Rift Pirates Chapter 4 Part 4: The town of Latria

Some time ago, the town of Latria on St. Smooreshelm

"I am sorry sir, we just cannot aid you." A slender woman with short brown hair said in only a mildly sorry tone. The woman held down the chestnut admissions desk at the Old Monk Memorial Hospital. The woman made very little effort to look up from her thick-framed round blue glasses.

Across from the desk stood a man with a very curious build, the man had extremely broad shoulders that were pumped up to give the top of his torso maximum girth, complimented by a veiny, humped back, making it look more like the man's round head with spiked up black hair was coming out of his chest. However, below his shoulders and upper pectorals, the man's clothing began to grow extremely baggy as if he were just skin and bones. There was very little width differentiation between the man's waist and legs. For clothing, the man wore a white doctor's coat with a nametag that read 'Dr. Epitaph Eubanks'. Underneath the coat, he wore a yellow and gray button down shirt with diagonal stripes of faded blue. The man also wore a pair a faded kahkis and some faded old grey boots.

This man repeatedly and quite audibly licked his lips while he processed the woman's response."Are you sure?" The man inquired "I have all my credentials and have more than enough money to reimburse the costs, I just need some supplies to operate."

The woman made an effort to actually make eye contact before responding. "Look, I am sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, but you must see this from our point of view. We cannot afford the kind of attention we would get for admitting sick and wounded fugitives. We may even endanger the innocent patients! We cannot just start admitting pirates, even if the disease is as serious as you claim Dr. Eubanks. You left this type of establishment to live that life many years ago." After hearing no response from Eubanks, the woman repeated herself "Just see it from through our eyes, people who choose to live that life should not be sharing their risk and danger with the unconnected public. Even giving you supplies could land us in hot water.

"See things through our eyes…" This line seared itself into the pirate doctor's brain.

Present day- midnight, the town of Latria on St. Smooreshelm

"I am sorry sir, we just cannot aid you." A slender woman with short brown hair said in only a mildly upbeat tone. The woman held down the chestnut admissions desk at the Old Monk Memorial Hospital. The woman made little effort to look down, opting instead to stare at Brizan with a smile while wearing her kickin' shades.

'Coy boy' Soso Brizan stood on the other side of the table sporting a white hooded sweatshirt with a blue seagull on it. All of Brizan's clothing was so soaked by the storm, that he had to grab some of the shore leave spares in the stock room of the marine ship they had commandeered, He also wore some blue pants and black boots. "Well, I admit that do not know a whole lot about medicine, but it seems he mostly just needs a blood tranfsuion. We will pay well if you are able to take care of his for a bit.

The woman did not look even bother down to double check her guidelines. Instead she just smiled at Brizan. "Just see it from our perspective, that terrible storm just missed us, how could we not throw a crazy party? All the doctors are getting their groove on at the house in the cave."

Brizan raised his eyebrows. "A friend of mine is bleeding to death." The outlaw was typically pretty patient but the woman's enthusiastic disregard for life was beginning to rub him the wrong way.

"Well is he bleeding from his body?"

"Of course, what else would he be bleeding from?!"

"Well, if he was bleeding from something else, that would be quite odd. This seems perfectly normal."

The outlaw glared for a moment before grumbling his way out of the hospital.

"Is everyone on your home island completely incompetent?" Brizan scowled at Majje who met him outside the hospital.

Majje did not respond directly, it sounded like an insult and she did not have time for that. "It is the middle of the night and my family is not home. They go to bed exactly one hour after sunset every single night. Something is wrong."

Brizan pondered the thought for a moment, "Well all the doctors are apparently at some house in a cave and throwing a dance party."

Majje looked at Brizan confused "House in a ca-" the marine began to speak but cut off when she spotted some nearby marines. Majje pushed Brizan behind a pillar in front of the hospital and held a finger to her lips. " I can't be sure they are allies after the attack." Majje whispered her explanation. Majjor was wearing a blue turtle neck with a white seagull and similar pants and shoes to Brizan. The store room of the ship they were using did not offer much in terms of variety.

"The haunted house in the cave, huh?" These marines were stationed in the base of on the other side of the island. "I suppose we could just let Belladonna know that those who escaped the bet will not pose a threat."

The second marine agreed as the two voices trailed into the distance.

Majje looked at Brizan. "Borgia 'Belladona' Atropa… that is the first mate of the All-in pirate crew…" Majje recalled, trying to grasp the weight of the situation.

