Chapter XXXI: The Ultimate Coffee

Jaune had an idea, but it was risky. Admittedly, his last plan had been pretty risky too. The difference was that he had gotten lucky before, and he might not be this time. It was hard to figure out what Pyrrha and Ozpin might have thought happened, but he had to assume it likely revolved around him slamming himself against the side of his cell in some hopes of freedom. That wouldn't be wrong, but there was more to it. If he got caught this time too, then it would be more obvious what his exact goal was.

Jaune set his hat to the side, making sure it was safe, and slid his top off. He tied the end of one sleeve into a knot to give it some weight. Then, after making sure his breath was steady, he used it like a whip toward the desk. He missed, and a loud thump reverberated in the room, making him cringe. He waited and tried again. Jaune cursed as he missed again. It was difficult to aim through the bars when he couldn't touch them. That didn't stop him though. If someone walked in and saw this, there would be very little he could do to explain it.

"What do you think?" A marine leaned over the rail, gazing down at the mass in the water.

"What do you mean, what do I think, Dan?"

"Come on, you're not still mad about the grammar stuff are you, Gary?"

Dan's friend responded by shrugging his shoulders. "No, what I mean is there's not much there to understand. How do you ask what I think when it's just planks and scaffolding."

Construction was underway, tied to the back of the marine ship. The structure had a curved, raft-like base bobbing up and down in the waves. Protruding up from it was a work in progress, currently resembling a massive, wooden rib cage.

"You think that's the watch that one girl has been telling everyone about?"

The waves rocked the structure, already nearly half the size of their ship. "I don't see a damn clock on that thing. You expect me to believe that's a watch?"

Dan huffed dramatically. "Are you actually expecting her to make a real watch? Please don't tell me you're that gullible, Gary."

"Have you seen her?" Gary hissed. "I swear that girl isn't human. The other day, I saw her say 'this is a tasty melon, I shall eat it like a normal, human girl, Mr. Marine,' and then she ate the entire fucking thing whole. Rind and all. In one second. If she says she's building a watch and she needs fifty tons of metal and four tons of lumber, so be it. I'll be expecting a damn clock tower put up in the middle of our boat."

Dan stared long and hard at Gary. "You've got issues man."

Gary nearly collapsed against the railing. "I know."

"Where'd you think she got all of that lumber from? There's so much of it."

"I heard she was taking the scraps that were meant to be thrown away. Mike hasn't been doing his job."

"But there's so much."

Gary groaned. "What? Do you want me to say she pulled it out of her ass or materialized out of thin air? I don't know where she got all of it."

In the distance, a faint, "I am construction ready," could be heard.

"She's going at it again," Dan supplied.

"Yes. Thank you. I heard."

"You are still mad about the grammar shit, aren't you."

Even when Ciel wasn't interacting with Whitley, he was a thorn in her side. She could hear him down the hall with that damn harmonica as she slid food into the cell of one of his crew. In the distance, he so blatantly ignored his situation and everything that surrounded him. Did he not realize he was a captive prisoner? With each passing day, she felt more that he saw this as a simple vacation. The sheer audacity of him made her shake with anger.

"Is the cap'n doin' fine?" Ciel turned to look at the prisoner that had spoken. He looked at her expectantly, which unnerved her somewhat. One of his eyes was glassy, a scar running through it, yet it somehow looked hopeful.

"Can you not hear him?" Ciel asked. "He's been showing the entire world for the past hour just how fine he is with this situation."

The pirate shrugged, going back to his food. "You never really know though, do ya? I guess there's no point in me askin' if I wouldn't believe ya anyways, but I thought I'd ask."

"What do you mean?"

He glanced back up at her, as if he hadn't expected her to care enough to ask. Admittedly, it was justified with her flat tone and slight frown.

"I have a younger brother. Wonderful kid, and goin' places, unlike me. Doesn't always show when he's strugglin' though. Sometimes he tries to act like it's all fine, when he's really tryin' to carry the entire world. Sometimes, the cap'n makes me feel like that. I just want him to be okay."

Ciel hesitated. "You really care that much about him?"

"We all do!" A woman to the left called. "We all follow him because he's just like us: someone that never got any freedom growin' up." Ciel's frown deepened.

