OP C11 - More antics in West Blue

Dragon accelerated his plan of liberating slaves in South Blue after hearing about our very public encounter with two Blackbeard pirates and initiated attacks on the same day. Lope contacted the HQ after he was sure the marines left far enough.

I argued that might have been the very same as admitting that we were indeed behind the attacks, but Belo Betty came up with the idea of us continuing to break slave trader rings but completely changing our MO. Instead of cleanly killing people like Dragon would do, we were told to go ferocious.

It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I complied used wooden splinters that would later disintegrate, leaving no traces behind to completely and brutally dismember slave traders on the island we were on that night.

After freeing the captured people, I left behind all the riches and burned down the warehouse they squatted in for good measure. Now, the attack looked like retaliation from a family member or a freed slave.

Letting loose in my fox form felt good. I wanted to stay in that form anyway because I noticed long ago that my own healing was enhanced by quite a bit as opposed to my already ridiculous healing speed in my human form.

When I returned on the ship after I was done, Marie scooped up my form gently and hugged me close, careful not to inflict any pain to me because of my bruised body.

"You should have just let Lope or Hator handle tonight," she lightly scolded me.

"They are out, same as me, taking care of the pirates in the area we suspect to be in on the slaver's schemes."

"Yeah, but while Hator's muscles were sore, you have cracked ribs. You should rest. You didn't sleep last night either," Marie said while scoffing at my pride.

I didn't answer because I knew she was right, so I simply enjoyed her scratching my ears for a while as she placed me on the bed in my quarters.

"Sleep it off. Muret and I will handle patients tomorrow and only disturb you if a loss of life can't be avoided otherwise," my nurse continued, leaving no room for argument.

"The woman Lope rescued, who was she after all?"

Marie turned back at the door and said, "She's already with the marines. She claims to be the late Wapol's fiancee Kinderella. She didn't say what she did on the ship of those two. She also has a horrible personality and didn't thank anyone for helping her out."

"I see," I mumbled and thought about the woman. I had a faint idea of who she was and would agree that she was indeed someone with a less than agreeable personality.

But what was she doing here instead of being wherever Blackbeard killed her fiancee? Was she in cahoots with them? Did she bargain for her life somehow? Eh, let the marines take care of it.

"Any other questions?"

I shook my head and curled up. Being in a fox body was really convenient for sleeping.

It was way past noon when I finally woke up. I thought very few patients would come here after learning that we fought two notorious pirates from the grand line, but apparently, the opposite was true.

The boat was completely packed, and when I listened in, my face immediately darkened. We offered pretty much free medical services unless you felt obligated by your perceived self-worth to pay for it. Yet, you can still always count on nobles to be human garbage.

Some mayor's son came to our ship demanding the medical saint, meaning me, had to treat him. He wouldn't settle for anything less, especially not some 'random wench' posing as a doctor on my ship.

I turned into my human form, made myself look pale to show that I was critically wounded from my fight with Shiryu and Laffitte and started scolding the man openly - calling into question how he could have the gall to think of my employees as incompetent when I myself vouched for them.

My little speech as I kicked the man out after 'checking' that his ailment wasn't life-threatening earned me another round of good press and even better standing among women. After all the reason the mayor's son looked down on Muret was the fact that she was a woman, while I defended her competence in front of all the onlookers.

It earned me good graces with Muret herself, too, and she would send me a warm smile for the next few days whenever I walked into the room. On that same day of the noble I sent out, however, I merely operated on a single child with a knife sticking in his guts and left the other patients to Muret.

Who cared about that hurt little man-child offering a bounty on my head for a measly two million belli? Get in line, kid.

I myself spent most of the day either on my own bed or inside my garden where I cultivated a new batch of medicinal herbs since we were about to run out yet again.

When it turned night and I was about to roam the island in my fox form to start growing food for the poor, Hina once more boarded the ship. Uncharacteristically, the woman wasn't smoking. Did she take my 'request' seriously?

"What can I do for you, Rear Admiral?"

"You can call Hina just Hina," the woman offered with a stoic expression as she turned more solemn, even dropping her act of talking in the 3rd person for a moment. "I finished my report to the headquarters and acting Fleet Admiral Sakazuki... asked me to tell you to join the Marines because we can't afford to send a ship to accompany you during your travels. I fear the Blackbeard pirates won't leave this matter alone now that you took an arm from one of them."

