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Spring Time (A One Piece Fanfiction)
Chapter 2: Montblanc Cricket

Chapter 2: Montblanc Cricket

(Sarquiss POV)

Bellamy had been acting odd ever since they reached Jaya. Well, it wasn't as if he hadn’t been eccentric before, but that had been more the rambunctious and loud Bellamy, not this contemplative drunk Bellamy.

He should know, seeing as they’d been best buds growing up. They even robbed their first store together. Made him wish sometimes that they were twelve again. Good times.

Anyway, Bellamy had been unusually quiet for the last week. Less moody, which he occasionally was but more…depressed? Bellamy was never depressed, always looking forward to the next big win, the future glory. And ever since they started flying Doflamingo’s flag, (and wasn’t that grand?) it had only become more prominent. Bellamy idolized Doflamingo. Not like the respect shown by the rest of the crew, but full-blown hero-worship.

Lily had to physically burn Bellamy’s pink flamingo coat, before the Bellamy Pirates became a laughingstock for the whole world. Not everyone could pull that off without being a walking fashion disaster and his friend simply didn't have the build for it. Bellamy had sulked for two whole weeks afterwards.

…did Lily burn his “secret” coat again?

But then, why would Eddy also be acting off? All the man cared about were girls, swords and fashion, of which the latter two were just tools to get the first. Not that he ever got any. It took them forever to stop him from turning into a stammering wreck whenever Muret was in the same general vicinity.

Not like him. Sarquiss was the king, the Casanova! The only man on board with a working sense of fashion. And the only man with a girlfriend. He was…

“Sarquiss. Sit. Down.” Lily was hard to please sometimes. Eh, she was cute when she was annoyed.

“Sure thing, darling.” he answered, smoothly ignoring her growl. She hated that word, which was all the more reason to use it. It was cute. “Any idea why Bellamy called a meeting?”

“I told you, don’t call me darling! I’ve got a perfectly functional name, dickhead!” she hissed, almost like a cat, which made him want to pet her. So he did.

“Ow ow ow ow, stop pinching me woman!” She didn’t stop. “I’m sorry I called you darling, darling. Ow, ok, I’m sorry I’ll stop. Lily, stop it, please.” Damn, did Lily have strong fingers. How did that even work? Didn’t big muscles mean stronger muscles? Her fingers were tiny, slender, beautiful…

“Oi, my eyes are up here, dickhead.” His jaw was starting to hurt with how hard she was grabbing it but the view was nice. She wasn’t wearing her sunglasses for once, so you could see her sapphire blue eyes, glittering like jewels in her heart shaped face. Currently they were narrowed and filled with the promise of a lot of pain, but Sarquiss could stare at them all day… ”Snap out of it, you dolt! And to answer your question, no I don’t have a fucking clue why the captain called a general meeting. He hates those.”

Meeting? What meeting? Ah, right, that meeting. Odd, Lily usually knew everything. She was so amazing.

Unfortunately before he could get lost again, the rest of the crew started trickling in, interrupting his alone-time with Lily. Which meant that it was time to put the game face on. Eventually, everybody was seated around the table, glancing around uncertainly. They could all feel that something was off, but none of them had been able to put a finger on exactly what that something was. This was made worse by the fact, that Bellamy hadn't placed his feet casually on the table, as was his usual custom. If anything, he looked downright serious.

“Alright, we’ve got an issue we need to discuss.” Was Sarquiss hearing things or was Bellamy’s voice was deeper than usual? Slower, too. “Eddy. The floor is yours.”

“Thank you, captain.” Seriously why did Eddy look so nervous? “So, as you all know, we’ve been on the Grand Line for a while. And we’ve seen some odd stuff.”

“We know! Get on with it!” Ross jeered from one end of the table.

“Yeah, spit it out, Eddy.” Hewitt called out from right beside the sailmaker.

“Muret rejecting you isn’t odd, it’s normal!” Mani teased. Oh, Sarquiss could see Eddy going red. His temporal veins were throbbing too.

“Shut up, idiots! This is important!” And of course, he snuck a glance at Muret. That wasn't subtle man. Not subtle at all. “Like I was saying, we’ve seen some odd stuff ever since we entered the Grand Line. The weather makes no sense, the currents change at will and illusions are common. But through it all, we’ve learned to rely on one thing and one thing only.”

Seriously, what was with all this buildup? And the answer to this unasked question was blindingly obvious. “The log pose. We all know what it is. What about it Eddy?”

“Thing is Sarquiss, if the world tells us one thing and the log pose another, we tell the world to fuck off, right?” At that, there was a murmur of agreement. Nobody survived on the Grand Line for long without knowing this simple truth. The log pose was absolute. “The log pose always points to the next island and only resets once we have reached that island.”

