The sound of the ship around him was a low thrum. It was a relaxing, repetitive noise. It let the Heart Pirate know that at the very least the ship was in good condition and would get them to where they were trying to go to. The crew's condition, however, was up for debate considering the low moral that currently swept over them all these past several months.
It was hard to be positive when one hadn't heard from one's captain in a good long while. It didn't help that they hadn't been able to get a hold of very much news in the new world, travelling underwater as they had been doing as of late. It was starting to become clear that the whole crew needed fresh air, as the confines of the vessel certainly became crowded and stuffy despite attempts at air circulation. The obvious solution was to take baths more frequently, but even then there was only so much water that could be used on the ship, underwater as they were these past few weeks.
The complaints were steadily rising, and everyone's mood was liable to be set off at the tiniest slight. They definitely needed to surface sooner rather than later before they were at each other's throats and their captain returned to see them reduced to squabbling children.
Shachi had an involuntary shudder as he thought about the last time something like that had occurred. Law had taken care of all the arguing by chopping everyone up while utilizing his Devil Fruit powers and secluding them around the ship until they shut up and had clearer thoughts about what they were doing. It was too bad that Law had smirked the entire time, making the crew feel like he wasn't actually as annoyed at them as he was making it seem like he was. The thought was confirmed when Law archly stated the next day that they were all to get off the damn submarine. He'd ushered them off the ship and on the way to the nearest inn on the island they'd anchored near to clean up and shut the hell up, while Law tired to glean information from the locals about whatever it was that they had been searching for.
The red haired Heart Pirate idly tapped a foot as he couldn't help but smile at the memory. Law had set them loose on that particular island while they were still jumbled body parts, and the crew had just gone along with it like nothing was wrong with the horror show that they presented. It was interesting to see how quickly the locals gave them what they wanted, though they actually paid extra instead of less as if in apology for their appearance. That night in the hot springs had been quite entertaining, and even more so when they finally pieced each other together with the correct body parts with general laughter instead of complaints.
"Captain..." Shachi shook his head. Law had certainly appeared to be in a better mood when he found them being peaceful in the hot springs, although he did smack a few of them upside the head for trying to sneak a look at their female crewmates on the other side of some rocks. They had joined them in the new world and Law had yet to break some of the male members of the crew from the habit of ogling them as if they couldn't believe they were real. It was good that the female Heart Pirates took it in stride, thought they most certainly made their displeasure known when someone overstepped themselves and tried to catch a peek. Luckily the ship was loaded with medical supplies and equipment when things got out of hand. One of the female crew members was soon known to throw the sharpest item at her disposal and that led to some nasty but not overly life threatening wounds.
Shachi suspected that the incidents had lessened due to the fact that there had been no altercations the past month and a half, which was a good thing. Crewmates shouldn't fight among one another like that anyway. Though Shachi did wonder what the women thought of being underwater for weeks at a time. He supposed the only complaint so far had been the smell and the insistence that one of the two bathrooms on the ship be theirs and theirs alone.
No one had argued over that.
The Heart Pirate stared at nothing in particular as he came back to the present in the main control room of the ship. Shachi mused over the thought that perhaps he ought to take a bath. Mainly because some of the crew, men and women, had been nagging him about it, even though some of them had waited a good few days to take one. Shachi rolled his shoulders in a stretch as he sighed and took a test whiff of himself. And wrinkled his nose. Nope. His crew mates were right. He needed a bath badly. But he couldn't at the moment because he had been saddled into being in the control room. At the very least, Shachi did keep an eye on the submarines' controls should they come across some obstacle in their path as they traversed the sea. But for the most part, he didn't have to do anything but glance at the controls and screens to make sure that everything was running smoothly. He'd been told to keep an eye on things until Bepo and another crew mate returned to take control of the ship. The red haired Heart Pirate let out a soft sigh as he closed his eyes. In addition to a good bath, he really needed to get some sleep after all of the craziness that had happened over the past week.
"Not sleeping on the job are you?"
Shachi opened his eyes at the amused tone and found a mug hovering level with his eyes. Glancing to the side from behind his shaded glasses, Shachi saw that it was Penguin standing next to him. Not that he hadn't recognized the other's voice, though the thrum of the mechanics of the ship did muffle the other Heart Pirate's voice.
