Chapter XXXV: The Barrel Sets Sail

Neptune slapped his hand against the wall of the dark supply closet, trying to find a light switch. His fingers fumbled around the surface while the glowing eyes stared at him curiously. Finally, he found it and light shed on the room. Standing by him expectantly was a girl in a marine uniform. Fortunately for him, she didn't seem to be jumping to capture him, but what he muttered aloud was pretty damning.

"Um — I was just — okay, it's not what it looks like. I swear that I was only —"

"You were trying to figure out where your weapons and ship are?" Her cheerful smile and helpful tone only made him more uncomfortable.

Behind his back he gripped the door handle. "Why aren't you trying to capture me like the other marines?"

She tilted her head and regarded him innocently. "You're one of the good pirates, aren't you?" Neptune just stared at her, trying to process how she had used the same logic as Luffy. At the time Luffy had mentioned it, they hadn't technically done anything wrong other than label themselves as pirates. Now, he wasn't so sure where Luffy would stand in that matter. On the other hand, this girl seemed more than willing to help out — if only he could be sure she wouldn't just turn him in when he let his guard down.

Finally, he responded. "Yeah, I am looking for those."

"Spectacular!" Neptune flinched at her volume. No sooner did the word leave her mouth than she grabbed his wrist and wrenched open the door. She was, Neptune thought to himself, much stronger than she looked. While she appeared almost like a kid excitedly showing him something, he had to push aura into his wrist just to keep it from being crushed. Then, as she rushed down the hall dragging him along, he had to do his best to keep up lest his arm get dislocated.

Nervousness set in when they began passing marines, but he could hear them muttering about him finally being captured. He guessed that his situation would look remarkably like that — unless he gambled wrong and it was exactly like that. However, the girl didn't lead him down toward the brig. Instead, he was dragged around a bend and through another series of halls until the girl skidded to a stop in front of a room.

"Locked," said the girl to herself. Before Neptune could brainstorm, she simply grabbed the handle and turned it until there was a metallic snapping sound, and she pushed the door forward. Inside was a collection of boxes lining the walls. Moving toward one, Neptune was able to see that they were each labeled, and sure enough their confiscated items were inside.

As he looked around for his box, he glanced at the girl. "Why are you helping me?" He dared to ask.

She looked at him like it was a silly question with an obvious answer. "My father told me many stories about good pirates and what they are like. I have always wanted to see them for myself, though I doubted they even existed. Now that I have this opportunity, I simply cannot let it go to waste."

Neptune found his box, happily reuniting with his precious weapon. "Well, aren't you sort of going against the marines to help me? Won't you get in trouble for this?"

"Being a marine is fun, but I believe that your path would be much more of an adventure for me."

Neptune made to respond, but the words died in his throat as what she said finally sunk in. He spun on a heel to face her. "Are you trying to say you want to join us?"

"I am quite interested in seeing what the Grand Line has to offer, and I do not believe that will be happening if I stay here. The marines are far more reactive than exploration driven."

Jaune didn't bother with entering the halls. Instead, he hurdled through the walls, passing through them like thin waterfalls. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, but he figured if he kept running and took enough turns, he could figure something out in the meantime. The first time he reached the end of the ship, he nearly tumbled out into the water below. Catching himself at the last second, he swore to be more careful as he went on.

When he was left with little other options, he dashed across the hall, only to find out mid-sprint that it was strangely empty. He paused from sliding through the door like he had intended to investigate, but his momentum carried him forward. After theatrically slamming his face against the door, he looked around to see that there was really no one there. Tentatively, he walked to a corner close to him and peeked around; still, there was no one. This changed his plans, and Jaune began marching down the halls, taking a moment to poke his head through the doors, literally, to see what he could find.

This continued until he heard a determined, "Jaune!" He whipped around to see Pyrrha staring at him. Without so much as a second thought, Jaune let himself sink through the floor. The last thing he saw was Pyrrha diving at him as he disappeared. That had been a bit risky, but he knew he wasn't on the bottom deck. The view from his cell told him as much. However, if he just kept going through floors, eventually he would wind up in the ocean.

As Jaune began the same routine, he began to hear a cacophony of slapping footsteps. He wasn't sure why it sounded that way, but the prevalent thought in his head was where all the marines had gone that should have been up and about. So, he quickly slipped into the room next to him.

Cardin was taking some time to get into the swing of things. The swords he had picked up from the marines weren't working as well as his maces did, and whoever thought using three blades at once was a good idea was just an idiot. Instead, he stormed a janitorial closet with Ren. There, he broke off the ends of three different mops and used the short, wooden sticks as makeshift maces. They were pitiful, but they would make do.