As she left the brig, she glanced back to the long row of cells. A thought danced through her mind. Normally, she would have shot it down as soon as it appeared. It was risky, it went against the present order, and she had no reason to act on it. Yet, for some reason, she felt a tug to humor it.

The thermos flew. It was not supposed to be at that moment, then again, Jaune hardly knew what he was doing. He had never used a shirt-whip before to retrieve something. He had missed again, the sleeve thumping again, but as he jerked the shirt back, the knotted sleeve struck the metallic cylinder, launching it at him. It struck the cell bars, ringing out loudly through the room. Desperate, he dove for it, doing his best to be careful at the very last second

The door swung open and in strode Ozpin. He glanced down and tutted at the odd sight. Jaune, shirtless, held his clumped up shirt against his chest. There was no force to it though, as his other hand was clearly wrapped loosely around one of the bars.

Prying Jaune's fingers off of the seastone, Ozpin muttered, "I knew you were stubborn, but this is ridiculous. It did not work the first time, and it would not work a second time. I do not know what all of this knocking around I've been hearing is, but you should really relax a bit more. All will be better once we get to port in a few days."

Only a few days? Jaune held the shirt tighter to himself. Okay, so maybe he had been slacking, but he was trying not to be careful. Panic began to seep into him.

Ozpin noticed. "You will be fine, Mr. Arc. There are people that wish to help you."

Jaune did not meet the man's eyes. Ozpin let his frustrations tumble out with a deep sigh. Standing back up, Ozpin moved over to his desk. "I have a meeting today, Jaune. A long one. I beg you not to cause anymore issues. I might not be around the next time you end up like that, and it was lucky in the first place that someone was close enough to hear you the first time." With that, Ozpin grabbed the scroll from his desk and left the room.

Jaune sat there for a moment. He unfurled his shirt, revealing the metal cap of the thermos. Time ticked away as he stared at it, before he eventually heaved a long sigh, leaning against the wall. Okay, so he had finally gotten his reaching tool, but Ozpin had just taken the thing he was trying to reach. Jaune placed the thermos on the ground and put his top back on. What did he do now?

Without any ideas to act on at the moment, Jaune decided a bit of coffee might help him think. Jaune screwed off the cap and was hit with a strong scent. It was bitter and rich, waking him up just by wafting it. What the hell was Ozpin drinking? Tentatively, Jaune brought it to his lips. The moment a sip passed through, it felt like a bolt struck him. Jaune sputtered in shock for a moment, then looked back at the coffee. It wasn't bad for a thermos of black coffee, just in that it seemed to light his nerves on fire.

Not entirely sure why anymore, but probably due to morbid curiosity, Jaune drank the entire thing.

"I have plans that can't be revealed just yet," Weiss held tightly onto Yang's shoulders, shaking her back and forth. "But please help me get bread. I need bread. I need all the bread on the ship!" Weiss' hair was a mess, and her eyes spoke of slipping sanity.

Yang looked back at the others, but they had become coincidentally busy the moment Weiss had burst back into their room. Well, two can play that game — or, she guessed it would be three.

"Hey, Nora! Help Weiss out here," Yang pried Weiss' hands off of herself. "I'm still searching for my co-op solitaire." While it was an excuse, Yang had absolutely no idea where her card game was. One moment, it was on her desk half-finished, the next it was gone. She hadn't even finished the rules, let alone balanced any of it. It had to be unplayable.

"Sorry, Weiss. I'm planning all the things I'm going to be doing with Renny once we're back in Vale."

Yang shot the girl a dirty look, then turned to Pyrrha. She didn't have to say anything either as Weiss' gaze turned with hers. Pyrrha reddened as she looked away. "Sorry, but I'm — yes, I'm working on some paperwork for Ozpin. Very busy." She picked up a blank piece of paper and started scribbling on it. She didn't do very much to hide the chaotic loops of her meaningless drawing.

"Traitors," Yang muttered. "Mutiny, I tell you."

Weiss took a deep breath to calm herself, and then she looked Yang dead in the eyes. "I'll — I'll," she paused, steadying herself. "I — Oh, this is difficult to say. Yang, I'll l-laugh at your p-puns."

Silence. Yang deadpanned. "That's just low, Weiss-cream." Desperately, Weiss tried to laugh, but it sounded more like choking.

