The Promise and the goings on in the World

(Rameil POV)

"So that your little lover there?" Lorelei asked me when I returned to her holding Itsuka.

"Not really," I said as I landed on the ship and let her down. "But I am going to have her join me in the future as part of my team," I explained.

"Itsuka, this is Lorelei, Lorelei, this is Itsuka." I said, giving both a brief introduction.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow while looking at me with curiosity. "The World Government doesn't allow you to pick your own 'teams' and sometimes you go solo like I am now," Lorelei replied.

"You assume I'm going to be a dog of the government and not an Adventurer," I replied, a bit of sass in my voice.

Lorelei's eyebrow twitched at my response, probably not expecting to see me so suddenly talking back to her. It wasn't at all surprising that I expressed a desire to NOT become a Cipher Pol agent. She'd probably already figured out that I would never allow myself to be shackled to such an organization, but for me to openly say so in direct rebellion to her was what made her suspicious.

Lorelei looked at Itsuka for a few moments before turning back to look at me. I wasn't sure exactly what she was thinking, but she probably thought I was just putting up a brave front for the girl, and from her now amused smirk, I could guess she thought I had a crush.

"Why not? I'm sure you'd do well with having more people your age around you. You train hard and never slack off too, so I'll let you have this one, however, she will be joining my training too." Lorelei relented but also gave conditions.

I hesitated for a moment, not really sure if I could put Itsuka through such tough training for my sake but decided it would probably be for the best. I turned to look at Itsuka who was looking between the two of us with a confused look on her face. I didn't really get the chance to look at her before, but now I'd realized how filthy she was. She was covered from head to toe with dirt and had various small scratches all along her body where she was lightly bleeding, probably from scrapping against branches and bushes as she ran from the Giant Tiger chasing her before.

She could really use a bath.

It appeared Lorelei was thinking the same thing after looking at her for a moment, she spoke. 'Come on young lady, you need a bath." She said as she took Itsuka by the hand and tried to pull her away.

'ah1 no1' Itsuka said as she resisted and looked toward me.

Lorelei halted for a second. 'What do you mean, no?" she asked, confused.

Itsuka ignored her and looked at me for a few seconds. "Will you come with us?" She asked, her voice slightly trembling.

'I can't go in the women's shower since I'm a man, but don't worry. I'll still be here when you get back. I promise." I stated.

Itsuka hesitated. "T-that's what mom always said but then she left me alone..." Itsuka admitted.

I clenched my fists briefly, and if the wince of pain and look at Lorelei by Itsuka was any indication, she did too.

"Itsuka. I give you my word. If I ever abandon you, I'll cut open my belly and commit Seppuku." I stated with no hesitation in my voice.

I was a man, and this was a man's pride. The type of promise a man would put his pride and life on the line for. I could never go back on the words I've just said and I never will. If I was going to live in this world, then I needed to be strong not just physically, but in spirit as well. The wind picked up and the world seemed to wash out as Itsuka and I continued to stare at one another in silence for a few moments before Itsuka's look of shock became a look of determination.

"Then... as long as you don't abandon me, I promise I will continue living to be useful to you." She stated with the full seriousness of a person far too mature to be a child.

I could tell, silently, that this was a lifetime pact between the two of us and would be the basis of our relationship moving forward. it was a watershed moment and if it was in the manga, then this would be the time when I recruited my first crew member.

Itsuka no longer resisted Lorelei's pull and was led away into the bowels of the ship to get cleaned off.

(PoV Itsuka)

As I continued to walk down the hall, being dragged by Rameil's mother(?), I thought about the promise the two of us had just made. My heart fluttered as I remembered it. 'He was so cool just then!' I thought before calming down.

The woman who was leading me into the bath area of the ship was tall and beautiful. She was wearing a unique uniform that looked extremely expensive. I wondered if I would ever wear clothes like that one day and if that would make Rameil happy.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into the selfishness of that boy." She replied to my non-verbal quarry.

"It's nothing, Miss Lorelei!" I replied with a respectful tone. "I'm sure your son will take good care of me!" I stated.

