3. Meeting My New Crewmates

Story Start: 8:45 A.M.

I had Halo 2's Heretic, Hero playing on a loop on my iPhone which was kept in the inside pocket of my Carhartt jacket as I glided five miles high and five miles out from my island, keeping it in sight as I continuously circled and feeling like I was serving Bar-CAP duty. (Barrier Combat Air Patrol) I had started my patrol almost fifteen minutes ago, but so far it had been pretty monotonous. Really, the song was just so that way I remembered to keep sending out little blasts of air to keep up my air speed at this point of my search rather than being music I felt appropriate for traveling long distances.

Fortunately for me, as I was beginning yet another circuit of the island I spotted a dot on the horizon. Banking right, I reached into my coat with one hand and turned off the music as I muttered to myself "Hopefully that's them." Seriously, the Roaming Orchestra Pirates were great, but even being a newcomer to this world I knew that most crews were more like the Bloody Path Pirates, and I was in no mood to persuade another crew that they should avoid my island while I was waiting for the Straw Hats to arrive within the next fifteen minutes.

Dipping down so that way I was only a mile over the ship once I intercepted it, I was able to see a straw hat as part of the Jolly Roger painted on its sails. That was enough for me, and I dropped down into a dive, rapidly descending like a World War II dive bomber that had spotted an enemy aircraft carrier. Like one of those fliers, I aimed for where the ship would be rather than where it was. Unlike those divers, I also aimed for the water on the ship's port side and I came out of my dive a bare twenty feet over the waves earning shouts of surprise from multiple people as I shot past the ship and entered a long banking turn, circling the entire vessel before I came in from the starboard bow, my speed cut way down as I matched course with the ship and called out "Ahoy there! Permission to come aboard?"

"Granted!" The apparent Captain called out, a scrawny looking teenager wearing the same kind of hat as the Jolly Roger who had been sitting on the ship's figurehead only to leap to his feet as I circled the ship. The kid was grinning like a buffoon as I landed on the gundeck, quickly hopping down to join me as I did so.

We were quickly joined by the rest of the crew, a measly three others, another male teenager with a long nose and curly hair, an orange haired female teenager and a green haired young man with three swords at his waist. That last one had me do a doubletake to count the blades a second time just to be sure that I had counted right the first time. Dual wielding swords was nothing too unexpected but three? Sure, I had seen Naruto's Killer Bee's ability to fight with eight blades but it was still unusual to see a guy with more swords than hands.

Shaking that thought process away, I closed my glider's wings and turned to the captain and said "Thank you for allowing me aboard Captain. My name's Matthew Bandstra, but you can call me either Matt or Tac."

"Shishi, you're welcome! I'm Luffy! That's Zoro, Nami, and Usopp!" The Captain said, pointing first to himself, then the swordsmen followed by the girl then finally the other boy.

"Yeah, yeah, great to meet you, but where did you come from?" Zoro asked with slightly narrowed eyes.

I pointed my thumb over my shoulder and said "Your ship is about nine miles out from the island where I've been undergoing a six month survival challenge. I was five miles out and up when I spotted your ship."

"Wow, you can fly that high?!" Luffy asked with stars in his eyes.

"Oh, I can go even higher if I want, perks of being an Air Logia." I said with a smirk, the hand not holding my glider dissipating into wisps of wind before turning back to flesh and blood.

"Another devil fruit user." Nami noted with slightly wide eyes.

"Cool! Hey, join my crew!" Luffy shouted.

I blinked in surprise at the suddenness of his offer but before I could say anything, the other three gave Luffy simultaneous fists to the skull as they gained shark teeth and shouted "Don't go asking random strangers to join within a minute of meeting them!"

I though had a different reaction. Without even realizing that I had spoken aloud, I said "Huh, so that's why I thought I could join you guys so easily when I still had my memories."

Everyone's gaze snapped to me and Nami asked "What do you mean you thought you could join us when you had your memories?" Her eyes then narrowed as she continued "You said you were on a six month survival challenge, we haven't even been a crew for a single month yet, how could you possibly know about us?!"

Slapping a palm to my face and dragging it down, I sighed and said "Damn it, I meant to wait until we were back at my base camp before I explained things, my Switch would have made convincing you guys I was telling the truth so much easier." Giving a little groan, I dropped my hand and said "Alright, look, the short version is that I caught the attention of a Randomly Omnipotent Being who decided that I could provide him a bit of entertainment by chucking me into the world of a popular story about a pirate crew. As part of a deal we made, in exchange for my Logia Devil Fruit he took my memories of the story line while leaving my world knowledge alone, and I asked him to remember the name of your crew so that way I would know who to join when you guys showed up."

Nami's expression fell flat and she said "You cannot seriously expect us to believe that."

