Chapter Six

Izuku wondered if he should be worried or relieved that he's starting to enjoy the arm-numbing, chest-burning sensation of working himself halfway to death as he lifted ten entire barrels into the air. Rayleigh nodded approvingly and hefted another barrel on top.

"Good form. At least someone taught you how to lift properly."

"With your knees, not your back," Izuku grunted back.

"Knees, huh? And here I thought you lifted those barrels with your arms." Rayleigh turned to Luffy, who grunted and sweated under eight barrels as Sea Prism cuffs weighed down his wrists. "What about you? Are you going to let this sorry excuse for a landlubber show up a pirate like you?"

Eyes blazing, Luffy gritted out, "Six more!"

"Your funeral, kid." Rayleigh chucked them all up at the same time. Luffy went cross-eyed as the weight brought him to his knees, but he shakily rose back to his feet.

"Well done, both of you," Rayleigh said. "I think you're both ready for the fun stuff."

"Fun stuff?" Izuku asked, suffering a sudden bout of dread. "What do you-"

Rayleigh's fist rammed into his gut. Izuku wheezed and nearly dropped his load, but he didn't budge an inch.

"Feel that?" Rayleigh asked, tapping the spot where he struck Izuku. "Your muscles are all bunched up tight, like those wooden boards you've been swabbing. Tightening your muscles is a cheap but effective way of absorbing a blow that would otherwise knock you off your feet. The trick is making it happen when you're not carrying a ton of barrels."

Izuku tiredly nodded his head. Rayleigh threw the same punch at Luffy, who didn't even twitch under a blow that rang across the deck.

"Good. You can put those down now."

Izuku gently eased them onto the deck, while Luffy let them tumble like jenga blocks. "Gah," Luffy rasped, "You're worse than Grandpa."

"I'll take that as a compliment, brat." Rayleigh grinned behind his glasses. "Now, both of you have built enough strength for what comes next."

"Ooh, what?" Luffy asked. "Are we going to punch a boulder? No wait, a mountain?"

Rayleigh disappeared. Luffy went hurtling backwards as a fist slammed out of nowhere into his face.

Rayleigh popped up behind Izuku's shoulder. "Kick off the ground ten times in a second, with all the strength in your legs, and you can gain blinding speed in an instant."

Izuku jumped and whirled to his right, only for Rayleigh to blur behind his back. He grabbed Izuku's collar and hurled him across the deck.

"By the end of today," Rayleigh said with his arms crossed, "You'll either get very good at dodging or very good at taking my fist to your face. Your pick."


"Augh, I'm so bored!" Hatsume wailed as she downed another tankard of liquid that the other pirates assured him was definitely not rum. She belched loudly and shakily held up her empty mug. "Another!"

"Yeah, we cut her off after her second pint," the bartender said with a grin as he refilled her tankard from a barrel. "Nothing but rainwater for her until she can stare at me without going cross-eyed. Which, given her eyes, might be a bit of a challenge."

"Of course I'm cross-eyed, it's my Quirk." Hatsume slapped the top of her head. "I can see the orcs taking the hobbits to Isengard with these bad boys."

The bartender cast Izuku a questioning look. He replied, "Lord of the Rings reference," and the bartender only looked more confused.

"Come on Mei," Izuku said, nudging her shoulder. "I think you should go to bed."

"No," Mei slurred, "I think you should go to bed. I wanna make babies!"

That got snickers out of every pirate within earshot, and a frustrated howl from Buggy. Izuku helped her out of the stool and said, "We can make babies later, just like I promised. For now, bed time."

"You said we would make babies weeks ago! And look, no babies!"

"Mei, you know we can't do that here! We're on a ship!"

"So? We'll make ship babies! I've got loads of ideas."

"And I'm sure they won't sink the ship we're on, but for now, bedtime."

"Babies!"

"Bedtime."

"Babies!"

"Babies," Izuku repeated.

"Bedtime!"

"Alright, bedtime it is."

Hatsume blinked and looked owlishly at him. "You tricked me," she pouted.

"Tell you what," Izuku said. "Walk in a straight line to the door, and we'll make babies right now."

"You promise?"

"Absolutely."

Hatsume's drunken stagger disappeared, and she walked briskly and evenly to the door.

"Well?" she asked. "Was that not perfectly straight?"

Izuku sputtered. "You were faking this whole time?"

"Of course I was! I wasn't going to drink myself silly and throw up all over the place like you did. And I'm bored!"

