Catching Up
The day was beginning to drain. The sun was coming down slowly but surely. The crew had spent the majority of the day on the ocean traveling, and then finally hit their destination, only to find it a mass grave for bandits. They had cleared away the last remnants and taken their loot. The Chaos Pirates were gonna shine. But first they had to wait for their crew to regroup. Fein and Shira had gone back through the woods to the Black Tail to get the rest of the crew and sail around the island to the town's docks, where Halcen and the others waited.
They began rummaging through the rest of their spoils. The bandits had seemingly rounded up every last beri on the island, every piece of gold or jewelry, and put it together for the pirates in a nice neat little package. And they had left the crown jewel: a Devil Fruit. Its tempting gaze intrigued Halcen like nothing before. He kept staring at it as Bo and Kazuki went exploring through the town to see if they could find any remaining islanders.
"What are you going to do with it?" Grey asked Halcen, refraining from walking around. He was sitting on one of the boxes that were lying about, relaxing.
"I'm not sure. First things first, I want to check the book," Halcen said without looking away. This is the second Devil Fruit I've stumbled upon, in a very short time. He looked out at the sea. "There's something strange about this. It doesn't feel like a coincidence."
"You think it's God?" Grey asked.
Halcen laughed. "No, I don't think it's 'god.'" He looked back to Grey.
"You never know," Grey shrugged. "He does a lot of odd stuff."
"And you really think 'Devil Fruits' are going to be his gift to me? Doesn't seem likely. Besides, I've never been very blessed."
"Well if you don't take stock of the things around you, you're bound to miss your blessings," Grey said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough of the preaching." Halcen went into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar. "I'm hungry," he said, stuffing his face. He looked out at the horizon. "They better get back here soon. We gotta get moving on. You can feel where Shanks is, right?"
Grey looked around. "The further into the island we get, the better I get a feel for him. I'll be able to figure it out once we get walking."
"That's good."
So the continued waiting around until they finally saw the Black Tail pulling up through the shallow water. Halcen was glad, in most ways, that he had a ship small enough to traverse in the kind of water bigger ships were unable to cross. But then again, maybe Grey is right. Maybe a bigger ship would be nice. The bigger the better, they say. They can hold bigger and more powerful crews. I don't know of any respected or feared pirates with smaller ships… "Hey Grey."
"Hmm?"
"Where do you think Shanks anchored his ship? Cause we didn't see it on our way in."
"I don't know, honestly. Didn't think about it. Why?"
"I was just wondering what the ship of a Yonko would look like."
"Mhmmm… I see."
"What?"
"Finally starting to think about getting a bigger ship?"
"Psh, no. I'm not worried about that." He stood up and went to meet the crew as they pulled into the docks. "Took you long enough," Halcen said.
"I couldn't find the place from the outside," Fein said. "It's a lot different looking from the water."
"Excuses, excuses."
"Fuck off."
Halcen let them tie up the ship and get everything ready for them to leave. Then everyone came together and stood around Grey.
"Go ahead and start loading up all this treasure," Halcen said. "We're stealing it from the bandits."
His crew began their work. It didn't take too long, but it kept them busy.
Halcen looked about for Bo and Kazuki. He didn't see them. "What's holding them up? They were just looking around." He looked to Grey.
"I don't know. I wasn't aware I was supposed to be babysitting."
"Ooh, sass from the old man. Two points." Halcen looked back to the town. "GUYS! SHIP'S HERE! GET BACK HERE!"
He heard rustling. "We heard you! Quit your shouting!" came Bo's voice.
The two snipers came back with their guns and equipment ready to go.
"So what did you find?"
"Nothing," Bo said.
"There's nobody here. Not in any of the buildings. It's eerie."
"Hmm… yeah that is weird. But it's nothing we need to worry about. That's not why we're here."
"Alright."
"I guess so."
"Alright, you guys wait here for a moment," Halcen said. He climbed aboard the Black Tail and went to his room with the Devil Fruit and went to find the book of Devil Fruits Max had given him in their first deal. He brought it back to the deck.
"What do you need that for?" Jin asked.
"We found another Devil Fruit," Halcen said.
"Oh, that's cool!" Jory said.
"Indeed," Morkine agreed.
"So what is it?" Fein asked.
"We're about to find out," Halcen said. He opened the box the Devil Fruit was in and set it down so he could take a good look at it while he was perusing the book. "Hmmm… Oh shit."
