Chapter Thirteen | Baroque Works
Sitting on a spit of rock covered in the barest layer of grass, Quinn looked over the strange, spherical compass that Luffy had poached off the two rogues they'd encountered earlier, and then summarily tossed overboard. "So this is what will get us to the next island?"
"A Log Pose is the only way to get around the Grand Line. The magnetic fields surrounding each island are completely out of whack, so it's a matter of getting a lock on one island and gunning for it." Popping his lips, Crocus gestured at the pose. "You'll have to kill some time on whatever island you end up at, either a few hours or a few days, depending. That one looks like it's already locked to…" He squinted, adjusting his glasses. "Whisky Peak, I think. Takes about twelve hours to lock onto the next island if you're there."
"Sure know a lot for a veterinarian."
Crocus sniffed in annoyance. "I'm a doctor, thank you very much."
"Speaking of… what's the story with the whale?" Sanji asked, lighting two cigarettes and passing one to Quinn, who nodded in thanks. She really needed to get her own stash so she could stop poaching them off Sanji.
"Laboon? He came in with a crew of pirates around… fifty years back. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but they seemed the alright type. Musicians, all of them. They came here from the West Blue, the only sea in the world where Island Whales like Laboon here are born," he explained, scratching his chin and sighing. "They said they'd return in three years and bring him back home. Last I heard, they'd been sighted leaving the Grand Line. That was forty-odd years ago."
"Bastards. They just abandoned him?"
"As far as I can tell."
"Have you tried talking to him?" Nami queried, looking at the whale with plain sympathy. "He understands what's being said to him. Right?"
"I've talked with him plenty of times. One sided, mind you, but he keeps smacking his head into the Red Line." Heaving out a sigh, Crocus pinched the bridge of his nose. "Another year of this and Laboon is going to die. There's only so much I can do to help him."
At that, Luffy looked up at the whale – blood dripping from the massive nest of scars that covered his snout – and a sudden gleam flitted across Luffy's eyes as they drifted from Laboon to the Merry. "Captain…" Quinn ventured, catching him just as he went to walk towards the ship, looking more than a little dangerous. "What were you about to do?"
"Uh-" He froze up, pointing at himself. "Me?"
"Is there another captain here?"
"I, the Great Captain Usopp-"
"Hey! I'm the captain!"
A bout of giggles took over Nami when he went to wrestle with Usopp, the two very literally tangled up on the ground, Luffy's legs wrapped twice around their Sniper's waist. "Say uncle!" he shouted, Usopp patting the grass frantically.
"Uncle! Uncle!"
Just as quickly as they had started fighting, they separated, Luffy helping Usopp to his feet with a smile, before patting the dirt off his shorts.
"Luffy…"
He froze again. "Quinn…"
"Just tell me what you had planned, and I promise not to be mad."
Puffing out his cheeks, Luffy scuffed his sandals on the ground and pouted. "I was gonna' hit Laboon really hard so he wouldn't be sad anymore."
Blinking a few times, Quinn opened and then closed her mouth, trying to put together a reply. "You- okay, so- can you explain how that was going to stop him from being sad?"
"Like it'll make any sense," Zoro grumbled.
"Well, if we fight then we're rivals and he has to wait for me."
In a strange, roundabout way, Luffy's logic made sense. Well, sort of. A little. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Go and hit him or something." He turned to the Merry again and Quinn put her hand up. "Without doing whatever you have planned to the ship."
Throwing his hands up in surrender, Luffy stomped in the direction of Laboon, arms stretching as he grabbed onto a boulder and launched himself at the whale. The crew watched with morbid fascination as he clambered across Laboon's head and then began punching the open wound on his snout. Her bones shook when Laboon wailed, leaping out of the sea and – I have never been so glad Luffy is made of rubber, was the only thought running through Quinn's mind when Laboon smashed his snout onto the rocks, Luffy flattened out across the webbed scars like a cartoon character.
Even a hundred feet away, she could hear Luffy's laughter as he pulled himself back together, shaking out his limbs and then raising his fist at Laboon. "Hey, whale!" he shouted, stretched arm flicking him on the head. "Our fight was a draw, right?"
Laboon poked his eyes out of the water and glared at Luffy, and Quinn swore the whale was grumbling at him.
"You and me? We're rivals now! Me and my crew are going to travel the Grand Line, and I'm gonna' be the Pirate King! But when we're done?" Planting his hands on his hips, Luffy grinned. "We're gonna' come back here and we'll have a rematch! Got that?"
Until that moment, Quinn didn't know whales could cry. Yet, Laboon apparently could, and cry he did. Massive eyes welling with tears, he nodded his great big head and then threw his chin into the air, letting out not a sorrowful bellow, but one that was unmistakably hopeful. She laughed aloud, unable to stop the smile that worked its way across her face, and a few steps away Crocus broke out into loud, hearty laughter of his own. "You brats are something else," he choked out, wiping a tear from his eye. "Decades, and I couldn't get through to Laboon… apparently all it took was a crazy kid in a straw hat."
"That's our captain for you," Sanji declared proudly.
After Luffy's gambit with Laboon, they decided to enjoy an early dinner with Crocus, Sanji taking a bizarre looking tuna out from the ship and grilling it to absolute perfection. At this point Quinn was convinced he had some magic of his own, seeing as with the barest amount of spices he somehow managed to cook everything to a point of near incomprehensible deliciousness. Quinn wasn't even entirely sure that was a word, but she'd use it all the same.
Once dinner was eaten and everyone's bellies were full, Luffy decided to paint a ramshackle mockery of their jolly roger over Laboon's scars. He'd then demanded that Laboon take good care of himself, and make sure he kept that jolly roger pristine.
Damn, if Luffy wasn't the smartest idiot Quinn had ever met.
At some point in the afternoon, when the sun was beginning to set, the two morons they'd tossed overboard had climbed up to where they were having a grand old time and decided to beg them for a trip home, 'seeing as they were using their log pose and all.'
The words of the self-proclaimed king, Mister Nine. Eloquent.
Aghast at the absolute and utter stones it took to beg a crew of pirates that had knocked them to their feet, bound them, and then un-bound them before promptly tossing them into the ocean – Zoro had complained. Loudly.
Usopp had glared. Sanji, after a heartbeat of looking Quinn's way and then shrugging, agreed to the idea only because another woman was (possibly) coming aboard. Nami, though – Nami had extorted them with the ease of a seasoned professional, which after stopping the two from blowing a hole in the side of Laboon, who Quinn had grown quite fond of, she was plenty comfortable kicking back and enjoying the show while they groveled for passage.
It came down to Luffy, who asked them with complete and total sincerity whether or not they would attack the crew, which Miss Wednesday and Mister Nine avidly denied.
That was how the two rogues-turned-passengers were along for the ride as they headed to Whisky Peak, the supposed island the two hailed from and were trying to feed. Laboon, their target, would have (according to them) fed everyone living there for three years. It was a relatively short distance from Reverse Mountain, although in the grand scheme of things that counted for fuck all considering it was still a three day trip, one that had to be spent enjoying the incredible company of two piss-poor excuses for secret agents that acted as if doing work around the ship was a fundamental slight against their person. Thankfully, Zoro was more than happy to stand ominously near them with one hand on his swords, fingers tapping against the grip in a way that somehow came across as threatening.
Otherwise, when they weren't sailing and watching their backs in case a knife found its way there, things were normal. The first day was a bit of a mess with how insane the weather was this side of the Red Line. Quinn hadn't felt exhaustion like that in years, not since the war. Almost the entire day, all twenty four hours of it, was spent running about the Merry and making constant adjustments to their course, the sea intent on turning them around when it wasn't trying to drown them or otherwise tear the ship to pieces. When she had the time, Quinn made plans to one day line the interior of the Merry with every rune under the sun to ensure the ship, and therefore the crew's continued survival.
So… there was the weather, and Zoro had also taken to training her in the ways of the sword, which involved a lot of being hit and lifting weights. Weights that Quinn had no idea she could even lift and, upon first hoisting up what must have been two hundred pounds without breaking a sweat, had rambled in astonishment at her achievement. Zoro had quickly rained on her parade by saying he could do that at the age of ten before immediately lifting what must have been an entire tonne and complaining, quite loudly, that it wasn't enough.
Quinn decided then and there that she would do her damndest to catch up to Zoro in strength, because magic or not, if someone like him came at her in a fight with intent to kill she wouldn't stand a chance. She was determined to become stronger, to grow faster, to be able to blend her magic with sword slashes and gunshots seamlessly. Once she'd worked that out, Quinn could set her sights on following through on her proclamation outside Loguetown. In a place like this, where she was stronger, hardier, more resilient, she could experiment with spells without blowing her head off. Or, with much less risk to herself and her surroundings. Already Quinn's mind was swimming with ideas, memories flitting by of the spells she'd seen witches and wizards far greater than her cast with ease, rituals and runic arrays that were more theory than application but, if completed, would be invaluable on the open ocean.
The strength that Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji wielded with eerie confidence was her ultimate goal. Quinn wanted to match them, as much as she was able, and bring more to the crew than a snarky attitude and the occasional spell she pulled from her arse without knowing if it would work before she tried to cast it.
What she hadn't originally planned on, but had now been poking at her mind, was trying to see if Sirius had come here as well. Quinn didn't know how the Veil worked, whether it had always been a portal to this world in particular or if her survival had been a fluke. She still planned to keep an eye and an ear trained in case anything cropped up relating to Sirius, hoping against all hope that she'd possibly encounter her long lost godfather somewhere in this vast blue sea.
All things considered, plans and bruises otherwise, the beginning of their voyage had gone well. The ship was in good condition, the crew was happy, and they were soon to be rid of their stowaways, seeing as Whisky Peak was on the horizon.
"Cactuses," Zoro monotoned, pointing at, of course, cactuses. Massive, skyscraping cactuses that shot out of the island like mountains. As the Merry drifted lazily towards the river that carved its way to the centre of town, Quinn could see that the island looked like a movie set for an old western. The abandoned buildings this far out being dusty, tan things made of mud and timber, the entirety of the island formed from naught but dirt and the occasional lonely sprig of grass that wavered from behind its shelter of yet more tan boulders.
"Wow. Cactuses? Where?"
Unimpressed, he side-eyed Quinn and grunted. Usopp chuckled, and she snapped a finger and pointed at him. "Thanks, mate."
As they approached the outskirts of Whisky Peak proper, a crowd of villagers came out to greet them. It was a bloody parade, people cheering and shouting, praising the arrival of a crew of pirates of all things. Brow furrowed, Quinn surveyed the crowd as they got closer and saw many of them to have scars the likes of which were only worn by those who had seen battle, and plenty of it. There was a nun of all things who stood nearly as tall as Crocus, her habit barely doing anything to hide the enormous muscles beneath it.
"Thank you for the ride, and hopefully we'll see you again some day," Miss Wednesday and Mister Nine shouted once they'd gotten past the thick of the crowd, angled towards the dock. "Bye bye, baby." With that, they then dove into the water and swam towards the shore.
"Trap?" Quinn muttered, eyeing Zoro. He blinked at her, as if asking what do you think, smart-ass?
"Trap?" Usopp whispered.
She nodded. "Trap."
"I hate traps."
A dramatic sigh worked its way out of Sanji, and his shoulders slumped, dejected. "They're so happy to see us, though."
"Hoping to meet your one true love?"
"A man can dream."
Zoro snorted, while Nami patted Sanji on the back consolingly. "Maybe at the next island?"
At the head of the ship, Luffy sat in his special spot and waved at the crowd, grinning from ear to ear. Quinn would have to talk to him, let him know that this island and its inhabitants weren't what they seemed, although Zoro looked to have the same idea, walking over to meet Luffy at the figurehead and whispering in his ear. Luffy frowned at whatever Zoro said, but nodded a second later, going back to waving merrily at everyone they passed by.
"Welcome, pirates!" A man at the docks cried, his hair lying in massive curls, cylinders more like, and Quinn was starkly reminded of a woman who lived a few doors down, across the street from the Dursleys, who was as severe in temperament as the perm she wore. "Welcome to the Town of Greetings, Whisky Peak!"
-::-
Town of Greetings indeed.
Three hours had passed since they'd docked, and the instant the Straw Hats had stepped off the ship they had ferried to a pub and, from there, been plied with food and wine. Somehow, Quinn found herself sitting next to Sanji, the two of them puffing on cigars and sipping occasionally from tumblers of whisky that the town had earned its namesake from. She'd made damn sure to check them for any variety of poisons and paralytics, and was thankful to detect not a hint of magic in any of the drinks nor food. Mundane poisons? Destroying any trace of the stuff was as simple as pushing her magic into the drink with intent to cleanse. Magic poisons? A goddamn nightmare involving no small amount of focused spellwork that very much required a wand.
God, Quinn needed a wand. Or a ring. Or any sort of focus for that matter. There was only so long that she could get by on runic arrays and explosions, and while both of which were plenty fascinating on their own they wouldn't, and couldn't come close to the real thing.
Smoke trickled from her mouth, the whisky itself surprisingly good for something distilled in a desert town run by what she could only assume were vagrants and other assorted ne'er-do-wells. One of said vagrants had curled herself around Sanji, trailing a finger across his collarbone. "So… what's the name of your crew?" she simpered, a man to the left of Quinn repeating the question.
"It's got to be something fierce, doesn't it?" he drawled, doing his best to put on airs as some sort of debonair. A real noble knight type. Quinn knew nobles. Hell, she'd spent most of her life in schoolyard pissing contests with all flavours of noble. This man wasn't one of them.
And it was too bad for him that she didn't have a lick of interest in men. If she did, his attempt to honey trap her might have, and that was a very strong might, have worked. He was vaguely handsome, if she tilted her head a certain way and he stopped opening his damnable mouth.
"And you really shouldn't smoke, my dear. Even if you are a pirate."
"Oh?" She glanced at him, unimpressed and feeling more than a little violent. "And why is that?"
"Well, it's because…" he trailed off, an awkward smile plastered across his face that was more of a grimace. Her urge to punch him in the mouth must have come across, because he stammered uselessly. "Oh my. Would you look at the time? I really must get going."
"Bye bye, now," Quinn mocked, waving him away. She reclined, crossing her legs as imperiously as she could, and surveyed the room with a trained eye. Luffy was eating what looked to be the village's entire supply of meat, his stomach distended in a way that would be grotesque if it wasn't for the carefree captain it was attached to. Nami was in the process of drinking that muscled nun under the table, and while her cheeks were flushed and her movements clumsy, there was a sharp light in her eyes that was reflected in Zoro's as well.
Usopp was off a little ways away, villagers sitting cross-legged before him, each and every one of them putting on a show of rapturous awe as he regaled them with a fable detailing his great heroics. Sanji, of course, was completely trapped by the constant flow of women that changed in and out at his side, his attention captured by their low cut shirts and pretty words.
On and on the party went, Luffy eventually passing out in the corner after eating Whisky Peak out of house and home, and Zoro made a show of falling asleep in his chair, and she wouldn't put it past him if he had honestly decided to take a nap when surrounded by people who very obviously intended to rob, if not kill them.
Bored of the constant back and forth as man after man walked over and made an attempt to seduce her (could they not catch a hint?) Quinn decided to step outside for a smoke, her cigar long crushed into an ashtray and cold to the touch. She managed to get herself a pack of her own on the way to the pub, and she intended to take full advantage of it.
"I'll be back in a few, alright? Going to step outside for a bit," she said, at which Sanji smiled and waved.
"Sure, sure! Have fun!"
Giving him a short salute, Quinn walked outside and immediately inhaled the crisp night air. It was refreshing to breathe in something that wasn't musk, perfume, and far too much liquor for her tastes. A cigarette quickly found its way to her mouth, and Quinn glanced left and right before snapping her fingers, the tip of it burning a dull cherry. She'd done nothing to give away her magic the entire night, and knew come the inevitable attack she'd be thankful for not advertising her strengths and weaknesses to a town that wanted them dead.
The door to the pub opened, and out walked the nun, who nodded at Quinn and leaned against the wall next to her. "Needed some air?" she asked, her voice surprisingly light for how massive she was.
"I didn't know nuns drank," Quinn drawled, scratching a rune into the muddy wall with her fingernail.
The woman laughed, crossing her arms. "Are women of the faith not allowed to enjoy themselves where you're from?"
"Sorry, let me rephrase. I didn't know nuns drank that much."
"Ah. Well, none of us are without sin or vice, wouldn't you say?" As she said that, the woman trailed a finger over Quinn's shoulder, and she almost laughed out loud at the realization that someone in there must have noticed she had told every man that approached her to fuck off.
"I'm flattered, really, but I recently got out of a… very long relationship."
Six years up in smoke. Quinn wasn't happy with Ginny by any means, but to disappear was… unconscionable. It was something she did her best not to think about, but in times like this, well, it was hard not to when Quinn was directly confronted with the idea. Still, the woman's hand crept up her shoulder, and she turned to glare at her. "Did you not hear me?"
"C'mon. Don't be like that."
"I'm only going to warn you once."
"Uh huh?" Just as the woman's hand went to close around her neck, Quinn pressed her fingers against the rune and injected her magic into it. A bright light shone between them, and she jumped out of the way at the same time the wall exploded, sending the nun rocketing into the distance.
"Bint," Quinn growled, ashing her cigarette against the smoldering wall. She looked around the corner to see the bastards inside snatching up weapons, and as one went to plunge his sword into the shoulder of a sleeping Zoro, he screamed. In a flash, his hand had been cut off and Zoro stood over the man, scowling.
"Anyone ever teach you not to bother someone when they're having a nap?" he uttered, glaring at anyone who came too close. "And you!" Zoro added, pointing at Quinn. "Did you have to wake me up with an explosion?"
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Witch."
"Musclehead."
Zoro grinned, blocking a slash that came at him from behind. He raised his foot and launched it backwards, impacting the woman who tried to cut him down and blasting her through the wall, making two neat holes on either side of the pub. Moping, Sanji shrugged the women still clinging to him off, even as they held knives to his throat. Stunned by his absolute refusal to show any fear (not that he felt any, judging by his grimace) they simply watched as he stood, cupping a hand over his mouth as he lit a cigarette.
"I guess we're fighting?"
"Looks like," she answered, drawing her sword and pistol.
Humming, Zoro looked around and scratched his chin. "I've got a question, first."
"We're not answering your damn questions!" Another man shouted, swinging an axe at Zoro's head, which was blocked with ease. "Uh-"
"You're all bounty hunters, right? What'd those two say their names were?" he asked, tilting his head as he stared down the man he was holding at bay with a single arm. "Wednesday and Nine?"
"Something like that."
"I've heard names like that before. Some shady organization that gives its members dumb names and even dumber outfits. What were you guys called again… Baroque Works?"
"How… how do you know that name?"
He snorted. "You tried to recruit me once. I killed the man who brought the invitation." Sighing fondly, Zoro shook his head. "His head bought me some of the best sake I've ever tasted."
As soon as he finished his sentence, Zoro planted his foot in the middle of the man's chest and pushed him out the same hole he'd knocked in the wall earlier. He drew another sword, testing its weight. "I think this should do," he stated, grinning at the room. "So, are we gonna' fight or what?"