Izuku sighed. He knelt down and tilted his head around. "I don't know, that doesn't look perfectly straight. It's a bit crooked right about there."

"Is not! My eyes never lie!"

"Well, you are a bit cross-eyed."

Hatsume gasped. "You take that back!"


Izuku stood on a tiny, wooded island, wobbling as his legs reacclimated to solid land. Luffy stretched as far as his Sea Prism cuffs allowed, Shanks grinned and told a joke while Buggy watched the woods with a far-eyed stare of past trauma.

Rayleigh called down to them from a tree branch. "The lot of you have the basics of the six powers down, but now's the time to put them to the ultimate test. With as densely wooded as this place is, your Soru better be absolutely perfect. If it isn't, you better pray like hell's before you that your Tekkai's good enough to take a tree to the face.

"Hell is before us," Buggy muttered.

"Buggy, since you're listening to me so nice and quietly," Rayleigh said darkly, "You can practice this exercise in six pieces. I'll be counting."

Buggy gulped.

"And to make this even more fun," Rayleigh went on, "I've thrown in a few traps to keep you on your toes. Pay extra careful attention to your surroundings, and you might spot them before you end up belly-deep in a pit full of centipedes."

Even Shanks and Luffy shivered at that, both their good spirits gone in an instant. Buggy chortled at them, floating above his own shoes, when Rayleigh made eye contact with him and added, "There's hornet nests too, I should imagine. But they're pretty high up, most of you shouldn't have to worry about it."

"Aw come on!" Buggy roared.

"Take as much time as you like going through there. Just keep in mind, I'll be eating your lunch while I wait."

Fires lit up in Luffy's eyes. With his stomach rumbling, as Rayleigh had warned them not to eat that morning for their training, Izuku found himself equally motivated.

"Have fun, kids!" Rayleigh called over his shoulder as he leapt through the trees. "And try not to die in here!"

Luffy ran off, his sandals ripping up the dirt with each stride. Shanks ran hot on his heels, sword drawn, while Buggy reluctantly broke into pieces and floated after him.

Izuku took a more leisurely pace through the woods. He reasoned that he'd lose far more time blindly running into traps. That, and he had a vague suspicion that the centipedes in this universe were far bigger and nastier than the variety he was used to. Everything else was.

A low growl startled Izuku out of his thoughts. He turned and saw a bear lumbering towards him.

"Oh, phew!" Izuku said, chuckling. "It's just a bear."

Then his brain caught up with his words, and his expression grew horrified. "Oh shit, it's a bear."

The bear roared and sprinted towards him. With a shriek of terror, Izuku zipped away with Soru. As a brown blur raced towards his head, Izuku bent over backwards, spine parallel to the ground. A branch whipped past his nose.

Izuku stopped for a breather and examined the branch that nearly took his head off. "Rayleigh was right," Izuku muttered. "With that kind of speed, it's nearly impossible to react in time. I can't jump blindly or I'll crack my nose on something."

A furious growl came from behind him. Izuku sighed. "Oh right, the bear."

The moment Izuku moved, the bear's claws tore through the tree bark behind him. The tree came crashing down, and Izuku hastily leapt into the air to avoid its branches.

A snake darted out from a nearby tree. With a surprised yelp, Izuku kicked on the air, getting just enough distance to avoid the snake's fangs. Flipping and landing perfectly on his feet, Izuku beamed at the snake and shouted, "Better luck next time!"

Izuku heard an irritated growl. He turned around and saw the bear giving him the stink-eye.

"Look, I'm sorry I'm forgetting about you so easily," Izuku said. "I'd usually be terrified of a bear, but after those piranhas the size of my head, and those giant ants trying to bite off my ankles, a bear is just… well…"

The bear roared and swiped at him. Izuku ducked, letting the claws pass over him, then leapt up and hit the bear's muzzle with an uppercut. The bear whimpered and fell backwards with a heavy thud.

"Phew! Alright, now I can-"

A bear cub ran out of the underbrush and shook the fallen bear. Another bear ambled in from behind, gave the scene a shocked expression, and took out a transponder snail. As Izuku watched, more bears poured in, including half a dozen in white jackets.

The bear pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and read it with a series of low, rumbling growls. Then, nodding to his fellows, the bear held out a paw, and another rushed to put a large, spherical rock the size of Izuku's head into it.

Izuku sprinted for dear life as a thrown boulder smashed through the undergrowth, leaving a circular hole through the foliage. Using Soru as much as he dared, ducking and dodging around rocks thrown like cannonballs, Izuku kept ahead of the bears until he managed to lose them at a ravine.