"What is it?" Jin asked.
The rest of the crew had gathered around to find out what it was. They were all curious.
"The Suraimu Suraimu no Mi. The Slime fruit. It's a logia."
"Oh shit, that's cool," Fein said.
"What exactly does it do?" Jory asked.
"It basically turns your body into slime on command," Jin explained. "So you would be able to go through small spaces or go through attacks unscathed. That's actually not a bad one to get."
"That's a lot cooler than that sleep one you had," Jory said to Halcen.
"Yeah, I suppose."
"What exactly is the tactical application for slime?" Bo asked.
"Well I suppose it could be used to gum up people's equipment," Kazuki explained.
"That doesn't sound worth it," Bo said.
"So what are you going to do with it?" Grey asked.
"If you were to eat it, you would become much more powerful," Morkine said.
"Yeah, you should do that," Jory said.
"Psh," Fein scoffed.
"Are you kidding me?" Halcen laughed. "I don't want to do that."
"Why?!"
"Look here," He pointed at a part of the page. "This single fruit goes for about four hundred million beri. Why would I eat it when I could sell it?"
"Okay, but if you want to be a powerful pirate, wouldn't this help?" Jory asked.
"Well yeah, but I don't want to be stuck with this specific power my whole life, you know? There are how many hundreds of other powers out there? Am I obligated to eat this one simply because I came across it? I'm not that stupid. Sure, it would give me a power boost, but it also comes with a lot of drawbacks. I'd automatically become much less powerful against others with Armament Haki, become unable to go swimming, and become weak to Kairoseki. I'm not down with all the weaknesses it would bring. It's a trade off."
"It would also have its own elemental weaknesses, such as fire," Jin said.
"See? Exactly! I'd rather get strong the old fashioned way; work really hard for it."
"Hmm… I suppose that's fair," Grey said.
"I mean, would any of you really want to be stuck with slime powers your whole life?"
"No Devil Fruits for me, thanks," Grey said.
"Hell no," Bo said.
"I need the ability to swim," Morkine said.
"Can you even swim?" Fein asked. "Don't you just float above the surface?" he jested.
"Amusing," Morkine said, clearly not amused.
"Alright, alright, I think that's enough. You guys ready to go? I don't want to be sitting around all night. I want to find Shanks before sundown."
"Yeah, ready," Jory said.
"I guess I'm actually coming this time," Jin said.
"We're ready to go, Captain," Morkine said.
"Swell. Let's get the fuck out of here."
Shira barked happily.
"Alright, just me a sec." Halcen went to return his book and the Devil Fruit to his room. He came back in a flash. "Grey, would you like to lead the way?" Halcen motioned to his first mate.
Grey sighed. "Yeah, I can do that. But like I said; this island is interfering with me locating him right away. I'm gonna need to keep walking to find exactly where he is." Grey moved to the head of the group and began walking slowly through the town.
The other eight followed him closely. There was little idle chatter as they followed Grey. He clearly needed concentration to keep up his Observation Haki, and they didn't want to distract him and wind up with them lost.
They walked across town and headed out to a path that led out of town and back through the woods. They continued down the path for a while. The crew started to get a little more restless.
"How much further?" Jory asked.
"I don't know," Grey said. "This isn't an exact science. You gotta go by feeling."
"Just shut up and let him do his thing," Halcen said to Jory.
"But I gotta pee."
"Oh, my god. What are you, eight?"
Jory looked uncomfortable.
"Oh for fuck's sake. Grey, let's hold up for a minute."
Grey halted his procession.
Halcen looked back to Jory. "Well, go!"
Jory ran off into the woods by himself.
They all waited a minute, then heard whistling.
Halcen muttered curses under his breath. "This kid is gonna push me too far."
Grey chuckled.
"How's that funny."
"I know how you feel," Grey said.
"Oh, shut up."
When Jory was done, they got back into motion, with Grey leading them back the way through the island. They continued on up a steadily inclining hill. Once they were all the way up, they saw they were standing on a giant ring circling around a dip in the island. It was about eight miles across. They could see everything. And down in the middle was another group of old white buildings that clustered together. These ones also seemed abandoned. And circling around those was another large chunk of woods.
"He's down there," Grey said, nodding his head toward the center of the circle.
"Alright, let's go," Halcen said.
They continued on down the hill into the pit. They walked for a few miles through the steadily darkening sky.
