The Mad Doctor of One Piece - Chapter 9

Peter relaxed in a hammock on the deck of The Coming Storm. It had been a couple of days since the Strawhats had arrived at Arabasta. He'd seen the giant column of fire and smoke that signaled Ace and Smoker meeting each other. Then, shortly after, he'd watched the Strawhats sail away. Since then he'd only seen a few marine ships arrive, though none of them had bothered them. He wondered if they were waiting for more reinforcements before attempting to take him and his crew down. Or perhaps they were just waiting for the arrival of Captain Hina?

He was pretty sure his crew was considered a bigger threat than the Strawhats but with Smokers blind chasing of Luffy he may be drawing attention that way leaving Peter and his crew alone. If so, all the better. The fewer people watching them the easier it would be for them to pull off their Devil Fruit raid. Their main targets were Crocodile, Mr. 1, Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2 Bon Kurei, and Nico Robin.

Though Robin was more of a target of opportunity than a must have. If the chance presented itself he planned to use his little control potion to ensnare her for a bit to get information from her. She was one of the most well educated person he could think of and the only one he remembered that was capable of reading Poneglyphs. He'd only do it if there was a clear chance with little risk of keeping her from joining the Strawhats.

All in all that would nab him and his crew the Suna Suna no mi, Supa Supa no Mi, Toge Toge no mi, Mane Mane no mi, and Hana Hana no mi, all from the bad guys.

It was also possible that he could snag the Devil Fruits from Smoker and Hina netting him the Moku Moku no mi and Ori Ori no mi. Speaking of...

“Oof!”

“Captain, captain! The marines are finally coming!”

Peter opened one eye to stare balefully at Ai while she happily straddled his waist where she'd just landed on him. She acted completely unaware of what she'd done, and was continuing to do, as she wiggled excitedly on his lap while staring down at him with her unique stare shaped irises. He really did find her eyes to be captivating.

Then her words registered through his annoyance and mild arousal. He leaned up a bit and looked over the edge of the ship and spotted four marine ships moving closer and taking up positions around them. He hummed, mildly amused at the sight. Their ships couldn't do piss all to his as long as the shield generator was working.

He continued to lay in his hammock with Ai eventually laying down on top of him. Though she did give the occasional wiggle just to keep teasing him. Eventually one of the marine ships sailed closer to their ship. By that time his entire crew was on deck watching things unfold with mild amusement and interest.

Sadly, once the lead ship pulled up next to their own, Peter had to lift Ai off of himself and get off the comfortable hammock. He wasn't the least bit surprised to see that the Captain of the ship pulled up near his was a woman with pink hair. He'd just been thinking of her, Captain Hina. As her ship got close enough to communicate without having to shout, she spoke up with a firm voice, “Pirates! Hina suggests you surrender. Now!”

Oh yeah, that was something he'd forgotten about Hina, she used her own name when speaking. Peter smiled and leaned on the bulwark of the ship with his arms lazily crossed over each other, “Now why would I want to do that?”

Hina glared at Peter, “Because if you don't, Hina will sink your ship and capture you regardless.”

Peter laughed at the threat because it wasn't one, “Please, feel free to try and sink us to your hearts content. I'll tell you what, you can even attack us for a full hour and we wont fight back at all. After that hour though...”

His eyes narrowed as he glared at Hina, his eyes lighting up brightly as he tapped into his Devil Fruit, “Then we'll begin our counter attack. You, Captain Hina, will be the only survivor when that happens.”

Peter could seethe effect his words had on the crew behind Hina. He was sure that word of their shield had spread at least a bit. He was also certain they believed it to be a Devil Fruit user on his crew. The men clearly didn't have confidence in breaking through the shield and sinking The Coming Storm before an hour was up.

With nothing left for him to say, Peter turned his back on Hina and walked toward his crew with a wide grin. Alex is the first to speak up, “Is this a wise course of action, Captain?”

Peter nodded, “I want them to know we have strong defenses. Honestly, I doubt there's anyone below the level of the Admirals that could do any damage to us. Garp not withstanding. After the hour is up I'll sink all four ships, capture Hina, extract her Devil Fruit essence, and set her free on Arabasta. If any of her crews survive, good for them.”

“But, won't taking her Devil Fruit expose your ability to do so along with the side effects from it?”

Peter looked toward Vivienne and grinned, “Exactly. I want the Marines to know what I am capable of. You see, I had a brilliant idea. While it is definitely VERY dangerous for the Marines to know my capabilities, it is also an opportunity.”

His gaze moved to Arabasta nearby, ignoring the sudden booms of cannons that began firing on them, “The World Government will be done one Shichibukai here shortly.” Large metal spikes crashed into the shield around the ship lighting it up, “Imagine you're the leader of the marines and you hear about a little known captain with a decently strong crew who can remove the deadliest weakness to Devil Fruit abilities. You'd want him for yourself, obviously.”

The metal spikes crumpled slightly before falling into the ocean, even the water splashing up didn't hit the ship, “Now, you could try and do it by force, but there's always a chance of betrayal if you force someone to do something against their will. Why the man might even pretend to work only to build up trust only to turn around and kill your most powerful members when you finally build enough trust to let them try. Your strongest fighters, all wiped out at once. Disaster!”

