Author's Notes: Crap, I gotta do the Shanks clip now. XD I'm just kidding. Thank you for supporting this short story, KHRtuna27! I'm glad you're enjoying it despite the out of order collection of clips. As a gift, I present to you a clip of the time Nesi joined the Reds as a temporary crewmate.
~... Treasure Hunter ...~
The little prude hadn't made it back yet. What was taking her so long? Shouldn't they go look for her? Benn and Yasopp were keeping their eyes on a certain spot in the brush, waiting for Nesi to return... well, it wasn't home, but... it was the meeting spot, alright! They were just supposed to dock on some land, scope the place out, and look around for anything of interest. If they found something, they partied to celebrate. If the mission was a bust, they partied to raise the crew's morale. Better luck next time as the saying goes. Shanks noticed that the sky was getting dark, and Nesi was still out and about. Surely, she'd give up on trying to find something if the day was gone and nothing aroused her attention. She didn't have to hunt until the next morning. The rest of the Reds did manage to find some valuable ores, so it could be used for many things, but the young privateer had to have been scavenging for hours since they docked on land this morning. It was pretty early. She ate her breakfast first thing, not anticipating a chance at a real pirate mission, and was practically beaming with excitement at Shanks's request for her to participate in a treasure hunt.
Honestly, Shanks was a tad disappointed in (and confused by) Nesi's relationship with Ace as a crewmate. He knew Ace was young and a rookie, but the emperor didn't think Ace was so full of himself to believe he could manage an apprentice so soon. He barely knew anything about life on the seas! Above all else, why Nesi? They were about the same age, right? What did she have to gain in being his apprentice and for such a short period of time? None of their situation made sense, but... Nesi learned well from the boy and her military teachers. She was a proper deckhand, eloquent speaker, and quite an impressive war strategist if the constant visitors on his ship weren't a clue. He didn't think that the girl who danced at his party by accident would become such a rising star on battlefronts so quickly. Depending on her results, Shanks decided to evaluate her skills as a deckhand more inquisitively. There was no way she learned everything from Ace, but he could at least see for himself what she was able to learn.
That's assuming said girl hadn't gotten herself killed trying to find treasure that wasn't there. Hearing grunting and coughing in the distance, Shanks stood up to meet the person coming to them. It was Nesi. She was pulling some algae-covered chests on an old sheet.
"Men. Help the girl," Shanks ordered, nodding towards the privateer.
"She thinks algae on a box is worth anything?" someone complained, walking over to her.
Without warning, Nesi gave one good pull on her rope and sheet to yank her findings forward and allowed herself to collapse onto her knees. She was covered in water, mud, sand, and algae. She could barely breathe and finally vomited leftover water from her stomach.
"Y'know, nine times out of ten, you probably just have cases of live seafood in your hands," Shanks said, looking Nesi over to check for visible wounds. Cough, cough. Nesi looked up at him with a worn-out expression on her face and a light blush across her cheeks. Her lips were even turning blue. Shanks reached out to touch her forehead and jolted a bit before saying, "How far down did you swim to get this stuff? You're freezing!"
Before Nesi could utter a word, she fainted. Benn kneeled down and tried to shake Nesi awake, but he merely received a grunt and coo from her. "Kid!"
"Boss! She found a bunch of jewels! How?" one of the men questioned, prying open another box of goodies.
Shanks looked down at the unconscious girl, seeing her shivering and her teeth chattering...
When Nesi woke up, she was reminded of the day she had recovered from her stab wounds and mutilation. Her body felt heavy, and her head was pounding, but there was warmth around her. She thought she heard cheering. She remembered seeing the Reds run up to her, but her memory went blank after that. A bright light made her head swim, but it also offered the comforting image of her beloved captain smiling at her. She would wonder where he was or what he was doing later. Her clothes felt soaked still. Baragon's squawking caught her immediate attention, so she forced herself to get up and crawl over to him.
"Baragon," she whispered, reaching out to him weakly.
"You shouldn't push yourself too hard, kid. You gave everyone a bit of a scare. Well, at least the leaders," Lucky Roo said, walking over a rock while Baragon nuzzled against Nesi's cheek. "When you're better and you have enough strength to change your clothes, the captain wants to talk to you."
"Oh. He didn't like the treasure then? Guess I failed the mission," Nesi said softly, slowly picking herself up to sit up straight.
"Actually, total opposite of what you're thinkin'! Hope you don't mind us goin' through your clothes to pick out fresh stuff. You were ice cold when you fainted," Lucky Roo informed. "I'll leave you to the girly to-dos. I'm hungry. I'll let Shanks know you're okay, though."
Nesi just smiled sweetly at him and nodded. She then said to herself, "We did alright then, didn't we, Baragon?"
"Squaw!" Baragon cheered, running over to a pile of clothes.
After Nesi properly cleaned herself and changed into the attire provided, which wound up being her most feminine night linens, she shook her head and boarded the Red Force. She might be able to change into her appropriate gentleman's wardrobe. Might. The light coming from the captain's cabin was a symbol of doom if Shanks was in a cuddling mood. It looked like he was talking to Benn about something, though, so she quietly snuck around to dig into her luggage and hunched over to creep along the walls and escape to the crew's cabin to change clothes. She was so close before the door flew open and scared her. Her eyes locked with Benn's before she scurried off and quickly changed into something else. When she felt more like herself, she strutted out in her manlier garb and organized her clothes while she waited for Shanks to call her.
"Looks like you're back to normal."
"EEK!" Nesi yelped, not anticipating the sudden cuddle from the redheaded emperor. "Why are you so fast!? Ugh!"
"You worried me, Llandala. I would've had no one to cuddle anymore. That's no good!" Shanks replied, smiling mischievously and making Nesi's face go blue. He released her, however, and continued, "Besides, how else am I supposed to give you a rank if you die from hypothermia?"
"A rank, sir? What do you mean?" Nesi questioned, turning around to face Shanks.
"You said something about being Ace's apprentice a while back. He's a little young to be teachin' anyone about what it takes to be a pirate, but you've been getting people looking for you as a war counselor. Did you learn that from the military or from him?" Benn asked, folding his arms to wait for an answer.
"Oh, both actually. My mentor, Lord van der Does, was teaching me about war tactics while I was Ace's apprentice and deckhand. Ace was teaching me different things on ship maintenance whenever I was done with the daily chores. In a way, we were both learning how to do things. He doesn't run things the typical way from what I've seen from you and other crews. Instead of him just outright running everything on his own, he formed a 'brain trust'. It's very similar to how a project manager operates. He's still the head, so he makes the final decision, but the others help him see things from different perspectives to help make that decision. Before I left, he was building a fleet and some pretty strong friendships. There were two allying crews working with him while I was still around, so the other captains were teaching him about managing the crew like how to ensure fair distribution of profits and how to form agreements. If you're trying to say that Ace's age is tied to ignorance, I'll have to correct you. In his case, he's the ideal student. He soaks up information like a sponge and puts it to practice."
"What do you mean by ship maintenance?" Shanks asked.
"Mostly bookkeeping and physical repairs or checks of the ship. Like making sure the sails are in good condition, taking note of how much food is left in storage, documenting damage and the amount of time used to repair it, keeping sanitation records. Y'know. Stuff like that," Nesi answered, shrugging at the triviality.
"Show me. Write a report of your findings from today," Shanks commanded.
"Yes, captain," Nesi saluted, rummaging through her things to retrieve her record book.
She wasted no time in scribbling; in fact, it looked like she was happy to be able to do it. In between writing, she was speaking to herself to try to evaluate the worth of her treasures. When she was muttering about the depth she swam down to get the treasure, Shanks paid special attention to that. She had to have gone down roughly 18 meters from surface. That's dangerous in cold weather!
"Depth of findings... roughly 45 meters below surface," Nesi estimated nonchalantly. "Possibly less. Measure required. Mild to moderate frigidity."
"What?" Shanks responded with some outrage in his voice. "You could've drowned at that depth! This mission wasn't worth your life!"
"We're being conditioned to dive at those depths, Captain Shanks," Nesi replied, jumping from his tone. "That's part of our training!"
"No one dives that far down for anything! Are you out of your mind?" Benn responded. "There's no way Ace trained you to practically kill yourself!"
"Oh, that's right! You don't know about my troop. We're being trained to retrieve cargo and/or lost valuables at low depths," Nesi said brightly, returning to her documentation. "I'm nowhere close to Lord van der Does's record depth. You should see him! He's amazing! Lord Hawkins, I think, is the most elegant deep-sea diver I've ever seen. His splash radius is the smallest on record and probably the quietest. I want to be like them someday! Ace can't swim because of that weird fruit. I definitely would be dead if I had to rely on him for anything. He never asked me to dive anywhere, though. He did bring me to Sixis Island to try to teach me a lesson. I don't think it worked. Hehehe! And... done!"
Shanks took the paperwork from Nesi and asked softly, "Sixis is uninhabitable. Why'd he bring you there?"
"To prove I couldn't survive without him and to punish me for being disrespectful," Nesi said with a chuckle. "That was probably our first screaming match. He was trying to steal something off an armored ship. I don't even remember what it was now. I just remember it was supposed to be super valuable. I thought it was a plainly bad idea, so I tried to convince him to reconsider. He wouldn't listen to me, so I sabotaged his plans and the Spadille wound up getting hit by canon fire. The crew was pretty mad at me, so they locked me in that... I think it was a closet, actually. And they put poor Snookums in a small rat cage!"
"Squaw," Baragon complained, slapping his claw on the floor.
"The next thing I knew my stuff was being tossed overboard and I was next. He planned to leave me there for the same amount of time it took him and Deuce to get off the island. He threatened to double it if I didn't apologize or agree to repair the damage myself. That was probably the first time I ever felt hatred for another person besides the marines and nobles on my home islands. I didn't fight him on it, though. I picked up my crap and marched right on land. Everything I did to survive was out of spite or anger at first.
