In order to help protect Izuku and his group, they were split into four teams with each having their own objective in mind. After a heroic battle in Hosu, news had gotten everywhere, even to far off kingdoms and on the sea. Ochako, Kirishima and Ojiro had learned of this as well as Izuku's role in freeing the kingdom of Dressrosa. However, they were not the only ones knowledgeable of what was transpiring in the world as things progressed for the young Fire Fist.

Itsuka POV:

"Hmm..." After setting off to the island of Punk Hazard, Tsu and I began training with the Marines while also learning of traveling the sea during this. As we did, we were able to find out how to navigate the Grand Line thanks to the Vice Admiral with me even learning how to use some of the Six Powers. It's only Tempest Kick and Iron Body, but it's growth. Right now, I'm reading an article about he incidents with Hosu and Izuku. "I guess Izuku beat Yaomomo's group to the punch. Says here that they were able to even recover Caesar Clown. Though badly injured and needing hospital care, he was alive."

"IZUKU WAS IN A FIGHT!? IS HE OK!? HE ISN'T HURT, RIGHT!? ANSWER ME!" Baby 5 ran over to me and began shaking my body and keeping me from answering. It was only until Monet came over to pull the newspaper from my hands to answer the question.

"Says here, Potgas D. Izuku was badly injured to need medical help, but is expected to make a full recovery."

"That's a relief." I was let go with the temperature around us getting colder.

"Why's it so cold?"

"It's cause we're getting close." Tashigi came over with a winter coat to give me while Tsu stood behind her with one already on. "To the horizon, you can see the island of Punk Hazard."

I ran over to the front of the ship to see something that marveled me. "WHAT THE HELL!? One side is on fire and the other side is frozen!? WHAT TYPE OF MESSED UP ISLAND IS THIS!?"

"It's an island that stands as a national landmark for the Marines." Smoker came over while smoking two cigars in his mouth. "About ten years ago, Punk Hazard was used as a former science base for Dr. Vegapunk to test out some bioweapons. The test subjects he used were Impel Down prisoners that nobody would care died. One day, Caesar who was a scientist at the time, activated a weapon that covered the island in poison gas. It took about eight years to clear it out."

"Ok, but why is it frozen and on fire?" Tsu questioned for Smoker to tap his cigars to get some of the ash off.

"Not long after the War of the Best, Aokiji and Akainu fought on this island. Sengoku wanted Aokiji to succeed him, while the higher ups prefered Akainu. Since neither could come to a compromise, a fight was decided with this island being used as the battleground. For ten days they fought with Akainu just succeeding. The drawback of their fight though forever changed the land around them due to their Ice Ice Fruit and Magma Magma Fruit."

"Wait, how does that make sense? Devil Fruits only effect the user, not the land."

Smoke breathed out a little smoke before answering. "Both were able to awaken their Devil Fruits. It's a trick that not everyone can do, but allows those that can to alter the outside world. As such, Akainu was given the ability to turn one half into an active volcanic area while Aokiji turned the other half of the island into a winter wasteland. Up until the Punk Hazard incident, this island has yet to see any normal bystanders being barricaded off by the World Government."

"So this is an island that shows the true might of a former admiral and the current fleet admiral. Scary." Listening to the area, I heard absolutely nothing. Not a bird, animal, not even a bug. It was like all life that was on this island was dead and gone.

"AH!" One of the Marines shouted for us to look over with ice just dropping. "Sorry. This place puts me on edge."

"Try not to shout next time a chunk of ice falls in the water."

"Y-yes Smokey." We continued sailing closer and closer towards the center of the island until we got to the shores of what looked like a lab. It's seen better days without a doubt, but there was this strange color to it. Almost like the ice and the building itself was petrified.

"What happened here?"

"When Caesar Clown was operating here illegally, he created a bioweapon called Land of the Dead. We nearly lost all of our Marines in the process of stopping him. Several we believed to have lost to find out later a blessing in the way of finding out they could be saved if we acted quickly. Things would've been much worse if Izuku wasn't here though." Tashigi seemed a little worried before I decided to ask.

"I know he was here during this incident as well as the Dressrosa incident from what Monet and Baby 5 said, but what did he do here that was so special?"

