Cause this is Thriller! Part 1
Stare...
It was an epic showdown on one side the king of the skies, on the other the golden lizard, each one struggling for supremacy in an intense challenge. The challenge being the staring contest that I was having with the news coo. Beady black eyes boring into my own for over a minute now with no end in sight.
"Just pay the bird already!" That was until Nami smacked me in the back of head. Grumbling I opened my mouth, allowing the news coo to gleefully hop into it and start pecking at my teeth. Shooting Nami a look of mock annoyance I handed her the paper before slouching against Sunny's railing. Nami, pleased that she hadn't had to pay the news coo, flipped her hair as she walked off.
It was the morning after the fiasco in Lovely Land. The whole crew having collapsed for the night as soon as we had sailed far enough away. We had all slept like the dead and to my relief no one appeared to be showing any signs of madness. I glanced over at Zoro who was pumping a massive barbell that must have weighed over 500 pounds with one hand. Well no more than usual at least. Already that morning I'd informed Chopper of the dangers that looking at Ithaqua might have caused and he'd agreed to keep an eye out as well for unusual signs of madness.
The news coo hopped out of my mouth and with a very self-satisfied coo, took flight. Shutting my jaw I watched it fly away even as I grumbled to myself.
"I'm not even the correct type of animal for this to even be a thing and yet it is."
"With the way you eat I doubt that there is anything left for them to peck at in the first place." Turning I saw Sanji walking up, hands in his pockets and a lit cigarette in his mouth. Judging from the rush of Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Franky onto the deck behind him breakfast must have just finished.
"It's all thanks to your incredible ability to teach table manners. Seriously though it's like I'm a Disney princess or something." I muttered under my breath. Choosing to ignore the first half of my statement Sanji instead focused on the second part.
"How are you in anyway a princess scale-head? A princess must be the height of beauty, songs sung of their radiance! These Disney princess must be spoken off all across your world!"
"Slow down their Casanova, they also happen to all be underage." And just like that Sanji's building hurricane of love deflated like a punctured balloon.
"If anything what a princess is know for is the ability to attract small cute animals and sing."
"You can sing?"
I opened my mouth to shoot of a snarky response only to close it with a click. Instead I frowned thoughtfully while scratching my head. I could kind of sing before arriving here but with the whole completely different body I wasn't sure.
"You know I actually haven't tried since I arrived here. I could kind of sing back in my world but." I trailed off and offered him a shrug. Lifting one swirly eyebrow, Sanji proceed to give me a slightly surprised look. Which was right when our conversation was interrupted
"Hey Tii'chia, what's about your full grown size with bat-like wings, a flaming sword, and attacked Marineford?" Nami shouted from by the ship's wheel. An excited Luffy, and a nervous Usopp peering over her shoulders at the paper.
"A Balor! Wait..what?!" I shouted back before the rest of her words had sunk in. The next minute I had joined Nami, Luffy, and Usopp by Sunny's wheel, where Nami handed the paper over to me. On the front cover was a picture of a Balor battling against Sengoku and the three admirals of the marines.
I scanned the article before flipping to the next page where it continued. The descriptions of the creatures they fought conjuring up names, Dretch's, Babau's, Succubus, and Shemhazain. I was just about to lower the paper when a second article caught my eye.
This one describing a sudden attack on the fleet led by Garp. An attack by a so far unknown species of Fishmen. Once more my brain provided me with names, Sahuagin, Kraken, and Scrag. Hands trembling I lowered the paper to look at Merry as she ascended the stairs towards us. She tilted her head to the side curiously, tail curling behind her
A light bulb turned on over my head as everything fit into place like the pieces of a puzzle. Quashing the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose I instead settled on a long sigh and glanced at everyone nearby.
"Shit, I know why this all happened. Let's get everyone together so I only have to say this once. Plus it will give me time to get my thoughts in order."
The entire crew had gathered in the kitchen by the time I had finished getting ready. Murmurs of surprise ran through the room as I entered. I had removed my armor for once and instead wore a simple grey and gold tunic with matching pants. Sitting down I reached into my Bag of Holding and pulled out the Luck Blade and set it onto the table.
"Wishes are finicky things in general and the kind that was made to save Merry especially so. What happened is that when I made the wish it opened up the possibility for other things to essentially come here. Things like the Wendigos we faced or the creatures that attacked Marineford."
"So what does that mean for all of us?" Nami asked, looking between me and the Luck Blade on the table.
"In the short term it means that what I know of the future could be off for any number of reasons. On the long term side I'm less sure, just that we'll need to get stronger." I then reached up, tugging my shirt open to expose my scaled chest along with the shards of crystal embedded in it.
