I took a deep breath as it took me a few years to track down Luffy. I managed to get to east blue and get two more full bottles along the way. The tank bottle after stopping at a marine base to get the sample and a hawk full bottle when the bird came across me on entering the blue. And I was currently seeing Luffy send alvida flying. I pulled my boat over to Luffy and coby.
"Need a lift you two?" I called to them as I knew nami was getting Alvida's treasure.
We would meet her later.
"Hey, good timing!" Luffy called as he lowered himself and the future marine into the boat.
As we got on our way I smiled at coby.
"So you want to be a marine huh I could hear you five knots away," I said making coby blush.
"So who are you I'm glad you picked us up but I don't think I saw you before," asked Luffy.
"My name is James like you I'm starting as a pirate. I'm searching for answers to my past and I have the feeling these bottles are a clue to it." I said showing the rabbit full bottle to them.
"Then join my crew! I'm sure eventually we can figure out your past" said Luffy.
"Sure I'm a good hand as a smithy though once I find my answers I want to pick someone up from home to join the closest person to a family I got," I said thinking about Carrot. My ears are still ringing once Wanda realized what I promised carrot and explained it to her. Carrot stuttered quite a lot once she realized just how much I wanted to count her like family even as a fiancé.
"You left family at home?" Asked Luffy.
"Fiancé she and I grew up together last I heard she's training as a fighter to defend our home while I look for answers" I explained.
"I'm confused" confided coby.
"The mystery of my past is that no one knows where I came from I was found as an infant with no sign of anyone to have found me. Far as anyone knows I just appeared without warning." I clarified for them.
"I see still you still are nuts Luffy to want to go to the grand line," said coby.
"He will have me as a guide kid I'm from the grand line" I deadpanned.
Well, the new world is the more dangerous part of the grand line how I managed to get here without much trouble I still don't know as I took us to ax hand Morgan's posting so we could meet helmepo and pick up zorro. which made me wonder what was morgan thinking when he was assigned to this base to make this town so afraid of him. even coby was vastly shocked at the response on just mentioning the guy. following a girl we found Zoro and eventually met helmepo. man the guy had a stupid hairstyle and look. glad he changed and grew up after picking up Franky. I tuned out the story from the girl once we sat at the bar and I shared a look with my captain.
"knowing that marine in charge of this place he will not keep his word and will just kill Zoro so our best bet is to beat him and get an admiral to investigate. Luffy you said your last name is monkey right any relation to Garp?' i asked my captain knowing full well Luffy was the vice admiral's grandson.
"yeah he's my gramps" laughed Luffy with a grin.
"wait your grandpa is a marine! but you are becoming a pirate!" asked coby wide-eyed.
"I think his decision was somewhat a result of grey terminal I heard rumors Garp visited the nearby town to the grey terminal a lot so for that to have happened might be why," I said thoughtfully.
"yeah, I was right in the middle of that incident and lost an adoptive brother as a result so it just really made me decide to become a pirate and never a marine. I was already thinking of becoming pirate king beforehand it just set that goal in stone so to speak" Luffy laughed with a small sad grin and I knew he was talking about sabo.
"well then let's get zorro," I said standing up and followed Luffy to the base and to defeat morgan.
"Luffy can you get zorro's swords while I handle the marines and distract morgan," I asked as Luffy won't take long for that.
"go ahead I want to see what my smith can do for my crew," said Luffy seeing this as a good way to test me on my worth to the crew. the grin I had did not say I was a pushover but one that said I was going to enjoy cutting loose. I already declined the position of the first mate as I was going to be the crew's Smith when it came to roles.
but that didn't mean I wasn't going to help fight if needed. hopping the fence Luffy made the offer and told zorro the marines was not going to uphold their deal as helmepo bragged about it in the bar.
when the marines showed up I grinned as I opened my jacket to reveal my driver as I pulled out the rabbit and tank full bottles and shook them before twisting the caps and slotted them in.
rabbit! tank! unite match!
huh looked like I was right to name the driver the union driver. I grabbed the crank and started spinning it making a unique snape ride builder form around me. it was fully flat to the ground with instead of two half armors the various parts were scattered around me like a model kit that made zorro, coby, the marines, and Luffy go wide-eyed.
