(Bellamy POV)
Water Seven, the premier shipbuilding hub of paradise. From tiny sloops to massive galleons, marine warships and luxury yachts, there was no ship that the famed shipwrights of Water Seven could not build. The city was a centre of innovation, symbolized most prominently by the sea train and if memory serves, the whole city would eventually be transformed into a single large ship.
It also happened to be the location of one of the greatest betrayals the Straw Hats would ever experience at the hands of one of their own, though that seemed to be a rite of passage for them. Nami did it. Usopp did it. Robin did it. Sanji was going to do it…that was half the crew already.
The Straw Hats had issues.
Issues we were going to have nothing to do with right now, because that group of whackos had left the island two weeks ago. Meaning, that Luffy’s scary grandpa Garp was also no longer around, which was a very good thing. Purely, because I couldn't imagine the Vice Admiral letting my crew and I go the way he had done with the Straw Hats.
The reactions of my crew to recent events had been nothing short of hilarious. They had already been very surprised and intimidated when they saw Luffy’s 100 million belli bounty poster. Then a couple days ago they got slapped in the face with Luffy’s 300 million bounty. To say the least, their eyes bugged out and jaws needed to be picked up from the floor.
One of the interesting tidbits I could garner from the newspaper was that events had been delayed when compared to canon. For one, because they had been needed in establishing the new republic above the clouds, the Straw Hats had only arrived at Water Seven after the Aqua Laguna had passed by already. I’m guessing that without Robin’s ability to read poneglyphs as a backup, the CP9 agents had decided not to risk their cover on the off chance that their theory about the location of the Pluton blueprints was correct. Thus, they maintained their operation for another two weeks until the Straw Hats or more importantly, Robin arrived on the island.
Hence, if one believed the news article, it was only after the Strawhats arrived that brawls broke out all over the city, but centred around the Galley-La headquarters when the Straw Hats were chased down after their failed assassination attempt on Mayor Iceburg. Witnesses reported that there were at least fifteen members of the Strawhat crew, roughly half of them wearing long robes while the others dressed and acted very conspicuously in order to act as a distraction.
After killing several of the Galley-La employees (Mayor Iceburg’s secretary being MIA) and causing major property damage (Blueno's Bar being completely flattened and the owner missing since the riots started), the Straw Hats fled the island in two groups. The Galley-La and the Franky Family immediately formed a pursuit party to chase them down, but sadly failed to catch the criminals, who escaped again after setting fire to Enies Lobbie.
In the aftermath, Mayor Iceburg publicly thanked Vice Admiral Garp for arriving to restore order to his city.
As to other news, Galley-La and the Franky Family jointly created an experimental ship using Adam’s wood, but a moment of carelessness saw it get swept out to sea. The company spokesperson neglected to mention the size of the monetary loss, but it was estimated to be at least 200 million belli. Instead, the company promised to rapidly return to business as usual and plug any gaps in personnel to prevent such accidents from happening ever again.
Also, straw hats were now in fashion on Water Seven.
So, if one read past the obvious censorship, by some quirk of fate, events had transpired almost exactly like canon. Robin’s defection, the chase to Enies Lobbie, the buster call and the Sunny being gifted to the Straw Hats...or at least that was what I got by reading between the lines of this heavily doctored news article.
Did that mean that the rest of canon was going to take place as it did in the original timeline too? Gecko Moria didn't leave his little area, so I guessed that shouldn’t change much, but would they make it to Sabaody on time? No Sabaody equaled no Kuma equaled no meeting between Luffy and Hancock. Without Luffy to get in the way, the Whitebeard pirates could focus on saving Ace and Ace wasn't going to get killed shielding Luffy from Akainu. Oh, and there would be no prison break from Impel Down, couldn't forget about that. Would Blackbeard even be able to break his new crew out if Luffy wasn't distracting and weakening Magellan?
Come to think of it...I may have irreversibly and irrevocably fucked with canon.
But, that was something to worry about another time. I might be wrong and even if I were right, there was no need to cry over spilled milk.
I had bigger things to worry about, such as the upgrades I wanted for my ship. One of them being the the 200 jet dials I had scavenged from the Ark Maxim and wanted to install on my ship. Nami’s waver used just one and it was a fast little bugger. Imagining what putting even a few on my ship could do in terms of acceleration, was enough to make anyone giddy.
Bellamy, captain of the fastest ship in the world. That had a nice ring to it, didn't it?
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“These are some very fascinating items, Captain Bellamy. May I ask where you procured these…dials?” As was to be expected of an expert like him, Iceburg immediately recognized the potential dials had for the shipbuilding industry.
