(Location: Unknown Island)
(General POV)
After waking up the following morning, Jack decided his first goal was to figure out where the hell he was. Off in the distance he saw a mountain, which was the tallest point around as far as he could tell, so with his mind made up, he headed towards it.
While walking towards the hill he grabbed anything he could and sold it, slowly but surely raising his funds. After about forty-five minutes of hiking, he stopped at a small stream, where after emptying the contents of his cup, he filled it again before storing it back inside of his Inventory.
Continuing on his way, Jack never stopped looking for more things to sell, so when he saw a tree that looked to have fallen over not that long ago, he went a little out of his way to store it inside of his Inventory. It sold for $350, which was a nice boost compared to the rocks and sticks he had been selling thus far.
After seeing how much the fallen tree had sold for, he began to look around for more fallen trees when he had a sudden thought. 'Why do they need to be knocked over?' He wondered as he looked carefully at the nearest tree to him. With that line of thinking, he walked over to the nearest tree and touched it, mentally WILLING it to go into his [Inventory]. It worked. Checking over the tree, he couldn't help the smile that graced his lips after reading the text window.
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[Name: Oak Tree]
[Sell Price: $500]
[Sell: Yes/No]
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Mentally selecting [Yes], Jack sold everything else he had gathered during his walk before he checked his balance, and was pleasantly surprised to see he had $2,872 Berries. Most everything besides the two trees he had sold only went for around $1 and $2 berries, so to see how much he had, he realized he had gathered a lot of crap. Continuing on his way, Jack no longer grabbed the rocks and sticks, choosing instead to go from tree to tree, storing them inside of his [Inventory].
He had only stored about thirty trees before something odd happened, or didn't happen as it were. The tree he had touched, fully expecting it to disappear inside of his [Inventory], remained where it was. At first he thought he might have reached the limit for his [Inventory], but after checking and seeing that there were still thousands of empty boxes and then storing a different tree inside of his [Inventory], he went back to the one that hadn't disappeared. Placing his hand on it, he tried to make it go inside of his [Inventory] again, and like before, it didn't work, however this time he did get a prompt.
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[Unable to store tree due to it being inhabited by a living creature.]
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"Well, that's new." He mumbled aloud. Looking over the tree, he didn't see any living creature, but near the top he spotted a fist-sized hole in the trunk. 'So I can't sell it because something is living in it… How the hell does that work? I can almost guarantee that the previous trees had at least some form of insects in them. Don't they count as living creatures?' Jack thought, not able to understand this new piece of information. He contemplated the thought for far longer than necessary, coming up with his own theories as to what was going on before a line of text suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
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[For the love of Me, STOP asking so fucking many questions! Yes there are restrictions! If something doesn't work, just move the fuck on! This is a fantasy world, who gives a shit about some fucking bugs?! I mean really, there are people made of the elements and no one bats a fucking eye about it! Take these wise words of wisdom from someone far smarter than yourself, and don't think too hard. Just enjoy things.]
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After reading the message, obviously from God, Jack figured he was overthinking things, or rather he knew he was overthinking things because a God straight up told him he was. Realizing there was no point in getting hung up on the things he couldn't control, he continued on his way, going from tree to tree, storing the ones he could while leaving the occasional one that didn't go into his [Inventory].
When he finally got to the base of the mountain he sold all of the trees inside of his [Inventory], and it was then he realized something. The prices for the trees had steadily gotten lower the more he sold, clear up to the point where the trees were only selling for around $1-$10 berries. When he had first seen the drop in prices he assumed it was because the trees were smaller than the first ones, but towards the end he knew those trees were really big, but they were only selling for a few berries.
'And there it is. I guess it was a little too good to be true.' He thought sadly, realizing his money making scheme had run dry. He knew that to be true when the sticks on the ground didn't even give him a single coin when he sold them, they just disappeared from his Inventory. Still, he had netted himself a little over $60,000 berries, so he wasn't going to complain about it.
Not really caring too much about the whole situation, he began to climb the mountain. Upon reaching the top he finally got a good view of his surroundings, and it was then he noticed something. He had already known he was going to be on an island because the entire world was made up of islands, save for The Red Line, which was a massive continent that circled the world, but he didn't think he was going to be on this small of an island. Like a really small island.
