Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It has been forever since he tasted such crisp air. The North Blue was cold, but the coldness didn't bother Snow. Lying on top of the crow nest of the Marine warship, he couldn't help but enjoy the freshness he breathed in. It was nice, so the cold didn't bother him even a bit. He did find a white shirt and a black vest on the ship to put on, but his cloak kept him warm enough.

Yet, there was one thing that Snow didn't account for. There were barely any sweets. The best he could find was bitter chocolate. He didn't get many sweets in his home, and when the island was closed, there were even fewer sweets to enjoy. That's why he craved them so much now. And it wasn't like he cared about his health. After all, he was already dying.

The other thing he liked was the snow. As it started falling, he would open his umbrella to shield himself from it, but he enjoyed seeing it. It was beautiful. It was an entirely different experience from the grey sky he was used to seeing. If only he had good food to go with the atmosphere. He was annoyed that all he could find was canned food.

Canned fish. Canned vegetables and fruits. Canned meat. Everything in this ship was canned. At first, he didn't mind it, but he got tired of the food after a few days. The taste of everything started to go bland, and salt could only fix so many things. Yet he still found himself enjoying this little trip. He found it so enjoyable that he wished to live and experience even more things.

Snow has given up on finding the cure for his illness after Doc has died. He and Doc spent years researching it, and even though he didn't understand much about medicine, Doc was quite brilliant and had extended many lives beyond what was expected of them. Even with minimal equipment, he did a lot of work.

Snow now regretted not trying to fight against the Marines. But at that time, like everyone else, he felt discouraged. The Marines looked like massive, unmovable walls. Especially when he still remembered them shooting down countless people who tried to leave at first. The blood, the screams, and the sound of gunshots still plagued his dreams.

But now he was free. He had destroyed that wall that held him back. And he wanted to live. Yet he didn't think he would receive much help from other doctors, and from the coughing fits, he knew that he had only a few weeks to live at best. There were only two things he could think of that could save him: a devil fruit or a devil fruit user.

He might gain immunity to sickness if he acquired a devil fruit that changed his body. He didn't know how it worked, but he could always hope that it might help him. Or maybe he found a Cure Cure devil fruit that could cure him. Or perhaps some Zoan devil fruit that makes his body more robust and more resistant to his illness.

If that didn't work, he knew of a few individuals that had the power to heal others. The first to come to his mind was a particular surgeon, Trafalgar Law, who had a devil fruit power that allowed him to operate on anyone. Snow was confident that if someone could save him, it would be him. There was also Marco and his phoenix flames that might heal him. Or the dwarf girl in Dressrosa who had the power to heal anyone.

"Either way, I need to do something fast if I want to survive," Snow muttered as he fell into another coughing fit and cleaned the blood out of his mouth.

From what he knew, it was the year 1522. The year Luffy and other supernovas set off to the Grand Line. So, Law should still be in the North Blue or just set off for the Grand Line. From what he knew, Law was quite a famous pirate even before he set off to the Grand Line, so it wouldn't be challenging to find him if he asked around.

Just as a plan started forming, he felt like something hit the ship. The audible scraping of wood against wood and faint vibrations that made it to the crow's nest made Snow get up. Looking down, he saw a wooden raft being destroyed by the massive form of the Marine warship he was on. Snow apologized in his head for the poor fellow who hit the ship and returned to lying down.

At this point, Snow could only pray that the ship was approaching an island. He had no idea where he was or where another island was. But even if he knew, it would mean nothing, as he had no idea how to operate the warship. It was way too big for him even to try. At best, he could turn the wheel but didn't know how to stop it or navigate the ship, so he left it all to the wind to bring him somewhere.

As he was about to fall asleep, he heard a weird laugh and footsteps under him on the warship deck. Once again, he saw two men walking and looking around. Both of them were taller than him, above two meters. But while one was a lanky-looking guy, the other was a massive and rounded individual. The skinny one had black hair and a sleeved t-shirt, and the other had green hair, at least it looked like hair, but after a better look, Snow realized it was a green lizard on his head acting like hair.

"Oi!" Snow jumped off the crow's nest and landed on the deck before the two men. "Who are you? And what are you doing on my ship?"

"Keheheheh," The skinny one with dark hair started laughing. "I am the infamous pirate, Caribou. And now this is my ship. Keheheheh."

"Caribou?" Snow rubbed his forehead, trying to remember if he knew who he was. "Do you have a devil fruit power?"

"Keheheh," Caribou laughed even more at Snow's question. "It seems we are already famous, Coribou. Indeed, I have a devil fruit power. I have eaten the Swamp-Swamp devil fruit, making me a swamp person."

"Oh," Snow remembered now that the guy before him was a small-time villain.

"So, you better surrender and beg for our mercy," Caribou smiled viciously while Coribou looked in the distance. "No attack has an impact on me. Even if you are a Marine, you stand no chance against me. Keheheheh."

"Heh, I am so terrified," Snow smiled back before taking something out of the pocket and throwing it to Caribou. "Catch it."

Caribou, the idiot Snow imagined him to be, reached out and caught it. Snow smiled, as he had just thrown seastone handcuffs he had found on the ship. Before Caribou realized it, Snow swung his umbrella and smacked Caribou's head through the wooden floor of the deck. Snow was about to swing again but stopped as he noticed that Caribou wasn't moving anymore.

"Big bro dude!" Coribou looked at his brother stuck on the floor. "I am sorry. I am real sorry!"

Snow tilted his head as Coribou looked at Caribou but then turned and looked at the empty sea and apologized. He didn't know what to think of this situation, so he ended it by knocking him out, too. A good hit at the back of his head, and he was beside his brother. Snow then took the seastone handcuffed and put them on the duo.

