Chapter 10
AN: Hey, everyone! I wasn't expecting the positive reception of Teach into the story, and a lot of people are quite excited! Now, let's dive in!
Chapter 10
Oh god, my heart starts pounding as the gargantuan known as Marshall D. Teach grins at me, the gesture having underlying tones of sinister intent, I'm screwed, I'm screwed, I'm-
"So, Kelly," Thatch smirks as he jostles my shoulder, "You still want to go to Fishman Island?"
Fishman Island, right, I remind myself as I straighten my back, Just tough it out, it'll be worth it in the end. "H-hell yeah I do, Thatch."
"Alright, then," Marco frowns slightly, "Teech, he's all yours."
Blackbeard smiles, pleasantly this time, and laughs as he sweeps an arm around my shoulders. "It'll be a right ol' time, little bro!" I grimace slightly at the smell, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when I met him earlier.
"Hehe, yeah," I groan as his arm squeezes my lungs, nearly crushing them, "A right old time."
"When are we leavin', Marco?" my - ugh - 'caretaker' asks as he ruffles my hair.
"You all," he points to the seven that were going - Thatch, Jozu, Vista, Teach, Raver, Haruta and I, "Are leaving right away. Lieutenant Namur of the Eighth Division is waiting for your backup, so you'll want to get there as fast as possible," he rubs his chin in thought, "Do any of you know how to operate a ship by yourselves?"
"What kind of question is that!?" Raver scoffs, "One of the Division Commanders should know, right?"
"Actually…" Jozu begins.
Raver just stares at the diamond-man. "You're kidding, right?"
"Hey, we just fight people, we don't actually control our ships," comes the heavyweight's retort.
"On the contrary, shouldn't one of you fellows know?" Vista asks the two Lieutenants, "It is imperative that you all learn how to navigate, as you often must go on missions alone, yes?"
"Hey, those are small sailboats, not Division ships like what we're taking right now," Haruta interjects, "And besides, I got her a few months ago, and never once took one of those ships!"
"It's usually done by some lower mooks,"Teach adds, "So I personally never navigate or anythin' like that."
"Do we know anyone who knows how?" I ask, and Thatch perks up.
"Dexter does!" the Commander grins, "And he's strong enough to hold his own in a fight, so we could use his Devil Fruit too!"
"Wait, Dexter?" Haruta questions, confused, "Do you mean Washer?"
"Same guy, different name," Jozu grunts.
"Are you sure that he can navigate?" Marco asks Thatch, and the pompadour grins.
"Positive. Now let's go get him."
=(I)=
"No, absolutely not!" Maria, the nurse that treated me for my sunburns, stands in front of the bed that Wash is lying in, "You idiots already have him a concussion, and now you're asking him to go on some crazy adventure!"
"Maria, this isn't the time for this," Thatch growls, quite actually enraged, "Fishman Island is under attack, and we won't get there without him!"
"And he won't get to Normality Island if you keep piling up the injuries!" Maria barks back, and the two are face to face, albeit the nurse being slightly shorter.
I wonder how this is going to turn out? I think as I watch the scene.
"These are Pops' orders!" the pompadour waves the threat of enraging our adopted patriarch over her head, "So just follow them!"
The brunette breathes in deeply, and it seems like she's gonna give in, but she suddenly reaches up, grasps both sides of Thatch's head, and slams their lips together for five seconds. Personally, I look away, and when the kiss ends, Thatch falls to the floor, hearts in his eyes, mumbling something about never getting that response before. "Oh, and Thatch? How's 'no' for an answer?" Maria smirks as she wipes her face with an arm, and the Commander just gurgles incoherently, "That argument was way too easy to win."
"Well, as entertaining as that was, we have to get going," Jozu pushes past the nurse and taps the sleeping Washer on the shoulder, but the Lieutenant doesn't stir, "Wake up," the Commander grunts, But again, no response.
"I put him under sedative, so he doesn't wake up in case of a storm," Maria crosses her arms, "He's not waking back up for a while."
"Geez, it's just a concussion," Raver scoffs, "he doesn't need…" he trails off as Maria sticks an X-ray in front of his face, which shows the back of a skull with spiderweb cracks in it, "What the fuck is this?" the Zoan asks after a while.
"This," Maria scowls, "Is what you did to him after your little brawl."
"Bullshit!" Raver growls indignantly, "I hit him in the front of the head."
