Happy October!
Enjoy the crisp autumn air, crunching of fallen leaves and the spice of the spooky season.
With this chapter, we conclude the Ship Acquisition Arc. Let's see if the pirates can maintain their claim on the Navy ship and how much destruction they can bring to Nede's Garden in the process.
10/21/21
Log 7: One Shot
The shipyard was filled of the sound of wood being sawed and hammered, complementing the off-key singing from the shipwrights.
Pompen paused in bringing wood to her subordinates when she saw Mary quietly carving the figurehead out of extra wood. Adding a figurehead hadn't been part of the original design which made Pompen curious to what was going through her subordinate's head.
"Mary,"
She didn't respond.
"Mary."
"..."
Pompen whacked a plank over her head. "Oi, airhead!"
Mary looked to her boss. "What's up?"
"You're spacing out…. More than usual." Pompen added.
"Mm..." Mary hummed, absentmindedly.
"Are you thinking about those pirates?" she guessed.
"I like them," said Mary with a wistful smile on her face.
"What do you like about them?"
Mary thought and thought, her fur tinged a light pink as her skin turned red as she thought.
"Breathe."
She stopped thinking with a gasp and said, "I don't know."
Pompen sighed, knowing this was likely an answer she was going to get. "Is that so?"
"They just feel right." Mary said, simply.
However nonsensical, Pompen mulled her subordinate's words in her head and said. "What makes them feel right?"
Mary didn't respond, having spaced out again.
Pompen yanked on her ear. "Pay attention! Honestly, you would miss a cannonball if it blasted into you." she grumbled. "You're an airhead but you have a good sense of character."
"About ships too?"
"….Yes. You do have an intuition to how a ship will fare on the seas." Pompen admitted. Mary gave a bright smile hearing this to which Pompen tugged on her ear again. "Don't let it get to your head."
Mary rubbed her sore ear. "You're still a mean hag."
That comment earned her a smack over the head.
"Hey boss!" Felix called from the crow's nest. "We got Navy!"
A whole platoon of marines was marching right into the shipyard where they were currently modifying a stolen Navy vessel. Pompen grimaced, realizing the situation they would be in soon. What trouble did those pirates bring with them?
Regardless, Pompen took this job and – on the honor of the boat in her hair – she was going see it done. Pompen worked hard to build her shipyard through her blood and sweat. If Nede's overburdening restrictions haven't sunken Pompen's life work, like hell was she was going to let hypocritical justice serving pansies attack her yard.
"MARY! Get your hammer!"
-VP-
Valker dodged the next extended punch Nede sent his way and then a kick. The Nede's elongated limbs kept Valker from getting close enough to attack even with the extra reach Hebi gave Valker as a staff. His position was being pushed further into the forest.
"Kekeke!" Nede laughed. "You may know haki, but you're no match the Long-Long fruit."
"You're very confident in your ability." Valker observed.
"Haki is the ultimate counter to devil fruit abilities but users are limited to what they can do. Armament, Observation and, on the very rare occasion, Emperors. You are quite adept with Armament but all you can do is strength your body or objects. Meanwhile, my devil fruit gives me such variety!"
Nede's arm wrapped around Valker's waist, lifting him into the air and slamming him back into the earth. Nede repeatedly slammed the pirate and flung into the distance. Twisting in the air, Valker landed into a low crouch but Nede was in front of him, arm coiled tightly.
"Long-Long Corkscrew!"
With a hiss, his fist launched right into the pirate's gut and sent Valker crashing into a saw mill. He landed right in the middle of the Nede's labor camp. The shackled workers saw Valker destroy the mill and instantly whispers were exchanged in confusion.
"Who's that?" A green haired man murmured under his breath as the guards ran to investigate.
Valker kicked himself free of the debris, taking out one of the guards in process. The next guard was choked out by Hebi.
Nede appeared through the trees, long fingers kitted together in a net caught any labors who attempted to flee. "Guards! Secure the prisoners while I defeat this no name pirate!"
The men and woman cowered as the guards corralled them, giving Valker and Nede ample space to duel. Valker glanced at the crowd, his facial features hardening. Seeing Valker's attention on the prisoners, Nede smiled.
"Isn't impressive?" Nede asked. "These criminals couldn't even make it in the East Blue, their only worth is to be used to increase my profits."
Valker gripped Hebi tighter and glared at the elongated man. "It's the strong's duty to protect the weak."
"Kekeke, that doesn't sound very piratey at all." Nede remarked before shouting in surprise when Yuuna barreled into him.
Yuuna sat up from the literal tangled mess of limbs. "Valker!"
"Where's the marine captain?" Valker asked.
"I'm okay, thanks for asking."
Evelyn dashed into the lumber area, slicing at Yuuna's head. Yuuna ducked and ran towards her comrade, dodging each slash. Nede sent out his limbs to hold Yuuna down.
