It's been a whole week since I followed Luffy to 'train' with Naguri.
I would be lying if I say I didn't miss the other two boys, but I'm not gonna say it out loud. That would be embarrassing.
For the whole week, Luffy and I are basically just cutting down trees and I think it's pretty pointless. But Luffy can throw his punch into a straight line now, and my arm strengths are stronger, so suppose it's not that pointless.
We eventually meet Ace and Sabo again when we're cutting down a tree and they both almost get turned into pancakes, but thankfully they managed to run off to the side. We talk for a bit before we decide to go back at Naguri's place, in the corner of Gray Terminal's coastline.
I sit down next to a 'target' spot that was built by me and Luffy while Luffy is about to show Sabo his development in the past week. Sabo doesn't seem impressed by the target's drawing and just sweat drops at it.
"Luffy drew it. I already told him that I'll do it, but he refused and drew it himself. And you can see the result." I tell him in amusement.
"Luffy has almost zero skill in drawing." Sabo agrees before Luffy calls for him and we turn to look at him as he giggles.
"I'm gonna show you the result of my training!" Luffy announces before he starts rotating his arms around, "Here we go… Gomu Gomu no… Pistol!" and he delivers the punch in a straight line.
Sabo is pretty impressed, but then realizes that it misses the target and punches Naguri instead before it retracts back and gives Luffy the recoil. Seeing that, Sabo laughs.
"That's awesome! A week ago you could barely punch in a straight line or even that far!" Sabo praises Luffy, who seems proud of himself.
"That's great and all, but you still miss the target, Luffy." I tell him, "If you can't land the punch on the target, that's still bad."
"I know! But soon I'll be able to hit the target! Just you see!" Luffy exclaims out as the three of us walk to Naguri and Ace are, with the babies following behind me.
"Then what if Roger has a child?!"
We all turn to look at Ace and Naguri, seemingly heavy conversation is currently happening.
Then Naguri grins, "Then it would be hard to be his child." He answers, "Even if they chose to live a normal life or be a pirate, they will be haunted by their father's name. It must be very difficult to be accepted by them. If I was them, I would not be a pirate, because their father's name would ruin their life until the end."
That apparently ticks Ace off.
"'Would ruin their life'?! Stop bullshitting! You don't know anything!" Ace snaps. Woah when did he learn that language?! Oh wait, it's probably me. "Why don't you fight me, old man?!" and he immediately jumps to attack Naguri.
I just watch the fight silently while Sabo and Luffy call for his name. Of course, Ace stands no chance against a veteran and Naguri easily beats him. Ace seems ready for whatever Naguri is going to do to him, but he just told us to follow him.
So we did. We walk through a small bay, following the old man along until the end of the bay. And at the end of it, stands a half-finished ship. Naguri basically told the older boys to help him out too. Ace protests first, but Naguri points out that he said that he can do whatever he want to him, so he relents. And then Sabo too, but the old man simply says that he's here, so might as well help along, in which Sabo screams out that it doesn't make sense.
But Naguri basically bribes him with tips on how to beat the tiger, and Sabo immediately relents.
"Let me ask you one thing." Ace says, "What are you going to do with that ship?"
"Of course I'll go out to the sea to find my separated crews." He replies with a puff of smoke from his pipe and a grin.
"To the sea?" Sabo asks in surprise.
"What? You think an old man like me can't go out to the sea?" The old man asks.
"Well I didn't say that, but…"
"It doesn't matter how long it will take to reach your dream. I don't care what people will say, but I have decided! I'll go out to sea!" Naguri announces before pointing his hammer at us, "You have a problem with that?"
Luffy laughs, "Nope!"
Sabo laughs nervously, "What an incredible old man…"
Ace is walking away, making Sabo turn back and call for his name.
"Promises are promises. I will help you. And I'll be the one who beat you tomorrow!" Ace says, before he continues on walking away and we're just watching him in amusement.
And then for the next few months, we've been helping Naguri to cut down trees and bringing them back to the bay. Sometimes in the evening, Naguri teaches us about things in the pirating world, but the boys are obviously not interested and sleep along while I'm taking notes. There are times where the guys are all fighting over deer meat that I and the babies caught. And I just laugh watching them before eating my portion.
