9. Taking The Jack Out Of The Box

Story Start: Anchored By The Shore Of Treasure Island

"Woohoo!" Luffy shouted as she rocketed off of the Merry's deck, propelled by a hand grabbing a thick tree branch to slingshot her into the forest. Nami and Zorro both hopped off of the ship after her, Zorro quickly moving to catch up with Luffy. I had told them about Gaimon and suggested training their Observation Haki by tracking him down then bringing him to the ship and they took the challenge eagerly.

Nami meanwhile set the large camera drone she had recently bought on the ground along with the monitor that would allow her to see what the drone would then pulled out her map making equipment. Our navigator had just about kissed me on the lips when I suggested she buy a good drone in order to get a bird's eye view of the islands we visited without having to be in the Chinook to do so. As it was, she gave my cheek a five second kiss then stole my tablet for an hour to compare the various drones she could buy from the Interdimensional Store.

Usopp and I remained on the Going Merry. Now that we weren't in motion, some of my Einherjar were helping Usopp bring the main sail down from its rigging in order to paint it with the same Jolly Roger that was currently flying from our main mast.

I meanwhile was working below decks, rigging the steering shaft at the point where it exited the Merry and connected to the rudder proper. As I worked, Grant Imahara himself walked me through what I needed to do. Well, a hologram of Grant helped me. It had been a pleasant surprise when I was looking through the store for naval remote control equipment that there was a 'guidance program' for any and all kinds of building projects where you could rent a hovering hologram projector with sensors on it which would display a person to give you step by step guidance so that way you didn't bungle up your project. It also apparently served as a good trouble shooter if you did get something wrong or you needed a work around.

Once I had the rig set up down here, 'Grant' and I would set up the steering wheel above decks on top of the kitchen area. The steering wheel was going inside a 'stall' made out of protective glass that I had installed earlier. The glass was enchanted to be always clean, was water repellent, temperature controlled, and was evidently rated to take the barrage of a tank brigade and laugh. Soon as the doors on the port and starboard side were closed, that steering stall became a miniature bunker making it perfect for keeping the helmsman safe and thus able to focus on steering rather than worry about someone shooting at them. (And yes, it was big enough for someone Jimbei's size to comfortably steer in)

In order to power the rig we were setting up a perpetual motion generator that was no bigger than a lunch box which would be bolted to the wall next to the rig. Apparently, the thing used 'momentum keeping' runes to keep the moving parts of the generator in perpetual motion. And since the runes were powered by the energy the generator created, once you got the generator going you never had to worry about it stopping unless you turned it off for whatever reason. And the outer casing was enchanted to get the equivalent of a nuke hitting it at point blank range and not get a dent with the insides enchanted to keep everything in one piece to the same level.

All of this taken together meant that the RC modification was REALLY expensive. However, with Nami backing me in her capacity as a Navigator to how much better it would be than our current set up Luffy had given me authorization to use the Crew Funds to buy the materials. It didn't hurt that it will only be taking me three hours in an ID with all of the available money multipliers active to make it up since I was now up to the 50X option. (Which meant I could currently multiply my winnings up to 125,000 times)

Paradoxically LESS expensive overall had been the 'portable rooms' I had bought for us all. They were like wizard tents from the Harry Potter universe in that they allowed everyone to have two hundred and twenty five square feet for a bedroom rather than having to deal with multiple people in one room stuck to hammocks. The doorways were contained in extremely sturdy boxes whose backs had 'permanent' sticking charms which you could turn on and off to move as needed. The others would need to provide everything in said rooms but given the Merry had been stocked with several hammocks they'd hardly be sleeping on the floor if they didn't want to use their personal funds to buy a bed.

As First Mate, I had decided that while it was more expensive to buy those than just a pair of space expansion generators for the men and women rooms, having a private area for each crewmate would probably keep any arguments about the state such areas were kept from having. And again, with a money multiplier option for my IDs, it wouldn't be too hard to bring the Crew Funds back up to the level they were at before I made my purchases. Depending on how our voyage went, I might buy more portable rooms for more than just new crew members. Never know when you would need a brig after all. (Or if Sanji wanted a bigger pantry down the line.)

I was just giving the finished RC a test run with Kushina telling me when the rudder moved when Luffy and Zoro came back with a cursing Gaimon that was being carried in the air overhead by a laughing Luffy and fruitlessly kicking his legs while demanding to be put back onto the ground. The three humans were followed by a large group of hybrid animals that seemed friendly enough from where I was standing.

Usopp looked at them from where he was securing the main sail to the gaff. A moment later, he shook his head and said "I thought we wouldn't be seeing any weird animals until the Grand Line."

I snorted and said "We've got at least one more island in the East Blue where there will be an 'Unusual Animal Encounter', two if we hit Battleship Island."

Usopp blinked then looked back at me as he asked "Battleship Island?"

I gave a dismissive wave and said "The island has been shaped to look like a ship hull and it's got some rather unique mountains."

"Ah." Usopp said before our attention was brought back to our returning crewmates as Luffy called out "Hey Matt, we found the Jack in the Box!"

"MY NAME IS GAIMON YOU IDIOT, NOT JACK! AND PUT ME DOWN POSEIDON DAMN IT!" Gaimon shouted only to let out a squawk as Luffy decided to finally listen to him and emulated a Drop Tower amusement park ride as she practically dropped him without actually letting go, only stopping Gaimon's descent three inches from the ground before lowering him the last little bit before letting go.

Up in the crow's nest where he had been taking the nap of the well fed due to the storm we ran into on the way to the island, Tyrus poked his head up over the wall to tiredly see what was going on before firmly deciding it was not his problem and disappeared again.

As Gaimon went right back at cursing the pair of pirates out (adding the fact Luffy left him with the back side of the chest on the ground and not his feet) Luffy waved at me and said "Hey Matt, can you come do whatever it was you were planning to do with this guy? He's kind of loud!"

Nami sighed from her seat, pinching the bridge of her nose as she said to herself "Gee, I wonder why."

Kushina let out a chuckle at that and I sighed before I looked at the Guidance Program and said "Thanks for the help Grant, I think we've got everything covered here."

The hologram nodded and said "Understood. Thank you again for choosing this program for your Do It Yourself needs." With that, the hologram winked out revealing the softball sized hologram projector it had been hiding. I held out a hand under it and the hover tech in it cut off, dropping the orb into my hand. When I dug out my tablet from my book bag with my other hand and placed it there, the orb had a grid of light appear on it before it was sucked into my tablet to return to wherever in the multiverse it came from.

Making my way to the side of the Merry, I put a hand on the railing and went over it sideways, crouching on the ground and putting a hand on her hull when I landed before I walked over. Sighing when I got close, I said "Captain, all I asked was for you to bring Gaimon here, you didn't have to carry him like that."

"But Matt, he was moving so slow." Luffy said with a pout.

I shook my head at that and knelt down by Gaimon as I said "Sorry about her. Give me a bit and I'll have you out of that."

Gaimon blinked and asked "Wait, you wanted her to bring me here so that you could get me out?" His face took on an annoyed expression as he asked "Why the hell didn't you come find me then?!"

I pointed my right thumb over my shoulder at the ship and said "I was rigging the steering shaft to a proper steering wheel on the roof of the kitchen since we just have a whip staff inside said kitchen."

Gaimon twisted his head back to look at the ship, seeing said steering wheel on the kitchen roof before looking back at me and said "Fair enough."

With that bit out of the way, I pulled out a wonder bar from my book bag along with a hammer and a long chisel with a protective grip at the top that protected my hand both from the vibrations of hitting said chisel but also my hand from possibly being hit by the hammer from a missed strike. I set the chisel against the top rivet on the left side of the chest and tapped the chisel along its circumference. Once I had enough of an opening, I put the wonder bar in the gap and wrenched the rivet free.

As I worked, Gaimon asked "So how did you know about me anyways? I made it a point NOT to be seen whenever I scared off any treasure seekers that came to this island."

"Well apparently someone DID see you because I heard some shmuck in a bar laughing as he talked about a guy stuck in a treasure chest with an afro that made him look like a bush that he saw on this island, claiming it was the funniest damned thing he'd ever seen." I answered as I got to work on the second rivet.

Gaimon grumbled at that but otherwise remained silent as I continued popping out rivets. Once I had all of the rivets done on the left side I popped the metal corner up away from the boards. Once that was done, it was a simple matter of bending the right corner so that way the boards were pointing upwards and fifteen minutes after I had started Gaimon was laid out of the beach with his limbs fully extended for the first time in twenty years.

Thankfully, the bottom part of the chest had rotted out at some point so we didn't need to cut his feet free and I stood up putting my tools back into my book bag as I said "There we go. It'll probably take a while before you can use your limbs without help given how long they had been out of use, but I'm sure the bigger animals on this island won't mind helping you. Just work at lifting weight with them and you'll eventually be able to stand again no problem."

Gaimon nodded, tears forming in his eyes. He struggled to lift himself up to a seated position and instantly one of the animals, a fox with a rooster's comb and tail nudged him up. Looking up at me with tears going down his face, he said "Thank you."

I nodded at him before I headed back for the ship. More specifically, I went to the kitchen and got one of the MRE's I had stocked in the pantry. (We had LUFFY on the ship, it paid to have something quick and easy for her to snack on in between meals) When I came back out, I brought the MRE over to Gaimon and quickly opened the pack as I said "I bet you haven't had a proper meal in years. This might not be restaurant fare, but it is filling."

"Thanks." Gaimon said, eagerly eating the food with the aid of an animal that looked like a squat monkey with the fur and antlers of a giraffe.

With Gaimon taken care of, I moved over to where Nami was drawing her map, periodically using the drone controller to move it to the next section of the sky. Squatting down to be closer to her eye level in her chair I asked "How's it going?"

"Pretty good. The drone makes surveying the island a LOT easier. I kind of have to guesstimate on the height of the hills but it sure beats finding a good tree to climb or going up one of the hills to get a proper view." Nami said with a smile as she traced out a line before shading in the area she had defined with a light blue pencil, marking down the lake that I could see on her monitor.

"Good to hear." I said, standing up and patting her shoulder before I turned back to the others, watching as Usopp finally joined us and asked "So, Gaimon is it?" At Gaimon's nod, our sniper continued "How'd you get stuck in that chest anyways?"

"Yeah, Matt just said there was a guy stuck in a chest, he never told us how that happened." Luffy said in agreement, giving me a small pout before looking back down at Gaimon.

Gaimon looked around at all of us then closed his eyes. A few moments later, he said "I have never told anyone this story. However, you have already helped me escape my personal prison without asking for anything in return so I believe that I can trust you."

Opening his eyes again, he said "In order to find treasure, losing your life doesn't matter. It was that passion that changed my life. It was 20 years ago. I landed along with my companions on this island as a pirate. We came to find the treasure that lay on this island. However, even though all 200 of us searched for a month, all that had been found was a single empty box. At the end of that time, the Captain declared the search a waste of time and ordered everyone back to the ship. However, as everyone was leaving, I couldn't help but look at the large outcropping the Captain had kicked the box against. I decided that it would not hurt to check the top before joining the rest of the crew. I reached the top and looked over the ledge."

Gaimon smiled, tears starting to form in his eyes as he said "I couldn't believe my eyes. Treasure chests just sitting there out in the open. However, when I turned to shout out for the rest of the crew, the rock under my hand broke, and I fell towards the ground. That was when I got stuck in this box."

Gaimon scowled and said "When I came to, my companions had already set sail. At first, I thought that meant that all of that treasure was now mine. But when I returned to the outcropping, I quickly realized that it was impossible to climb up while stuck in the box."

Gaimon closed his eyes again as he said "For all the years since then, that one glance at the treasure hasn't left my mind. So when Pirates come to this island in search of treasure I used these guys (he gestured at the animals around him) and scare them away. In this manner for 20 years I have guarded the treasure."

Gaimon's eyes snapped open and he said forcefully "They are mine!"

Luffy nodded and said "There's no doubt about it. They're yours."

"Agreed, they totally belong to you." Nami said from her chair. As Luffy and Zorro gave her an incredulous look she said "What? I may rob from pirates, but even I can me emotionally moved."

"And the fact that you can just go into an ID to get a literal boat load of cash has absolutely nothing to do with this, right?" I asked with a grin quietly enough that Gaimon didn't hear me.

Nami swatted my arm as she said "Oh, hush you!"

I snorted in amusement at that before focusing back on Gaimon as he said "Thank you, all of you. I'll never forget your kindness until the day I die!"

As the others just smiled at him, I pulled the brim of my hat down to shadow my eyes. I really hoped my theory panned out otherwise the others were going to be absolutely PISSED at me for not saying anything.

Gaimon called over a rather large turtle/cow hybrid that was easily the size of a tank and once Luffy and Nami helped him onto the shell we took off towards the rock outcropping leaving the Einherjar that had been helping Usopp to guard the Merry, though I did call for Tyrus to join us.

As we made our way towards the outcropping, I stared down at the latest addition to my Einherjar forces, pale eyes staring back up at me. I had bought this one just before we hit the storm that had preceded our arrival to Treasure Island with the hope that they would be able to turn the sad ending we were about to go through into a surprise twist.

Once we reached the area of the outcropping, the hybrid we were riding lowered its shelled body and we slid off. As the others walked closer to the rock, I flicked the card in my hand to the ground beside me and a twenty one year old Toph Bei Fong appeared wearing the metal armor I had seen in pictures of the Korra sequel series. I put a finger to her lips before she could say anything only to get a deeply unimpressed look for it. (Which her being blind somehow made even more expressive.)

Moving my finger from her lips, I tapped her left ear then pointed towards the others where Gaimon was saying that he hadn't been here in a long time. I then knelt down and traced out on the ground with my finger "Empty chests on top of rock possible diversion to hide real treasure, can you check?"

As Luffy rocketed herself up to the top of the outcropping, Toph huffed then made a horse stance. I felt a small tremor pass through the earth from her actions (and saw my words smoothed out) and a moment later, she nodded and gestured for me to stand up. When I did so, she whispered into my ear and I couldn't help but sag a bit in relief.

Of course, then she tacked on "By the way, I'd have bit that finger if it was anyone else Boss."

I gave an amused huff and said quietly "Noted."

The pair of us walked towards the rest of the group as Nami called out "Luffy, Have you found anything?"

Luffy appeared at the edge of the outcropping and said with her hat shadowing her closed eyes "Yeah, five chests."

"But they're all empty aren't they?" Toph called up and everyone jerked in surprise at the unknown voice.

"Matt, who is this?" Nami asked.

"Toph Bei Fong, she's got a geokinetic ability." I said.

"Geokinetic?" Zorro asked with a frown.

"Basically she can control the Earth. Dirt, Stone, Metal, all that good stuff." I explained.

"Matt got her Einherjar card just before we hit that storm." Kushina said, idly stroking Tyrus who was lounging on her shoulders.

"Einherjar?" Gaimon asked in confusion.

"Long story." I said to him before I looked back up towards Luffy and said "Captain, those chests up there are decoys! No way would someone really leave something valuable out in the open like that! Toph found the real treasure about half a mile from here!"

Luffy laughed and said "Really?! That's great to hear!"

As Luffy quickly jumped down to our level, Gaimon shook his head and said "Of course the chests I had thought of every day would have been decoys. I cannot believe I ever thought that chests left out in the open for anyone who could climb to find them were the real thing."

"Look on the bright side, they did their job so the real treasure is still around for the taking." Toph said, already walking to the right spot.

Gaimon let out a wry chuckle and as Zorro put him on his back said "That is true miss."

As we walked, Luffy matched pace beside me and said lowly "Did you know that those chests were decoys rather than found by someone who came to the island before Gaimon's crew?"

I hesitated for a few moments before I said equally softly "No. In the show, all you found were those five chests. But I was hoping that they were decoys because if they DID have treasure in them then why would they have been left here rather than taken when the treasure was found? After all, if something fits in a box, why would you take it out only to put it in another box?"

Luffy frowned and said "Yeah, that would have been strange now that you mention it." A few moments later, she sighed and said "I know why you didn't tell us about this when you were talking about Gaimon, but you should have at least told me. I'm the Captain Matt, and I know I at least would have been really angry if you turned out to be wrong about those chests being decoys and kept the fact you knew they were empty from us."

I sighed and said "Honestly, I was thinking I would 'find' a chest full of jewels on our way back to the ship." I pulled out my phone and brought up my photos app. I had taken a picture of it before to prove to my crewmates that I wasn't trying to appease them if the chests weren't a decoy and I said nothing.

Luffy studied the chest full of jewels and gold coins with an expressionless face for a few moments. Then she gave a gusting sigh and said "Next time tell me Matt. Even if it's bad news, I can't plan for things if you don't tell me they're coming. If I had known, I would have chipped in with my own money as well."

"Yes Captain." I said quietly.

The pair of us were silent for the rest of the short walk. Toph led us to an area of dirt about a hundred feet wide and tapped a bare foot down on the ground as she said "It's right here." With that, she took a few steps back then made a splitting gesture which caused the ground to split apart for ten feet. She then made a lifting gesture and four chests that were eight feet wide, two feet long, and one foot deep rose up to our level. (like a truck tool box)

Nami blinked at the sight of them and said "Those are some weirdly shaped chests." Seeing the padlocks on them, she looked towards Gaimon, pulling her lock picks out and asked "May I?"

At Gaimon's nod, Nami went to the first chest and quickly had the lock opened. We all leaned in as she opened the chest and gave a collective blink as we saw that it was filled with eight foot long rods of silver that were four inches wide.

After a few moments of silence, I said "Okay, that's weird. Why would they have melted down silver and re-forged it like that?"

"I have no idea." Nami said, staring for a little longer before she moved onto the next chest. That one was gold, as was the third chest, both with their cargo turned into the same kind of rods as the silver had been.

The fourth and final one though was more normal. Kept separated via wooden slats in the chest were several different gems, from lowly quartz to one ridiculously large diamond, sorted by type.

Shaking my head, I said "This is seeming less like a pirate's treasure and more like someone's emergency stash."

"Now that you mention it, that would explain why they'd go to the trouble of melting the gold and silver. Who knows how long ago all of this has been buried, the original owner might have thought that the currency would change if it was left for descendants making their coinage useless." Nami said, idly picking up the large diamond and looking it over, even going so far as taking out a jeweler's loupe from her book bag and putting it to her right eye. A moment later though, she snorted and put the diamond back and said "I get the feeling this guy wasn't afraid to swindle someone if this hadn't been enough though. That diamond's well-made but it's still fake."

"So none of those gems are real?" Usopp asked in disappointment.

"Now I didn't say that." Nami said, picking up a sapphire and looking it over before she nodded as she put it back and went over a ruby as she continued "It seems like just the diamond is fake, everything else here seems to be on the ball."

"Shishishishi," Luffy laughed as she clapped a crying Gaimon on the shoulder and said "Seems like you're pretty well off now Gaimon!"

"Y-Yeah." Gaimon said in agreement as he slid off of Zorro' back, slumping to his knees as he took in the treasure before him with teary eyes.

I meanwhile turned my gaze to the rods of gold and silver with a frown. Eight foot rods of solid metal were heavy even when they weren't silver and gold. And Gaimon was hardly at peak strength after having his limbs forced to remain bent for twenty years. Looking over to Toph, I said "Hey Toph, do you think you can split these rods into smaller pieces? It'd be pretty hard for Gaimon to carry these around as they are."

Toph turned her head to 'eye' Gaimon before she shrugged and gestured, all of the rods raising into the air before she gave another gesture and they all split into six inch segments before returning into their cases.

"That's useful." Nami said, wide eyed at how easily Toph had manipulated the heavy metals.

"Yeah, Toph's awesome." I said with a smile.

"And don't you forget it!" Toph said with a smug look.

Time Skip: Three Hours Later

I was back on the shore near the Going Merry sitting in my camp chair with my laptop in my lap and my tablet set on a camping table on my right resting at a seventy five degree angle thanks to the stand set in its otter case when Luffy came over and put her own chair down. Zorro and Usopp were helping build Gaimon a proper house, more specifically, putting logs around the stone building Toph had Earth bent into existence in order to insulate said house. Nami meanwhile was back to her map making, somehow using her drone to chart out the local waters within three miles of the shore.

Once Luffy was seated, she asked "What'cha working on Matt?"

"Compiling a wish list of Einherjar I want to buy." I answered, looking at my tablet before flicking my mouse from the screen of my laptop to the tablet before selecting it all and dragging it back to the laptop. (I had the tablet plugged to the laptop's HDMI receptor thanks to an adaptor cable) As I typed in the next name I was considering in the search box I continued "Now that I have unlocked so many money multipliers for the IDs I figured that I should work out who I want to have that could work well with those I already have, those who could compliment other members of the crew, those whose abilities or skill sets would help make things easier down the road, and finally those who I would like to have on hand for when everything goes to hell in a hand basket and we need someone to save our asses if a Yonko or an Admiral decides to fight our crew personally because they think we're getting a little too successful for their tastes. That last one I think I can save until after we kick the ass of our first Warlord of the Sea since they'll be ridiculously expensive to buy."

A brief image of a lazy pheasant attacking a future crew mate on a grassland island appeared in my head before I shook it off and finished "I figured I'll set everyone in groups and once my personal funds are high enough I'll buy a group then save up for the next set."

