Smooth Sailing Chapter 13: Kumate Island 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 13: Kumate Island 2

Following the smell of smoke through the jungle led us to a large clearing in the middle of the island.

Here, almost two dozen men in similar crude garb as the two we’d run into earlier were dancing and chanting around a large boiling pot of water.

To our relief, the Buggy pirates were all still alive, and not yet turned into soup. There were roughly thirty of the carnival-themed crew, and while they were badly beaten up and stuffed into crude wooden cages and bound by rope made from vines, they were all in one piece.

“One, two, skip a few… I count eighteen tribesmen,” I whispered to Buggy.

We were all crouched down in the undergrowth around the jungle, peering through the foliage at the gathering of cannibals.

There were far more of them here than there had been in the anime or manga, another change to what I knew, but it didn’t matter if there were four or fourteen (or eighteen in this case), with all of us I was confident we could take them down and save the other pirates.

“Looks correct,” Buggy hummed, eyeing the tribal warriors as they celebrated their catch. “Okay, I’ll start off by attacking the ones closest to the cages. Don’t want them to try and kill the hostages.”

“Smart,” I nodded. “Before that, though, I think the rest of us should spread out a bit and then leap out to draw. Make them focus on us.”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Buggy nodded. “Okay, Cabaji, Mohji, circle around to the left. Get as close as you can to the cages. If you’re able to, free Ritchie first.”

“Of course, captain!” Mohji said, while the acrobat simply drew his sword.

Showing off a surprising amount of skill at moving stealthily, the duo moved through the jungle, getting closer to the captured pirates without alerting any of the Kumate tribesmen.

Once they were in position, I nodded at my companions. “Jodie, Eliza, stay back. You need more training before I’d trust you in a fight. But don’t hesitate to act if you believe yourselves to be in danger.”

“Yes, Captain Alvida,” the two lovers replied.

“Medaka, stay by my side. Don’t just go charging at them blindly,” I continued. “Hep, Pep, Pop, show ‘em what you’re made of.”

“Yes, captain!” the three bothers responded.

“Alright… GO!”

With that, we leapt out, showing ourselves to the cannibals. Hearing us, they all turned away from their pre-feast celebrations and stared in surprise at more free food showing up and presenting themselves.

“Ey! More meat!” one shouted.

“Sexy meat,” another warrior drooled, staring at me with undisguised lust.

“Fuck ‘em up, everyone!” I ordered, hefting my mace.

The tribesmen didn’t hesitate and charged in, makeshift weapons raised and ready to be used. The first two tattooed warriors who reached me were immediately sent flying as I slammed the mace into their sides.

As they flipped head over heels through the air, Medaka stuck by me and fended off another one of the attackers with her naginata. A couple hours of teaching her how to swing a polearm properly didn’t make her a fighter right off the bat, but her grip was much better and she was able to deflect a couple stabs from a spear-wielding warrior before I took care of the problem by swatting him aside.

Hep and Pop were fighting a couple of the tribesmen themselves, their superior steel weapons easily carving apart the old and rusty scrap the cannibals were using. Though even without weapons they continued to fight, flinging themselves at the duo and striking out with fists and feet.

Pep took care of some of the tribal warriors himself, shooting them in order to keep his brother safe. I hadn’t made a lot of bullets though, just two dozen total, so he was soon out and forced to pistol whip any of the ones that got too close.

Hanging back, Eliza and Jodie were currently safe, as they weren’t the focus of the cannibals. Still, one of them did break off from the rest and rush at the lovers, hollering madly.

Before I could step in to help them, Eliza flung her right hand out and sent the razor wires through the air, where they wrapped around the warrior’s right arm. With a tug of her metal thread, Eliza turned the cannibal’s limb into a bunch of meat-confetti which had the warrior collapse to the ground while crying in pain, blood spurting everywhere.

Jodie then lunged forward with her own weapon, the sharpened tip of the Monk’s Spade piercing into his neck and decapitating the man in a single stroke.