Eddy took in a deep breath. Again, what was up with all this buildup? This was rookie knowledge and the Bellamy pirates were hardly newcomers to the Grand Line. Did the log pose not reset yet? It would eventually, no biggie. There was nothing wrong with sticking around for a while and besides, Jaya was nice this time of year.

“The log pose is pointing at the sky.” Bellamy say what now?

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(Eddy POV)

The room immediately erupted into an uproar, not that Eddy had expected anything different. After all, none of them were stupid and they were well able to put two and two together and understand what the captain was implying. But did he have to drop the bomb like this?

“There is no island in the sky!” Hewitt immediately protested.

“Then what’s the log pose pointing to, Hewitt?” Ross countered, gesturing to the log pose Eddy had placed on the table.

“You tell me Ross, you always seem to have an answer for everything!”

“I don’t know what the log pose is pointing to, but I know I’m going to bash your skulls in if you two shitheads don’t sit down!” Lily screamed at both of them, her chair toppling backwards with a crash. Muret on the other hand remained completely unflustered, at least on the outside.

“Don’t make more work for me, Lily. I have too little time for my nails as it is.”

“Maybe the log pose is broken?” Rivers suggested hopefully, before Mani dashed those hopes to pieces.

“That’s ridiculous! The log pose is never broken unless it’s physically in pieces.”

“I don’t have an answer for everything! If I did, I’d know how to shut you up!”

“Wanna have a go? I kicked your butt yesterday. I can do it again.” Hewitt screamed, standing up again.

“But why is the log pose pointing at the sky? It makes no sense.” Rivers asked, despair tinging his voice.

“So did I! In fact, I’m ahead by 43 to 42!” Ross roared back at Hewitt, the two idiots butting heads...again.

“I told you two shitheads to sit down!”

“Darling, you look so cute when you’re angry.” Sarquiss swarmed, with Lily's retribution quickly following.

“Of course, it makes no sense. But the captain said the log pose is pointing at the sky, so something has to be up there.” Mani answered Rivers.

“Lily, I think he’s turning blue.” Muret pointed out.

“EDDY, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” It was surprising how well coordinated his crew could be sometimes. “Gurgle….” Also, that shade of purple couldn't be healthy, but Muret seemed unconcerned so Sarquiss would probably be fine.

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“Are you guys finished?” It spoke volumes that everyone stopped arguing near immediately when the captain intervened. “Lily, please release Sarquiss. I still need him alive.”

“Sure thing, captain.” Lily said, releasing her grip on Sarquiss’ windpipe. She was smiling viciou...widely, though the captain looked unaffected. By contrast, Hewitt and Ross seemed to lose all blood, glancing nervously at Sarquiss who was doing his best to cough up a lung.

“If you guys are done, why don’t we get back to business?” Bellamy hadn’t moved since he sat down, elbows placed on the table, hands clasped together and his body slightly hunched over. “The log pose points to an island. The log pose is pointing at the sky. Ergo, there is an island in the sky. Next.”

Cue nervous shuffling. Nobody wanted to ask what everyone wanted to know. Though eventually, Rivers was the first one to crack under the pressure.

“Eddy, the log pose only resets when we reach the next island, right?”

“Yes, it resets after spending some time at the next island.” Eddy confirmed.

More nervous shuffling. Rivers began to sweat. “If we don’t reach the next island, the log pose won’t reset, will it?”

“No.” Eddy curtly answered, causing Rivers to start sweating very visibly.

“Doesn’t that mean…it doesn’t mean that we’re stuck here, right?”

“Of course, we’re not stuck here!” Sarquiss interjected. “We can always get another log pose. There are enough weaklings around. Eddy, I’m right, aren’t I?”

Clunk clank clunk clunk clunk clank rrrroll

Everyone froze when Eddy upended a bag of log poses on the table. A dozen log poses, taken from a dozen crews. And all dozen of them pointing the same damn way.

Up.

“But that makes no sense!” Rivers wailed, looking like he wanted to cry, “Otherwise, no one would have gotten past Jaya so far. No one!”

“This has to be a joke! Haha Eddy, nice one! You got me.” Mani laughed exaggeratedly, her eyes wild with desperation.

“I wish I were joking, Mani. I really do.” Sadly, Eddy couldn't give her what she wanted. And just to drive the point home. “I’m not joking. We’re stuck.”

Mani was about to say something again, but Muret was faster to the draw. “What’s the plan, captain?”

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(Bellamy POV)

“What’s the plan, captain?”

