Chapter 2

Quick Author's Note: This was started weeks before it's slotted time when the winner of the poll became clear in order to get through the 'training montage' faster. Please do NOT expect such lengths again since this will be an episode-based story.

Story Start: East Blue

As I was getting depressingly used to, as soon as the darkness came it left, leaving me staggering a little from the startling shift of scenery. That staggering led to me losing my balance completely and I fell onto the ground with an 'Oomph!' of expelled air. It took me a moment to get my senses back in order but when they did, the first thing I noticed was that I was currently sitting haphazardly on sand. Getting back onto my feet, I looked around and saw nothing but ocean in front of me, a stretch of beach that seemed to bend inwards about a mile out to the left, stereotypical island forest behind me and a beach that ended at the bottom of a set of two-hundred-foot-high cliffs on the right. Also to my right about ten feet away in stark contrast with the natural scene was a five foot tall pallet of duck tape wrapped in Seram wrap, the same kind of knife Special Agent Gibbs from NCIS uses sitting on top keeping a sealed letter envelope from flying away in the strong breeze. Seeing the not quite expected sight, I let out a sigh of relief.

The next sense I took closer notice of was my hearing. The pounding of waves hitting the shore was obvious, as was the howling wind that swept past, occasionally the stronger gusts picking up minute bits of sand in mini tornados. From behind were the sounds of local birds calling and if I strained my hearing then I could just barely pick up the movement of land bound animals moving through the undergrowth.

Scent was next, and while I would be the first to acknowledge that my sense of smell was usually rather terrible, I'd have had to have had no nose whatsoever to not smell the scent of the ocean in front of me or sheer scent of wild in the forests behind me. There wasn't a single hint of any of the industrialization that I had learned to ignore over the decades of living in human habituated locations. Honestly, it was a little startling to not even catch a trace of car exhaust, human scent coverers, or even bug spray or sunscreen.

Taking a minute to absorb all that, I then walked over to the pallet of tape and picked up the knife and letter. The envelope had no writing on it and I frowned at that fact before flicking open the knife and opened the top. Pulling it out I read:

Welcome to East Blue Mate: As promised, here's your knife and pallet of tape, I'm sure you'll put both to good use. Now, I know I told you that you'd probably do great as an action figure but I'm feeling a bit like watching some Man Vs Wild. (I felt the beginnings of unease fill me at those words.) You are also going to need time to properly learn how to use your Devil Fruit on a location that doesn't have salt water less than twenty feet away from you on all sides. Therefore, I've inserted you at a point where it will be six months before the Straw Hats run into you. (I swear every drop of blood shot from my head down to my toes at that.) Before you panic though, know that you do have an out if it gets too much for you. Simply carve Time Skip into a tree with that knife and I will 'fast forward' you to the day before the Straw Hat Pirates show up. However, I'm not a needlessly cruel being so on top of the chance to train I'm going to give you an incentive to go the whole half year: If you manage to go three months then I'll give you back your 3DS XL with the same modifications as your iPhone. (I blinked three times at that before I got a determined look in my eyes. Besides said phone that 3DS XL was my ONLY gaming system.) Manage to go the full six months and I'll give you an actual Invisibility Cloak from the Harry Potter franchise. (THAT had my eyes going temporarily bug eyed before metaphorically alighting with flames of determination. A Cloth-Cloth man with access to an INVISIBILITY CLOAK?! I could make entire armies disappear from sight if I got good enough!) One more thing, as a final gift/chance for you NOT to die an ignoble death, I've hidden a bullet proof vest on this island that you will have to find. I will say that it is neither buried or in water but beyond that you're on your own, happy hunting, and try not to make the upcoming weeks too boring, won't yah?

There was no signature at the bottom, not that I expected one. I folded it up and put it back into the envelope. Putting it back on top of the pallet and absentmindedly putting the knife on top of it in order to keep it from blowing away, my eyes flicked from side to side as my mind drove down a metaphorical highway at about a hundred miles per hour. The 3DS and Invisibility Cloak meant that I was going to do my damn hardest to make it through the six months, no question about that at all. The problem was how to properly use my large but still finite supply of duck tape to make it work.

Thanks to the Mythbusters duck tape island special, I had a pretty rough draft of what to do. I could skip making the SOS sign since I actually KNEW someone would find me even if it would be half a year until then. Of course, given that this was a world where the primary method of travel was by sea I couldn't discount others possibly showing up between then and now. Hm, would have to be sure to look for good places to hide in that case, wouldn't do for some well meaning Samaritan Marine to drag me from the island and thus make me miss my meeting with the Straw Hats. I shook my head and shelved that thought for later and instead got back to more immediately important things. I needed food and water, the latter more than the former. And while I would have to wait to explore before I knew what I had to work with food wise, (Thank God I was a boy scout until I turned sixteen!) I could make a start on the water portion now. Besides, I needed to get the duck tape out of the sun soon or it could all get ruined.

It was at that point that I finally realized I still had on my capable of keeping me warm in below freezing temperatures Carheart jacket and it was rather WARM outside. Quickly shedding it, I moved the devil fruit from the outside pocket to the inside pocket (I was NOT going to eat that thing until I had AT LEAST a quart of water to drown out the taste, YUK!) and put it on top of the stack of tape before I began carefully unwrapping the tape. Once the wrapping was off (and not a single tear to boot!) I brought the long strand of clear plastic and a couple rolls of tape over to the nearby forest where I could use some of the trees as a quick workstation. A quick estimate of length done by walking along the strand and then a few quick calculations done on the Calculator app of my phone had me quickly making a duck tape net that would get the most out of the Seram Wrap.

Top of my future Solar Still done, I made a nice big Gallon sized bucket out of duck tape, complete with carrying handles, and then went back towards the water. I made sure I knew where the waves stopped and then went back another twelve feet before I started digging. Once I reached a depth where there was water in the bottom I put my collection bucket in the middle before putting the wrap cover on top, being sure to have it dip rather than be taut, something helped by the small bit of sand I put in the middle, and used a couple of collected rocks and broken sticks to keep it in place, through tabs of tape I had thoughtfully added as an afterthought rather than the valuable plastic.

