(Location: New World)
(Garp POV)
Aboard his ship, Garp was reading the newspaper that had been delivered earlier that morning, and he couldn't help but frown at the front page. Shiki, the Gold Lion had been killed by a notorious bounty hunter by the name of William Turner, who was some guy wearing a white skull mask, at least if the picture in the paper was actually him, though Garp suspected he knew who was under that mask.
"That son-of-a-bitch! He's getting paid over four billion for our stinking deal, and those idiots in the Marines don't even suspect it! They're funding his operations!" Garp shouted, sounding torn between angry and hysterical. "If you think that's bad, on the next page it says that they've given 'William Turner' a few medals, and they're offering to have him join the Marines." Sengoku said dryly from a few feet away.
He had already read the paper, and like Garp, he too had figured out exactly who was under the mask, though he had to admit he only knew because Jack Sparrow had told them he would kill Shiki, and then a few days later the guy shows up dead. After figuring it out he had wanted to call up the Marines and tell them that William Turner was Jack Sparrow, but that would go against the deal he and Garp had made. Granted, it wasn't the best deal in the world, but he didn't really care any more.
"Now that we've left the Marines, I'm seeing things in a new light and I can't help but realize something. The Marines are fucking idiots." Garp said, to which Sengoku could only agree. He too felt smarter now that he wasn't part of the Marines, and he was a lot happier too. He couldn't bear to think how he would have felt if it had been him who had paid Jack Sparrow over four billion berries, but thankfully he didn't have to worry about that.
*****
(Location: Merville)
(General POV)
Nearly a month had passed since Jack had killed Shiki, and he had to admit, things were going well. He and Nojiko trained almost constantly back in a secluded corner of the East Blue, while Luke and everyone else remained in Merville helping the citizens, who had already raised The Order's flag in support. Luke got to deal with a few pirate groups who had been part of Shiki's fleet, who had shown up a few days after Shiki's death, and since then he had either continued his training or playing with the odd assortment of animals running amuck around the islands, all of which seemed to get along with him quite well.
Stepping through a gate on top of the pillar-shaped mountain, Jack saw Smoker sitting in the sun on a lounge chair with a bottle of rum in one hand and a cigar in the other, looking for all the world like a man at peace. "You look relaxed." Jack said, causing Smoker to crack an eye open and stare at him. "Does this mean we're finally leaving?" Smoker asked plainly. "Yup. We're setting out just as soon as we round everyone up." Jack answered, feeling as though they had spent enough time here, though at the same time, no time at all. He actually wouldn't have minded staying for awhile longer, but he knew the world waited for no man, and it was time to get this show on the road.
Radek had taken enough pictures and had spent enough time that he could open a gate back here at a moments notice, and Haedrig had given the people his Transponder Snail number so they could call the Sentinels if they were ever in trouble, so Jack wasn't worried about the people who were quite lively now that they were no longer under Shiki's control. Their village had been rebuilt, thanks mostly to Jack, and now things were right with the place. Haedrig had already pulled everyone out of Merville days before Jack finished training Nojiko, and during that time he had kept Radek pretty busy, but now it was time to leave, hence the need to gather everyone.
Unlike what everyone was expecting, Jack didn't pull out the little ship, rather he pulled out the Black Pearl, and immediately after Nojiko touched it, the great big ship began to float upwards into the air. "From now on, we're going to be travelling in style." Jack told them all, getting whoops and hollers about finally not having to stay on the little tiny ship that didn't let them move a single finger. After an entire month of training, Jack was confident in Nojiko's ability to at the very least, protect his ship, thus he wasn't all that scared as he brought it out and allowed her to raise it into the air. He was also itching to see how the ship moved with his power propelling it, while Nojiko's power kept it airborne.
Once they were all aboard the ship, Jack went into the control room and sat down in the Captain's chair, then proceeded to channel his powers into the conductor, and in the next breath it was as if they were a bullet fired from a gun, which had been a shock because Jack hadn't intended for that to happen, but then again, he didn't think they would be going this fast with the amount of power he put into it.
