Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
"Alright men, LISTEN UP!" Bard announced to his new pirate crew. He was standing on the railing of the bow, behind the steering wheel, looking down at his burly crew of sailors…and Araly who was resting on a makeshift hammock. Hammocks always relieved her seasickness…somehow.
"I feel that I must address some important rules about pirating if we are to make any headway in this dangerous ocean." Bard began pacing back and forth as he spoke, walking nimbly on the wooden rail with his black coat blowing in the breeze. The crew he was addressing in question simply exchanged some confused and amused looks among each other.
"First," Bard began suddenly, raising his index finger, "if we talk like pirates, people will think we're better pirates than any other pirates. Therefore, I want as much pirate-jargon and slang to be said on this ship as possible! Words like 'ahoy' and 'landlubber' and, uh, 'matey'! We clear on that?" Bard turned to the pirates and crossed his arms. To his and their amusement, everyone gave an enthusiastic "AYE AYE, CAP'N!" Bard smiled.
"Second, a crew of" he paused to quickly count the head in the crowd with his free hand, "about thirty is to small. We need to try and recruit more pirates to this crew so our strength and reputation will increase as well."
"I have a question" a random pirate said, raising his hand. "How are we supposed to recruit more crewmen? It's not like we can hand out flyers or something like that." Bard turned slowly and shot a murderous glance at the now startled pirate. Bard jumped down to the deck in front of the man and bent down to acknowledge him face to terrified face.
"If you can't persuade them nicely," Bard said darkly, "then threaten them." With that he gracefully jumped back onto the rail and continued to pace while thinking of pirate rules on a whim. The poor man was frozen solid with shock and just stood gazing skyward, drooling slightly.
"Psst, Girl" Rezland whispered to his shoulder.
"My name's Araly" she said quietly from her hammock, which was swinging in the breeze.
"Is this guy serious?"
"Unfortunately. We used to go sailing all the time when the weather was fine back home, and he tossed kids of the ship if they didn't talk in pirate." Rezland turned to confront her more solidly, noticing that Bard's back was now facing the gathering while he thought.
"So he's had at least some experience as a leader?"
"If you call that experience. We were just kids."
"GOT IT!" Bard yelled loud enough for everyone to hear behind him. Still facing the bow he continued with his new rule.
"As members of my crew, I expect you to ensure each other's safety in all dangerous situations. Therefore, we need some form of recognition, a sort of secret sign to let us know whose pirate crew we belong to in a crowd. In that light I propose this." Bard leaped off the rail, twisted around in mid-air and landed to the deck, shaking it. When he straightened himself fully, he leaned to the left and flexed his arms to flaunt his gigantic muscles. The pirates stared blankly and confused.
"If you're a member of this crew, you gotta FLEX to prove it!" With this statement, he continued to flex and shift his pose several times before the group started to move again. Many of the pirates were turning their heads to each other, shrugging and uttering some inaudible words back and forth.
"C'mon! If you want in my crew, you gotta learn to recognize an ally. Therefore, you gotta work your BODY!" At the completion of this exclamation, he was on one knee with one arm flexing upwards and one to his side. Not knowing if he was serious or not, some pirates started to flex. At first, timidly and slowly, then others joined in laughing. Soon enough everyone except Rezland and Araly were half-flexing half-dancing with their captain. Bard noticed this and shuffled past the group to confront them.
"Flex it, Rez! You gotta show off those guns of yours if you really want in this crew." Rezland coiled back with his hips and scoffed, turning around and started to walk away.
"Please," Rezland said very smugly, "pirate crews aren't about gimmicks or secret codes. It's all about power."
"RIGHT! And what better way to show off our power than to show off our muscles!" Bard stated. Araly turned over at the brashness of this statement and looked through stone-cold eyes at Bard who was still flexing away. She couldn't help but notice that the fabric around his shoulders was stretching and almost ready to tear.