From the shell-shocked expressions on their faces as the head rolled towards their feet, I could tell that this was their first kill, and I made a mental note to speak with them about it. Buggy had helped me come to terms with Ganzack’s death, and I hoped I’d be able to do the same for them.

I still wasn’t entire sanguine about killing, and I was unsure if I’d hesitate if I had to do so again. It was easy to smack cannibals around with my giant spiked club, and considering how sturdy the people were in this world, it wasn’t necessarily lethal, either, unless I was actively trying.

‘And speaking of hitting people with a spiked club…’ I thought to myself as a spear Slipped off of me.

“No. Bad cannibal!” I scolded the tribesman who’d just tried to stab me while I was distracted by Eliza and Jodie.

I proceeded to punt him across the clearing, causing the spearman to crash into the giant cauldron, knocking it over. He screamed in pain as he was burnt by the fire and hot metal, and then scalded by the boiling water.

Wincing at that, I mentally sent a prayer his way, as well as condolences. If he survived that, he’d probably wish he hadn’t.

“Captain!” Medaka shouted up at me.

Glancing over at her, I saw she was trying to fend off a second attacker, and I stepped in to save her. A quick swing of my mace sent the cannibal into a tree, and I patted Medaka’s helmet.

“Good job! You didn’t drop your weapon or charge in recklessly!” I praised her. She grumbled under her breath at that and I just laughed before looking around the battlefield for my next target.

Not all of the tribesmen had rushed in to attack us, though. five of them had hung back and were armed with bows, which they’d raised and aimed at us. None of them managed to take a single shot though as spike-like fingers shot through the air like furious hornets and stabbed into their necks.

Buggy’s sneak attack took the archers out of the fight, and the beast tamer and acrobat leapt out from hiding. Cabaji cut one of the cages apart, while Mohji used his whip to tear apart another. At the same time, Buggy walked, arms wide as if welcoming his crew.

“Look who’s back!” he crowed.

“CAPTAIN BUGGY!” the Buggy Pirates cried out joyfully, tears of happiness pouring down their faces.

“If you all weren’t already beaten halfway to Hell I’d be smacking you morons around myself!” he shouted, switching from upbeat to angry at the drop of a hat. “Why did none of you check my damn body for a pulse?! I’m looking at you, Doc!”

The ship’s doctor winced and looked away, trying to whistle innocently. Nobody believed him.

“Expect to be swabbing decks for the foreseeable future, Doc,” Buggy warned, before turning to Ritchie who was happily nuzzling Mohji.

“Oi! Quit acting like a dog and go beat up those cannibals!” Buggy ordered, and Cabaji, Mohji, and Ritchie saluted before rushing into battle, slamming into the tribal warriors from behind.

What followed was a slaughter. Flanked by a giant lion, a weirdo in a fur suit, and an acrobat with a katana, the cannibals were unable to resist and were quickly crushed. Even though the former were hurt, they were still more than capable enough.

“Quick fight,” I muttered as I looked around the clearing.

Some cannibals were still alive, but most were dead. It hadn’t taken more than two minutes to finish them all off. Maybe three. Kinda hard to keep track of time in the heat of the moment.

‘They always make the fight scenes seem longer than they actually are in real life,’ I thought before heading over to Buggy.

“Your crew all in one piece still?” I asked him, and Buggy nodded.

“Yeah, they’re alive,” he grunted. “Dumb as bricks, but alive.”

“Hey, captain, who’s the sexy lady?” one of his minions asked.

“That’s a good question,” Cabaji said. “Who is this person? Why did she help save us?”

“This is Iron Mace Alvida,” Buggy said, turning to his crew. “She saved my life after I was sent flying by that rubbery asshole.”

“Captain Alvida of the Iron Mace Pirates,” I said, tipping my hat in greeting. “And member of the Buggy and Alvida Tag Team League of Evil. BATTLE, for short.”

