Chapter 21
"What makes you think we'll find anything here?" Ace looked skeptical.
Takadox glanced back at him, prompting the Whitebeard Pirate to pull his hat down again.
"This alley is the perfect place to pass through undetected," the blue mercenary whispered. "Well, almost perfect. One of my contacts said they spotted someone coming through here carrying what looked like a recently stolen government document."
Ace nodded. "So, now what? We just sit and wait and hope they come by again?"
"You want help finding the Revolutionaries or not?" Takadox growled. "This is the best lead you'll be able to get around here, so quit complaining."
While the lead in question felt tenuous at best, Ace begrudgingly conceded his ally's point. The unlikely duo waited there for hours, and Ace found himself regretting the whole endeavor as his patience began to wane.
"This is starting to feel like a dead end."
Suddenly, a small object rolled between them from behind.
"You were saying?" Takadox asked.
The object exploded, unleashing a cloud of gas that instantly knocked them both out.
As they slept, a pair of shadowy individuals approached the unconscious duo. One of them perked up when he saw Ace's face. He turned to his partner. "Hey, this is—"
"I know," the other one said. "We can't just take out a Whitebeard. We'd better take them in."
It had been a few days since we'd beaten Eneru and rung that big-ass bell. As per usual, everyone was asleep, leaving me with little to do but stare into space. I couldn't think of any way to occupy myself and it was driving me nuts.
"Skeleton."
'Okay, never mind.' It looked like the devil on my shoulder wanted some more quality time.
Ehlek approached me, though I hadn't responded. "I didn't witness much of what you did for the final stretch of this adventure. How did it go?"
I showed him a flashback of what I'd gone through to get him up to speed.
"You recovered quite a prize from that berserker," the green Barraki observed. "Maybe a new weapon will help you improve your fighting ability."
If I'd still had a proper face, I might've pouted. "Oh, shut up. I was doing fine."
Ehlek took a fighting stance. "Show me."
For the next hour, we sparred. Wait, is it still sparring if no one's holding back?
Thankfully, it was Ehlek who eventually decided he'd had enough. "I'll admit, you're getting better. But why aren't you using that weapon you stole?"
I pulled out the Reject Dial. "This thing can only stop blunt force and explosions. It's worthless against slash attacks, and I'm not sure it would stop lightning either."
"Then charge it up yourself," Ehlek said, as if it was obvious.
Taking his advice, I brought my fist down on the Dial, letting it absorb the force of the blow. Then I engaged with Ehlek once again. Thinking fast, I realized I didn't need to get close to use my new weapon. I leapt back and fired off my right fist, then my left hand.
Ehlek blocked the first attack, which left him open to my left hand, which was still clutching the Reject Dial. He managed to shift a bit at the last second so it didn't hit his face, but it still hit him in the shoulder.
"AAAAHHH!" Both of us screamed—me for my hand, and Ehlek for his shoulder. The impact flung the green Barraki backwards, but my hand had been shattered. Fortunately, from what I could feel, the individual bones weren't broken, the recoil had just forced them apart.
Pressing the attack like I was sure Ehlek would've told me to, I called my hands back to my wrists and charged. Just as Ehlek was starting to right himself, I swung my elbow into his face, grounding him once more.
"I win," I declared.
"Then finish it," Ehlek insisted.
I was put off. "Really? You're doing the whole 'strike me down with all of your hatred' thing? Well, I'm not gonna kill you. I will do this though."
I grabbed one of his fangs and broke it off with a flick of my wrist.
Ehlek flinched in pain but got up, silver blood dripping from his tooth socket. "Heh, you really are becoming something beautiful."
"Would you mind being beautiful some other time?" said another voice.
The two of us started, looking over to see Zoro, Fencer, Pridak, and Sanji.
"We're trying to sleep here," the white Barraki growled. "Go fight somewhere else."
"Sure. You wanna come with us, Fencer?" I asked.
"Too tired. Sorry, dude," my ferret yawned.
Ehlek and I nodded at each other and took our practice session elsewhere. Thankfully, the sun rose in no time, giving us the gift of other people to interact with. To my surprise though, Fencer didn't join up with us then. I wondered where she was.
Fencer lay on her back, snoozing like there was no tomorrow. She grumbled as a finger poked her, waking her up.
"You'd better have a good reason to—" She stopped when she saw it was Nami. "Oh, hey."
"Hey," Nami said. "Remember back on Jaya, when you offered to help me learn to fight with my tail?"
Fencer's eyes widened, realizing what Nami was asking. "You really want to?"
"Well, now that I'm getting used to this," Nami gestured to her scaly, dinosaurian body. "I figure I may as well make the most of it. I landed some good hits on Mr. -1 back in Alubarna, and Zoro said it'd be a waste if I didn't train, so why not?"
Grinning, Fencer got to her feet. "Alright, but I have certain rules you'll have to follow."
"I'm not calling you master," Nami deadpanned.
"Heh, worth a shot." Fencer rubbed the back of her head with her paw. "Okay, let's start simple. Have you tried wiggling your tail?"
