OP C09 - Trip to West Blue

It didn't take long for me to find listening devices all over our ship - so Germa 66 wasn't nearly as benelovent as their actions implied. It was just that they apparently wanted something a little more subtle. No matter how I racked my brains, I couldn't find out what, though. Unless, of course, the underworld or Germa 66 at the very least already suspected our ship in the disappearance of all the slave merchants in North Blue.

Kalifa recounted how a man in a stealth suit peaked into the brig while we were gone, but she simply pretended to be asleep and she hid her face for good measure while flexing the facial muscles to look slightly different. She was being so obedient, I almost felt bad about keeping her in her cell for so long.

Who was I kidding, I did feel bad. Once we were far enough that I thought Germa 66 wasn't close enough, I gave Hator the order to gather all the den-den mushi on the ship while I disabled the listening devices. Ideally, I wanted to keep at least one open, but if I wanted to allow Kalifa to roam the ship while we were on water, I couldn't take the risk of her finding the device and trying to contact the other side for a sort of deal.

Since even Marie and Lope who were both on the ship at the time and had unlocked their observation haki didn't find a man who planted the bugs or felt his presence, I double and triple checked every corner of the ship without finding anyone.

With Raki, who was a lot less gullible than Marie leading Kalifa around the ship to show her around, I was eventually working in the infirmary, checking up on Russian, our sleeping beauty. Marie did nice work in the physical therapy department by flexing her joints and tendons, which, together with my powers, meant the woman looked like a healthy young woman in her late 20s.

Before the Germa 66 kingdom appeared, I noticed by the increased yet random movements of her eyes and other signs of brain activity that the woman might be waking up soon.

When she did, Marie was working to relax the muscles in the woman's neck by gently bending her head in every possible direction with her hands on both sides of Russian's face.

"Hmm, Gimlet, let mommy sleep a little longer," Russian mumbled while trying her hardest to lift up a hand and swat away Marie's grasp.

"Hello, Russian-san. I'm afraid I am not your baby Gimlet. My name is Marie, a nurse on Doctor Perry's ship, and you've been non-responsive for quite a while," Marie gently replied while lifting her hands away from the woman's head.

The long-time patient slowly gathered all her thoughts and started crying as loudly as her weak form allowed. I judged it would be unfair to Marie to leave her alone with the woman so abruptly, so I stayed behind for support. I didn't want Marie to relive losing her baby all alone with a fellow mother who lost her child.

I did, however, keep a respectful distance to give the woman some space. Russian didn't know me or my reputation, so waking up on a ship far away from home with a male stranger sitting at her bedside would only agitate her more.

After holding her hands and whispering reassuring words to her for a while, Russian finally looked to Marie and began asking some more substantial questions, like where she was, how long she was out, which led her to ask where her husband Senor Pink was.

Marie looked to me for an answer because it was sensitive topic, so for the first time I spoke up, "I am afraid that since your husband was a notorious, unrepentant pirate under the employ of a man capable of great evil, I have to inform you that he has passed since bringing you to our ship."

Russian finally looked a little at peace, even if there was still quite a bit of reluctance in her expression, "How did he die? Did you do it?"

"That is a hard to answer question. Not because killing him was difficult but because I have a particular reputation to uphold."

"So what, you're a rival pirate?" Russian spat with a little disdain.

I shook my head, "No, far from it. I'm a wandering doctor and to ease pirates, criminals and evil-doers into a false sense of security and have them attack us in the best of cases instead of fleeing at the sight of our sails, I have cultivated an image of a weak, altruistic doctor bringing health, clothes and food to the poor."

Russian looked impressed, and Kalifa, who listened from behind the locked door, had a complicated expression on her face - which I later learned from Lope which confirmed what my observation haki emotion sensing told me.

I knew Kalifa listened in, which was why I gave Lope the mission to scope out her reactions while roaming the ship in his cloud form. If he concentrated, Lope didn't look like a big voluminous cloud in that form but simple, light, see-through fog.

So since her reactions to everything looked genuine, she was either the best actor in the world or she reluctantly excepted that while I opposed the world government, I did make the world a better place for the common folk.