"And knocked his head back against the floor, making it so that high levels of stress could cause blood to flood the area," the nurse pushes the Cheetah-Man away, and crosses her arms, "So, to re-iterate, Dexter will not be joining you, even if it is just to navigate your ship."
"Oh, he's stronger than that," Haruta tries to add onto the argument, but a glare from Maria stops him in his tracks.
"He hasn't healed enough to be able to-"
"I'm going, Maria," a calm baritone sounds from the medical bed, and everyone freezes. I look, and Wash's eyes are open, if not flicking around to each of us, "Hey everyone, sorry I lost to the cat."
"Up yours," Raver scoffs as he flips the bird.
The nurse, however, is shocked. "I gave you an anesthetic! You should be asleep!" she blanches, and I run that through my head.
An anisthetic? I wonder, How is he awake?
"Miss," Washer grunts as he forces himself into an upright position, "You're forgetting the two words that defy logic on these seas - Devil, and Fruit."
That explains it… wait, wasn't his power bubbles?
"So, you know how to navigate, right?" Jozu asks the wounded Lieutenant as said Lieutenant rubs the back of his head.
"I do," Wash replies, "When are we leaving?"
That was Maria's last straw. "NO!" the nurse screams, and she slams a foot down, figuratively and literally, "You are not going anywhere without proper medical attention!"
"Then join our merry band," the smooth voice of Vista brings a point to the table, and Maria freezes, "If you come with us, then we both get what we want. Dexter doesn't need to be fighting, only navigating, so he won't be in danger."
"That… could work…" Marco rubs his chin, "You could give him daily checkups, and he could direct us all the same."
"It's the best course of action," Wash muses, and I try to cash in my thoughts.
"The more, the merrier!" I grin, and all of the others that weren't in love-comatose immediately snap their heads to look at me.
"You still shouldn't be here," comes the unanimous scolding, and I just grin timidly as I step back, both hands raised like I was under arrest.
"Aaaanyways," Wash coughs, "What ship are we taking?"
"I never said that I would go!" Maria growls, but is ignored.
"Vista's," Jozu responds to the Lieutenant, and Marco nods in approval.
"Well," the pineapple grins, "You should all get going! You have a long few days ahead."
=(I)=
This is boring as fu-u-uck, I grit my teeth as I stare at the same expanse of ocean that I have been for the past two hours. See, after we had visited Wash in the medical bay, we had instantly boarded the ship of the Fifth Division, the Beluga, and cast off, trying to get to our destination as fast as possible. I… got stuck up in the crow's nest, and Thatch hasn't let me down yet.
Now, the first hour or so was fairly interesting, watching them all mill about the deck like so many ants, Wash teaching them each how to operate specific parts of the rigging and whatnot. I had offered my help, due to the fact that my grandpa taught me some things about sailboats, but I had been ultimately denied, being instead stuck on lookout.
The ship itself, despite being around one sixteenth of the Moby Dick's size, was still quite large, seeing as it is able to house one hundred people, but Wash's expertise as a former first mate was well-founded, as he commanded the ship with all the skill of an old British Admiral. It had three sails, and it was shaped the same as the Moby, but the coloring was more grayish than white, staying true to its namesake. It had a training room that Haruta made a beeline for the moment we arrived, a mess hall, crew's quarters, and Vista's own private quarters, along with a map room. Overall, it was a beautiful ship…
But I'm stuck at the top, I sigh as I glance once more at the cresting waves, their beauty long lost on my boredom. Thankfully, my saving grace came in the form of a song that was long ingrained into my memory, one that was connected to my most grievous memory - the burial of my grandfather. It was a beautiful song, an old Celtic tune, mainly used for farewells, but it had grow on me. With the phantoms of wooden weight and snow crunching beneath dress shoes, I began to sing.