"Not without proof, which is why I wanted to wait until we were at my base camp." I said before pulling out my phone and continued "Fortunately, I have this." Pulling up my Safari App, I tapped something in the search bar and when I held it up for the others to see, I said "You guys have nothing like this available to ANYONE in this world, and this is the planet that I originally came from, called Earth. It's 70% water with seven main continents and around a thousand islands, with a single moon orbiting it." Turning my phone back to face me, I typed a new search in and then turned the phone on its side and flipped it back around as I continued "This is the solar system Earth is part of, being the third planet from the sun." Cocking an eyebrow at Nami, I asked "Now, would I go to all of the trouble of inventing a highly technological device and come up with such a detailed planet and its solar system just to be able to claim that I jumped worlds and wanted to join you guys because you were the only people I vaguely remembered?"

After a moment of the whole crew remaining silent, Luffy looking completely lost while the other three seemed to be reorienting their worldviews, Nami sighed and said "Damn Audacity Fallacy." Shaking her head, she said "Alright, I guess I can believe what you said." Raising her right pointer finger, she continued "BUT, I want to hear that long version when we reach the island."

"I want to hear it too." Ussop said, Zoro nodding his assent as well.

Luffy though grinned and asked "So does that mean that you're joining my crew?!"

"Looks like it." I said, and the teen cheered as he threw his hands up and shouted "Yay, new crewmate!"

Glancing at Usopp, I nudged my head in Luffy's direction and asked "Is he always that excitable?"

"Yes" Usopp said, echoed by Nami and Zoro.

"Okay then." I said, briefly wondering what I had got myself into before I shook my head and said "Well then, since we're waiting until we get to the island for a more thorough explanation, shall I give us a little more speed?"

Nami blinked and cocked her head as she asked "You can do that?"

Smirking, I said "Air Logia." Dissipating into air, I rematerialized at the stern and said "I suggest you guys hold onto something." I gave my new crew five seconds to brace themselves before I kicked up a tailwind, and the ship under us gave a slight jerk as the new wind caught the sails before its bow raised slightly as I increased the power of the tailwind, steadily increasing our speed at a knot every ten seconds.

Within five minutes the island was within unaided visual range and I let the tailwind peter out as I said "Alright guys, there's a set of cliffs on the left side of the island, come in there, I'll have a docking channel blown out for you by the time you reach it."

Opening my glider's wings, I leapt off the ship and pushed twin jets of air out of my feet, shooting towards the island at a speed that was even faster than what the ship had been making moments ago. Shortly there after, I landed on the beach roughly two hundred feet from the Solar Still. Cracking my neck from side to side, then the knuckles on both of my hands, I said to myself "Alright, their ship is just a little bit smaller than the Blood Path Pirates'Bloody River, and wasn't THAT a fitting name for a ship carrying those scumbags?" Shaking my head of that thought, I took in a deep breath then thrust out my hands and blasted out a pair of twisters spinning in opposite directions of each other that dug into the sand side by side, pulling sand up from their bottom side and carrying it to either side of the trench that was being rapidly dug, the pair of wind cyclones acting much like cylindrical tunneling equipment that had screw threads to move the dirt they dug through.

The pair of twisters rapidly grew in size as they dug downwards. Once I had the hole deep enough, I began expanding the originally thirty foot long wind diggers out to the sea, brows furrowing as I concentrated on keeping the twisters in cylindrical shapes rather than expanding into funnels like they wanted to. When they hit the water the throwback mimicked the parting of the red sea allowing me to see when the twisters had traveled far enough that they were no longer actually touching the sand beneath the water and I 'cut off the power' the twisters quickly dissipating. Now with nothing holding it out of the canal, the water rushed in with a roar and I took a couple of hasty air aided leaps back to avoid the massive spray as it reached the end.

Shaking off the little bit of water that had managed to reach me, I took out my spy glass and glance out to the ocean in the direction of the Straw Hat's ship. It seems I had finished just in time, the sheep headed caravel was coming into sight around the curve of the island and I gave a sweeping wave off my hand. Seeing Usopp returning the wave from where he was standing next to the figurehead, I put away the spyglass and waited for them to arrive. The ship had barely bumped to a stop at the end of the channel before Luffy let out whoop of glee and leapt off the figure head, shouting something about wanting to hear a story and exploring the island, almost visibly vibrating in place.

The rest of the crew came off the ship in a much more sedate manner and as she came down the sand ramp towards me, Nami grinned at me and said "Alright, I was skeptical of you being able to make it so that we could come right up to the shore of the island but this is great! With you on board we won't have to worry about using a landing craft unless the shore is solid rock."

"Not even then once I learn to make cutting winds alongside pushing winds." I said with a nod before I walked past them at an angle. Once I was parallel with the stern of the ship, I blasted the top of the beach with more wind pushing the sand out into the water to form a sandbar locking the ship in place. When I got back to the others, Nami had a smile on her face as she said "Oh yeah, you're definitely going to be useful."

"That's only if he doesn't kill us!" Usopp yelped out and when Nami and I glanced at him in confusion, I saw his knees were knocking as he pointed at something that the ship was blocking with bug eyes that were completely dilated from fear. Cocking my head, I bent down than leapt a good fifty feet to see what he was pointing at. Seeing the line of crosses in front of the grave trench, I came down light as a feather and said "Oh, those guys."

"Why are you so casual about having killed someone?!" Usopp asked, pointing at me terrified.