"You bet he will. That boy is rarely so serious, so when he is, you know it's important." Lorelei stated but was interrupted by the sound of my stomach grumbling.

We both stopped and looked at my belly. Sure I was still very thin, but I don't think I looked like I was starving yet. Thankfully I still had that weird fruit with me. Before I could pull it out, Lorelei commented.

"After this bath, I'll prepare some food for you. You'll need to put on some weight before we begin training in seriousness." She stated.

"Ah! It's ok! I'll just eat some of the fruit I found." I explained, not wanting to be a burden.

I quickly pulled out the fruit and took a bite. "Wait!" I heard Lorelei stated as I looked up at her. The fruit itself was awful. It probably looked weird because it was rotten, but it wouldn't be the first time I had to eat rotten food or trash to survive, so I was able to swallow it with no issue to clear my throat.

"What's wrong?" I asked the now worried-looking Lorelei who was face-palming herself.

'Ha~" She let out a long and tired sigh. "That was a devil fruit you just ate, you know. Now you won't be able to swim anymore." Lorelei stated.

"Eh?"

...

(POV Rameil)

It had been a few weeks since I found and took in Baby 5, now named Itsuka and she had begun her training. To be honest, she had very poor talent when it came to the Six Powers. Thankfully her Devil Fruit made up for it. In the manga and anime, it is left ambiguous at what point Baby 5 had obtained her devil fruit, but now it was clear that it had to be relatively early on. I speculated that, without my interference, Baby 5 would have eaten the Devil Fruit and used it to defeat the Tiger monster before wandering off and being picked up by the 'pirates' who were on the other side of the island at the time.

That theory was basically confirmed after I was told by Lorelei that the pirates on this island were the Doflamingo Pirates. When I heard that, my heart sank immediately. I may be strong and have a Logia-type Devil Fruit, but I definitely wasn't a match for Doffy yet. Moreover, I'm 100% sure if he found me, he'd kidnap me and try to make me join his crew and when that failed, just give up, kill me, and steal my Devil Fruit.

I needed to be more careful when dealing with unknown events during this time period. In the grand scheme of things, I could still be killed and nothing in the story would change. It is also entirely possible that I am 'canon' to the timeline but die too early, leaving Baby 5 alone to join Doflamingo's crew and my Devil Fruit just happens to respawn on Birka for Enel to eat.

I also was able to piece a few more things together. the first was that Lorelei, while she may actually be leaving to see her family, was actually still on duty. She was clearly tracking Doflamingo during this trip, as whenever she wasn't helping me or Itsuka train our powers, she'd be off spying on them.

I guess it made sense. A former Celestial Dragon who knew enough secrets to blackmail the World Government into becoming a Warlord and ruling over a Government Island in the future couldn't just be allowed to roam unsupervised. I even had a theory that Lorelei's presence was necessary for Doflamingo, as he'd need to use her as a point of contact to get in touch with the Government's higher-ups to even reveal that he had the secrets to reveal in the first place. Only the Gorosei would know if they were true enough to allow it.

Despite now knowing this about Lorelei, it didn't really change anything. I still had to be cautious, just now, I knew how close to the danger I was at any given time. I also had to tone down my Devil Fruit training as lightning and thunder on a clear day is pretty noticeable and it wouldn't be hard to draw Doffy's attention with it.

This proximity, however, actually made my plans for the future more clear. I could scalp more crewmates off of him to create my own crew. Hopefully, I could grab Monet and Sugar, though the odds of that were pretty slim. I had no doubt Doffy would still be able to take over Dressrosa without the Hobby-Hobby Fruit, but it wouldn't be as easy for him.

After several weeks of sailing and training, it seemed Doflmaingo was done with his expedition once Tsuru entered the North Blue to deal with the Germa Kingdom getting a bit extra rowdy, so he headed back to his home base on Spider Miles.

I briefly thought about sneaking in and rescuing Sanji and Reiju from Judge, but the fact that I'd probably fail or draw massive amounts of attention to myself that I wasn't ready for and Reiju physically could not disobey Judge and would probably betray me because of it, made me rethink and then abandon that plan. If I were some kind of super-genius then maybe I could create a cure for Reiju's command protocols but since I wasn't, I'd just have to give up on Reiju for now and Sanji forever.

