Chapter XXI: The Marine King's Crew

Sabo drummed his fingers on top of the table while resting his chin in his other hand, propped up by his elbow. Laying in front of him was a newspaper that had just come in, and he was busy making sure he hadn't misread it. So he read it a second time, then a third, and a fourth.

After half an hour of sipping coffee and staring at the same article, the only sound to leave him was a soft, "Huh."

"Something interesting?" The man across from him asked. Sabo turned the paper around and slid it across the table. Ace adjusted his haphazard position, dropping his feet to the ground and setting his donut down. He squinted down at the text before grunting. "So, the crow shitting on Sengoku is back?'

"Not that; look lower," Sabo insisted. Sure enough, Ace's eyes landed on the crazed smile of his little brother. The range of emotions depicted by the four people in the photo made it look like a renaissance painting: unbridled joy, absolute terror, wary determination, and indifference. The caption below spoke of his recent promotion.

"Looks like Luffy is rising through the ranks, about time." Ace kicked his feet up again and slid the paper back

Sabo sighed, taking a swig of his coffee. Ace had no idea how he managed to drink it without any milk or creamer. "He should have made it earlier," Sabo retorted. "He's lagging behind his potential because he's so reckless. The higher ups don't want someone so careless having responsibility."

"What about Garp?" Ace asked.

Sabo pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure there's a reason they kept their two biggest problems in one spot. Though, I don't want to make it sound like I'm not happy for him."

"I get it: it's Luffy. It's a bit odd that there was that big fiasco with him talking about pirates, and now they're promoting him."

Sabo turned the page and hummed. "Well, that would explain it. They're making an exception to his rank and having him under the direct command of the admirals. And since the average person won't see it for what it really is, they're claiming he's a prodigy trained by the hero of the navy since he was a kid."

Ace burst out laughing. That was just like their brother, getting into trouble and needing his every move watched. He really needed to keep an ear out for when Sengoku finally blinked long enough for Luffy to cause pandemonium. Hell, his bet was that Luffy would find the one piece by accident but get disappointed that he can't eat it.

"Anything else that's big?" asked Ace.

Sabo flipped through the pages. "Looks like we'll be receiving those fancy scroll things. They've been delayed due to early thefts of the initial cargo, but the world government is prioritizing getting them to marines."

From there their conversation descended into their usual mixture of small talk and banter. In the back of both their minds, they were eager to see what Luffy would do next.

It had been years since he left the Grand Line, and now the vacancy on his head felt greater than ever before. Despite the fits of sneezing and runny nose it gave him, it was a good hat, and he missed it. However, it seemed to bother the other members of team SBYR more than him.

What nobler destiny was there other than for it to help someone in need. He had found a homeless, old man suffering in the heat with no way to protect himself. Shanks had gifted his hat to that old man, and he would never forget the look of gratitude he received. That was the reason he had chosen to become a huntsmen: to help those in need.

Then it all came crashing down. Shanks was in the middle of sailing off with his team, waving to the old man, when a man stumbled out of a bar nearby. No one thought much of it until the man loudly slurred, "Oh shit, free hat!" He then proceeded to full body tackle the old man and run off with the hat.

Shanks could only watch in horror. It had been so painful to part with it at all, and his only solace had been shredded. Now, years after that traumatizing day, a wanted poster with that same hat found its way into Shanks' hands. It was still out there, being worn, and now used as the mascot for a group of criminals: the Straw Hat Pirates.

After seeing this injustice to his hat, Shanks made a vow he would end it. Yasopp had wanted to visit his son before they left, since they weren't sure when they might return. Lucky Roux went off to have a one-man banquet. That left him and Benn alone the night before their departure. They spent it reminiscing of the past and planning for the future. A future with the liberation of straw.

They had no idea where the hell they were going. While Kobe seemed content enough, Helmeppo didn't know how much more he could take. If he ever asked where they were headed, the only answer he would be given was 'to adventure.' It was bad enough with just Luffy, but this Zoro guy not only scared him, but made the entire situation worse. At this point, he wasn't even sure if they were on the same planet anymore. Endless water for days, little to eat because of someone, and nonsensical navigation had all pushed him to the limits of his sanity.

This is why he cried for joy when he spotted land. Completely unashamed, he let the tears trail down his face as it drew closer. He even dared to fight Zoro when the green haired man tried to steer them. Not that the swordsman cared. He just shrugged off Helmeppo's accusations and returned to his nap.

