10. Can I Get Some Answers Now?
Story Start: Ten Minutes Away From Baratie
Tying the last knot to secure the sail to Sanji's boat, I said "Alright, that's the boat settled." Jumping down to the deck of the ship, I put my hands on my hips and gave Yosaku a stern look and said "Now what's going on? You said that where Nami was headed was trouble but you haven't told us squat about where she's actually going."
When I got my hands on that girl, she'd better have a DAMN GOOD reason for stealing the Merry and taking off like that or I was going to string her up and give her thirty lashes with a whip made out of rolled duck tape, Captain wanting to keep her as our crew's Navigator or not. (Actually, even if she did I might just try to make that whip anyways, whips were awesome)
"I would like to know where this wayward crewmate of yours went as well." Gin said flatly.
"Indeed, where has the lovely Nami-swan gone off to?" Sanji asked, his eye turning into a heart at the thought of her. Clearly the fact that that woman stole our ship meant nothing to the idiot. I guarantee if that queen/thot meme was a thing in this world he would have been the one declaring that all women were queens.
Yosaku gave a nervous swallow and said "Just before she betrayed us, Nami-Sis was looking at a bounty picture with a really intense look on her face. That bounty picture was for Arlong the merman."
"Fishman." I interrupted.
Yosaku blinked and asked "What?"
"Arlong's a Fishman. Mermaids and mermen all have tails and fully human torsos except for their gills on the neck, Fishmen are humanoids with legs and features of an aquatic creature." I explained. At the others' (even Gin's) looks, I shrugged and said "I saw his bounty poster when that Marine jerk Fullbody was insulting Johnny and Yosaku."
"Oh." Luffy and Yosaku said before Yosaku shook his head and said "Anyway! Nami-Sis wants to take that 20 million bounty that's on Arlong's head!"
"Doubtful." I stated. When everyone looked back at me again, Yosaku doing so in annoyance this time, I held up a hand and said "Unlike you and Johnny, Nami isn't a bounty hunter, that was Zoro's thing before he joined Luffy. Nami is instead a thief. Most likely, she's heard that Arlong has something that she wants. And the fact that she stole the Merry rather than your and Johnny's boat, which would have been much easier for her to sail, says to me that whatever it is, it's something big enough that she needs a caravel to transport it to wherever her home base is."
Still wasn't a good enough reason to steal our ship, unless this guy had snatched up members of her family and friends in order to blackmail her into stealing something for him, in which case she went from a backstabber to just plain stupid for not telling us. I was pretty sure Luffy would go charging in if one of his crewmates was in that kind of trouble.
Shaking my head from that thought, I said "Anyways, we won't be getting any answers until we catch up with her. I just hope Zoro isn't stupid enough to go charging into that guy's base after her. He's still wounded after getting sliced up by Mihawk after all."
"Oh, he is." A female voice said. A female voice which came from my phone which was in my pocket a second ago and was now for some reason floating in the air in front of me. Immediately after, a two foot hologram of Nia from Pokken of all people appeared over it. Pushing the glasses up 'her' nose, Taifun (it couldn't be anyone else doing this) stated "No need to worry about him though, he'll be just fine, even if things aren't going as he'd like right now."
Sanji's visible eye was a heart as he asked "Who's this beauty?!"
'Nia' looked over her shoulder at the chef with a smirk and said "Way out of your league lover boy." As Sanji's head hung with a storm cloud overhead, the 'woman' turned her gaze back towards me, and said "Anyways, I'm not here to give you a status update for your advance team. What I am here for is to let you know about the new Challenges App I just put on your phone. Sorry I didn't have this ready for you back on the island but there were a LOT of possible pathways for your journey to look through." The ROB wearing a woman's face's smirk gained a bit of schadenfreude amusement as they said "Including a few interesting ones where you ran into a certain Miracle Working Okama."
I paled rather drastically at the idea of running into that person. I had nothing personal against okama, (at least, I didn't think I did, but I never ran into any IRL) but I did NOT want to be sissified, no matter how thorough the process would be, thank you VERY MUCH!
Taifun cackled at the look on my face and said "Oh come now Tac, you'd make a fine woman."
"Ugh, no thanks!" I said with a shudder causing Taifun to cackle even more. A few moments later, 'she' gave a dismissive gesture and said "Well, those events are months away, if they ever actually happen anyways, your journey might take a pathway that keeps you from ever meeting them after all. So let's focus on the Present instead, more specifically, about the App. It's composed of three parts, Bounties, Challenges, and Store.