Valker ran to meet them half way, parrying Evelyn's sword slashes. Evelyn tripped over one of Nede's arms, ricocheted off the other and into the crowd.
"Get off of me! You insufferable scum!" Evelyn demanded, kicking and shoving the prisoners out of her way. The green haired prisoner was thrown to the dirt and the captain viscously kicked him in the gut repeatedly. "Useless degenerates! I can never get rid of you!"
Yuuna cringed at the brutality. "That's horrible."
Valker gripped her shoulder hard as he kneeled down to speak in her ear. She shuddered at the killer intent oozing off of him.
"We're switching opponents." Valker said.
"You expect me to beat a devil fruit user?" Yuuna whispered back.
"All you need to do is immobilize him." Valker rose up and stated loud enough to for all to hear. "I'm going to finish this in one shot!"
Evelyn glared at Valker. "Big talk from a no name pirate! Folly of Man!"
Valker raised his staff to block Evelyn's next attack, the two captains exchanging blows in a hurricane of violence.
Yuuna found herself staring down the elongated human with her slingshot and enough ammo to fit into her hand.
-VP-
Agni was excited to let loose on the Navy but half the forces were already defeated by the time he arrived at shipyard. Disappointing but impressive. Shipwrights are hardy folk but Agni wouldn't have expected for Pompen's shipwrights to take out so many marines.
Mary danced around the marines, swinging her hammer like a whirlpool.
Agni whistled, the other devil fruit user was good but there was no way he was going to let her have all the fun. So he leapt right in the battle.
"Heat wave!" the marines were knocked down by sudden pressurized heat released from Agni's body.
Fanning her face to cool her fur, Mary smiled at Agni. "Hey! It's Carrot-Head."
"My name's Agni!"
Mary laughed. "My bad. Sorry for sending you flying."
"You don't look sorry." Agni challenged and punched a marine.
"It was a good hit!" Mary argued, tossing her hammer into the air to have it land on an unsuspecting marine. Mid-jump, Mary transformed from her hybrid to her sheep form and rolled right into a group of marines like bowling pins.
"Strike!" Mary cheered, transforming back to her hybrid before retrieving her hammer as she moved on to the next opponent.
"Mary!" Pompen shouted, smashing a beer bottle over a marine's head. "STOP PLAYING AROUND. You're messing up my yard!"
Mary stuck out her tongue. "What's wrong with having fun!?"
"You're cleaning up whatever you break!"
"No fair! Rufus and Felix don't have too!" Mary complained.
"YEAH WE DO!" Rufus and Felix shouted back.
Agni laughed, fully enjoying the fight.
-VP-
Yuuna will admit that switching opponents was a decent idea on Valker's part; Nede was a mid-range fighter which complemented well with her strength with long range… if she actually had ammo. For the millionth time, Yuuna berated herself for forgetting her bag. This fight was not going to last long as soon as she ran out of her bullets.
"Stop fooling around!" Valker shouted after dodging a the gunfire from Evelyn's apple shaped gun. "Pin him down!"
"This is a lot harder than it looks!" Yuuna shouted back. While she was distracted, Nede grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her over to him.
"You're out of your league, pirate!" Nede stated.
Out of panic, Yuuna fired right into his face. "Hot pepper bomb!"
"MY EYES!" Nede cried out as the bomb exploded in his face. Yuuna quickly scrambled away and hid behind a nearby tree. Squinting through the burning pain of the powder, Nede looked around using his arms to canvas the area. "Where are you, girly?"
Yuuna's mind was frantically thinking how she was going to defeat this guy. She hindered his sight but he was still stronger than she was, there was no way she would be able to pin him down. Seeing Nede's arm search around a tree gave her idea.
Tilting out of her cover, Yuuna fired a lead bullet. Nede's flinched when it hit but now he knew where she was and immediately sent a hand out to grab her. Keeping contact with the tree with her back, Yuuna rolled to the other side of the tree and sprinted away, the hand close on her trail. Weaving through some of the small trees slowed the hand down a bit, enough for Yuuna to charge.
Nede stretched out his other arm, Yuuna slid by it and veered off from her course. The sniper kept dodging and jumping over and under the arms as they tried to trap her, ignoring Nede as he taunted her. Jumping between his stretched arms, Yuuna made another reckless charge from behind.
"You're getting desperate!" Nede laughed. His arms came from either side of her back but Yuuna leapt forward. She twisted in the air so that her shoulder took the brunt of the fall as she skidded right through his legs. Missing their target, Nede's arms swiped the air hands ending up in front of him. Nede's expression morphed into mortified surprise when Yuuna slid through his legs, her slingshot armed and ready.
"Sticky bomb!" The green colored bullet exploded on contact with Nede, coating his arms, chest and legs.
"You think some gunk is going to stop me!?" Nede shouted, pulling at the goo which had also become stuck to ground.
Yuuna smiled through the pain in her shoulder, "You really weren't paying attention to your surroundings?"
