The Journey

It had been a week since the incident happened.

The crew that had severe injuries had finally stabilized, and were on pace to make a full recovery; except the amputee, of course. Speaking of which, I wanted to know whether or not he wanted to continue pirating, so I had payed him a visit the other day to hear his own opinions on the matter. 

Walking into the patient ward, I heard gentle conversations along with pleasant laughter die down as they slowly turned their heads to look at me. The previous light-hearted environment slowly turned to a tense one as I slowly walked towards the amputee, Rodrick.

"Yo! Commander," Rodrick greeted.

"How're you feeling?" I asked.

"I feel perfect! I'm sure I'll be in perfect fighting condition too, if you'll have me, that is;" Rodrick responded.

"That's if you're fine to keep going like that."

"That's great! I don't feel like retiring just yet, you know?" Rodrick exclaimed jovially.

Consequently, the previous air of tension that previously covered the patient ward slowly turned back to its original light-hearted atmosphere. It seemed that they had been worried that I might kick Rodrick off the team because he lost a limb or something.

Moreover, to be fair, losing an arm would lead to severe consequences in the sea; however, it doesn't mean that it is guranteed that the person in question would die.

I left the hospital and slowly made my way back to the ship. Noticing the quiet trailing presence that was behind me, I couldn't help but call them out, I really didn't like stalkers much.

Ken soon emerged from the shadows and landed right next to me as I continued walking.

"Are you sure about this?" Ken asked curiously.

"What's wrong with having him aboard?"

"It's just that, his lost arm can prove to be a hindrance to the crew," Ken responded.

"We'll just have to wait and see, assumptions kill, don't you know?"

"I know but...." Ken started before I rudely interrupted.

"Besides, I know someone who's quite strong, but only has an arm;"

Ken continued to ponder about what I had said for quite a while. Looking at his face, he was probably searching his memory trying to remember an amputee that we had met who was strong, but his efforts would have bore no fruit, at least not yet. Shanks would have lost his arm in the future, but there was no need to tell Ken that at the moment.

We kept walking until we made it back on the ship, and we found Stussy on a call with Dr. Vegapunk. She seemed to be talking about helping Ginny out on trying to fix her disease, and Vegapunk was simply asking some questions regarding this perculiar position that he found Ginny in.

I kept quiet and decided to head to the back of the ship to take a nap. I would talk to her when I got up later.

A few more days passed, and soon, it was time for us to begin our trip to Water 7. The doctor had given the appropriate medicine to the crew so that they could resolve some of the symptoms that they were still feeling on an occassional basis. However, other than that, everyone looked like they were back in fighting condition.

I soon gave out the order to start sailing for Water 7, and I also decided to bring the former Golden Lion affiliates with me as well. I was thinking about using them during an emergency scenario in which the crew would probably need some more assistance. 

By now, the crew had long since gotten over the fact that they were almost killed by that pirate crew, and they seemed to have successfully intergrated them among their ranks. I remembered that they had once said that they didn't want to join the Whitebeard Pirates. However, it looked like that offer was slowly and slowly beginning to rear its head back at them; and forcing them to accept that situation, not that there was anything wrong with it.

Ken immediately started training the potential Whitebeard Pirate recruits and made them join the three group shift rotation. The only person who wasn't really happy during this journey was me, and that was because we had forgotten to grab a couch so that we could lay it on the deck for me to lounge on.

"Maybe it's better this way, you have been getting quite lazy lately," Stussy mentioned thoughtfully.

I could only growl at her to shut up as I continued to drink some wine that we had bought from the town. 

"By the way.."I began, "How's Ginny doing with Vega Punk?"

"Vegapunk said that he was going to research her condition a bit more now that he's got the gist of it," Stussy replied, "He just doesn't know whether or not it's going to take too long."

I had forgotten to ask her after I woke up, so I was only remembering to follow up at that moment of time.

I subconciously waved off a storm that was slowly trying to form above us as I continued to enjoy my drink, it was slow days like this. That I slowly came to start enjoying.

The days passed as we edged closer and closer towards Water 7, but the annoying thing was that the closer we got there. The more frequent the storms began to form, I went from waving a storm off once a day, to waving them off once every two hours. Moreover, the storms kept forming even more frequently after that.

Scrapping my brain trying to remember why this was happening, I slowly began to remember the fact that they had this kind of rainfall once a year.

"Aqua Laguna," I muttered quietly.

In the distance, I could see the volcanic like structure of Water 7. It was beautiful in the distance, but the lore behind it was saddening to hear, but that wouldn't be my problem. 

We slowly found a nice harbor to dock the ship before stepping out. I had a feeling that Tom was still within the city, so I used my Observation haki to cover the entire island to search for him. Eventually, I managed to find him, he was in the docks on the opposite side of the island. I immediately began to lead the group towards him, at least so that I could get a quote on the price of the ship that we could have commissioned from his company.

The inhabitants of Water 7 were weary enough, they would often avoid us as we passed by. Stussy was the only one who seemed to greet them, but other than that, nobody really payed any mind towards the citizens of the island.

After walking across the town, we eventually reached the harbor that Tom was in. I left the group in the entrance so as not to intimidate Tom's men. As I slowly walked towards him, more and more men slowly began to follow me from a reasonable distance. It was clear that my presence wasn't really welcomed within the company, but that was going to be there problem because I didn't really care about it.

Eventually, I found a huge fishman scolding two young children. He didn't seem mad, but he was sure as hell annoyed with them. He finally noticed my presence and turned around to look at me, and his first words of greeting was simply.

"What the hell does Whitebeard want this time, brat?!"