Long term water acquisition taken care of, (two hours of operation wouldn't even give me a full cup, but the solar still required no further input from me to work making it good for long term use) I began moving all of the tape AND the wooden pallet underneath to underneath the nearby trees. Unfortunately, despite my thoughts that my dubious benefactor may have been childish enough to hide the Bullet Proof Vest under the pallet that I would have probably not found until about five months in if I hadn't remembered all of the times I found ruined tape in the garage, the Vest was not in fact that easy to find. I didn't dwell on that long though, instead moving onto rope, wrapping the beginning of a roll of tape around the thinnest tree I could find before I began slowly but steadily twisting it as I unrolled the rest of the twenty five feet roll. I did a second roll then stuck the still attached rolls into a stick before twisting the strands into a semi proper strand of rope. A little more tape wrapped around both ends and I had a tool that I could use both for exploration and pulling anything I needed.

With rope made, I used three more rolls of tape to make even more tightly wrapped strands of 'twine' that I would use to seed the island with snares as I went searching for fresh water. At least one of them should be able to net me some small critter to eat later. After that, I made three six litter canteens out of tape, watching the part of the Duck Tape Island episode where Adam did the same on my phone to double check that I did it properly.

With those tools made, I switched gears and made a quick shelter out of a large sheet of duck tape that I hung from the middle and secured the corners with strips of tape to tree trunks to protect me both from wind and rain and put a hammock directly underneath to keep me off the ground and hopefully the majority if not entirety of this island's bug population. I had even made a sleeve in the tent roof to keep the R.O.B.'s letter in. As a final touch, I made a tarp to put on the ground underneath so that way I could properly sit and put on my shoes.

Roughly five hours after my arrival onto the island and after all of the immediate preparations for my long stay that I could think of were made, I put my jacket back on, left unzipped of course, stuck my knife in its right pocket, gathered my three water canteens, my snare rope and 'exploration' rope, then grabbed ten more rolls of tape which I made a sling to hang off of and began walking along the forest line towards the cliffs I had seen before, leaving quarter width rings of tape around trees every thousand feet or so as trail markers.

It would be four hours past sunset before I came back to my little camp, the flashlight on my phone guiding me, three canteens filled with fresh water, and a two foot by six inch basket full of nuts and berries I had used my former Boy Scout experience to tentatively identify as safe to eat slung over my shoulder by a long strap that let it hang down like a computer bag would. Unfortunately, none of my snares had caught anything when I checked on them on the way back but that was alright since I was too tired to make a fire and wait for any meat to cook right now. Securing the food in a way that I was pretty sure would keep out the animals, I checked to make sure my Solar Still hadn't been torn at all and transferred the meager amount it had collected into another water container, this one with no less than five layers of tape making a five gallon drum which was secured to the thickest tree I could find. I also poured two of the canteens into it leaving the other one full for tomorrow's exploring expedition.

Long term water containment secured, and now feeling thoroughly exhausted from the long day, I made one last check of the area before I turned off my light, took off my shoes, and allowed myself to slump into my hammock bed with a tired groan of relief and used my jacket as a blanket. Making a note to myself to make some actual bedsheets tomorrow, I drifted off with fanciful thoughts of making an ultra-light out of duck tape and bamboo and using it to survey the island from the air. (It was a nice thought, even if I knew it wouldn't work.)

The next morning, I woke up and looked around in confusion for a moment before I remembered my current circumstances. I gave a jaw cracking yawn and carefully got out of my hammock before I did a quick bit of stretching that had my joints pleasurably popping. A little bit of water poured from the still full canteen to the face finished waking me up and I quickly checked to make sure no animal had made off with my food stash while I slept. The little claw marks at the top of the tape lid showed that something HAD tried but I smirked when it became obvious that four layers of tape had been enough to keep whatever it was out. Peeling off the sealing strip between lid and basket, I grabbed a few berries from their side of the basket (There was even a dividing wall of tape to keep them separate) and munched on them before I chose a couple of nuts to finish my breakfast. Resealing the basket, I took a few swallows of water before I turned back towards my bed and frowned.

On that bed and still in my jacket pocket was a fruit that could potentially make my stay here a hell of a lot easier. Unfortunately, it also meant that I would never be able to swim again, something which I rather liked being able to do. Of course, if I could manage to make a completely water tight swimsuit or even a frog suit that would be another matter but who knew how long that could get right in making, especially IF I couldn't do everything I was hoping the fruit would allow me to do. But then again, I couldn't exactly not eat the Fruit since as the marks on my nut and berry basket showed there were wild animals around that could take a shot at it. The thought of some critter getting amazing powers that they'd probably never even realize they had left a rather sour taste in my mouth. The only reason why whatever animal had been here hadn't gone for it was because it had been right next to me as I slept. Which meant that what I had to do was clear.

Giving a deep sigh, I said "OH, man, this is going to SUUUUCK!" I gave an anticipatory full body shiver at the horror I was about to experience before I stripped naked. There was no one around to see and the Fruit was one that dealt with cloth after all so I didn't want to accidently strangle myself or do other irreversible things with my clothes until I knew I had at least semi decent control over it. I then grabbed a handful of berries and put them by the water canteen before I took out the cursed Clementine Orange and morosely studied the spirals as I said "At least it's small enough to fit in my mouth all at once." Giving another shudder, I let out a small whimper before I closed my eyes and stuffed the whole thing into my mouth, peel and all.

My eyes immediately shot open at the taste that was indescribable beyond simply NASTY! I struggled to chew twice before I forced it down with a quick gulp of water before I grabbed the berries and rubbed them against my tongue for a solid minute trying to get the taste out before I desperately grabbed the canteen and quickly took a deep pull that I gargled for a solid minute. Spitting it out as far from me as I could, I took ten deep pulls from the canteen before I finally stopped drinking and panted for air.

Panting, I said "Oh sweet Primus and Unicron, that was absolutely RANK!" Giving another full body shudder at the remembered taste, I looked at my smeared hand and busied myself with washing it off in order to take my mind off of the ordeal I had just endured. Once that was done, I looked at my clothes then my bare skin and said "Well, guess I should see what I just signed up for.

