Batarilla Part 5

Tea now in hand, I continued "Thank you for the tea. Sorry about just going straight to the serious stuff, but I'd like to get it over with before relaxing."

Rouge sighed.

"If you must."

"Okay. Anyways, before tea, I wanted to find out how far along you were Rouge. And I do know that you're not just gonna give birth while there is major Marine presence here, otherwise, your child dies."

Vipeba chimed in before Rouge could say a word, and he, matter-of-factly stated "Sir! I can say she's seven months along! The child should be born anytime now!"

I could only sigh at this.

"Vipeba, did you not listen even the slightest? I said that Rouge here would most likely, through sheer willpower, not give birth for a while, at least until the Marines no longer suspect a child of the Pirate King himself to exist. That will be longer than what you could ever expect, Vipeba. It will defy your original thoughts on how the world works, as willpower, while it may sound a bit stupid, is incredibly powerful."

Vipeba stared at me, and waving his hand, shoo-ing away what I just said, he answered with "Sir, there's no way willpower does anything. I've learned that the body doesn't do that, willpower doesn't have any affect on the body! It's a mental thing!"

He was speaking as if it was taboo to think otherwise, and I could only shake my head, and stare at him, slightly off put by his opinion. Instead of speaking to him, I turned to Rem.

"Rem, I never actually asked you if you would be willing to fullfil a role on my ship. I just assumed that Rosa was going to make you, and realized the lapse in my judgement. Now, I have given you the option of wether or not you wanted to work with weapons, which I could very much assume was a no. I never gave you a choice, so let me ask: would you be willing to fullfil the role of being a doctor on my ship?"

I could tell Rosalina and Taki both tensed, Mariga just resting in my arms, Alice and Rouge observing, and Vipeba just thinking this through.

"Now, you don't have to worry about travelling and experiencing the world, nor about your art, I think I've proven I won't do anything drastic to make you do something. In fact, I haven't asked you to do much, as there wasn't much you needed to do. While being the doctor will have an increase in workload, you'll still be able to do whatever you want. So, whatcha say to this?"

The room became dead silent, and some tension appeared, as i could tell Vipeba had started to realize what was happening.

"Um.. are you.. really sure.. about all that?"

Rem was slightly conflicted, but only very slightly. She looked at Rosalina for her opinion, and she acknowledged it.

"Rem, sadly, the world is awful. You will indeed have to do something to contribute, but other than that, I have seen Buggy, Taki, and even Alice here do something aside from relaxing, which leads me to the idea that you will be well off no matter the role you play on his ship and his crew."

"Hmm."

Rem turned and faced forward for a second, then turned to me and gave me a straight answer. "I would love to be your doctor. Thank you for having me."

She let a slight smile escape, while I, in a happy mood from the news, steeled myself for what I was going to do and say next.

"Now, Vipeba. My original plan for you was to have you become my own ship's doctor. Now, things have changed, with the appearance of Rem, and you no longer fullfil that role as Rouge still has not given birth, and will not for a while. I still need a doctor to take care of her, making sure she stays alive, even after so long after not bearing a child. It may sound insane to you, but trust me, it is very much possible."

Vipeba, after hearing that I didn't need him for anything else than keeping Rouge alive, clenched his fists as some anger was visible. Seeing this, I was inclined to continue speaking.

"You know what, Vipeba? I did think you were an open minded person, but you don't want to even think of a possibility that there is other things than what you learned before?"

I thought I saw some visible, physical rage appear, but it was my imagination, but I continued.

"I mean, you were indeed ready to leave your home island, but not ready to leave your preconceptions back there as well. I mean, you do know that your own tribe tried to cook and eat Taki here, right?"

He stood up quickly, then turning to me.

"I'm sorry that I'm antagonizing you Vipeba, I just need you to understand that everything from your home needs to be put to the back of your mind, so you can openly explore other things than your medical knowledge."

He grimaced, I could only think it was from the realization that I had something, and he was in the wrong.

"But, the fact you were even willing to leave means that you can change, and I indeed think you can do so. Those words don't mean I don't have a pla-"

Before I could even finish, he ran off to a room, and slammed it closed, and that was the end.

"Uhm.. I guess he didn't want to hear the actual plan for him, huh?"

"You.. are a very odd person, Buggy." Rouge spoke first.

"Bugs, you didn't have to say those things." Taki spoke, as if they were in a line.

"There was more? Wait, did I replace him?" Rem was starting to think it was her fault for Vipeba becoming so angry.

"Buggy, that is a week, at the least, of travel down the drain." Rosalina answered, not actually answering the question.

"..." Alice was being quiet, along with a resting Mariga, and an unopinionated Djane.

".. I know. All of you. But, if my worldview is too different from someone on my crew, we may actually never be able to do anything. And since I never actually finished, I was going to go and talk to him later. First though, how about we calm down like how you wanted, Rouge?"

She was a little off put from what I had just said, but decided to answer "You have control of this, I can only think you are going to fix it, so why not?"

We all took a sip of tea in sync, and the looked at each other. The first to speak though was Alice.

"Hey, Bugs? Why is your arm bandaged so much? What happened to it?"

I let out a small laugh.

"That's a long story. But, since I shouldn't be serious, I'll give a short summary. I fought a really strong guy. He supposedly had a two billion approximate bounty, but i defeated him nonetheless. And thanks to that fight, I lost my arm." I unwrapped my right arm, letting Mariga go, and spooling the bandage.

"But, because of Djane here, I was able to get this replacement." I twisted my arm, showing off the shininess of it, still looking brand new.

Alice and Rouge were immediately staring at it, realizing my original arm was not there.

"Now, I do have reason as to why didn't just have my own arm replaced with an exact replica or a clone, or anything. It's because-"

"What do you mean, 'replaced with an exact replica or a clone, or anything.'?"

I stopped myself from continuing, then looked over and before I said anything, Rosalina stepped in, figuratively, to speak on it.

"It means that Djane here, has learned and coined the ability to regenerate limbs. It essentially makes it easier to survive a life ending wound. I offered Buggy here to have Djane do so, but he declined for his own reasons."

'It's like I wasn't needed there. I mean, I shouldn't always be needed from me, which would be ideal.'

They looked at me, as Mariga woke up, and immediately became infatuated with my arm.

"Shiny! Father! What's with your arm?"

"Well, you see, it's my new one! I didn't want to get a normal one, as that would defeat the purpose of some vows I made. I'm going to become stronger and keep my promises. All of them."

'I'm just gonna leave the "leave my old self behind" out of it. Not everyone knows, and not everyone needs to know about my past. I only trust a few people, and then absolutely no one else.'

Mariga held onto my new arm, and I lifted her up, still sitting on the couch.

•

For about an hour, we just sat around, chatting about any topic that came up, with a lot of explanation along with it if needed, like Djane and Rem, who had their history changed to keep their Devil Fruit existence a secret.

After that amount of time, a thought came to mind.

'What if I try to use Conquerers to make her will stronger?'