Chapter 6: Devils, Black Magic, and Really Bad Eggs 1/5

A Good Ship

Xipholynx

Summary: Reincarnation doesn't always land you in the same type of body as your previous one. Luffy sets sail from his home in a living ship and goes on a journey to "to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures, and to become King of the Pirates." AU

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Six - Devils, Black Magic, and Really Bad Eggs

"Am I tough? Am I strong? Am I hard-core? Absolutely.

Did I whimper with pathetic delight when I sank my teeth into my hot fried-chicken sandwich? You betcha." - James Patterson

((100 yen = 100 beris in this story))

"It's time," Luffy said, a serious expression for once was on his face, rather than his habitual smile. Medaka sat opposite from him, a similar expression on her own face.

"Right. We can't be pirates without one. Otherwise, we're just sailing around, right?" Medaka said, with a questioning glance over to Ann who was smiling in amusement but otherwise nodded in agreement.

A grin split over Luffy's face and he let out a whoop! "That's right! It's time to paint our flag! I want it on Dawn's sail too!"

"Alright the contestants are ready so let the flag versus flag contest begin!" Dawn spoke like an announcer for a sporting event, her voice coming up from around them rather than from a lure. "We have the challenger: The Bane of Pirate Goons. Tiny but with a Mighty Pirate spirit. The Red Terror hailing from Ukoniro Island: Pirate Apprentice Medaka! And the defending champion today: from the Island of the Rising Sun. The Dominator of the Tiger and Bear Lords of Mount Colubo. The Menace of the Midway Forest and Future King of the Pirates: Captain Monkey D Luffy!"

Medaka and Luffy, dressed up in colorful leotards like they were wrestlers and armed with paintbrushes and paint cans, faced across from each other in front of one blank black flag each and held their brushes up and at the ready, both with their ''serious" faces back on. Mango-Tango, Very-Berry, and Mishell Greenbill were roosting together in the coop, watching the proceedings while clucking and quack-chuffing towards each other pleasantly

"Contestants at the ready - the name of the game is to create a pirate emblem that shows the world that we're the Straw Hat Pirates! I hope to see awesome or terrifying designs from both of you! Ready! Set! Make your marks!"

Dawn cheered and let out an amused laugh as Luffy and Medaka began to paint competitively (and intensely) against each other.

Nami, who was making a valiant effort to chart the Straw Hat's progress so far, was up on the poop deck to the back of where Luffy and Medaka were having their contest. (She had gasped in delight when Dawn grew a table and chair for her up from the deck adjacent to the helm when she had mentioned it would be nice to work outside while the weather was nice.)

She turned her head over to talk to Ann, who was just in front of the desk helping Balloon preen the head feathers that he couldn't reach with a finger comb, and said, "You've all actually been going in a giant spiral since you left Shell Village. Take a look here, Ann- you all completely arched around the Gecko Islands and missed them completely and now we're in the Sambas Region already. We're so close to the Calm Belt that a good stiff breeze would knock us into it before the day is through."

"We definitely don't want to end up there." Ann chatted back with a slight grimace on her face. She paused her pampering of Balloon with the finger comb she had in her hand and turned to address Nami seriously. "Some of the sea kings living there are big enough to snatch a News Coo out of the sky if they're enthusiastic enough about getting a meal."

Nami paled and with a groan rested her palm across her forehead. "I was actually going for the fact that the Calm Belt is a doldrum sea but thank you for telling me another reason for us to avoid it at all cost."

"You're welcome." Ann chirped back with a grin before covering her mouth as she gave a jaw cracking yawn. "Ugh. I really need to just make a list of low power spells for me to use in a fight so I'm not so hungry and tired after using such draining spells. All this back and forth is really giving me migraines and fatigue for days afterward."

"You're still not back on your feet? It's nearly been two days since our fight with those clowns." Zoro said as he went through what was probably his 500th set of reps for his late-morning workout.

Ann pointed the finger comb at Zoro aggressively and said, "Well not everyone on this crew is some kind of stamina beast that can just sleep off stab wounds and feel better the next day. Magic energy just doesn't come from anywhere, you know. If I don't feed and rest myself properly I could starve or exhaust myself to death within just a day or so."

"Isn't there any other way for you to get your energy back faster?" Nami asked, feeling a bit concerned for Ann's continued health.

