Omake
A look into what could have been...
[X] One Piece
(Our hero would be a young boy, 10 years old, living with his mother on Sabaody Archipelago)
Of course, it would just be our luck to sail right into a town full of bounty hunters, not like we could have avoided this with some forethought and planning! I keep telling Luffy to be more prudent in letting people on the Going Merry, we're not a charter service for people to hop on whenever they want.
Granted, what happened with Apis was an exception and was well worth it to see real Millenium Dragons and getting hold of Grandpa Ryu's pattern for the Celestial Menagerie to summon was a boon for my research, but my point stands! This could have been avoided if we just left those two behind and went a different route!
I tried to reason with him, far away from those two fools, that the town that sent these clowns to hunt Laboon for food won't be happy to see us when we're the reason they're going home empty handed, but he just said he's made up his mind and we're dropping them off.
I can complain all I want, that doesn't change the fact that I chose to follow him as my Captain and to be his Quartermaster when we told each other our dreams all those years ago. If there were any doubts about becoming my own captain those are long past us and after what happened with Buggy and Arlong, I can't say it hasn't been everything I'd hoped to see on this adventure.
Keeping some of my partners in hiding during the trip here was a chore, but the less those two knew about my power the better. The biggest hurdle was convincing them
Kuchikukan in her baby form was just an unusually shaped pet crab when they emerged from Laboon's side door, having to switch her from 120 meters to 10 centimeters in an instant made some rather large waves I had to blame on Laboon.
It started with seeing the tombstones all over those hills with my enhanced eyesight on the way into Whiskey Peak that set me on edge, keeping that off my face while those weirdos Mr. Nine and Ms. Wednesday stood next to me was a challenge but once again Multiple Minds kept me looking calm while one of my minds got to rage and scream over falling into possibly yet another trap.
No one else could have noticed them from this distance, but to his credit, Usopp would've if he was in the crow's nest using his goggles and not catching his breath on the deck after that freak weather hit the Going Merry and sent us all scrambling to keep it from tearing the ship apart. Though small blessings, if he had noticed the tombstones his screaming would have been heard all the way in Logue town from here.
While we pulled into the port the townsfolk welcomed us with cheering and hollers for us to partake in their hospitality. I kept a calm facade and made sure I had
The Libra active on me the whole time, with only one card to my name keeping it up this whole trip from Reverse Mountain was a strain but using the Resource Network with
Boom and
Sally, who I had hiding in the hold under Miniaturization and Adaptive Camouflage, they kept me going strong.
I had other partners to watch the ship while we're here, but they were the last line of defense if anything should happen to the Going Merry while we're gone, after that scare with the Marines trying to burn our ship in Logue town, I learned to be more prepared for this kind of thing. Sally would defend the ship from boarders with Boom providing backline fire support, and if the boarders outnumbered them, he would fly into the sky and explode, a signal to the crew that the Going Merry is under attack.
On the gangplank down to the dock I had a look to see if the rest of the crew had caught on and... why I expected anything else still surprises me. Luffy is completely clueless as always, he will never turn down free food and is just waiting for us to join him on a trip to the bar. Usopp is telling tall tales to whoever will listen including grown men and women fawning over his most outlandish claims on what should be rather obvious as an exaggeration. Sanji is flirting with 6 women already and shows no signs of stopping, if he actually succeeds with any of them before this trap is sprung, I might even be jealous. While Nami and Zoro are being the only other responsible people on this crew right now, I'm not holding out hope it will stay that way.
As we get to know the history of this town from the mayor and get comfortable in the bar, I can conclude this to be the only truth on this island. Everyone we met was lying. From the mayor to the unassuming bartender, to the surprisingly large nun, to even that kid with the woman who wasn't his mother, everyone on this island was lying to us. Everything that came out of their mouths was just another notch against this town and what was going on here.
Once they managed to drag Nami into that drinking contest with 100,000 berries on the line, then her dragging Zoro and I into it as well with earning enough berries to pay back the debts we owe her, Zoro's debt was a stretch but I did spend that 100,000 berry she lent me on new equipment for my lab, there was nothing stopping us from getting completely smashed on whatever they started slipping into the drinks after the fourteenth mug.
That is, I would have been smashed without taking on
Cuties speedy metabolism with Equip Trait, magic stomach wins again, and bowing out to play up being asleep let me keep eyes on the town as the bar emptied out of everyone but the crew, passed out from partying of course, and eventually Zoro making his way up to the roof.
At least Zoro faked being passed out after that contest as well, while fighting all of these people myself was possible, I can't say I'd be willing to hold back after reading all those names on the hills. I may be a pirate but seeing so many graves of what must have been other pirates on their way to sail the Grand Line for their own dreams, being laid low by cowards trying to make an easy berry from the drunk and unaware, they're lucky I don't call on
Seymour with Grant Movement to give them their own spot on those hills.
I could tell Nami was faking too, but if she's going to rob these bastards while their fighting us than I'm rooting for her, I'll hold no grudges over robbing the berries off those who try to rob us of our lives.
Been keeping my ear on Zoro since he started talking, seems to know who these guys are, and how they work. Guess I can leave these Baroque Works goons to him, I should make sure those guys who've been checking up on us don't come back and try to take any of the others hostage, not that it would help them.
I get to work summoning
Grunt,
Scalpa,
Happy and
Bill to keep watch over everyone, setting Happy on Relay for Nami was as simple as tapping her shoulder, course I didn't have to tell her before she starts making her move out the door, while I keep my double crossbow with
Zappfly and
Fuzzle at the ready.
The work of a Quartermaster is a hard one, but I knew that seeing this world and all it has to offer was never going to be an easy journey.
After seeing a criminal lack of omakes made in the last year for this story I wanted to give one a try. I wrote all this in under a day, drunk on eggnog and whiskey, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, especially you
@zagan for bringing us such a wonderful story and a wonderful writing prompt. I hope it was enough to be called decent.
Edit: For anyone curious as to the what and the how of a ten-year-old kid making his way from Sabaody to Foosha, just know Destroyah was an early summon, youthful exuberance, a Marine Captain being too gung-ho with a giant unknown monster, and Dragon catching sight of the aftermath is how it happens. The Yarukiman Mangrove having a few less trees are the kind of thing the World Government doesn't let slide, especially a kid whose power doesn't come from a known source they can prepare for like Devil Fruits. I thought the hints about research from working with dragonite and a lab would be enough to clue in.