"My bad." He told everyone, who had stumbled at the sudden takeoff and fell flat on their asses. It took only a few minutes to get a good understanding of the power needed to propel the giant ship, and soon they were flying at a fast, but also a rather comfortable speed. "Are we going to get my Devil Fruit?" Luke asked after a short while of flying. "Soon. First we're going to kidnap a dumb princess and go and kill one of the Seven Warlords." Jack said, sounding as though it was just some random topic he was discussing over lunch.
"I don't usually ask you to clarify what we're doing, mostly because it's usually fairly straightforward, but I might need you to explain this one." Smoker said, feeling as though he was missing a few key pieces of information.
"I guess I should start from the beginning. Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords, is secretly trying to take over the throne of Alabasta, a desert kingdom in the Grand Line. He calls it 'Operation Utopia', and he believes one of the Ancient Weapons that has the power to rival the World Government is there, and that he will be able to use it to keep the World Government at bay or straight up eliminate them, I'm not sure. Anyway, he runs an organization called 'Baroque Works', and they're the ones operating out in the open while he does everything else in secret. The princess of Alabasta, Vivi Nefertari somehow managed to infiltrate Baroque Works, but she's on a fool's errand, and if we don't step in, she'll most likely be found out and used as leverage against her father or straight up killed because she's a complete idiot." Jack explained, his words leaving everyone rather dumbfounded.
"And you know this, how exactly?" Smoker asked after more than a minute of everyone digesting Jack's words. "Not important. What is important is that we get the little princess before she gets herself killed and causes an incident that might make Alabasta worse than it already is. Of course we'll need to kill Crocodile and eliminate Baroque Works, but that shouldn't be too difficult. He runs a casino in Alabasta, so finding him should be simple." Jack said, avoiding the question that he still had no answer for.
"That all seems straightforward enough to me. I'm not a big fan of the Seven Warlords anyway." Luke said simply, not one to question Jack's plan. Thankfully no one else did either, and Jack was able to keep channeling his power to boost the ship's speed in relative silence, which after an hour he found to be boring as hell. Given how he needed to remain sitting in this exact chair then he couldn't move around the ship like everyone else, and it wasn't like he could force the others to stay in the Control Room to keep him company, so he thought about what he used to do to take his mind off of things when he travelled, and it was then he thought about music.
'I wish I had my iPod.' He internally groaned before he had a sudden epiphany. Going into his [STORE], he searched [Record Dials]. They were a kind of recording device found on the sky islands, and many people liked to use those dials to record lectures, messages, and in the case of Brook, songs.
Jack had to narrow down the [Record Dials] to dials with music, of which there were only a few thousand, which was still a few thousand more songs than he currently had, but it wasn't anywhere close to as many as his previous world had. Buying one of each, Jack began to play them to try and find any songs he liked, and he had to say, the pickings were slim to be sure. There were very few rock songs, which was a little disappointing to be sure, but that was alright. There were a number of slow songs that sounded a lot like Frank Sinatra, those ones he pushed to the side to keep. There were also instrumental piano and violin songs that he also kept, but other than that, there wasn't much to choose from.
He was on his three-hundredth or so dial when the door burst open, and in marched everyone else. Evidently Tashigi had heard the music and had ran to tell the others, and of course they would be curious about music. "What is this?" Luke asked curiously as he picked up one of the dials Jack had set aside for himself. "It's a Record-Dial. You can use them to record stuff. These ones here all have songs recorded in them." Jack answered as he took the one from Luke and pressed the center of the shell, at which point music began to come out of it.
"Where'd you get it?" Nami asked, rather intrigued as she took the one from Jack and began looking it over. "I have a few thousand of them that I purchased from a cool [STORE], but if you're wondering where to buy the dials, you can buy all kinds of them on the sky islands." Jack said, not bothering to explain the [STORE] or where it was, and like usual, everyone else had to be content with that answer.
