Chains chapter 9 A visit to the Island of Rare Animals and then onto Loguetown, or is it Roguetown?
AN: Hello meat popsicles, non-meat popsicles, and skeletons in tuxedo's! Are you ready for another chapter of Chains? No? Well too bad cause here it is!
The Going Merry departed from Coco Village with quite a bit of fanfare, which didn't count the 3 days of nonstop partying after Arlong had been defeated, nor Luffy and Zoro beating up a corrupt marine captain. No, in this case it was because Nami decided to steal quite a few wallets from the villagers that had gathered to see her and us off. She clearly hadn't done it for the money since earlier she had donated all 96 million berri that she had stolen to the village.
In addition to the stolen wallets Nami brought along 4 tangerine trees, which ended up getting planted along the aft portion of the upper deck. Nami was certain that with proper tending that the trees would produce a steady supply of fruits. She had also taken a sadistic amount of joy when informing the rest of the crew the penalty for damaging even a single leaf. Even Luffy was careful around the trees after that little talk.
"Where are we headed next?" Nami asked the gathered crew as she stared down at the map in front of her.
"I have a suggestion, before the Holder Pirates caught me, I spent a month on an island full of exotic and strange animals. Not only was all my stuff left behind when they grabbed me, but my friend Gaimon is still there. If we can, I'd like to go back there to get my stuff and tell him I'm safe." Aaron suggested.
"I wanna see the mystery animals!" Luffy shouted as his eyes sparkled.
"I don't see how it can hurt. I'm pretty sure I know the island Aaron's talking about, if it is then it's not too far from here."
That was how instead of heading right on to Loguetown, the Strawhats found themselves heading towards the Island of Rare Animals. Wind at their backs they made good time to the island, arriving just around noon. Zoro stayed behind to watch over the ship while the rest of the crew went ashore, following Aaron as he guided them into the dense forest.
They had been walking for several minutes before they found Gaimon, or more accurately Gaimon found them. The box man leaping out of some bushes, scaring Usopp half to death in the process, as he cheerfully greeted Aaron. Gaimon listened in fascination as Aaron told the tale of what had happened to him after his capture, Nami, Sanji and Usopp listened with interest as well since this was the first time they were hearing the tale as well.
Of course they couldn't just leave without Gaimon throwing a goodbye party for Aaron. Thankfully this one only lasted a single night, though it wasn't any less wild because of it. A huge bonfire was lit on the beach around which the crew and many of the animals gathered. Using only fish, fruits, and some leafy plants and herbs found around the island, Sanji whipped up a feast fit for a king.
Luffy and Usopp were enraptured by Gaimon's story of Aaron's amazing climb to the top of the butte, the discovery that the treasure chests up there had been empty all these years, and then Aaron belatedly realizing that he could have just turned into his Zoan form and flown up there the whole time. Aaron chimed in with his own occasional comments from where he was sitting beside the fire, unwilling to disturb the platypus bunny that was sprawled across his lap.
On the other side of the fire Vebulus was laying flat on his back. Eyes closed and a smile on his face as he guided several chains with bells on them back and forth across the sand. A clowder of excitable peacock cats chasing after, and occasionally pouncing on the chains. Their mother was sitting nearby on Nami's lap, basking in the attention in the way only a cat could.
"Vebulus."
Opening his eyes and turning his head, Vebulus saw that Zoro had come over and had stopped just outside the area that the cats had been playing.
"Tomorrow morning I'll start your sword training. Yours too Aaron."
"Wait? What?!"
That was how, bright and early, next morning Vebulus and Aaron would themselves standing across from Zoro. Two solid hours of 'training' later found both of them laying on the deck, feeling like freshly wrung out noodles. After breakfast, during which Vebulus and Aaron recovered somewhat, the Strawhats said their farewells to Gaimon and set sail to Loguetown.
"So which is it supposed to be, Roguetown or Loguetown? Cause both sound like they could be correct."
"It's gotta be Loguetown. Who would be dumb enough to name their city after a type of bandit?"
Aaron and Vebulus were, as was often the case when they had nothing better to do, discussing something incomprehensible to the rest of the crew. Neither of them intended to but with actually being in the world of One Piece they just kept falling into meandering discussions about anything that came to mind.
