New Boss Part 2

New Boss Part 2

\____-o(X)o-_____/​

"Yo-hooo yo-hooo a pirate's life for me…"

I curled up against my mother's side as she slowly rocked the hammock back and forth, singing to me. Was it stupid that I was having trouble sleeping and that this helped? Yes. Yes it was. But did I appreciate my momma mk II for doing this?

"We pillage we plunder we rifle and loot, drink up me 'earties, yo ho~"

Oh you have no idea.

"We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot, drink up me 'earties, yo ho~"

The indoctrination I could've done without, but still.

"Yo-hooo yo-hooo a pirate's life for me…"

Gimme a bit of a break though, I wasn't even five yet. So it was a muffled sleepy noise I snuggled it my momma's side under her arm.

-oOo-​

"Mm-hmm mm-hmm do-dodo-dodooo," carefully, I pressed the glowing tip of my finger into the tube of metal, slowly carving it into a drill-bit.

"What's this–?"

My hand blurred into motion, grabbing a piece of paper off of the kitchen-counter, *Thwap!*

Bonney's hand jerked away from the kitchen equipment she'd been reaching for, "Don't touch." She glared hard at me for that one and my own look softened as I turned back to the drill bit, "I'm not making food, this stuff is poisonous as hell."

I gestured towards the various bits of kitchen implements I'd appropriated for my chemistry work, "General rule, if I'm not handing it to you, don't eat anything I make. Pretty much all of this will kill you horribly."

With a deliberate motion, I reactivated my Ryonkakyo Chisel and began carving the drill-bit once more while I waited for the mixture to finish drying out over the low heat.

The attractive woman frowned, leaning over my shoulder to watch the paste congeal, "Well what is it? A poison?"

"Not a deliberate one," I said as I glanced at it quickly to double check it was where it was supposed to be, and then turning up the heat just a bit, "It's a special material I use in my bullets, lost what I had prepared beforehand to the fight that got me knocked off the boat…" I scowled and set down the drill-bit while I dialed down the heat just as the mixture started to bubble.

"What's it do?"

"Mm… watch." Pulling it off of the fire, I dropped the hot pan into a bowl of ice to cool it back off.

The Captain of the ship gave me a funny look as I got out a little knife and cut out a bit of the mixture, a little circle of material. Carefully, I moved it to the countertop and set it down, sliding the knife into its sheath and picking up a little hammer. "You might want to back up a little bit."

The lean woman took a single obligatory step back and I shrugged before bringing the hammer down quickly against the material.

It exploded with a crack and flash of smoke and light, the force nearly knocking the hammer out of my hand and making Bonney flinch just a bit. "So… you made a new gunpowder… big deal."

"Tchehehaha!" I laughed, "Not just gunpowder, an ignition explosive that works only off of kinetic energy. Water can't ruin it." Picking up the pan, I moved it over to the counter top and began cutting out portions of the primer, "It acts as a primer for a contained charge for my pistol."

"Huh... so you use a normal charge?"

"Mm, mostly." She elbowed me and I rolled my eyes, "If I had all of my equipment and notes on my old ship I could make a bit better mix, but without that I can still use normal powder." Really, my 'personal' mix was just one that packed more punch at the cost of more smoke, which Observation Haki rendered moot.

"So why are you making it?"

"Trying to recreate my pistol. Pretty sure it was knocked into the ocean in the battle…" I trailed off at the thought briefly before shaking my head and setting the now segmented mixture down and beginning to clean up.

"Is that what this… thing… is for?" Bonney asked, gesturing at the rig I was building. It was honestly pretty ghetto, but this was just a temporary solution regardless. I had a more... 'proper' rig on The Patch, at least something I'd spent more time making more precise and less ghetto-rigged.

"Mhm. It helps me make an adjustment to the barrel that makes the gun a lot more accurate," I noted. They actually only used riffling in... well... rifles. And even then not in all of them. Haven't figured out why yet, though my current theories deal with where they're manufactured.

The Captain crossed her arms under her breasts, a contemplative look on her face, "Could you do that to our guns?"

"Sure? Unless you're talking about your cannons, in which case I'm not comfortable trying it on them." Rifling the barrel of a handheld gun is one thing, mess it up and you might lose a hand if you're stupid about it. Mess up the rifling of a twelve pound gun and you kill a half dozen people.

Bonney's eyes narrowed for just a moment before she turned to me with probably the most serious look I'd ever seen on her face, "Do that, and if the improvement is to my satisfaction you won't have to do the shit chores any more."

I raised an eyebrow, "I like that plan. Though it'll be hard to get a good test at the range of this ship without using up a lot of bullets and gunpowder."