(Time Skip)

A month later I was sitting on top of the cliffs near base camp trying to meditate. A week of rigorous testing had shown that 1.) I needed to be physically touching cloth to manipulate it but 2.) I could shoot off single strands of cloth like but not actually cloth materials from my fingers and toes like a warped version of Spiderman to latch onto far off cloths and manipulate them from a distance, though the strands were incredibly weak, easily breaking. 3.) Said strands could be easily augmented with extended cloth on my body making them much more durable which lead to 4.) I could add or subtract from a cloth's mass turning a simple shirt into something bigger than a galleon's sail or smaller than a glasses cleaning cloth. (Those were just how far I tested, who knew just HOW large or small I could get? 5.) I was capable of changing the properties of a cloth such as its coloration and even a bit of its makeup, if only into something I was already familiar with. (More training needed to change cloth into more fantasy or sci-fi related material?) 6.) It was possible for me to create cloth rope strong enough to hold my weight and tie its end around something without touching said end, as shown by how I could now swing through the tree tops like Tarzan using them, AND retract said ropes as I moved.

That knowledge was pretty damn good for a start and the next week had been spent on training speed. I got the cloth I was manipulating to be as fast as a viper but making more or less of it was still a work in progress. After two weeks though I temporarily put my new abilities aside to instead work on something that was going to be much more time intensive: Trying to train Haki.

More specifically, I was trying to train Observation Haki. Having Armament Haki imbuing cloth weaponry would be Grade A badass but if someone managed to hit me either behind or with a lucky shot, GAME OVER. So, Observation first, then Armament. So far though, I had Zip, Nadda, Diddly Divided By Squat, a Hole Riddled Bucket. I blamed the fact that I couldn't stop twitching every once in a while breaking my concentration. As a particularly bad full body twitch went through me I opened my eyes with a deep sigh.

Only for them to widen as I saw a two mast ship with black dots near the top coming towards the island, roughly five miles out. Briefly thanking my lucky stars that not only was I NOT in the habit of making a fire unless absolutely needed, but that I tended to also keep every cloth I made colors that blended into the surrounding area, I quickly shot over to an anchored cloth zipline from the top of the cliff to the top of a tree right next to my cloth covered sleeping area, plenty of slack to make it so that I wouldn't reach the end at a fast speed and low enough that I could drop down without injury. There was even a big pile of folded cloth to serve as a landing softener underneath.

Quickly leaping off the cliff and making a cloth sling over the rope to guide my descent, something leagues more daring than my first highly tentative try at the zip line, I quickly rode down the line before releasing it near the end and landed in a crouch. Hopping off of it, I quickly slammed my hands into the ground and a cloth that was colored exactly like the forest came up from where it had been hidden and over the camp damn near perfectly camouflaging it in a way where you had to pretty much walk into the cloth to know that there was something there that shouldn't. A buried cloth dragged over the Solar Still sand and all also hid it and I used a cloth grapple hook to shoot up into a tree, the zip line quickly untying and shrinking to a small six inch strand of cloth that I yanked over and pocketed.

Any further action was going to have to wait until I could properly observe the arriving ship's crew. Black Pirate flags may mean they were coming peacefully, it was actually red that meant no quarter while white meant surrender, something that almost 'everyone' seemed to have gotten mixed up, but that could have been a trick to make anyone who saw the flag lower their guard. Speaking of the flag, when it got close enough I saw that the Jolly Roger had two saxophones on either side of the cross bones of all things. And not little alto saxes either, as a former player of said alto instrument I recognized those things as the giant great granddaddy of the sax family, Contrabass, AKA the Saxophone taller than its player at six feet four inches.

Blinking several times at the unusual Jolly Roger decoration, I took out my phone and zoomed its camera so that way I could get an early look at the crew. I may have been new to this world but even I knew that they wouldn't have such a monster of an instrument as part of their Jolly Roger without a damn good reason.

And they definitely had said reason, there were several different instrument cases strung across the deck of the ship, some right by the people on said deck, most of them underneath the rope ladders leading up to the deck, a quick bit of counting showed that the number of instruments matched the number of people up in the rope works. It seemed that the modern day equivalent of the Rumbar Pirates had shown up. (And why would I specifically know what a Pirate crew that sailed over fifty years ago was famous for? Clearly, I had learned about them somehow but that was before even ROGER's time so it couldn't have anything to do with the story line could it?)

Still, just because they were obviously music lovers did NOT mean that they weren't also a bunch of bloodthirsty cutthroat marauding psychopaths. So as the ship pulled in closer I did my best to try to determine if they'd try to kill me at first sight only for my jaw to drop as a man in a tricorn hat who was easily eleven feet tall came out of what I suspected was the captain's cabin and made his way over to the helm. It was one thing to intellectually know that the height charts of this place were out of whack compared to Earth's but seeing it the first time was still a shock. And on another note, I now knew why there was such a large saxophone on their Jolly Roger, the guy was so tall that the Contrabass seemingly clamped to his back looked more like a Baritone sax.

Apprehension filled what little remaining space I had had in my chest when I saw him and how he kept that instrument on his back like some swordsmen wore their swords and no obvious weapons on him. If that guy could actually use that thing as a weapon then I was in trouble. Giving a nervous swallow as the ship's anchor was dropped and long boats were dropped for landing parties, I sent out threads to connect with all of the cloths that I had buried around the beach over the last couple weeks in preparation for when I had hostile company.

The boarding parties quickly reached shore about five hundred feet from my camp and pulled their landing craft far enough out of the water that they wouldn't be washed back into the ocean but not so far that they weren't easily pushed back in either. It made me think that they were here for supply runs and would likely go back to the ship and back to land multiple times. I didn't have much time for guessing their future actions though because less than a minute after everyone was out, one of the crew members who had traveled along the beach called out "Captain! Someone's been here recently!"

Ice filled my veins as the Captain called back "How can you tell?"

"There are tracks here that are too fresh, couldn't be more than a day old!" The sailor called gesturing at said tracks.

"Scrap!" I cursed under my breath as the rest of the crew including the captain came to see what the sailor was talking about. In my panic, I had completely forgotten about dragging a cloth over the beach to if not eliminate tracks then at least smooth them out in order to make them seem older. Of all the idiotic and rookie mistakes to make! Already some of the crew were pulling out pistols and drawing swords. I had no choice, I had to act NOW!

Giving a large jerk on one of my strands a massive thousand foot by thousand foot cloth made out of the same material as my Carheart jacket erupted out of the sand in front of the crew and up in the air before it began falling like a domino over them. Several of the crew let out panicked shouts as it began falling but I saw the captain quickly pull his Saxophone off his back and let out a massive blast of air through it, the loud note it made making my ears ring forcing me to clap my hands over them even as I stared in wide eyed horror as the massive sheet was blasted away by the sound and thrown out over the forest to land somewhere that was probably at least half a mile away.

