Here you guys go for the next chapter, Lyson meets the crew!
Enjoy!
Inside a dark home, a man with light purple hair is in a panic, picking up his possessions and stuffing them in various bags, a woman with brown hair is beside him helping him pack up.
"Crap! We need to go now, Emily!" The man huffs looking up from his task, revealing a large horizontal scar that runs from his cheek to his nose.
"I'm going as fast as I can! How much time do we have?" The woman asks, her long hair tied into braids.
"None." The man replies.
"How the hell did they find us? You said this island was safe!"
The man grabs a picture frame only for it to slip from his grasp and break on the floor, "I don't know! I don't know!" he reached down to pick up the frame, and seeing it broken, he just takes the photo within.
A photo with him, a baby, and a woman holding the baby, but his thumb is covering her face.
"Where's Lyson?" The man asks the woman.
"He's... at the neighbors home across town, he's at a sleepover with that friend of his."
The man nods, "Good." He then rushes towards the unlit fireplace and begins digging into the coal and soot until his hand hits something hard and metal. With a grunt, he pulls out a metal box with a lock and puts it on the table, and begins fiddling with the lock.
"What the hell are you doing Meta? You said we won't ever open that thing you got from your-" The woman begins, her eyes wide.
"I know, I didn't want it to come for this, but this is her life's work and I rather destroy it than let them get their hands on it."
"You told me that no one but her can read it. Who cares if they get it?"
The man finishes with the lock and removes it, "I won't them him a chance in the first place." He opens the box and peers inside, his face suddenly morphing into one of pure terror.
"No...no..NONONONONONO!" he begins to shout lifting the box
"What's wrong?" The woman asks, her fear growing.
The man rotates the box to show her the contents, only for her to see what's inside.
Nothing. The box is empty.
Knock Knock
The sounds of someone gently knocking on the door draw the attention of the two as they turn and face the wooden door.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S COMING WITH US!?" Nami asks Luffy, grabbing the rubber captain by the neck and attempting to strangle him. An hour has passed since leaving the storm on the Going Merry from Loguetown, the sea becomes calmer as they make their way to the Grand Line. Only for Luffy to bring along a random stranger with him and say that he is coming with them.
"He wanted to go to the Grand Line and we were going to the Grand Line, so what's the problem?" Luffy replies as he's being strangled.
"That's not the point! He could be a marine spy! Or a bounty hunter! Or anything!"
The door to the lower deck opens as Sanji and Usopp arrive on deck. Nami turns her attention from Luffy and asks the other two, "Is he still asleep?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, Nami-swan!"
"Did you at least search him for anything?" Nami asks.
The two boys look at each other and turn back to Nami, "I think it's better if you see it for yourself, Nami." Usopp says as he gestures them to the lower deck. Nami, Luffy, and Sanji follow him as they enter the meeting room. In there, Zoro was carefully watching a sleeping Lyson on the bench as an assortment of items were scattered on the table.
"Any progress?" Nami asked, eyeing Lyson.
"No," Zoro says simply.
"So Usopp, what is so weird that you wanted to show me?" Nami asked her hands on her hips and an expression of mild annoyance.
"W-well, most of his supplies are the basic things that you need traveling and some other things are just like the stuff that I would have, like for my experiments, but this is weird." Usopp reaches and grabs a large black leather book and opens it to a random page, revealing the information inside. Inside the book is a picture of a red banana with black stripes and a slew of unusual characters written inside.
"What is that?" Nami takes the book from Usopp, "I've never seen text like this, not even from ancient treasure maps!"
Sanji, Luffy, and Zoro peek over Nami's shoulder to look at the strange writing and the odd picture. Nami turns a page and the next page has a different picture, a yellow apple with green zig-zags. Below the picture is another set of the same language.
"I've never seen fruit like that before." Sanji quips, "I wonder if they're any good."
"I've seen something like this." Everyone's eyes turn to Luffy as he tilts his head and looks at the strange fruit.
"What?! Where?"
