The journey on the Grand Line was a relentless teacher. Days bled into weeks, and under the chaotic tutelage of the world's most dangerous sea, the Spade Pirates were quietly, steadily growing stronger. Their flag, once a novel sight, was becoming a familiar—if not always welcome—presence on the waves.
Their crew was growing, too. They seemed to attract the lost and the strange, those who had no place on other pirate ships, or those who never should have become pirates at all but were forced into the life by circumstance. Ace and Jerry, with their simple philosophy of acceptance, welcomed them aboard.
There was Mihar, a former schoolteacher with kind eyes and a dream of bringing education to the isolated islands of the world, places where children had no access to schools or books. He had been run out of his last post for teaching "dangerous ideas" like world history and critical thinking. On the ship, he was simply "Teacher," a calm, intellectual presence amidst the chaos, his nose almost always buried in a book.
They found Kotatsu, a magnificent lynx, caught and bleeding in a poacher's trap on a spring island. After Jerry and Ace freed the creature and Jerry used some rudimentary first aid, the lynx refused to leave their side. Now, it was the ship's official mascot, having developed a deep and abiding love for Jerry's grilled fish. It followed Jerry everywhere, its sleek form having grown noticeably plump and glossy from the constant supply of perfectly cooked meals.
Others followed. There was Banshee, a boisterous, middle-aged female pirate with a laugh that could shake the rigging and a penchant for brewing gut-wrenchingly strong liquor. Then came Ganryu of the Long-Arm Tribe, a quiet, lanky man who had been wanted for a crime he didn't commit. One by one, due to misunderstandings, strange twists of fate, or simply because they had nowhere else to go, nearly twenty souls had joined the Spade Pirates.
Their ship grew with them. As they moved forward, they would "acquire" larger ship from the less-than-friendly pirates they encountered, cannibalizing them for parts or trading up entirely. Their current ship was a sturdy, multi-masted ship, large enough to comfortably house their eclectic family.
Of course, a growing reputation meant growing trouble. They were frequently targeted by rival pirates with poor eyesight and even worse judgment, and opportunistic bounty hunters would appear from time to time, drawn by their rising bounties. But each encounter only served to sharpen their skills.
After a string of decisive victories, their bounties continued to climb. As captain, "Fire Fist" Ace's bounty had soared, cementing his status as a Super Rookie. Jerry, as the vice-captain, was more low-key in his fighting style, often ending fights before they could be properly witnessed, so his bounty rose more slowly, but it was still substantial. The bounties of the other crew members were smaller, not even enough for a down payment on a house in a kingdom's capital, as Deuce often lamented. As a pet, Kotatsu had been given a token bounty of 50 Berries, a fact that Skull found endlessly fascinating.
During this time, Jerry's own strength grew exponentially. Life at sea offered few distractions. He spent most of his time either fishing off the deck—a habit that completed his daily system quests—or sparring with Ace, who had boundless energy to burn.
With each completed quest, his attributes ticked upward. He was now many times stronger than the confused man who had first washed ashore on that nameless island. His Haki was on the verge of reaching the intermediate level, and his mastery of Fishman Karate and Jujutsu had become second nature. He was now experimenting, combining his skills to create his own unique moves. His daily spars with Ace were no longer one-sided beatings; they were fierce, back-and-forth contests. While he lacked a Devil Fruit, Jerry's fluid combination of martial arts and water manipulation often caught Ace off guard, occasionally allowing him to land a clean hit that would leave the fire-user sputtering in surprise.
One sun-drenched afternoon, chaos erupted on the deck.
"Hey, hey, hey! Ace, my love! Don't run from me! Come here, I'll be gentle, I promise! Just bear with it for a second!"
A sloppy, wretched-looking man with a wild beard and even wilder eyes rushed across the deck, brandishing a rusty cutlass and shouting his unnerving declaration of love.
Jerry, who was standing nearby, didn't even break his stride. With a single, powerful side-kick, he sent the man flying off the ship.
"AHHH! I'LL BE BAAAACK!" the man screamed as he sailed through the air, before landing in the sea with a pathetic splash.
Jerry continued his leisurely walk across the deck, kicking another enemy, and then another, off the ship with casual, almost bored efficiency.
The assailants were a large team of bounty hunters who had ambushed them using a classic trick. They had pretended their own ship was malfunctioning, flying a flag of distress. When the compassionate Spade Pirates drew near to offer aid, the bounty hunters had swarmed across, weapons raised.
Their primary target was clearly Ace, whose nine-figure bounty made him the prize of a lifetime. A dozen of them had immediately surrounded the captain, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
But the Spade Pirates were no longer rookies.
Jerry, sensing the rest of his crew had their situations under control, moved through the fray like a man strolling through a garden. One step, one kick, another bounty hunter cartwheeling into the ocean. He was a whirlwind of calm, precise violence.
"Bah! You bounty hunters are more sinister than any pirate!" Deuce yelled from a corner, skillfully parrying a blow from one attacker while tripping another with his foot. "Preying on people's sympathy! You have no honor!"
A red flame swept past just behind him, engulfing a bounty hunter who had been trying to launch a sneak attack. The fiery blast continued, slamming into the enemy ship with a deafening explosion.
"Ace!" Jerry called out, seeing the flames lick dangerously close to his friend. "Be careful you don't blast Deuce overboard too!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"It is entirely too noisy out here," a calm, slightly irritated voice drifted from seemingly nowhere. "I cannot concentrate on my reading."
It was Teacher Mihar's voice, but there was no sign of the man himself. No one ever knew where his hidden nests were. The quiet intellectual, who usually spent his days reading in the ship's library, was also a master sniper with an uncanny ability to fire from impossible angles. Three more bounty hunters crumpled to the deck, small, smoking holes in their weapons.
In another part of the battle, a different kind of confrontation was taking place.
"Ooh! I do so love your pistol!" a voice filled with perverted glee exclaimed. "It's simply magnificent! So shiny and black!"
Skull was staring with fanatical, shimmering eyes at the gun currently pointed directly at his face. "Is it a North Blue model? The skull engraving on the handle is exquisite!" he said, his hands trembling with excitement.
The gun-toting bounty hunter was taken aback. "Oh? You have good taste," he said, a proud, embarrassed look on his face. He scratched his head with his free hand. "This is one of my favorite trophies."
"But," Skull said, his tone suddenly shifting, "a model like this has a distinct disadvantage." He moved with lightning speed, his hand shooting out to grab the pistol. "If you do this," he said, twisting the barrel just so, "it's very easy for the firing pin to jam."
The bounty hunter reflexively pulled the trigger. Click. The pistol only made a strange, unsatisfying sound, like a fart that promised more than it delivered.
"And this," Skull said, a greedy smile spreading across his skeleton-masked face, "will look just perfect in my private collection. Hehehe." He snatched the pistol away and delivered a powerful punch to the bounty hunter's stunned face.
"Hey!" Jerry called out, disgust in his voice as he kicked another enemy into the sea. "We're still in a fight here! Keep your weird hobbies to yourself!"