(They are adults in this chapter)
(Warnings: Mentions of Discipline)
Discipline was just a part of life. Everyone received it and everyone dished it out at some point or another for their own reasons.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you!"
No one said that those reasons weren't selfish.
Punishments weren't meant to be enjoyed, particularly used to correct behavior or ensure such behavior was not repeated. Law was always the one to decide who got punished, for how long, and how severe. By now, Law has got the whole discipline thing locked down tight. He has categorized what punishments others will get depending on the situation and its severity. There weren't two punishments like one another.
Bruised fists decimated the wall, missing their intended target thanks to a swift dodge from the other. It had been a good 10 minutes since the two of them started going at it and they showed no signs of stopping. Where was Law when you actually needed him?
"As if you could with those pathetic sticks you call arms!" Similarly bruised fists mirrored the other's swings, actually hitting their target.
The blazing read-head spat out a mouthful of blood from the lucky blow, having to recover quickly in order to avoid another hefty swing and the loss of more of his teeth.
"I wish you were never born!" Penguin growled venomously, his face red from anger; his face was never red unless he was really peeved.
Penguin, it turns out, was the one fighting with Shachi. Their hats were nowhere to be found, making them less recognizable at first glance. In the back of the crowd were Clione and Uni, thankfully unnoticed and slowly backing up towards the exit. They ran off together and disappeared down the hall.
Penguins' jet black hair ordinarily was styled into a hat hair shape but now it was chaotic and frizzy. Similarly, Shachi's contrasting red hair was splayed all over the place, having been yanked at mercilessly by Penguin.
You really had to see it to believe it.
The two of them had such a close relationship that it seemed impossible for it to be the two of them fighting. However, here they were, brawling it out in the main lounge room for an unknown reason to everyone else forced to watch this play out. The others knew better than to try and pull them apart. Those two had excitable tempers and wouldn't hesitate to temporarily transfer their hostilities onto whoever interrupted them.
A huffing penguin snatched the other up by his suit, slamming him harshly against the wall with a sickening 'crack' from somewhere no one wanted to know.
Blinded by his rage, Penguin took his bloody hands and began to choke out his so-called best friend.
That feat didn't last long enough to work though, easily escaping with a swift kick to already bruised ribs just as dark spots began to dance around the corners of his eyes. The force launched Penguin a few feet away, landing full force onto a table and smashing it under his weight.
"I'm SO glad you're not my brother!" Shachi spat ruthlessly, kicking a bleeding Penguin in the ribs again when he attempted to stand among the rubble.
"Finally, something we can agree on!" Penguin's voice was strained from the abuse on his certainly by now bruised ribs. It made it incredibly hard to move but it was either push through the pain or get crushed. He chose the latter.
The two of them drew knives from a flap in their suits that they had been given by Law. He said it wasn't safe for them not to have a weapon with them at all times so he forced them onto the two despite their complaints. Now, look at them; using the knives to assault each other rather than a common enemy.
The others around them gasped, desperately looking at one another for help; everyone was in the same boat of wanting to help their Nakama but trying to not die in the process. If Penguin was willing to choke Shachi out, who knows what else they'd do.
Penguin swung first, slicing his comrade the entire length of his cheek. Blood poured along the rubble around them like the toppings on a cake, coating his jumpsuit with red. Shachi wiped his with the back of his hand and hissed, charging at the other with a burst of adrenaline and anger. One blocked a punch to the gut while the other blocked an incoming knife to the abdomen. Apparently knowing what the other was always thinking didn't come in handy at times like this.
A clumsy misstep over some debris gave the redhead an opening, grappling at the opportunity to get in an attack. The blade of his knife pierced through Penguin's palm; he shouted in pain and yanked the knife away from Shachi, the knife still embedded in his hand. A calming blue light washed over the entire room before they could do any more damage. It forced them to stop in their tracks, legs suddenly sliced away from the rest of their body. Their two halves collapsed independently, having to crane their necks to see who was there, despite being able to already guess.