"Oh, damn." I breathed to myself as ALL of the crew drew weapons and began looking for their attacker. Moving further back into the tree to avoid being seen, I listened as several of the crew called out for me to show myself, some of them adding insults along the lines of me being a coward and weak for good measure. A minute though, I got a major shock as the captain called out "Everyone put away your weapons!"

"Captain?" Several voices echoed in confusion that was shared by me.

"That was clearly a defensive trap made to contain, not injure, and the trap maker waited until AFTER his or her tracks gave away their presence instead of triggering it as soon as we were on the beach. And we ARE pirates, so it's understandable that they would be wary if they didn't know if we were the loot pillage and kill types or the adventure above all else kind. Now put away your weapons so that our islander doesn't do anything else rash."

There was a pause for a moment before I heard said weapons being put away and I crept forward a bit to see them all without weapons in their hands, the captain included. He looked around the area and called out "You can come out now, I swear on our Jolley Roger that you will not be harmed in anyway if you show yourself."

I briefly pondered if a swear on a Pirate's flag actually held weight before I sighed and said to myself "Really wish I had found that bullet proof vest before now." I then rappelled down the tree and walked into sight, removing the cloth over the camp and pushing the cloth hiding the solar still away in a sign of warning.

The captain actually grinned at the sight and said "So, we have a man who made a deal with the devil with us."

"Captain?" One of the closer crew members said, his hand twitching towards his sword though he thankfully didn't touch it.

"This man here ate a Devil Fruit lads, meaning he traded being able to swim for an ability, my guess being something to do with fabrics given what we've seen." The Captain said as he walked towards me.

"The Cloth-Cloth fruit to be specific." I said watching him walk warily towards me.

That got the man to pause and look down at his clothes for a brief moment before looking back up with a grin and a cackle. Continuing to walk over, he said "A truly dangerous fruit indeed!" Finishing walking over, he held out his hand and said "Captain Saul Nathaniel of the Roaming Orchestra Pirates, 17 million bounty, at your service."

I hesitated for a moment before I took the offered hand and shook it as I said "Matthew Bandstra, call me either Matt or Tac."

"Then call me Nate, so tell me Matt, how'd an Anchor such as yourself wind up on an uninhabited island such as this?" Nathaniel asked while his crew began spreading out, several of them with empty barrels heading off in the direction that I knew lead to the nearest fresh water source.

"Well I wasn't an Anchor when I first arrived but when you're on your own you take every advantage you can." I said with a shrug.

"Too true mate." Nathaniel said before he turned to look at my camp before pointing at my small stack of duck tape and said "And it seems you were rather fortunate to wash up with supplies, I take it you were on a freighter before you wound up here?"

"Something like that." I said noncommittedly with a shrug.

Nathaniel turned to study me with shrewd eyes before he shrugged and said "You're hiding something Matt, but far be it from me to pry." Going from shrewd to jolly in an instant, he said "So, do you by any chance play an instrument?"

"Well I used to play a Clarinet then an Alto Saxophone but that's been years, just over a decade in fact." I said with a shrug of my own.

Nathaniel grinned and said "Well why don't we see if we can't knock some of the rust off and you can join us for the night eh?"

I paused for a moment before I gave another shrug and said "Sure, why not."

Nathaniel gave a hearty pat on the back that had me stagger a couple of feet forwards and he laughed as he said "That's the spirit!" The Captain then all but shanghaied me to his ship in his enthusiasm to get me an instrument, thankfully allowing me to stay on shore and instead make a cloth line to the ship from the shore so that the crew still on board could slide a Saxophone case down the line towards us.

That little display of my power had the crew asking me to make even more zip lines to the ship, two high, and two low, so that way they wouldn't have to constantly row the boats back and forward. The captain offering me his small three sectioned spy glass for payment had me doing so. (Small for his hands anyway, he had a much bigger five section that fit his hands better as well.) After that, the door to the metaphorical trading hall was opened and the bartering of services granted began.

In return for mending several torn articles of clothing I received a very good hand saw, a hatchet (with a whet stone included to keep it sharp), one magnesium and flint fire starter, a pack of sea lion jerky, ten bunches of bananas, and a gallon container of apple juice. I also traded the Stetson hat I had made out of duck tape a few weeks ago for one pirate's baseball cap, said pirate whopping like he got the lottery as he went away with me studying the black and blue hat with consideration.

When I changed said hat to a camo style and it got out that I could actually change the colors of any cloth I had a whole new line to work through, the pirates readily agreeing to ten beri per article changed. (I WAS going to need money when I finally got off the island after all.) The one thing I refused to touch was the pirates' underwear earning laughter from them as I used my threads to manipulate those.

Probably the best trade I did though was repairing some of the ship's torn sails that the sailing master had been working on repairing. The repairs were not only easy to do but it gave me a new type of cloth in my internal library of cloths, and a water proof one to boot!

When the rush of trading was finally finished Nathaniel managed to coax me into finally using the Saxophone he had loaned me and I opened the case to find an Alto with a proper cleaning kit and two reeds of each strength type. Choosing a number two reed, I quickly assembled the instrument before I did a few test scales. The squeaking that came from being out of practice made several of the pirates wince but I soon had the instrument mouth piece properly tuned and sounding like I was still in High School Band class earning cheers from the whole crew. The sax players among the crew sans captain then proceeded to somehow drag me off to their own little group huddle without actually touching me where stands, chairs, and sheet music were soon produced, the group having me play along with them. I spent the next five hours getting back into proper 'playing shape' with the group, the crew members occasionally giving me corrections or tips on how to play some of the trickier bits of music while the rest of the crew continued with their supply gathering duties.

That night, I got a personal look at why the Roaming Orchestra Pirates got their name. They put on quite the show for me, seemingly pulling out all of the stops as they played under the light of several torches stuck into the beach, a massive bon fire cheerfully blazing a safe distance away and I subtly used my phone to record the songs for later listening as they played.

The pirates wound up staying for two more days, the first one spent entirely on a bunch of cloth zip line and climbing courses they managed to talk me into making while during the second Captain Nate gave me a tour of his ship and an explanation of how to work the various sailing stations in exchange for thirty of my rolls of duck tape. The captain generously offered me a slot on his crew but I of course had to decline. Feeling much more comfortable around him than when he and his crew first showed up, I explained a small amount of my circumstances, but only that I was being challenged to make it six months on the island. That had a bit of respect showing in the captain's eyes and he gave me a harmonica with their Jolly Roger on it from his pocket, the smaller one of two he kept on him apparently, no questions asked. I tried to get him to at least let me trade for it but he was adamant so in the end I merely shrugged and thanked him for the gift.