A marine smiled while answering. "When we were setting foot on this island, we ran into the Warlord at the time Law and a big fight broke out. Both Izuku and Smokey were handling him and actually pushing him back. Though things went south when the Straw Hats came to the fight, it threw them all off with Izuku, Tashigi and Smokey having their bodies swapped."

"Wait, who's body was Izuku in?" Tashigi turned away from us to get a smile on my face. "So he felt what it was to be you. Did he get to feel your boobs?"

"I REFUSED TO LET HIM EVEN TOUCH ME IN ANY WAY LIKE THAT!" We all started laughing before Smoker spoke up.

"QUIT YOUR BLABBERING AND DROP ANCHOR! We're heading ashore!" The crew did this for us to hop off the ship and begin walking on the ground. The land felt uneasy with how little life there was before we came to the door. "Baby 5. Do you mind?"

"Easy. Arms Morphasis." Baby 5 turned her hand into a blow torch to burn a hole in the wall big enough for us to fit through. Once done, the slab slid back with the inside of the lab being petrified as well.

"This is scary."

"I know how you feel, Tsu." I felt like something was going to jump out any minute with no actual sound other than our footsteps being heard.

"Be careful and look for anything that may indicate that someone's been here." Smoker pointed this out for me to not focus where I was going and trip over something. I fell on the ground with everyone looking over to me to make sure I was ok. "What happened?"

"Nothing really. I'm ok-" I stopped when I opened my eyes to see what looked like a dragon with it's mouth open right in front of me. "AAAAHHHH!!!!" I jumped up and hid behind Monet who seemed unphased. "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING!?"

"A bioengineered dragon."

"AS IN WHAT IS THAT THING DOING HERE!?"

"It was a guard dog basically here. Don't worry. It's long dead." I wasn't worried about it being dead, but I was at least a little content knowing it wasn't going to attack us.

"Izuku made certain of that." The Marines of G-5 spoke up with one explaining what happened.

"When we were here, this thing began attacking us with it breathing fire and everything. Before it could actually kill us though, Izuku swooped in and kicked it's ass."

"It was so cool, it even made my heart skip a beat."

Me, Tsu, Monet, Tashigi and Baby 5 all stared at the Marine similarly disgusted to the point of thinking why he admitted to that before going on. "So Izuku was able to take that thing down? That's pretty awesome."

"He's done some amazing things over the years. Punk Hazard was a notable one. The fact he also succeeded with this while in my body helped out as well."

"So Izuku won without using his fire? That's definitely worth some praise, *ribbit*."

"But it's expected. My honey would never lose to a dumb lizard." Baby 5 began showing pride before we made it to another door. This one was shut to make us force it open. When we did, there was a notable amount of dust and footprints on the ground.

"Someone's been here recently. Question is, what were they looking for?"

"My best guess is the information on the drug." Smoker looked at all of us before speaking again. "Tashigi. You take Baby 5 and some of our Marines to follow the footprints. Monet. You take Froppy and Battle Fist towards the main lab in here to get any info you can on the research you've done here with Ceasar Clown. The rest of you, go and make a perimeter around the area to see if you can find anything else out of place such as another set of footprints or something."

"Yes sir." Everyone saluted before splitting up. Monet didn't waste time and allowed us to follow her straight towards the main area of the lab. Getting there though, we passed what looked like a daycare for Tsu to slow down a little.

"What is this place?"

"It's a room where we kept test subjects."

"Wait...you mean those kids you said you...you know."

Monet looked away before answering us while picking up a doll. "I make no excuse for what I did. I can stand here and give you a speech about how I would change things if I went back in time knowing what I do now. Sad truth is, I probably would have done the same thing over again. Many died in this lab. Protector and test subject alike. I'm not proud of what I did but their untimely demises are why I must atone. This is also why I can never forgive myself for what happened."

"I think you're trying your best to make up for what you did." I felt a bit of empathy for Monet before I patted her shoulder. "It takes a lot to say you screwed up. It takes more to try and make up for what you did, impossible you may think. It just shows how regretful you are knowing this truly happened and is why you want to make things right. To me, that's enough to consider forgiveness for you."

A smile came on the normally stoic scientist before we continued onto the lab. Once there, we noticed a room with several bottles in a mini bar, a couch, alongside a room entering to a main laboratory. "Caesar was rather orderly of his notes, so finding it should be fairly simple."