Bounties is pretty straight forward: Certain people and/or other type of beings you will face will have value for defeating. For Pirates, this is pretty straight forward, their bounties match that given to them by the Marines and or the World Government. For people who DON'T have Marine or WG bounties, such as members of said organizations, the bounties are determined by rank in whatever organization they are in along with skill level.
Challenges is a bit more eccentric. There are certain things that I have seen in the various pathways that I would appreciate happening here. However, unless it is something rather substantial, I will not bring attention to these 'things', and unlike with Gamer powers, these metaphorical 'Quests' will not announce themselves when events that match up with their goals arrive. And they won't give you a notification when you complete them either. Some of them are also region locked so that you cannot view them until certain points in your journey. Because of all of these factors, I suggest you check this part of the app periodically. Completion of Quests will usually have monetary rewards, but sometimes items relative to your location or circumstances shall be rewards as well. There are even new weapons you can win if you complete certain challenges.
Like Bounties, Store is straight forward enough. The App stores the reward money you earn from Bounties and Challenges and can be either used to purchase items from this part of the app or for a ten percent 'Conversion Fee' be 'Withdrawn' to be used elsewhere. You can also 'Deposit' any 'Real World Money' you have if you need just a little bit more to buy an item from the store. Just remember that that money falls under the conversion fee as well if you want it back so think carefully before you deposit any large funds.
Items Purchased in the store can be categorized two ways, Nonstandard Equipment and In World Objects. Along with any of the weapons you miss out on winning from the challenges, though they won't be available until AFTER said challenges are no longer applicable, which could take years in some cases so DO try to complete them when possible, you can also buy other 'specialized' pieces of weaponry and gear that you won't find anywhere in this world. Mostly this means magitech weapons but there are also a few pieces of equipment that fall more in line for being useful for your Zoan Devil Fruit. For instance, there's various methods to enable you to either glide or even outright fly in there. That said, most of the items in this part of the Store are rather expensive so again, do your best to complete the Challenges you have, your wallet will thank you for it.
In World Objects are as the name says objects that could be purchased if you come across them in a store. From match books to Eternal Log Poses, so long as one of these objects exist in the world you're in, then you can purchase it and a copy of the best version of the object will be made for you. Exemptions to the inventory are food and beverages, Devil Fruits, and anything considered as secure and or classified information; no buying the Gorosei's diaries for you! Also, if the last version of an item is destroyed, that object is removed from the store's inventory. So if the last copy of a very rare book is burned, it can no longer be bought."
Taifun/Nia clapped their hands once and said "Well, that's everything. Time for me to just sit back and continue enjoying the show. Ciao." The hologram over the phone vanished and I hastily caught the phone as gravity reclaimed its dominance over the object.
Looking down at the App on my already unlocked screen, I said "Well, that came out of nowhere, Random indeed." There was the sound of snickering from no visible source and then it was just the five of us on the boat again.
"Matt, who was that?" Sanji demanded with an intent tone. (And an intense look to match said tone, not that I saw it)
"You know how heroic tales give Heroes Patron Deities?" I asked without looking up from my phone, giving the bounties a quick look over then shifting over to the Store tab.
"Yes?" Sanji asked.
I gave an off hand gesture and said "Well, that was my patron. They may not be classified as a god, but as a Random Omnipotent Being I'm pretty sure they can be considered equal or higher on the food chain to one. Also, don't be fooled by what they looked like just now. When I was first approached by them, they looked like a giant snake with multiple pairs of wings then turned into a figure completely hidden under a cloak."
"So long as they look like such a beauty next time they show up, I don't care what form they choose." Sanji said.
I looked up and yep, there were hearts floating around him as he clasped his hands together. Rolling my eyes, I glanced back down at my phone, switching to the Challenges Tab. A moment later, I frowned as I read one of said Challenges and said "Oi Luffy, one of these Challenges is to go one on one against you all out for thirty minutes."
"Really?" Luffy asked, sounding excited as he bounced over and continued "What do you get if you win?!"
"Flubber Infused Shoe Sole Attachments." I said, eyebrow rising as I considered that.
"Flubber? What's that?" Luffy asked in confusion.
"You ever see a bouncy ball go all over the place if you throw it just right?" I asked.
"Uh-huh." Luffy said with a nod.
"Well Flubber is like taking that bounciness and multiplying it by at least a hundred. It made a thirty pound bowling ball bounce up to about thirty miles in the air. So if I had them, I'd probably be able to leap up a fifty story building in lemur form no problem." I explained.