“Eh? But wasn’t Alvida…” one of the pirates began, only to catch sight of Hep, Pep, and Pop making shushing gestures none too discreetly behind my back.

“Covered in freckles? I know, I know, but the Devil Fruit I accidentally ate seems to have removed them from my face,” I sighed theatrically, a hand on my cheek. “But my co-captain told me it’s not unusual for Devil Fruits to do odd things to those who eat them.”

His crew all looked at Buggy, and he just rolled his eyes. “Ix-nay on the atfay,” he ordered them. “And yes, we’re teaming up as co-captains in order to go after that little straw hat brat!”

That caused his crew to cheer at that, all of them eager to get revenge on Luffy. I watched as they then had a tearful reunion with their captain, before coughing loudly.

“As much as I love to see good old-fashioned comradery, we still have things to do,” I spoke up once I had their attention.

“Eh? What do we have to do besides getting back to the ship?” Buggy asked.

“Treasure hunting, for one,” I replied. “I’ll bet these cannibals have some sort of spoils heap where they tossed whatever they couldn’t eat or use. And that means things like jewelry and gold will most likely be there.”

“Treasure, huh? Good point,” Buggy hummed. He then turned to his boys. “Okay, Doc, get these fools patched up! We’re gonna go find where these bastards hid their loot!”

“Yeah!” his crew cheered, only to immediately regret it as they all groaned loudly in pain as their injuries prevented them from moving around too much.

“Where should we start looking?” Medaka asked, glancing about the clearing as she did so. “Should we try and find footprints?”

“That might work, though we’re in a jungle, so who knows how quickly tracks like that would fade?” I wondered.

“Why don’t we just get the lion to sniff ‘em out?” Jodie suggested, looking at Richie.

“He’s a majestic Pridemont Lion, not some dog!” Mohji said with a huff.

“Yeah, but he’s still an animal, and thus has a much better sense of smell that we do. Unless one of you happened to eat a Zoan type Devil Fruit when Buggy wasn’t looking,” I said, eyeing the beast thoughtfully.

Unlike in the anime, where he had pale green fur and a light purple mane, or in the manga, where he had golden-brown fur and a pinkish mane, Richie in this version of reality had white fur and a red, almost crimson, mane. He also looked quite a bit fiercer, with a leaner, meaner demeanor.

‘Then again, he hasn’t hit the timeskip, where he gets all fat,’ I thought to myself.

As if sensing my thoughts, Richie looked towards me with a growl. I raised an eyebrow and hefted my mace before bringing it down onto the ground, violently creating a crater with a fraction of my full power.

Seeing that, Richie immediately rolled over and played dead, his stomach bared to me in submission.

“Good boy,” I said, bending over to give him a belly rub.

“Richie?!” Mohji gasped in betrayal, while Cabaji and the other Buggy Pirates eyed me with a lot more caution and respect than before.

“Now, can you sniff out where other people might be?” I asked the giant lion, who got back to his feet with a soft purr. He lowered his nose to the ground and began sniffing, trotting about the clearing before growling as he pointed a paw towards the mountains in the distance.

“So, that’s where they are, huh? I suppose that makes sense,” I hummed. “Come on, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

After taking a moment to make some of torches so we wouldn’t be going into the jungle in pitch darkness, we all ventured into the jungle, aiming towards the four large cylindrical pillars of stone that rose high above the canopies. These mountain-like landmarks were what gave the island its name, as they sort of resembled the pads on a bear’s paw if viewed from above.

‘I wonder if there is any ore in them?’ I mused idly, glancing up at the rocky spires. They were a lot bigger than I’d thought. Once again, the series didn’t do them justice. They were almost like the cylindrical mountains of Drum Kingdom!

‘Or is it Sakura Kingdom?’ I wondered to myself. ‘No, I think it’s still called the Drum Kingdom. Won’t be changed until Luffy and the others turn the snow pink.’

Having future knowledge sometimes made my head hurt, and I frowned to myself as I tried to sort out a few random thoughts that weren’t relevant to the situation.