He could probably jog around it twice in a day provided there were no obstacles in his way. From his vantage point he could easily see that there were no human settlements on the island, and that the island itself was probably too small to support anything but birds, plants, and insects. Had it not been for his [STORE], he doubted the island would have even been able to support him.
Still, this was the One Piece world, and though he doubted there was anything bigger than him here, Jack wasn't going to let his guard down. 'After all, I didn't think a truck would try and get me while I was out on a lake, but that happened. Who's to say there isn't something fucked up like that on this island.' He told himself, knowing for a fact that nothing was ever as simple as it seemed.
Rather than head back to where he had set up camp the previous day, Jack had found a cave near the base of the mountain with a small stream close by, so he opted to head there. Besides, even though he hadn't experienced any harsh weather yet, he knew there was a decent chance that the weather could change on a dime in this world, so he opted to set up his tent in the cave to add a bit more protection to it.
With there still being quite a few hours left in the day, Jack decided to explore the cave he had found himself in, figuring there was nothing better to do as he planned out what to do next. He had to buy a flashlight, which he thought was a little weird. He knew how advanced this world actually was, but with the whole pirate thing going on and canons and sailing on ships, he sort of expected to have to buy a lantern, but there it was, a flashlight.
Heading further into the cave, there wasn't really anything to write home about, at least not until he got to the end where the tunnel opened up into a massive cavern where the light began to reflect off small crystals, causing the room to shine like a disco ball.
Equal parts curious and excited, Jack moved towards one of the glittering crystals on the cave walls and pressed his finger to it, causing it to disappear inside of his [Inventory]. Giving it a glance, his eyes widened in shock.
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[Name: Uncut Sapphire Gemstone]
[Value: $4,000,000]
[Sell: Yes/No]
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His heart skipped a beat when he read how much he could sell the gem for, and after looking around the room, he realized he was sitting on a fucking fortune. Getting to work, he began moving about the cavern, extracting all of the gemstones and putting them into his [Inventory]. Thanks to being able to simply just touch them and having them appear inside of his [Inventory], the process went quickly, and after getting the last of the gemstones, he opened up his [Inventory] and sold them all, which in hindsight probably wasn't the smartest move.
He already knew that the more he sold something, the less value it got in the store, so whereas that first one sold for four million, the ones he sold at the end were only going for less than a million, which he suspected was far below their actual value in this world. Still, he couldn't argue with the results of his little expenditure, because now he had $64,094,700 berries, which he didn't think he would be getting anytime soon. 'Fuck Yeah!' He mentally cried, unable to keep the ear to ear grin off of his face.
Having picked the cave clean of anything of value, Jack made his way back to the cave's entrance. Opening the [STORE], he quickly went to the Haki Manuals and purchased the Observation Haki Manual for $10,000,000 and the Armament Haki Manual for $30,000,000. His funds dropped to $24,094,700 berries, but it was worth it.
He felt that familiar feeling of something going into his Inventory, and after giving it a quick look, he saw both of his manuals there. Taking out the Observation Haki manual, Jack sat down by the entrance to the cave and began to read. The book went into a lot of detail about first learning to harness one's Haki, then gave very thorough and detailed instructions on how to harness one's WILL outside of their body.
Jack read through the entire book before he began to follow the training exercises it gave him. It was a lot more complicated than simply blindfolding yourself and trying to sense what was going on around you, and Jack couldn't help but compare what he was doing to the training Luffy went through in the anime when Rayleigh beat him senseless, and he found his method was far more preferable.
Still, the manual did say it would be far easier if there were other forms of life around him so he could use them as sort of beacons, as all living things emitted some form of energy, but plants didn't quite give off the same energy as people or even strong creatures. Still, he wasn't one to be deterred from a challenge, and after a few hours of going through the exercises, he saw something. It was just for a moment, and he only glimpsed it, but he had seen a little squirrel in the tree not too far away from him.
Satisfied with the progress, Jack kept his eyes closed while making his way towards where he knew the stream to be to get a drink while also training himself. He arrived a few minutes later than it would have taken had he had his eyes open, but he didn't mind. He glimpsed more of his surroundings, and was making actual progress.
