A post-GM Taylor finds herself transported into the One Piece world. Despite all the differences in her new surroundings she quickly learns that things are far more similar than she thought possible. Ruthless villains, corrupt government, outlaws, and superpowers are still a thing, they are just no longer called PRT, villains, and capes but Marines, Pirates, and DF users.
Tsuchigumo [AU ; ALT-Power ; Crossover ; Worm/One Piece]
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Intro
Like probably most of you interested in One Piece Fandom, I find it hard to find some original and daring fanfiction since a lot of them have the premise to change a few things during the childhood of ASL, giving one of them a different Devil-Fruit, another sibling (in most cases an SI) or are trained in Rokushiki and or Haki at an early age. Unfortunately, those Butterflies more often than not don´t result in some hurricane, retreading canon in part word for word, either because those changes are never intended to make great waves or take time to evolve in full and the fic dies before getting anywhere near this point, leaving us (readers) with a bitter taste.
It doesn´t help in this case that there are next to no variations in most works regarding the Crew members, something understandable given that all of the Strawhats enjoy great popularity. Furthermore, most of them have an important occupation, with next to no canon replacements of the same skill-level existing. Which in turn makes it hard to replace any one of them. At best we see an expanded crew with some more or less new faces joining the Strawhats.
I´m fully aware doing something different given the inherent nature of One Piece – travel from one Island to next – is hard and therefore the main reason for only a small number of stories deviating from that path.
Since I believe there are already more than enough stories in existence doing exactly that and because of my love for Worm specifically for Taylor. I decided to go another route.
This story was greatly inspired by Sailing From Your Past written by TangentWalker
and therefore will be a Post GM Taylor (Isekai)-story, she is dumped into the One Piece world shortly after the death of Gol D. Roger. (Died Sept 1500) and started the Great Age of Pirates (GaoP)
Because I hate having to read thousands of words to even get an inkling in which direction a story develops and I´m someone who has trouble accepting certain things in specific fanfiction-worlds, which can result in me dropping said fic. This being especially bothersome and to my great dislike, in cases when something comes completely out of the left-field like the fact that you are reading a crossover and the first mentioning of aspects/elements of another world turn up somewhere past the 100K word threshold without any further warning or tag, such things are in my opinion more than just unfair for the reader.
Therefore here a few of the major plot-points I think some might have problems accepting them.
See Spoiler Tag: Please refrain from discussing any of the points mentioned unless they come up in the story some might not want to be spoilered – please keep to this rule or if you can´t abide by it or have something to say use spoiler tags, that would be greatly appreciated.
I´m gonna keep my comments to the thread to an absolute minimum to reduce the alerts you have to suffer in hopes of an unscheduled update (provided should someone be willing to follow this story in the first place), but I promise I will read every comment and will most likely answer things in bulk on Sundays whenever I post a new chapter.
This story will be crossposted on Spacebattles and Fanfiction.net
Furthermore, since I´m no native speaker of the English language I would appreciate it if somebody would be willing to beta-read/edit my stuff to give it at least the semblance of readability.
It doesn´t help in this case that there are next to no variations in most works regarding the Crew members, something understandable given that all of the Strawhats enjoy great popularity. Furthermore, most of them have an important occupation, with next to no canon replacements of the same skill-level existing. Which in turn makes it hard to replace any one of them. At best we see an expanded crew with some more or less new faces joining the Strawhats.
I´m fully aware doing something different given the inherent nature of One Piece – travel from one Island to next – is hard and therefore the main reason for only a small number of stories deviating from that path.
Since I believe there are already more than enough stories in existence doing exactly that and because of my love for Worm specifically for Taylor. I decided to go another route.
This story was greatly inspired by Sailing From Your Past written by TangentWalker
and therefore will be a Post GM Taylor (Isekai)-story, she is dumped into the One Piece world shortly after the death of Gol D. Roger. (Died Sept 1500) and started the Great Age of Pirates (GaoP)
Worm is the property of Wildbow
One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda
One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda
Because I hate having to read thousands of words to even get an inkling in which direction a story develops and I´m someone who has trouble accepting certain things in specific fanfiction-worlds, which can result in me dropping said fic. This being especially bothersome and to my great dislike, in cases when something comes completely out of the left-field like the fact that you are reading a crossover and the first mentioning of aspects/elements of another world turn up somewhere past the 100K word threshold without any further warning or tag, such things are in my opinion more than just unfair for the reader.
Therefore here a few of the major plot-points I think some might have problems accepting them.
See Spoiler Tag: Please refrain from discussing any of the points mentioned unless they come up in the story some might not want to be spoilered – please keep to this rule or if you can´t abide by it or have something to say use spoiler tags, that would be greatly appreciated.
- Taylor is a Devil Fruit user – (Mythical Zoan – Spider Queen/Arachne)
- Taylor posses Haoushoki Haki ( how could she not )
- She for the most part retains an ability similar to her canon powers (with added benefits)
- Her middle name is most likely going to change to something starting with a D.
- Taylor and Brian never were together in worm (AU-element)
I never was a fan of how they got together and the form their relationship took – viewed in a positive light it always felt like some kind of bandaid for keeping Brian sane, in a negative light it can be constructed as Taylor taking advantage of him at his lowest ... using the only chance she ever had at a relationship with him ... (the truth most likely is somewhere in the middle – - Taylor will have an all-female Crew;
Should I decide for there to be any kind of pairing (which atm I don´t) it will be with a girl or girls.
I´m aware this might incite the whole straight/lesbian argument anew (it has been discussed to death and aside from WoG (and her outright stating it in her thoughts) there are a lot of insinuations that could be interpreted to point more for Taylor being a lesbian or being B than straight ) ... might be because the story is written by a man ...
in regards to this, my mind is made up - - Taylor will at one point be a Shichibukai atm I´m not sure if she is gonna keep that title... probably not.
- This story will have time-travel elements in the form of some kind of Bermuda Triangle effect ...
- Resulting in her having one Strawhat Crew member... (will be pretty much revealed in on of the first chapters who I´m talking about) for the most part, the rest of her crew members will be canon characters
with atm 3 OC mixed in – who all have ties to known characters of some kind. - I will change the devil fruits of some chars joining her, which in some cases means character from One Piece canon won´t have them ... or different fruits.
- This also means Taylor will meet no small amount of characters, years even decades before they were introduced in One Piece canon, for the most part when those characters are still children. Since most didn´t go through their life-altering experiences at that point I will take some liberties with developing their personality demeanor and nature ... which means in some cases they might not be recognizable and there might even be a large difference to their One Piece canon counter-parts.
I´m gonna keep my comments to the thread to an absolute minimum to reduce the alerts you have to suffer in hopes of an unscheduled update (provided should someone be willing to follow this story in the first place), but I promise I will read every comment and will most likely answer things in bulk on Sundays whenever I post a new chapter.
This story will be crossposted on Spacebattles and Fanfiction.net
Furthermore, since I´m no native speaker of the English language I would appreciate it if somebody would be willing to beta-read/edit my stuff to give it at least the semblance of readability.
Last edited:
Chapter 01 - A new start
This chapter was edited by Zcuron and creativeProcastinator.
Chapter 01: A new start (Spring 1504 – a little over 3 years since the start of GAoP)
I woke up with a start, heart racing. The last thing I remembered was being shot in the head, twice. It took me a while to calm down.
I instinctively reached for the point I had felt them impacting on the back of my head. I expected to find two bullet holes, or at least blood in my hair, but found neither.
It was only after I was finished inspecting the back of my head that I registered that the arm I used shouldn't be there be either. I clearly remember how I lost it and let Lung cauterize what was left of it. I stared, puzzled at my restored limb, trying my hardest to recall what happened.
With all that transpired during Scions rampage and the end of the world looming around the corner. I thought the time of the few healers still around was better spent supporting the ones with powers able to have an impact.
Which is why I never bothered to have my arm restored.
Not that I needed it restored for me to exercise my power. As a master, I could be reduced to a brain in a jar, and it wouldn't have made a difference where my power was concerned.
But feeling powerless once more was probably the one moment, where I came the closest to hating my powers. I thought those times in which I couldn't do anything, forced to just take it lying down, were over and done with when I triggered, despite my initial apprehension when it came to my specific power-set; controlling bugs not being the stuff of legends at first glance. It took me a while to recognize how great and versatile they truly were.
Having to watch from the sidelines as humanity fought for survival when the only thing I wanted was to participate; to do my part no matter how small was the hardest thing in my life.
It was in those moments I found my power left much to be desired, leaving me helpless while all around me countless people were being slaughtered.
The forced inaction nearly drove me mad, until I saw a way to do what had to be done.
While forming that thought, I was suddenly hit with the memories I had suppressed. I remembered how I got Amy to attempt to change my power. She succeeded in widening and shifting what it was able of controlling.
But that came with repercussions of its own. The range of my power was greatly reduced, and in some way, the connection between my passenger and I was ripped open.
The filter, the very walls erected to prevent one from having too much influence over the other were torn down, and my mind started to bleed into my passenger and vice versa. We started to become one, my passenger and I. But my passenger was so vast that what little there was of me paled in comparison. Unsurprisingly I lost myself in the endless expanse that was my passenger.
I struggled with all my might to anchor enough of myself to stay coherent long enough to use my altered powers to force them, all those splintered groups of parahumans, to cooperate. To create a united front against the one who sought to destroy us.
It didn't matter to me if they fought at one point and came to the conclusion it was a futile endeavor or if they were still fighting. It didn't matter if they were in the middle of reaching a safe harbor away from the fights or had reached them already. It also didn't matter if they were consolidating their power for the aftermath, or even going so far as to sabotage the efforts of others to end the threat Scion posed. I drafted them all, made them unwilling participants in the fight, soldiers in my army.
And in the process, I did things I judged Alec for. I stole the freedom of countless people made them prisoners in their own bodies - something I feared being done to me - I did to others.
I shuddered at that thought. No matter how much I would have liked to avoid it, I knew it was necessary, and if I had to do it all over again in order to save humanity, I would.
Those acts as vile and atrocious as they might have been, with me being the Chessmaster. The Ruler of life and death who chose which pawns to sacrifice to ensure the king's survival, to ensure the death of my enemy.
Yet, these weren't the regrets I mentioned in my talk with Contessa; they didn't even register as such.
For in those moments, confronted by Contessa I only ever regretted having followed the advice of a child, whom I risked my life to save from a cruel fate, only to be rewarded with such.
I left my friends, my family behind in order to increase the chances of humanity's survival. And I had to wonder if it was worth it? In the end, I think I didn't achieve much being away from them.
I made some allies and showed the Protectorate, proved to them that I could be trusted to have their backs. I prepared the Chicago Wards, made them into what they needed to be. Theo, in particular, was remade into someone capable of standing up against the Nine, against Jack.
In retrospect, there wasn't anything I was aware of that I did influence or set the ball rolling for. Something that turned out to be vital for our victory.
At the end of the day, all the work I invested in getting the villains and the Heroes to work together when it really counted was wasted. They had no interest in doing so. They ultimately had to be forced even with what was at stake. Simply because deep down, every human is selfish, they care about themselves, their family, and their friends in descending order.
Some might bring themselves to show some remnants of empathy to other people but ultimately? No one cared about a stranger and what happened to them. Everybody, not part of your small circle of people you interact with is just that, a stranger.
Who cares if some kid dies of starvation somewhere around the world as long as one is doing fine. Nobody does, and those few that do, those that act? Well, I'm fairly certain they don't do it to help, not really. They do it for themselves. For selfish reasons like lessening their guilt, feeling a sense of accomplishment, or repenting. Helping is just the side effect of what they are really after.
Following this line of thought, I really had to wonder why I was ready to sacrifice myself. Did I still have such a low-self esteem that I didn't care what happened to me, even though Lisa tried her hardest to get me to?
Was that the reason Dinah sent me away? So that when the time came, I was in the right mindset, with my relationships still highly valued but enraptured, enough with saving the world that I would risk myself and not seek counsel?
So that I wouldn't stop to consider what my death -my essential suicide- would do to Lisa, was that it? I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in the Bay? What the response would have been to killing one of the Triumvirate? Would I have had to kill the other two, too? Until such a moment, they came to realize, that even if they did win in the end, it would be too costly a price to pay, and humanity would have to suffer for it.
Perhaps someday, I will get an answer to why I had to sacrifice being together with the few true friends I had in my life.
But that was way down on the list of my priorities. Far more pressing was the question of where I was. Contessa didn't leave much doubt about her intentions in finding me, and I didn't expect to survive our little conversation.
That I did opened up more than one can of worms. So she didn't mercy kill me. Was that her way of serving penance for all the atrocities she and her little club committed in their attempt to save the world? To not kill the one who did so by committing different kinds of atrocities?
Killing me for what I did and then continue on living would be a none before seen level of hypocrisy, but would she care? I didn't think so. That begged the question of why she didn't kill me. Was it her thanks for me doing her job, or something else entirely?
I pushed those thoughts aside for now. I suspected I would have more time on my hands than I would like to ponder all the implications of her actions, but first, I had to take stock of my situation.
I righted myself into a sitting position. Or at least I was in the process of doing it- when I heard a threatening hiss and immediately stopped midway with my eyes falling onto two tarantula-sized spiders sitting in my lap.
My best guess for their presence was them using me as a makeshift bed. As their red eyes were staring right back at me. I listened inside of me, accessing my passenger, thinking that my sudden awakening somehow prevented me from sensing those spiders and their sensory input.
I was so used to utilizing my power, my constant companion, that it worked perfectly on autopilot, doing exactly what I wanted it to do without any conscious thought wasted on it.
Imagine my surprise when instead of the thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of little voices serving me and sharing their senses, their very being with me to do as I wished with them, there was nothing but utter silence.
It was a new experience for me to label the spiders sitting on me as a threat. Considering that formerly all of them inside a radius hundreds of meters around me, and therefore every insect close enough to even attempt in harming me were an extension of my will.
Apparently, this no longer held true. I knew that letting Amy use her powers on me was a last resort, a desperate gamble and that there would be consequences. The passenger limits the powers they grant to their host. Not just for there not to be a power that is too strong without any means for others to counter it -robbing them of the opportunity to gather worthwhile data an otherwise ensuing struggle would be able to provide.
The human mind can only take so much.
Somehow I was of the view that I was special, that I could take it. Fight off the negative effects long enough to do what I deemed necessary. Not an untrue assumption, even when I came closer to losing myself than I would have liked. Where I struggled, my partner shared my burden. I, we were, after all, always about the mission, and we pulled through.
But what I really didn't expect was to wake up, having lost my power. If I was honest with myself, I expected to no longer have enough left in me to be called a person when the dust settled. There were flashes of doubt that I might fail, but in those instances, I pictured myself dying like so many other parahumans did before me, when they took to the field against Scion.
But I never pictured myself losing my power, something that came to define me more than anything else before in my life to a point where I myself found it hard to find a distinction between us. So deep was our connection -the partnership we shared- that we mixed to a point it was no longer possible to view us as individuals.
My eyes started getting wet, my heart ached, and I didn't have the slightest clue how Contessa or the ones who helped her did it. But they somehow were able to sever us, to rip apart what was meant to be together. I wondered what that meant for me, what part of me got lost in it, and what I retained, gained from my partner.
A train of thought I should probably shelve too. At least for the moment, there was no need to be worried about it. I was sure time would tell if there was a bleed-over between the two of us.
I should probably confront my more immediate problems, rather than pondering about what-ifs. Namely, the two spiders sitting in my lap, following my every move with their large clusters of eyes. Their behavior struck me as curious, but spiders weren't capable of displaying facial expressions. Nor could they express them any other way. Therefore I attributed my observation to my imagination.
Because I simply wasn't willing to accept the fact, that I could seemingly read their demeanor better than I could humans, and I definitely wasn't willing to compare this to the similar ability Rachel possessed.
But as hard as I tried to trick myself into believing that, I didn't succeed when evidence to the contrary was staring right back at me. So there apparently was some kind of bleed over between us, and I just hoped I got spared from the disadvantages that came in the same package for Rachel.
I inspected them closely while moving as little as possible, and I had to say I got no idea what kind of spiders they are.
Something that shouldn't be possible. In my two years in the wards, I intensively studied insects, especially the useful ones. Spiders fell into that category. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself an expert, but there shouldn't be a spider in existence that I couldn't at least tell what family they belong to, but I was unable to come up with anything regarding these two.
Everything I saw struck me as wrong. They were roughly palm-sized and completely black, lacking the common hair of spiders that size.
Furthermore, their exoskeleton seemed wrong. It looked more to me like some kind of armor and appeared to be composed of interlocked segments similar to some kind of plate armor.
Another thing I have never seen before. The legs of the spiders also possessed this armor, but their proportions were wrong. They were sturdier and thicker in relation to their length than they should be.
I doubted many not familiar with spiders would be able to notice, but to me, it stuck out like a sore thumb. But the most disturbing thing I could attribute to their legs was that the final link was oddly shaped, thinning on both sides and tapering off into some kind of curved razor-sharp leading edge.
Those legs had a greater resemblance to a forged two-edged blade with a tip for piercing than with any spider legs I have ever seen.
And then there were their fangs. There was no other word for their jaws that would fit. Looking at them, I doubted they were used to slurping up the goo web spiders transform their cocooned victims into. On the contrary, they resembled fangs you'd expect to find on spiders labeled predator.
Given their legs, they more than likely possessed an incredible amount of jumping power, and them being venomous would be just my luck. For a moment, I considered risk moving.
As far as I could see, I was wearing a spider silk under-suit. To be more exact, it seems to be awfully similar to my Skitter costume before all the bug-shells for better kinetic absorption were applied. It even had matching colors. The only thing that was missing was the gloves, footwear of any kind, a mask, as well as the additions of my later versions.
But I decided against it. If my fears proved to be correct, and they were venomous, the risk of them biting and somehow penetrating or even grazing my skin through my costume could be fatal. And unless I
exhausted all my options, I'd rather not risk being on the wrong side of their natural weapons.
Another thing that added to my precarious situation was the sack of spider web at the abdomen of one of those spiders.
I had to suppress a chuckle at seeing that. The universe must have it out for me, getting me into this situation, serving as a brooding stock for a newly hatched generation of super-spiders. Was that karma? I never even considered since the day I got my powers that insects could be the cause of my death.
I let my eyes wander in the hope of finding anything within reach that might help me, but unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky. The only thing I could find in this wooden indentation I was lying in under the clear sky was some strange-looking fruit next to the wall opposite of me. There was no weapon of any kind, not even a stick I could use to somehow pry them off of me.
Great, just great. If Contessa wouldn't already be on the top of my shit list, this, throwing me into a hole with a fruit and two potentially deadly spiders would promote her there instantly.
I focused my view back onto the spiders and sighed, more mumbling to myself than anything else
"You wouldn't happen to understand me, would you?"
Both spiders turned their heads slightly at my words. Holy... that couldn't be true. But that would explain this foreign vibe I got from those spiders and their unnerving gaze, dissecting me from the moment I opened my eyes. They are intelligent, and if my suspicion was correct, they could at least understand me.
I felt a cold shudder run along my spine. Intelligent spiders; that screamed Bonesaw to me. Until now, I suppressed this train of thought, hoping that the strange characteristics of those spiders could be explained by me just being dropped onto an alternate earth with some unfamiliar indigenous spider species. But this new discovery drastically reduced the chances for this being true.
I stopped myself there. It was no use to over-analyzing a situation. There were any number of plausible explanations for those spiders, and should it turn out to be Bonesaw, then that just meant I might get the chance to rectify the mistake of allowing her to live back in the day.
I once more addressed the spiders.
"Would you please be so kind as to get off me?"
Without any delay, the spiders followed my request and crawled off me. I waited until they were a few inches away from me until I sat upright. And what I saw when I did wasn't something I was happy about.
If I previously thought, that being in a wooden indentation with a strange fruit and two spiders, was bad. I had no idea what to call discovering that what I previously thought was a wooden indentation in the ground somewhere turned out to be a small boat in the fucking middle of an ocean with no land in sight.
And it really wasn't a surprise that I wasn't able to recognize this any faster because the water was completely undisturbed. There weren't any waves, no movement, nothing. The water was utterly calm.
Yeah, those were the moments, where you were made painfully aware of the English language's inability to express this cluster fuck of a situation I found myself in. Just to make an attempt would mean I had to make use of a comparative of a superlative, which simply didn't exist.
Perhaps I could use my last few days while dying of thirst to remedy this oversight. Nah, my time was better served in making plans, in how to best end Contessa in case I survived this and was granted the pleasure to meet her again. Because not even a godly intervention itself would be enough to save her, let alone her power when I get my hands on her.
It wouldn't all be so bad if this boat would at least have a sail, a motor, or some paddle that would allow me to row, not that I would know in what direction I should steer, but at least it would give me something to do aside from waiting to die.
Well, the situation was not all bad, while letting my vision travel the horizon, I took note that I saw sharp outlines of my surroundings. This meant not only that my arm got restored to pristine condition but apparently my eyes too. Therefore I could soothe myself in the knowledge that I won't see anything blurred in my final moments.
I laid back down my head against one side of the boat and turned my look back on the spiders.
"You wouldn't happen to know which way I can find land and how we can get out of this situation and not die cruel prolonged deaths?"
They answered with a shake of their head, which I interpreted as a no.
"Yeah, figured as much it would have been too easy otherwise, wouldn't it?"
Since the spiders looked somehow lost, standing in the middle of the boat, I said.
"If you like, you can come back here." I pointed at my lap.
At my words, they nearly went head over heels to get back to me, like some overeager puppies. I couldn't stop myself from smiling. Well, at least I wouldn't be dying alone.
They made themselves comfortable.
"May I touch you?"
Once again, they reacted to my question, in easy to understand motion by nodding with their heads. How intelligent were those spiders?
I reached for them. The first thing I noticed, their carapaces were cool to my touch, despite being black on a sunny and warm day. I would say they were too cold, perhaps this had something to do with the fact that their exoskeleton was interlinked similar to scales on a reptile.
Arthropods were ectothermic, commonly known as cold-blooded, so it made sense that they would be in need of the warmth I generated.
I could only speculate their intelligence, the only thing that really made them stand out, to be responsible for why I couldn't control them.
If not for this, I had no explanation. Still, I never got the vibe that any characteristic, no matter how out of place it might seem, would prevent my powers from working as long as the creature qualified as something my passenger had dominion over.
Even if I assumed I still retained my jailbroken powers, those two spiders should be under my control. They certainly were big enough for them not to fall under the creatures my widened and shifted powers no longer could affect because this pertained only to the smallest of bugs in my swarm, a size they definitely surpassed many times over.
Since my thoughts were clear, with me able to string together more than one coherent thought. The easiest explanation I could come up with for this was that I no longer held my jailbroken powers.
As a result, I theorized that I really must have lost my powers. My earlier conclusion was based upon thinking that I was on land, and there was just no way for there not to be any bugs within my reach. But on the ocean, it was another story;
If it weren't for this, in case, I still had my powers, I should be able to control my two new friends. Ergo, no control means no powers.
I closed my eyes. This would definitely prove to be an interesting turn of events. Should I ever set foot on land again and reach civilization - as unlikely as it seems given my predicament - it will be hard to survive without any advantages to my name. Because after what I did, I fully expect the whole world to be after me, for various reasons anything else would really surprise me.
I stopped myself again from going too deep into this particular rabbit hole until I had a better grasp of my situation. Every conclusion I drew here was done from incomplete and possibly faulty information and was nothing more than mere conjecture and speculation.
I should rest; conserve my strength; Something told me I was gonna need every ounce of it.
-----
The next time I awoke, it was in the middle of the night. I looked up at the stars. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to make out any star constellation I was familiar with. I never thought the things I learned in summer camp would ever prove to be useful. But this discovery opened a whole new can of worms.
Because as far as I was aware, the existence of parallel earths created by the entities was a localized effect. Consequently, it should in no way affect other star-systems or even galaxies. For this reason very reason, I assumed that I would have no trouble recognizing at least a few of the constellations in the sky. At first, I considered just being in a different hemisphere, but even then, I was confident in identifying the most prominent ones.
This didn't bode well for me if I ever wanted to return home. Just where the hell was I dropped off to.
With those thoughts on my mind, I drifted back to sleep.
-----
I woke the next day, with dry lips and an even dryer mouth. The sun was standing on its peak on a cloudless day and was burning relentlessly down on me. With nothing on hand to shield myself from the sun to create some relieving shadow, I had to endure the full might of the sun-generated heat. This wouldn't be all too bad, if I could prevent my body from excreting sweat, wasting precious water, and reducing my already limited time further.
I slightly caressed my new pets. It took some soft prompting to wake them up, but I eventually succeeded. Given their affectionateness, they either came to like me a lot, or I was just that comfortable to lie on.
I carefully placed them next to myself and sat upright. I looked at my surroundings and saw exactly what I expected to see, water as far and wide as I could see in every direction. Combined with the fact that there still was not a single cloud in the sky meant only one thing; no water in the foreseeable future, at least water that didn't kill me faster like drinking the seawater would.
I was already dehydrated, and consuming the saltwater around my little boat, would just serve to aggravate this state. This just emphasized my earlier conclusion that I was going to die of thirst, and as a result, would be spared from dying of starvation, not sure what was the nicer way to perish.
I was sure someone, somewhere, debated the intricacies of both and came to a valid conclusion. Unfortunately, I didn't get to choose.
My eyes once more found this strange-looking fruit lying in the opposite corner of the boat. I already debated to eat it several times but didn't think of it as a good idea, simply because I had never seen anything even remotely like it. And thanks to globalization you could buy next to everything suitable for human consumption in a supermarket.
This could only mean because I haven't seen such a fruit at least once in my life, that the fruit was not something to be eaten.
In the time since I discovered that the constellations in the night sky didn't match any one of those, I learned of as a child.
Leading to the realization that I more than likely was no longer on earth or any variation thereof.
The consequence of that train of thought made this fruit rather interesting. Simply because my earlier data, I based my reasoning on was flawed. Therefore the conclusion I arrived at to not eat it was invalid too. Of course, that didn't mean the fruit would have no adverse effects on me. It might still be poisonous or detrimental in other ways, but it also meant there was a chance for it to be edible.
I crawled over to it, and for a single moment, I was confronted with doubt; With the question of whether attempting to eat it was the right thing to do. Because if it didn't accelerate my death, it would extend my life, and the outlook of that happening currently wasn't exactly the best. At worst, it would merely result in prolonging my suffering.
I suppressed those thoughts vehemently, because listening to them, considering them to be true, seemed like accepting defeat.
In the past, it never occurred to me to give up. After all, I went through with the longshots I attempted and succeeded in; I was not going to just roll over and die. If there was a chance, no matter how slim to live for just a second longer, I was gonna take it; I had no intention of dying here, I was going to live!
With this newfound conviction, I picked it up. The fruit the same size as a pineapple was strangely shaped, resembling a calyx, with eight half-opened petals surrounding the center, allowing for a look inside. The whole fruit had this eerie black color, which on second thought from a distance it could be mistaken with a spider pulling all her legs close to her body.
I looked back to my two spider companions, who attentively watched my every move. It couldn't be a coincidence waking up on a boat together with two spiders and a fruit that looks like one. I disregarded this thought. If you look at something long enough, you were always able to make out some kind of pattern. This was just my mind trying to play tricks on me.
I brought the fruit to my mouth and took a bite out of it. It had a similar texture as an orange, which was good because eating it would allow me to restore some water. I was about to rejoice at this until my dried-out taste buds started working again, and I had to force myself not to vomit and spit it out.
Until now, I had never encountered anything even remotely tasting as disgusting as this fruit, and I was on more than one grill party of the dockworkers. They managed to prove over and over again that they must have invented the word disgusting, considering some of their creations.
I shuddered at the mere memory.
I was not even able to describe the taste of the fruit. There simply didn't exist words for it. Would I still be on Earth Bet, and this fruit happened to be indigenous there; the taste alone would explain why I never heard of it.
No sane person would eat it as long as alternatives were available, and even then, I was not sure if most would eat it. Hell, I was considering throwing it overboard; and I was starving.
But I couldn't allow myself to waste any water, no matter how insignificant the amount. With no small amount of willpower expedited, I was finally able to overcome my gag reflex and swallowed it.
I looked back at the fruit, only a few hundred mouthfuls of it left to go. Grimacing, I took the next bite out of it.
It took me hours that felt like weeks of the most inhuman torture imaginable until I finished eating the whole fruit. During the whole process of consuming it, my two eight-legged friends never removed their eyes from me and practically started cheering me on.
The more I ate, the livelier and excited they got. For the most part, I tried to ignore them.
Some assumptions accompanied this observation, mostly because I didn't think it to be plausible that their delight stemmed from the fact that I was eating something deadly, thereby accelerating my demise and, as a result, the advent of their new breeding stock.
Unfortunately, other attempts to explain this behavior were even more inconclusive. Why should they be elated when I ate something? I put this question on my ever-growing list of things I would like answered should I survive and returned to my former sleeping place, where I lied down in an attempt to conserve energy and most of all water.
I didn't have enough time to even close my eyes when my two friends looked at me with their best imitation of a puppy dog's eyes.
I sighed and motioned them to get in my lap, which didn't necessitate further prompting. They scurried in it in the blink of an eye. But something was different, they sat there, and it looked like they wanted something from me, not sure of what it might be. I placed one hand on top of the male spider.
This simple touch without any cloth between the point of contact felt indescribable as if a circuit was closed for the first time allowing a current to run its course. I snap like withdrew my hand, not a second after I did, the tingling feeling that starting from my spread and tried to
encompass my whole body subsided.
What the... this didn't happen before, but the only thing different between then and now was, that I ate the fruit. There had to be a connection.
I saw the spider looking at me disappointed.
"You liked that, whatever it was?"
He nodded with his head in response, and I had a short debate with myself if I should risk it to try it again, whatever it was that just happened.
Ultimately I decided to do it again. Two reasons stood out. For one, my overall situation couldn't objectively get any worse, and second, my spider friends didn't strike me as having ulterior motives. Quite the opposite, to be honest. I got the feeling that our interests were aligned and that they had my well-being at heart.
The reason eluded me, sure it would be possible to narrow it down considerably, but there was only so much you can get out of someone with only being able to ask yes or no questions. For this reason, I thought it best to save my breath in a form the outset next to a hopeless and time-consuming endeavor when I could simply get the same answers in less time by undergoing a little risk.
At this point, it wouldn't matter anyway. Since I was already in free fall without a parachute, so nothing was preventing me from trying to fly... after all, I had nothing to lose.
I reached for the spider again. But this time, I was prepared for the sudden influx of this sensation. Allowing, me to get a full picture of what was going on.
My initial impression wasn't wrong, but it didn't convey it in the right context since I only caught a glimpse of the proceedings. As a result, it wasn't correct to describe it as completing a circuit. For the simple reason, that this metaphor implied, for there to be two parts of a whole getting reconnected again to once more complete each other.
This, however, was different, in the sense that it had two already complete components making contact with each other. One subsuming the willing other to create something else, something new, something so much more than their individual parts could ever have hoped to be, fusing and evolving both.
I lost myself in the myriad of impressions. By the time I came to, I couldn't help to notice that the sun had moved on to a quite considerable degree.
However, that wasn't the only thing different than before. Combined with my usual senses, I was seeing myself through eight eyes, from a position on my abdomen.
In addition, a whole new set of limbs and a new body joined my bodily awareness. It was a different feedback than the one I was used to from my late power; With it, the creatures under my control were just that under my control.
Of course, my power had informed me about their state of being. But for all that, there was never any doubt that I was only controlling something external. Sitting in the driver's seat of their bodies steering all of their actions. This, however, felt like the body of the spider was indistinguishable from my own that we were one, just apart.
It was a strange feeling suddenly being at two places, to be two beings at the same time.
In retrospect, my power back then compared to this new sensation as if there was at least one step of separation between them and me; sluggish, apart, and distant. A fissure that now with this new power got closed. What once was two connected with each other now became an us.
I could still feel the fading consciousness of the spider slowly molding and fusing with myself. The bliss he felt when he gave himself up to become part of something greater, of me.
The spider felt fulfillment as if its whole purpose in life lead it to this situation, and it could now fulfill its raison d´etre.
Experiencing the echo of his feeling was exhilarating, to say the least, as was this new state of being I embody. I felt strange but not in a bad way; I was not sure how to describe it. I withdrew into myself and listened to my body, tried to fathom the changes this brought upon me.
After some introspection, I came to the conclusion that the spider -or more accurately, his self- didn't vanish entirely in this merger. I could still sense parts of him, existing under the surface of our new self, ready to be called upon, waiting to serve.
When I reopened my eyes, the female spider sat on my torso on that body part other women would call their breasts and was demanding through her whole body language not to be left out.
"You want it, too?"
As a response, she made to steps towards my face and awkwardly attempted to hug my face with her front-legs.
"You are quite the impatient one, aren't you."
The response I received could be best described as the spider version of blushing. I reached for the spider and started the merging process, and suddenly everything went wrong. Instead of making the connection to one spider as I expected, I made it to hundreds, and by the time I realized my mistake -that I had forgotten about the egg sack- it was already too late to stop the merger.
This time, I didn't lose myself in a controlled myriad of impressions. This time, I was lost in a cataclysmic storm. It felt like I was ripped apart, forming hundreds of connections, fusing together with what was found at the end only to try and meld together as one.
With dread, I found out I overextended. It took more effort than anything else I've experienced only to prevent myself from shattering into hundreds of pieces.
Every time a part of me drifted away, fusing faster than one of the others it pulled at me. Attempting to draw out more of me and, as a result taking it away from all the other connections. By doing so, threatening to destroy the spider-net I found myself being made into disrupting the carefully maintained status quo.
It turned out to be a balancing act of the highest order to prevent myself from being severed into tiny little pieces while under the assault of all those sensory expressions.
Without my experience and me somehow retaining my multitasking ability, another thing the bleed over seemed to let me keep, I was able to prevail in this life and death struggle but not without cost.
The longer this merger took, the more I could feel myself getting weaker physically and mentally. By the time I was finished, there was next to nothing left.
I'd never felt exhaustion even close to this before, and my last thoughts before darkness took me pertained to the fact that I might never regain consciousness before dying.
I found myself confined to a dark haze, but sometimes there were flashes of awareness, for the most part, filtered through the eight eyes of a spider. I saw the sunset and rise more than once, and I noticed the more time elapsed, the more impenetrable the haze appeared to be.
I couldn't help, but wonder was this how dying was like? Slowly being dragged further, and further into a never-ending darkness?
It never came to that, me vanishing into the darkness. There was another flash. I saw, looking through the eyes of the adult spiders, as a hand reached over the edge of the boat.
A moment later, another hand was placed next to the first one, followed by a light jerk that set the whole boat into a swinging motion these hands hoisted a body over the edge.
I saw a middle-aged dark blonde well-built guy with a naked torso standing there, to which my spiders took exception. They hissed at him and took a defensive position upon my belly, ready to attack this person at a moment's notice.
I saw his lips move, but I heard no sound neither from him nor my spiders. The only reason that I even knew of their threatening gestures was owed to the fact that I also caught glimpses of the signal their brains sent to their bodies.
The man took a step forward, his arms raised in a non-threatening gesture, one I knew my spiders wouldn't heed, they decided to protect me, and they would or die trying.
When he took the next step, the male spider jumped towards the jugular of the man. I barely saw movement until I felt a searing pain on the same scale as I experienced by being bisected by Scion.
The next thing I saw, looking through the eyes of the female spider, was the two bisected halves of her male counterpart landing left and right on the ground next to the man; his fangs never even came close to reaching him. He gave the spider a glare with such intensity that I was sure a slight increase in it would evaporate everything in its path.
The message it contained was clear if you don't attack me, I would grant you the same courtesy. His lips moved again, and I started to hate the fact that I never learned how to lip-read. But whatever he said was enough to pacify the female spider, because shortly after he stopped talking, she lied down on me, still following his every move but no longer with hostile intent.
I wondered how he managed to kill my spider? He must have utilized some kind of power. The only ones I could think of able to that were either a form of air/wind manipulation or using the edge of the force field to garner this result. Either way, the ease with which he used it to dispose of the spider, who was not only fast but also quite sturdy, instantly bumped his threat rating to a high degree. Simply, because whatever it was he did, it didn't seem to be Manton-limited. Which made him a threat on the same level or greater than Narwhal.
The man, wearing the strangest goatee I have ever seen, looked around for some time and then jumped back into the water, my spider noticed that the ship was slightly askew, which could only mean that we moved. Given the angle of the ship, it had to be at quite the high-speed. Something, I only thought possible with the use of a motor.
At that point, I lost the connection to the awareness of my remaining spider. Hence I found myself back alone in the darkness.
To my surprise, I could still feel the male spider's presence. Never having left me despite what happened to his body, curious.
I noticed how he siphoned the last vestiges of power from the well representing it, which served to further weaken me. I tried to get him to stop, but all my effort were in vain.
I couldn't be sure if this was an automatic function of my new power, or I was just unable to influence it because of the condition I found myself in.
I decided to at least find out to what end my power was used and tried my best to examine this procedure. It seemed to be a reasonable endeavor to gather more information about it. After all, it was in the process of killing me, and I couldn't be sure it would halt before succeeding.
I followed the path the power took to its destination. To my astonishment, it was used to slowly rebuilding the body of my dead male spider. It finally all started to make sense why they were so keen on fusing with me. Apparently, we not only became one improved being, but it also served for them to gain some form of immortality.
Given what I knew some would do to reach even an incomplete version of it like I assumed this one to be, I could understand their actions.
However, there had to be more to this. The more I thought about it, the more I was certain of it. Because I doubted that everything I got out of it in return were a few loyal companions.
Unfortunately, I was in no state to pursue that question, at least until I woke again. If I ever did.
I felt myself weakening more and more until the darkness encompassed the last vestiges of my consciousness and was devoured by it. In my last coherent thought, I considered myself lucky in ending this way instead of the alternative and cruel way of dying by thirst would have been.
-----
I woke up with my whole body feeling exhausted and sluggish. My dark hair had fallen over my eyes. I had never thought raising my hand would ever create difficulties. With some effort, I managed to remove my hair from impeding my vision.
I found myself lying on a bed draped in a blanket. To my right, there was a small table; Placed on top of it was a glass of water and a plate filled with food.
I didn't waste any time and reached for the glass. With greedy gulps out of it, I quenched my thirst and only set it down again after emptying it to the last drop.
It was essential for the process of recovery to get back the lost liquid, I knew that my bodily awareness couldn't be accurate, not after it went through such an ordeal, but I could swear I already noticed a difference. The exhaustion and sluggishness were slowly receding and a resemblance of strength returning to my limbs.