"I could leech off all of you guys instead, but Luffy is already enough work to feed without making him feel even hungrier," Ann said as she rolled her eyes at the thought.

Nami leaned ever so slightly away from Ann and asked. "You drain the stamina from the people around you?"

"Just because I'm able to do it doesn't mean that I would ever do it. It's supposed to be incredibly addictive once a magic-user begins to do it. They end up dependent on it and begin to constantly look for times to drain the people around them, causing massive plagues on their islands, or people around them to feel more hungry and tired than usual, or they will start to go hunting for natural magic amplifiers like Balloon here. I'd rather die than ever end up using Balloon like that, so it's good old fashioned food and rest for me after I use a big spell." Ann said, ending her fierce vow with an affectionate scratch behind Balloon's head feather tuft, to which he clattered his beak back at her in blissful happiness.

"What's the difference between a big spell and a little spell, then?" Nami asked. "There should be some way to measure how much power you're actually using right?"

Ann seemed embarrassed as she admitted. "A lot of my magic I've had to learn by trial and error. I only had maybe two years of real lessons before I needed to start learning what I could on my own. I just go based on how something feels. Here, I'll show you a bit. Dawn, would you make a bird lure as big as you can?"

"Yes, here you go," Dawn said and a bud suddenly sprouted out from the side of her mast, growing until it almost reached Ballon's size before it unfurled a pair of wings revealing the shape of a seagull.

Ann walked over to it and tapped it on its beak while holding one of Balloon's shed feathers and said, "Featherweight."

Then with only her palm extended she reached underneath the lure and lifted it up above her head without the slightest sign of strain, causing Nami and Zoro to stare in astonishment and curiosity respectively. "Here. See how easy I can lift this? Your lure is now light and still sturdy enough to lift probably 75 kilos. This spell isn't very tiring, a nap or extra serving of food at lunch would be enough to replenish me after I cast it."

Ann then lowered the supernaturally lightened lure down back to the deck where Dawn flew it up to settle on the spar beneath the crow's nest so it would be safely out of the way for the time being while Ann continued her explanation. "Something like this or my Feather Sleep spell is the easiest for me to cast - I've been doing them ever since I started trying to make my own spells. It's when I have to think up something new quickly or use a spell I've never tried before when it's a gamble over how much energy I end up using. Lots of my own spells just don't have enough offensive power if someone is very strong physically or magically, unfortunately. Before Luffy recruited me I usually just left all the magic casting to Balloon since he's so good at it."

'The big bird is good at magic?' Nami wondered as she stared disbelieving at the happily cooing Balloon. It seemed like a regular bird to her - the duck-turtle seemed more magical in Nami's opinion.

"You said bird magic is what you're best at so how can you make something lighter and how did you make a storm like the one before?" Zoro asked in the meantime. Even if he couldn't understand or use magic he understood fighting and was already thinking up exercises he could suggest for Ann to use for her to increase her stamina with.

"I thought up a thunderbird spirit to chase the pirates away," Ann admitted. "After a year and a day, it will return to Gaimon's island to protect it. No matter what spell I use I need to be able to mentally picture something about it related to birds for it to work: feathers, eggs, specific species, and their traits to call on what I need magic to do. Feathers are light so that's how I can make things a little bit lighter."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure out something. It's not like you have to think up a way to fix this problem you're having today." Nami said with a shrug.

"FINISHED!" Medaka and Luffy suddenly called out at the same time, halting any further magic talk for the moment.

They picked their flags up from the deck and rushed to stand in front of Ann, Zoro, and Nami. They were both splattered and smudged with white, yellow, and red paint but were also smiling triumphantly and waited for their attention to focus onto them.

Once everyone was paying attention to them Luffy revealed his flag design first. The skull was warped and lopsided, the hat it wore was askew, and for some reason, it had three rows of warped teeth in a crooked smile.

There was a moment of disbelieving silence before Nami broke it with a deadpan voice. "A pirate flag is supposed to be a symbol of terror on the sea."

"Well, it is terrifying in its own way," Zoro replied to her quip.

"I do feel terror, but it's only terror over Luffy's artistic skills," Ann admitted.

"Here, look at mine," Medaka said as she lifted her own flag higher to show it to everyone.