Nede jerked around realizing even if there was no goo, his arms were completely tangled around the trees and himself, knotting him into place. "Impossible!"
Evelyn scoffed. "I should have expected that bastard would get himself caught." Staring forward, Evelyn saw Hebi release his control over his haki, leaving Valker's side and slithered out of sight. She brandished her sword. "Feeling confident enough to face me bare-handed? You aren't very bright, are you?"
Valker unholstered the clunky gun he kept at his side. "I said," He aimed it right at Evelyn. "I'd finish this fight in one shot."
Evelyn laughed. "You're joking? That gun doesn't even look like you can load ammo!"
"That's true but I don't need ammo." The haki coating his arms extended to the empty chamber of the gun. Valker released a tense breath. "All I need is my will. And I will defeat you."
He fired.
A shining, black bullet went forth and enlarged to the size of a cannonball midair, blasting into Evelyn's gut. The marine gasped as the bullet pushed her along, taking Nede with her. The bullet slammed through the thick trees and straight into the white walls of Nede's Garden. The stone cracked on impact and an entire section of the wall crumbled, opening up the forest the town before it.
Yuuna awed at the destruction the bullet had left in its wake while Nede's subordinates ran away in fear. It almost looked like a meteorite had crashed through everything.
The sun was setting over the horizon so its light shined right through the large gap in the wall, illuminating every tree that had been torn to pieces and the stone that had been shattered.
"Holy crap, Valker how did you… Valker!?"
Valker was sprawled out on the forest floor, gun hanging loosely in his hand. "I'm fine but I can't move for a while."
"What was that?!" Yuuna asked.
"That was my will," Valker stated simply.
"You mean your haki."
"Yes."
"What did you fire then? That wasn't a normal bullet."
"Haki,"
Yuuna was beginning to get annoyed at his evasiveness when there were bigger issues to deal with. Despite the guards have fled, Nede's prisoners remained huddled together, confused and scared but looking longing to the crevasse in the garden's wall, some unconsciously reaching for the light.
Several black figures appeared at the wall, Yuuna squinted try see if their enemy hadn't been taken down by the attack. As the figures approached, she could make out their features and realized it was the townsfolk, investigating the sudden hole in Nede's Garden. The townsfolk looked at the prisoners and the pirates with uncertainty and anticipation.
"What do we do?" Yuuna asked.
"Nothing. Help me up."
Yuuna frowned. "You're a jerk. What about the people wrongfully imprisoned?"
"They're the town's problem, hurry up."
"We can't leave them like this!" Yuuna protested.
One of the townsfolk, an older man in his seventies was startled out of his stupor when something nudged his foot. When he looked down, there was a metal ring on top of his shoe carrying a multitude of keys upon it that most certainly was not there a second ago. The mysterious appearance of this key sprung the man into action. Asking some of the townsfolk who had followed him to get help, the old man and the rest approached to start freeing the prisoners.
Yuuna smiled in relief. With her attention taken up by the act of human kindness, she didn't see Hebi slither away from the townsfolk and back to Valker.
Valker gave the old snake and approving smile before obnoxiously stating. "See, they're being nice. Get me up."
Yuuna gave Valker an annoyed glare but took his arm over the her neck and pulled him up. Valker was able to get his feet underneath him but was otherwise entirely dead weight. With the prisoners joyously celebrating their freedom as the still confused townsfolk provided care, no one noticed two pirates awkwardly traverse the wreckage and leave Nede's Garden behind.
-VP-
Travelling back to the shipyard with the extra weight of a full grown man on Yuuna's shoulders was a struggle, especially when Valker made her snatch as many beris as she could from the rubble of Nede's castle. It wasn't a lot but it definitely took longer for them to get back.
"Will you tell me what you did back there?" Yuuna asked as they limped through the field of stumps.
"You know how with Armament haki, you can coat yourself or objects you touch with haki, even if you coat an object and use it as a projectile, the fundamental projectile is still an object?"
Yuuna nodded.
"What if you were able to take your haki and add a coat to it and continuously do that? That's what I do. I detach a piece of my haki from myself and by coating armament haki over that piece I can create bullet solely of haki."
"Seriously? Is that allowed?"
Valker nodded sluggishly. "I use the gun to give me a place that I can focus layering my haki into a bullet and control where I fire it. Depending how much haki I layer onto a bullet can determine its destructive power."
"That's how you stopped the battleships!" Yuuna realized and glanced at her captain. "You're a serious glass cannon."
Valker chuckled dryly. "I'm essentially expelling a chunk of my willpower at an enemy. Of course it's draining."
Yuuna poked at his ribs. "You're like a defenseless baby."
"I will have Hebi bite you," Valker threatened.
Yuuna shared a look with Hebi who quickly jerked his head away from her pocket where she kept her last hot pepper bomb and smiled to Valker's annoyance. "I think Hebi and I have bonded over the past couple of days."