"Why do you need bread anyway?" Yang asked, already giving up and heading to their room's door.

"I can not reveal that," Weiss hissed.

Yang shrugged and left the room. She closed the door and turned to find a face mere inches from her. Yang yelled and slammed back against the door. Faintly behind it, she could hear Weiss say, "I knew she would be there!"

"Have you been making sure Weiss doesn't get into trouble?" Winter asked her.

Yang looked nervously to the side. This had grown from Weiss being paranoid to Weiss having a stalker. "Yeah, sure," she answered, trying her best to scoot away. Fortunate for her and unfortunate for Weiss, Winter seemed to have only one person in mind. With that, Winter stood at attention, just beyond team PWNY's door. Weiss' family was crazy.

"How?" Helmeppo all but screamed. "We're on a ship in the middle of the ocean, how does this happen?"

"I dunno." Luffy shrugged. "I guess he just has a bad sense of direction."

Helmeppo shakily sat back down in his seat. Even the caring dugongs on their ship couldn't lift his spirits. This was a disaster.

Kobe glanced at him sympathetically. "I wouldn't worry too much about Zoro. He survived well without us for quite some time. Maybe he'll eventually find us again."

Helmeppo nursed a drink brought to him by one of the dugongs. "It's not his safety I'm worried about. The man's a monster — no, a demon. What I'm worried about is what he'll get up to. He's a certified dumbass — one connected to us in name. I just know he'll do something impossibly stupid, and we'll be blamed."

As much as Kobe wanted to argue, he couldn't really find fault in Helmeppo's logic. They didn't know much about the green haired swordsman, but they knew he was skilled at fighting and not skilled at making decisions. After all, he and Luffy agreed on many things, which was worrisome.

"Not to mention where our captain is taking us." Helmeppo gestured broadly forward. "Why again, Luffy? Where are we headed and why?"

"My friend got captured," Luffy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I wanna go talk to him to see how he's doing."

Helmeppo threw his arms in the air. "Of course, silly me. A well known criminal with a bounty on their head is captured and you, a marine, want to talk to them. That would make sense except you just want to hang out with the guy."

"What's wrong with that?" Luffy tilted his head to the side.

"Everything!" One of the dugongs patted Helmeppo's shoulder to comfort him. He greatly appreciated the gesture.

"I think Helmeppo is saying that we shouldn't associate too strongly with criminals," Kobe tried saying.

Luffy only shrugged and went back to what he was doing: making the kitchen dugongs work overtime. "Oh, I also heard they got updated wanted posters," Luffy added. "Look!" He turned around to toss the papers at them, which Kobe barely caught. With that, Luffy turned toward his meal once more.

Shuffling through them, he saw the bounties had all gone up. Straw Hat Jaune's had skyrocketed, now having reached five-million five-hundred-thousand lien. Kobe wasn't entirely sure why they didn't use the Grand Line's currency for the bounty, but he was able to broadly gauge how much that was. It was at least two-hundred-million belly. As for the others, they had similarly high bounties, though none of them were as crazy of an amount as Jaune's. Kobe noted that Cardin's had changed, labeling him as 'Three Mace Cardin.' Then there were the latest additions to Jaune's crew: God of the Sea Neptune and Sun Son Sun. Kobe stared for a long time at the latter one, wondering who had given the call for that epithet.

It was hard for Jaune to describe how he was feeling. There was a hazy sensation, like the air had turned to cotton, but there was also a sharpness to his mind as if his thoughts were in the highest detail. His own internal monologue felt like it was echoing in his head, but he couldn't tell anymore if it really just was in his head or if he just couldn't feel his lips moving. What the hell was Ozpin drinking? Why the hell did Jaune choose to drink it himself?

That had been days ago — or it felt as if days, maybe a month, had passed. Ozpin had told Jaune it would only be a few days until they reached land, but that had either been a lie or Jaune had lost his ability to keep track of time. In fact, the sun hadn't set in a month. What weird Grand Line weather. That meeting of Ozpin's had also been taking an extraordinary amount of time. It made Jaune wonder what they were discussing there.