What followed was everyone grabbing an armful of the dials spread about the room before they left to go and play them somewhere else, all except for Smoker. Unlike the others, he was more respectful of Jack's stuff, and after getting permission, he pulled up a chair Jack had placed for him and the two of them began to listen to the dials in relative quiet. One such dial they played had a song called, 'Ocean Guide', and Jack actually remembered it from One Piece: Film Z. It was a slow, smooth song, and Jack was about to put it aside into the pile of dials he was going to keep for himself, but then Smoker asked, "Do you mind if I have that one?" Not seeing anything wrong with it, Jack gave it to him, then went into the [STORE] and secretly purchased another one of them for himself.
They kept this up for the next few hours, but soon everyone else came back for more dials, bringing back the ones they clearly didn't like while keeping the ones they did. Jack tried to tell them that those were his and he wanted them back, but they seemed to either not hear him or not care what he said. 'I'll have to make a music room downstairs for these things.' Jack thought, realizing this was going to become just like the library and his books.
By the end of the first day of travel, Jack had found a little over a hundred music dials he liked and Smoker found nineteen, all of which Jack had given him. They both had a similar taste in music, so Jack told Smoker he could have whatever ones he found that were interesting, so long as he told Jack about them, if only so he could buy them for himself.
When he finally stopped boosting the speed of the ship, Jack went downstairs and unloading all of the dials he had bought, and then bought one of each of all of the music dials again, making so there was at least two of each dial in the room in case more than one person wanted to listen to the same dial. He told everyone about the room, and once more reiterated that he wanted the dials to remain there on the ship, but given how none of them seemed too keen on returning the dials, Jack could only sigh at the loss of them. 'Oh well, I'll just take this out of their share of the treasure, with a marginable fine for myself of course.' He told himself so as to justify the loss.
*****
After a few days of travel from Merville, they finally arrived at the island of Whiskey Peak. Given how it normally would have taken a few weeks for anyone else, even the Marines with their much faster ships, Jack was pleased with the speed of the Pearl. As they descended from the sky to land in the water near a small town, Jack couldn't help but notice the hundreds of graves all over the island. "You see that? Those are the unfortunate visitors of this island. It's hard to say if they were all criminals, but regardless, don't expect much from these people." Jack said as he pointed this out to everyone else.
"Why would they do that?" Tashigi asked, sounding as though she didn't quite believe Jack, or at the very least, she didn't want to believe it. "Everyone on the island is part of Baroque Works, and they specialize in espionage, theft, and bounty hunting. No matter who comes here, whether they have a bounty or not, most people have money or provisions, and that's something for Baroque Works." Jack said plainly.
"And you want to rescue this dumbass princess, why?" Luke asked, sounding as though he wasn't impressed with the town or the person who would infiltrate such an organization. "It's more for her country than for her. Lets just get her and her bodyguard and get the hell out of here." Jack said, wondering more and more why he even cared about Vivi.
As soon as they landed, all of the townsfolk came out to greet them with cries of welcome, but Jack knew it was all bogus. This was simply an act for them to all lower their guards, however that wouldn't be happening since they all knew what their plan was, or at least, he thought they did. Their cheering sort of died down once they got a look at him, and it was then cheering turned into hushed whispers.
Evidently they all recognized him from his WANTED poster, which was a whopping $3 Billion berries. In this world, the higher the bounty, the stronger the person, at least that's how people looked at it, and to see someone who was worth more than everyone else they had ever captured together, the people must have realized how out of their depth they truly were.
"Can I kill them?" Luke asked curiously as he looked around at the now scared people. "Hold on, Luke. There are innocent children here. Are you going to kill them or leave them to suffer after you've killed their parents?" Smoker asked, pointing out the children in the crowd of people. "Just a few of them then? Like the single-digit number guy and the woman with the dumbass name, they should be fine, right?" Luke asked, feeling as though that wasn't asking for too much. Jack honestly didn't see a problem with Luke killing a few people, but left it to Smoker to be the voice of reason.
What happened was Jack stepping in and using his Conqueror's Haki on the crowd of people, using only a little bit of it so as not to kill anyone. Most everyone fell unconscious, but there were a few people who simply fell to their knees and looked fearfully at Jack. Ignoring them, Jack wandered through the crowd of people until he found the blue-haired girl he knew to be Princess Vivi Nefertari and then the big guy with curly hair that looked like a powdered wig from old British movies. Jack grabbed them both and hauled them aboard the Pearl and dropped them like sacks of garbage right there on the deck.
Standing back in front of the people, Smoker was staring down at everyone. "I would strongly recommend you all take up fishing, farming, or something else besides working for Baroque Works. They're finished, and you'll only follow them to ruin if you keep working for them. Also, if I find out you all have been robbing and killing innocent travellers, I'll come back here and kill you all myself. Of that, I promise you." Smoker said coldly, leaving all of the people with a new outlook on life. If they didn't want to die, conform to proper people.
Once the Pearl was flying back through the sky, Jack made sure to adjust their course so they were heading towards Alabasta, then he went back to where the two unconscious people lay sprawled on the deck. After pouring a little bit of water on their heads, the two awoke with a start, unsure as to what was happening. "What's going on?! What's happening?! Where are we?!" Princess Vivi cried upon waking up and seeing that she wasn't in Whiskey Peak. "Calm down, Miss Wednesday." The guy with curls said to her as he got to his feet.
"My name is Igarappoi and I am the mayor of-" The guy with curls began, but he was cut-off as a suffocating pressure enveloped him. "You're a fucking idiot. I don't know why you thought the captain of Alabasta's royal guards would go unnoticed in a group like Baroque Works. Most of them are from Alabasta, so the odds of them recognizing you and the daughter of the king is kind of high." Jack said, revealing that he knew of their identities and that it was pointless to try and lie to him.
"Stand back, Princess! I won't let them touch you!" Igram shouted as he stood in front of Vivi. "Calm down. Don't you think if we wanted to kill you, we'd have done it without waking you up?" Smoker said, trying to calm the situation. "Who are you, and what do you want with us?" Igram asked, still wary but a lot calmer than before.
"We're with The Order, and we're here to help you, believe it or not. We know all about how you infiltrated Baroque Works to try and find out who is responsible for the state of unrest in Alabasta. It was brave of you, but stupid. If you were found out, which you would have been, you would have been captured and used as leverage against King Cobra, and since he actually loves his daughter, he might very well have given in to any demands that were made to him." Jack said, shocking the two of them. They didn't know much of anything about The Order, but they had at least heard of it, and they certainly knew about Jack. A guy who suddenly appears out of nowhere with a $3 Billion berry bounty certainly draws attention and gets people talking, especially when you're part of a group of bounty hunters like Baroque Works.
Vivi and Igram were dumbfounded at hearing how much Jack knew about their current situation, but they were even more dumbfounded to learn that he knew who the leader of Baroque Works was. To hear from him that it was actually one of the Seven Warlords, Crocodile, neither of them could believe it, though now that they thought about it, it made perfect sense. Whoever the leader of Baroque Works was would need to be powerful, and Crocodile was the only one strong enough in Alabasta to accomplish such a thing.
"What do we do now?" Vivi cried, feeling hopeless at the thought of going up against a Warlord. "Calm down, girl. Don't forget, we're here now, and we've got our own business with Crocodile." Luke said, smiling at the thought of removing one of the World Government's pawns. It also helped that Crocodile was a complete scumbag, so this really got his blood flowing.
"Wait! You can't seriously mean to go against Crocodile, can you?! It's impossible!" Vivi cried out, fearing that they were all going to rush to their deaths. "I'm Jack Sparrow. Nothing is impossible." Jack said with a grin, having all the confidence in the world at dealing with someone like Crocodile.