When they arrived at the yard, the shipwrights and Agni were lording over a platoon of marines who could only move enough to sooth their aching bodies.
"Hey pirates!" Mary greeted with an enthusiastic wave. Yuuna did her best to wave back and balance Valker's weight.
Pompen gave them a critical look and asked. "What happened with Nede?"
Yuuna grinned. "Valker beat his ass!"
Felix looked skeptical at Valker as he couldn't even stand on his own, "That's hard to believe."
"Who cares!" Rufus said, scooping Felix up in his arms. Felix hissed as he was spun around. "We're free!"
"Baehaehae!" Mary laughed. She held their hands, the three shipwrights danced around in a circle and chanted. "We're free, we're free, we're free!"
"It's been so long!" Felix said.
Yuuna smiled. "It must have been hard."
"It was difficult." Felix admitted. "We've always had to work hard to make ends meet. Captain Evelyn would complain about the price all the time but the island was making good money. A few years ago, I thought things were looking up. We got hundreds of commission requests from the Navy."
Rufus nodded. "Never seen anything like it. Then Nede showed up and took over, taking the money we earned too."
"Wait, isn't it a little strange that Nede showed up just as the island's business started doing really well?" Yuuna questioned. "Did he purposefully destroy ships to inflate the income Helm Island was making?"
"Doubtful. Nede's got a natural intuition for sniffing out easy money." Pompen said as she hauled up a log to her shoulder, her fingers pressing into the bark to hard it nearly cracked. "The culprit is some dipshit pirate who kept burning up ships all around the East Blue."
Hearing this, Valker and Yuuna looked over at their comrade, a pirate who has spent his entire career harassing the marines and burning down their ships which inadvertently created a target on Helm Island, resulting in the residents suffering under Nede's control.
"Gahaha, that was me." Agni said, wistfully. "Fun times."
"Wait.. your Burning Crackerjack!" Rufus exclaimed.
"Let me at him!" Felix demanded but was held make by Rufus.
"You'll get the snot kicked out of yah."
"Why are you complaining? I made business for you guys." Agni asked.
"YOU'RE THE REASON NEDE CAME!" They yelled.
Agni didn't look bothered. "How? It's not like I told him to take over."
Yuuna paled. "We're dead."
Giving a heavy sigh, Pompen stepped forward. "Knock it off you two."
"But Boss..."
"He had no way of knowing how his actions would affect our island. That being said..." Pompen turned around and bonked Agni on the head, the ship in the tip of her hair driving into his skull.
"OW!"
"You brat. Do you know how many good ships you destroyed!?"
"I don't know?! A lot?"
"Do you realize how work a shipwright puts into their ships? And you burn them down carelessly in seconds?" Pompen scolded.
"Then don't make them so burnable. OW!"
While Agni argued against his involvement in Helm island's misfortune, Valker suddenly weakly tugged at Yuuna and hissed. "Down!"
Reflexively, Yuuna allowed for his weight to take her to ground, letting a bullet whizz over their heads. Leaving Valker face down in the dirt, Yuuna quickly jumped back to her feet.
Swaying on her feet but holding her gun dangerously steady was Captain Evelyn.
Rufus growled. "It's the captain."
"Crap, we're all headed for the Garden." Felix muttered.
"Valker, do something." Yuuna said, shaking him.
"I haven't fully recovered," Valker grumbled, unable to move.
"Did you think I would let you pirates get away!?" Evelyn shrieked. "Get up men and arrest them!"
The shipwrights and pirates didn't dare move while the marines started to slowly recover.
Evelyn kept her gun trained at Valker and Yuuna. "I'm taking back my ship. I shudder to think of my baby in your hands!"
"Who's she?" Mary asked.
"Who am I? WHO AM I! I'm Marine Base Captain Evelyn! This is my sector! And I have had enough of wannabe pirates run amuck!" Evelyn yelled.
Anger rippled in Mary's expression as electric sparks flickered from her hand. "You're the one who let that snake Nede do whatever he wanted to our island. You'll pay!" Like a bolt of lightning, Mary dashed forward.
"Forbidden Fruit!" Evelyn fired her gun to shoot Mary but Hebi tied himself into a noose and caught her wrist, jerking her aim when she tried firing. Safe from the bullet, Mary pulled her arm back. Electricity crackled off her fist and the air hummed with energy.
"Electroooo PISTOL!" Mary announced, driving her fist into Evelyn's chest. Evelyn wheezed as she was once again sent flying – right into the ocean.
"Captain!" the marines shouted and fled the yard to save their captain, leaving the shipwrights and the awe-struck pirates behind.
Agni was the first to recover. "She's a sparky sparky sheep!"
"It sounded like electro." Valker said, his voice muffled by the dirt.
"Isn't electro a natural ability for minks?" Yuuna recalled.
Pompen shook her head fondly at Mary's attack while Rufus answered. "She is a sheep mink after all."
