This was a conspiracy.

The Conomi Islands weren't all that far away from the Baratie. It had taken a bit of trial and error, but if I was going as fast as the ropes we had access to could take, then Nami had predicted that we would get there just as night was beginning to fall.

My job was easy; literally just towing the boat in a straight line, against any tides that tried to push us off course. There was no learning curve to speak of, it wasn't interspersed with random human contact, and I didn't have to listen to anything beyond what my mind could come up with (even if that was currently a fair bit).

All in all, it was fast becoming my favourite job to date. It was beating retail, at any rate.

No, the hard work wasn't an issue for me. Without the build-up of lactic acid, nor the micro-tears in my muscles to worry about, taking a break and being subjected to the horrors of interaction with other persons was a thing of the past. My gains were also a thing of the past, but sacrifice is good for the soul, which I also apparently no longer had.

Hmm.

What was the issue, however, were the constant attempts on my life. All of which had taken place in the hour since we'd left the Baratie.

It wasn't even noon yet.

I didn't even know the East Blue had that many dolphins. I say had, of course, because I'm pretty sure that I had cut their population by at least a quarter by that point. They were everywhere as soon as I was in the water, and for whatever reason they just kept coming for me.

How did that quote go again? 'Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action'? Yeah, something like that, but what did it become by number 487?

Seriously, I'd been counting.

The first had been innocent enough. It had come up to me, tried to nuzzle my face, and chattered irritably as soon as I pushed it away. I didn't trust dolphins, see, too intelligent while also lacking the opposable thumbs required for living in the modern world. In other words, they had reason to be constantly angry due to the ostracisation of the land-lubbers, and the brains necessary to apply that anger into something constructive.

Like a death ray that was powered by the Earth's core.

Either way, I was right to not trust it. As soon as it got close enough again, there was a gun in my face, the barrel poking me in the nose. It was being held up to me by that same dolphin from before, I knew because it had a crescent scar over its left eye, and I did what was fast becoming reflex for me whenever a gun was being held to my face.

Good luck applying that gray mist that used to be your brain now, you fish-looking fuckstick. Shouldn't have poked your head above water where my fist was if you wanted to keep it.

Unfortunately for me, that was when a whole group of them decided to show up. Nah, group's the wrong word, it's got something to do with bean-pod! That was when a whole pod of them decided to turn up.

It was dolphins, dolphins as far as the eye could see. They were clicking, the voices started clicking, I think I was clicking at one point. Then they were clicking guns, and things left whimsical and entered the Grand Line.

They all had some form of human weaponry.

There were automatic rifles, revolvers, knives, swords, and I'm pretty sure there was a dolphin near the middle that was painted red and wielding a flamethrower. One of them closer to me pulled out a rocket launcher. Pulled it out from where, you ask? Probably the same place the dolphin beside it got that morningstar.

How did they have all these forms of human weaponry, and the ability to use them, you may ask?

Good question, I fucking don't know.

I don't think I want to fucking know.

It was absolutely hectic.

I tried cutting a path through them all as quickly as I could, because I had shit to do and I was already in a bad enough mood what with the countless voice in my head all screaming over one another, but that was proving a bit difficult. It was like trying to drive pedal to the metal through a packed crowd; things happened.

Given the amount of things happening in the general direction of the Going Merry, it looked like the Straw Hats were going to be eating tuna for a while.

It was glorious and bloody and really sort of repetitive after the first few times, so just take my word for it.

I weathered it for fifteen minutes, maybe twenty if I'd lost track of time, but eventually it got to be a bit much. Slapping two of the dolphins away with another dolphin, I stopped all momentum and paddled to the side, waiting for the rope that was attached to the mast to yank me out of the water full-cartoon physics style.

Fortunately, it worked. Unfortunately, it left me spitting splinters after I managed to dislodge my teeth from the railing. That was easy enough with the holes in my gums closing up anyway, and for the first time since we'd left the Baratie, I was able to slow down and actually take in my surroundings at a leisurely pace.

...That was a lot of dolphins.

They were piled high against the wall beside the galley door. When I say piled, I mean that if I was back home, five years old, and they were kittens instead of dolphins, I would have been wearing a muzzle and about eight straight-jackets before I could even make that joke about tuna.

In a time when I was struggling to think clearly, this sort of shit really wasn't helping me.

At least Zoro was hobbling around and putting a sword through the ones that were still reaching for their weapons, all the while being so wrapped up in bandages that he looked like he'd just been pulled out of a sarcophagus.