But why did I wake up? My condition should have only gotten worse without any food or water intake. Aside from the water now in my belly, I was sure nothing found its way there since this disgusting fruit.
I didn't fail to note that I wasn't alone in my bed, my eight-legged companions were there, and if the empty bowls at the foot-end of my bed were any indication, they already gorged themselves on food and water and entered a digestive nap.
Not that I could fault them for that. I took some of the food from the table and let the hunger take over my actions. It felt incredible to eat something after the ordeal I went through.
While eating, my thoughts drifted back to the spiders. Were they the reason for my awakening? Then eating and somehow sharing what energy this provided? I would have loved to ask them about it. But if my hunch turned out to be true, I wouldn't want to disturb their sleep. Because then they would have more than earned it.
I devoured the food and only stopped when nothing was left on the once full plates.
I hadn't placed them back more than a few seconds ago when the door to the room I found myself in was opened. A tall dark-haired woman who wore a long-sleeved v-necked top that displayed her rather vast female assets stepped into the room.
I suppressed the envy my younger self would have felt at seeing her and focused on the important details. Her bare midriff was toned, not unlike what my stomach used to look like when I was in the wards.
I pegged her to be around forty forty-five, perhaps older, not because she looked the part but because she gave off an air of experience similar to the one I sensed from Miss Militia. Going solely by her outward appearance, she didn't look older than her mid-thirties, but I learned a long time ago to trust more than simply what my eyes perceived.
And this woman had far more depth to her than her looks, and this way perceived age could account for. Despite the obvious unhealthy lifestyle she must lead, judging by the burning cigarette between her lips. I still got the impression that in hand-to-hand combat she could crush me like a bug, which I doubted any none brute would be able to do even without my powers.
Of course, first impressions aren't suitable and sufficient to form an educated guess. But I had learned to trust my instincts, and they rarely disappointed me, especially in rating how dangerous my opposite is.
Behind her followed the man I remember seeing through my spiders. He was now wearing a loose shirt and glasses. I noticed that above and under one of his eyes he sported a vertical scar.
What set me on edge wasn't this injury driving the point home that he must be an experienced fighter or the fact that I saw him display a power, but the way he held himself, the presence he gave off.
I have met people like him, people who can step into a room and own it demands respect from the occupants without even trying, certain of themselves to such a frightening degree that they didn't just think they can take anyone in it. No, this level of assuredness is only present in the ones who are sure of it. People, who fought countless battles against overwhelming odds and came out on top.
I have met people like this in the past Contessa, Alexandria, Jack Slash, but also I came to mind. In my time in the Wards, I repeatedly watched video material of myself and what I could glimpse of his mannerism had a strong resemblance to the Skitter I saw in those videos. Strolling into the PRT headquarters without a care in the world and taking down their Capes and other personnel left and right as if they were nothing more than some annoying pest.
He was on a completely different level than the woman. He closed the door behind him, barring the sight I had outside, to what looked like the interior of a bar, according to the few people I could make out sitting at tables and drinking some beverages out of big glasses. They wore strange clothes and were armed with weapons; was that a cutlass?
Before I could think on it and come up with some reason aside from being Halloween as to why someone should have such weapons on them, both the man and the woman seated themselves on some chairs they moved next to the bed I occupied, and I heard the woman say:
"Oh, you are already up. That's unusual. I came here prepared to force-feed you while unconscious to get your body to regain enough strength for you to wake up."
She stared at me for a moment in deep thought until she continued.
"It wouldn't have anything to do with those spiders and their particular strong appetite, wouldn't it?"
She came to the same conclusion as me with fewer data points. She was sharp this one. Instead of confirming her suspicions, I asked.
"Who are you?"
She was caught flat-footed by this question and took a few moments to get back her bearings.
"How rude of me. I totally forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Shakuyaku, but I'm usually called Shaky and this one."
She gestures towards her male companion.
"is called Ray, or as he is otherwise known as Silvers Rayleigh"
Authors Note: I considered for some time to introduce a language barrier. But ultimately decided against it. It would be cumbersome to get around it and slow down the pace in the next few chapters to a crawl...
Chapter 01: A new start (Spring 1504 – a little over 3 years since the start of GAoP)
I woke up with a start, heart racing. The last thing I remembered was being shot in the head, twice. It took me a while to calm down.
I instinctively reached for the point I had felt them impacting on the back of my head. I expected to find two bullet holes, or at least blood in my hair, but found neither.
It was only after I was finished inspecting the back of my head that I registered that the arm I used shouldn't be there be either. I clearly remember how I lost it and let Lung cauterize what was left of it. I stared, puzzled at my restored limb, trying my hardest to recall what happened.
With all that transpired during Scions rampage and the end of the world looming around the corner. I thought the time of the few healers still around was better spent supporting the ones with powers able to have an impact.
Which is why I never bothered to have my arm restored.
Not that I needed it restored for me to exercise my power. As a master, I could be reduced to a brain in a jar, and it wouldn't have made a difference where my power was concerned.
But feeling powerless once more was probably the one moment, where I came the closest to hating my powers. I thought those times in which I couldn't do anything, forced to just take it lying down, were over and done with when I triggered, despite my initial apprehension when it came to my specific power-set; controlling bugs not being the stuff of legends at first glance. It took me a while to recognize how great and versatile they truly were.
Having to watch from the sidelines as humanity fought for survival when the only thing I wanted was to participate; to do my part no matter how small was the hardest thing in my life.
It was in those moments I found my power left much to be desired, leaving me helpless while all around me countless people were being slaughtered.
The forced inaction nearly drove me mad, until I saw a way to do what had to be done.
While forming that thought, I was suddenly hit with the memories I had suppressed. I remembered how I got Amy to attempt to change my power. She succeeded in widening and shifting what it was able of controlling.
But that came with repercussions of its own. The range of my power was greatly reduced, and in some way, the connection between my passenger and I was ripped open.
The filter, the very walls erected to prevent one from having too much influence over the other were torn down, and my mind started to bleed into my passenger and vice versa. We started to become one, my passenger and I. But my passenger was so vast that what little there was of me paled in comparison. Unsurprisingly I lost myself in the endless expanse that was my passenger.
I struggled with all my might to anchor enough of myself to stay coherent long enough to use my altered powers to force them, all those splintered groups of parahumans, to cooperate. To create a united front against the one who sought to destroy us.
It didn't matter to me if they fought at one point and came to the conclusion it was a futile endeavor or if they were still fighting. It didn't matter if they were in the middle of reaching a safe harbor away from the fights or had reached them already. It also didn't matter if they were consolidating their power for the aftermath, or even going so far as to sabotage the efforts of others to end the threat Scion posed. I drafted them all, made them unwilling participants in the fight, soldiers in my army.
And in the process, I did things I judged Alec for. I stole the freedom of countless people made them prisoners in their own bodies - something I feared being done to me - I did to others.
I shuddered at that thought. No matter how much I would have liked to avoid it, I knew it was necessary, and if I had to do it all over again in order to save humanity, I would.
Those acts as vile and atrocious as they might have been, with me being the Chessmaster. The Ruler of life and death who chose which pawns to sacrifice to ensure the king's survival, to ensure the death of my enemy.
Yet, these weren't the regrets I mentioned in my talk with Contessa; they didn't even register as such.
For in those moments, confronted by Contessa I only ever regretted having followed the advice of a child, whom I risked my life to save from a cruel fate, only to be rewarded with such.
I left my friends, my family behind in order to increase the chances of humanity's survival. And I had to wonder if it was worth it? In the end, I think I didn't achieve much being away from them.
I made some allies and showed the Protectorate, proved to them that I could be trusted to have their backs. I prepared the Chicago Wards, made them into what they needed to be. Theo, in particular, was remade into someone capable of standing up against the Nine, against Jack.
In retrospect, there wasn't anything I was aware of that I did influence or set the ball rolling for. Something that turned out to be vital for our victory.
At the end of the day, all the work I invested in getting the villains and the Heroes to work together when it really counted was wasted. They had no interest in doing so. They ultimately had to be forced even with what was at stake. Simply because deep down, every human is selfish, they care about themselves, their family, and their friends in descending order.
Some might bring themselves to show some remnants of empathy to other people but ultimately? No one cared about a stranger and what happened to them. Everybody, not part of your small circle of people you interact with is just that, a stranger.
Who cares if some kid dies of starvation somewhere around the world as long as one is doing fine. Nobody does, and those few that do, those that act? Well, I'm fairly certain they don't do it to help, not really. They do it for themselves. For selfish reasons like lessening their guilt, feeling a sense of accomplishment, or repenting. Helping is just the side effect of what they are really after.
Following this line of thought, I really had to wonder why I was ready to sacrifice myself. Did I still have such a low-self esteem that I didn't care what happened to me, even though Lisa tried her hardest to get me to?
Was that the reason Dinah sent me away? So that when the time came, I was in the right mindset, with my relationships still highly valued but enraptured, enough with saving the world that I would risk myself and not seek counsel?
So that I wouldn't stop to consider what my death -my essential suicide- would do to Lisa, was that it? I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in the Bay? What the response would have been to killing one of the Triumvirate? Would I have had to kill the other two, too? Until such a moment, they came to realize, that even if they did win in the end, it would be too costly a price to pay, and humanity would have to suffer for it.
Perhaps someday, I will get an answer to why I had to sacrifice being together with the few true friends I had in my life.
But that was way down on the list of my priorities. Far more pressing was the question of where I was. Contessa didn't leave much doubt about her intentions in finding me, and I didn't expect to survive our little conversation.
That I did opened up more than one can of worms. So she didn't mercy kill me. Was that her way of serving penance for all the atrocities she and her little club committed in their attempt to save the world? To not kill the one who did so by committing different kinds of atrocities?
Killing me for what I did and then continue on living would be a none before seen level of hypocrisy, but would she care? I didn't think so. That begged the question of why she didn't kill me. Was it her thanks for me doing her job, or something else entirely?
I pushed those thoughts aside for now. I suspected I would have more time on my hands than I would like to ponder all the implications of her actions, but first, I had to take stock of my situation.
I righted myself into a sitting position. Or at least I was in the process of doing it- when I heard a threatening hiss and immediately stopped midway with my eyes falling onto two tarantula-sized spiders sitting in my lap.
My best guess for their presence was them using me as a makeshift bed. As their red eyes were staring right back at me. I listened inside of me, accessing my passenger, thinking that my sudden awakening somehow prevented me from sensing those spiders and their sensory input.
I was so used to utilizing my power, my constant companion, that it worked perfectly on autopilot, doing exactly what I wanted it to do without any conscious thought wasted on it.
Imagine my surprise when instead of the thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of little voices serving me and sharing their senses, their very being with me to do as I wished with them, there was nothing but utter silence.
It was a new experience for me to label the spiders sitting on me as a threat. Considering that formerly all of them inside a radius hundreds of meters around me, and therefore every insect close enough to even attempt in harming me were an extension of my will.
Apparently, this no longer held true. I knew that letting Amy use her powers on me was a last resort, a desperate gamble and that there would be consequences. The passenger limits the powers they grant to their host. Not just for there not to be a power that is too strong without any means for others to counter it -robbing them of the opportunity to gather worthwhile data an otherwise ensuing struggle would be able to provide.
The human mind can only take so much.
Somehow I was of the view that I was special, that I could take it. Fight off the negative effects long enough to do what I deemed necessary. Not an untrue assumption, even when I came closer to losing myself than I would have liked. Where I struggled, my partner shared my burden. I, we were, after all, always about the mission, and we pulled through.
But what I really didn't expect was to wake up, having lost my power. If I was honest with myself, I expected to no longer have enough left in me to be called a person when the dust settled. There were flashes of doubt that I might fail, but in those instances, I pictured myself dying like so many other parahumans did before me, when they took to the field against Scion.
But I never pictured myself losing my power, something that came to define me more than anything else before in my life to a point where I myself found it hard to find a distinction between us. So deep was our connection -the partnership we shared- that we mixed to a point it was no longer possible to view us as individuals.
My eyes started getting wet, my heart ached, and I didn't have the slightest clue how Contessa or the ones who helped her did it. But they somehow were able to sever us, to rip apart what was meant to be together. I wondered what that meant for me, what part of me got lost in it, and what I retained, gained from my partner.
A train of thought I should probably shelve too. At least for the moment, there was no need to be worried about it. I was sure time would tell if there was a bleed-over between the two of us.
I should probably confront my more immediate problems, rather than pondering about what-ifs. Namely, the two spiders sitting in my lap, following my every move with their large clusters of eyes. Their behavior struck me as curious, but spiders weren't capable of displaying facial expressions. Nor could they express them any other way. Therefore I attributed my observation to my imagination.
Because I simply wasn't willing to accept the fact, that I could seemingly read their demeanor better than I could humans, and I definitely wasn't willing to compare this to the similar ability Rachel possessed.
But as hard as I tried to trick myself into believing that, I didn't succeed when evidence to the contrary was staring right back at me. So there apparently was some kind of bleed over between us, and I just hoped I got spared from the disadvantages that came in the same package for Rachel.
I inspected them closely while moving as little as possible, and I had to say I got no idea what kind of spiders they are.
Something that shouldn't be possible. In my two years in the wards, I intensively studied insects, especially the useful ones. Spiders fell into that category. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself an expert, but there shouldn't be a spider in existence that I couldn't at least tell what family they belong to, but I was unable to come up with anything regarding these two.
Everything I saw struck me as wrong. They were roughly palm-sized and completely black, lacking the common hair of spiders that size.
Furthermore, their exoskeleton seemed wrong. It looked more to me like some kind of armor and appeared to be composed of interlocked segments similar to some kind of plate armor.
Another thing I have never seen before. The legs of the spiders also possessed this armor, but their proportions were wrong. They were sturdier and thicker in relation to their length than they should be.
I doubted many not familiar with spiders would be able to notice, but to me, it stuck out like a sore thumb. But the most disturbing thing I could attribute to their legs was that the final link was oddly shaped, thinning on both sides and tapering off into some kind of curved razor-sharp leading edge.
Those legs had a greater resemblance to a forged two-edged blade with a tip for piercing than with any spider legs I have ever seen.
And then there were their fangs. There was no other word for their jaws that would fit. Looking at them, I doubted they were used to slurping up the goo web spiders transform their cocooned victims into. On the contrary, they resembled fangs you'd expect to find on spiders labeled predator.
Given their legs, they more than likely possessed an incredible amount of jumping power, and them being venomous would be just my luck. For a moment, I considered risk moving.
As far as I could see, I was wearing a spider silk under-suit. To be more exact, it seems to be awfully similar to my Skitter costume before all the bug-shells for better kinetic absorption were applied. It even had matching colors. The only thing that was missing was the gloves, footwear of any kind, a mask, as well as the additions of my later versions.
But I decided against it. If my fears proved to be correct, and they were venomous, the risk of them biting and somehow penetrating or even grazing my skin through my costume could be fatal. And unless I
exhausted all my options, I'd rather not risk being on the wrong side of their natural weapons.
Another thing that added to my precarious situation was the sack of spider web at the abdomen of one of those spiders.
I had to suppress a chuckle at seeing that. The universe must have it out for me, getting me into this situation, serving as a brooding stock for a newly hatched generation of super-spiders. Was that karma? I never even considered since the day I got my powers that insects could be the cause of my death.
I let my eyes wander in the hope of finding anything within reach that might help me, but unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky. The only thing I could find in this wooden indentation I was lying in under the clear sky was some strange-looking fruit next to the wall opposite of me. There was no weapon of any kind, not even a stick I could use to somehow pry them off of me.
Great, just great. If Contessa wouldn't already be on the top of my shit list, this, throwing me into a hole with a fruit and two potentially deadly spiders would promote her there instantly.
I focused my view back onto the spiders and sighed, more mumbling to myself than anything else
"You wouldn't happen to understand me, would you?"
Both spiders turned their heads slightly at my words. Holy... that couldn't be true. But that would explain this foreign vibe I got from those spiders and their unnerving gaze, dissecting me from the moment I opened my eyes. They are intelligent, and if my suspicion was correct, they could at least understand me.
I felt a cold shudder run along my spine. Intelligent spiders; that screamed Bonesaw to me. Until now, I suppressed this train of thought, hoping that the strange characteristics of those spiders could be explained by me just being dropped onto an alternate earth with some unfamiliar indigenous spider species. But this new discovery drastically reduced the chances for this being true.
I stopped myself there. It was no use to over-analyzing a situation. There were any number of plausible explanations for those spiders, and should it turn out to be Bonesaw, then that just meant I might get the chance to rectify the mistake of allowing her to live back in the day.
I once more addressed the spiders.
"Would you please be so kind as to get off me?"
Without any delay, the spiders followed my request and crawled off me. I waited until they were a few inches away from me until I sat upright. And what I saw when I did wasn't something I was happy about.
If I previously thought, that being in a wooden indentation with a strange fruit and two spiders, was bad. I had no idea what to call discovering that what I previously thought was a wooden indentation in the ground somewhere turned out to be a small boat in the fucking middle of an ocean with no land in sight.
And it really wasn't a surprise that I wasn't able to recognize this any faster because the water was completely undisturbed. There weren't any waves, no movement, nothing. The water was utterly calm.
Yeah, those were the moments, where you were made painfully aware of the English language's inability to express this cluster fuck of a situation I found myself in. Just to make an attempt would mean I had to make use of a comparative of a superlative, which simply didn't exist.
Perhaps I could use my last few days while dying of thirst to remedy this oversight. Nah, my time was better served in making plans, in how to best end Contessa in case I survived this and was granted the pleasure to meet her again. Because not even a godly intervention itself would be enough to save her, let alone her power when I get my hands on her.
It wouldn't all be so bad if this boat would at least have a sail, a motor, or some paddle that would allow me to row, not that I would know in what direction I should steer, but at least it would give me something to do aside from waiting to die.
Well, the situation was not all bad, while letting my vision travel the horizon, I took note that I saw sharp outlines of my surroundings. This meant not only that my arm got restored to pristine condition but apparently my eyes too. Therefore I could soothe myself in the knowledge that I won't see anything blurred in my final moments.
I laid back down my head against one side of the boat and turned my look back on the spiders.
"You wouldn't happen to know which way I can find land and how we can get out of this situation and not die cruel prolonged deaths?"
They answered with a shake of their head, which I interpreted as a no.
"Yeah, figured as much it would have been too easy otherwise, wouldn't it?"
Since the spiders looked somehow lost, standing in the middle of the boat, I said.
"If you like, you can come back here." I pointed at my lap.
At my words, they nearly went head over heels to get back to me, like some overeager puppies. I couldn't stop myself from smiling. Well, at least I wouldn't be dying alone.
They made themselves comfortable.
"May I touch you?"
Once again, they reacted to my question, in easy to understand motion by nodding with their heads. How intelligent were those spiders?
I reached for them. The first thing I noticed, their carapaces were cool to my touch, despite being black on a sunny and warm day. I would say they were too cold, perhaps this had something to do with the fact that their exoskeleton was interlinked similar to scales on a reptile.
Arthropods were ectothermic, commonly known as cold-blooded, so it made sense that they would be in need of the warmth I generated.
I could only speculate their intelligence, the only thing that really made them stand out, to be responsible for why I couldn't control them.
If not for this, I had no explanation. Still, I never got the vibe that any characteristic, no matter how out of place it might seem, would prevent my powers from working as long as the creature qualified as something my passenger had dominion over.
Even if I assumed I still retained my jailbroken powers, those two spiders should be under my control. They certainly were big enough for them not to fall under the creatures my widened and shifted powers no longer could affect because this pertained only to the smallest of bugs in my swarm, a size they definitely surpassed many times over.
Since my thoughts were clear, with me able to string together more than one coherent thought. The easiest explanation I could come up with for this was that I no longer held my jailbroken powers.
As a result, I theorized that I really must have lost my powers. My earlier conclusion was based upon thinking that I was on land, and there was just no way for there not to be any bugs within my reach. But on the ocean, it was another story;
If it weren't for this, in case, I still had my powers, I should be able to control my two new friends. Ergo, no control means no powers.
I closed my eyes. This would definitely prove to be an interesting turn of events. Should I ever set foot on land again and reach civilization - as unlikely as it seems given my predicament - it will be hard to survive without any advantages to my name. Because after what I did, I fully expect the whole world to be after me, for various reasons anything else would really surprise me.
I stopped myself again from going too deep into this particular rabbit hole until I had a better grasp of my situation. Every conclusion I drew here was done from incomplete and possibly faulty information and was nothing more than mere conjecture and speculation.
I should rest; conserve my strength; Something told me I was gonna need every ounce of it.
-----
The next time I awoke, it was in the middle of the night. I looked up at the stars. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to make out any star constellation I was familiar with. I never thought the things I learned in summer camp would ever prove to be useful. But this discovery opened a whole new can of worms.
Because as far as I was aware, the existence of parallel earths created by the entities was a localized effect. Consequently, it should in no way affect other star-systems or even galaxies. For this reason very reason, I assumed that I would have no trouble recognizing at least a few of the constellations in the sky. At first, I considered just being in a different hemisphere, but even then, I was confident in identifying the most prominent ones.
This didn't bode well for me if I ever wanted to return home. Just where the hell was I dropped off to.
With those thoughts on my mind, I drifted back to sleep.
-----
I woke the next day, with dry lips and an even dryer mouth. The sun was standing on its peak on a cloudless day and was burning relentlessly down on me. With nothing on hand to shield myself from the sun to create some relieving shadow, I had to endure the full might of the sun-generated heat. This wouldn't be all too bad, if I could prevent my body from excreting sweat, wasting precious water, and reducing my already limited time further.
I slightly caressed my new pets. It took some soft prompting to wake them up, but I eventually succeeded. Given their affectionateness, they either came to like me a lot, or I was just that comfortable to lie on.
I carefully placed them next to myself and sat upright. I looked at my surroundings and saw exactly what I expected to see, water as far and wide as I could see in every direction. Combined with the fact that there still was not a single cloud in the sky meant only one thing; no water in the foreseeable future, at least water that didn't kill me faster like drinking the seawater would.
I was already dehydrated, and consuming the saltwater around my little boat, would just serve to aggravate this state. This just emphasized my earlier conclusion that I was going to die of thirst, and as a result, would be spared from dying of starvation, not sure what was the nicer way to perish.
I was sure someone, somewhere, debated the intricacies of both and came to a valid conclusion. Unfortunately, I didn't get to choose.
My eyes once more found this strange-looking fruit lying in the opposite corner of the boat. I already debated to eat it several times but didn't think of it as a good idea, simply because I had never seen anything even remotely like it. And thanks to globalization you could buy next to everything suitable for human consumption in a supermarket.
This could only mean because I haven't seen such a fruit at least once in my life, that the fruit was not something to be eaten.
In the time since I discovered that the constellations in the night sky didn't match any one of those, I learned of as a child.
Leading to the realization that I more than likely was no longer on earth or any variation thereof.
The consequence of that train of thought made this fruit rather interesting. Simply because my earlier data, I based my reasoning on was flawed. Therefore the conclusion I arrived at to not eat it was invalid too. Of course, that didn't mean the fruit would have no adverse effects on me. It might still be poisonous or detrimental in other ways, but it also meant there was a chance for it to be edible.
I crawled over to it, and for a single moment, I was confronted with doubt; With the question of whether attempting to eat it was the right thing to do. Because if it didn't accelerate my death, it would extend my life, and the outlook of that happening currently wasn't exactly the best. At worst, it would merely result in prolonging my suffering.
I suppressed those thoughts vehemently, because listening to them, considering them to be true, seemed like accepting defeat.
In the past, it never occurred to me to give up. After all, I went through with the longshots I attempted and succeeded in; I was not going to just roll over and die. If there was a chance, no matter how slim to live for just a second longer, I was gonna take it; I had no intention of dying here, I was going to live!
With this newfound conviction, I picked it up. The fruit the same size as a pineapple was strangely shaped, resembling a calyx, with eight half-opened petals surrounding the center, allowing for a look inside. The whole fruit had this eerie black color, which on second thought from a distance it could be mistaken with a spider pulling all her legs close to her body.
I looked back to my two spider companions, who attentively watched my every move. It couldn't be a coincidence waking up on a boat together with two spiders and a fruit that looks like one. I disregarded this thought. If you look at something long enough, you were always able to make out some kind of pattern. This was just my mind trying to play tricks on me.
I brought the fruit to my mouth and took a bite out of it. It had a similar texture as an orange, which was good because eating it would allow me to restore some water. I was about to rejoice at this until my dried-out taste buds started working again, and I had to force myself not to vomit and spit it out.
Until now, I had never encountered anything even remotely tasting as disgusting as this fruit, and I was on more than one grill party of the dockworkers. They managed to prove over and over again that they must have invented the word disgusting, considering some of their creations.
I shuddered at the mere memory.
I was not even able to describe the taste of the fruit. There simply didn't exist words for it. Would I still be on Earth Bet, and this fruit happened to be indigenous there; the taste alone would explain why I never heard of it.
No sane person would eat it as long as alternatives were available, and even then, I was not sure if most would eat it. Hell, I was considering throwing it overboard; and I was starving.
But I couldn't allow myself to waste any water, no matter how insignificant the amount. With no small amount of willpower expedited, I was finally able to overcome my gag reflex and swallowed it.
I looked back at the fruit, only a few hundred mouthfuls of it left to go. Grimacing, I took the next bite out of it.
It took me hours that felt like weeks of the most inhuman torture imaginable until I finished eating the whole fruit. During the whole process of consuming it, my two eight-legged friends never removed their eyes from me and practically started cheering me on.
The more I ate, the livelier and excited they got. For the most part, I tried to ignore them.
Some assumptions accompanied this observation, mostly because I didn't think it to be plausible that their delight stemmed from the fact that I was eating something deadly, thereby accelerating my demise and, as a result, the advent of their new breeding stock.
Unfortunately, other attempts to explain this behavior were even more inconclusive. Why should they be elated when I ate something? I put this question on my ever-growing list of things I would like answered should I survive and returned to my former sleeping place, where I lied down in an attempt to conserve energy and most of all water.
I didn't have enough time to even close my eyes when my two friends looked at me with their best imitation of a puppy dog's eyes.
I sighed and motioned them to get in my lap, which didn't necessitate further prompting. They scurried in it in the blink of an eye. But something was different, they sat there, and it looked like they wanted something from me, not sure of what it might be. I placed one hand on top of the male spider.
This simple touch without any cloth between the point of contact felt indescribable as if a circuit was closed for the first time allowing a current to run its course. I snap like withdrew my hand, not a second after I did, the tingling feeling that starting from my spread and tried to
encompass my whole body subsided.
What the... this didn't happen before, but the only thing different between then and now was, that I ate the fruit. There had to be a connection.
I saw the spider looking at me disappointed.
"You liked that, whatever it was?"
He nodded with his head in response, and I had a short debate with myself if I should risk it to try it again, whatever it was that just happened.
Ultimately I decided to do it again. Two reasons stood out. For one, my overall situation couldn't objectively get any worse, and second, my spider friends didn't strike me as having ulterior motives. Quite the opposite, to be honest. I got the feeling that our interests were aligned and that they had my well-being at heart.
The reason eluded me, sure it would be possible to narrow it down considerably, but there was only so much you can get out of someone with only being able to ask yes or no questions. For this reason, I thought it best to save my breath in a form the outset next to a hopeless and time-consuming endeavor when I could simply get the same answers in less time by undergoing a little risk.
At this point, it wouldn't matter anyway. Since I was already in free fall without a parachute, so nothing was preventing me from trying to fly... after all, I had nothing to lose.
I reached for the spider again. But this time, I was prepared for the sudden influx of this sensation. Allowing, me to get a full picture of what was going on.
My initial impression wasn't wrong, but it didn't convey it in the right context since I only caught a glimpse of the proceedings. As a result, it wasn't correct to describe it as completing a circuit. For the simple reason, that this metaphor implied, for there to be two parts of a whole getting reconnected again to once more complete each other.
This, however, was different, in the sense that it had two already complete components making contact with each other. One subsuming the willing other to create something else, something new, something so much more than their individual parts could ever have hoped to be, fusing and evolving both.
I lost myself in the myriad of impressions. By the time I came to, I couldn't help to notice that the sun had moved on to a quite considerable degree.
However, that wasn't the only thing different than before. Combined with my usual senses, I was seeing myself through eight eyes, from a position on my abdomen.
In addition, a whole new set of limbs and a new body joined my bodily awareness. It was a different feedback than the one I was used to from my late power; With it, the creatures under my control were just that under my control.
Of course, my power had informed me about their state of being. But for all that, there was never any doubt that I was only controlling something external. Sitting in the driver's seat of their bodies steering all of their actions. This, however, felt like the body of the spider was indistinguishable from my own that we were one, just apart.
It was a strange feeling suddenly being at two places, to be two beings at the same time.
In retrospect, my power back then compared to this new sensation as if there was at least one step of separation between them and me; sluggish, apart, and distant. A fissure that now with this new power got closed. What once was two connected with each other now became an us.
I could still feel the fading consciousness of the spider slowly molding and fusing with myself. The bliss he felt when he gave himself up to become part of something greater, of me.
The spider felt fulfillment as if its whole purpose in life lead it to this situation, and it could now fulfill its raison d´etre.
Experiencing the echo of his feeling was exhilarating, to say the least, as was this new state of being I embody. I felt strange but not in a bad way; I was not sure how to describe it. I withdrew into myself and listened to my body, tried to fathom the changes this brought upon me.
After some introspection, I came to the conclusion that the spider -or more accurately, his self- didn't vanish entirely in this merger. I could still sense parts of him, existing under the surface of our new self, ready to be called upon, waiting to serve.
When I reopened my eyes, the female spider sat on my torso on that body part other women would call their breasts and was demanding through her whole body language not to be left out.
"You want it, too?"
As a response, she made to steps towards my face and awkwardly attempted to hug my face with her front-legs.
"You are quite the impatient one, aren't you."
The response I received could be best described as the spider version of blushing. I reached for the spider and started the merging process, and suddenly everything went wrong. Instead of making the connection to one spider as I expected, I made it to hundreds, and by the time I realized my mistake -that I had forgotten about the egg sack- it was already too late to stop the merger.
This time, I didn't lose myself in a controlled myriad of impressions. This time, I was lost in a cataclysmic storm. It felt like I was ripped apart, forming hundreds of connections, fusing together with what was found at the end only to try and meld together as one.
With dread, I found out I overextended. It took more effort than anything else I've experienced only to prevent myself from shattering into hundreds of pieces.
Every time a part of me drifted away, fusing faster than one of the others it pulled at me. Attempting to draw out more of me and, as a result taking it away from all the other connections. By doing so, threatening to destroy the spider-net I found myself being made into disrupting the carefully maintained status quo.
It turned out to be a balancing act of the highest order to prevent myself from being severed into tiny little pieces while under the assault of all those sensory expressions.
Without my experience and me somehow retaining my multitasking ability, another thing the bleed over seemed to let me keep, I was able to prevail in this life and death struggle but not without cost.
The longer this merger took, the more I could feel myself getting weaker physically and mentally. By the time I was finished, there was next to nothing left.
I'd never felt exhaustion even close to this before, and my last thoughts before darkness took me pertained to the fact that I might never regain consciousness before dying.
I found myself confined to a dark haze, but sometimes there were flashes of awareness, for the most part, filtered through the eight eyes of a spider. I saw the sunset and rise more than once, and I noticed the more time elapsed, the more impenetrable the haze appeared to be.
I couldn't help, but wonder was this how dying was like? Slowly being dragged further, and further into a never-ending darkness?
It never came to that, me vanishing into the darkness. There was another flash. I saw, looking through the eyes of the adult spiders, as a hand reached over the edge of the boat.
A moment later, another hand was placed next to the first one, followed by a light jerk that set the whole boat into a swinging motion these hands hoisted a body over the edge.
I saw a middle-aged dark blonde well-built guy with a naked torso standing there, to which my spiders took exception. They hissed at him and took a defensive position upon my belly, ready to attack this person at a moment's notice.
I saw his lips move, but I heard no sound neither from him nor my spiders. The only reason that I even knew of their threatening gestures was owed to the fact that I also caught glimpses of the signal their brains sent to their bodies.
The man took a step forward, his arms raised in a non-threatening gesture, one I knew my spiders wouldn't heed, they decided to protect me, and they would or die trying.
When he took the next step, the male spider jumped towards the jugular of the man. I barely saw movement until I felt a searing pain on the same scale as I experienced by being bisected by Scion.
The next thing I saw, looking through the eyes of the female spider, was the two bisected halves of her male counterpart landing left and right on the ground next to the man; his fangs never even came close to reaching him. He gave the spider a glare with such intensity that I was sure a slight increase in it would evaporate everything in its path.
The message it contained was clear if you don't attack me, I would grant you the same courtesy. His lips moved again, and I started to hate the fact that I never learned how to lip-read. But whatever he said was enough to pacify the female spider, because shortly after he stopped talking, she lied down on me, still following his every move but no longer with hostile intent.
I wondered how he managed to kill my spider? He must have utilized some kind of power. The only ones I could think of able to that were either a form of air/wind manipulation or using the edge of the force field to garner this result. Either way, the ease with which he used it to dispose of the spider, who was not only fast but also quite sturdy, instantly bumped his threat rating to a high degree. Simply, because whatever it was he did, it didn't seem to be Manton-limited. Which made him a threat on the same level or greater than Narwhal.
The man, wearing the strangest goatee I have ever seen, looked around for some time and then jumped back into the water, my spider noticed that the ship was slightly askew, which could only mean that we moved. Given the angle of the ship, it had to be at quite the high-speed. Something, I only thought possible with the use of a motor.
At that point, I lost the connection to the awareness of my remaining spider. Hence I found myself back alone in the darkness.
To my surprise, I could still feel the male spider's presence. Never having left me despite what happened to his body, curious.
I noticed how he siphoned the last vestiges of power from the well representing it, which served to further weaken me. I tried to get him to stop, but all my effort were in vain.
I couldn't be sure if this was an automatic function of my new power, or I was just unable to influence it because of the condition I found myself in.
I decided to at least find out to what end my power was used and tried my best to examine this procedure. It seemed to be a reasonable endeavor to gather more information about it. After all, it was in the process of killing me, and I couldn't be sure it would halt before succeeding.
I followed the path the power took to its destination. To my astonishment, it was used to slowly rebuilding the body of my dead male spider. It finally all started to make sense why they were so keen on fusing with me. Apparently, we not only became one improved being, but it also served for them to gain some form of immortality.
Given what I knew some would do to reach even an incomplete version of it like I assumed this one to be, I could understand their actions.
However, there had to be more to this. The more I thought about it, the more I was certain of it. Because I doubted that everything I got out of it in return were a few loyal companions.
Unfortunately, I was in no state to pursue that question, at least until I woke again. If I ever did.
I felt myself weakening more and more until the darkness encompassed the last vestiges of my consciousness and was devoured by it. In my last coherent thought, I considered myself lucky in ending this way instead of the alternative and cruel way of dying by thirst would have been.
-----
I woke up with my whole body feeling exhausted and sluggish. My dark hair had fallen over my eyes. I had never thought raising my hand would ever create difficulties. With some effort, I managed to remove my hair from impeding my vision.
I found myself lying on a bed draped in a blanket. To my right, there was a small table; Placed on top of it was a glass of water and a plate filled with food.
I didn't waste any time and reached for the glass. With greedy gulps out of it, I quenched my thirst and only set it down again after emptying it to the last drop.
It was essential for the process of recovery to get back the lost liquid, I knew that my bodily awareness couldn't be accurate, not after it went through such an ordeal, but I could swear I already noticed a difference. The exhaustion and sluggishness were slowly receding and a resemblance of strength returning to my limbs.
But why did I wake up? My condition should have only gotten worse without any food or water intake. Aside from the water now in my belly, I was sure nothing found its way there since this disgusting fruit.
I didn't fail to note that I wasn't alone in my bed, my eight-legged companions were there, and if the empty bowls at the foot-end of my bed were any indication, they already gorged themselves on food and water and entered a digestive nap.
Not that I could fault them for that. I took some of the food from the table and let the hunger take over my actions. It felt incredible to eat something after the ordeal I went through.
While eating, my thoughts drifted back to the spiders. Were they the reason for my awakening? Then eating and somehow sharing what energy this provided? I would have loved to ask them about it. But if my hunch turned out to be true, I wouldn't want to disturb their sleep. Because then they would have more than earned it.
I devoured the food and only stopped when nothing was left on the once full plates.
I hadn't placed them back more than a few seconds ago when the door to the room I found myself in was opened. A tall dark-haired woman who wore a long-sleeved v-necked top that displayed her rather vast female assets stepped into the room.
I suppressed the envy my younger self would have felt at seeing her and focused on the important details. Her bare midriff was toned, not unlike what my stomach used to look like when I was in the wards.
I pegged her to be around forty forty-five, perhaps older, not because she looked the part but because she gave off an air of experience similar to the one I sensed from Miss Militia. Going solely by her outward appearance, she didn't look older than her mid-thirties, but I learned a long time ago to trust more than simply what my eyes perceived.
And this woman had far more depth to her than her looks, and this way perceived age could account for. Despite the obvious unhealthy lifestyle she must lead, judging by the burning cigarette between her lips. I still got the impression that in hand-to-hand combat she could crush me like a bug, which I doubted any none brute would be able to do even without my powers.
Of course, first impressions aren't suitable and sufficient to form an educated guess. But I had learned to trust my instincts, and they rarely disappointed me, especially in rating how dangerous my opposite is.
Behind her followed the man I remember seeing through my spiders. He was now wearing a loose shirt and glasses. I noticed that above and under one of his eyes he sported a vertical scar.
What set me on edge wasn't this injury driving the point home that he must be an experienced fighter or the fact that I saw him display a power, but the way he held himself, the presence he gave off.
I have met people like him, people who can step into a room and own it demands respect from the occupants without even trying, certain of themselves to such a frightening degree that they didn't just think they can take anyone in it. No, this level of assuredness is only present in the ones who are sure of it. People, who fought countless battles against overwhelming odds and came out on top.
I have met people like this in the past Contessa, Alexandria, Jack Slash, but also I came to mind. In my time in the Wards, I repeatedly watched video material of myself and what I could glimpse of his mannerism had a strong resemblance to the Skitter I saw in those videos. Strolling into the PRT headquarters without a care in the world and taking down their Capes and other personnel left and right as if they were nothing more than some annoying pest.
He was on a completely different level than the woman. He closed the door behind him, barring the sight I had outside, to what looked like the interior of a bar, according to the few people I could make out sitting at tables and drinking some beverages out of big glasses. They wore strange clothes and were armed with weapons; was that a cutlass?
Before I could think on it and come up with some reason aside from being Halloween as to why someone should have such weapons on them, both the man and the woman seated themselves on some chairs they moved next to the bed I occupied, and I heard the woman say:
"Oh, you are already up. That's unusual. I came here prepared to force-feed you while unconscious to get your body to regain enough strength for you to wake up."
She stared at me for a moment in deep thought until she continued.
"It wouldn't have anything to do with those spiders and their particular strong appetite, wouldn't it?"
She came to the same conclusion as me with fewer data points. She was sharp this one. Instead of confirming her suspicions, I asked.
"Who are you?"
She was caught flat-footed by this question and took a few moments to get back her bearings.
"How rude of me. I totally forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Shakuyaku, but I'm usually called Shaky and this one."
She gestures towards her male companion.
"is called Ray, or as he is otherwise known as Silvers Rayleigh"
Authors Note: I considered for some time to introduce a language barrier. But ultimately decided against it. It would be cumbersome to get around it and slow down the pace in the next few chapters to a crawl...
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well now this is certainly an interesting concept for a story. I don't get to see much Worm X One Piece stories nowadays and this one has a lot of potential.
A lot of derailing and new stuff will pop out with Taylor here and considering that she is gonna have some pretty strong abilities at the start? Well lets just say that she'll be terrifying as fuck.
Thanks for the prologue and keep up the good work! You got yourself a loyal follower.
A lot of derailing and new stuff will pop out with Taylor here and considering that she is gonna have some pretty strong abilities at the start? Well lets just say that she'll be terrifying as fuck.
Thanks for the prologue and keep up the good work! You got yourself a loyal follower.
- Pronouns
- It/They
Okay, I don't want to be a downer, especially because One piece/Worm crossover fics are so rare... but I gotta ask.
Is English your first language?
Because this fic switches between being incredibly overly formal/exact in its diction and just being flat out wrong in terms of grammar.
It really kind of looks like english isn't your first language.
I would recommend trying to find someone to beta read your stuff if you could.
Is English your first language?
Because this fic switches between being incredibly overly formal/exact in its diction and just being flat out wrong in terms of grammar.
It really kind of looks like english isn't your first language.
I would recommend trying to find someone to beta read your stuff if you could.
Well - I did say
in my informational post -
- Location
- A Tropical Island in the Pacific
Nice. I wonder what terrifying image dear old Taylor would be able to cultivate in this new world. Can't wait to see what path she'll choose
Chapter 02 - The Pirate Kings Right Hand
Chapter 02: The Pirate Kings Right Hand (Spring 1504)
The way she emphasized his name made it clear to me that his name was of some importance, which can only mean that she was gauging my reaction to hearing it, probably as some kind of test. Was she trying to use the reputation this man undoubtedly had in some way, to cave me, to get me to behave? For what purpose I could only guess. Could she be aware of me being Khepri? Or what I think was by far more likely, this guy is so huge not knowing him would indicate that I was not from around here, whatever here in this context means.
Considering, that she displayed a smug grin, which would undoubtedly have won any Lisa impersonation completion, hands down. I feared she might have already gotten the answer to her question without me actually saying anything.
Hence I just asked him,
"what do you want ?"
"Oh, You think us not worthy of receiving an answer to our question. You are a quite bold and ungrateful young Lady aren't you ?"
She said playfully.
"Please, we both know that you already got what you were after. So why don't we cut this game short and you tell me what it is you want ?"
I said annoyed.
She smiled at that and turned to the other occupant of the room.
"Oh, you hear that Ray she is not only sharp with her tongue but also with her mind. I like her already. You always come across the most intriguing things," She said.
The response of this Ray person was a hearty laugh. I somehow got the impression I was not privy to some kind of inside joke.
"To answer your question, we want you to relieve our boredom," she said turning back to me holding my gaze challenging.
I expected a lot of things, with being blackmailed making the top of my list should they have recognized me. Simply deduced from the fact, that I wasn't already dead. What was by no means an unrealistic assumption, why else should they even talk to me since I was pretty sure that the whole world, no scratch that more than one world would love nothing more than to see me dead. And I was sure there are a lot of people out and about leaving no stone unturned to find me with the intention to either see to my untimely end or enslave me.
But reliving boredom, that definitely wasn't something that came to mind. And my face probably gave away my disbelief and outrage, because she saw the need to explain her statement.
"You see, we both had to give up our way of life as a consequence of circumstances out of our control, not that we regret our timely retirement. But we weren't exactly allowed to ease into it, one day we were still pirates sea-wind blowing in our faces adventure an island away and the next day we were lying in the sun with so much time on our hands that we didn't know what to do with it."
Did she just say Pirates, with a short glance I tried to spot a Hospital Wristband, unfortunately, I didn't find one and according to her facial expression, she was serious and wasn't trying to deceive me.
But Pirates on Earth Bet with Leviathan around, would be an unprofitable profession, solidifying my suspicion of no longer being there to almost fact.
"So we came up with ways to satisfy our need for excitement."
"And I'm the recent means toward that end if I understand you correctly." I tried to clarify.
"See, I told you she was smart." was the response I received, mostly aimed at Ray.
I wasn't willing to participate in some kind of sick pastime of those two and I had every intention of making that clear without fail.
"Then I'm sorry to inform you, that you have to search elsewhere for whatever it is you are searching. I'm neither willing nor do I have the time to take part in it. I have better things to do, first of all, finding a way to get home. I'm grateful for you saving my life. "
I then channeled my inner Skitter and made my next words as threatening as possible.
"But make no mistake, my gratefulness only goes so far, and if you dare to stand in my way you are gonna regret it."
I was fed up with being thought of as the plaything of others, Emma, Sophia, Coil, Dinah, Tagg, Alexandria, Jack and Contessa came to mind. All in their own way trying to remove my agency, manipulating attempting to use me. I had enough and my frustration at not being able to really change that in the past must have found its way into my statement, those feelings somehow gave more weight to my words, they felt heavier on my tongue, and speaking them took a lot more effort and energy than it should have.
Suddenly I felt drained the whole progress I made towards my recovery was reset and I felt far weaker than when I woke, but that wasn't the only change I noticed I gained access to the senses of a lot spiders, in quite some distance all around me. Not just that, my access wasn't limited to their perception I could control them all, similar to how I was able to, in the past.
It even felt similar to give them commands and receive their sensory perception, completely different in comparison to how two spiders at my side were a part of me, indistinguishable from one of my limbs. No, this felt similar to using my old power.
But that wasn't all my little outbreak accomplished, through the eyes of one spider, who built her net in the corner of the bar I was in, I saw everyone in it being unconscious. Shakky and Ray were looking at me without a hint of playfulness left in their facial expression, instead they displayed a seriousness I last saw in the faces of capes seconds before taking the field against an Endbringer.
"Was that ..."
Shakky started to ask but is interrupted by Ray before she got the opportunity to finish her question.
"Yeah, it was. But I never came across a similar coloration, this was unique."
He started to crawl his goatee for a moment lost in thought before he said.
"Shakky you should take care of our esteemed customers, while our guest and I have to talk."
His tone didn't allow any objection. She left the room without a word.
The exhaustion got to me, I started to feel dizzy and had to use the bedrest to lean against in order to keep sitting upright.
Meanwhile, more questions wanted to be answered, why now? I was already days on this planet why did I regain my old powers now and not days ago? Were they somehow suppressed? Drugs came to mind, given the duration a mental barrier that I just broke seemed also plausible.
But those theories couldn't explain why the people out in the bar are now drooling on the tables in their unconscious state, even if I gained some aspects of my Khepri power set this couldn't be explained by it, I was never able to let people faint and why were neither Ray and Shakky affected by it? But most puzzling was the fact, that they seemed to have recognized what I did, but if I credited this to my powers this should be impossible. Powers are unique sure there are overlaps and sometimes from an observers' perspective different powers can have the same result and therefore can be mistaken for each other, but this didn't seem to be the case here.
Shakky and Ray seem to have come across my exact power set, or if I gave weight to his words the same power set with a minor alteration. I decided to stop asking myself all those questions and instead tried to get some answers from the man sitting next to me.
"Where are you from ?" he asked taking me by surprise before I could voice one of my own.
I was considering not to answer, lying would require having a modicum of an idea of where I was to make it believable. The other option would be to fake amnesia, but for one I didn't think he would believe me after my stunt a few seconds ago and it might sour the already strained relation we had, and I didn't want to repeat the mistakes that got me in this situation in the first place.
Of course, I didn't go from unhealthy paranoia to helplessly naive, with those spiders falling under my control I got an excellent idea of my surroundings and was already in the process of mapping it. You might never know when it might come in handy, but I was a realist I didn't think me capable to get away from Ray, let alone win a fight against him given the limited resources at my disposal and my condition.
I was sure if Lisa was here with me, she would have given me the worlds longest lecture about my inability to trust and shouldering all alone. So for once in my recent life, I gave a person the benefit of the doubt. I just hoped I wouldn't come to regret it.
"Earth Bet, Brockton Bay Massachusetts United States of America," I recited.
He pondered my answer for a moment and then said.
"I have never heard of an Island by that name."
And with this simple sentence, I finally got confirmation, of me being on a different Earth, or was it planet? Worst of all the term Earth Bet seemed to have no meaning for him.
"It isn't the name of an Island Earth Bet is the denotation given the Planet I'm from. Brockton Bay is the name of the town I grew up in, which is located in the state by the name Massachusetts located in the country called the United States of America."
I clarified and as I suspected his incredulous expression said enough.
"You never came across any of those names?" I asked, "Do you perhaps know the location of any portals connecting to different worlds ?"
"No, I don't." those three words he calmly said casually crushed a lot of my hopes.
"Great, just great." I couldn´t help myself from exclaiming.
That meant getting home wouldn't be easy, but when was anything I did ever easy?
"Tell me, how do you know to use Haoshoku Haki ?" he asked in response.
"Hao what?" I wondered.
"The ability you used to knock out the people on the other side of the door is known as Haoshoku Haki or the color of intimidation, some call it Conqueror Haki." He explained. "I've come across people who could utilize it many times, but I never felt anything like yours. Something was different when you used it."
"Can this ability, this Haoshoku Haki be used to do something besides knock people out?" I asked," and how exactly does this work ?"
"I doubt it." he said "I've only ever seen it used in a form of intimidation it allows you to overpower the will of others, depending on the difference between the user of the power and the recipients this power can be used to intimidate them, in a roundabout way it serves to declare yourself their better. Most animals and beasts react particularly strongly to this, festering the belief of you being their alpha. And if the gulf is wide between you and them it allows you to knock them out, their willpower just not being enough to stand in your very presence."
"Except for people like you and Shakky, I'm guessing possessing an incredible strong will prevents one from being affected by it." I expanded upon his explanation.
"Exactly" he confirmed.
Whoa, wait what, the way he described this ability he made it sound as if everybody could learn how to use it. Did this mean it wasn't a parahuman power?
"So everybody with strong Will can use this color of Intimidation?"
He laughed at my question.
"No, of course not." He said. "You have to been born with the ability. It is said that only one in over a million has it, but even then most never awaken the ability or learn to utilize it during their lifetime."
My curiosity piqued I questioned,
"How do you awaken this power ?"
"It varies," he said, "some do it in stressful situations and others through rigorous training."
Stressful situations wasn't that in a roundabout way the very description of a trigger event, but training? I have never heard of a para-human claiming getting powers through training. His other comments were implying, that he met people possessing this Haoshoku Haki, which meant more than one person having the exact same power. It sounded more and more like something different than a power granted by a passenger. What was going on? That was when I remembered how he took out my spider.
"If this Haki can only do that, how did you kill my spider?" I prodded "what kind of power was that?"
Meanwhile, the spider in the bar watched Shakky searching all of her unconscious customers for their valuables and money, piling it in the center of the room.
"Oh, that was me projecting a wind blade with the tip of my fingers," he said.
"So you do have a power, a special ability?" I asked.
"Of course not, how else could I have been able to swim."
He said matter of fact.
I was confused.
"What has the ability to swim to do with the powers you demonstrated?"
He looked at me as if I just said the dumbest thing he ever heard.
"Every user of an Akuma no Mi losses his ability to swim, isn't that common knowledge where you are from?"
"What is an Akuma no Mi?" I wondered.
"You really have never heard of it?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Akuma no Mi or as they are otherwise known as Devil Fruits provides every person who ate one of them with special abilities. They are divided into three major classes, Logia, Zoan, and Paramecia. A Logia devil fruit transforms the body of the person having eaten it into a certain element like fire, giving them the ability to create and control this element. Furthermore, by transforming in said element it allows the user to become intangible. They are by most regarded as the strongest fruit type because it takes special means to nullify the intangibility they grant and not everybody can do that, which makes the wielder of such a fruit power an invincible foe to all those lacking such an ability."
That sounded like some kind of Breaker state, curious. I wondered if those special measures he alluded to were other such powers or was it something else.
"Then there are the Zoan type fruit," he continued to explain "they allow the user to transform into a certain creature type like a wolf or lion and a mixed form of this creature and the form the consumer of the fruit possessed before eating it. Those fruits are for the most part straight forward boosting the physical capabilities of the user base form when transformed. It is even said that there doesn't exist a limit for the physical peak a Zoan user can reach. There are also ancient and mythical Zoan type fruits out there, they are even scarcer and said to be more powerful than Logia by granting the special abilities those creatures are known for adding other advantages."
So in essence they grant a changer and brute rating linked to a certain species mythological or not, the most interesting part of them seemed to be the fact, that they seem to work as a multiplier of the physical capabilities of its user and if it is true they remove the ceiling on such, they sound really interesting. A power allowing for growth always is, after all.
"And last there are the Paramecia class of fruits, they encompass everything that doesn't fit in the other two categories. Be it transforming you into steel, allowing you to shoot beams with special characteristics to bestowing other kinds of abilities."
That was really vague, not sure what to think of such a broad classification. Even the PRT classification with all its pitfalls and inaccuracy was leagues better than this.
"And everybody who has eaten such a fruit losses his or her ability to swim?" I asked him.
After Shakky was done with relieving everybody of anything worth something she grabbed those people and dragged them outside, two or more at a time. Men who were at least twice as heavy as her, and she carried them like I would a newborn kitten, without any visible effort.
Whenever she reached the entrance she threw them outside like a bag of trash without a care in the world, and they flew a dozen meters away. To be able to do that you at least need to have a mid-tier brute rating.
If her customers are usually treated this way the name of this establishment, "Shakky Rip of Bar" is awfully accurate. And I wondered what had to possess you to entertain the idea to use an establishment named like that.
"Yes, this is the one common weakness all the Devil Fruits share with each other. Seawater in general can be used to weaken devil fruit users, but only complete submersion robs them of the ability to move. There also exist Seastone, a stone imbued with the characteristics of the sea, which can do the same with a simple touch, there are people out there using weapons made out of it to be able to fight against fruit users." Rayleigh told me.
"That means this wind blade attack is something everybody can learn how to do?" I asked.
"With dedication, yes."
He made it sound like it was no big deal, that apparently everybody had the potential to learn abilities, which would be declared super-powers on Earth Bet. And then there were those Devil Fruits able to impart powers without the recipient having to go through a trigger event, aside from this no swimming weakness that came with consuming them they came across awfully similar to what a passenger might grant his host. Could they be this Planets' version of it? A different approach from the Entities? After all, Cauldron sold powers in a bottle, as a drinkable liquid therefore powers to eat were close in concept.
"Those devil fruits didn't just appear on this world from one day to the next after one or two strange beings made their appearance. Beings who had a multitude of strange abilities at their disposal?" I asked.
"No, those fruits were around since a long time ago, why do you ask?"
He narrowed his eyes at this question.
"The powers granted by these Devil Fruits are they specific to the Fruit or is there some process tying the power to the circumstances in which they are consumed or to the person eating it?" I dug deeper.
My spiders witnessed Shakky storing the last of her loot under a loose floorboard behind the bar before she made her way back to us. She came wordlessly back through the door and sat down on her chair, crossed her legs, and started listening to the ongoing conversation as if she was never away.
"No," he said, "One fruit always grants the very same power, but of course the application greatly varies from person to person ?"
She must have heard the tail end of what I said when she entered the room.
"How can you know that?" I questioned.
"When a devil fruit user dies, the fruit he or she has consumed reappears shortly after. Ready to be consumed again." Shakky said.
"reappears?" I interjected.
"Yes, it is rumored that the closest fruit the devil fruit was originally based on transforms into the devil fruit again, waiting to be consumed. So if the base was an apple when the user dies the nearest apple turns into devil fruit again, distance doesn´t seem to play a part in it."
"I see," I said, this still didn´t rule out the Entities. Granting different people the same power and observe how the use differs, is something I could see them do. "Wait are those Devil Fruits distinctive from each other and does this mean there exists a register on what fruit bestows which power."
"Yes on both accounts, Shakky said "of course, the register isn't complete, far from it. There a lot of devil fruits undiscovered to this day and others, despite being in use in the past, unknown what they look like. Aside from those who have eaten them, but they never shared that information and why should they?"
Why indeed, if they had to die for the fruit to remerge telling someone what they looked like could be counterproductive to their health.
"You haven't answered my question." Rayleigh accused, thinking back on it I asked.
"You want to hear the long or the short version? "
"The short version will suffice for now." He said.
"Okay, the world I'm from didn't have special powers or anything resembling this Haki or wind blade thing at least until a golden man made his appearance. And with his arrival more and more people gained powers through a so-called trigger event. Basically, you had to go through the worst experience of your life and as a result, you were granted powers, how they manifested was largely dependent on your mindset and the general situation that lead to this trigger event. As it later turned out this golden man, responsible for those powers didn't give them away for free. He was a member of an alien species who lacked creativity and by giving powers to humans, broken humans was his species way to evolve those powers."
They listened mesmerized to my explanation until I reached that part and their expression turned strange, I couldn't quite place them.
"The users of such powers were attracted to conflict, either by the power forcing the recipient or the person was seeking it. After all, the powers only latched onto broken people and most of those needn´t any prodding.
In the ensuing battles, the powers were inevitably used, but since they were static in their nature. The recipients were forced to come up with new ways to utilize them, thereby refining and strengthening those powers. This also served to make the golden man stronger as the source of those powers. Originally he intended, after collecting enough data to destroy our world and consume what was left of it as sustenance."
"Planet eating golden man ..." Shakky mumbled under her breath
"But something went wrong and his partner died at their arrival, disrupting their plans." I told them, "it put him in a grieving state, in which he for the most part just existed until he was instigated, by one of the worst murderers in the history of my world, to kill everyone. And he did that with great efficiency killing billions across a multitude of worlds until I eventually ended up killing him."
"And pray tell me how did you accomplish such a thing," Shakky inquired the disbelief clearly displayed, "because if all you said is true then this golden man held power akin to a God and I doubt he would give anybody a power able to best, let alone kill him."
"He didn't," I said," he kept all the strongest powers for himself."
"Then how did you do it? What did your power do?"
She was scarily perceptive, I didn't say I had a power, but she instantly concluded I had to have one without a need to think about it.
"My power allowed me to control bugs, and the short version is, I bullied him until he decided to take his own life. The longer version would take quite some time to explain."
Both of them looked at me completely incredulous until Ray started laughing. He laughed himself to tears, it took minutes until he regained a modicum of composure.
"So how come, after you killed this God you ended up in the calm belt on a lifeboat with only two spiders as companions?" He asked.
"I honestly don't know." I said, "after the fight, I was injured not just physically but mentally in a way I don't think I would have been able to recover from without help. I was found by another strong Para-human."
They looked at me puzzled.
"Para-human are what we call the people holding a special ability where I come from, she had one of the strongest powers out there allowing her to succeed at everything she attempts to do so without fail. We talked and she shot me, twice. The next thing I know was waking up in the boat together with those two spiders and a strange fruit."
That got their attention.
"What fruit?" Shakky asked.
"I don't know." I said, "I've never seen anything like it, which was the reason I hesitated and didn't eat it at first. But at one point it meant either risk consuming a potentially poisonous fruit or die of hunger and thirst, given those options, I chose to eat it."
"It wouldn't have happened to be the most disgusting fruit you ever ate." Shakky wondered.
"Yeah, why?"
Before I finished voicing the question it hit me like a brick, strange-looking fruit - fuck - that couldn't have been a devil fruit, could it? I mean what are the odds? A short look in the faces of Shakky and Ray and yes, apparently it could. The question regarding the taste of the fruit was far too specific to be anything else.
Ray laughed again.
"That´s hilarious, you have found and eaten a Devil Fruit within your first day here, something most others search their whole life for without success. Unbelievable little anchor." He teased.
"But I didn't get any ..." I was about to say when my gaze fell onto my eight-legged friends and the words died in my mouth. Shakky seemed to misinterpret my reaction because she said bemusedly
"It takes time to find out what they are and even more time to get a handle on how to use them. The more esoteric fruits are difficult to pin down on what they do, so no surprise there if you didn't notice anything different."
The events of past days finally caught up to me as I failed to suppress
a yawn.
"Why don´t you rest a bit," Shakky suggested as she took notice of the table with the empty plates. "I´m gonna bring you some more food, and we continue this discussion tomorrow after a good nights rest and see where we are going from there."
"Yeah, that seems like a good idea." I agreed.
They both were about to leave when Shaky turned around and said.
"Oh and before the false impression you might have gotten of us through this misunderstanding from before festers, perhaps I should clarify what we meant."
It took me a moment to comprehend what she is referring to. I was far too tired, it felt like an eternity until my mind made the connection and I concluded, that she must be hinting at me relieving their boredom.
"We for the most part help those in need, as a means to satisfy our amusement and in doing, so we are even able to improve on the ease in which we can sleep at night. You should know, Pirates like us carry a lot of baggage around with us."
Yeah tell me about it, you aren´t the only ones having regrets. Is that why you sent me here Contessa? To give me a second chance a clean slate in another world or was there something else at play? A guilty conscience maybe?
With those parting words, Shakky closed the door behind her. I laid down and within seconds of it sleep overwhelmed me.
Authors Note: I had quite some trouble with this chapter, first of all, there isn´t very much known about the characters of either Shaky or Ray. Then there is the fact that Taylor is in dire need of someone getting her up to speed, but getting the help of those two for the goodness of their heartfelt wrong. They are pirates and even if they are good pirates in the sense of not being opposed to helping ones in need and not going out of their way to make others suffer because they can, I was unable to imagine them helping Taylor for free.
I know they did it for the Straw hats without recompensation but that was different, that was at least in Rays case ensuring the "Legacy" of his best friend and Captain somehow continues living on, and he wasn´t the only one who saw the similarities between those two, Shanks did a long time ago ...
Therefore I needed something different and I think them being bored isn´t that far out that it breaks my SOD.
Then there was the added difficulty of Taylor Paranoia, it can be argued and rightfully so, that it was out of character of her to disclose anything about her, that Taylor more than likely would have used the first opportunity to flee, to make her own way in this new world.
I considered exactly this for quite some time, I have seen it done in some fics...
But I consciously decided against doing this. My reason is the following in such stories she usually leaves the place behind, where she could have gotten all her answers only to end up in a fight, finding some resources she could have found without leaving in the first place only to subsequently be returned to the exact same or similar place/situation she was in before she left ... being at the mercy of others while having lost part of her agency (for having broken the trust of those she was in the custody of) ... without anything worth the hassle she went through to her name, just to essentially end up at the starting line once again (just in a more complicated situation ... with reduced options/agency for no net gain).
I didn't find this, let's say compelling and neither was a Taylor faking amnesia, a rational Taylor could as easily justify the first getting answers and then just leave, what was shown here. Of course, she can't be sure she isn´t manipulated in any way or isn´t told false information, but the same problem is true if she gets her information elsewhere.
The main problem I have with those other options is that she gives up a reasonably good position (place to sleep, eat — the ability to ask questions without giving away too much) for the hope of gaining something else, something better just because. I never got the impression throughout worm, that canon Skitter (cape name is used intentionally here) would reject any advantage, that could further her goals without a reason, being it strings attached to the help she receives or something else and if so it wouldn´t be the first time she severed such a connection rather forcefully if she got the impression of being played used and lied at ...
And then there were the reasons Taylor herself gave in this chapter, particularly that most of her problems in canon stemmed from the very fact that she never really accepted help, wanted to do everything alone only ever asked if there was no other option ... and I always thought that this was one of the regrets she spoke about in her talk with Contessa ...
Of course, there are bunches of other reason, mainly the abrupt end this story would have had with a dead Taylor, should she have had the misfortune to cross paths with a celestial dragon or come across the auction house at this point in time ... she atm is just a baseline human, who has eaten an unknown devil fruit and has unlocked Haki she doesn't know how to use ... she can´t hope to defend herself in this world against most, and I'm not talking admiral I'm talking fooder marines ...
The way she emphasized his name made it clear to me that his name was of some importance, which can only mean that she was gauging my reaction to hearing it, probably as some kind of test. Was she trying to use the reputation this man undoubtedly had in some way, to cave me, to get me to behave? For what purpose I could only guess. Could she be aware of me being Khepri? Or what I think was by far more likely, this guy is so huge not knowing him would indicate that I was not from around here, whatever here in this context means.
Considering, that she displayed a smug grin, which would undoubtedly have won any Lisa impersonation completion, hands down. I feared she might have already gotten the answer to her question without me actually saying anything.
Hence I just asked him,
"what do you want ?"
"Oh, You think us not worthy of receiving an answer to our question. You are a quite bold and ungrateful young Lady aren't you ?"
She said playfully.
"Please, we both know that you already got what you were after. So why don't we cut this game short and you tell me what it is you want ?"
I said annoyed.
She smiled at that and turned to the other occupant of the room.
"Oh, you hear that Ray she is not only sharp with her tongue but also with her mind. I like her already. You always come across the most intriguing things," She said.
The response of this Ray person was a hearty laugh. I somehow got the impression I was not privy to some kind of inside joke.
"To answer your question, we want you to relieve our boredom," she said turning back to me holding my gaze challenging.
I expected a lot of things, with being blackmailed making the top of my list should they have recognized me. Simply deduced from the fact, that I wasn't already dead. What was by no means an unrealistic assumption, why else should they even talk to me since I was pretty sure that the whole world, no scratch that more than one world would love nothing more than to see me dead. And I was sure there are a lot of people out and about leaving no stone unturned to find me with the intention to either see to my untimely end or enslave me.
But reliving boredom, that definitely wasn't something that came to mind. And my face probably gave away my disbelief and outrage, because she saw the need to explain her statement.
"You see, we both had to give up our way of life as a consequence of circumstances out of our control, not that we regret our timely retirement. But we weren't exactly allowed to ease into it, one day we were still pirates sea-wind blowing in our faces adventure an island away and the next day we were lying in the sun with so much time on our hands that we didn't know what to do with it."
Did she just say Pirates, with a short glance I tried to spot a Hospital Wristband, unfortunately, I didn't find one and according to her facial expression, she was serious and wasn't trying to deceive me.
But Pirates on Earth Bet with Leviathan around, would be an unprofitable profession, solidifying my suspicion of no longer being there to almost fact.
"So we came up with ways to satisfy our need for excitement."
"And I'm the recent means toward that end if I understand you correctly." I tried to clarify.
"See, I told you she was smart." was the response I received, mostly aimed at Ray.
I wasn't willing to participate in some kind of sick pastime of those two and I had every intention of making that clear without fail.
"Then I'm sorry to inform you, that you have to search elsewhere for whatever it is you are searching. I'm neither willing nor do I have the time to take part in it. I have better things to do, first of all, finding a way to get home. I'm grateful for you saving my life. "
I then channeled my inner Skitter and made my next words as threatening as possible.
"But make no mistake, my gratefulness only goes so far, and if you dare to stand in my way you are gonna regret it."
I was fed up with being thought of as the plaything of others, Emma, Sophia, Coil, Dinah, Tagg, Alexandria, Jack and Contessa came to mind. All in their own way trying to remove my agency, manipulating attempting to use me. I had enough and my frustration at not being able to really change that in the past must have found its way into my statement, those feelings somehow gave more weight to my words, they felt heavier on my tongue, and speaking them took a lot more effort and energy than it should have.
Suddenly I felt drained the whole progress I made towards my recovery was reset and I felt far weaker than when I woke, but that wasn't the only change I noticed I gained access to the senses of a lot spiders, in quite some distance all around me. Not just that, my access wasn't limited to their perception I could control them all, similar to how I was able to, in the past.
It even felt similar to give them commands and receive their sensory perception, completely different in comparison to how two spiders at my side were a part of me, indistinguishable from one of my limbs. No, this felt similar to using my old power.
But that wasn't all my little outbreak accomplished, through the eyes of one spider, who built her net in the corner of the bar I was in, I saw everyone in it being unconscious. Shakky and Ray were looking at me without a hint of playfulness left in their facial expression, instead they displayed a seriousness I last saw in the faces of capes seconds before taking the field against an Endbringer.
"Was that ..."
Shakky started to ask but is interrupted by Ray before she got the opportunity to finish her question.
"Yeah, it was. But I never came across a similar coloration, this was unique."
He started to crawl his goatee for a moment lost in thought before he said.
"Shakky you should take care of our esteemed customers, while our guest and I have to talk."
His tone didn't allow any objection. She left the room without a word.
The exhaustion got to me, I started to feel dizzy and had to use the bedrest to lean against in order to keep sitting upright.
Meanwhile, more questions wanted to be answered, why now? I was already days on this planet why did I regain my old powers now and not days ago? Were they somehow suppressed? Drugs came to mind, given the duration a mental barrier that I just broke seemed also plausible.
But those theories couldn't explain why the people out in the bar are now drooling on the tables in their unconscious state, even if I gained some aspects of my Khepri power set this couldn't be explained by it, I was never able to let people faint and why were neither Ray and Shakky affected by it? But most puzzling was the fact, that they seemed to have recognized what I did, but if I credited this to my powers this should be impossible. Powers are unique sure there are overlaps and sometimes from an observers' perspective different powers can have the same result and therefore can be mistaken for each other, but this didn't seem to be the case here.
Shakky and Ray seem to have come across my exact power set, or if I gave weight to his words the same power set with a minor alteration. I decided to stop asking myself all those questions and instead tried to get some answers from the man sitting next to me.
"Where are you from ?" he asked taking me by surprise before I could voice one of my own.
I was considering not to answer, lying would require having a modicum of an idea of where I was to make it believable. The other option would be to fake amnesia, but for one I didn't think he would believe me after my stunt a few seconds ago and it might sour the already strained relation we had, and I didn't want to repeat the mistakes that got me in this situation in the first place.
Of course, I didn't go from unhealthy paranoia to helplessly naive, with those spiders falling under my control I got an excellent idea of my surroundings and was already in the process of mapping it. You might never know when it might come in handy, but I was a realist I didn't think me capable to get away from Ray, let alone win a fight against him given the limited resources at my disposal and my condition.
I was sure if Lisa was here with me, she would have given me the worlds longest lecture about my inability to trust and shouldering all alone. So for once in my recent life, I gave a person the benefit of the doubt. I just hoped I wouldn't come to regret it.
"Earth Bet, Brockton Bay Massachusetts United States of America," I recited.
He pondered my answer for a moment and then said.
"I have never heard of an Island by that name."
And with this simple sentence, I finally got confirmation, of me being on a different Earth, or was it planet? Worst of all the term Earth Bet seemed to have no meaning for him.
"It isn't the name of an Island Earth Bet is the denotation given the Planet I'm from. Brockton Bay is the name of the town I grew up in, which is located in the state by the name Massachusetts located in the country called the United States of America."
I clarified and as I suspected his incredulous expression said enough.
"You never came across any of those names?" I asked, "Do you perhaps know the location of any portals connecting to different worlds ?"
"No, I don't." those three words he calmly said casually crushed a lot of my hopes.
"Great, just great." I couldn´t help myself from exclaiming.
That meant getting home wouldn't be easy, but when was anything I did ever easy?
"Tell me, how do you know to use Haoshoku Haki ?" he asked in response.
"Hao what?" I wondered.
"The ability you used to knock out the people on the other side of the door is known as Haoshoku Haki or the color of intimidation, some call it Conqueror Haki." He explained. "I've come across people who could utilize it many times, but I never felt anything like yours. Something was different when you used it."
"Can this ability, this Haoshoku Haki be used to do something besides knock people out?" I asked," and how exactly does this work ?"
"I doubt it." he said "I've only ever seen it used in a form of intimidation it allows you to overpower the will of others, depending on the difference between the user of the power and the recipients this power can be used to intimidate them, in a roundabout way it serves to declare yourself their better. Most animals and beasts react particularly strongly to this, festering the belief of you being their alpha. And if the gulf is wide between you and them it allows you to knock them out, their willpower just not being enough to stand in your very presence."
"Except for people like you and Shakky, I'm guessing possessing an incredible strong will prevents one from being affected by it." I expanded upon his explanation.
"Exactly" he confirmed.
Whoa, wait what, the way he described this ability he made it sound as if everybody could learn how to use it. Did this mean it wasn't a parahuman power?
"So everybody with strong Will can use this color of Intimidation?"
He laughed at my question.
"No, of course not." He said. "You have to been born with the ability. It is said that only one in over a million has it, but even then most never awaken the ability or learn to utilize it during their lifetime."
My curiosity piqued I questioned,
"How do you awaken this power ?"
"It varies," he said, "some do it in stressful situations and others through rigorous training."
Stressful situations wasn't that in a roundabout way the very description of a trigger event, but training? I have never heard of a para-human claiming getting powers through training. His other comments were implying, that he met people possessing this Haoshoku Haki, which meant more than one person having the exact same power. It sounded more and more like something different than a power granted by a passenger. What was going on? That was when I remembered how he took out my spider.
"If this Haki can only do that, how did you kill my spider?" I prodded "what kind of power was that?"
Meanwhile, the spider in the bar watched Shakky searching all of her unconscious customers for their valuables and money, piling it in the center of the room.
"Oh, that was me projecting a wind blade with the tip of my fingers," he said.
"So you do have a power, a special ability?" I asked.
"Of course not, how else could I have been able to swim."
He said matter of fact.
I was confused.
"What has the ability to swim to do with the powers you demonstrated?"
He looked at me as if I just said the dumbest thing he ever heard.
"Every user of an Akuma no Mi losses his ability to swim, isn't that common knowledge where you are from?"
"What is an Akuma no Mi?" I wondered.
"You really have never heard of it?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Akuma no Mi or as they are otherwise known as Devil Fruits provides every person who ate one of them with special abilities. They are divided into three major classes, Logia, Zoan, and Paramecia. A Logia devil fruit transforms the body of the person having eaten it into a certain element like fire, giving them the ability to create and control this element. Furthermore, by transforming in said element it allows the user to become intangible. They are by most regarded as the strongest fruit type because it takes special means to nullify the intangibility they grant and not everybody can do that, which makes the wielder of such a fruit power an invincible foe to all those lacking such an ability."
That sounded like some kind of Breaker state, curious. I wondered if those special measures he alluded to were other such powers or was it something else.
"Then there are the Zoan type fruit," he continued to explain "they allow the user to transform into a certain creature type like a wolf or lion and a mixed form of this creature and the form the consumer of the fruit possessed before eating it. Those fruits are for the most part straight forward boosting the physical capabilities of the user base form when transformed. It is even said that there doesn't exist a limit for the physical peak a Zoan user can reach. There are also ancient and mythical Zoan type fruits out there, they are even scarcer and said to be more powerful than Logia by granting the special abilities those creatures are known for adding other advantages."
So in essence they grant a changer and brute rating linked to a certain species mythological or not, the most interesting part of them seemed to be the fact, that they seem to work as a multiplier of the physical capabilities of its user and if it is true they remove the ceiling on such, they sound really interesting. A power allowing for growth always is, after all.
"And last there are the Paramecia class of fruits, they encompass everything that doesn't fit in the other two categories. Be it transforming you into steel, allowing you to shoot beams with special characteristics to bestowing other kinds of abilities."
That was really vague, not sure what to think of such a broad classification. Even the PRT classification with all its pitfalls and inaccuracy was leagues better than this.
"And everybody who has eaten such a fruit losses his or her ability to swim?" I asked him.
After Shakky was done with relieving everybody of anything worth something she grabbed those people and dragged them outside, two or more at a time. Men who were at least twice as heavy as her, and she carried them like I would a newborn kitten, without any visible effort.
Whenever she reached the entrance she threw them outside like a bag of trash without a care in the world, and they flew a dozen meters away. To be able to do that you at least need to have a mid-tier brute rating.
If her customers are usually treated this way the name of this establishment, "Shakky Rip of Bar" is awfully accurate. And I wondered what had to possess you to entertain the idea to use an establishment named like that.
"Yes, this is the one common weakness all the Devil Fruits share with each other. Seawater in general can be used to weaken devil fruit users, but only complete submersion robs them of the ability to move. There also exist Seastone, a stone imbued with the characteristics of the sea, which can do the same with a simple touch, there are people out there using weapons made out of it to be able to fight against fruit users." Rayleigh told me.
"That means this wind blade attack is something everybody can learn how to do?" I asked.
"With dedication, yes."
He made it sound like it was no big deal, that apparently everybody had the potential to learn abilities, which would be declared super-powers on Earth Bet. And then there were those Devil Fruits able to impart powers without the recipient having to go through a trigger event, aside from this no swimming weakness that came with consuming them they came across awfully similar to what a passenger might grant his host. Could they be this Planets' version of it? A different approach from the Entities? After all, Cauldron sold powers in a bottle, as a drinkable liquid therefore powers to eat were close in concept.
"Those devil fruits didn't just appear on this world from one day to the next after one or two strange beings made their appearance. Beings who had a multitude of strange abilities at their disposal?" I asked.
"No, those fruits were around since a long time ago, why do you ask?"
He narrowed his eyes at this question.
"The powers granted by these Devil Fruits are they specific to the Fruit or is there some process tying the power to the circumstances in which they are consumed or to the person eating it?" I dug deeper.
My spiders witnessed Shakky storing the last of her loot under a loose floorboard behind the bar before she made her way back to us. She came wordlessly back through the door and sat down on her chair, crossed her legs, and started listening to the ongoing conversation as if she was never away.
"No," he said, "One fruit always grants the very same power, but of course the application greatly varies from person to person ?"
She must have heard the tail end of what I said when she entered the room.
"How can you know that?" I questioned.
"When a devil fruit user dies, the fruit he or she has consumed reappears shortly after. Ready to be consumed again." Shakky said.
"reappears?" I interjected.
"Yes, it is rumored that the closest fruit the devil fruit was originally based on transforms into the devil fruit again, waiting to be consumed. So if the base was an apple when the user dies the nearest apple turns into devil fruit again, distance doesn´t seem to play a part in it."
"I see," I said, this still didn´t rule out the Entities. Granting different people the same power and observe how the use differs, is something I could see them do. "Wait are those Devil Fruits distinctive from each other and does this mean there exists a register on what fruit bestows which power."
"Yes on both accounts, Shakky said "of course, the register isn't complete, far from it. There a lot of devil fruits undiscovered to this day and others, despite being in use in the past, unknown what they look like. Aside from those who have eaten them, but they never shared that information and why should they?"
Why indeed, if they had to die for the fruit to remerge telling someone what they looked like could be counterproductive to their health.
"You haven't answered my question." Rayleigh accused, thinking back on it I asked.
"You want to hear the long or the short version? "
"The short version will suffice for now." He said.
"Okay, the world I'm from didn't have special powers or anything resembling this Haki or wind blade thing at least until a golden man made his appearance. And with his arrival more and more people gained powers through a so-called trigger event. Basically, you had to go through the worst experience of your life and as a result, you were granted powers, how they manifested was largely dependent on your mindset and the general situation that lead to this trigger event. As it later turned out this golden man, responsible for those powers didn't give them away for free. He was a member of an alien species who lacked creativity and by giving powers to humans, broken humans was his species way to evolve those powers."
They listened mesmerized to my explanation until I reached that part and their expression turned strange, I couldn't quite place them.
"The users of such powers were attracted to conflict, either by the power forcing the recipient or the person was seeking it. After all, the powers only latched onto broken people and most of those needn´t any prodding.
In the ensuing battles, the powers were inevitably used, but since they were static in their nature. The recipients were forced to come up with new ways to utilize them, thereby refining and strengthening those powers. This also served to make the golden man stronger as the source of those powers. Originally he intended, after collecting enough data to destroy our world and consume what was left of it as sustenance."
"Planet eating golden man ..." Shakky mumbled under her breath
"But something went wrong and his partner died at their arrival, disrupting their plans." I told them, "it put him in a grieving state, in which he for the most part just existed until he was instigated, by one of the worst murderers in the history of my world, to kill everyone. And he did that with great efficiency killing billions across a multitude of worlds until I eventually ended up killing him."
"And pray tell me how did you accomplish such a thing," Shakky inquired the disbelief clearly displayed, "because if all you said is true then this golden man held power akin to a God and I doubt he would give anybody a power able to best, let alone kill him."
"He didn't," I said," he kept all the strongest powers for himself."
"Then how did you do it? What did your power do?"
She was scarily perceptive, I didn't say I had a power, but she instantly concluded I had to have one without a need to think about it.
"My power allowed me to control bugs, and the short version is, I bullied him until he decided to take his own life. The longer version would take quite some time to explain."
Both of them looked at me completely incredulous until Ray started laughing. He laughed himself to tears, it took minutes until he regained a modicum of composure.
"So how come, after you killed this God you ended up in the calm belt on a lifeboat with only two spiders as companions?" He asked.
"I honestly don't know." I said, "after the fight, I was injured not just physically but mentally in a way I don't think I would have been able to recover from without help. I was found by another strong Para-human."
They looked at me puzzled.
"Para-human are what we call the people holding a special ability where I come from, she had one of the strongest powers out there allowing her to succeed at everything she attempts to do so without fail. We talked and she shot me, twice. The next thing I know was waking up in the boat together with those two spiders and a strange fruit."
That got their attention.
"What fruit?" Shakky asked.
"I don't know." I said, "I've never seen anything like it, which was the reason I hesitated and didn't eat it at first. But at one point it meant either risk consuming a potentially poisonous fruit or die of hunger and thirst, given those options, I chose to eat it."
"It wouldn't have happened to be the most disgusting fruit you ever ate." Shakky wondered.
"Yeah, why?"
Before I finished voicing the question it hit me like a brick, strange-looking fruit - fuck - that couldn't have been a devil fruit, could it? I mean what are the odds? A short look in the faces of Shakky and Ray and yes, apparently it could. The question regarding the taste of the fruit was far too specific to be anything else.
Ray laughed again.
"That´s hilarious, you have found and eaten a Devil Fruit within your first day here, something most others search their whole life for without success. Unbelievable little anchor." He teased.
"But I didn't get any ..." I was about to say when my gaze fell onto my eight-legged friends and the words died in my mouth. Shakky seemed to misinterpret my reaction because she said bemusedly
"It takes time to find out what they are and even more time to get a handle on how to use them. The more esoteric fruits are difficult to pin down on what they do, so no surprise there if you didn't notice anything different."
The events of past days finally caught up to me as I failed to suppress
a yawn.
"Why don´t you rest a bit," Shakky suggested as she took notice of the table with the empty plates. "I´m gonna bring you some more food, and we continue this discussion tomorrow after a good nights rest and see where we are going from there."
"Yeah, that seems like a good idea." I agreed.
They both were about to leave when Shaky turned around and said.
"Oh and before the false impression you might have gotten of us through this misunderstanding from before festers, perhaps I should clarify what we meant."
It took me a moment to comprehend what she is referring to. I was far too tired, it felt like an eternity until my mind made the connection and I concluded, that she must be hinting at me relieving their boredom.
"We for the most part help those in need, as a means to satisfy our amusement and in doing, so we are even able to improve on the ease in which we can sleep at night. You should know, Pirates like us carry a lot of baggage around with us."
Yeah tell me about it, you aren´t the only ones having regrets. Is that why you sent me here Contessa? To give me a second chance a clean slate in another world or was there something else at play? A guilty conscience maybe?
With those parting words, Shakky closed the door behind her. I laid down and within seconds of it sleep overwhelmed me.
Authors Note: I had quite some trouble with this chapter, first of all, there isn´t very much known about the characters of either Shaky or Ray. Then there is the fact that Taylor is in dire need of someone getting her up to speed, but getting the help of those two for the goodness of their heartfelt wrong. They are pirates and even if they are good pirates in the sense of not being opposed to helping ones in need and not going out of their way to make others suffer because they can, I was unable to imagine them helping Taylor for free.
I know they did it for the Straw hats without recompensation but that was different, that was at least in Rays case ensuring the "Legacy" of his best friend and Captain somehow continues living on, and he wasn´t the only one who saw the similarities between those two, Shanks did a long time ago ...
Therefore I needed something different and I think them being bored isn´t that far out that it breaks my SOD.
Then there was the added difficulty of Taylor Paranoia, it can be argued and rightfully so, that it was out of character of her to disclose anything about her, that Taylor more than likely would have used the first opportunity to flee, to make her own way in this new world.
I considered exactly this for quite some time, I have seen it done in some fics...
But I consciously decided against doing this. My reason is the following in such stories she usually leaves the place behind, where she could have gotten all her answers only to end up in a fight, finding some resources she could have found without leaving in the first place only to subsequently be returned to the exact same or similar place/situation she was in before she left ... being at the mercy of others while having lost part of her agency (for having broken the trust of those she was in the custody of) ... without anything worth the hassle she went through to her name, just to essentially end up at the starting line once again (just in a more complicated situation ... with reduced options/agency for no net gain).
I didn't find this, let's say compelling and neither was a Taylor faking amnesia, a rational Taylor could as easily justify the first getting answers and then just leave, what was shown here. Of course, she can't be sure she isn´t manipulated in any way or isn´t told false information, but the same problem is true if she gets her information elsewhere.
The main problem I have with those other options is that she gives up a reasonably good position (place to sleep, eat — the ability to ask questions without giving away too much) for the hope of gaining something else, something better just because. I never got the impression throughout worm, that canon Skitter (cape name is used intentionally here) would reject any advantage, that could further her goals without a reason, being it strings attached to the help she receives or something else and if so it wouldn´t be the first time she severed such a connection rather forcefully if she got the impression of being played used and lied at ...
And then there were the reasons Taylor herself gave in this chapter, particularly that most of her problems in canon stemmed from the very fact that she never really accepted help, wanted to do everything alone only ever asked if there was no other option ... and I always thought that this was one of the regrets she spoke about in her talk with Contessa ...
Of course, there are bunches of other reason, mainly the abrupt end this story would have had with a dead Taylor, should she have had the misfortune to cross paths with a celestial dragon or come across the auction house at this point in time ... she atm is just a baseline human, who has eaten an unknown devil fruit and has unlocked Haki she doesn't know how to use ... she can´t hope to defend herself in this world against most, and I'm not talking admiral I'm talking fooder marines ...
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
I was kind of expecting Taylor to hide her origins but I guess this is also fine. A new world is a new beginning and One Piece has a lot to give to her! I'll just theorize for now that Shanks might mentor her in controlling Haki and how to use her Devil Fruit. She might even bust out the Slave Trading Ring in this archipelago if she discovers it, although I don't think she has enough power to do that right now.
Chapter 03 - A new Dawn
Chapter 03: A New Dawn (Spring 1504)
I opened my eyes to a room lit in the morning sun shining through the windows on the left side of my bed. I rolled on my back and stared at the ceiling, while I listened to the chorus of chirping the indigenous birds were performing.
Apparently, the events of yesterday didn't stem from my imagination since I was still here, despite secretly hoping for the opposite. To awaken in a bed at a place I could allow myself to call home, where all the people I care about would be present. Lisa, Rachel, Brian, Charlotte, Sierra, the Kids, and Aisha. I missed them all so much and when I finally saw them again it was a repeat of what happened before I left them. One problem after the other without any pause, no time to just be together to enjoy each other's company.
And now it seemed like it will be an even longer time until I can see them again. In my mind, there was no doubt of our reunion to occur eventually. I deliberately denied myself any thoughts to the contrary and buried them deep inside my consciousness.
I really didn't expect anything for saving or at least consolidating the parahumans in an attempt to save the world, no medal, no recognition no nothing, since it was something that just had to be done, hell I didn't even expect to have a mind let alone powers when it was all over and done. But that I was even denied being with my friends and my Dad, was ... was something I should have known would never come to pass, happy endings after all only happen in old movies.
I only hoped that my actions didn't impact them negatively and that they were all well. Who was I kidding? With me being no longer around they might face the repercussion originally directed at me.
Fuck, and I can't do anything to help them, thanks a lot Contessa you Bitch.
My two spiders woke when my hands clenched into fists slammed into the mattress. I looked at them apologetically, but they obviously didn't care that I interrupted their sleep. They immediately scurried to my side in an attempt to comfort me, something only possible because I gave their original minds free reign over those bodies.
Despite that, it felt strange to have access to their feelings, to experience concern expressed by an extension of yourself for yourself. This was gonna be the one aspect of my newfound powers that was gonna take a lot of time getting used to.
And I better get the hang of them and their limitations fast, since I sincerely doubted finding a way back will be a journey without any trouble waiting for me to find it. If I learned anything as a cape, it was that there existed no smooth sailing.
I paused for a moment at the phrase I used, it seemed like even my mind had accepted that I was stranded in a world with pirates. I chuckled at that. Well, there was no use in prolonging neither my stay in this world nor in this bed.
I sat up and couldn't help myself noticing, that I felt a lot stronger than I did yesterday. Something that shouldn't have been possible this fast without the aid of powers.
I should know I pushed my body on numerous occasions past its limits, which gave me a pretty good idea of its capabilities, especially how long it usually takes for it to recover from certain things.
With the condition of my body having been worse, than most of what I did to it in the past. There was just no way for it to be already in such good shape. Was this somehow swift recovery somehow connected to the fruit I consumed? Didn´t Ray imply that those Zoan type fruits enhance the bodies somehow, does this include healing? Does this mean I ate one of those fruits? Something I should probably keep in mind and ask him about later.
For now, I sat my bare feet on the cold wooden floor and walked over to one of the chairs stacked with clothes. On top of it I found a note:
Take what you like.
The bathroom is the first door to your left.
- Shakky
I took the bundle of clothes and made my way to the door. My two little friends jumped down from the bed and were following me, with one hand on the door handle and the other clutching the clothes I turned to them and ordered.
"Stay here, I won't be away long."
They weren't pleased but followed my instructions nevertheless, by jumping the roughly 4 meters back onto the bed from a standing position with an ease that made it clear doing this took absolutely no effort for them. I marveled once more at their capabilities, if I would have had access to such spiders back in the day my life as a cape would have been so much easier. I watched them lying down on top of the pillow closing their eyes my gaze lingered on them a moment longer until I stepped outside.
The moment I left the room and closed the door behind me, I was surprised to see through the eyes of one of my spider in the corner of the bar, that both Ray and Shakky turned their heads my way. How did they know I was up? Are they some kind of Thinkers, because I didn't make enough noise for them to be able to hear me through the closed door and roughly the dozen feet separating us, even their line of sight towards the door was obstructed since they chose to eat their breakfast in the right corner of the bar.
Something else I had to add to their threat rating. As I reached the bathroom I was surprised at what I found there. I already got a good look at it through a spider, but seeing it for myself was different.
After I stepped through the door I found myself in front of a metal bathtub standing on four metal feet, which elevated it about two dozen inches above the fireplace under it. Allowing the flames to flicker unobstructed at its bottom and heat the water it was filled with.
I didn't see any valve, which spoke volumes about the technological advancement of this world. I walked to the small ladder standing next to the breast-high tub allowing for easier access to the hot water inside. I dipped my fingers inside and after verifying that the temperature was just right stripped out of my spider-silk undersuit and plunged myself in the water.
I was instantly overcome with the feeling of all my strength being sapped away. I felt so weak I doubted I would have been able to keep myself from drowning or had any chance at mustering the necessary strength to heave myself out of the tub if it wouldn't have allowed me to sit in it without my head being submerged.
Even so, it took a lot out of me to just sit upright. I was not sure I would have been able to keep standing inside a tub if my body had been submerged up to my head, which would have been necessary in order not to drown. Well, if I wasn't sure the strange fruit I ate was a devil fruit before, this all but confirmed it for me. I had to say I would have preferred to find it out another way.
It was highly disturbing to suddenly have gained such a glaring weakness, according to Rayleigh everybody in this world is privy to. It somehow reminded me of those old comic books Greg couldn't shut up about and how the heroes depicted in there for the most part had something similar to contend with.
It was gonna take time, to rewire my brain into seeing water as being a real threat to me. But it wouldn't be the first time I had to adapt, and I was sure it won't be the last. With some luck, the ability I got out of it will make up for it.
I leaned back and tried to enjoy the bath, it did wonders to help me feel like a human being again. I usually wasn't a great fan of bathing, seething in water soiled with the grime and sweat you want to get rid of, which was why I preferred to shower. It just washes it all away. But I had to say after the ordeal I went through, despite the water sapping my power it somehow rejuvenated me. I slowly started to feel alive again no longer like a walking corpse.
While in there I took great care of my hair, I already dreaded it being a lost cause since it was exposed to those harsh conditions of salt-breeze and an unrelenting sun, but as it turned out my fears were misplaced. I was quite delighted at this fact, not having lost the one visual feature I shared with my mother, a reminder of her every time I look in the mirror.
I enjoyed soaking in the hot water, which meant by the time I finally alighted from the tub the skin on my hands was already pruney. It felt really strange when the power that was sapped away started to return nearly instantly after I was no longer submerged in water. It felt like being injected with pure energy an effect energy drinks promise but can't keep.
I dried myself and was confronted with the difficult task of picking out what to wear from the selection Shakky provided me with. Not only was it owed to her strange sense of fashion, but to the fact that a lot of the clothes didn't fit me and I doubted they ever would. Which left me with little choice in what to wear if I didn't want to risk losing the clothes to various malfunction while walking. I eventually settled for some pants, made out of cloth reminding me of linen, and a loose T-shirt one of the few items that would work with my lack of bust.
Not the greatest outfit but it would do until I was able to clean the spider silk undersuit and had some time to weave some things in my size. I returned to the room I slept in and placed the clothes I didn't use on the same spot I found them. My cute little spiders had opened their eyes the moment I stepped inside the room and were following my every move in anticipation. I reached for them with my outstretched arm, which they used to skitter alongside and then settled on my left and respectively right shoulder. With them situated there, I made way to Rayleigh and Shakky.
On the short way to them, I decided I needed to name my spiders. I couldn't keep referring to them as male and female spider all the time. The problem this presented me with since I was notoriously bad at naming things. None of the names I was known by during my tenure as a cape really clicked with me despite Weaver being one I actually chose myself, but even that name never felt right it was more like the best option out of a lot of bad ones. I thought on it for a moment and decided to not cause myself a headache by coming up with fitting names for them and just used the names that I recently came across.
I looked at the female spider and said to her "your name will be Lilith", then I turned to the male spider and said, "and your name will be Kain".
If I remembered right those were the names of the two main characters out of some vampire story Narwhal recommended. She had a predilection for those epic fantasy romances, not something I usually read, but on occasion, they could be an enjoyable pastime. Unfortunately, I never got past the first few chapters and I doubted I was gonna find a copy of this book anywhere around here.
Shakky and Rayleigh both stayed in the bar while I was in the bathroom. What irritated me to no end was that they spoke not a single word let alone sentence to each other throughout the whole time. I was hoping to at least glimpse some more information about them, the place I was at, and their real intentions regarding me through a conversation they might have held. It would have helped me greatly in the talks to follow if I had more of an idea of what I'm dealing with. But I had no such luck, well wouldn't be the first time things didn't go my way, and if I'm good at something it is improvisation.
When I stepped through the door and entered the bar section of the house Rayleigh was sitting with crossed legs and a newspaper in his hands on a corner bench. Shakky sat next to him with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. The table in front of them, both was filled with all kinds of food.
I seated myself on the lone chair on the opposite side of the table.
"You must be hungry, go ahead we can talk while you eat."
Shakky didn't have to say this twice. I was hungry and the exquisite smell of all the dishes in front of me didn't help diminish the feeling on the contrary my mouth started to water. I took a plate and filled it with the various things placed on the table.
I started the conversation with the question.
"So what can you tell me about this world?"
"What would you like to hear?" was the counter-question I received from Shakky.
"For now geographics - where on this world am I? Who are the major powers? That should suffice for a start. Then you mentioned Pirates, where I´m from it is a term used to describe theft, violence and other crimes committed by ship. And you already admitted to having been one, which makes you criminals in the eyes of the authorities right?"
I wasn't able to identify all the dishes. But for the moment I didn't really care to find my new favorite food or being able to name what I ate. Such frivolities weren't even on the list of my priorities. But I also couldn't help my curiosity which is why I took a sample from everything. I had my first bite when Shakky started to talk.
"Well, aren't you interesting? One would usually expect of someone being confronted with criminals - even former ones — for it to elicit some kind of distrust, even fear. I can somewhat understand why you didn't react in such a way, yesterday. You were tired, exhausted, and possibly overwhelmed, but now you are neither. I'm certain of it and I'm also sure you aren't schooling your reactions. So would you mind telling me why there is no reaction to the fact you are sitting at the same table as two cutthroat Pirates?"
I swallowed what I had in my mouth and calmly answered.
"Where I'm from criminal, villain are just labels you get attached with by the government, I have met villains who did more good than the ones calling themselves Heroes and I met Heroes who committed atrocities. Therefore I don't take much stock in those labels I tend to form my own opinions about those I interact with. And to be honest you both don't exactly strike me as people I have to fear if I don't give you reason to or am I wrong in my assessment?"
I raised my eyebrow questioning at Shakky. Rayleighs response consisted of snickering at my statement.
"No, you aren't." she said bemusedly "Where to start ?" She glanced at Rayleigh for a moment. He didn't react to her cue, which she seemed to interpret as permission to continue.
"Let´s see." she picked up some documents which to this moment were lying next to her on the bench and therefore out of my sight and placed them on the table. She was digging through them in search of something specific, while she was doing that I got a glimpse of some of those papers. No small part consisted of pictures of people with numbers on them, it took me a few moments to connect the dots of those partial papers I saw to puzzle together the words written on them meant `Dead or Alive´, which made it clear those were wanted poster.
I had no reference but the high numbers on some of them must mean someone really wants to see those people taken out apparently by any means necessary. My musings were interrupted when Shakky found what she was after.
"Ahh here it is," she exclaimed and put all the other documents out of the way and most of the plates with food followed and then unfolded the one document she kept in her hands and placed it in the middle of the table.
As it turned out it was a map, I'm really no expert but what I saw stroke me as odd. She gave me no real-time to take it in its entirety, which meant I barely had time to come to a premature conclusion before she started to explain what I was looking at. But what I could conclude at the first glance, that it had to be some kind of world map. One of those where the surface area of the planet is peeled of like the skin of a fruit and spread across a flat surface.
"This is a map representing the world we live in. This here is the Redline." She pointed to a landmass that stretched as a line from the bottom of the map to the top of the map halving it in the process. The landmass further extended along the edges of and encircled the whole map.
"It is the largest connected landmass in existence it encompasses the whole world."
It was a strange way to depict a landmass that goes around the world as a line. If I interpreted the map in front of me correctly. "Combined with the Grandline" she pointed at a perpendicular to the red-line arranged sea corridor enclosed on both sides with a different type of sea. " The world is separated into 4 seas which are called East, West North, and South Blue."
At this, I took a look at the map legend and noticed that the naming of the four sea was accurate. At least according to the compass rose the right corner of the map was shifted 45 degrees to the left in relation to the Red-line. Therefore making the sea in top right into the East Blue the one in the lower right side into the South Blue and the one on the top left side into North Blue which left the low left to be named West Blue.
"Those lines you see here" she was pointing at the identical light blue colored water enclosing the Grandline "are called calm belts, it is an area of the sea without any stream and wind."
Is that where I found myself after waking up in the small boat, it would fit in all the time I happened to be there I felt not a single drought, the air was absolute unmoving as was the water surrounding me.
"I assume that makes crossing the calm belt a tedious endeavor?" I asked.
"No, it is in fact a near-impossible enterprise." She said "The reason for this isn't the lack of wind, ships can be moved by rowing, after all, but because of the Sea Kings calling those regions their home. Trying to cross the Calm Belt is a surefire way to have a run-in with them, and they don't react well to being disturbed."
"Sea Kings?" I wondered aloud I had an inkling given the name of what they are. A memory of Leviathan flashed before my mind's eye.
"Huge aquatic creatures, the largest of them hundreds of feet in size, able to swallow the biggest of ships whole and their strength is on the very same scale. There aren't many who can claim to have survived an encounter with them let alone crossed the belt. Even the strongest and experienced crews don't attempt it lightly. The risk is just too great. This is exactly why to reach the Grandline most use reverse mountain."
She pointed at the very center of the map, where the Redline is cut apart and five thin lines of water converge. Four emerge from the 4 great blues and the last one leads to the right side of the grand line. The whole thing looked like some kind of junction.
"There is a stream flowing up the mountain from every of the Blues. This stream allows for ships to cross over to the other seas and even to reach the Grand-line. Of course, this isn't without its own risks but it is far less dangerous than attempting to cross the calm-belt."
Her hand moved right to the outer right edge where she pointed at a small island just a small distance away from the Red-line. "We are here," which meant pretty much on the opposite side of the world from Reverse Mountain "Sabaody Archipelago a massive mangrove forest a top of merman Island, which is located at the bottom of the ocean. The final Island before the New World."
I looked at her in a questioning manner not familiar with this term.
"It is the term used nowadays for the second half of the Grand-Line, which can be reached by traversing a hole through the Red-Line. It is the only way for those not working for the government to get from here to here." She moved her finger from the right edge to the very left.
"Some claim the second half was named New World because the influence of the world government they have over that region is waning. With vast stretches being ruled uncontested by the most powerful pirates others say it got it's name because it is full of wonders and unexplored things, no one knows for certain but the name stuck. "
"So it is some kind of lawless zone?" I inquired.
"In a sense, it depends on whom you ask. But the same can be said about the first half of the Grand-line, it rests upon which definition of lawless zone you employ."
Rayleigh sighed,
"What she tries to say without actually saying it, is that 4 years ago Gol. D. Roger the so-called Pirate King was executed after he surrendered himself to the World Government. Before they actually took his head they allowed him some last words. The Marines were probably expecting him to beg for his life or show remorse for his actions, but that just showed how little they knew about him. Instead of scoring their greatest victory in history by executing the Pirate King in front of a crowd, he turned the tables on them and instead dealt them the greatest defeat by uttering a few simple words."
He reminisced for a moment.
"I can still hear him say them. `You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you'll just have to find it!´ With those words, he started the so called Age of pirates. Fortune-hunters and outlaws around the world followed his calling and set out to sea."
There was some barely hidden pain and regret in his voice.
"You knew him didn't you?"
"I did," he confirmed, "Roger was my best friend, my captain."
"Why did he give himself up? After everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king, surely he could have fought them?" I wondered.
"Yes he could have, and if he did they would have never been able to catch him. But he was ill even during our voyage, at the end, he kept going by will alone, it was all that held his dying body together. He disbanded the crew shortly after we set foot on the last island of the grand-line and from there made his own way. A few months later, I heard he surrender himself to the Marines. Why he did it, I never knew. There could have been any number of reasons for doing that ranging from him not wanting to die sickly in a bed or him just wanting to have one last laugh at the expense of the marines. To be honest, I have no idea, even those close to him were never able to fully understand his motives." He said with a pained expression on his face.
Something regarding this whole thing seemed strangely familiar.
"It takes a special kind of person to turn one's fading flames of life into a huge fire that enveloped the world. The day he died, I have never laughed, never cried, and never drank more in my life. He was a magnificent man, our late captain. He had to be for us to follow him to hell and back."
He said while I saw him wipe a tear from the corner of his eyes at uttering those words. And I wondered if I would be missed in a similar fashion, have I impacted the lives of those who knew me, knew of me, my friends allies would they shed tears remembering me? After all, if I can't find my way back to them I'm as good as dead to them anyway.
Shakky had no intention to let Rayleigh nor myself recede to our own minds and pushed on with her introduction of the world.
"The seven major players of today, are the Yonkou. The four most powerful and influential Pirates residing in the second half of the Grandline. Together they control the majority of the Islands there. It is said that a single one of them can bring the same power to bear as the World Government, which is the 5th Power with their executive arm called the Marines who operate in all the 5 Seas. After Rogers's proclamation, the Marines started to lose more and more ground against all those new groups of Pirates emerging from thin air. Backed into a corner they had no other choice and offered seven of the most powerful Pirates amnesty and granted them an extensive list of privileges in exchange for their cooperation in exterminating Pirates. For most of those Shichibukai or 7 Warlords of the Sea, that meant business as usual since most Pirate crews are in conflict with each other either way."
So the life of a Pirate is pretty similar to life as a villain on Bet, being in permanent conflict with other Pirates and the Marines the law enforcement agency of this world.
"By accepting to work with the government, the Shichibukai at least had one less powerful enemy. I take it since those Shichibukai are essentially granted immunity from prosecution they abuse their position." I guessed. If it could be called such, human nature made this pretty much a certainty.
"Yes, most do in some way or another." Shakky confirmed, "But the World Government doesn't really care in their eyes it is a small price to pay in order to essentially take them from the board and pointing them at other Pirates. They are deemed useful and since their inception, they turned out to be a vital part of the newly established equilibrium of powers. So their atrocities are overlooked or straight out swept under the rug since news about such events would also damage the reputation of the ones who instated them in the first place."
"Am I right in to assume that the world government as a whole, doesn't only consist of paragon of virtue?"
"Oh goods no," Shakky scoffed "I think earlier you pretty much found the right words to sum it up, let me rephrase it. Pirates and Marine or what else people call themselves are just labels, but that in no way is an apt and sufficient description of a person or group in order to know exactly who and what you are dealing with. There are Marines spouting words about Justice to indulge in the killing of people then there are Pirates who have helped more people than they can count."
This doesn't seem so different from what I was used to. I wondered if corruption was an inherent problem of large organizations or it is owed to the plain and simple human condition.
So to summarize this government is most likely an even more corrupt institution than the PRT, -going by the lack of means to supervise them in a meaningful manner- following some abstract concept of justice to validate their actions no matter what they might be, charming. Then there are the Shichibukai strong pirates and their crews that are exempt from being pursued by the Marines for various concessions granted to them, for hunting other pirates and other obligations they had to fulfill. This construct of government-sanctioned pirates strongly reminded me of the very status I intended for the Undersiders to achieve when I surrendered myself to the PRT, and they eventually got out of the whole ordeal.
In essence, they are Pirates, that on some level acknowledged the necessity of there being an Umbrella organization of some sort for not everything falling into total anarchy or even just to use the government to hide behind. While still preserving their most of their independence, by being kept outside the Marines chain of command. Therefore they retained their ability to interact with other Pirates, because they are still Pirates themselves.
Then there are those Yonkou ruling over this so-called New World, at first glance they look like Insurgent or Rebels of some kind. But on second glance they seem to be a stabilizing factor there. Consolidating other groups under their banner, who otherwise might have caused mayhem and chaos, more than they do now.
I wondered what was their reason for claiming territory in the first place? Was it a hunger for power, riches or were they more basic in nature? After all, I myself took over a city because those in charge were a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats more interested in maintaining the status quo than to change things for the better. Did some of those Yonkou start out in a similar way? Having taken control from those originally in power in order to protect their turf from other pirates and the marines?
"The last major power, which I'm unsure I can even call it that are the Revolutionaries." Shaky concluded, "They are newly minted group that so far was able to successfully wring a few islands from the world governments control. It is unclear if they are gonna last, they have great ambitions but those aiming high can fall a far way down. Only time will tell if they can weather the storm that is coming their way. "
So they are a group given their name is directly opposing the world government, no mere Warlords, but a resistance attempting to change the system. In my own experience, for you to get people to fight against the system in such a manner, required the system to be intolerable ...
"Okay - " I said, "I think I've got a feel for the general situation. As you already said you aren't aware of any portals or ways to reach different worlds. So either they don't exist, to begin with, or you just don't possess knowledge of such. Since I'm not willing to accept the fact that I'm stranded here, I'm gonna operate on the premise that there is a way for me to get back home. Which means I need to find them or a source of information that can point me in the right direction."
"Well, let´s assume for a moment such portals or means to travel between worlds do indeed exist. Then I'm pretty sure the only organization that might know about them is the World government." She concluded, something I grudgingly had to agree with "It wouldn't be the first time they buried something and I doubt they would react kindly to anyone trying to unearth their secrets."
"Yeah, no surprise there. I'm really not keen to find myself in the middle of another conspiracy. The last few I stumbled across were more than enough for one lifetime. I'm more interested in different means to get my hands on such information?"
It would be so easy with access to the internet the rumors alone would probably point me in the right direction.
"Don't you have some kind of hoard of knowledge," I asked, "a place where books are stored to every topic or a person dealing in esoteric information ?"
Someone like Lisa would be godsent in the situation I found myself in.
"Unfortunately you arrived a tad bit too late," she regretfully informed me "we had something like this not too long ago. An Island in West Blue is called Ohara. It was a place of knowledge and was said to house the greatest library in the entire world. Rumor had it that every book ever written could be found there. One of the Archaeologists guild founded and operating out of Hara made extensive use of the library and was quite eager to add to the funds of knowledge."
That seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, somehow I sensed a bit coming which I doubted was gonna please me.
"What happened?"
"The Island was destroyed, according to the official version the people tried not only to secede from the world government but were seeking out forbidden knowledge with the intent to destroy the world. Therefore they were declared criminals and a fleet was dispatched to take care of them. In the ensuing fight, the island and all its inhabitants were killed in some kind of unmentioned accident."
"Which presumably means their accumulated knowledge was either destroyed or taken by the government." I sadly added.
"Most likely," confirmed Shakky.
"Were there any survivors?" I wondered because going to the World Government and kindly ask them for such information wouldn't work, that I was sure of.
With a smile on her lips, she said
"Funny you would ask that. According to the Marines, there actually was a single survivor."
She searched through the stack of papers next to her and took out a bounty poster which she then put on the table in front of me.
"One little girl, by the name of Nico Robin was somehow able to flee the Island in the tumult of the attack and it is even said she sunk 5 Marine Battleships in the process. Which was the justification given for the large bounty placed on her head." Shakky said.
I was stupefied, I only saw a frightened little child no older than 10 — probably even younger and was reminded of those little kids I had the pleasure of getting to know on Bet. Dinah and Bonesaw were at the forefront of my mind and in most aspect complete opposites of each other.
But no matter what, I really couldn't picture that girl in front of me being able to do what was said about her. For me, she strongly reminded me of Dinah a child being the victim of circumstances out of her control. Well on second thought didn't that apply for Bonesaw - Riley, too in some fashion. Being essentially formed into the perfect little tool by a psychopathic killer wasn't her fault either.
In the case of the girl whose picture laid in front of me did seem to still be innocent, but there was no telling how long she could stay that way being forced into a life on the run.
I had trouble suppressing my rising anger, unfair treatment of kids was still a trigger for me, and if there was just a bit of truth in the statement of the marines this child´s situation wasn't much different from Dinahs, she had something others will no doubt be after, with the sole difference her continued survival wasn´t a requirement to get it. Fuck, and I can apparently count myself among those after her, but for entirely different reasons.
I read 79 Million Belly written under her name.
"Sorry, I lack comparables how much are 79 Million Belly, exactly?" I asked.
"A freshly made loaf of bread costs around 50 bellies, meaning the bounty on her head is far more than a good earning job nets you in several decades of work."
That meant the conversion from belly to dollar is roughly ten to one.
Not sure someone would have paid that amount of money for my head even after the Undersiders took over the Bay.
"And the amount on itself, is it irregular?" I followed up on my previous question.
"Yes - Outstanding Captains of Pirate crews, who started out in one of the Blues usually have bounties in the low one-hundred million belly range when they arrive here at the half-way point of the grand-line. But you have to keep in mind, that their bounty is the sum they earned after countless life and death battles and over a long amount of time.
Therefore her bounty is unprecedented in two ways, for one this is the highest starting bounty placed on anyone in one of the Blues and the highest amount ever placed on a child her age." Shakky explained.
I sighed, this was not exactly what I had hoped for to find as my first clue to getting home, but it couldn't be helped. At least in finding her I would be able to protect her from the more unsavory and dangerous elements crawling this planet. My decision made I asked.
"You wouldn't happen to know where best to start my search for this girl?"
I'm not exactly sure what I did, surely it couldn't have been my question. But Shakky beamed at me with a wide smile, as if she just won the lottery. And Rayleigh filled the bar with a booming laughter as if I just told the best joke he ever heard.
Confused at their obvious amusement I looked back and forth between them in the hopes to be inducted in whatever had them react this way.
I had to wait until Rayleigh resumed control over his shaking body and wiped another tear from the corner of his eye, this time one originating from mirth.
"And what exactly gave you the impression you might succeed in this endeavor let alone live long enough to capitalize on the knowledge the girl might impart you with? Perhaps you have already forgotten, but you are in the middle of the grand-line, the most dangerous sea in existence swarming with countless strong Pirates, furthermore this girl has a substantial bounty on her head. You will be lucky to keep yourself alive as you are now, but protecting someone, a little girl at that is absolutely out of the question. Hell, it would surprise me if you would even make it to reverse mountain." He lectured.
It really irritated me to get dismissed in such a fashion, what were Alexandria words - she forged her reputation over years not only participating but being in the midst of all the major incidents for more than two decades. I did the same, not for the same amount of time of course, but since my first day as a cape the rest of her statement — being constantly in the midst of things- applied to me too. And it bugged me, that I apparently had to start all over again.
"I get underestimated all the time," I said with a dangerous undertone.
"Perhaps, and perhaps you will even surprise me, but I'm an excellent judge not only of character but of strength and you don´t possess what it takes to succeed. Lucky for you I´m willing to help, to teach you."
He offered, for a moment I was surprised until I remembered what little I was told about the source of his power and if what he said means, that you really can be trained to do that. I might have need of it especially if he isn't some outlier in this world. After all, I was never one to deny myself an advantage, but the more gnawing question was undoubtedly
"Why? Why would you do that, surely whatever you intend to teach me isn't something that can be learned in a short amount of time. Why invest it in someone you barely know and let´s be clear I don't buy into your `we are bored´ story."
"You are right, it isn't the whole truth." Shaky admitted, "but it isn't a lie either, we just omitted a few things. We are truly bored, you have to understand we were once at the very forefront of the events that happened in the world. We were the protagonist in those stories the people talked about, we were those facing impossible odds and beat them time and time again. We made history."
I can understand the sentiment, I'm not sure if I could have been content with surviving fighting Scion, and then for some reason or another being forced to retire. There would have always been the itch to get back into the thick of things.
"Oh don't misunderstand we have no particular desire to come back out of retirement, we enjoy the current state of our lives. But what we also enjoy is to have a hand in events to come and if we limit ourselves from not actively participating then we thought we at least can guide the new generation and be part of the world-changing events by proxy." She cheerfully said.
"Choose champions in order for them to carry on your torch your legacy, to be the ones having forged the weapon fighting for a new world." I retorted dryly.
"I wouldn't put it in such a dramatic way, but essentially yes -" she confirmed.
"You see the last kid, we mentored is a rising star in this day and age and quite successful in his endeavor. I'm sure he will carve a place for himself in this world and by doing so will give those in power an even greater headache than he already does. And to say I enjoy watching that come to pass quite a lot is a huge understatement. To be honest you struck me as someone cut to be from similar cloth, someone who wouldn't allow yourself to be confined by rules and regulations made by others, only to be subservient to your own goals." He approvingly said.
"Which makes me into a perfect fit, if you are searching for someone to stir the pot, to make trouble," I concluded.
"Yes, but above all, I think you not only can do that but live to tell the tale. From what I've gathered from you in the small amount of time you seem to possess an indomitable will, you are smart and apparently used to conflict, I would even go so far and say I suspect you are one of the few out there genuinely thriving in it. And what we offer is something you will profit from as well." He stated.
"What do you propose?" I asked despite my misgivings of being the amusement of two retired pirates.
"Well, as you are now. You won't survive for long, not if you have the misfortune to run into someone actually knowing how to throw a punch and survive on the grand-line. And you don't strike me as someone able to evade trouble on the contrary you seem more like the trouble magnet kind of girl. Therefore I offer to train you, to get you to a point where you easily will be a match for the best. I can't promise you that you will win against them, but even if you should lose you will be able to make them pay dearly. It has been quite some time since I put some green kids through their paces — Ahh the good old times."
He laughed to himself out of nowhere at this statement and for some reason, it gave me shivers.
Well, I couldn't dismiss how advantageous this would be for me, becoming stronger will not only increase my chances of survival if those seas are truly as dangerous as they are made out to be by those two. And going along with them might also help me in other ways.
"What you offer is tempting, but allow me another question. How long do you think this girl can survive on her on if you think me unable to do the same?" I inquired.
That seemed to give them pause.
"A very good question, one I can't answer. Before you go ahead and reject our offer you should probably know that the destruction of Ohara happened close to two years ago, and there is no guarantee that the girl is even still alive. But what I can guarantee you is that if you go now in a foolhardy attempt to save her, not only will you more than likely die a long time before you even get close to finding her, but you won't be any use in protecting her. And should the worst case occur with you dying, she will have no one not now not ever trying to find, help, and protect her. So if this kid is still alive after 2 years of being on the run, chances are she might live another few years. But if she isn't you accepting our proposal at least will secure your own survival." She appealed at my common sense.
I didn't like it, knowing that my best chance a little girl is out there at the mercy of who knows who, but as much as it pains me to say what she said made sense. What help am I for her if I'm dead in a ditch somewhere? This was Dinah all over again and I hated it, not being able to immediately act, having to bide my time.
"How long will it take to get to the level you think I need to be at?" I questioned.
"Well, that mostly will depend upon yourself. A few years would be enough to get you up to speed." Rayleigh said, "A fair warning I don't do things half-assed and I won't allow you to stop midway in the training."
"I'm no quitter," I stated.
"That´s good to hear." He said intrigued.
"So when do we start?" I asked his sole response consisted of a wide grin.
Authors Note: After making myself familiar with the One Piece world especially its geographic I couldn't stop but wonder how does everybody travel from one Blue to another.
We are told to reach the Grand-Line from one of the Blues you have to traverse Reverse Mountain which basically is a stream flowing upwards to the mountain and then flows downwards in the Grandline. But how do people from the Grand-Line travel into the Blues?
Surely they can't cross the Calm-Belt only the Marines the Pirates of Amazon Lily have the means to do so without fighting their way through an Army of Sea Kings. So how do they do it?
You can't just sail up a mountain against the stream, that can't just be done — on the other hand, Don Krieg fled from the Grand-Line back into East Blue, and Sanji born in South Blue found his way in the Grand-Line and from there ended up in East Blue — but how exactly did they manage to do that? Does Anybody have some ideas and insight you want to share? Because I'm at a loss -
Regarding the conversion of Belly to Dollar — The truth is, it is more than likely not a ten to one conversion but something a bit more complex, where you have to factor in a lot of different things ... availability of food ... technological advancement ... the weird way something in One Piece are priced ... — but I think my estimate isn't that far off and I chose it in a way that calculating the amount in one's head doesn't result in a headache ...
I opened my eyes to a room lit in the morning sun shining through the windows on the left side of my bed. I rolled on my back and stared at the ceiling, while I listened to the chorus of chirping the indigenous birds were performing.
Apparently, the events of yesterday didn't stem from my imagination since I was still here, despite secretly hoping for the opposite. To awaken in a bed at a place I could allow myself to call home, where all the people I care about would be present. Lisa, Rachel, Brian, Charlotte, Sierra, the Kids, and Aisha. I missed them all so much and when I finally saw them again it was a repeat of what happened before I left them. One problem after the other without any pause, no time to just be together to enjoy each other's company.
And now it seemed like it will be an even longer time until I can see them again. In my mind, there was no doubt of our reunion to occur eventually. I deliberately denied myself any thoughts to the contrary and buried them deep inside my consciousness.
I really didn't expect anything for saving or at least consolidating the parahumans in an attempt to save the world, no medal, no recognition no nothing, since it was something that just had to be done, hell I didn't even expect to have a mind let alone powers when it was all over and done. But that I was even denied being with my friends and my Dad, was ... was something I should have known would never come to pass, happy endings after all only happen in old movies.
I only hoped that my actions didn't impact them negatively and that they were all well. Who was I kidding? With me being no longer around they might face the repercussion originally directed at me.
Fuck, and I can't do anything to help them, thanks a lot Contessa you Bitch.
My two spiders woke when my hands clenched into fists slammed into the mattress. I looked at them apologetically, but they obviously didn't care that I interrupted their sleep. They immediately scurried to my side in an attempt to comfort me, something only possible because I gave their original minds free reign over those bodies.
Despite that, it felt strange to have access to their feelings, to experience concern expressed by an extension of yourself for yourself. This was gonna be the one aspect of my newfound powers that was gonna take a lot of time getting used to.
And I better get the hang of them and their limitations fast, since I sincerely doubted finding a way back will be a journey without any trouble waiting for me to find it. If I learned anything as a cape, it was that there existed no smooth sailing.
I paused for a moment at the phrase I used, it seemed like even my mind had accepted that I was stranded in a world with pirates. I chuckled at that. Well, there was no use in prolonging neither my stay in this world nor in this bed.
I sat up and couldn't help myself noticing, that I felt a lot stronger than I did yesterday. Something that shouldn't have been possible this fast without the aid of powers.
I should know I pushed my body on numerous occasions past its limits, which gave me a pretty good idea of its capabilities, especially how long it usually takes for it to recover from certain things.
With the condition of my body having been worse, than most of what I did to it in the past. There was just no way for it to be already in such good shape. Was this somehow swift recovery somehow connected to the fruit I consumed? Didn´t Ray imply that those Zoan type fruits enhance the bodies somehow, does this include healing? Does this mean I ate one of those fruits? Something I should probably keep in mind and ask him about later.
For now, I sat my bare feet on the cold wooden floor and walked over to one of the chairs stacked with clothes. On top of it I found a note:
Take what you like.
The bathroom is the first door to your left.
- Shakky
I took the bundle of clothes and made my way to the door. My two little friends jumped down from the bed and were following me, with one hand on the door handle and the other clutching the clothes I turned to them and ordered.
"Stay here, I won't be away long."
They weren't pleased but followed my instructions nevertheless, by jumping the roughly 4 meters back onto the bed from a standing position with an ease that made it clear doing this took absolutely no effort for them. I marveled once more at their capabilities, if I would have had access to such spiders back in the day my life as a cape would have been so much easier. I watched them lying down on top of the pillow closing their eyes my gaze lingered on them a moment longer until I stepped outside.
The moment I left the room and closed the door behind me, I was surprised to see through the eyes of one of my spider in the corner of the bar, that both Ray and Shakky turned their heads my way. How did they know I was up? Are they some kind of Thinkers, because I didn't make enough noise for them to be able to hear me through the closed door and roughly the dozen feet separating us, even their line of sight towards the door was obstructed since they chose to eat their breakfast in the right corner of the bar.
Something else I had to add to their threat rating. As I reached the bathroom I was surprised at what I found there. I already got a good look at it through a spider, but seeing it for myself was different.
After I stepped through the door I found myself in front of a metal bathtub standing on four metal feet, which elevated it about two dozen inches above the fireplace under it. Allowing the flames to flicker unobstructed at its bottom and heat the water it was filled with.
I didn't see any valve, which spoke volumes about the technological advancement of this world. I walked to the small ladder standing next to the breast-high tub allowing for easier access to the hot water inside. I dipped my fingers inside and after verifying that the temperature was just right stripped out of my spider-silk undersuit and plunged myself in the water.
I was instantly overcome with the feeling of all my strength being sapped away. I felt so weak I doubted I would have been able to keep myself from drowning or had any chance at mustering the necessary strength to heave myself out of the tub if it wouldn't have allowed me to sit in it without my head being submerged.
Even so, it took a lot out of me to just sit upright. I was not sure I would have been able to keep standing inside a tub if my body had been submerged up to my head, which would have been necessary in order not to drown. Well, if I wasn't sure the strange fruit I ate was a devil fruit before, this all but confirmed it for me. I had to say I would have preferred to find it out another way.
It was highly disturbing to suddenly have gained such a glaring weakness, according to Rayleigh everybody in this world is privy to. It somehow reminded me of those old comic books Greg couldn't shut up about and how the heroes depicted in there for the most part had something similar to contend with.
It was gonna take time, to rewire my brain into seeing water as being a real threat to me. But it wouldn't be the first time I had to adapt, and I was sure it won't be the last. With some luck, the ability I got out of it will make up for it.
I leaned back and tried to enjoy the bath, it did wonders to help me feel like a human being again. I usually wasn't a great fan of bathing, seething in water soiled with the grime and sweat you want to get rid of, which was why I preferred to shower. It just washes it all away. But I had to say after the ordeal I went through, despite the water sapping my power it somehow rejuvenated me. I slowly started to feel alive again no longer like a walking corpse.
While in there I took great care of my hair, I already dreaded it being a lost cause since it was exposed to those harsh conditions of salt-breeze and an unrelenting sun, but as it turned out my fears were misplaced. I was quite delighted at this fact, not having lost the one visual feature I shared with my mother, a reminder of her every time I look in the mirror.
I enjoyed soaking in the hot water, which meant by the time I finally alighted from the tub the skin on my hands was already pruney. It felt really strange when the power that was sapped away started to return nearly instantly after I was no longer submerged in water. It felt like being injected with pure energy an effect energy drinks promise but can't keep.
I dried myself and was confronted with the difficult task of picking out what to wear from the selection Shakky provided me with. Not only was it owed to her strange sense of fashion, but to the fact that a lot of the clothes didn't fit me and I doubted they ever would. Which left me with little choice in what to wear if I didn't want to risk losing the clothes to various malfunction while walking. I eventually settled for some pants, made out of cloth reminding me of linen, and a loose T-shirt one of the few items that would work with my lack of bust.
Not the greatest outfit but it would do until I was able to clean the spider silk undersuit and had some time to weave some things in my size. I returned to the room I slept in and placed the clothes I didn't use on the same spot I found them. My cute little spiders had opened their eyes the moment I stepped inside the room and were following my every move in anticipation. I reached for them with my outstretched arm, which they used to skitter alongside and then settled on my left and respectively right shoulder. With them situated there, I made way to Rayleigh and Shakky.
On the short way to them, I decided I needed to name my spiders. I couldn't keep referring to them as male and female spider all the time. The problem this presented me with since I was notoriously bad at naming things. None of the names I was known by during my tenure as a cape really clicked with me despite Weaver being one I actually chose myself, but even that name never felt right it was more like the best option out of a lot of bad ones. I thought on it for a moment and decided to not cause myself a headache by coming up with fitting names for them and just used the names that I recently came across.
I looked at the female spider and said to her "your name will be Lilith", then I turned to the male spider and said, "and your name will be Kain".
If I remembered right those were the names of the two main characters out of some vampire story Narwhal recommended. She had a predilection for those epic fantasy romances, not something I usually read, but on occasion, they could be an enjoyable pastime. Unfortunately, I never got past the first few chapters and I doubted I was gonna find a copy of this book anywhere around here.
Shakky and Rayleigh both stayed in the bar while I was in the bathroom. What irritated me to no end was that they spoke not a single word let alone sentence to each other throughout the whole time. I was hoping to at least glimpse some more information about them, the place I was at, and their real intentions regarding me through a conversation they might have held. It would have helped me greatly in the talks to follow if I had more of an idea of what I'm dealing with. But I had no such luck, well wouldn't be the first time things didn't go my way, and if I'm good at something it is improvisation.
When I stepped through the door and entered the bar section of the house Rayleigh was sitting with crossed legs and a newspaper in his hands on a corner bench. Shakky sat next to him with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. The table in front of them, both was filled with all kinds of food.
I seated myself on the lone chair on the opposite side of the table.
"You must be hungry, go ahead we can talk while you eat."
Shakky didn't have to say this twice. I was hungry and the exquisite smell of all the dishes in front of me didn't help diminish the feeling on the contrary my mouth started to water. I took a plate and filled it with the various things placed on the table.
I started the conversation with the question.
"So what can you tell me about this world?"
"What would you like to hear?" was the counter-question I received from Shakky.
"For now geographics - where on this world am I? Who are the major powers? That should suffice for a start. Then you mentioned Pirates, where I´m from it is a term used to describe theft, violence and other crimes committed by ship. And you already admitted to having been one, which makes you criminals in the eyes of the authorities right?"
I wasn't able to identify all the dishes. But for the moment I didn't really care to find my new favorite food or being able to name what I ate. Such frivolities weren't even on the list of my priorities. But I also couldn't help my curiosity which is why I took a sample from everything. I had my first bite when Shakky started to talk.
"Well, aren't you interesting? One would usually expect of someone being confronted with criminals - even former ones — for it to elicit some kind of distrust, even fear. I can somewhat understand why you didn't react in such a way, yesterday. You were tired, exhausted, and possibly overwhelmed, but now you are neither. I'm certain of it and I'm also sure you aren't schooling your reactions. So would you mind telling me why there is no reaction to the fact you are sitting at the same table as two cutthroat Pirates?"
I swallowed what I had in my mouth and calmly answered.
"Where I'm from criminal, villain are just labels you get attached with by the government, I have met villains who did more good than the ones calling themselves Heroes and I met Heroes who committed atrocities. Therefore I don't take much stock in those labels I tend to form my own opinions about those I interact with. And to be honest you both don't exactly strike me as people I have to fear if I don't give you reason to or am I wrong in my assessment?"
I raised my eyebrow questioning at Shakky. Rayleighs response consisted of snickering at my statement.
"No, you aren't." she said bemusedly "Where to start ?" She glanced at Rayleigh for a moment. He didn't react to her cue, which she seemed to interpret as permission to continue.
"Let´s see." she picked up some documents which to this moment were lying next to her on the bench and therefore out of my sight and placed them on the table. She was digging through them in search of something specific, while she was doing that I got a glimpse of some of those papers. No small part consisted of pictures of people with numbers on them, it took me a few moments to connect the dots of those partial papers I saw to puzzle together the words written on them meant `Dead or Alive´, which made it clear those were wanted poster.
I had no reference but the high numbers on some of them must mean someone really wants to see those people taken out apparently by any means necessary. My musings were interrupted when Shakky found what she was after.
"Ahh here it is," she exclaimed and put all the other documents out of the way and most of the plates with food followed and then unfolded the one document she kept in her hands and placed it in the middle of the table.
As it turned out it was a map, I'm really no expert but what I saw stroke me as odd. She gave me no real-time to take it in its entirety, which meant I barely had time to come to a premature conclusion before she started to explain what I was looking at. But what I could conclude at the first glance, that it had to be some kind of world map. One of those where the surface area of the planet is peeled of like the skin of a fruit and spread across a flat surface.
"This is a map representing the world we live in. This here is the Redline." She pointed to a landmass that stretched as a line from the bottom of the map to the top of the map halving it in the process. The landmass further extended along the edges of and encircled the whole map.
"It is the largest connected landmass in existence it encompasses the whole world."
It was a strange way to depict a landmass that goes around the world as a line. If I interpreted the map in front of me correctly. "Combined with the Grandline" she pointed at a perpendicular to the red-line arranged sea corridor enclosed on both sides with a different type of sea. " The world is separated into 4 seas which are called East, West North, and South Blue."
At this, I took a look at the map legend and noticed that the naming of the four sea was accurate. At least according to the compass rose the right corner of the map was shifted 45 degrees to the left in relation to the Red-line. Therefore making the sea in top right into the East Blue the one in the lower right side into the South Blue and the one on the top left side into North Blue which left the low left to be named West Blue.
"Those lines you see here" she was pointing at the identical light blue colored water enclosing the Grandline "are called calm belts, it is an area of the sea without any stream and wind."
Is that where I found myself after waking up in the small boat, it would fit in all the time I happened to be there I felt not a single drought, the air was absolute unmoving as was the water surrounding me.
"I assume that makes crossing the calm belt a tedious endeavor?" I asked.
"No, it is in fact a near-impossible enterprise." She said "The reason for this isn't the lack of wind, ships can be moved by rowing, after all, but because of the Sea Kings calling those regions their home. Trying to cross the Calm Belt is a surefire way to have a run-in with them, and they don't react well to being disturbed."
"Sea Kings?" I wondered aloud I had an inkling given the name of what they are. A memory of Leviathan flashed before my mind's eye.
"Huge aquatic creatures, the largest of them hundreds of feet in size, able to swallow the biggest of ships whole and their strength is on the very same scale. There aren't many who can claim to have survived an encounter with them let alone crossed the belt. Even the strongest and experienced crews don't attempt it lightly. The risk is just too great. This is exactly why to reach the Grandline most use reverse mountain."
She pointed at the very center of the map, where the Redline is cut apart and five thin lines of water converge. Four emerge from the 4 great blues and the last one leads to the right side of the grand line. The whole thing looked like some kind of junction.
"There is a stream flowing up the mountain from every of the Blues. This stream allows for ships to cross over to the other seas and even to reach the Grand-line. Of course, this isn't without its own risks but it is far less dangerous than attempting to cross the calm-belt."
Her hand moved right to the outer right edge where she pointed at a small island just a small distance away from the Red-line. "We are here," which meant pretty much on the opposite side of the world from Reverse Mountain "Sabaody Archipelago a massive mangrove forest a top of merman Island, which is located at the bottom of the ocean. The final Island before the New World."
I looked at her in a questioning manner not familiar with this term.
"It is the term used nowadays for the second half of the Grand-Line, which can be reached by traversing a hole through the Red-Line. It is the only way for those not working for the government to get from here to here." She moved her finger from the right edge to the very left.
"Some claim the second half was named New World because the influence of the world government they have over that region is waning. With vast stretches being ruled uncontested by the most powerful pirates others say it got it's name because it is full of wonders and unexplored things, no one knows for certain but the name stuck. "
"So it is some kind of lawless zone?" I inquired.
"In a sense, it depends on whom you ask. But the same can be said about the first half of the Grand-line, it rests upon which definition of lawless zone you employ."
Rayleigh sighed,
"What she tries to say without actually saying it, is that 4 years ago Gol. D. Roger the so-called Pirate King was executed after he surrendered himself to the World Government. Before they actually took his head they allowed him some last words. The Marines were probably expecting him to beg for his life or show remorse for his actions, but that just showed how little they knew about him. Instead of scoring their greatest victory in history by executing the Pirate King in front of a crowd, he turned the tables on them and instead dealt them the greatest defeat by uttering a few simple words."
He reminisced for a moment.
"I can still hear him say them. `You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now you'll just have to find it!´ With those words, he started the so called Age of pirates. Fortune-hunters and outlaws around the world followed his calling and set out to sea."
There was some barely hidden pain and regret in his voice.
"You knew him didn't you?"
"I did," he confirmed, "Roger was my best friend, my captain."
"Why did he give himself up? After everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king, surely he could have fought them?" I wondered.
"Yes he could have, and if he did they would have never been able to catch him. But he was ill even during our voyage, at the end, he kept going by will alone, it was all that held his dying body together. He disbanded the crew shortly after we set foot on the last island of the grand-line and from there made his own way. A few months later, I heard he surrender himself to the Marines. Why he did it, I never knew. There could have been any number of reasons for doing that ranging from him not wanting to die sickly in a bed or him just wanting to have one last laugh at the expense of the marines. To be honest, I have no idea, even those close to him were never able to fully understand his motives." He said with a pained expression on his face.
Something regarding this whole thing seemed strangely familiar.
"It takes a special kind of person to turn one's fading flames of life into a huge fire that enveloped the world. The day he died, I have never laughed, never cried, and never drank more in my life. He was a magnificent man, our late captain. He had to be for us to follow him to hell and back."
He said while I saw him wipe a tear from the corner of his eyes at uttering those words. And I wondered if I would be missed in a similar fashion, have I impacted the lives of those who knew me, knew of me, my friends allies would they shed tears remembering me? After all, if I can't find my way back to them I'm as good as dead to them anyway.
Shakky had no intention to let Rayleigh nor myself recede to our own minds and pushed on with her introduction of the world.
"The seven major players of today, are the Yonkou. The four most powerful and influential Pirates residing in the second half of the Grandline. Together they control the majority of the Islands there. It is said that a single one of them can bring the same power to bear as the World Government, which is the 5th Power with their executive arm called the Marines who operate in all the 5 Seas. After Rogers's proclamation, the Marines started to lose more and more ground against all those new groups of Pirates emerging from thin air. Backed into a corner they had no other choice and offered seven of the most powerful Pirates amnesty and granted them an extensive list of privileges in exchange for their cooperation in exterminating Pirates. For most of those Shichibukai or 7 Warlords of the Sea, that meant business as usual since most Pirate crews are in conflict with each other either way."
So the life of a Pirate is pretty similar to life as a villain on Bet, being in permanent conflict with other Pirates and the Marines the law enforcement agency of this world.
"By accepting to work with the government, the Shichibukai at least had one less powerful enemy. I take it since those Shichibukai are essentially granted immunity from prosecution they abuse their position." I guessed. If it could be called such, human nature made this pretty much a certainty.
"Yes, most do in some way or another." Shakky confirmed, "But the World Government doesn't really care in their eyes it is a small price to pay in order to essentially take them from the board and pointing them at other Pirates. They are deemed useful and since their inception, they turned out to be a vital part of the newly established equilibrium of powers. So their atrocities are overlooked or straight out swept under the rug since news about such events would also damage the reputation of the ones who instated them in the first place."
"Am I right in to assume that the world government as a whole, doesn't only consist of paragon of virtue?"
"Oh goods no," Shakky scoffed "I think earlier you pretty much found the right words to sum it up, let me rephrase it. Pirates and Marine or what else people call themselves are just labels, but that in no way is an apt and sufficient description of a person or group in order to know exactly who and what you are dealing with. There are Marines spouting words about Justice to indulge in the killing of people then there are Pirates who have helped more people than they can count."
This doesn't seem so different from what I was used to. I wondered if corruption was an inherent problem of large organizations or it is owed to the plain and simple human condition.
So to summarize this government is most likely an even more corrupt institution than the PRT, -going by the lack of means to supervise them in a meaningful manner- following some abstract concept of justice to validate their actions no matter what they might be, charming. Then there are the Shichibukai strong pirates and their crews that are exempt from being pursued by the Marines for various concessions granted to them, for hunting other pirates and other obligations they had to fulfill. This construct of government-sanctioned pirates strongly reminded me of the very status I intended for the Undersiders to achieve when I surrendered myself to the PRT, and they eventually got out of the whole ordeal.
In essence, they are Pirates, that on some level acknowledged the necessity of there being an Umbrella organization of some sort for not everything falling into total anarchy or even just to use the government to hide behind. While still preserving their most of their independence, by being kept outside the Marines chain of command. Therefore they retained their ability to interact with other Pirates, because they are still Pirates themselves.
Then there are those Yonkou ruling over this so-called New World, at first glance they look like Insurgent or Rebels of some kind. But on second glance they seem to be a stabilizing factor there. Consolidating other groups under their banner, who otherwise might have caused mayhem and chaos, more than they do now.
I wondered what was their reason for claiming territory in the first place? Was it a hunger for power, riches or were they more basic in nature? After all, I myself took over a city because those in charge were a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats more interested in maintaining the status quo than to change things for the better. Did some of those Yonkou start out in a similar way? Having taken control from those originally in power in order to protect their turf from other pirates and the marines?
"The last major power, which I'm unsure I can even call it that are the Revolutionaries." Shaky concluded, "They are newly minted group that so far was able to successfully wring a few islands from the world governments control. It is unclear if they are gonna last, they have great ambitions but those aiming high can fall a far way down. Only time will tell if they can weather the storm that is coming their way. "
So they are a group given their name is directly opposing the world government, no mere Warlords, but a resistance attempting to change the system. In my own experience, for you to get people to fight against the system in such a manner, required the system to be intolerable ...
"Okay - " I said, "I think I've got a feel for the general situation. As you already said you aren't aware of any portals or ways to reach different worlds. So either they don't exist, to begin with, or you just don't possess knowledge of such. Since I'm not willing to accept the fact that I'm stranded here, I'm gonna operate on the premise that there is a way for me to get back home. Which means I need to find them or a source of information that can point me in the right direction."
"Well, let´s assume for a moment such portals or means to travel between worlds do indeed exist. Then I'm pretty sure the only organization that might know about them is the World government." She concluded, something I grudgingly had to agree with "It wouldn't be the first time they buried something and I doubt they would react kindly to anyone trying to unearth their secrets."
"Yeah, no surprise there. I'm really not keen to find myself in the middle of another conspiracy. The last few I stumbled across were more than enough for one lifetime. I'm more interested in different means to get my hands on such information?"
It would be so easy with access to the internet the rumors alone would probably point me in the right direction.
"Don't you have some kind of hoard of knowledge," I asked, "a place where books are stored to every topic or a person dealing in esoteric information ?"
Someone like Lisa would be godsent in the situation I found myself in.
"Unfortunately you arrived a tad bit too late," she regretfully informed me "we had something like this not too long ago. An Island in West Blue is called Ohara. It was a place of knowledge and was said to house the greatest library in the entire world. Rumor had it that every book ever written could be found there. One of the Archaeologists guild founded and operating out of Hara made extensive use of the library and was quite eager to add to the funds of knowledge."
That seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, somehow I sensed a bit coming which I doubted was gonna please me.
"What happened?"
"The Island was destroyed, according to the official version the people tried not only to secede from the world government but were seeking out forbidden knowledge with the intent to destroy the world. Therefore they were declared criminals and a fleet was dispatched to take care of them. In the ensuing fight, the island and all its inhabitants were killed in some kind of unmentioned accident."
"Which presumably means their accumulated knowledge was either destroyed or taken by the government." I sadly added.
"Most likely," confirmed Shakky.
"Were there any survivors?" I wondered because going to the World Government and kindly ask them for such information wouldn't work, that I was sure of.
With a smile on her lips, she said
"Funny you would ask that. According to the Marines, there actually was a single survivor."
She searched through the stack of papers next to her and took out a bounty poster which she then put on the table in front of me.
"One little girl, by the name of Nico Robin was somehow able to flee the Island in the tumult of the attack and it is even said she sunk 5 Marine Battleships in the process. Which was the justification given for the large bounty placed on her head." Shakky said.
I was stupefied, I only saw a frightened little child no older than 10 — probably even younger and was reminded of those little kids I had the pleasure of getting to know on Bet. Dinah and Bonesaw were at the forefront of my mind and in most aspect complete opposites of each other.
But no matter what, I really couldn't picture that girl in front of me being able to do what was said about her. For me, she strongly reminded me of Dinah a child being the victim of circumstances out of her control. Well on second thought didn't that apply for Bonesaw - Riley, too in some fashion. Being essentially formed into the perfect little tool by a psychopathic killer wasn't her fault either.
In the case of the girl whose picture laid in front of me did seem to still be innocent, but there was no telling how long she could stay that way being forced into a life on the run.
I had trouble suppressing my rising anger, unfair treatment of kids was still a trigger for me, and if there was just a bit of truth in the statement of the marines this child´s situation wasn't much different from Dinahs, she had something others will no doubt be after, with the sole difference her continued survival wasn´t a requirement to get it. Fuck, and I can apparently count myself among those after her, but for entirely different reasons.
I read 79 Million Belly written under her name.
"Sorry, I lack comparables how much are 79 Million Belly, exactly?" I asked.
"A freshly made loaf of bread costs around 50 bellies, meaning the bounty on her head is far more than a good earning job nets you in several decades of work."
That meant the conversion from belly to dollar is roughly ten to one.
Not sure someone would have paid that amount of money for my head even after the Undersiders took over the Bay.
"And the amount on itself, is it irregular?" I followed up on my previous question.
"Yes - Outstanding Captains of Pirate crews, who started out in one of the Blues usually have bounties in the low one-hundred million belly range when they arrive here at the half-way point of the grand-line. But you have to keep in mind, that their bounty is the sum they earned after countless life and death battles and over a long amount of time.
Therefore her bounty is unprecedented in two ways, for one this is the highest starting bounty placed on anyone in one of the Blues and the highest amount ever placed on a child her age." Shakky explained.
I sighed, this was not exactly what I had hoped for to find as my first clue to getting home, but it couldn't be helped. At least in finding her I would be able to protect her from the more unsavory and dangerous elements crawling this planet. My decision made I asked.
"You wouldn't happen to know where best to start my search for this girl?"
I'm not exactly sure what I did, surely it couldn't have been my question. But Shakky beamed at me with a wide smile, as if she just won the lottery. And Rayleigh filled the bar with a booming laughter as if I just told the best joke he ever heard.
Confused at their obvious amusement I looked back and forth between them in the hopes to be inducted in whatever had them react this way.
I had to wait until Rayleigh resumed control over his shaking body and wiped another tear from the corner of his eye, this time one originating from mirth.
"And what exactly gave you the impression you might succeed in this endeavor let alone live long enough to capitalize on the knowledge the girl might impart you with? Perhaps you have already forgotten, but you are in the middle of the grand-line, the most dangerous sea in existence swarming with countless strong Pirates, furthermore this girl has a substantial bounty on her head. You will be lucky to keep yourself alive as you are now, but protecting someone, a little girl at that is absolutely out of the question. Hell, it would surprise me if you would even make it to reverse mountain." He lectured.
It really irritated me to get dismissed in such a fashion, what were Alexandria words - she forged her reputation over years not only participating but being in the midst of all the major incidents for more than two decades. I did the same, not for the same amount of time of course, but since my first day as a cape the rest of her statement — being constantly in the midst of things- applied to me too. And it bugged me, that I apparently had to start all over again.
"I get underestimated all the time," I said with a dangerous undertone.
"Perhaps, and perhaps you will even surprise me, but I'm an excellent judge not only of character but of strength and you don´t possess what it takes to succeed. Lucky for you I´m willing to help, to teach you."
He offered, for a moment I was surprised until I remembered what little I was told about the source of his power and if what he said means, that you really can be trained to do that. I might have need of it especially if he isn't some outlier in this world. After all, I was never one to deny myself an advantage, but the more gnawing question was undoubtedly
"Why? Why would you do that, surely whatever you intend to teach me isn't something that can be learned in a short amount of time. Why invest it in someone you barely know and let´s be clear I don't buy into your `we are bored´ story."
"You are right, it isn't the whole truth." Shaky admitted, "but it isn't a lie either, we just omitted a few things. We are truly bored, you have to understand we were once at the very forefront of the events that happened in the world. We were the protagonist in those stories the people talked about, we were those facing impossible odds and beat them time and time again. We made history."
I can understand the sentiment, I'm not sure if I could have been content with surviving fighting Scion, and then for some reason or another being forced to retire. There would have always been the itch to get back into the thick of things.
"Oh don't misunderstand we have no particular desire to come back out of retirement, we enjoy the current state of our lives. But what we also enjoy is to have a hand in events to come and if we limit ourselves from not actively participating then we thought we at least can guide the new generation and be part of the world-changing events by proxy." She cheerfully said.
"Choose champions in order for them to carry on your torch your legacy, to be the ones having forged the weapon fighting for a new world." I retorted dryly.
"I wouldn't put it in such a dramatic way, but essentially yes -" she confirmed.
"You see the last kid, we mentored is a rising star in this day and age and quite successful in his endeavor. I'm sure he will carve a place for himself in this world and by doing so will give those in power an even greater headache than he already does. And to say I enjoy watching that come to pass quite a lot is a huge understatement. To be honest you struck me as someone cut to be from similar cloth, someone who wouldn't allow yourself to be confined by rules and regulations made by others, only to be subservient to your own goals." He approvingly said.
"Which makes me into a perfect fit, if you are searching for someone to stir the pot, to make trouble," I concluded.
"Yes, but above all, I think you not only can do that but live to tell the tale. From what I've gathered from you in the small amount of time you seem to possess an indomitable will, you are smart and apparently used to conflict, I would even go so far and say I suspect you are one of the few out there genuinely thriving in it. And what we offer is something you will profit from as well." He stated.
"What do you propose?" I asked despite my misgivings of being the amusement of two retired pirates.
"Well, as you are now. You won't survive for long, not if you have the misfortune to run into someone actually knowing how to throw a punch and survive on the grand-line. And you don't strike me as someone able to evade trouble on the contrary you seem more like the trouble magnet kind of girl. Therefore I offer to train you, to get you to a point where you easily will be a match for the best. I can't promise you that you will win against them, but even if you should lose you will be able to make them pay dearly. It has been quite some time since I put some green kids through their paces — Ahh the good old times."
He laughed to himself out of nowhere at this statement and for some reason, it gave me shivers.
Well, I couldn't dismiss how advantageous this would be for me, becoming stronger will not only increase my chances of survival if those seas are truly as dangerous as they are made out to be by those two. And going along with them might also help me in other ways.
"What you offer is tempting, but allow me another question. How long do you think this girl can survive on her on if you think me unable to do the same?" I inquired.
That seemed to give them pause.
"A very good question, one I can't answer. Before you go ahead and reject our offer you should probably know that the destruction of Ohara happened close to two years ago, and there is no guarantee that the girl is even still alive. But what I can guarantee you is that if you go now in a foolhardy attempt to save her, not only will you more than likely die a long time before you even get close to finding her, but you won't be any use in protecting her. And should the worst case occur with you dying, she will have no one not now not ever trying to find, help, and protect her. So if this kid is still alive after 2 years of being on the run, chances are she might live another few years. But if she isn't you accepting our proposal at least will secure your own survival." She appealed at my common sense.
I didn't like it, knowing that my best chance a little girl is out there at the mercy of who knows who, but as much as it pains me to say what she said made sense. What help am I for her if I'm dead in a ditch somewhere? This was Dinah all over again and I hated it, not being able to immediately act, having to bide my time.
"How long will it take to get to the level you think I need to be at?" I questioned.
"Well, that mostly will depend upon yourself. A few years would be enough to get you up to speed." Rayleigh said, "A fair warning I don't do things half-assed and I won't allow you to stop midway in the training."
"I'm no quitter," I stated.
"That´s good to hear." He said intrigued.
"So when do we start?" I asked his sole response consisted of a wide grin.
Authors Note: After making myself familiar with the One Piece world especially its geographic I couldn't stop but wonder how does everybody travel from one Blue to another.
We are told to reach the Grand-Line from one of the Blues you have to traverse Reverse Mountain which basically is a stream flowing upwards to the mountain and then flows downwards in the Grandline. But how do people from the Grand-Line travel into the Blues?
Surely they can't cross the Calm-Belt only the Marines the Pirates of Amazon Lily have the means to do so without fighting their way through an Army of Sea Kings. So how do they do it?
You can't just sail up a mountain against the stream, that can't just be done — on the other hand, Don Krieg fled from the Grand-Line back into East Blue, and Sanji born in South Blue found his way in the Grand-Line and from there ended up in East Blue — but how exactly did they manage to do that? Does Anybody have some ideas and insight you want to share? Because I'm at a loss -
Regarding the conversion of Belly to Dollar — The truth is, it is more than likely not a ten to one conversion but something a bit more complex, where you have to factor in a lot of different things ... availability of food ... technological advancement ... the weird way something in One Piece are priced ... — but I think my estimate isn't that far off and I chose it in a way that calculating the amount in one's head doesn't result in a headache ...
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Ive always given it the "approx. 100 beri to the dollar" approach, given the source is japanese and that's close enough for the yen to dollar conversion most of the time. It was 87 yen to the dollar or so the last time I had to bother with it, but decimals are easier.
As for escaping the grand line....
I haven't followed the series since the start of the Fishman Island arc, so I've got little to no clue. The marines are known (though how well is known I don't remember) to have seaprism coated hills on steam ships that can cross, and the Kuja pirates live on an island in the calm belt, so there must be known ways to leave, though rare.
Don kreig left shortly after entering and returned in his one of his own ships. A beat up wreck of one too.
I figure there must be some leeway immediately after entry if he got out. Some quirk of winds and currents smashing into the red line that makes the lighthouse the real last chance to turn around, with a slew of complications to make it possible, but only slightly better than going through the hell that is the weather of that first stretch of the grand line.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm glad to see that Taylor still has some fond memories of her mother. It truly shows that she still has some maybe 3.5% innocence left in her being! I'm actually quite exited for her future titles and nicknames once she gets her own Bounty.
Taylor would actually be pretty surprised as to how large and strong Sea Kings really are.
See that large black and white King there? Yeah that mofo is not even the largest out there.
Bwahahaha! I'm actually quite amused by this development! Of course Taylor would jump to the idea of fighting a corrupt government and become a Big Damn Hero again!
Thanks for the update and keep up the good work! Can't wait to see Robin getting rescued and Taylor's training arc!
- Location
- Dallas
Okay. I stopped somewhere in the early/middle of the third threadmark. I just can't read beyond that with the current grammer and how Taylor is wearing her backstory on her sleeve. It's a giant pet peeve and I hate it. I'm not combing through the entire thing to point out grammer mistakes.
Except for one example to give you an idea, considering you said English wasn't your language. Not using quotes because I'm on mobile.
"Why did he give himself up, after everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king surely he could have fought them.?"
It should be "Why did he give himself up? After everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king, surely he could have fought them?"
Never put a period in front of a question mark, and you never want a single sentence of rambling dialogue.
There's a lot more examples, but that's the last thing I read before I decided to drop it. Good luck with your story.
Except for one example to give you an idea, considering you said English wasn't your language. Not using quotes because I'm on mobile.
"Why did he give himself up, after everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king surely he could have fought them.?"
It should be "Why did he give himself up? After everything you said he must have held great power to be titled pirate king, surely he could have fought them?"
Never put a period in front of a question mark, and you never want a single sentence of rambling dialogue.
There's a lot more examples, but that's the last thing I read before I decided to drop it. Good luck with your story.
Chapter 04 - Island of Monsters
Chapter 04: Island of Monsters (Spring 1504)
The little boat we were in bumped against the shore of the Island in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rayleigh putting the paddle away he used to propel us through the vast stretch of the calm belt we had to traverse to arrive at this destination.
He jumped into the shallow water and pulled the boat with me still in it further onshore. He dragged the boat a good few dozen feet away from the edge of the furthest point the waves reach on land.
It was astounding every time I saw his physical capabilities, the boat must have weighed a few hundred kilos without me, and he moved it like would an empty cardboard carton. A feat, according to him is nothing special and something he assured me a lot of people are capable of. And if what he promised is true, I will be one of those people in due time.
I couldn't wait for it. How often did I wish myself capable of being able to match some of my enemies blow for blow instead of having to be creative with my power. Don't get me wrong. I had loved my power, it was incredibly versatile, and it allowed me to put my mind to use. To constantly come up with new ways to utilize it, it forced me to think. In my opinion, the most important thing in any fight was to think. The moment you stopped doing it was the moment you lost.
Nevertheless, there are situations where it is just satisfying to just pummel your opponent's face until it is just a bloody mess. Oh, what would I have given for the opportunity to wipe the smile off the faces of the likes of Alexandria and Jack Slash with a well-aimed punch.
I took the small bag, filled with a few clothes and essentials I was given by Shakky slung it over my shoulders, and jumped onto dry land. I wasn't one to get sea-sick. But being on board of a boat, small enough to be called a large nutshell for over a week, was enough, even for me to long for steady ground under my feet.
The hardest part was not being able to move about. Especially after my last involuntary stay on a boat and the negative connotations it had. Therefore think it is understandable I wasn't exactly eager for a trip by boat so shortly after this experience.
Nonetheless, I was a far cry away from falling to my knees and praying for my good fortune to be on land again, but I couldn't deny that some apprehension left me standing here. A glance at Lilith and Kain, who jumped from the boat in my wake, told me they shared my feelings.
In my case, it mostly had to do with the parting words of Shakky aimed at Rayleigh, in which she told him to take care of his boat for once since they can't well afford it for him to get them sunk every time he leaves the island.
At first, I thought she was joking, but the way he reacted, embarrassed to be called out on it, and scratched the back of his head while trying to laugh it away told a different story entirely. Well, at least it answered the question of why Rayleigh was swimming through the calm-belt when he came across me and at that moment I started to regret agreeing to this whole endeavor.
It would really have been just my luck to capsize and drown on my way to get stronger in order to survive this world.
His halfhearted reassurances, that Shakky was exaggerating didn't exactly help soothe my worries. Nevertheless, my path had already been set and I had no intention of abandoning it before it even started.
At least I safely arrived at our destination, and for my peace of mind, I would just ignore the fact, that at one time I would have to set forth on the return trip.
During my musings, Rayleigh already had reached the outskirts of the dense forest and was turning back towards me. He lifted one of his eyebrows in a questioning manner as if to say are you coming.
This prompted me to follow him. I made one step when I felt some soft impacts on my backpack. I needn't turn my head to know my spiders intended to use me as their taxi.
We made our way through thick vegetation, with seemingly no end in sight for some time. I was about ready to accept the fact that this must be some kind of endless forest Island when at one point, the vegetation started to get thinner, and we ended up in a clearing.
It was nothing special, just the foot of a large rock formation. Rocks clustered around the area, and undoubtedly the reason the vegetation halted at the very edges. The trees stood far enough away to allow the sunlight near unhindered access to clearing.
I noticed a small thin stream of water emerging atop the largest rock, creating a small waterfall as it rained down from it. The water hitting the ground gathered in a small dent at the foot of that rock, before it drained off along a small trench in the stones towards the treeline vanishing there.
I couldn't help but think this to be a near-perfect place to set up our camp. We had access to freshwater a waterfall even, which could be used as a shower. The area was overseeable making it near impossible for any wild animals to sneak upon us. The lack of plants, except for the occasional moss formation, wouldn't make this area attractive for most animals either.
Not sure about the water though, it might be used by some to appease their thirst, but I didn't think that likely the strong vegetation indicated an abundance of drinkable water on this island. Therefore most animals would avoid a clearing with nothing in it that could be used as cover.
Well, time will tell. Either way, I doubted many are courageous enough to get anywhere near Rayleigh. He walked over to a knee-high rock and placed his bag next to it. I followed his example and placed mine near a rock too close to where I was standing.
Despite the bag being rather light, no more than thirty pounds, it was liberating to no longer having to carry it on my shoulders. Lilith and Kain shared the enthusiasm with the now absent straps it meant more space for them.
He turned around and walked past me in the direction we came from. He stopped near the edge of the forest and faced me.
"We are gonna use this clearing as camp. When we don't train you shouldn't stray from it", he warned. "As you are now you won't survive an encounter with most of the creatures living on this island."
His words though vague, made it clear he had to possess some kind of Thinker power. Was it the same power that allowed them to know when I was leaving the room back on Sabaody?
"The way you say this, the certainty you aren't guessing you know. How?"
I tried to get a confirmation for my assumption out of him.
"We come to that. For now, let's talk," he said as he looked at me emphasizing the importance of what he was about to tell me.
"In this world, there are three major sources of a person's strength. First, there is the body the physical abilities." His thumb on his right hand went up.
"Second, there is the Mind, Willpower, or as most came to call it Haki," he said and his index finger joined his thumb.
"And the last source of power, something not everyone possesses are Devil Fruit powers," he listed with his middle finger raised.
"Everything else from the use of weapons to strategies are in essence subcategories of those three."
I nodded along, as he continued,
"In the time we are here together I will focus on the first two, I can train your body and mind, but I can't help you with the third. Probably no one can since every Devil Fruits is unique in its own way. Even among Zoan-type fruits, the category with the greatest overlap, it isn't guaranteed that something that works for one necessarily translates to another."
"Which just means I have to get a handle on it by myself," I concluded. I was confident I could handle it. It wouldn't be the first time I had to get a grip on a new power. Worthwhile experience, which combined with the remnants of memories as my time as Khepri will come in handy.
"Pretty much," he agreed. "The fact that I haven't eaten one doesn't exactly help matters. But I fought my fair share of them, so I at least will be able to impart some tips and observations that might help you along the way. But this won't be our priority, no matter what type of fruit-type you consumed. In the long run, you will benefit more from training the other two categories."
Yeah, I can see why. If I ate a Zoan type and it somehow amplified my physical capabilities having a strong base is essential and in turn, will boost my overall power when using the fruit. I don't think there are many Paramecia-type fruit not able to profit from strong physical and mental faculties. For Logia-types if it really is possible to overcome the breaker state, that grants a user intangibility the same holds true. And for some reason, I suspect the secret in overcoming it is somehow connected to this Haki.
"Both are equally important and mastery over both is necessary if you want to fully realize your potential," He said. Of course, by focusing on one, you can cover up weaknesses in the other categories to a certain extent. But in order to get truly powerful, you need both, unified they are boosting each other to new heights. Even the Marines recognize this fact."
"What do you mean?" I asked unsure what he was alluding to.
"A few decades back the Marines developed a training program for their officer candidates. It was based upon the combination of a few different martial arts. They called the end product Rokushiki, it was designed to train their bodies and served a double purpose. To teach them discipline and also to give them a basis, it can later be built upon. When they are ready to learn the use of Haki."
"Are you gonna teach me this Rokushiki?" apprehension found its way into my voice.
Learning a new martial arts usually means having to unlearn all things previously learned about fighting. Since every martial art is different, with different foci, not surprising since every single one was a result of the time of their conception, the culture, the weapons used, and the ones intended to learn all differ.
In such a way, that they don't mesh well with each other. The more ingrained a martial artist is, the different style, its stances, and kata are, the more difficult it would be to reverse the habits this resulted in.
Habits are hard to unlearn in the best circumstances and with me having done little else than constantly trained the two years spent in the Wards. With experts in their chosen martial art, I could only dread what it would mean to learn this Rokushiki.
"At first I didn't intend to," he said. Since for everybody with a strong enough body techniques similar to theirs are easy enough to learn, but I changed my mind." With a thoughtful expression, he added. "I think it would be for the best to have some milestones you can aspire to reach. Allowing you to get a measure of your own progress, seeing with your own eyes what is possible with dedication and iron discipline. It will keep you motivated, to challenge yourself every day anew."
I smiled at that - and the dread of unlearning what fighting instincts I ingrained in myself started to disappear. The way he made it sound this Rokushiki sounded less like a formal martial art, but more like some kind of special attack.
"Don't get your hopes up too much," he said. "I was never formally trained in their methods so I only know the basics. The things I picked up while fighting Marines using Rokushiki. Like with every other skill those too can be improved and customized to better fit the user. What you also have to keep in mind. There is a huge difference between a novice and a master. And I'm certainly no master of this."
In other words, if I should start to fancy some elements of this Rokushiki it meant I had to improve upon the basics he picked up on by myself. Since he more than likely won't be able to help me.
"Let's postpone talking about that for later. I think you might find hearing about Haki more interesting."
I doubted he was aware of how right he was with this assessment. Mostly because I had trouble picturing something being described as Willpower to be useful in a fight. Of course, I would like to know more about this Haoshouki Haki I apparently possess.
"Haki is a power that lies dormant in every single living organism. Most people don't notice or fail to awaken it throughout their lives. The term Haki is generally split into three categories called presence, fighting spirit, and intimidation. Out of the three presence and fighting spirit can be learned by anyone, with intimidation being the exception in so far that only a few around the world are in possession of it with you being amongst them."
While listening to his explanation, I noticed a set of slit eyes in the shadow of a tree behind Rayleigh. I was immediately alarmed before I got the chance to warn him I saw half a dozen sets of eyes more, spread out in the bushes all around him.
Unfazed by the clear stiffening of my posture and my spiders moving towards my shoulder ready to jump he said, "the best way to introduce you to them is to show you, don't interfere!"
And at those words, eight large wild-cats jumped out of their hiding places, their jaws full of sharp teeth and claws at the ready to rip him to pieces.
One immediately went after his back. Without even looking, he ducked under the attack. The cat missed him completely, and carried by its momentum tumbled over the ground and came to a stop two meters in front of me.
The cat, who was easily as large as a full-grown lion, righted itself and turned its attention back towards Rayleigh. This turned out to be the start signal for the others to attack him, too.
I noticed Rayleigh had his eyes closed. But that seemed in no way impair him or his ability to sense them. He effortlessly danced around them, using the least amount of movement possible to evade all their attacks at the last moment. Not one even came close to touch, let alone injure him.
Rayleigh, even though the cats coordinated their attacks and left him nearly no room to maneuver, gave them no chance to land a single hit on him. The last time I saw someone display a similar feat, was when I picked a fight with Contessa.
My own variation of doing something similar, by sensing my opponents with the bugs I tagged them with, didn't even come close. To say I was impressed seeing him do that was the understatement of the century.
"Presence or Kenbunshoku Haki allows one to sense and predict the spiritual energy of other life forms. This not only means you know the exact location of every single one of them within your range but also what they are doing at every moment. Furthermore, if an accomplished user of Kenbunshoku Haki can even predict their future actions."
Meaning this Kenbunshoku Haki is a form of limited omniscience with the possibility of becoming a limited precognition. In short, a combat thinker power.
"Can you hide your own presence from someone else able to sense people via Kenbunshoku Haki?" I asked him.
I was curious about his answer. With the help of this ability, tracking others over long distances would be child's play. It would be impossible to hide or escape from someone Kenbunshoku Haki.
Assuming, of course, it is possible to differentiate between different signatures creatures or people emit.
And if it was true, what Rayleigh said about me being weaker than most of the creatures currently residing on this island. It also means his range is more than likely encompassing the whole island. An island that I would guess is dozens if not a hundred of kilometers in diameter.
Not only that, but he apparently can also gauge the strength of those within his range. Otherwise, he couldn't have concluded that I was weaker than most of the indigenous species. This means a method to avoid being detected in such a fashion is an absolute necessity. Not only to be able to hide yourself, but also your strength.
"Yes, there is. You can learn to suppress your presence. Not many bother to learn how it is done."
"Why?" I wondered.
"Because like most things in life it is not foolproof. The veil you shroud yourself in can be penetrated by those better at Kenbunshoku Haki than yourself. The prevalent preconception under Haki users is that those stronger are also better at Haki. So why waste any time learning a skill that only allows you to hide from those weaker than you. Idiots ..." I could only agree with his assessment "It is quite useful, to not be disturbed when you are retired." He noted smirking.
Ah, that would explain why he can enjoy a peaceful life. Although he was a member of the crew of the late Pirate King and isn't constantly harassed by marines capable of sensing strong presences.
I returned my attention to the fight still in progress in front of me. The cats were slowing down having spent most of their energy in their failed attacks on Rayleigh. Some had their tongues hanging out of their mouth and were breathing heavily, while Rayleigh wasn't even winded. After another perfect evasive maneuver that let the cats only hit empty air, there was a short lull in the fight. The cats probably reconsidering their approach to this fight.
"I think that is enough of that."
With this declaration, he stopped in his tracks. Feet planted firmly on the ground. The cats seeing the changes in the way he held himself renewed their attacks with vigor.
This time Rayleigh didn't move from the spot he anchored himself. But for some reason, the cats were still unable to hit him. Instead of dodging and sidestepping their attacks, it looked like his body was flowing around those attacks using a flexibility more akin to a liquid than what a human body should be able to do.
"What you see me currently using, is one of the six basic techniques making up the Rokushiki called Kami-E. It follows the same principle as a leaf dancing through the air. The moment you move to reach for it your very movement creates an air current strong enough to divert its flight path away from your hand, making you miss it by a hairsbreadth. You essentially are trying to emulate the leaf by making your body incredible flexible and flow around the enemies attacks."
The cats made a few more passes at him while he explained the technique to me.
After another failed attack. One of the cats seemed to have recognized the futility of their endeavor and was looking my way. Instinctively I took a step back. Without any power to my name, I wasn't keen on finding out how I would fare against 250 kg of pure feline muscles. Despite the urge to turn around and run, I resisted remembering my own experiences in handling other types of monsters, which boiled down to - never show your fear and let them walk all over you. If you act like prey, you get treated as such.
I really despised having to take a page out of Sophia's book, and no matter how I denied the fact, in a sense, she had her hands in shaping me, just not in the way she intended. But I couldn't deny this simple logic was successful, at least against creatures ruled by instincts. The cat hesitated for a moment, getting second thoughts until something clinched it for him — hunger most likely, and he went through with his attack.
The cat bent his legs and lowered his center of gravity, and with one strong push, ejected himself from the ground jumping right at me. He stretched his forelegs in front of him razor-sharp claws bearing, their danger paling compared to the long and numerous teeth in his mouth that neared my throat. I wasn't given the opportunity to react, and neither were Lilith or Kain when my sight of the cat was obstructed by the back of Rayleigh, who suddenly appeared in front of me.
Fearing the worst, him getting injured. As a consequence of throwing himself in the way of the attack. I moved my head to the side, to get a good look at what transpired. I barely saw the huge cat hanging from Rayleigh's left forearm its teeth closed around it. Suddenly his other hand moved, and his outstretched index finger vanished in between the cat's eyes. When he pulled his finger back out. The until this moment at Rayleigh's arm gnawing cat immediately slackened and drifted lifelessly down to the ground.
I could make out blood and brain matter staining the finger that penetrated the skull of the cat as if it were a bullet fired by a high-caliber rifle.
Rayleigh used his orange shirt to clean off his fingers as he muttered,
"I really forgot how messy it is to use this technique, having your fingers buried in the intestines of your enemies is really unpleasant." Imagine how unpleasant it is for the one being on the receiving end of it. "Which is why I really prefer the sword, it leaves your hands clean."
I slightly turned his head my way, while his gaze seemed to halt the remaining cats in their tracks.
"To answer your unspoken questions. I used another Rokushiki technique called Soru to move in front of the cat. It is a movement technique, that allows you by kicking the ground many times in the blink of an eye to build up momentum before it starts to propel you, therefore allowing for incredible movement speeds."
What the - such a thing shouldn't even be possible. Completely unfazed as my mind rejected the very idea of such a technique, he continued with his explanation.
"In order to block the cat's attack, I tensed my muscles and hardened them in the process. If done right, you can get your muscles to a level resembling iron in its resilience to damage.
All but nullifying the damage I would have otherwise taken from the jaw and claws. This technique is called Tekkai and has the disadvantage, that it doesn't allow for movement while active, well at least for most."
My eyes traveled to the now cleaned finger, which has left red and yellow stains on his shirt. He held the finger in the air.
"The technique I used to kill him is called Shigan, the poke of death" he laughed at his own joke.
"Quite deadly and a real pain to learn, but far too messy for my taste."
Yeah, that's what everybody would care about after seeing someone putting down an opponent weighing a quarter of a ton with just a finger, that it gets your clothes dirty.
I turned my attention back to the remaining cats, who seemed to have overcome their indecisiveness after seeing one of theirs, being taken out with seemingly no effort, and decided this calls for retribution.
I could practically see it in the way they moved. There was anger, rage, the prior hesitation gone. Two of them took a running start towards us, bridging the distance between us in mere moments. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rayleigh lifted his right leg from the ground, his knee bent, and held it there. At the same time, as the cats left the ground his leg swished through the empty air in an arc.
On my skin, I suddenly felt an air current, and the next thing I saw was the airborne cats being sliced cleanly in half, separating their upper torso from the rest of their bodies. Not a second later, the trees behind them were cut apart in the same way, and a long gash appeared in the forest.
The attack was slightly angled towards the sky, therefore limiting the damage done to it down to a few dozen meters. Still, it was imposing. This must be the attack or a variant thereof, he used to dispose of my spider back when we first meet, the wind blade attack.
"What you just witnessed is called Rankyaku, it allows the user to generate a flying wind blade attack by swiftly slashing the air, the longer the limb or weapon used, the more devastating it becomes." That made sense; the angular speed would increase with the length of the limb or weapon.
Without further ado, he vanished and reappeared directly next to a hissing cat and kicked its side. Even half a dozen meters away, I could hear the bones break and saw the left half of its torso being crushed, while it was flung through the clearing. When the cat finally stopped skidding on the ground, no longer moving, leaving a trench in its wake.
A short glance confirmed its rib cage indented to a bloody mess, that looked like someone stepped on an orange.
"This was me using a kick of moderate strength."
He immediately vanished afterward, saying those words only to reappear next to another cat; he kicked this one, too.
The huge gust of wind caused by the displaced air knocked me on my ass, quite painfully, I might add. Lilith and Kain teetered on my shoulders but managed to find enough purchase to not be thrown off.
I was shrouded in a dust cloud obstructing my vision, not that I needed to see to know that there was no way the cat could have survived that.
What I saw when the cloud settled after a few seconds just served to reaffirm what I already suspected, the cat was crushed to smithereens in the center of a few meter deep crater that wasn't there a moment ago.
"This was an application of fighting spirit or Busoshoku Haki to a normal kick. By using your will-power you can essentially create an invisible armor and shroud parts of your body or your weapon in it. This allows one to strengthen your offensive and defensive capabilities, greatly reinforcing what is already there.
As an added bonus, it allows you to deal damage or protect yourself from attacks you otherwise would be unable to. For example, by using Busoshoku Haki it is possible to overcome the intangibly granted by Logia-type devil fruits."
I wasn't the only one from whom this casual display of unadulterated power garnered a new wave of respect for the man. The three remaining cats surrounding Rayleigh suddenly grew too apprehensive, to continue their onslaught, finally realizing just how far out of their league they were.
Two of them even started to slowly retreat away from him, inching backward, not daring to turn their backs on him. The last one had no such scruples as it turned around and started running, leaving behind the others.
Rayleigh jumped up and in the air, where he kicked his feet downwards. It wasn't the resulting boom of his action that held my attention. But that he somehow was able to keep himself from falling to the ground. Stepping on thin air, every time he repeated this the air itself acted as a solid platform for him which allowed him to traverse through it.
It wasn't flying, more air hoping. But I had no trouble seeing the potential uses of this technique, especially for a devil-fruit user like myself. It could mean the difference between a slow death by drowning and reaching a ship or land again.
The running cat was stopped when a from the sky falling Rayleigh stepped on her head and crushed it between his foot and the floor below into a red slush. He half-turned his head in the direction of the frightened remaining two cats.
"And this," he said as for a single short-lived moment his expression turned serious "is the so-called Haoshoku Haki." the effects of him using it were immediate. The two cats still standing fell down to the ground unconscious.
It was interesting to witness the usage of this power, not just the aftereffects. I couldn't help myself from getting goose-bumps at the prospect of me learning how to do that.
It took me a moment to process what I had just witnessed and to accept the fact, that if his words were true, it could be me who could do the same to such predators with ease in the near future.
Unperturbed of having dispatched a band of cats, Bitch would have needed to boost her dogs to achieve the same outcome. He walked to the two by Hashouki Haki downed cats and picked them, one hand each, and placed them on his shoulders.
I stood up and dusted myself off. "What are you planning to do with those cats?" I wondered.
He just halted his movement and gave me an incredulous look that clearly as he just said in a deadpan voice
"dinner" as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His face conveyed as much. He just turned around and walked away.
"R... Right" was all I managed to say as I fell into his steps.
Authors Note: Taking a wild guess ... Some might actually not like Rayleigh being able to use Rokushiki. To be honest, I was unsure if this was the right thing to do. I weighed the pros and cons and for more than just a fleeting moment. Considered of having either have Shakky tag along and have her teaching the Rokushiki to Taylor ... since there is not much known about her least about her way of fighting ... reason for this existed in abundance. Stepping away from canon introducing Shakky as a teacher ... it fits with the theme of an all-female crew etc
But ultimately, decided against it. For one, I had no intention of giving her Haoshoki Haki, clearly a necessity for teaching Taylor who possesses this power (the Data books already dispense the conqueror disposition like candy to pretty much everybody - so I really needn't add to this) or have Rayleigh go with them. But that would have begged the question of why should both of them go when Rayleigh alone would have sufficed.
Let's just say the reasons I came up with left me unsatisfied... so we end up with this situation similar to canon... with the difference that Rayleigh has some insight into their techniques.
Something that I didn't find unreasonable. After all, Luffy was able to grasp Soru after having seen it used a few times. Rayleigh, throughout his career, must have seen those techniques hundreds of times, as he was fighting against and with the Marines. So I thought if Paradies Luffy can manage to replicate/reverse engineer one of those moves by observation with no extra training and little trouble surely the Pirate Kings right-hand man should be able to do the same.
The little boat we were in bumped against the shore of the Island in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rayleigh putting the paddle away he used to propel us through the vast stretch of the calm belt we had to traverse to arrive at this destination.
He jumped into the shallow water and pulled the boat with me still in it further onshore. He dragged the boat a good few dozen feet away from the edge of the furthest point the waves reach on land.
It was astounding every time I saw his physical capabilities, the boat must have weighed a few hundred kilos without me, and he moved it like would an empty cardboard carton. A feat, according to him is nothing special and something he assured me a lot of people are capable of. And if what he promised is true, I will be one of those people in due time.
I couldn't wait for it. How often did I wish myself capable of being able to match some of my enemies blow for blow instead of having to be creative with my power. Don't get me wrong. I had loved my power, it was incredibly versatile, and it allowed me to put my mind to use. To constantly come up with new ways to utilize it, it forced me to think. In my opinion, the most important thing in any fight was to think. The moment you stopped doing it was the moment you lost.
Nevertheless, there are situations where it is just satisfying to just pummel your opponent's face until it is just a bloody mess. Oh, what would I have given for the opportunity to wipe the smile off the faces of the likes of Alexandria and Jack Slash with a well-aimed punch.
I took the small bag, filled with a few clothes and essentials I was given by Shakky slung it over my shoulders, and jumped onto dry land. I wasn't one to get sea-sick. But being on board of a boat, small enough to be called a large nutshell for over a week, was enough, even for me to long for steady ground under my feet.
The hardest part was not being able to move about. Especially after my last involuntary stay on a boat and the negative connotations it had. Therefore think it is understandable I wasn't exactly eager for a trip by boat so shortly after this experience.
Nonetheless, I was a far cry away from falling to my knees and praying for my good fortune to be on land again, but I couldn't deny that some apprehension left me standing here. A glance at Lilith and Kain, who jumped from the boat in my wake, told me they shared my feelings.
In my case, it mostly had to do with the parting words of Shakky aimed at Rayleigh, in which she told him to take care of his boat for once since they can't well afford it for him to get them sunk every time he leaves the island.
At first, I thought she was joking, but the way he reacted, embarrassed to be called out on it, and scratched the back of his head while trying to laugh it away told a different story entirely. Well, at least it answered the question of why Rayleigh was swimming through the calm-belt when he came across me and at that moment I started to regret agreeing to this whole endeavor.
It would really have been just my luck to capsize and drown on my way to get stronger in order to survive this world.
His halfhearted reassurances, that Shakky was exaggerating didn't exactly help soothe my worries. Nevertheless, my path had already been set and I had no intention of abandoning it before it even started.
At least I safely arrived at our destination, and for my peace of mind, I would just ignore the fact, that at one time I would have to set forth on the return trip.
During my musings, Rayleigh already had reached the outskirts of the dense forest and was turning back towards me. He lifted one of his eyebrows in a questioning manner as if to say are you coming.
This prompted me to follow him. I made one step when I felt some soft impacts on my backpack. I needn't turn my head to know my spiders intended to use me as their taxi.
We made our way through thick vegetation, with seemingly no end in sight for some time. I was about ready to accept the fact that this must be some kind of endless forest Island when at one point, the vegetation started to get thinner, and we ended up in a clearing.
It was nothing special, just the foot of a large rock formation. Rocks clustered around the area, and undoubtedly the reason the vegetation halted at the very edges. The trees stood far enough away to allow the sunlight near unhindered access to clearing.
I noticed a small thin stream of water emerging atop the largest rock, creating a small waterfall as it rained down from it. The water hitting the ground gathered in a small dent at the foot of that rock, before it drained off along a small trench in the stones towards the treeline vanishing there.
I couldn't help but think this to be a near-perfect place to set up our camp. We had access to freshwater a waterfall even, which could be used as a shower. The area was overseeable making it near impossible for any wild animals to sneak upon us. The lack of plants, except for the occasional moss formation, wouldn't make this area attractive for most animals either.
Not sure about the water though, it might be used by some to appease their thirst, but I didn't think that likely the strong vegetation indicated an abundance of drinkable water on this island. Therefore most animals would avoid a clearing with nothing in it that could be used as cover.
Well, time will tell. Either way, I doubted many are courageous enough to get anywhere near Rayleigh. He walked over to a knee-high rock and placed his bag next to it. I followed his example and placed mine near a rock too close to where I was standing.
Despite the bag being rather light, no more than thirty pounds, it was liberating to no longer having to carry it on my shoulders. Lilith and Kain shared the enthusiasm with the now absent straps it meant more space for them.
He turned around and walked past me in the direction we came from. He stopped near the edge of the forest and faced me.
"We are gonna use this clearing as camp. When we don't train you shouldn't stray from it", he warned. "As you are now you won't survive an encounter with most of the creatures living on this island."
His words though vague, made it clear he had to possess some kind of Thinker power. Was it the same power that allowed them to know when I was leaving the room back on Sabaody?
"The way you say this, the certainty you aren't guessing you know. How?"
I tried to get a confirmation for my assumption out of him.
"We come to that. For now, let's talk," he said as he looked at me emphasizing the importance of what he was about to tell me.
"In this world, there are three major sources of a person's strength. First, there is the body the physical abilities." His thumb on his right hand went up.
"Second, there is the Mind, Willpower, or as most came to call it Haki," he said and his index finger joined his thumb.
"And the last source of power, something not everyone possesses are Devil Fruit powers," he listed with his middle finger raised.
"Everything else from the use of weapons to strategies are in essence subcategories of those three."
I nodded along, as he continued,
"In the time we are here together I will focus on the first two, I can train your body and mind, but I can't help you with the third. Probably no one can since every Devil Fruits is unique in its own way. Even among Zoan-type fruits, the category with the greatest overlap, it isn't guaranteed that something that works for one necessarily translates to another."
"Which just means I have to get a handle on it by myself," I concluded. I was confident I could handle it. It wouldn't be the first time I had to get a grip on a new power. Worthwhile experience, which combined with the remnants of memories as my time as Khepri will come in handy.
"Pretty much," he agreed. "The fact that I haven't eaten one doesn't exactly help matters. But I fought my fair share of them, so I at least will be able to impart some tips and observations that might help you along the way. But this won't be our priority, no matter what type of fruit-type you consumed. In the long run, you will benefit more from training the other two categories."
Yeah, I can see why. If I ate a Zoan type and it somehow amplified my physical capabilities having a strong base is essential and in turn, will boost my overall power when using the fruit. I don't think there are many Paramecia-type fruit not able to profit from strong physical and mental faculties. For Logia-types if it really is possible to overcome the breaker state, that grants a user intangibility the same holds true. And for some reason, I suspect the secret in overcoming it is somehow connected to this Haki.
"Both are equally important and mastery over both is necessary if you want to fully realize your potential," He said. Of course, by focusing on one, you can cover up weaknesses in the other categories to a certain extent. But in order to get truly powerful, you need both, unified they are boosting each other to new heights. Even the Marines recognize this fact."
"What do you mean?" I asked unsure what he was alluding to.
"A few decades back the Marines developed a training program for their officer candidates. It was based upon the combination of a few different martial arts. They called the end product Rokushiki, it was designed to train their bodies and served a double purpose. To teach them discipline and also to give them a basis, it can later be built upon. When they are ready to learn the use of Haki."
"Are you gonna teach me this Rokushiki?" apprehension found its way into my voice.
Learning a new martial arts usually means having to unlearn all things previously learned about fighting. Since every martial art is different, with different foci, not surprising since every single one was a result of the time of their conception, the culture, the weapons used, and the ones intended to learn all differ.
In such a way, that they don't mesh well with each other. The more ingrained a martial artist is, the different style, its stances, and kata are, the more difficult it would be to reverse the habits this resulted in.
Habits are hard to unlearn in the best circumstances and with me having done little else than constantly trained the two years spent in the Wards. With experts in their chosen martial art, I could only dread what it would mean to learn this Rokushiki.
"At first I didn't intend to," he said. Since for everybody with a strong enough body techniques similar to theirs are easy enough to learn, but I changed my mind." With a thoughtful expression, he added. "I think it would be for the best to have some milestones you can aspire to reach. Allowing you to get a measure of your own progress, seeing with your own eyes what is possible with dedication and iron discipline. It will keep you motivated, to challenge yourself every day anew."
I smiled at that - and the dread of unlearning what fighting instincts I ingrained in myself started to disappear. The way he made it sound this Rokushiki sounded less like a formal martial art, but more like some kind of special attack.
"Don't get your hopes up too much," he said. "I was never formally trained in their methods so I only know the basics. The things I picked up while fighting Marines using Rokushiki. Like with every other skill those too can be improved and customized to better fit the user. What you also have to keep in mind. There is a huge difference between a novice and a master. And I'm certainly no master of this."
In other words, if I should start to fancy some elements of this Rokushiki it meant I had to improve upon the basics he picked up on by myself. Since he more than likely won't be able to help me.
"Let's postpone talking about that for later. I think you might find hearing about Haki more interesting."
I doubted he was aware of how right he was with this assessment. Mostly because I had trouble picturing something being described as Willpower to be useful in a fight. Of course, I would like to know more about this Haoshouki Haki I apparently possess.
"Haki is a power that lies dormant in every single living organism. Most people don't notice or fail to awaken it throughout their lives. The term Haki is generally split into three categories called presence, fighting spirit, and intimidation. Out of the three presence and fighting spirit can be learned by anyone, with intimidation being the exception in so far that only a few around the world are in possession of it with you being amongst them."
While listening to his explanation, I noticed a set of slit eyes in the shadow of a tree behind Rayleigh. I was immediately alarmed before I got the chance to warn him I saw half a dozen sets of eyes more, spread out in the bushes all around him.
Unfazed by the clear stiffening of my posture and my spiders moving towards my shoulder ready to jump he said, "the best way to introduce you to them is to show you, don't interfere!"
And at those words, eight large wild-cats jumped out of their hiding places, their jaws full of sharp teeth and claws at the ready to rip him to pieces.
One immediately went after his back. Without even looking, he ducked under the attack. The cat missed him completely, and carried by its momentum tumbled over the ground and came to a stop two meters in front of me.
The cat, who was easily as large as a full-grown lion, righted itself and turned its attention back towards Rayleigh. This turned out to be the start signal for the others to attack him, too.
I noticed Rayleigh had his eyes closed. But that seemed in no way impair him or his ability to sense them. He effortlessly danced around them, using the least amount of movement possible to evade all their attacks at the last moment. Not one even came close to touch, let alone injure him.
Rayleigh, even though the cats coordinated their attacks and left him nearly no room to maneuver, gave them no chance to land a single hit on him. The last time I saw someone display a similar feat, was when I picked a fight with Contessa.
My own variation of doing something similar, by sensing my opponents with the bugs I tagged them with, didn't even come close. To say I was impressed seeing him do that was the understatement of the century.
"Presence or Kenbunshoku Haki allows one to sense and predict the spiritual energy of other life forms. This not only means you know the exact location of every single one of them within your range but also what they are doing at every moment. Furthermore, if an accomplished user of Kenbunshoku Haki can even predict their future actions."
Meaning this Kenbunshoku Haki is a form of limited omniscience with the possibility of becoming a limited precognition. In short, a combat thinker power.
"Can you hide your own presence from someone else able to sense people via Kenbunshoku Haki?" I asked him.
I was curious about his answer. With the help of this ability, tracking others over long distances would be child's play. It would be impossible to hide or escape from someone Kenbunshoku Haki.
Assuming, of course, it is possible to differentiate between different signatures creatures or people emit.
And if it was true, what Rayleigh said about me being weaker than most of the creatures currently residing on this island. It also means his range is more than likely encompassing the whole island. An island that I would guess is dozens if not a hundred of kilometers in diameter.
Not only that, but he apparently can also gauge the strength of those within his range. Otherwise, he couldn't have concluded that I was weaker than most of the indigenous species. This means a method to avoid being detected in such a fashion is an absolute necessity. Not only to be able to hide yourself, but also your strength.
"Yes, there is. You can learn to suppress your presence. Not many bother to learn how it is done."
"Why?" I wondered.
"Because like most things in life it is not foolproof. The veil you shroud yourself in can be penetrated by those better at Kenbunshoku Haki than yourself. The prevalent preconception under Haki users is that those stronger are also better at Haki. So why waste any time learning a skill that only allows you to hide from those weaker than you. Idiots ..." I could only agree with his assessment "It is quite useful, to not be disturbed when you are retired." He noted smirking.
Ah, that would explain why he can enjoy a peaceful life. Although he was a member of the crew of the late Pirate King and isn't constantly harassed by marines capable of sensing strong presences.
I returned my attention to the fight still in progress in front of me. The cats were slowing down having spent most of their energy in their failed attacks on Rayleigh. Some had their tongues hanging out of their mouth and were breathing heavily, while Rayleigh wasn't even winded. After another perfect evasive maneuver that let the cats only hit empty air, there was a short lull in the fight. The cats probably reconsidering their approach to this fight.
"I think that is enough of that."
With this declaration, he stopped in his tracks. Feet planted firmly on the ground. The cats seeing the changes in the way he held himself renewed their attacks with vigor.
This time Rayleigh didn't move from the spot he anchored himself. But for some reason, the cats were still unable to hit him. Instead of dodging and sidestepping their attacks, it looked like his body was flowing around those attacks using a flexibility more akin to a liquid than what a human body should be able to do.
"What you see me currently using, is one of the six basic techniques making up the Rokushiki called Kami-E. It follows the same principle as a leaf dancing through the air. The moment you move to reach for it your very movement creates an air current strong enough to divert its flight path away from your hand, making you miss it by a hairsbreadth. You essentially are trying to emulate the leaf by making your body incredible flexible and flow around the enemies attacks."
The cats made a few more passes at him while he explained the technique to me.
After another failed attack. One of the cats seemed to have recognized the futility of their endeavor and was looking my way. Instinctively I took a step back. Without any power to my name, I wasn't keen on finding out how I would fare against 250 kg of pure feline muscles. Despite the urge to turn around and run, I resisted remembering my own experiences in handling other types of monsters, which boiled down to - never show your fear and let them walk all over you. If you act like prey, you get treated as such.
I really despised having to take a page out of Sophia's book, and no matter how I denied the fact, in a sense, she had her hands in shaping me, just not in the way she intended. But I couldn't deny this simple logic was successful, at least against creatures ruled by instincts. The cat hesitated for a moment, getting second thoughts until something clinched it for him — hunger most likely, and he went through with his attack.
The cat bent his legs and lowered his center of gravity, and with one strong push, ejected himself from the ground jumping right at me. He stretched his forelegs in front of him razor-sharp claws bearing, their danger paling compared to the long and numerous teeth in his mouth that neared my throat. I wasn't given the opportunity to react, and neither were Lilith or Kain when my sight of the cat was obstructed by the back of Rayleigh, who suddenly appeared in front of me.
Fearing the worst, him getting injured. As a consequence of throwing himself in the way of the attack. I moved my head to the side, to get a good look at what transpired. I barely saw the huge cat hanging from Rayleigh's left forearm its teeth closed around it. Suddenly his other hand moved, and his outstretched index finger vanished in between the cat's eyes. When he pulled his finger back out. The until this moment at Rayleigh's arm gnawing cat immediately slackened and drifted lifelessly down to the ground.
I could make out blood and brain matter staining the finger that penetrated the skull of the cat as if it were a bullet fired by a high-caliber rifle.
Rayleigh used his orange shirt to clean off his fingers as he muttered,
"I really forgot how messy it is to use this technique, having your fingers buried in the intestines of your enemies is really unpleasant." Imagine how unpleasant it is for the one being on the receiving end of it. "Which is why I really prefer the sword, it leaves your hands clean."
I slightly turned his head my way, while his gaze seemed to halt the remaining cats in their tracks.
"To answer your unspoken questions. I used another Rokushiki technique called Soru to move in front of the cat. It is a movement technique, that allows you by kicking the ground many times in the blink of an eye to build up momentum before it starts to propel you, therefore allowing for incredible movement speeds."
What the - such a thing shouldn't even be possible. Completely unfazed as my mind rejected the very idea of such a technique, he continued with his explanation.
"In order to block the cat's attack, I tensed my muscles and hardened them in the process. If done right, you can get your muscles to a level resembling iron in its resilience to damage.
All but nullifying the damage I would have otherwise taken from the jaw and claws. This technique is called Tekkai and has the disadvantage, that it doesn't allow for movement while active, well at least for most."
My eyes traveled to the now cleaned finger, which has left red and yellow stains on his shirt. He held the finger in the air.
"The technique I used to kill him is called Shigan, the poke of death" he laughed at his own joke.
"Quite deadly and a real pain to learn, but far too messy for my taste."
Yeah, that's what everybody would care about after seeing someone putting down an opponent weighing a quarter of a ton with just a finger, that it gets your clothes dirty.
I turned my attention back to the remaining cats, who seemed to have overcome their indecisiveness after seeing one of theirs, being taken out with seemingly no effort, and decided this calls for retribution.
I could practically see it in the way they moved. There was anger, rage, the prior hesitation gone. Two of them took a running start towards us, bridging the distance between us in mere moments. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rayleigh lifted his right leg from the ground, his knee bent, and held it there. At the same time, as the cats left the ground his leg swished through the empty air in an arc.
On my skin, I suddenly felt an air current, and the next thing I saw was the airborne cats being sliced cleanly in half, separating their upper torso from the rest of their bodies. Not a second later, the trees behind them were cut apart in the same way, and a long gash appeared in the forest.
The attack was slightly angled towards the sky, therefore limiting the damage done to it down to a few dozen meters. Still, it was imposing. This must be the attack or a variant thereof, he used to dispose of my spider back when we first meet, the wind blade attack.
"What you just witnessed is called Rankyaku, it allows the user to generate a flying wind blade attack by swiftly slashing the air, the longer the limb or weapon used, the more devastating it becomes." That made sense; the angular speed would increase with the length of the limb or weapon.
Without further ado, he vanished and reappeared directly next to a hissing cat and kicked its side. Even half a dozen meters away, I could hear the bones break and saw the left half of its torso being crushed, while it was flung through the clearing. When the cat finally stopped skidding on the ground, no longer moving, leaving a trench in its wake.
A short glance confirmed its rib cage indented to a bloody mess, that looked like someone stepped on an orange.
"This was me using a kick of moderate strength."
He immediately vanished afterward, saying those words only to reappear next to another cat; he kicked this one, too.
The huge gust of wind caused by the displaced air knocked me on my ass, quite painfully, I might add. Lilith and Kain teetered on my shoulders but managed to find enough purchase to not be thrown off.
I was shrouded in a dust cloud obstructing my vision, not that I needed to see to know that there was no way the cat could have survived that.
What I saw when the cloud settled after a few seconds just served to reaffirm what I already suspected, the cat was crushed to smithereens in the center of a few meter deep crater that wasn't there a moment ago.
"This was an application of fighting spirit or Busoshoku Haki to a normal kick. By using your will-power you can essentially create an invisible armor and shroud parts of your body or your weapon in it. This allows one to strengthen your offensive and defensive capabilities, greatly reinforcing what is already there.
As an added bonus, it allows you to deal damage or protect yourself from attacks you otherwise would be unable to. For example, by using Busoshoku Haki it is possible to overcome the intangibly granted by Logia-type devil fruits."
I wasn't the only one from whom this casual display of unadulterated power garnered a new wave of respect for the man. The three remaining cats surrounding Rayleigh suddenly grew too apprehensive, to continue their onslaught, finally realizing just how far out of their league they were.
Two of them even started to slowly retreat away from him, inching backward, not daring to turn their backs on him. The last one had no such scruples as it turned around and started running, leaving behind the others.
Rayleigh jumped up and in the air, where he kicked his feet downwards. It wasn't the resulting boom of his action that held my attention. But that he somehow was able to keep himself from falling to the ground. Stepping on thin air, every time he repeated this the air itself acted as a solid platform for him which allowed him to traverse through it.
It wasn't flying, more air hoping. But I had no trouble seeing the potential uses of this technique, especially for a devil-fruit user like myself. It could mean the difference between a slow death by drowning and reaching a ship or land again.
The running cat was stopped when a from the sky falling Rayleigh stepped on her head and crushed it between his foot and the floor below into a red slush. He half-turned his head in the direction of the frightened remaining two cats.
"And this," he said as for a single short-lived moment his expression turned serious "is the so-called Haoshoku Haki." the effects of him using it were immediate. The two cats still standing fell down to the ground unconscious.
It was interesting to witness the usage of this power, not just the aftereffects. I couldn't help myself from getting goose-bumps at the prospect of me learning how to do that.
It took me a moment to process what I had just witnessed and to accept the fact, that if his words were true, it could be me who could do the same to such predators with ease in the near future.
Unperturbed of having dispatched a band of cats, Bitch would have needed to boost her dogs to achieve the same outcome. He walked to the two by Hashouki Haki downed cats and picked them, one hand each, and placed them on his shoulders.
I stood up and dusted myself off. "What are you planning to do with those cats?" I wondered.
He just halted his movement and gave me an incredulous look that clearly as he just said in a deadpan voice
"dinner" as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. His face conveyed as much. He just turned around and walked away.
"R... Right" was all I managed to say as I fell into his steps.
Authors Note: Taking a wild guess ... Some might actually not like Rayleigh being able to use Rokushiki. To be honest, I was unsure if this was the right thing to do. I weighed the pros and cons and for more than just a fleeting moment. Considered of having either have Shakky tag along and have her teaching the Rokushiki to Taylor ... since there is not much known about her least about her way of fighting ... reason for this existed in abundance. Stepping away from canon introducing Shakky as a teacher ... it fits with the theme of an all-female crew etc
But ultimately, decided against it. For one, I had no intention of giving her Haoshoki Haki, clearly a necessity for teaching Taylor who possesses this power (the Data books already dispense the conqueror disposition like candy to pretty much everybody - so I really needn't add to this) or have Rayleigh go with them. But that would have begged the question of why should both of them go when Rayleigh alone would have sufficed.
Let's just say the reasons I came up with left me unsatisfied... so we end up with this situation similar to canon... with the difference that Rayleigh has some insight into their techniques.
Something that I didn't find unreasonable. After all, Luffy was able to grasp Soru after having seen it used a few times. Rayleigh, throughout his career, must have seen those techniques hundreds of times, as he was fighting against and with the Marines. So I thought if Paradies Luffy can manage to replicate/reverse engineer one of those moves by observation with no extra training and little trouble surely the Pirate Kings right-hand man should be able to do the same.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well I'm glad that Taylor is settling in on the mentality of might makes right here...literally cause physical strength is a must if you want to survive! Although should Taylor wield a bladed or bludgeoning weapon later on after her training ends? I can't wait for her to beat the crap out of scum pirates and corrupt marines.
Oh Taylor~! In time, you shall be terrifying beyond measure indeed. Being trained in the arts of Rokushiki and Haki by the former right hand man of the Pirate King has its perks alright! I'm exited to see what insect minions she will gain later too.
It is quite refreshing to see that Rayleigh is motivated to teach the new generation how things are truly done! Best teacher indeed!
P.S.
Thanks for the update and keep up the good work! This story truly has a lot of potential and you could also cross-post it on Spacebattles!
- Location
- India
So he is not aware of life return and six king gun?
We know that the Don Krieg Pirates managed to flee with a massive galleon out of the grand line after his first confrontation with mihawk so my perception is that the Calm Belt gets more dangerous the further along the Line you are (more or more violent Sea Kings). That would explain how a scrub like Krieg made it out. The only real option is through the calm belt or on the red line, both essentially impossible, which plays into the idea that the Grandline was presented as some semi-mythic land of legends during the east blue arc.
I imagine that the new world has some other options, as high tier pirates can fight Sea Kings and the Germa's floating military/country could travel to whole cake from whichever blue it was they lived in. The Yonko probably were able to travel as they pleased, but I think the average person, like 90% of people in human history, lived and died without leaving 20 miles of where they were born.
- Location
- California
I always figured that the red line while a giant continent cliff is still semi peaceful enough to be built on. It that case the world government must had a giant project commissioned to build pulleys and lifts that allow trade to occur between the blues. This would even the increase the world governments power as they are the only arbitrators of trade between the seas which also allows then to send marines world wide besides the grand line. This also explains why pirates said through the grand line they are essentially trapped in their blue by their status as an enemy of the state leaving the grand line as their only way to escape to other blues. Another part of this also means only the wealthy could be able to afford to travel to other blues. And even then u still only have access to half the hemisphere since the other barrier is the impassable calm belt. Which means north and east have trade and sound and west have trade but they don't trade between the two groups which is why the marine pioneer the calm belt boats.
- Location
- California
Rob lucci invented the six king gun. And I dont think life return is standard marine since only 2 of cp9 could use it.
Chapter 05 - The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Chapter 05: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider (Summer 1504)
During the next few weeks, we settled into a routine. The day started with breakfast then I trained my body to its limits and beyond, running, squats, sit-ups, and push-ups. I started doing them on knuckles and graduated to doing them on my outstretched fingers in order to strengthen them.
A necessary requirement I had to fulfill before the real shigan training could start. I dragged and carried rocks of increasing sizes around the clearing. There wasn't much we didn't do to strengthen my body.
On most days this meant I collapsed from exhaustion before we had lunch. To give me some time to let my strained muscles rest. Dinner was followed up by Haki training. At least Rayleigh calls hitting me with a stick while blindfolded such.
He keeps emphasizing, that at the start it will be easier to access ones Haki while the body is depleted of its strength. A nice way to say being unable to lift a finger.
Despite that, it was slow going even after a little over three months I wasn't able to evade the stick with any regularity.
So the few times I wasn't hit I attributed to chance and not me finally grasping the underlying concept of Kenbunshoku Haki. He certainly hit me enough times, that it sounded plausible to have dodged a few times by luck alone.
Unfortunately, my progress if you could call it that, for Busoshoku Haki wasn't much better. The lack of any noticeable improvement really started to irritate me.
Especially since Rayleigh didn't understand why I was having trouble with both of those forms of Haki. Usually, everybody seemed to have a knack for one of them, which is then usually learned comparatively easy, and most end up specializing in. But for some reason, this didn't seem to be the case when it came to me.
The hours of Haki training are then followed up by another workout when my body has sufficiently recovered. When I'm done with that, I eat something and give in to my exhaustion and enter a dreamless sleep, rinse and repeat.
Since this routine turned out to be mind-numbing dumb, we thought it prudent to now and then have a day off from this. This vacation day was mostly spent with Rayleigh trying to impart some knowledge to me, from how to survive in the wild, what you can and can't eat to the basics of sailing.
For those lessons in seafaring, we always ventured to his boat, where I could put his teachings to practice.
Since I was a fast learner when it came to everything else than what I was actually here for, he ended up running out of things to teach me a week ago. This was the reason he started to instruct me in swordsmanship, his preferred choice of fighting.
Currently, we used carved wooden swords to spar. He already warned me that the moment I get the basics of Busoshoku Haki down, sword fighting will encompass it. Having me reinforce my sword throughout the whole lesson without waning in doing so, because the moment I do he would shatter my sword and the lessons would only be resumed when I carved myself another sword.
I questioned the reasoning behind it, his response consisted of telling me, that for one, it helps to get a better feel for the sword if I made it myself. It would be easier, seeing the sword as a part of yourself and the other reason was to stress, that in a regular sword fight you lost the moment your sword is destroyed.
Meaning your very life depends on not letting it get that far, and what better way is there to drive this lesson home than to have you spent countless hours to remake what you couldn't protect.
Rayleigh was a good but strict teacher, which was doubly cringe-worthy because the lack of tangible progress couldn't be laid down at his feet.
The only bright spot was, that all this rigorous physical training I did started showing results at least. But according to Rayleigh, it was still too early to attempt learning even one of the six forms of the Rokushiki since my body couldn't handle it, yet.
Which meant the time I didn't spend training. I was spending wishing for the moment I was ready for it.
I halfheartedly chewed on the bite of stew in my mouth when my musings were interrupted.
"What's wrong, not hungry?" Rayleigh asked.
I grimaced.
"Just thinking."
"What about?" He wondered, "If it is about your progress don't sweat it. The first step in learning to use your Haki is the most difficult one. It just takes time."
"Yeah, I'm aware. You are constantly telling me that. But that's the thing, while I might have time, the girl, my only chance in getting home, probably doesn't, which means I can't waste a second."
"You aren't wasting any time. You spend every single moment awake training. You probably the most driven person I have ever met. But such things take time. You can't rush your training. Only partially mastered skills are fickle and dangerous." He lectured.
I deeply sighed.
"I know. Gods above, I know. I hate the uncertainty, not knowing if I will reach her in time."
This was worse than biding my time with deposing Coil and preparing for the reemergence of the Slaughterhouse Nine combined. Instead of fearing that Coil learned of our betrayal, I was fearing for the well-being of a little kid I have never met. Instead of having an exact date, the Nine gave for their return.
I only had the word of my teacher that I was coming along just fine. His reassurances were as meaningful as a bureaucrat telling someone it's done when it's done. It was driving me nuts.
"It is probably best if you take a walk. A disturbed mind won't benefit your Haki training. Center yourself, and when you have regained your equilibrium we will continue."
Having said his piece. He stood up and walked over to his hammock and lied down in it.
I felt burning anger for my own stupidity, getting upset about my lack of progress now had the exact opposite effect of what I wanted. This forced break only served to further delay me in reaching my goals.
There was no point in crying over spilled milk. I sighed and stood up, my two spiders nibbling on some meat immediately lost their interest in their meal and scurried to me. With a short jump, they landed safely on my shoulders.
I started walking towards the forest. I didn't leave the clearing often. My schedule just didn't leave me with the time to do so. But once or twice I accompanied Rayleigh on a hunt for our meal. Shortly after we settled here it started to take him longer, and he had to travel further away to find some game.
The situation didn't seem to become better the longer we stayed. On the contrary, the wildlife tended to steer clear of our camp.
This is why I expected those instances I needed to accompany him to steadily increase with time. Rayleigh didn't want to leave my side for prolonged times. My mind told me it was a necessary precaution, but my pride took a hard hit to be babied in such away.
The forest wasn't easy terrain to travel through. Veins and roots were lingering all over the floor, and low hanging branches everywhere. At least my spider-silk under suit protected me from getting scratches in addition to all the other sores I ended up with through my training.
I didn't care where I ended up and just kept walking further and further into the forest. I didn't know why I kept going and didn't lie down somewhere. Probably, because walking through a forest was the only progress I was currently capable of making, a cynic voice in my head proclaimed.
I really would have liked nothing more than to give a harsh retort. Unfortunately, it was true. Since I still hadn't gotten the slightest clue what a devil fruit I ate.
Considering, that I once wielded a superpower, which gave me quite a bit of trouble to get the hang of at the beginning. I assumed it wouldn't be too different from learning to control whatever power I gained by eating the devil fruit as it turned out, I couldn't be more wrong.
I didn't make any headway in that regard since the day we arrived. Of course, I had my suspicions. I learned to fuse my spiders in my body and summon them forth from it.
I even collected and fused with all the spiders on Sabaody that found themselves under my control, which definitely makes for an interesting ability. Back home, I would have killed for something like this to complement my already existing power set.
There really wasn't much imagination necessary to see how I could have benefitted from this.
But for some reason, I got the feeling I was not even scratching the surface of what I could be capable of with a deeper understanding of my devil fruit powers.
This was exactly the source of my true frustration, that the one avenue of power I was pursuing. I originally was the most confident about to get somewhere. The one avenue I had to explore for myself, where Rayleigh couldn't help me with, was the one I was stuck at.
I hit the tree to my right to vent some steam and took a deep breath. I was about to turn around and walk back when I felt the sudden need to duck.
I was not sure what it was that forewarned me. The senses of the spiders sitting on my shoulders I unconsciously used or a short glimpse of the impending future via Kenbunshoku Haki. But whatever it was, it saved my life when something got caught in the tree I just hit moments before, barely missing my upper torso in the process.
Wooden splinters rained down on me from the force of the attack that wrecked the tree.
I scrambled to my feet and started running through the eyes of my spiders, I consciously used this time to look back. I saw a huge spider perched in the tree crowns, one of its front legs stuck in the now dissected tree. The creature removed the leg with a strong jerk that uprooted what was left of it.
I tried to take stock of the spider who had its eyes on me, and what I saw didn't inspire confidence in my ability to escape its maws.
The first thing I couldn't help but notice was that the spider blended in perfectly with its surroundings. This ability became even clearer when it slightly moved and the pattern on its skin shifted camouflaging the spider anew. Making it nearly invisible to the naked eye, similar to a chameleon ability to adjust the color of its skin to its surroundings, but far better.
It also explained how such a huge creature, more than 15 m long completely escaped my notice until it stroke. A skill set quite fitting for an ambush predator. But what had me concerned were the legs of the spider they seemed to be tailored to allow for great speeds and jumping.
A fact accentuated by the comparatively huge eyes. Good eyesight is one of the requirements needed to accurately estimate distances for the jump to end up on the prey and not elsewhere.
An insight that saved my life, because I recognized in the way the spider crouched down that it was about to jump. This little a fraction of a second advance warning allowed me to hit the floor just in time for the spider to miss me.
It crashed into the trees in front of me. The spider left a swath of destruction along the path of its jump. Trees left and right went down like ninepins.
I struggled to my feet and was about to run in a different direction, banking on the fact that my pursuer might need a moment to reorient itself. Suddenly I received a glancing blow from a leg swipe.
I was thrown a good two dozen feet against a tree. The heavy impact pushed the air out of my lungs. My whole torso and right arm, where I was hit, consisted of only one feeling, pain.
I tried to breathe, but my, from pain constricted, muscles wouldn't allow me to take in any air.
My eyes started to tear. While I laid on the ground gasping to fill my lungs with oxygen.
I felt like a fish on dry land, fighting not to suffocate.
Through the eyes of my cute little spiders, who apparently had more of a talent for landings than myself, I saw the big spider stalking towards my position. They both moved in a defensive position arraying themselves between the creature and me.
I appreciated what they tried to do, I really did, but I doubted they would be anything more than a small irritation, even if they should manage to bite and penetrate the thick armor plates of it and their venom turns out to be able of affecting it.
Body-Mass, after all, is a non-negligible factor when it comes to poison. I needed something more to survive here. I asked myself where the hell was Rayleigh? How was it possible for this spider to get so close to our camp?
He should have sensed its approach, something that shouldn't have been hard with the lack of wildlife around our camp, as a consequence of our very presence around these parts.
Under great effort, I could bring my lungs in my aching rib cage to accept some air. This halted the propagation of the black spots I started to see. A second forced to inhale, and they receded out of my field of vision. With the additional oxygen in my blood, my brain finally made the connection.
A chameleon spider, a species adapted to stalk and creep up on its prey would, of course, have a predisposition to hide itself, its very presence via Haki.
Fuck — another thought popped up in my mind — Was Rayleigh being here really responsible for the wildlife to avoid the area or could it have been this spider.
I had no time to ponder this thought. When the spider lunged for me. I navigated Lilith and Kain out of the way, sacrificing them for nothing wouldn't do, and tried to do the same.
I was about to evade one of the creature's legs, only for the sudden movement dodging required to inflict a sharp spike of pain from my already hurting ribs. The wince this elicited from me slowed me down just enough for the creature attack to graze my shoulder. My momentum was shifted strong enough, that I stumbled.
I could only watch through a multitude of eyes my own included, how the follow-up attack neared my body while I was struggling to get it back under control, to dodge the incoming attack. I only managed to turn my torso slightly to the side in the hope to reduce the damage, so I wouldn't die immediately upon being hit.
The pain, when the sharp tip of the spider's leg pierced my left abdomen and pinned me to the ground was indescribable, until this moment I thought losing my arm and have the stumped cauterized by Lung was bad, but it didn't even register in comparison.
I would have screamed if I had the luxury of the time to do so. But I knew I couldn't allow myself to give in to do so, letting the world know about the pain I felt. I had to keep moving, the next attack was about to come and I needed to get out of the way.
Meanwhile, I directed my spiders. They jumped up on the creature's head and started to fervently attacking it, in their efforts to buy me just a little bit of time.
Their vicious attacks proved mostly harmless. Their fangs were unable to penetrate the exoskeleton, so they started hacking away at it with their sharp front legs. While they made some progress, I suspected they wouldn't be able to succeed before they were inevitably thrown loose by the thrashing creature or were hit themselves by a hind-leg, trying to sweep them away.
Despite the creature's best efforts, to lose its passengers. The leg pinning me wasn't moved a single inch.
I struggled on the ground, trying to get the sharp spider-leg in my intestines to slice through the last bit of flesh and skin, which was keeping me in place and prevented me from escaping. I tried to support my efforts with my hands pushing at the leg for my flesh to sever.
I felt it as Lilith's body was crushed between a hind leg and the hard exoskeleton making up its armor. She was dead before her dislodged body hit the ground.
My struggles only increased in their intensity. With only Kain remaining, I needed to get loose — dammit move. I chanted over and over in my mind.
Suddenly I was loose. My last jerk had me freed from the spider-leg. A short glance didn't show me what I was expecting — shredded flesh hanging from my side where the leg hit me, but instead an uncountable number of small black dots in which my flesh around the leg dissolved into moving around.
The dots rearranged themselves and, without further ado condensed back into my flesh, in the process closing the hole that should gape there.
Next to me, encircling the spider leg. That a moment ago held me in place still stuck in the ground. I saw a few dozen small spiders lying there, dead and slowly dispersing into black tendriled mist.
I moved my hand to my abdomen, and my sense of touch reaffirmed what my eyes already told me. I was all better. I went from being a shashlik meat side-dish to whole again. Even my clothes were restored to pristine condition by this effect.
It reminded me of the power of some capes I encountered — a breaker effect. But shouldn't the only devil-Fruit-type granting a breaker state to avoid damage be those logia-types?
I couldn't be that lucky to have eaten one of those, said to be the strongest?
My train of thought came to a sudden stop when Kain was flung from the creature's head. But not before he was able to bite once through the from his legs weakened chitin-armor.
I jumped to my feet and started running, not a moment too early. Two legs descended upon the ground where I sat not a second ago and split it with the incredible power behind them.
I immediately noticed something changed within my body. You simply can't train yourself to exhaustion every single day and not learn the limits of it by heart. It was weaker than it should be. I was lacking in strength.
Similar to the time Kain was killed by Rayleigh — of course, it all makes sense. I didn't avoid the attack. Flowed around it like a Logia is supposed to — I actually suffered the damage. I just transferred it from my body to those spiders instead. No, this didn't feel right - My body was made up of those spiders.
But why was it necessary to sacrifice more than one?
Could it be the amount of spider necessary to restore my scales with the damage I received? If yes, given how weak I felt. I couldn't allow myself to get hit anymore by such a debilitating attack. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much left to fuel my running. Even now, I could sense how the strength I lost; was used to rebuild the bodies of the spiders that died in my stead.
I had Kain, who was able to avert injury, follow behind the creature at a measured distance. Apparently, not only cats always land on their feet. This time I made full use of his eyes, thanks to which I saw the next lunge coming. I dived to my right and felt the wind with the hairs on my skin when the creature missed me by a hair's breadth.
A moment later, I heard how trees broke apart when it landed with such force that the ground vibrated, and the leaves all around me shook.
I righted myself and sprinted in between the thick vegetation, intent on using it to my advantage by hampering the creature's speed. I knew full well that the effect would be minimal. Given its strength, it could plow through the forest without much resistance, but every little bit helped.
I only needed the distance between us to increase. I needed just a moment to be entirely out of its sight, to have a chance at losing it in the thick vegetation.
My breathing started to get heavier. Running at top speed through the forest took a lot out of me. Having to continuously be on the lookout for roots to avoid tripping over them, dodging branches jumping over and under fallen trees with near-zero vision as a result of the cramped forest wasn't easy at the best of times.
Doing so while a monstrous spider is in pursuit just bulldozing through all those obstacles definitely complicated things.
However, my plan seemed to come together nicely. During the last minute, I was able to gain an increasing lead. The creature was still hot on my heels, pushing through anything in its way, its superior eyesight keeping track of me.
Just a little bit more and I was gonna get my chance — was the dominant thought in my mind when my hand pushed a low hanging branch out of the way and my feet suddenly lost their connection to the ground.
I felt weightless for a moment until gravity started pulling me down. I barely had enough time to curse, before I had to diminish the force of my impact on the ground by rolling it off. I used the momentum to get right back on my feet when I saw the creature leap over my head into the clearing I found myself in.
It was not unlike the one Rayleigh and I decided to use as a base camp. An area whose ground was entirely covered with gravel, with nearly no vegetation, no cover for me to hide behind. A short glance over my shoulder confirmed my worst fear. The area was a long lane of an old riverbed. The only way out of it, without having to climb, was a ramp right in front of me.
The only problem, being the huge spider perched on a lone rock in the middle of the lane hissing my way. It only took a second, and its skin adapted to its surrounding, its formerly green and brown camouflage pattern similar to leaves and bark shifting to mimic the gravel on the floor. It was giving off the impression of being built out of it like some twisted Lego construct.
Shit — the chances of me getting past it were basically zero. The creature was faster and stronger than me and, not to forget had much more limbs with greater reach. I needed a distraction - oh how I wished of having my old powers. A bug clone would be exactly what could get me out of here.
Wait a minute. I had bugs at my disposal — spiders, to be exact. If I could shift damage to them and could summon Kain and Lilith, could I do the same with my own body? Since the hundred baby spiders of theirs and the few hundred spiders from Sabaody by now, a part of me wouldn't be nearly enough to make it work.
I tried to remember what I did not a few moments ago in order to recreate it, dissolving my body into spiders. I was angling for it in my mind. For a second, my left arm transformed into a black mass consisting of thousands of small crawling bodies when it slipped away from me, resetting the changes.
In my second attempt, I could hold onto it, my mind splitting in ten-thousands of instances. My opponent was alarmed by this and readied itself for another attack.
I separated all the spiders making up my body into two equally sized parts and moved them away from each other. With a little prodding, I created two masses, and just in time with the creature hunting me taking to the air, I finished.
Instead of there being one of me, the two masses of crawling black creatures reformed, and each became me, both diving for cover.
The chameleon spider hesitated for just a moment, undecided of where to strike, that when it finally did strike. It was in vain, missing both of me by a huge margin. It even served to unbalance its leap through the air. The attacking limb scrapped the ground, and as a direct consequence, the creature landed in an uncoordinated tumble and came to stop flipped on its back.
It would have been the perfect opportunity to run away. The path to escape was clear, and even though spiders had far fewer problems to flip themselves onto their legs from lying on their back than other bugs, it would take a moment for it to do so. Time, I used, not to run, but to think.
Because one thing became clear to me, those devil-fruits weren't instinctual in the same way as my former powers. They relied on instincts — survival instinct, to be exact. Oh, I was sure it is possible to discover its secret through training, eventually. But right here, right now, I was given a chance, one I didn't intend to waste.
During all this introspection, I kept the eyes of Kain trained on my opponent -
Kain - Of course, how didn't I see it earlier. Those spiders became part of myself, but the opposite is also true. I'm also part of them. Reaching out along the net connecting me to all those spiders being part of me, I pushed a little bit more of me into Kain.
And as I suspected, he transformed into one more iteration of me. This third me was fully clothed, too. I decided to think about that one later when my life wasn't in danger.
I couldn't help but smile when I noticed the lack of a core, a center inhabited by me being present in any one of them. I was split, but whole in every instance across them. I existed at three places at once. The only difference was how my power was distributed, upon each iteration. Kain had barely 2 percent of what was me while the two standing in the clearing had half each of what was left.
Given what I already knew, what happened if a part of me gets destroyed. I suspected it was only a temporary state during which I'm weakened until I had regenerated what was lost. The conclusion I drew from this was simple, as long as just a tiny part of me survives I could make a full recovery given time. No matter, if I inhabited this part at the time or not.
This was incredible — I immediately sent my Kain iteration back to camp. And let my other two beings touch each other and reforged them back into one being.
Let's see what else I can do with this power.
I didn't think I could win against it for a single moment, probably not even hurt it when Lilith and Kain with their sharp claws and fangs couldn't. But I could push myself against it to see what else a life and death struggle could unravel.
I stooped down and picked up some of the stones lying around my feet. When I came back up, I ran towards it and hurled them at the spider still struggling on the floor. I tried to hit its eyes. The only part of its body I was confident I could injure. One or two blind spots in its vision would only make it easier for me.
The first stone was deflected by a thrashing leg that just happened to be in the way. The second stone I threw, on the other hand, was a bullseye. It hit one of the four biggest eyes facing directly forwards. The effect was immediate.
The spider retracted its four front legs close to its body and used them to shield its eyes while the remaining legs redoubled their efforts to flip it back upright. With my avenue of attack closed.
I rounded the spider outside the reach of its legs to its lower abdomen if only I wouldn't lack the means to damage it. It was a gamble, but I thought if I was able to change a spider in myself.
Perhaps I could do the opposite — with Kain and Lilith able to penetrate the exoskeleton only lacking the reach and the power to have had a truly devastating effect. I thought it might be worth a try.
I focused and tried to conjure the image and feeling of wielding one of those razor-sharp front legs Lilith and Kain have at their disposal. It was hard to combine it with me, something was fighting me every step of the way, but the closer I got, the more the resistance weakened until it vanished completely.
I sensed some kind of satisfaction at my success. I couldn't locate the source of the feeling, but I was sure it wasn't a figment of my imagination.
I gave the new addition to my body a good look. Out of the spiders that make up my body, I crafted a new limb replacing my own. It consisted of four segments that originated near my right shoulder blade, connected by joints.
The one at my shoulder was the one allowing me the greatest range of movement similar to what is granted by a ball joint, while the others had a greater similarity to ginglymoid joints. The segments themselves had roughly the same diameter as my arms.
Only the last segment, was different. It tapered off towards the edges, becoming razor-sharp slightly curved, and ended in a tip ideal for piercing, which, to be honest, reminded me more of a sword than actual parts of a limb.
Like with every new toy, it had to be put to the test. I took a running start and closed upon the abdomen of the spider, a few meters away while still out of its range. I jumped as high and as far as I could.
With its hind legs pushing on the ground, I hoped to not only avoid them in their entirety but also for the momentum of my descent to amplify the piercing power of my new grown weapon that I rammed down into the creature with all my might.
My attack penetrated the exoskeleton and sunk deep in the guts of the spider. The reaction followed without delay, an ear-piercing scream sounded through the clearing, and the spider abandoned any and all defensive action, its limbs only aimed for one goal, to kill whatever was responsible for hurting it.
I originally had no intention to stay around long enough to suffer the retaliation for my actions. But to get away as fast as possible immediately after I executed my attack, unfortunately through the pain induced thrashing around of the creature, the tip of my limb got caught in between the penetrated exoskeleton, and I was dragged with it.
I lost my balance on the slippery bloodstained belly and fell to my knee, which robbed me of any chance to avoid one of those whirling limbs.
Even though I was only grazed, it felt like being hit by a truck. And once more, I was flung through the air, this time against the huge rock present within the riverbed, and bounced off from it. I landed hard on my belly. Every bone in my body sent signals of pain to my brain. With a groan, I pushed my body from the ground, just in time to see the spider getting back on its feet again.
I considered shifting the damage I suffered away from my body but thought better of it. Despite the pain, my injuries weren't impairing my movement as far I could tell, and weakening myself to spare me some discomfort didn't seem worth it.
The spider charged at me, and to be honest, I was getting irritated by being treated like a rag doll. I was barely on my feet when she was upon me with fervor hacking away at me. I could evade the first few attacks each time by taking a step back to get outside its range until my back was firmly pressed against the rock behind me.
It had me cornered, and it was aware of it. Instead of fully taking advantage of the situation and taking me out with an overwhelming force, I couldn't evade or block, it cut back on them. It began to probe my reactions, my defenses. Attacking just strong enough to have me struggle to fend them off without dealing the finishing blow.
From there, the creature steadily increased the frequency, strength, and speed of its attacks. Slowly but surely, I felt myself tire, the conclusion of our fight predetermined.
It was, therefore, no surprise that it didn't take long under this constant assault for my one spider limb, the only limb I had at my disposal strong and durable enough to block, to reach its limit. With it alone, I just couldn't keep up with the assault, with all those unrelenting attacks coming my way.
I blocked an overhead strike from one of its limbs. Since the creature put a lot of weight behind it, it ended up occupying my own, as another strike came from my left and was aimed at my torso.
I had no doubt that should it connect, my rib cage would be crushed. I would survive, of course, but the loss of power this would have as a consequence would spell my doom.
I was fed up with this, being played with. And I didn't come to this island to be killed by a spider. A creature, who by all rights, should obey my every command and not try to kill me.
At those thoughts, I felt a throbbing in my mind, a force building up, about to carve its way through in order to come out. I didn't try reigning it in, trying to suppress it. On the contrary, I released it and pushed it out with everything I had.
Two things happened simultaneously, a new spider limb identical to the one on my right shoulder blade emerged from my left and stopped the attack aimed at my left side dead in its tracks.
In addition, my mind leashed out in a devastating onslaught and crashed against the mind of the creature, it didn't stop there. My onslaught reached further and overwhelmed more and more creatures, with their mental-defenses shattered, their bodies fell under my control.
Within moments, I had eyes everywhere on the island. I noticed a pattern, the closer their proximity to my location, the stronger the minds of those who fell under my sway could be.
The creature in front of me locked in a struggle of life and death hissed. It was trying to fight against me, trying to keep its defenses from following all those others I cast into oblivion.
I could sense how it used every ounce of willpower it had to strengthen the barrier surrounding and protecting its mind from being submerged under the unrelenting waves crashing against it.
The barrier held. I started to push harder and harder against it. I was aware I needed to bring it down. It was the only way I could see me defeating it.
The strain I put on myself became unbearable, my mental strength being sapped away with every wave I sent out. I was about to give up, acknowledging that my efforts were futile when a single crack appeared in the barrier. It was small and insignificant. However, it made it clear to me I wasn't the only one struggling.
In response, I felt the strength used by its limbs pressing against mine increase manifold, I stemmed myself against it with every ounce of strength my body could muster. Although I was already losing the contest of strength before it doubled down.
My limbs were barely able to keep the sharp claws away from my vitals. They simply weren't strong enough to prevent them from inching closer and closer to my body with every second that went by. My knees started to buckle under the weight of the limb pressing down on me.
I couldn't help but smirk. The spider finally began to see me as a threat. I missed that.
I pushed myself further and further, mobilized the last vestiges of mental and physical strength I had. As a result, more cracks started to appear, they spread but not fast enough. At the rate this was going my body would be overwhelmed and skewered long before I succeeded in penetrating the spider's mental barrier.
I needed more, more powerful physical and mental I dug deeper in order to unearth a new source of power I could reach. I didn't shy away from taking what I found at the junctions making up all the spiders I fused with, the very net that made up my hive mind. I siphoned everything and sucked it within myself adding it to my own strength.
The effects on my body were immediate, pushed far beyond its limits it finally showed its true self. It surged with power, my body from the hip downwards transformed into a sleek and graceful body of a spider. I lost my human legs and instead gained eight spider legs combined with those sprouting from my back brought the number of limbs I possessed up to twelve.
My whole body was clad in black, consisting of hard overlapping chitin armor-plates making up my exoskeleton. In addition to that, I could feel bones throughout every one of my limbs. Thereby further increasing the resilience of my body.
I felt rejuvenated as if, for the first time in my life, my body wasn't impeded. Only now allowed to unleash its full potential. I no longer had any problems keeping the creature's legs at bay. On the contrary, it barely was trouble at all. With the power of eight legs, I had no trouble lifting myself up to a standing position and in the process pushed the creature back half a meter without even trying.
I marveled at my new body. When I touched my face, I noted I no longer had a nose. To compensate, I gained additional eyes, two below and above, where a human had its eyes. It greatly increased my field of vision and the sharpness with which I perceived my surroundings.
This was the reason I noticed my hair turned silver and considerably increased in length falling straight below my bellybutton.
I turned my head away from marveling at my body and looked back into the eyes of my opponent. Which had turned from a threat to my life to just an inconvenience.
Through one of the cracks in its mental defenses, I got a short glimpse inside its head — I saw how the chameleon-spider the uncontested King of this island, the creature at the very top of the food chain felt threatened when two newcomers set their foot on the island.
I saw the spider stalking Rayleigh and myself, watching us from the depths of the forest. I felt the fear it experienced at seeing Rayleigh, the certainty in being outclassed, but it was nothing compared to what it felt when it laid eyes on me.
It was more than just dread at its life being threatened. There was something more primal to it, as if my very existence was something disturbing unnatural, harboring everything it was scared of to the very core of its being.
There was also a familiarity present a subtle craving to subject itself to me, the feeling something the creature abhorred like nothing else ever did. It was even disgusted at the notion of having felt such a thing.
Meanwhile, I could sense the fear myself, how it permeated every pore of the creature. It reared one last time in an attempt to push my will closing in on it back, to get some breathing room. Only to be utterly annihilated and fragmented under the next wave I sent against its mental defenses.
I didn't even feel any resistance. The barrier was just gone from one moment to the next. I suffused its mind and took control over it, its body followed exactly as I did with so many others just moments ago.
I ordered it a step back, and it followed my directions like any insect would have under the influence of my old power. I touched its head with my human hand and the spider succumbed to me and became a part of me.
The changes were immediate, my whole body experienced an evolution. I felt pure power flowing through my veins. I could practically taste how my body received a considerable boost.
There were other visible changes. I watched in slow motion as a thin membrane grew over my exoskeleton, which started to mimic the colors of my surroundings.
I also noticed my sight improving even further. I saw heat emanating from myself and even the surroundings where the sun hit the ground. It made sense for my eyes to see my own body even when camouflaged, and seeing into the infrared spectrum of the light allowed for just that.
I was pretty sure it was the opposite of detrimental for the chameleon spider to be able to see heat sources when out hunting.
To say this was impressive was an understatement, which made it even harder to find a word to classify the other change this fusion brought with it. I could suddenly sense the presence of all the lifeforms on the island and beyond with absolute clarity. In my mind's eye, I pictured them as multicolored flames all around me.
Their size varied, with the strongest getting close to my other iteration nearing our camp. That had to be Rayleigh. I also became aware of how I could hide my presence, to make it disappear completely.
No wonder this spider was able to remain undetected. It was a master of Kenbunshoku Haki good enough to hide itself from Rayleigh.
This wasn't the only conclusion I drew. With me having made the first step in becoming a Haki user it was easy to notice, that my own talent neither lied with Kenbunshoku or Busoshoku but Haoshoku Haki.
After having used it in this fight, it became clear it was as easy as breathing to me, but something held me back from accessing it.
Given my history with controlling others, be it insects or people, I shouldn't be surprised. And here I hoped I could leave the atrocity of taking over another sentient being body and mind behind me.
I sighed and returned to my human form. Even changed back, the differences in my body were impossible to overlook. My strength easily dwarfed what I possessed just a few moments ago. There was also a new awareness of it as if it was muted before. All my senses were sharper, my movements more precise and graceful.
I ordered every creature across the island to come to me. There weren't many presences left, not obliging me. Most of those I could sense were on the outskirts of the island. The further away from where I used my Haoshoku Haki, the weaker the presences I managed to overwhelm.
From this observation, I deduced the wave of Haki lost potency over long distances. It didn't take long for the first few animals to break through the treeline and appear before me.
Some sort of jungle cat, belonging to different species than those that made up the first meal I had here. The other animal was resembling a bear with the difference of it being bigger than a bear had any right to be. I waited for them to reach me when they did. I attempted to do the same I did with the spider, make them a part of me.
But this time, nothing happened. I couldn't fuse with either of them like it was possible with the spider. I wasn't disappointed by this revelation, of course, this meant I couldn't just add their strength to my own. On the other hand, it would prevent my changer form from growing too monstrous.
I didn't feel the urge to end up as Echidna's ugly twin, a chimera of sorts, or possibly something worse. Furthermore, I actually came to like this Arachnid look. I totally blame my old power for that by the way.
I must have eaten some kind of spider or Arachne Zoan-type fruit, it would explain all the abilities I have shown so far. Drawing this conclusion was standing to reason, was it the right one, however?
I ate the fruit and before I even had an inkling I fused with Spiders. What if the Fruit isn't some kind of Spider Zoan, but something more malleable instead? What if I could have chosen any kind of animal and the fruit could have imprinted on the species it belonged to?
Not sure it mattered at this point. What else could I have chosen in case I happened to be right in my assumption instead of spiders? There weren't many choices to pick from with more useful abilities. Sure flying would have been nice, and since mythical creatures are a thing in this world, I could have picked one of those.
One major benefit would have been that the individual strength of another species should have been higher by a large margin. Therefore by absorbing them, I could have grown a lot stronger by now. This would also explain why I didn't notice this augmenting effect earlier.