He continued to ignore the booming of cannons and crashing of metal spikes against the shield, “But, what if there was another way. A sweeter nicer way. All of a sudden you have a gap in the Shichibukai because one has been taken down and done something very naughty. You need to replace him right away, of course. And who better than the man that isn't really wanted for anything. He's hardly a pirate, after all. But he is one and a useful one, why not offer him the position as a Shichibukai and exploit his ability to help your best Marines with their greatest weakness? Why not even go so far as to kindly off to pay for the work?”

Peter was grinning from ear to ear as he described the possibilities, “The way I see it, the Marines will be fighting tooth and nail to get us to join the Shichibukai program. We tell them my ability only removes the weakness of the fruit but not the fruit itself. I doubt they'd care what I do with the removed 'poison' from their people. It's not like they're losing the power of the fruit itself! Why, they'll be so excited by the prospect that they'd happily bring me every last one of their Devil Fruit users and beg me to remove their weakness.”

Everyone on the crew thought about that with smirks and smiles shared among them. Peter finished with, “We'll have our pick of the litter. Whatever Devil Fruit strikes your fancy is all yours.” He snorted, “Hell, thanks to my potion you could change what Devil Fruit you have on a daily basis if you wanted!”

That got chuckles out of the crew. They would be the only pirates in the world with the ability to test drive different Devil Fruits to find the one that suited them best. It was a ridiculous, almost stupid concept that broke the very logic of the world.

That wouldn't stop Peter.

-----Line Break-----

Peter tapped his foot with his arms crossed over his chest. It looked like Hina was getting desperate to crack their shield. She'd had all four of her crews firing black spikes made from her ability for nearly an hour now. In the last few minutes the ships had gotten closer and fired as fast as they possibly could. There was the non-stop sound of cannon fire and metal screeching when the pillars inevitably slammed into the shield.

The shield had been completely visible for a while now, every hit causing it to light up a bit added up when a bunch of hits happened non-stop. The shield was only a couple of feet away from the sides of the ship and the top of the main mast giving it a rather oblong shape. The shape of the shield was determined by the emitters so the, relatively, little devices had been placed in inconspicuous spots all over the ship.

According to Anise and Jolinar, a ships shields usually died when one of two things happened. Either the ships power storage, or buffer, for the shield was drained or the emitters overloaded. The first happened much more often than the second. To destroy an emitter would take an extremely potent hit that would overload the emitter and cause feedback. Peter was certain that was the only possibly way anyone in the world could crack their shield.

Otherwise the buffer just held far too much energy to every be drained. The shield was designed to withstand hits from weapons orders of magnitude stronger than what they were currently being hit with. If the buffer couldn't be refilled while the shields were active then they would have gone down by now, but that would be a stupid design flaw to have. So, there was literally no amount of firepower that a ship could level at them to cause damage.

…

Unless the Moa Moa no mi existed, in which case a giant ass cannon ball might have the necessary force.

If the Moa Moa no mi did exist, Peter wanted to get his hands on it. He'd have to see about breaking into Impel Down and robbing all the dicks on the sixth floor of their Devil Fruits. That could definitely be a lot of fun, especially since he was completely and utterly immune to the wardens Devil Fruit. Poor Magellan and his useless venom based Doku Doku no mi. Poison immunity backed by an Essence for the win.

DingDingDing!

Peter's foot stopped tapping at the sound of the alarm going off, the hour was officially up! He turned to look at the three people behind him. Originally, he wanted to take down all four ships on his own to continue establishing his sea-cred. He couldn't believe he didn't have a bounty still. He was sure there were survivors from his earlier attack on the marines. Yet, nothing had come of it. So, he wanted to crush all four ships and deposit Hina on Arabasta to get himself a nice juicy bounty.

His crew had argued against it. Not out of fear he'd be hurt or captured, but because some of them wanted bounties too! Since they already had bounties, Alex, Artoria, and Domino were excluded from the contest between the others who wanted bounties. In the end, he would be working with Mera, Merlin, and Tobirama. Each of them would board a Marine ship, fight the crew for a bit, then sink the ship. Peter didn't care if there were survivors or not, that was up to each person.

“Alright guy and gals! It's time to have a little fun. You know what to do, so let's do it!”

At Peter's words, all three of them took to the air with Geppo. While they could all fly, that was still something they were keeping as a trump card and not planning to reveal. They were all more than strong enough to use Geppo with relative ease so it would make a good reason to be in the air and it would scare the crap out of the Marines.

Peter did the same and made his way directly toward Hina's ship. The Marines wasted no time in changing their targets from The Coming Storm to Peter and his crew. Unfortunately for the Marines, he was a small target and their aim wasn't all that great. Not to mention the inherent instability of spherical projectiles fired from a smooth bore. He didn't even have to dodge the cannonballs. Though the spikes they fired were slightly more accurate, due to their shape, they too were way off the mark.

Peter calmly landed on the prow of the ship and smirked at the Marines arrayed against him with guns and swards drawn, “Time's up!”

“Raaaa!”, screamed a Marine when he charged Peter swinging the cutlass in his hand in an attempt to bisect Peter.