"I'm not sleeping. Just thinking." The red head said tartly as he accepted the offered mug from his fellow crew mate. "I am tired though." Shachi admitted as he took a sip from the mug. He immediately made a face as he inspected what he'd just drank. "This is alcohol. It's way too early for that." Shachi's tone was accusing as he turned in his seat with an affronted look on his face. "Why isn't it coffee?"
"We're out." Penguin said with a faint shrug. He was unbothered by the tone of his crew mate. "We haven't made landfall in over two weeks. We need to do a supply run." The Heart Pirate gave Shachi a wry smile. "And it would be good to make use of a town or city's inns. They tend to have better bathrooms than most ships."
"No kidding. I don't even want to know what the ship would look like after another two weeks underwater." Shachi shook his head as he drank out of the mug with a defeated sigh. "So now that we're down to alcohol and probably not a lot of water, are we fresh out of everything in the kitchen as well other than bread?" The red head asked, as an amused smile crossed his face.
"Yes, we're mainly running on carbs until we hit landfall." Penguin couldn't help but smile as well. "Good thing the captain isn't with us right now. I think he'd have a problem with all that bread that Jean Bart found on that island before we hit Zou."
"Law probably would have used his powers to transport all of us onto the nearest speck of land while he got rid of it." Shachi said, before his smile slipped and he sighed. "I hope the captain's going to be okay after all that."
"We all hope so. If only he would call and let us know." Penguin couldn't help but look over to the nearby table where the Heart Pirates had put Law's vivre card in a clear box.
"Sooner would be better." Shachi admitted, before he went through the rest of the mug of alcohol after shaking his head.
"Yes, sooner. We want to make sure there isn't a riot about B.O. on the ship again. It would be worse than last time because of our newer crewmates." Penguin said dryly. "If Law were here, he would probably find it in him to have enough energy to deal with us as he did before."
Shachi snorted before he cursed as the last sip of alcohol went up and out through his nose. He knew that most of the crew didn't mind time between baths if there wasn't anyone who was injured that needed to be operated on. Law was rather clear on that point, although if it was a sudden injury, then merely scrubbing up their arms and throwing clothes over what they were wearing would have to do. Otherwise their captain insisted on cleanliness when there wasn't as dire of a situation and there was time to prepare for surgeries. Those had been fewer as of late because they'd all been keeping out of trouble while Law was gone.
For the most part.
"You know what happened last time we got into fights over that, right? Well, that and the fact that we thought someone was rearranging belongings in all of the cabins." Penguin continued on, unaware of Shachi's thoughts as he reached out and retrieved the cup before the red head could carelessly toss it aside. Penguin waved the mug at his crewmate as if in emphasis. "See? You're in a bad mood already."
"I guess. We better hit landfall today before it gets worse. I think I got a few dirty looks when I came here." Shachi paused as he narrowed his eyes behind his glasses at Penguin. "Don't laugh. That was unintentional."
"Sure it was." Penguin said, straight faced, as he turned to set the mug aside on a nearby table.
Shachi was sure the other man was smiling, but was glad for the levity, as there hadn't been much of it as of late. The past few months had been incredibly stressful for all of the Heart Pirates, and that had included their captain. Not only had Law grown unusually withdraw while around the rest of the crew, but as soon as he had become a warlord, Law had been firm in his decision to go alone to Punk Hazard. And with orders for his crew to wait at Zou while he was gone.
"I still can't believe that the captain might have left without giving us that vivre card." Shachi admitted as he settled into his chair again.
"I think he had been planning on giving it to us all along, since he had it." Penguin ventured after a moment.
Shachi made some grunt of agreement as he leaned back in the chair. He knew that none of the Heart Pirates, himself included, had been particularly happy to be separated from their captain. They had, however, been somewhat appeased when Law had given them his vivre card.
"Why do you think that the captain didn't want us to give him a vivre card in return?" Penguin asked after a moment of silently inspecting Law's vivre card.
"What do you mean?" Shachi asked as he titled his head to glance over at his crewmate.
"You saw how reluctant Law was to take it, right? Why is that, do you think?" Penguin sat down in one of the other chairs. "He already had the other one for Zou, right?"
