Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece
Well I only have one more day before my weekend is over and I have to go back to work. Right now all I'm worried about is if I'm keeping better track of my expenses to afford the next release I'm looking forward to.
X_X_X_X
"Heh..." the boy said with a confident smirk.
Fritz did something unexpected losing his taste, he filled in for Henry steering the ship.
This allowed Henry to take a much-needed nap, until he was ever called upon for anything else that was important.
Like Henry, he was surrounded by Etoile. That girl just doesn't give people their personal space.
"Hey." she said.
Henry nearly jolted awake, looking at her as he asked, "What are doing here? I was...trying to sleep."
"I was just trying to find someone on here that is fun to talk to. Not Fritz, not Hardy, and not Charlotte so who else could be fun to talk to?"
"Well...didn't I remember us two talking while I was dealing with the steer?" Henry asked.
"Of course you did. So, is there anything else you want to bring up?" Etoile replied.
"Um...maybe that racer that you got a crush on?" he asked her.
"Him? Well he was cute and I would have liked to meet him if we didn't run from the island, but it isn't love if it's a one time infatuation."
"Who knows? Maybe you might see him again." Henry replied.
"Maybe...definitely maybe." Etoile said with a small smile.
Henry probably would find an attractive girl on the island they would depart on, but since he was a pirate and the island could detect them...the only hot female who would see him is a Marine trying to imprison or hang him.
"Well, I better get back to sleep. Goodnight." he said, to which Etoile nodded before she left the room.
In a way this crew was like Etoile's family back when she was a neet in a castle and in a way they were different.
Hopefully, whenever the time came, she would love to reunite with her siblings back home.
Fritz was tempted to drink, but drinking while at the helm was a sure way to crash into another ship. He also still couldn't feel the same kindle, hot oven of heat in his body he usually felt when he was smoking. Clearly, he was still a smoker and smoking while stirring. It didn't impede with his steering, it was just a nasty habit.
As he took another drag from the cigarette in his hand, Etoile came in and asked Hardy, "Did you steal those cigarettes from Hardy or something?"
The skin on Hardy started to peel away revealing the real facade: he was Fritz. "No one takes cigarettes from me, and from what I can tell the only smoker on this slave trap is me."
Etoile gasped. "Then where exactly is Hardy?" she asked out of puzzlement.
"Most likely examining my room since the explosion. He's a nice boy."
Etoile raised an eyebrow at Fritz's statement, before she began to go and enter Fritz's room to check if Hardy was around.
He was and he was caressing the floorboard.
"Maybe they left something in here."
"This fake Hardy that was at the steer, that was obviously Fritz, wasn't it? I thought you were in charge of the steer." Etoile asked.
"Uh, yeah. But Fritz ended up replacing me, almost intentionally." Hardy replied.
"Doesn't he know he's in no condition to be steering? He almost got his mouth burned off and he's been drinking that stupid sake and whiskey since he got up."
"Sounds like you got a point, there; why shouldn't he be napping right now?" Etoile asked.
"Maybe not being able to taste that stuff has made him feel more on the compassionate side." Hardy opened up a floorboard and peered at the still liquid in a beaker inside. He lift it out to see a liquid in a beaker and a rope tied around it. The sides of the beaker were entirely black. "I think when Fritz smoked in here the smoke triggered this; a catalyst."
Etoile gasped. "Is that so? A beaker containing...something." she said as she took a closer look at the beaker in question.
Hardy could see her attention was on the liquid itself. How it still had great volume inside the beaker despite an obvious explosion happening inside the room.
"But how could such a liquid be able to explode?" Etoile asked as she examined the contents.
Hardy didn't have the answer, but he did know he should show this to Fritz and Charlotte to let them know to double check any room for it before smoking a cigarette...indoors.
Etoile would hand over the beaker to him, and with it in hand, Hardy went to find Charlotte, hoping to show her.
When Charlotte noticed him entering, she asked, "So, did you locate the problem?"
"Yeah. This here was placed under Fritz's floorboard because someone is trying to kill him. Maybe they want him dead first and then the rest of us because Fritz is technically the strongest member here."
"Sounds almost like a legit assassination attempt." Charlotte replied, crossing her arms as her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion.
"Should we double check the ship?" Henry said, showing up out of nowhere and seemingly knowing what Charlotte was talking about. "I mean, we are in water and this happened on this boat. There should be hints if someone did this while we are asea."
"Great idea! We have to make sure everyone pitches in on this investigation!" Charlotte replied with a nod.
X_X_X_X
Meanwhile, Rony was dealing with actors and actresses fed up with him.
"Can't the lot of you learn to calm down?!" he asked, crossing his arms while tapping one of his feet.
