The Madman Part 2

The Madman Part 2

\____-o(X)o-____/​

"Should we tell Captain Bonney?"

"If we run into her, sure, but there's no rush. We've lost her for now at least and mobilizing forces like that'll take some time." I wasn't carrying my backup saber, my normal one was hidden beneath my coat, and I'd let my hat dangle by its string, pulling my hood up to hide my spiky brown hair. It wasn't super likely I'd be recognized on sight. Needed to add some make-up to my kit somewhere so I could hide my obvious facial scar on the fly…

"Why not simply remove her and the others before zey call for reinforcements? Do you zink we could not handle zeir local forces?"

"Beat them with surprise? Sure. Problem is that I don't have a good way to do so before they call for reinforcements. Also, not a big fan of wholesale slaughter like that."

Lucca shook his head, "And zey have a Warlord."

"We probably don't warrant his personal attention." I noted. Though honestly I was pretty thankful for that. I was able to punch holes in walls without my fruit, and even with it I was just moderately superhuman. I did not have the raw physical chops to throw down with Crocodile without having a serious elemental advantage. I mean, he took on Luffy, who could fight with a solid mass of gold twice his size attached to his arm. I couldn't even begin to imagine the damage output involved, let alone how I might even begin to match it.

"Probably iz not certainly." Lucca picked out the important part of my statement.

"No, no it isn't. Thing is, even without him, they have numbers on their side without a doubt." I gave a small nod of my head to dislodge one of the hummingbirds from the rim of my hood, feeling the brush of its wings as it darted to the back of my neck, "And I'd rather avoid getting the non-bullet-proof members of the Bonney Pirates shot at."

"But why should we not tell the Captain if you believe she'll go back and get zem?" He asked, his hands resting on his stomach as he walked beside me, his sandals quiet against the dirt streets as we walked through them.

"It's not a certain thing. I'm just trying to prepare for the possibility. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst sort of thing. But for another…" I grinned, "Do they have reason to believe that we're with the Bonney Pirates?"

Lucca blinked twice before a small smile crossed his face, "Ah. I see. How much longer do you zink until we get to ze blacksmith?"

I shrugged, "Ten minutes at this pace? Best guess."

The larger man nodded as he pulled a shopping list from his overalls, "Brass and lead right?"

"For the bullets proper, yes. Though we'll also need some copper for the diving suit I'm making as well as some raw iron for magnets. And…" I shifted slightly uncomfortably, "I need to commission a proper sword for myself." While I could make it myself, I was only an expert, I'd prefer a real blacksmith take up the task. And with Io gone…

---​

The smithery was a bit different from the one in the last town, a bit bigger… but some of the additions seemed relatively recent. It was one small building with an attached larger one on the back with a few more buildings budding off of that.

Hood up, I stepped in through the open door and looked about, the larger form of Lucca slipping in behind me as I looked about. It was a small work area rather than a counter and sales area as I'd found in the last village, and there was a middle-aged man working some metal at the anvil, "Hello?"

His head came up from the spear head he was working on and he growled out, "What d'ya want?"

"I was hoping to put in a commission and purchase some metal." I said cheerily. He was obviously grumpy, but being a dick wouldn't help, especially on the cost.

The man grunted once, and I could hear the hammers in the shop behind the door as well as the roar of the flames, "What's the commission?"

"A sword. Yeh high," I held a hand at hip level before continuing to gesture with my hands, "Straight and double edged, about as broad as my hand, the edges should be perpendicular to the guard up until the last few inches, where it tapers to a point. Cross guard, solid metal please, and a straight handle of about three hands long, remembering that I'm a little fuck. Balance point should be about five inches down the blade. Weight… really isn't an issue."

The blacksmith looked at me funny, not that I could totally blame him, "Tcheheh… I know it's nitpicky and it's gonna cost a good bit, would you like me to write it down?"

"I… don't usually work with swords," he said slowly, "Let me talk with my… boss."

I gave him a thumbs up as he set the hammer down, placed the metal into the forge, and walked through the doorway. There were some basic things on display, along the sides, some swords, axes, trowels, a rather nice plow, mostly spears though. Lucca beside me just looked around slowly as we waited, the broccoli-shaped mass of black hair bouncing about some, constrained by his headband as it was. Though I was a little surprised. He was middle aged, and usually anyone of that age in a smithery was usually entirely in charge or close to it, so who'd he call his boss–?

My musings were interrupted by an exclamation on partially muffled by the intervening space and the sounds of the smithery, "I know that sword!"

'And I know that voice!' My face brightened even as Lucca gave me a curious look and I cupped my hands around my mouth, yelling at the doorway, "Io! That you?!"

"Jacob! You asshole!" I grinned, that was definitely her. I'd consider my day brightened, especially after that fake-out mess earlier. She'd been cool. And then she ducked under the doorway and into the entry workplace we were in, and my smile weakened even as she continued with a grin, "You never picked up that sword."

Her left arm was just gone from the middle of her bicep down, ending in stark white bandages, I glanced up from that to her eyes, managing a somewhat weak smile, "To be fair, by the time we came by, y'all were gone."

A moment of understanding flashed, and I could see the emotions dance across her face, hurt, but mostly anger, her right hand going to the stump of her left arm, "Fair enough."

I walked over, ignoring the confusion of both Lucca and the middle-aged blacksmith that had gone to get her. Standing before the much taller woman I gave a nod of my head at the missing arm, "Happened when they took the village?" The bandages were clean, that meant it'd been at least some time since she'd lost it if it had stopped bleeding and she was back to work. And she looked just as good as before in just the leather apron and pants, all rippling muscle, but still…

A conflicted smile crossed her lips and she rubbed the bare skin above the bandages with her right hand, glancing at it, "I fought when they came, they didn't care for that too much."

Unable to help myself, I frowned, some anger bubbling in my chest. I didn't know Io too well, but she was cool and I liked her. But before I could say anything, she waved her hand, "This was actually an accident. One of the fucks didn't like me fighting back, but Shaka didn't want the ladies being hurt."

I gave her an incredulous look, "And that makes it better?"

Io snorted, the tall woman shaking her head, "Little. Lost most of my apprentices. But Shaka killed the one who'd hurt me personally."

"He still killed all of the men of your village," I said, looking up at her.

"Yes, he did," she said with a small frown, staring down at the floor, "He's trying to unite the island, but Zwide keeps running and waging war against him. He's trying to end it quickly with a minimal amount of bloodshed."

"That doesn't make it okay to drag other people into his grudge," I half growled.

It was at that point that the middle aged man had enough, "You outsiders don't have anywhere to talk! Lord Shaka only wants to stop the eternal damn war on this island!"

Lucca and I both stared at him, even as Io looked decidedly uncomfortable at that. But the blacksmith wasn't done, "Do you have any idea how many generations of war we've had on this island?! How raids were so commonplace that we could nearly set our clocks to them? Shaka's done terrible things, but the warring has stopped! Ever since he's taken charge, we haven't had to worry about a single raid within his territory! With every victory he's pushed the dissidents back!"

I scowled, "And that makes it okay to slaughter literally every man in a village?"

"No! But he wouldn't have done any of this if Zwide hadn't antagonized him! Hadn't slain his blood brother! Hadn't kept running and hacking at our borders! He killed one town to make ten others turn!"

There was a soft, metallic groan as I breathed in slowly. That logic was shit logic. But…

I glanced at Io, and found her honey colored eyes pleading me. The large woman having set her hammer into a loop in her pants, her hand cradling her stump.

With a sigh that was more like a whistle of a teapot, I slumped. What a mess. There wasn't really anything I could do about this mess. The actual people in the town seemed mostly happy in spite of the horror he'd inflicted. And even if I could beat him in a straight fight or outright assassinate him, there was little to no guarantee that he had a successor or that they'd be any better than him even then! Not to mention the sudden power vacuum and squabbles that would ensue after the fact by the other warlords. The only way I could ensure that things went well would be if I outright took over from him... and I was not willing to do that.

There was essentially nothing I could do without committing to something I wasn't certain I could follow through with. Damnit.

"I won't have–"

"Could you–"

"Hmm?"

We both paused, looking at the little glittering head that'd peeked out of my hood. I had to crane my neck a little bit to look at the little guy, "What is it?"

"Hmmhmm?"

"Are we being loud?"

"MmMm." The little hummingbird shook his head.

"HmmMmHmMmMm!" the hummingbird pantomimed some kun-fu motions, and combined with that and the vague intent I was able to read off of it through my Observation Haki, I made a guess at what it meant.

"No, I'm not going to beat his face in." The hummingbird gave me a disappointed look, "It'd be rude to do that over a mere disagreement like this."

The hummingbird huffed before glaring at the blacksmith and making the 'I'm watching you gesture' with a wing before disappearing back into my coat.

"Did… the Little Jewel just threaten me?"

I shrugged, "Maybe?"

Lucca shrugged at him, "It wasn't very clear."

The blacksmith pressed a hand to his forehead, "I-… I think I'm going to go lie down now."

"That is probably for the best." Io noted.

As the middle-aged man headed towards the back of the shop, I glanced at Io before looking at where her arm was supposed to be, god damn that pissed me off... but I doubt Bonney could give her her arm back, and...

…

Something clicked.

"Io...?" I said slowly, my green eyes rising to meet Io's own honey colored ones, "How would you like a new arm?"

"… what."

-o Bonney o-​

"… Tom," I said through the mouthful of food I had, "Am I seeing things or did that ship just start emptying out...?"

I was sitting in a bar not far from the dock we'd put the Cake in, and there were a few other ships in port, two of them were these big single mast ships with a full row of cannon... and they both had men basically pouring out of them, armed to the teeth.

"You're not seeing things captain." My first mate said, scowling as he stood at my shoulder.

My lips turned downwards in a frown and I grunted through my mouthful of food before swallowing it, "You think that mess could've been someone trying to blame it on the Zolou?"

He stiffened behind me, looking at me quickly, "You really think...?"

"No. But I don't want to find out. Go get the others and get them here, we're leaving as soon as possible. You're takin' the Cake out to sea while the rest of us go get the McPuffins."

"Yes Captain. You'll be here?"

I looked up at Tom in disbelief, mid stuffing another bite of the roasted zebra thigh into my mouth.

There was a tiny quirk of Tom's lips upward, "Of course Captain."

---​

"You've got to be shitting me." Io said, sitting on a stool in the smithery. The light of the forges was lighting up her dark brown skin and the sweat from the heat glistening in the orange light.

"Not a bit." I said as I measured her arm.

It wasn't her forge or smithery apparently, but she was widely regarded as the best smith on the island even while down an arm. They called her Mwanamke wa Ziwa almost reverently around the shop, and she'd just kinda… moved in.

The middle-aged man, ???, was technically the owner and head blacksmith. But for all his grumbling, he knew whow as the better smith.

"You can seriously make a new arm...?" she asked, as I moved the scarf around, occasionally pausing to compare it to my ruler. Jury-rigged tape measure for the win!

"Mhm."

It'd be based off of the old pacifista designs I had from Vegapunk and the life-giving properties of the Vitae that Dr. Stein had discovered. Now, honestly, there was far more data from Dr. Steins works and I'd have been more comfortable using his methods, but he was focused almost exclusively on reanimation and I'd have needed already existing muscle or spontaneously discover how to make it to get that to work. An alternative would have been to have a replacement arm that I'd reanimate and then reattach, and while there was a possible 'donor' in Miss Monday… holy shit would that have been psycho. I objected to that on the premise of not being psycho.

Hope and happiness danced across Io's face, warring with skepticism. Eventually, she asked, "… how much will it cost?"

"My sword and the materials we're trying to get now will do." I said. It was honestly overly cheap, but I rather liked Io, and if there was something I could do to make up for that mess of her original town… I'd take it.

"… seriously?" she asked, chuckling in disbelief.

"MMMhm!"

We both blinked before looking at the line of hummingbirds on my arm who had nodded their affirmation to the statement.

Dismissing it, I returned to my work, "Yes, yes I can."

Her honey eyes fell to the ground before us as she chuckled quietly, her eyes glistening in the light of the forges, "… Jacob, you're giving me back my life."

While no one was immediately around us, I don't think Io would appreciate being seen crying. I placed a hand on her shoulder and pointed out with a deliberately cheesy grin, "You were still blacksmithing with one arm, so don't get too dramatic on me here."

Io's mouth opened as she started to chew me out, scowling at me before it clicked and she looked away, "Yeah yeah, shut up…" Io grinned a bit weakly, quickly wiping away the glimmer of a tear before saying, "You pull this off, I'll make you a Supreme Grade Sword."

That made me pause, "I… would be very impressed if you did that."

"No less than I will be if you can make me a new arm." Io countered with a wider, more genuine smile.

Given some effort and time, I could create the artificial muscles that Vegapunk's book described. Dr. Steins notes on the artificial musculature indicated that it wouldn't be as terrifyingly strong as a Pacifista or even pre-timeskip Franky, and unlike natural muscle it couldn't get stronger or self-repair, but it'd be more than a normal human muscle of equivalent volume. It honestly wasn't too complex to make, though I didn't truly understand why it worked yet. But seastone bones and some artificial musculature and a Teflon based skin would make the thing as close to indestructible and well suited to the rigors of forge work.

"I can make you a new arm." I said with an amused grin but quickly realized my mistake.

Io had raised her head, and her gaze nearly bore straight through mine. Her eyes nearly blazed as they locked with my own, two pools of amber that nearly burned with an intensity that I had only rarely seen. Softly, but without the utmost conviction, Io said, "And if you can give me back my arm… I can make a Supreme Grade Sword."

I stared, blinking for a few moments before a grin spread across my face. I would do her no more disservice with my disbelief, "Then let's get this done."

-o Wallace o-​

"Who are we missing?"

I asked, wanting to avoid getting caught up in the insanity that had been… that.

The town was more of that tan brick than the previous one was, really more of a small city honestly. There were a scattering of those grass buildings out there, but this city was bigger than the last and had a lot better ports. Don't really know why we went to that other one, but Captain Bonney was smarter than me… not that I was stupid!

"Ah, we're waiting on Florida, Lucca, Boyardee and…" Tom trailed off, the first mate beside me holding up a hand to further shield his eyes in addition to that as he peered down the street, "Wait, no, there's the last three… still no Florida though."

I could see what Tom was looking at as we both stood at the doorway to the brick tavern that Bonney had set up in. Lucca and the other two crewmembers were approaching, Lucca pulling along a good sized cart of something… metals…?

"Tch, don't worry about him. Florida can handle himself and if shit does go down he'd probably appreciate the chance to interfere, the goody-two shoes." Bonney said with a small smile before going back in to the bar to finish her meal.

Tom and I exchanged a glance before shrugging. She was right. I turned back to the approaching three and cupped my hands around my mouth, "Oi! Lucca! Where's Florida?!"

Strangely, my friend cringed as he approached, the two crewmembers on either side glancing at him before they slipped through the doorway and into the tavern we'd essentially taken over.

"Could we not say Jacob's family name too loud?" Lucca hissed as he got within speaking distance of Tom and me, "I'm pretty sure zat zese guys are looking for him!"

The groups of the other foreigners had seemed to look our way at that. And there were a lot of them…Yeah, yeah, we could take them! I'd prove it– "Ow! The hell was that for?!" I snapped at Lucca.

My friend just grinned, lower his hand from having slapped me in the back of the head, "You had zat look when you are about to do somezing stupid."

I looked away, denying it, "No, I wasn't!"

A large hand was placed on my shoulder and I glanced back at Tom, who'd set his hands on both Lucca's shoulder and mine, jerking his bearded chin up, "We've got company."

A group of the non-natives were headed our way. All of them having pistols or swords or other weapons, though they were all holstered and sheathed. At the head of this group were two people, a black-haired wench and a teenaged boy. The woman was obviously middle aged, in a long sundress with little straps, still rather attractive though, but she seemed more like a mother than a wench you'd rut. The boy beside her had a six on either side of his green jacket and a pair of weapons on his back with slightly curved handles that ended in circular blades… they were sort of like axes…

My hand went to the handle of my claymore as Lucca rested his hands on his stomach, within easy draw distance of the pistols he hid on the inside of his overalls. Tom needed no weapon, the larger, vaguely egg shaped man just stepped up, his hands resting at his sides.

"Now now now," the woman said, raising her hands placatingly, "There's no need for that dears, we were just hoping to talk."

Tom made a noncommittal sound as he brought his hands up to rest atop his belly, "Eh? About?"

The woman put a hand daintily to the side of her cheek, "Why, some of my little boys heard you talking about someone we were hoping to talk to, a 'Scholar Florida'."

"Never heard of him."

"Now now, we are quite certain we heard his name mentioned and naughty boys that lie to momma would need to be punished."

Which was funny, 'cause any one of us was probably half again as old as this wench.

"Then you'd better punish them, 'cause they're lying to you. We don't know any 'Scholar Florida'."

But honestly, I was still staring at the kid, who was glaring back at me.

The tension was ramping up, hands were drifting towards pistols and swords in the group behind them, and I could hear the rest of the Bonney Pirates in the brick bar behind me going quiet outside of Bonney's slowed eating.

And god damnit this was going to bother me, "Hey." Everyone immediately around me stopped to look at me as I pointed at the kid, "Why do you have two nines on your back?"

A pause, as they all blinked.

"They're sixes!"

"Oh… okay." I blinked, hand not dropping. "Why do you have a pair of sixes on your back?"

The teen snarled before grinning crazily as his hand went to one of the curved handles, "Let me show you!"

'Oh shit-!' In a blur, we both drew. I held my claymore out horizontally before me, bracing the blade with a hand as I blocked the circular blade of his ax with a clang. Satisfied he wasn't just going to cut my sword in half or something crazy I taunted him to prove I wasn't scared, "Hah! Is that all you've got?!"

The kid sneered and pressed even harder.

'The hell is all this strength coming from?!' I stared as the brat who was at least three feet shorter than me and probably less than a quarter of my weight pushed even harder, the circular blade rattling against my claymore. I mean, I'd fought a tiny monkey with greater strength than this but come on!

"Is that all I've got?!" the teen sneered and took a step forward, my feet sliding back in the dirt a few inches as his other hand went up to grasp the handle of his other ax, "My one sixaxe is more than you can handle beardy!"

Unable to help myself, I pointed out, "They do look a lot like nines though when you hold them like that."

With a twitch, the kid shouted, "THEY'RE SIXES! I'm Mister Six! Not fucking Mister Nine! I'm stronger than that you fat shit–!"

*click*

With a small sound, my partner leveled his pistol within a few inches of the teen's temple, "Ah ah ah mon ami."

"Momma Punish!"

With a sudden motion, the wench had lunged forward, slapping Lucca across the face hard and sending him spinning back into the doorframe before grabbing the teens jacket and yanking him back. My partner's back cracked the brick as he hit it and I swung as the pressure was removed from my sword, cutting a line in the teen's jacket right across his stupid sixes even as Lucca leveled his pistols.

But before he could take a shot, Tom had grabbed us both by our arms and pulled us down as the woman shouted, "Squad one!"

With a near simultaneous crack, a dozen bullets flew over our heads, knocking off Tom's hat and passing through Lucca's hair, "Come on!" The First Mate yanked us both back through the door and behind the wall even as the woman shouted again.

"Squad two!"

Another round of shots flew through the space we'd been in, flying through the doorway and smacking against the brick wall, the rest of the Bonney Pirates diving behind tables they overturned.

All except Captain Bonney, whose cheek piercing began to twitch.

There was a hole in the large drumstick she had in her hand from the round of bullets.

"… well shit."

She stood from her chair, the table and the food on it having been tossed as it'd been flipped for further cover. "Who ticked these fucks off?"

"Probably Wallace."

"Wallace."

"Wallace."

"Damnit it's not my fault this time! They're after Florida!"

"Mon ami, you are ze one that shouted Florida's name out into ze street." Lucca pointed out with a smile, crouched behind the brick wall beside me and Tom.

"How was I supposed to know?!"

Captain Bonney casually sidestepped the round of bullets that flew through the doorway, chucking the ruined leg of meat over her shoulder, "Wallace, you're on grog for the next week."

"Damnit! Not again." I grumbled.

"Alright," Captain Bonney sighed as she kicked the table aside and put her hat atop her head, "If these fucks want a fight, they've got themselves a fight."

---

The Madman Part 2 End