Now, all Kalifa would have to make me believe was that she actually cared for the common people of the world. After all, the WG and the nobles of this world excused all of their evil, especially the evil done to islands not paying Heavenly Tribute or taxes, by thinking of people living on these islands as lesser.

I left the infirmary after a few more reassuring words, and she could decide when and where to leave our ship in the next few days after accepting her new normal. I had no problem leaving her a few thousand belli to make a new life for herself on whatever island she would decide to stay at. I also had no problem leaving Marie alone with the woman now that she seemingly got out of the never-ending downward spiral of negative emotions that Marie might get caught up in.

Outside of the infirmary, Raki came back from the kitchen with a few hot drinks for herself, Kalifa, and me. Apparently, she allowed Kalifa to listen in after she somehow noticed what I was talking about with Russian.

I did a little smalltalk with the two women and left them to finish the tour as I got up on the deck to talk with Lope.

"I just heard from home," he said while the home he mentioned was code for the RA HQ, "apparently Iva found the Swim-Swim fruit in his kingdom. Which was quite fast, wouldn't you agree?"

"Well, the man died two days ago, and the fruit reappeared where people are. It's quite easy to explain that it was found this fast. Are you telling me this for reasons other than to inform me?"

"Yeah, Iva told our home that you could have dibs if you want the fruit, and the patriarch agreed. Intangibility is quite a good ability, so you only have a little over five days to decide. Our little monkey boy comes to pick up the three fruit on our side seven days from now and he could either bring it with him, or leave it for someone else at that time," Lope explained.

"I could have dibs? Did he say why?"

"'He vas honest and charming vhen he rejected the beautiful me. Credit vhere credit is due' he said. Though, it's probably just payback for you strengthening two of his officers, Inazuma and Bentham, without bickering with him at all like the other leaders do when he requests something."

"Huh, alright, good. Right now, we don't have any crew members to get the fruit for, and it won't do to just block someone else from getting such a useful ability. So let's wait out the deadline for now. Heh, who knows, maybe Muret will surprise us all or that Russian lady wants to fight pirates with us or something," I pondered out loud with a laugh at the end.

"You're recruiting only human women these days. When are we recruiting a chubby little bear goddess for me?"

"Hey, you find one, and I'm the first to invite her to the ship. It's not like I refused all the options so far. Because to my knowledge, there weren't any," I argued, "And what do you mean I'm recruiting only women these days? There's only Marie and Raki, and then there's three of us and the six sailors. Marie and Raki would still be in the minority even if we do add those two women."

"And that Kalifa woman?"

"Even then. But I'm still very much unconvinced that she truly changed. And, I still hope I don't come to regret the day I didn't simply kill her..."

"Not one for second chances, captain?"

"Didn't I ask you to call me Doctor Perry? Or just call me D or doc like the others do," I countered with an annoyed sigh. "But, yeah, I do believe in second chances. It's hard with Cipher Pol, though. They are all brainwashed from an early age to think of anyone below their station as lesser, and Kalifa wasn't even an orphan but had an agent as a father. So her indoctrination should be so much firmer and thorough... it's hard to believe she shook that off."

"Not even when you live in unimaginable pain for months?"

"Yeah, that bothers me, too. I'm the reason for her pain. Why isn't she trying to kill me and instead seeking redemption at my ship?"

Lope pondered the question for a while and unsurely asked, "And if she saw the error in her ways and made you the scapegoat of a lifetime of guilt?"

"What a big if," I mumbled with a sigh.

Since Germa 66 was potentially on our asses after we removed all the listening devices, we sailed toward Empty Bowl Island to meet up with Muret - if she even listened to my suggestion - as fast as possible even through the night.

Empty Bowl Island used to be a thriving Kingdom called Miso Kingdom, an island of chefs that was decimated and robbed of all its worth after Germa 66 killed four kings, one of which was the Miso King, during their 'Conquest of Four Nations' which Vinsmoke Judge eternalized in a tacky painting in his throne room.