The morning of the fourth day had the Roaming Orchestra Pirates scrabbling over their ship and I waved from the beach as they made way to their next destination. I watched until they were finally gone before I cracked my neck and knuckles before I said "Well, back to work I guess."

Time Skip: Two And A Half Months Into Survival Challenge

I let out a whoop of glee when I finally found the bullet proof vest. It was hanging from the top of a tree three quarters of the way around the island beach. I must have walked under it at least six times when I had been exploring the island and had only found it now because I was training my 'Spiderman web sling' traveling ability through the tree tops.

Eagerly slinging the vest on over my t shirt, I shifted the cloth color from matte black to a much less heat absorbing tan. Another flex of my power as a test gave me a full body suit of the materiel and I let out a cackle as I realized that the vest was the kind that used specially woven fibers rather than metal or ceramic plates to resist bullets. Returning the suit back into its vest configuration for now, I gave a quick fist pump before I went back to training. As I continued slinging from tree branch to tree branch I considered how far I had gotten in my training.

My cloth size manipulation speed had gotten much better. It was still much slower than my motion manipulation speed but now instead of a glacier it was more along the lines of an average man sprinting. And I could now actually create other clothing away from my body so long as I had two strands leaving my body rather than one, braided around each other worked better but they could make the first joiner away from me as well. I was still limited to using only what cloths I knew but damnit, I was close to figuring out how to go off of only imagination, I just knew it!

Haki was a bit better. I had finally gotten the extreme basics of Observation going entering the second week of my second month here and I now had a fifteen foot range of Observational Haki up most of the time as a multi task challenge. The amount of plant and animal life I picked up if I wasn't careful in registering what I was sensing was absolutely insane! Seriously, there should NOT be that much insect life inside of trees for Log's sake! It was fascinating on a scientific level if I focused on only one tree but downright terrifying if I allowed myself to think about what I knew the higher level pirates and Navy personnel were supposed to be capable of with this thing. The thought of being able to sense things over the god dammed ocean with all of its microbiological life and being able to pick up individual, and even SPECIFIC sentients on nearby or even far islands was a mind boggling display of information sorting.

Armament Haki was pretty interesting as well. I had started working on it three weeks ago and I was already making small amounts of progress. I could now make my finger and toe tips completely black which made training by cliff climbing an interesting and now much easier experience. (Didn't change the fact I kept a cloth harness and belay line on at all times though.) Much more useful in my mind was the fact that I could now put armament haki in my cloth constructs. True it was only the very end and ONLY when I had said tip near me before extending the cloth it was attached to. But the moment I ACTUALLY anchored a cloth through stone rather than 'anchoring' it by tied knot around a boulder I let out a whoop of excitement that startled the seagulls floating a hundred feet from shore below the cliffs.

I was brought out of my musings when I reached camp and blinked when I found an island chicken pecking at my nut/berry storage bin. Grinning at the bird, I shot a lasso of cloth out and cackled as it squawked in surprise when the loop of cloth secured itself around its neck. Pulling the struggling bird over while wrapping a few more bits of cloth around its wings, I grinned and said "Hello, dinner." I was going to be eating good tonight!

Time Skip: Four Months In

There was a rather large storm going on outside of my camp site making me glad that I had gotten the chance to add water proof cloth to my repertoire as buckets of water poured off of the large tent I had made. A sudden feeling of danger had me looking up from my game of Galaga on my reclaimed 3DS XL and I frowned as I turned it off and moved to the entrance of the tent to look outside. Nothing seemed obvious on the beach so I took out my three section telescope and began scanning a wider area. Even with the lights on board it took me about ten minutes of constant searching before I finally spotted a ship in the stormy weather that was on approach. What I saw on that ship had me paling as I muttered "Ah, hell!"

The ship was still too far out for me to get a good look at the Jolly Roger but what I saw was enough to tell me that I was in trouble: the flag was predominately RED. The crew must be particularly blood thirsty if they used that color as their standard flag color meaning it was highly unlikely I wouldn't have to fight them when they made landfall. The only things I had going for me was that the ship appeared to be a Caravel so I wasn't dealing with a very large crew and that it was extremely unlikely that they had spotted my camp since I didn't have anything that gave off enough light to reveal my presence on the island from so far away in this weather.

Quickly enacting my plans for when I needed to hide form visitors, (Plans that had allowed me to hide from two Marine ships as they passed the island on patrol) I quickly camouflaged the campsite before I went into the trees, my bullet proof vest turning into its suit configuration even as I once more looked through my telescope at the ship which was now close enough that I could both see its Jolly Roger and some of the actual crew.

The Jolly Roger had devil horns on the skull and the cross bones were a sword with blood drops on it crossed with a pistol that had a musket ball shooting out of the muzzle, complete with gas fire ball at the end between weapon and ammo. The crew seemed to consist of the type of bulky muscular men who mainly worked as Mafia enforcers, the man wearing the captain's hat the meanest looking of the bunch with no less than five flintlocks strapped to a bandoleer going across his chest and two cutlasses hanging from his belt, one on either side. Counting him, there were ten men on the ship that I could see, and as they got closer my much improved over the months Observation Haki confirmed that this was the entire crew, and each and every one of them radiating enough malice to make old Voldemort offer them a spot in his inner circle within the first minute of meeting them.

Seeing all of the flintlock pistols the crew carried I tsked to myself and said "At least all of this rain will keep those guns from working. Still, you'd think a crew that's as ready for violence as this one would have a counter for the rain…oh what the hell!?" I gripped the spying glass harder as one of the crew mates went into a cabin and came back with rifles that had cloth coverings over where the dry powder igniters were and began handing them out. Gritting my teeth, I hissed out "Murphy, you are such a god damned bastard!"

Growling to myself, I snapped the spying glass closed and said "Right, well no way I can just play hide and seek, there's too much gear at the camp now to move it all quick enough and these guys would definitely take it all if they found it. Looks like I'm going to have to just kick their collective asses and force them to leave."

