Chapter 4

Marine odd jobs were not to be taken lightly. It's not that they're super hard and almost impossible to accomplish. No, that would be an exaggeration of the highest degree. The odd jobs simply took a lot of time. It was quite logical since cleaning a ship that was meant for hundred+ men and peeling potatoes to feed them all and then doing the laundry was a lot of work. I thought it wouldn't be so time consuming in the first weeks, but I was wrong. You don't start easy here, you get the whole workload at once.

At least I got to see the stars at night when I was scrubbing the deck. It was a wonderful sight because no clouds were covering up the stars and they were so much brighter than back home. I was not someone who went out to see stars regularly, so I could not tell whether the stars were the same or not, but that did not really matter much.

I took a turn and was preparing to scrub the next few planks when I noticed that I wasn't the only one up and awake – on second thought, of course I wasn't. There was at least one person in the crow's nest. One of the men on deck was Garp. He was easy to recognize because of his build and age and his loud signature laughter. The other person was less unique but still distinguishable with the sword hanging from his belt and the fedora that shaded his face.

"Bogard, what's up with the sudden present? Have you missed me that much? It looks just like the ship's figure head, bwahahaha!"

Garp held his signature dog hat in his hands and the person next to him remained silent. Bogard… the name was ringing some bells, but I was not all too sure who he was. No matter who he was or what he was doing here, I still had a job to do and any kind of disturbance would drag it out even more. I put down my bucket when Bogard turned towards me, Garp's eyes following his glare.

Garp's smile became even brighter than it had been before. "Ah, yeah, before I forget: That's our new recruit. Picked her up at Fuusha. Her name is… her name…" Garp fell into a silence and rubbed his chin for a while until, "What's your name again?"

I suppressed the urge to slam my head against the nearest wall. I was on board for almost three days now and he had not noticed that he had never asked me what my name was? "It's Jayna, Vice-admiral Garp."

"Yep, that's her. Bwahaha! What do you think?" he asked Bogard.

Bogard stared in my direction for a while before he said one word. "Weak."

Well thank you Mr Fedora, tell me something I don't know.

"Bwahahah, you haven't seen anything! She was even weaker when we took her in," the Vice-Admiral boasted.

Thank you, Garp. I will now ignore you and your friend and continue my cleaning.

Another night and no time to sleep because the weapons would not clean themselves. All the cannonballs got dusty, stowed away without use in one dusty old room with creaking planks. What interested me more were the bamboo swords in the corner of the room, though. Personally, I had only trained with those once or twice, only when Ichigo-sensei wanted to show us the importance of fast reactions. I don't know how often he had purposely hit my fingers to get that lesson into my head. Lessons like that couldn't be taught well with the solid wood swords we used in our regular training.

I noticed how my eyes kept wandering to the swords because they were really so much more interesting than stupid cannonballs. My cannonball maintenance speed grew slower and slower until I decided to follow my impulses and pause the cannonball maintenance completely for some sword swinging. The bamboo sword was lighter than what I was used to, but it was not bad. The ceiling was high enough to swing without being too careful and after a while, I decided to go through some stances and kata.

Take a step, ram the sword hilt into enemy in front right, pull the non-existent sheath down, arm back up, lean sword against arm, thrust sword while turning backwards and DON'T HIT THE FEDORA GUY WHO HAS SNEAKED UP ON YOU!

Bogard did not even blink when the sword stopped millimeters in front of his brown suit. That was close. Not like I could've killed him but I didn't want to know what kind of extra work I could get for accidentally hurting a high-ranking marine. I pulled my sword back slowly and the sheathing routine as good as possible when one had no sheath or belt. He kept staring at me without moving, so I walked back to the place I got the sword from, put it back and sat down next to the cannonballs again. I kept my eyes on him, peaking up from the dusty cannonballs, until he left the room.

Bogard left after he had enough of staring at me and went who knows where. He really took his time because I only had to finish the last few cannonballs and left the room. On deck, I saw Garp sitting on the big dog figurehead, wearing his new dog hat. He really liked it, seeing how he did not take it off even once since he got it.

