DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE
Aurelia was determined to show Law that she could get along with her new crew mates. It shouldn't be that hard to befriend them. 5 hours per day was going to be a walk in park for a frequent liar like her. However, she still wanted to make it selective considering that it was going to cost her time and effort. The only logical choice was in the man who could give her many answers. Or should she say bear?
Bepo was probably the member she was most interested in. His low bounty hardly reflected the skills he potential could display. Being a mink alone would boost it but there weren't many people that knew about the species given their nomad lifestyle. The part that she was most interested in was his position in the Heart pirates. As the first mate, in theory, he had the most power over Law. It helped that his personality was easy to manipulate.
She knocked on the room he and Jean Bart shared. Now was the perfect time given that the bigger one was in the main navigation room. Being alone with the polar bear mink in an environment he natural kept his guard down was just asking for her to mess with him. She took a deep breath as he opened the door.
"Oh Aurelia, how can I help you?"
"Good morning Mister Bepo. Mister Trafalgar believes it would be a good idea that I learn more about the crew. If it's not too much trouble I would like to accompany you today." He seemed flattered that she came to him first. She did have to admit that he was one of the cuter members.
"Captain did tell us about the condition he put on you. Come in, come in." He stepped to the side to give her enough room to enter.
Her eyes widened seeing two things. One how big the place was. That was supposed to be a given considering that the two were larger than the average human. But the size of this room just really surprised her. It had enough space for the two of them to have their own defined side without impending on the other. If she had to guess this was probably the largest room in the entire sub.
Second thing that shocked her was how many maps were hung around the place. Aurelia knew only the basics of navigation. Most of the time she took wherever the boats she stowed away on went. That or pay someone to take her. She never took the time to think about the work that went into navigation. This room was proof that the two were constantly working on ensuring that they had their path in a proper order. Though with this mess it wouldn't be surprising if the maps had footprints or bear paws on it.
"Sorry for the mess." 'Oh yeah it'll be easy to win him over.'
"It's fine, Mister Bepo. On the contrary, I find your work to be admiral." She walked up to the largest map on the wall. The world map that everyone's seen before with a few different pins here and there. Most of them being in the North blue but having 3 in Paradise. "What are these pins?"
"Oh!" He waddled over to the further end of Paradise. "Each one of these pins marks were where we picked up a crew mate and/ or their home island. Blue meaning their home island and red being where we picked them up if they choose to mark it. Since we travel so much it's good to keep track of where everyone is coming from. See this one is you! And we just need to pin one for your home island so that if we're ever in the vicinity, we can stop by."
He walked over to grab a blue pin for her. She held it carefully in her hands, scanning the map. She kept looking in areas that she's been but couldn't pin any spot. "Something wrong?"
"I don't really have a home island." It felt pitiful to admit that. A basic place to return to. Aurelia didn't have that. She didn't have a home.
Bepo dropped his head. "I'm sorry."
"No no, you didn't know. It's not that big of a deal. I like travelling that I don't ever really remember having a home island per say." The furry paw took the pin out of her hands. She was surprised when he moved to the other side of the map where a drawing of the Polar Tang was. Two blue pins already stuck in. Now three including her's.
"You're not the only one without a home. Including me, we put our pins right here." On the Polar Tang sticker symbolized that this was their home. For people that had nowhere to return to, this was their space. Don't make her laugh at how disgustingly touching that was meant to be.
"You don't have a home Mister Bepo?" She did always find it strange that as a mink he was separated from the tribe. Law was never in the New World that the only reason was that Bepo went to the North Blue all by himself.
"It's a bit more complicated. My home is always on the move that it's a lot harder to find. I haven't been there since I was a kid. That's part of the reason why I wanted to become a navigator. I want to try finding my way back." There wasn't a lot that Aurelia knew about Zou. Partially due to how there was hardly anything written about them. But she did find interest in the idea of this lost little polar bear getting reunited back with his family.
Bepo's skills were already recognized by her the moment she stepped into the room. If anyone was going to find the giant elephant it was going to be him. As they adventured more into the Grand line, they were going to run into more clues that she hoped would help him to find his place.
"I'm sure you'll get back there one day. What about this other pin? Who is that?"
"That's Captain." Law? But she knew that Law had Flevance. And while the border still stands to restrict entry, the city itself is still there. Or at least the ruins are.
"Mister Trafalgar doesn't have a home island?"
"We don't know. Captain doesn't speak about his past a lot. It was his idea of putting the pins on the map to represent where everyone came from. That's why the Polar Tang is here too. For people like us." 'They don't know about the White city? Strange that Trafalgar wants to preach the idea of having a place to return to when he doesn't even tell them about his home.'
"Doesn't that make you interested? In what he could be hiding?"
"Not really? Does it bother you?" 'I guess I can't drag too much information out of him. It'll look too suspicious if I'm constantly talking about Trafalgar.'
"A bit curious is all. Besides that, tell me what you're working on." She moved away from the map to something random in the room.
All the maps, though dirty, were beautifully created. It was hard to imagine the polar bear holding a pencil. Creating an accurate map nonetheless. She recognized a few of the maps as islands she's visited in the past. The one on the table was the island she was just picked up at. He even marked down the cove with a biohazard sign and where the 2 newly built well filters were made. A lot of detail put down for such a small island.
Bepo walked up beside her with another sheet of paper. Placing it down in front of her she knew that it was the island coming up. A winter island famous for its medicinal herbs. Bepo had already marked down a lot of the topography. As it was a well known island he probably got a lot of the information from books and just crossed reference it.
"This is the island we're visiting next. Captain wants me to research the island's landscape. Apparently there's a type of plant there that he wants to try finding." 'Plant? But Trafalgar's collection already has many of the herbs that the island has. What other plant could there be that I'm not aware of?'
"Do you know anything about this plant?"
"I'm sorry." 'This weak attitude is going to take time to get used to. But Bepo doesn't seem to have a lot of information about Trafalgar that I could use. If he does, his dumb act is strong. I would imagine a first mate would know more about his captain. Ah well I guess I'll have to try the others tomorrow.'
"That's fine, Mister Bepo. I'm sure we'll learn more about it once we collect it. Is it going to be long before we arrive?"
As he went to describe more about their trip, she looked back at the world map and the new pin sticking out of the Polar Tang drawing. 'Me? Find a home in the Polar Tang? Might as well just burn the whole map. I don't need a place like this.'
Bepo being a useful asset to Aurelia's plan was out of the question for now. So she was forced to move onto the idiots that made the ship run. The one that she was a bit more leaned towards getting to know was the chef Crow and mechanic Felix. The two, from her personal observations, were the only mature ones out of the bunch that'll be the easiest ones that she could handle.
She showed personal interest in Felix as he was the one that Law took to explore the island with him the first time they met. Meaning that there was a show that he would have told the mechanic some of his thoughts about the next island. She wanted to find out what plant Law was looking for.
However, because of the stupid rules she was not allowed to enter the submarine's control room while not docked. It was possible that he would go on break and she could use the 5 hours then but that was too much work to wait. Crow it was then.
Crow was a quiet man. That was the best way to have her complete her 5-hour requirement without much of a headache. She did strike up a conversation for the first little bit. He responded plainly but neither of them were capable of keeping the conversation on for long. They soon fell into the rhythm of her reading some medical book while he took care of his stock and equipment. 5 hours with him was going to make things a breeze.
That was until they could hear a group of loud men making their way to the dining hall. Crow got up as he knew that meant he was going to have to go to the kitchen soon. Aurelia made note of where she was in her book as they came through the door.
Ryder, Keith and Penguin. They asked Crow for some food which left her alone with them. She did consider going to help him cook but he was more serious in the kitchen and she didn't want to deal with that. So she stayed at the table with the guys joining her.
"You're hanging out with Crow today, Frost-san?" Keith sat across from her with Ryder beside him.
"Yes, he is lovely company. What are you gentlemen up to?"
"Taking a break from the control room. Decided to drag our shooters to come join me."
"I'm only here for the food." Ryder was not someone Aurelia could get along with but was used to. He reminded her a lot of those she met while in black markets. Cocky, rude yet fun to mess with. Someone people want sort of want as an ally rather than a definite enemy.
"Would it kill you to be kind to someone?" Keith was the opposite. Only having the balls to go up against Ryder. To everyone else, he was easily flustered that was second to Bepo. Though she did theorize that his shyness towards her be due to her being the sole female or her being new. Either way she could see her tricking him into believing her innocent act the most.
"Ehh she's going to be here for a long time. Better for her to deal with it now."
"It's fine Mister Keith; I don't mind. I've dealt with worse. As pirates, I'm more surprised that you aren't more crude."
"Please don't bunch us together. You may have heard a lot of scary things about pirates, but trust us, we're not like that."
"You can't blame her if she's scared. Captain has a bad reputation as a Supernova." 'My reputation isn't that bad either. All the supernovas are babies compared to what the New World holds.'
"Supernova? What does that mean?"
"Wait. Do you not know anything about us?" One thing that Aurelia decided beforehand was the character that she wanted to play while here. It was going to be the opposite of what she was. It may be hard to keep up the image but she didn't like the idea of them getting to know her that well.