"You hesitated at 'asked', so let me guess. He ordered you to do it because he implied that the Blackbeard pirates could just somehow find our destination if I remained unaffiliated? Akainu's reputation would indicate that he would loathe to come to an agreement with the Blackbeard pirates, but like that he could always use me as bait to get rid of them in the same swoop, uncaring if my crew and I make it out alive."

Hina looked like she was just served rotten food, so I'm guessing I somehow managed to nail that on the head. Wow, he was just the 'acting Fleet Admiral', so he needed results to cement his position, and he didn't even care if the 'medical saint' bites the dust if I don't comply. I bet he already has some story ready to paint me as an organ trafficker or secret spy of one of the four emperors or something to discredit me if something goes wrong.

"Well, tell your boss that I don't take kindly to threats. I'm a simple doctor, and I want no part in the war between pirates and marines," which was only a half truth, of course. "If he truly makes me want to choose between my freedom or my life, tell him I choose my freedom."

Hina's expression turned complicated. It looked like Sakazuki was already splitting the marines into Absolute Justice hardliners and those who had a more realistic approach. 'Moral Justice' they called it, right? Even the ongoing World Military Draft after the Summit War that wasn't really a war couldn't fill the ranks enough to fill the ranks of either side.

I really don't understand why the five elders would want to endorse someone like him in a time like this. It wasn't like Sakazuki suddenly had a bunch of loyal, amazing marines at his disposal that could take out the worst generation without issues.

Well, if we discount the deranged Aramaki or Greenbull. I wonder who would win between the two of us in a battle of devil fruits? We could probably achieve quite a lot together. Better yet, our devil fruits should have incredible synergy potential. If Marie had eaten his Woods-Woods fruit instead of the Money-Money fruit, I bet the two of us would already be cruising toward Admiral-level strength.

Though... clouds are a part of nature. Wine is made from fruits. Money can also be made with paper bills, and paper comes from wood. And they are all living, breathing beings! Was I just too narrowminded in my approach? My zoan fruit's name was Nature's Spirit, I should be connected to more than just plants! There had to be a synergy between Nature's Spirit and my awakened Grow-Grow fruit that I didn't explore yet!

I sent away Hina after that despite it looking like she wanted to say more, and I didn't go on my tour to spread food throughout the island. Instead, I called over Raki to my quarters.

The Shandia warrior closed the door and immediately started undressing, but despite my inner reluctance, I stopped her.

"Huh? You haven't done it in a few days, and you refuse me? Is there something wrong with me? Are you ending things between us?"

I shook my head at Raki's antics, "Calm down and be serious for a moment. I want to test out my powers with your help because I think I have been too narrowminded in my approach to what 'nature' is."

"Oh? And you being with me isn't 'natural'?"

"Ugh, continue like this, and I'll spank you later."

"You really know how to promise a good time, D," Raki countered with a laugh, making me recognize my poor choice of words.

When things calmed down a little, we tested out my powers together for a few hours in which I was able to 'grow' the volume of her wine without her feeling any discomfort of loss of control.

Instead, her human non-logia form turned increasingly curvy if she didn't 'hold herself together'. Most importantly, she also grew stronger, gaining a deeper understanding of her own logia fruit. Much faster than through regular training, too. And, in the end, we still slept together with my new understanding of my two devil fruits, increasing even that strengthening process.

At the end of our stay at Bratlava Island in West Blue, four days later, I did everything on the island I planned to do. We cured and helped countless people. My wounds fully healed, which was a little surprising.

I grew a tremendous amount of food for the impoverished and even gave Muret the zoom-zoom fruit - more or less as payment for stepping up while I pretended to be recuperating from the battle with the Blackbeards.

We even found a goal for Russian after she insisted we bring three older kids around the ages of 10 to 14 and a baby on our ship. The four were orphans getting by in the slums of Bratlava, and Russian found them eating dirt while giving the baby the single small apple they stole at the market the day of the attack on our ship.

