Chapter-7

Raven glanced at Dandan's bloody form and shrugged. "Digging out chunks of her is the same as patching her up, right? How hard can it be?"

Ace gave him a dubious look. "Are you sure you know how to properly treat injuries? We still have time to get her to a hospital."

"Relax, I've performed DIY surgery before. It's really quite simple." Raven grinned and patted Dandan on the back, causing her to cough up blood. "See, just a flesh wound!"

Dandan groaned in protest, too weak to complain coherently. Raven grabbed a knife and whiskey bottle from his backpack. "Time to get digging!"

When he stuck the knife into Dandan's side, Dandan's eyes shot open and she screamed. "What are you doing?!"

"Relax, this will only hurt...a lot," Raven said. He dug around for a bit, finally grasping what felt like a chunk of bullet and yanking it out.

Dandan shrieked in agony, thrashing against his bonds. His screaming reminded Raven of a pig being slaughtered.

"One down, a couple to go!" Raven said cheerfully, moving on to the next wound. This was turning out to be more enjoyable than he expected.

After a few minutes of probing and rummaging, Raven sat back, thoroughly covered in blood. "All bullets extracted! Our babysitter here should be good as new in no time."

Ace stared at the mangled, unconscious Dandan in horror. "I'm afraid I don't share your confidence in your medical skills."

"Don't worry, this is just part of my charm," Raven said, flashing a grin. "Dandan's tough. She'll pull through. Probably."

Sabo shook his head in dismay. "You removed the bullets but haven't bandaged the wounds yet. She'll bleed to death!"

Raven blinked, realization dawning. "Oh yeah, patching them up, that's the important part! My bad."

He scrabbled through the supplies, finding gauze, bandages and medical tape. "Time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again!" Raven said cheerfully.

As Raven bandaged Dandan's injuries, Ace watched carefully to ensure he was actually doing it properly this time. Raven's methods were crude but seemed to be stemming the bleeding effectively.

"There, good as new!" Raven announced, patting Dandan on the back. Dandan coughed weakly, eyes flickering open.

"You...you idiot," Dandan croaked. "I should kill you for what you put me through."

"Aww, you're too kind with your compliments!" Raven said. "I live to serve."

"That was probably a bad idea," Sabo commented.

***

After a while,

"So, you took a bullet for Luffy, huh?" Raven said. "Very heroic. Or foolish, depending on how you look at it."

Dandan glared at him. "I did not 'take a bullet' for anyone. I got caught in the crossfire, you idiot."

"Aww, don't be so modest," Raven said. "Luffy told me you willingly stepped in front of him to shield him from harm. What a pal!"

Luffy, standing beside Raven, shook his head. "I'm made of rubber, bullets don't affect me! And I didn't say that, Don't lie!"

An awkward silence fell. Raven clapped Luffy on the back, almost knocking the wind out of him. "Ah her mistake, She forgot about your devil fruit powers! Silly Dandan."

Dandan sighed, exasperated. "Will you please stop exaggerating the story? I got shot by accident, trying to take cover from the gunfight. There is no heroic sacrifice or cunning plan here."

"Where's the fun in that?" Raven said. "A good story is so much more interesting than the boring truth!"

Sabo, who had accompanied them, raised an eyebrow. "You do realize Raven will likely keep enhancing the 'story' until it becomes entirely fictitious, don't you?"

"We're used to Raven's tendency to...embellish situations, shall we say?" Ace said.

"Perhaps next time we should have him temporarily removed for the sake of accuracy," Dandan muttered.

Raven clutched at his heart, feigning hurt. "And deprive the world of my vivid imagination? How cruel!"

Dandan sighed again, giving up any hope of reasonable discussion. "Raven's absurd stories were clearly here to stay."

"What should we do with these bastards?" Sabo asked grimly, eying the pirates warily.

Ace glanced at Raven, noticing the wide grin spreading across his face, and broke into a nervous sweat. Whenever Raven got that look, bloodshed was sure to follow.

Raven cracked his knuckles with glee. "Time for some therapeutic stress relief... I mean investigation."

"Raven, have you any idea how hard it will be to dispose of those corpses?" Ace asked nervously.

"Dispose of them? I was thinking of decorating with them!" Raven said, chuckling at the thought.

"Absolutely not!"

"Aww don't be such a spoilsport," Raven said, slapping Ace on the back. "Live a little!"

Luffy chuckled, uncowed by the violence. "Can we keep them? I want to see how long it takes for them to decompose!"

"Not happening!" Sabo said firmly. "We are burning those bodies immediately and heading to the nearest marine base to turn ourselves in."

"Aww but why?" Luffy and Raven complained in unison.

"It runs in their blood." Sabo snapped.

Raven cracked his knuckles with glee and grabbed a dozen of the pirates, dragging them into the nearby forest. Several terrified cries went up as they stumbled along, struggling uselessly against Raven's grip.

After half an hour, Raven walked back to them, covered head to toe in blood spatter and grinning maniacally. The pirates lay unmoving on the ground, more courteous than conscious.

"What did you find?" Sabo asked mildly. While Dandan turned her eyes, with a quick glance.

Raven nodded enthusiastically. "It's a secret!"

"Join me Luffy? I will share with you what I learned today!"

Luffy glanced at the corpses with a mixture of disgust. "Definitely, I could use a wash too!"

"Hehehehe...." Both of them laughed, as they walked out.

"That tree house has always looked so sturdy," Raven said. "Think we could get Dandan up there without it collapsing?"

Luffy laughed, already picturing the comedic scene that would unfold. Dandan's tough, the tree house can handle it!"

"Brilliant," Raven said. "Let's get hoisting!"

"Hahahhaha...."

"Shi...Shishi...Shishishi!"