Medaka's revealed design in comparison was practically a work of art. It had a skinny pair of white crossed bones set behind a red circle with a smiling skull that was wearing a straw hat in front of the red circle.

"What's with the red circle? Is it supposed to mean anything?" Nami asked.

"It's for that saying, you know 'red sky in the morning, sailors take warning'. This way Dawn can have her name be known by other people when we're heading towards them." Medaka said with a proud smile.

Even Luffy seemed to like it, even if it did mean that he would lose the flag painting contest. "That's our mark then! Dawnie! Help Medaka paint it on your sail while I tie this flag on the top of your mast!"

With the vines and ropes, Dawn could manipulate freely her sail was painted with their new symbol by the time Luffy had finished securing the flag to the mast and jumped back onto her deck with a tuck and roll to cut off too high of a rebound bounce. After that was done Luffy and Medaka changed out of their painting costumes and put on their regular daywear, though they both still had paint smudges on their arms and hands.

Nami dragged Luffy over to her desk to pester him into making a heading decision which was frustrating to her because he couldn't decide between wanting to go "somewhere awesome before we reach the Grand Line" or "somewhere with tasty food so we can celebrate our new flag."

Zoro, now finished with his own workout, was giving Medaka a beginner's course in using a sword properly, using a wooden bokken that he had convinced Dawn to grow for Medaka to practice with. She was taking to it very enthusiastically and working hard in order for Zoro to find her skills passable enough to 'graduate' her to use a real sword during a combat situation.

Only ten minutes later the News Coo arrived, standing politely on the railing behind Ann while waiting for Balloon to permit him to approach closer. Balloon, completely satiated by his previous grooming by Ann, let out a coo like a peaceful dove, so the News Coo nudged at Ann's shoulder to get her attention over to him.

Ann smiled up at the bird and scratched his feathered head for a moment before she paid for the delivery. The News Coo warbled its appreciation to her and flew away, feeling energetic and satisfied.

Ann skimmed the headlines and was surprised to find something interesting in the new bounties released that week.

"Look at this! You've got your first bounty, Luffy!" Ann called over, drawing Luffy and Nami immediately over to her side while Zoro and Medaka hovered nearby.

On the wanted poster, there was a sketched out drawing of a smiling monkey (with Luffy's crescent-shaped scar under the wrong eye) wearing a straw hat that apparently was supposed to pass for Luffy's likeness. Ann read it out loud for everyone to hear. "WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: Monkey D Luffy for 1,500,000 beris. For the crimes of declaring himself a pirate, aiding and abetting the escape of a dangerous prisoner condemned to be executed, assaulting a Captain of the Marines, thievery of weapons from a marine base, and destroying government property."

Dawn chuckled at the wanted poster and said. "Well, technically all that is true. I guess Koby had to let his superiors know what happened in Shells Town."

"Woohoo!" Luffy was ecstatic even with a somewhat low starting bounty. "We have our mark AND I got my first bounty! This day is so great!"

"Congratulations Luffy. We should celebrate I suppose." Ann praised Luffy's accomplishment as a professional pirate with a smile.

"Alright, Nami! Let's celebrate our flag and my first bounty! We need celebration food so let's go to an island with a good restaurant!" Luffy declared with a delighted smile.

Nami took a look at her chart and upon spotting a hand-written set of coordinates in the margin smiled when she was reminded of how close they were to a place she'd wanted to visit for the last three years but never had the chance to up until now. It would have slipped her mind entirely if she hadn't remembered what the coordinates were for thanks to Luffy's demands of food.

"There's a famous restaurant we'd be able to reach in time for lunch nearby. It's called the Baratie. I've heard it's an upscale and expensive place which is why I've never been there before. But if you all don't mind paying for me so I don't have to use my own funds to eat we can go there. How would you all like to go to a restaurant that floats on the sea?" Nami suggested.

"A floating restaurant?" Luffy echoed before breaking into an enthusiastic cheer. "Shishishi! That sounds great! Let's go there! If the food is good then we might be able to find a cook to join the crew."

Upon hearing that they might finally be able to get a decent cook Ann and Zoro immediately agreed to Nami's terms and conditions. They mutually agreed that it would be well worth the cost to pay for Nami's meal - even if she for some reason decided to order the entire menu and then go for seconds - then have to ever again sit down to another meal cooked by Dawn.