Izuku panted and leaned against the dirt wall. "Bear cops. Okay. Those are a thing. Better get moving before Rayleigh eats all the-"

Izuku's foot hit a tripwire. He froze, searching for the trap he just set off.

"A dud? Huh, guess I got lucky."

As Izuku kept walking, he heard the rush of water. Looking back, Izuku yelped as he saw a deluge of water, with piranhas snapping eagerly in the waves, crashing down towards him.

Izuku leapt, and his feet barely cleared the water as it surged under him. With a few shaky Geppo, stepping on the air itself, Izuku stumbled onto the shore of the new river.

"Please tell me I'm getting close."

A low growl answered him. Izuku groaned and faced the six bears behind him. One hefted a rock in a paw.

"Enough with the bears already!"


"And then I led the bears into the centipede pit, flipped out of there, and ran like crazy until I made it here," Izuku said, punctuating his story with a sip of his generously watered-down beer.

"Ah, the bears," Rayleigh said fondly. "Garp got drunk on this one island one weekend. Blame him if we ever run across him."

"You fought bears?" Luffy asked. "Lucky! I only ran into a whole bunch of traps!"

"Pfft, you're one to talk," Buggy grumbled. "That last trap catapulted you here. Meanwhile, I had to dodge mafia magpies. I mean, seriously? Magpies?"

"Sounds like you all had fun!" Shanks said, grinning. "I wish I ran into something. I just strolled through the woods and made it out."

"Lucky bastard."

Rayleigh regarded them warmly and sipped his own beer. "You kids did well. The four of you could take just about anything that Paradise could throw at you. The New World, now that's a different beast altogether. Any pirate hoping to last a week on the other side of Fishman Island needs at least one form of Haki."

Buggy groaned. "We already have Haki, why are you giving us this lecture again?"

Rayleigh flung a rock at him. Buggy yelped as it left a red welt on his forehead.

"Are you sure you have Haki? Even the greenest pirate past the red line would've dodged that one."

As Buggy grumbled angrily and rubbed his forehead, Izuku's brain hit the brakes. "Haki? What's that?"

Rayleigh stood. As he cocked his arm back, a black aura engulfed it from the shoulder down Then he punched straight down. Branches shook, birds squawked and took off in a flapping cloud, and a bowl of smoked salmon rattled off the table before Luffy caught it with his outstretched mouth.

"Does that answer your question?" Rayleigh asked.

"But how did you do that?" Izuku asked, mind whirling at a million miles an hour. "And how did your collarbone withstand the force you exerted on the ground? The color change didn't extend past the shoulder. Unless there was an internal component that didn't appear on the surface?"

Rayleigh flicked Izuku on the forehead. "Haki isn't something that you understand, Izuku. It's something that you do. That you feel, deep down in your heart."

"And how do I do that?"

"Well, I was hoping you'd figure it out during your stroll. But seeing that you did not, we'll have to unlock yours the hard way."

After seeing the serious expression on Rayleigh's face, Izuku didn't get much sleep that night.


"Steady… just a little more…"

"Mei, are you sure this is going to work?"

"It's a crossbow, Izuku. They made those things back in medieval time. How hard can this be?"

Izuku's arms strained as he bent back the twin arms of the crossbow while Mei tied some corded fishing line on each end.

"It's a crossbow that fires grenades, Mei. I don't think anyone's ever made that."

"Exactly! It's a Mei original invention! You can let go now."

Izuku gently released the arms. As the makeshift bowstring settled, the entire crossbow began to vibrate violently. Izuku grabbed Mei, used Soru to vanish them both, and ducked behind an overturned table. The crossbow exploded with a loud, sharp crack, scattering splinters across the room. Izuku poked his head out from behind the table and saw a splinter driven into its surface.

"We didn't even load a grenade in, and it already exploded," Izuku said.

"Yeah! I wonder if we could make it a weapon that way! Just throw your crossbow at them, and boom!"

"Isn't that just a grenade?"

"You're right." Mei sat and thought for a moment. "But if there was a grenade loaded, it would be a double-grenade!"

"If we really wanted that, we could just glue two grenades together."

"Augh, why does this have to be so hard!" Mei kicked a splinter across the floor. "Do you have any idea how long I spent carving those? And I had to make that bowstring out of fishing line by hand! I spent hours twirling threads together!"

"They have guns and stuff, Mei. I'm sure we'll find better tools once we make port."