I shrugged as I began walking to my base camp and said "They were flying a red Jolly Roger and said that they were going to kill me then loot my corpse. They're lucky I actually gave them the decency of a burial rather than just leave their corpses on the ship when I sunk it. Besides, anyone sailing on a ship called the Bloody River deserves whatever's coming to them."

"He's got a point there." I heard Nami mutter darkly.

I might have glanced back behind me at her if Zoro hadn't strode up to me and said "So that's why I smelled blood on that stick of yours."

"Seriously?" I asked, glancing at him then down at my staff as I gave it a consternated look and continued "I washed this thing's tips for five hours the morning after that fight."

"And there was your mistake, you gave the blood time to settle." Zoro said. I gave an annoyed huff and he smirked as he said "By the way, I want a spar before we leave."

Looking up towards him at his words, I frowned and said "Zoro, don't take this the wrong way, but even a combat novice like me can tell if I couldn't go intangible then you would kick my ass so thoroughly my bruises would cover everything my hair didn't."

"Ah, but you CAN turn to air, which makes this interesting enough to compensate." Zoro said, an eager glint in his eyes.

"Joy." I said with rolled eyes.

"Hey, a fight with you sounds cool!" Luffy said, dropping down from the trees he had been swinging through and landing on my other side. The guy was surprisingly quiet up there, only my Observation Haki letting me know that he had been up there at all.

"Well, I guess it would be a good idea to know what you guys can do before we head out." I said before glancing back at a trailing Nami and Usopp and said "Do you two want in on this?"

Usopp's rapidly shaking head and gibberish was enough of an answer while Nami started to shake her head before she stopped mid motion. Cocking her head, her hand went down to her hip and said "You know, it would be nice to fight another staff user without having to worry about my life during it."

As Usopp gave Nami a disbelieving look, I nodded and said "Alright, I'll keep my knife in my pocket when it's your turn."

"Knife?!" Usopp squawked fearfully.

Giving him a savage grin, I said "Well I do have two hands, don't I?"

Usopp's wheeze was a perfect contrast to Zoro's savage grin as he said "So you do have some common sense. Good, I was afraid that you relied on just that twig trying to imitate a spear to fight."

"Hey! This so called 'twig' can punch a hole through you just as easily as any other weapon." I said, Haki-ing up the bottom tip before I I shoved it through the closest tree, its point coming six inches out of the other side. I heard the sound of a body hitting the ground and Usopp wheezing as I pulled the staff back out.

"And suddenly I'm not as eager to fight him." Nami muttered behind us. Zoro though was giving the staff a much more interested look before he glanced up to my face and gave an understanding nod.

Luffy chose that time to start laughing his head off as he said "Shishishishi! Now I really want to fight you!"

"What's wrong with you two?! He just punched a hole through that tree like it was nothing and you're looking forward to fighting him?!" Usopp shrieked.

Looking confused, Luffy turned his head over his shoulder and said "Yeah? I mean it's not like we're going to be fighting for real."

I glanced back to see Usopp raise a finger with an open mouth but he dropped the finger as he said "Withdrawn."

Snorting at that, I entered my campsite and said "There are some chests inside the bigger tent you guys can bring out if you want something to sit on." I slipped into my duck tape tent, grabbing my Switch and the letters my benefactor had left me. Coming back out, I saw Luffy and Zoro putting down the last chest, Nami and Usopp already seated. As the two sat down, I 'sat down' in the air cross legged earning stars in both Luffy's eyes and Usopp's knocking him out of his scared mood for the moment.

"That's something you don't see every day." Nami muttered to herself and I shot a grin at her before I focused on all of them and said "Alright, let's start with the basics of my situation. Like I said earlier, I'm from another world, but I don't just mean that I'm from another planet in the same solar system as this one. Do any of you know what the multiverse theory is?"

Seeing all four shake their heads, I said "Alright, here's the technical definition: The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of finite and infinite possible universes, including the universe in which we live. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. In layman's terms, this means that there are more universes out there than just the one we are living in, some radically different with completely different rules that its inhabitants have to live by, others where the only difference between them and ours is a single choice someone made. For instance, here you could have chosen to have chocolate ice cream while in the next one over you could have had vanilla. Basically, anything that could happen, has happened somewhere, even supposed works of fiction that would be impossible in one realm has happened in another."

"Oh, so it's a mystery verse!" Luffy said pounding fist into palm with a nod of understanding.

Nami, Ussopp, and Zorro all groaned at that while I blinked before shrugging and said "Pretty much, where I came from it's only a Theory with no way to actually prove it. Well, there WAS no way to prove it but unfortunately I don't think I can tell the Big Brains back home that they were right."

"So how did you wind up in our universe?" Nami asked.