Luffy nodded and asked "That sounds like a good idea. Mind showing me what you've got so far so I know what I'm working with down the line?"

"Yeah, no problem." I agreed, pulling out the thin magitech printer that I had used to print Nami's contract from my book bag and hooked it into a USB port on my laptop. (Expanded space for fifty gallons of each kind of ink and fifty thousand pages of paper) Once my current list was printed off, I handed the pages to Luffy and went back to my work.

Intent on my planning for the future, I didn't notice that as Luffy went through the pages a frown of confusion formed and grew the further she went. At least not until she inquired "Matt, I thought you told Nami that you didn't plan to make a harem out of Einherjar?"

I paused in moving my current selection to the document (Tsuyu Asui from My Hero Academia) and blinked as I responded "I don't." Turning my head so that Luffy could see my confusion, I said "Anyone who puts real thought into what a harem entails would know that it would not be beneficial to a man's health to have multiple lovers at once. It's why only Kushina was purchased to serve in that capacity along with her combat ability, and we haven't even gotten past first base yet. Sure, we sleep together, but that's it, sleep." (There was also the women's feelings to take into account and having to balance time spent with each girl but having said females all be Einherjar kind of removed those two problems.)

Luffy rose an eyebrow and asked "Then why do most of these groups have females making up at least half of the numbers and some of them only made up of women while there is only three all-male groups? And one of those male only groups is four giant turtles and a rat."

I sighed and closed my eyes as I pinched the bridge of my nose as I said "Because the Magical Girl genre is a very strong genre in my old world and has infected it's so called feminity ways into other genres."

Giving a frustrated huff, I took back the pages and resorted them to the first and extrapolated "Alright, let me lay it out to you. First group is the Avatar group, which Toph belongs with. Because I bought her earlier today I decided to get the rest of that group out of the way, also because Water benders are INCREDIBLY useful in a world like this one where the ocean reigns supreme. On that note, we have Katara who is a Master Water Bender, able use water to heal people, attack, draw water up from the ground if close enough to an underground water source, and most likely able to remove the salt from sea water allowing us to have easy access to potable water while out at sea. Next is Mai who is a Weapons Mistress, with a specialty of throwing weapons making her a good mid-range combatant. On the flip side is Ty Lee who is most definitely a close combat specialist who's bread and butter is pressure points allowing her to drop someone with a few precise strikes. She's also incredibly acrobatic and as a bonus can see people's auras and use her acupuncture knowledge to help heal someone.

"Finally there's the Kyoshi Warriors along with Kyoshi herself. Said warriors are incredibly well trained and are used to working as a team which means they can be sent out on missions away from the main group as needed. And while Aang makes for a decent Avatar and his Mastery of Air bending is without question, Kyoshi is a complete hard-ass who could probably turn the Red Line into the Red Trench, hence why I'm getting her as well as Aang. Side note, Sokka, Katara's brother was trained by the Kyoshi Warriors so he'll be able to work with them as well if they need an extra member. And finally we've got Zuko who is a Fire bender."

Turning the page, I continued "Then we've got W.I.T.C.H. and the Winx Club. Both groups are capable of flight, have elemental manipulators, are incredibly durable, and they're used to both dealing with powerful individuals and squad on squad scale combat. The Specialists are the Winx Club's significant others and are also as combat effective and they are flight trained as well although said flight is done via technological means rather than as part of a magical addition like when the two groups of girls transform."

The next two pages I held side by side and said "Continuing with people that use magic, Rias Gremony and Sona Sitri are from the series Highschool DxD. They are devils and as such they and each member of their peerage listed here in addition to their individual abilities are capable of flight. On top of that, Asia Argentina is an incredibly adept healer thanks to her Sacred Gear."

Moving those two pages to the back, I continued "Next group is the Mermaid Princesses from Mermaid Pichi Pichi Voice. They are able to operate on both land and sea and use sonic attacks. Good for rescue work if anyone falls overboard during rough water along with underwater reconnaissance."

Next page was the second all male group and I said "Team Fortress 2 Mercenaries, most of them have done a lap or two around the deep end of the insanity pool but they're a highly effective combat team. They also bring Engineering, Medical, and Reconnaissance to the table."