"We tried, Izuku! Drum Kingdom didn't even have a power drill. I had to carve all those parts with a chisel, Izuku!"

Izuku felt lost, seeing the crushed expression on Mei's face. Usually, an explosion such as this one would bring a soot-stained smile on her face, and she'd get right back to work on the smoking remains of her invention. Now, they were both lost, and Izuku had no idea how to help her.

"I don't know what to do," Izuku admitted. "I can't get you the parts you need from some beach, I can't fetch you tools while you work. We're alone out here."

As Hatsume looked ready to fall apart like her own invention, Izuku gently put his hands on her shoulders. "However," he said, "I know you're strong enough to make this work. Somehow. And when you figure out how, no one will ever be able to stop you from inventing again. They take away your tools? You'll make better ones. They cut the power? Screw the power, you have hands! And even if you lost your arms and legs, you could make prosthetics with your teeth."

Mei sniffled and wiped away her tears. "You're right. This? This is just a roadblock on the way to Hatsume Industries! You want power armor? I'll build it in a cave, with a pile of scraps!"

"Okay, Tony Stark, why don't we get your last baby cleaned up."

"Nope, too fired up! These babies need making now!"

As Mei sprinted for the top deck, Izuku sighed and pulled splinters out of the walls.


Izuku ducked right. He felt a moment of triumph before a pebble hit him squarely in the forehead.

"You're dodging, but you're not listening," Rayleigh chastised him. Izuku lifted the blindfold and got another rock to the cheek. "Did I say you could take that off?"

"Sorry!"

"And you," Rayleigh said, flinging another rock at Luffy. He didn't even budge as it smacked into the growing bump between his eyebrows. "You're not even trying."

"Screw that!" Luffy shouted back. "I'm tougher than a stupid pebble!"

"Keep giving me that attitude, and the next one'll be between your legs. Focus!"

Izuku heard Rayleigh's feet shuffle against the deck. He ducked left and got a pebble to the ear.

"Better, but you dodged right into that. Forget your other senses. Forget trying to dodge. Let the pebble tell you what it's going to do."

"What does that even mean?"

Another pebble beaned him on the chin. "It means focus!" Rayleigh snapped.

"Hah!" Buggy shouted from the mast. "I'm so glad we don't have to do that anymore!"

Rayleigh flung a pebble at him. Buggy split a section of his body, letting the pebble fly through.

"You missed!"

Rayleigh's next pebble got him between the eyes. Buggy yelped and fell head-first off the mast.

"The road to mastering one's Haki is never finished. Don't think you get to slack off now that you can predict me once or twice."

As the pebbles continued flying and Izuku kept failing to dodge them, he heard one strike something with a metallic ping. Luffy shouted, "Hah! Barely felt that one!"

Izuku took off his blindfold. Luffy's forehead was covered in a black metallic sheen. The cracked remains of the pebble trickled off his brow.

"Only a knucklehead like you would learn Armament Haki in an exercise designed to train your Observation."

"Does that mean I win?" Luffy asked.

The pebble in Rayleigh's hand took on a black color. When it struck Luffy's head, he went flying backwards into the rail.

"It means you better keep that up all day or start dodging. Crocus will get mad at me if he has to dig a rock out of your skull."

Izuku tried feeling the rock, tried listening for whatever Rayleigh expected him to hear. No matter what he tried, he got a rock to the face. Izuku wondered if he'd get a bump sprouting from his forehead like a unicorn if they kept it up long enough. Maybe the brain damage would help somehow? It might explain how Luffy managed to get Haki first.

"Izuku!" Mei shouted. "Are you done yet? You said we'd make babies hours ago!"

"I'm still working on-" Mei, look out!"

Izuku dashed across the deck and tackled Mei to the ground. A loud, meaty slap hit the deck behind him.

"You alright Mei?"

"No I'm not! You crushed the baby I'm working on!"

"Don't worry, it'll be easy to make again. We could do it right now."

"Please don't," Buggy said. "I hear enough just passing by my door. I really don't want to know what you do with all those ropes."

"Hey, Izuku." Rayleigh gave him a smug grin. "How did you know she'd get crushed by that fish?"

Izuku looked at the deck behind him. A swordfish twice the size of him flopped on the deck and tried gouging at the legs of everyone near it. A pirate strode up with a harpoon and speared it through the head.

"Sorry, that one got away from me." He hauled it over one shoulder and added, "On the bright side, we're having steaks tonight!"