The chefs of the Baratie were apparently very thorough, if that was all Zoro had managed to unwind in the time he'd had. I would help him, as the others were all too busy looking at me like this was somehow my fault and that left him as my only ally against the watery menaces, but I was fairly certain that they were there for a good reason.

I hadn't actually seen any injury being inflicted upon his person, after all.

"Why is it always dolphins with you?" He grumbled as he walked past, enthusiastically poking a dolphin in the side when it attempted to raise a knife to his shin. Maybe a little too enthusiastically, but oh well.

I could do nothing more than shrug at his back, before glancing over the railing and into the waters below. Almost as soon as I stuck my head out, I had to retract it as about thirty bullets, five knives, a pair of bola, a cloud of what could have been shuriken, a dolphin, and an RPG tore through the space that it had been inhabiting.

"...Does anybody speak dolphin?"

Yeah, it was one of those days.

But hey, at least it couldn't get any worse- wait, no, I take that back! I take it ba-!

XxX

Spontaneous dolphin attack aside, it was actually a lovely day outside.

Not that you could really tell, what with the cloud of dolphins blotting out the sun and much of the surrounding sky.

The door to the galley shuddered violently, rattling against my back as something slammed into it. Both it and I held strong, against the attackers outside and the dirty looks that were being shot in my direction by anybody not trying to come up with a plan… and Luffy. We'd not even had a chance to drop the anchor before the Going Merry was being boarded, and wasn't it just our luck that it was by one of the only creatures in the ocean that breathed air?

We were being boarded by dolphins. Fucking dolphins. The worst part is that I didn't even know if this was something that I should have been expecting. Guy turns into smoke before the Grand Line, we get insurgent dolphins?

And where the fuck was my bow?

The portion of door right above my head exploded inwards as a dolphin… snout? Beak? I don't know the terminology, but I could feel one of them nibbling on my upturned fringe. Predictably, Usopp shrieked as he was showered in splinters, doing his level best to disappear even further underneath the table as I stepped away from the door and turned around.

I was trying a new thing, accessing my Percentiles without saying anything. I'm not sure how well it was working, but I managed to kill another dolphin with a fist to the face and send it flying out of the hole, just in time for another to take its place, its mouth gaping wide and its body blinking red.

It chattered in my face. Needless to say, I was somewhat glad I couldn't understand it, because I probably would be too busy laughing to ensure that everyone could stay relatively alive.

"EVERYBODY DOWN! FOUR HUNDRED PERCENT!" There were dolphins with propellers instead of flippers outside, some of which were wielding guns I wouldn't have expected to see anywhere outside of a museum. I think one of them in the water earlier had a human fist while it was punching me. I was not going to take my chances when one of those fuckers turned red.

My first investment of Krieg's life insurance would have to go towards a new door for the kitchen, after I tore the one we were currently using right off its hinges and practically dove for the edge of the boat. The red dolphin twitched as I valiantly used it as a meat shield against the hail of bullets following me everywhere I went, and let out an angry screech when I tossed it overboard, into a large group of its fellows.

"FOR THE KINGDOM!" One of the exploding dolphins screamed, in English. Or maybe it was Johnny, it sounded vaguely like it could have been Johnny. Figures that prick would be a spy for the dolphins, I never did trust him.

"FOR THE MOTHERLAND!" Another cried out as it leapt for my face. It missed and managed to impale itself on a blade that had also been aimed for my face. Figures that dolphin would be a sleeper agent for the Straw Hat Pirates, I always did trust that dolphin.

"YOU LIVE IN THE OCEAN!" I matched their volume and grabbed the flipper that was somehow holding the sword, sweeping it around in an arc and killing another five dolphins. For some reason they all burst into confetti as soon as the sword touched them. The flipper holding the sword slackened, and before I knew it, I had my hands full with a sobbing dolphin and an attack that didn't have any hope of being effective through all those tears.

It slapped me twice, missed the third try, and was knocked off the side of the ship by an egg splattering against the side of its face. I nudged the loose tooth back into place and turned to the galley, where the rest of the crew were attempting to flood out and retake the ship. They were having a hard enough time getting out of the doorway, at least until I grabbed the dolphin closest to me and hurled it into the crowd. They scattered like bowling pins as their ballistic kin tore right through them, bouncing every which way like pinballs surrounded by bumpers.

There were even sound effects to go along with it.