Spring is coming, but spring in Gray Terminal comes late. Finally! I can see Sakura trees! It is beautiful, like in the anime! Too bad we're not having hanami, but maybe someday in the future.
Not only that, but Takao and Flame are almost fully grown up! Takao is bigger and finally learned how to fly, and Flame also gets bigger and less pup-like. And I can ride on Flame's back! But only for a few minutes because then he falls flat to his stomach, but that's okay!
Despite helping Naguri with his ship, sometimes we just play around while still helping him up. And right now, we're sitting under a sakura tree and just admiring it, before I decide to have my fun on Luffy.
"Did you know, Luffy? People in the old days said that the sakura trees were originally pure white as snow, but it eventually changed color because they're absorbing blood." I start my tale with a grin. The rubber boy quickly turns his head to look at me with a horrified expression. I see that the older boys also turn to look at me, but both of them seem amused by my attempt.
So I look straight into Luffy's owlish eyes and continue, "They said that when they dug the sakura trees, they found mummified corpses under the trees, with the roots curling over it greedily." I move closer to his face and grab on his shoulders so he's not backing away.
His expression changes into terrified one, which makes this even more interesting and amusing, so I continue on with a wicked grin and wide eyes, "Apparently, the sakura trees were drinking their blood, which in turn changed their petals into pinkish color, thanks to the blood they got from the corpses."
"And there is also an old myth, that there is a clan of assassins called Sakurazukamori. They killed their victims before burying them underneath the sakura trees…" I pause for a moment for dramatic effect while I can see that the older boys are trying their best to hold their laughs.
Looking back at Luffy, he looks even more terrified and pale than before, so I decide to finish it, "…and the sakura trees feed their power to Sakurazukamori in return!" I scream out and do the evil laugh loudly, making Luffy to screech out in horror with a completely pale face.
And then I throw away the façade and back to my poker-face, which throws Luffy off a bit as we stare at each other for a few moments before he turns robotically to the sakura tree behind him and screams out in fright, which makes me snort and laugh out loud, with the older boys following suit.
After a whole 5 minutes of laughing, I tell Luffy that it's just a myth, which makes him yell out at me angrily. I just laugh it off, but Luffy doesn't let me go and starts chasing me in rage, which in turn makes me run off from him while laughing my ass off. Ace and Sabo just laugh along while watching Luffy chasing me around, circling the tree for 5 minutes.
Spring comes and goes, and now it's summer!
And we're in the middle of SS. Ace and Sabo against each other, while I'm against Luffy. Both Takao and Flame are sitting on the side, near Naguri who just watches us.
Luffy throws his rubbery punches, but they're still relatively easy to dodge as most are straight lines that keep on missing its targets. As I step aside to dodge his punch, apparently the punch hits Naguri instead and I wince in sympathy before grabbing Luffy's stretching arm as it returns to its owner and delivers a kick on his face, resulting in my victory.
"Sheesh Luffy, you need to come up with a way to counter attack if someone grabs your stretched limbs to their advantage." I tell him with my hands on my hips.
"Nnngh damn it! It's not good enough! One more time!" Luffy exclaims out as he hops back on his feet.
"No can do. You already fought 100 times. Try again tomorrow." I reply in amusement as I pat his head and he pouts. Fuck he's so cute.
Behind us, Naguri sighs while still rubbing on his punched cheek. "You guys are only thinking about becoming stronger, but do you think that's enough?" He asks and the boys widen their eyes in confusion.
"What do you mean? The strongest of the three of us will be the Captain, while Eris here is just a tagalong. So what do you mean by that?" Sabo asks back, his brows furrowing down. I slap the back of his head for that comment of me being a tagalong.
"That's right! There is only one of us that can beat the giant tiger!" Luffy exclaims out.
"The giant tiger, huh? Well, it is true that a Captain must be strong, but there is something that's more important." Naguri says and the boys widen their eyes in confusion.
"Something more important?" Sabo asks.
"Yes, that thing is…" Naguri starts and the boys are looking at him in anticipation and seriously, "…I forgot!" He eventually says before he laughs, making Sabo and Luffy boo him for that. I just laugh while Ace stares at him with a blank expression.
A few days later in the morning, we all gathered at the bay to watch Naguri lowering the ship into the sea. Finally the ship is done!