"It also means I should fully explain all the enchantments that I have access to. The first one you already know about, my ability to grow larger. The second and third aren't as obvious or easy to explain.
There is an enchantment on my eyes that allows me to see things as they truly are. Darkness, illusions, mirages, transformations, I can see through it all. It's not something that I figured would actually come up or I would have mentioned it before.
The final one protects me from evil, it probably only works on the creatures that were evil from the world that the monsters are being pulled from. The enchantment makes me less likely to get hurt by attacks from these creatures and helps me shrug off mental control attacks. "
A wealth of blank stares greeted me as I finished talking, the crew seeming at a loss as to what to say.
"Okay but what about the crystals in your chest?" Franky asked, breaking the silence.
"I was getting to that." Pointing to five amber spindles I began to explain what they did. "These increase my ability to survive poison, resist disease, get out of the way of explosions, and resist things that try to tamper with my mind."
Next I pointed to a clear spindle. "This makes it so I don't need to eat or drink to survive."
My finger traveled over to three crimson spheres." Make me smarter and are probably what's allowing me to remember details about monsters and the more minor details from your story."
Finger circled twelve emerald ellipsoids set into my belly. "Makes me able to take more damage before being knocked out."
Iridescent spindle, set in the center of my chest. "Makes it so I don't need to breath."
Finally I pointed to a vibrant purple prism embedded into my chest directly in front of my heart. "This one let's me open a portal once per day that I can step through to travel great distances. Normally the stones float around your head in order to grant their power but these have been embedded into me through a process that I don't have the details of."
As I finished listing off all of the stones powers and abilities I pulled my shirt back across my chest.
"What about the one at the base of your neck?" Robin asked, getting confused glances from the rest of the crew and myself. A trio of arms bloomed along my body, each one holding a mirror that reflected an image of a pale white sphere that was indeed embedded at the base of my neck.
"I... have no idea what that is or could be."
Before I could say anything else the interior door to the kitchen was pushed open to reveal Lil. She looked around the kitchen slowly her eyes red and puffy. It didn't take her long to realize that the face she was looking for was absent and she started to wail.
Robin rushed over to Lil scooping her up into her arms as Sanji rushed to the grill and started cooking. The rest of the men minus Chopper tumbling out onto the main deck under Nami's withering glare. The door slamming closed behind us, muffling the sound of crying. Luffy was the first one back to his feet, practically bouncing with energy. If it looked to be a little force I wasn't going to be the one to comment on it.
"Hey, hey Tii'chia, think that any of more crazy monsters of yours are going to show up on the next island?"
"Probably, it's certainly got the same kind of vibe that monsters enjoy. Dark, spooky, full of zombies."
"Shihihihihi, I'm getting fired up. So what's next? Got anything else that you were going to explain? "
Straightening up I felt Usopp sliding off of my back and tumble to the ground. Usopp bounced to his feet just before a light bulb lit up over his head. "Oh yeah something happened when we were fighting those big Wendigo's. Almost forgot about it till just now."
He went on to describe what had happened along with the the strange time stretching sensation. As he finished I scratched at my chin thoughtfully. "It sounds like you might of had a flash of Observation Haki."
Four pairs of eyes stared blankly back at me and I couldn't help but sigh. I could have sworn I mentioned Haki to them already but either I was misremembering or they had forgotten.
"Okay so Haki is based off of ones spiritual energy and is divided into three types. I'll only be describing two of them since the the third isn't something that everyone can learn. The first as I just mentioned is called Observation Haki. It gives the user a sort of sixth sense about things and allows one to sense people's presence, strength, emotions, and intentions. Advanced levels allows one to see several seconds into the future.
Next is Armament Haki, using your spiritual energy you can make yourself harder to hurt or to enhance the power of your attacks. It can be applied to a section of your body, your entire body, and even to your weapons. Higher levels let one channel this power outside of the body without a medium or use it to damage an opponents body from the inside."
Three wide sparkling pairs of eyes were staring at me as I finished talking. Zoro, the only one whose eyes weren't sparkling, still looked intrigued.
"So your gonna teach us about Haki then right?" Usopp asked even as he, Luffy, and Franky leaned in towards me.
"I would but that's all I know about it. Unlike with the abilities that CP9 used the actual mechanics of Haki are a mystery."
The three that had been leaning forward so eagerly collapsed into a dejected pile with a groan. I had to step back in the next instant as the three of them began to wrestle as they tried to untangle themselves. Zoro shook his head as he turned away from the scene to return to his weight lifting. Franky and Usopp extracted themselves from the wrestling at about the same time. Leaving Luffy wrestling with himself in a cloud of dirt. First light bulbs and now this dust cloud, it made me feel like I was in some kind of Saturday morning cartoon.
