chapter 99

"This is the black pearl, my pride, and joy," I say with a smile while pointing at my ship as we arrive at the docks. "Am old shipwright from West Blue built her for us. Her keel is Adam wood, while the rest is Bally wood, which is only second to Adam wood," I concluded with a smile.

"It looks like a great ship," Doc Q said in his usual wheezing tone. "Isn't it?" I remarked, my smile growing broader as we made our way into the ship.

"Everyone gather up. We have a new crew member," I exclaimed, loudly causing everyone to gather on the black pearl's deck. "This is Doc Q, the newest addition to our crew. He may look like he's dying, but the guy is strong, and he's an excellent doctor," I explained as soon as everyone was close enough to hear me.

"This is Wilson, my first mate," I said while pointing at Wilson, who only grunted in acknowledgment, seemingly occupied with a bottle of alcohol. "He's a muscle head who only enjoys fighting, drinking, and eating!" I explained with a smile.

"You've already met Laffite, our navigator," I remarked while pointing at Laffite, who was standing next to the sickly doctor. "Not only is he strong, but he's also very crafty and knowledgeable about the underworld," I concluded.

"This is Elly, our resident land spotter, and marksman," I said as I turned to look at Elly, who nodded with a smile on her face.

"That there is Bob, our cook," I said while pointing at the cook. "He's a lazy asshole, but he's strong, and his cooking is great," I concluded, causing Bob to raise his middle finger in my direction.

"The blonde over there is Byron, an axeman and a musician extraordinaire," I said with a smile. "He's only second in music to yours truly," I concluded with thumbs up, causing byron to roll his eyes.

"That moss head over there is Kozue, a sword and bow expert who is just as knowledgeable about the underworld as Laffite," I say while pointing at Kozue, and she merely smiles while waving her hands in greeting.

"Just between us, she's a pervert, so you better steer clear of her," I concluded, quickly moving my head to the side to dodge a smut book that came flying at me from Kozue's direction.

"We still have something to do here before we go check on that weather Phenomena Laffite spoke about and then go into the grand line, so everyone try to enjoy our brief time here," I concluded, causing everyone to nod.

-0-

Six days had passed since Doc Q joined the crew (albeit not officially), and he seemed to be getting along with everyone without any trouble.

He seemed to have developed an excellent relationship with Laffite, which isn't surprising considering that they both believe in luck, fate, and dreams more than anything else.

Now that I think about it, that seemed to be the theme of the entire black-beard pirate crew, believing in luck and fate, I mean, but I digress.

Wilson didn't seem to enjoy interacting with Doc Q too much because of how he usually spoke in between gasps, In a wheezing tone, and the four-armed gorilla didn't have the patience to deal with that.

The two, Doc Q and Wilson, rarely spoke to each other because of that, but they seemed to accept each other regardless, so I wisely chose not to interfere.

Charles was also doing the same with some of my companions, taking the initiative to teach him like Bob initially did. His day consisted of being instructed to brawl in the morning by Bob, who would then proceed to prepare breakfast for the crew, and Elly would take over training him to shoot before lunch, while Kozue would teach him swordsmanship before his bedtime.

The town's folk also seemed to warm up to us after spending a week here, even though they weren't exactly friendly towards us, but they stopped glaring and whispering to each other, at least.

Their change of attitude was doubtlessly the result of the copious amounts of money we spent in the town, which shows the incredible power of capitalism.

I also spent the time to train my devil fruit abilities further and finally managed to get the hand of phasing through solid objects yesterday.

Still, it wasn't easy, and I lost count of the times where I'd make myself weightless and begin floating in the air, creating numerous craters all around the island.

I finally stopped making myself weightless and unwittingly making myself float after two days. Still, it wasn't over yet as I faced another problem with burying myself into the ground while trying to phase.

But I was no stranger to hard work, both in this life and the one before it, and my hard work paid off. I'm now not only able to phase through any solid object, but I can also achieve weightless flight, which is a lot faster than Geppo and a lot less taxing on the body.

"Are you sure about this, captain?" Elly asked with a concerned tone, looking at me as I stood on the black pearl's railing. "Not really, no," I replied with a smirk.

Elly wanted to say something else, but I cut her off by waving my hand as I made myself weightless and levitated myself above the seawater surface.

'Here goes nothing,' I murmured to myself as I began lowering my density even further, and lowering myself into the water.

What I'm trying to do is basically testing if I can phase through the water, which would open so many doors and potential uses for my devil fruit abilities.

I was just about to drop myself into the water when I suddenly heard the sounds of bells ringing from the direction of Pleasure town, and a couple of seconds later, Laffite showed up, standing behind the railing.

"What's going on, Laffite?" I ask with a frown. "A pirate ship is approaching the town," Laffite replied while pointing at the sea, causing me to turn around and notice a pirate ship with a black flag that had a skull, shooting lasers out of its eyes, approaching.

"It seems to be that Artur Bacca who destroyed pleasure town before," Laffite added while pointing at the jolly roger. "What do you want us to do, captain?" he asked, causing me to jump back into the black pearl while heaving a sigh.

"It's none of our business, but we can make use of this to find out where Wolf is living," I reply while rubbing my chin thoughtfully. "We'll have to pick the best time to interfere, though," I added with a smirk.

"Too early, and they won't be grateful because there won't be any damage. Too late, and the town's people will blame us for not helping them earlier," I explained.

"So let's wait for the best time," I concluded, causing everyone to nod, preparing themselves to fight.

It didn't take long for the pirate ship to reach the docks, and a man with long black hair and wearing an elliptical pirate hat, who turned out to be Artur Bacca, was the first disembark.

A man who looked like a Sumo wrestler was next to disembark from the ship, the rest of their pirate crew following them.

"You're not welcome here. Bacca," Rudd, the police officer in red uniform, said with armed town folk standing behind him. "Was destroying our town once not enough for you?" Rudd asked angrily, a scowl on his face.

"I'll destroy this filthy town as many as it takes until you people spit out the location of the treasure," Artur Bacca replied with a disdainful expression on his face.

"Don't think you can do whatever you want this time around too," Rudd said, still scowling as the town's folk brandished their weapons. "We're ready for you this time," he concluded.

"I always do what I want," Artur Bacca said while dismissively waving. "Observe," he concluded with a smirk, his eyes glinting and shooting black lasers that were roughly as fast as a bullet, hitting the towns folks' weapons, turning them into liquid.

Artur Bacca and his crew then made short work of the town's people, but surprisingly enough, they didn't kill anyone, so we didn't interfere.

"That's what you get for standing in my way," Artur Bacca said while looking down on Rudd, who was collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath as the pirate delivered a kick to his abdomen.

Artur Bacca then looked at my crew and me as we watched the previously mentioned events from our ship, making his way towards us with a cocky smirk.