Once they were near enough, the long beaches were revealed to really be desert shores. Sandy hills gave way to dunes farther inland and an orange haze lingered overhead. It was disappointing to be sure, but by far a welcome disappointment. Their ship, designed to house a full marine crew despite them only having four members, was too large to make it all the way to shore. They dropped anchor some yards out and rowed the rest of the way.

The churning sea almost made Helmeppo lose his lunch. He wasn't normally one for sea sickness, but he wasn't used to the smaller vessel, and it was far more at the mercy of the waves. They rose in feet and went back down just as many. Helmeppo just missed the prevalent docks that could accommodate marine ships.

If the ground had been anything but sand, he would have considered kissing it. The blond boy all but collapsed when they finally reached the shore. Leaning heavily on the edge of the rowboat, he had tumbled out and rolled onto the ground. He decided it was something he could accept and let himself stay crumpled in that spot. Valiantly, he ignored Kobe's attempts to move him.

"Woah, these guys are so cool!" Came Luffy's overly-exuberant voice. "Zoro, check it out! I think they want to fight."

Great, their captain had found yet another person to punch. Why did that always seem to happen? Begrudgingly, he shifted over to see if his captain was about to do something irreversibly stupid. That's when he realized that he had been talking about an animal. But, to his captain's credit, the odd animal did seem sapient enough to challenge him to a fight.

Kobe tried to play a sort of mediator, telling Luffy that they should be more worried about restocking than this. Helmeppo had never seen an animal use martial arts to beat up a human before — he had now. Maybe the animal took Kobe's gentle shoving aside as aggression, but Luffy wouldn't let this stand. A swift strike left a goose egg growing on its head.

"This is ridiculous!" Sengoku shouted at Garp. "He hasn't had his promotion for a week and he's already causing more problems. Garp, you knew he was supposed to meet with me today; where is he?"

Sometime's Sengoku really hated Garp's indifference to his anger. "He's not my responsibility anymore. If you want the brat somewhere, you get him there."

A newspaper was placed in front of Garp with all of the restraint Sengoku could muster. "Your grandson was given days' notice that he would be meeting with me. Instead of heading here, his ship disappears without a trace. It reappears long enough to turn the entire population of Alabasta's Kung-Fu Dugongs into his subordinates — and now he's gone again!"

Garp had the nerve to look proud. Sengoku sighed and sat back down. This was getting to be too much. "Listen, Garp. I am officially ordering you to track down your grandson and make sure he gets here. I don't have many hopes for keeping him under control, but I'll be damned if I never even have a single meeting with him."

Sensing the finality in Sengoku's voice, Garp got up to leave; however, he made sure to stretch and pop his back first. As the door closed behind him, silence washed over the room. Only the muffled sound of the sea could be heard.

Now alone, it was time to face the mountain of paperwork. After all the years he had held the position, it never seemed to shrink even once. There were public requests, like petitions for more of those CCT towers; there were complaints, like the IRS demanding justice from Straw Hat; there were reports, such as Smoker's on Ozpin; and then there were the recent dealings with Atlas. Sengoku had yet to form a true opinion of General Ironwood, but hopefully this exchange might shed light on the differences between their cultures.

He lifted the lattermost documents to examine them. Supposedly the student would be arriving shortly, so it wouldn't hurt to review what information had been given to him.

"Let's see. Her name is —" The windows slammed open. Sengoku spun around, but only saw a black blur before the papers in his hands were plucked away. It flew back the way it had come, making a noise that he swore was a laugh. "Son of a bitch! Come back here, you damn corvid!"

As it turned out, the recent additions were some sort of divine intervention. Helmeppo and Kobe watched in awe as the Kung Fu Dugongs began navigating them better than the two humans who were leading them around before. Helmeppo and Kobe had given up on it a while back, but here was a sign that there was still hope.

Luffy was on the top deck throwing a banquet with fish the dugongs had caught. Zoro was sleeping in a hammock, waiting for a fight or enough energy to train. Kobe had taken to socializing with the dugongs. He was helping a group cook and talking to them, as if they could understand each other. At first, Helmeppo was doubtful the animals could comprehend anything, but he was proven wrong. It became obvious when one had entered a drinking contest with Zoro.

Now, Helmeppo wondered what sorts of things Luffy was filling their heads with. Surely, on a ship with marines sailing away from their habitat wasn't natural. Not to mention Luffy had a knack for talking about dreams even if it was part of his charm. Their reactions to Luffy's stories made Helmeppo wonder if he should change how he viewed them in the first place. It was just an odd, almost surreal, experience to overcome.

One of them left the kitchen after giving a quick nod to Kobe. Instead of moving to the deck like the others, it shuffled over to the table Helmeppo was sitting at. It set a plate of fish before him, needing to hop onto one of the other chairs to do so. Tentatively, he paused the game of solitaire he had been playing to try the fish. It was then that he realized their greatest contribution. Never before did they have a properly cooked meal outside of Garp's ship. Around Luffy, food never lasted long enough to enter the kitchen. These weren't just animals — they couldn't be! They were valuable members of the crew.

Helmeppo motioned for it to sit next to him. The dugong seemed surprised, but complied. Helmeppo was sure he had already given the impression of being the grumpy one. He reshuffled his cards and set up a new game of solitaire. It wasn't much, but he could tell that the dugong was eager to learn how to play. It wasn't the boring old version either: he had found another marine posting the 'real rules' of solitaire online.

Nora had to admit that while their babysitter was really annoying — just because of the constant smell — his assistant was really nice. Tashigi had forced them all to sit down after noticing tension around them. At first she had assumed they just weren't well acquainted, but after overhearing Smoker questioning Ozpin, it was clear enough they were supposed to be friends. Tashigi had been quite upset that Ozpin had done nothing to help the situation, and she even gave him a few choice words loud enough for them all to hear. As per usual, Ozpin deflected the claims and dared to pull the authority card, albeit in a subtle, placating manner. However, Smoker was quick to shut that route down. In his words, Ozpin was lucky to be working with the marines after the scandal he had caused: he had no right to authority.

After that, Tashigi had gathered them and made them talk it out. At first it was just awkward staring since nobody really wanted to address it. When it was clear that no one was leaving until someone said something, the silence became a cacophony. Yang was the first to break, and soon followed both Weiss and Pyrrha. Nora still stayed mostly quiet, her guilt taking away all want for arguing — not that she was the sort for it in the first place.

What surprised Nora was that they found a compromise in the end. For the first time since before the case, she could feel the tension begin to fade. Pyrrha was the quickest to apologize, looking down in shame. Nora chose to forgive her with a classic Nora hug. While it was certainly bone-crushing, Pyrrha never complained. Yang revealed that she and Weiss had a conversation of their own earlier. Team PWNY was once again stronger than before!

Though she didn't show it, Winter was beyond overjoyed. She had been tasked with transporting the student meant for the cultural exchange. It was an honor in itself to strengthen the diplomacy between her two loyalties, but being granted such an important task did well to take her mind off of other matters. Namely, her brother.

The more mature part of her knew that she should try to reach out to him at the very least. However, the more selfish part of her said to treat the situation as she always had: a lost cause. It was, by far, simpler to turn her head and pretend that it was outside of her control to change it. Perhaps it was, and this guilt was meaningless, but that was a weak argument. At the end of the day, she was a marine and he was a pirate. She would capture him as per her job, and anything else she can decide on after that. There was no use in worrying about something that might be distant in the future.

Winter allowed her eyes to wander over to the two girls she was escorting to the Grand Line. The requests had asked for only one student for exchange, but Winter felt this was a situation for an exception. After all, as she was now, Penny Polendina needed someone to watch over her. Ciel Soleil sat next to the girl, barraged by questions, many she didn't know the answers to.

Penny's curiosity was far from abnormal. It easily tied into her near-constant energy and excitement. However, this particular experience seemed to have sparked something in her. From the moment they embarked, Penny began reading off her curiosities from a digital document she had created in her head. The issue lied in the fact that Ciel had never even heard of the Grand Line before. At least, not until its denizens began integrating into Remnant's internet. Ignoring how it was possible for half of Remnant to be aware and the other to be entirely ignorant, it was impossible not to be aware at this point. Even so, that didn't mean she knew what a devil fruit was or if it was possible for there to be a water logia, whatever that even meant. Despite the short and unsatisfying answers Penny received, she continued on, probably more enamored by each question than any answer Ciel could fathom. Though, once she finally reached the end of her list, she smiled happily and spent the rest of the time mostly silent.

Arriving at the base was an interesting experience. They docked and were escorted up a winding path around the building. Ciel found it rather unremarkable. The size of the buildings was certainly impressive, but the bland concrete that made up the majority of the walls gave it a dystopian feel to it. This was accentuated by the stark white uniforms worn, making the soldiers nearly indistinguishable from one another. It was all just a thought to be filed away in her mind, but the series of spikes that began to line the roofs the closer they came to their destination. Thousands of them lined the edges of almost every surface, and she could see some soldiers placing more as they passed.

