Chapter VI: To the Grand Line!

It had been less than twenty minutes and The Bucket had become the ship's official name. They all had seen it coming from a mile away, but it only became official after a majority vote due to Blake's mild, but frequent, complaints. From there, Jaune christened their ship, and no one could deny the captain's orders.

The common area, which consisted of most of the vehicle, had a lighthearted atmosphere to it. They no longer felt as though Beacon, and in association Vale, was at their heels if only because they could not see them anywhere on the horizon. Then there was the relief that Jaune's motion sickness was miraculously gone; Neo had made a show of dropping to her knees, looking skywards, and silently thanking whoever was watching over them. Despite their antics, Jaune was the most relieved for the news. The turbulent waves that once filled his nightmares now relaxed him deeply.

The final aspect of their high spirits was the excitement. Ruby could hardly wait to get out there and save people! She had this growing feeling in her chest that what she was doing would make her mother proud. If only she could convince Yang and her dad of that. Blake was ready to live through one of her novels. The thought alone had her cheeks threatening to blush, and she kept having to distract herself. Cardin was ready for fights. His main reason for joining Jaune was so he could be at the helm of this new age. If Arc was the one who would turn the world upside down, then there was no better place to look for a good fight than by his side. Ren was ready to help a man he saw as a brother fulfill his dreams. Jaune's dreams were as clear as day to any who would listen. As for Neo, she was excited for whatever she decided she wanted at any given moment.

Blake made good work on distracting herself. It was almost too easy when she drowned herself in cartography, a skill she had just learned. On a makeshift table, she had laid out a bundle of maps, various logs, a compass, and a sextant. It was becoming increasingly obvious that navigating without a map was pure torture, as it required more than just the skills of keeping the ship on course and knowing how to find said course. Without a map, she would also need to be able to spot signs of land and from distances that already frustrated her just written down. That made the fact she could not find a single map of the Grand Line all the more irritating. It almost made her wish she had stayed behind, but the draw of literature was too much for her to deny or regret. Not that it was part of her original choice, but it made her more determined in her decision to imagine Ruby out here without anyone to guide them along.

Jaune and Ruby were busy discussing what their plans would be. Ren would have joined, but he was busy inspecting their supplies and making a routine for himself and the others. He knew they would need to monitor rations, keep watch at night, and Neo could not keep piloting them the entire time — she was only human. In his place, to Ruby's surprise, Cardin joined in. It was not exactly that he wanted a say in their plans that surprised her, but how calm and supportive he seemed to be. It was a far cry from his behavior at Beacon, even if Ruby was still able to see it in him.

"You're weak, Arc." Cardin was blunt, and more than willing to insult even his captain; however, it lacked the arrogant attitude he once had. Now, the words felt more like a statement: they were a simple truth. He was not wrong either, their captain was likely the weakest of their crew. The only edge he had were his aura reserves and new powers courtesy of his devil fruit. The latter meant nothing though, since he had no training at all with them.

"You're right, Cardin, I am." Jaune was prepared to take on the world now. If that required admitting he was weak, so be it. "I'll need to start training asap. We don't have time for me to be sitting on my butt, do we?"

Cardin smirked. "Not at all, Captain; this isn't a cruise. I'll help you train when I have the time. With that out of the way, what are your goals for the Grand Line?"

"We're going to stop corruption, right?" Ruby joined in, looking almost expectant.

Jaune shrugged. His voice was almost lazy as he said, "Not necessarily." Ruby was not okay with that response, but Jaune saw it coming and decided to elaborate. "If we tried to do that, it'd probably consume us. We wouldn't be getting anywhere and it would just be fight after fight, then we'd need to make sure it stayed that way."

"People are stubborn," Cardin added. "Especially the greedy ones."

Jaune nodded to show he agreed. "So, we'll just sail along and do what we want. If we manage to get the One Piece, then we might have enough influence to do something like that. Until then, I say we each pick a goal and go after it while we sail together."

Ruby narrowed her eyes and slowly asked, "And what if my goal is to stop corruption and help people?"

Jaune shrugged again, this time smiling. "Then do that. Everywhere we go, I won't do anything to stop you from it. Just be back to The Bucket by the time we sail off."

Ruby finally let her apprehensions fade. Despite being committed at this point, she still held qualms of how this would go. Her uncle had reassured her that Jaune's intentions would lead to a noble outcome, but it was still difficult to see that. She just had to have some faith.

"It's coming just up ahead!" Blake took the center stage. Jaune shifted out the side and pulled himself over the edge of the metal wall. In front of The Bucket was a towering river of water flowing up the mountain. Ruby gasped behind him, she and Cardin having followed along. Blake was near the cockpit with Neo, guiding her along while Ren was making sure everything was secure.

Everything rocked when The Bucket hit the base of the river. The world tilted and the waters pulled them upwards. By this point, there was little Neo could do to guide them — they were at the mercy of the sea.

"Everyone, gather here!" Jaune tumbled back inside. He stood near a crate that had slid against the back wall. "Let's all make a promise to fulfill our dreams!"

Cardin understood. He lifted his foot and slammed his heel onto the top of the crate. "I swear, I'm going to become the world's greatest mace wielder!"

Ruby swelled with excitement. Her foot joined Cardin's. "I promise to help people everywhere we go, and I'll stop the corruption on the Grand Line!"

Blake did her best not to blush as her foot joined next. "I'm going to see my literature become a reality."

Ren sighed. "Please be more gentle with our supplies." He set his foot down as softly as he could with the turbulent river rocking The Bucket. "I dream of finding the All Blue, so I can have all the ingredients to make the healthiest meals possible."

Neo had to visibly restrain from jumping on the crate entirely. As her foot descended, she placed one hand to her chest and the other reaching up. She appeared to be making a silent soliloquy. Jaune respectfully waited until she was finished.

Jaune too raised a hand out when he joined the others, but it was clenched in a fist. It was as though he was grabbing onto his dreams, just before him. "I swear on my life that I will find the One Piece, and I will become King of the Pirates!"

The Bucket was airborne as they reached the peak. They tumbled as it crashed back down, speeding along the slope that would lead them to the start of their adventure: the Grand Line.

Glass shattered, and dark, red wine splashed over her hand and onto the stone floor. She grit her teeth and used every fiber of her being not to scorch him to embers. Her crimson dress swayed as she turned to view the target of her ires. Torchwick was groveling on the ground, crouched over and sweating bullets while avoiding eye contact as though his life depended on it. It very well might.

Seeing him cowed was good — very good. Striking fear into the hearts of others was one of her more enjoyable pastimes. It certainly made the news she just learned more tolerable. That being said, it was only more and not even close.

"Tell me again what happened." She paced around the man, like a lioness eyeing her prey. "I fear that I might have misheard you. After all, there is no possibility you came to deliver such a ludicrous report."

Torchwick shuddered at her tone. He dared a glance up at her, and almost wished he hadn't. "Well, you see — just before the rally, a group of Beacon students showed up." Cinder muttered about that becoming a norm. "I-I thought they were there to stop us and I went to intercept. Instead, they stole my bullhead."

Cinder motioned to swirl her wine glass, only just realizing she had already broken it. Emerald, dutifully, was already fetching her a new one. "And tell me why, again, they were able to do this?"

Torchwick gulped. "Because Neo helped them."

"That's right," Cinder said, full of mock understanding. "Your most loyal companion stabbed you in the back on a dime. I must say, that makes complete and utter sense — it's doing wonders to help me understand. But unless I remember incorrectly, that's not the end of your tale, right? It goes on?"

"Y-yes, Beacon and Atlas arrived and crashed the rally. But —"

"Oh yes," Cinder interrupted him. "The most interesting part?"

Roman looked back at the ground. "While the rally was crashed, they searched around, ignored us, then left. No one was arrested."

Cinder laughed. At this point, she wasn't sure what the cause was. Was it Torchwick's demeanor, her plans not being foiled yet, or her sanity slipping. "And one last time," she insisted. "What reason did they give?"

"They were after the students that took my bullhead — they called the White Fang 'insignificant' in comparison."

The new wine glass was in her hand hardly a second before it met the first's fate. "Do you understand, Roman? Do you see why this is so difficult for me to believe?"

He nodded, backing away from her. "I get it — I-I don't understand it myself! I have no clue why Neo did that! And — and that boy, the blond — goldilocks, he was saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard!"

"Oh? Even more inane than this?"

Torchwick nodded, desperate to get away from her. "He was saying something about a King of the Pirates!"

"That's enough!" Cinder roared. The flames sparked to life and Torchwick felt the heat wash over him. "I haven't the faintest idea what made you lose your mind, Roman, but I won't stand for this mockery!"

"Wait!" Cinder whipped around. She almost turned Mercury to a scorch mark on the spot for his audacity. He looked almost panicked, an expression not so often donned on his face. She waited for him to speak, and she regretted it quickly.

The building was something magnificent. It was built from several cylindrical structures mashed together, each a light gray with sea-blue stripes painted along them. They hosted a multitude of windows that looked like specs on their giant faces. While scaffolding rose between them and lower too on at the dockyard, the ground they walked on now was a cobbled path supported by a series of arches underfoot. All four girls were in awe of the marine base.

Nora kept pointing and babbling in wonder, likening what they had been told was a medium sized base to Beacon. She had no few times run off and required being dragged back by Pyrrha who was trying to read through a document.