Giving a sigh, I said "Too be frank, I was given a second chance." Powering up my Switch, I opened the Youtube app and did a quick search. Flipping the Switch around so that way they could see a video clip from Fast and Furious I said "These are the main form of land transport in my world, they're called cars if you're interested. Anyway, they can reach high speeds, some up to over two hundred miles per hour, though the speed limits are usually set between thirty and seventy miles per hours. Still, even with those relatively slow speeds, accidents can happen. And when they do on highways, you get this…"

Turning the Switch around, I did another search and when I flipped it back around, the Straw Hats were treated to the sight of a ten car pileup. Nami's hands went up to her mouth as they watched and even Zoro tightened the grip he had on one of his sheaths. Turning the Switch off at the end of the video, I said "I was caught in the tail end of one of those accidents. When I was trying to get another person off the road I got pinned to my truck and my head hit metal hard enough to shatter my skull. I would be six feet under right now if not for some extremely extenuating circumstances."

"Where I come from the events of this world is one of the most popular stories, it had actually been on its twentieth year when I left." I said, seemingly moving onto a completely different topic.

"Really?!" Luffy and Ussopp asked with stars in their eyes.

At my nod, the two went "Cool!" Nami though cocked her head and said "That's great an all, but what does that have to do with this accident you were in?"

"I'm getting to it, don't worry." I said. Cracking my neck a bit, I continued "When the crashes started happening, we had an audience of sorts. A R.O.B., short for Random Omnipotent Being, had been watching. He saw my actions and apparently feeling rather bored thought that I could provide him with some entertainment and made me a deal. The bare basics of the deal were that he would send me to a world where the events of the story, titled One Piece if you're curious, would happen and make it so that way I would meet you guys, and he even gave me the choice of three Devil Fruits, Air Logia, Lemur Zoan, or Cloth Paramecia. In exchange though, he took all of my memories of the story line, leaving only the same world knowledge that a native would have."

"He took your memories?!" Luffy asked, shooting to his feet with an outraged look on his face and his hands clenched so hard into fists that his hands shook.

"Whoa! Easy there Luffy!" I said holding a hand up and tried to calm him down as I said "Considering that I would have been dead if he didn't do this, I considered it a pretty good trade off. Besides, this R.O.B. seems rather agreeable to negotiation and I managed to sweeten the deal somewhat."

"Oh? And how did you 'sweeten the deal'?" Nami asked with a smile. Seemed the thought of being able to bargain with someone allowed her to move the last bit away from what she had seen.

"First off, I got him to agree to drop me off on an island in the East Blue where you guys WOULD find me. Second, he allowed me to remember the name of your crew. And third, when he dropped me off on this island, he left me with a proper knife and a pallet full of duct tape." I said counting off my fingers before I grinned and said "Apparently the way I said my request for the last part amused him and he not only agreed to the requests, he upgraded my phone to have infinite battery and WiFi signal, not that I expect you guys to know what that means." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and held it up for them to see for a moment before I put it back.

Continuing my story, I said "Once I got here, I found this letter on top of the pallet of tape." I pulled out the first letter and handed it over to Nami who pulled it out of the envelope and the three guys crowded around her shoulders to read it.

Once they had read the letter, Ussopp let out an impressed whistle and said "Man, spending six months on an uninhabited island, that is badass!"

"Thank you kindly." I said with a nod before I continued "Moving on, I spent the first day here making sure I had everything to survive. When I was younger, I was part of a group called the Boy Scouts of America. It and its counterpart the Girl Scouts of America were civic groups that on top of helping out the community put a strong emphasis on camping and wilderness survival. This coupled with knowledge from one of my favorite tv shows meant that I knew what I had to do to survive out here. First thing I did was use the plastic wrapped around the pallet of tapes and some of said tape to make a Solar Still for long term water collection, you probably saw it when you guys made landfall."

"So that's what that was." Nami muttered before she glanced up at me and asked "Any chance that could work on a boat or does it have to be done on the beach? Having a ready source of fresh water could be a literal life saver on long trips."

I shrugged and said "We'll have to make a tub to hold the sea water but I don't see any reason why it couldn't work."

Nami nodded and then gestured for me to continue and I said "Once that was made, I made a quick bit of shelter out of tape then went in search of fresh water since while the solar still is a constant method of collecting fresh water so long as it has salt water to work with, the process is rather slow. Once I had enough fresh water and a basket of nuts and berries, I called it a night. The second day, I ate my Devil Fruit. As I'm sure Luffy will agree with me, I have NEVER tasted anything that disgusting before." Luffy nodded matching my disgusted look and stuck out his tongue with a heartfelt "Eugh!" Shaking myself from that memory, I continued "Once I had my Devil Fruit, I began training it along with Observation Haki and Armament Haki, two skills that pretty much everyone and their grandmother can use in the second half of the Grand Line. Don't worry, I'll teach you guys and any other crewmates we have as well. A month later, a pirate crew came ashore and I did a bit of trading with them, trading a chunk of my tape stores for some useful supplies. Another pirate crew came upon the island four months into my training but like I said earlier, they were NOT nice. When they proved hostile, I wiped them out then took what I wanted from their ship before sinking it."

"I don't suppose they had any treasure on board?" Nami asked, leaning forward eagerly with a greedy glint in her eyes.

Before I could say anything, Luffy said "Nami! That's Matt's treasure, you can't have it!"