The island itself was left with a giant crater of barren soil in the middle that gave the island its new name after their king died. With no monarchy or political power at the helm, the marines turned a blind eye to the island, which led to its downfall.

Now, the people there are gutted for all their worth and regularly abducted because of the 'chef legacy' families that despite everything still made most of the population amazing cooks. And worst of all, except for the barren crater, the island was still extremely fertile. Which the surroundings islands all exploited after forming an alliance to steal their food in 'equal measure'.

I would argue that if Kuma had sent Sanji there, the surrounding islands would all be in shambles unless they sacrificed their beautiful princesses should they have them, but Kuma was smart enough not to send Sanji to the North Blue where his estranged family was from.

Meeting Muret on the biggest port of the island the next day was easy enough because the woman immediately boarded the ship with a haggard expression.

"You look quite hungry. What happened?"

She looked to me like I was the one who forced her into poverty - which ultimately I did take partial credit for - and answered, "A full month without payment, without food! I had to forage in the outskirts of the city like an animal!"

"Wait, you didn't even get one patient who offered you food in return for treating them or their loved ones?"

Muret's face fell even more. With an aggrieved groan, she asked, "That was an option?"

"Well, I did say you should treat them for free, I never said you couldn't accept their goodwill. How many people did you turn down?"

She began crying, "Almost a hundred. They were all so nice to me when I helped them and didn't ask for anything in return... I didn't even know the people in my home island could be so nice..."

"Oh? You're from Empty Bowl?"

"It was still known as Miso Kingdom when I left. After the king died, I quickly closed the practice my dad left me because the conditions only got worse with every new ship that docked the port... all my friends were taken to the other kingdoms as chefs one after the other, so I fled before someone decided they needed a nurse or doctor, too. That was when Sarquiss recruited me into the Bellamy Pirates. It was the easiest money I ever made. I didn't even have to fight or participate in their villainy. Just bandage their wounds and care for any illness they might get," Muret answered with an empty expression.

Apparently, this little bit of humility the last month gave her a deep impression and an important lesson in life. If she truly realized how a little good can make the world a better place, I won't be reluctant to recruit her after all.

"Then ask Raki to make you something nice and take a long, hot bath. She'll show you the way," I offered and began to once more receive a few patients that hurriedly came to my ship with wounded loved ones.

I treated people for only a few more hours before we bid the people farewell. With Muret present for a month, I only really handed out a few prescriptions with Marie's help and tended to recently inflicted wounds.

When we left North Blue a few days later, Russian stayed on the ship because she didn't want to live in the same seas where her little baby died, and her husband betrayed her trust. She also asked Marie to teach her everything she needed to know as a nurse. She didn't tell us her plans, for example, if she planned to be an employee on the ship or if she simply wanted to learn a practical life skill, but Marie taught her all the same.

It took a little away from her training time with Raki, but with too many eyes on the ship, it was hard to train her logia powers anyway. No matter what she did, whenever she elementalized, the coins that made up her body were very loud. As if you tipped over a giant treasure chest filled with gold. And if that was the case, there was no way she could just train it without everyone on the ship looking for the source of the noise.

I boosted her physical strength, of course, but Marie was still slowly getting left behind more and more by the rest of the crew, who were originally already much stronger than her as they were all people who were raised to be warriors.

I knew it irked her, but I couldn't help her much except for patiently teaching her hand-to-hand combat and haki usage as best I could. And, her being the weakest in the crew still meant she could absolutely thrash any pirate under fifty million belli bounty unless they had some niche abilities that countered her or they had a vastly superior battle acumen. Rudimentary observation and armament haki together her being a logia user ensured that she would survive most encounters at least.

Her observation haki for intent sensing was by far the haki skill she was best in, and it made sense with her empathetic personality. So I was rest assured that she could tell when someone had bad intentions for her if people much stronger than her were not considered.

Still, she stayed behind in my quarters that night with a bright red face to get her shortcut to power.

"Raki... told me about how you are able to strengthen her more than us others with less investment on your part."

"Then she must have also told you what it involves," I answered while pondering my possible response from here.