"Mmmm" Luffy scrunched his face and scratches his head, "Ah! I got it!" Luffy takes the book from Nami's hand and begins flipping through it page by page until he stops at one page. The page he stops at has strange text, but only one line of it. The only other thing is a picture of a spherical purple fruit with swirls all around it.
"That's the Devil Fruit I ate. The Gomu-Gomu fruit!" Luffy exclaims as he looks closely, "I still can't read it."
"Lemme see that!" Nami swipes the book from him and looks at the page. "Are you sure this is the Devil Fruit you ate Luffy?"
"Uh-huh," Luffy replies, scratching his head.
"Why would anyone have that in a book?" Zoro asks.
"Wait..." Usopp starts, "If that's the Devil Fruit Luffy ate, then the other fruits in the book are..."
"...Devil Fruits." Sanji finishes, "I only heard rumors about books like this, but I never thought they were real."
"He has a book dedicated to only Devil Fruits? How is that even possible, there are hundreds of pages here, and they all look handwritten." Nami flips through the book, eyes wide, "And what kind of language is this?"
Zoro crosses his arms and looks back at their sleeping guest, "Why don't we ask him? He's been awake for the past 10 minutes."
"What!" The crew cries as all heads turn to the sleeping scientist and after a moment, he opens his eyes and sits up.
"You can't leave a guy to get his rest, huh?" Lyson turns and faces the rest of the pirates, rubbing his temples. He swings his legs over the bench and gets up, stretching his arms over his head. He then reaches out his hand to the ship's navigator and asks, "Could I please get my book back?"
Nami narrows her eyes and takes a few steps back, clutching the book in her arms, "Only if you answer our questions. Our idiot of a captain brought you on this ship for whatever reason he did-"
"Hey!"
"-but if you think you can just think you can do whatever you want on this ship, you got another thing coming."
Lyson's eyes twitch in annoyance and he takes another step towards the redhead, "Okay, whatever, yadda yadda, just give it back alre-" When Lyson got to a certain distance from Nami, he was met with a sword at his neck, a leg at his side, and a slingshot pointed at him.
"The witch has some questions, so you better answer them." Zoro states, but is soon knocked over the head by a foot by an angry cook.
"Don't call Nami-swan a witch, Mosshead!" Sanji yells at the swordsman, causing Zoro to retract his blade and point it at Sanji.
"You wanna go Dart-Eyebrow?" Zoro yells back, teeth sharp.
Lyson quirks an eyebrow at their antics and looks towards Usopp, who still has his slingshot aimed at him, and asks, "Are those two always like that?" In which Usopps reluctantly nods as the swordsman and the cook exchange swipes and kicks with one another. Lyson then groans and looks back at Nami and Luffy flipping through his book growing his irritation.
"Oh for the love of-" Lyson groans as he sits back down on the bench and sends Nami a glare, "Just ask your damn questions already."
Everyone becomes silent as Nami closes the book and begins her questioning,
"Who are you?"
"Lyson."
"Lyson what?"
"None of your business."
"Where are you from?"
"South Blue."
"South Blue?" Sanji echos, "How the hell did you get from South to East Blue without going through the Grand Line?"
"That is also none of your business," Lyson answers, gesturing Nami to continue.
"Why are you on our ship?"
"Because your captain promised safe passage to the Grand Line."
"Why should we trust you? How do we not know you're a marine or some bounty hunter?"
Lyson rolls his eyes, "To answer that first one, you don't. For the second, neither."
"You expect us to believe that?" Nami accuses.
"Did you expect another answer, because if I was a marine or bounty hunter, wouldn't I have given you the exact answer I just gave you?" Lyson shoots backs.
Nami rubs her temples, "Fine. Now for the million Beli question, why do you have a book on Devil Fruits?"
Lyson stays quiet for a moment, looking at the faces of the crew, and answers, "I randomly found that book and thought it would be a good idea to carry around. A book about Devil Fruits in the Grand Line is invaluable. It was a pain to get my hands on it."
"Okay, then when-"
"How can you read it?" Zoro's piercing gaze is on Lyson as his question cuts off Nami completely. Lyson's eyes widen as he forgets about the content of the book.
'Crap.' He thinks as he tries to come up with an answer before one comes to mind. "The man I stole it from wrote his notes in code, but I managed to get the only key to translate it, memorize it, and burn it so no one else can translate it."
"Why would you destroy the key?" Usopp asks, and when Lyson turned his gaze to him, the sniper shrunk back a bit.
"Because if I ever got caught with it, I'm more useful being kept alive in that type of situation." Lyson answers, "If people wanna know what's on it, they have no choice but to depend on me for it."
"Okay final question for now, what are your plans once we get to the Grand Line?" Nami asks, her eyes boring into his head.
Lyson shrugs, "Once we get to the first island on the Grand Line, I'll just get off there and pay you."
"Pay us?!" Nami's eyes widen as her eyes turned into Beli signs, "How much exactly? Because you are on one of the safest pirate ships on East Blue, so the prices can be as high as-"
"Oh, I wasn't talking about money."
The Beli in Nami's eyes shatters as her face morphs into one of controlled anger. "What do you mean you won't pay us?" She says in a happy sing-song voice, the veins on her temple bulge out.
Lyson knits his hands together and rests his chin on it, "Payment via information."
The crew's attention is more focused on what the scientist said. Information? What could he possibly know that could serve as payment? Nami pauses for a moment to digest the situation, all of her anger replaced by interest.
Zoro breaks the silence by asking, "What kind of information are you talking about?"
"Information on Devil Fruit users, of course. The Grand Line is packed full of them and unless you know what you're dealing with, you'll fail like so many pirates before you have." Lyson replies, slightly smirking. "If you don't care about I have to say, then you are welcome to throw me off this boat and think nothing of it."
'He's acting all smug, but he has a point. Information like this doesn't grow on trees, but he might still be lying about everything.' Nami thinks as she considers the offer. She looks back at the rest of the crew and they all(minus Luffy) seem to be internally struggling with Lyson's words.
"Okay, how about this?" Usopp tries, "prove to us that your information is true and we'll consider it. As a master liar myself, proof can separate truth from a bluff. Does that seem fair?"
Lyson closes his eyes and sighs before saying, "Just ask your captain how I saved him in Loguetown by Captain Smoker then."
All heads turn to Luffy, who has somehow fallen asleep in the middle of the meeting, much to everyone's annoyance, causing Zoro and Nami to rush him and clock him over the head, both of them crying, "WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!"
"Eh?" Luffy seemed unfazed by the hit and looks around, seeing everyone's eyes on him, "What'dya miss?" he asked groggily.
"Lyson here is saying that he saved you from Smoker back in Loguetown, is that true?" Sanji asks.
Luffy tilts his head in confusion before crossing his arms and scrunches up his eyebrows, "Hmmmm..." he hums as he thinks hard before slapping his fist into his palm, "Oh yeah! That Smokey guy was so hard to fight! Everything I did just went through him."
Sanji turns to face Lyson, "So when you told me he was immune to all physical attacks with a Devil Fruit, you were serious?" Lyson nods at his question.
"But Bison was able to attack the smoke guy," Luffy adds.
"Of course I was, but if you want to know how you have- STOP CALLING ME BISON ALREADY!" Lyson yells at Luffy.
"Yeah and after that, you turned-" Luffy tries to continue, but gets interrupted by Lyson again. "I think your captain has proven my point, so I think my end of the bargain is real. So we got a deal?" He extends his hand to the navigator.
Nami stays still, thinking about the possibilities until Luffy's arm stretches offer and shakes Lyson's hand. "Okay, you got a deal!"
"Luffy!" Nami yells at her captain, "You can't make a deal that quickly!"
"Why?" Luffy whines, "He saved me and he said he was gonna help us."
"A deals a deal!" Lyson says with a tone of finality, a crooked smile on his face "Thank you for having me aboard."
First thing first, I'm gonna be skipping the Apis arc, and the next chapter is gonna have them start out getting to Reverse Mountain. I am still gonna try and find a way to input Lyson's backstory because I don't want to put my cards all on the table.
Until next time!
Reviews are my life source!