(Location: East Blue)
(General POV)
"Why would you agree to something like that?!" Luke shouted angrily at Jack. They had arrived at Loguetown less than an hour before after walking through a gate, and since then they had boarded Jack's little ship before he shot them off through the sky until his Transponder Snail began to ring. It was Soran of course, only she had a strange request. She had asked that Jack contact the Fleet-Admiral of the Marines, Sengoku the Buddha.
Why she wanted them to call him was a mystery, and none of them had even bothered to ask. After that, Jack took a moment to call the man where he wished to make a deal that involved him and Garp leaving the Marines, and in return, Jack wouldn't go to the Holy City to kill the Celestial Fuckers for seven months. "Why wouldn't I agree to something like that?" Jack asked, finding the whole situation to be rather beneficial for him. "Because now we have to sit on our asses for the next seven fucking months before we can do anything against the Government!" Luke roared, looking more upset than he had been in a while.
"Tell me, how long do you think it's going to take us to get to the Mary Geoise?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't fucking know, a few weeks maybe!" Luke shouted in annoyance. "A few months, actually. Around six or seven if we stop at islands along the way and interact with everything. Maybe even eight or nine to be honest. Either way, we lose nothing." Jack said, his words being like a tidal wave that completely extinguished Luke's anger as he realized what Jack had done. "Oh." Was all he had to say on the matter.
"Well we didn't even need to make the deal in the first place, because now I can't kill Sengoku or Garp!" Luke said after a few moments of silent contemplation. "If you think you can kill them, by all means, go ahead. I can promise you it won't end well for you, but I won't stop you." Jack told him unsympathetically. Out of all of the Marines, Garp and Sengoku were the two he was most wary about, mostly because you didn't get as old as they did without being a complete monster. It was the same with how he looked at Whitebeard and Dark King Rayleigh.
They were absolute monsters that demanded complete and utter respect with just their mere presences. One didn't become like that by being weak, and Jack knew that this was probably one of the best deals he had made thus far, Luke was just too blinded by his anger to see it. "But Sengoku is on this list…" Luke grumbled under his breath, and Jack realized what it was. Luke had become fixated on the list after he had given it to him, and to have someone be out of his reach, it was more than Luke could bear.
"Look, I'm not saying we're going to kill either of them, but if it means that much to you, I won't stop you if you feel its something you need to do, but at least hold off for a few years until we deal with the World Government. We've got more than enough people to kill right now as it is." Jack said, to which Luke could only nod his head in understanding. "Are we really going to kill Shiki?" Smoker asked curiously when there was a lull in the conversation. After hearing Jack offer to kill him for Garp, Smoker's heart nearly skipped a beat, mostly because he knew exactly who Shiki was and the reputation he had back in the day.
"Who's Shiki?" Nami asked curiously. "Shiki, the Golden Lion, also known as the 'Flying Pirate', is the Captain of the Golden Lion Pirates. He wreaked havoc on the seas during Gold Roger's time and once commanded the largest pirate fleet in the entire world. He was captured shortly before Gold Roger was executed and sent to Impel Down. To this day, he's the only person to have ever escaped Impel Down, but he disappeared after he did, and since then, no one has seen hide or hair of him. Which begs the question, how do you know where he is?" Smoker asked after explaining who exactly Shiki was.
"Shiki hasn't disappeared, he's just been laying low. For the past twenty years he's been secretly recruiting pirate crews under his banner to reform his fleet. I've got it on good authority he's planning to cause unimaginable chaos in the East Blue in about a year and half, maybe sooner. His goal is to take over the world, and he doesn't care if there is no one else alive after he's conquered it. Right now he's holed up in Merveille, experimenting on all sorts of animals and people to create monsters that he can use to do his bidding. I don't know about all of you, but I'm going to do something about it." Jack explained, to which he got the reactions he was hoping for. Everyone was pissed, Luke especially. If it were possible, he probably wanted Shiki dead almost as much as the World Nobles.
Getting no further objections, they continued on their way for another hour, at which point they arrived at Reverse Mountain, the entrance to the Grand Line. "This is impossible! The current actually goes up the mountain!" Nami cried out in surprise once they got near enough to see the waterway going upward. "This is the Grand Line! Logic and reasoning don't work here!" Smoker shouted with a grin spread across his face.
Being a Marine, he had only ever travelled through the Calm Belt to get to the Grand Line before because despite the Sea Kings, the odds of survival were far higher than going up Reverse Mountain, but despite that, he had always wondered what it would be like, and now he was finally going to find out. It was tradition for anyone that enters the Grand Line for their first time to go over Reverse Mountain, and though Smoker was an exception to that, they were all somewhat excited.
"Keep us on course, Nami!" Jack shouted to his Navigator as the ship got pulled into the current and began pulling them forward. Nami guided them straight and true, and when needed, both Smoker and Jack would use their powers to keep the ship on course. Soon enough they were higher than the clouds, and Jack couldn't help but feel as though he was living out a fantasy. In this moment, it didn't matter what he had planned to do throughout the world, he felt free.
"This is amazing!" Nojiko cried as she grabbed hold of his arm to steady herself with how fast they were going, momentarily bringing Jack out of his reverie. Seeing her holding onto him, and then Luke, Smoker, Nami, Tashigi and Radek all there with him, he couldn't help but grin alongside her.
Once the ship reached the top, it switched canals, and soon they all found themselves plummeting downwards along the waterway that would lead them into the Grand Line. Given how more than fifty percent of ships were destroyed before they ever even reached the Grand Line, one would think everyone would be a lot more panicked, however they were all acting as though this was an awesome ride and not the potential death trap that it was. Granted, they had all flown with Jack a lot, and compared to that, this was nothing but a cheap thrill.
As they neared the bottom of Reverse Mountain, there was a loud noise that pulled them all back to reality, and soon they could see the outline of what looked like a small mountain blocking the way forward. At their current speed, they would no doubt crash into whatever was blocking the way, but that wasn't a concern. Remembering the giant island whale, Laboon, Jack quickly realized he had no intention of staying to get to know it or the lighthouse keeper who guarded it, so with that thought in mind, he charged up his power, then launched them all into the sky and sent them flying high above what everyone recognized as a giant-ass whale.
It remained the topic of discussion for a short while, but eventually that changed when Nami pointed out how the compass no longer worked, which she fully expected after Jack had told her about the log poses. Jack had already given her a log pose of her very own that she kept on her wrist like some sort of watch, but that was sort of irrelevant at the moment, for now they were following an Eternal Log Pose which would lead them directly to Merveille. After Jack had explained to them about what was going on, all of them were itching to go there and stop Shiki.
Even by using an Eternal Log Pose and having Jack blast them through the sky like a rocket, it still took them more than a week of flying before they reached Merveille, though thankfully they passed other islands along the way, which they were able to stop at to rest. Radek took a few pictures of each of the islands before putting the pictures in his scrapbook so he could open gates to them at a later date. He had managed to take a picture of the lighthouse at the entrance to the Grand Line, but the picture was a little blurry because they were flying through the sky at the time when he took it.
Still, he didn't think he would have any trouble creating a gate there in the future if he had to. Each night when they stopped for a rest, Radek would open a gate back to Windmill Village in the East Blue so he could stay in his own bed, however Jack and the others opted to remain in the Grand Line aboard the Black Pearl, which Jack would bring out each night so they could sleep in their own rooms.
As soon as they arrived in Merville and the floating islands came into view, Jack decided that now was as good a time as any to give them all a rundown of the plan. "We get in there, make sure to rescue the civilians, then we end the fucker and anyone who serves him." Jack explained. It was a simple plan. "I count about sixty-three pirate ships, all flying different flags." Smoker said after looking through a telescope towards the bay near the island that wasn't floating in the sky that had a pillar-shaped mountain that reached up into the clouds.
"I'll handle the ships and the pirates inside the fortress on top of the mountain. I'm pretty sure that's where Shiki is too. There are monsters all over the islands, along with innocent civilians who have feathers on their arms. There could also be Shiki's workers around, along with any other number of pirates. Kill them. We'll meet back here in three hours." Jack said, to which everyone simply nodded.
This wasn't the first time they had done work like this, nor was it the first time they had done so during the night. The sun had already set, so for the most part they wouldn't need to worry too much about stealth.
*****
(Location: Merville)
(Luke Strauss POV)
Choosing the largest island floating in the sky, Luke used Moonwalk to get onto it, where upon landing he found what could only be called a crazy scientist's laboratory. There were no people as far as he could tell, but there were dozens of animals in cages, many of which had obviously been experimented on already. He somewhat expected something like this because Jack had told him as such, but he didn't think it would be this bad. 'I'm going to kill the fucker responsible for all of this!' Luke silently promised himself, vowing to make the one responsible pay.
Wanting to clear the area before he made a move, Luke crept around the stupidly big building until he heard what sounded like someone laughing maniacally. Getting close enough to get a proper view, he shook slightly at what he saw. A tall creepy blue-haired clown was wearing a lab coat, and he was dancing back and forth as he held a vial of some weird liquid in a syringe as he poked and prodded a small blue cat that was letting out hisses of pain.
Just as Luke was about to move, he froze suddenly when he noticed the little blue cat was growing at a visible rate, which only seemed to increase its cries of pain while making the clown laugh even harder. When the cat stopped growing, the clown moved to inject it with another syringe, however Luke wasn't about to let that happen. He had seen enough from the clown to know that he would be dying a rather slow and painful death.
With swords drawn, Luke used Shave to appear next to the scientist, and before the clown could even register him being there, he had already cut both the creepy fucker's arms off at the shoulder. Knowing what was likely to happen next, Luke reacted lightning quick and grabbed the clown by the throat before he could shout an alarm. Not that it would have really mattered since they seemed to be the only two people in the laboratory, but as Jack always said, it was better to be safe than sorry.
With the clown clutched firmly in his grasp with his right hand, Luke swung the sword in his left hand at the clown's legs, severing them from his pear-shaped torso. "Since you like to play doctor, allow me to have a go." Luke said in an eerily calm voice as he moved to strap the clown to one of the empty tables. "First, because I don't want to hear anything from you, we need to make a small incision right here." Luke narrated as he cut the clown's vocal cords, making it impossible for him to call out to anyone, not that he would have been able to anyway.
For the next fifteen minutes, Luke violently and gruesomely dissected the clown, cutting bits and pieces off of his flesh, puncturing organs, and anything else he could think of to cause the clown pain. "Now you know how they felt." Luke told the clown as he gestured towards all of the mutated animals in the cages. "Animals feel pain and fear just like anyone else. They are not your toys, and you better fucking remember that for the next life, if I don't find away to rip your soul out first." Luke said to the scientist, who looked to already be on the verge of death.
Knowing there wasn't much else he could do to the clown to cause him pain, Luke grabbed the syringe the clown had been about to inject into the overgrown cat from before, then injected its contents into the clown. He watched as the creepy fucker began to convulse violently, but after only a few seconds he stopped moving and breathing altogether. 'I wonder what it did to him.' Luke wondered internally before he cut the clown's head off. Not wanting there to be a chance of the son-of-a-bitch coming back, Luke cut the rest of the corpse into little tiny pieces, hoping that now the world would be forever rid of the disease that was this waste of flesh.
With that now done, Luke walked over to where the overgrown cat was caged, then with a swing of his sword, the door to the cage opened. He did this to the rest of the cages, allowing all of the animals to move about freely. Rather than attacking him or cowering away from him, the animals approached Luke and many of them began to rub themselves against his torso in a friendly sort of way. Of course there were some animals that were far bigger than he was, but Luke didn't budge against their forms.
"Who's a good kitty?" He cooed happily as he scratched the overgrown cat under its chin, causing it to let out a soft purring noise. 'Who knew I was a cat guy?' He thought with a small chuckle as he continued playing with the cat. After a few minutes of playing around, he pulled out his Transponder Snail and called Radek. "Hey, I need you to open a gate to the biggest floating island. There are a bunch of animals that need help." Luke told him, which only got a sigh from Radek. "In case you forgot, I need to have been there before I can open a gate, and I haven't been to that island." Radek said in annoyance. "Then use Moonwalk and get your ass up here!" Luke said, returning Radek's annoyed tone.