Clione and Uni had come back with Law in tow, having raced off earlier to retrieve their captain for help. He was just about the only one capable of dragging them apart when they got like this.
"Bring them to my office. Now." Law let his room drop at that order. They effortlessly identified the look of disappointment on Law's face. Well, now that they weren't full of adrenaline and fighting, they were just embarrassed.
From their current positions, they were unable to kill each other and were reduced to being carried to Law personally to undergo their punishment.
Fighting called for double the work hours together down in the boiler room, which was the hottest part of the sub. No one dared to work down there willingly so there was usually plenty of work to be done down there. Thankfully, though, the crew was apparently so misbehaved that not long after something needed to be fixed or clean down below, someone would get in trouble and be sentenced down there.
However, before anyone went down there, they were also required to talk it out and reconcile in order to prevent them from murdering each other the second they got left alone or even worse - locked in a room together. Law wouldn't make the same mistake of locking two hostile people in the same room again. The last time that happened let's just say there was a lot of blood and a lot more repairs that needed to be done than before they had been sent down there.
/
Stealing was another offense that Law simply wouldn't stand for. It deemed whoever stole something as untrustworthy and selfish, presuming it as one of the worst punishments to receive.
"Shachi, have you seen the captain's hat? He can't find it anywhere and he's havin' a hissy fit about it." Ikkaku found the lazing man enjoying his free time in the lounge with Penguin; they were playing poker with some coins they picked up on the last island.
"What do you mean he can't find it?" Shachi dropped his hand of cards into his lap, Penguin mirrored his actions, sharing a look of confusion.
"I thought he never took it off." He laughed.
"I thought it was a part of his body." Shachi joined in until they were both giggling childishly at the idea of Law's hat being a part of his head, picturing it so it made him look like a mushroom.
Ikkaku slammed her hands on the table, disturbing everything that had been resting on it.
"This is serious! Can you please just grow up for a few seconds an' think back to if you've seen it recently? Any lead will do."
To be fair, nobody more than those two knew about how important Law's hat was to him. They never found where their captain had got it from but they knew it was a dear belonging to Law. As kids, even then he wouldn't take it off unless he was showering; he even wore it when he slept if you can believe it. Even Shachi and Penguin took off their own precious hats while they slept. Penguin raised his hands in surrender to prevent Ikkaku from murdering them.
"Okay, fine. No. We haven't seen Captain's hat. Ask Bepo. Maybe he borrowed it or something."
"Really? Did you see him take it?" He shrugged at her shocked expression.
"Well, no but you said any lead will do. You didn't say it had to be a helpful one." The two pals high-fived, still remaining unhelpful despite the woman's efforts.
Finding interrogating the two as a useless dead end, Ikkaku moved on to find Bepo, which was surprisingly easy but then again he was a huge polar bear mink. Kinda hard to miss him.
"Bepo!"
The mink yelped in fear, hitting his head on the bed he had been looking under. While he rubbed the pulsing bump on his head, he visibly relaxed when he found the intruder was Ikkaku.
"Ah. You scared me, Ikkaku. I was just looking for Captain's hat. He's so distraught, y'know? Oh, sorry! Is there something you needed?"
Dang. It was harder to low-key accuse such a sweet creature of stealing than she thought. Bepo would never hurt a fly let alone steal the Captain's hat. Without even asking, she felt bad for thinking that it was even a possibility he could've done such a thing.
"Look, sweetie. I don't think you stole the Captain's hat but I gotta ask if you've seen or heard anyone possibly going to take his hat. Maybe as a joke?"
She was pulling at threads here. Who would be stupid enough to take the captain's most prized possession as a joke? Bepo paused the rubbing of his head, humming gently in thought.
"Hmm. No...I don't - OH!" He jumped, blushing when he realized he had yelled.
"Sorry..."