Peter calmly ignored the attack letting the sword slice cleanly though his chest. The attack barely ruffled him, not even being able to cut his clothing. However, the Marine wasn't so calm. He screamed in pain while shaking his hand to drop the sword on the deck. The blade of the sword was visibly glowing bright red, the wood on the deck scorching and catching fire from the excess heat. The mans hand was clearly badly burned from the heat traveling into the handle through the tang.

Peter smirked at the looks of shock and fear coming from the other Marines on the deck. He even mildly recognized two of them. One was an old looking dude with weird heart shaped glasses. If he recalled right the guy had been there when Luffy recruited Usopp... a hypnotist if he remembered right. The other was a rather pathetic looking man who looked as if he heard the term 'brass knuckles' and decided to take it a step further. The idiot actually had steel plates bolted to the knuckles of his hands. It was the stupidest thing Peter had ever seen.

Captain Hina clicked her tongue in annoyance, “Logia. Hina see's where your confidence comes from. But! Hina is prepared!”

So saying, she pulled out a pair of handcuffs that Peter recognized as being made from seastone. It looked awkward in her hands as she was forced to hold the cuffs by the chain connecting them. With seastone cuffs the chain was made of iron to save on seastone and because iron was more than strong enough to hold a weakened prisoner. The cuffs held no power over him and the confident smirk on his face seemed to annoy Hina greatly, “Hina will capture you!”

As soon as the words left her mouth she moved. Considering she didn't know how to use Soru, her speed was still pretty impressive. Peter could see how she was so good at capturing pirates below the skill level of the super novas that would be formed later by the strongest pirates to hit the sea in decades. Sadly, it meant little against him. Hina swung the handcuffs like an awkward pair of nunchucks aiming to smack him in the face. Peter easily ducked under it the attack, though he was mildly surprised to see Hina's knee heading toward his face. Cheeky minx had been feinting!

He quickly blocked her rising knee with the palm of his left hand. The attack wouldn't have harmed him at all so he could have let it through. Except, if he had, Hina would have severely burned her own leg with the attack. Ever since he'd eaten his fruit his internal temperature had been constantly rising. The constant increase made the base temperature of his attacks constantly grow. At this point his base temperature was hovering around two thousand and five hundred degrees Fahrenheit (approximately thirteen hundred and fifty Celcius).

In short, any attack she landed without the use of Haki was likely to give her at least third degree, if not fourth degree, burns in an instant. He didn't really want to hurt Hina so he blocked her attack to protect her from hurting herself. As soon as he caught her kick, he pushed her back and took some space of his own. Hina glared balefully at him, clearly angry but also just as clearly not willing to give up. Peter could respect that. Hina was one of the good ones, as far as he could remember.

He didn't want to drag things out so, “My turn.”

Hina's eyes widened as Peter suddenly vanished from her sight moving at a speed she couldn't track. The next moment her eyes widened even further when his fist slammed into her stomach. The blow bent her over, spittle flew from her mouth as she gagged. Peter transitioned from punching her to supporting her weight on his arm while her eyes rolled in her skull.

With Hina temporarily disabled, Peter jumped into the air and used Geppo to gain some height. He aimed his left fist at the ship below him, the appendage turning into roiling near-white flames, “Taiyoken!”

With his shout, it was traditional! He fired off a massive fist of flames that slammed into the ship with enough force to bend and then break it in half. Screams came from the men aboard as first flames then water came at them with deadly intent. Peter honestly didn't care who lived or died as he turned his back on the ship and Geppo'd back to The Coming Storm and his crew.

Once he arrived, he wasted no time in taking advantage of the unconscious Hina. He pulled a syringe full of a well known liquid and stuck it into Hina to pump her full of the Devil Fruit extraction serum. Within moments he'd extracted the thick black goop into the same syringe and stored it away. Hina was officially the first Marine to become immune to the standard weaknesses of having a Devil Fruit.

It was time to mess with her head!

He picked her up once again and used Geppo to get them over the ocean just a hundred or so meters from the shore of Arabasta. Once he was in position he gave Hina's cheeks a few gently slaps, “Hey! Wake up!”

Hina jerked awake, adrenaline rushing through her system. She struggled against her captors grasp until he gave her a hard shake and shouted, “Look below you!”

Hina instinctively looked down and froze. Like all Devil Fruit users, he had a healthy fear of the ocean and what taking a dip into it would mean for her. Seeing that he has her attention, Peter speaks slowly and clearly, “Listen up and listen closely.” Hina stared at him with clear fear in her eyes, yet a stoic look on her face as if she refused to let him see her afraid, “You are going to be my message to the Marines so pay very close attention. I've done something to you.” Seeing her getting angry he clarified, “Something good! You'll see in a moment. For now, I have a small bit of advice for you, swim like your life depends on it.”

Hina's eyes shot open when Peter let go of her and allowed her to fall into the ocean. Her scream of panic cut off when she splashed into the water. Peter calmly watched, ready to dive in and save her if necessary. It took Hina a few moments to realize that she was not sinking like a stone. She kicked her legs and pumped her arms to tread water, spluttering the entire time to get the salty water out of her mouth.

Eventually she looked up at Peter in shock. He smirked down at her, “Only I can do this. Make sure your bosses know.” He pointed behind Hina, “Arabasta is right over there, just a short distance away. Enjoy your swim!”