After that, she regularly brought food to those kids and quickly became attached to them. The reason why I even considered agreeing to the kids coming along despite the threat of Blackbeard's retaliation was two-fold. For one, anything could happen to the kids even if they just stay here. And, for another, I talked to Russian about the Orphanage Island plan in my mind. Let's just say by the unending enthusiasm she showed, I found the perfect Headmatron of the island.

I even had a plan on what island I could choose for this endeavor: Little Garden on the grand line.

The two giants fighting there for 100 years were already on their way to Elbaf and the islands reputation would make it so that not many people would want to dock there, giving Orphanage Island a cloak of subtlety until it was hopefully established. The giant insects and dinosaurs on the island would have to be taken care off and a little geoforming would have to be done to make sure even if the volcano erupts once more the lava would flow into the ocean instead of in the direction of the kids, but it was doable.

What I would want to see most on the island was people teaching these kids valuable skills, so we would need people willing to train them in all kinds of things, but that was where my connection to the Revolutionary Army came in. There were plenty of people out there who wanted to join their cause but were too afraid to actually fight. Teaching kids would give them the satisfaction of doing something for the world without having to fight for it.

And let's not forget that Little Garden was quite close to the home of my mentor, an island full of doctors. So there would also be someone who can take care of the kids' illnesses.

"Well, that still needs me to reach there. I wanted to go to East or South Blue next, but maybe I need to go there after the foundations of Little Garden are set..."

We just spent three days at Kano Country, mostly so that I could peek on Sai training his Hasshoken, but I didn't learn a lot of new things so I just decided to stick with what I developed myself.

Next on the list was Ilisia Kingdom that faintly rang a bell, but what I really cared about was a secluded sea not far from it called Las Camp. That definitely rang a bell in my mind. These waters were completely lawless and didn't have a single island affiliated to the World Government in it. The pirates living there were smart, though, and never attacked the Ilisia Kingdom that housed one of the biggest marine bases of West Blue after Bratlava Island.

Despite their cunning and reserved nature before, these pirates started acting up ever since the summit war and terrorized the small islands next to Ilisia Kingdom, while the Marines mostly turned a blind eye. Too bad for them that we sailed these waters. Because the RA confirmed that the black market was deeply rooted there, especially the slave trade.

Ilisia's king was even known to proudly 'own' three of his four wives. I was half a mind to kill their king, but instead, I sent Lope and Raki ahead to clean up Las Camp slowly. Their Moonwalk, especially Lope's, allowed them to come and go as they pleased in that sea.

When we finally docked at Ilisia Kingdom, the mood at the port was much, much worse than I was used to. Normally, people would rush to bring their loved ones to me because our green sails were quite easily distinguishable, but not a single patient came up to me.

I sent Eenie, Meanie, the 3 Mikes, Moe, Russian and the kids out to gather some information for me while buying supplies and one of the kids quickly came back not a minute later to inform me that King Lucas decreed that his hurting wife would be the first patient I would need to attend to. Anyone who took her turn would have his entire family executed.

I stood there with clenched fists as I started weighing my options, but without staging a revolution right here that would blow my cover, I could only swallow my anger. The people even refused Muret's help because they weren't sure if the king would judge Muret's medical treatment as taking the turn of the king's second wife.

"Muret!" I shouted loud enough that most people at the port heard me when I made my decision on how to help these people. "I hereby throw you off of my ship! Take your doctor's equipment from the infirmary and don't show yourself around here! You can't just seduce me, I have a higher moral character!"

Muret standing next to me was caught completely off-guard as tears started forming in her eyes, so I leaned down and whispered, "You idiot! If you're not part of the ship, you can treat the people without the king executing them and their families. Just help those with most urgent needs until the king finally shows his face around here and I'll invite you back on the ship after I made something up like you showing your doctor's heart and helping everyone for free!"

With resentment pooling in her eyes because of how I worded my declaration now that she knew I wasn't serious, Muret ran inside the ship to gather her things.

"I didn't know you had such a high place in her mind. I misjudged her," Hator chimed in from behind me.

"Yeah, she looked so reluctant when we caught her and her crew. And her trying to seduce me so we let her off feels so out of place now that we know her better..."

"Yet you still use that to 'throw her out'. You're really cruel sometimes, doc."

