Smooth Sailing Chapter 20: Gold Island 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 20: Gold Island 3

Eldoraggo and I stared each other down for a moment, sizing each other up. My grip tightened around my mace’s hilt, and his fingers twitched in anticipation. If this were a Western, a stiff wind would blow and a tumbleweed would come rolling past, but nothing of the sort happened. Not the right conditions for it in a jungle.

Having had enough waiting around, Eldoraggo opened his mouth, preparing one of his signature destructive howls, but I replied by kicking off my sandals into his face, the straw footwear smacking into his head and causing his attack to cut off from his surprise.

In that brief moment when he was distracted, I shot forward, Sliding over the ground like an ice skater, and struck my mace against his chest.

Devils Fruits did something to the human body in order to grant whatever power they bestowed. It was, according to Vegapunk, a shift right down to a person’s very DNA, which was frankly insane.

Alongside granting supernatural abilities to the eater, this alteration to their genetics also allowed for the already superhuman constitutions to be boosted even further in order to keep up with the changes.

I state all this to explain why, even though I could shatter boulders with my mace and bend iron with my bare hands, all this attack did to Eldoraggo was push him backwards slightly, a few tiny pinpricks of blood on his bare skin where the spikes had hit him.

“Ooof, you hit pretty hard, girlie… no, Alvida, right?” the gold-obsessed pirate grunted, a hand on his chest. He brushed away the blood without even looking at it, instead keeping his gaze on me.

“Damn right I do,” I smirked back.

“Shame about what I’m gonna have to do to ya,” Eldoraggo replied, and he opened his mouth.

This close, I’d be hit point blank by his Scream, and I didn’t want to find out what that’d do to me, so I thrust my palm upwards, the blow slamming into his lower jaw and forcing it shut.

A discordant screech rang out, his noise cannon exploding inside of his mouth, and Eldoraggo looked a little bit disoriented from his own attack’s backlash, but he recovered incredibly quickly, his hands clawing out at me.

I jinked back, Sliding across the ground to make some distance between us, and his gold-plated nails slashed through empty air. Of course, this seemed to be what he wanted in the first place, as now that I was further away he opened his mouth, waves of sonic energy condensing within.

It lashed out with incredible speed and I was barely able to bend out of the way. Only the fact that I knew it was coming and his attack traveled in a straight line allowed me to dodge.
Behind me, the scream beam carved a path through the jungle, uprooting and tossing aside trees.

“Wouldn’t want to be hit by that,” I claimed, glancing back at the destruction.

“Nobody who has faced my Scream-Scream Fruit has lived to tell the tale!” Eldoraggo laughed viciously.

“Bet,” I replied, and then reached over and picked up one of the fallen trees knocked over by his attack with a single hand, my fingers sinking into the bark with a cracking noise not unlike that of breaking bones.

Eldoraggo blinked in surprise at my superhuman feat, and immediately got wood to the face as I hurled it at him like an oversized javelin.

He staggered back before a roar of anger shattered the tree that had smacked into him, sending plenty of splinters flying everywhere.

At the same time I’d thrown the log at Eldoraggo I’d rushed forward, using the wood as a way to obscure my approach towards him.

With a shout, I smashed my mace down onto his right foot which had the big man shout in pain. Not even superhuman durability could prevent that from hurting. I should know. Somehow, even though everything should Slip off of me, I still managed to stub my toe!

Hopping back and cradling his injured foot in both hands, Eldoraggo was now balancing on a single leg. Thick as it was, it wouldn’t be enough as I brought my mace swinging upwards into the pirate captain’s stomach.

My blow struck the golden armor band around his waist, shattering it, and it also hit Eldoraggo hard enough to send him tumbling backwards – though that was mostly due to him being supported by only one leg at the time.

“You do know that gold makes for really crappy armor, right?” I inquired, picking up one of the golden scales that had fallen off when I’d smashed part of his outfit to pieces.

Yup, genuine gold. I didn’t even have to press that hard and I left a faint indent of my thumb in the yellow metal.

“Who cares?” Eldoraggo retorted as he got back to his feet, rubbing his stomach belly with a grimace. “Gold is the most beautiful thing in the world! So shiny, so pure, so valuable!”

He began to do a little wiggle dance. “Oooo! I truly love gold! Ah, if only I’d gotten the Gold-Gold Fruit…”

“Yeah, well no luck on that front,” I scoffed. “That particular Devil Fruit belongs to a man well beyond you in the Grand Line.”