"What are we looking for exactly *ribbit*?"

"Aside from a book, there are written copies. original notes from the man if you'd wish to call it that. These notes are the ones he took as he conducted the research he did on the spot alongside the information from the assistants to our work." I looked around for anything along the line of that to find a strange piece of candy. It looked exactly like Rampage for me to ask Monet about it.

"I'm guessing this is the candy that you made for the kids?"

She took one glance at it before letting out a sigh. "Yes. That candy you hold in your hands is the source of so much agony. Please destroy it." Following her orders, I dropped the candy on the ground before crushing it with my foot. A strange smoke came out of it before Monet looked into a cupboard and slammed her hand on it. "SON OF A BITCH!"

"What's wrong?"

"WHOEVER WAS HERE BEFORE US WAS SMART ENOUGH TO TAKE THE ORIGINAL COPY! Only me and Caesar knew exactly where to find it, so it was either him or a top executive on Doflamingo's order to pick it up. Size of the handprints on the area wants me to believe it was Vergo. Without those notes, I can't make antibodies for the drug."

"So in short, you'll need information from Caesar to where to find the research data."

"Or pull it out of him through interrogation. I wonder how the G-5 would feel ripping information out of a barely alive man?" I shivered at that thought before the sound of footsteps came to show Tashigi and the others.

"I take it you all couldn't find anything?" We all held our head down for Tashigi's answer.

"Whoever was here before us couldn't have been here long. It would've had to been a week, maybe two since some dust accumulated back where they touched."

"That would fall within the timeline of when Doflamingo escaped."

"Wait, so Doflamingo and his family were taken out of Impel Down, came here, and then came to Japan?"

"Most likely the case, Tsu. *Sigh* Smoker isn't going to like this."

"We may not be as bad off as you think, Tashigi." We all looked at Monet as she began thinking. "NHC-10 may be dangerous, but it's also something not just anyone can get a hold of so easily. Even the black market can't supply enough to make the amount someone is using to create something similar to the drug if I remember. They'd need to be in touch with someone to make it and only a handful even have the qualifications to do so. If it fails in the formulation process, it becomes a highly explosive product that would be better off as a pyrotechnic."

"So in short, all we need to do is find someone that has the ability to make NHC-10 and find out if they're the source. How many people can do that in Japan?"

Monet thought about this before answering my question. "Last I checked, only about five would have the authorization to use it in Japan, and there's two facilities that could, so the leak has to be one of those seven. Also, it would have to be someone high up on the food chain if it was the later since it would be easier to hide. I'll talk to Smoker about this and hopefully, we can at least cut off the flow as easily as it's being put out."

We started walking back towards the area we left the Vice Admiral to tell him our findings. He wasn't exactly thrilled, but there's little we can do about that. We decided to head back after this to Japan before one of the lookouts said something. "SMOKEY! I SEE SOMETHING IN THE DISTANCE!"

"IT'S HARD TO MAKE OUT! LOOKS LIKE AN OVERSIZED BIRD COMING TOWARDS US!" Baby 5 took out a set of binoculars to try and see closer before her eyes came popping out of the lenses.

"AAAAAHHHHH!!!! IT'S DOFLAMINGO AND THE DONQUIXOTE FAMILY! WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE!?" Things immediately went from bad to worse with Smoker looking at us.

"Tashigi! Take the kids, Baby 5 and Monet and hide off in the distance! The less he knows the better!"

"Yes sir!" We ran towards a snow bank with the ship coming up next to the G-5 ship for doflamingo to stand at the front near the figurehead.

"Smoker. Such pleasant surprise seeing you here."

"What the hell are you doing here? Last I checked, you're no longer immune by the World Government."

Doflamingo smiled at Smoker before hopping off his ship and onto the island. "It's simple really. You have two people of interest that I want. Hand over Baby 5 and Monet and I just might let you leave with your lives."

'He knows Baby 5 and Monet are here? This is bad.' A standoff happened between Smoker and Doflamingo with what would happen next be up in the air.

And that finishes this chapter. See what happens next time as Baby 5 and Monet are faced with a crisis situation revolving around them. Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading.