Chapter 2: Enjoy Your Sorrow With a Smile
Polestar Islands, East Blue
The last thing Silk remembered before being the ship she was on capsizing was a blinding light. She was only vaguely aware of her surroundings as she was plunged into the sea, thrashing her arms wildly trying to stabilize herself. The water was chaotic, the current throwing her in every direction one after another. She opened her eyes hoping to get some sense of direction so she could return to the surface before she ran out of air.
When Silk's vision finally focussed, she saw how empty the sea around her was. No marine life whatsoever. Her attention was drawn to something pink sinking down fast. She finally realised she was watching the boy with pink hair swim down as fast as he could.
"Wrong way idiot" She thought before she realised what was happening. The girl who delivered tangerines was sinking like a stone towards the ocean floor.
"She's not moving, must be unconscious" She thought "but her eyes are open."
Silk suddenly became aware of how little air she had left in her lungs.
"Crap, gotta get to the surface fast" She thought. The distance to the surface was hard to judge with the tides as rough as they were. She swam upward as fast as she could, trying not to think about the rising pain in her chest the whole time. The pain only increased the higher she got, by the time she got within around 30 metres of the surface her lungs were screaming for air. The edges of her vision began to turn black, the image of the faint light from the stars in the night sky started to blur.
"Oh no, I'm not gonna make it." Silk fought with everything she had to keep going but she felt exhaustion set in. She was almost unconscious when she saw it. A rope. A stray rope a few metres away from her. She reached out, knowing it was probably not attached to anything but hoping it might be anyway. She reached out for the rope, but it was too far. Suddenly, by some miracle the rope moved towards her, she assumed the current had pushed it in her direction. She grabbed the rope and tugged on it firmly, it was attached to something up on the surface, but she was on the verge of unconsciousness now and didn't have the strength to climb up.
The rope pulled hard and wrenched Silk upwards. The next thing she knew she was in the air above the sea. She gasped pulling as much air into her empty lungs as she could. Before she knew it, she fell and hit something hard. Panting and disoriented, Silk looked at her surroundings. She was on a ship. Looking down at her right hand she saw the rope, someone on this ship must have pulled her up.
Silk looked up at her saviours. A woman with dark purple hair wearing dark trousers, a brown overcoat over her black tank top that exposed her midriff and a tricorn hat. The man next to her wore a blue denim jacket that matched his jeans, black shirt underneath, his hair blonde and slicked back. At first Silk thought the man was holding the other end of the rope that had saved her but when she looked closer, she noticed that wasn't the case. He wasn't holding the rope, the rope was coming out of him, protruding from his hand.
"Nice work Mango, what about the others?" The purple haired woman asked. The Blonde man was holding a second rope in his other hand. He swung his arm back hard, pulling the rope at the same time.
Silk watched as the pink haired boy holding an unconscious Tangerine Girl were pulled from the water and landed on the ship next to her. The pink haired boy gasped for breath briefly before placing his mouth on tangerine girl's.
"Is she dead?" the purple haired woman asked.
"No, she ate a devil fruit" the boy replied while pressing down repeatedly on her chest.
After a few seconds, tangerine girl coughed up water and gasped for air. The pink haired boy sighed with relief and collapsed backwards onto the deck.
"Thank you, you saved us, I'm Gar" he said exhausted.
"I'm Fang, this is Mango" The purple haired woman replied, gesturing to the blonde man.
"Isabella" tangerine girl managed to say in between coughing fits.
"My name is-" Silk didn't finish her sentence. With all the commotion of nearly drowning she hadn't had time to take in the scenery around her until now. The Polestar islands she had called home her whole life were right before her eyes, but they were different now. Logue Town was gone, no, not just Logue Town, the entire main island and some parts of the surrounding islands were gone. Vanished. As if someone had taken an eraser and scrubbed them out of a painting.
Tears welled up in Silk's eyes. She couldn't understand what she was seeing. Where was the island? Where was her home? Where were her parents?
"What…..happened?" She choked out.
"We don't know, one minute everything was fine, the next minute there was a blinding light and it was gone." Fang replied.
"I need to…..my parents…what…..we have to go over there" Silk was rambling.
"Her family ran a restaurant in Logue Town." Bella said solemnly. Fang and Mango exchanged a worried look before beginning to sail towards the islands.
Ruins of Logue Town, East Blue
"I can't believe this is the town we were in only an hour ago." Gar whispered. Mango approached him and handed his jacket over.
"I can see your breath." Mango said urging him to take the jacket "Must be from the cold water."
Gar thanked Mango and put the jacket on over his bare chest. The Tigress sailed further into the empty space that used to be Logue Town. The only sounds filling the air were the waves and Silk's quiet sobs.
"This reminds me of Lodestar Island ten years ago." Mango said, "like a god reached down and punched a hole in it."
"Yeah" Gar replied "Except Lodestar Island was destroyed by an underwater volcano. This was definitely no volcano."
"So what was it?" Bella asked.
"I don't know, I can even imagine what could have done this" Gar replied.
Mango raised the sail and halted the ships movement. The group was currently right in the centre what used to be Logue Town. The group look over at Silk weeping quietly. None of them knew what to say to a 14-year-old girl who just watched her entire life vanish before her eyes.
"I'm freezing, it was so hot all day and now I can't get warm." Fang said, trying to break the tension.
"It's supposed to be hot this time of year here." Bella informed, rubbing her shoulders to warm them up.
Silk stared at the area around her. She had seen that everything was gone when she was pulled out of the water and onto the Tigress, but she had hoped that if she sailed into the area that used to be her home, she would find something, that she would find her parents. But there was nothing here, no restaurant, no town and no parents. Just an empty space where hr life used to be. Silk felt guilty, she had spent all day wishing something would change in her life and now she got her wish. Her parents were likely dead, she knew that everything she owned and everyone she knew would be lost forever, including her locket. The one thing that still existed from her old life and she had let Ann sail away with it. The emotions hit Silk like a truck. She didn't just cry she wailed, she and roared in agony for what felt like an eternity. She cried so much that she lost her voice and yet, she continued to cry even more.
After fifteen minutes Gar decided that if the adults weren't going to try and comfort the poor girl crying to the point of dehydration on their ship then he would. He walked over and sat down next to her, silent. He wanted to say something, anything to make her feel better but he knew that no such phrase existed. So, he just sat.
Fang, Mango and Bella left the two on the deck while they went inside to the small room that served as the ships kitchen and sleeping quarters.
"So, you guys are pirates, right?" Bella asked.
"We are, I mean, we're going to be, I'm not sure you can call two people a pirate crew but we're on our way." Fang smiled at the thought of the adventures she and Mango would have once they recruited some more crewmates.
"Well how about you leave here with three?" Bella asked.
"You? Want to be a pirate?"
"Are you kidding? It's all I've ever wanted, travelling the world, seeing exciting places, meeting exciting people, that's my dream." Bella smiled the biggest smile Fang had ever seen.
"This isn't a joke you know? We aren't playing pirates for fun, we're going to the New Word, we're going all the way to Laugh Tale." Fang replied.
"Huh? Laugh Tale? What for?" Bella asked.
"Because that's where the Gol D Roger and Monkey D Luffy became Pirate Kings." Mango interrupted "we're gonna see it for ourselves."
"Can't you imagine?" Bella asked "Seeing something only Pirate Kings have seen? That sounds like an adventure worth sailing dangerous seas for."
"See, that's what I'm talking about, that's what I want, an adventure so grand that most people can't even dream of." Bella replied with determination in her eyes. "You have to take me with you, I've been making deliveries around the east blue all on my own for seven years, started when I was twelve, what I mean is that I know how to navigate, you guys need a navigator right? And I have a devil fruit power so I can take care of myself."
Fang and Mango looked at each other, trying to read each other's thoughts.
"Well, we do need a navigator." Mango said after giving up trying to communicate wordlessly with his captain.
"And it would be nice to have someone who's got sailing experience." Fang added. The two stayed silent for another moment giving each other an opportunity to object but neither did.
"All right Isabella." Fang offered her hand "congratulations, you're officially a member of the Fang Pirates."
"Bella is fine, and thank you, I'm honoured." Bella replied full of joy.
The trio made there way back out onto the deck and were surprised to see Silk waiting for them, her eyes now filled with determination rather than tears.