As they approached, Halcen began to feel Shanks' presence. It took him this long and this far to feel it with his Observation Haki, where Grey sensed him the moment they stepped foot on the island. Halcen looked at Grey's back. He's just so powerful. I need to be better than him. I can't keep relying on his power to get us through. I need to be able to handle these tasks myself. I can do this. His face twitched with anticipation. Halcen knew with enough time and effort, he could do it, but waiting all that time to get to Grey's level… He thought about the Devil Fruit sitting in his room. It was tempting. But there were too many other things riding on him. He couldn't succumb to such weakness. A pirate's greed meant a lust for power as well, but not this power, not right now. He kept his gaze on Grey. It took him many years to get this strong. And I'm only just starting out. I need to have realistic expectations…
They saw a bright glow from the center of the pit. It was a campfire. They had finally made it to Shanks' camp. They continued walking about another hundred feet.
Suddenly, there was an immense pressure thrust down on them, like gravity had increased tenfold. It became hard to breath or even move. It pushed down on them with massive amounts of force.
Halcen's body tried to fall to the ground, but he refused to sway. He stayed upright and kept himself focused. What the fuck is this? It's so strong! I can't let this take me down!
Halcen looked to Grey, who it seemed to barely affect. He looked around to the rest of his crew. Bo, Kazuki, and Jin seemed to be handling it only slightly worse than Halcen himself. Shira, Fein, and Morkine were barely able to move. Jory was down on his knees.
"Halcen, what's happening?" the kid asked, barley keeping from crying.
"Don't you give up!" Halcen demanded. "Not now! You stand up!"
Jory used all of his strength and barely managed to push himself back onto his feet with a loud groan. He was breathing really heavily. "It's so hard to stand."
"What's happening, Captain?" Morkine asked, through strained voice.
"I don't know. But whatever it is… we're not letting it stop us. We keep moving."
"Are you guys alright?" Grey asked.
"I'm fine," Halcen grunted.
"Is this some kind of Devil Fruit ability?" Kazuki asked, being reminded of Darmichal's intense power.
"No," Grey said. "This is much worse. Shanks!" he called with anger.
And suddenly the pressure evaporated and everybody became able to stand upright once more. They were covered with sweat and breathing heavily.
Then before them appeared a dark figure in the light of the fire. He stood six and a half feet tall, with a large cape on his back, covering his arms. "Grey, it's good to see you," Shanks said with real enthusiasm. "I see you have yourself a little group of fighters."
Halcen's eyes were still somewhat blurred. But he stared upon the man. This is it. This is the power of a Yonko. I knew Shanks was powerful, but to have an aura of this magnitude. I never felt anything this intense being around Whitebeard. He's so powerful. I need this power.
"Hey there, Little Red." Grey went to Shanks and hugged the man.
Shanks reciprocated with one right arm.
"Red?" Grey said with concern.
"Hmm?"
"What happened to your arm?"
Shanks pulled back and gave a big boisterous laugh. "I made a gamble on a kid. Come on, let's go sit down and we'll talk. Your crew is welcome too."
Halcen looked at Shanks and Grey walking back toward the camp with utter astonishment. The two old friends began to chat, as if Shanks hadn't just tried to kill them. What the fuck was that? Halcen thought to himself.
"What the hell was that?" Kazuki asked.
"That's the power of 'Red-Hair' Shanks," Halcen said.
"And he can just turn it on and off?" Jin asked.
"I don't know. But we don't have time to stand around gawking. I need to get in there and talk to him. You guys come along inside the camp. Just… be wary." Halcen went forward to follow after Grey and Shanks. The others followed them inside the camp.
Halcen followed Grey and Shanks as they walked into the camp. They stood at the entrance for a moment to exchange pleasantries.
"I remember you," Shanks said to Halcen. "You were in Whitebeard's crew, right?"
"Yes," Halcen said, nodding.
"Hilden, right?"
"Halcen."
"Oh, right. Cool. Good to see you again." Then he turned his attention back to Grey. "So you finally ditched old Whitebeard to start a crew for yourself?"
"Oh, no," Grey laughed. "This is Halcen's crew," he motioned to the following members. "I'm his first mate."
"No kidding," he said, clearly surprised, but trying not to be rude.
"Yeah, I decided to follow Halcen when he left Whitebeard."
"That's very interesting." He turned back to Halcen. "So, kid, you got a name for your crew?"
"We're the Chaos Pirates."
"Swell." He turned his attention to his camp, looking out amongst his own crew members, who were spread around. "GUYS!"