"…"
"…"
"…. You're not a Sheep human, you're a Sheep Sheep mink." Yuuna said.
Valker tilted his face out of the dirt to look at Mary. "That's not your hybrid form?"
Mary shook her head. "Nope, this is just how I look."
"Huh."
Agni grinned. "Cool."
Pompen clapped her hands. "Back to work! The sun will be setting soon and this ship needs to be ready to sail by tomorrow's first light!"
"Yes Boss!" Previous argument already forgotten, Rufus and Felix got right to work but Mary crouched down next to Valker.
"When the ship's ready, where will you go?" She asked.
"The Grandline."
Mary let out a quiet sound of awe.
"MARY!" Pompen yelled. "GET TO WORK!"
"Coming!" Mary called and turned to the pirates. "You guys can take it easy tonight. Tomorrow we'll show you a brand new ship ready to sail the Grandline!"
"Good." Valker spit a wad of grass away from his mouth. "Can someone get me up?"
-VP-
The pirates were given bunks for the night to rest up after the fighting and Pompen retrieved them early in the morning. The sun was peeking out from over the rocky bluffs, casting long shadows across the yard. Rufus and Felix were up on two tall frames on either side of the schooner, hold up a large white sheet to block their view of the ship.
"Did you guys work all night?" Agni yawned.
Pompen waved her hand, dismissively. "Don't be stupid. It wasn't like we had to overhaul the ship. We did a bit of touch up work after we were done with the repairs—"
"You don't want to hear the boring stuff!" Mary cut in, posing right in front of the sheets. "May I reintroduce you to your ship to sail the Grandline, the Marina!"
Felix and Rufus dropped the sheet.
The sunbeams landed on the ship making it the prominent prize of the pirates' attention with the contrasting shadows. The most notable difference to the schooner was the white wooden figure of a friendly but dumb looking seagull at the front. The repairs had been smoothly integrated into the original ship, there was no way to tell what had been replaced. The new mast sported pure white sails instead of Evelyn's. The green and blue spots along the hull had been painted over to a light navy. The "e" in the white lettering that originally spelled "Marine" on the side had been painted over and repainted as an "a."
"Marina?" Yuuna laughed a little.
"It looks like a marine ship but not at the same time," Agni acknowledged.
"What does the captain say, up to your standards?" Pompen asked.
Valker eyes roamed the ship from the black eyes of the seagull head to where "Marina" was painted. "It's satisfactory. Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, brat. We still got to discuss payment."
"We can't pay and as pirates it would be fitting for us to run away."
Pompen barked out a laugh. "I appreciate you're honesty but hard work deserves reward."
Mary jumped on Pompen, nearly toppling the woman over. "I'll handle the deal! For payment of working on Marina, you have to take me with you to the Grandline." Mary held out her hand with a nonchalant smile.
Pompen's mind momentarily halted when she heard this, "Eh?"
Felix and Rufus's mouths dropped open.
Before Pompen could recover, Valker grasped Mary's hand and shook. "Deal."
Sweating, Felix and Rufus looked at their boss, her whole body shook as rage boiled in her.
"RAWWW!" She yelled, flexing shredded her sleeves and the ship in her hair went flying several feet when her top blew. "WHAT KIND OF DEAL IS THAT?!"
"We shook on it, no take backs!" Mary said, quickly, missing a swipe from Pompen's muscly arms.
"THAT DEAL'S COMPLETELY ONE SIDED!" Pompen shouted, lifting a log up and chucking at Mary. Mary transformed into her sheep form, her wool absorbed the attack and log rolled harmless back into a pile. "AFTER ALL I DID FOR YOU! TOOK YOU IN! CLOTHED YOU! FED YOU! TAUGHT YOU! AND YOU GO RUNNING OFF TO THE SEA?!"
"And you can't stop me!" Mary yelled.
"WHERE'S THIS DETERMINATION WHEN YOU NEED TO WORK!" Pompen shouted back.
Mary transformed back and grabbed a bag from behind some crates. "Look at the time! Better go or we'll miss high tide! Bye Rufus! Bye Felix! Take care of the shipyard."
Rufus and Felix gave a dumbfounded wave.
"YOU PLANNED THIS!? THE MARY I RAISED WOULD DIVE HEAD FIRST OFF A CLIFF BEFORE THINKING IF JUMPING MIGHT BE DANGEROUS!"
Mary jumped onto the Marina's deck where the pirates had retreated to as soon as the fight broke out. "All ready!"
"Good to see you've prepared." Valker acknowledged, purposefully giving their gunner a sideways glance who grumbled irritable under her breath. "Agni set sail. I'd rather not let the shipwrights sink our ship."
"Don't worry," Mary assured as Yuuna and Hebi unfurled the sail and the ship began to sail away from the shore where Pompen continued to rant. Mary propped her elbows on the railing and gazed happily at the shipyard. "She's just going to miss me."