"You pretty much abused us during production of your last rot-aka show-and all we got out of it were a few spectators!" One actress shouted.
"Yeah, and you even tried to ogle one of the lady performers!" an actor added.
"No, I didn't!" Rony simply lied.
Imogen was in show a minor character but in real life he was a great leader. He said "There's nine of us here, enough to break down this door if we throttle it together."
"Oh, you're trying to fire me?! I'd love to see you try!" Rony yelled to Imogen.
Rony was using a tirade of positions where he was at the top and everyone else should follow him, but after the actor and actresses broke down his door...he squirmed into a corner.
"Can't we settle this with some oboe music?"
"Oboe music? What are you talking about?" Imogen asked puzzledly.
"It's an instrument some people play. I was going to hire someone to play it in my next play." Rony sweated all over his forehead looking at nine people who loathed him. "Please don't hurt me."
They would then attack by beating him up with their fists, and Imogen also showed up to give him a beatdown, too.
Rony could do nothing to stop the punching considering he was a nobody no matter how many plays he directed. Eventually he weeped and begged them to stop hurting him. They did stop, but only because they had enough of hurting him.
As the actors and actresses reveled in their victory over him, Imogen smiled almost triumphantly. "Perhaps it is possible that we might join a new troupe. Or perhaps form one." he told them.
They all agreed to that while Rony wanted one moment where people weren't rubbing salt in his wounds.
"Could you at the very least leave?" he asked.
Imogen and the others heeded his question, and they would soon leave as promised.
Rony got off his feet feeling weak and unrespected. He pulled something in his joints finally standing on his feet.
"Now who am I gonna recruit at this time?" he asked himself.
There once was a lady with a large white starfish around her body that slept peacefully while rare kinds of Fishman guarded her, ones who grew larger when water touched them but too much and...terrible things.
It seemed she might have had a dark secret.
All she did most days was sleep, awaiting adventurers who were foolish enough to try her. But that was a legend, a myth about the current rulers ancestor because she has two husbands. And now, Charlotte was going to go up and see the queen.
"I've heard of this legend when I was younger, and I bet I'm more than happy to come face to face with her." she told Hardy with a grin.
"Not by walking through the front door you will," Henry said. "My former Marine corps put scanner in this village. So maybe we need to try another way in."
"If that sounds plausible, then so be it." Charlotte said, cupping her chin in thought.
All they needed was something long and solid, and luckily they had a pink version of that. Hardy morphed his bubblegum body into a tall scale able to hold two at a time per scale.
Once the ship arrived, Charlotte and her nakama were pretty much armed and ready to go.
Inside the palace, an attractive hazel skinned lady with a white starfish necklace, silk blue dress showing off her black bra and midriff, violet eyes, and long white ponytail was tapping her fingers on her throne with a white cymbal seat.
She took a glance outside, and noticed a fairly large ship - which happened to belong to Charlotte - anchored near a harbor. She let out a faint smile, pondering over what to do with these new guests.
She paced the large room pondering if she should keep them in the prisoners pit or her young husbands mancave.
But for now, Charlotte and the others were outside her castle, making sure Hardy got the signal to morph.
Despite how little she saw someone in this island use Devil Fruit powers, seeing a man with skin as hazel as her morph into a long scale of justice didn't surprise her.
The woman scoffed, as Hardy's morphing was able to help him and his friends inside. Though it didn't stop her from sending in some henchmen to deal with them.
"My apologizes." Hardy said to the henchman. He removed his hat, twirled it, and dropped it to the floor before sliding it.
"Huh? What's going on?" one of them asked.
"Are you tryin' to play tricks with us?" another asked.
Hardy did his part, now it was Fritz's turn to make the magic happen. He used his powers to flip the hat upside down and right side up over and over again. Until, like a rabbit coming out of a hat, a much needed tool fell out.
The henchmen were flabbergasted as to what item Charlotte and her nakama had in mind. Charlotte distracted them though with her intentions.
"I want to speak to the queen."
One of the guards huffed. "You'll be lucky she doesn't throw you in the pit with that weird monk that talks to a rock."
They wound up complying and escorted the group to the queen, who could only grin as they arrived in her chambers.
The only one not trying to look undeterred by her appearance was Hardy. The boy was learning a bit about hormones and how she looked very attractive in his young male eyes.
"I am Bridgetta, the Queen Starfish. It seems as though you wish to capture me so that I could be shown off for scientific purposes." Bridgetta said with a small frown.
"No, you are probably only 1/128 whatever species you were. We are here to ask where the forest is." Charlotte said.
"A forest you may ask?" Bridgetta asked. "If you can withstand some of my bodyguards, I might clue you in." she added.