The fact I kept missing my chances to get waifus made me depressed for a while but thankfully Itsuka was here to cheer me up by wearing her Maid Uniform for the first time. She was so cute! I couldn't wait until she grew up to become a beauty, though when teh thought that I might just be grooming her, even if unintentionally, came to my mind, I felt disgusted by myself.

Anyway, months had gone by now and Lorelei left to actually visit her family in the Grand Line while I was sent back home with Itsuka. I really wanted to meet this family that was so important to Lorelei that she'd get in trouble with her bosses over it, and actually experience the Grand Line firsthand before I could sail through it later on, but Lorelei was hitching a ride with Tsuru on her return and I definitely didn't want the Marines to notice how strong I was or how useful Itsuka's Devil Fruit was too early on, so I decided to stay back.

That being said, I couldn't return to the mansion without Lorelei, since I was supposed to be 'protecting' her according to my 'father' so I went to visit my REAL mother during this time. This was something I'd do from time to time in secret even before I had my memories of my previous life's restored.

Needless to say, my mother was ecstatic to have me back home and even welcomed Itsuka as if she were her own daughter. We stayed with her over the new year and Itsuka began working as a barmaid in training while I continued to practice on my haki. I continued to read in the newspaper about all of the goings on in the world.

I learned quite a bit. Turns out, Doflamingo became such an infamous pirate because he would attack the shipments of Amber Lead that were headed to the world markets. I doubt this was out of benevolence, as he definitely resold the stuff across the North Blue for his own profits as evidenced by the shiny new Amber-Lead-Coated walls of my Father's mansion that seemed to have been painted while I was gone with Lorelei.

Unfortunately, the good times came to an end, and over the winter, Flevance was destroyed after the outbreak of Amber-Lead syndrome. Spider Miles, being nearby was buzzing with activity during this time. A lot of people came to make their base here to make it rich. The Amber-Lead, despite being a banned substance by the World government was still quite valuable, so after Flevance's destruction, many people tried to sneak past the government blockades to make it rich from the abundant salvage of the burned-out wreck.

Another group that made their way to Spider Miles was the revolutionaries. After Fisher Tiger's daring Raid on Mary Geoise made headline news, no one really talked about Flevance anymore. The revolutionaries were a much smaller operation at this point in time and didn't have the resources to send everyone back to their home islands across the world after their release. Spider Miles is similar to Log Town in that it is the last island before the entrance to the Grand Line in the North Blue, so it was a big trade center for the entire Blue Sea, and most trade went through here. The Revolutionary Army's thinking was probably that the former slaves could hitch a ride on the various ships passing through here to return home, though most decided to join the Revolutionaries or return home, a sizable amount had nowhere to go. The hundreds of refugees we received on the island and who were former slaves, including many children at that time, then became perfect recruits to the various Pirate Crews who were passing through to attempt to strike it rich on the Grand Line.

One of these refugees was a woman who was raped by a fishman and became pregnant with his child. She stumbled into the bar while going into labor pains and was helped by my mother, Itsuka, and I to the local clinic where she gave birth. After being born, she told us how she hated the baby she had due to the rape, and the next day, we found out that she had left in the middle of the night without it. her only kindness toward the child was granting it the name Dellinger.

After discovering this, the doctor was at a loss for words and contacted us for clues on how to find her. We didn't know and never found a trace of her, so after baby Dellinger was left orphaned we had to consider putting the child up for adoption. This is when Itsuka, who seemed to resonate with the child's situation of being abandoned, convinced my mother to adopt him as her other son.

Not going to lie, when I discovered that Dellinger was going to be my younger brother I was a bit skeptical. Sure he was pretty strong, and having a half-Fishman on my crew would be great for rescuing me or Itsuka if we ever fell into the water, but at the same time, I hoped he wouldn't develop into the evil femboy he was in canon.

I didn't want my little brother to be a femboy.

Maybe...