"What are they doing?" Nami asked as she came out of the kitchen and walked over to Usopp, who was leaning against the railing, listening to Aaron and Vebulus's discussion while also keeping an eye out for danger and the distant silhouette of Loguetown that had prompted the discussion in the first place.
Turning his head, Usopp gave Nami the flattest possible stare before responding. "They're discussing if Loguetown begins with an L or an R. Before that they were talking about something called character sheets, which was a tangent from their original discussion of how their Devil Fruits worked. Before all of that however they were talking about Luffy's bounty poster."
"What? Who discusses things like that?!" Nami practically shouted in exasperation. Usopp pointed at the oblivious and still chatting pair in response. Then his eyes seemed to gleam before leaning towards Nami conspiratorially.
"They discuss things like this because they're both actually from another world, Nami, my note said so. A world in which all of us are just a story that they've read, one that they now find themselves living in due to the whims of capricious gods!" While he had started off quietly by the end excitement had taken over and he was nearly shouting.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! What note?" Usopp paused as Nami grabbed his shirt and started to shake him.
"The note from my future self? It had a whole ton of plans for weapons to create, or that I do create? Would I still have made them if I didn't have the plans for them? Anyways there's this awesome weapon for you called a Climatact that I'm almost finished building. Just need a couple more parts."
Nami let go of Usopp's shirt and adopted a thoughtful expression, ignoring Usopp as he stumbled back against the railing. He opened his mouth to say something but Nami pushed her hand against it before he could get a word out. A second later her eyes lit up with excitement before she shouted.
"Crew meeting! Everyone in the kitchen for a crew meeting!"
"Wonder what's going on?" Aaron asked as he followed Vebulus up the stairs towards the kitchen. Vebulus, seeming to be just as confused as Aaron, shrugged as he opened the door. He didn't immediately step through it though. Which proved to be a good thing as Luffy rocketed through the space Vebulus would have otherwise occupied.
"Saw Luffy coming." He said to Aaron's unasked question. They were the last ones to arrive, taking seats around the table as Luffy peeled himself off the wall and bounced into his own seat. Nami rose from her seat and slapped her hand against the table.
"Alright! It has come to my attention that at least two people on this crew, myself and Usopp, have at some point gotten notes from our future selves. What I want to know is, who else got a note?" Vebulus and Aaron shared a look before slowly, along with the rest of the crew, raised their hands.
"And nobody thought to mention at any point to the rest of the crew that they had received such a note?" Everyone that had raised their hand, except Zoro, looked a bit sheepish at having not thought to mention anything. Nami sighed before sitting back down.
"Of course, anyways it's probably a good idea to reveal what our notes said since," she paused to glare at Usopp, "there might be important information that everyone should know. As I was the one to bring it up I'll start, I found my note inside a small chest that had floated ashore just after I joined Arlong's crew. I don't remember exactly what was written on it because I had to burn it so no one else could get the chance to read it. I remember the gist of it though it was saying about how I could trust Hachi and lean on him when things threatened to overwhelm me. The other thing it said was that when I finally found a crew that I couldn't bear to betray, to accept the bet from the man with legs of golden chains."
Vebulus rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he glanced down at the golden chains stitching along the sides of his pants. He had wondered why Nami had accepted his bet so easily but forgotten to ask about it in all the chaos that had occured at Arlong Park. The part about Hachi though he didn't have a clue about, unless Hachi had also gotten a note. He couldn't exactly ask though without receiving some awkward questions in return.
"I'll go next! My note had a bunch of blueprints for weapons that I'll make in the future, it also, "Usopp paused for dramatic effect before pointing at Vebulus and Aaron, "said that this pair isn't from this world but another world entirely!"
Vebulus blinked slowly several times before he dropped his head into his hands and groaned loudly. Aaron on the other hand chuckled nervously before raising up his hands in surrender. "I plead the fifth?"
"The fifth what?" Luffy asked as Usopp slammed his hands onto the table and shouted, "see? They even have sayings that we don't understand! They have to be from another world!" Face still buried in his hands, Vebulus groaned louder.
Dragging his hands down his face Vebulus finally looked up to meet everyone's eyes. "I thought we'd at least be able to reach the Grand Line before this particular bit of information needed to be addressed. Cross at least managed to make it to Drum! But, nope! Couldn't even make it into Loguetown!"