"Miss Fang, thank you for saving me." Silk began "Please let me ride on your ship."
Fang was stunned. This girl seemed like she was about to break only a moment ago and now she looked like a woman on a mission given to her by God.
"Just "Fang" is fine." Fang replied cautiously "And I gotta say I'm surprised at this sudden new attitude."
"My home is destroyed along with everything I own. My parents are…..the only thing I have left of them is a locket that was stolen from me by a girl I thought was my friend. I need to get it back. I will get it back." Silk said to herself more than anything.
"You know where she went?" Mango asked.
"No, but I know who she's travelling with. She's a pirate, I saw her ship, it has a witch masthead, and the jolly roger is an upside-down skull with ogre horns."
"Seriously?" Mango whispered, "An upside-down jolly roger?"
"And a witch masthead?" Fang added. Gar noticed the sudden look of fear on their faces.
"One of her crewmates is a woman" Silk continued "she has a long blonde mohawk and carries a swo-"
"NO, a hundred percent no." Fang cut her off. "You stupid girl, you don't even realise what you're saying do you?"
Silk was silent, she knew they were pirates, but Fang and Mango seemed terrified of what she was saying.
"The crew you're talking about are called the Fever Pirates, and they're one of the most dangerous pirate crews in the world." Mango informed the group. Gar stood up straight. He knew the name well.
"The woman you're describing is Marie, their first mate, they call her the devils daughter. Her bounty is over two billion Berry." Mango continued.
"Two billion?" Bella gasped.
"And if she's the first mate that means the captains is even higher." Gar added.
"Over three billion." Fang answered, "His name is Tom, Laughing Tom, they call him."
"Three Billion? That makes him like one of the most wanted pirates in the world, right?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, only legends like the Kid Pirates, Buggy the Clown and the Straw Hat crew have higher bounties." Mango explained.
"I thought you said serious pirates don't come to the festival." Gar asked Bella.
"They Don't, the navy sets up extra patrols to catch them before they get near Logue Town. The Fever Pirates must have snuck past them somehow." Bella replied.
"Chasing the Fever Pirates is a death sentence. I won't sail straight to hell just to get a locket back, besides, we already picked up one crew member today and I didn't come here to recruit children." Fang said.
"One crew member?" Gar wondered. He looked at Bella and saw the triumph in her eyes, realising she had taken the first step in her journey to become a great pirate.
"Ah, please Captain Fang, let me join as well." Gar said abruptly. "I also want to become a pirate and I'm-"
"NO, no more new crew members today. I have a friend in Foosha Village who operates a passenger ship, we'll drop the two of you off there and you can have him take you wherever you need to go." Fang announced. Gar and Silk dropped their heads at the rejection. Bella felt bad that they had been turned down while she had been accepted but she understood Fang's reasoning. Gar was 17 at the oldest and was clearly not tough enough to survive a harsh life at sea and Silk was hell bent on getting herself killed chasing a locket halfway around the world.
Witches Wail, East Blue
"Here comes the paper." Tom said shielding his eyes from the sun as a news coo approached the ship.
"I hate those birds, they creep me out, how do they always know where to find us? Cause the Government is watching us that's how." Handsome Dan spat with disdain, adjusting the cap that rested on his head of lavender hair.
"I'm pretty sure they just fly around until they see a ship man, I don't think he knows its us." Tom laughed taking the paper from the bird.
"Yeah, well something doesn't seem right about it, I'm not about to start trusting them anytime soon."
Tom brushed his brown locks behind his ears and scanned the front page.
"Holy shit." He whispered.
Five minutes later Tom and five of his crew members were gathered in his quarters, each of them reading the front page of the newspaper before passing it on to the next person.
"I don't understand." Jericho started "we were just there, and everything was fine, how does an island just vanish?"
"It says here that it happened the day of the festival, that was four days ago now, we must have just missed it." Marie said.
"If everyone on the island vanished too, the papers probably didn't get the news until someone travelled there and saw it missing." Said Jean-Francois.
"If we didn't coat the ship and go under as soon as we left Logue Town, we probably would have seen it happen." Cassandra, a tall, beautiful woman with dark hair tied in braids said.
