Chapter 44

From where he and the gremlin were in the Grand Line to the East Blue, the trip took about two months if everything went smoothly.

Marshall was entirely unsurprised when it didn't.

They met the talking goldfish three days into Paradise...by catching it (her, as it turned out) in a fishing net.

Arguably not the best meeting, but the rowboat-sized goldfish was a good sport about it as Marshall sighed and set to work untangling her. "My own fault really," the fish was saying, obliging flopping to help Marshall pull the net out from under her, "I was so focused on chasing that blasted bird I wasn't looking where I was going,"

"What bird?" The gremlin asked, and as if summoned an unfamiliar News Coo swooped by, landing on the railing and cawing mockingly at the goldfish. Said fish growled, glaring at the avian and fins sticking straight out as Marshall heaved her over the side. He would have thought that was the last of it, except it turned out the unfamiliar Coo's route was in the same direction they were sailing.

The bird also seemed to get enjoyment out of flying close to the water and just slow enough that the fish could keep up, cawing tauntingly each time it dodged the goldfish's attempts to eat it.

He and the gremlin watched this for a few days before the gremlin decided, "you know, that bird's kind of a jerk."

Well, she wasn't wrong...

"Really, I have nothing against birds in general, especially now that I'm this size, but this particular Coo has been a spine in my tail since I was a guppy!" The fish explained, spilling the entire story the minute the gremlin asked why she was so determined to catch the bird. "He was always diving down and trying to eat me, lording it over me that he has such an important job, calling me names and stealing my food and starting rumors about how I'm part blobfish!"

(Marshall privately thought that she was just happy to have someone to talk to, but he had to admit that that particular Coo sounded like a grade-A asshole.)

The goldfish and gremlin became fast friends after that, the gremlin joining the fish in hollering curses at the taunting bird and using it as target practice for her Tempest Kicks to try to knock it out of the sky.

She missed, but really that just made her more determined to help her new fishy friend.

A week into the unlikely friendship, a far more welcome bird landed on the railing next to him to watch the show. Absently giving the News Coo some salmon and accepting a paper in return for a few thousand Beri, Marshall asked idly, "relative of yours?"

Caw

"Ah, one of those huh?"

Caw!

"Eh, there's always one in every family, can't really blame your wife for that...how's the family, by the way?"

Caw-caw

"Good to know."

The pair watched as one of the gremlin's kicks went wild as the other Coo cackled, doing a slow, mocking loop to dodge the gust of wind she launched at it, the goldfish's following leap and tail whip not even coming close to connecting. The feathered jerk cawed what was unmistakably an insult, cackling at the dual screams of rage that followed as it looped back to deliver a 'package' over both their heads.

"...so, any objections to that guy not making it to any more reunions?"

Caw!

Good riddance!

"Thanks again for all your help, Captain Marshall, Miss Atreya!" The goldfish thanked them again, leaping out of the water and doing flips and spins as she enthused, "I thought I'd never be rid of that damned bird and you just swooped in and pow, no more feathered menace!"

"Yeah, that was awesome!" The gremlin agreed, happily dancing right along with her fishy friend.

Marshall kind of sweatdropped at that; he hadn't even punched the bird that hard and it pretty much exploded into a cloud of feathers. He hadn't even used Armament, for seas sake!

("My name is Topaz, by the way, I don't think I ever said," the goldfish - Topaz - introduced herself later that evening.

He wished he could say he was surprised when the fish tagged along after that.)

"No."

Marshall was willing to put up with a lot, crewmembers dragging weird stuff, people and animals included, but he drew the line at chicken Zoans. Granted the only reference he had was that chicken Smile-user on Wano but no, just - no.

"C'mon, captain!" The gremlin whined, "give 'em a chance!"

"You only want them on board because they're shorter than you," he pointed out dryly, because it was true, the Zoan in question was shorter than the Gremlin, almost a full head shorter in fact, with the kind of skinniness that came from too many missed meals. Ignoring the gremlin's sputters of denial, he looked again at the kid she'd 'found' on the last island they'd resupplied at before entering the Calm Belt.

Pale skin peeking through holes in the ragged clothes that swallowed their frame, a lone turquoise eye peered at him warily from behind shaggy white hair.

He sighed.

Really, there was only one thing he could say in this situation.

"...fine, they can stay, but you're cleaning up the feathers!"

The gremlin cheered, pulling her fellow Zoan close to her side in a one-armed hug, Topaz the goldfish joining in from beside the ship.

Their name, the gremlin informed him later, was Ashley.

Okay then.

Once Ashley settled in, the first thing Marshall learned about the chicken-person was that they were snarky, throwing barbs as easily as the knives they snagged from the kitchen before Marshall got annoyed and gave them proper throwing knives.

The gremlin loved it, giving as good as she got, but it took until they were a week into the East Blue before they said anything to him. As expected, their first words to him were snarky, and spoken right after he nearly tripped over a coil of rope.

"Forget your walker, old man?" They asked.

"Forget your pacifier, brat?" He shot back without pause.

That earned him a look of respect, so yeah, totally worth it.

(They had a seemingly bottomless well of old man jokes to draw upon.