I actually didn't really have one yet. But I couldn't admit that here, could I? I was the captain, it was my job to have a plan, even if it was a bad one. To be honest, I would love to just stay on Jaya and build a small kingdom for myself. It would buy me some time to train up and most of the pirates here were small fry, who wouldn't be able to pose a threat.

Eventually, I could get strong enough to be untouchable, hopefully, and live a life of luxury and hedonism. And, if I stopped more crews from moving further down the Grand Line, the marines might even leave me to my own devices.

But I couldn't do that, because that would be so out of Bellamy’s character that the crew would immediately become suspicious. Muret might even shackle me to a bed until I was “cured”. Which really left me with just one choice: convince these guys to ride the Knock Up Stream into the sky.

“We’re going to gather information.” Not that I could tell them that there was a Knock Up Stream, because the OG Bellamy had never heard of it. But thankfully, Jaya did have just the man I needed. “Someone must know something. Old tales, legends, a friend of a cousin of a wife’s husband’s colleague who saw something. Ask around. Pay if you need to. And be polite.”

They weren't happy about that last bit. Not happy at all.

"Why, captain?"

“I’d rather the weaklings not lie to us because one of you hurt their feelings. We can always beat them up later.”

At least that got me some consenting nods. “What are you guys waiting for? A written invitation?” I snapped, sending most of them scrambling for the door.

“Where are you going, captain?”

“I’ve got someone I need to see.”

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“Uh…nice house you’ve got there.” Mont Blanc Cricket glared at me, arms crossed in front of him. “It’s a nice front façade. Looks mighty impressive.”

I didn't see the monkeys anywhere. Maybe they were out diving from wrecked ships again?

“I heard that you’ve been here a long time, so I was hoping to ask you some questions.” The glare persisted. If I couldn't see that he was breathing, I would swear, that man was a statue. Why didn't he blink?

“I even brought a peace offering. Wasn’t sure what to get, but someone recommended the cherry pie.” I said, holding up a covered picnic blanket. I'm not so sure why Blackbeard loved these so much as they were too sweet for my taste, but hey. It was the only thing on Jaya that was recommended by anyone. This place was a dump.

“They're too sweet.” Hooray! The statue spoke!

“I also have a bottle of wine, if you want it.” It was not a bad vintage either. One had to wonder where they got it.

“What do you want?” You know? He didn’t treat Luffy like this in the show and they even fought each other. By contrast, I came peacefully. This was discrimination, dammit. But regardless, I probably had to stay polite if I wanted to pick this guy's brains.

“Like I said, I wanted to ask some questions, is all. Learn from the more experienced and such.” Just think of him as your old university professor, guy was a jerk too.

“You. Learn.”

That couldn’t have come out any flatter if he’d tried. “That actually hurts a bit, you know? I’m very good at learning. Got straight A’s and everything.”

A small frown, a sign of confusion. Little steps. “Straight haze? What does haze have to do with anything?”

Right, not sure what the grading system was around here. “Sorry, my bad. It’s not important. This reminds, I’ve been horribly rude, haven’t I? I haven’t even introduced myself properly. I’m Bellamy. Nice to meet you.”

Cricket blinked.

“Mont Blanc Cricket.” He didn't grasp my hand, though at least his arms were no longer crossed. I just withdrew my hand, all natural like, and transitioned the movement into scratching my head.

“The pleasure is all mine, I’m sure. From what I heard, you spend most of time diving in search of the lost city. Which means that you know the waters around here like the back of your hand, no? I imagine it’s difficult to go diving when the waters are rough.”

He looked so confused. Cricket had probably never seen a polite pirate before, especially not one who brought a housewarming present.

“You’re Bellamy the Hyena.” That was more of a question than a statement but either way, I kept going.

“Thing is, my crew and I have encountered an issue. Our log pose is pointing up into the sky. Yes, we know...when the log pose rejects reality, you believe the log pose over reality. But that would mean that there is an island or at least a source for a strong magnetic field somewhere above the clouds. A sky island as it were.”

That caught his attention. He was definitely interested, very interested. I could see the glimmer in his eyes.

“You’ve been here a long time and your ancestor was here too. So I would be very thankful if you had any advice or knowledge you’d be willing to share.”

At that, his face immediately went blank, almost as if someone had shoved an iron curtain in front of it. Damn, ok, I shouldn't talk about his ancestor. Dangerous territory, gotcha.

“Think of it this way, the sooner you help us reach sky island, the sooner we’re out of your hair. It’s a win-win situation, no?”

“…”

“…”

“…I’ll put on some tea.”

Success!