With his piece said, Peter turned and made his way back to his ship. As he landed he called out, “Mera, could you be a dear and make sure that the good captain doesn't drown? Who knows how long it's been since she last swam.”

Mera chuckled but nodded, “Sure.”

She was soon underwater and calmly keeping an eye on Hina as the captain struggled to swim though clearly she was getting better at it as she went. She might have been a decent swimmer at one point and it was clearly coming back to her.

While Mera watched Hina, Peter injected the extract from Hina into an apple. He watched it transform into a Devil Fruit and stored it away. He kept all of the original fruits with himself in his storage ring. He did not want to risk mixing the originals with the clones. With a smile on his lips, he returned to his hammock. Just as he got comfortable, Alex called out, “Time to do some training, Captain!”

-----Line Break-----

All the combatants of the Stormborn Pirates bounced in the air as they looked down on the scene unfolding far below them. Things had really heated up on Arabasta as the conflict reached a critical point. From their vantage point they could see the rebels approaching the capitol city, ready for war.

This was the next phase of his plan. Later today they would be taking off to the next stop on their charge through the Grand Line, Jaya. Peter wanted to get there ahead of the Strawhats and begin prepping The Coming Storm for its trip into the clouds. Enel was the last big target on his list before meeting up with Whitebeard.

To help carry out his plan of taking every Devil Fruit they possibly could, each of them carried five doses of the extraction serum on them. They all had their assigned targets, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Peter had assigned himself Crocodile and potentially Robin. Alex was going after Mr. 1. Artoria was going after Miss Doublefinger. Domino was aiming for Mr. 2. Merlin was going after Miss Merry Christmas and Lassoo. The others were to keep their eyes out for any opportunities that presented themselves. Peter had some minor hope that Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine would show up, but highly doubted it. There was also a hope of snagging the fruits from Chaka and Pell.

Meanwhile, Mera was all the way over at Rainbase. She'd left the day before to make her way there by going around the island. Her job was to head into Crocodiles secret base after it flooded and snoop around for any secrets. Peter expected that Crocodile kept a safe of some sort in the base to keep his gains in. He was also fairly certain the man had a way to drain the room so he could return to it later after flooding it to kill Luffy and the others. He just hoped it had something other than cash inside of it.

It took a while longer than he'd expected, but soon Peter saw things that he'd seen in the show. He smirked when the Strawhat crew were spotted on the horizon and closing fast on their ducks. With a gesture from Peter, the crew split up to get to their pray. Their orders were simple, don't interfere and only go after their target when the Strawhats have left. If they did things right, no one would ever know they were even there.

Peter silently watched events unfold. He had to fight the urge to fly down and pummel Crocodile when he witnessed the man kicking the crap out of 'Water Luffy' in the city. He did admit that it was a brilliant move on Luffy's part, but it obviously wasn't enough. Luffy was just lucky as hell that Crocodile was so completely out of shape and cocky as hell. Running Baroque Works for so long and only having to deal with Paradise level idiots for years had left Crocodile completely rusty in the combat department. Peter doubted Crocodile had gotten into a real fight in at least a decade.

After Luffy's defeat at the man's hands, Peter pulled a potion out of his ring and downed it. The potion quickly kicked in and turned him invisible. Ah, invisibility potions, a classic! He stopped using Geppo now that he could no longer be seen and switched to flight, which was silent compared to the little pops of displaced air from Geppo. Not to mention flight was just plain faster.

He swooped down and closed in with Crocodile, Robin, and the King as the King led them toward the secret entrance to where the Poneglyph was hidden. Peter watched the scene unfold, the sights jogging his memory and letting him remember more from the show he'd seen so long ago. Potions helped, but seeing things he was familiar with helped a lot as well.

Once the entrance was open, Peter slowly and silently floated down the stairs behind the trio. He didn't let himself touch down, wanting there to be no chance of anyone noticing him. Peter wasn't sure if Crocodile's Observation Haki was either non-existant or just so rusty he didn't even notice anything. Hell, the man didn't even notice Luffy coming and the guy wasn't even trying to be quiet! Peter found an out of the way area to hover and observe while he watched Luffy come in and get into yet another fight with Crocodile.

Peter silently rooted for Luffy during the fight. It took a lot of self control for him to not only remain silent while doing so, but to not jump into the fight and clock Crocodile across the face. Soone enough, Luffy ended the fight and knocked Crocodile out cold. Peter remained silent, even with the underground room shaking and getting ready to collapse from the trap set off by the King, until they all left leaving Crocodile behind.

That was when Peter struck. He lost his invisibility as he violently jammed the Seastone needle of the syringe into Crocodile and injected him with the extraction serum. It was a matter of moment for him to extract the black good from Crocodile. After storing the syringe, he took another invisibility potion and followed quickly behind the King, Robin, and Luffy to exit the underground chamber.

In the confusion, Robin took off on her own, ditching the others. This was another chance for him! He silently followed Robin until she eventually came to a stop at what he assumed was a safe house. It was lucky for him that one of the windows had been smashed during the battle between the rebels and the royal army or he might not have been able to slink inside.

The moment he moved a little deeper into the house, the walls all sprouted eyes, ears, mouths, and arms. It was a little disturbing to look at. All of the mouths spoke at once giving Robin's voice a weird reverberating echo quality, “I don't know who you are, but even if you're invisible I can still sense your eyes on me.”

Peter paused and then chuckled while letting the invisibility fade away, “I admit, I didn't expect you to have such fine tuned senses. I guess it comes with the territory given your life thus far.”

The eyes glared at him but she seemingly ignored his comment to ask, “Why are you following me, little boy?”

Ah, she was attempting to get under his skin, too bad it wouldn't work. At least, not anymore. He smiled playfully as he answered, “Knowledge. And where better to get it than from the last survivor of Ohara?”

“I'm sorry, but you won't be getting anything from me.”

Peter nodded calmly. He figured he'd have to do things the mildly annoying way now. Not that it mattered. He didn't respond with words, but rather with action as he blitzed forward and poked one of the eyes on the wall. It wouldn't do any permanent damage to Robin, but it would hurt a little and distract her.

As he had expected, all of the appendages on the wall vanished in a flutter of petals. Even so, his nascent Observation Haki made it rather simple for him to located her within the house, especially after she loudly yelped from being poked in the eye. Soru allowed him to move faster than the eye could see when he charged through the house. He had to get a little violent with a hidden and locked door to find her, but he didn't mind that. He found her, hand covering one of her eyes, inside of a small hidden room that had little more than a go bag hidden within it.

When she turned to face him, he moved directly into her personal space, ignoring the arms that sprouted on his shoulders and attempted to snap his neck, and sank a syringe into her neck. Just a few moments after he pushed the plunger down her pupils dilated and her whole body relaxed, “Master?”

Peter felt a little weird hearing that come out of her mouth, but he pushed past it and the voice in the back of his head suggesting he keep her under the potion permanently. He wasted no time in pulling out a list that the others had helped him compose of information to get out of her in the form of skill potions.

He moves through the process of getting all of the skills out of her that he could along with taking the essence of her Devil Fruit. He moved as quickly as he could wanting to waste as little time as possible. Even so the process of getting multiple copies of multiple skills took time. When he was finished getting everything he could, he issued his final order, “You will now forget all of our interactions and that I was following you. As far as you will remember, you came here, found the door to your secret room broken, but nothing inside touched. Then you will resume your plans. Understood?”

“Understood, Master.”

Peter gave her the antidote to the servant potion and used his maximum speed to vanish from sight before she came out of her stupor. By the time Robin was completely back to normal he was back on the deck of The Coming Storm. He looked at his crew mates and grinned broadly when each of them held up syringes filled with black goo. His collection of Devil Fruits had just taken a large leap as seven new fruits were added to it.

Peter smirked broadly, “Today has been a good day.”

-----Line Break-----

Peter hummed along with Ai's singing as they sailed through the Grand Line. It'd been a few days since they left Arabasta behind and followed the Eternal Pose aimed at Jaya. He couldn't risk being sent to another island when he was so close to hunting down Enel and taking his Devil Fruit. Not to mention he was curious about the Dials unique to the sky islands as well. He didn't think they would increase the power of his crew much, but their utility couldn't be underestimated.

He planned to rip every last jet dial out of Enel's flying ship though. Those dials would be excellent as a power source for their custom made ship, just for pretending to use in-universe propulsion methods though. Speaking of, the ship of their dreams had been designed and re-designed so many times now that he had no idea what it looked like or how it would function anymore. He was also certain that the keel would be made out of solid Naquadah, the extremely strong nigh-unbreakable metal from the Stargate universe.

He was pulled back to the present when Ai's song came to a close. The entire crew clapped for her performance. Ai had really come along with all of her practice and she clearly loved every moment of it. Thanks to Jolinar working with Momo, Ai now had a fully functional electric guitar and amp that really let her rip out some nice music.

There were signs of improved technology all over the ship thanks to the Tok'ra group. They'd even gone so far as replacing a couple of the black powder canons with staff cannons from a Death Glider. It was stupidly powerful overkill against ships made of simple wood. He had no intention of ever actually using them in battle. They had mostly been made as proof on concept models for other technology they planned to implement. How? Peter had no idea and wasn't going to ask. He left the science stuff to them like they left the alchemy stuff to him.

Ai began another song, a soft one that turned out to be a love song. Peter listened to her singing even as he made his way below deck to the galley where Erina was cooking up a storm. It would be dinner time soon and the crew was pretty large. As he stepped into the open galley and watched Erina cook for a bit, he asked, “Are you sure you don't want a Sous Chef or someone else to help you out?”

Erina didn't even look up from her work as she shook her head, “Nope! I love this and I refuse to share it with anyone else! Now, stop asking.”

That had been her answer every time he'd asked her. Cooking for thirteen people at once couldn't be easy. Yet, as he quietly watcher her while sitting at the table, he only saw pure joy as she continued to cook various things. She even danced a little, her hips swaying back and forth, as Ai switched from a love song to a pop song. Ai could sing anything and sound great, but she sounded the best when she was singing pop songs. It probably had to do with how the original version of her was in her own universe. An inborn talent or trait that just made her better at that particular genre.

While listening to Ai sing and watching Erina cook, he pulled three objects out of his storage ring. Mera's raid on Crocodile's base had born fruit, literally. She'd managed to find a hidden safe that contained a massive amount of cash, easily a billion or more, according to Mera. The only thing she'd actually taken aside from the three Devil Fruits sitting on the table in front of him. He was still studying them but had divined their names.

The first was a light green color that looked pretty normal, as far as Devil Fruits go, with little swirls around it. It was the stem that looked different from most. The bar section of the T-shaped stem had a white section that looked similar to a jagged blade. It was the Mushi Mushi no Mi, Model: Kamakiri. In short, the Zoan for a praying mantis. Despite the edge such a decent bug fruit would give, no one in the crew was even remotely interested in it. The praying mantis was a pretty awesome bug, as far as bugs go. He could easily see the fruit giving it's user scythe arms, enhanced reflexes and speed, and so much more.

Still, he understood the desire to NOT be a bug-person.

The next fruit was even less appealing. It was a bland brown color with a stem that looked like a shock of horse hair. It was the ignominious Uma Uma no Mi, Model: Donkey. Someone might have been interested if it was the Pegasus fruit, which was out there somewhere, but no one wanted to be a freaking donkey! It was a trash tier Devil Fruit and everyone knew it. It also showed Peter that he wouldn't always be lucky to get his hands on extremely powerful or utilitarian powers.

The last of the trio proved his point. He stared balefully at the Mushi Mushi no Mi, Model: Kamemushi, or Stinkbug. No one in their right mind wanted anything to do with that particular Devil Fruit. It, no pun intended, bugged him that Crocodile had his hands on two bug Zoans, but it also made sense in a way. Bugs were, after all, the most diverse and populous living creatures on the planet. It would make sense that there were a massive number of bug-type Zoans floating out there. It didn't mean he wanted anything to do with them though.

So, in the end, he'd gotten an amazing haul of three Devil Fruits from robbing Crocodile. The haul became less amazing because no one wanted anything to do with the three of them. He also didn't see much use in keeping them for future use in combinations. The girls flat out refused to have anything to do with bugs so that left only Tobirama and Alex as potential users.

Neither were interested.

The same went for the donkey one. Maybe if it was a Palomino or something one of the girls might have been interested, but a Donkey? Nope. So, that left Peter with trying to decide what to do with the fruits. Selling them was pointless. Keeping them was just as pointless. Maybe he could trade them? He could try talking to Franky and getting an introduction to the black market when they got to Water 7. He could possibly trade the fruits for good weapons or 'unknown' fruits. It would be a gamble, but he could figure out the unknowns and could possibly come out ahead.

Well, he'd decide when they got to Water 7 and figure out what he could do with them.

He continued to study them until others began to arrive in the galley, drawn by the scent of Erina's cooking. The only person to not arrive was Tobirama as it was his turn to stay on watch on deck. They'd learned quickly that they couldn't take their eyes off of the Log Pose for even a moment while sailing or they'd end up off course. So, to make sure that didn't happen, they rotated through the crew to see who would stay on deck. Well, everyone except Erina. As the chef it was obvious she would never wait to eat.

Of course, this only only applied when they ate below deck and weren't on deck having fun together. In the middle of the meal, Tobirama dropped below deck, “Captain, you're going to want to see this!”

He quickly moved and placed a small stack of bounty posters down in the center of the table. On it was a clear picture of Peter with a cocky smirk on his face. He wasn't sure when the photo was taken but it definitely gave off the vibe of 'this guy is a cocky asshole with a very punchable face'. Below that was something he'd never seen before, 'Dragon D. Peter, WANTED, ALIVE ONLY. $150,000,000' in big bold print.

“Alive only? Heh, I guess my message was properly delivered by Hina.” He moved his poster away to see the next one, this one for 'Sea Priestess' Mera for one hundred million. Merlin didn't get a nickname, but did get a bounty of sixty million. Lastly, there was Tobirama himself. Like Merlin he didn't have a nickname, but unlike her his bounty was one hundred and twenty-five million. Seeing that, Peter and everyone else looked up at Tobirama. Peter was the one to ask the question, “What the hell did you do to get a bounty almost as big as mine?!”

Tobirama just chuckled and made his exit without explaining what he'd done. Mera's made sense since she'd used her control over the ocean to destroy her ship. Merlin had just blasted her ship to splinters in a single stroke. Impressive to some, but kind of standard among strong people and they had no idea how it was done so she'd given no secrets away. Tobirama must have done something pretty extreme that still left plenty of witnesses for him to have such a large bounty.

Peter suspected that the only reason his own bounty wasn't any higher was to keep people from asking too many questions about 'why' his bounty was so high. Even the one-fifty was pushing it and going to make a lot of people curious about why he was a nobody and all of a sudden became a somebody.

In addition to their bounties there were two more posters. One for Luffy, the other for Zoro. Both of which had been increased. Luffy hitting one hundred million and Zoro hitting sixty million. No one else seemed to have increased their bounty or gotten a new one.

Dinner because a lot more enthusiastic as everyone celebrated the new bounties among the crew.

-----Line Break-----

Peter stared at the buildings on Jaya as they sailed closer to the only town on the entire island, Mock Town. Despite it's resort-like appearance, Mock Town was completely lawless and overrun by pirates from all over the world. Peter wasn't sure why Mock Town was allowed to exist, but he did have some ideas.

