The Jungle Part 4

The Jungle Part 4

\____-o(X)o-_____/​

"Makoto…"

Ami stiffened and spun around, "Makoto!"

My larger friend was leaning against the door frame of the room which I assumed to be a hospital. She wore jeans, a T-shirt, and simple shoes, her hair in its normal ponytail. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she glared at me where I lay on the bed.

"He's not worried because he's used to violence." She pushed off of the door frame and began to walk over to my bed, "Because he's a pirate." The word was nearly hissed out.

"Not a pirate…" I croaked.

I was summarily ignored as my smaller, blue haired friend stood and stepped between Makoto and me, her hands going out to block her, "I know, Makoto, he–"

"You knew?!" My taller friend bristled, the anger in her tone making me flinch, "How?! You knew and didn't tell me?!"

Attempting to shift in the bed was a bad idea, trying to roll onto my side sent a line of fire down my chest, like a hot brand from the hollow of my throat all the way down to my groin, the muscles to turn me simply refusing to work. My left arm moved weakly at best, and I didn't dare move my right arm with the IVs in it, I was irrationally paranoid of moving needles in my veins around.

"What? Of course I knew!" Ami said, her voice rising in pitch, making a chopping motion with her hand as she continued, "He didn't bother to hide that his mom was a pirate or that he lived with them!"

"But he's still a pirate!" Makoto shouted, her hands clenching into fists.

"Makoto," I said, half croaked really, it hurt to breathe really and every vibration of my voice sent unpleasant trembles through my chest beneath my body cast. But the girls ignored me.

"It's not like he has a choice! His mother is one!" Ugh, I knew there was more behind that statement than just defending me but this wasn't the time to address it.

"A pirate is a pirate!"

"Still not a pirate."

"But he saved me!"

"I know!" Makoto shrieked, her voice cracking, her hands balling into fists as tears gathered in her eyes and I nearly cringed, my heart aching for another reason, "I know he saved you. Iknow he's our friend. But what I don't know is why he didn't tell me?!"

The demand made my heart ache for reasons entirely unrelated to the wound on my chest. Before I could speak, my attempt to raise my hand sending a shock of pain through my arm and my pectoral to the center line of my wound, Ami shouted back, "He was going to!"

"Girls..." I hoarsely tried to stop them, my voice failing me as I tried to stop my friends, two of my only friends even approaching my age… as I tried to keep them from fighting.

"But he didn't! And you didn't either!" the brunette shouted accusingly, pointing at Ami.

"I couldn't!" the genius shouted back, "It would be a breach of his trust! And he didn't want you to hate him!"

'Enough!'

"Girls!" I shouted, slamming my left fist to the bed before a coughing fit suddenly overtook me and despite the pain I had to cover my mouth with the hand, coughing into it as some irrational part of me desperately tried to keep my right arm still.

"Jacob!" / "Jacob!" Both girls rushed over as I jerked in place on the bed, trying to force down the coughing fit.

It was with a small wheeze that I was able to ease back down onto the bed, pulling my hand away from my mouth. There was more than a small fleckling of blood on my palm as I looked up at Makoto, my attempt to talk came out as a rather weak, "Ah..."

"Oh no no no," Ami almost rushed around the bed, fiddling with the bags and IVs before her hands went to my side and she began poking and prodding me hard, almost uncomfortably, but my breathing started to relax with a little wheeze.

I cringed just a bit at the weak sound, swallowing hard. Makoto wavered there, obviously torn between checking up on me and still being angry, but as quickly as I could make my arm move, I reached out and grabbed her wrist, nearly making her flinch as the blood on my palm smeared on her skin, "Listen..." Another small cringe at the weak croak, "Listen. I'm not a pirate… my momma is… and I live on a pirate ship. I planned to tell you before my ship left this time..." My hand clenched around her wrist, "Makoto... I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before this. I didn't want to hurt you any more after your parents were killed..." My eyes fell from hers, "I... I'd planned to take the pirates that had done it out, to get the crew to take them out... but they died in a storm before I could..."

Her mouth worked silently for a moment before she closed it, a small sniffle escaping her as she started to tremble, "But… why? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to hate me…" I admitted, my grip on her wrist relaxing, "And I didn't want to hurt you… I didn't want to bring up those memories so soon after what had happened…" I swallowed again, trying to wet my pallete, "Makoto… you're my friend, I care about you… and it tore me up to know that my family are part of the profession that hurt you so badly… but I couldn't do anything and I was so scared of you just hating me…"

"You asshole... " My eyes widened briefly in shock, I'd never heard her curse before, let alone like that.

"Makoto…?"

"You asshole!" she almost yelled before spinning on her heel and half stomping, half running out of the room.

Weakly, I reached out after her reflexively even as my mouth worked silently and Ami almost ran around the bed, "Makoto!" She leaned out the door, looking after her quickly, but stopped.

"… Ami…?"

"She's already gone."

I sighed, slumping into the bed, "Let her go… she needs some time…"

"But… Jacob…"

"Ami… how would you feel if you found out your friend had been lying to you about being something you hated?"

"That's not the way things are though…"

"That's the way things probably feel." I said softly, staring up at the ceiling as Ami walked over.

"Jacob… you're hurting…" soft fingertips brushed away some of the tears slowly flowing from my eyes, and I had to bite my lip.

"Yeah. I knew what I was doing, I expected this… I judged your safety to be more important than looking like a good guy… but that doesn't mean that I'm happy about having hurt her with this…"

"Well, I for one believe you made the right decision."

'Oh come on!' I thought in exasperation as Ami spun around and I let my head fall back towards the doorway, 'Lord' Taira Carl ducking his head to walk into the room, 'How many more people are gonna interrupt?! I'm probably supposed to be resting!'

-oOo-​

"Are you sure?" I asked as I heaved the cart full of barrels above my head.

"About as sure as I can be." Bonney said, watching the cart to ensure nothing slipped.

A frown found itself on my face beneath my scarf, "This is insane."

"No fucking kidding," Bonney groused, watching the other two walk about. The village had been looted, but lightly. Thankfully the well wasn't damaged or poisoned, and we'd been able to scrounge up some fruit from the fridges in a few houses. I was beside her, an appropriated cart loaded up with supplies held above my head, Jaime and Wallace moving about the village quickly to see if they could find more–

Wallace walked up with a crate in his arms, Jaime in tow with a smaller box in his, "This is all we could find Captain, a few crude local maps, and a few more supplies, but that's it."

"It'll do." She said with finality before turning to me, "We're leaving. If Zwide's forces arrive we should not be here."

"Yes Captain." Wallace nodded, even as I grunted, digging steel fingers into the bottom of the cart to maintain a grip as we started off back towards the Cake.

I resisted the urge to transform my muscles into steel, this could act as training, and in memory of my momma, I continued to train. And I needed some effort, something to distract me from the… mess… the slaughter behind us. Lifting the one horse cart over my head, laden with barrels of water and rum and whatever fruit and veggies we'd been able to scrounge up.

We didn't know for sure, but Bonney thought the symbol was from the dominant tribe on the island. Bonney had heard some mutterings about this island while we were at the Gothic Islands, that this island was in the middle of a civil war. And she'd gotten more information while she was out on her own expedition. But this…? This was… ugh, not the worst atrocity that I'd ever heard of by any measure, but it was a contender for the worst I'd seen in person.

I grimaced as I walked as quickly as I dared with the unsecured cart, my muscles trembling just a bit.

Intellectually, I knew exactly why we were getting the hell out of dodge, the Eyepatch pirates had done it a few times as well. Choosing not to engage or even be around while horrors were being performed. But that didn't mean I particularly liked it. A part of me rebelled against just letting this happen. But... what could I do? I couldn't take on an entire army and I doubted I could convince Bonney or the crew to start a war, and I wasn't sure I even wanted them to... to risk people close to me over strangers... Hell, I didn't even know who'd actually done this…

The muted pink and purple of the Cake came into view as we turned a corner, and I had to wobble a bit to keep the cart stable as the contents shifted.

I cut off the thought, knowing it wouldn't lead anywhere good. My chest felt hollow, and the wood of the cart creaked in my grip as it tightened.

"Oi! Lower the gangplank! We've got some supplies!" Bonney shouted up at the Cake as we approached.

"What happened?!" Tom shouted from the railing, Lucca with a rifle beside him. The rest of the boarding party had stayed on the ship, ready to defend it in case something had come out of the town. A reasonable precaution even if I figured it wasn't necessary.

Bonney hesitated, standing still for just a moment before saying, instead of shouting, "Bad shit Tom… some really bad shit. Let's get out of here."

-oOo-​

"Oi. Florida."

"Too loud?" I asked without turning from the kata.

"No shit." Bonney said as she hauled herself out of the hatch and onto the roof of the cabin, "It's the middle of the night."

"Sorry," I apologized honestly as I brought the two sabers around my right side, the backs of them both pressing against my bare skin, my muscles bunching up, "I can't sleep."

"What? Not 'in control' anymore?" She snarked as she moved to lean against the 'frosting' railing atop the cabin.