The remainder of the day passed quickly with him doing nothing but train his Observation Haki, and come the following morning, he began to read the Armament Haki manual. It was fairly straight forward now that he had a better understanding of his Haki and moving it throughout his body. The manual gave him similar training exercises as the Observation Haki manual, but now instead of surrounding his body with Haki he had to infuse his Haki into his body.
Doing this could enhance the power of a punch, or lessen the attacks of others. Coating weapons or objects was a mixture of both Observation Haki and Armament Haki. He had to manifest his Haki outside of his body, but instead of spreading it out around him, he had to focus it into something else, similarly to how he did to his own flesh. It wasn't too difficult in theory, but actually doing it was a whole other story.
After a full day of almost constant focus, only taking a break to eat or workout while he let his Haki have a chance to recover, Jack had made a little bit of progress. He couldn't actually see his Haki coating his hand, but when he punched a tree while trying to coat his hand, he noticed a lot more destruction than normal. The wood had splintered, and there was an indent of his fist on the tree's trunk, which was a good sign that he was making progress.
Later that night as he lay down in his bed, Jack looked through the store a bit more. He had hoped to find some sort of unique item or cheat that would somehow let him remove the curse of not being able to swim once he consumed a Devil Fruit, but alas, he couldn't find anything like that. 'I guess with great power, comes a huge pain the dick punishment.' He thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
*****
For the next few months, Jack did nothing but train, and not just his Haki. He had purchased a training manual on swordsmanship, which showed him a whole lot of sword forms and techniques. Of course to train with this, he had to buy a sword, and after a time he found he was able to actually project his strikes to be a lot further than what his blade would normally allow. He had always thought it was a wind blade when he watched it in the anime, but it was actually more like he was projecting his blade. Whatever it was, it sure didn't follow proper physics, but then again, nothing in this world did.
He had also purchased a book on hand-to-hand combat, but without a partner to spar against, all he could do was go through the forms and shadow-box with himself, imagining as if there was someone in front of him. The book was very informative, but until he actually fought someone, he couldn't say one way or another if he was good at unarmed combat.
Over the months he had kept up his physical training, as well as figured out a bit more about his [STORE] and [Inventory]. He had learned a few of his limitations. For instance, he couldn't sell anything that he couldn't put into his Inventory, and he couldn't put an island into his [Inventory]. He knew, he had checked when he had tried to store away the whole island.
It had been a passing thought, one that he didn't actually think would work, seeing as how he couldn't put a tree into his [Inventory] of there was something living in it, so of course he couldn't put an island that supported all of that life inside his [Inventory] either, and also because it would have been more broken than it already was, and plain stupid now that he thought about it. Honestly, if he could do that, what was stopping him from putting the whole damned planet into his [Inventory] and killing everyone on the world in one go?
Another thing he found out when trying to see how much money he could get for the Haki Manuals from the [STORE], he would only got half back compared to what he paid for them, and it wasn't just for the manuals either. His sword only sold for half the price he paid for it, as did the food and everything else he bought. Also, after selling a certain amount of something, it completely lost it's value.
Trees no longer even gave him a single berry, and there was nothing else on the island that was worth a damn thing, and after buying his sword and the Swordsmanship manual, the Hand-to-Hand Combat Manual, a gun and a box of bullets, and all of the food and necessities over the last few months, he only had a little under $8 million berries. Though that might have seemed like a lot to anyone normal, to Jack who could only get things from a [STORE] that charged him up the ass for even some food, it wouldn't last.
By the time Jack finished what he called his 'Beginner Stage Training', eight months had passed. His Observation and Armament Haki were both at a decent level, Jack figuring if he had to gauge himself, he was somewhere near the master rank with his Observation Haki, and a bit further behind with his Armament Haki.
According to the exercises in the manuals, there wasn't much further he had left. He could almost glimpse into the future with his Observation Haki, and he could already coat his whole body with Armament Haki, and that wasn't just his skin, but his internal organs as well. Jack was also able to punch at a tree, and without making contact with the tree, it would explode. According to the Manual, this was something called "Haki Emission", and was one of the higher ranked abilities.