He retaliated by teaching the gremlin every bird and chicken joke he could remember and a few he made up on the spot.

Credit where it was due, they lasted almost a week before begging for mercy.)

Despite what Marshall feared, his newest crewmember's full Zoan form actually looked like a normal chicken. A ridiculously fluffy white-feathered mass the size of a beer keg with talons sharp enough to slice someone's face off, but still a regular chicken.

"So explain to me why you pecked that guy's eyes out?" Marshall asked Ashley.

As he listened to the chain of events that led up to him finding the gremlin cleaning blood and eyegoop out of the feathers of Ashley's Zoan form, he met their eyes which were shining with a mixture of fear and defiance.

Then he shook his head and sighed, because these brats.

Reaching out a hand, he pretended not to see the way they tensed before his palm landed on their head and he gently ruffled their hair, saying warmly, "you did good, brat."

Again, he pretended not to see when they scrubbed the tears from their eyes, the gremlin leaning over to hug them and smiling at him over their head.

He taught the goldfish Moonwalk because why not.

Teaching the chicken to use Armament on their talons: Why did he think that was a good idea?!

Amidst the screams of pain, avian battle cries and the gremlin's laughter, Marshall sighed.

Looking on the bright side, no one could say that that particular slave trader didn't deserve it...

Halfway to Dawn Island, the goldfish, practicing her Moonwalk alongside the ship, asked why his hair looked oddly shiny, drawing the gremlin and chicken's attention.

He shrugged and explained his practice of coating his hair in Armament haki.

"That makes sense, thanks!" Topaz said cheerfully, flicking her fins in concentration, some of her scales darkening to near-black a few minutes later, only to go back to normal after a few seconds. He chuckled as he heard the fish start muttering to herself, not bothering to mention that it might go easier if she wasn't Moonwalking at the same time.

Whatever, she seemed to be having fun so he left her to it, going to prepare lunch and completely missing the thoughtful looks on the gremlin and Ashley's faces.

When he walked out of his quarters the next day and saw a shiny black kangaroo and chicken standing on deck, he turned on his heel and went right back inside.

Nope.

Marshall got his new crewmember a white-feathered trench coat, because how could he resist?

They held up the coat, a lost and somewhat uncertain look on their face because the piece of clothing was big enough to swallow them, obviously made for someone a lot bigger, but Marshall smiled as he assured them, "you'll grow into it,"

He ruffled their hair, pretending not to see the tears they quickly brushed away as they hugged the coat close.

"The one thing I told you not to do! The one thing!" Ashley screeched, every inch the puffed up, offended bird as they fluttered around the gremlin, who was a bit beaten up but otherwise fine after an encounter with bounty hunters.

"It's not like I knew that poster had made it all the way out here!" The gremlin crossed her arms and huffed, only to wince and drop them a moment later and Marshall hummed, commenting, "yeah, bruised ribs are a bitch,"

Her noise of agreement was drowned out by Ashley's shriek:

"Bruised ribs?!"

That was how they learned that the snarky chicken-person was more than a bit of a mother hen, at least where the gremlin was concerned.

(After a battle against some New World Marines on vacation, a young Sea King and the gremlin's self-proclaimed nemesis, waking up in his ship's infirmary to bandages around his torso and a giant chicken dozing in a chair next to his bed, Marshall learned from the gremlin that it wasn't just her that they were protective of.)

When the next batch of bounty posters included one for 'Red Talon' Ashley, worth sixty million, Marshall just shook his head and laughed.

"We are in the East Blue; where in the name of Davy Jones did you find a chest of cursed treasure?"

The two Zoans squeaked, trying to look as small as possible as the goldfish piped up, "I helped!"

"As soon as I get rid of these ghosts, we will be talking about this."

"Yes, Captain," his three idiots chorused.

"You kicked a guy in the face and stole his fiancee: Why?"

Said fiancee lifted her hand, beatific smile on her face, "I was quite happy to be stolen, actually."

"Not helping," his three crewmembers whimpered, seeing the look on their captain's face.

Listening to the woman's story, Marshall groaned, clapping a hand to his face because he couldn't exactly send her back now.

Sure that Rouge was laughing at him from the Locker, he growled out, "fine," pointing at the woman, he asked, "what's your name and what can you do?"

"Mersalla Geordina, and I'm good at weaving, playing the piano and making the best cheesecake in the East Blue." The woman replied.

"Name's Marshall D. Teach, learn to shoot and you can stay."

"Deal!"

After months of sailing to reach Dawn Island and whose ship did he see at the dock?

Monkey D. Fucking Garp's.

Reluctantly he adjusted his own ship's course, figuring he'd come back in a month to visit his nephew once the Vice-Admiral was gone.

(He knew he wouldn't be able to see Garp without punching the man in the face.)

Unfortunately, his second attempted visit went the same as the first, as did the third, the fourth...

The railing creaked in protest beneath his white-knuckled grip.

Wordlessly, he turned and stalked back to his quarters, door slamming shut behind him.

Neither Ashley, the gremlin, goldfish or Geordina said anything about the torrent of curses that filtered through the door seconds later.

It was almost poetic, in a way, that the first day Marshall set foot on Dawn Island was Ace's birthday.