He expected Mock Town wasn't destroyed or overrun by Marines because they used it as a way to spy on unaware pirates. He wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some division of the Marine's CP organization had a bunch of spies threaded throughout the place. It's what he would do and doing so would likely net a lot of information for the Marines to use later down the line. Just the random brawls that no doubt happened constantly would be a good way to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the ones fighting. Which would make later capture even easier.

Standing there on his bow thinking about the Marines having spies made him think of who else he knew had spies everywhere, Doflamingo. There were probably other spy groups for major pirate groups as well. They had to get their information from somewhere, right? He had a vague plan to destroy the Celestial Dragons, the World Nobles, but he didn't want to just nuke Mary Geoise to kill them all though. He might not be the nicest guy around but he didn't want to slaughter all the slaves and innocents that were forced to work for those sick fucks.

He needed a spymaster of his own. He'd have to think on who he would want that to be. It had to be someone exceptionally intelligent with a mind that could work tactically to get the best setup possible. Communication wouldn't be an issue thanks to Jolinar and Anise. Between the pair of them they could produce communication devices that would work across the galaxy, let alone a single planet no matter how massive it was. Instant worldwide digital communication that would be impossible for the Marines to tap into with their weird black Den Den Mushi.

He just needed to think of someone fit for the role and preferably male. The crew ratio was still way off and another guy to pal around with would be nice. Well, he'd think of someone eventually. Until then, he planned to enjoy the atmosphere of the island they were coming up on.

Soon enough they pulled The Coming Storm into the docks of the island. The eyes of several unsavory looking characters were immediately on not just the ship, but the crew. Specifically all the beautiful women standing on the deck. Female pirates were not unheard of or rare. A crew that was composed of a majority of women wasn't unheard of either, Boa Hancock being a good example. What was unheard of was a mostly female crew where all of the women were gorgeous. It drew a lot of attention, most of which was not pleasant attention.

The ladies were slightly annoyed but had already planned to only move in groups of at least two. It seemed men trying to kidnap them for various reasons was going to be a constant theme until they were world renowned for kicking the shit out of anyone who tried. That shouldn't take them too long to accomplish and kicking the crap out of a bunch of guys on Jaya should help with building that reputation.

Peter looked over the women and gave them a stoic look as he issued a very serious command, “Ladies...” He let the silence drag for a moment before he smirked playfully, “Have fun!”

All the women, bar Sakuya, gave a loud cheer and departed from the ship to go exploring and shopping. Peter might not have use for money, but the girls did. They also had something like a billion Belly from robbing Crocodile to blow. He wasn't going to begrudge them having a good time on someone else dime.

While the girls were off to have some fun, Peter, Tobirama, and Alex were left on The Coming Storm to protect it. They didn't keep anything worth stealing out but that didn't mean someone wouldn't steal the whole ship just to steal it. That was the last thing they needed.

Peter also might have been avoiding Blackbeard. He wasn't sure if the man was on the island yet or not, but he didn't want to risk it. He knew Blackbeard was after a big bounty of at least one hundred million to turn into the world government to become a Shichibukai and replace Crocodile. Of course, much like Peter himself, it was a ruse to get what he wanted from the government.

He wasn't avoiding the man out of fear so much as caution. Blackbeard was cunning and evil in spades and Peter wasn't certain who would win in a fight. He liked to think he would with all of he power and tricks he had up his sleeve. It was the Yami Yami no mi that caused him concern. He had zero idea about the fruits true abilities as it had only been shown doing a few things within the canon story at the point he died.

Given Luffy was a God and had beaten Kaido while Blackbeard was still a looming threat, it indicated that Blackbeard was likely stronger than Kaido. Of course, that version of Blackbeard had Whitebeards quake Devil Fruit but that couldn't be ALL of the threat the man posed. He had a history of strength. Shanks, one of the Yonko like Whitebeard, had been injured by Blackbeard before he even met Luffy. The three scars over his eye were given to him by Blackbeard at least a decade ago, meaning Blackbeard was just that strong back then. How strong would he be after another ten years? Then add on the mysterious and powerful Yami Yami no mi and he became a potential threat.

Of course, that only applied to Peter. If it came down to it Mera could kill Blackbeard with little effort. Hydrokinesis for the win! Still, he didn't want to kill the man. Not at this point when he had an appointment with Whitebeard. The last thing he needed was a pissy Ace mad at him for taking out Blackbeard or it upsetting Whitebeard for taking Blackbeard's punishment away from him.

It was best to simply not put the temptation in front of Blackbeard.

Of course, that didn't mean the three of them didn't draw some attention. They'd decided to sit at a table on deck and play some cards while drinking some ale and enjoying themselves. It seemed it wasn't meant to last as a group of men boldly walked up their gangplank with guns and swords drawn. The trio sitting at the table calmly looked over at them and felt no threat.

Most of the guys looked... average. Peter couldn't help thinking of them as NPC's as they all looked like they could have been brothers. Dark hair, dark eyes, light skin, nothing interesting about their looks in the least.

The standout in the group looked like a typical pirate from his tricorn hat with a big feather, to the braided halves of his mustache and beard. Even his clothing was unique compared to the plain pants and shirts of his crew. It clearly marked him as the captain and probably the strongest member of the crew, not that such a thing was surprising.