"Bard" Araly motioned Bard to come over to her when he turned around. He hopped over on one leg, trying not to break his pose. Araly is a master seamstress and clothier, capable of sewing a pattern into a ship's main sail within a few minutes (provided that the sail is laid out on the ground at full length). She swiped the coat off of Bard and pulled a needle with thread from behind her ear. Bard just stayed as still as possible, but ended up falling on his head.
Everyone looked on at Bard and Araly laughing heartily, as pirates are wont to do. They remarked individually at the sight, not of Bard, but of them both. 'What a cute couple', 'We better stay away from the captain's wife', 'When are you two gonna get hitched?' The jokes struck quite a cord with Bard, who was hardly interested in such terrifying subjects himself. Araly was used to the jokes, since she was the only real voice of partial reason in Bard's life. All she had to do, however, was glance in the crew's direction and they quieted up immediately. Bard was just about ready to shout his head off when Araly called him back.
"Here," she said as she handed the coat back to him, "try not to tear it apart, 'kay?" Bard swiped it back and threw it back on, working a flexing pose into the single motion.
"Okay," Bard said, "now that everyone seems to be on the same page, except Rez, I think we're ready to move out!" Bard hopped over to Rezland who had walked to the edge of the ship to stare at the island they were slowly circling, looking for an appropriate place to dock. One of the pirates was going to question about Mark regarding the rules, but recoiled his arm quickly enough that Bard didn't notice. The answer was obvious.
The island was built out of strong waves and underwater currents that cut away at the solid rock walls to form small inlets the most ships could easily fit in. The Artefatto Coast was connected to these inlets by way of nearly uncountable, labyrinthine passageways carved into the rocky landscape by wind and manpower, though mostly wind. The island was really the perfect haven for pirates or bandits to otherwise escape the impending pursuit of the Marines.
Rezland had taken notice to many ships around the island, many of which seemed to be stolen or ransacked. On an island that was almost always full to the brim with pirates, it wasn't uncommon to come back to your ship and find an empty frame floating in the waves.
"Watcha' looking for, bud?" Bard said. He was leaning against the railing with his arm next to Rezland.
"Don't call me bud," Rezland started in a rather insulted tone, "and we're looking for an inlet to dock in. After that, we'll head for the town." Bard perked his head at the mention of a town. He gave an inquisitive grunt t Rezland and tilted his head at him.
"There's a town on the Artefatto Coast where pirates are allowed to stay overnight, or at least until the log pose sets. Since the island part is basically all metal, it should only take a few hours for the pose to set, but we can stay as long as we like. There's always a huge party going on, too." Rezland leaned his head out to focus himself on a partially fogged-in inlet. Once he spotted it he ran up to the bow and informed the current navigator of their course. The ship turned sharply and sailed into the inlet as smoothly as possible. Bard personally dropped the anchor, by picking it up and tossing it overboard, which jerked the ship sideways once the anchor rope tightened.
The gangplank was extended to the shore and the pirates disembarked one at a time. First was Captain Bard, who just jumped from the ship to the ground. Then came Araly as escorted by Rezland's arm for balance. Once she hit dry land she was walking on her own with ease. As the rest of the pirates disembarked, Bard was staring with awe at the huge pathway that was cut straight out of the mountains.
"Looks impressive, eh?" Marco said from behind Bard. The entire crew had gathered, with the exception of Mark who was leaning back in a chair and sleeping on the deck. Bard turned to the group smiling, and gave off the salute that he had worked on with them. Once Bard flexed, everybody flexed. Rezland even flexed one arm, although a bit apathetically, and Araly mimicked Bard's pose to the best of her ability.
"Bard's Buster Pirates," Bard exclaimed as he spun on his heel towards the path, "onward, to ADVENTURE!" Bard ran off into the ravine, followed soon after by the rest of the crew with Rezland in a close second and Araly pacing with the back of the group. Mark snored loudly in his reclining chair with his shovel clenched tightly against his chest.