"What should we do Captain? Should we go back?" Dan asked, shirtless, his two katana tucked into his shorts.
"Doesn't seem like there's much point now." Tom replied, "If the islands gone its gone, nothing we can do to bring it back and besides, the Navy will be all over it, we'd have to fight our way through all the patrols to get back there."
"Still, its surreal, an island disappearing. Come to think of it isn't there a fable about this?" Jericho asked.
"Nolan the liar." Jean-Francois replied, "He swore he found an island full of gold but when he led the King's men back to the island, it was nowhere to be found. On his deathbed he guessed that it sank to the ocean floor."
"But it didn't. It was sent to Skypeia by a knock up stream." Jericho said.
"It goes to show though. Everything, no matter how surreal it seems, can be explained rationally if you have all the information." Tom spoke up. "We'll keep an eye on this for now and wait to hear if the Navy publicises anything they find."
The group nodded silently before leaving the captain's quarters and returning to their duties. The paper was passed around to all thirty-seven crew members of the Fever Pirates throughout the day. Everyone shared the same sentiment, confusion. The crew had left Logue Town only a few days earlier, a town that didn't exist anymore. A few theories were traded between crew members throughout the day but none that anyone put much stock in. Eventually they all seem to push it to the back of their mind and focus on sailing to their next location on their journey-Reverse Mountain.
Party's Bar, Foosha Village
Makino narrowly swerved around a drunk pirate's flailing arms, picking up empty cups as she went. Walking back to the bar with full arms she placed all the cups in the large sink behind the bar that they used to wash them.
"Man, pirates sure have bad manners don't you think Makino?" A man in a flower print coat cooed.
Makino smiled back at Jack and let out a giggle. Jack had become one of her favourite customers since he turned up in Foosha Village two weeks earlier. His crew had spent almost every night in her bar but unlike his crewmates, who drank themselves into a stupor every night, Jack only ever drank juice. Most nights Jack would spend hours entertaining Makino with tales of his adventures, and she would tell him about all the famous pirates that had drank at Party's in return.
"I can't believe you guys are leaving tomorrow, I might even miss you" Makino teased. In the two weeks since Jack and his crew arrived, she would be lying if she said she hadn't developed a tiny crush on the handsome captain. His dark hair was cut neatly, and his thin moustache added some character to his face. He always wore his trademark off-white coat with a rose pattern printed on it. The coat had earned him the name "Calico Jack" among his fellow pirates that frequented Party's.
"Ah, you tease me, Miss Makino." Jack said "But this is the legendary Party's Bar. Everyone in the world knows this establishment. 'Party's Bar', they say, 'where you can drown your sorrow with a smile.' They're talking about your smile you know."
Makino slapped his arm playfully at the remark.
"Ever since Luffy went off and became famous pirates and pirate enthusiasts have been showing up here all year round, trying to get a glimpse of the Pirate Kings hometown. Even my own son left to go and chase his dream of being a pirate." She spoke.
"Makino, have a drink with me." Jack requested "to celebrate our last night together, at least for a while."
Makino pulled two cups and a bottle from under the bar.
"No, no juice tonight. Let's have some of the good stuff, from the top shelf. Only the best for a lady as special as you Makino." Jack gestured to the top shelf behind Makino where the finest liquor Party's kept in stock was stored.
"Okay, moneybags hahaha, what'll it be." Makino said, turning away from Jack and reaching up to examine the Labels. She had long forgotten what the top shelf held since no one ever wanted to fork out the money for it.
Jack pulled his pistol from his waistband and cocked it. He raised it up and pointed it at the back of Makino's head.
"Oh, how about single malt from Whisky Peak?" Makino asked grabbing a bottle.
*BANG*
The pistol went off. Makino's skull burst open. Blood splashed the shelves full of liquor before her body went limp and dropped to the floor.
The entire bar fell silent. Party's regulars sat with blank faces trying to process what had just happened.
"Kill them all." Jack stood up and tucked his pistol back into his waistband, "then move on to the rest of the village." Jack's crew moved before anyone else could react. Steel flashed as their swords cut the throats of the villagers and rookie pirates who had been drinking happily only a moment earlier.