Garp looked awake, at least there was no snot bubble, so I walked towards him and decided to ask a question that has been on my mind for the last few nights.

"Sir, you said you'd make a marine out of me. How is dusting off cannonballs going to accomplish that?"

Garp did not turn around; Garp fell on his back, feet towards the moon and arms stretch as far as he could. "How do you think it can help?"

Really? You're answering my question with a question?

"Is this to build strength? Durability? It's not really a fast way to become stronger."

The dog hat did wonders in hiding Garp's expressions. "And why do you have to become stronger?"

So that I don't die on the first adventure I share with your grandson, stupid old man. I forced a smile on my face. "Because marines have to be strong to catch pirates and criminals?" I meant it as a statement, but it came out sounding like a question.

Garp's smirk was wide enough to show even while he was wearing the dog hat in the middle of the night.

"Then how about you defeat a pirate or other criminal to show me that you're ready for the next level?"

I stared at him. Did the old man just outsmart me?

"That's what he said! That's unfair! It's unfair, isn't it?... Right?" I huffed the words between breaths while I was jogging across the deck whit Nick jogging next to me. He didn't have any problems keeping up and I was sure that no matter how fast I went, he was holding back a lot.

"The vice-admiral is right about his judgement. If you can't even manage to go for more than 30 rounds across the deck then there is no chance you could do the normal recruit training. There's a reason why he put you into odd jobs instead of the normal recruit rank. It's also time for you to take your meds." Nick supplied in a completely reasonable tone that did not want to hear any retorts. He also tossed me the little paper bag of medicine he meant.

"But what will I do when we reach Headquarters and I can't do anything by then?" Not that I was hoping to actually end up in the marine HQ. If I ever got there before joining the Strawhats, it would be a pain to get away from the marines. It would also take away a lot of my adventure time. My best chance would be to get on Garp's ship when he was picking up Coby and Helmeppo when Luffy hit the Grand Line and try to catch up with them if I had no choice but to be dragged to the marine headquarters.

"Don't worry," Nick said cheerfully, "we still have lots of time before we get back to HQ. We got a job two days ago to take Captain Morgan into custody. We'll arrive at Shellstown today and make it to the Grand Line within this month and then it takes around 3 weeks to get to HQ. A lot can improve in that time."

Did I want to know how anyone could get to the Marine Headquarters from the beginning of the Grand Line within only 3 weeks' time? What kind of magic is that? Also: wasn't Shellstown the place where Garp picked up Coby and Helmeppo? And shouldn't those two join Garp after Luffy has made it to the Grand Line? Is something happening to the schedule or was this world just so tiny and fast-paced?

Finally, we reached the first story-related canon island. It has taken way too long to make some progress, but at least now I knew that travelling from one island to the next took more time than I had expected.

The first thing that came I thought when we landed was that I did not recognize the town. At all. I did not even remember that the marine base had this broken statue of Morgan lying around, shattered, a health hazard to poor barefooted wanderers. The only other feature that stood out was the big wooden cross where the marines had tied Zoro up. The swordsman was no longer here but I already guessed as much. Luffy had to defeat Morgan for someone to call the Marine Headquarters and rat him out. As if any of his wimpy subordinates would show the guts to do so while the axe-hand man was still in power.

Funny that they chose to put the cross in a place where every visiting person would be coming through. Did no one care about the Marine's image? Probably not, with all the corrupt marine captains in the East Blue.

Garp had been leading his group of marines to the base, walking through town while ignoring the way the townspeople hid behind their stands and closed the windows of their houses. Bogard was right behind Garp, looking full mafia mode again, and scaring the citizens even more. Nick's looks probably didn't help either. Oh well, we'd be gone in a few hours anyway, so I guess it did not matter how the people around here perceived us.

Now that we have reached the doors of the base, East Blue marines were rushing to greet our group with salutes.

One with a green neckerchief led the group and was the one to address Garp. "Vice-Admiral! Thank you for coming all the way from the HQ to take over our prisoner! I hope your journey was pleasant."

"I stopped by my hometown and bought donuts. I am working on a personal best. 824 donuts and no pause for 5 days. I am becoming sleepy slowly but surely."