"Maybe he figured that having one pointing to Zou would be enough?" Shachi ventured. He wasn't entirely certain either way. But he and the rest of the crew had had to argue with Law in order to get their captain to take a vivre card linked to one of them. "Maybe we thought there might be a chance that our rendezvous would be somewhere other than Zou?"
"Maybe." Penguin's voice was distant, as if remembering his and the rest of the crew's parting from Law. It had been a tearful one, but their captain had been aloof as ever. However, Law had offered all of them a faint smirk and the quiet statement that he was leaving. The Surgeon of Death had then made a retreat, while the crew sailed away, still worried over the fact that they wouldn't see their captain for months. But at the very least, they had Law's vivre card, so they would at least it would keep them reassured of their captain's health. Penguin again looked at Law's vivre card, which was still smaller than he or the rest of the crew would have liked.
"Do you think we should have stayed by Zou and waited for the captain? We would have been able to resupply the ship at least one more time." Shachi said, when the silence had gone on too long for his liking.
"Maybe, but could you have stayed there, knowing what had happened?" Penguin asked in return.
Shachi looked away. He knew that his crewmate meant when they had received that paper about Doflamingo's supposed departure from the seven warlords of the sea, and their captain's alliance with the Straw Hat crew. It had been clear then that their captain was up to something, and it hurt that he hadn't bothered to contact his own crew.
"You're thinking about why he didn't have us come along?" Penguin closed his eyes as he stopped looking at the pathetically small vivre card.
Shachi nodded. He did wonder why, and he wasn't the only one.
After that news, and the news that Kidd had formed an alliance with two other supernovas, the Heart Pirates had pondered long and hard about what their captain was up to. Law hadn't mentioned to any of them the possibility of an alliance, even though they all assumed that it would happen at some point. It was the new world after all. Not having alliances was a sure fire way to get one's self and the whole crew killed for lack of preparation and extra allies for challenging opponents and new lands.
"Law never mentioned that he was going to be in danger of losing his life though." Shachi said after another long period of silence.
"No, he didn't." Penguin remembered that same day the news had been updated, and it had stated that Doflamingo stepping down had been a false report. That was when the unease sunk in for Penguin and the rest of the Heart Pirates. Only an hour later they all flew into a panic when Law's vivre card started to burn, until there was barely an inch of it left, and even then it continued to steadily burn. "But maybe that's why he left us behind. To protect us."
"The captain would do that, wouldn't he?" Shachi remembered the utter panic that had swept the ship as well. He and the rest of the Heart Pirates had wondered what in the world was happening to Law and who would dare to harm their captain. Shachi frowned at his crewmate. "Do you know how close we are to Dressrosa?"
"Far enough away that I doubt that the captain will still be there." Penguin said, sounding a little down. "But that's what Bepo and some of the others are checking out right now."
"Well, I don't know how long it will take to get there, but we all agreed we were going to go there and-"
"Shachi! Penguin! The captain called! He's on right now!" One of the female Heart Pirates tumbled into the room with several more people behind her, and she passed over the transponder snail to Penguin from where she'd fallen over.
Shachi set the snail down on a table as the room suddenly became overcrowded, a few of the others in the room assisting their female crewmate to her feet. Jean Bart remained outside the door, as the room was too small for him to fit in. Bepo had pressed himself in through the rest of his crewmates to press up between Shachi and Penguin, and the white furred Heart Pirate was the first to speak.
"Captain!"
"Hello, Bepo." Law greeted, an edge of humor to his voice. "I hope you haven't moved the ship too far away from Zou." The Heart Pirate captain sounded exhausted.
Questions began to spill out over Law's well being, and with so many voices speaking at once, no one could really make themselves clear, but it appeared as though Law got the gist of it, because the snail smirked.
"I'll be perfectly fine with some rest. I was merely lucky that I decided to ally myself with Straw Hat-ya and his crew when I did."
"Where are you captain?" Shachi asked. "We...moved away from Zou. We were headed toward Dressrosa when we saw your-"
"Steer clear of Dressrosa. The marine presence there is heightened after all that has happened there." Law's voice was faint yet firm. "I'm headed for a small island south of Zou. But be careful when you head there. There's a small naval base nearby." Law cursed under his breath, distracted by something. "I need to go. Contact me when you're close."