While Ozpin and Goodwitch led them, Ironwood was there as well and took their headmaster's attention, leaving the girls practically by themselves. It was fair, as the great general of Atlas seemed to be just as lost as they were. He was standing in a large military structure for a government he had not known existed. He was firing questions off at Ozpin, losing any pretense of presenting himself calm and collected. Goodwitch appeared more than content for Ironwood to be the one to ask while she listened.

The papers in Pyrrha's hands were official documentation for the formation of her new team. She was informed they were necessary with both their team acting more as huntresses than students and with them working alongside a foreign government. It was hard to read it when she was having to babysit Nora and with Yang talking Weiss' ear off. That being said, she still managed to get through it, and she was finally on the last page. "So you posted our name as PWNY?"

She turned to Yang who had stopped chatting when she spoke. They were rushing right before their departure and Pyrrha was still struggling to get her devil fruit under control, so Yang was the one who sent in their initial paperwork. "Yeah, pretty cool, right?" She laughed. "It stands for Team Pony."

Pyrrha stopped walking, and Nora ran into her back. Her face turned scarlet as she whipped around to Yang. "It stands for what?"

Yang suddenly looked unsure of her decision. "Well, I get that you were upset with it, but you got that new power right? I saw our names could match that and thought it would be cool."

"Brothers, we sent the one obsessed with puns to make our team name," Weiss said in realization. "What were we thinking? Pony? Team PWNY? Do you want us to be known for prancing around?"

"Hey now!" Yang placated. "We all agreed that my punny vocabulary would let me find something cool — and I did."

Pyrrha tried to cover her face. "Yang, I appreciate the effort, but I'm not —"

"Is there something wrong, Miss Nikos?" Ozpin had stopped himself and the two next to him. Pyrrha only blushed more at the added embarrassment and began rushing forward. She grabbed Nora's collar as she went, not that the girl had wandered off, but that she wanted no room to risk it.

"Can we please discuss this later?" She did her best not to snap at her friends, but she couldn't hold all of her ire back.

For now, they were meeting with a captain to finalize some processes. It was meant to be an introduction to the Grand Line as well as meeting with some of Ironwood's soldiers. As they made their way to the colossal doors, heavily guarded by marines on both sides, Pyrrha couldn't help but take a glance out to the expanse of sea behind her. The horizon was so distant and barren that it was difficult to imagine any other land somewhere beyond. She could only wonder what the adventure ahead of her would be like. It was a beautiful moment that came crashing down when she realized she had taken her eyes off of Nora for even just a moment. Why couldn't Ren be here?

Team CRDL was in shambles. Their leader had abandoned them and after that, their bravado became just that and nothing more. Without Cardin, they decided they couldn't show their faces around Beacon anymore. Russel was the one to bring it up, after the sudden departure of certain students. It didn't take much to convince Dove and Sky how they would be seen. The tough guys of Beacon's first years, now with their leader going off to chase some fantasy under the command of some noodle they used to push around. They would be a laughing stock, not to mention that those they used to mess with might come back for them.

As it was, they ran away as soon as they could. Call it cowardly, but they had no desire to stick around now that their number one defender was gone. They were out of the school even before they were officially dropped out, renting a hotel in Vale for the next few days while they figured out what to do. That's why they were shocked to find a Beacon student at their hotel door.

In the past, Sky might have been excited to see a pretty girl at his door, but with how tense the three of them had felt, it was like she carried doom with her. It only made it worse that he recognized her — it was the only reason he knew she was from Beacon. The tall rabbit ears Cardin and once yanked on gave her away. Their fear had come true.

"Do you have a moment?"

Dove paled and stepped back. She wasn't scared of them, not anymore at least. She was in her huntress outfit and looked less than pleased, and at the moment he was unarmed. He ignored his puzzled teammates behind him. "W-what do you want?"

"I figured out you were here, and I'm giving you a chance to make things right."

What did that mean? Dove slapped his hands onto the sides of his head. "Please don't take my ears! I still have so much that I want to hear!"

Velvet looked less than not impressed. "Listen, I have a very stupid friend who is, at this moment, running away. I let all of you get away with a lot back at Beacon, but make no mistake: I did let you. Now, since I can't be everywhere at once. You three are going to help me find her."

Dove nodded furiously, not taking his hands down just in case it was a clever ruse. "A-and what do we do when we find her."

Velvet shrugged. "After thinking it over long enough, I decided she really needs someone to supervise her, so I'm going with her. After that, you can do whatever you want, but staying would mean telling the police you aided in a criminal getting away."

Dove gulped. "Criminal?" Velvet nodded. "Can we r-refuse? I don't really want to help a —"

"No."

"So this is the Grand Line!" Jaune cheered. The sea itself looked hardly any different from any other large body of water, not that the cobalt waves were not beautiful. It was simply that the sea's promise outweighed anything one might see at first glance: wonder, danger, and adventure. It was everything Jaune had ever dreamed of, all come true and now in front of him.

"It's real." Jaune heard a hushed whisper behind him and turned to see Blake with an expression much like his own, if a bit more in awe. She reached out, as if the horizon was something her fingers could graze over. "You said it was real, and so did Ozpin, but it still felt like maybe it wasn't. I've had times in life where belief wasn't enough, so something so ridiculous as this felt so — unreachable. But there was no denying that mountain, and now I'm here." Jaune couldn't help but stare at the way her eyes shone.

He then laughed, unable to contain his joy. "I know, it's great isn't it? A whole sea so amazing that it feels almost unreal. I can't wait to jump right in!"

Her face shifted from in awe to serene as she shifted her attention to him. "Thank you, Jaune."

"For what?" He had only thrown them into danger from his perspective. As far as he was concerned, he should be thanking her.

"Everyone wishes they could be part of their favorite stories." She answered softly. "No one expects it to happen, but here I am. I heard someone shouting off the weirdest declaration I had ever heard, and I thought he had to be crazy. Then I was crazy enough to think it might just be something. If it wasn't for you, I would never have had this chance."

Jaune waved her off. "I'm glad you're here. It's nice to have my friends along with me. Besides, you can thank me by navigating us — only the brothers know how lost we would be without you."

Blake rolled her eyes, but never lost her smile. "I suppose you're right. I should begin working then, shouldn't I? I'll just —" As she was speaking, she fished out the compass she had on her, only to stop when she saw it. The needle was spinning. "What the hell? What is this?"

"Well, compasses don't work here." Jaune pointed out to her. "Where's your log pose?"

Blake snapped up to him. "What's a log pose?"

"Oh no."

The wind felt just right. Warm and briney, exactly how he always imagined it would be. The hull of his ship, stark white like snow, cut through the waves with ease as it headed toward a river he had envisioned hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Every day, he ran away into his mind, dreaming of somewhere else while he performed an act. It was a brilliant act too, one far more convincing than his mother's. Not that he had ever truly figured out her secrets, only that she had them.

In fact, her ploy had been the one to teach him. He saw what had and had not aroused suspicion in his father. His siblings had been so intent on their own paths that throwing them off had been nearly laughable. Simply praising their father, as false and hollow his words had been, were enough to have Weiss disgusted in him and Winter give up on him. If that had not been his goal, he might have even been insulted at how eager they seemed to be rid of him.

And poor Mother. She had done her best to steer them away even if it had been subtle. She thought she had failed, and for that he was sorry. She likely saw him as idolizing his father, but that couldn't be further from the truth: she had been his greatest role model since he was a child. Her brilliant play at deceiving others, her noble heart in working against Jaques Schnee while still loving her children and seeing the innocence in them, and her ability to hold herself proud and true. The latter-most he had only seen once, but it was a time he would never forget.

As much as he looked up to his mother, there was one reason above all others that he did not run straight to her. "I apologize, Mother. I know not of what you hide, but what I crave above all else is true freedom." He spoke to the waves. It was just the ocean, unable to speak back to him, but he had imagined sailing so much that the waters felt like an old friend. "I've lived my life in Father's prison, listening with my mind to the waves crashing against the shores in distant lands: the sounds echoing in my heart. The life of a pirate called, and I, Whitley Schnee, was unable to turn it down!"

The waves roared back, triumphantly returning his declaration. He was prepared for what awaited him. Be it trial or tribulation, his journey had only begun. It had taken quite too much time to manipulate his father into providing him the funds and means to sail this far, but it would soon be worth it. The mountain was nigh, and at its peak his strings would be cut. He turned, spinning on a heel, and marched across the deck to prepare. As much as he would enjoy watching the show, there needed to be order if their vessel was to survive such a route. Only a chunk of metal could possibly be fine sailing over Reverse Mountain without any attention.

AN:

I had used the term 'bucket' so often in my notes because of the description in the last chapter that I grew fond of it. I do have plans for it to be upgraded in the future when the crew's shipwright joins. For now, they might want to get a log pose first... So, we have the beginnings of team PWNY, Cinder's reaction to the events, and the beginning of Whitley's journey. Not to mention, what's going to happen to Russel, Dove, and Sky? That part did feel a bit forced even if this is a crack fic. My goal with this is to take an insanely absurd idea and give it an actual plot while writing it to the best of my abilities. It's part of the humor I'm going for here: taking something ridiculous seriously.

Anyways, if you couldn't tell, I'm trying to get this place caught up to Wattpad tonight. Next chapter: First Bounty