Entering The Grand Line… Finally
"Uhm.. okay... then?" I just stood normally before I looked around at specific weapons. The first thing I went to look at was the swords, and I was immediately yelled at again.
"YOU CAN'T LOOK AT THOSE!"
He was very defensive of the swords.
'I mean, I guess that would happen, right? He doesn't want to just let me take another one, right?'
"Oh-kay?"
I just wandered away, and decided to check out the knives, as they were the closest thing to swords, just shorter.
While I was doing this, Yopponmatsu was staring at me, and I could tell. He was very much just staring into me, making sure nothing else would be taken.
The knives that I was looking at were not very interesting, nothing caught my eye. I walked past all of them, taking a quick note of them, since I really had nothing to do.
'Knife. Knife. Basic knife. Knife again. SUPER basic knife. Ooh, dagger. Knife. Different knife. Second dagger. Yeah.. I should've known there wasn't gonna be anything interesting. My observation isn't finding anything as interesting as Surya, so can't really do much about that.'
I turned to look around to find nothing else interesting on the wall I faced. But, I looked to my right and found a scythe.
Immediately going to look at it, I could feel the worry from Yopponmatsu, as he could tell something caught my eye, just like last time.
When I got to the wall, I fully saw the scythe on it, hanging around. It wasn't anything special, but I could tell it was made well. It very obviously was well kept with it's long handle slightly curved, and the blade in amazing shape, having no cracks.
'A scythe, huh? I would've never thought to find one here. Now...... how badass would it be to see a clown such as myself, holding a scythe, the blade up above me, having it on my shoulder? No beanie, just a suit wearing clown in the dark, holding a scythe? Oh.. that would look SOOOO good! I do need something to use while I figure out Surya, so why not try another weapon? Could do a lot, and even maybe turn it into a black blade at some point? I mean, I couldn't get it to even compare to Surya right now, but I bet it would be comparable with such an addition. That's even better, actually. A clown in a suit holding a full, black scythe. Oh, now I need it!'
"How much for this?" I pointed at it, looking at Yopponmatsu, the shopkeep.
He scowled at first, and then spoke, still suspicious of me. "Three hundred thousand."
I looked at him, then the scythe, and then back at him.
"Are you sure? I don't think.. well, I don't actually know, but I'm sure that it shouldn't be worth that much, right?"
"It isn't. But I need some money from... that." He was glaring at me, only moving his eyes to look at Surya on my hip.
"......... Fair."
I started to walk to the door, and was stopped.
"What're you doing?"
"Going to get money, obviously. I normally carry money on me, but today, I didn't." And I walked out. I went back to the ship, and then grabbed that money, and left back to the shop, to find everything exactly the same as when I had left. I walked up to the counter, and put the three hundred thousand berri on it.
He raised an eyebrow, and eyeballed the amount, then looked up at me.
"Your actually paying this time. That's a first."
He laughed dryly, and then said "Well, since you paid, just grab it and go! Before you end up finding something else and taking THAT for free!" And I was shooed out of the shop, holding a newly purchased scythe.
•
I arrived back at the ship, and looked around for any signs of Rem or Taki. There was none.
'Eh. I can trust those two. If they're gone, maybe they're still at the Shipyard. I'll just do other stuff then.'
I walked to my cabin, which I happened to have to myself, and stabbed the tip of my new weapon into the wall, hanging it.
'Hmm. Sharp enough to hold itself in the wall. At least I made a good choice, maybe.'
And so, I wandered the ship to find that we had a low supply of food and supplies in general.
".... That would've been smart to think of."
No one spoke, because I was alone on the ship. I sighed, and then just decided to go and do it myself.
It wasn't a hard thing to do, and it didn't take long, because I could just go around and find things we needed, using observation to check and see what we had. I did run in to the issue that I didn't have enough hands to carry all of it, so, I just dragged some of the bags along me. People obviously watched, but it wasn't bothersome in the slightest.
When I got back to the ship, I found Taki and Rem had just arrived as well.
"So.. can you two help me?"
I was barely able to show them all of the bags, mostly because there was so much.
"Bugs! I could've helped!" Rem was the first to say something, immediately running over. Taki did stand for a second, and then joined me, grabbing some bags as well, alongside Rem.
"So.. you didn't ask for a reason, right?" Taki asked, hood over her head.
"I was bored, so I went down to the weapon shop, got one, and then decided to just check stuff on the ship, and get some stuff, like, you know.. food?"
"Ah. And you wanted to do it because you were bored then?"
"Yep."
She lifted her head slightly, barely revealing the tip of her nose. "Mkay then."
And then, all three of us walked up, and put things away, food in the kitchen, everything else in what felt like random spots, but they were the item's spots.
"So, I think we're gonna get going to the Grand Line tomorrow."
Both Taki and Rem stopped for a second.
"The place that's super strong?"
I looked at Taki, who had asked the question. "Yep. The very same place where you could definitely see just how strong you are."
I smirked at her, and then looked at Rem, who just looked at me, and asked "So soon? I haven't spent enough time with Ro-Ro!"
Slightly distraught at the news, she stared at me, and I sighed at her.
"Well, I know. Obviously I know. This place is nice and all, but I have goals, and you want to see the world, right? Why not bring you to the MOST dangerous places first, and then you can compare it to the four blues? It might be enlightening to do so." I smiled.
"... Okay then. Uhm.. I won't be here tonight, I wanna spend it with Ro-Ro!" She was slightly glum and distraught at my proclamation, but then became happier simply from being able to spend the night with Rosalina.
"Okay then. See you tomorrow, I'm gonna have to say goodbye too, but we should be leaving a bit early, get a good start to the day?"
Rem skipped over to leave the ship, and turned to me. "I'll see ya tomorrow then! Please don't leave without me!" And she left.
After that, nothing else happened, and I fell asleep in my quarters.
•
It was the next day, and I woke up to find Taki on my bed, curled against me. Pushing her away ever so slightly, I got up, and then left the room, deciding to do my training before we left, also while waiting for Rem.
It wasn't hard, and the four punch has gotten down to about fourty-fivr minutes, getting closer to my ideal speed of such a training regimen. I did it while running around the island, and it seemed like people who had watched me before were surprised with just how much I could do in such a short time.
Once I was done, I got back to the dock, immediately went onto the deck to rest, and sat like that for a little while. And then I heard Rosalina yell "Buggy!" To which I immediately got up and went to the railing to find Rosalina, Branson, Djane, and Rem, who was attached to Rosalina. I also heard Taki walking behind me say "... morning Bugs." Followed by a yawn.
I jumped down over the side to the dock, and landed in front of them.
"Hey guys. Did you come to say bye?"
"Yeah, Rem told us you were leavin today, so we decided to jus come and tell ya bye!" He slapped Rem's back a little while she was still attached to Rosalina. She flinched a bit, Rosalina then moving both of them just out of range of Bransons arm.
"Well, Buggy, do hope that you keep Rem safe, I would not like to lose her!" Rosalina was looking at me, her eyes threatening me, while the rest of her was calm.
"Ye-yeah, sure." She then got Rem to let go of her, and she walked up to me, then pulling me in to a hug.
She whispered into my ear "Be safe out there, Buggy. I don't need MY friend to die."
I hugged her back, a little awkward, because I wasn't expecting a hug.
"I.. I'll make sure to NOT die then. I'm strong enough for the first half of the Grand Line, and I'm gonna be training for the New World during that as well."
".... Be safe, nonetheless." Her hug got tighter before she let go and backed up next to Djane before Rem jumped on her, again.
I just walked up to Branson and he stuck out his hand. I grabbed it and shook before he stated "Ya better keep up yer end of tha deal."
"I will. Now, just know that things may be covered up or made to make me look terrible. I would say don't trust everything, but I couldn't tell you if it was real news or not. I can't exactly keep in touch with you."
It was at that moment that he let go and reached into his pocket to pull out a snail.
"Here. A transponder snail. So ya can tell me if tha news is right or not."
"Oh yeah! THOSE EXIST! Thanks! Now I can tell you what happens!" I took the transponder snail from him, and held it, immediately holding out my hand again, which we shook once more before I looked at Djane, to which we both nodded at each other.
I then turned around, and headed onto the ship, turning around to look at the three of them, with Rem and Taki also there, finishing up their own goodbyes.
I backed up onto the ship, and waved down to Rosalina, Branson, and Djane. Branson raised a glass, yelling out "MAKE SURE TO DO WELL!" Followed by a toothy grin and laughing. Rosalina just waved back, and Djane nodded at me.
"BYE! DO WELL ON YOUR ENDEAVORS!"
And I walked to the helm, after Rem and Taki finished their own goodbyes, they both got on, and we sailed off.
Everyone was waving as I headed directly to Reverse Mountain.
•
What I was expecting was horrid conditions, but surprisingly, the entire trip up and down the mountain was easy, I didn't even come close to hitting ANY side of the cliffs towering above us as we went up and down. Just the fact that it went so smoothly was even more suspicious to me than deities playing with my life.
When we got to Twin Capes, I found Crocus, I said hi, asked for a Log Pose, and left before he could ask anything. I was in a hurry to get on with my journey, so much so that when he tried to talk and catch up, I only said a few words: "I'm keeping my promise. This is the beginning."
In the words he did get in, he implied that he knew of my secret as well, so I had to add another tally to the 'People who know I'm not me', but I kind of expected EVERYONE on my old crew to know at this point.
But, thanks to the aquisition of a Log Pose, we gained a direction to head. Taki and Rem were full of excitement and yet both slightly afraid of what was ahead. And they were right to be a little afraid. Turns out that the world itself was planning something, and all of the calm was just before the storm.
Only about a day of smooth sailing after leaving Twin Capes to head toward our next destination, we were immediately caught in a storm, and hit by massive waves. Waves so tall that it engulfed the ship, and probably would have engulfed a skyscraper.The ship tilted, and we were dragged around and around into a whirlpool, which flipped the ship, and we were thrown about on the ship, even with my mediocre navigation skills. I was in over my head, and I got us dragged into the sea.