"Thank you all. Without your help, this ship wouldn't be done this fast. I really appreciate it!" Naguri says in gratitude as he bows down at us for a bit.
"It's okay Naguri. We hope you can find your crews." I tell him with a grin.
"Oi Naguri, are you really going to set sail now?" Sabo asks.
Naguri nods. "Yeah, but before that, I want to see your training results. Go and hunt that giant tiger now!" He says and the boys immediately cheer out.
"Really?!"
"I will definitely win and ends this stupid training!"
"The one's gonna kill it is me!"
"I won't lose too!"
I just smile fondly at their antics. "Well, then the rest of us will watch you guys from the cliff. Good luck guys!" I cheer on them and they nod with a big grin.
When we finally arrive at the place, I can see that they finally arrive in front of the jungle, with their weapons in hand. Though Luffy didn't bring any, considering he prefers to use his fists, same with me.
After a few moments, I finally hear a loud growl and cracking trees, birds flying away from the forest.
"It's here." I say softly as I keep my eyes on the scene. The giant tiger is coming, slowly approaching the boys.
"There it is." Naguri says as he also watches the scene carefully. His hammer is ready in his hands to intersect if things go bad. Flame and Takao are watching enthusiastically as Flame keeps on barking while Takao lets out bird cries.
The tiger below snarls loudly, but neither of us flinches as Ace suddenly goes first to attack the tiger, but fails miserably as the tiger easily slaps him away. Same goes with Sabo. And then the tiger goes after Luffy, who's terrified but still tries to deliver a punch. He managed to punch the tiger, but it easily bounces off and it recoils on Luffy.
When the tiger finally reaches Luffy and slams its huge paw to Luffy, I can see that Ace and Sabo stop it from getting Luffy.
"Oh, how interesting." Naguri comments with a grin, eyes not pulling away from the fight.
Eventually the three of them escape from the huge paw crushing them before they all go separate ways. It seems like Sabo serves as bait while Ace and Luffy go into the forest. I can see Luffy is stretching his arms as he walks back, making himself a slingshot while Ace stands in front of him as the 'stone' before Luffy slings him off to the tiger. And just like that, Ace gives it one high-speed attack and the tiger is down.
Seeing that, the boys let out a cheer and I follow suit before I slide down the cliff to approach them.
"Eris! You see that? We won!" Luffy exclaims out with a huge grin, bouncing on his feet.
"Yeah! You guys are awesome!" I reply with a huge grin before glancing at the said unconscious tiger with wide, unblinking eyes. "Now all we need to do is kill it and skin it for money." I say darkly with a chuckle, but I get a slap on the back of my head for that.
"Stop your weird tendencies." Ace huffs and crosses his arms. I just booed while rubbing the back of my head.
"C'mon! Imagine how much money it will give us!" I point it out with a pout, which gives me another hit on the head by Ace.
"Don't be an idiot. We're here to defeat it, not kill it for dinner." Ace says with a surprisingly pacifistic reply.
"Wow, I can't believe Ace is becoming a pacifist. Is winter coming earlier?" I tease him with a cat smile, which ticks him off and the rest of us just laugh at him.
After all of those, we all go back to the bay to watch him set sail. We wave our hands as he sets sail into the sunset. He waves back at us before he looks forward as his ship gets further.
"Well, he finally set sail." Sabo says proudly, putting his hands on his hips.
"Yeah, I hope he meets his crewmates." I nod with a grin as I put my crossed arms behind my head, "So considering we're not eating tiger meat tonight, how about we eat dinner from High Town?" I ask the boys with a devious grin, in which they return it and we quickly off to the town with our pipe in hand.
After we all ate-and-dashed, we stole some stuff too. The boys grabbed the food while I stole wallets and other valuable stuff from the nobles and some normal people. We quickly ran off before the cops got us, snickering along the way until they lost us in the forest.
Once we make sure that they lost us, we go back to our hideout and plop down on the floor with our earnings, before laughing out happily.
"So how many you got, Eris?" Sabo asks as I start counting the money from the wallets. I may be bad at math, but I'm pretty good at counting money.
"Let's see… Hmm, probably around a million berries. How about you guys?" This time, I turn to ask them.