“Maybe once I’ve obtained all the gold in the East Blue I’ll find the owner and add him to my collection,” Eldoraggo sneered. “For now, though…”

He opened his mouth and shot out a blast of sonic energy at me, forcing a quick bit of acrobatics to avoid the noise laser as it tore another chunk out of the jungle.

‘I bet this guy would be a pretty decent counter to the Quake-Quake Fruit,’ I mused as I leapt away from another sonic shout.

The Scream-Scream Fruit must have modified Eldoraggo’s body to better handle creating, storing, and unleashing sonic vibrations capable of being fired as lasers. And seismic waves were essentially a form of sound wave, so the big bastard’s body could probably resist the Quake-Quake Fruit better than most.

‘Although Whitebeard would probably still curb stomp this guy, even if he got decades of experience in the New World,’ I mused. ‘Now, Blackbeard on the other hand… Eldoraggo might be a good trump card to keep in my back pocket from now on.’

As I thought this, I decided to keep him alive. So far, Eldoraggo hadn’t killed anyone, merely caused a bit of property damage, and it was clear his crew was the one to blame for jumping the gun back at the port.

‘If I can trick this guy into heading towards the Grand Line and New World, he might be able to become a valuable ally in a few years… assuming he survives. And if not? Then I’ll just find the Scream-Scream Fruit and feed it to someone on my crew for my plans.’ I mused. ‘And I’ve already tempted him to go after Gild Tesoro by dropping that hint about the Gold-Gold Fruit being in that area.’

Nodding to myself as I made up my mind, my grin gained a sharper edge. Of course, I had to crush the red-maned bastard first before I could make plans for the future. And that meant finishing this fight!

To that end, I hit the ground, treating my mace like it was an oversized golf club, sending a storm of dirt and stone shards flying towards Eldoraggo.

He growled, covering his face as dirt in the eyes and mouth was always unpleasant, and I took that momentary distraction to close the distance and smash him over the head. The blow drove Eldoraggo’s head into the ground, and I grinned at the sight, only to yelp as one of his hands lashed out and grabbed my ankle.

Well, he tried to, at least. My skin was too Smooth for his calloused palm to grab onto, letting me quickly step back, and immediately and brought the mace down over and over onto the back of his head.

“Cripes, you’re durable,” I muttered.

“And you’re annoying!” he spat out, pushing himself back to his feet. “Those little smacks barely tickle!”

“The blood on your face says otherwise,” I teased. Indeed, a few trickles of red life juice were currently dribbling down his face, courtesy of my mace’s spikes stabbing into his scalp.

“RAH!” he roared, and a wave of sonic energy slapped me right in the face, sending me flying backwards.

“Ow!” I hissed, wincing as I crashed into the dirt.

Although the attack wasn’t as concentrated as his usual lasers, it was still a blast of near-solid noise, and I could feel my ears ringing as I pulled myself off of the ground.

“Damn, that hurt,” I groaned, my head feeling as if it’d been rung like a bell.

Unfortunately, my dazed state meant I was unprepared for a vicious lariat to slam into my throat and send me crashing back down onto the jungle floor.

I used my collision with the leaf-strewn soil to roll away from the vicious pirate captain, and that was the right thing to do as a moment later he was stabbing his hands down, trying to use his gold-plated nails as spikes to pierce me.

I wasn’t sure if he could, but I didn’t want to risk being pinned on the ground, and so once I’d created enough distance I hopped back to my feet, and slammed my mace into his back. This sent him staggering, more than any of my other strikes had.

“You’re a slippery little bitch, you know that?” he growled angrily, turning around to face me.

But his rage revealed that he was, in fact, getting hurt by my attacks. Slowly, surely, I was whittling him down.

‘Of course, I’m getting tired as well,’ I grimaced. My stamina needed work. A lot of it. I’d done my best, but on a crappy little boat I was significantly limited in what I could do.

“I’m ready to keep going,” I replied, not letting him see my exhaustion. Not being able to sweat really helped with that.

“HOWLING CANNON!” he roared, unleashing another sonic laser, and I was forced to raise my club up in front of my body to shield myself from the attack because of how close he was.

