Author's Notes: A special thanks to Hellibleri for supporting this "anime short". Hope it's been fun and interesting so far. ;-D You may also correct me on character portrayals if your favorite character seems too OOC. I'll go back and do my research where necessary.

Just as a side note: I may wind up extending this small story to another chapter or two. I thought I could boil the nature of Nesi's fruit powers down to one lump chapter, but it'll wind up being too long and I'd rather not do that when the Privateer Wars are more important. We'll see, though. Maybe I'm jumping the gun. :/

~ ... Three Beasts Fruit ... ~

Grandson,

You speak nonsense. I've an ear to lend no matter what you speak to me about. You should know this by now. I... suppose the day you left was the day that I... foolishly accepted that you were set on never speaking to me again. This is quite humbling for your "crappy" old man. Moreso, with a young girl being involved as the subject of concern. I would've thought the pirates would have had their... ways of teaching impressionable children. Couldn't say raising young ladies is a strong suit of theirs. Nevertheless, let us see.

An apprentice at your age is an accomplishment even a veteran cannot boast of! Your sense of responsibility and thoughtfulness for this child is quite impressive. I thought you studying abroad someday as a young marine would definitely push your growth as a man, but I must say your short journey acting as a pirate has surprisingly proven me right. I suppose I didn't expect you to become an adult so quickly. With time, certainly, but this is good for your character, it seems. While I detest you being a pirate and behaving so recklessly into old age, I am quite proud of you for consulting your knowledge of marine training for this new venture into mentorship. While I don't support instruction of youth into piracy, I will entertain your concerns as though you were the marine I wish you had chosen to be. Perhaps you and I can conduct this social experiment together.

Your apprentice does intrigue me if your descriptive analysis is truthful. There is a sense of nobility, moral ethic, and honor locked away in the delicate confines of a developing young woman. The loss of her appendage can be seen as both traumatic and symbolic. Should she remain a fragile lady, she will be chipped away to nothing until she is obedient or "dutiful". I do not appreciate my sense of dutifulness correlating to a loss of self, but, for the sake of this experiment, let us say I have considered the notion. This... union of philosophies is quite unusual. Many will confuse her intentions with wanting to be one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, but it seems to me that she's trying to do away with serving the government body in favor of serving the people but with the privileges granted by the government who she's claiming she doesn't want to serve. Here, I might actually agree with you. Such a suggestion is difficult to understand and is improbable.

As a warlord, you are permitted to act against other pirates with the stipulation of using intimidation tactics on behalf of the government and upon their command. It is why they bear the unfortunate moniker of "government dogs" by other pirates. The benefit to this role in the naval landscape is that a warlord's bounty is frozen and the marines will support you when needed. You have the advantage of remaining a pirate, a chance for a court trial should you be suspected of piracy against the government, and protection and support from the government against pirates who wish to seize your territory. That doesn't make one untouchable, but it makes things harder for a low-level pirate. The glory of such, I should say, is squandered early should you face a warlord. It sounds like that's what your apprentice is trying to do but only in part. This is something you will have to investigate further. Moreover, referencing the loss of her finger, should she fight back the way that you're saying, she will turn into a revolutionary and the chipping away will instead shape her to be this. If pirates are already not liked by the government, and no one said the warlords were well-liked even by each other, she will have to endure more hatred as public enemy number one. She's fighting a battle that will never see victory. I do not understand what she hopes to gain from such a goal, so I can see why you might not like this goal in that sense. I see no benefit to this either.

On a positive notion, however, I've no doubt you'd make a good teacher for her if I absolutely had to acknowledge your way of piracy along with my prior teachings to you as a marine. Your initiative and approach are excellent starts! Women are very capable beings when it comes to managing things in the household. Her domestic duties are in line with your typical maintenance worker on ships. A thorough and meticulous person like her typically works best in accounting, archiving, or quality control tasks. It may be best for her to organize your ship right now so she can truly work for you in other areas. Again, I do not support your ways of piracy, but it is in your best interests for her to be in charge of things like bookkeeping. Ships require repairs. Have her document such things. You need to eat. Have her document how long you go without restocking food or drinking water. Those details benefit both of you. You'll have a better understanding of when to resupply without draining your resources to the last crumb and drop, a better maintenance schedule without the ship sinking because of an undetected pinhole, and you can stretch your finances further by tracking your spending at choice towns. She, by default, learns what a pirate and a marine must know without ever steering the ship. She learns how to run it in the background.

The greatest advice I can give you is to have patience and to not act selfishly with this one. There is something that this little girl wants that we don't understand as clearly as she does. You can't impose your values on her because she's not looking for a mentor who only seeks to dominate her thinking. You didn't like it when I did that to you. You also can't be so forceful on her to fall in line. You can show her the consequences of disobeying orders as you've done. I believe this is good, but you can't force her to be something she's not or that she's not trying to be. There's something very specific she requires out of your leadership. Learn what that is, then you can form a proper "piracy program" to work around that. She was drawn to you because you have the background she needs to accomplish this unrealistic goal. Do as she did. Get analytical, become meticulous, form a working station that you both can operate in.

~ Sincerely,

Monkey D. Garp

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The entire crew just about panicked at the sounds of Nesi's distressed shrieking. Ace kicked down the door to her room to be met with... his pansy having no hair. Anywhere on her body. Not even eyebrows.

"What the hell happened?" Ace questioned, raising a left brow.

"What kind of fruit is that?" Nesi demanded, pointing at the orange devil fruits that Ace brought onboard.

"You ate an unripe Devil Fruit?" Ace argued.

"It's a WHAT!?" Nesi shouted, pulling Ace's body close to her by the shoulders.

"I didn't say you could eat that!" Ace argued.

"I wasn't going to! The lizard ate it! Then, it gave some to me!" Nesi argued.

"Why would you take anything from a lizard?" Ace barked.

"YOU BROUGHT IT ONBOARD LIKE IT WAS RATIONS! I thought it was a peach or something for him to eat! Why would you bring inedible fruit onboard?" Nesi argued. "You could've got the men killed if it was poisonous!"

"If I didn't tell anyone to eat it, THAT MEANS DON'T!" Ace argued.

"I wasn't going to!" Nesi argued. "I had other food!"

"Then why would you eat it?" Ace questioned.

"Because the lizard kept biting me if I didn't take some!" Nesi explained, showing Ace the bite marks on her hands.

"DUMP THE LITTLE BASTARD IN THE OCEAN OFF MY SHIP!" Ace argued. "HE COULD BE VENOMOUS!"

"LIKE YOUR GODDAMN FRUIT!?" Nesi argued.

Ace just about roared and hissed like a jungle beast at Nesi. The Draco lizard merely watched them squabble and chirped to gain their attention. He slapped the floor with his claw until Nesi gave him her full attention. It then ran to some papers and turned them over like pages.

"You want to read?" Nesi questioned. "Now?"

"Tossin' 'im," Ace said, picking the lizard up by his tail and going to the nearest window.

"Put my baby down!" Nesi argued, snatching the lizard out of Ace's fingers to pet him.

"That's why you're bald like him now!" Ace argued.

Ace wasn't sure what triggered it, wasn't even sure how such a force could come from the little woman, but he was not ready for the absolute wrath of the ghosts to spawn out of Nesi from his comment. Her entire body was covered in black, purple, blue, and white ghastly flames. Her eyes turned completely white, and she flash stepped directly in front of Ace to deliver a slap that sent him barreling into his crewmates. The Draco lizard shut the door behind the enraged captain and watched as Nesi snapped out of her fury burst. When she turned back to the lizard and caught its gaze, it pushed one of the papers from before in front of it before breathing on the surface of the paper. Letters started to appear on the paper before the lizard pushed the page to Nesi. She kneeled down hesitantly to take it and read...

"Baragon?" she questioned.

"You are so DEAD, FLOOR SCRUBBER!" Ace shouted, pounding on the door.

"That's your name?" Nesi asked, earning a nod from the little lizard.

"Strip."

The men flinched at the command, hoping Ace would explain but not really wanting him to explain at the same time. When no one moved, flames started coming off his body, so they hustled until they were down to their underwear. All of the clothes were in a pile.

"Pee on it, sweat on it, I don't care if you bust a load on it, I want these clothes good and rank in five minutes," Ace hissed.

Some men went to work running around to build up a sweat, others let a little urine out, and the stragglers just looked at each other and ran to the kitchen to just dump sauce on the pile. They were not doin' that last one with the boys around and a flaming captain. Literally. When the damage was done, Ace dismissed them and waited for his prey to come out of hiding. She eventually did, looking quite guilty and quite apologetic. Too bad he didn't want the sob story.

"Laundry!" Ace ordered once Nesi left her bedroom.

She was going to take accountability for her shouting since she was at fault for eating the fruit, but the captain already had a punishment together. Darn...

"Yes, sir," Nesi said, accepting her fate.

"You have an hour to finish all of the laundry on this ship or else you're camping outside with the men while naked," Ace growled, making Nesi flinch.

She sighed, looked at the destruction left behind, and said again, "Aye, captain..."