"I'm gonna go cast out the fishing lines. See if I can't catch something for dinner." Usopp said, waving one hand back at us as he headed below deck.
"Keep an eye on Luffy, Tii'chia. I'm gonna finish repairing my arm." Franky added as he followed Usopp. As I looked away from him I noticed that Luffy was no longer wrestling with himself and instead staring up at me from the ground with a serious expression on his face.
"That third version of Haki you mentioned, is it like the thing grandpa did back at Water 7?"
"Yeah it's called Conqueror's Haki, you've got it as well. Your dad probably has it too."
As I spoke Luffy's face brightened and just as I was finishing he jumped up onto his feet. He took a moment to straighten his hat before bounding off after Usopp with a cry of "Usopp wait up!"
I wonder how things were going with Lil? Deciding to find out I made my way over to the kitchen. Pushing the door open I went and peeked my head in. Sanji was cleaning the dishes while Merry and Nami sat at the table with mugs in front of them. Merry was sipping from hers while Nami looked like she had chugged half the mug in a single go.
"How did it go?" Merry looked up at my words before gesturing me to come in.
"Better than expected, growing up in a family of pirate hunters she's been exposed to the rougher side of life. It was everything falling apart all at once that proved too much for her. Robin and Chopper took her to the woman's bunk to get her set up with somewhere to sleep and change into some new clothes once everything was explained. Chopper promised that he'd make her something so that she could sleep peacefully tonight."
I had just pulled out the chair that I had occupied earlier and sank down into when Nami stirred. Lifting the mug she was holding to her lips she chugged whatever was left in it before shaking her head. A moment passed before she got up and handed the empty mug to Sanji.
"She reminds me a lot of myself just after losing Bellemere, she's pretending to be tough even if she's hurting inside. I do have a question that's been on my mind for you Tii'chia. The monsters that we might end up meeting from now on, how rich would you say they are?" While her tone had started off casual enough by the end of it her words were dripping with greed. While she wasn't looking at me I still caught sight of the berry symbols in her eyes.
"It varies but some are actual dragons, hoards and all." Anything else I was going to say was drowned out by the ear-splitting shriek she let out before dashing from the room.
"Guessing that what you were going to add was that most of the monsters though probably have about as much loot as the regular pirates we encounter?"
Tearing my eyes away from the Nami shaped dust cloud she had left behind I turned to Sanji.
"Probably a little less on average depending on what we meet." I responded, picking up the Luck Blade and tucking it away into my bag.
"I'm going to get my armor back on before something happens." The words had hardly left my mouth when the sound of something heavy hitting the deck reached our ears. Followed by exclamations of surprise and calls for everyone to come and see.
"Too late. You invoked him." Merry said as she got up to see what was going on. Hanging my head in shame I followed after her. Outside Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro were clustered around something.
"Everyone come see what me and Usopp fished up! It's a mystery box!" Luffy shouted, dancing around a large iron-bound chest. Sanji glanced back at me only to receive a shake of my head. I was just as clueless as everyone else right now. I was pretty sure that the Thriller Bark arc had been set off by a barrel not a chest.
"Me and Usopp were fishing when he heard this really big splash. We were both looking for the source when Usopp's line caught on something and he also got pulled into the ocean." Luffy was chattering away as we drew closer. The chest actually looked to be in decent condition and not like it had been underwater for sometime. Zoro pushed open the lid, revealing a piece of paper resting atop a pitch black cloth. Snatching up the paper Luffy stared at it for several seconds before frowning and holding out the paper towards me.
"Here, this kind of looks like the writing of the book you keep all of your notes in." Taking the paper I glanced down at it in surprise as I recognized the writing. It was a short note written in Dragonic, a language that I was fairly certain till a little bit ago that only I should have been able to read or write.
"Since you didn't get the chance to loot before Ithaqua appeared I decided to be kind and deliver the loot to you.
Signed V"
I looked up from the note just in time to see Zoro pull back the black cloth to reveal what it had been hiding.
"Treasure!" The kiddie trio shouted as the contents of the chest were revealed. Gold coins, brilliant gemstones, delicate pieces of art were visible with the promise of even more beneath. Even the cloth itself could be counted as treasure as it fell open to reveal that it was in fact a black sleeveless longcoat. Actually it looked similar to the coat that Mihawk had worn and from the slight frown on Zoro's face he thought something similar.
"That's not the only treasure we got." Nami said as she came down the stairs from the back of the ship. In her hand she held a cherry-red tangerine with wavy orange and yellows swirls on it.
