Vacation's Over; Back to Business
As the three left the castle after having eaten a filling meal, Leon offered up the general locations of the rest of the crew. Rose had helped tend to the many that Bo and Alexander left wounded- Leon killed everyone he fought- and once that was taken care of she talked with the doctors at length about medicine as well as Bo's condition, and checked on Bo before leaving to spend some time in the main town. Mage stayed on the ship and was currently watching over the Devil Fruit. Ray had escorted the people from Todai Island off the ship and into the village, and after visiting the palace to issue his thanks for the hospitality and apologies for rude behavior he was certain his friends had likely been involved in, he came back and helped to build houses and make repairs to the town in any way he could.
The palace had been bustling with activity- servants, personnel, and even some slaves (identifiable by the Royal crest branded on their skin) moved to and fro constantly, bowing to the Prince whenever he walked by- and the outside was little different. Some people traveled between the town and the palace with carts of supplies, but it was mostly soldiers preparing for some big event. Once they reached, the open fields, they rarely came across anybody. Even at the edge of town, the mass majority seemed preoccupied with something off in another direction.
The sight obviously sparked something in the Prince as he exclaimed, "Oh, it's already time for my father's announcement?! Today he informs the citizens that my brother will replace him as King once he returns from his voyage."
Bo opened his eyes and spoke, "Good. You can go ahead and attend the gathering. We'll be gone by the time it's over." He then started to walk off. "Leon, let's go."
Before the two could go anywhere they heard a voice call out, "Wait." Turning around, they continued to hear the voice, "The ceremony can commence without me; they'll have to in the future anyway,"
Bo and Leon looked to the Prince in slight confusion, "since I'm joining your crew." This time it was Alexander who turned to walk off, leaving Bo and Leon with lost expressions on their faces. "I'll meet you at the ship after I gather some of my stuff," he said with a wave to his two... crewmates.
Getting over their shock, Bo and Leon got ready to leave as well. "I'll go get Rose; she seems to be headed to the ceremony. You get Ray; he's over in that direction around a few people." Bo pointed ahead of them off to the opposite side of the growing crowd going to the castle.
Bo moved through the crowd with ease, gradually moving closer to his crew's doctor in the midst of the mass of bodies. With a light jump, Bo alighted in a small opening of the moving crowd and stepped forward placing his hand on a girl's shoulder. "Rose, we're leaving." The girl in front of him turned around and he heard, "Bo, what are you doing moving around? You could still be suffering some minor effects from the concussion." The statement came at the same time as a young lady's panicked scream. Bo looked behind him, as the girl in his grasp ran off, and saw... Rose. As people looked towards the scene, Bo moved with precision, picked up a puzzled Rose, and swiftly made his way out of the large group. Most of the people didn't see what was going on and the people closest returned to their own business after a short while since Rose didn't scream and they were in no hurry to die at the hands of some madman. They'd rather let the kingdom's soldiers deal with it.
"What are you doing? I wanted to see the ceremony; I've never seen a Royal procession before." Rose complained as Bo set her feet back on solid ground.
"Sorry; like I meant to say to you earlier: 'We need to leave.'" Bo explained as compassionately as he could.
Rose remembered what had happened just moments ago and hurriedly asked, "Yea, what was that? What happened?"
Bo answered, "Oh nothing; just a headache." as he reached a hand to his head, while groaning in discomfort.
"I told you this could happen. How many hits to the head did you take?"
Groaning, Bo answered, "I don't know. Two or three significant shots." 'Though it felt like getting hit head on by a cannonball' he thought to himself. Pushing the incessant pounding in his head aside for a moment, Bo stood up from his kneeled position. "Let's head to the ship. We can deal with everything once we've set sail."
Leon followed the general directions Bo had given and surely enough he was nearing Ray, standing in the midst of a few worn buildings talking to a couple of the adults from their village. Leon pulled his new sword from its sheath, deciding to have some fun with his old sparring buddy. Once he was straight on with Ray's back, Leon donned a mischievous smirk as he swung down and let loose a reddish blade of air about as high as the most basic houses.