Leaning forward Vebulus, placed his elbows on the table and interlaced his fingers, hiding his mouth behind them. A textbook Gendo Ikari pose, just add in some glasses and some gloves and it would have been a perfect cosplay. "What Usopp says is true, me and Aaron are from another world. A world in which we both read a comic called One Piece, about a pirate named Monkey D Luffy and his quest to become king of the pirates."
There were gasps from around the table at this announcement, which Vebulus seemed to ignore as he went to continue speaking. But nothing came out and after several seconds of silence he sighed.
"There's so many things I could say, yet at this moment I'm not sure what I should say. I don't even know where to start."
"Then don't say anything!" Vebulus's head shot up at the sudden declaration, everyone else turning to look at Luffy more casually. He had jumped out of his chair, knuckles resting on the table, as he addressed the crew. "It doesn't matter where you came from, you're part of my crew now and that's all that matters."
The tension that had built in the room since Vebulus had admitted that he and Aaron were from another world instantly drained away. Everyone relaxed slightly in their seats as Luffy flopped back down on his. Aaron chuckled and gently punched Vebulus in the shoulder as if to say 'see no need to worry.' Vebulus grinned wryly as he abandoned his pose to lean back in the chair.
"Thanks Luffy, that makes this easier."
"Shihihihi! No problem!"
"Question, who's Cross?" Nami asked.
"Uhhh, shit should have realized this might come up. Aaron, can I borrow some paper and a pencil?"
"Sure thing Veb." Aaron dug in his bag, eventually producing a couple sheets of paper and a pencil, which he handed over to Vebulus. Taking the items with a muttered thanks, Vebulus drew three circles stacked on top of each other in a vertical line. He labeled the top circle One Piece, the middle Cross's One Piece, and the bottom Aaron and Vebulus's One Piece, though he shortened the names to just the first letter of their names. Holding up the paper so that everyone could see it he explained.
"Each of these circles represents a story of Luffy's adventure to become king of the pirates. The first one is the original or canon timeline, things went on as me and Aaron read them," Vebulus tapped the middle circle with the pencil, "this is the story where a man named Cross was dropped into your world by the whims of a bored asshole, Cross ended up joining the crew just a bit before Loguetown, he also came from the same world as me and Aaron," Vebulus tapped the final circle, "and this is the story we presently occupy."
Vebulus flipped the paper over and once more drew three circles, this time with One Piece in the center with Cross's and A and 's radiating out from it. He then drew more circles and lines radiating out from the center circle. He labeled the other circles with random things like, Iron Giant, Twelve Red Lines, Piratical Minds, Platinum Pirate, and numerous others.
"Each of the outer circles is a deviation from the original story, where an element, or even multiple elements, have been changed." Vebulus looked up to check if everyone was on the same page. They weren't, Nami, Usopp, and Aaron seemed to be following him. Zoro was asleep or pretending to be asleep, Sanji was smoking while he stared up at the ceiling , and Luffy was picking his nose in boredom.
"So what exactly does all of this mean?" Sanji asked, tilting his head so that he could look at Vebulus with the eye that wasn't hidden by hair.
"It means that sometimes any information that me or Aaron can give you has a chance of being wrong, probably not on major events but you never know. Also the information that we have is based on the assumption that we were never part of the story, the more time that passes the less helpful our future knowledge becomes as things continue to deviate from what we know."
"And that means?"
"It means that things will still be an adventure! They only know what would have happened, but we're still free to make our own choices!" Luffy interjected, taking a complex answer and striping everything away until only the simplest answer remained.
"That simplifies things quite a bit, but there are a couple of things that I want to go over before we get back to the notes. First is that at the moment, because Aaron and I originally came from another world, we can't take quite the same level of punishment as you, also we'll recover from injuries slower. Eventually we'll be at the general level as all of you but we aren't sure when."
Vebulus went on to explain several of the differences between their two worlds, with the occasional interjection from Aaron, the difference in technology level and how useful a cellphone was, even in their current state. There were a bunch of minor things that were gone over as well, ones that if they were mentioned in full would only pointlessly bloat the word count so they were skipped.