Rather than dart around the marines, he took them head on. One by one, he knocked them down, in spite of the wooden sticks in his hands. It could be said that aura made all the difference, and it did when none of these foot soldiers had any. On the other hand, Cardin liked to give some credit to his ability to send them sailing with strong hits. He charged the line alongside Ren, Ruby, and that weird dog creature. He was not going to question that just yet. The others were behind them somewhere in the crowd, and who knew where Neptune was at the moment. Cardin had taken the liberty of deciding not to wait that much longer. Albeit he was woken up already in the fray.

Then, over the mass of marines, Cardin spotted two heads not wearing hats. Usually if someone disregarded the uniform, they were important. In this case, he was able to recognize both of them just by the colors of their hair: Yang and Nora.

"Shit," Cardin grunted. "We've got some actual company."

Ren, who was nearest Cardin, followed his gaze and caught on. "I'll handle Nora. You get the others to help with Yang."

"That's not a fair fight." Cardin grinned. "I'm all for it."

Cardin pushed toward the other side nearing the bottom of the stairs. When he drew near, there was a sudden uproar that overtook the crowd. Cardin watched in morbid awe as a massive dog monster launched itself into the air toward Yang. She barely managed to shriek, "Zwei?" before it slammed its body into her, wrapping its arms and legs around her. Barking as if it was only a puppy, it licked her face while the two of them tumbled to the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Cardin rallied with the others and began pushing up the stairs. While he had not seen what happened between Ren and Nora, Ren had sounded confident enough in his plan that Cardin chose to have some faith in him.

Whitley rushed toward the brig with hardly a care in the world. The fun had returned to his adventure, and with it came a spring in his step. Though, he was doing more than merely stepping. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this would count as a game of tag — just a dangerous one at that. One where he could not afford to let himself be caught.

Spotting the stairwell, he cried, "Tallyho, bitches!" before launching himself down the steps. Stumbling at the bottom, he caught himself with the wall. Down the brig, he was greeted to the sight of utter chaos, pushing in the general direction of the other stairwell. Wanting to see if he could find anything to help, he dashed to the nearest room that he could find. Upon entering, he saw someone he wasn't expecting to see.

"What are you doing in here?" Whitley asked, blinking in surprise.

Ciel, who had been clearly snooping about, paused. Slowly, her eyes rose to meet his, and the subtle panic he saw melted into confusion.

"What are you doing here?" Ciel asked, almost hesitantly.

"I licked my way through the bars."

Ciel's expression said that she did not need to hear that. "Right," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I suppose that makes this easier then. I was going to let you out after all."

Whitley did not get a chance to question her further as the door slammed open behind him. "There you are, you little shit!" A marine leading the pack cried, desperately trying to rub the salt out of his eyes. "You're going back in your cell, or so help me, I'm slapping a child."

"Sir," another marine from farther back whispered loudly. "What about the other prisoners?"

"What about them?" The lead marine wailed.

"They're loose."

Running his sleeve over his eyes, the marine leaned back to see that, in fact, all of the cells were open at this point. Whimpering a sound not fit for a marine, he turned back to Whitley, as if it was somehow all that boy's fault.

"I've got him," Ciel suddenly spoke up, grasping Whitley's shoulder and pulling his hands behind his back. "You can help with that while I watch over him."

After only staring for a minute, another marine tapped the leader on the shoulder. Sluggishly, he turned around, mumbling, "I need a drink." The group of marines proceeded to not deal with the mess happening in the brig.

Once they were gone, Whitley asked, "Everyone's out of their cells and you were still looking for keys?"

Ciel flushed slightly, squinting at him. "I was seizing an opportunity. Forgive me that it caused me to overlook a possibility. For all I knew, some had made it out of their cells somehow, but there was no real way to tell who had."

"Well," Whitley said in a sing-song tone. "I managed to grab the keys after licking my way through."

Ciel shuddered. "Do me a favor and don't say that again."

"So, what now?" Whitley duly ignored her statement, peering out from behind the door. "We should get going, but I'm not sure where we can get a ship to take us off of here."

"What do you mean 'we?' You are the one that needs to get going," Ciel reminded him matter-of-factly.

Whitley snorted as if she had said something funny. "And what will happen when they figure out you willingly let a pirate go?"

"You managed to —" Ciel searched for the word she wanted to use, "consume the cell bars. I could just claim you did something like eat the door and managed to escape. They don't have to know that I let you go." She did not like how his eyes wandered to the metal door as if he was actually considering it.

"Well, why are you letting me go?" Whitley turned toward her, his eyes donning a sudden seriousness. Ciel was left unprepared for how they pierced her, underscoring the words he had said.

