OP C02 - Thousand Sunny reaches Thriller Bark

"Ah, you're awake!"

Luffy's excited shout rang through the house the Strawhats occupied during their stay in Water 7.

"Hello~! Thanks for taking care of me while I was out!"

"You helped Robin and Franky, of course we help!" Luffy explained before asking, "But since you're so powerful, why did you need help?"

"Hmm, what do you know about haki?"

Luffy did his silly grin and confidently answered, "Nothing!"

"That's surprising. With your grandpa Garp and all that... hmm, there's three forms, observation haki which let's you predict things and, uh, see better, armament haki which makes your attacks more powerful and your defense more sturdy and of course it allows you to counter devil fruit abilities like logia fruits. Then there's conqueror haki, which I used to make those Cipher Pol agents kneel or faint. It was my first time using it, and I didn't even know I had it, so you're asking the wrong person. All I know is that barely anyone has it, while the first two are something anyone can learn."

'Now that I think about it, there's no way those CP9 agents were never exposed to it before... either my conqueror haki is especially powerful or the first time releasing it is akin to a dam breaking... but CP9 not knowing haki akways felt like convenient plot armor in the first place...'

"You know my grandpa?"

Dave started to sweat a little, "Uh, that's your takeaway? Did you at all listen to my explanation on haki?"

"Sure," Luffy answered with a shrug. It didn't fill Dave with a lot of confidence.

"You guys should learn to use it soon. But get a better trainer than me. I barely know anything, and even then, I'm a lucky amateur," Dave explained. Luffy and the others gained a thoughtful expression at that.

"Every pirate and marine worth his salt knows it in the New World. You'll be at a big disadvantage if you don't. And your crew will suffer for it. Also, it's what your grandpa uses so that his fists of love hurt. You can counter it with your own armament haki," Dave dropped nonchalantly.

He then spotted Nami in the room reading a newspaper and pretending she didn't listen to their conversation. So he walked over, completely ignoring any follow-up Luffy might have for him.

"Hey, you're the one handling the money for these guys, right? I'm a half decent tailor, but CP9 stole all my stuff, and I highly doubt Iceburg found it in the dungeon they kept me at. Could I trouble you to buy me some tailoring supplies? I'll pay you back with clothes literally tailor-made for you," Dave offered with a disarming smile.

Nami narrowed her eyes at him as she put down the newspaper and asked, "We're leaving in three days. How fast can you make those clothes? And how do you know I manage the money?"

"You just look like someone with a certain knack for money. And about those three days. Captain Luffy, would you mind me tagging along for a ride to Sabaody? That's your goal, right? Reach there, coat your ship, cross the Red Line by going under it through the Fishman Island passage?"

"Don't answer, Luffy! Why would we take you? You're asking quite a lot from us. Do you have any money?"

"Uh, well. If we're being technical, I'm almost a hundred percent sure that the Treasure Tree Adam wood Franky is using for your boat is the wood I tried to sell before CP9 caught me on false charges. If I'm no longer a wanted man because CP9 was likely too confident in their own prowess that they never had my bounty actually issued, I could go over to Mayor Iceburg and have him confiscate back my legal possession. And then you owe me somewhere between 150-200 million belli, depending on how the auction went. Or, you know, I look the other way and you take me to Sabaody Archipelago while I make you a few nice dresses and stuff on the way," Dave offered with a genial smile that made cold sweat run down Nami's back.

"Oooh, the wood of my new ship came from you? That's awesome! I mean, you saved Robin, so I would have allowed it anyway. But now we do it even more! We'll gladly take you there, especially since it's on the way anyway?"

Nami swiftly nodded at her captain's decision and started packing a bag.

"Are you going somewhere, Nami?" Luffy curiously asked.

The crew's navigator nodded once more and pointed to Dave, answering in a slightly shivering voice, "He needed tailoring supplies. I'll get them before sunset."

"Mind if I tag along? I know just the store and having been confined to a bed so long I really need to stretch my legs a bit.

"Sure," Nami answered with a very forced smile when she didn't find a good excuse to refuse him.

Since it wasn't the first time he was in Water 7, according to his memories anyway, Dave swiftly led them to a more posh part of town that made Nami's purse ache prematurely. The two hadn't spoken a word as they closed in on a shop that was clearly selling high-quality fabrics and tailoring supplies.

"I'm not petty enough to actually have you pay twice for the wood, by the way. I was just bluffing. Had you called me out, I would have instead used my devil fruit powers to increase the volume of the wood Franky can use. Short term that's bad for the wood quality of an already logged tree, but if I was on the ship for a while I could make the wood denser again no problem," Dave explained since Nami didn't look like she wanted to speak with him at any point in time.

The young navigator just looked at Dave for a moment and uncharacteristically didn't start arguing and just pouted. It seemed even her money-grubbing ways had a momentary pause since Dave did save her crewmates from potential life-and-death battles with CP9.

Eventually, as Dave picked up sketching materials, tape bands, a few different kinds of yarn from rough sea-worthy material to silk threads, a set of needles and several bolts of fabric Nami and he liked, Nami finally asked a question that's been on her mind since Robin told them his name.

"So what's your devil fruit that made those agents target you in the first place?"

"Grow-Grow fruit. I can make plants and trees grow. Like food and the Treasure Tree Adam for your ship," Dave answered, leaving out the most interesting part of his powers.

"Wow, you could be the richest man in the world, then," Nami said as her eyes turned to belli signs.

"I mean, I could be up there. But eventually, the market would be saturated with the wood. Granted with the World Government and the Marines, that would take quite a while. And take into consideration that growing the tree even with all my training still takes a while. I also have no plans of getting in Gild Tesoro's way if the WG would even allow me to grow these trees as a free man - which is the first and most important reason I only tried to sell three of them in twice as many years. The way Tesoro is obsessed with money, he'd come kill or enslave me sooner than later if I was anywhere near his net worth anyway. And let's not forget that I'm nowhere powerful enough to keep my riches in this godforsaken world in the first place," Dave calmly explained.

Nami turned thoughtful at his convincing arguments and pondered on his words as they walked back to the house with Dave carrying two giant bags. Her impression of Dave was starting to get better and better by the minute, but it was quickly reaching a new low as Dave said his next words.

"And it's not like I envy Tesoro for his vast gold reserves or fortune. Nope, Baccarat and Carina. Those are the two treasures I envy him for. Wow, those two are hot," Dave praised without shame.

If he was honest, Carina didn't interest him as much, but name-dropping her here had the added bonus of messing with Nami. If she even caught on. The world is way too vast for Nami to connect the name without him adding a few more details, but he couldn't really do that without outright lying and inventing a story that couldn't be true. He was playing the long con on that one, even if there likely won't be a pay-off.

Though, in this life, he would likely wish to become a playboy above all else instead of falling in love. If Dave was completely honest with himself, he was quite sure that contrary to his usual lives, he didn't see himself pursuing someone in an honest relationship this time around. What was the point? Since Carina was hot enough, why not go for her if there's a chance? At most, he would lose his money and whatever else he brought close to the thief.

This time around, he knew there was a life after death waiting for him. A life he would have to spend without the one he would grow to love. And even then, his track record of dying just before turning 30 meant he had eight years left at best if nothing changed. He'd have to find THE one and fall in love before the smart part of his brain stopped him from catching emotions that would just hurt him in his next life.

"Alright, my fingernails are almost healed, but I won't start tailoring before that. I'll draw some stick figures and mark a few places on the paper. Take the tape measure band with you and record Robin's and your dimensions when you have the time. I'll sketch a few cuts, and you can choose what you want me to make and with what fabric. Though be warned, I want to get out of these rags you dressed me in first and I'm starting with that," Dave explained, inwardly wondering how crazy this world was that a missing nail could grow back in roughly a week.

Dave was about to excuse himself from the room when Sanji busted in with two giant trays filled with dishes.

"MEAT!"

Luffy excited shout at the prospects of dinner was the start of a festive atmosphere among the Strawhat pirates. Dave was welcomed among them but still had to fight with Zoro and Luffy before they ate his share of food, too.

After that meal, he retreated back to his room with Chopper under the watchful eyes of Robin and Usopp, who lost a lot of his initial apprehension of Dave after their first real conversation.

Inside the room, Dave asked for the books on Life Return and began discussing the skills depicted in the books with the doctor. Thanks to his life as a combat medic and trauma nurse, Dave had a good grasp on medical principles together with being a rather learned individual in at least three of his lives.

Chopper himself had quite a unique insight on the skill, and the two made great progress on the Absorption and Digestion subskills until it was time for Franky to reveal the ship. Well, Iceburg did and the crew together with Franky's family had to steal his speedo to get there, but Dave relaxed on the ship's lawn so he wouldn't have to see how hung the 'Cyborg' was or how Robin almost twisted his nuts off.

Only then did he notice that Usopp shouldn't have been with the Strawhats yet, him joining back should have only happened after Franky joined, and they almost set off from Water 7. Something Dave did must have changed things. After all, Luffy didn't have to eat while sleeping, for example.

The moment they set off, Garp arrived and started raining cannon balls on the newly finished Thousand Sunny, so Dave went under deck. He didn't need all those marines seeing his face and confirming him as a friend of the Strawhat pirates just yet. Once inside, he grabbed some of Sanji's provisions to refuel and sat down near the rear of the ship.

Making wood stronger without the whole ship breaking out of its proportions, splintering everywhere because the beams no longer fit with the planks was Dave's first real conscious training for his awakened devil fruit he inherited from before he 'woke up'. And it was hard, too. The ship protested loudly as he started his (re-)training project by reinforcing the floor.

A few minutes later, Dave was violently thrown into the wall. 'Coup De Burst', a powerful blank shot on the rear with the ship's biggest cannon, propelled the ship forward mid-air as they fled from Garp's ship.

Shaking off his tense muscles from the impact, Dave ignored everything and continued using his grow-grow fruit in an attempt to fully grasp its uses.

As he ate, Robin sauntered into the room wearing a short white holster dress and an oversized, long sleeved lavender woolen jacket coat. She moved a chair over from a nearby lodge and sat in front of him.

"Don't like the dress? Want me to sow some more pockets into that coat?" Dave asked without stopping his training exercise.

"The dress is perfect, and the two inside pockets of the coat shall suffice," Robin answered concisely.

Dave lifted a brow and asked, "And what can I do for you then? I'm sure if you need someone to praise those beautiful long legs you're flaunting, your cook would be happy to do it."

"Fufufu, I will simply take your indirect compliment."

"So?"

"You said something about you having information I would love to hear above all else? And two more poneglyphs?"

Dave mockingly brought up both hands to 'protect his virtue' and shakily accused the woman, "How pirate-y of you! Now that I'm on open water with no way out of your ship, you'll extort me for everything I know!?"

Robin regarded his antics with a soft smile but didn't say anything else.

"Ugh, no reaction... very well, that pretty smile is worth this information. First of all, you've seen the Poneglyph at Sky Island and Alabasta, right? Then next should be... the one in the hands of the royal Fishman family followed by... not sure, either the one in Big Mom's place, can't miss it, or on that giant moving elephant. See? Buy two, get one for free. Now, onto the information you wanted. Jaguar D. Saul rings a bell, right?"

Robin paled a little, Admiral Aokiji had just opened these wounds not a week ago, so naturally, the name was fresh on her mind.

Dave waved his hand to regain Robin's full attention and spoke, "Well, the dude is alive and on Elbaf, his home island. He rescued a whole bunch of books the scholars threw into that huge lake near that Tree of Wisdom... of Knowledge? You know the one. Which means your giant benefactor lives, and the legacy of Ohara isn't entirely lost to the world."

Robin, for a short moment, turned back into the small girl who watched her home and last family vanish from in front of her. With giant tears streaming down her face in almost comical proportions, the woman stood up from the chair, stood in front of Dave, pulled him up, and engulfed him in a big hug. There wasn't a moment in Robin's mind that she thought Dave was lying.

After all, he muttered those things as if it was the easiest thing to know - just as he did when he made the WG hound the CP9 and Spandam's father like it was no big deal.

Not one to deny the hug of such a beauty, Dave reciprocated it by resting one hand near her shoulders and one on the small of her back, but 'not catching any feelings' came to the front of his mind. So, instead of keeping this moment wholesome and emotional, he whispered, "Can I try my fruit's power on you? I feel a little disconnected to my fruit since dealing with CP9 and surviving the torture, and it is your connection to the will of the fruit that is what enables you to awaken it."

Robin didn't care what he did to her at this moment. She would have likely agreed to almost anything. So it came to a big surprise that he did not take advantage of her but rather sought out to touch her bare shoulders with both hands.

It felt like invisible, intangible roots started growing under her skin. It wasn't painful and weirdly it did not feel weird. But with every passing second, she felt herself becoming stronger. So much stronger, in fact, that not even ten seconds later, she felt like she had trained for months.

But compared to the training maniacs on the ship, that wasn't too much of a surprise. The same use of the fruit would likely only grant someone like Zoro or Sanji a few days of progress if even that.

She quickly wiped away her tears and leaned back a little inside his embrace to look at Dave and saw him sweating heavily as the muscles under his skin looked like worms were writhing, pumping toward his hands where he touched her.

"Quick, stop!" She shouted as she remembered him vaguely mentioning this power came at a cost to him. But she did not push him away because she thought interrupting the process abruptly would hurt Dave.

At roughly the half a minute mark, Dave did as Robin asked and stepped back after peeling his hands off of her skin with a bit of effort.

'Hmm, lost a lot less strength than I thought. But I do feel super hungry. And, direct skin contact sounds plausible, but clothes shouldn't pose too much of a problem. Same with those metaphorical roots, with enough practice, I can definitely turn them into slim tethers that don't stick as much,' Dave thought with down-turned eyes as he looked at his hands. 'But this life's old self had most of it figured out correctly. That's a relief. But he was smart enough to awaken the fruit when he turned 20, so he, no, I wasn't a moron in any case.'

"You should train more. I bet you using armament haki on those arms you sprout would place you firmly into the top 3 of your crew if you kept up with Zoro-san and Sanji-san's training," Dave nonchalantly offered to defuse the emotionally charged atmosphere even more.

Robin didn't care much and simply asked in concern, "Are you fine? It feels like you pretty much increased my physical strength by almost half! That can't come from nothing..."

"Eh, no worries. I simply feel hungry and a lot faster than before when I used my devil fruit to strengthen the wood further."

With that, Dave grabbed the back of food on the floor next to him and went outside to the deck while munching on the food. He simply knew too much about Robin's life that using any of that knowledge to get into her pants left a bad taste in his mouth. And it wasn't like there weren't enough beautiful women running around in this world that he would have trouble finding someone pleasing enough to vent his physical needs on.

"Hey Sanji, I'm hungry, and these raw provisions suck compared to your cooking. I'll continue your lesson on wooing women if you cook me something nice without Luffy knowing. Make it something with pasta," Dave whispered into the chef's ear as he passed him just at the door.

"Franky! You got those shavings of Treasure Tree Adam wood I asked for?"

The Cyborg, who was showing Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy around, looked to Dave, opened a compartment on his stomach that held cola and a bag, and threw over the bag to him. Inside it, Dave found finger-long chips of wood that resulted from wooden beams getting planed, sawed, filed, or chiseled.

He grabbed one of the bigger ones out of the bag and under the sparkling eyes of all four Strawhat pirates watching him grew the splinter into a spear that was nearly as long as Dave was tall. Using all of his concentration and prior training, the pointy end of the spear turned into a tip with a double-edged spearhead roughly as long as his hand and three fingers wide at the base.

"Nice. This should be an easier weapon to learn than a sword since there's no way even Zoro could make a swordsman out of me. Compliments my powers, too," Dave mumbled under his breath.

"That's so cool! Let me try the magic spear," Luffy shouted as his long rubber arm shot forward to grab the spear out of his hand.

"No, wai-!" Dave shouted before the spear broke into three pieces. One third was in each of his two hands and the middle part in Luffy's rapidly retracting rubber arm.

"I... I wasn't finished," Dave whispered while looking to his hands with teary eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Dave! I didn't mean to do that!" Luffy shouted in horror. "Oh no, wait! Franky, you made our ship out of this wood!?"

Usopp and Chopper started panicking, too, after Luffy's terrifying realisation. Chopper started running in circles, and Usopp immediately tried gathering everything valuable so it wouldn't be lost at sea when their new boat would eventually capsize or fall apart. Luffy held Franky's giant shoulders and demanded answers by rocking him back and forth until Franky had enough.

