Vivi "Miss Wednesday" Nefertari had done some unsavory things since infiltrating Baroque Works two years beforehand. To climb up the ranks to frontier agent, she had participated in bounty hunts. Killed a few by accident, to her tears and Igaram's comforting.
She still considered herself something of a pacifist though. That made it worse really. And that meant her current assignment, which was to shoot and kill a giant Island Whale to gather food for Whiskey Peak, left a horrible taste in her mouth. The bluenette looked at her partner, a man she only knew as "Mr. 9", and nodded. Then they kicked open the door in the whale and swung the bazooka up, firing it at the whale's insides. The doctor looked up from where he was stitching a pretty dark haired girl's injury shut. Bending his knees, he lept straight into the air and punched the missile, causing it to detonate. Landing back on the deck of the ship, he shot a murderous glare at them, "You two again?"
"Again?" The green haired samurai asked, hand gripping his white hilted sword, "you know these guys?"
"They're hunters from a nearby island," the old man said, "They've been trying to kill Laboon for months because meat from him could keep them fed for several years."
Vivi wanted to deny it, to explain she was only doing this to keep up appearances until she could sneak away and inform her father the leader of Baroque Works was Sir Crocodile. To do so, however, would defeat the purpose of covertly sneaking into Baroque Works in the first place.
Instead, she watched Mr. 9 ready his baseball bats, reaching into the pockets of her fur lined jacket to pull out two long jeweled blades on strings, her peacock slashers, and prepared to fight them.
The entire crew, small as it was, prepared themselves for combat. The green haired one drew the two black hilted swords off his hip, the redhead snapped together three wooden parts together to form a bo-staff, the long nosed one drew back his green slingshot and the blond man stretched his legs. But the most stunning preparation was the woman wearing a red cloak.
Her skin turned to pale wood, her hair to autumn leaves as she drew a box off her back that unfolded into a scythe blade.
"HEEEEEEEEYYYYYY-" Vivi turned, eyes widening as a boy wearing a Straw Hat barreled into them and knocked them off the post they were standing on.
—
Ruby walked with Zoro towards the small boat on the side of the cape, carrying the unconscious, blue haired woman in a princess carry while her green haired friend slung the ginger wearing a crown over his shoulder. Ruby dropped her package into the boat, Zoro heaving his own with barely a grunt of effort.
"You think they'll be alright?" Ruby asked as Zoro tossed the rope mooring them to the cape back on and kicked them out to sea.
"Dunno, don't care," Zoro said, "This isn't our problem, Ruby. We need to focus on getting a heading and then heading out, we can't worry about these idiots and the old guy."
"That doesn't seem right," Ruby muttered.
"It's how the world works. We can't worry about every problem," Zoro said, "I know you want to be a hero, but even heroes need to pick and choose their battles."
Ruby gave a half hearted grunt as they made their way back to the group. Sanji was cutting and deboning a giant fish that would have left Blake going gaga, while Nami had pulled out her cartography equipment.
"Gotta say, old guy, this is the biggest whale I've ever seen," Luffy said, looking over the sleeping whale.
"Laboon is an Island Whale, a rare and majestic species from the West Blue, who came here with a crew of pirates fifty years ago. They left him here to keep him safe with the promise to return, but they never did. So Laboon hits the Red Line every day, thinking if he can break through he can see his friends, while all he's doing is killing himself. But at the same time-"
"Being apart from them is killing him," Ruby said softly, staring at Laboon sadly. She could relate.
"Exactly."
They were cut off by a shriek from Nami, rushing over to see what was wrong, only to see the compass spinning out of control.
"What-"
"You didn't know?" Crocus said, "the Grand Line has mysterious magnetic fields. A regular compass will do nothing to help you here. You need a Log Pose. I'll give you mine, since I don't need it anymore."
"Thanks- Luffy?" Ruby turned to her captain, watching him stare down the whale. She got the bad feeling he was about to do something extremely-
Luffy tore the mast from the Merry, leaping up towards Laboon and impaling it in the Island Whale's face.
-stupid. Yep.
Ruby watched the two thrash about for a couple of minutes, before Laboon finally threw Luffy and thr mast off and they crashed into the ground.
"You used to spar with your friends, right?" Luffy said, "I can tell, you're pretty tough. So here's the deal,
we'll go around the world, I'll become King of the Pirates, and then we'll have another spar, ok?"
"He calls that a spar?" Ruby deadpanned to Zoro, who shrugged.
The boat the two they had set adrift came back, the man rowing like a maniac, "Hey! Can we get a ride to Whiskey Peak?"
What.
—
And that was how they found themselves, three days, two snowstorms, one whirlpool, and two annoyances strapped to the mast, now bolted on with a large section of metal by Usopp, arriving at Whiskey Peak. As Zoro sparred with Ruby on the deck, swords clashing against a wooden blade her arm had transformed into, they heard cheering from the coast.
"Pirates!"
"Brave heroes of the sea!"
Ruby and Zoro's eyes met, and they nodded. That was complete bullshit. Nobody got excited to see Pirates.
It got more suspicious when the town, which Zoro distinctly remembered being low on supplies from what the old man said, began to throw a giant party for them, supplying enough food for Luffy to go to down on.
"They're luring us into a false sense of security, aren't they?" Ruby asked him as they sat on the room, a bottle of sake between them.
"Absolutely," Zoro said, drinking from the choko in front of him.
"Then we better be on guard,". Ruby said, drinking from her own.
Hours passed as Nami got drunk, Sanji flirted with girls, Usopp told blatantly false tall tales, and Luffy ate. Finally, all four fell asleep, and the leader of the town sighed.
"Good, now we can make good of their bounties. Straw Hat Luffy, 30,000,000. And Red Bloom Ruby, 20,000,000.
"Wait," a muscular woman said, "where is Red Bloom?"
"Here's an idea, how about you be less obvious you're going to betray us," Ruby said, shifting her hands into fists of wood, "and how about you
don't get our bounties."
"Of course, if you want them," Zoro said, drawing his sword, "You'll have to go through us."
—
Ruby dropped off the top of the building with the lightest of thuds, Zoro joining her right after and drawing two of his three blade. There was a moment of silence, then the fighting began.
Ruby wasn't the
best at hand to hand combat, but when you had Yang as a sister, you picked up some skills in brawling. The first two goons came after, and she kicked the feet out of one, elbowing them in the nose as they went down. The nose, against the hard bark of her arm, shattered. She grabbed the other by the shirt, tugging them up and smashing their head into her wooden head. Dropping them both, she let vines slither out of her fingers and bind the two, alongside the two Zoro had taken down.
There was the noise of a saxophone going off, and Ruby felt her Aura flash as several bullets hit her. A shotgun saxophone, really?"
"I'll take bats," Zoro said, "You take the muscular one."
"Right," Ruby rushed towards the muscular woman, fist colliding with the other woman's. Her Aura flashed red, even as their fists locked. Ruby bulked herself up, turning her muscles to vines and adding more of them to her body. It was a temporary change, from what she could figure out, but a useful one.
They traded punch after punch, until Ruby whipped out a kick when the woman wasn't expecting it and dragged her feet out from under her, slamming her into the ground.
"Miss Monday!" Igaram, the mayor of the town and leader of the gang, called out, firing at Ruby. She turned towards him, turning to petals and reforming in front of him with one finger pulled back, transformed into a sharp talon of wood, and plunged it into his chest, deliberately missing the heart.
"You-" Ruby turned just in time to see Miss Monday charging her, a piece of sheet metal wrapped around her fist, "Eat my superhuman brass knuckles!"
Ruby caught the attack, only to feel her arm shatter into shards of wood. Lashing out with her other hand as her left arm reformed, she smashed her wooden fist into the side of Miss Monday's head.
Ruby turned to the other members of the village, who were approaching with weapons drawn. It was gonna be a long night.
