After that 'whole' mess and giving Kuro back to the Black Cats, his injures far too great to be seen on a normal person, the Strawhat Crew soon left Syrup Island with a ship called the Going Merry and a new crewmember in Usopp as they set out, the crew now up to four as Luffy stared off, having brought the cannon to bare in practicing.
Whoever that guy was, he was not common, not at all and, while he may be an idiot, the truth was that he knew better, he understood things in a more simple way, he only acted the idiot to get people to not notice and to try better than what he could do, he had no skill in swords like Zoro, his navigation was shot over Nami's, and he was betting that Usopp's aim were far greater to him as he messed with the cannon and had Usopp do it to get a great shot on a rock formation in the distance, sure he was a great artist and marksman as he beamed about it before some tattooed idiot decided to raise a ruckus and tried to cut up their new ship, but the three members on the deck froze in surprise as the raised hand was grabbed and pressure given as the unexpected guest spoke, a part of his face shadowed. "Just WHAT do you think you're doing on this ship, bounty hunter, looking to defile a ship?"
"S-Shut up, you don't know what these pirates have done!" The pressure kept before the other hand gripped the man's head and slammed it into the wood as the Death's Ward spoke.
"An actual idiot... how nice..." He glanced to Nami who flinched as he spoke. "Someone get some lime and get this idiot to head back to grab his friend, the morons have been dining solely on meat." Nami blinked before she facepalmed.
"I should have known..." She pointed at the pair at the cannon as she spoke. "Get some limes from storage and bring them up, if what he's talking is happening, then we have a case of scurvy." Luffy nodded with grabbing Usopp in bringing up the barrels. He had heard of Scurvy before, never saw it beforehand as they returned to a dying man and applying the limes to the man, Luffy being carefully not to choke him out as the hunter, Johnny, was weeping as his friend's not looking too great before he recovered and they danced to Nami's anger before introducing themselves as a pair of bounty hunters who Zoro was familiar with.
With that and a destination of where to go next, for a cook in case of this happening on the crew, the Straw Hats turn their attention to the Death's Ward who was resting atop the Merry's cabin again after telling Johnny off and slamming his head, not enough to damage the Merry however. They had thought him stuck on Syrup Island or grabbing that ratty Marine boat that they had found, but Luffy was the one to talk as he asked. "Hey, what are you doing on the Merry, I thought you jumped away and disappeared."
"Believe it or not, Monkey D. Luffy, I did..." Ward spoke as he groaned. "But, for some fickle reason, I have been tossed into the mix of your adventure and I am surprised, really, I am..." He adjusted as he glared down on them. "After all, you carry with your crew, a man who fights with the namesake of a friend, a girl bound to a slaver, and a young man whose a liar, correct me if I am wrong in that guess..." He deadpanned as Nami gripped her arm, Zoro growled with a hand on the Wado, and Usopp gritting his teeth in frustration as Luffy watched with no hate, just curious nature as Ward huffed, they all seeing his breath pluming out in a cold air as he spoke. "But that is for you to decide, not me, I can't tell you who to trust or who to fight, I can only say what I have on mind, after all..." The Death's Ward smiled as he rested his head on a propped hand.
"What else would a King of Pirates need if the adventure was told to him...?"
"Luffy..." Nami voiced as Luffy spoke.
"You called Nami a slave... you called Zoro out for using someone else's weapon, you insulted Usopp for who he was growing up..." The captain looked up as he spoke. "What about me...?" The smile slipped away as the Ward spoke.
"You... you are a child who watched a protector lose an arm to a creature of the depths, you hold two brothers in your heart and none knew what happened after the shot was fired. You set out to be the freest man on the sea while the world sees the King as the greatest threat to the world..." He crossed his legs as he spoke on. "You are many things, Monkey D. Luffy, but a fool is not one of them here, you just play it to inspire hope, resolve conflict, and enforce the strengths of your crew before you, you take the best you can find and inspire them to be better." He got up and, to all of their surprise, he walked down on air. "That is who you are, you release their pain and their guilt and confirm their greatest abilities to the world, you are not one to lose without giving a fight and will never surrender until you win the battle, you hold the crew as family, so as I stand here, I just need to ask..." The right hand came down and Luffy paled, his strength fading as the Ward spoke. "How much are you willing to go to protect a ship home to the sea's best cooks, how far would you go to shatter a fish that walks on land, how much are you willing to give to keep ALL of your crew alive and well?" Nami looked inches from running, Usopp readied his slingshot from behind the mast, and Zoro readied his Three-Sword Style for a fight as Johnny and Yosuka looked unsure of what to do before Luffy spoke.
"Everything... they are my nakama...!" Tension built before the Ward spoke, with a smirk.
"The freest answer you have, to give it up all for them and their dreams..." The grip left and Luffy felt the air come back to his lungs before the Ward clapped. "Then, without further ado, make her feel safe and welcomed, after all, she is the embodiment of your new home." He left back to the cabin and they blinked before a light shined behind them and they turned to... a sleeping girl in a raincoat, a wooden mallet on a belt, they blinking in confusion before Luffy spoke.
"Uh... who are you?" The girl yawned and blinked before she register what was happening.
"Um..." She jumped as she exclaimed. "Wait, hold on, you guys can see me, but... you guys are new as a crew and shouldn't be able to see me, let alone interact with me!?"
"W-What do you mean and who are you exactly...?" Usopp asked as the girl hummed with drawing her knees in and spoke.
"I'm... stories about a Klabautermann or a Wood Sprite are a lot in-between, but... I am a Klabutermenn, I am the spirit of the ship." She blinked under the hood as she spoke. "I am the Going Merry and the only times that a Klabautermann can appear... is when the ship is dying and it was well-cared for..." That dropped a pit in their stomachs at that mention as they turned to the Ward for answers and he gave them.
"Now you know, given time, she would have developed on her own, but through this, you now know that you treat your ship as a crewmember and give her plenty of love and do your best to keep her alive by protecting and fixing her up, so don't be rash about what you do, that is all..." Nothing more was said as he vanished and the crew were left to get to know Merry a bit deeper and be more careful of her as they soon arrived to the Baratie and getting accosted by some Marine named Fullbody and moving to protect the ship when the Marines readied a cannonball to fire, Luffy moving to catch it from the mast and Merry's head, but didn't get as far when the cannonball slammed, intact, into the palm of the Ward as he spoke. "What gives you the authority to shoot in sight of a seafaring restaurant?" The Marines paled and the crew were left agape before Alex dropped the ball before speaking. "Zoro, toss me a cannonball." The green-haired swordsman reacted quick in tossing one and the Ward caught before he hurled it at the ship, the ship buckling from impact as it collapse down the middle and the Marines rushed about to get off the sinking ship as Ward rolled his neck and spoke. "By the way..." He lifted up a poster and Nami paled as it was one of Arlong as he spoke. "I will be taking this one." He rolled it up before disappearing again, this time beaming to bring the 'Saw-Tooth Arlong' to his deathbed while the events of the Baratie was changed for good...
Luffy knew a good cook in Sanji and wanted him on his crew, but he also wanted to figure out what the Death's Ward grabbed as he stopped Nami from returning to the ship right away as he spoke. "That Arlong... he's the one keeping you a prisoner, isn't he?" Nami said nothing as the crew moved to talk Luffy out of spilling a past.
"Hey, Luffy, lay off of Nami, she is not just going to tell us."
"The witch is many things, but I would..."
"No, he's right..." Nami spoke as the crew fell silent, Sanji listening in as well to see what crew had their eye on him. "Arlong came one day and demanded that my home island to pay a protection fee, my mother... she paid the price for keeping me and my sister free." She started to tear up as she continued with biting her lip. "He used me as his mapmaker, his pet, his tool to use, and made it very apparent to everyone that I had to belong to him." She raised her sleeve to the mark of Arlong on her shoulder, Zoro and Luffy hissing as it was healing, but that hit really did look painful. "For eight years, I tolled to pay for my town's freedom, and I have finally gotten it all together..." She gripped it as she spoke. "I only pray that there wouldn't be any more tricks to come."
"Nami..." Luffy voiced as he rested a hand on her arm as he spoke. "We'll save your home, we wouldn't let someone like him rule anymore, but first..." Luffy spoke as he looked out to the distance, where Gin that was rescued from the sinking ship was headed. "I think we need to keep this place safe, call it a feeling, but I think this Krieg guy is going to be trouble..." They all nodded as Luffy continued. "I don't care if you have to leave or not, Nami, you're my friend, our navigator, and you deserve a better home than what Arlong put you through..."
"...Right..." Nami nodded as Sanji found himself warring, to give in to help or stay to keep with the old man before doing a double-check and smirked.
'...My dream... is being wasted here, keeping the old man company, I should be out there and I found the crew that could do that, dreamers, sure, but what a big dream they got...'
Soon, war was upon them all as Don Krieg arrived to take it all, to take away the lives of the sea cooks, to take the place, to take it and head back into the Gran Line to be the 'greatest', but for reasons unknown to them, they could strike where they needed, dodge like it was second nature, and fight as a true crew, Nami staying on board for the fight and even watched Roronoa Zoro contest with Hawk-Eye Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, and lose, but they could tell that the wound, while dangerous, was not as fatal as they were expecting as Zoro made his pledge to Luffy and Mihawk went away with wrecking more of Krieg's ship before the fight started once more and ended with Krieg getting punished badly as the crew roused themselves after some food, some rest, and headed out to the Cocoyasi Village on the Conomi Islands, the place where Arlong set his empire in and where eight years of pain and suffering was done to all the humans there...
The Arlong Pirates that patrolled the island perished and no one knew why as bit by bit, those fishmen encountered something and it slaughtered them like cattle before the gate to Arlong Park shattered into fragments and a dark-robed figure appeared in the smoke as the remaining fishmen was on edge as Arlong growled, first losing the Marines with Nerumi's body staked in bold daylight in the yard, now losing his brothers, to this as he growled. "Who the hell are you!?" The figure beamed a white smile that haunted them as a blue eye glowed under the hood as he spoke.
"Naughty, naughty Arlong. I believe what Jinbe, First Son of the Sea, told you was not to cause trouble, and here you are, tolling like a Celestial Dragon with his pets." The dust started to fade to an eerie mist, a fog that sent chills down all of their bodies as some even watched as the waters started to get a film of ice to it. "Who I am? I am just a wandering hunter, covering my bases, making sure my prey is alone, after all..." The figure paused a few steps from the gate as he spoke. "The only difference between us is that you are mortal... flesh and blood, me..." The face was revealed as its features turned bony and decayed with the stone underfoot. "...I am a herald..." With that, the hunter went on the attack...