Gritting my teeth in determination, I watched as the ship came closer to the beach before it dropped anchor no more than a hundred feet down the beach from my location in the trees and a landing skiff loaded with barrels was dropped from the port side, all but two of the crew members climbing a rope ladder down into it once it was in the water. The landing craft was a tight fit for the six men but they positioned themselves in a way that said that they were used to this as they rowed towards shore. The crew quickly beached their landing craft and the Captain shouted over the storm "Alright boys, you know the drill! Let's get the water then get out of this rain!"

"Aye Captain!" One of the sailors shouted back just as lightning flashed through the air.

I gave the sky an unimpressed look at its sense of theatrics before I glanced back down and watched as just like the Roaming Orchestra Pirates immediately began heading in the direction of the closest source of fresh water. Clearly my little island retreat was a popular resting stop for traveling pirates in this part of the East Blue if not one but two crews were already familiar with the local geography. I shook those thoughts from my head and watched as the group of five walked with the barrels on their backs until they walked over a specific spot and shot one of my threads out.

The next instant, a massive piece of cloth erupted out of the sand under the group quickly falling over them in a twisted mess and I grunted as I used my control over cloth to lift the writhing mess into the air before launching it towards the caravel. The body laden cloth slammed into its port side bow hard and I heard more than one yell of pain as I allowed gravity to take over and the cloth sank into the water.

Before I could wait to see if all of the bastards drowned or not as they tried to get out of my trap I yelped in surprised pain as a musket ball slammed into my torso making me loose my balance and fall out of the tree. A quick cloth grapple to a low branch stopped me from slamming into the ground too hard and I quickly rolled away and jumped behind another tree as my belatedly reactivated Observation Haki warned me and another bullet hit the ground right where I had been. (And why did I let it drop while that crew was still here!? IDIOT!)

"Come out devil worshipper! I'm going to enjoy gutting you for what ye did to me crew!" The captain shouted before firing a third shot that slammed into the tree I was hiding behind.

"Oh great, he even talks like a stereotypical pirate too." I muttered to myself before I spun around the tree and shot a strand at the Captain's shirt, jerking the right sleeve down which in turn forced his rifle up making his fourth shot fire up into the air. A second strand ripped his left leg up out of the sand and the captain went down with a curse even as I shot out of the tree cover towards him. I mostly ignored the musket fire from the two crewmembers on the ship, only dodging to the side when my Observation Haki said that one of them would have hit my right arm. As I ran the bullet proof cloth on my arm stretched out to the side and became rigid in the shape of an arm blade like the Pokemon Gallade and I yanked on my cloth strands jerking the captain through the air at me. I had the satisfaction of seeing the man's eyes widen before I side stepped and my cloth blade sliced into him and he let out a yell of surprised pain as he went flying past.

Unfortunately as the man landed I realized that while my cloth blade had dug into the man, it hadn't dug anywhere deep enough. He was quickly back on his feet and snarling as he pulled his two cutlasses out and snarled "So ye want to fight with blades you blasted Anchor? Well have at ye! Arrgh!" His running leap at me quickly ate the ten feet between us and as he came down with both cutlasses I hastily used Armament Haki to reinforce my arm blade and gripped my right arm with my left. The force of the impact of his blades onto my arm made me grunt and my left knee bent under the weight. Using the fact that both of his blades were temporarily busy and I was already on one knee, I quickly swept his legs out from under him before I continued my spin and slammed my Armament Haki infused left elbow into his diaphragm earning a satisfying pained whoosh of air from the bastard. But before I could either move to use my cloth blade on my right arm or make another blade on my left my Observation Haki sang out a warning and I rolled away from another musket ball that passed through where my heart had been.

Grappling back to the trees, I tsked to myself and said "Damn it, instincts are messing with my damn head. I should have let the bullet proof vest take that shot and killed the captain."

I didn't have much time to lament my lack of combat senses as the crew members that I had attempted to drown stormed up the beach towards their captain who was rather quickly getting up to his feet again. Tsking to myself as I allowed my cloth blade to go limp, I shot strands from each of my fingers except for my thumbs which connected to the running pirates' trouser legs. Quickly reinforcing the strands with cloth for extra insurance, I yanked my arms up and then thrusted them back down twice as fast. The result had the pirates being flung up to the air causing them to shout in surprise before they slammed back down onto the sandy beach and I saw all but two of them break both their legs on contact, the Captain who had managed to somehow roll with the landing and one unfortunate bastard who had tried to do the same and unfortunately wound up slicing into his legs with his cutlass. The injured pirates all howled in pain but the Captain ignored them as he rushed towards me with all of the inevitability of a train wreck.

Tsking to myself at the captain's apparent stupidity, I shot more strands at him only to jerk in surprise as he quickly cut the strands with his cutlasses and called out "That trick won't work twice on me ye damned demon worshipping bastard!"

He let out a triumphant yell as he got within five feet of me only to let out a grunt of surprised pain as a Haki embued cloth fist shot out and slammed into his stomach and stopped him cold. Scowling at the man, I drew the cloth back and turned the fist into a rope dart before I quickly shot the black tip at the top of his chest aiming for either the heart or lungs, I was beyond caring which at this point. The captain managed to block the dart with a desperate swing of his right cutlass and staggered a step back only to let out a curse as I connected with a cloth trap directly underneath him that threw him back down the beach hard enough to land in the water beside the landing boat. Yanking the rest of the giant cloth out in an explosion of sand, I crumpled the thousand foot wide cloth into a giant ball and made a complete four step bowling motion.

The giant boulder of cloth rapidly rolled down the beach and pancaked the injured pirates who all let out panicked yells before falling silent as the ball steamrolled them leaving battered and bruised bodies behind as it continued on its route towards the captain. I had the pleasure of hearing the man curse as he quickly sprinted out of the way but then I yanked my arm to the side and the ball jumped sideways and slammed into him with all of the subtlety of a wrecking ball flinging the flailing and yelling man a good hundred feet down the beach before the ball shot up into the air and slammed down onto the bastard crushing him between the wet sand and the mass of cloth. Yanking the cloth back towards me and making it hover flat in the air in front of the trees, I narrowed my eyes as I tried to see if any of the men on the beach were going to be getting up anytime soon.

When it was clear that none of them were, I shouted to the two men still on the ship "Get your asses over here and get them out of my sight before I decide to put them all out of their misery!" Two splashes and the sight of the men rapidly swimming to shore was my answer and I watched as they quickly hauled everyone back to the landing craft and quickly rowed away. I kept watching as they got the injured back onto the ship and quickly brought the landing craft on board as well before they scrabbled to pull up the boat's anchor and laboriously work to get the caravel back out to sea.