"She looks angry." Valker said, bluntly.
Mary snickered. "Yeah, but that's because Pompom's a tree on the outside but she's all squishy on the inside."
Valker was more confused by Mary's explanation but figured that was the best one he was going to get out of her. He left her at the railing.
Back at shore, Pompen's shoulders heaved as she huffed out hot air. She had forgotten that this day could come.
.
.
.
"Scram, brat! This is my turf!"
The small child, dressed in a ratty, yellow, rain jacket gazed vacantly at her with round, black eyes. Pompen found this child strange. The child didn't react to her yelling, usually it scared the brats who came to scavenge material from her turf when they thought she wouldn't notice.
Water dripped off the child's coat despite there being no storms for several days. She was tiny thing with only a small wooden hammer, Pompen would punt her right into the ocean if the brat thought she could scavenge here.
"Did you hear me!? Get lost." Pompen reiterated.
The girl looked at her curiously, ears twitching. Pompen wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with the child, there was an unusual aura about her.
The girl slowly blinked.
Pompen eyed the jagged scar encircling her neck. "Can you speak?"
Blink.
"…" Pompen sighed, rummaging through her satchel and pulled out her lunch. "Are you hungry?"
Drool drippled down the child's lips at the sight of the sandwich. Leaping over the rocks and broken ships, the child snatched the sandwich from Pompen's hands and scarfed it down.
Seeing that the child could move fine, Pompen figured she would find her way home and went on her way to collect wood.
Pompen paused, realizing she had gained a shadow.
"Shoo," she told the child.
The child stared at her.
Rolling her eyes, Pompen carried on, collecting wood and other supplies. The child remained nearby. At one point, Pompen wondered if the child was trying to use her to scavenge valuables but all the child did was stare at the broke ships with a sad look in her otherwise soulless eyes.
On the return trip to home, the cart wheel broke off. Pompen cursed her bad luck as she went to get her tools, but when she returned with the spare wheel from the back of the cart, the child was fixing a wheel cobbled together from the surrounding scraps to the cart. Pompen admired the quality and efficiency of the child's craftsmanship.
She turned to the child. "What's your name?" The child thought for a moment, placing her hand over her heart. Pompen could see her face turn pink as she held her breath. "Brat?"
"Mary!" the girl gasped out. "I'm Mary!" there was conviction and pride behind that statement followed by a wide and brilliant smile.
"Are you from around here?"
"… I don't think I'm from anywhere." Mary said, sincerely.
"Everyone's from somewhere."
"But I don't know where I'm from." There was a firm frown of confusion on the girl's face. Then she pointed towards the rolling waves. "There."
"The sea? How'd you get here?" Pompen asked.
Her ears drooped. "I don't know."
"Where are your parents?"
The child tilted her head in confusion. "Parents?"
Pompen frowned. "Do you remember anything?"
Mary gripped her little hammer tighter. "My name is Mary."
Pompen sighed, what her luck to find kid who didn't even know who she was but Pompen couldn't deny she had some excellent carpentry skills.
A low growl came from the girl's stomach.
"I'm hungry," Mary whined. "Neh? Do you got any more food?"
Pompen straightened herself out and said firmly. "I feed those who work."
And so this hungry mouth joined Pompen's table. Pompen suspected the girl was a castaway. The raincoat was crusty from being soaked in sea water for a long time and Pompen felt little ribs poking under Mary's matted wool. Pompen couldn't explain Mary's lack of memory. Ships often crashed against Shipwreck's Bluff, abandoned or occupied, Mary could have hit her head.
As a responsible shipwright who salvaged from the bluff, Pompen asked around town about recent shipwrecks and pirate attacks. Unfortunately, the lead went cold and Pompen had no clues to the little lost girl occupying her bed.
It didn't matter how Mary ended up on Helm Island, no one came looking for her. Whether her guardians in her life died at sea or they didn't care, Mary was alone. When Pompen broke the news, Mary took it well.
"Don't you want to know?" Pompen asked.
Mary had been quietly gazing out window to watch the tide recede, exposing the wooden debris along the coast. "No. Why would I?"
"You forgot family, friends, your favorite foods, your hobbies, your dreams..."
"If they were important, I'll remember them."
"That's not how amnesia works, brat."
"I remembered my name. That's important." A happy smile curled up her face. "I'll make new family and friends. I'll learn what I like and don't like. I'll find a dream too and live how I want."
"What do you want?"
"... I don't know."
Pompen chuckled. "I supposed you have to know yourself before you know what you want."
"Can I stay here?" The question was so innocent but Mary looked at Pompen with her big round eyes, almost pleading.
"Like I said, work hard and you have a warm bed and meal."
"Kay!"
Mary was a good addition to the shipyard. She had a lot of natural skills to build ships, even if she pretended to talk to them. There were a lot of other peculiarities Pompen learned about the girl. Mary only knew about building ships and sailing, everything else Mary was basically experiencing for the first time. Pompen didn't know what to make of her when she took the girl to town to replace the rags she wore.