It took a while, but eventually Radek managed to make his way to the large island, at which point he began vomiting his guts out after he saw what Luke had done to the scientist. After that, there was no arguing, even if he believed that some of the animals classified more as monsters than anything else, but getting a closeup view of Luke's handywork, he bit his tongue and wisely decided to just do as he was told and helped the animals get off the island. "Thanks. I'll call you if I need any more help." Luke said after the last animal went through the gate, then disappeared in search of his next target, leaving Radek to shudder to himself before he too disappeared through a gate.
*****
(Location: Merville)
(General POV)
After splitting up from the others, Jack went into the bay filled with pirate ships and began methodically killing everyone on board them before storing the ships inside of his [Inventory]. Given how most of the pirates were holed up in the town on the main island, clearing the ships went relatively quickly before he moved on to the town where he systematically butchered nearly everything with a pulse. Granted, there were a number of people he didn't kill, namely those who had feathers on their arms. He found it odd that everyone he found were all rather young, but then one of them told him that Shiki had left all of the children and old people back in their village and that he was forcing the ones he captured to serve him and his men.
Hearing that, Jack gathered all of the people being forced into servitude and had Radek open a gate for them. The guy looked a little worn out when Jack saw him, as apparently he was jumping to all of the islands to open gates for people. Taking the initiative, Radek opened gates to islands in the East Blue where nothing bad would happen. For the people with feathers on their arms, Radek sent them all to Sixis, whereas the animals were all being sent to Goat Island, which was near Dawn Island.
According to Radek, Luke had already gone to a number of islands and cleared out all of the animals, and Smoker and Tashigi had managed to find a number of captives that weren't citizens of Merville, and he had sent them back to HQ in Windmill Village where Haedrig had been waiting to welcome them. "What about Nojiko and Nami?" Jack asked curiously. "I-… Nami made me open a gate to Cocoyasi Village and then she threw all of Shiki's treasure through it. There was a lot." Radek admitted, though he clearly didn't want to. Nami scared him, and he wasn't sure what she was going to have to say about this.
"Open a gate where you made the treasure go." Jack said, to which Radek complied, and the next instant he saw a giant pile of gold, jewels, and berries all thrown haphazardly into a small mountain. Once he made it all disappear into his [Inventory], Jack had Radek close the gate, then sent him off elsewhere.
Knowing that most of the islands were completely cleared, Jack jumped around and touched each island before he made them disappear into his [Inventory], and thankfully it worked with each and every island. Even the one with the village belonging to the bird-people went inside of his [Inventory], having already been evacuated not long before. Jack's reasoning for this was because he knew that once he dealt with Shiki, the floating islands would all come crashing back down to the ground, and despite physics and everything else in the world being completely fucked up, he still didn't think having a dozen islands crash into the ocean would be good for anyone, least of the neighboring islands who might suffer tidal waves and earthquakes, and he didn't think the bird-people would appreciate having their island crash into the sea and having their village probably get destroyed in the process.
When there was only the main island and the one floating above it with Shiki's palace remaining, Jack gathered everyone around him once more. "Alright, Shiki is all that's left, and maybe a few of his underlings that are with him in the palace. I'll deal with Shiki, while the rest of you steer clear of the floating island, but at the same time keep watch and make sure no one gets away. Luke, while I get Shiki's attention, you and Smoker do a quick sweep of the palace with Radek and make sure there are no other civilians, then join the others." Jack told them, getting nods of understanding from everyone. They knew someone like Shiki wasn't to be taken lightly, and if they wanted to get through this without incident, they would do as Jack told them to do.
*****
(Location: Merville)
(Shiki POV)
Inside his palace on his throne-like chair, Shiki, the golden lion was smoking a cigar as he drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair as he thought about the goings on of the world. He had been planning to destroy the East Blue for close to twenty years, ever since Gold Roger was captured and executed there, and now some unknown organization had taken it over from the World Government.
His whole goal was to destroy the East Blue to strike terror into the World Government so that they would step aside and name him ruler of the world, but if he attacked them now, it would basically look like he was fighting for the World Government to try and reclaim it for them, or at the very least to make sure this Jack Sparrow didn't have it.
'Do I kill the upstart or choose a different sea?' He wondered to himself, but even the thought of taking over one of the other Blue Seas didn't sit well with him. It actually made him feel as though he would be copying the upstart, and he felt it would make it seem as though he was a follower, not a conqueror.
So lost was he in his thoughts that he failed to realize that the islands floating around under his power had suddenly vanished, and he certainly didn't realize it when his underlings began suddenly disappearing from around the palace. He had warned them earlier about not disturbing him, and he felt they were merely obeying his wishes, so one could imagine his surprise when the door leading into the large room was suddenly blown off its hinges, and a man Shiki had only seen on a WANTED poster stepped into the room.
"Well, well, if it isn't Jack the Sparrow. What can I do for you?" Shiki said with a grin, feeling as though someone from up on high was listening to his thoughts and had brought the upstart right to him. "I came for a lion-skinned rug. And I'll get one." Sparrow said calmly, then before Shiki could even register the movement, he disappeared from view. Shiki stood up on the swords he had for legs and began to look around to find the Sparrow, but try as he might, he couldn't see hide nor hair of the man, and it was only when the shot sounded from behind him and he felt the pain from having his arm almost blown clean off at the shoulder did he sense the man.
Wanting to put some distance between him and Sparrow, Shiki tried to fly into the air using the power of his Float-Float Fruit, but to his dismay, he didn't budge from the ground. On the contrary, now that he was paying attention, he felt as though the island he was on was now plummeting towards the ground, which was unnerving to say the least.
He was in the middle of trying to figure out why his powers weren't working when he felt a searing pain engulf his right arm, and no matter what he tried, the flames that were burning him would not go out, and trying to use his left hand to pat out flames was an even worse idea, because soon he found that both arms were on fire. "What's happening to me?!" He cried in alarm, unsure as to what to do. He had hoped that maybe one of his underlings would have arrived already to help him, because there was no way they hadn't heard the blast that took off the door, but no one had come, and it was only then that Shiki realized how alone he was.
"You feel it, don't you? Complete and utter despair as you are unable to do anything to stop what's happening, forced to endure the pain until I finally decide that you've had enough. Now you know how the people of this island have felt for the last twenty years." Sparrow said after appearing only a short distance in front of him.
Realizing that Sparrow was the cause of the flames, Shiki reasoned that if he killed Sparrow, the flames would disappear and maybe he might get his powers back, and knowing he didn't have much time before the island reached the sea, he ran at Sparrow, then kicked out with his sword-legs, sending a few wind-blades at him, but by the time they reached him, Sparrow was no longer there. Again, Shiki turned to try and find him, and again he found out too late as a sword pierced his back and came out of his chest.
As the sword withdrew from him, he felt himself fall to the ground, and no longer could he feel his legs, at least what was left of them, and it was only then he realized that he was paralyzed from the waist down. "You don't need those." Sparrow said coldly before he reached down and touched the two swords that had acted as his legs since his breakout of Impel Down two decades prior, and before Shiki's very eyes, the two swords vanished into thin air.
All of this had happened in a matter of seconds, which is all the time it took for Shiki's arms to have completely turned to ash. The only good thing to come from that was after both of his arms had burned off at the shoulders, the black flames consuming him had snuffed themselves out and had cauterized the wounds at the same time.
Shiki was helpless as Jack Sparrow grabbed him rather roughly by the throat, then as if he didn't have a care in the world, he reached down and touched the ground, at which point the room, the building, hell, the whole freaking island seemed to disappear into nothingness, and Shiki could see that they were only a few hundred feet from the island down below.
Sparrow let them fall down onto the island, at which point a number of strange people Shiki had never seen before gathered around him. Unsure what was going on, and unable to say anything because of the hand gripping his throat, Shiki lay helpless as the man that was Jack Sparrow made what looked like crates of fruit appear around him. "Does anyone have any objections?" Sparrow asked those who had gathered, but none spoke a word as they stared at him, though all but two of the people turned away as Sparrow raised his hand. Shiki didn't know what happened, for in the next instant, everything went black.
*****
(Location: Merville)
(General POV)
After withdrawing his finger from Shiki's skull, Jack made sure the black flames he had shot inside of Shiki's head only consumed the brain before he made them disappear. He wanted to leave Shiki recognizable, as the man did have a $4,092,400,000 berry bounty on his head, which was no small sum.
'Mr. Will Turner might be making the rounds in the next few weeks.' Jack thought to himself as the greedy man inside of him just couldn't turn down the opportunity to get richer on the Marines dime.
Leaving Shiki's corpse where it was, Jack moved to put some distance between him and the main island, then began withdrawing all of the islands from his [Inventory] and began placing them around the main island. "No, put that one over there!" Nami shouted at him, as the winter island appeared next to a desert island. Figuring she knew better than he did, he did as she instructed, at which point she began having him move the islands into strategic positions. By the time they were done, the whole place looked like something out of a fairy tale.
"Okay, I'm bringing the others here to check this place out. Though, can someone please go and burn down that laboratory?" Radek said as he pointed at the large building on the largest of the new islands surrounding Merveille. It took only one look inside the building to understand why Radek looked ill at just the sight of the building, and looking over at Luke he saw the silver-haired man had a bit of a cruel smile on his face as he stared back at him.
Jack didn't really fault Luke for what he had done, mostly because he had an idea of how fucked up the clown guy was, but he wasn't quite sure he liked how happy Luke was about it. Still, he wasn't one to judge someone else when he wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine, so he simply dropped the matter altogether.
After burning down the laboratory until it was nothing but ash, Jack went back over to where Shiki's corpse lay on the ground, then began searching through the crates of fruit until he found the outlier of them, which looked like your typical Devil Fruit with all of the swirls on it, and was unique in color to other fruits like it. After replacing the lost fruit, Jack stored them all away inside of his [Inventory] before he realized everyone else was staring at him.
"What?" He asked curiously. "What was with the fruit?" Luke asked, sounding as though it was obvious. "Oh, right. I never explained that to you all, did I? Well, the thing is, when a Devil Fruit user is killed, the power of the Devil Fruit will go into the nearest fruit that it is most compatible with." Jack told them, getting looks of shock from everyone. "That's ridiculous. If that was the case, the Marines would have figured it out ages ago and have ordered us all to carry shipments of fruit around to every battle. Not to mention there wouldn't be anyone in Impel Down with a Devil Fruit." Smoker said, not believing it.
"Not necessarily. You see, the power doesn't go into just any random fruit. Each power has a specific fruit in which they go into, at least so I believe. Then there is the fact that the fruit can't be too rotten or too unripe, it has to be perfect. With my power, I can carry one of every fruit around with ease, and my power also keeps things the exact same as when I put them in there, so I don't have to worry about it spoiling. It's not hard to believe that the Marines never figured this out because they never had the fruit for whatever power belonged to the Devil Fruit users that were killed, or if they did, maybe they were spoiled to the point where the power never accepted them. I don't even know what fruits the powers will go into, which is why I bring out one of each every time I'm looking for them, and so far I'm about 4/4, so I must be doing something right." Jack finished as he held up Shiki's fruit for them all to see. "Your power is a fucking cheat." Smoker said dryly, then walked away as he rubbed his temples.
"So, I was thinking that either Nami or Nojiko should eat this fruit. It's the perfect power for a navigator, but at the same time, it compliments Nojiko's fighting style." Jack said, then went on to describe how it could be useful to either of them. Nojiko could use it to manipulate the trajectory of her bullets, making it almost impossible for her to miss, and Nami could use it to guide the ship wherever or however she desired. Honestly, it more suited the ship's navigator, but it also really suited Nojiko.
"Neither of you have to eat it if you don't want to, it was just a suggestion." Jack told them after, making sure they knew the choice was entirely up to them. "What about me?" Luke asked, feeling a little insulted that Jack hadn't offered him the fruit. Actually, he was annoyed Jack hadn't offered him any fruit, and he knew all about the ones he had given to the others back in Windmill Village. Granted, those guys were going to need to be able to defend themselves against surprise attacks from the World Government without Jack there, so they needed them, but still, some of the powers did look pretty awesome.
"No, this power doesn't suit you, and you're not one to stick around on the ship if we were ever in a fight, and that's kind of what you would have to do if you ate this fruit. I've actually got a different power in mind for you, and we're only a few weeks away from actually getting it, maybe a month or two. Three at the most." Jack said, which seemed to surprise Luke. Evidently he didn't realize that Jack wasn't giving him the powers because he didn't want to give him one, but because he was holding out for a specific power.