"You don't need to fight him! Now that we know he's responsible, we can sort this out without violence!" Vivi said hopefully, though she only got looks of pity in response. "You truly are naïve if you believe that everything can be solved without violence. Crocodile is a Warlord, and he didn't get to become a Warlord because he would step aside and move on because someone figured out his plans. The Warlords are strong, and though they work for the World Government, they do as they please. Whether you like it or not, there will be fighting to resolve this, and there is nothing you can say or do to stop it." Smoker told her, causing the princess to hang her head.
"It's not the worst thing to want to protect your people, but not everyone can be reasoned with. You should learn that now before its too late." Jack said to Vivi, then he went back to the Control Room to boost their speed. Everyone else meanwhile went about to do their own thing, meaning Luke went to go train, Smoker went to listen to music, Radek went to his room to add pictures of Whiskey Peak to his photo album, and the girls gave Vivi and Igram a tour of the ship and showed them where they would be staying for the night.
They flew for about two hours before Nami got a bad feeling, and quickly rushed to the control room, dragging Nojiko behind her. "Something's wrong! I can feel something coming! We need to turn hard to port right now!" Nami shouted at the two of them. Knowing her ability to predict the weather, Jack did as she said, and both he and Nojiko worked to change their course, and it was just in time too.
A cyclone appeared out of nowhere, and had they continued in their same direction, they would have been swept up in it. They had to travel around the cyclone, which wasn't too bad, but it did take them wide of their mark, and soon enough they found they were caught in a snowstorm. The ship was heated rather well, so the cold wasn't a big concern, but Nojiko did hang out in the Control Room with Jack where it was the warmest. Hell, Smoker and Radek made their way there as well with some chairs because Jack had the room so warm they didn't even need coats.
"Hey, there's an island off to the starboard side. Is it Alabasta?" Luke said after poking his head in through the door. "Seeing as how Alabasta is a desert country and the fact that it's snowing outside, I'm going to say no." Nami said, feeling as though Luke should have been able to figure that one out on his own. "Can we stop and check it out? I don't have any winter islands in my album yet." Radek asked. Given the fact that he so rarely asked for anything, Jack was inclined to agree to the request.
They slowed down and changed course slightly, and soon enough they were stopped just above the island, and it was only then that Jack got a good look at it, and it was then that he realized just where they were. 'This is the Drum Kingdom where that Wapol guy lives.' Jack thought to himself as he stared down at the five pillar-shaped mountains covered in snow that looked so much like the one from Merville, only the tallest one here had a freaking grand castle atop it.
"Look. There's a town down there." Radek pointed out. It was obvious that he would rather go there than to the castle, which was fair. He would be able to open a gate to wherever it was he visited, and to open a gate onto one of those pillar-shaped mountains was not ideal. "You and Smoker can head down there for a visit. I'm going to go and check out the castle." Jack said simply, then he jumped off the ship and let himself fall down towards the mountain.
After landing down in front of the castle, armed soldiers began running out of the castle and moved towards his position with their weapons at the ready. He waited for them all to surround him, at which time a fat little bastard with an oddly-shaped mouth appeared with two men dressed as jesters beside him, and a third man wearing a dark green cloak. "Who the hell is this guy and why is he by my castle?!" The little fast bastard who could only be Wapol shouted angrily at the guards.
"I have come because it is time to elect a new king. You, Wapol, have been found lacking, and for this I sentence you to death." Jack said, at which point he raised his right hand towards Wapol, and the next moment the little fat bastard flew into his waiting grasp. The moment he made contact with Jack, crates of fruit appeared beside them before black flames covered Wapol's whole body, which horrified everyone else. The two guys dressed as jesters were the first to run at Jack to try and save their king, but they had scarcely got more than two steps when Luke appeared between them in a crash, at which point both of their heads fell to the ground.
All of this happened so fast, none of the soldiers or the man wearing the big green cloak had time to react, and now they found themselves staring at the terrifying men before them. "You are Dalton, yes?" Jack asked the green-cloaked man. "I am." Dalton answered, looking a little puzzled and more than a little warry. "From this moment on, you are now king of the Drum Kingdom. To the rest of you, I give you this choice. You can serve a man worthy of being king, or you can go somewhere else. Choose now." Jack calmly explained to everyone. It was apparent by their expressions that they knew exactly who he was, and many of them realized they didn't stand a chance in hell.