The question at the forefront of Jaune's mind was what he should do now. He had gotten the thermos but had failed to get the scroll. While he could try to wait for Ozpin's meeting to be over, and for him to bring the scroll back, it was taking so long that Jaune felt he shouldn't rely on that. With how long the man was taking now, who knew when he would be back?

Instead, Jaune opted to train in lieu of anything else to do. It would also offer him something to do while thinking about his next course of action. There wasn't much space for much more than simple exercises, but that felt like plenty for Jaune at the moment, it was almost like he wasn't getting tired at all.

The kitchen was a bustling place. Cooks moved left and right, nearly bumping into each other as they scampered across the room. Even still, they never bumped into one another, as if it had been like this long enough for them to learn how to navigate it.

The room itself was a pale blue with a white tile floor. Tall counters lined the walls under the cabinets overhead. They snaked off of the walls in an organized labyrinth, creating divided areas for the cooks to work.

Ciel had been here a few times now, mostly for the job of bringing the prisoners food. Theirs was left on the far side of the room near the entrance. Prepared with little effort, it was set aside so that the cooks could worry about all of the marines' meals. It was, very clearly, unappetizing. However, against her better judgment, she didn't stop by that area. Instead, she grabbed the meal, kept her head lowered, and strode into the walking mass of cooks.

They should have noticed her, if only by how she bumped shoulders with them. Their movements were refined, but hers were not. With every step she questioned why she was there, but her feet carried her off to a small place at the back. There wasn't much that she knew how to do in terms of cooking. Most of her experience was to prepare her for simple meals while out in the wilderness. Yet, there was something rather simple she could do to it.

She made her way back out of the group toward the door. Once she was in the hall, she began walking toward the stairs, but a voice called out to her.

"What were you doing walking around the kitchen like that?" Ciel stopped and turned on a heel to regard the man who had spoken to her. The first thing her eyes caught was how he looked far more confused than suspicious. Not that he should be suspicious in any way since what Ciel had done was not wrong, but there was still a sense of guilt brewing in her. She felt at that moment as if she was going against commands, even though there hadn't been any specific words against this.

Then, she noticed she had been staring and he was waiting for an answer. With her mind drawing a blank, she claimed the first thing that came to her head. "Efficiency, sir."

"Efficiency?" The cook echoed her words, a tinge of bewilderment creeping onto his features. "You walked all the way into the kitchen and then back out again for the sake of efficiency?"

Ciel pointed down the hallway. "I wasn't sure if there was another exit or not. If there was, I would have been able to leave the kitchen closer to the stairs."

The cook followed her finger, then his eyes trailed the wall. Past the door to the kitchen, the next door was a significant way down and led to a small storage room. He turned back to her with an expression that doubted her competency.

"So, since you thought there might be another exit in the kitchen, so instead of going back into the hall and walking that distance, you thought you might walk through the crowd of cooks just to get there? All in the name of efficiency?"

"It would avoid the time it would take to turn around, sir."

The cook stared at Ciel for a long time. Then he silently turned away and left her alone. She let out a soft sigh and made her way toward her destination. It was very much the same menial activity she had done many times before, but it felt somewhat different now. She plastered a slight frown on her face to compensate and tried to keep her eyes steadily ahead.

When she finally arrived, she couldn't stop her eyes from wandering to the odd sight to her right. The girl across from Whitley, Ruby, was putting on a display of acting tough. Ciel nearly found it amusing, as it hardly fit the girl at all. If anything, it almost made her seem less intimidating.

But, that was enough stalling. Ciel turned to the white haired boy and slid his food to him. He was lounging in his usual manner with his eyes closed and the shadow of a smile on his lips. He looked as if he was trying to enjoy the faint swaying of the ship.

Whitley's eyes cracked open at the clatter of the tray against the floor. He didn't seem as content to speak with her since he had been taken from wherever his mind had wandered off to. Instead, he simply took the meal, stared at it as if it might bite him, then brought a small spoonful of the broth to his mouth. If he had at all wondered why Ciel had stayed in silence to watch him eat, the thought had left him entirely.

As Whitley slowly set his spoon back in the broth, he shuddered. It was enough that Ruby's act faltered in place of concern. Whitley stared up at Ciel. Then he began chuckling, which soon gave way to laughter. Looking away from the boy, Ciel fidgeted. She wasn't sure what reaction she was expecting, but it was still awkward to be made the center of attention. Although, that was more so in her mind. Only a few of the prisoners could see her, and the guards wrote it off as the pirates having a few bolts loose.