His crew came to attention. Everyone immediately paid him mind. He was a true leader in their hearts, Halcen could tell.
"This is my old friend Grey; his Captain, Halcen; and their crew, the Chaos Pirates. We're going to be hosting them, so let's drink up, be merry and have a good time!"
"YEAH!"
"Let's party!"
"Welcome!"
First was Benn Beckman. This was Shanks' first mate. He had peach skin and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. He was about six foot and nine inches tall. He had a cigarette in his mouth. Next to him was an old rifle.
Next was Lucky Roux was almost eight feet tall and had a gigantic fat body. He had a thick round head and was wearing goggle. He was stuffing his face and laughing.
Then there was Yasopp. He was the same height as their boss, Shanks, six feet tall. He had long dark blonde dreads, the same olive skin Bo did, and a normal sized nose. He was yelling and swearing at one of the others.
These were the officers. There were a few other random faces in the crowd that they didn't really seem to pay any mind. But they were all together laughing and having a good time. And being as such, Halcen's crew was met with an overwhelming need to drink and have fun. The other members came in and began to interact with their new friends, at least for the night!
"Holy shit! Is that my brother?"
Bo looked over across the camp to see his older brother Yasopp. He was sitting around in a circle with some of the other crew mates, drinking and talking shit, as pirates do. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Yasopp," Bo said with a sigh. "I was wondering what smelled so bad."
"AHAHAHA! Oh, brother, you wound me," Yasopp said, getting up. He went to meet his brother. They stood face to face and looked each other over. "After all these years, that's all you've got to say?" he asked with a charismatic smile.
Bo sighed. "It is good to see you alive and well."
"There we go," Yasopp said, laughing. He pat his brother on the shoulder. "Same to you. Come on you guys! Come sit down and talk!"
Bo followed his brother, as did Kazuki and the others. They all sat down and began to get to know each other.
"How have things been?" Bo asked.
"We heard you made trouble in Loguetown," Kazuki said, interjecting into the conversation.
"Oh yeah! That was fun! Met a nice guy out there. Daddy something."
"Yeah, he said you besmirched his honor by not killing him in your duel."
"AHAHAHAHHA! He would say that. Marines and their faux honor. Nah, I let him live because he's got a kid to take care of. As a fellow dad, I wasn't gonna leave her fatherless, you know?"
"Wait, since when do you have a kid?"
"I had myself a little tyke about eleven years ago. Named him Usopp."
Bo belted out laughing. "That' crazy. I have one of my own too. Little Josopp. He's nine right now."
"No kidding! Man, what a world."
"Yeah, I had to leave him and his mom back on Syrup Island after we fell out from the Marines."
"THAT'S WHERE MY BOY IS TOO!"
"Well, ain't that something. Two cousins living in the same island, probably have no idea who each other is. But that's okay. Cause I know he's gonna grow up to be a strong man. And that's all I want."
"I'm just glad you finally came around to our lifestyle. You becoming a Marine broke mother's heart, you know?"
Bo got sullen. "Yeah. I was naïve. I honestly thought I could change the world through them. But now I'm realizing just how corrupt they really are. Marines were supposed to be heroes… but that just didn't prove to be true."
"That's okay. Cause you finally came around. Now you're here. You're part of your own pirate crew. You're making your way. You'll be better than ever when you come out of this."
"Thanks brother."
"CHEERS! To my brother finally coming on board!"
Halcen tried to talk to Shanks in a serious manner. "You know, we actually came here to have a serious conversation with you," he said.
"Kid, we got all the time in the world. Tonight, let's just let loose and have a little fun." He put his elbow on Halcen's shoulder and picked up a beer. He handed it to Halcen. "Drink up!"
Halcen looked nervously at Grey.
"What's the matter?" Shanks asked. "I didn't poison it or anything."
"No, it's not that. I just… I don't drink."
"You don't drink?" This time Shanks looked at Grey.
Grey nodded. "It's a whole thing. It's not about you," Grey reassured him.
"If you say so," Shanks laughed, not seeming to take offense. He took the beer from Halcen, politely. "More for the rest of us, then," he laughed.
"That it is," Halcen agreed, laughing. "But I guess I can join in on having fun." He went to have some of the food they had ready and took part in the conversation.
They all sat down and began eating, drinking, laughing, and sharing stories.
"So how have you been, old friend?" Shanks asked Grey.