A few fish men entered the room, much to Charlotte and her nakama's chagrin.
"Etoile...your up."
Etoile made long blood solidified claws facing backwards that reached for the hat. She had the strength to toss it in the air. After it was moved, out popped a fishing rod.
The fish men were confused as to why a fishing rod would be used against them, as Etoile quickly learned.
But Charlotte picked it up and twirled it around. The line moved towards the fishmen and coiled around one's bicep. Her move happened when one sneaked behind her; she lifted her legs up and kicked the hard skin torso causing the other fishman to topple over.
Hardy was slugged by a towering hammerhead shark Fishman. When the punch connected, Hardy's body split in half, his upper part stretching out his sides to handcuff the fishman's fists. The Fishman was interlocked and constricted, and Hardy turned his head into a bubblegum hammer to smash him.
Fritz threw an empty beer bottle on a pufferifsh Fishman. And again. He did it again. Every time the bottle smashed he used his powers to make it whole again.
The boys weren't the only ones with creative use of their powers. A sand carp Fishman and a lobster Fishman tried punching Etoile in both directions. She jumped over their, her claws out, the blood in her claws melted off and dropped on the extended fists of the fishmen. And then, the blood solidified into their fists, trapping them together. This was an ideal moment for Etoile to sucker-kick them.
Delivering low kicks to the both Fishmen, one in the torso, and the other in the groin unexpectedly, Etoile watched as Charlotte as she morphed into her werewolf form. This indicated that she was ready to fight Bridgetta, to her delight.
Bridgetta's chest emblem shone red. The ceiling was embroidened in red light before it opened showing dozens of golden tridents above.
"One move and we all die the way I want to be, killed by a strong trident. I hope to die by the Fudoyshi Trident."
Henry, who bore witness to everything happening before his eyes, asked Charlotte, "What do we do now? If any of us dare to attack her, we're all dead."
Charlotte had a choice to make: her nakama or her luck. She knew it should be a no thought decision, but before she could even move some strangers voice roared.
"Rollcka, Shield up!"
With that roar, everyone of her nakama was surrounded by a box and a roof of rock slabs. And inside the box, the tridents rained down on her. The tridents were sharp enough to impale the roof, but not sharp enough to impale through her head given it was safeguarded now.
"Rollcka? Who is that?" she asked, scratching her head out of confusion.
The rocks finally tumbled off. In their place was dozens of tridents everywhere in the room. It seemed like they avoided fatality only to be trapped. That was until the very ground flipped upside down, burying the spears underground.
The person responsible for the attack was a monk of average build and average height, who looked down at Charlotte and the others and said, "Don't be frightened. I am here to rescue you all."
Charlotte was both in relief and in doubts with this man.
"I honestly don't know who you are, but..." she told him, but turned her attention to Bridgetta, "...my friends and I have some fish to fry." she said, much to Bridgetta's slight amusement.
Bridgetta charged in jumping on the exposed shafts of the spears. Charlotte also jumped on the spears and charged towards Bridgetta, the difference being her claws were out.
Bridgetta brought out her prized trident and already charged for Charlotte. Surprisingly, it was Charlotte that made the first move thanks to her claws.
Charlotte missed her mark, and was scratched in her left shoulder. She even noticed as Bridgetta attempted at disintegrating her, but out of sheer luck, Charlotte dodged almost quickly.
"So that's your power. Disintegration." Charlotte smirked at an understanding that was pretty petite.
"And regeneration." Bridgette said that but the scab on her arm was still bleeding. "Try to hurt me again."
"What?!" Charlotte asked. "But you're still bleeding! Why do you claim to rengenerate?!"
Bridgette did something crazy with her hands. She put her hands around her neck and squeezed hard. In a strange move that made trauma from Charlotte's past-the bullies hurting her-seem small...Bridgette decapitated her own head. Charlotte didn't believe through this horrid site Bridgette was dead, and in just a few seconds she wasn't or at least was but didn't appear to be now. Her whole head grew back.
Charlotte's eyes widened as she stammered, "But...But that's...!"
"See what I mean?" Bridgetta said with a confident smile.
She didn't stop with her head. She crossed her arms and used the same weapon on both of them. This time both of her arms were falling off. They regrew like her head, but unlike her head they can still move. The arms joined the head, reanimated and joined together making a newly made being.
"Oh, shit...I-I don't know what to do!" Charlotte muttered.
"Giving up already?" Bridgetta asked.
The small thing leaped towards Charlotte prepared to claw at her. That face that said she didn't stand a chance changed into a face that was well prepared for this.
"Gotcha." Charlotte said with a smile.
Charlotte smacked the thing around before charging with it towards Bridgetta.