The attack seemed to part around the giant club like water, although as the ‘ripples’ of his voice washed over me, it jarred my body, and I staggered back, gritting my teeth as shockwaves ran through me.

My mace endured the scream, only suffering a few superficial cracks along the surface – along with one of the spikes being broken off. All in all, not bad.

‘So glad I reinforced my baby at Clatter Town,’ I thought. If I hadn’t, well, I’d seen his screams shatter stone. No reason it couldn’t destroy metal just as easily.

“Why won’t you die?!” Eldoraggo growled.

“I’d never die to a filler character like you,” I sneered at him, which he gladly returned with a glare, even if he didn’t fully understand my insult.

With a non-Devil Fruit powered roar, he charged at me, golden nails swiping at my face, and I leaned to the side, smashing my mace into his side. This caused him to flinch, and a quick kick to his balls saw him doubling over in agony.

While the part of me that remember being a guy recoiled a bit at my action, I wasn’t planning on losing, and I was a pirate, baby! All was fair!

This temporarily bought me a few seconds to catch my breath, though, and I took it in order to rest and come up with an idea to beat him.

‘If I could have people’s gazes Slip off of me, did that mean I could Slip through other things, or have them Slide off of me?’ I thought to myself. ‘Can I make sound Slide off of my crazy Smooth skin?’

No other way but to test that, so I decided to bait Eldoraggo into firing off another blast at me. A weaker one, of course, so I did my best to stay close as I started to wail on him with my mace.

I’d noticed that he only went for his scream beams when I was far away, and preferred to go for physical attacks or those weaker but wider shout-blasts, so I hoped to get the latter as I pummeled him.

My mace shattered one of his pauldrons which really got him pissed off, and Eldoraggo let out a furious shout that was a 360-degree area of effect shockwave centered on himself. It swept over me and sent my flying, and my Smooth skin did not manage to mitigate the effects at all.

‘Okay, that didn’t work,’ I groaned as I rolled over and hopped back onto my feet. ‘The idea was valid, though! It just seems like I can’t cause sound to Slide off of me just yet. Might need a bit more practice.’

What else could I try? I had a few ideas, but none of them were really a good idea to try and do right now, or were that useful. Having lactic acid Slip off of my muscles after training would certainly help me prove but wouldn’t help right now, and finding a way to Slip between molecules was something that needed a lot of practice in safer conditions than a fight.

“Air resistance!” I exclaimed aloud after thinking it over.

That was it! That was the key to beating Eldoraggo! I just had to be faster than him, and the only way I could do that right now was to Slip through the air resistance around me using the Smooth-Smooth Fruit!

‘Plus, a faster weapon means more stopping power,’ I grinned, and hefted my weapon with newfound determination.

First, though, I had to get close, and if he was looking directly at me, he’d just blast me again with another sonic attack. So, I decided to try another trick, one that I’d been thinking about for a while now.

“FLASH!” I shouted, and yanked my top up, flashing him my boobs.

That wasn’t all, though. I focused on my Smoothness and thought about light and photons Sliding off of me, and to my amazement and glee, it worked!

For a brief moment, my skin was as Smooth and reflective as a mirror and Eldoraggo staggered back with a shocked cry as I blinded him with the sunlight bouncing and Sliding off of my perky tits!

While he was unable to see – and after I yanked my shirt back down so I wasn’t giving everyone a free show anymore – I focused on my skin no longer reflecting light, but on having it Slip through air resistance instead.

“ALVIDAAAA!” Eldoraggo roared at the top of his lungs, the air vibrating with all the force his Scream-Scream Fruit could muster.

I needed to act quickly though, as Eldoraggo had begun to go crazy and blindly fire off scream beams randomly in all directions hoping to hit me.

“HOWLING CANNON!” he Screamed, desperately trying to kill me.

“Air Slide!” I called out, naming my technique on the fly as I Slipped through the air even faster than before, becoming a blur and evading the attacks!

It worked! A little too well, though, as I couldn’t control my speed while doing this trick, and I zipped right past Eldoraggo without much ability to do much else.

But I had done it, proving to myself it could work, and I spun around in a fancy little pirouette, not even bothering to slow down or even stop, and as a result built up more momentum. I began to spin on my heels faster and faster, until everything around me was a blur and I couldn’t even make out anything except smears of color.

Luckily for me, Eldoraggo’s red hair was very striking and visible even when everything was a blurry mess of green and brown, so I knew exactly where to aim for.