"What power?" Luke asked, curious as to what power Jack thought would actually suit him. Looking around, Jack realized everyone was curious about this, even Smoker who was standing only a short distance away as he stared at Jack, awaiting an answer to Luke's question.
Pulling out a book he had purchased on Devil Fruits a while back, Jack flipped to the Logia Fruit section, then flipped a few pages until he found the one he was looking for before he handed it to Luke while pointing at the page. "It's the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, a Logia fruit like mine, and arguably one of the most powerful Devil Fruits in the world, in my opinion of course. It can be used up-close or at range, and its destructive capabilities are second-to-none, not to mention the speed boost would make you faster than nearly anyone in the world. Again, it's like I always tell you guys, it's not the power of the person, but how that person uses the power he or she has. If you use the power of the fruit correctly, you could be a true monster in this world, however in that same breath, if you use it incorrectly, you're just going to be handicapping yourself." Jack explained all the while Luke read the description of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
"I want it." Luke said seriously, showing a desire Jack hadn't seen in him since he vowed to kill all of the Celestial Dragons. "I'm glad you like it. The guy who currently has it is pretty much exactly like Shiki, only he genuinely believes himself to be a god and has thousands of people fearing for their lives each and every day, and kills them if they don't obey his laws and worship him. He's a complete dickhead, and I personally think the world would be better off without him." Jack said, which again only seemed to ignite a fire inside Luke.
"So, the Float-Float Fruit." Jack said, getting back onto the original topic. "If I didn't eat this Devil Fruit, is there one you would recommend for me?" Nami asked, sounding as though she was leaning more against eating the Float-Float Fruit. Thinking about it, Jack remembered back to a few discussions he had been a part of on a forum on the internet before he had died about what Devil Fruit power best suited Nami. There were a few options, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit being a part of those options, but Jack didn't think Luke would appreciate him bringing it up, and he didn't think Nami would appreciate him getting her on Luke's bad-side, because they all knew how good he was at holding grudges.
"There are a few that I would recommend, but ultimately the choice is yours." Jack said, then he began flipping through the book and marked the pages down for Nami to look at. Despite the ones he had listed being good Devil Fruits for Nami, that didn't mean she herself would like them, but that didn't stop Jack from marking them down for her.
Option 1: The Soul-Soul Fruit
Option 2: The Love-Love Fruit
Option 3: The Gold-Gold Fruit
Option 4: The Bird-Bird Fruit: Model Thunderbird
There was an option five, however Luke already seemed to claim that fruit, and Jack had no desire to start something there. "So if I chose option one, and ate the Soul-Soul Fruit, I would essentially have to take the soul from someone else or consume my own soul in order to create minions to do my bidding? No thanks." Nami said after reading over the description for option one. She didn't even know that in order to get the Soul-Soul Fruit they would have to kill Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors, and yet she already didn't want it, which was fair. Jack wouldn't want it either.
"Option two is where I rely on my looks to turn people into stone like some monster. Yeah, right." She said with a scoff as she shot Jack a look that said she wasn't all that impressed. "By suggesting that Fruit, you're saying you find my sister attractive?" Nojiko asked with a frown. "Are you saying she's ugly?" Jack answered her question with a question of his own that left her dumbfounded.
"Fair point." Nojiko said, realizing she had been trying to start something out of nothing. Still, it was odd how much effort Jack put into thinking about a Devil Fruit for Nami that she couldn't help but be a little jealous. If only she knew that these options were the culmination of a few thousand people with nothing better to do than talk about potential ideas to make certain characters stronger.
"Oh my goodness! Option three is amazing!" Nami cried out in joy after simply reading the name of the Devil Fruit. Gold being one of Nami's greatest obsessions, would become her greatest weapon, on top of which, she knew Jack had a lot of gold, on top of which she had acquired a large amount from Shiki already, so it wasn't like she wouldn't have a decent amount to create a weapon with. Besides, she could create an armor of gold to protect herself, and she could attack with it. Honestly it sounded a little too good to be true.