"But-" Nami started only to draw back as Luffy glared at her and said "No! Spoils taken from pirate fights belongs to the pirate who fought. According to Shanks that is Pirate Law!"

As Nami pouted, I blinked and said "Hang on, 'Shanks'? You don't mean Red Haired Shanks the YONKO do you?!"

Luffy went from angry to happy as he gave me a megawatt grin and said "Shishishi, Yep, he stayed at my island for a while ten years or so ago!"

"Huh, so that's why you have that hat." I mused to myself under my breath before shaking my head and said "Uh, anyway, they had about ten million beri with them." Nami clenched a hand to her chest and let out a distressed wheeze and I gave her a concerned look before I turned back to Luffy and shrugged as I said "I buried it to keep it safe, but once I dig it back up I don't mind donating eight million of that to the crew's coffers." It wasn't like I didn't have twenty million more, though how to explain how I got that amount was going to take some pondering since I said I sank the ship to hide the R.O.B.'s involvement, unless of course, they never found out about it. Hm…

Before I could give that errant thought more than a moment of consideration, Nami somehow teleported off her chest to stand next to me and pulled me into a crushing hug that had me almost turning intangible automatically and her pressing my head into her boobs as she squealed out "I love you big bro!"

Growling, I yanked myself out of her grip and said "Get off of me!" Once free, I huffed and said "Geeze, and I thought that cliché was just anime tomfoolery." Giving Nami a flat look, and ignoring Luffy and Usopp's snickering, I said "You got problems lady."

"But Maaaatt, it's Eight Million Beris, I've NEVER gotten that much money all at once, even after robbing some of the better off pirate crews." Nami said, a drop of drool forming at a corner of her mouth.

"Riiiiiight." I said, floating away just a little bit before I shook my head and decided that I definitely wouldn't be mentioning the extra twenty million beris I got for the ship, which I had fortunately buried away from the rest of the treasure, and of which I was going to dig up by myself and find a good hiding spot on the ship while the rest of the crew slept tonight. Shaking that thought from my head, I glanced at the other three as I said "Moving on, a few weeks ago, the first crew came back to check up on me before they headed for the Grand Line. After that, it was just more training until you guys showed up today."

Usopp apparently had changed his tune about me as he said "Well, anyone who's able to make due on an island for six months with almost nothing but duck tape to work with in the beginning is alright in my books." He then gained a drop of drool of his own as he glanced at the remaining forty rolls I had of the stuff and said "So many things I can do with that."

Face palming, I said "Great, I'm getting saddled with a crew of cracked eggshells. Why did I want to join up with you guys again?"

"Because you knew that the adventures you would be going on would be epic." A voice packed to the brim with power said in amusement. Five heads snapped over to the tree where a rottweiler was sitting.

As my new crew looked at the dog in confusion wondering where it came from, I gave it a flat look and said "And the reason you look like my old dog Apollo is why?" 'So much for keeping contact between the crew and him minimal.'

Chuckling as he scratched his ear with his hind foot, the R.O.B. that had sent me here said "Because if you guys saw my real form, your eyes would literally explode from trying to comprehend it."

"EEP!" Usopp, well eeped, as he stiffened fearfully.

Huffing out a laugh, the higher plane being masquerading as a canine padded over to Luffy. The two had an intense stare down before the R.O.B. grinned and said "Hello there Future King, as Matt said before, I am a Randomly Omnipotent Being, but you can call me Taifun."

As the R.O.B. offered his front right leg for Luffy to shake, who grinned and accepted it, I cocked my head and asked "How come you told him your name but not me when we first met?"

"Because you never asked." Taifun said in amusement and I slapped my face with my palm while muttering "Oi vey…"

Luffy laughed as he said "Shishishi, you're funny."

"Yes, he's hilarious. But why are you here? I got the feeling that you communicated with Matt only through letters." Nami said, eyeing the 'dog' warily."

"I find myself feeling randomly generous so I thought I would bestow some gifts. Future King, you're hat if you'd please." Taifun said, turning his gaze back to Luffy at the end. Luffy hesitated for a moment before he took off his straw hat and held it in front of Taifun. Taifun nosed the headgear and it flashed as he said "A king requires a crown that can withstand the test of time. Your hat is now indestructible. Nothing will damage it from now on."

"Wow, really?! Thanks a lot!" Luffy said, eagerly hugging his hat to his chest with a megawatt grin.

Taifun huffed in amusement before he padded over to Zoro and said "Roronoa Zoro, draw Wado Ichimonji." Zoro studied the being in front of him for a moment before he pulled the white sheathed Katana out. Taifun nosed the blade and it too flashed as he said "The path ahead of you is a long and perilous journey swordsman, and you shall see many blades shattered, both your enemy's and your own. But go into battle knowing that this blade shall never be one of them."

Zoro's grip on Wado's hilt tightened even as he nodded his thanks. Turning his gaze to Usopp, he said "Sniper, present your bag." Usopp cautiously moved closer and held it up. Taifun touched it and there was the now expected pulse as he said "A ranged warrior is only effective so long as they have the ammunition to last the entire fight. Your bag is now a Bag of Holding, capable of holding everything you can fit inside its opening, as well as a mental retrieving spell. Merely think what you wish to withdraw and it shall come to your hand."

