(Sarquiss POV)
"At least Doflamingo wasn't stingy, captain."
"That's not true, shithead. We paid him half a billion belli. Half a fucking billion!" Lily grumbled from the side. Perhaps it was to be expected of their quartermaster slash treasurer, but Lily looked like she would get an aneurysm when they carted off half of their remaining gold yesterday. No wonder she didn't have a positive opinion of Doflamingo.
"This is arguably more valuable than that."
"The fuck its more valuable. The going rate is around a hundred million belli and that is if this is even the real thing. We got shafted by that cunt right and proper!"
"Not going to correct her language today, Muret?" Laki glances to the side where Muret is making herself a cup of tea.
"Aisa is sleeping and Funkfreed isn't here." Muret answers, taking a small sip from her tea. "And if I stopped Lily completely, I fear that it will have a detrimental effect on her health."
"I don't know much about this Mani, but aren't these things really rare?" This crew lacks basic education. Rivers is a prime example of this if he doesn't know how rare it is to find a devil fruit. There are more crews without one than crews with powered individuals.
"They are, which is why St. Poplar didn't have any this time, despite being the biggest black market in the area." Organizations like those of the yonko, shichibukai or the marines are freaks in that area but even they don't have enough to outfit all of their members.
"That's because that shitty Crack focused too much on his narcotics. You go anywhere else and you can get these if you pay enough. Go on, tell them Ross."
"Hewitt, Lily is right. It's not quite that simple but it's a lot easier to procure similar items than one might believe. The real difficulty arises if one wants a specific one."
"Do we even know which one this is? It's not in the catalogue."
"Didn't you listen when the captain was explaining it? This is synthetic. Artificially made."
"So, it doesn't work?"
"Doflamingo didn't say. We're just assuming."
"But someone, likely Kaido is said to be buying a lot of these."
"Kaido is one of the yonko. He has plenty of money and plenty more test subjects."
"Unlike us."
"Yes, unlike us."
"Blue Sea Dwellers can create paramythias?" No, Laki. We can't create paramecias. And Sarquiss doesn't expect that humanity will be able to any time soon.
"That doesn't necessarily have to mean it won't work. On the contrary, the fact that one of the yonko is buying them in bulk could also be a guarantee for their effectiveness." Wishful thinking Hewitt. Wishful thinking.
"If that were the case, then why aren't the other yonko making a move? No way that they don't know about them or don't have the money to purchase them."
"Bloody Doflamingo is trying to use us as fucking lab rats! Are you dickheads blind?" This had been a very uncomfortable realisation for him, personally. Like Bellamy, Sarquiss had looked up to the warlord and admired him. The day they were given permission to fly Doflamingo's flag had been one of the proudest in his life. That pride had been cracked by Dellinger and crushed by man himself.
"Maybe it's because of their personal theme? Shanks is known for mostly having unpowered members in his crew."
"What about Big Mom? She ain't buying any, is she?"
"Did Doflamingo even say what kind of fruit this is? If it's a zoan it would fit the Beast pirates more than the candy obsessed weirdos."
"Enough!" It surprises Sarquiss every time just how quickly the crew quiets down at a single word from the captain. Just a few months ago this would have been unimaginable, but now it just felt natural. It's not that he's being loud or anything. In fact, he's rather quiet, another change since Jaya.
"…"
"You've all made good points, excellent points even if one considers that we know next to nothing about these SMILE-fruits." Here, Bellamy sighs, leaning his chin upon his left hand and beginning to slowly tap out a slow rhythm with his right index finger. "But just because Doflamingo didn't outright say it, doesn't mean that we can't read between the lines. And you've all done a fairly good job already. Like you guys deduced, the SMILE-fruit is…limited to say the least."
"Limited, captain?"
"Ross already alluded to this earlier but eating one is not without risk. Considering how heavily Kaido has been recruiting all over paradise and the new world, the number of sighted fruit users is less than one in five. If one believes these reports and I do, it's likely that eating one does not guarantee powers at the very least." News was that the world government was up in a panic from the great stream of recruits flooding into Kaido's territory. Not that they could do much about it, though in recent days their naval blockade seemed to have more holes than good cheese.
"You think it gets worse?"
"Eddy, Doflamingo didn't feed a single SMILE to his own crew, not even his minions. That shows just how little faith he has in their efficacy if not safety."
"…bloody hell." His thoughts exactly. Bloody hell.
"And discounting all that, it's also unlikely that these SMILES grant powers on the same scale as a natural zoan. If that had been the case, the world would be in an uproar right now, not in the least because the other yonko would be ganging up on Kaido to preserve the balance of power."
"Captain, if this…SMILE is so dangerous, what do we do with it?" That's the question isn't it? What to do about a questionably functioning devil fruit dropped into their laps by a callous warlord as a supposed gift?
"I say we throw the fucking piece of shit overboard!"
"We shouldn't eat it, that's for sure." Mani leans back, crossing her arms trying to both symbolically and physically distance herself from the fruit.
"But will Doflamingo accept that?"
Silence greets Eddy's question. That was the crux of the matter. Doflamingo gave them this fruit as a 'gift', but nobody in this room believed that it didn't carry expectations with it. Doflamingo wanted one of them to eat it. If they accepted, they were going to potentially endanger one of their own, something that the more optimistic minded amongst the Crew were trying and failing to deny. If they refused, they would be 'spitting on his generosity'.
And insulting Doflamingo sounded like a singularly stupid idea, especially in light of how little his executives seemed to value them as allies and comrades. If the attitude of his crew was like this, it didn't take a genius to recognize that Doflamingo wouldn't be much better. The captain had mentioned that the warlord had only repealed his implied threat because Bellamy had been 'interesting'. Fun. Entertainment.
"Doesn't matter. I'm not endangering my crew for his amusement. We'll deal with the consequences as they come. If the worst comes to pass, we seek the protection of someone else or go to ground."
It wouldn't work, not with how many feelers Doflamingo had in the criminal underworld. He'd find them wherever they hid sooner or later. And who would protect them against one of the shichibukai? One of the yonko? They would have to reach them first.
"For now, we say one of us ate the darn thing and it did nothing. It's an experimental product, who's to say that we didn't discover a new side effect?"
"Sounds good captain. I'll just go throw it overboard then…Sarquiss?" The surprise is evident on Hewitt's face, silently asking why Sarquiss grabbed his wrist.
Sarquiss isn't all that sure either. Responsibility had never been his thing and it was very unlike him to flirt with danger. In fact, for most of his life, Sarquiss had stayed away from danger and limited himself to fights which he knew he could win.
Until Jaya.
Sure, he'd nearly pissed his pants when they rode the Knock-Up Stream and he'd tried to stay away from the fighting against Satori. But he had survived and in the latter case, he had faced the danger because nobody else could. Because he had been the second strongest member on this crew, the first mate.
Sarquiss was the one whom Bellamy trusted to protect the crew when he wasn't available. Something he'd been making more and more clear ever since they got to Skypiea.
Of course, by the time he got his wits back together, he had no longer been the second strongest crewmember, that spot having been taken by Laki. And maybe Aisa.
But regardless, he was still the first mate. He, Sarquiss, was the first mate of the Bellamy pirates tasked with taking care of the crew. And sometimes, that meant actually acting as the first mate, even if most of his being was screaming at him not too.
"I'll eat it, captain."
(Bellamy POV)
"I'll eat it, captain." Idiot first mate say what now?
"Absolutely not! Let go of that hand, Sarquiss!" I snap, more aggressively than I meant to but Sarquiss doesn't flinch. He looks downright calm right now, like a monk who's found his inner zen.
"We can't hide the truth forever, Bellamy." he replies, pulling me up short. He hasn't called me by my name since we arrived on Jaya. Ever since I took over, Sarquiss had begun acting more professionally, more distantly and I had let it be, glad for the space which allowed me to get used to my new role. Now, he was calling me by my name, reminding everyone that he was my best friend.
"We don't need forever." I argue. "Just two years. We just need two years and I'm sure I can fight Doflamingo." Luffy managed to beat Kaido in two years, I should be able to handle Doffy. No, I will be able to handle Doffy. But Sarquiss is shaking his head before I even finish.
"We won't have two years. Not even one before Doflamingo comes to checks in on us."
"We don't know that."
"The annual report. We know he receives an annual report on every crew under his command by an independent information broker. Remember the Blackberry pirates who secretly withheld part of their tribute? They were dead not three months after."
"We can run. He's busy with Marineford right now. We reach Sabaody and cross into the new world to seek shelter under Shanks or Whitebeard."
"You know that we wouldn't make it." Sarquiss gives a self-deprecating laugh. It rings hollow. "I'll be the first one to admit that we've gotten stronger, far stronger than I thought possible in such a short amount of time. And we'll likely get even stronger after a year. But it's the New World."
"…"
"We'll die if we enter it as we are now." His voice has a note of finality in it as if he knows that I can't deny this. And I can't. Maybe I would survive but not my crew, they'd be dead before reaching the first island.
"…" Uncomfortable silence blankets the whole room, creating an oppressive atmosphere. It is something all of us had been trying to push to the side, buoyed by our recent victories as we were. We were all making rapid progress, we were learning haki and we would hopefully be learning the rokushiki soon. We had a bloody logia on our crew.
And it wasn't enough to fight Doflamingo. I knew this better than anybody else. I had watched the Dressrosa arc on the show and knew how strong Doffy was. Without haki, I didn't stand a chance.
"You said that we'd need two years. Me doing this? This will buy us those two years and more."
"We can get a pet and feed it the SMILE. We wouldn't even have to lie about it."
"And Doflamingo would kill us for wasting his gift. I believe his exact words were that he 'hopes we would put it to good use'. Feeding it to a new pet is most likely not what he had in mind when he talked about a good use."
"…fuck!" Curses erupt from everybody, even Muret unable to hold back her anger and frustration. As expected, Lily is the most vocal.
"Fucking shitty piece of crap-faced limp noodle-dicked bloody fucking halfwit wanker! I'm gonna tear him a new one if I get my hands on the asshole!" She's almost crying, visibly holding back the floodgates as she looks at her boyfriend. "You're not doing this, shithead!"
"Lils, darling. This is the only way."
"NO! We feed it Shura and kill him. Accidents happen."
"We need him to teach us mantra." Sarquiss was my crewmate…and Shura was not, which should have been the end of the discussion. I felt a great amount of shame that I almost wanted to sacrifice Sarquiss to keep Shura.
"There are other teachers. We can go back to Skypiea and get one of the other priests if need be."
"You know that that isn't realistic, Lils." Like he said, we won't be returning to Jaya without at least an eternal pose pointing to an earlier island in paradise. And even then, going back up the Knock-Up stream carried far too much of a risk for just a priest to be worth it.
"Then I'm eating it. I need it more than you do anyway." Not on my watch. She's clearly lost all sense of reason, having let her emotions overwhelm her. Something made blindingly obvious by how she gets up to start reaching over the table.
"That fruit is unlikely to work and more like bloody poison! Nobody is eating it!" I shout, stretching my hand out to grab the SMILE before Lily can do something drastic. Fuck trying to hide my advanced knowledge. Fuck trying to avoid suspicion. I can think about that after I keep my crew safe. Setting priorities and all that. "It's going to ruin you!"
But, with all my attention on Lily I fail to see that Lily is not the one on my crew with the self-preservation instincts of a particularly retarded lemming. A critical mistake.
Before I can properly react, Sarquiss had stuffed the SMILE into his mouth…
"You bloody fool!"
…and swallowed it whole.
Author's note:
So...yeah. Many of you have pointed out that I shouldn't have my crew eat the fruit or that I should just feed it to an object. And that is the smart thing to do...if Doffy weren't an issue.
I truly believe that Doffy would have made his displeasure very clear if Bellamy had taken one of the two options above, for being 'average' and 'boring'.
Or at the very least, that's what our characters believe.
That our SI still decided to do it though speaks volumes about the lengths he is prepared to go for his crew, a rather striking change from the Jaya, where he'd been afraid of a mutiny.
All that being said, I do hope you found my reasoning (and that of the characters) understandable and won't grab pitchforks and torches immediately.
P.S. comments and discussions make the author happy.