Another page turned and I went on "TNMT, 2012 addition. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael are four teenaged mutant ninja turtles trained in the shinobi arts by their Master, Splinter. Being amphibious, the brothers can offer backup to the Mermaids aquatic scenarios, even if they need minor amounts of breathing gear if they're going to stay underwater for long periods of time. And Splinter a rather capable combatant himself."

Another two pages held side by side as I continued "From the Legend of Zelda series, we have multiple incarnations of Zelda which are bearers of the Triforce of Wisdom and the same number of Links who bear the Triforce of Courage. If things go like I saw before, they'll be a big help when we hit the end of the first half of the grand line. We've also got Urbosa who along with tall stature enhanced combat ability is capable of calling down lightning strikes, Mipha for healing and along with her brother Sidon aquatic combat, Revali and Teba are excellent air combatants with their archery skills. And on top of being a power house and naturally durable, Daruk is capable of creating a spherical personal shield which makes him useful in defending a chokepoint."

Third to last page: "Kushina is part of the Naruto verse and one of her relatives named Karin Uzumaki is a Sensor type. Hinata Hyuga has the Byakugan which allows her to see for an incredible distance along with 359 degree vision, and her teammates Shino and Kiba are tracker types while their teacher Kurenai does Genjutsu which is an illusion power set. Ino Yamanaka is capable of diving into someone's mind or flat out possessing them, Shikamaru Nara has an incredibly tactile mind and shadow jutsu, and Choji has his expansion jutsu. Finally for this set we've got Tsunade who is incredibly strong and also a crack shot medic."

I moved to the penultimate and said "From the fate series we have Shiro Emiya who can trace and make copies of any weapon he lays his eyes on, his Summoned Servant Saber who is an excellent swordswoman, able to ride anything you put her on, and capable of moving on top of the water. Then there are the sisters Rin and Sakura and their Servants, a future Shiro and Medusa. And finally there's Bazette, a close quarters combat specialist and her Servant Lancer."

The final printed page of the list came up and I concluded "From the Overwatch verse we've got with her mech, Mercy who on top of being an amazing doctor can fly, Pharah who is also a flyer, her mother Ana is a sniper as is Widowmaker, Reinhardt and his goddaughter Brigitte are flat out tanks, Wilson is a genetically modified Gorilla scientist with a gun that shoots electricity, Genji and Hanzo are both shinobi trained, and Tracer is a pilot and is able to control her own personal time." (I was also going to get Emily, but only because she was Tracer's girlfriend.)

Done going over the printed papers, I gestured to my laptop and continued "I am also adding characters from the My Hero Academia series given their useful abilities and pulling from a few other series as well."

"Yeah, there were some pretty good fighters in that one." Luffy nodded in agreement before she sighed and said "Alright, well at the end of the day, it's your support group. I guess it doesn't really matter if it's made up of more girls than boys."

I let out a huff and said "Yeah well, it's not my fault that the people who created most of these series preferred to have copious amounts of eye candy in their works."

"Guess not. Well, I'll leave you to it then." Luffy said, getting up from her chair and storing it before she went to the kitchen on the Merry to get a MRE to snack on.

Once she was gone, Tyrus said from the rock he was sun bathing on "It's totally so that you have plenty of eye candy around you isn't it?"

I snorted and said "Well, yeeeah, what straight guy doesn't like being surrounded by beautiful women? But there's a big difference between appreciating the view and actually doing anything with said women. Plus, I was being completely serious about why I wanted all of them as part of the group."

Tyrus chuckled at that while I went right back to designing my own personal army. It'd take a while to form, and I'd probably never stop adding to it even after I finished the list. But it would certainly be useful to have it providing support to not just me but the rest of the crew. Now if only I could convince myself that no, we didn't need Gundams and their Pilots as part of that army...

END

Author's Notes:

First and foremost, there is a poll that will determine if Gin will be made a Straw Hat in any of these stories on my profile. Go vote people, there have only been three people to vote so far and I can't work on the Branch stories until I've got a bigger voter turnout than that.

Second, sorry for dragging on with the Einherjar wish list, it just kind of took on a life on its own. Originally, it was just going to be me telling Luffy that Series Creators in my world were perverts and leave it at that but then my traitorous fingers kept on typing. Hopefully you guys don't think I was trying too hard to defend my choices...

Anyways...I'll be doing either Flames on the Ocean or Cardcaptors next so look forward to one of those, say within a week or so? (Fingers crossed)

Till next time.