I liked Marie, she was very pretty, too. If we weren't friends and if I didn't know her history, there was no way I would refuse to bed her if she literally sat on my bed like Marie did at this moment.

But Marie was also a very sentimental person from what I gathered. And we WERE friends. She knew enough about the real me that if we were to enter a physical relationship, she could easily make me fall in love - something I wanted to avoid in this life because I didn't know how much time I had left in this world.

At the same time, I promised myself that I would at least enjoy myself in this life, and so far, I only had two casual partners. By my old lives' standards, that would be me enjoying myself, but in a world that celebrated freedom, it wasn't really.

When I saw Marie only nod and turn down her eyes with a deep crimson blush at my question, I decided to just fuck it. Well, her.

Me and my crew hunted down people we judged as criminals by my own moral compass, and killed them when we could. What was the risk of sleeping with one beautiful woman compared to that?

"Then, no matter how hard it is to hear, I want you to keep in mind that I cannot be 'him' for you and I will not stop seeing Raki to pursue strength. You are a lovely person and deserve happiness. But I don't plan to go into this with the mindset that I wish to become the person to give you this particular form of happiness," I solemnly explained.

I wished to say more, but everything more would only worsen the mood even further. And while the rational part in me was a smidgen reluctant, the man in me was urging me not to cockblock myself.

To show her my decision, I started undressing myself and heading to the bathroom to freshen up. Since she talked it through with Raki, she came prepared and merely undressed until I came back. She used her hands to hide like a shy maiden, which made the rational part in me less rational and I sat beside her in my birthday suit.

"You look sure, well you being naked says you are sure, but are you? This is me asking you for the last time if you want this before I lose my rationality," I said while looking at her body.

She nodded, so I started getting her ready with gentle touches, touches she didn't shy away from. She didn't take long until she lost her apprehension of what we were about to do and sat down on my lap while facing me. Then she did something I feared she would do.

She kissed me deeply and thanked me for all I did for her since rescuing her in Sabaody. Seeing her happy tears as she took me into her made me realise I fucked up.

I was more sure of it than ever. If she wanted, Marie, the raven-haired nurse who should have become a slave without my interference, could easily make me fall in love with her...

After another exciting ride on reverse mountain, we ended up in West Blue as planned the next evening. At nightfall, a golden cloud silently landed near the captain's quarters while hovering behind the ship and its owner knocked on my windows.

"Your Highness, the Monkeyking. Please, welcome to my humble abode on these perilous waters. May I offer you some refreshments?"

I tried to sell the whole royal servant thing as hard as I could as I opened the window for Sabo to enter, but he started laughing and calling me a goofball almost instantly. Keeping it up after that was too hard, so I simply started laughing with him and used my powers to strengthen the man who by now was firmly established as the fourth strongest member of the RA just behind Dragon, Karasu and Ivankov. And true to the 'rubberband-mechanics' of my powers, strengthening someone who was already strong helped elevate the upper limit of my powers.

Sabo still wouldn't win, but he could hold his own against any of the three current Admirals in a one on one for a while, especially since two of them left the Summit War with permanent injuries after trying to cheap shot Whitebeard like the fools they were.

Admiral Akainu couldn't even get a metal replacement arm like most marines in his position would get because his fruit would just melt the arm whenever he unleashed his whole power. He couldn't replace the limb with a magma construct either outside of combat, because nobody, and especially no ship or building was built with those temperatures in mind.

"So, I know it's too late now, but are you sure you don't want the Swim-Swim fruit? Dragon told me you recruited a possible new doctor for the crew."

"And you don't think the fruit I had you bring instead would serve her better?"

"I mean, the paramecia Zoom-Zoom fruit has been in our storage for a while now. On paper it sounds amazing for snipers, but even the most average of snipers have a big enough dynamic vision range and good enough scopes that they can easily see further than their rifles are accurate for. And researchers have access to tools like lenses and microscopes, so they don't need the fruit either, it's too one-dimensional. A few scouts were tempted to eat it, but by that point in time the fruit was already in the storage for so long that it gained a bit of a reputation," Sabo mused.

I nodded and added, "It's still going to be amazing for a doctor, I think. I have a few ideas and directions for Muret to train the fruit powers in if I deem her worthy of eating the fruit in the future. She is quite cowardly, so there was never a way I would want to train her as a front line fighter anyway. I hope the fruit serves her well enough. The Swim-Swim fruit could enable her to flee in every possible scenario, but it's simply too amazing to give to her."

I thought for a moment before I suggested, "Have Belo Betty's right hand Ahiru eat it if she thinks she can combine it well with her cyborg nature. Imagine her hot-swapping different weapon modules by becoming intangible for a short moment. Sounds pretty sweet to me."

Sabo's eyes lit up and he quickly said, "I'll forward your idea! So awesome!"

"Haha, Luffy's eyes always started shining just like that whenever it concerned robots or cyborgs."

Sabo nodded with a sagely expression and stated, "Cyborg's are a man's romance."

"You guys are so weird. Have you met him yet?"

"Ooooh, yes!! I knew I forgot something," Sabo exclaimed excitedly. "I found Luffy and Ace training on Amazon Lily a month ago after randomly flying around on my cloud for a while! You won't believe who I found there also! Silvers Rayleigh!"

"And Boa Hancock was just okay with you three brothers hanging around there? I get why she allows Rayleigh, he saved her after- wait you said you met Rayleigh on Amazon Lily?"

"Haha, yes! The Dark King said that he charmed one of the jailers called Sadi-chan so hard, that she didn't put any handcuffs on him when the fight was over and Blackbeard fled in rage. And when they let their guard down, Rayleigh stole a sword from a guard and cut open the wall next to him, allowing him to swim home to Sabaody! The marines and the WG simply never reported it! He's the coolest dude ever!"

I froze when I heard about that, but quickly started laughing. That sounded like the Rayleigh I loved reading about in the manga.

"Nice, how are Ace and Luffy then? Were they excited to see you?"

"Yes! And I easily won our spars, hehe," Sabo gloated while flexing his muscles, skinny monkey tail included.

"Hmm, crazy that someone trained by Whitebeard would lose to you, but you weren't trained by a wet noodle either. From what I heard, Ace was too reliant on his crazy powerful logia in his battles, though."

"That's exactly what Rayleigh said! So he started punching the bad habits out of his captain's son while using Garp's famed technique Fists of Love. You should see the giant bumps he's giving Luffy and Ace all the time," Sabo recounted with a fond smile.

"Great! Keep up your training then and don't rely on me juicing you up every time we meet. You don't want your brothers to surpass you, do you?"

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm training like crazy all the time! Even just flying on my cloud is training! By the way, can you ask Raki to make me something to eat? I sense a few strangers on the ship - they aren't in the know, right?"

"Sure, give me a moment and make yourself comfortable. Take a shower while you're at it. You smell."

I left before Sabo could retort and asked Raki to make some food for two people with my appetite. I helped her make it and when the two of us came into my cabin we found a freshly showered Sabo dressed in some of my clothes.

I was a bit taller and was missing a monkey tail, but all things considered the two of us had similar builds. I wasn't very particular with my clothes either since I was on the sea long enough by now that making myself some cool outfits came easy. I therefore graciously allowed Sabo to just keep the clothes. I'd have to trick him into a stealing a shirt with a banana print next time. Koala would absolutely die laughing when Sabo came back with that on.

We talked a little more as Sabo and I enjoyed the food and eventually he left with the three zoan fruits we got from the Donquixote Pirates in North Blue while leaving behind the zoom-zoom fruit I was thinking of granting Muret down the line.

Before he left I gave him three more islands and a map of where to find slave merchants in North Blue. Us leaving the sea and the attacks immediately stopping would expose our true purpose just as fast. To that extent, Dragon would even go to South Blue in a few days to wipe out a few slave merchants himself. We made sure to tell the RA our MO - modus operandi, so that they could leave the scene behind just like we did.

"So, can I still get some after you had a taste of the sweet nurse?"

"You're fine with that?"