"What is that?!" Mary gasped in excitement as she ran up to her newest fixation.
"That is a tree." Pompen said, tiredly. "A tree is where we get wood to build ships." Mary awed hearing this. "Have you never heard of a tree?"
Mary shook her head viciously. She jumped and grabbed on to a branch. "It's so rough! And green!"
Pompen shook her head and let Mary experience trees for the first time before grabbing her by the horn and carried her to town with the girl protesting the entire way. It was only after shopping when Mary was allowed the run wild in the forest. Little did Pompen know how inconsolable Mary would be when autumn came and the trees started "dying."
Time passed quickly, Pompen found her bringing in more strays, Rufus and Felix, two jobless, skill-less louts that looked like they hadn't eaten a good meal in awhile. They were happy to pick up Pompen's trade and their team grew.
Nearly a year passed of Mary happily living at the shipyard, helping build commissions and learning new skills. There were still many occasions of Mary spacing out but talking to ships wasn't always the reason. Pompen often found Mary staring out at the sea with a look of longing. Her obsession had started when she learned what the wide blue horizon was.
"Are you interested in the sea?" Pompen asked one night they were whittling wood to practice finesse. Mary had been staring out into the pitch blackness, probably hoping to get some glimpse of the rolling waves.
Mary nodded and said with a bit of reverie. "Yeah."
"When you're older, you can go out and explore the sea to your hearts content."
"No," Mary said, thoughtfully. Pompen hummed, realizing this would become the question game.
"Why not?"
"I need to wait."
"Wait for what?"
"Just wait….."
Pompen eyed the girl carefully. "You can't just wait around hoping you'll get what you want, you need to work for it."
"But I have to wait."
"For who?"
"For my crew." Mary looked at her caretaker and smiled brightly. "I want to sail the seas and have amazing adventures with my crew!"
Pompen refused to smile despite the utter adorableness of that sentiment. "How will you know when those 'they' come?"
"I'll know," said Mary assuredly.
"How?"
Mary shrugged. "I'll just know."
"Like how you know ships?"
"Yeah, like that -Ow!" Mary yanked her ear out of Pompen's reach.
The woman just went back to whittling. "Keep that head on your shoulders. Don't want it drifting off into the clouds."
Mary wasn't a patient child but when it came to waiting for the "right crew," she was oddly resilient. Pompen wasn't sure what to make of it but wrote it off of just being one of Mary's odd fancies.
.
.
.
Mary occasionally talked about sailing off into the seas to find adventure but she never acted upon it so Pompen assumed that it was just one of her strange obsessions.
It felt surreal that Mary, a hopelessly clueless, amnesiac child that followed her home would ever leave. In retrospect, as Mary sailed away from their little island, it was inevitable. How much trouble did that girl's exploratory tendencies caused chaos to break out on the island? Far too many. The island was too small for such an adventurous soul. Mary came to this island by the waves of the East Blue, it was only fitting for her go back to rejoin them.
"POMPOM!" Mary yelled out over the ocean waves. "I'M FOLLOWING MY DREAM!"
Pompen pressed her lips tightly together and stoically watched the schooner sail away as fat tears poured down her cheeks. Rufus and Felix came to stand respectfully stand behind her as their junior sailed off.
"YOU AIRHEAD!" Pompen shouted right back. "DON'T GO FORGETTING US!"
Mary smiled widely, hand coming to rest over her chest. "CAN'T FORGET WHAT'S IN MY HEART!"
The tears gushed from Pompen's eyes.
Yuuna approached Mary after the island disappeared over the horizon. "How are you holding up?"
"Never better," Mary stretched. "I'm finally done waiting. It was so hard." She whined. "But now I never have to wait again!"
Yuuna frowned. "I'm confused, you were waiting for us?"
"I was waiting for a crew to sail around the world and go on fun adventures." Mary explained.
Yuuna smiled. "I can appreciate that. I want to become a great pirate like my dad and go on just as crazy adventures as he did."
"Then what are we waiting for! Grandline, here we come!" Mary cheered.
"Shouting about it won't make the ship sail any faster." Valker pointed out from the deck above them.
"I believe in Marina! She'll get us there in no time at all!" Mary stated confidently. "Let's go Marina! Show them what you got!"
"You sure know how to pick'em," Agni commented as Mary continued to praise the ship to encourage it to go faster. Yuuna peered up to where the men were conversing with interest.
"I need a strong crew to take on the Grandline," Valker stated.
Yuuna absentmindedly juggled her remaining bullets in her hand and slunk off into the schooner's hull.
-VP-
A day away, the Navy battleships returned to the base with the marines licking their wounds. Evelyn limped into her office, slamming the door behind her. She went straight for the den-den mushi with several posters clenched in her fist.