"This really is amazing," Whitley whispered to himself but loud enough for Ciel to hear.

"It's nothing special," she retorted. "I just added a bit more salt to the broth."

Whitley grinned to the point Ciel thought it might split his face. As he dipped his bread into the broth, he said, "But isn't that everything?" His voice was hushed and strangely wistful. "It's the small bits of freedom that let us truly live."

Ciel regarded him for a long while before turning and leaving him alone. Once she was gone, Whitley muttered to himself, "That gave me some of my fire back. I can't believe I almost lost it."

Ruby stared, almost in horror, at Whitley finishing his meal. That alone made her question how he and Weiss could possibly be related. Then, with a brisk motion, he stood to his full height. It wasn't very tall, but there was something behind his gaze that made him seem to stand higher than that.

"Alright, you sea dogs! Just hold on a bit longer, and we'll be out soon enough!" Whitley's call caused his crew to cheer, calling out in a growing cacophony that had to be quelled by the guards present. As for Whitley, he sat back down, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"You know, they thought I might have some sort of salt devil fruit. Evidently, they think you have one as well." Whitley's tone was casual enough that Ruby almost thought he was talking to himself. Only his gaze told her otherwise.

"But I don't have one," Ruby replied matter-of-factly.

Whitley shrugged. "And neither do I. Although, I think I heard someone mention something about you being able to make people cry. Anyways, that's not my point. What I'm saying is that the few cells here at the end of the brig are seastone, which is meant to take away devil fruit powers."

"Well, it's good Neptune isn't down here," Ruby muttered to herself.

Whitley gave the cell bars an inquisitive look. "Evidently, seastone is related to the sea. My question is this: does that mean there is salt in it?"

Ruby suddenly wished she had someone else in a cell across from her. Especially so when Whitley gingerly stuck his tongue out against the cell bar.

Pyrrha was worried. Her last interactions with Jaune hadn't been the best, and the memories still reddened her cheeks from embarrassment. She wanted to talk to him, to apologize for that, and maybe start moving forward. This was all over now — it had to be. However, she knew they couldn't really move forward unless they talked about what had happened.

Taking a deep breath after glancing around, she opened the door to Ozpin's office. Everything was still, almost eerie. Her movements paused as something in her head said there was something wrong. She just wasn't quite sure what it was yet. Then her eyes focused on Jaune. He was sitting on the ground slumped by the wall. He was staring forward, not moving.

"Jaune?" Her voice was tentative. He ignored her, his eyes locked blankly ahead.

AN:

I really enjoyed writing the scene with Penny at the beginning of this chapter. I typically try not to use OCs, as I feel most readers are here for the characters and world from Ruby and not my own. I have nothing against them, I just feel that they shouldn't be focal points unless necessary. It was fun to include a conversation between two "normal" people though. Also, if it's difficult to remember, they are two of the marines that were there when Sun and Neptune jumped out of the window onto the Bucket.

Speaking of OCs, I have to admit something that embarrasses me greatly. When making Qrow's crew, I thought it would be funny to use strange and obscure characters, so I used one that would be very obscure. The problem is, I got her name wrong…The character Peach is actually supposed to be Plum Greenwood. When I was looking into this, it seems to me that I accidentally used someone's OC instead of the character I've been intending. Luckily, I felt that something was off about it early on and haven't used her much. That being said, I've been silently dying of anxiety and embarrassment over this. I know there's probably no one that gives a shit, and I'm going to go back and edit it, but I feel like I just stuttered in a public speech.

Anyways, this took longer to get out than I was expecting. I was stuck at 3,000 words (I aim for 4,000 a chapter), so I had to lengthen some scenes. I would have moved on, but I have a broad plan with the chapters, so I couldn't.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I had been likening the conversion of belly to lien like yen to usd, but evidently I got the conversion wrong somewhere and…well, take it all with a grain of salt. I'm choosing to stick to the initial conversion I had in mind for the future which was 850,000 lien being about 38,250,000 belly. I'm not sure if anyone even cares about that, but I thought I would mention it just in case.

Anyways, next chapter: New Friends and Allies