It wasn't even just the jet dials he'd focused on. Water dials could drastically increase the amount of water, which could be stored for just a fraction of the space. Breath dials could create wind to navigate the calm belt, if used in sufficient quantities. By the way, I was still not quite sure how dials worked. The closest thing I had to a workable theory was, that the dials naturally had a much higher pressure within their enclosed space, compressing whatever was placed inside...drastically. But I was not going to be splitting one of my precious dials open to sate my scientific curiosity, even if they had been literally dirt cheap.
Anyway, despite Galley-La being a mess right now, with several of their foremen having turned out to be government plants and the rest being wounded to some degree or another, Iceburg agreed to work on my ship in exchange for receiving several dials for study.
An initial inspection had revealed that while the keel was intact, my ship had undergone a severe amount of stress and would need to have at least several sections replaced entirely. I guess just because a ship was supposed to be Grand Line worthy, didn’t mean it was ready for the Knock Up Stream.
Then Iceburg suggested the following. Why not just get a whole new ship, one made from the wood of the treasure tree? I mean, I was going to need a new ship at the latest when I entered the new world and designing a new ship to incorporate dials was a lot easier than trying to modify an existing ship.
Coincidentally, a company the size of Galley-La always had a supply of Adam’s wood on hand for special customers. And for the low, low price of just 500 million belli, they would build me a new ship, guaranteed to best everything the Grand Line could throw at it.
Wait, hadn't the Sunny only cost 200 million in terms of wood?
“Bigger ship, bigger price Captain Bellamy. Please, sign here.”
I signed.
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My next order of business was visiting Shura. Over the last month, I had basically stuffed him in my brig and left him to stew. The only human contact he'd had in that entire time being Eddy, who volunteered to take care of him.
Now, far away from his old home and separated from everything that was familiar, I felt the time was ripe to have a short talk with my captive.
“Shura, I thought we could have a talk, you and I.” I started but was prevented from saying more when Shura screamed and ran into a corner to get away from the bars.
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything you want! Just keep that lunatic away from me! Please!” he begged. This wasn’t what I had expected, but when I glanced over at Eddy, my navigator just gave me an innocent smile. Shura started sobbing. What the fuck did Eddy do while I wasn’t looking?
“So, uh, will you teach us mantra? I can offer better accommodations.”
“Yes, yes I’ll teach you. Everything I know!” Frantic nodding. “In exchange you keep him away from me, yes? Deal?”
Seriously Eddy, what did you do? Shura looked untouched, no scars, no wounds beyond those he received during the war…
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
But it was a good deal. I got what I wanted, and it cost me virtually nothing. “Deal. I’ll have Mani take care of you from now on.”
“Yes, thank you thank you thank you!”
"This was so odd." I thought to myself as I left the brig, with a still smiling Eddy in tow. "Really odd."
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Designing a new ship and building it took time. Additionally, because Laki's input was needed when designing the ship, we were effectively stuck on Water Seven during the initial phases of the project.
Then again, I wasn’t going to complain. As far as I knew, most of the members of Supernova's crew were mooks, though their captains were strong enough to cover their weaknesses. However, as a lot of them, notably Kidd and Law were going to find out, having strong enough comrades who could back you up was a requirement rather than an option in the New World.
That being the case, I was in no hurry to rush to my next great adventure. Instead, we elected to just keep training.
Our day began with haki training under Shura’s supervision, who was in turn supervised by Eddy. This was probably going to take a long time, but it was better to get started now rather than later, even if Aisa took to the lessons like a duck to water. As a consequence, the times when she lost control over her haki became rarer and rarer as time went by. You could say what you wanted about Shura, but he knew the basics of using observation haki.
And as far as I could tell from my reddit knowledge, his training methods made sense. To be honest, with how terrified he seemed to be of Eddy, I couldn't see him lying to me about this. I still had no clue as to what had happened between the two, as Eddy kept insisting that they merely had some productive conversation and Shura just straight up refused to talk about it.
Next there was dial training with Laki, before we went to do our own things in the afternoon. Eddy and Hewitt had gotten lessons from Zoro and Sanji respectively back on Skypiea, which had been a welcome surprise. Though...I was not quite certain how cooking lessons translated into increased combat prowess in Hewitt’s case, but he had improved and that was enough for me.
Needless to say, the one who had a fire lit under him was Ross. They had this rivalry thing going on and when Hewitt started showing rapid improvement in his knifework, Ross came to me for advice. Unable to think of anything better, I told him what I had once read in several martial arts manga…namely, that he should improve his lower core strength. Frankly, I didn't think it would help, but he seemed satisfied and went on his merry way. The next day I found him dragging sacks of rubble around, up and down the beach via a chain attached to his waist.
All in all, most of my crew was showing distinct improvements compared to when my soul first got hijacked.
There was one person though, who looked progressively worse every day.
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(Mani POV)
Weak. Weak. Weak. Coward. How could you abandon them like that? Traitor. Craven. Worthless. Weak. Weak. Weak.