The question itself was still one she was unsure of — one she was hoping to avoid at the moment. She had an answer, but if you asked her, it hardly answered the question. It wasn't right. The consequences given to the Straw Hats versus the ones given to Whitley and his crew were far from equal, but that didn't make this the proper course of actions. Really, she should have gone to the higher-ups and discussed this with them, yet that hadn't settled well with her either. She had a feeling that they would only ignore her words, not even taking them into consideration. Yet did that still justify aiding a criminal?

"Besides." Whitley's airy tone tore her from her thoughts. "Would you really want to stay with them? They're the sort of people to lock you up for having a bit of fun or chasing your dreams. They want it their way and won't accept anything else."

Ciel's lips twisted into uncertainty. Even if she was to look past the hooligan nature of tarring and feathering a high-ranking marine, many of the reports she had overheard about his crew went beyond simply having 'fun.' At the same time, she had yet to hear anything that went beyond reckless, juvenile behavior. At worst, she believed they might deserve some sort of detention, but that did not seem on the horizon at the moment.

Whitley smirked. "You're considering it. You should come along — it'll be fun."

Ciel narrowed her eyes. "I'm not considering that. What I am thinking about is the consequences of actions, something you don't seem to do often."

Whitley shrugged, leaning against the doorframe. "I had to grow up thinking of the consequences of blinking at the wrong time. If I can, I'd like to avoid contemplating those wretched things as often as I may, thank you very much."

How had he possibly made it this far? Well, judging by the fighting still going on in the brig, it was not due to his own judgment.

"Anyways," said Whitley, kicking off of the doorframe. "I've got some salt for my crew, and they'll be needing that strength. So, unless you have anything else for me, I'll be going now."

Ciel had always prided herself on being able to stay composed at all times, but this boy was trying her patience. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she let a breath hiss out of her nose. He was an unfathomable vexation, and she refused to believe the glint in his eyes that claimed to know what he was doing.

Penny, as the girl had introduced herself as, dragged Neptune around the halls of the ship. His arm may as well have been a leash with how helpless he felt with her pulling him every which way. At some point they began passing marines, but none of them intervened. Neptune caught comments about a young recruit doing her job. Penny even stopped once to talk to one of them, with an iron grip still around his wrist. He wasn't entirely sure at this point that he wasn't headed back to his cell, and the contemplation of using his devil fruit to escape her clutch distracted him from the weird conversation she was having about a wristwatch.

In the end, he stayed put long enough for Penny to continue on, marching with apparent ease with a gait that was beginning to tire him. While he could simply chalk it up to all the running he had done priorly, the girl hardly seemed winded at all. There was almost a merriment to her step that baffled him. However, they finally reached wherever she was leading him, and his wrist was freed. He rubbed his wrist, grumbling to himself as Penny opened the door. Briefly, he wondered how his wrist did not hurt like he had expected it to, but his thoughts couldn't linger as he heard footsteps around the corner headed toward him. Having no desire to be caught now, Neptune rushed into the room after Penny.

He was greeted by a large room with an open section of water below that led out into the ocean behind the ship. Neptune found himself wondering if he had been tricked about the ship — as if the vacant water he was staring at was some sort of joke. Then, his attention was brought to the back by the movement of Penny.

"That's not our ship," Neptune said slowly.

"I might have made a few minor adjustments."

That was certainly one way of putting it. Compared to what they had before, this was more than a mere upgrade. Then again, Neptune was not complaining. Maybe now he could have some actual personal space. Bullheads were not small, but they had eight people living in one. Maybe there would be a proper kitchen or, dare he dream it, a better bathroom than the crappy bullhead restroom that had only enough room for him to stand in.

Then, of everything he could utter in that moment, Neptune found only one word slipping from his mouth. "Why?"

Penny looked at him as if it should be obvious. "To make the marine ship sail better."

Well, if she wouldn't give him a serious answer, he would take what he could get. "The others need to know about this," Neptune muttered, glancing back to the door. The thought of chasing his way back through the halls weighed heavily on his mind. It had felt nearly impossible to get where he currently was, and the thought of repeating it loomed over him.

Then, the doors burst open.

Jaune was absolutely positive that he had heard Neptune's voice, but as he rounded the corner, there was no one there. While he could spend time searching around, he was in a rush at the moment. He needed to find either their gear or any of his crew, and that needed to happen before Pyrrha found him. The problem he was running into now was how similar everything looked. Each hall blended together in his mind, and he was beginning to doubt whether or not he had already been to areas. With him weaving in and out of rooms, it was entirely possible.