"No time to explain!" I didn't really know what to say, so I went with the first thing that came to mind. Fortunately, time was one of the many things I lacked in this situation. They all looked at me, covered in blood that wasn't my own with a sea creature hanging off both arms as I was, before springing into all kinds of action.

Nice to know they agreed, I thought while absently clapping enthusiastically and reducing the additions on my hands to mulch.

God, if I gave any kind of a shit about animals, I would probably be so annoyed with myself right now.

It was a conflict that would go down in history as one of the weirdest fucking things to ever happen in the East Blue, second to birthing two consecutive Pirate Kings. We, an unassuming group of rookie buccaneers four strong, facing off in mortal combat against the greatest threat the ocean had ever seen. I say four because Johnny and Yosaku are little bitches who had a dolphin friend that one time, Nami was considering going vegan, and the Great Captain Usopp had already been unfortunately indisposed on the way out the door.

That left me, Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy. Luffy because they were a threat to the crew, Zoro because there were things to stab that were trying to stab back, Sanji because dolphin is delicious and currently free of guilt, and me because fuck dolphins.

Taking on a force that easily numbered in the thousands.

In the East Blue.

Was this a fever dream? I wouldn't be surprised if this all ended up being a bad fever dream.

We all stood there, back to back to back to back, weapons and fists raised. I had my Haki finger on point, Zoro had all three swords out of their sheaths, Sanji was balancing on one foot with no issue whatsoever, and Luffy was gripping his bicep with one hand and had the other clenched by his side. The vile beasts had us surrounded, their clicking a declaration of war as much as it was a roar of bloodlust and motivation.

For a moment, all was still. Enemies though we were, in that silence I could feel their reasons for fighting. I could feel their strength, and the pain of their fallen. I could feel all that was giving them the will to continue, and with that insight I took their strength as my own.

...And then something exploded in my face, because I was too busy monologuing silently to listen to the warnings, and I was sent rolling towards the edge of the boat.

"Lucky shot!" I called woozily over my shoulder, my eyes tracing the beginnings of a whirlpool that was starting to form around the Going Merry with no small amount of trepidation. The boat lurched as a wave crashed against its side, sending more dolphins on board and knocking us all around.

Wiping my soaking hair out of my face, I caught a flash of green from the corner of my eye, and subsequently caught the grenade that had been launched from somewhere near the Going Merry's bow. It had no pin, a point that made me hurl it over the edge of the boat just as quickly as it had come, and the resulting plume of water smashing into my face almost knocked me to the opposite side of the boat. Usopp came stumbling blindly past me as I pulled myself back to my feet, my bow in his hands and most of his top half trapped in the unfortunately confines of a dolphin's mouth.

I snatched my bow out of his hands, gave him a little push so he wouldn't topple over the edge of the railing, and leapt for the rigging. Another three anti-aircraft rounds came screaming at me from the water, curling around the rigging as I scampered up as quickly as my legs could carry me and utterly ignoring the nonsensical turns I was taking to lose them.

Don't think about how, for that way lies madness.

If you asked me what happened after that, I would have told you that I faked the rockets out with a cheeky manoeuvre that left me hanging upside down in the optimal position to snipe them out of the air. In actuality, I missed a step entirely and plummeted, only managing to stay out of the water by virtue of my foot getting tangled up in the rope. The sniping part is true, though, and let me tell you, it is difficult to aim while upside down and shooting at rockets.

The explosion from one of them did swing me out of the way of a cannonball, but it also swung me into the way of a flaming chainsaw. I managed to escape that one with most of my foot still intact, duck underneath the rubber fist that knocked out one of the dolphins above us that had propellers instead of fins, and hit the ground in a perfect three-point landing that was immediately ruined by Zoro slamming down on top of me. Then he rolled off, I got a sword to the back and out the chest courtesy of the dolphin he had been duelling, and almost immediately was besieged by a group of three wielding flails.

I could only hope this wouldn't end up hurting the Going Merry too much. It was supposed to be alive eventually, wasn't it?

They all sneered at me from underneath their masks, each a different primary colour. I had to blink a few times just to make sure that they were really there.

"We are the amazing-!" The dolphin on the left raised its fin in a grand gesture, giving me ample time to climb to my feet, notch an arrow, and fire it. The dolphin on the right and the dolphin in the middle both attempted to swing their flails to deflect the arrow, only to hit each other's weapon, deflect them, and receive their own weapon to the face. They both went down in a shower of M-rated glory.