“SMOOTH STRIKER!” I cried out, and I Slipped through the air resistance surrounding me and my weapon, allowing the mace to reach a lot more speed than normal as I swung it.

The large, iron club slammed into the side of Eldorrago’s head with an amusingly dull and hollow “THUD!” and I saw his eyes roll back in his skull upon impact. At the same time, his sonic beam sputtered off and died.

With a victorious shout, my blow sent Eldoraggo’s body flying like a ragdoll all the way back into the ruins of Woonan’s castle where he lay crumpled and unconscious, and utterly defeated.

“Take that, ya lion bastard,” I grunted under my breath, extremely dizzy from my stunt just now, before grinning victoriously.

What a rush! That was the hardest fight I’d ever had, this world or the last! I wonder how Buggy had done? He had to be finished by now, right?

111 &&& 111

Buggy POV

As Alvida clashed with Eldoraggo nearby, Buggy was left to face down the silent swordsman. He was not exactly thrilled, though. The match-up was a poor one. In Buggy’s favor, that is. Swordsmanship, unless it was infused with Haki, was useless against Buggy’s body.

His body automatically reacted to slashing attacks, and even Armament could be dodged with a well-timed bit of Observation or even ordinary danger sense and self-preservation instructs, the former of which had always been the Haki Buggy had connected the most with. This meant the fight was going to be boring.

‘And speaking of the Color of Observation, Alvida was able to dodge an attack before it even came at us,’ Buggy mused to himself, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

It didn’t seem to be working all the time. Indeed, Buggy saw his fellow captain get shouted at so hard she went flying.

‘Was it a fluke?’ Buggy couldn’t help but wonder.

It had to be. Danger sense wasn’t exactly a rare ability, and didn’t necessarily have to be connected to Haki. Some people – and even animals – could detect danger through pure instincts. Buggy liked to consider himself adept at such a thing, knowing when to avoid a fight and when he could win one… most of the time.

‘Yet Alvida having some sort of burgeoning Observation Haki or a latent talent for it would explain some of the things I’ve noticed. Odd things. A lack of surprise or reaction towards some events and objects, as if she’d already seen ‘em coming. Or the way she occasionally acts like she knows more than she should,’ Buggy mused.

An interesting thought. Haki rarely manifested spontaneously outside of the Grand Line – there simply wasn’t enough danger to warrant such an evolution. But outliers existed everywhere, and so too did exceptions that proved the rule.

Sure, Future Sight was the rarest and peak of Observation applications, and the hardest to master of nearly all forms of Haki, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t impossible to have it awaken in somebody before any other.

His internal contemplation was cut off as a sword carved through his face, and for a moment his sight was divided into four parts as his opponent cut his eyeballs in half.

“Are you done yet?” Buggy asked, turning back to Golass, who was panting a bit while glaring at Buggy.

While Buggy was impressed by the amount of strength Golass could bring to bear – swordsmen capable of unleashing flying slashes were rare to find in the East Blue – it wasn’t enough to touch him.

Golass just grunted and shifted his feet, taking a new stance in preparation to try and wound Buggy. Seeing that the swordsman refused to back down, Buggy decided to get some attacks of his own in. And, he could privately admit that beating up a swordsman who was also a first mate would make a decent stand-in for when he fought the Pirate Hunter who’d joined the Straw Hat’s crew.

“So be it! Floating Fists!” Buggy shouted, and his hands detached from his body before shooting off like miniature comets that slammed into Golass’s body.

Covered in metal like they were, his fists were far more devastating than normal, and the punches he delivered were dealing quite a bit of damage.

Yet despite how easily he was overwhelming his opponent, Buggy found he wasn’t impressed. Both with his foe, and, to his mild surprise, himself.

‘When did I start finding it boring to fight weaker opponents?’ Buggy wondered. ‘Normally, I’d be thrilled at the chance to dominate a fight so thoroughly, but this… I feel nothing but annoyance to be doing this.’

Golass let out a shout, and he began to swing his sword even faster, knocking asides the Chopped off hands with the flat of his blade.

“Ah, so you finally figured out that cutting me is useless and are trying to use bludgeoning attacks instead,” Buggy noted. “How very flashy of you! But it won’t be enough to take me out! Take this! Flashy Tornado!”