In swordsmanship, Jack felt as if he were right up there in the world. In his practice, he had already cut the island in two, and after that fiasco he simply sent long-ranged blade strikes out into the ocean, cutting the waves as they moved about the water's surface. He had figured that was how Mihawk travelled around the ocean on his tiny little raft without being capsized. The guy simply cut through the waves before they ever became a problem for him.
Jack didn't think he was on Mihawk's level, but he couldn't help but feel a little pride in himself when he moved about. There was certainly no one in the East Blue who could match him for skill, and though he might be far off the mark and just widely overestimated his abilities, but he thought himself to be right up there with the best of the best in terms of swordsmanship.
After realizing that there was probably no one in the East Blue that could beat him, Jack came to the conclusion that he had trained long enough, and that it was finally time to get off of this island that was basically useless to him now. If he wanted to get enough money to get the Dark-Dark Fruit, he couldn't stay here.
Looking in the [Ship] section of the [STORE], he figured someone was trying to bankrupt him. Small fishing boats were over a million berries, and the little basic wooden rowboats were in the hundreds of thousands. After browsing for far too long, Jack finally decided to bite the proverbial bullet and bought a little boat for $4.5 million. It had a nice little cabin to sleep in, along with a bathroom and a stove to cook things. He made sure to be fully stocked up on everything he'd need from the island, and after getting a good night's sleep, he planned to set out.
In preparation for going out to sea for the first time, Jack had purchased a compass and a Map of the East Blue, but without really knowing where he was the map was kind of useless, so he planned to just take a gamble. He had less than $3 million berries after purchasing his boat, map, and compass, and after spending another million berries on 'Beginner's Guide to Navigation', he was down to $2 million.
The night before he set out, he tried to read the 'Beginner's Guide to Navigation', but it had to be one of the most boring books known to man, and before he even realized it, his eyes grew heavy to the point where he couldn't keep them open. 'This book could put a chipmunk on crack to sleep.' Were his final thoughts before he closed his eyes.
*****
The next morning, Jack went down to the water, picked a direction and began to sail. He hoped to run into another ship or better yet, an island with people on it, but only time would tell which one he encountered first. Looking at his compass, he made sure he was still heading westward before he pulled out 'The Beginner's Guide to Navigation'.
After a whole twenty minutes of reading a book that could give chloroform a run for its money, he tossed it back into his Inventory. 'How the fuck can people find this interesting? It's dryer than the desert.' He grumbled internally. The contents of the book weren't all that difficult to grasp, and it would definitely help him in the future in his travels, but watching paint dry was more fun to look at than that damned book.
For four days he continued on in the same direction with nothing of note occurring until he picked up something moving beneath the water towards him with his Observation Haki. This being his first encounter with something potentially dangerous in this world, Jack drew his sword and pistol and got ready, a touch excited at what was about to happen.
He followed the creature closely with his Haki as it drew nearer, until finally a the water nearby erupted upwards as the creature's head burst out of the water. Though he had never seen one of these creatures in person before, he had seen them often enough in the anime to know what it was. 'A sea-king.' He told himself upon seeing the massive creature.
Not one to give things the first chance to attack (Trucks excluded), Jack reacted with lightning speed, swinging his sword in two quick motions, cutting the beast right down the center with the first swing, and with the second swing he cut the damn thing's head off. His little boat violently rocked due to the massive waves that were caused when the pieces of the monster fell back into the ocean, but once more Jack cut through the larger waves and protecting his little boat.
Once the water settled down a bit, Jack directed the little boat to the pieces of the Sea-king and stored them away inside of his Inventory. It was a massive amount of meat, so much so that he could sell it to the STORE for a good chunk of change, or he could hold off for the time being and wait until he came to a town. He bet someone in any sort of town would be more than happy to buy this much meat off of him. 'Especially if Luffy's there. The town would need this much meat just to keep him fed for a week.' Jack thought dryly.
After the serpent incident, nothing else really happened for the next two day, when finally he spotted a ship off in the distance. Even from how far away he was he could see the pirate flag flying high on the ship, but that didn't deter him in the slightest from wanting to go and check it out. This was his chance to really test himself against someone in this world, and he wasn't going to pass it up.