I waited until they were out of sight in the stormy waters before sagging with an explosive sigh and ran a hand through sopping wet hair and said "God I'm glad I had my Devil Fruit and bullet proof vest. Those guys would have carved me up like a turkey or put enough holes in me to imitate swiss cheese if I didn't." Looking up at the floating cloth, I began pushing it back under the sand even as another strand shot out to collect the other large piece of cloth that the waves had started to wash ashore as I continued "Good thing I've seeded this entire beach with cloth traps, that captain was pretty good for being in the Weakest Sea." Shaking my head with a morose sigh, I said "Or maybe I'm just that bad." Giving an explosive sigh this time, I gave one last shake of my head and said "Well they're gone now so nothing to do for it but to keep training."

Once I had finished hiding the two cloth traps I went back to my camp to drip dry my soaking wet clothes then went back to my 3DS XL. Training would have to wait until after the storm currently still going strong outside passed.

Time Skip: Five And A Half Months Into Training

I was just putting the collection bucket back under my solar still when I heard what sounded suspiciously like a lighthouse's fog horn coming from the ocean. Snapping my head up, I scanned the ocean before I squinted my eyes when I spotted a dot in the distance. Quickly heading to camp, I grabbed my spy glass before I sprinted back to shore and pulled it open and looked towards the distance. A few minutes later when I could finally make out details of the approaching ship I let out a rather large grin as I saw a familiar two masted ship, the Jolly Roger becoming clear four minutes later only confirming my knowledge. It looked like the Roaming Orchestra Pirates were coming back for a visit. Going by how Captain Nathaniel was standing on the bow and blew into his Saxophone making the fog horn sound again they were being 'polite guests' and 'calling in' first. Seeing the pirate with his own spy glass standing by the captain and looking towards the beach, I gave a wide sweeping wave of my free arm and saw the man say something to Nate who nodded with a grin as he put his Contrabass Sax back into place on his back and crossed his arms.

When the ship was finally close enough that its crew dropped anchor I quickly made a pair of zip lines down to the beach and Nate was one of the first down. Giving me a grin, he walked over and eagerly pulled me into a hug as he said "Matt! Good to see you still alive!"

I let out a 'oomph' as he made a good try at crushing my ribs with pure arm strength before he thankfully released me a moment later without prompt and I grinned up at him and said "Captain, it's good to see you again. I've got to be honest though, I didn't expect to see you again, at least not on this island."

Nate chuckled and said "Aye, I don't blame you. But I thought it would only be polite to check on you before we headed out to the Grand Line."

My eyes widened and I said "You're actually going into that mad house?" I didn't doubt the crew's abilities per se, it was just that they hadn't given a single hint that they were going to change oceans, especially not to that pirate graveyard.

Nate nodded with a hum and said "Hm, indeed, we've been in East Blue for the last five years, and the North Blue for five years before that. It's time we moved on again so we're heading for our next ocean."

"I see. You guys have a Log Post yet?" I asked a rather sensible question in my mind.

"Hah! Of course we do, ten of them in fact! We bought them the last time we were in Logue Town and we're probably going to use all of them too given how crazy even Paradise is supposed to be compared to the Blues. It'll be a wacky five years before we make a try at the New World but fun nonetheless." Nate said with a grin that wouldn't be out of place on the face of a stunt pilot before the biggest air show of the year.

I gave a nod at that. From the world history and geography part of my memories that I was allowed to keep it most likely would be a 'wacky' bunch of years for the crew.

I was drawn from those thoughts though when Nate's grin went from slightly demented to more eager as he said "What about you? Did you get anymore visitors while we were gone or have you just been stuck lounging around in your hammock all day?"

I snorted and said "I have NOT just been lounging around all day you overgrown organ grinder monkey."

"Ha!" Nate barked out a laugh at the insult before he fell silent as he saw my face turn serious and I continued "And I did have more guests though they were no where near as nice as you guys."

"Oh? I'm assuming it was another pirate crew?" Nate asked curiously.

I nodded and said "Yeah, I didn't get a chance to find out their name but they had a Jolly Roger with devil horns on the skull and a bloody sword and a fired gun as the cross bones."

Nate winced and said "The Bloody Path pirates, Captain is named Kenchi Kikaro, bounty is currently at twenty five million beri after he and his crew completely slaughtered the small port town of Seagull's Roost." Giving me a quick look over, he said "They didn't manage to hurt you anywhere did they?"

I shook my head and pulled at my bullet proof vest as I said "One of the newest cloth constructs I made kept me safe from their bullets while my Devil Fruit let me deal with the Captain's swords. I managed to break most of the crew's legs and flatten the Captain with a massive ball of cloth before the two unharmed members of the crew grabbed the others and got the hell off the island."

"That's good." Nate said in relief before he eyed my vest with interested eyes and said "And you said that vest of yours can block bullets? Is there any chance you'd be willing to make us some?"

"It won't protect you guys from blades very well you know." I warned him even as the vest began growing long sleeves in preparation for copying.

"No defense is perfect obviously." Nate said waving his hand dismissively.

I nodded at that before I hummed and said "True enough, what have you got to trade for all of them?"

Nate cocked his head and muttered a few numbers under his breath before he said "I can give you two hundred beri for each vest. After that we'd need to switch to something else in exchange since we still need to make one last supply run before we hit Reverse Mountain."

By my estimate that was rather low but considering how easy it was to actually make copies of this material I could understand it, and besides, that was just the monetary part of the deal and so I said "Give me five gallons of apple juice and a couple crates of bananas and we've got a deal."

"I can do that." Nate said with a grin and we shook on it before Nate began barking orders to some of his men who quickly went back to the ship once I had made the needed zip lines for them. Once the lines were up and I had received my payment for the vests I had everyone line up in front of me in two rows and began making their vests, adding their names in whatever colored stitching they wanted. I made the vests black but if the crewmembers wanted a different color then they could pay me ten beri for a different one. Once everyone was outfitted, with another ten blank vests made for any future crews, the Pirates began bringing their torn clothes and anything else they wanted to swap colors on.

