Chapter X: Boredom At Sea!

Willow sighed, resting her chin on her propped arm. A chair flew across the room and smashed to pieces next to her head. Honestly, did this need to drag out so much? She yawned, bringing her other hand up to cover the act. The first time it had taken her so long to perfectly plan how to explain such a situation. By now, it had been solved for her.

"Jacques Schnee!" Came the guttural yell of a White Fang commander. One standing in her room. For the life of her, she couldn't bring herself to feel insulted that not the staff nor anyone else realized the very masculine voice was not hers. Evidently being an angry drunk could do that.

Adam Tauras was tearing through the furniture in her room. It was quite the sight, she mused, the Schnee hating monster not harming the oh so calm Schnee in front of him. There was certainly an act going on there, but that wasn't the entire story. No, she was not the target of his hatred, and he was disciplined enough not to attack her. A lamp flew past her, almost clipping her ear. She did mean disciplined enough.

And with that, she felt he had had plenty of time to cool down. "Please, Adam, there's no need to turn my entire room to rubble."

"Quiet, Schnee! Give me one good reason not to turn you into a stain upon the bed you sit."

She rolled her eyes. "First? Orders from Dragon. Second? You're not in your right mind right now." She narrowed her eyes and spoke loftily. "You're not yourself when you're hungry."

Most might expect Adam to attack, but instead he sighed. He sat down on the bed next to her, bouncing as he flopped back. He stared at the ceiling and let out an angsty groan. "Why is the world so shitty, Willow? I just want to go back to the Grand Line and rest. Everyone here thinks I'm a dick and a monster, I made Blake angry and leave, that Cinder girl I talked about was being a bitch, then she just up and left, and everything sucks!" He threw his arms out dramatically.

Willow let a smile creep in. Despite the obvious, Adam had always felt like one of her own. It was certainly weird to say, but since he had joined the Revolutionary Army at a young age, they became an outlet to each other to, for a time, drop their acts. It helped that Adam came to her for communication with headquarters since her situation was tense, but held room for privacy. Adam's hardly allowed for that.

"Well, you came here for a response from your report, right?" Adam just let his head roll over to face her. His expression was one she was familiar with. Adam hated being undercover in the White Fang, and he had done so since a young age. Adam was a unique individual in that many different factors led to his state of anger. The largest factor was his hunger. When Adam was hungry, he inched closer to war crimes. His face said that as usual, nothing would change.

That made her feel all the more cheeky. She tried her best to be laissez as she drawled. "Well, you'll be thrilled to know your mission has been labeled a success. You can fake your death now and return to the Grand Line." Adam froze. Willow barely had enough time to place a pillow over his face before he yelled in joy. He could finally stop pretending to be someone he wasn't.


"Go fish."

"Bullshit!" Cardin pointed accusingly at Jaune. "I can see it right there!"

Jaune scooted over, trying to hide the apple next to him. "I don't know what you're talking about." Carden glared in hate. Blake watched in the interaction deadpan. Once upon a time, when Jaune suggested card games with fruit, she thought it would be entertaining to watch it fall apart. An hour later and it was really just sad.

"I promise, we'll get something the next time we stop." Ren tried to placate his captain. Jaune had made it very clear that he was disappointed they went to training before grabbing entertainment.

"No, it's fine," Jaune replied, looking dead inside.

This time Ruby groaned. "I miss my PlayBox! It's been days and we don't have anything to do here."

Ren pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ruby, how would we even pow—"

"Neo, no!" Jaune shouted. Somewhere, a crime was just prevented.

"See," Ruby pointed broadly, guessing where Neo was. None of them could see her. "Even Neo's getting antsy. Do we want her bored?"

They all shared a look. Blake went back to her reading, avoiding the issue. Thus Ren was left the only reasonable adult.


"I miss Ruby's and Yang's PlayBox," Nora whined. She was laying on one of the provided beds, pillows stuffed under her face and her legs kicking the air in boredom. Pyrrha had long since given up having such luxuries like their scrolls, but decided it wasn't worth fighting Nora over it. Weiss had learned to ignore such things and Yang was silently agreeing with Nora. She just had to be the cool one, so she could never admit it.

