(Aisa POV)
One of the first things Aisa observed about the Blue Sea, was just how colorful it was. Light blue, dark blue, sky blue, sapphire blue, fish blue, aquamarine blue…plus, it wasn’t as if the world was bursting with just the different shades of blue either. The islands were full of flowers in every color and shade, the greens were more vibrant and the water was filled with many more fish showing off their beautiful scales than there had been in the White Sea.
The Blue Sea also sparkled in the sunlight, like the legendary jewels her grandmother had talked about. And when faced with such beauty, there really was only one thing Aisa could say.
“Everything is so pretty…”
“Is it? I’ve never really thought about it.” Ross murmured, scratching his head as he straighten himself up to have a good look around. This also had the consequence of distracting the Sailmaker from his task of giving Aisa head pats.
“That’s because you’re an uncultured brute, unlike me.” Aisa scoffed, turning away with a huff. Head pats were nice and Ross gave the third best head pats on this ship. Nothing beat Laki’s but Bellamy was a decent second. Sadly, the other two had been busy, so she had had to settle for Ross...Aisa supposed that this was what she got for settling for less.
“Who are you calling an uncultured brute, little girl?” Ross objected, looming over her smaller frame.
“I'm not little. I’m going to be a strong Shandian warrior!” she declared, stomping her feet in response, placing her hands on her waist and glaring up at Hewitt.
“Yeah, Aisa isn’t little! She’s cute!” Hewitt called out from the sidelines. Oh gods, that was even worse than little! She was not cute! Aisa was fierce! And dangerous! Her vengeance was swift and deadly, but the foe was too great. The bigger cook just laughed as she hammered away at him with her fists.
Then something tingled at her mantra, saving Hewitt from his certain demise. “Ooh, something’s coming!”
“A seaking? How big is it?” Ross asked, getting out his fishing pole. For the first few times she had predicted the arrival of a seaking, the crew had looked skeptical, but by now they took her words at face value.
“It’s not a seaking this time. It’s lots of big fish.” She said, just as the water surface was broken by dozens of sleek, gray fish. But unlike other fish, these ones sang beautifully.
“Ah, those aren’t fish. They’re dolphins.” Dolphins? Not fish? But they had fins just like every other fish she'd seen. “They’re animals who live in the sea.”
“Animals? How do they breathe?” Aisa asked Ross, watching the dolphins swim alongside the New Witch's Tongue and occasionally leaping out of the water, almost as if to show the world how happy they were. She also saw them shoot out water from their heads a few times, though Aisa was confused as to how the dolphins were spitting without opening their mouths.
“Like that." Ross pointed his finger at one such occasion. "See those holes above their heads?”
"U-huh." Aisa nodded.
"That's their breathing hole, almost like your nose." he said, lightly tapping his own.
The Blue Sea was odd.
“Some say that dophins are magical and serve the mermaid princess. That’s why they rescue sailors who fall into the sea.” Ross continued, his eyes shining with delight, though they narrowed when Hewitt rejoined the conversation.
“Please, Ross. Stop filling Aisa's ears with rubbish. Mermaids aren’t real.”
“Of course, they are! Have you never heard of Fishman Island, you ignoramus?” Ross countered. Fishman Island? That sounded interesting. And odd. What did a fishman look like? Also, what was a mermaid? Sadly, neither Ross nor Hewitt seemed like they were going to explain anytime soon, too busy butting heads. It was something Aisa had learned, that they did often.
“Wanna go? I’ve learned new ways to carve up meat I’m just dying to try.”
“Not before I break your teeth with my jet punch!”
These two fought almost every day, sometimes several times a day for the littlest thing and their duels mostly ended in a tie. Normally, she wouldn't interfere, but right now there was an urgent issue that needed attending to, right this second. So obviously, Aisa had to step in as the most mature person around.
“Stop it, you two!” she shouted, though her voice wasn't loud enough to overcome the heated argument the two were having. She really wished, that she were tall enough to grab their ears like Laki used to do with Wyper and Kamakiri. Unfortunately, she was not and so she settled for simply pinching their sides. Aisa would later swear that the few sparks that jumped between her fingers at precisely the wrong time were accidents. “There are more important things than fighting.”
“Ow!”
“Aisa, that hurt.” Ross complained, rubbing his side while Hewitt gave her a hurt look.
Good, that got their attention. Now that she had their attention, they could all get back to the important stuff.
“What’s a mermaid?”
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(Rivers POV)
Taking care of a giant bird was a lot more work than he’d initially assumed. Claws had to be polished, the beak needed to be cleaned after every meal and the sleeping area had to be washed out on a daily basis. At least, Fuza took care of his business out in the middle of the ocean, so Rivers wasn't stuck shovelling shit.
However it wasn't all bad, as there was something extremely calming about brushing the feathers of his new partner. Another thing he had noticed, was that Fuza tended to be very peculiar about the order in which he liked to be brushed. First Rivers had to start with the wings, then move on to the mane around the neck…
“Stop humming, Rivers. It’s annoying.” Sarquiss groused irritably. In Rivers' opinion, the first mate really needed to get himself a hobby. Or more time with Lily, but as she was busy with the captain right now and wasn't available, Rivers maintained that the man should get a hobby if he didn't want to be around Rivers' humming.
“What’s your problem, Sarquiss?" he asked the first mate. "You’ve been in a foul mood ever since the kid joined.”
“I don’t have a problem with the kid. It’s your humming that I have a problem with.”
“Oh please, get off it. The captain already promised you the next fruit we come across and it probably won’t even take that long. We're rich now, remember?” Rivers pointed out, though that did little to calm the man down. Instead, he got even more annoyed.
“It’s not about the fruit, dammit!” Sarquiss exclaimed, jumping out of bed. Rivers paused in his brushing to look his crew mate in the eye with a single raised eyebrow.
“Then what’s got your panties in a twist, then?”
“The captain’s gone soft. As has the rest of the crew. Just look at those two idiots goofing around with the kid.” Sarquiss spat out, glaring at the deck where Aisa was in the process of dumping a bucket of seawater on Ross's head with Hewitt’s help.
“Those two were always idiots and you have to remember that they left their little siblings behind when we became pirates. They probably miss them and Aisa is the next best thing..” As for the captain going soft? Oh, please. “Also, didn’t you see Enel’s head?”
“…I did.” Sarquiss admitted, in a somewhat subdued tone.
“Soft my ass. He’s just learned to hide it a bit.” Rivers concluded, shaking his head.
“But you do agree that he’s changed, don’t you?” the first mate tried again, which got Rivers thinking. Had the captain changed? Rivers supposed that he had. “He’s gotten elo..eoq..eloq…what’s the word? Eloquent? Right, he’s gotten eloquent all of a sudden.”
If Rivers thought about it, that had been odd. Bellamy had never been stupid, but almost nobody on the crew had gotten anything resembling a secondary education before. But then out of the blue, on the day they set foot on Jaya, his manner of speech had changed almost overnight as had his leaderships style.
“You think it’s a bad thing?” Rivers questioned, genuinely curious as to what Sarquiss thought of the matter. “If one looks at just the results, we’ve gone places others could only dream of, gained strength far beyond what we used to have and procured riches that we won’t be able to spend in a lifetime.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“…yes, we did.”
“If that’s what a change in personality leads to, I personally welcome the change.” Rivers shrugged before continuing to brush down Fuza. “I imagine that if the captain changes again, we’ll probably find the One Piece or something.”
“Now you’re just exaggerating. Please, the One Piece? That shit ain’t real.”
“Who knows? Islands in the sky weren’t supposed to be real and we went there.”
“…”
“Also, I trust the captain to do what is needed when he has to. Apart from those occasions, there’s no need to be angry all the time, is there? That’s just tiring.” To be honest, Rivers had been one of the grandstanding, growling pirates before he had visited Skypiea. However, facing the priests had done wonders to put life into perspective. Life-changing experiences like that made you appreciate the little things, like candy and peaceful day-to-day life.
Sarquiss didn't reply, electing to go back to glaring at Aisa and co instead.
“Sarquiss, we have hundreds of millions of belli. We could buy half a dozen fruits if we wanted to. Let it go.”
“It’s a logia. The kid’s already got mantra, now it’s got a logia fruit. How long before it can wipe the floor with all of us?”
Ah. Was that what this was about? “Are you feeling threatened? By the kid? She is like the sweetest little thing around.”
“No, I’m not threatened by it. Why would I be? I’m Big Knife Sarquiss, the first mate on this ship.” As fast as the bluster arose, it died back down. “Just, I’m supposed to be the second strongest member on this crew, you know? I'm supposed to be able to take charge when Bellamy isn’t around, take care of Lil…the crew.”
“You were about to only mention Lily, weren’t you?”
“The crew. I said, the crew.” Sarquiss insisted and Rivers had to smirk at how red the first mate was turning. The man was usually more collected than this, but every time Lily was involved he lost it. “Anyway, what use am I if I can’t do my job? I beat Satori by pure luck. I don’t know what came over me back then, but if asked, I can't say for certain that I'd be able to do it again. Then the captain says that we have a devil fruit, and not just any devil fruit at that but a fucking logia on board. A perfect solution to all my problems.”
“And the solution got snatched right out of your grasp.” Rivers offered, pausing his brushing much to Fuza’s silent objection.
“And the solution got snatched right out of my grasp.” Sarquiss agreed. “I guess I am bitter about it.”
“You told the captain that you accepted her as part of the crew.”
“I did say that and I have. She’s a part of this crew and I’ll fight to protect her like I would for all of you. Doesn’t mean I have to like her. The kid has no business being on a pirate ship.”
“The pirate king used to have cabin boys on his ship. In fact, those are pretty common.”
“Yeah, but those were ready to fight. I asked Laki about her yesterday and apparently, the kid is terrified of people dying. What use is such a powerful fruit if it's in her hands? It’s a bloody waste, that's what it is.”