Walking beside me, Medaka saw me frowning, and the young girl patted my arm in a comforting gesture.

“It’s okay!” she said reassuringly. “We’ll find the meanies and teach ‘em not to mess with us!”

“Heh, sure we will,” I chuckled, patting her on the head.

Medaka grumbled a bit and tried to readjust her helmet since I’d knocked it askew, but she sudden froze midstep and pointed a shaking finger towards something in the distance.

“AHHH! Over there!”

Naturally, hearing her shout caused everyone to spin around and face that direction. I was faster than most of the others, yet even so I only caught a glimpse of something small, skinny, and dirt-covered that had been peeking from behind a tree before it went “Eep!” and ran off.

“What was that?!” Eliza gasped.

“Looked like a person,” Pep said, squinting towards the spot it had been.

“That does seem to be the case,” Cabaji said, fingering his sword’s hilt.

“Do you think there might be other people here?” Jodie wondered nervously.

“If there are… then that would mean there’d be children, too,” I said grimly, and that caused the rest to exchange wary glances.

Richie let out a snuffling snort, and approached the tree that the figure had been hiding behind. After sniffing it, the lion grunted and began to follow a scent-trail left behind by our voyeur, with the rest of us walking behind him.

He soon led us over to one of the rocky spires, and came to a stop, looking up at what appeared to be a cave entrance about ten feet above the ground. The lion could probably have jumped up there if he wanted, but was too lazy to do so, and just sat down, a smug ‘look at what I did, silly humans!’ aura radiating off of him.

“Well done,” I said, patting Richie on the head. He purred as I ran my fingers through his mane, and Mohji grumbled a bit behind me.

“Looks like it’s a whole network of tunnels,” Buggy said, having removed his head so it could float up and peer into the cave for him. “Think it might have been a mine at some point.”

“Odd that it’s so high up, though,” Hep commented. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have it lower to the ground?”

“It would, but look here,” Cabaji called out, and we all turned to see what looked to be grooves with deep holes in the side of the mountain. “Any wood has long rotted away, and the metal rusted or repurposed, but these look like markings from where rails might have once been slotted.”

“Rails? So there was some sort of mining operation here, and perhaps there was a hill or support network for the rails to rest on,” I guessed.

It wouldn’t even be hard to make a hill. Just pile up any dirt and stone dug out of the mines at the foot the mountain, and pack it down tight. Voila! Instant hill! Well, more of a mound, but to-may-toe, to-mah-toe.

“Yes. Either that, or something causes the pillars to rise… or the island to lower,” the acrobatic swordsman commented.

Perhaps if we looked around the other pillars we’d find more caves that were lower to the ground, but that wasn’t what we were here for. Instead, we cut down a bunch of trees and fashioned them into a large ladder, which we used to ascend into the mine.

Not all of us would be going. Buggy and I were a given, so were Cabaji and Mohji, Hep, Pep, and Pop, and Medaka also refused to be left behind. The rest were a bit too beat up to be making a trek into an abandoned mine, and Richie too big, so Eliza and Jodie stayed behind to help Buggy’s doctor patch up the rest of the pirates.

The interior of the cave was dark, way darker than it was outside, but thanks to the few torches, we managed to lit the tunnel up a bit. Doing so, we discovered that the cave led to a large mineshaft section with a long, spiraling ramp that led deeper into the island.

“I see light,” Buggy said, peering over the edge.

“Same,” I nodded. “Think we’ll find what we’re looking for down there?”

“Probably,” he replied. He tried to sound uninterested, but I could tell his adventurer’s blood was pumping now.

Couldn’t blame him, either. The thrill of the hunt applied to all sorts of things, and tracking down treasure and uncovering mysteries was causing the adrenaline and dopamine in my body to pump wildly through my veins.

What would we find? Treasure guarded by more cannibals? Some sort of lost tribal civilization like Shandora? Maybe we’d discover something much worse, like monsters.

Upon reaching the bottom of the mineshaft, we found that the source of the light was a single torch, dropped onto the ground and slowly dying. Beyond the torch, however, was a large cavern, filled with shadows, with unseen shapes moving around within.

“Hello?” I called out hesitantly.

I heard shuffling and whispers in the gloom. They sounded fearful, which concerned me greatly. When people were afraid, they could fight viciously. A cornered rat always fights back against the cat, after all.

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Buggy Chopped off his hands and sent them into the cavern, carrying a pair of torches along the way. The flames barely illuminated the darkness, but it was enough to reveal what hid within the shadows: humans.

There were no more than fifty people in total, all of them women and children. And yet, there wasn’t a single person over the age of forty as far as I could tell.

With Buggy’s torches, I was able to make out a few other things. There were bundles of cloth, hide, and sticks piled up in one corner, and I also saw some tools, bedrolls, and an assortment of primitive objects carefully tucked away in alcoves carved out of the stone.

But there were no cooking fires anywhere in sight, or any signs of long-term habitation within in the cavern. This wasn’t a place to live, but rather, it was a place to lay low and hide.

‘Are they hiding from us? Or from the cannibals?’ I wondered anxiously, glancing around at the denizens of the cavern.

“I don’t like this,” Pop muttered nervously.

“They’re scared of us,” Medaka whispered.

She was right. The people huddled together in the cavern were doing their best to keep as far away from us as possible, while the women put themselves in front of the children.

Cautiously, we stepped inside, waiting to see what would happen next. Would they attack? I couldn’t help but feel that we should perhaps leave.

“Skull!”

The word, uttered by a young and childish voice, broke the tense silence, and a young girl, younger than even Medaka, pointed at Buggy’s hat, where the Jolly Roger upon it could just barely be seen.

‘Was that the child who was spying on us back in the jungle?’ I wondered.

My question could go unanswered, as the crowd suddenly began to stir, and somebody pushed their way to the front. This was not another child, though. He was an old man, hunched and withered with age, wearing only a loin cloth, and yet he moved with determination and purpose, standing in front of the women and children protectively.

“Skull,” he echoed, voice cracked and weary, but there was a glint of something fierce in his eyes.

“Told you!” the child declared, sticking her tongue out at some of the other children.

“You bear the mark of the skull,” the old man uttered, speaking broken Common like the tribal warriors we’d just beaten up.

“Yes… a skull,” he continued, peering closely at Buggy’s hat. “Enemy of the dragons.”

“Enemy of the dragons…?” Buggy muttered.

“Hang on, dragons? Do you mean… the Celestial Dragons?” I asked sharply. “The World Nobles?”

“You know of the dragons,” the ancient man said with a happy smile that looked rather demented. “You… are enemies?”

“We are not their friends,” I confirmed, Buggy nodding his head rapidly.

“The skulls are enemies of the dragons. Good,” the strange old man said with a pleased, smug look coming onto his face. “So, it was true.”

“Okay, okay, what does that have to do with anything?” Buggy demanded. “Why does it matter that we’re pirates? Or, uh, ‘skulls?’”

“Skulls… will save us,” the man intoned solemnly, as if he was repeating dogma he himself had heard repeated to him before. “D will set us free. Nika shall dance as the dragons die!”

“Nika! Nika!” the women and children all chanted, eyes wide with religious fervor.

Some of the younger ones even began to do a silly dance with their arms wildly swinging back and forth as they laughed, their shadows casting a large, familiar shape on the walls that I recognized as the iconic ‘stance’ of Nika, God of Freedom.

“Ah, shit,” Buggy groaned softly. “Nikaeans.”

“I don’t have much experience with them myself,” I admitted in a low voice. “Should we be worried?”

I didn’t know much, and Alvida knew even less, having never heard mention of it before. The only thing I knew was that it was a slave religion, its main tenant being a fable passed down through those imprisoned by the World Nobles. A legend of how Nika, or Joyboy, would eventually become the downfall of the ones they were forced to call ‘master.’

