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.
The sun was finally hanging over the mountain tops. The shadows were all gone from the streets and the fog was building in the northern forest. The labyrinth was being scoured by the pirates for extra weapons and resources from the captured parties of bounty hunters. The warships around the island had been raided and used for repairs on the village. Everything was peaceful, especially at the boisterous tavern.
For the second day in a row, the Buster Pirates were being cheered on with an accompaniment of seafaring chorus. Bard sat at center stage in the middle of the bar with the recently rescued Rez and Zan sitting near him. Araly, of course, sat right by his side and sipped occasionally from a shallow glass of water.
"Can I cook you something else, captain?" the head chef asked nervously.
"Uh, yeah!" Bard said. "Give me another thing of meat, please?"
"Damn!" the chef said happily. "I mean, great! I'll go back and place you order." The chef left with a dark scowl on his face and headed for the kitchen full of exhausted cooks.
That man is a bottomless pit...
"Yo! Can I get some more beer?" Zan asked from across the room. He was sitting across from Rez at their own little table. Rez was quietly pouting at Bard and drinking only when addressed.
"Calm down, soldier" Zan taunted. Rez shot his head back around at him with a glare. "You're still a major player here, right?" Rez cooled himself and now just looked at him. "Not everyone's talking about Bard, you know. You generated a lot of hype with the crews here as well." Rez reset his face back to normal with a bit of astonishment. He looked around and, to his surprise, people were pointing and looking at him
"Hmm" Rez humphed with a grin. "Well, I have been a pirate much longer than him." Now confident in himself, Rez took a steady swig from his pitcher.
"Three cheers for Captain Bard!" some random person shouted out. Rez spit in his glass, soaking his face and scowled his head over in Bard's direction. The rest of the Buster Pirates had walked in with kegs and crates in hand and marched on through the bar to the back. Everyone cheered regardless.
"Well, thanks guys!" Bard said cheerfully. He went to take a drink from his cup but stopped short and grimaced at it. "Araly, what is this?" he whined.
"Tea" she happily replied.
"Uuugh..." Bard moaned as he slumped down onto the table. "I want'a drink beer with everyone else!"
"No! You're far to young to drink beer!" Araly scolded. "What would you mother think of you?" Unfortunately for Bard, someone had overheard the back and forth between him and her, and decided to assume the most obvious thing verbally.
"What's the matter, Kid?" a random passerby slurred as he patted his back. "Your wife giving you trouble?" Of course, Bard's face turned red and his eyes became furious, but Araly just went back to sipping innocently. Bard jumped up from his chair and leaned down in spite, bearing his teeth with glaring white eyes and the accused man.
"SHE..." Bard growled, "isn't my wife." This scared the poor man sober, and he put his hands up protectively as he visibly quivered and shook.
"Ch-ch...Chill man" the pirate stuttered quickly. Everyone was staring at this point, and Araly was more than aware of it. She tugged on Bard's coat and he turned around with a curious face.
"Sit down, Bard! You're causing a scene" she said softly. Bard's sharp ears picked up on the titters and giggles of quite a few pirates. Even Rez was chuckling to himself and Zan was shaking his head with a smile.
Bard stuttered fervently, but couldn't form the words to satisfy his own embarrassment. Instead of trying harder to talk, he sped out the door and stomped on the street outside. After a few stomps, it was quiet again.
"Woah!" one man said beside the still cracked and poorly-boarded hole in the wall. "He vanished!" Many people started flocking about the windows and looking around for him. The wood where he had stomped was splintered and broken.
"Ah!" the man whimpered. "He's pretty touchy, eh? What's up with him?"
"Oh," Araly started with a tone of disappointment, "he's just like that. He doesn't seem to want to grow up..." With everyone looking out the windows, she kept her concerned gaze locked over onto the door.
Sasuke had reached the final floor before the crows nest balcony and began to converse with himself.
"Aguila being here was no coincidence" he began. "There had to be some reason, and moreover, he had to have someone working inside to get here in the first place. This island isn't very easy to get to even with a log, and especially hard for any Marines..." he climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch to the top. "All of this seems way to weird to chalk up to coincidence..."
"What does?" Bard asked. Sasuke stumbled backwards, almost falling back down the hatch, but regained his balance and looked up. Bard was crouched on his toes at the edge of the nest's wall, looking out to the sea. After regaining his composure, Sasuke walked over and sat with Bard.
"Oh, it's nothing" Sasuke said laxly. "How's it going?"
"Meh" Bard replied, making a rocking motion with his hand. "I'm glad everyone's happy for me, but I don't really know what I did..."
"Really?" Sasuke asked. "Well, what has you confused?"