Between the shock of the finding a treasure chest and a Devil Fruit it took some time before everyone was able to get settled and things properly sorted. The whole crew had gathered out on deck, while Nami with Robin's help did their best to calculate the treasures value.
Lil sat a little ways off from where the rest of the crew had gathered. Legs tucked under herself as she stared down at the Devil Fruit in her hands. It had been decided by unanimous decision of the crew that since the Devil Fruit was her Father's that she got to decide what to do with it. Ever since Nami had handed the Fruit to her Lil's hadn't pulled her eyes away from it.
A door banged open and everyone looked up as Nami stepped out onto the deck, a bulging brown bag over one shoulder. Judging from her smile the treasure had turned out to be very profitable.
"Before I get into how much we just made I want you to look at a few of these items Tii'chia. The items are hard to judge because they feel off somehow, like your Bag of Holding." Hefting the bag she was holding she tossed it through the air so that it landed with a thump by my feet. Crouching down I pulled out the items inside one by one.
First a pair of bottles, one filled with a silvery paste and the other with a bright green liquid that alternatively darkened before growing lighter. Next I drew out an odd suit of hide armor, it seemed to be made out of the front half of a Manticore. Burnt orange fur covered the sleeves and torso section of the armor while along the shoulders and upper back was the black quills that the creature was so well known for. The sleeves ended in fingerless gloves with the paws of the beast over where a persons hands would rest.
I had just withdrawn the last three items, two rings and a scroll, when Robin came out onto the deck. Floating in a lazy circle around her head was a dull grey gemstone that shone as brightly as a torch.
"Well some of these I can identify but others I don't have a clue on."
"I can identify the rest!" Merry shouted as she crouched down besides me to start examining the items even as I grabbed the bottle of silvery paste.
"This is Silversheen, you coat a weapon with it and for about an hour the weapon will be unusually effective against things like werewolves. It might help against Zoan type Devil Fruits as well but it's unlikely. The item floating around Robin's head currently is called an Ioun Torch. It's pretty much an Ioun Stone that had lost most of its power and then been enchanted to function as a light source."
A clap from Merry's hands pulled our attention back to her just as she stood up holding the green color changing potion, the tip of her tail twitching with excitement.
"So this potion is what is known as a potion of delay poison. One drinks it and for the next 3 hours any poison that's in their body won't harm them. If a poison enters the body during those hours it won't harm them till the time limit is reached." Merry handed the potion over to Chopper who was staring at it like he had just found the ultimate panacea. Crouching down Merry scooped up the scroll in one hand while lifting the armor in the other.
"This is a scroll of Ice Storm, it does exactly what it says regardless of the current weather conditions. Outside of me I'm not actually sure who can activate this."
Slipping the scroll into a pocket of her raincoat, she thrust the hide armor forward.
"Magical hide armor seeming to be made from a Manticore, more protective than it looks but does limit ones mobility. "
When no one immediately reached out for the armor she moved to drop it when a soft voice interrupted her.
"I'll take it." I glanced over in the direction that the voice had come from to see Lil looking back. She had pulled her eyes away from the Fruit to focus on the suit of armor. When no one voiced an objection Merry walked over and placed it down beside Lil.
Returning to the bag she grabbed the rings and held them up, in her left hand sat a golden band set with a sapphire that encircled the ring, splitting the gold into two bands. In her right hand sat a ring of pale gold, a star shaped moonstone set into it.
"The ring in my right hand is known as a ring of counterspells, if anyone could cast a spell into it then in the future if that same spell was cast upon the wearer it would be countered and not hurt the person wearing it. Might be useful in the future but well it's not likely to come up. More importantly is the ring in my left hand. A ring of water walking."
Merry stopped speaking as she realized that the gazes of Luffy, Robin, and Chopper were now fixated on her or more accurately her left hand. Slowly she moved her hand away from herself and we watched as the trio's eyes followed the movement. She started walking backwards along the perimeter of the deck followed by the three Devil Fruit users.
"It's like watching a mama duck and her ducklings." Sanji whispered as he watched with a raised eyebrow.
"Who's going to get it though?" Usopp asked.
"Luffy." Four voices answered simultaneously. Me, Zoro, Nami, and Franky all voicing the obvious answer. It would at least reduce the amount of times someone had to dive into the sea to save him. As we continued to watch a piece of paper fluttered down out of the sky near my head. My hand shooting out to grab it and pull it close.
"PS
I felt it was only fair that the Marines and Garp got rewards for their fights as well."
"Well shit."
AN: Merry's class can technically be labeled as Kensai Magus. She just hasn't shown off any of the spell casting aspects of it or has she?