“We should be fine as long as we don’t provoke ‘em by badmouthing their beloved Nika,” he replied under his breath. “Though the whole ‘skull’ thing is new.”

“Maybe it means death would be the only way to be free of the World Nobles?” I suggested, and he just shrugged, equally unsure of what it meant.

Buggy then cleared his throat and addressed the people. “So! If you believe the ‘skull’ will set you free, why did you attack me and my crew, huh?!”

“Did not see you. Did not know they were with the skull,” the elder replied, and he got onto his hands and knees, kowtowing deeply towards us. “Please, spare us!”

“Spare us!” the people behind him echoed, also getting down onto their hands and knees and mimicking his gesture.

The clown-themed pirate looked very uncomfortable with all of this, and I couldn’t blame him. It was very unnerving. But my attention was focused on something I could see on the bare skin of the old man’s back.

“What is that?” I asked, trepidation filling my voice as I stared at the mark that was just barely noticeable in the shadowy cavern.

The elder shakily stood before turning around slowly, and Buggy and I both sucked in a gasp. There, visible despite the wrinkles, was an old mass of scar tissue in the shape of the Celestial Dragon’s symbol: the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. And somehow, despite the years it had been, the wound remained raw and red, as if it had only just healed, instead of being decades old.

“How did you get here? How did you escape?” I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Brought here long ago,” he said slowly, still breaking in his broken Common, though it was stronger, now. More confident then before. “Many others with me. Told to run. Told to hide. Did so. Others didn’t run and hide well enough.”

He then gestured to the people in the underground settlement. “I hid. I lived. Others lived, too, down where they could not find us. Then, masters grow bore of slaughter and leave. Forget us. We stay and hide. But food scarce. Roots and coconuts not enough. Fish and birds not enough.”

“And you turned to cannibalism because the World Nobles killed everything bigger than a mouse they could get their grubby hands on during their ‘hunting expedition,’” I guessed, earning a creaky nod.

I heaved a heavy sigh, and Buggy ran a hand over his face, muttering something that I was pretty sure were salty swears.

“How long ago was this?” I asked, and the elder shrugged.

“Don’t know. Too many full moons to count. But I all that is left. I youngest of the master’s animals, so I must guide the tribe, and keep the memories alive.”

“Alright. Though I have to ask: why use the symbol of the Celestial Dragons as your own?” I wondered.

I’d seen the tattoos the Kumate warriors had been wearing, and suspected a connection, but hadn’t expected this. Plus, it seemed odd to me for former slaves to use it to represent themselves.

“Dragons strong. Powerful. Monsters? Yes. But powerful monsters,” the elder replied. “Remember power. Never forget it.”

I nodded slowly at the answer. It made sense, in a twisted way. How many slaves were completely broken by their time within the World Nobles’ clutches and clung to whatever remnants of it they could? How many more were born into the life atop the Red Line and knew nothing else but the ‘truth’ that the symbol represented the pinnacle of power and authority in this world?

“Well, shit,” I huffed. “Guess we aren’t getting any treasure today.”

“What do we do with these guys, though, captain?” Medaka asked, looking sadly at the tribespeople. “We can’t leave them alone like this!”

Who, now that I was looking, were all very skinny and likely malnourished from their diet. Or lack of one.

Even Hep, Pep, and Pop were looking at me with big, watery eyes, feeling bad for the Kumate tribes folk, and over with Buggy, Cabaji and Mohji were doing the same to him.

We may have been pirates who’d happily plunder and steal from towns or passing ships, but even we had lines we wouldn’t cross, and these pitiful people were really good at plucking our heartstrings.

I shared a look with Buggy, and we both nodded and sighed in unison.

“We might have some way to help you all,” I admitted, and Buggy grunted in agreement.

The expressions of hope on their faces was just as painful as the mindless adulation had been, and I sincerely wished that what I’d just told them wasn’t a lie.