Author's note: I've added two news articles to chapters 62 & 63, which are (somewhat) relevant to the story. Do please go and have a look.
– Bellamy –
As every physicist knew, the natural behavior of the universe was to try and find the path of least resistance to the lowest energy state.
In other words, the universe desired to do the least amount of work for the greatest gain in order to reach a state of being where no further effort was required. Humans, being a part of the wider universe, were not exempt from this general trend. There was a reason why wealth was coveted so greatly and why, when given the choice between the difficult but perfect path and the easy but good enough path, most individuals would choose to go with the easy option. That wasn't to say that this was bad per se. Many of the great innovations in history were created precisely because of this desire for ever greater efficiency, hoping that it would provide a more comfortable life.
However, because this was our baser instinct, it was all the more admirable when individuals raised themselves above it to work towards a greater cause. This was doubly true when said individual came from a background of luxury, where bodily comforts would have been all but guaranteed if they had not rocked the boat. In the world of One Piece, Dragon was one such individual. No doubt, he was someone who could have had a glorious career in the marine corps if only he had so wished. After all, who was going to gainsay the only son of the legendary Hero of the Marines? But instead of enjoying the privileges his station of birth and his heritage would have afforded him, Dragon had seen the controversies of the world and voluntarily decided to walk the thorny path of a revolutionary. For someone like me, who had grown up in the 21st century dreaming of financial independence and early retirement, Dragon was the sort of man I could respect if not admire.
And like his commanding officer, the blond man sitting across from me was another such individual. Not that I let any of these thoughts appear on my face of course, while I was hashing out the rough outline of future cooperation between the Revolutionary Army and the Bellamy Pirates with their Chief of Staff.
That our two groups would work together wasn't in doubt. Like Koala had mentioned previously, the Revolutionary Army was always in need of new recruits and a group with the sort of concentrated firepower my Crew possessed wasn't common. Given that the Bellamy pirates had not committed any atrocities or caused some form of humanitarian crisis in the last six months or so (that is after I took command), I would wager that we were pretty high up on the list of desired partners.
For our part, the Revolutionary Army could offer the one thing we severely lacked and had little to no chance of obtaining on our own in the near future… namely a secure base of operations. It was difficult to overstate how critical such a thing was to my crew's longevity. The most obvious benefits being the easy access to food and water, as well as a thousand other bits and bobs one needed to maintain a pirating life. But it went so much further than that.
Ship repairs, a source of intelligence independent from Disco, a place to hide from the marines and bounty hunters alike…not to mention the sheer amount of support this provided in keeping morale high. There was a world of difference between having a place to fall back upon in times of need and well…not.
So, yes. It was a win-win scenario where we didn't really have a reason not to work together. The big question of the day was the how. In what manner would we work together or better put, what form would our cooperation take? Sabo, and by extension the Revolutionary Army, clearly preferred a clear chain of command. It was an army after all, and this was much more of a necessity than an option when facing an overwhelming foe like the World Government. They needed to be able to deploy their assets wherever they were needed, whenever they were needed, at a moment's notice with no questions asked.
I obviously rejected that idea. I was at most an ally, not their subordinate. I wasn't going to be throwing my crew into danger just to save their skins, and giving up the right of independent operations was just opening myself up to becoming a disposable pawn. Considering how much trouble I'd gotten myself into to get out of a similar position, I was in no hurry to get back into it. The last time, I'd had to give Doflamingo a proverbial slap to the face, for which I was pretty sure the Warlord was doing his best to hunt me down even at this very moment.
Which brought us to the here and now. Just Sabo, me and our adjutants sitting around a table, doing our best to talk the other into submission and insert more favorable clauses into the agreement.
"I suppose it can't be helped. As much as it hurts me, we'll strike the clause about streamlining the chain of command." Sabo said, taking a red pen to the document lying on the coffee table between us.
"Think of it more as introducing greater flexibility and adaptability into your system. Seeing as you guys are at a numerical disadvantage, you really should play to your strengths."
"Which are flexibility and adaptability, I suppose?" Sabo replied, giving me a wry smile.
"Exactly." I beamed at him. "I don't know why you're so dour about this. After all, it's not like you aren't getting a lot out of this deal. You're just not getting everything."
"I'm not sure we are..." he muttered. "To confirm, you are agreeing to perform two short-term missions a month or one long one every two?"