"It's harder when there isn't a task to focus on," I admitted freely, if softly. With a small growl I swung the swords horizontally as hard as I could, blades parallel to the floor. There was a flash of light and a small crackling nose as the tips of the blades broke the sound barrier, two blue crescents of air pressure blasted out in front of me, the backlash making both Bonney's hair and my own much shorter hair flutter.

The crescents of power expanded as they flew out over the ocean towards the horizon, Bonney's hair settling as I relaxed out of my stance, letting the tips of the sabers hover over the floorboards.

Slow breaths, let my heart rate settle.

There was a sea breeze washing over the Cake as it rocked back and forth in the ocean. I'd ditched most of my usual outfit outside of my utility belt and pants in order to exercise, the sensations of the sea breeze across my bare skin were thankfully distracting. I'd kept my leather jacket nearby in case it rained or suddenly got pretty cold because, y'know, Grand Line.

With her hands propping her up against the frosting as she leaned back against it, my Captain asked, "Oi, you've been in the Grand Line before right?"

I glanced over at her, the pink-haired young woman was looking out after the fading crescents of cutting power. She was backlit by the night sky, the stars twinkling behind her as she half stood half sat there in just her tank top, shorts and suspenders, "Yeah?"

"Is…" she hesitated before half turneingher head to look back at me, "... is this sort of shit normal?"

There was no need to ask what shit she was talking about, and I looked down at the deck atop the Cake's cabin, "… no. That's honestly the worst I've ever seen."

"Fuck…" she heaved a sigh and looked back out at the water, "… fuck."

I snorted, "No kidding."

Bonney half turned back to me, "Do you know of any way to get between islands without having to wait for the Log Pose?"

I shook my head, "Not a safe one. If I had a map I might be able to get us to the next island through dead reckoning but that's still risky as fuck, even with Daniel's help. The major currents in the Grand Line change far too often for dead reckoning to ever be safe."

"Tch. And we don't have a good enough map anyways. Damn."

Bonney scowled, glaring out at the waters again. She'd ditched her usual fancy socks, hat, jacket and shoes, striking a profile of hers against the night sky that I was unaccustomed to seeing. There were actually two moons behind her, almost framing her. I turned back and started up another kata, deliberately slow, my bones metal to increase my weight, trying to exhaust myself enough to sleep.

I… didn't really want any dreams tonight please and thank you.

After a minute of the slow motions as she thought, I asked, "Having trouble sleeping yourself?"

She bristled, shooting a glare my way, but I didn't really react as I moved through the kata, unconcerned. If she answered, she answered, if she didn't, she didn't. And if she attacked or snapped, we could use it as a way to tire ourselves out.

After a moment, she sighed, looking away, "I can still fucking taste it... that's fucked up."

"Yeah. No kidding." I admitted, blades slowly arcing out before pressing back against my skin for leverage. I hadn't really mastered Barley's combat style, but it was worth practicing. Essentially half-sword-ing by using parts of your body to brace and lever the blades about.

Silence reigned as I continued to move through the kata, Bonney pushing further up to sit properly on the railing and wrapping her arms around her stomach. She stared out at the horizon as I moved with a deliberate slowness and control, mimicking the elements of Tai Chi practice, just with a lot more stabby stabby. I turned on the ball of my foot as I raised my other leg, letting it snap out horizontally and sending a small crescent of cutting power arc out before slowly swinging the leg up and around until it was vertical, then brought it back down quickly in an ax kick. I pulled the kick at the last moment to avoid punching a hole in the floor and kept my foot turned 'wrong' to avoid presenting a blade edge and accidentally create the Rankyaku Ax.

After several minutes, Bonney softly admitted, "I don't want to stay anywhere near this island after we get the McPuffins…"

"I don't blame you," I muttered without stopping in my kata.

She sighed, arms tightening around her stomach, "You're smart Ironhide, can you think of any good ways to avoid this crazy war?"

My lips pressed into a thin line as I let my blades droop. It was my turn to sigh, "Not really, best I've got is to drop anchor somewhere near the island but not actually at port."

"Tch… that's not an appealing thought…" she grumbled.

I shrugged, "It's just a suggestion really. This is a shit situation. People that..." I searched for a word to encompass the monstrosity of the town, "… do that bit of madness… they're not something you want to be around at all."

"No shit. Ugh..." she shifted, pushing her hair back behind her ear, "Damn… what if we took Log Poses from other ships?"

Thinking about it, I gave a small shake of my head, "I'd hesitate to do so, at least for merchant ships. Because I didn't see any for sale in the town, did you?"

