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 Buster Pirates sailed the open waters of the Grand Line for a time and, predictably, suffered from boredom. Gretta seemed to be the only member of the crew still entertained. She sat on the aft of the deck, her delicate skin wrapped in a long cloak and hood, in a cushioned chair taken from the dining hall and read books from Araly's room while balancing odd objects on Maxwell's face. So far, balancing on his own shovel which teetered on the bridge of his nose, she had added a jar of sea water, seven clean-picked fish skeletons, complete with heads, and a cord of rope coiled unevenly near the middle. She just read and, when the ship seemed to move, placed a hand on her work to steady it.
The rest of the crew lacked her complacent dignity. She had long been in the practice of making a lot out of a little, even though as a princess she had nearly everything. She was used to sitting in the quiet and reading, though without the sun as much, for sometimes days on end. The stir-crazy crew held regular spars on the Main Deck which always ended the moment tempers began to flare between fighters.
"You ass of a man!" one pirate, a reformed Paladin, shouted. He smashed his head onto the forehead of his current opponent and they growled each other down hotly. "What lacking rules are in place that allow you to stomp on my damned foot!?" Their vocabulary was dulling the more they interacted with their fellow crewmen, but it was still more dignified in general.
"You got a problem with how I fight!?" the burly man said with a loud scoff. "PFAH! I'll take you down with my hand shoved down my throat!" The Paladin grabbed his arm therefore and started trying to thrust it into his own face.
"That I'd enjoy seeing!" the Paladin growled. The move lacked humor despite the obvious humor in it and was quickly broken up. The men were pulled apart and sparring was called off for the rest of the day as a result to punish the fight-crazed pirates. Rez observed them from the Upper Deck, a place that had become a sacred sort of area on the ship for the main crew, and took a slow drag from his cigarette. Zan was behind him, steering the boat, while Bard had his arms and legs dangling off the bowsprit as he slept out of pure boredom in the ocean breeze.
"It's a slow time, isn't it?" Rez said, calling to Zan. Zan didn't have a reply so Rez continued without him. "It's times like this I wish this ocean was smaller, you know? That way it'd be easier to meet more people as we travel to train off of."
"A fighter's ideal, eh?" Zan said. "I agree, though. It's hard to train for a serious fight without getting serious. I guess that's what you really mean, huh?"
"Right" Rez said. His cigarette burned itself down to a stub and he pitched it away. It burned out in the airy breeze and blew itself across the deck, catching onto the railing with the rest of the pitched cigarette butts he and Zan, mostly Zan, smoked on their job. Rez pulled up a chair and sat down next to Zan with a tired sigh.
"Don't want to step in?" Zan asked.
"You've got it under control" Rez said. He grinned and equipped his bandanna, casting a thin shadow over his eyes. "Wake me up when something fantastic starts to happen."
"Fair enough" Zan said. "The second we start sailing up a rainbow bridge to Heaven, you'll be the first person I tell."
"Hey, hey" Rez grunted, "don't joke about going to Heaven on the Grand Line. It's bad luck." Zan chuckled at Rez's superstitious caution and went on steering. After seeing the same sky stretch on for so long even the well-battled assassin became bored.
Well this was unexpected Zan thought. Being on a ship with enough testosterone to sink it, one would think more entertaining matters would arise to prevent this kind of boredom. Instead, even I'm getting heavy eyelids. I'm barely alert enough to keep the ship on course... The winds of the calm day stopped all at once. Zan looked back as he noticed the ship slowing itself to a halt and saw the Grand Sail being risen by the gears in the Under Deck. It seemed fruitless to try and argue against the current conditions, so Zan locked the wheel with the push of a locking bar through the center of the pivot and descended down through the deck, passing past sleeping Araly's chambers and into the Under Deck.
"Hey" Zan called. "Let's lower anchor. We aren't going anywhere productive like this for a bit."
"Aye aye" a pirate agreed. He moved through the halls bordered by gears and panel-hidden ropes to a wider array of heavy-weighted controls. One was a simple lever that took a moment of stretching and preparation before one could successfully move it. Zan phased his way into the side of the boat's hull and slid his way through the ankle-deep wood around to the aft end of the ship. Two anchors were dropped down and the ship sunk down after them. Then, from the bow, another anchor lowered and balanced the ship out. The Imperial Dragon was roosting now and moved none, even against the waves that splashed so calmly against it.
"I bet Bard would get a kick out of maintaining the ship's keel right now" Zan realized. He walked up the side of the ship for the Main Deck with a slow and even pace. "That man will smile at just about anything, I bet." Zan's body whipped up and his vision blurred from his own speed as he went from horizontal standing to vertical in a single step. Waiting for him was Gretta, whose sudden presence startled him into stepping back with his foot kicking in the air. "Geez" he said, calming himself steadily. "Announce yourself a little better. You're a princess, right? We need to get you some trumpets."
