling on top one another, many shouting in pain as knees and elbows jabbed, Ussop was the first to say, "Guys this was a trap! We got caught by someone! OOF!" He was jabbed in the back with a rock with a dull but very hurtful edge.

"A trap!? OW! Watch it!" Katara shouted as they stopped falling but kept rolling onto the floor.

"I'm not doing anything!" Luffy complained, grunted as his back hit the floor one last time and the other two were thrown on top of him.

Katara, now being squished face to face with the rubber boy saw what Ussop had been worried about, "Your face looks weird again."

Luffy laughed and pinched her cheek, "Your face looks weird!"

"Does not!"

"Gehehehehe!" The three turned to the new voice and saw a large man wearing a classic black pirates coat. "I'm glad you all could make it. I layered this net with sea prism stone. Good luck getting out of this one. Users of the seas hated fruit stand no chance."

"What do you want from us?!" Ussop asked seeing as the other two were preoccupied with calling each others faces stupid.

"We want the girl. Taming a sea king is no small feat. That devil fruit is amazing too. How did she get the water to not repel her? It's a mystery which I want to keep for myself." He grinned madly.

"Oh that?!?" Ussop laughed, trying to think of a good lie. "That was me! The mighty captain Ussop and his trusty sea king call!"

"You? GEHEHEHEHE!! That's hilarious. It was obviously the girl. Your dumbass was calling for help on the speakers of your boat!!"

Ussop bit his lip, hating the way he was right. It was a silly mistake that probably got them in this situation.

Nonetheless he steeled his nerves and started rummaging through his bag, "I'll trade you to get out of this net! As a captain of the sea, finding treasures worth tons of berry is second nature to me!" Loudly things clattered in his bag as he rummaged for it. He took out a handful of items, making sure to drop the closed pocket knife on Katara leg so hopefully she can cut their way out without their captors looking too hard.

Ussop mentally hit himself for discarding the majority of the random items he usually kept in his bag. Pulling out his pet rock he found randomly on the sunny during their travels, he held it in his palm to show. "This, my friends is older than the lost century. Legend says it holds a clue to all the secrets of the world inside. But only a fearless warrior with the sword of god can open it to reveal the truth."

"USSOP YOUVE HAD THAT THE WHOLE TIME?!" Luffy shouted, trying to grab it now. "YOU DIDNT TELL ME?!"

"LUFFY SHUT UP IM DOING BUSINESS!"

One of the smaller crewmates looked at the item with intrigue, "Captain, that's amazing. We need that for ourselves. That would make us more cash than the girl!"

"We're not in it for cash! We're in it for the reputation! For the power! This rock looking thing is stupid. I want the girl." He rubbed his hands together in excitement.

"Captain! I'm sure this will make us famous! Like you've always wanted!"

Luffy, now angry that Ussop was going to sell all the secrets of the world to get them out of a stupid net shimmied over and bit the rock.

It split in two.

Everyone looked at the object and luffy in shock.

"Were you trying to make a fool of me?!" The burly pirate unsheathed his daggar. "A fool?! Of me?!! How dare you." He glared through Ussops skull before turning over, punching his small crewmate in the gut, making him fly a few feet away before hitting the ground hard.

Luffy was enraged, "What did he ever do?!"

"He was dumb enough to belive you. Tried to pull me down with him too." The man growled, bending down on his creaky knee, positioning the knife to Ussops stomach, "I'll make you pay."

Luffy saw no escape. He could barley move his body. And what was moving was pinched and pinned to the floor by very small amount of room this net provided. "Katara! We could use your help!"

"But I have no water???" She asked, dropping the blade she was using to try and escape.

"The other thing!"

"But-" she inturpted, not understanding why she couldn't just use the knife. Or hell, have luffy use it?! Couldn't anyone fight back?? Why does she have to use her blood bending?!

Ussop seethed, feeling the blade agonizingly prick through the surface of his skin. She watched as her friend started to bleed. The evil grin of the man in front of them.

"Do it already!" Luffy commanded one last time.

Katara positioned her hands in front of her in the beginning blood bending position, staring at the ugly man, watching as he froze in place. "W-hat?"

Ussop sighed and backed up what little he could so that the blade was no longer touching his skin.

"Make him give us space." Luffy ordered once again.

"Do I have to?"

Ussop was next to speak, "Its okay Katara. I know your nervous but he knows what's best for us. He's our captain. Just do what he says. It's not our call to make."

Katara frowned, at the lack of options. She did agree to be apart of his crew and these were the steaks it had. Ussop did have a point. She should listen to the leader. They were all kind enough to take her in so this is the least she could do.

Pushing her arms forward slightly, the man's body slid back two feet away from them in the same position as before. His eyes were wide with fear and confusion. "What's happening?!"

"Keep him there while we figure a way out." Luffy said, receiving a small "ok" from her.

"How much were you able to cut?" Ussop turned around to look at her.

"Not too much. Only three connecting points. We need at least four more to squeeze out."

"Can you pass me the knife?"

"I can't move my arms when holding him. It's by my leg though. Go ahead and continue. "

"Oh okay." Ussop nodded getting to work on cutting the last few, choosing the saw option of the pocket knife, deeming it as a better fit for the situation.

"What are you doing?! Are you a witch?! Is this how you controlled those beasts?!"

"I'm not a witch! I'm a waterbender! How come everyone thinks of a witch when they see me so cool things?" Katara groaned, the association reminding her of the fire benders who disrespected the legend of the painted lady spirit.

"Because witches are cool?" Luffy picked his nose.

Ussop quickly said, "No they're not. Namis a witch and she's not cool."

"Hey! Namis cool!"

"Not when she acts like a witch and hits us all!"

"Yeah true." Luffy shrugged.

Ussop closed the knife and then shimmied his way out of the net, grabbing his bag which he left inside to make it an easier slip.

Grabbing some extra rope, he went over to the big man and restrained him properly. "Okay Katara, you can let go now!"

"Get off me, you witch! And you, you LIAR!" He started screaming, craning his neck and attempting to escape the new restraints.

Katara was the next to set herself free, helping out luffy who was a bit slower than usual.

"Woo that feels better." He grinned once he stepped out of the sea prism stone. "Thanks!"

"Yeah. But luffy..."

"Hm?"

"Are you sure we did the right thing? I've always thought this skill was... evil?"

"Why?"

"It just seems so wrong. Controlling someones body against their will..."

"You think too much about things." Luffy placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What you're asking isn't all that complicated."

"How so?"

"I don't think it's evil to help your friends. So the way you do it isn't evil. And since you are not evil. Your powers aren't!"

Katara stood looking at luffy in slight shock. Maybe some things really are that simple.

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