"That is Jagger Thorp's crew right?" Brizan responded, he sure was glad to not be a marine right now.

The young marine officer gave the outlaw a nod. "Yes, by far the most dangerous crew in the South Blue. I heard that Thorp had some sort of power, but I do not know how he could possibly get true marines to turn their backs on justice. I knew those two, we joined the marines together but they got stationed here while I was moved to Smokey Top."

"Well it sounds like everyone is this haunted house having a dance party." Brizan gulped, visibly apprehensive.

Majje gave Brizan a disregarding look "I didn't think you would be scared of a haunted house. If you were scared that easily, how did it take so long for the captain to capture you?"

"Because I am cautious, obviously." Brizan snapped back, slightly perturbed. "Besides…" Brizan gulped again growing pale. "It sounds like had the town is in that place. I don't handle crowds well… I can barely handle one person." Brizan let out a sigh and saw Majje staring blankly at him "Its fine… let's just go. Maybe your family is there."

"Uhh, where is it?" Brizan asked after a few minutes of walking. "Do you even know?"

Majje was quite visibly irritated "of course not, this ' house' is a new thing. We definitely not have whole houses in caves when I was growing up here. I would know."

"Really?" The outlaw inquired. "I thought haunted houses needed to be old to get haunted. So are you saying a haunted house was just built?"

Before the completely pointless conversation could continue, a one-eyed moody teenaged girl with slight acne problems and red-yellow color blindness popped her head between the walking duo "Thass becuss the houssse juss got here."

Brizan and Majje just looked at her. Majje wondered if this girl was part of some pirate plot to manipulate her movements away from the path of justice. Brizan wondered if this girl was part of an elaborate plot of Butterfield to manipulate his movements away from the path of freedom he so recently returned to after a moment in a high security base.

"I am tellin ya doh, ya bess leave dat place alone if ya wanna keep your eyes, barely got away from dat nutjob myself. Ya loose ya eyes and yas loose ya mind, y'knows?"

"Not really" Brizan responded truthfully. Of course, he was barely paying attention in the first place. "Ready to go?" Brizan asked as he looked at his companion.

Majje nodded in begrudging agreement as the pair began to head off.

A half an hour later, the duo found themselves on a rocky outcropping near the sea. This outcropping was quite tall and when observed closely, seemed to be made up of several loose rocks." This was not here last time I came to this part of the island." Tucked away between rocky cliffs and rolling hills, this massive structure seemed as tall as a ten story building and sat around a small pool that connected to the ocean through a narrow ravine. Upon closer inspection, there was an opening near the base of the structure. "Do you think that is our cave down there?"

"That has to be." Brizan took a moment to look at the ravine leading into the structure and then looked his marine companion dead in the eyes "Can I ride in on your back?"

One piggyback ride later…

Brizan pulled back on Majje's forehead, tugging some of her hair in the process. "Looks like that's it, it is so weird to see a door like that in a cave, do you think you could get me closer so I could see how high up this building goes?

Majje muttered some cruel words about devil fruit users under her breath and waded forward, waist deep in water. "Well of course I will get closer, there is only one direction we can go." The two moved in silence for a few moments as Majje reached what could be seen of the wooden building. Majje carried Brizan on her back, careful not to let any more than the delicate devil fruit user's boots touch the water. She wasn't sure why she went through with this, but was going to make sure she at least did a good job at it. Upon closer inspection, wood only made up a part of the building's visible structure, the wood seemingly gave way in several places and was carefully patched up by fungi, algae, and mysterious slime-like growths that ranged from bright pink to dark forest green mixed with white. "Well… Majje asked impatiently after a moment."

"Oh that's right I was supposed to do something, Brizan said as he looked upward. Unfortunately, Brizan could see little past the floor above them since slabs of rock and the darkness of the cave prevented their vision from reaching much further. "Yeah, I can only see one more floor." The outlaw commented. "I guess we should just head in now."

Majje just sighed and opened the door, the structure swayed ever so slightly as the pair stepped aboard.


There we have it, we are back. I am a bit busy preparing to present my research at a conference next month but can probably keep releasing short chapters like this. This has been a fun chapter to write and am really excited to get into this house, there are some fun events planned. I am also enjoying slowly building up Brizan's devil fruit and the All-In Pirate Crew. Brizan's devil fruit should actually be explained in far more detail within the next two updates. Looking forward to publishing more!

~GMB