"Oi-oi, stop messing around Strawhat! There's no way my ship is this brittle! Dave's devil fruit power simply wasn't done yet. Or he sucks at using it!"

Dave took offense to that and shouted, "Hey!" But nobody paid him any attention.

Usopp heard Franky's outburst and dropped everything he had gathered in his arms, relief etched in his face. Chopper eventually let Franky's words sink in and stopped running before tilting his head in thought and rejoicing moments later with happy jumps and exclamations.

Luffy was the most relieved and let go off Franky before turning to Dave. He bowed lightly in apology and shouted, "I'm so sorry for breaking your brittle training spear!"

"Hey! Do you know how hard it is to grow Treasure Tree Adam wood that isn't rooted in rich soil? I could have made that spear harder than any steel while still as flexible as wood with enough time! I'll do the same to any spot of the ship Franky points out during our travels. Because that's my training! But only if you stop insulting me!" Dave shouted in indignation.

He concentrated the last of his stamina for the spear to grow out of the third of the broken first spear with the spearhead, though this time it ended up being a little shorter because he made its initial form sturdier.

"Whatever. You continue the tour, I'll find Sanji," the reincarnee waved away as he put the other two-thirds back in the bag he had received from Franky before. That bag would be his road to fortune and riches if he ever needed it before he went 'home' for his actual buried riches.

Just like that, the voyage toward the Strawhat's newest member Brook and their next run-in with one of the seven warlords on the Thriller Bark arc continued. Dave spent most of it either relaxedly making clothes for the girls, much to Sanji's and his own elation, training his devil fruit by making his new spear and the Thousand Sunny sturdier, discussing Life Return and medicine with Chopper or training his body.

He also slipped in some strengthening for Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Robin after he finally figured out Digestion and Absorption. It wasn't much, but Dave noticed that his previous limit that he trained and ate himself back to after strengthening someone wasn't his old limit.

Granting someone strength through his grow-grow fruit was actual training for his upper potential and so far, it looked to be without bottlenecks. Well, he wasn't anywhere close to even the physical strength of ordinary Marine Vice Admirals, so he took that piece of information with a grain of salt.

It took almost two weeks of bad weather and many misadventures of Usopp and Luffy, like catching a shark that ate all the fish they caught before and placed in their aquarium, before they met the infamous skeleton musician in the Florian Triangle.

The rest happened just as it did in the manga because Dave kept quiet most of the time. Luffy asked Brook to join immediately. They eventually noticed he had no reflection or shadow. A ghost 'broke in', and the ship was eventually caught inside the moving island from West Blue called Thriller Bark.

With his parting words, Brook told the crew to leave him behind and flee while they still could, but Luffy was Luffy, so the crew obviously stayed. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper left on the Mini Merry and immediately got caught, followed by the invisible Absalom messing around with the crew left on the Thousand Sunny. Yet after he messed with Sanji by catching his legs when he tried to jump after Nami, Absalom made the mistake of going after Dave.

With his eyes closed and observation haki primed, as weak as it was - though Dave didn't have any 'real' comparisons, Dave thrust his Treasure Tree Adam wood spear right into the invisible pervert's throat.

Desperately trying to breathe, but with blood spurting and the tip of the spear blocking his airway, Absalom dropped his invisibility. The man with a lion's mouth sewn on and long, blonde hair looked at Dave in confusion, horror, indignation, and hatred.

"Why did you do that?" Luffy asked with a frown.

"Do what?"

"You immediately went for the kill," Luffy reiterated, uncomfortable with the lethal attack on a simple 'prankster'.

"That man is Gecko Moria's left hand, Absalom. He used his fruit to lick Robin just now. Imagine what he does to a weaker Nami if he gets away," Dave countered with furrowed brows. 'And like that, Blackbeard's team has one less overpowered fruit... most likely. Who knows where it ends up with the thing Adam did. That dude from Impel Down, Shiryu, got this one originally, right?'

Robin, eager to change the topic because she didn't mind Dave's ruthless approach, asked in concern, "Gecko Moria? As in Moria, one of the seven Warlord of the Sea?"

"Yep," Dave replied, popping the 'P'.