One Piece:

SHALLOWED

The stories from the Old World series

by Lucynda Raciak

| Swallowed |

Luffy's arm elongated and Shanks felt a panic growing deep inside him. The forgotten feeling brought him back in time. In one moment he was reminded about certain devil fruit user he knew years ago.

They had a battle with a marine vessel. Of course, they won. They were Roger Pirates - the infamous crew of Gol D. Roger. Wanted by the navy everywhere! The party was full-on when captain Roger said they found a Devil Fruit - the sea treasure. Few of the crewmembers had eaten one of those but even they weren't sure what powers the fruit could have.

The captain decided that if someone wanted to eat it, they could for all he cared. If not, they would sell it on their next island. Shanks didn't care. He liked to swim, thank you very much. He decided to find Buggy. Beside them, the only underage crewmembers were Neko and Inu, Momonosuke and Hyori. The two babies were of course excluded from any alcohol drinks since they were too small. Neko and Inu were already 15 and Mr Ray decided they could drink but the two, probably because of their animal genes, didn't want to. A shame in Shanks' opinion. He and Buggy still needed to wait and so sometime they would harbour some booze from the ever knowing gaze of their First Mate.

Shanks left the party with two bottles of some Paradise wine and get out searching for a friend. They started talking about the battle and plans for the future. As much as they loved their little pirate family on Oro Jackson they knew one day, they will need to start something on their own to get out of the shadow.

Their talk turned towards the Devil Fruit. Buggy was always interested in finding treasure. While many would call the boy greedy Shanks knew that his friend's big brain loved solving mysteries and the harder it was to get to the treasure the bigger fun Buggy had. Even better if there were deadly traps, weird clues and complicated mechanisms.

"Hey, didn't you just say something about some weird treasure?" asked Buggy.

"Hmmm... yes, we've got one of these rare Devil Fruits." answered the red-head. "Spencer told me the Devil Fruits are the sea devil's incarnations. Long ago they offended the Sea Queen and she turned them into fruits. That's why when you eat it you gain their power but you will be forever cursed by the sea and lose the ability to swim." he shrugged. He wasn't even sure if what Spencer said was true or not. "Captain said that whoever wants to eat it can have it."

Buggy laughed.

"Who would want to lose the ability to swim."

"Dunno? But having power would be cool. Like old man Whitebeard or that hag Linlin."

"Nah… what if you end up with some weird power?"

Shanks laughed. He knew that theoretically if someone was creative enough they could work with whatever power they had. Many of their crewmembers had unusual fighting styles and were able to pull that off but Buggy was quite right - a weird power might not suit everyone.

"Did you know that the marines wanted to sell it. On a black market, they go for even 100 million Beli. Can you believe it?"

Shanks was a bit surprised that the net day Buggy decided to eat the Devil Fruit. Maybe, in the end, he decided to risk having a weird power? To be fair, out of all their crewmembers, the clown boy was the most creative and forward-thinking person. Whatever it was Buggy would pull that off.

In the end, Buggy didn't seem to gain any powers, everyone decided the fruit was probably a fake and the same evening the two boys took a dive into the ocean. The New World was surprisingly calm that day but Sunbell still had an eye on them just in case. Nothing seemed to be out of ordinary. It changed the same night.

It was Shanks, Taro and Rowing's turn to be on a lookout. The red-head was wondering on the deck looking from time to time on the horizon in case an enemy ship was approaching. Suddenly he saw a movement. He got close only to realize it was Buggy who should have been asleep. He shook his head. Mr Ray won't be happy if the next day his friend will be tired.

He was surprised when he realized his friend had something in his mouth. He smiled realizing he probably stole some food. They were full at the moment so he decided there was no point in snitching on a friend, especially when this friend was your underage drinking-buddy.

He wanted to come back to his night-watch but then he remembered he should tell Buggy to go to their cabin. When he did, his friend started screaming and later jumped into the sea after some piece of paper.

For a second it seemed Buggy was taking his sweet time underwater but after half a minute or so Shanks felt cold fear penetrating him.

"Come on, Buggy! This isn't funny!"

Buggy was an amazing swimmer, even better then Shanks.

'The Devil Fruit must have been real!' he realized terrified 'Was it possible that losing the swimming ability came after few hours not immediately after eating the fruit?'

He didn't think about it anymore and jumped into the ocean to save his best friend. When they were back on the deck he checked if Buggy was breathing and helped the clown boy spit out the water that cumulated in his lungs.

After that, he ran towards the infirmary. As he turned Taro walked on him and looked surprised seeing Shanks panicking with unconscious Buggy on his back.

"By the sea! Shanks! What happened?!" asked Taro as he kneeled in front of the kid and looked at Buggy properly.

"I didn't know he would drown!" called Shanks almost crying.

"Rowing!" he called the other crewmember "Get Roger! I'm taking the brat to Crocus!" he ordered as he took the clown boy into his arms. Shanks didn't know when he sat near the door to the infirmary biting his nails but he remembered as someone sat and embraced him.

"It's alright Shanks." said Roger. "Buggy is alive. He only swallowed a little bit too much ocean water."

"It's my fault!" the boy protested. He blinked furiously as he felt wetness in his eyes.

"You couldn't know something like that could have happened and you still saved him. It's alright."

"It's my fault! I told Buggy we found that stupid fruit and told him it could give someone cool powers!" the boy was openly sobbing now.

"Buggy would have learned about the fruit either way." Roger tried to calm the boy down. "You saved him and that's all that is important."

Shanks cried himself to sleep in his Captain's arms.

A/N: Spencer, Rowing, Taro and Sunbell are one of the Roger Pirates. Sunbell is a fishman. Go to the wiki if you want more :D

I'm going to write more Roger Pirates/Roger-era centric stories so if you want sent requests. I would love to write more :D