Ikkaku urged him on, ignoring his outburst to hurry this along. From the crashes coming from a few rooms over, he could tell Law was going to go to much more extreme measures soon if she didn't hurry.
"Now, I won't accuse anyone in particular but I did see Uni and Clione wandering around the captain's room a few hours ago while I was passing by. Is...is that any help?" He timidly asked, hoping that had been enough information.
Before he even finished asking her, though, he looked up and found her already gone. With a shrug, he went back to searching, rummaging through the storage closet as if Law would ever leave his hat in such a place. As expected, Bepo had been correct that the two of them definitely had something to do with the disappearance of Law's beloved hat. They were hiding away in their room, playing with the hat like it was a ball, tossing it between each other on their separate beds. Since she hadn't knocked, she had caught them off guard and they were caught red-handed.
"You little shits! You really went so far as to steal the Captain's hat?! Do you know how much trouble you're going to get in?" The two were frozen in shock, unable to move or take their eyes away from the one who had barged in and caught them.
"You'll be lucky if you don't get kicked off the crew!" She turned heel to call to Law, who had been tearing up the laundry room, thinking maybe it had gotten caught in the last load.
"LAW! I FOUND YER HAT!"
It took not several seconds for said Captain to appear in front of her, looking naked to the woman without his trademark hat.
"Where? Where is it? You said you found it?" He was pretty undone thanks to this whole situation.
Ikkaku adjusted her weight to one leg, pointing into the room with the ajar door nearby. "Those two dumbasses took it."
Law basically appeared in the room, that's how fast he moved. Uni and Clione couldn't really do anything now that they had been caught, half attempting to hide the hat unsuccessfully behind their backs.
"C-captain! L-listen!" Uni threw up his hands, sweating bullets as Law snatched his hat back, looking it over for any stains or rips. Thankfully, there weren't any or Law would have actually murdered them.
"It-it was just a joke!" "Yeah! A joke!" Law sneered at them both, making them shrink back under his gaze.
"You think it's funny to steal?" By then, they looked just about ready to cry.
That look only escalated to actual crying as they were dragged off to the Captain's office to determine their punishment. Those two were actually pretty well behaved most of the time so while they still got a punishment, they made it very clear they would be behaved from now on.
Stealing resulted in a loss of trust, which was an awful thing on its own when you were in a crew with people you were supposed to trust with your life. You also would also get a strike(you get three), and undoubtedly be sentenced to something that would make you think twice about stealing.
The sheer unknown of the punishment was mostly enough to deter someone from breaking the rules. Safe to say, Uni and Clione never stole anything, not even a pencil from the ship ever again.
/
While stealing was pretty serious albeit much less common, the most common form of punishment derives from the urge to get revenge. It's probably the most prevalent kind of discipline dished out on the Polar Tang.
Revenge stems from someone feeling like they've been wronged in some way and feeling the need to take action to properly right what has been wronged. Being pirates, revenge is like an everyday occurrence and isn't typically dependent on the person. Anyone can deem they deserve revenge.
However, someone no one thought would ever have to worry about such revenge was Bepo. The sweet polar bear mink had a heart that fit his big exterior. He had no backbone but he carried others like he had one. Whenever by rare chance someone gets so upset with Bepo that they feel the need to enact revenge on him, Bepo can almost always smell it coming. Revenge, like other emotions, had specific scents and by now, Bepo knew them all.
Revenge was fueled by anger, which smelled like ammonia and salt. It stung his nose and made him get a bad taste in his mouth. It was by far his least favorite stench, which was unfortunate because a lot of people liked to get into fights around here.
"Bepo." A sharp, low voice broke the peaceful silence in the command room. Being the navigator, everyone knew this was where the bear resides most of the day so it was effortless to find him.
"Yes, Shachi?" He turned his complete attention away from the mass of controls to address one of his oldest comrades.