…Was that the reason why you were awake at night, old man?! While I was working?!

Coby and Helmeppo stumbled out of the base and joined the ranks of the other marines, sloppily saluting and trying to hide their late arrival. If even I saw that, you kids have no way to hide it from anyone else.

The marines were exchanging more pleasantries until Garp's side dispersed – I think they were told to ensure the ship was ready for a prisoner – and the Shellstown marines began showing us the way to Captain Morgan.

Everything went fine until it didn't. A pair of marines came stumbling along the corridor towards us and where shouting something incoherent when a giant man with an axe as a hand threw them aside and ran in our direction. I turned to watch Garp's reaction but he was snoring obnoxiously loud.

"Goodbye, old man!" the axe man shouted when he slashed Garp's chest. A bloody wound gashed from his shoulder down to his hip while Garp fell over and continued sleeping. The East Blue marines screamed like little girls and one even fainted. Helmeppo and Coby were cowering in a corner, wailing. I only looked at Nick and then at Bogard, both did not show any kind of emotion. Okay, maybe Bogard looked a bit bored. Nick was always hard to tell because of certain reasons like him not having a face.

Morgan did not notice that both of Garp's men were not in the least bit worried about their captain. No wonder he never made it far in marine ranks.

The ex-marine scanned the people present and when his eyes fell on his son, his iron jaw lowered into something that could be interpreted as a predatory smile. "Come here, you useless son!" he yelled and Helmeppo complied after a few seconds of intense glaring.

Helmeppo, do you even have anything resembling a brain in that strangely-formed head of yours? Apparently not, because he did not see it coming that his father would take him as a hostage to ensure no one would follow him.

Morgan kicked in a window and jumped out of the 3rd floor only to safely land next to the cross in the front yard with a wailing and squirming Helmeppo under his arm.

"Get the cannons, we're shooting him down," Bogard said calmly. Bogard could actually talk? I didn't expect that turn of events to happen.

Just when the marines realized that they had gotten an order from a superior, Coby jumped up and blocked the way.

Still crying, he firmly stated, "You can't! Helmeppo is still with Morgan! I can't let you shoot him! He is my friend!"

Bogard walked up to Coby and shoved him aside and Nick moved to catch the boy before he could hurt himself.

One of the blue neckerchief marines mumbled, "We're sorry for the boy's behavior. He hasn't been with us for a very long time… He- His friends… Some pirates told us that he had been part of Alvida the Iron Mace's crew and he isn't that used to taking orders…"

A ruff old voice interrupted the marine in his explanations. "The kid is an ex-pirate? Is that why you're so loud? You woke me up."

The surrounding marines began to mumble and whisper while some even pointed at Garp. Funny how the East Blue is not used to Grand Line level of bullshit; don't they hear the stories? "What's with all this noise? Did something happen? Are there any casualties?" Garp turned away from the window he was staring out of and looked at the soldiers with his grumpy grandpa look. When no one said anything, he followed their stares and… "I am the casualty!" I tried to stifle a laughter and ended up snorting very loudly. The marines looked more incredulous than amused, but that's got nothing to do with the situation.

After assuring that 'it was just a flesh wound', Garp turned back to the window and looked through a pair of binoculars, probably observing Helmeppo and Coby. "If you don't want to hurt the kids by accident, there's nothing you can do right now"

I looked at the rest of the marines, but none of them were doing anything productive. Well, looks like there is nothing to do for me as well. I walked over to the window next to Garp's and tried to spot Coby and Helmeppo. It took me a while to find them in the busy town. To be fair, the boys were just colorful dots, the one who I really spotted was Captain Morgan. The two colorful dots, one yellow and the other pink, where moving around the captain, trying to immobilize him. Coby must've got Morgan to drop Helmeppo at some point which was an amazing feat already.

"Kid's got a grip. If he really spent some time with pirates, he should be used to holding a rope in place during storms," Garp commented, not taking his eyes off the moving spots.