The air blade cut through the ground with ease as it neared Ray's blindside, but Ray calmly continued his conversation as he reached into his sash. Pulling out his segmented staff, he stated, "I'm sorry gentleman; it seems we have to cut our conversation short. I rather enjoyed speaking with you." The two men backed up at the sight of the air blade growing increasingly prominent in their vision. Just as it was upon him, Ray screwed the staff together and swung out behind him, dissipating the attack on contact and resulting in a beautiful sprinkling of harmless red energy. As the two older men moved away to tend to their own business, Ray turned to Leon. "Releasing such a potent killing intent when you attack counteracts any element of surprise you may have." Noticing the sword Leon used, Ray added, "That sword has a very disconcerting aura."
"It's only fittin' for da Fang o' da Demon King, Mao no Kiba, a cursed blade." came the amused response. "It'll calm down as soon as it tastes blood."
Bo and Rose arrived at the ship shortly before the other two and were met by Mage. Rose relaxed by the ocean while Bo had Mage lead him to the Devil Fruit. He investigated the purple melon with what looked like gray-white scratch marks covering the surface and when he was through placed it back in the chest and went back out on deck where he met up with Ray.
Ray smiled to Bo as his friend and captain approached, and while looking out over the sea stated, "So, I guess Rose told you she decided to officially join."
"No, she didn't; that's good to know, though. What about Mage; is he adapting?"
Before Ray could answer the question, they heard a scream and growling from the distance. "This looks interestin'," they heard Leon say from off to the side.
Looking behind them down the coast of the island, they saw a large white bear with the ears of a rabbit growling ferociously and readying to attack. "What is that?" Ray asked while Leon jumped in front of Rose allowing the young doctor time to back away onto the ship.
"That is a lapahn." Alexander's voice sounded clearly from a short ways away from the ship where he was trailed by six servants each pushing a cart in pairs- two were filled to the brim with gold, jewels, and money while the other was a large chest. "It's one of the animals used for border defense. My father must have authorized their use to clear out any straggling insurgents."
"But, aren't lapahns winter animals? And... And-"Rose questioned.
"There's so much that's unnatural about this." Mage chimed in, his voice neutral and face emotionless as usual.
"Blah, blah, blah... I 'on't care and 'parently neither does da big fella." Leon mocked as he held up his sword against the charging lapahn headed his way.
In the moment before the two made contact, Bo's voice rang out- "Don't kill it!"- prompting Leon to use the sheath to hit the unsuspecting beast upside its head and send it flying to the side. The interruption frustrated Leon cause of what he was sure would follow, and when Ray alighted next to him, his frustrations were realized. Bo wanted to keep the lapahn as a pet; he had an affinity for exotic animals. That was actually how he first got Tala- raising and training it almost like a replacement mother after finding it with a wounded wing in the forests of Todai Island, how it got there unknown.
Ray and Leon were easily able to handle the enraged lapahn, which Alexander explained was 'trained' to fight in an unrelenting manner, but doing so without injuring it too badly was a tad more difficult. Meanwhile, the Prince's servants followed Mage to where they could put the Prince's wardrobe and his 'share of the family fortune'.
After knocking the lapahn unconscious and restraining it, Ray stepped up beside Leon as Leon shouted up to Bo, who was looking down at the entire scene. "There, ya happy?" Leon chided
"No, but thank you." came the annoyed response.
With the lapahn taken care of, Alexander stepped out onto the deck after checking his new quarters. "I am unused to such lowly accommodations. We should upgrade the interior immediately." the Prince spoke haughtily.
"Yea, we'll take care of that as soon as we have a shipwright." Bo offhandedly responded with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Just then, a muffled scream sounded from the opposite direction of Ray and Leon. After the scream subsided, ripples could be seen forming on the water's surface followed immediately by the rising of a green serpentine creature. It had grayish hair encircling its 'neck' and running down its back. The monster appeared massive even with the distance as only part of its long body stuck out of the water.
Leon grinned as he dropped the lapahn he'd been roughly dragging along the ground and cast his gaze on the new animal. "Ya want this one too?" he asked, lifting his sword (with the sheath still on) again.
"No! Wait." Bo ordered. Looking closer at the strange animal, he could barely make out the outline of a person- a woman, evident by her prominent bust- standing on the creature's head. Turning to Alexander, he asked, "Another one of your defense animals?"
"No; this one's actually a personal pet."
'She looks familiar. The flowing hair; the billowing, full-length skirt. Who is she?' Gears turned in Bo's mind as he tried to place the figure. 'What was her name?... Mino!... Hm, there's even more to her than I originally thought.' Bo pondered as he looked on.
The green-scaled sea animal lowered its head allowing Mino to step onto the coast. The beautiful woman turned and patted the beast on the side its head, which was easily larger than her and the rows of sharp teeth would have been able to swallow her whole without any effort. "What have I told you about eating such rotten food?" she scolded the enormous creature. "Aah, it's okay." Mino smiled gently as the animal actually looked regretful for a brief moment before diving back into the depths of the ocean.
When Mino arrived at the base of the ship, Alexander clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "Alright! Now that everyone has arrived, we may depart."
This sparked protests out of Leon, who had just stepped back on deck after putting the lapahn in one of the cells. "Who put you in charge, Princess? And who da hell said yo lil' concubine was gon' be comin', anyway?"
Alexander scowled at Leon as he took a step forward. "I am the Vice-Captain and my friend, Mino, either joins or neither of us do."
"Den get da hell off dis ship. We don't need no prissy punk like you, no way."
"Oh, but you uneducated oaf, you do. Do you know what this is?" Alexander asked as he held out a small ball, with a needle in it, attached to a small leather strap.
"A fancy bracelet?" Leon sneered.
"Ha! This is a log pose. It's necessary to traverse the Grand Line. And, I am a navigator. You'll need me and Mino, since she helps with the navigation, if you wish to go anywhere."
Leon calmed down a bit as Bo walked up. Looking between the two, Bo remarked, "Good to have that settled, but" he turned to Alexander with a cold stare, "don't appoint yourself Vice-Captain on my ship."
"Fine, I will settle for First Mate then." Alexander proclaimed, earning looks from both Bo and Leon. "Oh. I didn't think the Neanderthal would realize the lack of difference. I was just kidding"
"Hmph," Leon snorted. "I wouldn't take orders from Princess, no way. Besides, can just kill him once we're at sea, since da concubine can navigate as well."
At this threat declaration, Mino jumped between the two and stared fiercely at Leon, coldly stating, "If you attempt to harm the young Prince, I will kill you."
"Oh, the wench got some fire after all. This'll be a fun journey."
"Enough! Bo yelled, drawing everyone's attention. "Nobody's going to kill anybody. Leon, stand down. Mino, you need to stop calling Alexander, Prince. He relinquished that title when he became a pirate."
Mino bowed to Bo and stepped back to Alexander's side while Leon walked off. Alexander approached Bo and asked, "How do you deal with that beast?"
"He grows on you."
"Like a rash, maybe. But what of the defamation; can you not make him cease that?"
"Leon doesn't call anybody by their name unless he respects their strength and/or doesn't dislike them. I honestly think Mino is closer to being called by her name by him than you, so just ignore it."
Alright, I will force him to respect my strength. This ship has a sparring area does it not?"
"Before that," Rose spoke up with a smile a bit too big considering what had just transpired, "we should celebrate getting two new crew members." she exclaimed happily.
Bo looked down at the teenage doctor, surprised at how well she seemed to be adjusting to everything. 'What could Ray have said to her?' he thought. 'No matter, I will protect her; I'll protect them all.' "First though, we should hurry and set sail."