It should have been a poor sign that they could already hear shouting beyond the door when they arrived. Seemingly undisturbed, Winter knocked on the door and received a terse 'come in.' The man inside, whom she learned was in charge, looked to be close to losing his mind. Even so, he quickly apologized for the unruly welcome and greeted her and Penny.

The shouting grew louder as they neared. Jaune had Ren, Cardin, Ruby, and Neo stay by the ship as the rest went to investigate. It didn't go unnoticed by Jaune that Blake was distancing herself from Neptune, using Jaune as a human shield in that matter. While it didn't seem to be a huge issue, he wanted to address it at some point, but that would have to wait for later. Especially when they could finally see what was happening. Ruby had spotted it earlier, but it was different up close.

Despite the situation, Jaune found that he first noticed the small wings the people had. However, the frantic waving of signs drew his attention away. They were large boards painted with phrases such as 'go away,' 'turn it off,' or 'have some respect.'

"Who are they protesting?" Blake asked. Jaune was about to respond, but it was evidently a rhetorical question. "There's no one around here. No cameras, no police, and it seems all the civilians are in on it." She was right. Everyone they could see was part of the crowd. "And they're all just looking at the sky."

"Maybe they don't like clouds?" Sun offered.

"They live on them," Neptune argued.

"Doesn't mean they can't hate them," Sun retorted.

Jaune took a moment to make up his mind, then started moving forward. He wouldn't lie, it felt nice that the others fell in line behind him without question.

Those that seemed to be leading the protest wore lavender shirts, baggy pants, and slanted hats. There was a strange militaristic atmosphere to how they conducted it. Jaune humored that Yang may have been proud of that description, as they were quite literally waving batons to conduct the people as if they were some orchestra. It was like an angelic choir if they sounded more pissed than heavenly.

"Halt!" They had been spotted quite quickly, and one of the soldier-esque men marched over to them. While he didn't appear entirely displeased at their presence, his eyes skeptically scanned them each. "Are you the blue sea dwellers that entered our lands without paying our fare?"

"The lady told us we could enter," Sun argued. "If it was a problem, shouldn't she have just sent us away?"

The man held up his hand to silence Sun. "The matters of this and your payment can be discussed later. Far more importantly, you are interrupting our daily protest."

Jaune made to apologize, but the soldier continued without giving him the chance. "It hardly matters now. Night is nearly upon us, and so is that vile monster. While you must pay for your crime, we are not cruel enough to leave you to this fate; follow me." Turning to the others to see how well they followed the whiplash of a speech, he shrugged his shoulders and followed. As pirates, they didn't need to respect any punishment they wanted to deliver, but if they were helping at the moment, it wouldn't hurt to see what it was.

Jaune had to admit, the gravity of their situation hadn't really set in until he was walking over the bridges. They were not one but two skies up, and now he stood on a path suspended even beyond that. Thinking about what falling could mean made him pale slightly and falter in step. Blake's small push got him moving again, but the thought stayed at the back of his mind. How had these people built a society in this sort of situation?

They came to a building much larger than those around it. Next to the modest homes, stacked closely together, and the markets that ran by the street, the building almost appeared to be its own section of the town. As they neared it, Jaune noticed the citizens distributing small clouds. They seemed angry for some reason, but Jaune supposed that it had to do with the protest they were part of not too long ago.

The inside reminded Jaune of a town hall, though he had never actually been in one to compare it to. There was a large, open space filled with rows of seats in front of a small stage and podium. There were two staircases on either side of the entrance, one of which they were led up to toward a small office.

Of the offices Jaune had seen in his lifetime, this was one of the strangest ones. The only part that looked remotely normal was the desk and chair in the center. The rest looked like a padded room for a crazy person. Foam lined the walls, floor, and roof, and it was thick. His first step into the room sunk to the point he felt like he was walking on pillows.

The soldier quickly searched the desk before pulling out a thick, fluffy cloud. It was similar in appearance to the ones being handed around outside, but while those had been wadded and squished, the one in the man's hands looked wispy like cotton candy.

"This is some core-cloud," he told them. "We've taken it from deep under our land — well, as deep as we can go without falling. Pull off chunks of it for yourselves and stuff them into your ears. It will save you from him tonight."

AN:

It took me a little while to complete this chapter. That's mainly because I was thinking through what the marines are doing at the moment and trying to set that up. I was also thinking through another fanfic I'm going to write.

Anyways, next chapter: Party on Vearth