First characteristic, she is a doctor. Somewhat true. She was licensed and had experience in working in a hospital but practically gave up the formal position when she started travelling to hunt down Law. Second, she is strong enough to protect herself but was unable to pose a threat to the crew. To do so she kept her trident hidden away and showed no signs of having haki. If she were ever to get into a fight with them as witness, she would have to lose on purpose or put up a long fake struggle.
Third, she knew the bare minimum about pirates, including their crew. And while she didn't care much for other crews other than the Heart pirates, she did keep herself aware of them just in case. This was the easiest way to have them tell her things willingly. Pirates loved to brag about their accomplishments.
"You're the Heart pirates and your captain is Trafalgar Law. Am I missing something important?" Their mouths fell open. It must have been strange to have someone so unaware of them.
"Captain is part of something called the Supernovas slash the Worst generation. That's what people like the World government decided to call pirates that have a really really high bounty of over 100 million beri."
"100 million beri?! Mister Trafalgar? But he appears so low energy? Who would have known that he was some kind of dangerous pirate."
"How much do you know about pirates then?"
"Hmmm. I know they're becoming more popular nowadays. Because of that, it becomes hard to keep up with everything. The only ones that I regularly know about are the Shichibukais and Yonkos but that's a given for anyone in our world. My general rule is to avoid people with jolly rogers." She hated the Heart pirates' jolly roger.
"I'm curious then, what are your thoughts on pirates? Were you afraid when you met Felix and Captain?"
"I wasn't afraid. Like I said, I couldn't even tell they were pirates until I saw their jolly rogers. If anything Mister Felix appeared scarier than Mister Trafalgar. As for my prior experience with pirates, I would say there's a fair share of good and bad. The same can be said for Marines and the World Government. I can think of a few examples already of both sides." Meaning, she hated pirates. They were dirty, thieving beings that used power to get what they wanted from villages that couldn't protect themselves.
Between being a pirate and an assassin, at least she had the option to choose if she'll kill. She had rules that she put upon herself to make sure that she wasn't hurting anyone that didn't deserve it. Not to mention that her father was the one to chose her targets and clients. He knew how to see the best in people after all. Every time she met her targets they were exactly as he said. People that didn't deserve to live.
Pirates just do their crimes because their simple little brains like things that go boom and are shiny. She only went down this path because a pirate ruined her life. The thing that she was after wasn't a grand treasure or power, it was merely information and a means of survival. Hiding in the shadows didn't scare citizens like showing off a giant submarine on shore did.
"Oh? Like who?"
"Um well you guys are nice. Welcoming me so openly. But for Marines and the World government there's cases like the White city that weren't proud moments in history."
"White city?" She only mentioned the name to double check that his crew didn't know anything about Law's past. Judging from their confused faces, she was right. There was a part of her that wanted to reveal the whole story but that would just waste her time.
"Never mind. Just an old event that I've been thinking about recently. Hmmm something a bit more well known... Wasn't there that war a couple months ago where a famous pirate was executed live? That was a bit much." Fire Fist Ace. His execution shocked the whole world. From start to finish, no one could predict nor control the events. Aurelia did believe that Marines held justice rightly. But like she said, there will always be bad cases within groups. Continuing the fight after Fire Fist Ace and Whitebeard died was useless and caused more damage than retrieval.
"Did we tell you? We were there too! We saved Straw hat Luffy!"
"Were you now? Why?" First hearing about the Heart pirates' appearance at Marineford she didn't understand why they went through the lengths that they did to save Straw hat.
Were they in an alliance? Friends? Straw hat was from the South Blue and Law was from the North that she doubted they bonded in such a short amount of time. Not to mention everything she knew about Straw hat Luffy was opposite of what she associated with Law. An alliance between them didn't make sense.
"Captain gave the order and we went. He was in pretty bad shape. Cap' had to perform two surgeries at once while we were still escaping. You should have seen how cool he was!" She ignored the praises to her enemy from Penguin.
"Okay but why? Was this Straw hat character important to Mister Trafalgar?"
"No? They didn't really talk at Sabaody. At least not that we know of. Captain just said that we were going."
'Why don't these fucking idiots know anything about their captain's plans?! First Bepo, now them?! God, how secretive can this asshole get?' "That sounds dangerous."
"The news didn't cover half of it! All the Whitebeard pirates and escapees from Impel Down versus the Shichibukai and all the strongest Marines. My heart rate was skyrocketing the whole time." 'You're not helping your case Keith.'
"I was betting 10, 000 beli that he was going to pass out from excitement." Ryder whispered in her direction.
"I didn't pass out!" They went into an argument about the event. Aurelia wasn't interested in hearing whatever bet took place in the past. None of them had information she wanted. She was bored with this conversation.