The crew all eagerly agreed, happy that Law, while not exactly sounding his best, was alive. The Heart Pirates talked over one another again in their good byes before the connection was cut.
"Well, I guess we need to change course, Bepo." Penguin said as he picked up the now slumbering snail. "And we'll want to continue to head out underwater to avoid any marines in the area before we meet up with the captain."
"Aye aye!"
The Heart Pirate crew's mood was vastly improved by the fact that Law's vivre card had stopped burning and they had gotten the call from their captain confirming the fact that he was likely wounded but all right. It was a good sign, even if they were still all exasperated with one another about the fact that not all of the crew was taking regular baths.
A few days later, however, after a brief pit stop at a small island to boost moral with new supplies and the liberal use of the inn's bathrooms, the Heart Pirates would soon be landed into a state of confusion after one statement from Luffy.
-x
Penguin was having a very pleasant and wonderful dream about Boa Hancock before reality hit him in the face.
Literally.
The Heart Pirate let out a sharp gasp as a solid body collided with him and knocked him out of the hammock he had used for the night. Penguin hit the ground with an exhalation of air, his heart racing momentarily at the sudden sensation of falling. He was back in the cabin, and not in the presence of that alluring female warlord.
Shame, that.
"Penguin?"
The Heart Pirate grunted something on the ground before he rolled onto his side and sent a glare up in the speaker's direction. He didn't have his hat on yet, so the glare was noticed. A hand appeared in Penguin's vision.
"Ah, sorry about that. Shachi's been trying to figure out where you'd gotten to."
Penguin accepted his fellow crewmate's help to get back to his feet, though he shook his head as he steadied himself. "Watch where you're going next time."
"Right, right, sorry. It is kinda dark in here, you know." The frizzy haired crew mate said sheepishly.
"Penguin?"
The Heart Pirate had reached for his hat when the other voice spoke, and he peered over the hammock to see Jean Bart stooped in the door way. Penguin nodded to him as he slipped the hat on. "Good morning. Or is it afternoon now?"
"Try evening." Jean Bart stated, before he stepped out of the way to allow the other Heart Pirate to exit the cabin room. "We received another call, but it wasn't from Law."
"Who was it?" Penguin asked as he walked along the hall. They had last heard from their captain a few days previously. They'd been making good headway, so he wouldn't have been surprised if Law had called them. Even though he had told them to call when they were closer.
"We're not sure. It cut out before we could find out who it was exactly." Jean Bart stated as he followed along after Penguin. He seemed to sense the other pirate's train of thought as he added. "Shachi tried to call Law, but he won't answer. We're not sure why, but we assume its because he either doesn't have it with him or left it behind somewhere."
"He did say that he and the Straw Hats were going to infiltrate the marine base near the island we're to meet them at?" Penguin questioned. He figured that if there was something that their captain had heard about, he would be one to take advantage of said information, even if it landed him on a naval base.
"It is a possibility." Jean Bart hedged, as if he weren't sure what Law would do.
Penguin said nothing. He didn't blame Jean Bart for not thinking it likely that Law would do as such, since he had not been in Law's crew as long as himself and some of the others. But Penguin figured that after the incident at Rocky Point, Jean Bart would have a fairly decent idea of what Law was capable of. Penguin just hoped that their captain hadn't gotten himself into more trouble while he was still recovering from the wounds he's received on Dressrosa.
In the small mess room of the ship, Penguin found Shachi with the transponder snail and a scattering of some of the crew. The red haired Heart Pirate looked baffled.
"Did someone try to call again?" Jean Bart asked as Penguin passed by him into the room.
"Yeah, I think we can trace it back though and send a transmission to them." Shachi shrugged, though he looked a little troubled. "I wasn't sure if it might just be the marines though."
"May as well try and return the call. We are underwater for now, so the marines will have a hard time tracking us." Penguin said. He figured that it would be good to identify their mystery caller, in case it might on the off chance be their captain. Perhaps the signal was weak or the magnetic fields of the nearby islands were erratic due to bad weather or something like that, that had caused it to cut off the call.
Or maybe Penguin just wanted to hear from Law, like the rest of the crew did.
Shachi nodded as he traced the call back. Those that were in the room were surprised when they got a clear response this time, and it wasn't who they expected it to be.
At all.
"Hello! This is Luffy, future pirate king!" The voice was all but yelling into the receiver on the other end.
"Luffy, you have got to stop saying that when you pick up a call!" Someone in the background insisted, clearly exasperated with their captain. "What if they are marines?"
Shachi and Penguin exchanged amused looks with one another, before the latter spoke. "Where's our captain, Straw Hat?" Both Heart Pirates were not sure what to make of Straw Hat's crew whispering something before they cut the call out.
That was weird.
"Shachi! If we surface now, we'll be neat Straw Hat Luffy's ship." Someone called from out in the hall. "Do you want to do that?"
"Yes!" Shachi called back. "We need to find our captain, and they probably know where he is, if he isn't on their ship for whatever reason!"
"Right!"
Shachi and Penguin left the room, followed by the rest of the crew not bringing the ship to the surface, Jean Bart trailing at the back of the group.
"What do you think is going on?" Shachi muttered to Penguin as they waited for the ship to surface all the way.
"I'm not sure. But you'd think they'd tell us if the captain was hurt or something happened to him." Penguin appeared troubled by the abrupt end of the call with Straw Hat Luffy. It was strange, but then again, maybe the call hadn't been purposefully cut. Although it was likely the case, since they were so close to the other pirate ship.
But why?
Why would they cut communication instead of telling them where their captain was?
Penguin found it all very suspicious, and waited impatiently as the ship began to surface, the pressure changing in the cabin as there was less pressure on the ship now that it was almost all the way out of the water.
"Maybe Law isn't with them?" Shachi ventured after the submarine had fully surfaced as he and the frizzy haired Heart Pirate opened the door to the deck.
"Why wouldn't the captain be with them?" Bepo asked from where he emerged from the control room of the ship. He appeared worried at the thought.
"I don't know." Shachi responded honestly, as he stepped out onto the deck and the water that was still there from surfacing. "But we're going to find out."
The Heart Pirates piled out onto the deck of their ship and gathered on the side that faced Straw Hat Luffy's ship, which was only yards away and within shouting distance. It didn't take long for the other pirate crew to realize that there was another ship suddenly next to theirs, and the Heart Pirates all saw Luffy waving his arms and shouting at them.
"Hey, look, it's the bear!"
"Is he talking about me?" Bepo asked.
"Who else is a bear here?" Shachi demanded of his furred crew mate.
"Sorry." Bepo said as his head lowered and his ears dropped.
"Why is he so meek?" One of the female crewmates asked.
"Yeah, Bepo, don't make me feel bad about that time that you beat me when we sparred." Another crewmate said as he patted Bepo's shoulder.
Penguin ignored both of the other Heart Pirates as he got to the main problem at hand. "Where's our captain, Straw Hat?" There were a number of ways to answer that question, truth or lie or partial truth, but Penguin didn't expect the blunt response he and the rest of the Heart Pirates received.
"Oh, he doesn't remember us right now and the navy took him away, but we're gonna go rescue him and make him remember us." Luffy said this as if it weren't a big deal at all.
The Heart pirates were completely speechless, before someone among them spoke up in outrage, and others quickly followed suit at the very idea of Law forgetting anyone.
"What?"
"What marines?"
"The captain would never allow the navy to do that!"
"How could the navy capture him?"
"What happened?"
"Why wouldn't he remember you guys after Dressrosa?"
"Didn't the captain make an alliance with you?'
The general feeling among the Heart Pirates became very hostile, before Shachi and Penguin drew everyone in a group together on the deck to have a brief discussion as they were watched by the Straw Hats.
"We need to find out what happened and where Law is. Straw Hat Luffy and his crew were the last ones to see him." Penguin said firmly. "We shouldn't get into a fight over this without hearing them out."
"They could have been attacked." Shachi added, though he didn't sound very certain about that. But it seemed very unlikely that Luffy or his crew would have harmed Law, since they'd taken him away from Dressrosa, where he had been hurt. "And the captain had been injured before that, remember?"
The crew broke out into an argument after that, about particulars involving Straw Hat's credibility about Law's apparent memory loss, and whether they were better off just using the vivre card to go locate their captain on their own. It didn't seem like anything was going to get solved until Penguin cut in over everyone else as the ideas of what to do became outlandish.
"The longer we delay, the longer it'll take to find the captain." Penguin said in a reasonable tone. "We need to go and discuss things with the Straw Hats. Then we can make a decision about what to do after that." Penguin shook his head at one of his crewmates to prevent them from arguing. "No, we're not going to act until after that. We do have the captain's vivre card, but going in blind would be dangerous if we don't know the whole story. Right?"
There was murmured agreement among the gathered pirates, even if there was still some reluctance.
"Straw Hat! We want to talk to you! Can two of us go over there so we don't have to shout at each other?" Shachi called over to the other ship, as soon as he'd received a nod from Penguin.
"Sure! Bring over whoever you want! We can have dinner too!" Luffy shouted back cheerfully.
Penguin wondered about the fact that the blond haired cook, black leg or whatever he was called, immediately whacked the straw hat wearing captain over the head. Interesting. And Luffy didn't even seem to mind as he turned to grin excitedly at his crewmate, and started talking rapidly, though Penguin couldn't hear from there what it was about. He gave a shrug in response to Shachi's confused expression at the exchange. At least they had gotten the okay to have a civil conversation. Not that Luffy appeared to realize that they were unhappy that their captain was missing on his watch.
The Straw Hats were definitely a weird bunch.
Though the same could be said for them too, Penguin supposed, considering the things that he and the rest of the Heart Pirates got up to. Penguin made a mental note then and there to have one of the crew remove Law's wanted poster from the small mess room in the ship. They'd put it there after about a month of no word or sign of their captain when he'd gone to Punk Hazard. Penguin had a feeling that Law might be embarrassed over the fact that the crew would regularly mope around and give the poster looks that clearly showed their depression at their captain being gone for so long from them. And the fact that they would hold one sided conversations with the poster made Penguin feel that Law would diagnose them with something. Not that they weren't aware that it was not a good sign that they would speak to a poster as if there captain was really there.
Bepo, for one, couldn't bear to look at it, and could be found regularly moping in his own way in his quarters of the ship. Though he did seem to feel a little bit better when other members of the crew would use him as a pillow, though it was clear the white furred Heart Pirate would hope to find Law there one of the times he woke up. It was too bad that Law wasn't with the Straw Hats right now. It would have cheered Bepo up, as well as the rest of the crew, immensely. At least they had hear from their captain days ago, and that had helped a lot to quell much of their earlier depression.
"Hey, are you coming over or what?"
Penguin exchanged glances with Shachi at Luffy's shout, before he gave a small nod. The two of them would be enough to talk to the Straw Hats. No use in bringing over more people than was necessary to obtain the information that they needed to know.
Penguin and Shachi were helped aboard Straw Hat Luffy's ship, and the former felt that they were going to get to the bottom of things one way or another. It seemed very far fetched to him right now that Law would lose his memory in any way, shape, or form when their captain had sounded fine days before. Or as fine as he could be after he'd been injured on Dressrosa.
The two Heart Pirates followed after the Straw Hats to wherever it was they were going to discuss things. As the door shut behind them, the two pirates hoped that the Straw Hats weren't the cause of whatever had happened to Law. Penguin knew that he, Shachi and the rest of their crew wouldn't take too kindly to people who would put their captain in danger.
The truth, however, was far stranger than any of the Heart Pirates could have imagined.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
A/N: Thanks for the favs/reviews/follows! I hope this chapter turned out all right because it really came out of the blue, although I did want to figure out how to bring the Heart Pirates into the story since I did put them as characters that would appear in the fic's description (I don't think that there were females on the H. P. ship? So there's going to be some in this fic-but just vague mentions). I think this chapter worked out, even if it's a little bumpy from where the Heart Pirates run into Luffy and co from the previous chapters. I just planned on having Law's crew show up because I want them to be able to help their captain (even if he won't realize it until later). And as to the vivre cards, I assume the one for Zou actually is one of Law's crewmates, but for this fic it's otherwise, I guess, so the Heart Pirates could insist that Law take a card with him.
And I am going to try and keep up with multiple fic updates while at the same time balancing real life stuff that will occasionally take precedence. There is a definite end to this fic, so it's just working up the motivation to getting around to typing things up.