Chapter Nine
"Hey Buggy." I groaned. "Wake up!"
I woke up to see Shanks near my face. I yelped backwards and fell down from my bed. He laughed while I rubbed my head. I glared at him.
It's been whole month with them. At first I didn't trusted them and in return they didn't also except for Captain and Shanks. The Captain treated me as If I was his long lost friend. I was alarmed at how fast he accepted me in his crew while Shanks was another matter. He followed me around like a damn lost puppy. The position of cabin boy didn't help either. I guess he was excited that he had friend around his age. While the others slowly but gradually let down their guards and accepted me as their own. In a month, we became a family. A dysfunctional one but nonetheless a family.
"What the hell do you need?" I growled. He stopped laughing and grinned at me.
"Shush! You'll wake up the captain." He signaled me. I shut up and gave him a questioned look.
"We're going to have revenge."
I recalled when the Captain blamed us for eating everything in the fridge. The bastard lied and told Rayleigh we ate it. We had to work all day while he smugly smirked at us. I smiled evilly.
"What's the plan?"
We snickered as we braided his hair. We put paint instead of make up on his face so he have to suffer washing it off. He was dozing off on his table. I eagerly imagined his face. We quickly finished and closed the door. We looked at each other and started to laugh our asses off.
"*Wheeze* I can't wait to see the look on his face. *Gasp*" Shanks tried to control his laugh.
"The look on whose face?" We paled and turned to see a suspicious Rayleigh.
Rayleigh was the first mate of the Captain. Also a nagging mother. Maybe that was in his nature or something. Anyway we tried to stutter an answer when a scream came from the captain's room.
"SHANKS! BUGGY! WHERE ARE YOU BRATS!?" He opened the door and there he was, face full of pink and red paints and braids fell to his shoulder. We looked at each other and ran past Rayleigh, snickering. His surprised and amused face made me laugh even louder.
After some running, we were finally caught. Rayleigh raised us from our shirts. Bumps formed on heads. We still had grin our faces.
"Is this how you guys respect your Captain!?"
Shanks raised a fist towards me. "Did you regret it?"
"Hell no." I bumped his fist.
A vein popped on Rayleigh head.
SLAM.
"Knock it off, you two!" He yelled us.
Others laughed at our misfortune. I rubbed my head and kept quiet. He had a mean punch.
"A SHIP!" We stopped and looked up to see. "AN ENEMY SHIP THROUGH THE NORTH-NORTH EAST!"
"Right! Get ready! Time to fight!" he ordered us. A choirs of Yes Sir echoed.
"Hey Shanks." He hummed. "Does pirates only plunder and fight all the time?" I asked him.
This question has been on my mind since the Iron Fist pirates attacked my village. Mom always praised my dad as a true pirate but I haven't met him properly. One month, I have stayed with the Roger pirates and all this time other enemy pirates have attacked and tried to defeat us. All this fights were senseless and kinda silly if you ask me.
"Look at us and them, Buggy." I looked at him confused. He continued. "They only joined a pirate's life for gold and plundering while all of us joined for adventure. They act as if there strangers with each other while we act as a family. We all got each other's back. Not all pirates like to plunder and fight, some of them like the adventure, finding a new family and protecting each other."
His answer made me realize the importance of the flag. The flag not only showed that we're pirates but also in a way that we're a family. Family never lets one of them get hurt.
"I would like to continue the chat but we got enemies on our hands." He pointed towards the oncoming pirates.
"Thanks Shanks." I grabbed my knifes and jumped towards the enemies ship. After taking down some men, I noticed one of them had a treasure map. I carefully looked at it, it looked old. Maybe it will help me in the future. I tucked it into my shirt and fought along with my crew members.
I looked at the map in my hands. Huh it was an underwater treasure in the East blue. Wonder where islands and storms I have to go through to get this treasure. I imagined all the troubles and adventures.
"Hey Buggy!" I jolted slightly. "Aren't you gonna celebrate with us? We got great stuff right here." Shanks shaked his bottle of wine to show me.
I relaxed and put away the treasure map. "Nah, I'm just going to sit here and enjoy the night."
He sat right beside me. We were silently looking at the moon. He sighted.
"Hey you said you're going to leave this ship, right?" I asked and looked at him. "So what's your plan?"
He drank the wine and sighted. "I'm going to buy a ship, gather a reliable crew and see the world… I'm going to take my time. All as a pirate of course."
"Huh, Never knew that we had this much in common." I realized.
"Hey, why don't you become my first mate!?" he asked me, excitedly.
I scoffed. "As if I'll consider you as my captain, Tomato. You'll give me white hairs. By the way, I still have to get stronger."
"For what?" he raised his eyebrow.
I showed him a wide grin. "Obviously to protect my future nakama and beloved ones."
His eyes literally shined. "You're so cool. Come on, join my crew."
I sweatdropped. "No, thanks. By the way you said something about a loot."
"Oh that!" He remembered. "We found a devil fruit."
"What's that?" I never heard that kind of fruit before.
"Legends say that the Devil fruit is the reincarnation of the ocean's devil." Ocean's devil? "If you eat one, you'll have the power of the devil but the ocean will curse you. You won't be able to swim again."
Woah sweet.
"Well, where is it?" I eagerly asked him.
"What! You'll consider eating it?" he looked at me as if I was crazy.
I rolled my eyes. "You'll have the power of a devil. How cool is that!? Besides I'm already a poor excuse of a swimmer." I sheepishly rubbed my head.
"Buggy, you're one weird kid."
SLAM.
"You're the same age as me."
"You wanna go, Clown!"
"CLOWN! I'LL SHOW YOU A JOKE WHEN I FIST YOU IN THE FACE! TOMATO-CHAN!"
"BUGGY! SHANKS! KEEP QUIT BEFORE I SHUT YOU BOTH MYSELF!"
We immediately lowered our voices.
"Your red-nose is so weird." He whispered.
"Not as weird as your stupid hair." I whispered back, furiously.
SLAM.
"OOOWWW!"
I asked the Captain's permission to eat the fruit in the morning. He strangely laughed and gave me the fruit. I recalled the fruit was for one million berri. Maybe he thought it was fake. The crew gathered around when I told them I was eating the fruit. They were also curious if it was real or fake devil fruit. I looked at the strange fruit. It was orange-red with swirls around it and green leafage on top of it. I hesitantly took a bite. A disgusting taste entered my tongue. It was like eating someone's dirty socks with a hint of spoiled fruit. I immediately rushed over the railing and spit out the fruit. I glared at it and threw it into the ocean.
"Wait! You're supposed to eat it whole!" The crew glared at me.
"You try eating that disgusting thing!" I rubbed my tongue to remove the foul taste. Someone passed me water. I drank it quickly.
"Well, how do you feel?" Rayleigh asked me.
"Nothing to be honest with you." I replied disappointed. Maybe I can experiment it. I grinned.
"Hey! Someone pull me out if I don't come up, okay!" I grabbed their attention as I threw myself overboard.
"BUGGY! WAIT!"
SPLASH
I felt my body splash against the ocean. I instantly tried to swim upwards. But suddenly I felt my body become heavier and weaker. I held my breath for a while but the need for oxygen was greater. Bubbles left my mouth. For a second I thought I heard a splash. My vision started to have black spots.
"So this is the weakness of a Devil fruit." I thought as I blackened out.