"What about option four?" Jack asked, bringing up the Mythical Zoan fruit that sounded as if it were custom made for her. "I would have to turn into a bird or a human-bird hybrid, and I couldn't use it for anything but attacking. No, option three is much better." Nami said, which only got an eye roll from Jack. The Thunderbird Fruit could literally influence the weather to a degree, you could fly, and shoot lightning. It was everything Nami needed rolled into one Devil Fruit, and yet she only had eyes for the fruit that would let her manipulate gold.
"If you're sure that's the one you want, then fine. It'll take a few months before we can go and get it, but we'll get it. The guy who has it is the owner of the largest casino in the world. His name is Gild Tesoro, and he was once a slave to the World Nobles, but after escaping and getting the Gold-Gold Fruit, he basically became a World Noble himself and now he enslaves almost everyone who enters his casino or outright traps them by encasing their bodies in gold so they become statues. Like the guy who ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he considers himself to be a God, so you know this isn't going to be pretty." Jack explained, to which Nami simply shrugged.
She could wait for the fruit if she had to, and with Jack there to help her get it, she already considered the fruit hers. "You know, I'm starting to see a pattern here. Powerful Devil Fruits make people into sadistic assholes." Smoker said, which earned him a look from Jack. "I'm glad you realize you're a sadistic asshole, Smokey, but don't fret about it too hard. Just remember, I'm here to keep you all on the straight and narrow." Jack said, to which Smoker could only shake his head. He wanted to point out that Jack was probably one of the biggest sadists he had ever met, he just directed it better than most everyone else, however he felt that would not end well for him.
With that decided, Nojiko agreed to eat the Float-Float Fruit. The benefits to eating this was that it would greatly help her abilities, and it would keep her close to Nami, which was one of the reasons she even came out to sea. Granted, it was just a small part, she realized as she stared at Jack as he held out the fruit for her to take. Not only would this fruit keep her close to Nami, it would help make her more useful to Jack.
Over the last year, he had done so much for her, and that wasn't even mentioning how he made her feel when they were alone together, or even the fact that it was he who had rescued her and the rest of the village, and not once had she ever heard him complain about doing any of the things he did. She wanted to be useful, and this fruit would help her, so without a second thought she took a big bite of the odd-looking fruit.
"Oh my god, that's gross!" She said, feeling the urge to throw it all back up, however she persisted in choking it all down. "You know one bite was enough, right?" Smoker asked her once the fruit was completely gone. "Thanks, Smoker. I don't know what I would have done without that brilliant piece of insight." She said blankly to the man, who realized his folly and wisely chose to go somewhere else.
"How do you feel?" Nami asked curiously after a few seconds of nothing happening. Just then, Nojiko shot off into the sky and began spinning in circles before she came back down and landed gently on the ground. "I feel amazing!" Nojiko said happily as she wrapped Nami up into a hug.
"Now that that's settled, I think we can bring all of the people and animals back here. Maybe we should also bring a few people from Windmill Village to help get everyone settled back into their lives. After what Shiki did to them, they're going to need a bit of help." Jack said, getting nods of agreement from everyone, at which point Radek opened a gate to Sixis and allowed all of the bird-people to come back to Merville, at which point they saw how everything had changed. They were thrilled to have all of the islands back on the ground, however they were more thrilled than ever once they learned of Shiki's demise. They cried, they cheered, they danced, and all around they were happy their suffering had finally come to an end.
When Radek brought the animals back from Goat Island, Luke immediately took off after them to go and play, which surprised almost everyone who saw it because none of them believed Luke was capable of having fun, but then again, none of them had ever seen him around animals before. "I think we should get him a pet. He looks so happy with them." Nojiko said as she sidled up next to Jack and leaned against his shoulder. "Maybe someday, but for now he doesn't have the time to focus any of his attention on a pet." Jack said simply, then looked over at her.
"For now though, you and I need to get some training in to get you better accustomed to your powers. We'll let everyone get things sorted here while you and I go back to the East Blue to my old training grounds. I would say do it here, but I think the residents might freak out if they saw an island start floating up into the sky." Jack told her, getting a smile from Nojiko.
"I like the sound of that. Just the two of us, alone with no one around." Nojiko said coyly, and it was only then that Nami cleared her throat, at which point they realized they had an audience. Seemingly ignoring them, Smoker began walking towards the pillar-shaped mountain, then without looking at them he shouted, "Get a room!"