The man pointed his sword directly at Peter then spoke in a deep 'menacing' voice, “I'm Captain Yellar and I'm here fer ya boy! Come quiet-like an' I won't have to hurt them pretties of yers.”

Peter stared at the man in disbelief for a few moments before he threw his head back and began laughing. Not just a little chuckle, but fully blown belly laughter. He eve nwent so far as to pound the table. Tobirama and Alex weren't far behind in their own laughter. The thought of these idiots confronting any of the girls was just plain hilarious. They didn't even want to imagine the horrors that would be visited upon some idiot trying to lay hands on any of them.

The absolute weakest of them was Ai. She just was not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, even as the 'weakest' among them, she was almost as strong as Vegeta was in early Dragon Ball Z. She could fly, fire blasts of Ki, and was strong enough to easily rip a human in half with her bare hands. Not to mention extremely hard to kill thanks to the regeneration the whole crew had. She might not be a fighter but she could crush weaklings like the idiots in front of them with ease.

The second weakest, Erina, was damned scary with a knife in her hand so he didn't even want to think about what would happen to someone trying to assault her!

Their laughter quickly got on the nerves of Captain Yellar. He waved his sword in their direction while shouting, “Get them! Kill the other two but keep the big bounty alive!” His lips curved into a cruel smile, “But feel free to rough him up, nothing said he needed to be whole! Then we're looting this ship to the keel!”

The men around Yellar raised their swords and shouted loudly, then they charged at the trio. Peter, chuckling and wiping tears from his eyes, calmly said, “Alex, Tobirama, throw this trash out so I can get back to losing money to you two.”

That might have been another reason Yellar chose to attack them. Peter had pulled out some of the Belly Mera had stolen and they were using it to gamble. They were using literal bundles of one million Belly as their chips. The pot often reached twenty-five to thirty million a hand. Peter, being a normal guy outside of Alchemy related stuff, was losing horribly to the significantly smarter pair he was playing against.

Peter calmly collected the playing cards on the table and began to shuffle them while enjoying the show being put on in front of him. Alex and Tobirama wasted no time in laying into the mooks surrounding them. Their arms were blurs of motion as they used a single punch per mook to send the idiots flying off of their ship. The lucky ones landed in the ocean. The not-so-lucky ones landed on the decks of other nearby ships, the buildings near the docks, or on the unyielding ground.

In a matter of seconds the mooks are all dealt with leaving only Yellar, who seemed to have realized the mistake he'd made in his hubris. Or at least that was what Peter suspected given the way his legs were quaking and the sword in his hand was shaking. Tobirama and Alex put on a display of intimidation by loudly cracking their knuckles, in unison!

Yellar seems to have a lightbulb go off as he points his sword directly at Peter and shouts, “I challenge you to a duel! Unless yer a yellow bellied coward!”

Tobirama and Alex bristle at the implication of Peter being a coward. They might not take it in the same direction as the ladies did, but they were still completely loyal to Peter and took an insult directed at him personally. Peter let out a deep sigh while he calmly set down the cards he was shuffling, “Fine, your funeral.”

Yellar seemed to take some confidence from that and straightened up, the shaking of his legs gone and his sword once more steady. Peter simply climbed to his feet and slowly drew Inazuma from its sheath at his waist. As the blade inches out of the sheath he wraps the blade in bright yellow flames that cause the temperature to massively spike around him.

Yellar's shakes immediately return as the blade clears the sheath. Peter gives the man a condescending smirk, “Challenge accepted.”

Yellars eyes barely have time to widen when Peter vanished from where he had been standing only to appear directly in front of Yellar with his blade already swinging. Yellar, with his sword already out, just barely manages to get it into the path of Inazuma to attempt to block it.

It doesn't work.

Inazuma easily slices through Yellar's cheap iron sword and bites deeply into the mans chest leaving a long cauterized gash that literally steams from the heat. Yellar has time to register the glowing orange section of his what little of his sword remained before the pain of his new injury registered. A high pitched, almost feminine scream ripped from his wide open mouth. It was silenced when Peter's fist crashed into the side of Yellar's face and sent him flying through the air like a cannonshot. The man slammed into the street leading out of the docks, bounced off of it like a rubber ball, bounced a few times, and eventually came to a stop closer to the center of the town.

Peter calmly dismissed the flames around his sword, which had been pure overkill, and sheathed it once more before he returned to his spot at the table and began dealing cards, “Buy in is two stacks this time boys!”

-----Line Break-----

AN

And that's it for chapter 9, which comes in at 9.1k words, or thereabouts.

How's it looking? The story is progressing and we're at Jaya now. We'll finally meet the Strawhats in person in the next chapter and make out way up to Skypeia where Enel is just waiting for Peter to grab the essence of his Devil Fruit. The final Key to truly give Peter a Plasma Devil Fruit. Of course, that probably wont be the last thing added to Peter's custom Fruit, but it is probably the most essential. Lightning is, after all, already a plasma.

I think next chapter I'll write things from a few of the crew members points of view as the girls explore Jaya and run into people. There are a couple famous faces on the island around this time and it would be a shame to not meet them, right?

Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter!