Pondering and Transponder-Snail-ing

"Bugs? Why did you drag me and Rem out here? I thought you said to relax.."

"Uhm.. about that.. it's probably best if we just let her think through everything. I will have to go back to get materials for the ship, but I gotta actually design the flight system first. On paper."

I had dragged Taki and Rem along with me from the home and workshop of Xetalona to the ship for multiple reasons. One being that Xetalona, who wanted to believe that Senco was a good person, even with clear signs he wasn't. She was fighting to keep his name on a pedestal, and that same pedestal had probably cracked from what I had said about him.

Another of those reasons being, it was obvious from what Xetalona had said before that Rem, Taki, and I were in possible danger of being attacked at any moment, even if he left us alone. While those possible attacks wouldn't do much against us, it would be better to make sure nothing happened to MY ship, and the people ON my ship.

A third reason being, somehow, Senco had brought almost a whole island's population under his control, using Anudikelto as a cover-up. It shouldn't have been easy to do so, but I didn't have enough information to figure out how he even did so in the first place.

"I thought you said you had come up with something based off Xetalona's designs?"

"Oh. Yeah, I did. And I gotta revise it, cause that design was a bit stupid. Okay, it wasn't exactly stupid. There were parts of it that weren't bad enough to scrap, but a good chunk of it wasn't as good as it should have been. I didn't even put that design on paper either."

"That..... okay..."

We walked in almost near silence, our footsteps and the wind being the only sound.

"Wait... hold on.. didn't you say you wanted to get rid of Senco?"

"I never said I wasn't going to."

"Then why are we going to the ship just for you to draw up a design?"

"I told you before, although there are more reasons than just letting Lona have some breathing room, away from Taki, and especially me. And besides, I can multitask, or at least do things in a row. I'm hoping Xetalona will realize that, while giving people the benefit of the doubt, sometimes, those people are worse than you think."

Taki's voice rang out, reaching my ears. "Aren't... aren't you worse?"

"Ye... Uhm.. yes. No? Maybe? Wait..."

That was a dilemma. I mean, I was definitely worse. Beheading people, tormenting them while trying to kill them, or slamming them into a wall. There were plenty of things that I did that were terrible.

"No?"

"No.. no! Wait just a second! It's not the same. I do such things to people who DESERVE those things. Senco, on the other hand, if you hadn't already heard, is doing such things to people who don't!"

'Aha! A distinction! A difference! I'm not as bad as Senco! Uhm.. am I?'

"Am I as bad as Senco?"

Behind me was quiet for only a second before Taki replied in a very monotone and relaxed voice.

"No, you're not. You save people. Like Alice. And Mariga. You help people. Like me. And Rem. And Rosa. And Branson. And... What was her name? Ro- Rouge? Anyways. And you kill the bad guys. Like Grim. And.. bad pirates."

Immediately sighing a breath of relief, I had a quick stretch while walking.

"Oh thank Mora. You just averted an existential crisis. Thanks Taki."

There was no actual spoken answer, but I could just tell that she nodded back.

"... Are we just going back to the ship for you to multitask?"

"Well, yes. But I would like you, Rem, to, well, try to, think of something to help with my weird personality switch."

"I..."

"Yes?"

"Well, I don't know how to mess with souls.. I'm someone with a bunch of knowledge on bodies and technology.. but I've never messed with soul stuff..."

"Ah..."

'Well, can I come up with something? I mean, these others are locking themselves away, and I can't access them... I mean, my devil fruit can't do anything like this... well, I could try, but trying to split personalities would be a major concern for my own mind and my stability. I don't actually know how I'd even do such a thing... so that isn't an option. Haki? How would I conquer my own mind? And how do I even know where these personalities reside? They're a part of me, but I don't have access to them..'

"I'm sorry to have pushed this on you, Rem. But while you can't come up with anything, I'm also stumped. I can't, and haven't been able to come up with any other possible ways to talk to the others in my head. Let alone the fact that I can talk to one of them all the time, even he doesn't know how to contact the others. So, I can only depend on you."