Are you ready?
"henshin" I shouted letting go and entered a stance as the armor parts flew off the builder and snapped onto my body causing it to warp with the metal visibly reshaping as the armor covered me.
Unite the steel rabbit! full-frontal assault! rabbit tank! ora!
I was now clad in a black bodysuit with red armor with blue trim with what looked like four springs surrounding my limbs while my torso armor looked like it was made out of tank armor and my boots had tank treads in the shape of a rabbit's foot and my helmet was shaped like a tank in the form of a rabbit had become my face.
"Sugoi!" shouted Luffy stars in his eyes as he looked over my armor.
"what the hell," said zorro.
"It can't be! how did this pirate get the Faust division's tech! I thought they were still working on the build system" Morgan who had arrived said glaring at me and I snapped my head to him.
"did you say, Faust," I said frowning as I realized that I did spot guardians at the base I gained the tank full bottle at?
"How does a teen know of the faust division only the captains and above knowledge of the group sanctioned by the world government" morgan demanded.
"well now looks like I finally got a clue to my past after seventeen years the name does feel familiar and I've been wondering why I know how to build the tech to go with my driver," I said before turning to Luffy.
"captain goes get Zoro's blades while I keep these marines off your back while I get answers from morgan here," I said to Luffy who nodded and ran into the base as I glared at the now nervous marines.
with that, I blurred and knocked out the grunts so I can fight morgan himself only to backflip from a shot I recognized as coming from the transteam gun looking to where the shot was I growled as I recognize blood stalk the crimson suit with a snake motif was a giveaway.
I pretended to hold my head a moment and glared at the alien rider.
"evolto why is it that name pops into my head when I look at you," I asked him pretending to be confused as I looked at him.
"hmm, so you know who I am huh. though with that belt I am not surprised though you don't feel like my brother there is a lot of similarities... no way well ill be surprised looks like my brother kept the fact he has a son from me! must have been abandoned as a kid to keep me from influencing you. so what are you called nephew?' asked the alien making me blink. okay didn't expect to have been reincarnated as evolto's nephew that is a surprise.
"call me union in this form Kamen rider union," I said holding out my hand as I summoned a sword from my driver that was looking like a katana blade on the hilt of a fencing blade with a slot for a full bottle and had a vented design on the flat sides of the blade.
Vortech saber!
Was heard as I grabbed the handle.
"Huh, he's as good as katsuragi in forging weapons you already impressed me nephew so how do you have copies of those full bottles," evolto said tilting his head.
" Not telling you and I doubt you and I can be family," I told him as I blocked Morigan's ax without looking. Rabbit hearing was good.
At this point, Luffy returned with Zorro's swords, and once Zorro was freed the Marines didn't stand a chance as blood stalk tsked and vanished after snapping our pictures and Luffy punched out Morgan and I pulled out my full bottles as I pointed an empty bottle at one of helmepo's pet wolves. Well, one that survived making blue energy exit the wolf and enters the full bottle that I then concentrated on turning the resulting smash bottle into the wolf full bottle.
"So union that evolto guy was your uncle?" Asked Zorro.
" My real name is James and apparently but I don't consider him family. Just like the snake, he themes himself after he is a backstabber and not someone to trust. Just the feeling I get from him" I said frowning.
" Is he as dangerous as that?" Koby asked nervously.
" Yeah, that armor he wore is not his usual or true form. He's not human. I can sense he was puppeting one though" I said.
" Then if we are going after him we need to get stronger if he's holding back," Zorro said sheathing his blades.
"he felt like a black hole to me so that should hint what his real strength is," I said putting away my full bottles.
After we convinced the Marines to let Koby enlist I pulled out my Denden Mushi to update my fiance on my progress and warn the mink tribe.
When I was done carrot was silent for a moment.
"James I'm glad you made progress on finding your past but be careful. Your apparent uncle sounds like a monster. I'm glad you are nothing like him. I'll train so that I'm there by your side when you confront him" carrot said over the mushi.
"Thanks, carrot I got a lead now meaning my next move is to find this katsuragi person he mentioned. And maybe he knows more about this Faust group that seems connected to me" I told her.