Buggy exploded, or rather, Chopped himself up, creating distance between him and his opponent as he turned into a swirling mass of cubes and deli slices. Buggy then brought this whirlwind forward, enveloping Golass in the eye of his personal storm.

At the same time, Buggy’s fingers also detached from his hands and shot forward like bullets, hidden from sight by the rest of his body until the last moment. They plunged into Golass’s arms, piercing deep into his flesh and causing him to drop his large sword with a cry of pain.

“Is that all you’ve got?!” Buggy demanded as he reformed in front of the swordsman, peering over at his opponent expectantly.

“GOLASS!” Eldoraggo roared from where he was still fighting Alvida. “Hurry up and kill that clown! Or you won’t be getting any gold!”

Hearing that, Golass twitched. A flicker of emotion danced through his eyes, but he knelt down and picked his sword back up all the same, ignoring the blood pouring from his punctured arms.

“Huh. I thought I recognized that look in your eyes,” Buggy grunted, peering at Golass as he rose back to his feet. “I’ve seen it plenty of times myself in my own gaze: Shame.”

Buggy gave him a disdainful look. “Let me guess: you feel guilt at throwing away your pride as a swordsman in exchange for fighting for gold?”

Seeing Golass flinch, Buggy knew he’d hit the nail on the head, and he scowled at his opponent, feeling a flash of irritation at the swordsman.

“What a fool! You think pride can fill your belly? Repair your ship, or sharpen your sword? Does pride protect you from sickness, or death itself?!”

Anger filled Buggy, and he began to hurl a barrage of punches at Golass, striking him all over the body with his Floating Fists.

“Pride is what gets you killed, damn it! Pride is not a shield or a sword! It’s worthless without any sort of power to back it up!”

For a moment, a flash of memory flickered through his mind. Of watching the execution of his captain, and the way he felt betrayal at Shanks’ refusal to claim the crown. Above all else, though, he felt the sting of his own shame at running away that day, abandoning his fellow cabin boy to spend the next two decades in self-imposed exile, never daring to rise too high, lest the Marines and World Government find him.

And yet, Buggy also couldn’t help but recall the way Captain Roger had left his mark upon the world, laughing at everything all the while. How it had been pride in his own strength, and that of his crew, that gave him the confidence to rise up and conquer the Grand Line and reach the final island: Laugh’s Tale.

“At yet! AND YET! Pride is what makes a man who embraces it strong! It makes him able to overcome impossible odds because they just don’t know how to quit!” Buggy roared, not once letting up from his barrage of strikes. “So go ahead! Be proud of your swordsmanship AND your greed! Why do you have to settle for one or the other, HUH?!”

Upon uttering these words, Buggy delivered a final, vicious haymaker to Golass’s face, the darker skinned pirate was thrown backwards where he collapsed, face and body decorated with blood and bruises.

‘I don’t like how his eyes were so similar to mine,’ Buggy thought.

He glared at his opponent, annoyed at having lost control of himself like that, before looking over at where Alvida was facing down her own foe. She had gotten hurt, blood trickling from her nose and ears, the latter likely a result of burst ear drums. Those were always a pain to heal and recover from.

Aside from those signs of injury she was unharmed, though considering she was fighting somebody whose fighting style involved sonic attacks, Alvida probably had a bit of internal damage that new ship’s doctor of hers would need to fix.

But despite that, Alvida was not down for the count, and Eldoraggo wasn’t looking much better. His armor was gone, shattered and reduced to scrap, and he was covered in bruises and bloody wounds. The gold obsessed pirate refused to fall, though, and he glared furiously at Buggy’s co-captain.

“ALVIDAAA!” Eldoraggo roared. He opened his mouth, and white light gathered within as he compressed raw sound into a visible form.

Buggy didn’t claim to be a genius, but he knew that sound waves weren’t normally supposed to do that!

“HOWLING CANNON!” Eldoraggo declared as he fired off his attack in every direction he could think of, clearly no longer caring about limiting collateral damage anymore, only for them to all miss as she Slipped past.

“Air Slide!” Alvida shouted back, suddenly moving at speeds Buggy was pretty sure she shouldn’t have been able to pull off normally.

She was clearly unused to her new speed, though, and Buggy watched in amusement as she suddenly began rotating like a top after she missed him. Still, it seemed to work, as she built up an insane amount of momentum before finally going in for the final strike.