Down the hall he spotted someone crossing through intersecting corridors. Jaune dipped into a room to avoid them, but then his brain caught up to what he had seen. That red cloak was much different than the bleak marine uniforms. Seriously, even Jaune knew they had to be a crime against fashion.

Darting back into the hall, Jaune called out to them. His crew turned to him, readying for a fight, but calmed at the sight of him. Ruby, he thought, had looked the least threatening with the puppy cupped in her arms. Jaune found himself suddenly overwhelmed. It had been so long since had last seen them that he found himself all but launching toward them. Just by instinct, he grabbed the two closest people he could, pulling them into a hug. One of them, Ruby, just giggled at him, but the other was Blake who went strangely quiet. Jaune didn't see how red her face turned.

"I missed you guys so much," Jaune said, separating himself.

"It's only been a couple of days," Sun commented.

Jaune's entire demeanor shifted, deadpanning at him. "A couple of days?" he echoed. "It's only been — no, we'll talk later. Have you —"

Cardin interrupted Jaune by shoving his sword into his arms. "We found our stuff," he said bluntly. "We were just looking for you and Neptune."

At that, Jaune spun around to look back down the hall. "Neptune? I think I heard him down here. I thought I might have imagined it."

With newfound vigor, the group charged down the hall to investigate. They had barely spent any time looking around when Cardin had busted a door down and called back to everyone else.

"Was that really necessary?" Blake harped at him as they entered the large room.

Neptune was visible near the end, his blue hair standing out starkly against the white walls. Next to him was a ginger haired girl that yelled something before launching at Ruby, much like Jaune had. Unlike Jaune, however, the girl tackled Ruby to the ground in a hug that looked painful.

Jaune headed over to where the others were regrouping with Neptune. "Look at our new ship," Neptune held up his hand in a dramatic pose. Jaune could do nothing to stop the grin that spread across his face. While Neo seemed a bit put off that her work had been tampered with, this would be quite the aid to their journey.

"We should get going," Jaune said with a definitiveness that settled the conversation around him. Using the runged ladder on the side, Jaune led the way onto their deck.

"We need to get our flag back up," said Jaune, not looking at anyone in particular. If it was missing, they would need to make another.

"Just a moment!" A cheery voice spoke up, causing Jaune to turn back to look behind him. He blinked, just now noticing that there were more people with them than there should have been.

Before he could question it, Ruby's shout stole their attention. "There's another marine ship headed our way!"

Helmeppo's cheeks warmed as he tipped back another glass. They had amassed quite a crowd in the bar of the ship. Ragged looking newcomers were appearing by the minute, many with telltale signs of a fight. Helmeppo himself was far too tipsy to even question it. He had seen a man pick a fight with a whale before, so why would random scuffles be so odd?

"With how you talk about him, I'm surprised you don't have secondhand smoke," Helmeppo slurred to the marine next to him.

"Evidently his entire crew does just by existing in his vicinity," the marine responded. "I would almost say that it's better than the walking, talking, coffee-drinking, child endangerment we also have to deal with. I swear that he creeps me out sometimes. He's got this thousand-yard stare that can just look right through you. It's unsettling."

Their conversation was cut short by the nearing sound of slapping flippers. Helmeppo let out a childish groan and let his head impact the wood of the bar. In the stool to his other side, he could hear some faint shuffling. He glanced to see a dugong climbing up onto the stool. Waving its flipper at the bartender and trying to say something, it rested its head on one flipper and sighed.

Not understanding a single sound, Helmeppo muttered, "Tell me about it."

When nothing happened after a moment, though more dugongs joined at the bar, Helmeppo decided to bite the bullet. Spinning around in his stool, he saw Luffy with a large piece of meat, currently with a chunk torn off and in his mouth. It was a spectacle to watch, especially with the sheer size of the bite and how quickly Luffy went to swallow without very much chewing. When Luffy choked on it, Helmeppo was one of the only ones that did not worry in the slightest.

Luffy managed to get the bite down and took a break from eating to pick his ear. "Oi, Helmeppo, I need to tell you something."

"I would have already assumed that by the fact that you're here." Helmeppo hung his head, begging that the next words out of Luffy's mouth would not give him a migraine.

Luffy flicked some earwax to the ground. "The ship is gone."

AN:

So, it's been another hot second, but I promise I haven't forgotten about or given up on this fanfic. I've been working on other books and projects that took up my time, but I'm back. As I've said before, I refuse to leave anything I post to be unfinished, so you don't have to worry!

Anyways, this chapter was a bit of fun to write. A lot of the loose ends I set up before I got to tie together here. Thus ends their time behind bars and marks a new part of their journey. But have they made it away just yet?

Anyways, next chapter: They Can't Keep Getting Away With This!