Then the third one got an arrow to the brain and went down like a sack of shit.

"Amazing," I muttered to myself as something skimmed past my head and took a little off the top. A quick grope of my belt let me know that I was down to my last arrow, and as I grabbed it and pulled back the string of my bow, the boat lurched again and a hush fell over the deck.

Followed quickly by a shadow.

Say, how big could animals in the One Piece world get? Because I don't want to believe, but if I was going by the way the shadow stretched on beyond the Going Merry and only stopped somewhere around the horizon, I had a feeling that I would very soon have to believe.

I could have been having a lovely time washing dishes. Instead I get to deal with this nonsense. Life is unfair.

I turned around and looked up. And up. And up some more. Beady little eyes filled with vitriol glared back down at me, from where they were stationed near the clouds.

Little is relative, of course, seeing as each eye could very easily fit the Going Merry at least seven times within each pupil.

I don't know what I could have called this thing. If I was only looking at its head, I would have called it some sort of mutated dolphin. Going further down its neck, however, revealed small appendages that would periodically twitch in response to whatever stimuli I couldn't see. It had limbs, numerous outcroppings of skin or flesh that never truly went anywhere and ended up twisted beyond all recognition. Markings, some of which I could only explain as arcane ran up and down its grotesque body in seemingly random patterns, and they seemed to pulse in tandem with what could have been a heartbeat.

It could have been a Sea King, but something about it felt off from the other specimens I'd glimpsed through a computer screen in the past. Where they had been absurd and somewhat silly to look at, this thing was nothing short of terrifying.

It was beyond hideous. It was monstrous, it was commanding, and it was all I could see. It meant little to me that the deck of the Going Merry was finally completely clear of everything bar the blood that had been spilled and the humans that had boarded at the Baratie, I was too entranced by the beast before me to pay attention to anything else.

There was too much to take in, but I tried anyway, looking up and then down and then up again. It watched me all the while, its eyes so tiny in comparison to the rest of its body and yet so easily matching the rest of its domineering presence in sheer power alone.

Suffice it to say, I felt small. Insignificant.

The way it moved under my gaze made me believe it could crush the world. It blinked. The movement created a shockwave that pushed all the clouds away from its head. It opened its mouth and breathed in. Our sail was almost ripped right out of its place as the wind picked up, a plume of water lifting out of the ocean and making it a good few metres into the air before it lost all momentum and crashed back down.

Belatedly, I saw the crown resting lopsided atop its head, almost comical in its addition to the abomination before me. Had it not been eclipsing the sun, maybe I would have risked the laughter.

And then, it spoke.

It fucking spoke. To me.

"THE BLOOD OF MY SON… IT STAINS YOUR HANDS."

The words were the chirp of a dolphin, warped through teeth the size of a whale and the vast expanse of empty air between us. The wind picked up almost immediately as it came down on top of us, crashing back towards the ocean like the sky had been knocked out from over us.

The first gusts hit us before it could get even halfway down. I barely felt it, paralysed as I was by the sight before me. The boat shuddered, something creaked and something else snapped, and a wave five times taller than me began to build up right underneath us.

And just like that, we were blasted way off course.

XxX

I want you to imagine, just for a moment, that you've climbed aboard a rollercoaster.

Already, you know what to expect. Maybe you've been on a rollercoaster before and are looking to replicate that first experience. Maybe you're like me, having only second-hand accounts and stories to go from because you've never had the chance to ride one.

Either way, you're on this rollercoaster. Lights are flashing. You're laughing along with your friends while some generic music blares through the few speakers that are scattered around.

However, something is wrong.

You've already taken your seat, but no bar is coming down to ensure your safety for the duration of the ride. Your merriment is put on hold for a moment to allow brief annoyance; what could this delay possibly mean?

And before you know it, you're moving. There's no announcement and no warning, just no movement one moment, and top speed the next.

Imagine that this sudden acceleration doesn't immediately kill you. Imagine that you don't instantly slip from your seat during the first loop and fall to your death. All you have to keep you in your seat and out of harm's way is gravity, your own strength, and perhaps even the intervention of others both on the ride and off.

That's what it felt like when the Going Merry started to move.

There was no warning. One moment we were under the scrutiny of some Lovecraftian monstrosity, the next we were trying to shield our eyes from the sun and hold onto whatever we could grasp under the tempestuous assault.