As soon as Vebulus finished talking Luffy was on his feet with a shout of "Finally! We can get back to the notes!" He then slapped his note onto the center of the table. "I gave myself notes on the roles of each person that was going to join the crew."
Since the rest of the crew hadn't seen the note, they all leaned in to read it. Nami took note of the fact that future Luffy's handwriting was just as bad as current Luffy's. Once everyone had settled back into their seats Sanji tapped the roles that didn't have names besides them yet. "You've got all the crew roles listed here yet only some of them have names, why? Also why is Nami listed here twice?"
"Cause that way I'm still making the choice of who joins the crew, I don't know who the person that joins is going to be or when. Nami's on the list twice because she joined, unjoined, and rejoined." Both Aaron and Vebulus nodded like that made perfect sense, which made Usopp stare at them briefly with a raised eyebrow.
"Couldn't you just ask Vebulus or Aaron? Since they know what's going to happen in the future." He finally decided to ask, turning his attention back towards Luffy.
"I won't!" Luffy responded before either of the two people from a different world had a chance to answer.
"It would spoil the adventure if we did. Also," Aaron paused and glanced over at Vebulus before continuing, "the notes alone have changed things. Neither of us has any idea of who could fit the smith role let alone when they might join."
"Well that's just great! What if Luffy decides to have someone scary join the crew?! Like a flesh shedding oni with a huge mace, or a shape-changing monster, or a devil with a thousand limbs, or a huge perverted mobster, or a talking skeleton?!" Usopp cried, throwing his arms up in the air as his knees shook beneath the table.
Vebulus and Aaron shared a look before bursting into laughter. Neither of them could answer until they had stopped laughing, which took a bit. Even then, Vebulus had to stifle the occasional giggle that threatened to set him off all over again.
"I feel like we're missing something." Sanji commented while raising a curly eyebrow.
"You'll see." Was Aaron's response as he fought back a grin.
"There was also this part of the note," Luffy flipped his note over, revealing that on the back two words had been written and then underlined several times. 'Sabo lives'
"Ah," looking down at the newly revealed message, Vebulus let out a noise of understanding before running his fingers through his hair, leaving it sticking up in all directions. "There should be a chance of either meeting Sabo or at least getting a message to him coming up in Loguetown. Neither me or Aaron can be certain that he's here, but it's possible."
Seeming satisfied with the answer, Luffy grabbed his note, folded it back up, and tucked it back into the lining of his hat. He then turned to look at Zoro, who was now paying attention but hadn't said anything, and to Sanji.
"My note just had a recipe on it with instructions to feed it to a man that was starving but couldn't pay after an idiot with a straw hat slammed into the Baratie." Sanji finally said once it became apparent that Zoro wasn't going to speak up any time soon.
"No explanation why or what it did?" Nami asked. Sanji just shook his head. Vebulus rubbed his chin in puzzlement before glancing back at Aaron, who shrugged.
"Hmmph, of course swirly-brow's note wasn't that useful."
"You wanna go mosshead!"
"Anytime shit cook!"
"Hold it!" Vebulus shouted before either of them could do more then get to their feet. "Zoro, note first then you can fight."
"...Fine, mine wasn't that interesting though. Just said that when I met Mihawk that I should acknowledge how vast the gap between us really was, and that I should think more about what my sensei said about a swordsman cutting only what they wish to cut."
That looked like it was going to be the end of the discussion before Nami chimed in. "Wait, Vebulus, Aaron, we got so distracted by the knowledge of you being from another world that we forgot about your notes."
Vebulus snapped his fingers and produced his phone, he scrolled to the picture that he had taken of the note, reading it over quickly to refresh his memory. "It's a note from myself and the ship's doctor about the medicine I'm supposed to take to help me adapt."
"Mine was a bunch of references to things that only I would understand, and that's pretty much it." Aaron said as soon as Vebulus had finished speaking.
"Sounds like that's everything then. We should be closer to Loguetown now so we need to get ready to dock." Nami said as she got to her feet.
As the crew was splitting up to perform the tasks required for docking, Nami grabbed the back of Vebulus's shirt and pulled him back into the kitchen. Vebulus turned to face her. "What's up Nami?"
"When I knocked you out with my staff, you stayed unconscious for so long because you're from another world and not just because you've got a soft head right?"