The sharp smell of salt and ammonia gave away Shachi's anger instantly; one look at him and just about anyone could tell he wasn't happy. He was smiling way too wide to actually be happy and by the breathlessness of his voice, Bepo could tell he was clenching his teeth.
"Come here." It sounded rather like a demand or a threat left unsaid. The words were sharp, feeling like they would cut the poor mink if he didn't tread carefully. His ears pinned down, his large body tensing up.
"Why?" He chose not to decline, the stench of anger overwhelming his enhanced nostrils enough that he didn't want to provoke the other.
"Just come here."
If Bepo thought his previous words were sharp, these felt like they could cut steel with no issue. He mindlessly leaned away, wishing now that there was another exit out of the command room other than the one Shachi was blocking.
Why was his friend so upset? He knew how bad his temper could get over something so menial. Normally, Penguin or Law was there to stop him before he did something stupid but with the others nowhere in sight, he looked like he was in trouble.
"No. You're going to hit me."
His voice lowered pathetically, hoping that the resentful redhead wouldn't hear that and take it as an invitation to launch himself onto the bear. It wasn't like Bepo wasn't strong enough to take it but who wanted to get hit? Shachi stomped out of the doorway, freeing up the stairwell if Bepo absolutely needed to escape.
"You're damn right I'm gonna you furry little jackass!" As he expected, Shachi ran himself at Bepo, who in turn screamed in horror the second he found himself on the receiving end of an attack. Bepo scrambled out of the way, causing Shachi to slam into the wall instead. He pulled away with a bloody nose and newly ignited anger at the bear.
"What did I do? Shachi!?" He screeched again, running down the stairs, not even having to check behind him to know that the other was hot on his tail.
In an attempt to shake him off, he slammed the door to the command room closed, huffing and puffing to catch his breath from his quick escape.
The escape was short-lived after Shachi punched his way through the door, scaring poor Bepo to death. It was sad but Bepo almost wanted to risk his life to repair the door before Law saw it over running for his life. That thought was instantly tossed out the window though with Shachi breaking the door entirely, almost dropping its remains onto the mink in the process.
"You ate my lunch! That's what! Now get back here so I can strangle you!"
Bepo seriously wondered if he was being serious right now. He chased him down the stairs and broke a door because he had mistakenly eaten his lunch? Can't he just make more lunch? There was no time to consider this because before he knew it, he was cornered and the end appeared very grim for him.
"S-Shachi..please! Let me just make you new lunch. I'll even buy you lunch." He attempted a peace offering with being the spineless bear he was.
"It was a special sandwich! I bought it on the last island and now I can't replace it!" Shachi's anger exploded, attempting to grab at the bear now that he had nowhere to run.
Seeing an opening, Bepo made a run for it, getting caught briefly by his shirt but that only fueled his need to escape the flames licking at his tail.
Running down the hall again at full speed was not safe and he would not condone it. You could run into someone-
THUD
Yeah, just like that.
Bepo hissed in pain and rubbed his head, peeking up to find Jean Bart. He just about died of relief at the sight of him but it was a short-lived relief with Shachi catching up rather fast.
He hid behind the much larger man much to the other's bewilderment. Usually, people were hiding behind Bepo for protection so Jean Bart was basically the only one besides Law he could safely hide behind.
"Jean Bart-san! Please help me." Bepo begged the other man, who was shocked into silence at the situation suddenly thrown at him.
Shaking his head, Jean Bart came to his senses, choosing to dwell on this later. For now, he just needed to help his Nakama. Putting a large hand in front of him, it set up a nice barrier between Bepo and Shachi, stopping the steaming man in the process.
"Care to tell me what the hell is goin' on here?" Shachi, who had already slammed himself into the larger man's hand, was forced to keep his distance.
"He ate my sandwich!"
"He's trying to kill me!"
Jean Bart pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering how he should go about this. He hasn't had to handle disputes like these since he was a captain himself.
"One at a time. Please."
Shachi was first to speak - or rather - yell.