The Going Merry skipped off the water more than a few times during its tumble, and each time we flipped, I got more worried that in amongst the chaos, Luffy had fallen into the ocean at some point in time. Things hit me repeatedly; I say things because I couldn't even begin to imagine what some of them were. It was all moving too fast for my eyes to have any hope of keeping up.

It was after about twenty seconds of solid travel that something slapped into my face and stuck there. I could still see - whatever was covering my face was covered in tiny holes that let in just enough light to let me know that I was still above the water. I curled my arms around the railing I was holding tighter, no longer trusting my most basic sense to help me in this situation.

Eventually, the journey began to calm down. The roaring winds began to die down to a light breeze, before stopping altogether. The ocean that had been slamming into us relentlessly gradually calmed until it was entirely flattened out, with not so much as a ripple touching the Going Merry's hull.

I hesitated, just for a moment, before reaching up to pull away whatever was covering my face. The sudden influx of light in my eyeballs had me covering my eyes with my arm and blinking away spots. After a moment, I lowered my arm and squinted through the light, trying to ascertain the damage that had been done.

It… it really wasn't pretty.

The deck of the Going Merry was in shambles. Literally in shambles. What wood wasn't outright missing was scarred horrifically. The mast was in three pieces, one of which was still sticking out of the ground. The other two had been flung into and through the opposite walls, opening up both cannon decks and strewing their contents everywhere it could get to. The sail was miraculously mostly alright, with only a few small tears decorating the otherwise pristine cloth.

The crew members didn't seem to be holding up quite as well. Johnny and Yosaku were both hanging over the railing a couple of metres away from me, puking up whatever was in their stomachs. Nami was slouched against one part of the broken mast, rubbing her head and trying to stem the red flow that I could see going down one cheek. Usopp was shaking against the ground, Zoro had just ripped Wado Ichimonji out of the wood he'd been using to anchor himself and was dutifully wiping splinters off its blade.

Luffy was tangled up in the rigging (phew), and I couldn't see Sanji anywhere.

My legs were absolutely quaking as I pushed myself off the railing and tried to use them to support my entire weight. My body was an absolute mess, given that I had weathered the initial hit of wind full frontal without a chance to find cover. Everything was still in one piece, but what wasn't hanging on by a thread was liquid on another limb. I was soaked through to the bone; the only noise coming from me that was more consistent than the water drops hitting the deck was the soft clicking as my body went about putting itself back together.

"Is everyone still alive?" Zoro called from where he was sitting, amidst a nest of wooden shavings. He received a series of grunts from everyone within view, including me, because I really wasn't in the mood to crack any jokes.

Usopp shrieked at the top of his lungs.

All of us jerked at the sound, with everyone but Zoro and I immediately groaning from the pain. Usopp's voice cut off suddenly as he lurched to his feet, only to immediately topple over onto his back.

"S-s-s-sorry, everyone. N-needed to let that out!" He shot us what could have been a thumbs up, but with the way his hand was shaking, it was difficult to tell. He then glanced around, and frowned. "Anyone know where Sanji is?"

"Here." Came the quiet reply from the direction of the kitchen. I glanced up and couldn't help but stare in wonder as Sanji ducked out of the partially collapsed doorframe and hopped down to our level, both hands filled with various things. He strolled effortlessly through the debris, and I can say with confidence that this was the first time I had ever been jealous of another man's legs.

He dropped to a knee when he reached Nami, carefully laying what he had in his hands down beside him and brushing her hair back. From where I was sitting, I could see a nasty gash running down the side of her ear and part-way along her forehead. I could already tell that was going to scar.

Sanji's hands went back down to what he had been carrying with him, and I pushed myself up a little further to get a better look at what they actually were. He picked up one of the items, a first-aid kit, and began to rummage through it. My eyes, meanwhile, fell on the sheep head-adorned pole that he'd brought with him.

No, wait, not a pole. That was the Going Merry's whipstaff.

Shit.

I groaned and let my head fall back. Unfortunately, I misjudged just how much my body could counterbalance, and ended up falling onto my back. The dull thud of my impact echoed out across the ocean, and I listened to it go before something occurred to me. I glanced at the sail, squinting against the sun to see it, and that was the moment that everything clicked.

"Uh, guys?" There was something missing in the picture. Something that had become a constant during a life on the seas just as much as water. "I think we're in the Calm Belt."

It would explain the fact that there was no wind. It would explain why I couldn't feel us moving. And it would explain why I was feeling the urge to jump off the ship and paddle us out of here now.