…

Snow stood over the captured Caribou brothers, contemplating his next move. The ship continued to drift aimlessly, guided solely by the winds and currents of the sea. With the two pirates restrained, Snow realized he needed to figure out what to do with them. For now, he had them tied up on the mast, hindering them from moving, and the brothers still had seastone handcuffs on them.

"Alright, you two," Snow spoke to the unconscious duo before pouring a bucket of cold seawater on them, waking them up. "Wakey, wakey."

"Blagh," The both of them quickly recovered their senses. "What? How am I here? Why can't I use my powers?"

"Big bro, where are you? Where are we?" Coribou asked, looking at the sky.

"Calm down, both of you," Snow slapped them until they calmed down. "I gather you are pirates."

"That right, big bro took me with him last week on the raft we built and said we would be the most infamous pirates in North Blue," Coribou answered, wanting to tell the tale.

"Last week?" Snow asked, quite shocked at the information. "Do you even have bounties on you?"

"Not yet, Keheheheh," Caribou laughed like he was proud of the fact. "But with my powers, not even the Surgeon of Death can stop me."

"Surgeon of Death? Trafalgar Law? You know him?"

"Everyone knows of him," Caribou answered. "He is famous in the North Blue as Germa 66."

"Do you know where to find him?" Snow tried his luck.

"Well, no, but when I do find him, I going to beat him and take the title of the best pirate in the North Blue, keheheheh," Caribou seemed to like to laugh. "But firstly, I will take you down!"

"No, you won't," Snow replied as Caribou tried to use his powers but couldn't move. "The seastone is preventing you from using your devil fruit powers. So, before I drop you into the sea, do you know any information about the areas around here?"

"Uh, big bro knows," Coribou, the round giant of a man, stated proudly. "He said that there was an auction in the Dual Kingdom. Big bro said if we robbed it, we would be the richest pirates in the North Blue."

"Keheheheh, that's right, the King Chap himself will attend the auction. There surely be many riches for the taking," Snow initially suspected how easily they revealed the information, but then he realized they were idiots.

"So, you wanted to rob it?"

"Keheheheh, of course, we are pirates, and that's what pirates do."

Snow got interested in the auction, especially when he heard King Chap was attending it. He would regret it if he at least didn't beat up that bastard before he died. So, it was an easy decision for him to make. He was going to crash the auction, and who knows, maybe he could find a devil fruit if the auction were as big as those two idiots are claiming it would be.

"Do you know the way to the Dual Kingdom?" Snow asked.

"Of course," Caribou replied. "It is north from here."

"Hey, sorry about beating you guys up," Snow smiled sweetly as he patted their shoulders. "I hope it is under the bridge, and we won't have any bad feelings between us."

"Keheheheh," Caribou laughed. "Of course not, boss. You beat us fair and square."

"Good, then I will let you go." Snow untied them both before taking off the seastone handcuffs, first from Coribou and then from Caribou.

"Keheheheh," The moment he was free, Caribou jumped back and turned into mud. "You will pay for humiliating me. I will swallow you whole!"

Snow only smiled at the predictable behavior of a third-tier villain and jumped away from the mud spreading under Caribou. Taking the seastone handcuffs, he wrapped them around his umbrella before rushing back at Caribou. It was a one-sided beating, as Caribou didn't know how to fight. He couldn't block nor dodge Snow's attack and was soon beaten down.

It took a good moment for Coribou to realize that they were fighting, as he only rushed at Snow after Caribou was knocked down again. Even though Coribou was a big guy, one stab from Snow's umbrella to Coribou's round belly was enough to take him down. And for good measure, Snow kicked Coribou's head to knock him out completely.

…

"Lying isn't nice," Snow said, holding a rope. "And I was thinking we could be friends."

"I am sorry!" Caribou yelled out when Snow pulled him out of the seawater.

At the stern of the ship, Snow had tied Caribou with a rope and thrown him into the sea. He was lucky that the wind had calmed down, and the ship wasn't going that fast, as it might have been hard to hold on to the rope that tied Caribou. Whenever the seawater submerged Caribou, Snow would pull him up so he didn't drown.

"Big bro, I am real sorry," Coribou, who was tied up on the mast, cried as he looked at the sky, looking for his brother.

"If you are so sorry, will you join my crew and call me captain from now on?" Snow asked before lowering the rope so the Seawater would submerge him before pulling him up again. "It is hard to hold on to you. So, I would appreciate a quick answer."

"Yes, I will serve you as a slave," Caribou cried as he spit out a mouthful of seawater. "I will listen to every command from you. Just pull me up. Please."

"Don't be so dramatic," Snow replied, yanking Caribou out and letting him crash into the deck. "By the way, my name is Snow. To you, it is Captain Snow."

"Big bro, I am scared," Coribou cried like a baby, and Caribou quickly joined him and cried as they hugged each other.

"Don't be babies," Snow said as he climbed to the crow's nest. "And steer us to the Dual Kingdom. Wake me up when we are here. If you lie to me again, I won't use a rope next time."

Using his umbrella to cover himself from the weather, Snow took a nap. If Caribou's devil fruit power weren't helpful, he would have just thrown the third-rate villain into the sea and been done with it. But Caribou was a walking storage. Food, treasure, and everything else could be stored in him. And he will be instrumental when he robs King Chap dry. He will take everything from that sorry excuse of a king.

A.N. I caught up with One Piece, and now I feel an emptiness in my heart. Especially after the last few chapters, I continue this story to deal with it. I hope you like it. As always, If you want more, up to seven advanced chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852. And if you have any requests for stories, I will only take them on my pa treon.