It took all but a few seconds of contemplation for one of the soldiers, a tall burly man to lower his gun and drop to one knee, then he said, "The king is dead. Long live king Dalton." One by one, the soldiers all fell to their knees and chorused the man's words, until finally they had all agreed that Dalton would be their king. "I'm glad we've got that sorted. Now if you don't mind, get the doctors back to healing the sick and injured." Jack told Dalton, then he made all of the crates of fruit disappear from the ground beside them before he jumped off of the mountain with Luke beside him.
"Why exactly did we kill those guys?" Luke asked curiously as they used Moonwalk to jump down towards the town where Smoker and Radek had gone. "The king was a tyrant. His people hated him and wanted him dead, but they couldn't for some dumbass reason, but thankfully there wasn't any reason stopping us." Jack told him with a smile. "Makes sense. It's pretty easy to kill a king." Luke said, finding a little bit of joy at what they had just done.
Once they got down in the town, they quickly found Radek taking some pictures while Smoker went about buying some snacks from a nearby store. "Are you almost done, Radek?" Jack asked the man. "Almost. I got a little distracted by some stories these people were telling me. Apparently a witch came here last night and healed some people before she took a bunch of their stuff." Radek said, and it was only then Jack remembered Doctor Kureha and the little reindeer apprentice she had that would have one day joined the Straw Hat Pirates, though he doubted that would happen now.
"Hey, Luke. If you had the chance to get one of the world's best doctors on your crew, but she was… eccentric, would you still try to recruit her?" Jack asked suddenly out of nowhere. "Are you stupid? Neither of us are exactly what you would call normal. I'm psychologically messed up and you're a freak of nature. I say if she's a good doctor, get her." Luke said, making a good point.
"Fair point. Let's go hunt ourselves a witch then." Jack said, then he and Luke both took off into the forest, leaving Radek alone to wonder about their whole conversation for about three seconds before he thought better of it. He had come to learn early on that trying to figure out those two was more trouble than it was worth, and that he was better off to simply keep his mouth shut and pretend like nothing had happened.
Meanwhile in the forest, Jack informed Luke that the witch lived in one of the trees, and from there the two began scouring the place. Using Haki it took less than an hour to actually find the old bat, at which point they both walked right up to her door, knocked, and waited. A minute or so later and the door opened, revealing a slender woman with the body of an athlete, only her face was wrinkled and her hair was almost completely white.
"Hello there. Have you come to find the secret of my youth?" The old woman asked with a feral grin, not the slightest bit concerned about two people just randomly showing up at her door. "No. We're here to recruit the best doctor in the world to join us. I had heard rumors that she lived here, but was a witch, I didn't think you'd look this young based on the stories I was told." Jack said as politely as he could, trying to throw a little flattery her way. "Are we seeing the same person? She looks ancient." Luke whispered to him, at which point the bottle in the old woman's hand flew faster than Luke could react and struck him right in the face.
"You Dunce. Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to talk about a lady's age?" Jack asked while shaking his head. "At least one of you seems to have some manners." Kureha said with a smile towards Jack before adding, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have no intention of leaving here just yet. The people here still need me." That would have been true, save for one thing. "Wapol is dead. Dalton is the new king. And the doctors should be going back to work today." Jack said quickly, causing Kureha's expression to falter as she looked pointedly into Jack's eyes. She thought she would see deception, but all she saw was honesty.
"Who are you?" She asked curiously. "The name is Jack Sparrow." Jack said with a slight bow of his head to show her some respect. "I've heard of you. You're that guy who took over the East Blue." Kureha said, her grin widening slightly. "I am. But I have no doctors or anyone to heal the injured or sick. If you agree to help me, I will give you any resource at my disposal. All I ask is for you to train other doctors and take care of people." Jack said, being completely upfront and honest with her.
"Hmm… I also have an apprentice. What about him?" Kureha asked curiously. "All the better. He is free to join as well, and I will accommodate the both of you in any way I can. Should you wish to travel with us, you will have a place aboard my ship. Should you wish to remain on an island, I have a way to teleport you anywhere under our jurisdiction. I can even teleport you back here if you so wish." Jack said, this time surprising the old woman. "That is quite the bold claim." Kureha said, sounding a little impressed, and if Jack was reading her right, she was definitely intrigued.
To prove his words to her, Jack went and found Radek, and after bringing him to Kureha's house, he had him open a number of different portals, namely to Merville, Whiskey Peak, and then to Windmill Village back in the East Blue. After stepping through the portal and seeing The Order HQ and meeting Haedrig and everyone else, Kureha agreed to join them, though she made it clear she could leave at any point in time that she wanted, and when she was ready to leave, Radek had to open a portal up to a place of her choosing, and Jack said so long as it was within their power, he would do it.
He half expected Kureha to move to the East Blue, but she said she wanted to hang out on the Pearl and travel around for a bit, and after seeing the laboratory, she made herself right at home with her apprentice, who surprised everyone but Jack by being a little reindeer. Everyone thought he was adorable, though Luke looked at him more as a friend than a pet compared to everyone else, and the two became fast friends. Chopper, the little reindeer, was wary about most people, though for some reason he wasn't that way with Luke, and even Luke didn't see anything wrong with it. To him, it was only natural that he and Chopper would be friends.
"Put Luke in a room with people and he wants to kill them, but put him in a room with animals and he becomes a saint. It's almost like he's a completely different person." Nojiko said later that evening to Jack when they were alone in his room. "I think it's because he doesn't trust people. He only sees the worst in them because most people lie and cheat, and do cruel things to get what they want, but animals are not cruel by nature. They don't kill for pleasure, and they don't treat each other like vermin. He sees them in a different light." Jack told her, getting a thoughtful look from Nojiko.
"You really believe he doesn't see good in people?" Nojiko asked him. "In most people, no. I think it would take a lot to change his opinion of someone. Even now, he knows Smoker is different from most Marines, but he still doesn't quite trust him because of what he once was. I think it will still be sometime before he's ready to really trust in people again." Jack said, giving his honest opinion of Luke. "At least he has you there to look out for him." Nojiko said with a small smile before she kissed him on the nose. "He's got all of us, and we've got him. He might be angry at the world, but when push comes to shove, he'll be right there to guard your back." Jack said, then pulled her down so her lips met his. He was done talking about Luke, and she knew it.
*****
They set off the next morning from the Drum Kingdom, continuing on their way to Alabasta. "What are we doing in Alabasta?" Chopper asked Luke at the breakfast table. "Vivi here is the princess of Alabasta. We're taking her home, then we're going to help her solve her reptile problem." Luke answered with a smile. "Isn't Alabasta a desert kingdom? I didn't think reptiles would be a big problem there." Chopper said in surprise. "It's a big problem. This reptile is causing unrest among the citizens, and if no one deals with it soon, the whole kingdom might be brought to ruin." Luke said, causing Chopper to panic slightly at the thought of a reptile that could do such a thing.
Entering into the dining room, Jack pulled out all of the notes he had on Baroque Works and their top agents. "These guys are the ones to look out for. They've all got Devil Fruit powers, so don't take them lightly." Jack said, then went into detail about the powers and their personalities. "Okay, how do you know so much about them?!" Vivi asked in surprise. She had been a part of Baroque Works for more than a year already, and she didn't know even a quarter of this stuff.
"Believe it or not, it's a stupid organization. No one knows who the leader is or where he's based out of, so of course people are going to talk." Jack told her, sounding very unimpressed with the whole thing. "As for her," He said as he held up a WANTED poster of one of Baroque Works' top agents. "She is not to be harmed under any circumstances. She doesn't want Crocodile to succeed, but she's just as much of a prisoner to him as everyone else is to the World Government. I intend to help her." Jack said, being sure to let everyone know that no one was to harm Nico Robin.