When I found Kain and Lilith I wasn't exactly in a position to monitor myself and the few hundred spider on Sabaody I made a part of me, aside from their unique abilities didn't make a noticeable difference.
What makes insect special is the fact that they are ahead of all other species when it comes to diversity, an advantage I intend to make good use of.
I didn't regret having eaten this fruit. Ending up the way I did. It gave me a powerful ability one which I already had some ideas on how to make the best use of.
I bent down and picked up a little spider, I studied it extensively and noted that it belonged to species I have never come across. Which just helped to drive the point home that I had absolutely no idea what spiders this world had in store for me. It is quite likely for there to exist spiders who are even more impressive than dragons, I just have to find them.
I absorbed my little dotted friend and added its biological distinctiveness to my own. I then split myself apart into 31 instances of myself, 30 of which spread out in every direction to collect all the spiders under my control while I started the trek back to camp. I had a lot of breeding and training doing.
Authors Note: I hope this chapter wasn't as boring to read as it stressed me to write it.
Chases ... not gonna do that again if I can help it.
Kenbunshoku Haki — There is nothing in canon directly supporting the statements of this chapter, namely that it is possible for someone to suppress his presence or even to make it disappear completely, to make detection via Haki impossible.
On the other hand, canon has a multitude of events occurring that can't be explained without such a skill not being a thing -
On the top of my head:
I mean you only have to think back on what Enel could do with his Haki ... something everybody with a certain level in it should be able to do.
In order to have a "rule-set" in place, I decided to go with the idea that Haki can be suppressed and certain people (Taylor) can even stop it entirely from being detected by this 6th sense. She will use this extensively in fights and outside of them.
So with this Taylor has finally discovered what a devil fruit-power she possesses. It grants her a changer rating. I was debating quite a long time about the question of what happens to her clothes, ultimately I decided to go with the unexplained clothes count as part of one's body version One Piece has going on (the unexplained Breaker effect).
With this, at least, I can avoid some awkward scenes with cloth malfunction, and Taylor is gonna save a lot of time and money since she won't have to constantly replace her wardrobe.
The disadvantage of this approach on the other hand is quite clear it diminishes "realism" to a certain degree — if you are even allowed to call it that in a fic such as this — but I really don't like unexplained world-mechanics — therefore this effect only pertains to her clothes to nothing else she carries/has on her person.
The ability Taylor displays here splitting herself into a countless number of Spiders is loosely based on the Ability called Crawlerling of the Ananasi (Were spiders) of the White Wolf Pen& Paper setting Werewolf the Apocalypse.
During the next few weeks, we settled into a routine. The day started with breakfast then I trained my body to its limits and beyond, running, squats, sit-ups, and push-ups. I started doing them on knuckles and graduated to doing them on my outstretched fingers in order to strengthen them.
A necessary requirement I had to fulfill before the real shigan training could start. I dragged and carried rocks of increasing sizes around the clearing. There wasn't much we didn't do to strengthen my body.
On most days this meant I collapsed from exhaustion before we had lunch. To give me some time to let my strained muscles rest. Dinner was followed up by Haki training. At least Rayleigh calls hitting me with a stick while blindfolded such.
He keeps emphasizing, that at the start it will be easier to access ones Haki while the body is depleted of its strength. A nice way to say being unable to lift a finger.
Despite that, it was slow going even after a little over three months I wasn't able to evade the stick with any regularity.
So the few times I wasn't hit I attributed to chance and not me finally grasping the underlying concept of Kenbunshoku Haki. He certainly hit me enough times, that it sounded plausible to have dodged a few times by luck alone.
Unfortunately, my progress if you could call it that, for Busoshoku Haki wasn't much better. The lack of any noticeable improvement really started to irritate me.
Especially since Rayleigh didn't understand why I was having trouble with both of those forms of Haki. Usually, everybody seemed to have a knack for one of them, which is then usually learned comparatively easy, and most end up specializing in. But for some reason, this didn't seem to be the case when it came to me.
The hours of Haki training are then followed up by another workout when my body has sufficiently recovered. When I'm done with that, I eat something and give in to my exhaustion and enter a dreamless sleep, rinse and repeat.
Since this routine turned out to be mind-numbing dumb, we thought it prudent to now and then have a day off from this. This vacation day was mostly spent with Rayleigh trying to impart some knowledge to me, from how to survive in the wild, what you can and can't eat to the basics of sailing.
For those lessons in seafaring, we always ventured to his boat, where I could put his teachings to practice.
Since I was a fast learner when it came to everything else than what I was actually here for, he ended up running out of things to teach me a week ago. This was the reason he started to instruct me in swordsmanship, his preferred choice of fighting.
Currently, we used carved wooden swords to spar. He already warned me that the moment I get the basics of Busoshoku Haki down, sword fighting will encompass it. Having me reinforce my sword throughout the whole lesson without waning in doing so, because the moment I do he would shatter my sword and the lessons would only be resumed when I carved myself another sword.
I questioned the reasoning behind it, his response consisted of telling me, that for one, it helps to get a better feel for the sword if I made it myself. It would be easier, seeing the sword as a part of yourself and the other reason was to stress, that in a regular sword fight you lost the moment your sword is destroyed.
Meaning your very life depends on not letting it get that far, and what better way is there to drive this lesson home than to have you spent countless hours to remake what you couldn't protect.
Rayleigh was a good but strict teacher, which was doubly cringe-worthy because the lack of tangible progress couldn't be laid down at his feet.
The only bright spot was, that all this rigorous physical training I did started showing results at least. But according to Rayleigh, it was still too early to attempt learning even one of the six forms of the Rokushiki since my body couldn't handle it, yet.
Which meant the time I didn't spend training. I was spending wishing for the moment I was ready for it.
I halfheartedly chewed on the bite of stew in my mouth when my musings were interrupted.
"What's wrong, not hungry?" Rayleigh asked.
I grimaced.
"Just thinking."
"What about?" He wondered, "If it is about your progress don't sweat it. The first step in learning to use your Haki is the most difficult one. It just takes time."
"Yeah, I'm aware. You are constantly telling me that. But that's the thing, while I might have time, the girl, my only chance in getting home, probably doesn't, which means I can't waste a second."
"You aren't wasting any time. You spend every single moment awake training. You probably the most driven person I have ever met. But such things take time. You can't rush your training. Only partially mastered skills are fickle and dangerous." He lectured.
I deeply sighed.
"I know. Gods above, I know. I hate the uncertainty, not knowing if I will reach her in time."
This was worse than biding my time with deposing Coil and preparing for the reemergence of the Slaughterhouse Nine combined. Instead of fearing that Coil learned of our betrayal, I was fearing for the well-being of a little kid I have never met. Instead of having an exact date, the Nine gave for their return.
I only had the word of my teacher that I was coming along just fine. His reassurances were as meaningful as a bureaucrat telling someone it's done when it's done. It was driving me nuts.
"It is probably best if you take a walk. A disturbed mind won't benefit your Haki training. Center yourself, and when you have regained your equilibrium we will continue."
Having said his piece. He stood up and walked over to his hammock and lied down in it.
I felt burning anger for my own stupidity, getting upset about my lack of progress now had the exact opposite effect of what I wanted. This forced break only served to further delay me in reaching my goals.
There was no point in crying over spilled milk. I sighed and stood up, my two spiders nibbling on some meat immediately lost their interest in their meal and scurried to me. With a short jump, they landed safely on my shoulders.
I started walking towards the forest. I didn't leave the clearing often. My schedule just didn't leave me with the time to do so. But once or twice I accompanied Rayleigh on a hunt for our meal. Shortly after we settled here it started to take him longer, and he had to travel further away to find some game.
The situation didn't seem to become better the longer we stayed. On the contrary, the wildlife tended to steer clear of our camp.
This is why I expected those instances I needed to accompany him to steadily increase with time. Rayleigh didn't want to leave my side for prolonged times. My mind told me it was a necessary precaution, but my pride took a hard hit to be babied in such away.
The forest wasn't easy terrain to travel through. Veins and roots were lingering all over the floor, and low hanging branches everywhere. At least my spider-silk under suit protected me from getting scratches in addition to all the other sores I ended up with through my training.
I didn't care where I ended up and just kept walking further and further into the forest. I didn't know why I kept going and didn't lie down somewhere. Probably, because walking through a forest was the only progress I was currently capable of making, a cynic voice in my head proclaimed.
I really would have liked nothing more than to give a harsh retort. Unfortunately, it was true. Since I still hadn't gotten the slightest clue what a devil fruit I ate.
Considering, that I once wielded a superpower, which gave me quite a bit of trouble to get the hang of at the beginning. I assumed it wouldn't be too different from learning to control whatever power I gained by eating the devil fruit as it turned out, I couldn't be more wrong.
I didn't make any headway in that regard since the day we arrived. Of course, I had my suspicions. I learned to fuse my spiders in my body and summon them forth from it.
I even collected and fused with all the spiders on Sabaody that found themselves under my control, which definitely makes for an interesting ability. Back home, I would have killed for something like this to complement my already existing power set.
There really wasn't much imagination necessary to see how I could have benefitted from this.
But for some reason, I got the feeling I was not even scratching the surface of what I could be capable of with a deeper understanding of my devil fruit powers.
This was exactly the source of my true frustration, that the one avenue of power I was pursuing. I originally was the most confident about to get somewhere. The one avenue I had to explore for myself, where Rayleigh couldn't help me with, was the one I was stuck at.
I hit the tree to my right to vent some steam and took a deep breath. I was about to turn around and walk back when I felt the sudden need to duck.
I was not sure what it was that forewarned me. The senses of the spiders sitting on my shoulders I unconsciously used or a short glimpse of the impending future via Kenbunshoku Haki. But whatever it was, it saved my life when something got caught in the tree I just hit moments before, barely missing my upper torso in the process.
Wooden splinters rained down on me from the force of the attack that wrecked the tree.
I scrambled to my feet and started running through the eyes of my spiders, I consciously used this time to look back. I saw a huge spider perched in the tree crowns, one of its front legs stuck in the now dissected tree. The creature removed the leg with a strong jerk that uprooted what was left of it.
I tried to take stock of the spider who had its eyes on me, and what I saw didn't inspire confidence in my ability to escape its maws.
The first thing I couldn't help but notice was that the spider blended in perfectly with its surroundings. This ability became even clearer when it slightly moved and the pattern on its skin shifted camouflaging the spider anew. Making it nearly invisible to the naked eye, similar to a chameleon ability to adjust the color of its skin to its surroundings, but far better.
It also explained how such a huge creature, more than 15 m long completely escaped my notice until it stroke. A skill set quite fitting for an ambush predator. But what had me concerned were the legs of the spider they seemed to be tailored to allow for great speeds and jumping.
A fact accentuated by the comparatively huge eyes. Good eyesight is one of the requirements needed to accurately estimate distances for the jump to end up on the prey and not elsewhere.
An insight that saved my life, because I recognized in the way the spider crouched down that it was about to jump. This little a fraction of a second advance warning allowed me to hit the floor just in time for the spider to miss me.
It crashed into the trees in front of me. The spider left a swath of destruction along the path of its jump. Trees left and right went down like ninepins.
I struggled to my feet and was about to run in a different direction, banking on the fact that my pursuer might need a moment to reorient itself. Suddenly I received a glancing blow from a leg swipe.
I was thrown a good two dozen feet against a tree. The heavy impact pushed the air out of my lungs. My whole torso and right arm, where I was hit, consisted of only one feeling, pain.
I tried to breathe, but my, from pain constricted, muscles wouldn't allow me to take in any air.
My eyes started to tear. While I laid on the ground gasping to fill my lungs with oxygen.
I felt like a fish on dry land, fighting not to suffocate.
Through the eyes of my cute little spiders, who apparently had more of a talent for landings than myself, I saw the big spider stalking towards my position. They both moved in a defensive position arraying themselves between the creature and me.
I appreciated what they tried to do, I really did, but I doubted they would be anything more than a small irritation, even if they should manage to bite and penetrate the thick armor plates of it and their venom turns out to be able of affecting it.
Body-Mass, after all, is a non-negligible factor when it comes to poison. I needed something more to survive here. I asked myself where the hell was Rayleigh? How was it possible for this spider to get so close to our camp?
He should have sensed its approach, something that shouldn't have been hard with the lack of wildlife around our camp, as a consequence of our very presence around these parts.
Under great effort, I could bring my lungs in my aching rib cage to accept some air. This halted the propagation of the black spots I started to see. A second forced to inhale, and they receded out of my field of vision. With the additional oxygen in my blood, my brain finally made the connection.
A chameleon spider, a species adapted to stalk and creep up on its prey would, of course, have a predisposition to hide itself, its very presence via Haki.
Fuck — another thought popped up in my mind — Was Rayleigh being here really responsible for the wildlife to avoid the area or could it have been this spider.
I had no time to ponder this thought. When the spider lunged for me. I navigated Lilith and Kain out of the way, sacrificing them for nothing wouldn't do, and tried to do the same.
I was about to evade one of the creature's legs, only for the sudden movement dodging required to inflict a sharp spike of pain from my already hurting ribs. The wince this elicited from me slowed me down just enough for the creature attack to graze my shoulder. My momentum was shifted strong enough, that I stumbled.
I could only watch through a multitude of eyes my own included, how the follow-up attack neared my body while I was struggling to get it back under control, to dodge the incoming attack. I only managed to turn my torso slightly to the side in the hope to reduce the damage, so I wouldn't die immediately upon being hit.
The pain, when the sharp tip of the spider's leg pierced my left abdomen and pinned me to the ground was indescribable, until this moment I thought losing my arm and have the stumped cauterized by Lung was bad, but it didn't even register in comparison.
I would have screamed if I had the luxury of the time to do so. But I knew I couldn't allow myself to give in to do so, letting the world know about the pain I felt. I had to keep moving, the next attack was about to come and I needed to get out of the way.
Meanwhile, I directed my spiders. They jumped up on the creature's head and started to fervently attacking it, in their efforts to buy me just a little bit of time.
Their vicious attacks proved mostly harmless. Their fangs were unable to penetrate the exoskeleton, so they started hacking away at it with their sharp front legs. While they made some progress, I suspected they wouldn't be able to succeed before they were inevitably thrown loose by the thrashing creature or were hit themselves by a hind-leg, trying to sweep them away.
Despite the creature's best efforts, to lose its passengers. The leg pinning me wasn't moved a single inch.
I struggled on the ground, trying to get the sharp spider-leg in my intestines to slice through the last bit of flesh and skin, which was keeping me in place and prevented me from escaping. I tried to support my efforts with my hands pushing at the leg for my flesh to sever.
I felt it as Lilith's body was crushed between a hind leg and the hard exoskeleton making up its armor. She was dead before her dislodged body hit the ground.
My struggles only increased in their intensity. With only Kain remaining, I needed to get loose — dammit move. I chanted over and over in my mind.
Suddenly I was loose. My last jerk had me freed from the spider-leg. A short glance didn't show me what I was expecting — shredded flesh hanging from my side where the leg hit me, but instead an uncountable number of small black dots in which my flesh around the leg dissolved into moving around.
The dots rearranged themselves and, without further ado condensed back into my flesh, in the process closing the hole that should gape there.
Next to me, encircling the spider leg. That a moment ago held me in place still stuck in the ground. I saw a few dozen small spiders lying there, dead and slowly dispersing into black tendriled mist.
I moved my hand to my abdomen, and my sense of touch reaffirmed what my eyes already told me. I was all better. I went from being a shashlik meat side-dish to whole again. Even my clothes were restored to pristine condition by this effect.
It reminded me of the power of some capes I encountered — a breaker effect. But shouldn't the only devil-Fruit-type granting a breaker state to avoid damage be those logia-types?
I couldn't be that lucky to have eaten one of those, said to be the strongest?
My train of thought came to a sudden stop when Kain was flung from the creature's head. But not before he was able to bite once through the from his legs weakened chitin-armor.
I jumped to my feet and started running, not a moment too early. Two legs descended upon the ground where I sat not a second ago and split it with the incredible power behind them.
I immediately noticed something changed within my body. You simply can't train yourself to exhaustion every single day and not learn the limits of it by heart. It was weaker than it should be. I was lacking in strength.
Similar to the time Kain was killed by Rayleigh — of course, it all makes sense. I didn't avoid the attack. Flowed around it like a Logia is supposed to — I actually suffered the damage. I just transferred it from my body to those spiders instead. No, this didn't feel right - My body was made up of those spiders.
But why was it necessary to sacrifice more than one?
Could it be the amount of spider necessary to restore my scales with the damage I received? If yes, given how weak I felt. I couldn't allow myself to get hit anymore by such a debilitating attack. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much left to fuel my running. Even now, I could sense how the strength I lost; was used to rebuild the bodies of the spiders that died in my stead.
I had Kain, who was able to avert injury, follow behind the creature at a measured distance. Apparently, not only cats always land on their feet. This time I made full use of his eyes, thanks to which I saw the next lunge coming. I dived to my right and felt the wind with the hairs on my skin when the creature missed me by a hair's breadth.
A moment later, I heard how trees broke apart when it landed with such force that the ground vibrated, and the leaves all around me shook.
I righted myself and sprinted in between the thick vegetation, intent on using it to my advantage by hampering the creature's speed. I knew full well that the effect would be minimal. Given its strength, it could plow through the forest without much resistance, but every little bit helped.
I only needed the distance between us to increase. I needed just a moment to be entirely out of its sight, to have a chance at losing it in the thick vegetation.
My breathing started to get heavier. Running at top speed through the forest took a lot out of me. Having to continuously be on the lookout for roots to avoid tripping over them, dodging branches jumping over and under fallen trees with near-zero vision as a result of the cramped forest wasn't easy at the best of times.
Doing so while a monstrous spider is in pursuit just bulldozing through all those obstacles definitely complicated things.
However, my plan seemed to come together nicely. During the last minute, I was able to gain an increasing lead. The creature was still hot on my heels, pushing through anything in its way, its superior eyesight keeping track of me.
Just a little bit more and I was gonna get my chance — was the dominant thought in my mind when my hand pushed a low hanging branch out of the way and my feet suddenly lost their connection to the ground.
I felt weightless for a moment until gravity started pulling me down. I barely had enough time to curse, before I had to diminish the force of my impact on the ground by rolling it off. I used the momentum to get right back on my feet when I saw the creature leap over my head into the clearing I found myself in.
It was not unlike the one Rayleigh and I decided to use as a base camp. An area whose ground was entirely covered with gravel, with nearly no vegetation, no cover for me to hide behind. A short glance over my shoulder confirmed my worst fear. The area was a long lane of an old riverbed. The only way out of it, without having to climb, was a ramp right in front of me.
The only problem, being the huge spider perched on a lone rock in the middle of the lane hissing my way. It only took a second, and its skin adapted to its surrounding, its formerly green and brown camouflage pattern similar to leaves and bark shifting to mimic the gravel on the floor. It was giving off the impression of being built out of it like some twisted Lego construct.
Shit — the chances of me getting past it were basically zero. The creature was faster and stronger than me and, not to forget had much more limbs with greater reach. I needed a distraction - oh how I wished of having my old powers. A bug clone would be exactly what could get me out of here.
Wait a minute. I had bugs at my disposal — spiders, to be exact. If I could shift damage to them and could summon Kain and Lilith, could I do the same with my own body? Since the hundred baby spiders of theirs and the few hundred spiders from Sabaody by now, a part of me wouldn't be nearly enough to make it work.
I tried to remember what I did not a few moments ago in order to recreate it, dissolving my body into spiders. I was angling for it in my mind. For a second, my left arm transformed into a black mass consisting of thousands of small crawling bodies when it slipped away from me, resetting the changes.
In my second attempt, I could hold onto it, my mind splitting in ten-thousands of instances. My opponent was alarmed by this and readied itself for another attack.
I separated all the spiders making up my body into two equally sized parts and moved them away from each other. With a little prodding, I created two masses, and just in time with the creature hunting me taking to the air, I finished.
Instead of there being one of me, the two masses of crawling black creatures reformed, and each became me, both diving for cover.
The chameleon spider hesitated for just a moment, undecided of where to strike, that when it finally did strike. It was in vain, missing both of me by a huge margin. It even served to unbalance its leap through the air. The attacking limb scrapped the ground, and as a direct consequence, the creature landed in an uncoordinated tumble and came to stop flipped on its back.
It would have been the perfect opportunity to run away. The path to escape was clear, and even though spiders had far fewer problems to flip themselves onto their legs from lying on their back than other bugs, it would take a moment for it to do so. Time, I used, not to run, but to think.
Because one thing became clear to me, those devil-fruits weren't instinctual in the same way as my former powers. They relied on instincts — survival instinct, to be exact. Oh, I was sure it is possible to discover its secret through training, eventually. But right here, right now, I was given a chance, one I didn't intend to waste.
During all this introspection, I kept the eyes of Kain trained on my opponent -
Kain - Of course, how didn't I see it earlier. Those spiders became part of myself, but the opposite is also true. I'm also part of them. Reaching out along the net connecting me to all those spiders being part of me, I pushed a little bit more of me into Kain.
And as I suspected, he transformed into one more iteration of me. This third me was fully clothed, too. I decided to think about that one later when my life wasn't in danger.
I couldn't help but smile when I noticed the lack of a core, a center inhabited by me being present in any one of them. I was split, but whole in every instance across them. I existed at three places at once. The only difference was how my power was distributed, upon each iteration. Kain had barely 2 percent of what was me while the two standing in the clearing had half each of what was left.
Given what I already knew, what happened if a part of me gets destroyed. I suspected it was only a temporary state during which I'm weakened until I had regenerated what was lost. The conclusion I drew from this was simple, as long as just a tiny part of me survives I could make a full recovery given time. No matter, if I inhabited this part at the time or not.
This was incredible — I immediately sent my Kain iteration back to camp. And let my other two beings touch each other and reforged them back into one being.
Let's see what else I can do with this power.
I didn't think I could win against it for a single moment, probably not even hurt it when Lilith and Kain with their sharp claws and fangs couldn't. But I could push myself against it to see what else a life and death struggle could unravel.
I stooped down and picked up some of the stones lying around my feet. When I came back up, I ran towards it and hurled them at the spider still struggling on the floor. I tried to hit its eyes. The only part of its body I was confident I could injure. One or two blind spots in its vision would only make it easier for me.
The first stone was deflected by a thrashing leg that just happened to be in the way. The second stone I threw, on the other hand, was a bullseye. It hit one of the four biggest eyes facing directly forwards. The effect was immediate.
The spider retracted its four front legs close to its body and used them to shield its eyes while the remaining legs redoubled their efforts to flip it back upright. With my avenue of attack closed.
I rounded the spider outside the reach of its legs to its lower abdomen if only I wouldn't lack the means to damage it. It was a gamble, but I thought if I was able to change a spider in myself.
Perhaps I could do the opposite — with Kain and Lilith able to penetrate the exoskeleton only lacking the reach and the power to have had a truly devastating effect. I thought it might be worth a try.
I focused and tried to conjure the image and feeling of wielding one of those razor-sharp front legs Lilith and Kain have at their disposal. It was hard to combine it with me, something was fighting me every step of the way, but the closer I got, the more the resistance weakened until it vanished completely.
I sensed some kind of satisfaction at my success. I couldn't locate the source of the feeling, but I was sure it wasn't a figment of my imagination.
I gave the new addition to my body a good look. Out of the spiders that make up my body, I crafted a new limb replacing my own. It consisted of four segments that originated near my right shoulder blade, connected by joints.
The one at my shoulder was the one allowing me the greatest range of movement similar to what is granted by a ball joint, while the others had a greater similarity to ginglymoid joints. The segments themselves had roughly the same diameter as my arms.
Only the last segment, was different. It tapered off towards the edges, becoming razor-sharp slightly curved, and ended in a tip ideal for piercing, which, to be honest, reminded me more of a sword than actual parts of a limb.
Like with every new toy, it had to be put to the test. I took a running start and closed upon the abdomen of the spider, a few meters away while still out of its range. I jumped as high and as far as I could.
With its hind legs pushing on the ground, I hoped to not only avoid them in their entirety but also for the momentum of my descent to amplify the piercing power of my new grown weapon that I rammed down into the creature with all my might.
My attack penetrated the exoskeleton and sunk deep in the guts of the spider. The reaction followed without delay, an ear-piercing scream sounded through the clearing, and the spider abandoned any and all defensive action, its limbs only aimed for one goal, to kill whatever was responsible for hurting it.
I originally had no intention to stay around long enough to suffer the retaliation for my actions. But to get away as fast as possible immediately after I executed my attack, unfortunately through the pain induced thrashing around of the creature, the tip of my limb got caught in between the penetrated exoskeleton, and I was dragged with it.
I lost my balance on the slippery bloodstained belly and fell to my knee, which robbed me of any chance to avoid one of those whirling limbs.
Even though I was only grazed, it felt like being hit by a truck. And once more, I was flung through the air, this time against the huge rock present within the riverbed, and bounced off from it. I landed hard on my belly. Every bone in my body sent signals of pain to my brain. With a groan, I pushed my body from the ground, just in time to see the spider getting back on its feet again.
I considered shifting the damage I suffered away from my body but thought better of it. Despite the pain, my injuries weren't impairing my movement as far I could tell, and weakening myself to spare me some discomfort didn't seem worth it.
The spider charged at me, and to be honest, I was getting irritated by being treated like a rag doll. I was barely on my feet when she was upon me with fervor hacking away at me. I could evade the first few attacks each time by taking a step back to get outside its range until my back was firmly pressed against the rock behind me.
It had me cornered, and it was aware of it. Instead of fully taking advantage of the situation and taking me out with an overwhelming force, I couldn't evade or block, it cut back on them. It began to probe my reactions, my defenses. Attacking just strong enough to have me struggle to fend them off without dealing the finishing blow.
From there, the creature steadily increased the frequency, strength, and speed of its attacks. Slowly but surely, I felt myself tire, the conclusion of our fight predetermined.
It was, therefore, no surprise that it didn't take long under this constant assault for my one spider limb, the only limb I had at my disposal strong and durable enough to block, to reach its limit. With it alone, I just couldn't keep up with the assault, with all those unrelenting attacks coming my way.
I blocked an overhead strike from one of its limbs. Since the creature put a lot of weight behind it, it ended up occupying my own, as another strike came from my left and was aimed at my torso.
I had no doubt that should it connect, my rib cage would be crushed. I would survive, of course, but the loss of power this would have as a consequence would spell my doom.
I was fed up with this, being played with. And I didn't come to this island to be killed by a spider. A creature, who by all rights, should obey my every command and not try to kill me.
At those thoughts, I felt a throbbing in my mind, a force building up, about to carve its way through in order to come out. I didn't try reigning it in, trying to suppress it. On the contrary, I released it and pushed it out with everything I had.
Two things happened simultaneously, a new spider limb identical to the one on my right shoulder blade emerged from my left and stopped the attack aimed at my left side dead in its tracks.
In addition, my mind leashed out in a devastating onslaught and crashed against the mind of the creature, it didn't stop there. My onslaught reached further and overwhelmed more and more creatures, with their mental-defenses shattered, their bodies fell under my control.
Within moments, I had eyes everywhere on the island. I noticed a pattern, the closer their proximity to my location, the stronger the minds of those who fell under my sway could be.
The creature in front of me locked in a struggle of life and death hissed. It was trying to fight against me, trying to keep its defenses from following all those others I cast into oblivion.
I could sense how it used every ounce of willpower it had to strengthen the barrier surrounding and protecting its mind from being submerged under the unrelenting waves crashing against it.
The barrier held. I started to push harder and harder against it. I was aware I needed to bring it down. It was the only way I could see me defeating it.
The strain I put on myself became unbearable, my mental strength being sapped away with every wave I sent out. I was about to give up, acknowledging that my efforts were futile when a single crack appeared in the barrier. It was small and insignificant. However, it made it clear to me I wasn't the only one struggling.
In response, I felt the strength used by its limbs pressing against mine increase manifold, I stemmed myself against it with every ounce of strength my body could muster. Although I was already losing the contest of strength before it doubled down.
My limbs were barely able to keep the sharp claws away from my vitals. They simply weren't strong enough to prevent them from inching closer and closer to my body with every second that went by. My knees started to buckle under the weight of the limb pressing down on me.
I couldn't help but smirk. The spider finally began to see me as a threat. I missed that.
I pushed myself further and further, mobilized the last vestiges of mental and physical strength I had. As a result, more cracks started to appear, they spread but not fast enough. At the rate this was going my body would be overwhelmed and skewered long before I succeeded in penetrating the spider's mental barrier.
I needed more, more powerful physical and mental I dug deeper in order to unearth a new source of power I could reach. I didn't shy away from taking what I found at the junctions making up all the spiders I fused with, the very net that made up my hive mind. I siphoned everything and sucked it within myself adding it to my own strength.
The effects on my body were immediate, pushed far beyond its limits it finally showed its true self. It surged with power, my body from the hip downwards transformed into a sleek and graceful body of a spider. I lost my human legs and instead gained eight spider legs combined with those sprouting from my back brought the number of limbs I possessed up to twelve.
My whole body was clad in black, consisting of hard overlapping chitin armor-plates making up my exoskeleton. In addition to that, I could feel bones throughout every one of my limbs. Thereby further increasing the resilience of my body.
I felt rejuvenated as if, for the first time in my life, my body wasn't impeded. Only now allowed to unleash its full potential. I no longer had any problems keeping the creature's legs at bay. On the contrary, it barely was trouble at all. With the power of eight legs, I had no trouble lifting myself up to a standing position and in the process pushed the creature back half a meter without even trying.
I marveled at my new body. When I touched my face, I noted I no longer had a nose. To compensate, I gained additional eyes, two below and above, where a human had its eyes. It greatly increased my field of vision and the sharpness with which I perceived my surroundings.
This was the reason I noticed my hair turned silver and considerably increased in length falling straight below my bellybutton.
I turned my head away from marveling at my body and looked back into the eyes of my opponent. Which had turned from a threat to my life to just an inconvenience.
Through one of the cracks in its mental defenses, I got a short glimpse inside its head — I saw how the chameleon-spider the uncontested King of this island, the creature at the very top of the food chain felt threatened when two newcomers set their foot on the island.
I saw the spider stalking Rayleigh and myself, watching us from the depths of the forest. I felt the fear it experienced at seeing Rayleigh, the certainty in being outclassed, but it was nothing compared to what it felt when it laid eyes on me.
It was more than just dread at its life being threatened. There was something more primal to it, as if my very existence was something disturbing unnatural, harboring everything it was scared of to the very core of its being.
There was also a familiarity present a subtle craving to subject itself to me, the feeling something the creature abhorred like nothing else ever did. It was even disgusted at the notion of having felt such a thing.
Meanwhile, I could sense the fear myself, how it permeated every pore of the creature. It reared one last time in an attempt to push my will closing in on it back, to get some breathing room. Only to be utterly annihilated and fragmented under the next wave I sent against its mental defenses.
I didn't even feel any resistance. The barrier was just gone from one moment to the next. I suffused its mind and took control over it, its body followed exactly as I did with so many others just moments ago.
I ordered it a step back, and it followed my directions like any insect would have under the influence of my old power. I touched its head with my human hand and the spider succumbed to me and became a part of me.
The changes were immediate, my whole body experienced an evolution. I felt pure power flowing through my veins. I could practically taste how my body received a considerable boost.
There were other visible changes. I watched in slow motion as a thin membrane grew over my exoskeleton, which started to mimic the colors of my surroundings.
I also noticed my sight improving even further. I saw heat emanating from myself and even the surroundings where the sun hit the ground. It made sense for my eyes to see my own body even when camouflaged, and seeing into the infrared spectrum of the light allowed for just that.
I was pretty sure it was the opposite of detrimental for the chameleon spider to be able to see heat sources when out hunting.
To say this was impressive was an understatement, which made it even harder to find a word to classify the other change this fusion brought with it. I could suddenly sense the presence of all the lifeforms on the island and beyond with absolute clarity. In my mind's eye, I pictured them as multicolored flames all around me.
Their size varied, with the strongest getting close to my other iteration nearing our camp. That had to be Rayleigh. I also became aware of how I could hide my presence, to make it disappear completely.
No wonder this spider was able to remain undetected. It was a master of Kenbunshoku Haki good enough to hide itself from Rayleigh.
This wasn't the only conclusion I drew. With me having made the first step in becoming a Haki user it was easy to notice, that my own talent neither lied with Kenbunshoku or Busoshoku but Haoshoku Haki.
After having used it in this fight, it became clear it was as easy as breathing to me, but something held me back from accessing it.
Given my history with controlling others, be it insects or people, I shouldn't be surprised. And here I hoped I could leave the atrocity of taking over another sentient being body and mind behind me.
I sighed and returned to my human form. Even changed back, the differences in my body were impossible to overlook. My strength easily dwarfed what I possessed just a few moments ago. There was also a new awareness of it as if it was muted before. All my senses were sharper, my movements more precise and graceful.
I ordered every creature across the island to come to me. There weren't many presences left, not obliging me. Most of those I could sense were on the outskirts of the island. The further away from where I used my Haoshoku Haki, the weaker the presences I managed to overwhelm.
From this observation, I deduced the wave of Haki lost potency over long distances. It didn't take long for the first few animals to break through the treeline and appear before me.
Some sort of jungle cat, belonging to different species than those that made up the first meal I had here. The other animal was resembling a bear with the difference of it being bigger than a bear had any right to be. I waited for them to reach me when they did. I attempted to do the same I did with the spider, make them a part of me.
But this time, nothing happened. I couldn't fuse with either of them like it was possible with the spider. I wasn't disappointed by this revelation, of course, this meant I couldn't just add their strength to my own. On the other hand, it would prevent my changer form from growing too monstrous.
I didn't feel the urge to end up as Echidna's ugly twin, a chimera of sorts, or possibly something worse. Furthermore, I actually came to like this Arachnid look. I totally blame my old power for that by the way.
I must have eaten some kind of spider or Arachne Zoan-type fruit, it would explain all the abilities I have shown so far. Drawing this conclusion was standing to reason, was it the right one, however?
I ate the fruit and before I even had an inkling I fused with Spiders. What if the Fruit isn't some kind of Spider Zoan, but something more malleable instead? What if I could have chosen any kind of animal and the fruit could have imprinted on the species it belonged to?
Not sure it mattered at this point. What else could I have chosen in case I happened to be right in my assumption instead of spiders? There weren't many choices to pick from with more useful abilities. Sure flying would have been nice, and since mythical creatures are a thing in this world, I could have picked one of those.
One major benefit would have been that the individual strength of another species should have been higher by a large margin. Therefore by absorbing them, I could have grown a lot stronger by now. This would also explain why I didn't notice this augmenting effect earlier.
When I found Kain and Lilith I wasn't exactly in a position to monitor myself and the few hundred spider on Sabaody I made a part of me, aside from their unique abilities didn't make a noticeable difference.
What makes insect special is the fact that they are ahead of all other species when it comes to diversity, an advantage I intend to make good use of.
I didn't regret having eaten this fruit. Ending up the way I did. It gave me a powerful ability one which I already had some ideas on how to make the best use of.
I bent down and picked up a little spider, I studied it extensively and noted that it belonged to species I have never come across. Which just helped to drive the point home that I had absolutely no idea what spiders this world had in store for me. It is quite likely for there to exist spiders who are even more impressive than dragons, I just have to find them.
I absorbed my little dotted friend and added its biological distinctiveness to my own. I then split myself apart into 31 instances of myself, 30 of which spread out in every direction to collect all the spiders under my control while I started the trek back to camp. I had a lot of breeding and training doing.
Authors Note: I hope this chapter wasn't as boring to read as it stressed me to write it.
Chases ... not gonna do that again if I can help it.
Kenbunshoku Haki — There is nothing in canon directly supporting the statements of this chapter, namely that it is possible for someone to suppress his presence or even to make it disappear completely, to make detection via Haki impossible.
On the other hand, canon has a multitude of events occurring that can't be explained without such a skill not being a thing -
On the top of my head:
- Jesus Burgess hiding on Sabo ship to find the headquarters of the revolutionary.
- Silvers Rayleigh not being brought to justice while living on Sabaody, which is right next to Marine HQ.
- Ivankov hiding in Impel Down
- Every chase on Wano-island where someone tries to apprehend the Strawhats etc
I mean you only have to think back on what Enel could do with his Haki ... something everybody with a certain level in it should be able to do.
In order to have a "rule-set" in place, I decided to go with the idea that Haki can be suppressed and certain people (Taylor) can even stop it entirely from being detected by this 6th sense. She will use this extensively in fights and outside of them.
So with this Taylor has finally discovered what a devil fruit-power she possesses. It grants her a changer rating. I was debating quite a long time about the question of what happens to her clothes, ultimately I decided to go with the unexplained clothes count as part of one's body version One Piece has going on (the unexplained Breaker effect).
With this, at least, I can avoid some awkward scenes with cloth malfunction, and Taylor is gonna save a lot of time and money since she won't have to constantly replace her wardrobe.
The disadvantage of this approach on the other hand is quite clear it diminishes "realism" to a certain degree — if you are even allowed to call it that in a fic such as this — but I really don't like unexplained world-mechanics — therefore this effect only pertains to her clothes to nothing else she carries/has on her person.
The ability Taylor displays here splitting herself into a countless number of Spiders is loosely based on the Ability called Crawlerling of the Ananasi (Were spiders) of the White Wolf Pen& Paper setting Werewolf the Apocalypse.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
And again you have delivered an amazing update! Thanks for the chapter and keep up the good work.
I'm actually quite exited for the time when Taylor will fully master her Devil Fruit, considering that Zoans have the highest physical durability, stamina and recovery time. You literally cannot outlast an experienced or Awakened Zoan if your name is not Garp or Luffy.
Also, have you thought about cross-posting this on Spacebattles? It might gain more recognition and attention there!
I'm actually quite exited for the time when Taylor will fully master her Devil Fruit, considering that Zoans have the highest physical durability, stamina and recovery time. You literally cannot outlast an experienced or Awakened Zoan if your name is not Garp or Luffy.
Also, have you thought about cross-posting this on Spacebattles? It might gain more recognition and attention there!
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I think the Zoan talk is a misdirect, her fruit is a paramecia that lets her take the characteristics of existing bugs that she controls, sort of like how Bonclay's fruit lets him take the shape of existing people, but has no connection to a human zoan like Chopper.
Her fruit is probably something like the Swarm Fruit that considers the swarm as both a collective and as individuals. That would explain how she can simultaneously take on all the characteristics of the members of her swarm while allowing a single member to survive and recover.
Her fruit is probably something like the Swarm Fruit that considers the swarm as both a collective and as individuals. That would explain how she can simultaneously take on all the characteristics of the members of her swarm while allowing a single member to survive and recover.