"Oh, Danny boy," I'm lost to my memory as I am taken back to that time…
"The pipes, the pipes are calling," I remember myself, my brother, and two of grandpa's friends gathered…
"From glen to glen, and down the mountainside," I can see the hearse, black and foreboding, and I know what is inside…
"The summer's gone, and all the roses falling," I take my position, the front left, and lift…
"It's you, it's you, must go while I must bide," all I feel is the weight on my shoulder, the snow falling on my hair, cold and wet, and the pain…
"But come ye back, when summer's in the meadow," the pain, that which is crushing in its nature, bringing forth memories that burn themselves into your mind…
"Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow," the tears, hot and fat, roll down my face, and one glance tells me that Nate, my brother, is doing the same…
"It's I'll be here, in sunshine or in shadow," we make it to the end, and I feel as if I cannot go another foot, the pressure in my chest too great, almost bursting, and we position his body over the square hole, ready to say our final goodbye…
"Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, I love you so," and my heart finally shatters as the steel box that will hold the flesh of the greatest man I had ever known slams closed, holding him in its cold embrace for eternity.
I am brought out of my memory with the sound of rolling waves and the creaking of wood. I can feel my chest aching from the re-opened scars, and tears fall freely down my cheeks, which I quickly wipe away with a sniffle. It wasn't fair, he never deserved it, my eyes well up once more, but a sudden and loud creak behind me snaps me out of my self-induced hysteria, causing me to snap around to see Raver's head sticking out of the hatch on the floor of the crow's nest, his face wearing an expression of surprise.
"Wow, kid," the black-haired yellow-eyed Cheetah-Man blinks as he breathes out in shock, "I didn't know you could sing."
"Ah, w-well… I…" I sputter, my face heating up, "I didn't mean for anyone to h-hear me, and, well-"
"Hey, you have a talent, that's all I'm saying," the Lieutenant scratches his skull with one lightly tanned arm, "Although, I never was one for the arts, so take my compliment with some salt. Either way, Thatch told me that you need to learn some shit, so he sent me up here to help you start off."
"Wait, like, he wants you to train me?" I ask, getting real hopeful. Imma be strong now! I grin.
"That's what I said," the Zoan mutters under his breath, "But, yeah, he wants me to give you the basics so you can train yourself."
"Oh," my hopes are somewhat dashed, but still! Go at your own pace, eh?
"So come on," Raver climbs back down, "Let's get this over with."
I full-on smile as I follow him. This is gonna rock!
=(I)=
I was wrong… I pant as my bare feet clomp along the deck, my lungs screaming for air as sweat burns my eyes. I was on lap twenty-six around the ship, and it was becoming apparent that I was very out of shape.
"Come on," Raver calls from across the deck, sitting on a chair and tanning, "I was able to run fifty miles when I was seven! Step up the pace!"
"You… are a… Zoan!" I gasp as I stumble and finally collapse on the wooden planks. Three words: Shave training sucks.
"Get up, kiddo," the Cheetah-Man Shaves over in less than a second and yanks me to my feet, "It's either this, Paper Arts, or Iron Body, and those last two involve me punching or throwing stuff at you, and I don't think you want that."
"Ru-unning," I wheeze as I stumble for another lap.
The next few days were extremely repetitive, starting with some morning exercises and breakfast, then a five-hour jog with quick steps thrown in, ending with some basic weight-lifting. I had a few entertaining bits, such as a practice duel between Thatch and Vista, or the time when Teach and Raver fought over what kind of pie was better, but that one was stopped by Maria before someone got hurt. But we only had one storm, and from what I could hear through the padlocked door they stuck me behind, it was a big one. Damn. We did stop by an island to get one of those bubble coatings, so we could get to Fishman Island, but other than that, it was very uneventful.
The trip into the sea was quite interesting, but like the rest of the trip, nothing happened, but I did get a chat in with Wash, and it opened my eyes on Devil Fruits.
"Hey, Wash?" I ask him as we drift deeper through the sea, "Can I ask you about something?"
"Sure, kid, ask away," the Lieutenant was in crutches at Maria's insistence, despite the fact that he could easily walk on his own. She was scary like that.
"Um, when we picked you up back on the Moby, you said that your Devil Fruit allowed you to resist anesthesia, right?" I question, and he nods, "Well, how? I thought your ability was bubbles or something."
"That, yeah," he answers, "You see, I can release bubbles from anywhere on my body. Those bubbles can clean anything, so one day, back when I was Karen's First Mate, I thought 'hey, why don't I release these bubbles inside of myself, then I could cleanse my bloodstream of any drugs and whatnot'. I tried it, and it worked, so I've just always kept the bubbles flowing. They got rid of the anesthesia, so I was awake every moment."
"Oh, that's really creative!" I raise my eyebrows in surprise. It was clever.