"They may fight a lot but they are really good friends." Penguin reassured her.
"Friendly banter is normal I believe. As long as they don't let it affect their shooting they are free to fight to their hearts' content."
"Yeah, don't worry. You won't find anyone better than our duo in shooting. We picked them up from the same home island. They're practically brothers."
"Ah yes I remember seeing that in Mister Bepo's room. It must be nice that you have a piece of your home coming alone with this long journey. I often run into people that become homesick fast that they cannot continue to their goal. I wonder if your families worry for you all." She said with the intention of instilling some guilt into them. Surely pirates had some love for those that raised them.
"My parents were actually fully supportive of me heading out. They liked Captain a lot. Shachi coming with me made it even better." Turns out pirate parents were as stupid as their kids. "What about you Aurelia-chan?"
"Me? About what?"
"I remember you briefly mentioning that you have an adoptive dad. Doesn't he worry about you? Or like any of your relatives?"
"Oh not at all. I have no remaining blood relatives that I'm aware of so that's a no in that case. My father wasn't really around when after I turned 18 either. He trusted me fully to handle myself. I have freedom to explore as I please. " Besides she has- had a den-den mushi to her father if she ever needed it. But she was raised to be independent so she hardly called him outside of work. No one to travel with meant she could go to any island as her job saw fit.
"And friends? Don't you have friends back home that you miss?" Keith, forgetting about the screaming man next to him, joined in.
"I mean I've always traveled so I don't attach myself to islands' villagers knowing that I'll leave soon."
"Meaning you have no friends newbie." Ryder pointed out.
"I have friends." They remained silent at that. Judging by their reactions, they didn't fully believe her. She enjoyed her own company and not having to worry about others.
"You sure about that?"
"Yes I am. I am just selective with the people that I can spend my time with. I'm sure that you can all say the same with how much you all move around. Especially now with Mister Trafalgar's high status, many people wouldn't want to associate themselves with you all." 'Fucker had the audacity to criticize me when he's a loner. Emo child who probably spent his entire life leeching off of Rosinante.'
"Nah. Captain is super popular. Lots of people just throw themselves against him. Whenever we get to a populated island there's a bunch of people that know him and want to join our crew." 'Because they want the bounty money no doubt. What kind of society glorifies the pirate life?'
"No no she's right about him being like that. Cap' wasn't too friendly with people before. He always turned away people who flaunt themselves towards him. Even as a kid he always had that scowl on his face that made everyone stay away from him. It takes a lot of time for him to grow on someone."
"Oh that's right. You, Shach', and Bepo knew captain when he was younger, right?" She perked at the mention of younger Law. Most of his childhood to teenage years were blank slates of knowledge for her. Penguin could be a key in figuring more out. He may not know about his current plans but he could answer more about his character and habits.
"Yeah, but not too young. I want to say maybe 10, maybe 12 years old when we met. If looks could kill Shachi and I would have been goners."
"Then why did you join his crew? Mister Trafalgar isn't exactly too different from what you say then to now." He smiled at her.
"Cap' can be scary but he's a good guy. His loyalty shows. He treats us harshly at times but he's doing that to protect us. With the attention on him, we are forced to keep up. But Law never forces us to do something we don't or can't do. Between all the life and death cases we go enjoy a good drink at the bar. I don't just follow him as a captain. I follow him as a friend." The way Penguin spoke was genuine. Everyone could hear that. Including Aurelia.
'Loyalty my ass. What do these pirates know about such a noble word?' But she didn't dare look at him.
"Eh don't get all sappy on us now Peng'!" Ryder threw his arm around him causing them to get into a little squabble.
After pushing his fellow crewmate off of him they returned back to the previous conversation. "Anyways! Aurelia-chan, you don't have to be too worried about Captain's status. He's really nice once you get to know him. You should be able to tell by now."
"The nicest. I'm looking forward to getting know him, and the rest of you. Better that I can make my own understanding of all of your characters."
Lying to all of them felt natural. Not only to them. It was a part of her job to not let people close. She's done it plenty of times enough that there wasn't a shred of guilt in it. A smile that had the corners of her mouth pointing up. The slight show of teeth. Eyebrow crinkling. A well practiced, perfected happy face. No matter if they have pure intentions, she couldn't let their emotions sway her.
"First thing you should do is that lose that formal tone. What are you? Some rich girl that has been sheltered her entire life?" That triggered another argument between the shooters.
Penguin awkwardly laughed. "You'll get use to that."
"I take no offense to his comments. Hopefully in the future we can reach a point where even that doesn't need to be clarified." 'At that point, we'll be close enough that the betrayal will hurt more. Are you stupid pirates prepared for that? It's only their fault for not being more cautious around strangers.'