Nami looked behind her and focused. Her tail wiggled erratically.
"Okay, that's something. Now try swinging it," Fencer instructed her. To demonstrate, she did so with her own tail. "Left, right, left, right."
Taking a deep breath, Nami tried moving her tail again, this time swinging her hips to get it to move. It seemed to be going in the direction she wanted it to, though she had to use her entire body to accomplish this.
"Hm." Fencer didn't seem too impressed. "Do that again." When Nami obeyed, the ferret shook her head. "Not quite."
"What was wrong with that?" Nami wondered, annoyed.
Fencer took a second to think of how she could describe her pupil's mistake. Getting an idea, she let her left foreleg go limp and swung it back and forth. "See that? What you did was a bit too much like that. You gotta use your tail muscles more."
Frowning, Nami tried swinging her tail again.
"A little better. You know what? Let's try this another way." Fencer suddenly raised her voice. "Hey, Declan! Can we borrow one of your bones for a bit?"
"Bow chicka bow wow!" came Declan's voice from outside.
Fencer rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant, dude!"
Her ride tossed her a bone from his forearm, which she caught with her tail. Walking behind Nami, she set the bone down next to her. "Try grabbing that."
With her tail resting on the bone, Nami exhaled and tried to focus. However, despite her efforts, her tail simply brushed over the bone and didn't come close to wrapping around it. Several more failed attempts made her frustrated.
"Okay, I have an idea." She grabbed for her tail, only to involuntarily move it out of reach. As she kept trying to grab it, she heard Fencer laughing. "What's so funny?"
"You're chasing your tail, that's what's funny!" Fencer said, still laughing.
When Nami put it together, her dark green skin blushed red.
Fencer grabbed the stick and held it right by Nami's tail. "Trying to jump straight to grabbing stuff, right?"
Yeah," Nami admitted.
"Well, don't let me stop you. Try it out." Fencer smiled.
Nami concentrated but, instead of grabbing the bone, all she did was poke Fencer in the eye.
"Ah, fuck!" Fencer covered her eye with her paw.
"Not quite the teacher you thought you'd be, Miss Ferret?" Robin asked breezily as she passed by.
"No one asked you, birdbrain!" Fencer glared at her. She turned back to Nami. "Just keep trying."
Frowning, Nami tried again, only to spank herself with her own tail.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Fencer laughed so hard she fell over on her side. "HAHAHA! OH, GOD, I CAN'T BREATHE! I CAN'T BRE-HE-HE-EATH!" Growling, Nami knelt down and flicked Fencer in the head, snapping her out of her hysterics. "Oh, come on. You'd be laughing if it wasn't you."
Nami averted her eyes. "Maybe," she muttered.
"Heh, got you," Fencer said, getting up. "Well, let's keep trying."
"I don't know. This is starting to feel like more trouble than it's worth," Nami frowned. She was starting to think it would be less embarrassing to have a tail that was useless.
"Hey now, you can't give up after just one lesson," Fencer scolded her. "If you don't gain a little more control, it could really be a problem for you someday. What if you spank yourself again?" Despite her best efforts to be serious, she couldn't help but snicker at her own words.
Nami rolled her eyes but ultimately agreed. Eventually, she told herself, she'd manage to get the hang of it.
"Hmm…" Chopper's eyes narrowed as he inspected Pridak once more.
"Can you just make your diagnosis already? This is starting to feel weird," Pridak complained.
Chopper blinked as he snapped out of his zone. "I'm sorry, it's just that I've never examined a creature like you before. You're fascinating." He tapped Pridak's arm. "This outer layer seems tough. What's it made of?"
"Protodermis," Pridak explained. "Everything in my dimension is made from it, so it pays to be tough all over. I have a semi-metallic exoskeleton that protects the muscle tissue underneath."
Nodding in excitement, Chopper kept asking, "Is that why your mouth doesn't move when you talk or eat?"
Before Pridak could answer, the two of them heard a mighty roar from above. They looked up to see Amatsu hovering overhead. The elder dragon roared once again, and Chopper cocked his head, listening.
"What did he say?" Pridak asked.
"He said he had a reward for me," Chopper said, surprised. "What is it?"
In a series of roars, Amatsu explained that since they'd helped him defeat Eneru, all while showing the dragon the respect he deserved, he had decided to share some of his parts.
Pridak tilted his head. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
Lowering himself to the ground, Amatsu growled out some instructions.
Chopper was taken aback. "He wants us to break off parts of his body and use them to make me a weapon."
"Odd request, but very well," Pridak acquiesced.
Following Amatsu's instructions, the two pirates cut away small sections of the dragon's horn, claws, and webbing. It felt wrong, to chip away at such a magnificent creature, but he didn't seem to miss the pieces they took. When they were done, Amatsu growled once again.
"I've given you all the materials you could need. Now, take them to a skilled craftsman, and you shall have a weapon with the power of the heavens," Chopper translated. He gasped, "Maybe Usopp could make me something with these!"
The little reindeer rushed off to find the crew's sniper. When he found him, he hardly paused to say hello before explaining what had happened, holding out the dragon parts expectantly.