"We've actually been doing really well. But what about you guys? How did you lose your arm? And where's Roger's hat? I've never seen you without it."
"So we met this kid in Foosha Village," Shanks said.
"Luffy, great kid," Lucky Roux said with a mouth stuffed with food.
"He sure is," Benn Beckman said.
"He just reminded me so much of Roger, you know? He's such a cool little kid," Shanks said.
"Oh?" Grey said, wondering. "How so?"
"He's just… he's stubborn and goofy, and he's always getting into trouble. Like this one time, we had all come back from a haul, and this little brat goes into one of the treasure boxes, and ate a Devil Fruit we had obtained."
"Really?"
"Yeah. At the time we all panicked, but thinking about it now it's kinda funny. He ate my Devil Fruit. That kid," Shanks laughed.
"Surely you weren't actually going to eat it yourself?" Grey asked.
"Probably not, but we could have sold it or something, you know? Now this kid's out there and he can't swim. OH! That's why I lost my arm too!"
"How's that?"
"Well Luffy went to mess around with some bandits that threw some ale on me. They really weren't worth the trouble, but this kid goes and pisses off their leader. So he took him out to the ocean to drop him in. I barely got there before a Sea king showed up. The damn thing got my arm instead."
"What?! That's crazy."
"You gave up your arm for this kid?" Halcen said, intrigued.
"Well I didn't want him to die. Like I said, he's a good kid, just a little headstrong. So when we left the island, I gave him Roger's hat. I told him to give it back to me once he'd grown up into a powerful pirate."
"Wow," Grey said. "Well just be careful, Shanks. He sounds like a troublemaker. You already lost an arm for this kid. I don't want to see you get hurt anymore."
"Jeez, Grey, you're talking like you're his dad or something," Halcen said, poking fun.
"Well, you're not the first wayward kid I took an interest in, Halcen," Grey said. "In my time in the Roger Pirates, I spent a lot of time with a lot of kids, Red, included. I guess you could say we had a special bond though."
"Grey kept me from going to bad places," Shanks said. "You were the best first mate I'd ever known."
"Wait," Kazuki said. "You were Roger's first mate?"
"Yeah. Roger and I were best friends. We grew up together in Loguetown."
"Holy shit," Bo said.
"How did we not know that?" Jin asked.
"That's crazy."
"Wait… you… you're'Saint' Grey," Kazuki said, star struck. "I remember now. You were famous, for a while. It was before my time, but the older Marines talked about it all the time."
"Yes. For a time, I was a big name," Grey said shrugging.
"So what I don't understand is that you were the most powerful man in the world's first mate, and still only had a hundred million-some bounty when you left Whitebeard's crew only a month and a half ago."
"Well let's not forget that I was only Roger's first mate for a few years. I had to leave for personal reasons, and that's when Silvers took over. Not to mention back then, a hundred million was a lot. That was a long time ago. In this day and age that would be worth almost a billion."
"Holy shit," Fein gasped.
"Inflation is a bitch," Halcen said.
"So why did they not reconcile the difference when you remade your appearance?" Morkine asked.
"They probably forgot who I was. I was out of their hair for nearly twenty years. By then so many other big names had come and gone. That or they were just too lazy to do the math and accurately represent my bounty. Back in the day I was often sought out for my high bounty. These days, it's considered only mediocre."
"Sweet mother," Jory said.
Grey laughed deeply. "But that's not something that really matters to me."
"So, Halcen, you knew this all along?" Kazuki asked.
"Yeah. Grey and I spent nine years together on Whitebeard's ship. I've learned pretty much everything about him."
"But like I said, it's not a big deal. Roger was the one who cared about fame and fortune."
"Speaking of Roger, that was a real man," Roux said.
"Oh, that mustache," Fein said.
"That was his real draw," Beckman laughed.
"Actually, that wasn't a mustache," Grey said.
"Wait till you guys get a load of this," Shanks said, already laughing, as he grabbed another beer.
Grey went on. "It was actually his nose hairs," he said.
"What?!"
"Bullshit!"
"No, I'm serious. We actually used to joke that that was his Devil Fruit: the Nosehair Nosehair fruit. We were all mesmerized by it. It was astonishing. We even snuck into his room one night to try to shave them as a prank. They wrapped us up like pythons and shook us about. What people don't realize was that I wasn't Roger's originalfirst mate either. We lost a good man that night. Rest in peace Angel."
Everyone laughed.