"I was just being a pirate, I wasn't trying to do anything profound or stupendous." Bard's modesty reached Sasuke, as the words gave him an involuntary pause.
"Well, why did you do it?" Sasuke asked. Before bard could happily answer. "In fact, I have another question for you." Bard looked at him expectantly. "Why did you become a pirate?"
The question raised Bard's eyebrows. Sasuke expected him to take a much longer pause than he initially did, but Bard already had his answer prepared. He smiled and gave a short laugh before he began.
"Because I love to fight!" Bard said with an eager smile and furrowed brows. "As a marine, I couldn't fight just anybody, only lawbreakers and pirates mainly. I figured whatever they wanted me to do after that would be the same. If I had a coworker or higher-up that I wanted to fight, I wouldn't be able to do it. I guess I stayed gone because I knew that there were plenty of strong people in the world, and as a pirate I could fight anyone I wanted without getting in trouble..."
Sasuke was impressed and moved. He was smiling at Bard and Bard turned to give a goofy smile back.
"How about you?" Bard asked. Before he could start his answer, Bard extended his question. "Why'd you become a ninja?" Sasuke looked ahead flatly, then shook it off and began to answer the first part.
"My older brother left to find the One Piece when I was a kid." Sasuke's story had recaptured Bard's attention as the breeze blew the flag overhead hard. "He was always so amazing. Fast, strong, great with a sword. I really looked up to him. Then, one day, a group of pirates came to my town and fought off the marines. Everyone else hid in their homes but me. They were the original Ninpo Pirates, led by the legendary Captain Shoga..." the silence lasted for a few seconds. "...but that was a long time ago."
"Hmm" Bard hummed in response. "I like your story a little better because it has ninjas." Bard's goofy quip left Sasuke stiffly twitching his head for a moment.
"Where are you going to go from here?" Sasuke asked. Bard thought for a second with his fist in his chin.
"The next island?" he replied.
"No," Sasuke chuckled. "What will you do on the Grand Line? Where will you go, or don't you know?"
"Nope! I don't!" Bard pleasantly replied as he back flipped back down. "That's half the fun!" Sasuke watched on as Bard casually went back down the ladder to the tavern.
"...I like him" Sasuke said to himself as he stood up on the walling of the nest. "He's just like my brother was..."
"So, what'll you guys do now?" the bartender asked the mainstays of the Buster Pirates. Marco and his overly burly pro-Bard companion took swigs from their drinks.
"Well, that's up to the Captain, really" Marco said. "Once our log sets, we'll probably get on our way."
"Although," the burly one said depressingly, "we don't have a proper ship at the moment."
"You think anyone'll be selling their ships anytime soon?" Marco asked. The bartender shrugged and went back to cleaning his glass. Just as the two were getting settled back into their drinking, a shaky hand grasped them at the shoulders. Marco jumped with a loud "GEEZ!!"
"I have a boat..." said a very creepy looking old man in a shroud. His one eye was bulging almost out of his head and his hands were nearly all bone. Except for his insane and crooked smile, he was shrouded in dark. A big vessel, too. One worthy of a crew like yours." Marco and his friend glanced between each other warily.
"What kind?" Marco asked speculatively.
"A Galleon" the man replied in an high pitch. "It is a marvel of shipwright engineering, if I would so say myself, I..."
"Well, we aren't suckers!" said the burly Buster. "I want to see this ship before we give you any go ahead!"
"Very well," the man said between breaths. "If you can gather your crew outside, I will show it too you..." With that, the old man seemed to glide away. Marco got up and slapped his friend on the shoulder. He nodded, and they both went off to gather the crew. Zan had seen the whole thing, and it jarred his memory of a previous event. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small Den Den Mushi.
"Wha's that?" Rez asked, taking his lips off his bottle. Zan turned away and took out a cigarette from his pocket.
"Press it and find out" he said with his mouth occupied before lighting it and walking away. The normal logic of unknown objects and the consequences of touching them had been drunkenly drowned in Rez's brain, leaving him with the 'what does this do?' complex. And so, he pressed the button.
Down in the outer banks of the harbor, salvagers were working hard and prying loose all the cannons and better-looking parts of the sunken ship without much progress. Suddenly, they all heard a simultaneous series of clicks from within the ship, followed by concussive booms. The water above made a tremendous splash, as the enormous force of each cannon in the warship going off at once forced the water up and about as mist. The workers, in turn, were all cartwheeling through the air in a curious daze.
Through the rebuilding streets and other arduous work projects making bustling noise throughout town, the explosion was neither heard nor notices way back at the bar. Rez kept himself at attention for a few seconds, but failed to register and profound effect from the button.
"Piss" he cursed and went back to drinking.