“SMOOTH STRIKER!” Alvida replied, lunging as she swung her mace at the larger pirate.

She Slipped past the barrage of beams, narrowing evading being hit by sheer luck (or perhaps something more, if his suspicions about her possessing Observation Haki were correct), and slammed the large chunk of iron into the side of Eldoraggo’s head after spinning like a tornado.

Her weapon slammed into his skull and Eldoraggo’s flurry of attacks cut off as his eyes rolled back in their sockets. It’d taken a while, but the amount of damage that had built up finally was too much for even his impressive constitution to handle.

The pirate’s body went flying back into the rubble of Woonan’s palace, and he came to a stop with a loud crash, lying unconscious in the ruins of his own making.

“C-captain Eldoraggo!” one of the goons – the one with sunglasses – cried out in disbelief.

“You guys are still alive?” Alvida asked in surprise while glancing over at the trio, a sentiment Buggy shared. Mohji and Richie must have been holding back. The trio were pretty badly mauled, but it seemed like mostly superficial injuries.

“Are you going to kill him?” Buggy inquired, eyeing the red-haired Devil Fruit user as he lay in the collapsed castle.

“Nah,” Alvida replied after taking a moment to recover her breath and wipe the other pirate’s blood off her face. “He didn’t kill anyone, and aside from wrecking some stuff, didn’t do much.”

She then shot him a grin. “Besides! This way, he might try and face me down again when he’s stronger!”

‘Oh, great, she’s one of those,’ Buggy groaned to himself.

Adrenaline junkies were annoying, but battle maniacs were even worse! He thought he’d seen the last of such people after his time on the Oro Jackson!

‘Well, at least our travels together won’t be boring,’ he thought, trying to find the silver lining in all this.

Aloud, he said, “Fine, I don’t care. If that’s what you want, he can live. Just don’t expect me to be so kind in the future if he comes after us for revenge! I may be a fan of baseball, but I don’t have a three strikes rule!”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Alvida agreed with a nod, before scratching her head. “Though how are we gonna get him back to town? I suppose we could just drag him…”

“I will take him.”

Buggy blinked, and he and Alvida turned to look at Golass as he pushed himself back to his feet after uttering the first words he’d spoken the whole time.

“Alright. Have at him,” Alvida said, stepping back and allowing the swordsman to retrieve his captain.

Stumbling over to Eldoraggo, Golass picked up the red-maned titan of a man and began to haul him back to town and their ship, the Hyena Three hastily scrambling after the two. Before disappearing down the road, he turned back to Buggy.

“I will think on what you’ve said.” With that final parting comment, the pirates continued on their way out of the jungle.

“That was fun,” Alvida commented after a moment. “We should do it again sometime!”

Hearing that, Buggy rolled his eyes. “Battle junky,” he huffed.

“That’s my middle and last name!” Alvida claimed with a laugh. "Battle Junky Alvida!"

Shaking his head, Buggy turned away. “Whatever. Come on, we’re done here.”

“Sooo… I wasn’t really listening, but I couldn’t help but hear some of what you were saying as you beat Golass up,” Alvida claimed as they began to head back down the same route towards Gold Island’s sole settlement. “You, uh, wanna talk about it?”

“No,” Buggy replied blandly.

“Good, I’m not a damned therapist. Even if more people in this messed up world could use one…” Alvida huffed.

Hearing that brought a sharp laugh from Buggy, who nodded at that. “Aye! Can’t argue with that.”

He then put his hands on his hips. “Back to town, then, everyone! We ought to warn the others we won, just so they don’t get the wrong idea when they see Eldoraggo and the others returning ahead of us.”

“Excellent point, and I wish I’d thought of it first,” Alvida said, snapping her fingers. “Race ya!”

She took off down the path back towards town, and Richie, still somewhat wound up from his fight earlier, bounded after her, Mohji screaming at him to slow down.

Buggy shook his head. Yes, this would definitely be an interesting journey, one way or another.

111 &&& 111

“Another!” I called out cheerfully, holding out my empty bowl for another round of delicious oden.

“Coming right up!” Ganzo laughed, and he and his grandson Tobio got to work whipping up another batch of food for my stomach.

I may have slimmed down and lost a ton of weight, but I still had pre-Devil Fruit Alvida’s appetite. And after the big fight earlier, I was incredibly hungry!