"He ate my sandwich! My special sandwich that I bought on the last island! Asshole!" Bepo flinched, trying not to cry out of guilt and humiliation.
He had been digging through the fridge in search of something to eat. Inside he had found a sandwich that to his hungry stomach, looked delicious. There hadn't been a name on it so he assumed it was for anyone. There was plenty of food in the fridge that was for everyone so it could've been anyone's mistake.
"Hey!" Jean Bart snapped at him to cease the yelling, leading Shachi to stiffen and begrudgingly bow his head. Once it was quiet, he started again.
"So he accidentally ate your sandwich. You're a grown-ass man. Deal with it. Make a new sandwich or better yet - Bepo. Just buy him a new sandwich at the next island." Bepo poked his head out from behind Jean Bart, regretting it instantly when Shachi glared piercingly at him.
"B...But I offered to. He wouldn't listen." A look of understanding washed across his face, narrowing his stare to Shachi in front of him.
"I see."
"So you just wanted to be angry….get revenge. Is that right?" Accusatory, sure, but a pretty dead-on accusation. Shachi stopped, his face burning now burning from embarrassment rather than anger.
"Well-" He stopped, finding his reasons foolish now when the older put it that way.
"Exactly."
The silence that followed was a loud and clear answer for Jean Bart. Even if Shachi has chosen to finish his sentence, it would go on deaf ears. Taking Bepo to his shoulder, he found himself feeling disappointed in Shachi for still being unable to hold his tongue and control his temper after all these years.
"I am going to tell the captain what transcribed here as I'm required to. You should know better than anyone that revenge is not to be enacted amongst Nakama." Shachi dipped to his knees to beg not to tell him. Law got very angry when his crew acted up but he was more concerned about having to do hours of scut work along with his other work already.
"Guess you should've thought of that before you chased Bepo through the sub and broke a door." Shachi gaped at him.
"Yeah, don't think I didn't hear you smash a door. Everyone probably heard it." Chances are if everyone had heard it, so did Law.
Revenge-induced rage was sort of like fighting but with harsher and more selfish intentions. Thankfully, since Bepo hadn't done anything wrong outside of eating Shachi's lunch, he was let off the hook with a warning to make sure not to eat anyone's food; he also had to promise to buy Shachi lunch at the next island, which of course Bepo agreed to.
Shachi on the other hand received much harsher punishments. With all the evidence against him, he got a lot more discipline than Law liked to give. He was to work alone in the boiler room for a month, fix the door he broke to the command room, receive a strike, and apologize to Bepo sincerely.
And that wasn't all…
There was another part of the punishment not a lot of people talk about. It was the endlessly torturous lecture from Law. Being alone with Law for an hour was punishment enough; they had to hear about how disappointing they were with their poor behavior. In the meantime, they had to watch Law put a strike on the whiteboard next to their name as if they were grade school kids in trouble.
The strike system was the worst idea Law ever had according to Shachi(and Penguin). It wasn't incredibly often that crew members received strikes but it did happen. You had three and then you were out.
When someone somehow receives three strikes on the whiteboard, they get a harsh silent treatment and all of their free time is stripped away from them for a month. No one is to speak to them or around them and is really only allowed to interact with someone else when they are handed food at meal times. Besides that, their work-to-relaxation ratio is only balanced towards work; the only time they wouldn't be working is if they were eating or sleeping. It might not sound that bad but after a while, it starts to get to you.
Law only had set up the strike system when endless extra work stopped always working to correct behavior. People got used to working down in the boiler room when they messed up; so much so that every crew member had boiler room clothes designed to be dirty and light so they don't have to clean them and so they won't overheat.
Nobody liked it when someone got three strikes, and everyone's stomach always dropped when someone got a strike regardless if it was for them or not. It was a terrible reminder of how many strikes they personally had and were forced to witness in someone else what it would be like to get three strikes.
When one person got three strikes, it was almost like everyone else did.