"D, we're far from exclusive. Granted, I haven't found a man that was your match in the blue sea, but I'm in this for the fun and strength. You're quite decent at what you do, too, so that helps," Raki answered with a provocative smirk.

I shook my head. Raki really was a non-nonsense person with a free spirit.

"Well, I laid out the cards with Marie so that hopefully nobody gets hurt by what we're doing. Please don't rile her up either if you can't help it. I don't think Marie is really ready for this... you like her too, don't you? Not like-like, but you cherish her as a friend, right? So keep an eye on her mental state for me, will you?"

Raki nodded while starting to undress.

I lifted my eyebrow in an unasked question and she simply answered it, "You gave it to her yesterday. Today is my turn. Marie and I decided on alternating days. To be honest the thought of you doing her has gotten me a little riled up."

"Huh, disregarding how hot the last part sounded, am I just a stud to you that you you can turn on with the press of a button?"

"Well, I can turn you on with the press of something that isn't a button."

I gulped down my spit as I watched Raki finish her strip tease and readily agreed with her sentiment, "You aren't wrong..."

The first island we visited in West Blue was an island previously unknown to me called Bratlava Island that didn't have any brats and no signs of lava anywhere. Instead it was simple island reminscent of Loguetown. Meaning there was a gigantic marine base for blue sea standards and most of island's circumference was littered in docks and ports of all sizes.

There was also a big wharf with a dry dock for thorough maintenance and big projects there, where all kinds of people hoped to get a ship that was ready for the grand line or they already had a ship like that and wanted to find a shipwright to recruit for their imminent departure to the dangerous new sea.

As we docked near the shipwright ports to get someone with expert eyes to check on our ship which I was pretty sure the Green Fortune would easily pass thanks to my powers, the people watched our sails with excited but unsure eyes.

I didn't announce my departure from North Blue, so while the people in West Blue knew about me from the papers, I was never seen in this sea after all.

A clerk, who would usually ask for the docking fee from us instead asked if we really were who he thought we were.

I showed him my face while holding up a picture of me in a photograph of a recent article and the guy completely forgot about taking our money. I'd have to remind him if he ever got back. It wouldn't do to become criminals because we didn't pay the 300 belli this port was owed because we docked with our galleon.

A little over twenty minutes later, the clerk came back with a small child in his arms as a small crowd of people who were just as unsure about our identities had already formed at the ship.

I ushered the clerk and the kid onto the boat and the crowd quickly confirmed that I was indeed THE Doctor Perry. By the time I found what was wrong with the child, news of our arrival spread like wildfire and the dock was completely overrun with people.

It got worse enough that I had Muret screen patients, assessing if they really had something wrong with them because many people were... 'fans' for lack of a better word and just wanted to see me. It was flattering, but there were desperate people close to dying in the crowd. People who either couldn't afford to go to this island's doctor or they weren't allowed to.

I've seen plenty of people who were banned from seeing the island's doctor for some odd reason or another so that wasn't new to me. What was new to me was the ridiculous number of people blocking the port. Bratlava was one of the most populated islands I have ever been to.

For the first time in a long time, I was happy for the marines to show up. I explained to them my concern for people who wanted to simply shake my hand while people were dying in line and asked them to help me keep the order and tell people to come back tomorrow if their only wish was to meet me. I also had them carry people who were actively bleeding or dying to the front of the line.

The marines turned out to be the rare compassionate kind on this island which came as a pleasant surprise.

Russian came in clutch as she was key in appeasing small kids and keeping them calm while I treated the most severe cases. Marie and Muret helped out tremendously, too and did minor treatments like giving stitches and dressing open wounds.

Instead of closing the doors near sunset like I usually did, I worked til an hour after midnight that day and ran out of medicinal supplies an hour before that. That had never happened before.

At least I still plenty of wooden scalpels, clamps and other supplies made out of wood ready as well as needles and cheap silk yarn for sutures.

Guess I'll skip sleeping for tonight and grow some herbs to stock up on the more urgently needed medicines like antiseptics and stuff to reduce fever.