I never thought that Coby or Helmeppo had anything going for them when I watched the first few episodes of the anime. Now, I could admit that they had a base level of strength – Captain Morgan looked big in the anime, but here he was so much more in reality. He was a pile of pronounced muscle and one axe that was a bit rusty on the edges but could still do its job... Did he take the axe into the shower, too? That must be dangerous. Did this universe not know how to prevent metals from rusting? Or maybe Morgan just wanted to save his money by buying a rusty old axe instead of a new one.

Anyway, the boys managed to grip on to the colossus and stayed there even when Morgan was trying to pull them away from himself. Was this what it meant to be a pirate captain's cabin boy and the rich son of a marine in this world? It was more than most back home could do if they came from similar backgrounds.

Wait!

I jumped away from the window and began sprinting down the way we had come. Coby had a history of piracy, even if he was only doing their cleaning and other non-piratey thing! If I manage to knock out Coby, I get to escape laundry and deck scrubbing from now on!

Standing outside, I looked around. I needed something to reach the three quickly since there was not much time left. Morgan would either grow tired of them before he reached the docks or ditch them right there where I last saw him. They had been halfway through town when I began running – by the way, not a good idea, running without warm up – so I needed to be faster than they were to catch up.

Cross that Zoro was bound to, no good. Stones lying around, no good. Beer bottles leaning against gate, nope. Cart filled with statue pieces, also no.

…Cart with statue pieces and a marine base build on a hill: perfect! I had no time or strength to empty the cart beforehand, though. Too bad, but I had to get there soon and that was my chance to get my necessary achievement ticked without much effort or getting into too much conflict with Coby. I needed to act carefully here. If I got into a fight with Coby and dragged him back, maybe he would fight back or Helmeppo could help him. Maybe Morgan would join when he thought I was threatening him, too. Taking out Coby with one swift hit was the best option. It's not like going for Coby now would have any negative effects anyway. Captain Morgan escaped in the anime, so if he escaped and I k.o. Coby or if he escaped and Coby got away unscathed did not matter too much.

Now, which direction did I have to push this cart? It should be the direction that Garp was looking towards since he was still keeping an eye on Coby. Searching for Garp's window was easy. No one else was so bulky (most marines looked like sticks compared to him) and leaning out a window. So, towards the clean-up-duty-free future!

I pushed the cart down the hill until I felt it start moving on its own. Okay, now jump in like a cool anime character would! I pulled my arms back to get some extra power and jumped towards the cart. I…admittedly did not land in the cart which rolled down faster than I anticipated and I fell into the dirt, face first. I did however manage to grab the cart. The cart went faster and faster, I could not see anything because I was still face down in the dirt. At first, I could feel my face and upper body and knees and how much it hurt every time I hit some bigger rock. Then, after I passed a few shops on the street, I no longer did so. I think I saw a woman look horrified when I rolled past. I was gone to quickly to make out the small details.

Suddenly I heard a high-itched scream and it didn't stop. Whoever was screaming really had a lot of air to spare. I gripped the cart even tighter, preparing for a collision. When there was no immediate crash and my thought process was working again, I released my grip on the cart. If there was no collision, it might happen soon enough and I did not want to be part of it.

I slid to a stop and started feeling my face and other body parts again, I heard wood shatter and stone collide with metal. When I looked up, I could see a lot of red. Mostly, because my blood dripped into my eyes and burned. I tried to smear the blood away with my hands, but the dirt they were covered in only worsened the stinging.

"Oh my god! Daddy?! Daddy, are you still alive?!" Helmeppo shrieked while shaking an unconscious Morgan by the shoulders. The axe that was his arm was lying on the ground, broken into various pieces. I hope someone cleans this up before someone steps on it and hurts themselves. Or worse, before I step on it.

I looked around to find the suspiciously quiet Coby, but it did not take me long to find him. Maybe I went a little over the top. Poor kid.

I walked towards Helmeppo who was shaking his dad who did not react in any way. His chest was moving up and down though, so I guess everything would be okay. Right next to Captain Morgan lied Coby whose nose had seen better days. I think he also lost some teeth and his glasses were smashed. I crouched next to him and poked him. The only reaction I got was a gurgle. I wished for a bit more, but realistically speaking, the gurgle was already a lot after he had been buried by the tall axe-man who had been catapulted onto Coby by smash of the cart into his back.