After a surprising amount of torn clothes repaired, apparently they had a rather bad run in with another pirate group that to a member used butterfly knives of all things, a large bon fire was made and the crew gave a free style performance, no sheet music, just playing whenever and whatever each crewmember felt fit with the current music. I actually joined in a little with the harmonica Nate had given me a few months back, though I mostly just hanged back and made sure my phone was recording the whole thing. When the last piccolo fell silent at one o'clock, Nate stood up gathering everyone's attention.

The captain gave a fond glance around as he said "Lads, and lasses." He nodded at where the few females on his crew were sitting together before he continued "Tomorrow we begin heading for the Grand Line, which will be our new home for the next five years. Once we leave this island, it will be full speed ahead to Logue Town, and from there, to Reverse Mountain. Rest well tonight and as we travel to the end of this chapter of our journey, remember the times we have had here, both good, and bad. The friends we've made," He lifted an imaginary mug towards me in toast with a grin, an action several other crew members copied, "and the enemies we've left defeated and crying frustrated tears." Chuckles filled the air at that and Nate's grin got just the little bit wider before he finished "Cement those memories into your minds my Nakama, for they are what make us who we are, and then look towards the future as we continue to build on that foundation. And you can't build well if you're tired, so off to bed with you lot, we'll be lifting anchor at 0800 hours tomorrow."

With that slightly less than profound ending to his speech, Nate sent his crew back to the ship. As some of the crew made sure the fire was out before they joined the others in heading back, he walked over to me and held out his hand as he said "I know we'll be saying our goodbyes in the morning, but I still wish you luck for the remainder of your challenge."

I accepted it as I said "And I wish you luck as well. Stay on your toes when you get to Reverse Mountain, I've heard stories that an Island Whale has been camped on the other side for the last fifty years." (And again, the lines of world knowledge and story line memories were once more blurred as I tried to figure out why I would know that.)

Nate blinked at that before he nodded with a smile and said "Thanks for the head's up, we'll be careful."

He shifted his grip from my hand to a pat on my shoulder before he bade me good night and made his way over to one of the zip lines attached to his ship. I waited until I was sure he was on the deck before I let out a sigh and said "Two more weeks before I follow you guys." Shaking my head from those thoughts, I made doubly sure that the fire was out before walking back towards my camp. The last thing I did before I went to sleep was to set an alarm for 0700 so that way I would not miss my friends' departure.

The next morning was full of final goodbye hugs and words exchanged. When it was time for them to leave, I grappled up to the cliff top and watched through my spy glass as they slowly disappeared over the horizon. Giving a sigh and wishing them luck, I said to myself "Safe journeys you guys." I remained on that cliff long into the day and only got off around five in the evening when my stomach finally demanded food too loudly to ignore.

Time Skip: The Day Before The Straw Hat Pirates Arrive

When I woke up that morning, I felt something extra on my chest besides my duck tape and cloth sheets. Sitting up, I stared blankly at the expanse of silvery cloth and letter that had fallen down to my lap for a few sleepy moments before I reached down and grabbed the letter to tiredly look at it. There was no address or anything on the letter and at first I thought one of the letters I had gotten before on my first day and the day I received my modified 3DS XL had gotten free. A quick check though showed that they were still in the sleeves I had made in my tent for them though. Still confused in my sleep addled state, I reached over to my knife and slit open the top of the envelope and pulled out the letter. When I started reading it, I instantly snapped awake.

Hey there, Mate. First of all, I'd like to say CONGRATULATIONS! You've made it through the entire six months on the island. True, you had SOME help with that roaming group of musicians but I never actually said you had to go it completely without help so I'm letting that slide. Besides, if I wanted you to have no contact I would've just made it so that anyone who came would just move to one of the surrounding islands, so like I said, no biggie. Now we get to the fun bits. The Straw Hat Pirates will be arriving onto the island at roughly 0900 hours so make sure you're awake by then. I won't be saying where they're making landfall though so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Finally, a deal's a deal, so here's your Invisibility Cloak, I'm certain you can put it to good use, just don't get caught using it to peak on the ladies in the shower room, naughty, naughty, naughty!

I rolled my eyes at the last sentence. Honestly, who did this R.O.B. think I was, Jiraya of the Sannin? And why did I hear Jon Reep saying those last three words in my mind when I read them? Dismissing that last bit, I put the letter in the envelope with a grin. Six months of no indoor plumbing, none of my favorite foods, and no temperature control, all of the hardships I had endured, it was all for this one piece of cloth sitting on my lap. Quickly standing up, I eagerly grabbed the cloak and wrapped it around myself and gained a demented grin as my body disappeared. "Oh yes, I'm going to be having fun times with you!" I said with a cackle.

Putting the latest letter with the other two, I quickly had my breakfast before I went outside to see just what I could do with the new cloth addition to my internal cloth archive. A few hours of experimenting had shown that I could both enlarge and shrink the cloth, I could combine it with the bullet proof vest in a manner that made it seem like I wasn't wearing it, or I could have a bullet proof stealth suit which would make sneaking around during a fire fight a lot safer prospect. I could also use the cloth to make objects disappear from sight. I actually made an entire tree invisible which had me cackling at the thought of being able to do that on a ship I was on. Of course, I would have to see if a ship could even move when covered in an invisibility cloak in a way that the crew wouldn't look like they were standing on thin air. There were other ideas that I would have liked to test but unfortunately, there weren't any safes nearby so they'd have to wait.

The rest of the day was spent collecting all of the duck tape traps I had scattered around the island. The animals caught in them all got stays of executions and I swear more than one of them gave deep sighs and had sweat drops of relief. I decided to leave the tape markers on the trees since I'm sure the people who visited the island after I left would appreciate them. (And it would be funny if some of them tried to find an inhabitant that wasn't there anymore. *Snicker*) Once all of the duck tape traps were collected, I made sure that my five gallon water container and three water canteens were full since you could never have too much potable water when on the seas after all. I figured I'd leave the cloth traps in place to serve as suitably impressive demonstrations of my abilities.

With all of that done, the only thing left to do was to set my alarm so that I didn't miss the Straw Hats arrival and to settle down with my 3DS XL and play some good old fashioned Nintendo Classics and wait.

End

Author's Notes: Update Schedule on my profile, and please always check for new polls.

And we are…done! I wanted to go ahead and get the six months out of the way because there is only so much of six months of training that a person can read before they get tired of the material. Also, for those wondering, yes, I am taking a page out of old Oda's playbook, but I'm going to keep you guessing on that front. (I know, I'm as evil as Aku. I can tell because Voltaire's When You're Evil is playing in the background. MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!)