I studied the island, though, and took primitive readings on the soil and surrounding waters. If a place is truly uninhabitable, it wouldn't have any foliage. Plants are a tell-tale sign of life and survivability. Something used to live there. For a couple of hours, I went to work on using the trees for everything including an irrigation system. I boiled down water for a majority of the day until I had enough to drink. I think the most valuable thing Ace taught me in trying to punish me was understanding nature itself. The cycle of life was just... gone. No pollinators, fertilizers, predators. Save for the trees. So, I had to get craftier. I had to make the island livable.
I looked at every tree's roots and the soil underneath them to see what was missing. Not even a bug lived there! I pulled the bark off one tree. It was perfect underneath! So, I stopped fighting with my situation. I stopped being angry. I stopped being frustrated. I stopped everything. I listened to those trees carefully and gave it what it lacked. The other Spades tried to get me, but I refused and reworked my irrigation system to provide for me and the trees. I had to become the rain. Soil that was cracked or soft, I beat and tilled until water could be poured onto it and mud had formed. I dove for sea soil, or at least something akin to it, with the hopes of re-conditioning the soil, even if it was a little bit at a time. Sure enough, I found a small pocket of soil and kelp that looked like it was starting up. It was by no means a lot to begin with, just something to help me along. I collected it multiple times until I filled up my nightgowns, though! I worked on maybe two or three spots of cracked or partially soft soil that entire time.
Snookums somehow or another escaped the Spadille and swam over to me."
"Squaw, squaw!" Baragon cheered, hopping onto Nesi's shoulders.
"Hehehe! He helped me connect the new soil pockets and form chains along the drip lines of the trees. The Spades came to get me again, and I said no again. Since Baragon was with me this time, I built a shelter. Someone left me food that time, but I only took... maybe less than half to eat. The rest I used as compost for other pockets of cracked soil that I couldn't fertilize right away. All of the fruit given to me was ripped apart for the seeds. Finally, Ace and Deuce came to talk to me. They told me about their time there mostly. I didn't realize that I stayed on Sixis for double the time that they stayed there. That's why they kept trying to get me off the island before. But, I didn't want to leave yet. Not until I saw something different. I saw three things: a rainstorm, a flower, and a bird. After that bird flew away, I went to cut back every tree branch to open the island to some sunlight and fresher leaves. I got some funny looks when I whipped a couple of trees to expose the bark, but I stayed for one more day to speak to that tree I took the bark from and I saw his flowers budding up. One day, I'd like to go back... so I can change his name."
"The tree or the island?" Shanks asked.
Nesi blushed before smiling and answered, "The bird. The mark of life being restored."
"I highly doubt you changed an entire island in a few days," Benn said, mussing up Nesi's hair with a head pat. "You're such a dreamy twerp."
"I was on Sixis for two to three weeks," Nesi said with a smirk. "It was more than double the amount of time Ace and Deuce were there. The rain is what helped the land and shocked us. It went on for three days straight. We left when the rain slowed to a drizzle. I ate plenty when we all left together. School of fish passed through."
"Fish?" Shanks questioned, smirking.
"Rain brought 'em," Nesi said, rising to stand. "Jewels might not be my treasure, but it's yours now. You have a reason to celebrate."
"That's your treasure, not ours. You're the one who found it," Shanks replied.
"I got mine already," Nesi responded, closing her eyes to let the moonlight hit her face. "I saw a small pocket of soil and some kelp while I was down there. I'll toast to that. Think of those jewels as a gift!"
"Oh?" Shanks purred, rising to stand. "A gift for everyone?"
"Seems like a good one for a legendary pirate crew to me!" Nesi cheered, giggling and closing up her luggage.
"Then I'll give you a gift in return for your work," Shanks said, grinning. "You get to be my apprentice... temporarily."
"EH!? I do?" Nesi questioned, eyes sparkling like stars were trapped in them. "Y-y-y-you're going to give me a rank as a pirate?"
"That is your rank," Shanks said, plucking Nesi's forehead. "Don't let me down. I'm putting a lot of trust in you to do this."
"Aye, captain! D-do-don't forget to sign my paperwork. I need your signature. I-I-I'll cook a big dinner, too!" Nesi stuttered excitedly. "I'll even get more ale!"
"That sounds good actually," Shanks said with a big smile.
"We're not doubling the stock, cap," Benn reprimanded, leading the two away to join the men. "And you still have to drop her off to her military base."
"She can be my apprentice until then. Where's your enthusiasm?" Shanks questioned.
"I left it in my wallet when I realized I can buy more cigarettes," Benn replied.
"Hey, does that mean I can call you Uncle Benn now?" Nesi asked.
"Squaw!"
"I'll pass on that," Benn replied.
"Aw, but Uncle Benn!" Nesi whined.