"Sorry?" All I got as a reply was another gurgle. I interpreted it as a 'I'm fine'.

I stood up again, turned towards the marine base, grinned, and gave Garp a thumbs-up. I was sure he was still watching us through his binoculars.

A second later my face kissed the ground and my vision almost faded. I could feel the dull pain somewhere in the back of my consciousness and it was the only thing keeping me from a total blackout.

"DON'T ATTACK YOUR ALLIES, BRAT!"

I tried to answer, but the pieces of destroyed road all around my face muffled the words into gibberish. A bandaged hand pulled me out of the earth and started dusting me off and then slapped a wet piece of cloth in my face and started rubbing. I pushed the hands away as soon as I felt like I would not be falling over without support.

"I'm fine, Nick, please stop!" Mentioned mummy didn't look all too happy to stop before the blood wasn't gone completely, but my face and dignity couldn't take any more.

I turned to Garp. "What do you mean 'don't hurt your allies'? Morgan tried to escape and Co- the pink-haired brat was called a pirate, so I was just trying to fulfill your condition 'defeat a pirate'! And he totally counts because you never specified if it only means current pirates!" I wasn't sure whether Coby has been introduced to me by name already or not. I hope not, else it might look strange that I knew him already.

Garp raised a finger in protest, but dropped it while simultaneously closing his mouth, opting to glare his mean glare at me.

Nick spoke up, "Listen, you might have had some kind of deal with Vice-Admiral Garp, but that doesn't mean you can go and brutally knock out poor children. He even lost some teeth and regardless of his past, he's a marine now. He even shares the same rank with you!" Oh my, he even struck the angry mom pose, hands at his waist and all.

"I already apologized, he gurgled an 'apology accepted'…"

Before the conversation on how I was at fault could continue, Garp had an idea.

"I know what to do!" Garp exclaimed with a wide grin. "I will promote you by half a rank! Odd Jobs Recruit! Bwahahaha, isn't it brilliant?"

"What exactly does that mean for me?" I asked, feeling like something evil was headed my way.

"Training on recruit rank level and duties of odd jobs kids!" Garp continued to laugh his deep laugh and I groaned in pain from the rashes I had right now and from anticipation of the pain to come in the near future.

The next morning, I finally dared to look into a mirror and what I saw was a completely red face from all the rash burns. But not only my face was ruined for the time being, but also my uniform, my knees, my legs, and my upper body. I talked to the doc and he said that everything would be alright in a few weeks but he also saw no problem in discontinuing my swimming practice. My experience with picked-open blisters and water wasn't too great and I was not looking forward to the rashes-in-sea-water variation.

The one thing that helped me get over the shitty day I was looking forward to was my knowledge that the Strawhats couldn't be too far ahead and maybe also my extra portion of bacon that Luigi kept safe just for me.

The dining hall was livelier than before. With Coby and Helmeppo joining, the ship seemed more energetic. Probably because to them the whole experience was as new as it could be. Coby showed his fascination quite openly while Helmeppo tried to hide his behind a smug façade that was not well built. Both of them also didn't seem to be too smart since they sat down next to Garp and got their food stolen while they were distracted - Coby waved me over and Helmeppo looked at him annoyed.

I hesitated at first; it's not like Garp would steal the food that Doctor Endou had designated for me but did I really want to spend time and maybe bond with these people? I would be gone very soon and then every bit of friendship would work against me because it would look like I betrayed that group of marines. I did not know how far a Garp whose feelings were hurt in that way was willing to go.

Coby still kept waving at me. Didn't this boy know what a grudge is? I could've killed him yesterday, but he still wanted to be my friend? Why did this not surprise me?

Oh well, let's do him the favor. I walked towards Garp's table and sat down, smiling at the three of them. "Morning."

"Morning!" Coby cheered, his broken nose made him sound strange.

Helmeppo only grunted and Garp smiled back, too busy to stuff more seaking meat into his mouth to answer appropriately. Maybe this was good training for breakfast with Luffy. At least it would make for some funny stories to be told to the crew of the Going Merry later onwards.