Bonney scowled before looking up at me curiously, "So?"

With a small flourish, I sheathed the two sabers, "They'd be stuck here for who knows how long, and I don't want to doom a civilian ship to having to suffer that civil war."

"What," she frowned, "So they're more important than us?"

"They're less?" I countered.

Bonney snorted, "We have to take care of ourselves."

"Of course," I agreed honestly, "But that doesn't mean we need to just fuck someone else over to do it." I raised a hand and tried to clarify to avoid a fight, "And to be clear here, I only have a problem if we're essentially sentencing them to death."

Bonney's purple eyes were striking in the dark night as they narrowed, "But it is a problem."

I let my hand drop, "Yes."

"From the guy that kills with his finger and could touch that ball of people, sentencing people to death is a problem."

For just a moment, I grit my teeth, "Civilians. Not just people."

"But pirates are okay? Soldiers are okay?" She pressed, seemingly in disbelief.

"They made a choice. They accepted the risks of their profession, that they'd be fighting, that they'd be in danger, that they were putting their lives on the line." I forced my hands to unclench, "They have to accept the consequences of their actions. Merchants? People traveling between islands? They didn't." The pink haired woman made a face and I frowned, "Bonney, everyone has lines that they're not willing to cross and this one is mine."

"Oh absolutely Captain," she said in a sickeningly sweet tone before she pushed off of the railing and almost stomped her way into my personal space with a snarl, "Or is that what you fucking expect me to say Ironhide? Because it ain't." Her finger came up within inches of my face and growled out, "I'm the one who gathered this crew, I'm the one that got the ship, and I'm the one that led it all to the Grand Line. I'm the Captain of the Cake and the Bonney Pirates, and you do not get to dictate terms to me."

"And you want to tell me that that shit was fucking okay?! That you'd be okay if someone forced you to be around somewhere where slaughter like that fucking happens?!" I snapped, pointing angrily out at the island and making Bonney flinch just the slightest bit before I restrained myself, pulling back and looking away, my arms wrapping tightly around my stomach as I hugged myself, "I… I can't just send people into that…"

Bonney ran her fingers through her long hair with a growl of frustration, looking away briefly before throwing her hands up in the air, "Then what?! You'd rather deal with it yourself?! Put us all at risk instead?!"

"Says the woman who's sending us back over fucking birds!" I snapped, making her flinch once more.

But she rallied, jabbing me in the chest with her index finger, "At least that's for us! You just want to give fucking handouts!"

"That's not what I mean damnit!"

"Then what?! Do you really want to fucking sacrifice us for fucking strangers?!"

"No! Fuck no! I'd rather that shit not be happening at all!" I almost shouted in her face, "I'd rather we got out of here without hurting anyone! But we can at least handle ourselves! And anyone we take down, by definition, is less capable than us! And I can't just throw people to the wolves like that, okay? I just can't!"

"And it's still my crew! My ship! My choice! Not yours!"

"Which is why I'm here and not out on the island!"

That seemed to give her pause, and after a moments confusion, she asked, "… what?"

"Bonney,I want to fucking do something about… about that…" I gestured uselessly in the direction of the island.

But before I could continue she shook her head in disbelief and demanded, "Like what?"

"I don't know okay?!" I snapped, whirling on her before catching myself with a shake of my head, looking away and saying much more softly, "I don't know… go out and try to kill the people responsible? Who? How? Why? Try to fucking end a war singlehandedly? And draw the attention to the crew? Fuck… none of the options are good…" I grimaced, "But I want to do something, not just… run away from it. But you're the Captain."

Bonney's mouth worked silently for a moment before she looked away, staring out at the horizon even as she crossed her arms under her breasts. After a long moment, she turned back to me, her purple eyes hard but a fair bit of the anger gone, "But you'll still throw down over taking the Eternal Log Pose someone has?"

"On a civilian ship…? Yeah." Her lips pressed into a thin line and I sighed, looking out at the ocean. My hands dangled uselessly and I made a half shrug as I looked back at her, "Bonney, I can bend… but I can only bend so far…"

Letting out a little growl of frustration, Bonney's hands went to her head, "Over complete fucking strangers!"

"No worse than you going for the damn birds!"

"They're delicious!"

"And those strangers are people! Just like us!"

Letting out a sound of frustration, Bonney threw up her hands and almost stomped over to the railing, her arms crossed over her chest. I sighed, shrugging uselessly and looking away as I stood there, listening to the creaking of the Cake as the waves lapped against its sides. I looked up at the night sky, clouds slowly blotting out the stars, one of the moons already hidden behind them...

"Okay…" Bonney let out a sigh and I looked over at her, her head tilted back to look up at the clouds slowly spreading across the sky. After a moment, she half turned back to me, "Okay, Jacob, let's just fucking say I agree with you- so you're not more of a pain in my ass, but let's say I do. The crew still won't just accept you taking what amounts to another fucking share."

Another useless shrug from me as I rolled my eyes, "Then what the fuck am I supposed to do? I'm already making weapons and teaching."

She crossed her arms over her chest, "Participate in the raids on the civilian ships."

I scowled, "I don't like doing that."

"You don't have to kill anyone, hell, you don't even have to hurt anyone! You're strong enough to get away with that shit. But you want another share then you've got to earn it."

I ground my teeth together with a metallic sound, "Bonney…"

"Florida, you don't get to dictate what we do with treasure unless you're a part of the effort," she said simply, stepping closer once more.

"And what if they don't have any books or knowledge?" I countered, "Then what?"

"You get two shares."

A growl escaped my throat briefly as I looked away. I didn't care about the money, even ignoring the money I'd gotten from turning in the Jello pirates… but I could just fucking leave that with the merchants or civilians, give them something to hold them tight or at least give them a fucking chance… But… my green eyes flicked back up to hers, "So long as it's clear that I'm still taking any knowledge they have as something separate from the share for participating."

For just a moment, I thought she was going to just up-and-up agree, but she paused. Her arms uncrossed and planted on her hips as she pursed her lips, "You learn anything useful from Stein's work?"

The sudden change of topics threw me off a bit and I had to reorient my brain, "Ah… I could probably re-attach a limb that was cut off with Akira's help if you give me some more time? Or graft the parts of something else onto someone living… and I think I'm on the way to understanding how Human Weapons are built, so I might be able to build a cyborg."

She made a show of biting her thumb for a moment, looking away, and I was suddenly rather aware of the fact that she was well within two feet of me from our battle of wills.

'… she smells like pizza.' The corner of my lip quirked upwards, 'Why am I not surprised?'

My Captain turned back to me, pulling her finger from her mouth and pointing at me, "Alright. But you are helping with taking merchant ships. And you are going to us that knowledge to help us."

I let out a little sigh of relief. My only real concern was ensuring the civilians weren't royally fucked over, and it was basically the same terms as before just with the added condition of helping force merchant or transport vessels to surrender. So long as she was aware that I'd be interfering if they were going to be killing people then we were okay. "Alright. I can live with that."

Bonney rolled her eyes, turning away, "And I could live with you being a less of a pain in my ass."

"At least it's a nice ass–?"

*Wham!*

"Oof!"

I clutched my stomach as Bonney withdrew her bare foot after kicking me right in the abs. "I probably deserved that." I said in a small, breathless wheeze.

… also, I was distracted by said 'nice ass'.

"Yes, yes you did. Ass."

There was a rumble of thunder, making us both pause and look up.

The sky took this as a cue to just open up.

Rain just poured down, soaking us both and suddenly making Bonney's white tank top very, very see through. She squeaked, covering her chest quickly and I couldn't help but laugh, "Tchehehehahahahaha!"

**Incoming-!**

*Bong!*

"Oh shut up you ass!"

"You squeaked! It was adorable!"

Even in the dim light of the moons I could tell that her face was a bright red as she bristled, "Oh you are so fucking dead!" She lunged, covering her breasts with an arm, and I deflected her punch with a metallic forearm, still laughing.

---​

The rain was still falling… a pleasant coolness dancing against my bare skin as I lay on top of the cabin of the Cake, a serene sort of smile on my face.

"You fucking suck."

"Tcheheheh… at least you're bruising me now?" she hadn't truly awakened Haki yet… but the limited instruction I'd given so far combined with her natural predisposition towards passion meant her blows had sent little shocks of pain even through my metal form.

"Not healing those by the way," she groaned out beneath my duster, her voice a higher pitch due to her reduced age to fit entirely beneath it and avoid the rain.

"Tcheheheh… mmmm… fair enough." It seemed that, unlike me, Bonney didn't like the rain.

"That's supposed to be a punishment," she grumbled.

"I've had worse in training," I pointed out in amusement.

I still wasn't happy about leaving the slaughter behind without doing anything about it… but at the same time, I knew there wasn't a whole lot that could be done. Family… or in this case at least, Nakama, came first. Always.

After a moment she said, "... you definitely suck."

I snorted in amusement, smiling even with my eyes closed, "You're welcome."

---

The Jungle Part 4 End