With a thrill of excitement in the air, Jack pulled some oars out of his [Inventory] and began rowing like a madman towards the pirate ship, almost as if her were worried they would get away from him. After less than three minutes he reached the ship, which considering the distance, he felt as though he would have given a speedboat a run for its title.
Without even waiting for permission to go aboard, Jack jumped up to the deck of the much larger ship. Looking around the deck, Jack saw a bunch of smelly men in worn out clothes. Most of them looked to be drunk or passed out, which explained why no one had shouted any warnings at his approach.
"Hey, you. What pirate group is this?" Jack asked the closest guy who was still conscious. It took a minute of the guy just staring at him before he clued in that there was an intruder on board the ship, which is when he began sounding the alarm. "INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUD-AH!" The man who sounded the warning was silenced as the bullet ripped through his head.
Looking up to where the shot had come from, Jack saw a pudgy tall guy with light brown hair. There wasn't really anything interesting about him, other than the fact that he had a pistol in each hand, and each pistol looked like it could have been a fucking rocket launcher. "You all know better than to cause a ruckus when I've got a hangover. The first warning was enough, but he just couldn't keep his trap shut." The man said before he leaned over the railing and gave Jack what he probably thought was a menacing glare.
"You asked who we were, well let me tell you. We here are the Duff Pirates, and I'm Captain Duff. (Not real, just fodder) Now who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my ship? Have you come to collect the $5 million berry bounty on my head?" Captain Duff said with a smug grin on his face, maybe thinking his bounty would intimidate Jack. It didn't. On the contrary, he was thinking he had just found a way to make some easy money.
"To answer your questions in order, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a bit lost and I'm trying to find out where exactly I am, and no, I've never even heard of you until now so I didn't come here to collect your bounty, though I won't pass up the opportunity to cash it in if I can." Jack answered honestly. "HAHAHA! You got lost?! How stupid are you?!" Duff asked with a laugh, not taking Jack seriously in the slightest. With a frown, Jack spoke, "Well you see, I didn't know where I was to begin with, so I wouldn't exactly know where I was, now would I?"
"I don't particularly care about some brat playing at being a pirate, so just hand over anything you have of value and I might let you start swimming for your life." Duff said, having no intention of actually helping him. "That's adorable. You think you're a threat to me. Tell you what, I'll kill you first." Jack said with smile, then in front of Duff and his whole crew, he vanished.
Shots rang out across the ship at the same time as people's limbs were severed from their bodies, and Captain Duff could do nothing but watch in horror as it happened around him. The look of horror was forever embedded on his face as his head flew through the air, and that same look of terror was now on all of the crew members, minus the one Duff himself had killed only minutes prior for shouting too loudly.
With Duff now dead, Jack went on to kill a number of the crew, leaving just three of them alive, and given how they were all missing at least one limb, he figured they weren't too much of a concern for him. "Alright then. Now that most of you are dead, I'm going to give you three a chance to redeem yourselves. For starters, I would like to know where I am. Can one of you tell me where, on this map, I am?" Jack said in a far too kind of tone for a man who had just butchered more than a dozen people. It took a few seconds for one of the three men to stop complaining about his missing leg, but eventually he did look at the extremely detailed map that Jack was holding out in front of them.
(Image of the Map)
"We're somewhere right about there. Between Dawn Island and Shells Town. We left Goat Island this morning." The man said while pointing at the map where he assumed they were. Looking at the map, Jack saw that he was in fact right about in the middle between the two islands. Looking East of where he probably was on the map in the direction he had come from, Jack saw a tiny little island that didn't have a name.
'That must be the island I ended up on.' He thought to himself. His eyes jumped back to his current heading, and he realized now would be the time to decide on where to go to next. He could adjust his course slightly to the north and he would arrive in Shells Town in a day or two, or he could change his direction completely and go south towards Windmill Village on Dawn Island.
He knew if he went to Dawn Island he could go and meet Luffy and Ace, but he really didn't want to have to deal with a teenaged rubber idiot that had the mental capacity of a toddler, and a brooding little bitch that couldn't get over his daddy issues. There was still about a year and three months before Ace would set out to become a pirate, and a little over four years still before Luffy set out.
