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.


"So this 'thou' you keep talking about" Bard said, "you sure it's not a food?"

"V-Verily" the young man responded. He had given in to his own maligned pride and invited his savior, strange though he was, into his own home. His sister was healthy but shocked, and stayed sleeping in her bed where Bard had carried her, and no one in town was any the wiser that this house held within the most destructive force from the high seas.

"Well, whatever" Bard shrugged off. "Do you have any food?"

"Somewhat" the young man said. "By the by, I am named Jedidiah. Who art thou?"

"...uh...you want my name?" Bard guessed. Still unaware of what language this young man spoke. He Jedidiah nodded. "I'm Bard D. Samekawa!"

"Bard?" Jed repeated. "As in one who sings tales of grand adventure?"

"Something like that" Bard answered.

"But what of the rest of thy name?" Jed began, handing his guest a mug of well water. "What dost the D in thy name represent?" Bard guzzled down his drink quickly and gave a quick shrug before planting the mug down and breathing out.

"I've never know" Bard said with a smile. "From what I've heard, my father never knew what it meant either, but he had it. His father had it too. Heck, just about everyone in my family has had the middle initial 'D', but no one's ever known why..."

"How strange" Jed said thoughtfully. "It must be some deep, family mystery, right?"

"That's it!" Bard agreed loudly. "It's a mystery! No one knows! You're pretty smart, you know?"

"Yes, well, "Jed shyly started, "I suppose we may keep my proclaimed 'intellect' within this place. It would bode me no good if a rumor of any like regarding me should surface in the town."

"Oh yeah, about that" Bard said, "what's with this place? Why's everyone so weak despite all the work you do?" Jed shifted uneasily at the question. Still, Bard pressed on. "Why do you have to hide your strength like this?" Jed clenched his fist on the table and gritted his teeth in preparation to respond.

"It's all because" he started angrily, "of that man...the king of our fair island country, that selfish swine! He seeks to create a massive army and send them to their deaths for no purpose but self-gratified glory. He is a monster of a mad man, risking the lives of his loyal subjects and countrymen to deal with foreigners, outlanders, and worst yet of all pirates!" Bard choked.

"You don't like pirates?" Bard asked trying to stay innocent.

"If there hadn't been that pointless war" Jed started, straining to hold back tears, "my brother would still be alive..." Jed began sniffling, sobbing, with his head on the table in his folded arm. "Damn it all. I always cry! What manner of man is this that cries like a child at the drop of one's hat!?" Bard sat silent, listening to his new friend cry over, of all things, pirates.

"Men can cry" Bard said, stopping Jed for a moment. "Sometimes a guy just has to deal with pain however his body tells him to. Some guys take long runs, some guys beat people up, but the strong guys cry because they know that crying won't make them any less than they already are. The weak ones are the ones who can't cry, who have prides that they can't bother to hurt over anything at all. I pity men who can't cry over painful things. They'll never win their wars..." Jed sat back in his chair, eyes on the floor, and reflected on his guests encouraging words. He sniffled a few times more and wiped away his tears.

"Thank you, sir Bard" he said. Bard removed his serious demeanor and smiled widely, the corners of his eyes and back, as acceptance of thanks.

"Oh, by the way" Bard started, "what about that girl in the bed? Does she have a name?" Jed turned and looked at his sister in the bed near the fireplace. "I feel kind of bad that I have to refer to her as 'that girl' or 'your sister'."

"...Emily" Jed said. "Her name is Emily."

"Emily" Bard repeated. "That sounds resembling..." As he stroked at his chin with his powerful fingers, he wondered how his crew was doing without him...


"HOW BIG CAN THESE BEARS BE!?" shouted Rez as he sprinted away from said bear.

"How dumb can you be!?" Zan shouted. "This is the Grand Line. Always expect what can't be expected!"

"Isn't it 'Expect the unexpected'!?" Rez corrected while still running away from the hungry monster.

"I hate clichés!" Zan said.

"Screw this!" Rez shouted, stopping and skidding as he turned around. He placed his hands on his broadsword-cannon and let his momentum kick his forward leg up. The bear kept on angrily charging forward, just like he wanted it to. Then, with his thunderous step forward, Rez swung his sword over his head and brought it down hard, firing a cannon blast as the sights were locked on the bear's face for that brief moment. A tunnel of swirling dust and leaves kicked up where the blast traveled, from the barrel of Rez's gun all the way to the bear's steaming face as it laid amidst the knocked over trees from the path of destruction it made.

"That's how it's done" Rez said. "And anyway, why were you running!? You could've jumped through the damn thing, right!?"

"Too much salt" Zan said, lighting up a cigarette. "If there's salt it gets hard for me to pass through, and blood and saliva are full of all kinds of nasty crap that I don't want to touch."