"Wow, thanks!" Usopp said with a grin, imitating his captain as he hugged the bag to his chest.

Taifun snorted in amusement before he turned his Gaze onto Nami, a slightly worryingly wide grin forming on his face as he said "And as for you, Compass of the King." Nami's audible gulp of nervousness made his grin grow even wider as he continued "I leave you both with this book of never full pages for your future Atlas," A book just a little bit taller than Nami's forearm was long appeared in front of her and she grabbed it with a pleased grin before looking up as Taifun continued "and this advice: The night is always darkest before dawn, and the current night shall soon end."

Nami stiffened at that, earning confused looks from the rest of us. But before we could ask, Taifun gave us one last nod before he turned around and walked to the tree he had appeared at. No, not to, he walked through the tree and disappeared completely, even to my Observation Haki causing our jaws to drop.

Luffy and Usopp quickly darted over to the tree and looked around the thin trunk as Luffy asked "Hey, where did he go?"

"He just flat out vanished!" Usopp said amazed.

"Damn, if I tried that, I'd get a body full of splinters." I said with a chuckle.

Zoro merely snorted in agreement before he grinned at me and said "Now that your explanation's over and the generous god has left, can we get to sparring now?"

Despite my status as a Logia, I felt a shiver of dread briefly go through me before I shook it off with a shrug and said "I don't see why not."

"Good, then let's get back to the beach, I want some room to work with." Zoro said, standing up from the chest he had been sitting on and striding back towards the ship.

"Oh, this should be good." Nami muttered to herself as the rest of us followed him.

We came out onto the beach to the sight of Zoro tying the bandana that had been on his left arm to his head then drawing his swords, putting Wado Ichimonji's hilt in his mouth. I raised an eyebrow at that before shrugging and unclipped my knife from my belt and flicked it open with a quiet but sinister sounding 'click' sound. Walking to stand near Zoro, I studied him for a moment before I blasted wind from the bottom of my feet and shot towards him, staff tip pointed right at his chest.

Zoro knocked the staff away with his left hand sword and quickly parried my knife thrust with the other before jerking his head to the side. Wado proceeded to cut right through my head and I gave a theatrical sigh as I said "We're going to be at this all day."

Zoro's savage grin said that he was perfectly fine with that even as he pushed me back with the blade holding back my knife. I recovered my balance just in time to bring my staff up to block his two hand held blades while my Hakied knife rose to block Wado. Grinning at the swordsmen, I stomped my foot in the ground and a blast of wind threw up a sand cloud forcing Zoro to close his eyes on instinct. Using that distraction, I dissipated then reformed behind him and kicked the man's back trying to throw him away, keyword there being trying. As Zoro glanced over his shoulder at me with a raised eyebrow, I in turn glanced down at my foot still on his back and then back up at his head and said "Oh come on, that's just not fair!" Zoro's grin made a return as he spun around to slash at me again and it was only my Observation Haki that kept me from having to go intangible again to avoid the three slashes that would have carved my chest open if I wasn't a Logia. Gritting my teeth as I desperately blocked the three blades that seemed to blur with how fast they were traveling, I thought to myself 'This is definitely going to take a while.'

Time Skip

Five hours later, Nami let out a yelp as I hooked her ankle with one of my feet and yanked her off balance. She hit the sand and started to get up only to freeze as my staff tip rested on her shoulder. Sighing, she said "I yield." Replacing staff with hand, I hauled her back up to her feet and she smiled as she said "Thanks for not going intangible during that."

I gave a shrug and said "It was good practice for when we run into others who can use Armament Haki to still hit me."

Nami looked a little frightened and asked "We're not going to be running into those guys anytime soon are we?"

"Nah, that's tail end of Paradise at the very least." I said with a negligent wave of my hand, my world knowledge coming in handy yet again. When Nami sighed in relief, I grinned and said "However if I have any say in it then you guys are going to be able to do it much sooner than that. If you're half as good a navigator as I think you are then I bet you'll have Observation Haki down in a month."

Nami blushed pleasingly at that before she suddenly grinned and said "Hey, now that all of the sparring's done, let's go grab that treasure!"

Shrugging, I said "Well, we do need to load all of my supplies on the ship." Turning to where Luffy and Zoro were going at it, with Usopp eagerly watching, I gave a sharp whistle. When the other three turned towards me, I said "Guys, we're going to get the money, do you guys want to come with?"

"Yeah!" Luffy yelled, eagerly bouncing his rubber body over. (And boy, had it been interesting figuring out Luffy's Devil Fruit during a fight!)

"Sounds good!" Usopp said with a thumb's up walking over as well.

"Eh, if it's all the same to you guys, I think I'll take a nap." Zoro said, walking up to the tree line.

Before he could settle down in the shade, I said "I've got a hammock under my tape tent you could use Zoro." Without stopping, Zoro popped a thumb's up and kept walking into the trees. I watched him for a moment before I turned to the eager faces of the other three and said "Alright then, let's go."