For a moment, nobody said anything. In that moment, I was reminded that Nami was the only one who actually knew what he Calm Belts were.

"...Shit," came her tired voice. I hadn't been expecting tired as I battled my way back to my feet, but my expectations obviously weren't something today was overtly worried with, so I would have to get over it.

"Where's the rope?" I stumbled towards Luffy's Special Seat, dodging around Sanji as he drew back to retrieve another bandage. The stairs were a daunting prospect, so I stopped there and held out a hand for somebody to drop a rope into. "We need to go, now."

"We're taking on water." Sanji glanced up at me through his fringe and shook his head, before returning to nursing Nami's injury. It actually looked ever worse now that I was this close; I really wanted someone to tell me right now that I wasn't actually looking at her skull. "The bottom of the ship has been ruined. If you try to tow us, you might pull it apart entirely."

"What's so bad about the-"

I quickly pointed at Luffy, even as I made my way through the carnage to find a more appropriate place to collapse. "Don't you dare finish that sentence," I warned him, not at all willing to deal with that particular universal law right now.

There was a short silence as my knees buckled and I fell into a comfortable little divot that had been made into Merry's deck. In that short silence, I hope everyone was using their brains to try to think of a way out of this situation, because that's what I was doing and I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn't be able to do it alone.

My ignorance of boats and all they stood for was more apparent to me now more than ever. I strained my mind, fractured as it may have been, for some sort of solution. Short of patching everything and clearing the water from the ship in the time we had before we either sank or were eaten by Sea Kings, I had nothing.

I ran a tired hand through my hair and closed my eyes, shifting from my side to my back. My mind calmed for a moment, and for that moment I just listened to everyone as they breathed. Occasionally there would be a whimper from either Nami or Usopp, with Sanji's constant string of reassurances the ocean's undertone. Something thumped against the ground above me, but given the current state of the ship, I paid it no mind.

"Fixing a ship, fixing a ship…" I muttered to myself, furrowing my eyebrows in thought. There must have been something that I could use, surely? "How to fix a ship…"

Something tapped against my hand. Something cool, a salve for my rushing thoughts. Existential dread filled my heart as my eyes snapped open and I shot into a sitting position, my hand reaching for the Fruit automatically before my mind could catch up.

I didn't really care where it had come from, or what it had reincarnated within. It sat there on the deck with innocence I knew for a fact it didn't deserve, all nice and shiny in the sunlight as my fingers twitched above it.

I was frozen there for at least five seconds. The others were looking at me, probably alarmed by my sudden movement, but I paid them no mind as I picked up the Fruit and carefully looked it over.

There wasn't even a speck of dust on its skin.

This could only end poorly.

"...If I eat this - IF I eat this…" I turned to the sky, where I knew at least one thing was watching me, "will I be able to put this ship back together?"

I waited for a moment, the Fruit in my hands, so easy to crush. I hated it, I hated myself for even considering this, but what if this was our only chance?

We were dead in the water. And I'd read at least one story before when the Going Merry was rescued by a Devil Fruit.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a most peculiar sight. There hadn't been any clouds in sight up until that point, with no wind to blow them overhead, but I could already make out the word as I craned my neck to see what was floating above us all.

Yes.

"How?" I challenged, holding the Fruit aloft. I felt foolish, staring at a cloud for so long, but it never changed. I let myself watch it for a moment, determined to notice any change at all, before the time constraint got to be too much.

My eyes fell to the Fruit as I lowered the hand holding it into my lap. Did I want to do this? No. Did I have to do this?

...Maybe.

"Hey, Luffy." It was unnatural, the way everything around us was so still. There was nothing to distract myself with. "Did I ever tell you my dream?"

I glanced up at Luffy, and couldn't help but smile at the sight of him utterly failing to until himself from the rigging. In fact, I think he'd only made it worse.

"Nope," he grunted as he wrestled with a particularly stubborn knot, before giving up and hanging limply above my head. He turned to me and shot me a grin, albeit one that looked a little more tired than usual. "What is it?"

I couldn't help but grin up at him as I went over my words. The image in my mind was grotesque, momentous, and wearing an obnoxious crown. I brought my hand to my mouth, resting my lips against the Devil Fruit.

Last chance to turn back…

"Zheekeehihihihi!" I laughed, long and loud, around the Fruit. "My dream, my ambition; Hell, my destiny... is to make every single species of dolphins extinct!"

With that, I bit down, and felt the power flood through my body.