A small smirk crossed the pink-haired woman's face when Rodger burst into the kitchen, "Captain!"

Instantly, she was at alert and I wasn't far behind, "What is it?"

"We're approaching Reverse Mountain!"

My eyes lit up, "Oh! Sweet!"

Bonney's eyebrows had shot up before she bellowed, running out onto the deck, "All hands on deck! Secure the cannons! Lock everything down…!"

With a smile, I began to make sure everything was metaphorically bolted down, locking the cabinets and stuffing the dirty dishes and pots away. Reverse Mountain was always a treat.

---

I leaned on the prow of the ship, a smile on my face as we approached the entrance to the river from the South Sea. Bonney was shouting orders, "Full sails! Aim right for the middle of the gates!"

"Oi!" I called back over my shoulder, "There's usually a hard eastward current at this gate! Pull starboard a bit!"

"You done this before Ironhide?!"

"A time or two!" I grinned, the crew often jumped between the seas, though we favored the West Blue. Not too poor and not too heavy of a Marine presence.

"And why should we trust you?" She shouted from atop the first layer of the cake that was the cabin of this ship.

"Tchahah! D'Ya think I want to get smashed against the rocks?! I've got a Devil's Bunghole Fruit too y'know!"

I couldn't hear her snort over the roar of the water, but I could see it. Then Bonney bellowed, "You heard him! Pull to starboard!"

"Aye aye Captain!"

The ship turned just the slightest bit in the strong current and I gripped the railing with a grin.

200 meters.

"Ya overdid it! More to port!"

150 meters.

"Aye!"

75 meters! We're speeding up! I grinned.

"Hold on!" Rodger? Nah, that was Wallace. Also, understatement of the year!

With a crash and spray of water, the ship bucked as it hit the upward current and I laughed, "Tchehehahahahaaaaa! I love this part!" Relieved laughter and shouts came from the crew as they held on for dear life.

It was the best water slide you'd ever even heard of! We were going at an absurd speed straight up a mountain! The entire ship shook in the rough, rapid current, vibrating like an ancient wooden roller coaster as it took the curves!

My fingers dug into the wood just the slightest bit as we neared the top of the mountain in a mere minute, "Get ready for the top! There's a drop so hold on!"

The call went up, "Grab on! Gonna be a drop!"

And there it was~ I exhaled white mist through my smile.

With a splash, we were in the air over the mountain… amongst the ice particles and chill, the water fountaining up here was so high that it was turning directly into snow and ice… it was like an updraft of rainbow diamonds that floated back down… the anime had failed to do it justice.

And then the freefall was over.

"Eeeeeeeee!"

'… was… was that Bonney…?' I blinked a few times before laughing, 'That's adorable!'

The wind made my shirt and short brown hair flap rapidly as we rushed back down the mountain. Laughter bubbled up in me as adrenaline surged. No matter how safe I intellectually knew this was, it was a rush. The Layer Cake was a sturdy ship, it'd hold just fine.

\____-o(X)o-_____/​

"I don't want to be a pirate," I told the old man as I tied off the tourniquet around his arm, "I was born into this. But that doesn't mean I want people to die or support what they're doing."

The rest of the crew, my family, were taking the treasure and goods that this merchant ship had. We'd taken it pretty quick and easy, the West Blue wasn't that dangerous. Most of the crew we had were competent, but Captain Billy and Barely used to play around in the New World, it took something serious to give us a scare.

I pulled tweezers from my belt as well as a piece of rope. I pushed the rope to the injured man's mouth, "Bite, this will hurt and I don't want you to bite off your tongue." He whimpered, but bit down on the length of rope. Placing one hand on his arm, I pried open the wound enough to slip the tweezers in and pluck the round shot bullet out.

The older man whimpered and groaned and squirmed, but with my hand on his arm he couldn't really go anywhere. I know for a fact that human's don't get this strong in my world, not this fast and not at six years old. It did help that this guy was a middle aged doddering dodo, but still.

Dropping the bullet into the appropriate pouch, I dipped my tweezers back into the rinse water and then back into their disinfectant pouch. Grabbing the alcohol soaked rag from my back pocket and dabbed it against the bullet wound before pouring a little of alcohol on it just to be sure. "Mm, looks like it missed the bone, it's just a flesh wound, I'm gonna stitch it up and so long as you wash it gently with soap ever few days you should be fine."

I wasn't a doctor, especially at freaking seven years old, but I was the closest thing we had. My knowledge from my previous life was immensely useful in this regard, even though I was just in shorts and a little T-shirt, the crew had happily gotten me the tools to make my own belt and bandolier to store the stuff I ended up using whenever we got into a fight. I wasn't an expert, but these basic first aid things I could do…

"Captain Billy!" The needle drew a little hiss from the man I was treating every time I pushed it through his skin, making me roll my eyes. Even before I was a pirate's son I could take this, oi.

"Oi! What is it?!"

"There's a storm coming in! We need to get to a place we can anchor!"

"W-What about us?" One of the civilians asked in terror.

"You get to figure it out yourselves!"

"Oi!" I snapped, "We drag them along! Otherwise they'll all die!"

Yermak, the newbie of the group, sneered, "So what? We've already got all their treasure!"

Captain Billy turned towards him with a small frown, but I was already moving. Yermak, a pretty good sized guy at seven and a half foot, towered over my midget self as I stomped up to him, "Oh? What's the matter Nerd? You've got a problem with these stupid–"

I kicked him in the shin. Hard.

*Wham!*

"Ow! You little–!"

He crouched a bit reflexively, so I was able to uppercut him right in the family jewels.

*Whump!*

"... ah..."

Yermak bent over, clutching himself as a soundless whimper escaped him. Now he was low enough for me to punch him straight in the stomach as hard as I could.

*Thump!*

With a cough, he dropped to his knees. Good, now I was able to reach up and grab his beard and yank his head down to my level, "Now listen here you piece of shit. Killing people ain't never a good plan. Even for a stupid, sadistic little psychopath like you. Killin' people brings the Marines, and it'll keep bringing the Marines until they're too strong to stop–" he started to pull away, but I was having none of that, I reared my head back and head-butted him hard.

*Crunch*

Blood started dripping from his now certainly broken nose, and I ignored the pain in my own head, "And if we're nice to them when they cooperate, then word'll spread and people will give up without a fight, which is always a good thing. We're towing the ship."

Credit where it's due, Yermak snarled as he grunted out, "Captains choice… not yours… you little shit."

"Barley." My Captain spoke, arms crossed across his chest, "Man the ship's wheel. Randal, take the helm of the Patch and set course for the oasis. Florida."

"Captain?"

"Don't gloat."

"Yes Captain."

-oOo-​

"Ah, Florida, what are you doing?"

"Hm?" I looked up from my rig as I slowly worked the second rifling groove into the barrel, "Making my gun before working on y'alls?"

"Ah…" Tom scratched his scalp beneath his black hat, "Don't… you want a say in which route we take?"

That made me stop for a moment to look up at the significantly larger man, "… why? As in, why would I get a say? I'm a hanger-on more than anything else right now, not part of the crew."

"Right," he shuffled a bit awkwardly before turning around, "Sorry f'er botherin' ya."

"Okay, hold up," stepping off of the rig, I put a hand on my hip and scowled a bit up at the southern-accented man. He'd stopped and half turned back towards me, "What's with all of..." I gestured vaguely at him, trying to indicate his attitude, "This. You're acting weird."

Tom tugged at his tight tank top, pulling it a bit further down, "It's just… you're kinda scary."

That made me snort as I leaned against my rig, "Uh huh. Have we missed the part where I don't even come up to your armpit?" I was actually an inch shorter than Bonney herself, I was the shortest person on this ship right now.

He frowned just a bit at my teasing, "You've got a Devil Fruit and stand up to the Captain."

"She's not that bad." I rebutted.

"We can't turn into metal," he said with a scowl.

I pointed a finger at him with a smirk, "She only kicks me that hard because I can take it and you know it."

Tom looked down at the floorboards, the look on his face making my smirk melt away in concern, "… Tom…? That's… not really why you guys don't go against her is it…?"

"... how old do you think I am, Florida?"

Pointedly, I looked over him. He was a big guy, sorta pear shaped, but about seven foot tall. Full beard, black ten gallon hat, missing tooth in his smile, big lips, some freckles, black hair, tattoos on his arms, overly tight tank top with the words 'Great Men' on it and shorts with suspenders and boots… not too many lines to his face but mostly laugh lines and such… "… you look like, thirty…?" Though given Bonney's power…

"I'm seventy."

'Hoo boy…' I let out a low whistle, "Bonney's work?"

"Yes…"

"She does good work for a piece of work."

Tom snorted in amusement before looking away, "But she could take it away."

"Tch, has she actually held that over you?"

"Well… no, but–"

"Then stop acting like she will." I said, grinning just a bit, "Have some trust in your Captain. Besides, if she does, me and her are gonna have to have some words. Mostly 'ow' and 'my face!' But words nonetheless."

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New Boss Part 2 End