"I'm not a comedian or improv artist. I couldn't think of anything else on the spot," I argued. "I need a reason to invite her back later, so I can't just question her medical expertise. It would make these people reluctant to go to her, too."

"You could have just said that her deal with you to teach her medicine was now over and that she should make it on her own now and later you simply change your mind and hire her back to be the second doctor on the ship after you see how many patients come," Hator argued back.

I looked at him with furrowed brows before saying, "You really are smart. Don't be offended, but that was so much smarter than what I said that I'm doubting that you weren't replaced by one of Vegapunk's cyborgs."

"Hehe, I know, right? I have my bright moments, don't I?"

I playfully shoved Hator to the place he should stay guard at and went under deck to reassure Muret some more and to spend time with Kalifa and Marie who were training Finger Pistol on some sacks filled with rice down in the storage room.

Four hours. That was how long King Lucas made his citizens wait until a large procession finally made their way down to the ship. Pompously, the man was carried onto my ship by getting carried on a portable throne by four bulky men and had them place the thing down on an elevated position near the steering wheel so that he would continue to look down on me.

And I did remember his face, blonde hair, full beard, and cigar, now that I saw him, though I still didn't remember why. So he likely appeared in a single episode or something like that - was he at a background character at the Levely, maybe?

I recognized the man behind him, too. And much more vivid, so he likely appeared in a later episode. Ah! Wasn't that black-haired man with the full lips a king that appeared during the Levely after the time skip? What about the king guy, then? Were they both kings somehow? Would the guard overthrow the pompous asshole?

"Cezar! Ask this quack why he hadn't appeared in my castle to pay respect to Us!"

The king asked by having the man behind him talk to me. This Cezar at least had the decency to look apologetic as he repeated question, and I answered, "Your Majesty, I have not received word that you had need of my medical expertise. Instead, I would have asked the patient you need me to look at to come down to my ship anyway because the facilities here are part of my confidence in treating my patients without fail."

I hadn't intended to flatter that pompous asshole and he looked smart and offended enough that he didn't buy my explanation either, yet he still failed to gain the upper hand in the battle of rhetoric. His face gained a faint purple hue, and he turned to his attendant once more, "Have him look at my beloved. And tell him I will have his head if he fails to cure her. She has refused to warm my bed for months!"

Ah, so it was one of these. I invented a few contagious diseases during my short travels already to make sure a noble's mistress could start a new life somewhere else, so this wasn't new to me. The king threatening my life also wasn't new, but now that I finally had quite the glowing reputation, I could finally hit back without allowing him to slap my face constantly.

I followed the man who brought the king's mistress to my infirmary without saying anything, but I told him to leave. He was about to refuse my request when I asked him if the king would spare his eyes if he saw something he shouldn't, so the man hurriedly stood guard outside the door. Ugh, fucking nobles and their lackeys. Always the same.

When I finally got a good look at the young woman, I stilled. Long purple hair, brown eyes that screamed resignation and a beaded headpiece made of three strings. I knew this woman! She had the benefit of being gorgeous so I remembered her much more easily than the two dudes outside!

"Hey, weren't you one of the slaves Luffy freed in Sabaody all those months ago?"

Her plan to somehow rope me into freeing her came crashing down as the woman started crying. I looked to Marie who had a weird expression on her face but still walked forward to gently console her.

"You know my savior?" She finally managed to squeeze out between sobs, but continued, "Ah, I was caught again anyway..."

And with that, she started crying even harder. I don't have a deep impression aside from her getting sold for millions at the same auction where Rayleigh and Camie were sold, so I didn't know what her future had in store for her. She was a minor character, just like that king outside, so I wouldn't know much about her fate.

"There's no need to continue crying. You wouldn't be the first woman we rescued from an old wealthy pig. Tell me your name and the symptoms you gave the king," I ordered with a smile that would hopefully help her relax.

The purple-haired woman stopped crying at that and sought out Marie's eyes to make sure she wasn't getting played. Seeing Marie's warm smile, she calmed down a little and looked at me, "Pascia, I'm Pascia. I'm a dancer from South Blue and... I wanted to go back home after the Strawhat's destroyed the auction house... but I was caught again the moment my ship crossed the calm belt to the West Blue... I was tricked..."

"And the symptoms Pascia?"