Nami worked with Dawn and with her directions within less than two hours the Straw Hats were closing in on the most unusual looking ship anyone of them had ever seen - and considering they sailed with Dawn that was saying something.

It looked as though a giant fish had popped up out of the water with a building attached to its back. The outside walls were painted a pale pastel green color with white shutters and rails. It was gigantic with three separate levels sticking up out of the water in the shape of a tiered cake like how the Island of Rare Animals had been. Just the 'head' of the fish was nearly as big as Dawn's entire body from aft to stern. The ship was so big it had its own dock built onto it which allowed other ships to moor onto it. There were currently six various sized ships already docked there, not including Dawn.

Everyone disembarked from Dawn and excitedly made their way towards the entrance of the restaurant. Luffy was rapidly bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, making it look like he was smudged in the air while he literally vibrated with excitement. Zoro was smiling and hoped he'd be able to find a bottle of Shimotsuki made sake which was his favorite but was tricky to find very often. Nami hadn't been to such an upscale place without having to sneak around to complete a job instead of just for herself before. Medaka had never thought she'd see a ship even more outlandish than Dawn. Ann could already smell the delicious scents coming from the ship's kitchen and she had to hold herself back from drooling over how good it all smelled.

Even Balloon seemed excited to be there as he strutted down the restaurant dock with them - allowing Dawn's second lure, which was shaped like a squirrel, to ride on top of his head without a protest. His enthusiasm was completely dampened when Ann spotted and pointed out a sign in front of the restaurant doors that read "No Pets Allowed - This includes cats, dogs, birds, and ESPECIALLY rats! No Exceptions!"

Dawn, upon reading the sign, jumped from where she was perched on Balloon and scurried over to quickly hide in the pocket of Luffy's cuffed jeans. Ann gave Balloon a sympathetic pat on the head when he warbled sadly and the excitement seemed to drain out from his body.

"Please don't be sad, Balloon. I'll order something I know you'll like while we're inside and I'll bring it out for you, alright?" He gratefully preened Ann's hair and gave a gruff sound of agreement before flying back up to Dawn's crow's nest and settled in to watch the sea and sky from his new favorite perch. At least he wouldn't have to wait too long to see his favorite person again, this time with some tasty food for him to eat.

Everyone entered the restaurant together and paused to take in the interior scenery. It really was a high-end place with what looked like real silver silverware, crystal glassware, china plates and bowls, and soft linen tablecloths and napkins. There was a spiral staircase winding around the main mast where waiters were speeding up and down with impressive agility and speed from the kitchen to the customers and back.

The place was busy, but not overly packed, with guests that included everyone from a wealthy-looking overweight man with fancy coiffed hair wearing a blue shirt patterned with gold triangles, to a pair of pretty women sitting with each other having a laughter-filled conversation, to a red-eyed man sitting alone with a glass of wine that matched his eyes and nearly a dozen other sailors, civilians and wealthy people. A thin and weary-looking man whose nice suit looked ill-fitted greeted them as they came up to the podium at the front of the restaurant.

"Welcome to the Baratie. A group of five? Are you civilians or sailors?" The waiter asked, 'sailor' being a common slang term for someone whose career was something on the sea (including merchants, marines, explorers, bounty hunters, and even pirates) but who didn't want to be specific about what they did for a living.

It was a wasted sentiment on Luffy though and not being one for subtlety proudly and loudly announced. "We're pirates of course!"

The attention of the diners immediately seemed to focus on their group, not with fear but something like excited anticipation. The waiter sighed and in a nearly monotone voice said, "As per the request of Chef Patty, if you declare yourself a pirate 'you must pay for your meal when you order it, you filthy bastards. I'll crack the skull of any dine-and-dasher.' Allow me one moment to prepare, if you'll allow it."

"Prepare for what?" Ann asked, feeling bewildered by the strange reaction.

"For you pirates to say something like 'We're not paying you anything, now give us food and booze you fool or we'll kill everyone here' and then make a ruckus that will draw the cooks out here who will then kick you all out after a fight." The waiter said, sounding as dry and exhausted as a desert in the midst of a drought.

"Do we have to do that, Luffy? I thought we were going to pay for our lunch since we're celebrating." Medaka piped up, turning to Luffy for confirmation.