As such my crew and I were all having dinner at the floating noodle shop along with everyone else, while a celebration party went on in the town with the Buggy Pirates and my own crew celebrated as heroes for driving off the Eldoraggo Pirates.

I would admit, I’d entirely forgotten Ganzo during my fight with Eldoraggo. So I was glad – and somewhat embarrassed – to see him come up to me in one piece to offer a hearty thanks for rescuing him from the big brute.

As for the gold obsessed Scream-Man, he and his crew had sailed off without another word after they slunk back to town after the beatdown Buggy and I gave ‘em. Good riddance, though I couldn’t help but hope I’d see him again in the Grand Line, stronger and ready for Round Two!

For now, though, I was content to relax a bit as the sun inched down on the horizon and enjoy my ninth bowl of Ganzo’s oden.

“Wow, this is really good!” Medaka said as she slurped down her own noodles.

“Of course it is!” Tobio declared, rubbing his nose proudly. “Grandpa’s oden is the best, after all!”

“And it’s cheap,” I added, before raising the bowl and drinking the soup within after devouring the oden. When I was done, I lowered it and looked at Ganzo. “How do you afford to keep cooking while charging a mere hundred beri per bowl?”

Ganzo’s oden was delicious, but the price was ridiculously. I’m not sure I could buy all the ingredients for that little. Did he make any profit off of the dishes he cooked?

“Because I love oden, and want everyone to enjoy it!” the old man declared. “Young or old, rich or poor, oden is meant to soothe the soul, and it’s supposed to be enjoyed and eaten.”

“Suppose that’s why you also double as a tour guide,” Jango hummed as he slurped up the noodles from his own seat at the ship-turned-restaurant. “Gotta pay the bills somehow.”

“Actually, I do that job because I want everyone to see my old friend’s successes. Showing off the palace he stole, and the other parts of his life… that’s more than mere money. That’s a legacy. And I’ll make sure everyone manages to remember it, long after he’s gone.”

“How do you make any money, then?” Eliza asked, confused. “It sounds like you don’t make any profit?”

“An old man has his ways,” he replied with a chuckle. “Though the gold Eldoraggo dropped will be helpful in that regard.”

I nodded at that. In order to pay for our meal, I was letting Ganzo keep the pieces of Eldoraggo’s armor that I’d broken. Since he’d been an idiot and wore actual gold instead of just gilding some steel, there was plenty of it to go around to help the town as well.

As I thought about gold and pirates, my eyes drifted towards the tattered old pirate flag hanging proudly on the restaurant’s wall.

It was Woonan’s flag. The original one that Woonan had made himself before leaving Gold Island – and the one that had saved his life, and Ganzo's when they’d fallen off the cliff. I could see where it’d been stitched up, and it was kept preserved behind glass in a frame.

‘I suppose that means Ganzo already discovered the secret of Woonan’s gold – or lack thereof – and his final resting place,’ I guessed. And since Tobio didn’t seem to resent his grandfather, he also knew the truth.

An interesting change to canon, but one I was fine with. Since there wasn’t any actual gold here to plunder, I was fine with leaving the mystery of Woonan’s treasure to be just that – a mystery.

‘Wonder how many other townsfolk also know the truth?’ I mused idly, glancing over my shoulder at the party going on in the town square.

Buggy was living it up, and so were his men. It was probably a rare thing for them to be celebrated for doing something good.

‘It’s about time we started heading towards Loguetown,’ I thought to myself.

Since there were plenty of changes to canon already, I couldn’t be sure that the Straw Hats would reach the city or Reverse Mountain on the 18th of February anymore. Best stay one step ahead of them if possible.

We’d head out in the morning and hit the open sea. Since Gold Island was fairly close to the Calm Belt, we could be at Loguetown in a few days, assuming the weather held.

Yet I couldn’t help but feel that getting there would not be as quick and easy as I was making it sound…

‘Ah, well. That’s future Alvida’s problem,’ I decided with a mental shrug, but demanding an eleventh bowl of oden to fill my belly.

If I didn’t know for sure that Ganzo would refuse me, I’d have given him an offer to join the crew as my cook! But that was fine. I already had some ideas for one, and she should be on Loguetown, so I’d be seeing her soon!

This hadn’t been the easy-going and relaxing rest stop I’d hoped, but it all turned out well in the end. Such a nice bout of fun!