"Yeah, well, I've had it for a few years, so I was bound to get smart," Wash shrugs, "Is that all you wanted?"
"Yeah, thanks for that," I grin back, and leave-
"Hey, little bro!"
-before running into Teach, who just appeared out of nowhere. He does that way too often. "Hey, Teach," I try to smile, but I just manage a grimace, "How are you?"
"I'm great, thanks for askin'! Jiiihahaha!" he chuckles, "But I, ah, couldn't help but overhear that you're interested in Devil Fruits, yeah?" the sinister tone wasn't there, but I knew his intent was.
"Yeah, I am," I put on a cheery facade, "Why?"
"Well, I just happen to be lookin' for a Devil Fruit myself," the man slings an arm around my shoulders, and ohgeezhesclose! "So, maybe, if I help ya get a Fruit of your own, you'll help me find the one I'm lookin' for, eh? Ya like the sound of that?"
"Ah, well, I…" I stammer, trying to buy myself some time. He was really intimidating, okay?
Ring! Ring! Ring! "LAND HO!"
We both hear Haruta call from the crow's nest, and I slip away from the future traitor. "How about we just go look at the island, okay?" I suggest, and get the fuck outta dodge. On the way to the bow, I can feel his eyes piercing my back as the ship drifts towards a giant bubble in the sea.
=(The Fishman District)=
A young Fishman struggled against steel cables that bound his hands and feet together. He had already watched in horror as two of his friends were sucked dry by the thing that had imprisoned them. It had just been a short trip up to the surface to look at the humans' spinning lights, but when they returned home, they found that monster hunched over their father's dried-out husk, munching on his scales like some kind of animal. The thing was once human, that the teen was sure of, but it has devolved so far that even the surface monsters would fear it.
The young Fishman glanced to his right, to see the husks of his brothers and mother, their scales and bones the only thing left, as the beast liked to eat those tougher bits, as opposed to just sucking out the flesh and organs with his touch. Bits of his family laid strewn about, and the youngster feared the moment when the creature returned. Every time he came back, he brought another Fishman or Mermaid, and each time, he would eat one of the 'tender' ones. The ones who had accepted their fate.
"Please, no…" the young Fishman turned to the left, seeing the terrified form of a Mermaid equal his own age. She had given up, and the monster loved the taste of fear and despair. It made them sweeter.
Slam.
It's back the youngster gulped as the beast's ever-growing form splintered the door with one deformed arm. The monster staggered into the small run-down house, slamming into the walls and ceiling. It wore a large suit, one of those Human diving ones, and nothing was visible other than the thick leather and steel oxygen tanks. At the fingers, small spikes were beginning to replace the fingertips - his father's claws, and he could see its deformed mouth - his brother's teeth, and his mother's glowing yellow eyes. Upon seeing the beast, the Mermaid began to squirm with terror, screaming against a gag that covered both her mouth and the Fishman next to her.
The beast wheezed as it tossed a new victim, an adult Merman, to the floor and shackled him in seastone cuffs. The wheezing was horrible, a death rattle that allowed for no absence of fear, and it was constant. Once it finished with the Merman, it turned its attention to the two adolescents.
"Please, no…" the Mermaid pleaded as the beast approached them, "Please, ple-AAAAAAUGH!" the girl screeched in pain as the beast grabbed her tail fin and tore, causing blood to pour from the wound, "AAAAAAUGH! N-nooo! Please!" she screamed as the beast started to pluck scales off of her, and she began to scream anew.
That was the last straw for the young Fishman. Unable to do anything but sit and hear the torturous cries of agony, he curled into a ball until, finally, the screams stopped when out of the corner of his eye, the Fishman saw a massive leather hand wrap around her delicate neck.
"Please… no…" came one last whimper before her skin stretched thin, and that horrible slurping sound came as her body was turned to a husk. That horrible slurp, that consumed his family before his eyes, one at a time, until he was left.
Sluuuuurp…
Sluuuuurp…
Sluuuuurp...
Crunch.
AN: And that's the chapter! I know the ending was very different, but I want to try to capture this guy's terrifying ability, which you all saw. Now, recently, something happened, and I'm not going to be able to write, so you won't be getting another chapter for a bit. I know that it's the beginning of what I feel will be a good arc, but I hope that the next few chapters can make up for that.
PS: I know that so many were excited for Teach, but be patient, he's gonna be very important. Until next time everyone!