“Stop it! Shut up!” Mani wanted to scream at the voices. It came out more as a cross between a sob and a whimper. The voices were unremitting. Everywhere she went Mani could hear them, always repeating the same things in the same accusing tone. Weak.
You’re going to die. You’re weak. You couldn’t handle those losers while everyone else beat the real priests.
She couldn’t escape them. Covering her ears didn’t help and neither did trying to focus on other things like training. She pushed herself until she barfed but the voices were right there beside her. Even swimming didn’t help. Rather, it made it worse because the voices seemed to multiply underwater.
You don’t deserve to be here, weakling. Do you really think no one knows you ran?
“Please, stop. What have I ever done to you?” Mani hadn't slept in weeks, the voices wouldn’t let her.
Do you think the captain knows? He talked to that priest earlier. A priest with mantra.
Even when she eventually collapsed into unconsciousness, her nights were plagued by nightmares. Shandians being cut down, blown up, burned alive.
He’s going to discard you, you know? Kick you out. After all, who knows when you’ll abandon them next?
When not if. The voices knew.
You’re bad luck, a liability, a burden. Because you’re weak.
If…if she hadn’t distracted Bahram like that, would they have won? Or at least not been massacred? Bahram was supposed to be strong.
Your fault. It’s all your fault and you know it, weakling!
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Knock Knock
Knock knock? Wait, that wasn’t…
“Mani, can I come in? I heard you crying.” Rivers?
“No, go away!” she screamed at him but he didn’t listen. Part of her hated him for it. The larger part of her was thankful he didn’t leave her to be alone. The voices were louder when she was alone.
“Sorry, but I can't just leave. We’re all worried about you.”
“I’m fine.” she ground out between gritted teeth. If Rivers cared at all for her testy voice, he didn’t show it. Instead, he just sat down on the floor beside her bed and leaned back, supporting his body with his outstretched arms. Unthreateningly.
“You’re fine? You haven’t been eating well and I know you’ve not been sleeping well either.” He said, pointing to his eyes. When was the last time she had looked in the mirror? She must look awful. “You’re not fine.”
Send him away. He doesn’t care.
“Go away.” Mani requested, though she wasn't quite sure, who the words were meant for, the voices or Rivers.
“I’m not going to just leave you like this.”
“Why not? Shouldn’t you be busy getting stronger like everyone else? Why waste precious time?” she snapped at him, but the sniper didn't look away.
“Because I like you.” He softly admitted. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known this. She would have had to be blind and deaf not to. But, in the middle of her despair, those simple words rang out like a church bell amidst the morning mist and these four innocuous words opened the veritable floodgates.
Mani broke down in tears, weeks of stress and nightmares bursting out of her as she told Rivers everything. How she had distracted Braham and gotten him killed in an ambush, how she ran away and how she would likely abandon the crew in the future, how she was weak and seeing little improvement, how she feared that she was going to die and how she was afraid of the captain kicking her off his crew.
Rivers just sat on the floor, unmoving, and just listened.
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“And that’s why we asked to see you, captain.” Rivers told the captain, as next to him Mani twisted her body awkwardly.
The captain sighed and dragged his palm down his face in a long suffering movement. “First of all, thank you both for coming to me about this. And I’m sorry Mani, I should have been more attentive.”
“No, no captain. It was my fault, really.” she quickly admitted, waving her hands.
“Mani, I consider the fact that you even considered the possibility, that I would abandon one of my own, as a personal failing. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more of a reason to trust me on this, but please trust me now when I say that the only time you’re leaving this crew is if you decide to leave of your own free will.”
The captain couldn't see it with the way he was covering his eyes, but Mani palpably relaxed at his words.
“Thank you, captain.”
“Of course Mani. Just, next time? Come to me with your problems instead of suffering on your own, ok?”
“Aye, aye captain.” Mani answered and she could feel a small smile blooming on her face. The first in weeks. There might still have been dark circles under eyes and she may have been more tired than ever, but she felt better than she had in a long, long time.
The moment was interrupted by Sarquiss calling to the captain from the deck. “Hey, captain! There’s someone here to see you!”
“I’m coming.” The captain called back. “Mani, I’m glad you’re feeling better and hope to see you back to your old self soon. And Rivers? Good luck.”
Then the captain was off, leaving Mani and Rivers alone.
"Why did the captain have to say stupid things and make things awkw…" Rivers grumbled before trailing off and looking at her in shock when Mani grabbed his hand and gently gave it a squeeze.
“Thank you, Rivers.” she said and much to her own surprise, she found that she meant it.
All was right in the world.
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(Bellamy POV)
All was not right in the world.
“What are you doing here, Dellinger?”
“Doflamingo sent me. He has a job for you.”