"Coooool." Luffy said and when I looked up at him I saw his eyes shining with stars where his pupils were.
"Yeah well, I'm not looking forward to testing Zoan Endurance against Rubber Durability any time soon, I can't hold Armament Haki for that long yet and I just know that when I do reach that point you'd be an absolute monster to face all out."
"Shishishishishi, sorry." Luffy laughed, not sounding remotely as sorry as I'd like.
{"Yeah, yeah, protagonist of an adventuring story means you're going to be hell to fight no matter when I do it."} I groused in Czech. (Thank you Dr. Zelenka for getting me interested in the language.)
Luffy apparently got the tone if not the actual meaning of my words because he just started laughing even more.
Rolling my eyes at him, I decided to move away from that line of thinking. Pocketing my phone, I stood up and clapped my hands as I said "Right, moving on, Gin, Sanji, get over here, now that you two are part of the crew, I need to unlock your Observation Haki."
Time Skip: Forty Five Minutes From Conomi Islands
So apparently, Sanji, Gin, and Luffy have absolutely no interest in Pirate History. Luffy was understandable, his brain literally being made of rubber now, but the other two disappointed me. Then again, Gin had no clue about Mihawk either so...bah, not going to bother with it.
When Sanji asked what I wanted for lunch, I asked if he had any cheese to go along with all of the meat Luffy took. When getting an affirmative I asked for a ham and cheese melt. Orders received, Sanji went to the back of his boat where the door to his cabin was.
Following him in, I said "By the way Sanji, since you're going to be our chef, I thought I should warn you that while I can handle 'mild' spiciness, anything above that leaves me having a day of prayer to the porcelain gods." I huffed out in amusement and said "It's just too bad that what's great going in isn't so enjoyable leaving."
"Understood, whenever we have anything spicy I'll make a separate portion for you. Anything else you need to tell me about? Any food allergies?" Sanji asked, already turning on the oven with one hand while the other and a foot began gathering the needed cooking tools.
"No allergies that I know of, and other than spice just go easy on the soy sauce for me." I stated.
"Gotcha." Sanji acknowledged and I nodded before I left to let the man work in peace.
Fifteen minutes later, Luffy and Yosaku were eating at their meals like they had been the ones starving for several days and not Gin. As I considered the pickle Sanji had thoughtfully given me to go with my sandwich, I asked "So Sanji, I heard you want to find the All Blue, any theories on where such a convergence of marine life could be located?"
Sanji idly swirled his wine glass as he said "Well, unfortunately the obvious areas of where the four Blues meet at Reverse Mountain and Marejois are a bust since its not common fisherman lore about being able to find every kind of fish in one of those areas. However, I believe that the deeper sea currents might intersect at key points with a current from those points linking up somewhere else. Unfortunately, I don't know nearly enough about the world's geography to work out where those current meeting points are."
I hummed and said "Might be something to knock heads with Nami over if she's still part of the crew when this current situation is taken care of. As someone who wants to make a world map, I'm pretty sure she'd include sub surface ocean maps as part of that project."
"Of course Nami will still be part of the crew!" Luffy shouted, slamming hands down on the table.
I gave Luffy a hard look and said "Captain, she stole our ship. That is not something you get away with without one HELL of a mitigating factor. Most Captains would string the person committing Barratry up, give them about fifty lashes to the back, draw and quarter them, then keelhaul the remains."
"He's right Captain." GIn said with a nod, though there was some hesitance in calling Luffy Captain. Given that he had just traded crews this morning though, that could be forgiven. Idly gesturing with his off hand, he continued "And that's just if a pirate catches you in the act, if a Marine were to do so, you get the added bonus of a firing squad thrown into the mix."
"We're not going to do that to Nami, she's our Nakama!" Luffy growled at the pair of us as he stood up and leaned forward.
I stood up and leaned forward as well and growled out "I said MOST Captains. I understand that you are going to handle this differently, but the fact that she stole our ship CANNOT be simply swept under the rug without some kind of punishment, it sets a bad precedent. If you don't punish her for this act in some appreciable way, then it puts your authority as Captain into question. And a crew that does not respect the authority of a Captain will NOT last, it'll tear itself apart."
Sanji looked like he wanted to say something (in defense of Nami obviously) but a look from Gin made him keep his silence. Yosaku was looking between me and Luffy with a worried look but he too remained silent.
Luffy and I stared at each other for a solid three minutes, barely blinking during our battle of wills. I wasn't a member of the D clan but damn it, this could NOT be swept under the rug or it would invite complete disaster down the line.
Finally though, Luffy sighed and sat back in his seat as he asked "What would you do if you were in charge and she did this?"
"That would depend on WHY she did this. At the very least, she would be made to clean the entire ship with a toothbrush, take the late night shifts for at least a month, and forfeit her share of any loot for twice that long. And the only way she would get off that easily was if her family and non-crew friends were in trouble and she needed the ship to get them OUT of said trouble." I stated, sitting down and crossing my arms.
Luffy scowled at that but before he could say anything about my answer all of us looked to the port side as a large creature appeared in our Observation Haki coming along side us under the waves. I had been subconsciously tracking it with my Haki during our little discussion but had been content to ignore it unless it got real close. Well, it was now officially real close.
In an explosion of water, a massive sea cow easily thirty times bigger than Sanji's boat surfaced.
"MONSTER!" Yosaku shouted.
"A Cow! It's HUGE!" Luffy shouted in excitement.
"A cow? Swimming? It's more likely a hippo." Sanji asked in confusion.
"But, why is that thing here in East Blue? This kind of creature should be in the Grand Line!" Yosaku asked, starting to panic.
"Just because it's the East Blue doesn't mean there aren't sea kings in these waters, it's just that they're usually on the smaller side." I said, pulling my Battlescout out of its sheath and pumping it four times as I put the stock to my shoulder, though I didn't fire yet. I wasn't actually picking up hostility from the creature with my Haki.
That said, I wasn't the only one prepared for a scrap, Gin had his tonfas out and spinning as well, though he looked just as freaked out as Yosaku.
The sea cow leaned down, it's gaze seemingly focused on the table between all of us. Yosaku noticed as well and said "He's eyeing our food!"
"What?!" Luffy asked.
"Please hurry and give it up to him! Before he turns the ship over!" Yosaku ordered.
Luffy did NOT turn over the food. Instead, with a cry of "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" he slammed a punch into the cow's jaw sending it falling sideways back under the water throwing up waves. As Luffy's arm retracted, he pointed and shouted "Don't touch my food!"
"You did it! You're great, Luffy-Bro!" Yosaku said in excitement.
"Yeah, he did it alright." I muttered as the large creature came out with a roar, showing several large pointy teeth.
"Ah! He's gone berserk now!" Yosaku shouted, going right back to panicking.
"You want another?!" Luffy shouted only to be kicked by Sanji who shouted "Idiot! Don't beat up hungry mortals!"
"That hungry mortal might just eat US as well as our lunch you know." I idly pointed out, still staring down the sights of my battlescout at its right eye. (It was big enough three of us could fit in its mouth at once while stretching out after all.)
Sanji picked up a plate with a large piece of meat on it as he said "Regardless of its size, a chef of the sea must feed those that are hungry. Perhaps it can't find food due to an injury or something." Holding it over the side, he asked "Isn't that so?"
"Wow, so compassionate." Yosaku said flatly.
Sanji ignored him as he said to the cow "Go ahead, feel free to have it."
As the cow stared down at Sanji, I tightened the grip on my battlescout and warned "Sanji."
"Ah, I've got it." The chef said. The moment the cow opened its mouth and moved forward, the chef kicked the underside of its jaw with a shout of "Go to hell!"
The kick was strong enough to throw the large creature up and back so high we actually saw its tail for a moment.
"What are you doing? Where's the love?!" Yosaku asked with shark teeth.
"If you were paying attention to your Observation Haki you'd understand." I said, still aiming my weapon at the creature.
"Ah, that thing was gonna feed on me as well." Sanji said in agreement.
The giant cow erupted out of the water again with a loud roar. My finger tightened on the trigger but just as I pulled it, Sanji was suddenly next to me, plate back on the table and putting a hand under the weapon and lifting it up five degrees. As my round shot a bare inch over the cow's head, Sanji calmly stated "Leave it to me."
I blinked, but by the time I opened my mouth to respond, the cow was charging, Sanji was running up the boat cabin's wall, and the next moment the pair leapt up into the air. With a shout of "Collier Shoot!" the chef slammed a kick into its throat right behind its jaw, laying out the monster flat yet again. And this time, it didn't get back up, instead floating belly up in the water.
As Sanji landed, Luffy laughed and said "Now! Let's continue with our meal!"
Sanji sat down with a grin and said "That was a nice workout."
"Well, that happened." I said, eyeing the sea monster for a moment. When my Observation Haki confirmed it was well and truly knocked out, I sheathed my weapon and sat down with a sigh, picking up my pickle and finally taking a bite out of it.