As the deck cleared, Izuku asked, "Did I just do the Haki thing?"

Rayleigh clapped a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "You sure did kid. And now that I have an idea of how you did it, we're gonna have your girlfriend help."

Izuku and Mei shared a look of terror. After he tied Mei to the mast and had Izuku guarding her from thrown knives, Mei asked, "Is your training always like this?"

Izuku flinched as a knife bounced off the wooden tray he held. "This isn't so bad. Usually, the knives are sharp."


"What do we do if we can't make it back home?"

The sounds of mechanical tinkering stopped, and Mei poked her head out from the hood of the DeLorean. "We will. No point thinking about it."

"But I mean, we have to get this car going eighty-eight miles an hour, right?"

Mei guiltily looked away. "Well… not exactly."

"What does that mean?"

"That whole eighty-eight mile thing is just a movie reference. The car could be standing still, and it would work."

"Really? Why haven't we gotten back already?"

Mei winced. "Well, I programmed it to only start the time-travel process when the car's traveling at that speed. And without a computer to change the programming…"

"So we do have to get up to eighty-eight miles an hour."

"Yes."

"And they don't have paved roads."

"I could always get the flight module working again."

Izuku frowned. "Couldn't we just spin the tires fast enough to make the car think it's going that fast?"

"Normally, we could."

Izuku slapped his forehead. "You redesigned the speedometer, didn't you?"

"How else were we supposed to get accurate measurements while flying?"

"And that means we need to get up to eighty-eight miles an hour somehow."

"That's right."

"And we don't even have a train like they did in the third movie."

"We could invent one."

Izuku sighed. "Guess we'll be here a while then."

"Hey, it's not so bad. These guys are super nice, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right."


Izuku felt his stomach drop as he stared at the newspaper a giant seagull had deposited into his lap. The bird squawked angrily at him until Shanks shoved some money into its bag.

"Hey, that's the new bounty list! Did I finally make it on?"

"Shove off," Buggy said, trying to get closer. "I want to see!"

Gold Roger's face grinned up at him. Below, the bounty offered a staggering price tag for his head that, even with Izuku's primitive understanding of this world's currency, made his head spin. Five billion? Even with this world's inflation what it was, that was more money than most people would see in their lifetimes.

What made him debate jumping off the ship again were the list of crimes. Murder, arson, theft, and more - Izuku felt his perceptions of the Roger Pirates crumbling around him. Every face he saw made him flinch, and his heart skittered with every boisterous laugh.

Next island they found, he didn't care if it was just a patch of sand. He and Mei were off this ship.

"Land ho!"

Relief filled Izuku's heart. He peered over the rail and felt his despair return. Before him lay a wretched hive of scum and villainy, plain to his eyes even a mile from shore. Dilapidated shacks and threadbare tents, piled into a malodorous heap that fouled the water and sullied the breeze. Empty bottles bobbed in the waves, ships traded cannonballs and even rammed each other for docking space, and the odd gunshot punctuated the raucous shouting that welled up from the bars and brothels.

Rayleigh stepped up next to him. "That's Jaya," he said grimly. "Pirate haven, and not the nice sort. Don't wander off, keep one hand on your wallet and the other on a knife, and don't ask what's in Priscilla's spicy buns.

As they weighed anchor in a secluded cove, Izuku resolved to jump ship on the next next island.


A/N: don't have much to say at the moment, so instead, I'll bring back the review responses thing I used to do for Precognition.

TheGreatBubbaJ: "Smart move having Luffy treated by Hiluk rather than the crone, no chance of recognition."

Bardothren: *whistles innocently*

ProjectIceman: "Whitebeard gonna see Luffy at Marineford and be hella confused LOL "You haven't aged a day, brat." XD'

Bardothren: and that's when Luffy says, "Oh, hey Whitebeard! You look different… did you get a haircut?"

DragonB0b: "You die like Whitebeard. Alone, outnumbered, after failing at your goal and leaving your family behind to fall apart. Your greatest weapon being turned against them."

Bardothren: That may be true, but he died like a badass, and really, isn't that what matters?

BigHector01: "love this fic. hope you keep up with this one and have the inspiration to make more of this. honestly one of my favorite fics on the site."

Bardothren: I'll do my best to live up to the high praise.

Alright, that'll do for this chapter. See you all in two weeks!

EDIT: just realized my brain did a derp and I posted this a week early. Whoops! Uh... dunno if I'll post again in two or three weeks. Depends on how life is I guess. I'll keep people informed in Deku Ex Machina.