“She’ll learn. If nothing else, Lily will make sure of it.” Everyone knew that if you wanted Sarquiss to shut up, you had to mention Lily. This time was no different.
“…I guess.”
“Giver her time. Spend your time doing more productive things than staring at a kid or Lily might get jealous. Why don't you start thinking about what fruit you would like instead?”
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(Lily POV)
“I’d like something that will let me punch faster and harder.”
“Sounds like a zoan to me.” The captain replied, scratching his chin. Lily idly noted that there was a slight amount of stubble growing on his chin.
“You should shave, by the way.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yeah, it’s like really fucking ugly.” At times, her captain could be a child, sulking in a corner with a near physical raincloud above his head. Was that also a part of his devil fruit power? “You almost look handsome without it. Just stay clean-shaven, captain.”
“Fine, no beard for Bellamy…anyway you want a zoan?”
“That does sound ok. I'm not sure I’d have the motivation to explore how to use my fruit if it were a paramecia like yours.” And boy, it seemed like it took a lot of effort. She had occasionally seen her captain experimenting on his own, but this was the first time she’d helped him train his new techniques. “Where did you get this idea, anyway?”
“You mean my spring suit?”
“That’s what you’re calling it?” she asked incredulously. That had so little effort put into it, and it didn’t even fit.
“What would you call it instead?” he asked in return. Lily opened her mouth before closing it again, noticing that she didn’t have any particularly good ideas either.
What did you call turning your whole body into a series of interlinked spings? Two for each arm, ten for the hand, similarly for the legs and feet…his torso was shaped like a human torso but consisted of hundreds of little springs. Even his head was a ball with springs pointing in every direction, shaped in the rough form of the human cranium.
“This looks creepy, captain. You know that, right?” But creepy or not, Lily couldn't deny that it was effective. All of her attacks were being reflected back at her, the springs only bending slightly despite Lily putting everything she had into her punches. It didn't matter if she punched the springs orthogonal to their orientation. They’d just flex sideways for a bit before springing back. “How do you even fucking see without eyes?”
“I have no clue. I just can and yes, I can see that you’re holding up three fingers.”
“Devil fruits are bullshit.”
“They definitely are, but I’m not complaining.”
“Of course, you wouldn’t be.” She grumbled, rubbing at her shoulder. That earlier punch had seriously hurt. “You should not have been able to punch me like that.”
She couldn't see it, what with him not having a mouth anymore, but Lily just knew her captain was smirking. “Oh? Why not, Lily?”
“Your arm was already extended! You can’t throw a punch sideways with an already extended arm!”
“You can if you bend your arm and extend your forearm.” he told her and as if to demonstrate, her captain activated his forearm, making his fist oscillate perpendicular to his ‘face’. All while keeping his upper arm and shoulder still and at a 90° angle to his forearm. “Springs for the win.”
“Bullshit.”
“Devil fruit~”
“Just wait until I turn into mammoth and crush you. Even springs can be flattened, you know.”
“A mammoth, really?”
“Well, I guess it wouldn’t fit my fighting style. A fast and fierce hunter would be better.”
“Anything animal in particular?”
“A tiger would be nice. How long are you going to stay like that by the way?”
“Until dinner. Why?”
"It's creepy."
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(Eddy POV)
“For dinner, red mullet with jewelled wild rice, porchetta salmon with sauce vierge and for dessert lemon cake.” Hewitt declared, opening the veritable feast. “Dig in everyone.”
“Thanks Hewitt!”
“Eat with your mouth closed, Aisa.”
Hewitt had really improved his cooking. It almost felt as if the salmon was melting in his mouth, releasing its rich umami in a small explosion of flavor.
“Hey Eddy.”
“Yeah?” The rice was well done too, having soaked up the fat and the juices, cooked just right instead of being dry like it had been before.
“How is Shura doing?”
“He’s being very calm and cooperative.” Eddy answered. And hadn’t that been a shock for Laki, to find one of Enel’s priests locked in their brig?
“Really?” Laki seemed a little unbelieving, but he could forgive her for doubting him. The food was too good to put him in a bad mood.
“At first he was demanding we release him, but he calmed down a lot after we got talking.”
“I can’t even imagine what you could have possibly said to him. Back home, Shura was not known for being reasonable.”
“I can be very convincing.” It was nice how Hewitt cut the vegetables so evenly too, into perfectly bite sized pieces, so that one didn’t get sauce everywhere.
“Eddy, do you think you can convince him to teach us mantra?” his captain’s words caused a lull in the general conversation as everyone focused on Eddy. They all knew how useful mantra could be, making this the largest potential power up they'd come across yet.
“Of course, captain. Leave it to me.” he promised. After placing down his knife and fork, Eddy wiped his mouth with a napkin. That was a fine meal.
“How long do you need?”
“Not long. I expect he’ll be ready by the time we reach Water Seven.”
Eddy would make sure of it.