Jack liked their characters in the anime, but actually thinking about it, they were fucked up. Other than the Alabasta Arc, Ace wasn't good for anything. Granted, there was probably a lot he did off screen that it didn't show, but for the most part what it did, it was kind of sad. He got his ass handed to him by Blackbeard, got arrested, caused a war, got his adoptive father, Whitebeard, killed along with who knew how many of his so called family, and then he went and got himself killed by getting a hole burned through him.
A guy made of fire, literally died by getting burned. Jack knew magma and fire were completely different, but he also knew fire had the potential to get hotter than magma, so the fact that magma could somehow burn him was stupid. Then there was Luffy, who was an idiotic little stubborn bastard who would let all of his friends die just so he could eat food or see something cool.
Thinking about it like that, the answer was obvious. 'Shells Town, here I come.' Jack thought, his mind made up.
Turning his attention back to the three guys who he had been ignoring for the last minute or so, Jack couldn't help but ask them, "So, anything worth a damn on this ship?" One of the guys had already passed out from blood loss, while another was still clutching his missing appendage and whimpering. The third guy, the one who had been helpful enough to give directions looked as though he had accepted his fate.
"Captain's room." Was all the guy said. Jack thanked him by putting a bullet in his head and putting him out of his misery. He did the same to the other two, simply because he didn't care to see them suffer, and because he wouldn't be able to take the ship with him as long as they were alive.
With everyone now dead, he swept over the ship like the plague, taking anything and everything. In the captain's room he had found a few pieces of gold and jewels, and a chest full of about $3 million berries, which was a good find. He also looted all of the guns, knives, swords, and ammo on the ship, figuring they too could get him some money. One thing he had tried even though he knew it probably wouldn't work, was to sell the corpses of the pirates. As per his expectations, they sold for $0 Berries.
He was tempted to just sell them to the [STORE] to get rid of them, but then he figured that fish had to eat too, so he simply tossed the corpses into the water, save for the head of Captain Duff. Though the [STORE] wouldn't give him anything for it, he knew the marines would. As stupid as he thought the Marines to be, they could be useful in a pinch, and getting $5 million berries seemed as though it would come in handy.
Only after the ship was completely cleaned out did Jack jump back onto his little boat, then he extended his hand out to the ship and put it inside of his Inventory. Watching something that massive just disappear from sight would shock most people, but Jack had done it so many times by now that it seemed normal. With that all done, he adjusted his coarse slightly to the North towards Shells Town.
With not much to do, Jack slumped down in a comfortable position and began to look over the loot he had acquired from his first ever pirate raid. He figured lots of the things could be sold in town for stuff, but the pirate ship itself jumped out at him. For one thing, he didn't know how to explain the pirate ship, nor did he know if anyone would actually buy it, aside from maybe the Marines or other pirates, and he doubted they'd just step up and offer him a fair price for it.
He had checked to see what he could get for it from the [STORE] and was pleasantly surprised to see a price of $45 million berries. Rather than accepting the offer outright, Jack went into the [STORE] and searched for the same ship, and low and behold, it would cost him $90 million berries if he wanted to buy it for himself, which of course he didn't.
Letting out a sigh, he sold the ship and a number of little gems until finally he had $50 million berries, which he was quick to spend on the [Conqueror's Haki Manual]. It was a bit of a gamble because he didn't even know for certain if he had Conqueror's Haki, but if there was one person he would gamble on, it was himself.
With the final Haki manual in his grasp, Jack decided that now all of his money would be saved up until he had the Dark-Dark Fruit, elsewise he would never get it before Blackbeard, and he wasn't going to put up with that. Even though he was flat broke at the moment, he had a $5 million berry bounty he could cash in, plus a whole lot of junk that should net him a million or two, especially if he got a good price for the Sea-King.
For the remainder of the travel he didn't do much but read and train, so when he spotted the island off in the distance the next day, he couldn't help but be a little excited. He was itching to get out and stretch his legs on land, and hopefully talk to someone who wasn't out to kill him. Seeing the island draw nearer and nearer, Jack couldn't help but think, 'If I'm really lucky, this world will have some form of manga I can read.'