"These guys are crazy..." Yosaku said with a whimper. Gin gave an agreeing hum even as he sheathed his tonfas and joined us at the table again.
Time Skip: Twenty Minutes Later
Lunch was finished, the cow was conscious again, and Sanji and Luffy had somehow stuck a rope around its horns and got it pulling us in the right direction at a much faster speed than we were going with just wind power. (Most likely reason being the rather large bump now on its noggin.)
"Yahoo! We've got speed now!" Luffy cheered.
"Luffy-bro! Arlong Park is sighted!" Yosaku called from where he was standing on top of the cabin. It was still a ways off, but after using the Binocular app on my phone I could indeed see from beside him land with a six foot tall building with a saw shark head with open jaw on top, a flag flying from the saw nose.
Thrusting a fist forward, Luffy shouted "Here we come! Arlong Park! Oii, Cow! GO FASTER!"
The cow picked up speed and the boat began jumping out of the water as it hit the cow's larger wake. I quickly shifted into were lemur form in order to keep my balance, putting my phone back into my pocket and grabbing Yosaku's arm to help him do the same.
Luffy, the crazy bastard of an anchor, held his hat to his head with his right hand and walked out onto the end of the bowsprit and shouted "Go! To Arlong Park!"
'How many times is he going to shout that?' I wondered even as the boat slammed into the water and my knees bent with the impact. Below us, Sanji had a hand on the side of his face, radiating amusement to my Observation Haki.
When we were about a mile out though, the bull began slowing down.
Luffy wasn't happy about this shouting "Hey! Don't get tired, you bull!"
'That's not exactly something a person can help.' I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes.
"It has to be. Sanji-bro's kick is starting to affect it." Yosaku drawled.
Something was affecting it alright, the cow was turning to the right now, away from our destination. We made a hard turn then headed for the cliff where forest came right up to the water's edge.
"Oh dear." I muttered just before the cow slammed into the cliff. The boat kept going forward, slamming into the cow and launching up into the air. As we flew over the tree tops Luffy shouted "Yahoo! It's like we're flying!"
"There's no 'like' about it!" Yosaku shouted.
As gravity reclaimed us, Gin shouted "Brace for impact!"
We hit treetop level and I put Haki into my toes and dug them into the cabin's roof. We hit ground and kept going as Luffy shouted "Yosh, landing complete!"
"Great, now we just got to stop without running into anything!" I shouted back. Oh, why'd I open my big mouth?!
"Yo Zoro!" Luffy shouted a moment later. My eyes widened as we slammed into him only to keep going through the woods, out into a rice paddy, then towards a cliff. Grabbing Yosaku with my other hand, I quickly leapt off to the side, coming to a skidding stop as the ship came to a much more abrupt stop as it slammed into the cliff.
"T-thanks." Yosaku said weakly and I nodded as I shifted back into human form.
Luffy gave a loud sigh and from the thinning dust cloud and I saw him brushing off his hat as he said "We've arrived. We've arrived."
"You bastard..." Zoro growled before he emerged from the wreckage with shark teeth and continued "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?"
"What do you mean? We've come to take Nami back." Luffy said, sounding like he thought Zoro was an idiot before he asked "Still haven't found her?" He then looked around and said "Oh yeah. Where are Usopp and Johnny?"
I pointed down the trench we carved through the rice paddy and said "Well, there's Johnny." Sure enough, the man was walking toward us looking haggard.
"Usopp?" Zoro asked, not looking towards the blue coated sword user before he stood up fully and said "That's right! This isn't the time to be idling around."
As Zoro started to run in the direction of Arlong Park, Luffy asked "What happened?"
Zoro stopped and turned around as he explained "That guy was caught by Arlong. If we don't hurry he'll get killed."
"He's dead." Johnny said, falling to his knees as he reached us.
"What?" Zoro asked.
"It's too late. Usopp-Bro is dead." Johnny said. He punched the ground and continued "He was killed! By Nami-Sis!"
END
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Author's Notes: Yes, I'm evil ending it there, no, I'm not sorry. (EVIL LAUGHTER WITH LIGHTNING FLASHING BEHIND ME)
Seriously though, that's where that particular episode ended so I figured it was a good place to stop here as well. (Well, maybe not RIGHT THERE, but that's where it ended in regards to that group)
Anyways, remember that the poll to decide what story(s) I work on next is now a bi monthly thing and be sure to put in your vote for this set. Voting ends on November 30th.
This is Tac Signing Out.