I had turned my head to talk to her behind me, and I noticed a slight concern on her face.

"What?"

"You can't come up with something?"

"Well, the only other option is to go to one of the most dangerous people in the world, bringing myself into one of the most dangerous archipelagos in the world, occupied by a child parading around as a mother along with her... uhm.. how many? Probably like.. at least 30 to 50 children. And aside from that fact, even if she did agree to help, I think I would probably be dead either way, so it wouldn't even matter what I did even if I got a meeting with her. So, she isn't an option, except for maybe trying to get her devil fruit.."

About to go off on a tangent, I stopped myself, realizing I was still far from even knowing if my multiple devil fruits theory were true. So, I continued where I should've.

"Off that topic, and back to the main one at hand, the only other soul manipulating abilities I know of.. are yours and Rosa's."

Rem took a second "Are.. are you sure?"

"About what?"

"That I'm.. the only one who can help?"

"Well..." I had a real long thought on the question.

"Hm.. Rosa probably could. Although, I don't actually know how long it would take for her to learn to do such a thing anyways, so she's in the same boat as you. Metaphorically speaking."

"Ju-just me and Ro-Ro?" She was looking more and more concerned about this fact. One look at her reaction, and I could tell she still was uneasy about doing it herself, so a short brainstorming session went into play.

"*Sigh* Okay, if you really want me to think of someone else who may have expertise in this, and hopefully someone else who can do it... I guess Vegapunk maybe? But I don't remember enough to know where he is. Would being able to manipulate souls of devil fruits transfer to bring able to manipulate the soul of a person?"

I had turned to face foward and started walking for a second, and it felt like I was forgetting something, although I couldn't pinpoint what was I was forgetting, so, I just let it go since nothing was coming to mind.

"N-no! I.. I can try.."

I had stopped once more by this proclamation.

"Well, Rem, I hope you can help the best, although I thought you could've done it, or learned how to do it before, with a little push."

And we ended up walking back to the ship finally.

•

Getting to the ship, I was reminded that, while the ship was in almost one piece, that piece was in terrible condition. I had pictured my own ship was in better condition, ideally only broken masts and a little bit here and there, but I had forgotten just how bad it was.

'I may need more than I thought I needed.'

So, a mental note was made, and i realized I still hadn't made the scaffolding.

'Mental note number two.'

The three of us jumped onto the slightly swinging ship, and I had quickly made a decision right then and there.

"You know what? It's not as stable as I thought. I don't know if I can deal with this."

"...Bugs.. don't we deal with this normally? Like.. when the waves hit us?"

"Yeah, nevermind. I'll just tie the ship down a bit so as to lower the amount of sway. Can you two perhaps set things back, or pick those things up throughout the ship while I'm doing so?"

•

It was finally dawning on me that the situation could have been worse.

Everything was put back into place by Rem and Taki over the course of like an hour, and I, using the broken mast, in essence, anchored the ship to the island, even if it wasn't in water. There are other reasons as to why everything could've been worse though.

Those other reasons are really simple in concept. The first being that The One, and the vault it was in, were in pretty good shape. The second being that the ship could've been completely destroyed and not even together anymore. The third was that tying the ship to the island while suspended mid-air was, while risky, much better than getting pummeled by plenty of massive waves. Fourth, we could've been dead before getting to this island in the first place. I may have been powerful, but against the ocean without any way to keep myself safe? There was no way I could've survived under normal circumstances, let alone the three of us. On top of that, I would've ended up dead, and back with Mora, dying once again.

But there was one big thing that was good. I finally remembered the thing I couldn't put my finger on. It was the fact that we had a Transponder Snail ready to contact Branson, and more specifically, Rosalina.

Rem was the one who found it, and remembered that I was handed it back when we left over a week ago. And so, as soon as the three of us sat down, Rem next to me and Taki laying on a deck chair, I picked up and called.