"Wow. I've never tried to make anything from animal parts before, but I'm sure I can manage," Usopp remarked. "Do you have any idea what kind of weapon you might want?"
Chopper put a hoof to his chin. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'm not picturing anything specific, but could you make something I can use to attack from a distance? That would round out my options in battle."
"Alright then, one ranged weapon coming up," Usopp nodded.
Chopper smiled, wondering what it would be like to use an actual weapon alongside his Devil Fruit.
I groaned. After a short break and a hearty meal, Ehlek had decided he wanted to resume sparring. Not only that, but he told me to keep the Reject Dial usage to a minimum—not to stop me from hurting myself, but because I shouldn't become dependent on a "fancy toy."
Thankfully, we were cut off by Luffy and Sanji. "Hey, guys, we're looting. Wanna help?" our captain invited us.
Seeing the sacks of gold on their back jogged my memory a bit. "Does it count as looting if the people you're stealing from don't really need what you're stealing?"
Luffy tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"The Skypieans don't know what gold is," I clarified. "To them, it's just a bunch of yellow metal."
"We're still taking something that isn't ours. So yes, this would be stealing," Ehlek argued.
"Oh, hey, here comes Robin!" Luffy pointed at her, but he quickly lowered his finger upon seeing the Skypieans with her. "What's that big thing they've got with them?"
Sanji panicked that it might be a huge cannon, but I wasn't so sure. If that thing was a cannon, wouldn't there be a hole for the cannonball to come out? Luffy grabbed me by the spine and began hauling me away in retreat. Still not convinced this was a threat, I detached my lumbar vertebrae to get away. Sure, this left my upper and lower halves disconnected, but no matter.
I crawled up to Robin and the islanders, with my legs walking right beside me. Naturally, this freaked some of them out.
"Are you okay?" one of them asked.
"Why yes, I am," I answered, giving Robin my attention, "What's that big thing you guys've got with you?"
"The Skypieans were feeling grateful that we saved their land, so they decided to give us a pillar of gold as a thank-you present," she smiled, presumably amused at the state I was in.
The next thing either of us knew, Nami appeared out of nowhere. "Did someone say gold?"
"I'll help you carry it, Nami-Swan!" Sanji offered.
Wait a minute," Ehlek interjected. "I want gold as much as anyone else, but Dinosaur, will this much gold even fit on our ship?"
"Judging by the pillar's size, plus how heavy gold is, it's safe to say we won't be able to fit it all," Robin answered.
"Then we'll take as much as we can," Pridak said as he walked up, knocking on the pillar.
"Wait, how'd you know what we're talking about?" I asked.
Pridak chuckled. "One benefit of my mutation is that I have a shark's heightened sense of hearing."
"Huh." I decided not to question it. As my two crewmates debated over how much gold we could take with us, I crawled back over to Luffy.
"So that thing isn't a cannon?" he asked.
"No, it's not," I answered, holding out my hand. "Now, give me my back back."
With my upper and lower halves connected again, Nami employed Zoro, Pridak, and Fencer to cut the pillar into chunks small enough to carry, while Luffy, Kalmah, Chopper, and I were responsible for bringing the chunks onboard the ship.
When that was done, we got instructions from Conis on how to get back down to the Blue Sea. As we set sail, I clung onto the mast for dear life. I was already getting butterflies, and I didn't even have a stomach anymore.
"Don't tell me you're afraid of heights," Ehlek taunted me.
"In my defense, it's a really long way down," I replied.
That got the rest of the crew thinking about how big the drop was going to be, and they wisely decided to brace themselves as well. That didn't really stop us from screaming as we took the plunge down to Earth.
By now, Ace had woken up, finding himself sitting in a chair. Though, with the bag over his head, he had no way of knowing where that chair was. Knowing what little he did about the Revolutionaries, he didn't bother asking any questions, figuring none would be answered. He didn't bother struggling either, because one, someone had put Sea Prism Stone cuffs on him while he was unconscious, and two, he hadn't come here to fight.
Eventually, someone took the bag off his head. He blinked, taking in the sight of a young woman with short orange hair, dressed in a suit.
The woman crossed her arms, "Would you mind explaining why you were looking for us? We did some investigating while you were out and found no indication that Whitebeard is trying to pick a fight with us."
"Pops didn't send me. I came here on my own," Ace explained. "Well, mostly on my own. Someone did point me in your direction."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "Who would tell you to look for us? And why?"
"A living skeleton told me to." Ace sighed when the woman's eyes widened. "Yeah, I was surprised too. Anyway, there's this pirate I'm chasing, and he said I couldn't take him on alone. For some reason, he recommended that I ask your chief of staff to help me."
"Why the chief specifically?" the woman asked.
"He said it was a surprise," Ace informed her.
The woman took a moment to process what Ace had said before scoffing, "The Revolutionaries aren't going to help you fight some random pirate just because you asked."
"Yeah, I figured," Ace sighed.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened and a blond man in a suit and hat walked in. "Koala, I've got that report you asked for."
This time, it was Ace's turn to go wide-eyed.