"Yeah!" both Luffy and Nami said eagerly.

The trip to the treasure was fairly long. We walked pass the line of crosses for ten minutes until we reached a tree with a ring of duck tape at its base. Thirty trees after that, we came upon one that had an x carved into it just as low. Turning towards the beach, I took twenty steps forward before I dug around a little uncovering a stick. Lining up on the stick, I took fifteen steps parallel with the tree line, uncovered another stick, then took fifty steps back. On that last one, Usopp sweat dropped and said "You sure went to a lot of trouble to hide this treasure of yours."

"Considering I couldn't be sure that there wouldn't be someone showing up on the island without my knowledge, I had to. For all I know, someone actually did come to the island during the six months that I was here and I just never ran into them." I explained before I gestured them to back up, waiting until they had taken ten steps back before forming a large twister that began vacuuming up large amounts of sand, a sort of tunnel like construct of wind carrying the sand roughly seventy feet away as the twister circled around a forty foot circle in a manner that left a relatively shallow funnel shaped hole going ten feet deep before the top of the three chests were revealed. I hopped down into the hole and basically leaf blew the last of the sand away and opened the chests making sure that their contents were still inside, including the Bloody Path Pirates' Jolly Roger in the beri chest.

Nami of course was right beside me and she squealed in delight as she saw the gems and trinket chests' contents as she said "Matt, you didn't tell me that there was jewelry as part of the treasure!"

I shrugged as I closed the chests back up and said "I thought that was a given, and besides, you didn't ask." Glancing up at the boys, I said "Usopp, if you'll help Nami with one of them while Luffy and I get one each, we can get all this back in one trip."

"Alright." Usopp said, the two quickly joining us. As we walked back to the ship, Usopp asked "So Matt, how did you get all these chests there? I can't imagine you wanted to drag them all that way one after the other if you wanted to keep them secret from anyone who could have been watching."

"It was actually fairly easy; I just stuck a trio of small but high revolution twisters under them and walked them over while sticking to in between the trees." I said.

Usopp blinked and said "You've got that much control over your wind constructs?"

I shrugged and said "I've had months to get used to making my devil fruit work and wind is a lot easier to use than say lightning or fire."

"I can certainly see why you would want so much control with it. One minor slip up and you could be uprooting trees in a giant tornado." Nami said.

I nodded and said "That or the ship I'm on losing a mast." The three of us shuddered and even Luffy looked a little pale at the thought of the ship he was on being damaged to that extent. Shaking his head of that morbid thought, Usopp said "Moving on, Matt, you said you still have world knowledge right? What can we expect on the Grand Line?"

Luffy opened his mouth and I glanced at him, but after a moment, he seemed to reconsider something and nodded at me as he said "Since you don't know the story anymore, I guess it's alright for you to tell us."

"Not the kind to like spoilers eh?" I asked with a small grin. Luffy gave a definitive nod and I chuckled for a moment before I glanced back at Usopp and said "Simply put, Chaos Incarnate. The islands all have their own magnetic charge requiring a special type of compass to navigate them which we will have to pick up in Logue Town before crossing the Red Line." Nami tsked to herself in annoyance at that while I continued "From what I understand, those selfsame conflicting magnetic fields play merry hell on the weather systems, the weather only calming down when you get close to one of the islands. Each island is stuck in one of the four seasons year-round and due to how isolated the islands on the Grand Line tend to be due to the roughness of the ocean the ecosystems tend to evolve at different paces. For instance, while Drum Kingdom is known as the medical capital of the region, the relatively nearby Little Garden is still in the prehistoric stage, dinosaurs and everything."

"Dinosaurs, really?!" Luffy asked eagerly and at my nod, he started bouncing, chanting "Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs!" as he went, somehow keeping the chest on his shoulder as he did so.

Usopp however reacted in the opposite direction of the spectrum, beginning to mutter under his breath "Grand Line scary, Grand Line scary."

I snorted at that and decided to withhold the fact that both those islands were in the Paradise half of the Grand Line and that the New World was even worse, IE, Raijin Island which rained lightning 24/7. Especially since Nami was currently chewing on her free hand's thumb muttering what I think was meteorological jargon as she talked herself through how she would navigate said ocean with furrowed brows and a severe frown.

Time Skip: That Night

Thanks to us having sparred the morning away, getting my gear on board the Going Merry (I finally learned the ship's name during a late lunch), breaking down camp, and gathering water and other supplies from the island took up the rest of the day. After dinner, Usopp helped make the new basin for the solar still, made out of a wooden frame that we put six layers of duck tape around, the tape being laid down in intersecting layers, starting with going up the basin walls on the first layer, horizontally the second, and so on until we were sure that the basin wouldn't be leaking on us.

After that, Luffy demanded a beachside campfire, the Monkey somehow finding everything needed to make S'mores in the Merry's Kitchen. (I was EXTREMELY surprised to find out that Hershey's was an actual thing in this world.) In the tradition of campfires everywhere, stories were told, some rather humorous attempts at being tales of horror (Luffy: And when the pirate turned back, the meat was GONE!), some were incredibly farfetched (Usopp: And then in thanks for slaying the great mountain lion the people made the young boy king.), and my contribution? Well given the company, I thought it fitting to tell the story of the Curse of the Black Pearl, and I chose wisely given how well liked it was by the other four.