"If that dirty, conniving, snaking-wearing pirate thinks he can get the last say, he has another thing coming for him." Evelyn was about to snatch up the den-den mushi when it rang. "WHAT!?"
"Is this Captain Evelyn?" The voice asked on the other side.
"Who else would it be?! Now if you're done wasting my time I have new bounties to issue." Captain snapped, slamming the papers onto her desk.
The door opened behind her and Evelyn rounded on the poor soul who entered. "Who do you think you are coming in unannounced!?"
The marine was unperturbed by the outburst. "Marine Base Captain Evelyn, I was waiting for you to come back from your… excursion."
Evelyn took in the marine's captain's cloak that draped over his shoulders. "And who might you be? A transfer?"
"I was dispatched here to interview you about reported cases of misconduct. But sine you were away, I investigate the allegations and stumbled upon documents detailing illegal transportation of prisoners. The prisons should have gone to East Blue Penitentiary but instead they went to Helm Island." The marine held up a packet of paper. "I called in a favor from a buddy of mine to investigate and whadda'ya know, the prisoners were being used a laborers under Boss Nede, leader of an East Blue crime family who supposedly died in a sting you led years ago."
Evelyn wasn't about to back down. "You have no authority to make such accusations!"
"I do." The marine held up a gold plated badge. "I'm Marine Captain Walter of the Mad Dog Investigation Force. My crew is an independent unit tasked with investigating corruption within the Navy."
"I thought the Investigation Force belonged in the Grandline?"
"Crime has no jurisdiction and neither does my crew." Walter countered. Evelyn stepped back again when marines appeared on either side of Walter as the man stated. "Evelyn, you're under arrest for corruption and conspiring with criminals."
"NO! Impossible!" Evelyn screamed as the two marines grabbed her and dragged her out of the room in cuffs, leaving Walter alone.
The marine walked over to the desk and picked up the receiver. "Walter here."
"I was a little worried when Evelyn picked up." the marine on the other side of the den-den mushi admitted.
Walter laughed. "Sorry about that. She slipped through my men when she arrived."
"You were playing with Cloud. Weren't you?"
Walker chuckled. "Guilty."
"No worries, as long as she is in custody. You should see this damn garden, it's horrific what Nede's done to this island."
"How are the victims?"
"A little roughed up but the local villagers already freed and treated them when we arrived. After everyone's condition is stable, I'll transport them back to base and I'll sort out who was falsely accused and who actually needs to go to jail."
"You're a saint."
"Here's the weird thing, apparently some pirates were here and destroyed Nede's operation before we even arrived. The villagers recognized one as Burning Crackerjack running around so the Burning Pirates must have resurfaced."
"That's not their typical M.O. The Burning Pirates tend to antagonize marines not crime bosses that take over islands."
"Yeah, but Nede was backed by Evelyn so basically a marine operation."
"Mmm, even with Crackerjack was there..." Walter's hand ghosted over the stack of papers Evelyn had put down. "My nose tells me he's not the mastermind."
"Your nose is hardly ever wrong." The other marine conceded. "Do what you do best and hunt down the pirates, I'll handle there rest of this case."
"Thanks." Hanging up the receiver, Walter turned his full attentions the photographs laid out. First was a photograph of Valker with "Viper" written across his face. "He does look like marine gone rogue." Walter acknowledged and then picked up the photograph of Yuuna. The sound of polished dress shoes clacking against wood alerted the marine to a newcomer at the door. "Your sister's gotten herself mixed up with a rough crowd."
Naim entered the room and took the photograph from Walter. "Yuuna…"
"Good thing we got Evelyn before she issued these. Her life would be completely changed if she had a bounty," said Walter.
Naim quietly clenched the photograph. "I have to get her back."
Walter put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you called me instead of going after them alone."
"Yeah," Naim replied weakly.
"Buck up, man." Walter encouraged, nudging the other man with his fist. "We're on their trail and I know where they're heading next."
To Be Continued
CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT
"Green Snake"
Name: Nede
Species: Human
Occupation: Crime Boss
Description: Sharp features, square chin, slicked back chartreuse-colored hair, high cheek bones, Nede has the eyes of a snake. He wears a matching navy track suit and a white tank top.
Personality: A cunning business man and has a keen eye for recognizing opportunities to exploit society. He's willing to make deals with the devil if he is able to turn a profit which leads to him cutting a mutually beneficial deal with Captain Evelyn.
Devil Fruit: Long-Long Fruit
Fruit Description: Nede has the power of the Long-Long Devil Fruit, making him and elongated man. He has the ability to stretch any part of his body.
Techniques:
1. Long-Long Corkscrew - Nede coils an arm tightly and then unleashes a powerful punch capable of punching through stone
2. Long-Long Spider Net - Criss-crossing his fingers, Nede is able to make a net to capture opponent (Good at managing the Garden's prisoners)
surferoftheweb/art/CH-7-Character-Spotlight-Nede-933934105