"Within reason and depending on our own circumstances, which take precedence. Don't forget that caveat." I reminded him. He was a cheeky bugger. "Plus, I reserve the right to refuse any missions."
"Can't blame a man for trying." Sabo shrugged before giving me a deadpan look. "This is beginning to sound suspiciously more like a mercenary contract than an alliance treaty."
"Now you're just being ridiculous. This is nothing like a mercenary contract." I objected. "For one, you're not paying us."
"In cash. We're not paying you in cash." he pointed out. "We're providing you with training, intelligence and a base of operations instead."
"Pish tush. The first two are simply measures to increase the success chances for whatever mission you want us to complete. When compared to the price of failure, giving us the needed tools is surely the better choice." I argued.
"And the base?" he asked, and I raised an eyebrow in a gesture meaning more or less, are you being serious right now?
"It's a hovel." I stated, eliciting a squawk of protest.
"It's the fifth largest building on the island!"
"It is a cheap ramshackle wooden hovel with a nice coat of paint, designed to act as a decoy and throw people off the trail of your real headquarters. Which are located underground." I replied, leveling an even stare at the young revolutionary. "In fact, as you're using us as a decoy, we really should be demanding more from you guys."
"If we're going to go that far, you are using us as shields." Sabo retorted, taking a sip of coffee in a manner only a noble could. "I'd say that entitles us to add some additional clauses instead."
"Ah, ah, ah." I said, wagging my finger in his face. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that we were here as honored guests. At least that's what your man told us when he invited us to Baltigo."
"And?"
"Isn't it natural that the host guarantees the safety of his guests? It's a common courtesy."
"..."
"So, unless you're going to kick us out or we come to some other arrangement, we're still guests with all the benefits afforded to us by societal convention."
"What makes you think we won't do exactly that?"
"What? Kick us out?" I asked, causing him to give me a slight nod, though rather than being upset, he looked more amused with the whole situation. "Apart from the fact that it would be a costly decision on your part, both because we're not that weak and you'd have to send your own men to complete the missions you wanted us to do… wouldn't it stain Dragon's reputation quite badly if it ever came out, that his own Chief of Staff acted so dishonorably with a potential friend? Especially if said friend had risked life and limb to rescue a senior commander of the Revolutionary Army with no strings attached."
"I'd like to point out that we helped you rescue Nico Robin, so I'd say we're even on that point."
"We did most of the heavy lifting. In fact, your boys didn't lift a finger to fight the CP9 agents." I reminded him, causing him to slightly frown. "And I won't even mention how I got stabbed because your men were careless."
"...seriously?"
"I already said I wasn't going to mention how I got stabbed because your men were careless, didn't I? So, what's the problem? Did you want me to mention how I got stabbed because your men were careless? If so, I can mention how I got stabbed because your men were careless."
"..."
"..."
"...sigh…what do you want?"
"What makes you think I want something?" The moment these words tumbled out of my mouth, I knew I'd made a mistake. Mostly because Lily, who'd come along as my adjutant, buried her face into her hands.
"If you don't want anything, that's perfectly fine with me." Sabo grinned. I…I might have overplayed my hand a little.
And I was doing so well too.
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In the end, after hours of wrangling and verbal sparring, we reached a point where we were both too exhausted to keep going. It wasn't as if we'd managed to achieve much either. The final draft had ended up being very similar to the initial one, despite the many, many changes we'd made over the course of the evening. It just so happened, that half the changes simply reversed anything the other half had done rather than add anything new.
Still, I had gotten more or less everything I wanted out of the deal, in part due to my amazing negotiating skills and in a much bigger part thanks to the Battle on Yakka draining the Revolutionary Army's resources.
Even now that they had emerged victorious, Dragon simply couldn't afford to pull his forces back, lest the World Government come back to exploit such an opening. It was a precarious position they were in, requiring absolutely everything the Revolutionary Army had at its disposal to stabilize. Which also explained why Sabo handed me my first mission dossier the moment the agreement had been signed.
Apparently, a while back, one of their outposts had suddenly and inexplicably gone silent, as had the squad sent to investigate the matter. The Revolutionaries hadn't tried again since. Now that he had the option, Sabo decided to throw us at the issue in the hopes of resolving it instead of risking his own men for questionable gain. Or as he put it, we were currently the strongest force they had at their disposal, which wasn't tied up in some manner.
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In the interest of being stealthy, Sabo and I agreed that instead of taking my ship and my entire crew, both of which were rather conspicuous, I would head over on a smaller vessel with a reduced crew and a guide. After a bit of deliberation, I ended up bringing Hewitt and Muret along, the latter to treat any potential injuries we might pick up and the former…because we needed to talk and I believed that he would be more willing to do so if we had a bit more privacy.
The rest stayed behind on Baltigo under Sarquiss' leadership to do some more training with Izou while we had the time.
Thing was, I wasn't very confident in my ability to soothe whatever was eating away at my Cook. Feelings were something I had never been that comfortable with, and while I had certainly gotten better at talking to people since becoming Bellamy, I did not have the knowledge or experience required to give psychological counseling. But… I was the captain and part of being a captain entailed making sure my crew was well cared for, both physically and mentally.
Still, this didn't change the fact that I had no clue how to even begin breaching the topic, because "Hey, wanna talk about why you've been gloomy recently?" probably wasn't going to cut it. As a result, I ended up simply sitting next to Hewitt, both of us staring out into the waves without saying a single word. The next day I did the same thing. And the next. It wasn't until the last evening of our little trip that Hewitt decided to speak up.
"Captain?"
"Yes, Hewitt?"
"I'm an envious person."
"I know." I told him.
"I'm not sure you do, actually." Hewitt answered, turning to face me. "Unlike the others, you've never been the target of my envy, because you were so far ahead of me that I couldn't even see myself surpassing you anymore."
What followed was a lengthy confession of every person and thing Hewitt had ever felt an ounce of envy towards, starting with a childhood neighbor who had received a nice pair of red shoes for his birthday, to the more recent cases such as Lily and Ross unlocking their haki. As I listened to my cook bare his soul to me, a little voice at the back of my head noted that the rate at which he felt envy towards our friends had increased dramatically ever since we had departed from Jaya. As had the amount of self-loathing.
The question I asked Hewitt, after he was finished, was Why? Why was he envious of his crew mates? Did they put in a lot less work to achieve what they had?
"...no." he conceded hesitantly.
Did they deserve it less?
"...no." he admitted reluctantly.
Did Hewitt deserve it less?
"NO!!" he rejected the idea emphatically. "But despite that, there seems to be nothing I can do. I train at least as much as the others do if not more, I had a better start than half the original crew…but I feel as if I'm falling further and further behind."
Did he want the crew not to have the things which made him envious any longer, or did he want to have the same things too?
By Hewitt's own admission, it was most definitely the latter. Not that this had ever been in doubt. For all of Hewitt's character flaws, he wasn't malicious towards his friends and didn't enjoy pulling them down. Sadly, my initial plan of convincing him of the merits of reflecting on the blessings he currently had, and hence leading him towards a more positive outlook on life… yeah, that plan failed near immediately.
"Look captain." he told me. "I know I don't have a rational reason to be envious. I know that objectively I'm one of the luckiest pirates in the world, especially with the likes of Izou giving me personal training. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm starting to feel inadequate…"
"Inadequate?"
"You told us you were going to be an Emperor of the Sea. I was going to be a member of an Emperor's crew. This," he said gesturing towards himself, "this is not a member of an Emperor's crew."
From the sounds of it, it seemed like his problems were less about envy and more about feeling dissatisfied with himself. Just because Ross had unlocked his haki earlier than Hewitt had done, didn't mean that he wasn't going to.
"Heck, I unlocked mine only recently and I'm stronger than all of you. You'll grow into your future role, the same way I'll grow into mine." I encouraged him, but my cook remained morose.
"Maybe. Maybe not." he mumbled. "It's easy to say that I could grow into it later, but I feel like I'm stagnating. Actually, I know I'm stagnating, and I just don't know why."
"...I may have an idea."
My words were met by Hewitt's widened eyes. "Really? What is wrong with me?"
I wasn't lying. I really did have an idea, based upon my own experiences, but the question was how to bring it across in an understandable and acceptable manner.
"A lot of things…" I began before being interrupted right away.
"Huh?"
"...but I suppose the thing that pops into mind first, is your envy." Like I had reflected at least once in the past, envy was a sure sign that one did not have enough confidence in themselves and even worse, that they may have set mental limits for themselves on what they could be capable of. Was it any wonder then, that in a world where willpower and the power of belief ruled supreme, this sort of mentality would be a crippling handicap?
Of course, Hewitt was not pleased at all with my assessment.
"I practically am the embodiment of envy! How is that different from saying that I am my own problem?" he despaired, "I know it isn't exactly a virtue, but I am envious by nature. And that's just the thing! It's in my nature! I can't change that!"
"Let me ask you one thing. What does it mean for you to be on my crew?"
"What do you mean?" my bewildered cook asked me. "What does that have anything to do with this?"
"Why are you on my crew? What do you hope to achieve?" I persisted, prompting my friend to give me an odd look.
"That's a convoluted way of asking what my dream is, captain."
"Just humor me." I told him and in response he shrugged in a manner which screamed I suppose it can't hurt.
"When I was a child, my dream was to get rich enough to afford the lifestyle I wanted. A life like one of those merchant kids I envied in my childhood. Now that I've grown up a little, I suppose my current dream would be to get rich, get married to a beautiful woman, have kids and open a business. Probably a restaurant so I can keep cooking."
"Then what's stopping you? You're already rich. After Skypiea and Crack's mansion, you already have more money than you could spend on a backwater island like home." I pointed out. "It's definitely more than enough to open a restaurant, heck you could open a chain of restaurants. Once you do, you'd be one of the most eligible bachelors around, and a wife and kids will naturally follow."
"..." Hewitt didn't say anything for a while as he digested my words.
"You already have everything you need. So why are you still on my crew?" I asked once more.
"I want to support you guys. It would be pretty cheap of me to go my own way now and leave you all high and dry." he tried to joke but I wasn't going let him off that easily.
"That's probably a significant part of it and I'm thankful for it." I told him, "But can you honestly tell me that that is all there's to it? That you're only here to help the rest of us achieve our dreams?"
"…no." he admitted eventually.
"That's right. No. You're not here merely out of duty or obligation, Hewitt. You're on my ship because you want to be." I stated, placing one hand on his shoulder. "Because some part of you has started dreaming of other things, dreams which go beyond retiring early."
"And what if I have?" he asked, challengingly.
"In that case I'm happy for you. I changed my dream, so there's no reason why you can't change yours." After all, I'd gone from wanting to survive to wanting to become the strongest man alive. "But think about this. Dreams are an expression of who we are at our core. Hence, if our dreams can change, why can't we?"
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Holiday Hazard!
Welcome to Marineford Daily News, your only source of accurate and unbiased truth.
It is a well-known fact that not everybody has what it takes to succeed in a civilized, orderly world. There will always be those who, either for lack of effort or lack of talent, fail to grow up into productive members of society. Some become beggars or criminals, content to be parasitic existences for the span of their miserable lives. However, even these lowlifes are virtuous individuals when compared to the rats scurrying about in the darkness beyond the light of order.
That's right, these contemptible vermin are the Revolutionaries.
Not satisfied with merely taking advantage of our freedom of speech and assembly to spread their vile propaganda amongst our innocent citizens, they have gone ahead and rejected the very pillars upon which our civilization was built in the first place. For years, they have lurked, stirring up trouble wherever they could until finally, they struck.
Dozens of kingdoms were upended by these monsters, tearing down benevolent kings and gracious nobles, murdering babies in their beds. Under Dragon's lead, the great achievements of the past eight centuries were rolled back: the social security, the rule of law, the right of man to own property… in particular a World Noble was very upset that his expected cargo of toys was stolen.
The Yakka Kingdom was but the latest in a string of violent attempts to overthrow the legitimate government and establish a military dictatorship. Formerly a favorite vacation destination for our wonderful world nobles, Yakka had enjoyed the honor of serving them up close and personal for decades ever since St. Foggarty the Elder started hosting his biannual parties there. Many even caught the eyes of the celestial dragons and were invited to work at the holy land of Mariejois! Now, the fate of our poor citizens, who suddenly found themselves deprived of their divine light, seemed darker than ever. Even worse, St. Foggarty the Younger's holiday plans were in danger of being cancelled this year.
However, our beloved world government and our resplendent marine corps refused to let this travesty stand and have assembled an emergency response team to deal with the issue. The marine force lead by Vice Admiral Dalmatian departed yesterday amidst the well-wishes of the entire world, vowing not to return until no innocent citizens of the Yakka Kingdom remained under the tyrannical rule of the Revolutionary Army.
We are certain that this time, the criminals will not succeed in their attempts to escape their just punishments.
This was Marineford Daily reporting.
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