"We got some fruits and meat, and we found a weird fruit with weird curls here." Ace says as he takes out a golden yellow colored fruit that kinda shaped like a mango with swirls.
I stare at it for a moment before widening my eyes and snatch it to have a better look.
"…It's a devil fruit." I mutter, taking the boys and the pets' attention.
"Devil fruit? You mean the weird fruit that gave you weird power like Luffy?" Ace asks, ignoring Luffy's protests.
I nod and stand up; walking toward the self-made shelves for Sabo and mine books and grab the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. We stole most of the books we got from the High Town, while some we got from Makino as gifts. I flip the pages while still holding the fruit until I stop on a certain page.
I glance back at the fruit before going back to the page and nod before turning back to the boys. "Guys, look at this." I call all of them and they come circling the book in the middle, trying to see the picture on the page. I point at the picture that looks similar to the fruit in my hand.
"It's called 'Tori-Tori no Mi, model: Garuda', a mythical Zoan type… Wait, a mythical devil fruit?! The one of the rarest devil fruits of all? Even the rare Logia type?!" Sabo exclaims loudly in amazement, "That's amazing!"
"I know right? I never thought to see one, especially in the Four Blues and it's a mythical one." I grin as my eyes transform into Berry signs, "Also, it was said that devil fruits sell pretty high in black market. Should we sell it or should we keep it?" I ask with a smile.
"Eris, we can see your greed." Sabo comments with a sweatdrop.
"Black market? What's that?" Luffy asks curiously and innocently.
"It's a market that sells all kinds of illegal things, like, people as slaves." I reply and that shocks Luffy, "Ah, but not everything is illegal. Some are just rare things, like devil fruits." I quickly fixed my mistake.
"But how are we going to sell it?" Ace asks and everyone looks at me expectantly while I scratch my cheek nervously and look at everywhere but them.
"T-that's a good question that I don't know the answer for." I reply with a sheepish grin and everyone face-fault.
"Then don't suggest it!" Ace yells out, gritting his teeth while I just laugh sheepishly.
"Well let's just sleep for today. We'll think about what to do with the fruit later." I quickly change the topic as I pull my mattress and lay down.
"Don't change the subject!"
But in the end, we all went to sleep and by the morning, I was woken up by a heavy thing landing on my face. I groan as I groggily push the thing away, before realizing that it's a navy blue wing that's as big as my body height. Pushing myself up, I start to realize who the owner of the wing is.
There lay Takao, soundlessly sleeping with his new appearance. His new form makes him look like a humanoid, huge bird. The closest thing I could think of is Pell when he's in his humanoid bird form, but blue feathered. And he's very…muscled and naked, but thankfully his whole body is covered in feathers, so all is well.
"Takaochin, wake up. Look at your body now." I say in a slightly annoyed look. When he doesn't wake up, I slap his head hard and he immediately tries to sit up, but maybe because he's not used to his body being bigger, he flails around and slaps his wings to the boys while I block it.
The boys are waking up while Takao finally realizes his transformation that his eyes look like they're about to fall off the sockets.
"W-WHAT IS THIIIIIIS?!"
And that sudden yell actually makes the boys and Flame immediately wide awake while I'm just impressed by how expressive Takao is now. Woah awesome, Takao can talk too.
"W-wuh happen?!" Sabo slurs as he sits up and starts looking around before realizing an unfamiliar sight.
"Takao ate the DF and now he's panicking." I explain with a chuckle while pointing at the panicking Takao. He's acting like a headless chicken. I see that Ace is too stunned to say anything as he's watching Takao scrambling around while Luffy and Flame are back asleep and snoring loudly.
"I guess now we have two DF users to train. But I'm still sleepy, so let's deal with it later after I take another nap." I continue and plop back on my mattress, slowly drifting back asleep.
Unfortunately Ace yells at me to wake up and hits my head, which literally hits me awake and I sit up to yell back at him. In the end, both of us jump and start to fight each other. Takao has finally gotten over his shock, so both him and Sabo are just watching us with a sweatdrop, while both Luffy and Flame are fast asleep.
What a lovely start of the day…
(Posted on March 25, 2022)
(a/n: special for this week, i post 2 chapters at once because what's better to celebrate chapter 1044 than this? at least it is for me lol)