"So it's not all about the salt?" Rez asked dejectingly. "In any case, we ran a bit too far."

"Indeed" Zan agreed. "We already know that this cliff-wall is an island-wide feature."

"The shore's right over there, too" Rez pointed out, "if you can call that a shore. It's more like the banks of a creek around here, rather than an ocean."

"Every island here is different" Zan said. "The Grand Line is like a box of poisonous experimental candies. You never know which one's your already immune to and which will kill you instantly."

"Quit butchering language!" Rez hotly demanded. "So, we have two choices, right?"

"Run along the coast and find the boat" Zan explained "or climb the cliff face. I'll leave that to you, Mr. First Mate." Rez growled and stood in thought for a second. While he thought, a crisp breeze blew past him. It wasn't a smell that one would seem to associate with autumn, it was hotter. Rez couldn't quite understand what went through his mind, but he knew that smell from somewhere.

"You smell that?" Rez finally asked.

"Does that mean the coast or the cliff?" Zan asked.

"Never mind that now" Rez demanded. "Something's close...something smelly."

"How articulate" Zan scoffed. "You're rather unpleasant to smell and you're fairly close. I suppose it must be you, you musky bastard."

"SHUT UP, DAMMIT!" Rez shouted angrily. The birds all flocked away from him in an instant. Even the ones that weren't close to him flew away. That's when his instincts began to take hold. "There someone over there" he said, facing the direction the smell came from. Of all places, it looked like the deepest and darkest area of the swamplands on the island.

"Should we investigate?" Zan asked. Rez gave it another moment of thought, but unfortunately the smell was beginning to work his last nerve.

"Yeah, we should" Rez said firmly. He began marching forward, keeping one hand on a gunblade at all times, and Zan followed.

That's the wrong answer, moron Zan though as he followed Rez into the dark woods, but whatever. I'm sure Bard would've done the same thing..."Hey, Birdman!" Marco shouted down below to the watchman in the crow's nest. "Can you spot them?"


"There's a village about a kilometer or two from here!" he shouted back. "Rez and Zan went running in the opposite direction, but I've lost them already!"

"Damn" Marco cursed. "We're barely here an hour and we've already been disintegrated. Alright, I'm taking temporary command here!"

"No you're not!" one of the burly Busters protested. "Ex-Captain Max is!" He held up the powerful pirate's limp body and shook it about like a doll.

"Quit that!" Marco growled at the foolish pirate.

"I disagree twofold!" yet another upstart pirate exclaimed. "Araly should be acting captain!" To that nomination, Araly glanced over from her comfy little tree branch with a hint of disdained fear in her face.

"Well, alright" the previous burly one agreed.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Marco said.

"Are you guys serious!?" Araly protested. "No way. No way at all! I can't be a pirate captain, I'm not a pirate! What's more, I'm just a girl!"

"I've known plenty of strong women pirates on the seas" Marco admitted. "You can even control Bard, so we believe in your leadership." With a gleaming smile and a winking eye, Marco gave his thumbs-up of total approval.

"Hooray for the Captain's better half!" the burly pirate shouted, following suit of the rest of the crew as they gave Araly their approving thumbs-up.

What's wrong with these people!? Araly shouted inside. "Well, I still move that Bard is an irrelevant matter. If he gets into trouble he'll fight his way out and somehow find us when he's done. Rez and Zan can take care of themselves, provided they don't end up killing each other...I say we just wait for the log to change and set up a camp right here."

"What if the marines or government officials come for us?" one of the pirates asked.

"Then we'll fight them, of course" Araly said, as if the answer was one everyone should have known. "You're the Buster Pirates. Bard won't let you guys lose a fight."

"Correction" Marco offered. "We're the Buster Pirates."

"Yeah, I said that" Araly said.

"No, you said 'you'" Marco pointed out. "'You' doesn't include 'Araly', does it?" Araly became tense. "So, acting captain, why don't you say it right? We know you can." Suddenly, Araly's worry left her. All this time on the sea with Bard and nothing tragic (aside form the Sea King debacle) had really happened to her. Evan on Paradiso Isola, the entire crew united to protect each other and her. She even allied with the Ninpo Pirates back then as well! That's when Araly decided that she wouldn't turn back. Her old life was far behind her now, blocked by the massive Red Line. She was now a pirate, and took in a deep breath to admit that with pride.

"We're the Buster Pirates!" She shouted over the tops of the trees. "No on messes with US!"

"ARRRRR!!!" the crew howled. The haunting roar that rose up over the island lingered in the air, further deepening the impact to be had at the hands of these gathering powers!

"By the way" Araly said aside to Marco, "how long will this log take to set?"

"According to our books" Marco replied, "it should only take five days."

"WHAT!?" Araly growled.