Nora had been listing off things she wanted to do for some time now. At first it was a healthy to-do list that was a copy and paste of pancakes, but it seems that even Nora's favorite dish couldn't entertain her forever. At first it was movies, then games, and now very specifically video games. From what Pyrrha had heard, Nora and Ren grew up away from civilization. Had the girl really grown an addiction in such a short time?


"Come on man!" Neptune cried while being dragged away. "I was doing so good! I even got her number and everything."

Sun stopped, pulling his buddy up to look him in the eyes. "I know, and I really am sorry for this. I wish the bro code could trump this case, but we have to keep moving if we want to stay out of trouble."

Neptune stopped resisting, hanging his head in defeat. "More water?" Sun nodded. Neptune looked longingly at the scrap of paper before him. Like the glistening seas crashing against the shore, emotions pooled within him. He shut his eyes and thrust the paper forward. "Hold onto it for me. I can't stand looking at it right now, but give it back to me when I can call her."

Sun took the paper with grace, but stayed put as Neptune walked to their boat. Suddenly on his own, Neptune turned and called to Sun who was still staring at the paper. Holding it back up to Neptune, he asked, "You can read this?"

For all intents and purposes, it was chicken scratch. It looked like a doctor trying to sketch a heartbeat while drunk. Neptune rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's…" Sun blinked as Neptune perfectly recited a scroll number. Well, as long as he knew what it was. Sun shrugged and folded the paper up, tucking it into one of his pockets.

As they headed back to the ship, Neptune asked, "Didn't that Atlas guy say to get something called a log pose?"

"Yeah," Sun replied. "But honestly, it seems like too much work for a fancy compass. We already have a perfectly fine one, so no need to get anything else."


Emerald would not have guessed that Roman Torchwick talked in his sleep. If it was only that, she might have been able to brush it off; however, that was not the case. After watching it enough times that she could see it coming, she came to assume it was a tic of his. Every so often while awake, he would stiffen, pause, and shiver. His face looked like he was fighting against saying something, and that it was often enough for him to have practice with it. The issue came that during his sleep, he evidently no longer had that barrier to prevent the words.

"Neo, no!" He shouted once again. It was what woke her up. Cinder and Mercury too, though Cinder didn't look as displeased as Emerald felt she should. In her opinion, this behavior should have had him dumped overboard long ago. Roman's usefulness was running out, especially since his partner was who they really cared about and now he had no control over her. He was just a pathetic annoyance at this point, yet Cinder kept him around. It pissed her off that Cinder kept staring down the whimpering man like she had forgotten who her actual subordinates were. How was it fair that he got her attention? The only way she kept sane now was by telling herself Cinder saw him like a pet. One of those mangey, half-dead dogs that people find 'cute' for some reason.

And perhaps it wouldn't have bothered her so much if she hadn't been left to her own thoughts for so long. When she wasn't arguing with that stupid, tin-can-legged asshole, she was stuck with nothing to do. And whose fault was that? The same jackass. They were stuck in a boat in the middle of nowhere because Mercury wanted to make this stupid ass tale. First he dragged them to a mountain in the ocean and said they were supposed to sail up it after they got there. Now they were trying to go around, and he mentioned right before night fell that there might be monsters in the water. Of course, they did the sensible thing and ignored his ramblings. Even now, he was staring out into the darkness like he would find something out there.

Why couldn't they be searching for one of the hidden villages instead? Playing by their own rules, they were master thieves and assassins. The best of their craft, plucking people out from existence before anyone could notice. Not to mention all the amazing ninjutsu. When she was younger, she had spent many hours trying to figure out how to do it, but she just couldn't do it. Clearly she needed a sensei to show her how. Since she owed so much to Cinder, she was forced to pick her mistress over her dream. However, now they were chasing Mercury's stupid fantasy while her very real dream was left on the back burner.

"The wind has stopped." Cinder noted mildly. Even in the dark, Emerald could tell how dim her mistress' eyes were. She felt sorry for what they were having to put up with.

Mercury, instead of properly responding, grabbed an oar and began rowing. They began slowly cutting through the water. Now, without wind, Emerald wanted to smash her face against something. She settled for staring into the strangely calm water.

Despite everything, she had to admit the waters were beautiful. She would never say anything like that aloud, but it was nice to stare at the reflection of the moon in the water. Though it looked strangely like — no, it wasn't the moon. There was an eye in the water the size of her staring up.


Islands, Jaune decided, were boring. How was it that people lived out here with hardly anything? They had TVs, radios, and he wasn't sure what else. Evidently they didn't even have scrolls! From the stories he heard, there were phones all over the place here, but that failed his expectations. The phones were evidently rotary phones, and they were on the sides of snails for some reason.

They at least managed to get a deck of cards, but his patience was thinning. While they were sailing, his only real job was to make decisions or help when asked. Other than that, he was switching between training, cards, and nothing. Go fish got bored after the fiftieth time. He wished they knew more games.

"Okay, I lied." Jaune dropped his hand, letting the cards scatter in front of him. Ren, who was go-fishing the shit out of him, waited patiently with a questioning stare. "Cards aren't good enough. We need something electronic."

Ruby made a whining noise in her throat. "But our scrolls don't even work here! It's like they're in the stone age or something, not using electricity anywhere."

"Your scroll didn't work because it was dead," Cardin countered. "And it was a stupid idea to put lightning dust in it to try charging it."

Ruby glared at him. Cardin missed it, but Jaune shivered as he remembered those evil eyes. She sighed. "Well, Blake's scroll still had a charge for a while, and we're too far from the CCT. It must not reach out this far. Then they don't have chargers or any devices anywhere we stopped."

"Wait a minute." Jaune drew their eyes. "It's not like they don't have electricity, Ruby. It's just not the same we have elsewhere. They don't have scrolls, chargers, or our gaming systems, but that's mainly because the civilians outside the Grand Line don't interact with the civilians within." He pointed his finger up, showing he had an idea. "However, the marines and pirates do interact with both cultures. While it wouldn't be easy for us to find a pirate crew and hope that they had something, we have a map that points out marine bases."

Ruby was the first to react, beaming crazily. "Do you think they'll have a PlayBox?"

"Ruby," Ren chastised. "Just because they might have better technology, doesn't mean —"

"They might have a PlayBox J!" Jaune interrupted.

Ren, assuming that Jaune was poorly finishing his sentence, nodded. "Precisely."

Unfortunately, Jaune and Ruby were on the same wavelength, and evidently Neo was too. "Set a course to the closest marine base! We're after the greatest treasure on the seas!" Neo was already rerouting their course with Blake reluctantly guiding them along. Sometimes it was easier to let the crazy be crazy.


Sun was surprised, but not by what he should have been. After that cool Clover guy helped them get out of their mess, they had ended up in a brand new one. In hindsight, it hadn't been the brightest idea to row up to a marine ship and ask how they were supposed to get a log pose. Evidently, the only people who really had those were either given permission and should already have one, or they were pirates.

One thing led to another, and now they were in detainment waiting on investigation from the higher ups. So much fun. Neptune confused Sun by trying to glimpse the writing on the door at the end of the hall. The marines seemed to speak Valean, which was lucky for them. Vacuan was similar enough to Valean for it to be easy for Sun to learn before they left, and Mistralian was a hurdle that he had overcome when he went to Haven. Actually, Valean seemed to be a common tongue in the kingdoms, most denizens of the world learning it. Thank goodness for that and all the embarrassment it saved him moving to Mistral.

That being said, while some towns in between kingdoms had signs written in multiple languages, a base in the center of a different culture wasn't likely to do so. Neptune was fighting a lost battle.

"It's hard to read it backwards, but it says interrogation." Neptune drew Sun from his thoughts. "I guess they'll be asking us questions in a bit."

"Who would've guessed that — wait." Sun snapped to attention. "Since when can you read Atlesian?"

Neptune chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Come on, man. Don't be a dick — that's clearly not Atlesian." Sun shifted closer to the bars of their cell. Squinting his eyes, he peered through to the wording on the door. Neptune was right about it being difficult to make anything out backwards, and now that he looked closer, the crude lines and marks he mistook for Atlesian did look different: almost painted with a brush. However, that did little to change the fact that Neptune didn't know that language.

"You're right." Sun muttered. "That's not Atlesian, but I don't know what it is."

Neptune gave him an exasperated look. "Oh yeah, sure. Look at that right there, I have no idea what language it could be." He threw his arm wide and stared Sun down. He waited for Sun to say anything, but it never came. "Sun, come on. It's clearly Valean."

"Did you eat something bad?" Sun asked. "I told you to stay away from the crumbs in the corner. I think the dead rat ate one."

"That was obvious, and I thought you were joking about it. Of course I didn't eat that! I'm not stupid, dude." Neptune huffed and jerked his thumb to the writing. "Can you not tell that's Valean? I can read it clear as day." It was not Valean, and Sun refused to accept that it could be.

Suddenly, he was more confident with his denial as the door swung open. Now read the right way, Sun could guarantee that was not any language he knew. Not even one he could recognize. Unfortunately, Neptune seemed to feel the same way about his position. They would be discussing this later.

For now, Sun focussed on the reason the door opened. A marine with faded, pink hair waltzed in. His skin was tanned and lightly scarred. As his boots impacted the metal floor with each step, Sun made himself nonchalant. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on a bar crossing horizontal. Neptune caught on and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall.

The marine, now in front of them, looked less than impressed. "It can't possibly be you two." He spat the words, as if his denial was more out of anger than actual disbelief. "Whatever. You two are following me. And don't try anything — you're deep in a marine base and we'll send you to Impel Down if you sneeze the wrong way."

Not wanting to figure out what that place was, Sun just shrugged. He let the man unlock their cell and followed along. Neptune shared a glance with him, and they had a silent conversation. Although it consisted of mostly exaggerated expressions and jerky movements, they settled on an agreement: look for ways out, but don't do anything until they know what their situation is. That or 'we're fucked' based on that last eyebrow wag.

Winding around, the hallways felt like a labyrinth. At each and every turn, Sun expected to see something indicating where they were going. The halls were a dull white bordered with a dim blue. On occasion, windows would line one side, letting them see the large expanse of sea; that was the only way he could tell that it was still day. If he was honest with himself, he had no idea what he was really looking for, but he felt they wouldn't take prisoners to some random, bland room. Sure enough, he was right; the large, aqua-gilded, pale doors towered higher than any of the others. It claimed a large expanse of the wall, pushing the others far away, and it reached the roof where the doors around it were two feet under.

Their guide halted, rapping his knuckles against the wood. Sun noticed the odd looking brass knuckles he wore. Wrapping around his fingers, they were sleek, gray, and had rivets where each knuckle was. A feminine voice called them in, and their marine pushed the doors open.

The room was large, filled with paintings, desks, plants, and even a bookshelf. The only spots not covered were the far-side wall, being entirely a window, the marble roof, and the carpeted floor. The person who called them in was a woman with long, peach hair. On her face was a stern look that straightened the back of their escort. Her purple suit added to it. Looking at her face for less than a moment, Sun knew he wouldn't mind being yelled at by her. Nudging his side and grinning, Neptune showed he agreed.

"Piracy," the woman began. "Resisting arrest, and from an esteemed general — twice; a sleek, black feather located on your ship. Hina wants to know: what is your connection to the Onyx Feather Pirates?"

"Who's Hina?" Neptune asked. The blue haired boy threw in a cocky grin, trying his charms despite their situation. The woman looked to be a tough one.

"Hina will ask the questions." She snapped, and the man next to them jerked at it, but Sun and Neptune remained cool. "What is your connection to the Onyx Feather Pirates? Their bounties are too high for us to ignore this."

Sun and Neptune, like the best friends they were, were on the same wavelength. Sun spoke for them. "Totally their prodigies."

Her face grew grave. "This is Hina's one opportunity for you. If you don't want to rot in jail, take it. Do you know about the warlords?"

Looking at the papers then handed to them, Sun scrunched up his face. "Uh, sorry, but we can't read this."

Neptune put his hand on his chin and nodded in comprehension. "Actually, yes we can."


Heavily, Cinder's feet fell onto the sand of the island. No one met her gaze, lest they combust on the spot. By now, she had given up drying off. Three huntsmen trained criminals could only do so much when your tiny, shitty boat was filled with holes. Someone would pay for this, and at this point she didn't know who. However, one name did ring in her mind. Torchwick had mentioned it, and so did that damned bird that threw a newspaper at her and demanded money. It didn't seem to understand she was more worried about the ankle-deep water of their boat and her flailing arms were only to shoo it away. Throwing the damned paper back at it was the only thing to make it leave; however, she had enough time to spot the name on it: Jaune D. Arc.

Supposedly this was the man to make her pawn go rogue. Her mind already raced with all the potential ways to make him squirm. Fire was a given, then perhaps something with blades at the same time. Then the joyous, agonizing screams as she had Emerald force him to live through nightmares. Despite her situation, a content smile found its way on her lips just by imagining his begs for mercy. It soon smoldered away as the rough sand that stuck to her wet legs rubbed as she walked.

Strutting onward, she didn't care to glance back to her minions. On an island she could circle in an hour, they should be able to find her. Anything less and they deserved to be left behind. The streets grew crowded the farther inland she walked. People were rushing about like ants who thought their lives were significant. Cinder scoffed; they were just faces without any true ambition.

Shoulders bumped, and not a soul seemed to mind how rude they were. Not until Cinder was their victim, and she squared her shoulders causing them to falter. Their needless complaints were drowned out as she left them behind. Such lowly matters couldn't concern her, not when she needed to find their next vessel. Getting out of this damn sea was her top priority, but she wouldn't let that happen before she dragged Neo back and made that blond idiot pay.

"What the hell?" A voice off in the crowd shouted. Normally, Cinder would have brushed past, but opportunities were always welcome. By the sound of the voice, there might be chaos imminent — a tool for manipulating these buffoons. Gathering around the edge, elegantly unlike the zealous commoners, she peeked over to see what caused such a commotion.

It was a television broadcasting news. Then, as if by magic, she heard a name that drew her attention. "...Juniper D. Arc has made her way onto the Grand Line! Be aware that a relative of the dangerous Jaune D. Arc is now also on these waters, and she is aggressive and dangerous! Stay away at all costs!"

Judging by her appearance and name, she was a relative of her ire. A true smile graced her lips. It fell when she distantly heard, "The Hokage could kick haki's ass!"


AN:

I just finished writing one of the greatest scenes in this fic so far. It's only…six chapters away. On a different note, why is Neptune able to just read random stuff? I promise it's not just a random thing. In fact, if you think over it enough, you might see my plan. As for the actual how…crack fic bullshit.

I loved writing Adam's introduction to this. My plan for his character gets me so excited to get further into this. I can't wait to show what his plot develops into.

More of Cinder's amazing story here. Yes, Roman has Neo-senses, and they alert him often. The question is, what will happen when Cinder and Juniper D. Arc meet? Oh, and that last line was showing that Emerald really didn't understand anything Mercury was saying.

Hina offering Sun and Neptune a warlord position (only one of them will be, but I'm toying with the idea of them sharing it) was a fun idea. It probably wouldn't happen even in these circumstances, but my reasoning was a sort of Buggy situation where they just happen to look more competent than they are while also not wanting to pick a fight with the marines yet.

Now for the biggest thing: the first real crack arc has begun. I promise if you bear with me, the feel of the story won't really change, but yes, they are after video games…This was one of my friend's ideas. He has a habit of spouting off some nonsense as jokes and I have a habit of going 'sure' as he tries to stop me. For Pete's sake, he's watching me write a novel about Jaune becoming Pirate King; he should know I would take these things too seriously.

Anyways, next chapter: CCT