"Yeah, it just wouldn't have been a good time to try and explain that at the time. Plus," Vebulus pulled out the glass jar of gummies that Nami had seen him eat from occasionally, "these are supposed to help me get up to the same level as everyone else faster."
Nami took the bottle, holding it up to her face as she eyed the multicolored things inside. The bottle was still about half full despite Vebulus having been taking them religiously.
"Why doesn't Aaron have any then?"
Vebulus opened his mouth to respond before closing it again with a click, expression shifting to puzzlement as he took the bottle back. He stared at it for the longest time before responding.
"I have no idea. Maybe the medicine has something else it's supposed to do that future me just didn't mention. Guess I'll find out when I find out."
The next half an hour or so was spent following Nami's orders as the ship sailed closer to Loguetown. There was a surprising lack of ship traffic to deal with despite the size of the town and its proximity to the Grand Line, the one ship they did see was a single masted vessel with peeling white paint and weathering that showed its age.
"Vebulus," at the sound of his name, Vebulus turned from observing the nearby ship to find that it was Zoro that had addressed him.
"What's up Zoro?"
"The sword you stole from that slaver, I'm going to take it with me and see if I can find someone that can identify it. If you're okay with that."
"I don't mind, not like I'll have a chance to wield it without a lot more practice anyways." Zoro smirked, he had forbidden Vebulus from using a sword outside of training until he could guarantee that Vebulus was ready.
"Do you think it might be a Named Blade?"
"If it is, I'll know by the time we meet back up."
Once the Going Merry was docked, if one considered dropping anchor at an empty stretch of sea wall to be docking. If there had been anyone around they would probably have been talking about illegal docking, and that people couldn't just drop anchor wherever they wanted, but one there wasn't anyone around and two, pirates.
"I'm gonna see the place where Gold Roger was executed!"
"Luffy, wait!" But Nami's shout came too late, Luffy had already launched himself off of the ship and was vanishing out of sight behind several buildings. Sighing, Nami turned to look at the rest of the crew before any of them could disembark.
"Alright, so thanks to Vebulus finally giving me the code to the safe we have a surplus of berri to spend on things. Which brings us to the question, what do we need?"
"I need new swords."
"I want to see what kind of supplies are available so I can prepare more types of meals."
"I need some stuff to complete the weapons I'm working on."
"There's a couple of things I can think of but I'm unsure how to get, also clothing for people."
"Spell.., you know what I'll explain what I need later, for now I'll just say unusual items." Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Vebulus and Aaron all answered.
"Zoro, Sanji, here's your spending money. Get what you can." She tossed two thick rolls of berri notes to them as she spoke. "Usopp here's yours." Another roll was thrown this time to Usopp.
"Veb, you've still got money on you so you're fine." Vebulus snatched his wallet out of Nami's hand as she held it out to him, taking a moment to confirm that all the money was indeed there. Nami continued without even batting an eye. "And lastly, some spending money for Aaron," she handed another roll over to Aaron who accepted it with a nod.
"I'll be handling the clothing and if everything goes according to plan we'll be setting off for the Grand Line in a couple of hours." Vebulus and Aaron both groaned. "What?"
"Please don't tempt Murphy like that, it's basically a guarantee that multiple things are going to go wrong," Vebulus sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Who's Murphy?" Usopp asked.
"I'll explain later, but you'll probably figure it out before we regroup," and with that final statement from Vebulus the crew mostly went their separate ways, Aaron tagging along with Usopp, while Vebulus went with Nami. The two walked in silence through the quiet back streets, encountering only a few other people on errands of their own.
"So what exactly were you thinking about getting exactly, Veb?"
"Hopefully at least a pair of Transponder Snails, plus a Logpose." At her questioning look he elaborated. "A Logpose is a special compass that we'll need to navigate the Grand Line, the needle points to the next island that we have to go to once it's done attuning to the island we're on. The amount of time that it takes to attune varies from island to island."
Vebulus paused mid-stride to pull out the pocket watch sized Logpose from the pocket of his jacket and showed it to Nami, the needle spinning in a constant circle. "I've got this one but I want an extra one or two as replacements just in case."
"Perfect, you can buy me one as a gift then."
"Fine."