Her face immediately turned bright red. Ah, 'woman's troubles', eh?

"So, something concerning your period or genitals?"

She meekly nodded her head and whispered the rest into Marie's ears who started laughing immediately.

"'Exploding menstrual blood. That's new. One of the handmaiden has a brother selling fireworks and she helped Pascia smuggle some exploding snaps into the castle?"

By the time Marie finished, Pascia's face was crimson.

"That's quite innovative. Have there been people who came into contact with your blood? That the king knows, anyway?"

Pascia thought for a moment and shook her head. Not even the handmaiden was known to have cleaned up after her because she did that herself.

"And your period lasts for months now? He hasn't been able to... consummate the marriage?"

Pascia nodded once more, slowly relaxing despite the embarrassing topic. It probably reassured her that I stayed serious and didn't make fun of her. That was my plan, anyway.

"That makes things easier. Marie, please call Kureha and tell her that she needs to know about Sanguine Blood-Ovarian-Marrow Bombascitis as soon as I call her in front of a king soon. Give her Pascia's eye and hair color. You said you were born in the cursed waters of Ceefour Islands in South Blue, right? Give my teacher that name, too. It's for my own amusement."

"S-Bomb?" Marie asked while trying not to laugh.

"Hmm? Ah, yes. Sexbomb. It's a song from my home from the famous musician Tom Jones."

Marie just shook her and left the room, but not before whispering into my ear, "I've spent that entire day with you in Sabaody. There's no way you could have seen her there before at the auction house. I hope you can explain later, mister."

With things on their way, I hummed the melody of the song while talking a little more with Pascia about what she had to go through in these past months. And man, being powerful but not powerful enough was tough. But being way too pretty for your own good while not being able to defend yourself was even more of a crime in this world.

She was forced to please the men that caught her and even the king through means other than sex and somehow managed to remain a virgin. Yet all these things still left scars on her. I loathe to call her lucky through all of that, but I met a few women in North Blue who were much worse off than her.

Well, pain and tragedy weren't a competition you could win or lose, so I felt pity for all of these women all the same. Maybe Belo Betty could put her to good use and have her work through these painful memories instead of surpressing them. She helped Marie find her path again after losing her fiance Judy, kind of like the psychologist of the female RA members. That was what Koala called her anyway.

What followed after that was a sort of theater show where I called one of the most renowned doctors of the world, Witch Kureha, right in front of king and described the symptoms in front of everyone.

I grandly explained that I fear this was a rare disease I read about in one her grandly libary once and I wanted her to confirm. I handed the king a parchment with my conjection so 'he knew' I didn't make this up. When he read the same answer from the parchment as the one Kureha gave, he visibly paled.

Kureha played along splendidly like always and explained it was indeed Sanguine Blood-Ovarian-Marrow Bombascitis and that she had never heard of a girl afflicted by it reach the age of 20 and that the king was very lucky to still be alive and with his manhood intact because Kureha never heard of a lover of these poor afflicted women who survived even one sexual encounter with disfigurement.

The king started panicking at that, thinking about how he forced Pascia to at least do SOMEthing for him, and immediately fled the ship without asking for his wife back. His guard Cezar mouthed a 'thank you' and hurried after the king.

Pascia was left to sleep in my quarters for the rest of the day after she was finally released... again, while I started treating patients until late in the night.

I stood outside on the deck when I noticed Muret waiting near the gangplank of the ship. I put on another show for the masses and shouted, "Muret! I changed my mind! Life is too short! I want you to stay on my ship, even if it means you're trying to get into my pants! You're too talented to not have you on my ship!"

Muret looked tired before, but now she looked plain annoyed. I could see a plan forming in her mind as her smile slowly turned calculating and vengeful. As she reached me, she jumped into my arms and shouted, "I knew it Doctor! How could you do this the mother of your child!"

I heard a few gasps from the port and the gossip probably wouldn't even last a day before it would be printed in the newspapers.

"Huh, are you planning to make that real or will we have to invent you losing the child a few islands later?" I whispered into her ear as I carried her to my quarters where I left her to look after Pascia while I used my top speed to reach Lope.

The bear mink contacted me earlier that day that he found something that needed my attention in Las Camp. The rest of the crew would start to sail toward the next sea under the cover of the night where Lope, Raki, and I could find our way back with Marie's vivre card if needed or possible.

When I finally closed in on Lope, the bear mink was waiting for me at a beach with a broken ship filled with holes next to him. The ship was quite a bit bigger than ours, too bad it was broken and unusable.

"Need you to fix the ship, D," Lope said as I landed near him in my fox form.

Great, miracle worker it is then. I was about to transform into my human form but Lope quickly added, "We need this ship for a... well. For a literal boatload of children. We want to get them out of here, but no single ship can hold that many in these waters. I got Sabo to send a team over asap to meet up with the kids on the seas, but we can't leave them here."

I looked around while concentrating my observation haki and quickly found Raki cooking something in four or five giant cauldrons. I wasn't sure because these cauldrons all came with more holes than the big one they should have on top.

"You found them? Quickly start growing some easily digestible food then. We ran out earlier and Raki is trying her best to make something out of a small sea king I caught off the coast together with roots."

Despite my own exhaustion from taking such a long trip via Moonwalk, I quickly started growing a small mountain of nutritious vegetables near the kids and Raki. Raki gained a big smile when she saw I mostly grew pumpkins, her favorite, and she ordered a few kids to start cutting up the pumpkins with the small wooden knives I scattered near the older kids.

Then, I went back to the boat and forced the wood of the boat to close. Making wood grow when it was already harvested long ago and worse yet, weather-beaten and old, was always a hassle. But I grew better and better at it.

Once the kids were all fed and watered, Raki joined me on the boat as I tried clearing the rubble that gathered. The steering wheel and rudder were once more connected with vines I grew, but the sails were unsalvageable in the short term. So I made a few giant oars for Lope and the kids instead.

"You wouldn't believe how many small time slavers we found in this sea. Pretty much every pirate living here was only a pirate to steal and sell some kids."

I looked to Raki who didn't look like her usual playful self and consoled her, "Then you made a huge difference to these kids and all future kids that scum would have taken."

Raki apparently ignored me and continued her rant, "And don't forget the two devil fruits we stole from those animals. I thought they were supposed to be rare, but we killed eleven pirates with zoans and paramecias in this sea. Eleven!"

"Tell me about their powers," I asked as I thought about how this might be a test area for Doflamingo's SMILEs.

Well, the answer was that I couldn't be sure. There was a man who could turn his arms into hammers, clearly an idiot who couldn't use the full potential of his paramecia. Same with one of his crew members who could spit nails and another who had a variant of the zoom-zoom fruit I fed Muret that could perfectly measure any kind of distance and angle. The crew called itself the Construction Destruction Crew. Why?

Then there were a bunch of zoo animal regular zoan users who lived a live of debauchery and had no ambition outside getting a new woman or booze the next day. They could have been some of the more successful SMILE fruit users, but it was a little early for that. They had everything from anteater all the way to zebra.

The only truly interesting fruit belonged to the man Raki and Lope found with the two devil fruits and most of the money in this sea. In his dying breath, the man threatened them with the power of their young master, so Pete was at least sure that Doflamingo had his fingers in this pot. Unless, of course, there were other young masters he could have offended working in the underworld.

In any case, the man with the interesting fruit apparently ate the shrink-shrink fruit and could shrink whatever he touched. He used it on Raki who told me she could have warded it off with haki but chose to experience the world from the eyes of a kid again. Didn't work out too long because Lope killed him shortly after which cancelled the fruit.

"Did you find out the name of the fruits you found?"

"Yeah, we'd still have to check with our sources but the shrink guy had a document in the chest calling them the Sparrow-Sparrow fruit but it was listed as a paramecia, not a zoan, but the other one was a zoan apparently. Cat-Cat fruit Model: Nubian Lion."

"Hmm, sounds interesting. Keep them for now, we'll hand them over to Sabo when he gets the kids. Tell him about our plan for Little Garden. Or better yet, ask him to come get me. I should hurry to our ship before they dock at the next island and I'm not present..."

"You're just gonna leave Lope and I alone with almost a hundred brats?"

"Yep! They should love you though, no? You freed them and gave them food after all~"

"That doesn't help if it's one hundred of them!"