"All joking aside, Sir Demon" Gretta began in an earnest and respectful voice, "there's something you should see, back there." She pointed to where she had stationed herself at the aft of the ship on its rear upper deck. Zan followed her up the stairs and spotted Maxwell. He was apathetic at first but then he saw the potted plant balanced perfectly on his forehead, along with all the other miscellaneous items she had somehow gathered.
Where and when did we get that flower? Zan wondered.
"What do you make of it?" Gretta asked. Zan faced Maxwell and sighed.
"Boredom does strange things to us, Gretta" Zan said. "Honestly, though, it's impressive."
"That, Sir Demon" she said, emphasizing him to follow her finger. She pointed out to the horizon where, though very distant, the image of a ship appeared. Zan squinted his eyes and leaned over the railing to try and see better but abandoned his human attempts for something more suiting his style. He reached into his chest and pulled out a telescope while Gretta awed at him with pursed lips of excitement. "....may I.....try as well?"
"Later" Zan said as he spied through his glass. It was indeed a ship, and one that flew rogue pirate colors. A skull across the mast wearing a top hat with a white-ended wand in its mouth backed by a wide, round rose of red. He shortened the telescope again and shoved it back into his body. "I need to wake the captain. Start ringing bells. Yell out 'All hands to the Main Deck' a lot if you can."
"Understood" Gretta said with a nod. She and Zan both ran out onto the Main Deck. Gretta diverged and ran for the Under Deck where she flipped a switch that triggered every room in the ship to sound a loud, ringing alarm. The nurses in the sick bay were stunned in alert and the men whose minor wounds they treated shot up from their beds in alert. Gretta took hold of a Den Den Mushi transmitter and spoke into it. "State of Alert has been announced. All hands report to the Main Deck. Repeat, a state of Alert has been announced by Sir Zan Edwards, third-in-rank of the crew, and all hands are to report to the deck." Gretta's call went out to the entire ship, and in no time the quiet boredom was broken. Now a sized battalion of pirates, all armed with sabers and guns and raw muscle power, gathered on the deck with a combined flame of rage. Gretta moved through them effortlessly and went up onto the Upper Deck where Rez was duteously steering and Zan was poking Bard with his pointed leather shoe.
"Come on captain" Zan said in a passive, apathetic voice. "We're under attack. Time to get up and lead us..." Bard slept heavily, snoring loudly like a signaling foghorn at the bow of his own boat.....
Bard approached the railing of the helm that overlooked the Main Deck rubbing sleep from his eyes. Zan had explained the situation, though the excitement failed to immediately wake Bard up, and gave him his personal telescope to see the ship with.
"It'd be better" Zan said "if you went to the aft of the ship to see."
"Right" Bard agreed. He stepped up onto the railing and jumped over his crew, jumping several more times through the air with puffs of smoke coming from his feet.
Insane Zan thought. He's already solidly learned how to use Geppou! His own excitement started to show through in a dark grin. Gretta stood close by, veiling her emotion by wrapping her face with the excess cloth of her cloak to keep her delicate skin from the sun.
"Are we certain he is no demon, Sir Zan?" Gretta asked.
"He has the strength to challenge one" Zan said "but he's no demon. If anything, he's a kid." Bard landed at the aft of the deck with Maxwell still sleeping as a human balance act near him. Bard looked through the telescope and saw onto the deck of the ship. It was a big ship, though not comparatively, but it was still a shy away from any Marine battleship Bard knew to exist. It was only smaller by, in his terms of measurement, some three or four meters, being measured from the lowest part of the ship's main deck where the mast met. Other than that the build of the ship seemed regular. The only thing markedly different was what was on the ship's deck.
"Looks like some kind of stage" Bard noted. "There's a few guys running around in really bright colors and masks....some kind of weird gang." Bard collapsed the telescope and started a run back across the deck. Now that he was awake he didn't want to lazily go straight to the deck. He would run, as he does when his heart begins racing.
"Word, Captain Bard?" a pirate called to him.
"Don't know" Bard said. "Maybe enemies, but maybe not. Stand by for that."
"Orders, Captain!?" an enthusiastic and well-armed pirate called.
"Stay sharp" Bard said "and await further." The pirate nodded with a growl and loaded his bazooka fiercely. Bard returned to the Upper Deck in Zan's absence. "Where'd he go?" Bard asked to Gretta.
"To get Araly" she replied. "She is the only member not yet accounted for." Zan ran up the opposite stairway holding Araly over his shoulder with a long hammock blanket slung under her. He handed her off to Bard who took her and her blanket up in his arm. She was wide awake and worried.
"What's going on?" she asked immediately.
"Not sure" Bard said. His demeanor instantly changed from a concerned and cautious captain to the fight-crazy, excited, never-ending-rush of a boy that Araly feared to admit knowing. "Whatever it is, I hope it's awesome!!!" he lowed. Araly groaned and hung her head.
"I don't" she said.
"We should assess the situation fully" Zan said "before we decide whether to attack or not. After all, these pirates may not be the warring kind." Bard kept his face set on an adventurous and fierce expression to the sea. His mind didn't catch what Zan offered to him as well-thought advice. Araly turned in her sling with a depressed look on her face as she shouldered the burden of translating Bard's hidden thoughts.
"He doesn't want to consider any option" Araly droned "that won't end in something fun for him, so don't try."
"I see" Zan said. "In that case, we should send them a message before we decide to attack them. It's dishonorable to just swoop in with guns blazing without so much as a proper challenge request, right captain?"
"Indeed!" Bard agreed. He passed Araly off to Zan and made a run for the railing of the Main Deck. The ship was still some distance away and sailing slowly towards the Imperial Dragon in the low winds, but Bard had the energy to not only clear the distance but fight afterward if necessary. Bard tugged at the edges of his coat and straightened it out along his chest with a wide grin.
"What's the word, Captain?" a pirate asked. Bard stood up on the railing and crossed his arms, his eyes gazing out toward the open sea. He turned to his crew, a brilliant flash of confidence in his eyes, and spoke to them.
"If I don't come back" he began "I leave this ship, and the sea itself, to you!" Bard crouched down and made a Soru-powered leap into the air. He pumped his legs in a running motion as he drifted over the sea, leaping with puffs of smoke from his feet with every step he took. His crew watched him go, fading and shrinking off into the distance, with tears streaking down their faces.
"Goodbye, captain!" a pirate called.
"He's more than a man" another said, "he's some kind of hero!!!"
"Strong as he is" Gretta said "he's not so foolish as to fight others alone, right?"
"Foolish as he is" Araly said "he's more likely to bring the fight all the way to us rather than keep it private. But yeah, he's pretty damn foolish."
"If only we had some auxiliury craft" Zan said "he could have taken some fellow adventurous men with him. I'm sure the crew will be more than disappointed if there's no fight to be had." Araly gave him a skeptical glance.
"What makes you so sure that they won't be hostile?" Araly asked.
"I'm not sure" Zan admitted "but we can't deny that possibility. Some pirates have overlapping agendas, others are just out to win the race. However, it's common logic that if a fight can be easily avoided, it should be to save as much energy and resources as possible for a more serious matter later on."
"Fighting is serious to Bard" Araly said.
"So obviously" Rez called from the helm "we'd better start arming ourselves for an actual fight, right?" Zan lit up a cigarette in his mouth and shook the flame from the match. He exhaled a drag of smoke and ended up grinning.
"It'd be a shame to waste such a perfect day...." Zan said...
Bard emerged from the waters and onto the boat itself. He brushed the water from his hair and flapped his coat at his sides to dry it. He looked around at the ship he had landed on and took wide strides across its wooden floor. It was mostly empty. There were signs of obvious, recent movement which had been halted when the crew saw Bard coming, but the thing that captivated Bard more than anything was what rested at the rear of the ship. Just as he thought, it was a huge performance stage complete with violet curtains and bright lights hoisted up high, powered by cords running down through holes in the wood.
"Hmmm" Bard hummed. He cupped his chin as he thought hard about what to make of the curtain-drawn stage, when in an instant his brain unevenly lapsed and his thoughts trailed off into a disconnected area. "I should grow a beard" Bard said.
"Hello?" a timid man's voice said. Bard turned and saw a man, a pirate, wearing a tuxedo and a white mask with his mouth dropped and his arms held up in a nervous surrender. He also wore a top hat, not unlike that which the skull of the ship's Jolly Roger wore. "Sir? We mean no harm. We're just a troupe of entertainers traveling the Grand Line....We, we don't want to fight!" Bard stared at him. Part of him understood the man's frantic request. The rest of him, which was a majority, made his body lean in and his face smirk with intimidation.
"I don't think that's up to you" Bard lowed. The man shivered with fright and ducked down with a shout of terror.
"Now now, young man" a man's voice called from behind the thick curtains. "I doubt that is any proper way to behave as a guest upon someone else's ship!" The voice was jovial in its chiding, but Bard could tell that he was being lectured immediately and turned to the stage with his body straight and his legs parted.
"Who's there!?" Bard demanded.
"Such a hostile tone!" the man's voice called. "Can you not ask me in a more pleasing manner?"
"I don't trust people who hide behind curtains" Bard said outright. "Are you the captain of this ship!?" The lights of the stage turned on and glared into the curtains. The lights were moved around in circles to draw Bard's eye, even though it was a bright day and he could barely see the lights even against the dark shade of the curtains. The man near Bard ran to the right side of the stage, stage-left that is, and pulled a lever hidden behind one of the artistically oak-paneled columns holding the curtains up. The curtains were drawn, and revealed behind the deep and wide stage that was built so flawlessly into the deck of the ship. A man sat on a chair in the middle of a shaded darkness, shaded by a ceiling of thick veils hung overhead so the sun's rays wouldn't disturb the ambiance of the lighting. A fog-covered light illuminated him from behind, showing his profiled sitting silhouette holding a rose near his face.
"Indeed I am" the man said. Bard approached the stage and stood at its very edge. He tried to spy the figure of the man through the darkness but failed to see through the intentional darkness of the play of lighting. The man stood up. He was a giant of a man, easily taller than Bard and most other human's he would stand near, but with shorter legs and thicker arms than Bard's. His chest and body were huge compared to Bard, making the tenacious young fighter look slender by comparison. His hands were big and clutched the sunflower-sized rose between a thick finger and thicker thumb. He held it up to his face where Bard could easily read the outline of his broad nose and see the shadow of a thick and full beard around his lower jaw.
"Allow me to properly introduce myself" the man said as he snapped his fingers. The shadow of the rose vanished completely. The lights centered upon him. He was indeed a tremendous man. His pants were patterned with flowers and his shoes were buckled together across his instep. He wore a well-fit tuxedo of black with a dressy bow tied around his collar. On his hands were white gloves lined with black fabric in four neat lines between each finger. His beard was indeed full, thick and wavy, extending down his thick and exposed neck from off his wide and manly jaw. He had the face of a warrior and a scar running from the end of his left eyebrow down along his sideburn and ending invisibly in his thicket of facial hair. He had wide eyes and a perpetually furrowed brow but a kind and hearty smile. From under his thick, tall top hat his hair traveled down just to the collar of his shirt from behind, all of it the darkest hue of brown. "My name is Aleister Altair" he declared. "I am the captain of the Top Hat Traveling Entertainment Pirate Company! A pleasure to meet you, young sir."
"Hold on a second" Bard said, holding out his hand. Aleister cocked a brow and straightened his black suit out with a run of his thick hands. Bard held a very serious demeanor as he held the man's attention, despite the words that formed in his clutched mouth. He spoke with a flat and free expression, wanting only to speak his thoughts to his newly met associate. "You're.....a magician???"
"What an incredible astute nature you have" Aleister said. He tipped his hat off and bowed deep, revealing a bald dome at the very top of his head shamelessly. He twirled his hat in his fingers as he rose up and placed it back on his head with a quick swipe of his finger across the brim. "Yes indeed, I am a magician. This crew of mine is dedicated to spreading the value of true magical entertainment throughout the depressed world of the Grand Line. Those who find no jovial purpose to life shall indeed become indebted to us for bringing to them the joy of laughter and the amazing rush of excitement upon watching our magical act upon act! It is our duty to spread a goodwill to all the world, from here to its end, as we have done countless times in our home of the North Blue!" Bard stepped up onto the stage, interrupting Aleister's thoughtful speech with his own starry-eyed inquiery.
"Can this stage move?" Bard asked.
"Through the power of magic" Aleister said "yes, it can!" Bard huffed billows of steam through his nostrils and grabbed Aleister's big hand in both of his.
"Please come to my ship" Bard plead "and entertain us!!! We'll pay you with really expensive furniture and books!!!" Aleister, overcome with a thoughtful confusion to the young man's request, stood for a moment while his faithful crew kept the hot spotlight directly over him despite the hot sun...
"He's dead" Gretta said.
"He wouldn't just up and die" Araly said as she laid in her hammock tied between two straight parts of railing at the helm close enough together to keep her up. "He must've been captured."
"Then he'll die" Gretta said.
"What's with that attitude!?" Araly exclaimed as she sat up to face her. Gretta sat in her chair and read. "He's your captain, you know. You need to respect him a little more!"
"Do you respect him?" Gretta asked.
"Well, it's different for me" Araly said. "I've known him since we were children, and I always treated him the same, so it's no real problem if I'm disrespectful to him sometimes. He's more my friend than my captain."
"And more a husband than a friend, right?" Zan mentioned. Araly scoffed.
"That joke is old" she said, brushing off the insinuation without a second thought. "When I was a younger, more innocent girl, I may have thought of marrying him, but he's too much of a fool for me to seriously consider now."
"At least he's strong" Gretta said.
"Yeah...." Araly agreed with a sigh as she lay back down. There was an apprehensive silence all across the boat. The older, more experienced half of the crew were relaxed and leaning with their guns rested against their shoulder and their blades sheathed as they waited for Bard's return. One small group was even playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to pass the time. The burlier, slightly dimmer pirates stood ever ready with heavy weapons held tight in their arms, anxiously biting their lips as their eyes bulged from lack of blinking.
"Hey guys!" Marco, who sat with a group of men playing cards, called. "Why don't you just rest for a second. Bard can handle himself just fine. He was only being dramatic."
"Good luck snapping them out of this" a long-haired pirate said. He looked over his cards and drew another from the deck in the middle of the circle-sitting group. "It seems we're to remain on high-alert until he gets back, bloody or not."
"I'm betting on not" a short-haired pirate said. He even threw in coins for the bet.
"Hell, I'll go with that" Marco said. He threw coins in as well.
Maybe he really is dead! A burly, lip-biting pirate thought. Maybe he's abandoned the ship to fight forever on the churning waves of the Grand Line! When will he return? What powers will he gain in his exodus!? When will our captain be returned to us!?!?
"GAAAHH!!!" a burly man near the railing shouted. "I see him! He's coming! He's coming right this way!!!"
"He is!?" the pirates shouted. The port side of the deck was crowded with pirates as they all tried to lean past each other and watch the seas for their black-coated, blond-haired hero. Zan overheard the clamor and hopped down onto the Main Deck to confirm what was being excitedly exclaimed all around.
"Pardon me, please" Zan said. He stepped up onto someone's back and started walking across their shoulders to get to the edge of the ship. He hopped down and kicked his foot into the wood of the hull, fusing it in mid-phasing and watched as he stood perpendicular to the ship's side. He saw the ship that he spied moving closer and closer and then saw a huge rush of waves behind it. So that's what he's doing.... Zan thought. Bard was powering the ship across the water and bringing it up closer to his for some reason. Zan sighed and walked back up to the Main Deck where, somehow, Gretta was standing to meet him. This time he ignored her and walked right past her as she followed.
"So he is alive, is he?" Gretta asked.
"Indeed he is" Zan said. "It seems that, from a first glance, his negotiations proved fruitful enough for him to either steal their boat whole or to make a new set of allies to add to our armada."
"Armada?" Gretta asked.
"Ship gang" Rez said. He was on the deck as well, joining in the chaos and forcing men out of the group to return to their positions. "This ship is, in itself, an armada, of course."
"It never hurts to have more than one ship in an army" Zan said.
"So now we are forming an army?" Gretta said. She stopped to imagine what kind of army would exist on the sea, based solely on what she had seen in her life representing an army. "How would we march to conquer the lands when there is so little land to march on?"
"Don't worry about it" Zan said. "You'll live longer if you stop worrying..." Gretta took his advice on the prospect of long life, taking his words to heart so quick that her normal cynical rationality failed her.
"Come on, you dogs!" Rez bellowed. "First-Mate order! Quit crowding the railing!" A blur of black shot up from under them and landed with a thud to behind them. It was Bard, soaking wet, holding his boots by their laces in his mouth and a dry violet cloth in his hands. He spat the boots to the floor, held the cloth away and shook the water from his head again.
"CAPTAAAAAIN!!!!!" the crew called out.
"Hi!" Bard said with a casual smile and wave.
"What's the status?" Rez asked with a hand already on his gunblade. He noticed the cloth second. "What's with that thing?" Bard chuckled and stepped back.
"Check this out!" Bard said, backing away as the group gathered tightly around him. Bard folded out the long and billowy cloth. He positioned it cautiously so that there was nothing behind it and no one at such an angle that they could see behind it either. "Buster Pirates, I, your Captain, am proud to present to you the magical entertainment troupe under the lead of Captain Aleister Altair, the TOP HAT PIRATES!!!!" Bard swung the cloth up to a tall and wide length, and then snapped it back down. Behind it, appearing out of nowhere and under absolutely no predictable circumstance, was Aleister with a hand up at his chest gripping at the fold of his suit modestly. He tipped his hat and gave a bow.
"It is a pleasure!" he called. The crew was stunned. Rez dropped to his knees and fell onto his head where tears began streaming down his cheeks, defying gravity in his anxiety of emotion.
Great Rez thought. He actually invited them on the ship.....
