4 04 | Showing off!

04 | Showing off!

"You really think we'll be able to find the fruit?" Buggy asked, barely dragging himself behind Shanks, "The sun's barely out, can't we do it after a few more hours?"

"Stop whining, and help me… Most people are still sleeping now, so it's the best time for us to find the fruit," Shanks said, "And besides if we get the fruit, we might be able to sell it in a high price later or give one of our crewmates the fruit…" 

"Why would you do that?" Buggy asked, "The fruit's useless anyways…" 

"No it's not," Shanks said walking around and looking around the trees, around the broken forest for anything that resembles a unique fruit. "What fruits do you think is good?"

"Eh? Uh… Whitebeard's fruit is good. So is Marco's phoenix fruit, oh and Dimond Joju's fruit as well…" 

Shanks sweat-dropped, "You sure you weren't a former whitebeard pirate?" 

Buggy huffed crossing his arms, "Well, their crew did have a lot of cool fruit… The beast pirates also has some cool fruits. Like Kaido's Dragon's fruit…" 

"That's a fish fruit actually." 

"Hah! Nice one." Buggy said not paying Shanks words any mind, "But seriously don't you think… what was his name again?"

"Sadaki?"

"Yeah, that guy. His fruit wasn't that good. I mean being able to only turn hard is a pretty useless ability, if you ask me," Buggy said, "I'm sure Captain Roger could easily cut him…" 

Shanks sweatdropped at that statement, "He could probably even cut down Kaido, so that's not a valid argument against any fruit." He said, "And besides if you ask me, I think the Hard-Hard fruit might be better than most zoan fruit. Heck, in my opinion, I think he's fruit is better than Joju's fruit." 

"Oi, you mad or something? Joju's can turn his body to a literal dimond…" 

"And?" Shanks asked, "You do know Diamond isn't invulnerable right? Sure it's pretty hard, but if Sadaki wasn't so incompetent, he could probably make it harder then dimond. His ability is getting hard after all."

"Eh, really?"

Shanks nodded, "Yeah, if someone can develop the fruit's ability he could even possibly make himself hard enough to not get damaged by Whitebeard's powers. And add armament haki top of that and you got yourself a beast!"

"That's… I didn't think that way…" The clown said honestly, "Now I'm kinda jealous that I can't eat that fruit." He laughed, though there was more to it.

"You know you have to change that mindset of yours if you want to be on the top," Shanks said cutting off his laugh, pointing his finger at him, "Your my first mate, if you didn't have anything special why would you be on my crew."

"Wha…"

But Shanks continued, this was one issue he noticed for a while. Buggy's low self-esteem, "And if we are talking about your fruit, your chop-chop fruit is pretty cool. Not only are you a swordsman's worst enemy, but you could also probably be just as destructive as Whitebead if you manage to awaken your ability. Your powers might not be flashy, but they are pretty amazing."

"But that's… awakening isn't something…"

Shanks didn't let him finish, "Buggy we are going to be Captain Roger's successor… it was never going to be easy, man." He said with a wide grin.

"I… you really think that?"

"Yup," Shanks said, popping the 'p', a wide smile on his face as he played with his straw hat, "Like I said it won't be easy. Take your time, be creative with your powers, even I have a few wild ideas on how to use your powers better. But for now get better at the basic. Who knows, you might end up doing something similar to logia intangibility, if you can chop yourself small enough. That is, only if you develop your powers to that level."

Buggy didn't know what to say, so he just nodded. 

"Also, before you brush off my words as just petty pep talk. Let me remind you that, for the past one month or so you have been almost keeping up with my training." Shanks said, "Not that many fifteen year olds can do that. Your pretty strong Buggy. You just have to be bit more brave." Shanks finished by creating a small gap between his index finger and thumb 

"Oi! I'm plenty Brave!" He huffed.

Shanks just laughed, "Good. Let's look for the fruit then," Shanks said as he went off a bit further into the jungle to search for the fruit, the clown following behind.

As he saw his back, Buggy had a lot to think about. Both of them grew up with the Roger pirates. And always Shanks was the better one, everyone had high expectations from him.

And in some way Buggy was jealous of it. He hated Shanks when he caused the accident in which he ended up eating the chop chop fruit. Not being able to swim for a pirate was a dangerous thing. 

So Buggy never saw anything good about his powers, so he never really did try to use his powers to the best of his abilities. Always passively relying on it.

Compared to some of the powers and abilities he saw in the grand line his powers were pretty basic. But that didn't mean they were useless.

No he had to make his powers useful, Buggy nodded to himself. He had to get back at the marines for what they did to Captain Roger, so getting powerful was the only way forward. So like Shanks said he would start with the basics.

'Wait, if that's the case why don't I start now?' Buggy thought to himself, rubbing his chin, 'But how… Oh!'

He quickly took out one of his small dagger and looked at it, hesitating a bit. 'I hope this doesn't hurt…'

Buggy shook his head and stabbed the dagger right beneath his right eyes, and taking out square chunk with the eyeball attached. There was still the eyelid along with a bit of flesh, as just taking out the eye was a bad idea. Dry eyes and other prone to injury. 

It was a bit odd seeing himself with one of his eyes and his brain couldn't focus on two separate thing sets of visions, but it wasn't too tough. It was almost as if his powers were somehow making things work. 

Buggy didn't question the logic behind it and let the right eye fly independently. And Buggy was awed at his own ability, easily getting a bird's eye view of the whole forest. 

As this was still morning, Buggy could see the sunrise and it looked breathtaking.

To the east, the indigo blanket of night was slowly parting to the sun. Painting the clouds in vibrant streaks. Towards the sea, the rising sun gilded the crests of each wave in brilliant flashes, as if thousands of tiny mirrors winked at him with every swell. The sea's expanse shone like a molten mass of liquid fire and gold. 

And Buggy for the first time in his life was questioning his own stupidity. 

This… why didn't he try this sooner. He could get a clear bird's eye view of the whole thing. And he quickly looked around, his eye flying above, looking for anything unusual. 

Buggy was always a good look when came to it, all the years working, spotting enemy ships from the crow nest —in Roger's crew— made it so. He kept up the search, closing his left eye to focus solely with his flying eye. 

The eye searched flying above the trees, he could see the place where Shanks had fought Sadaki, the clearing where the battle took place. So the fruit should be near the area. Maybe on some fruit tree, but even after a lot of looking around he had little success.

But right as he was about to end his search, he finally found something unusual. A distinct silver color amongst the green, it almost looked like a rock was hanging off a tree.

"Oi, Buggy… There's no luck on my side…"

"Found it!" Buggy said, opening his other eye, surprising Shanks. 

The swordsman quickly figured out what happened when he saw the missing gap where his eye was, and he grinned giving a thumbs up to his first mate. "Well, what are you waiting for? Lead the way!"

.

A few hours later, 

"Oi, push it! Move!" One of the marines said pushing the pirates with their rifles. 

The pirates with their broken will didn't say anything as they pushed a cart full of dead pirate bodies towards the marine ship. 

"It's good that you guys managed to deal with him," Said the marine officer as he wrote the report. He was a big man with tanned brown skin and blonde hair, on his back were two axes hanging. He seemed to be the one in charge. "Sadaki of the Broker pirates, he does have a good bounty on his head. I'm just surprised that you managed to kill him, said the reports he had one of those cursed fruits. Was it really true?"

Hearing that the marines that were taking the pirates stopped to look at what they were hearing. Devil Fruit was a taboo and a myth after all, so this was their first time hearing about it. Buggy who was at the side snorted at that fact and Shanks elbowed him to not make a scene. 

Yasopp nodded, "I tried to shoot him down myself, but my shot only managed to knock him out temporally, and that was cause I caught him off guard. So yes, he did have some weird ability." He said, leaving out the fact that Buggy was also a devil fruit user. 

"Damn! That must have been one tough bastard," The marine officer said, "Still, I'm pretty sure if I was here I could have taken him myself. Power or not, none can win against my axe." He ended with a laugh. "They call me double-axe Morgan for a reason!"

Yasopp felt irritated by him, but chose not to say anything. Shanks was amusing at the fact that this was the same guy who later went on to become axe-hand Morgan. 

"But some of the reports don't match up," Morgan said, walking over to the dead body of Sadaki. His body of course was cut down and decapitated, clearly showing the work of a master swordsman. "This isn't something a gun-man can do."

"Well, I didn't do that," he said looking over to Shanks, "He's the guy who did it." 

Hearing that Morgan gave Shanks a look with a raised eyebrow, not believing a kid that half his size could take down Sadaki. Especially since Sadaki was even taller than him. 

"You really think I will believe that a kid took him down?" Morgan snorted, "You guys are clearly hiding something… the story doesn't add up what so ever. In fact, I suspect the village might be hiding something." 

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say?" Morgan laughed, "I'm just saying that I brought the bounty of him and his crew for no reason. Since the whole story is made up to begin with, I'll have to investigate the matter myself." 

Hearing that Yasopp frowned and some of the villagers voiced their protest, only making Morgan grin. The marines that came with Morgan didn't say anything. Some of them had frowns on their face, clearly showing their dissatisfaction. But since Morgan was their senior they couldn't say anything or they risk everything. 

What Morgan was doing was quite simple really. Sadaki had a good bounty on him, so if he could report that he was the one to take him down. He would immediately be promoted and also get the bounty for himself. And also since the story didn't match up, Morgan was sure whoever took down the pirate used some underhanded tactic and he could easily beat him if it came down to it. 

"Uh, I get what you are playing at," Shanks said, walking up to Morgan, making the large guy frown, "So you don't want to give me my bounty? Is that it?" 

Morgan's frown deepened, "Why should I give you the bounty? A pip squeak like you can't even take me down, much less a renowned pirate. You think I'm a fool here?" 

"Yes , yes you are," Shanks said, making Morgan piss as he looked at the kid, "Anyway, stop wasting my time and give me my money. Or if you are brave then I can show you my powers." 

Morgan was irritated and he couldn't back down since the other marines were watching. Some of them were a bit afraid for the Shanks though, he was a kid after all. 

"Fine you asked for it," Morgan said, drawing one of his axe with his right hand. Even though Morgan was corrupt, he couldn't just attack the kid. With so many villagers around this could turn bloody, so he was just going to scare the kid off. 

"Sir, we shouldn't…" One of the marines tried to stop him, but he was cutt off. 

"There's no need," Shanks said, and did something that shocked the audience. Morgan's axe fell down getting split in half, the iron blade getting cut in two pieces as Shanks sheeted his sword. "Since his axe is broken anyway." 

"What… what just happened?" Morgan said looking at his broken weapon. 

"I sliced off your axe?" Shanks said, making Morgan look at Shanks then back at his axe, "What? Too fast for you? How else do you think I was able to cut down Sadaki?" 

"Oi, stop showing off," Buggy said, "You might scare the big guy." He laughed, Yasopp also followed before a there were silent sneakers through out the crowd. The marines were just as shocked not believing what they saw. 

"This… you used some trick!" Morgan said quickly taking out his other axe and this time swinging at Shanks out of desperation. 

"Wah, there you might trip," Shanks took a step back dodging the attack and tripping Morgan to almost fall to the ground. The large man was able to hold his balance as he turned around with his axe. 

Morgan charged with his axe and Shanks also swigged his sword, and this time Morgan saw it. 

The axe fell to the floor clearly getting cut in half along with leaving a small cut on Morgan's cheek.

"Want more proof?" Shanks mused, "The next time, I might 'accidentally' slip and chop your head off. Accidentally… might I add." He said giving a twisted grin that promised pain.

Morgan touched his new wound and felt cold sweat running down his forehead. He gulped, Shanks didn't look like a kid anymore, no he more or less looked like a red demon, smiling at him, "I… I will bring the bounty." 

Shanks's grin turned into a normal cheerful smile as he nodded, grabbing Morgan's hand and forcefully shaking it. Morgan gulped down the pain from getting his hand crushed from the hand-shake, but he didn't dare to do anything. For the first time Morgan felt how outclassed he was. 

"Good, good. I'm so glad that you didn't make things difficult," Shanks said, all the while Buggy laughed at Morgan's expense. 

Things went smoothly from there, the marines also hurried up since the villagers didn't like them so much. Still, not everyone backed off. 

Morgan's direct subordinate was one such man, who was a bit more upright then other. So he did try to apologize for what Morgan did, and even went further to invite anyone who's willing to join the marines in the future. Giving his own personal recommendation if they were willing.

Even if the marines were corrupt, they were far more decent then the pirates. And many wanted to join them for monetary gain. So that was a very good offer. Though that wasn't necessary as by Shanks sharing Sadaki's bounty with the villagers, they could somewhat restart their lives with that. 

There was a good chance that Shanks might get a bounty for threatening Morgan, but then again Morgan might be too scared to even do something like that. Either way Shanks didn't care. He was more interested in getting on Yasopp's good side and bagging him into the crew. So he didn't mind showing off a bit.

With everything going on, the Marines forgot to ask about the pirate ship. Which worked in Shanks's favor. 

Unlike the bounty on Sadaki's head, Shanks wasn't going to give the ship away. A ship that came from the grandline. A brown ship that could hold more than a hundred members if need be. A lot bigger then the small carnival ship like the Going Merry. 

But Shanks didn't plan on using the ship for his own crew. The ship wasn't of good quality, and needed a lot of work to be functional. So he planned to sell the ship. Buggy also got his own share from taking down the pirates and after selling the ship, they wouldn't need to worry about money for a while. 

But there were still more important things to do. And that was to build up his crew and train them up before heading to the grand line. One couldn't be too careful when it came to the pirate world.