Still, with such a long story at the end, it was well past one in the morning when we went back to the Going Merry to go to sleep. Well, the others went to sleep, there were a couple of things that I still had to do tonight. It was three in the morning when I slipped off the ship, slipping into the tree line and heading back to where my camp used to be, my memory assisted night vision allowing me to avoid turning on my phone's light.

Once there, I stood in the middle of the small clearing and said "Taifun, I'd like a word with you."

"What's up Matt?" Taifun's voice came from behind me.

Turning around, I saw that he was now shaped like a Hork Bajir from the Animorphs series. I raised an eyebrow at the sight before I shook my head and frowned seriously as I crossed my arms and said "Alright, what was with all of that gift giving back there?"

"What do you mean?" Taifun asked, cocking his head in seeming confusion.

My frown grew as I said "Taifun, please don't insult me. We may have had limited interactions, but I'd still like to think that I've got your measure from them. You suddenly appeared out of nowhere in an actual body while before you were perfectly content to interact with me via letters and you handed out modifications to those four like you were a grandma giving sweets to their grandchildren, not a single mention of an exchange anywhere in sight. That's not you, you've always been a proponent of Equivalent Exchange before, so why the change in your MO?"

Taifun chuckled and said "You always are rather quick to pick up on things Matt." At my confused look, Taifun grinned and said "You're not the only version of you that I've made deals with buckaroo."

I gained a flat look and asked "Why am I not surprised?"

Taifun cackled and said "Because you're a fanfic author who loves the Multiverse Theory." Laughing a little longer, Taifun suddenly turned dead serious and said "You're right of course, I did have a reason for what I did yesterday. To tell you the truth, what I gave your new friends were entirely pointless. Luffy's hat may get a little bit damaged down the road, but it wouldn't be anything a quick bit of sewing wouldn't fix. Zoro's Wado Ichimonji would never have been damaged to the point where it would be close to breaking. And as for Usopp and Nami? Their gifts aren't anything to write home about given how commonplace Bags of Holding and something to hold all of a person's maps in one thing are in video games and places where magic is a real thing."

Shaking his head, Taifun said "But as pointless as what I gave them was, it served a point. It gave the message that this world is under my influence, and that I AM keeping track of it, along with all of the other worlds I have an interest in."

I frowned again, this time in confusion as I asked "Why would you need to do that?"

"Because as you know, I'm not the only R.O.B. out there, and some of them really do deserve that B for Bastard in front of their title." Taifun said, somehow making his currently a beak for a mouth scowl as he crossed his arms and continued "One in particular doesn't like how well I can multi-task, able to keep up with multiple variations of you and a couple of other people while he has only a single poor sap stuck in another One Piece world to torment, and he was preparing to screw with not only this version of you but the other versions as well. Needless to say, I didn't want him anywhere near MY entertainment. Allow me to unlock a part of your memories so that you can really understand how bad he is. This Bites! Chapter One."

I gritted my teeth a little as a brief flash of information returned to me. Blinking at what I now remembered, I winced and said "Yeah, I definitely don't want to have to deal with that asshole. Thanks for that."

Taifun returned my nod of gratefulness with a nod of his own before he gave a shooing motion and said "If that's all Matt, then you should head off for your second task then get to bed. You'll be heading out early tomorrow after all."

"Right." I said with a nod and Taifun vanished, leaving me once more alone in the woods as I made my way back to the beach. Taifun was right after all, it had been a long day and I needed to get some sleep. But first, I had twenty million Beris to dig up and then hide again. The Bilge of the ship should do nicely, especially if I cover the chest in a couple layers of duck tape first.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll on my Profile, please take a moment to head there if you haven't voted on the most recent poll yet.

So we're seeing another difference besides just which Devil Fruit I got in this version compared to the others. Taifun randomly popped up as I was typing, proving that he really does deserve that R in his title and I decided to run with it. Shout out in the story to the Crossbrain and their marvelous work This Bites! for being the ones to get me wanting to actually write One Piece stories rather than just read them.

Also, I can't believe I almost forgot about that extra twenty million beris I got in exchange for the Bloody River. All of that money, never mentioned again if I hadn't decided to do a quick reread of Chapters 2 and 3 of this story while in the middle of posting the chapters for Zaboomafoo. I'll have to decide whether that goes into a shopping spree at Logue Town or if it's saved for something else.

One final thing. Before you guys ask, it does NOT take as much space to hold large amounts of money as shows and movies would make you think if the bills are a big enough denomination. The chest holding the Blood Path Pirates' ill gotten funds was big because the bills were all different denominations while the chest holding the twenty mil is only about the size of a business briefcase since it holds uniform bills that are of the highest available denomination. Just thought that I would clear that up before someone uses their only available review asking how a treasure chest could fit in a ship's bilge.