The Madman Part 11

The Madman Part 11

\____-o(X)o-____/​

The door opened, and honestly? I was more than a bit pissed.

I sat in Bonney's room on the Cake, stewing in my own anger as one of the hummingbirds sat atop my head.

… what? I'm self aware enough to admit it. I'm stewing in my own anger. Because ugh. I was pissed.

There was a soft clinking as I shifted in place enough to look at the door as it opened. Bonney walking in, her pink hair a soaked, frazzled mess, and one of her fancy stockings having come unclipped from the suspender that normally held it up and having drifted a bit lower on her leg as she walked in, her entire outfit completely soaked.

Blinded, angry at someone else, and fumbling with suddenly way too large an outfit, I'd been unable to do much when Wallace had just picked me up like a fucking sack. Sure, I was metal and mad, but Wallace was tough enough to take my childish tantrum, metal or not. The pseudo-scottish man's problems had nothing to do with durability.

By the time I'd calmed down enough to think of other things I could do, I was also calm enough to realize that just going out and fighting the crew in order to flat out murder Daniel probably wasn't a good idea.

The door closed behind the surprisingly haggard looking Bonney and she leaned back against the door with a sigh, her eyes closed.

But oh did I want to. Murder Daniel that is.

After a moment, she breathed in and stood up, gathering up her long hair in her hands and literally wringing it out before running her fingers through it in a likely vain attempt to straighten– okay, either she knows something I don't or she's somehow abusing her powers because her hair is straight now. My friends have been primarily girls both my lives and I know there's no way that's normal shit, straightening that amount of hair should've been a half-hour long task.

I remembered I was angry a few moments later, but still, that was impressive enough that it'd put a pause on the simmering fury.

Giving her head a little toss to throw her hair back into place, Bonney finally really looked at me and paused. She blinked once before tilting her head to the side and smirking just a bit, "… I think Wallace overdid it with the chains."

"Ya think?" I said, just a bit testily, though I had to admit it was funny. I was basically a bundle of every chain they'd been able to scrounge off of the Cake. Which was really saying something. It was a lot like what you'd do as a kid and roll up in a blanket and turn into a caterpillar or worm or whatever adorable thing you'd decided to be. Only, y'know… with chains and padlocks.

"Nah, thinking about it, probably not enough." Bonney made an exaggerated dismissive gesture, giving me a grin as she teased. And in spite of myself, the corner of my lip quirked up. Damn you woman and your well-timed sarcasm.

Surprisingly, I was not uncomfortable. It was a lil weird actually, but flexing myself into metal made me… I guess comfortable? Eh. Whatever. Still mad about that god damn fucking Daniel.

I didn't move, not that I had a whole lot of mobility at the moment, as Bonney walked over to where I was kneeling in the seiza position in the middle of her cabin. She grabbed her chair from her desk in passing and dragged it over, spinning it about so that the back faced be before dropping down into it and straddling the chair, leaning against the back of it and folding her arms across the top as she looked down at me with a complex expression.

But I didn't flinch as I looked up at her, the silence stretching on as we waited. I didn't know what she wanted at this moment, and I hesitated to speculate given my own anger. She'd never tried to just fuck me over or anything, but still.

Most of the hummingbirds had taken off at some point or another during my tantrum, leaving just the one sitting atop my head in my mess of hair like a nest.

I was the first to crack and speak, "Still really mad."

Bonney snorted in amusement, looking away, "Not surprised." But after that comment, her purple eyes swung back to me and her smile melted away, "Jacob, I can't let you kill Daniel. It's one of the core rules of my ship."

I bristled in reflexive anger, "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"No, you didn't." My anger came to a crashing halt and I blinked up at her.

I looked up at her as she laid her chin against her forearms across the back of the chair, purple eyes watching me. Belatedly, I realized that my reaction had been reflexive and stupid and not directly related to what she'd said. Felt a bit bad about that actually. But still, now what? Was I not in fucking trouble? If that was the fucking intention, then I had a pretty big damn question, "Then why… pray tell…" There was a small groan as the length of chain in my hands bent under my tightening grip, "Am I the one in chains?"

The admittedly attractive woman snorted in amusement, "Because I can kick Daniel into next or last week if he gets uppity. You? Not so much."

I looked down at my greatly reduced size and heavy restraints, then looking up at her with a raised eyebrow, "I think you did good enough."

My best guess as to how the Huns had resisted her ability was Haki, but I'd never really had the forethought to really test it, and even if I had, I'm not really sure I'd had the presence of mind or the willpower required to block her with how I'd been about to punch a hole in Daniel's head.

Bonney smirked just a bit before adjusting her weight some in the chair as she straddled it, facing me, "If it works, it works."

The chains clinked slightly as I shifted in place, a small twitch in my face as I felt the hummingbird bob in place atop my head. What were we doing here then?! I… she wasn't angry at me. What did she want? What did I want damnit? After a long moment of silence I asked a bit testily, "So… what? What happens now?"

She frowned just a bit, "Now? I try and figure out if I can let you back out without you trying to rip one of the crew in half."

Now it was my turn to frown, "Daniel needs to be punished."

"And I'm not going to let you punish him," she said, her frown deepening into a scowl.

And there it was again, a little bubbling anger, almost irrational, almost. My words nearly came out as a terse little growl, "I was pretty fucking clear about my rules."

She bristled, half standing out of the chair, "And it's my ship. My crew! My rules! If he's going to be punished I'll be the one to do it!"

"You're just trying to defend him!" I accused, lifting myself to my knees, "And you can't defend that shit! Neither his ass nor what he did!"

"Damnit Florida! You do not get to dictate what I do on my ship with my crew! Look–"

"He fucking tried to-"

With a snarl, she swung the chair around, breaking it over my immediately metallic head, "Shut up and listen you stupid fuck!"

I bared my teeth, but her finger was shoved to my nose, "No. Fucking shut up and listen. You aren't the boss here."

"Bonne–"

Her hand clamped over my mouth as she snarled, "I'm kicking him out."

"Mmph-?"

"I can't afford to lose him on this island, you and I can't cover for him between islands, and there's no way we're gonna find someone here to do it instead. So here's what's going to happen. We're making sure he doesn't keel over on us. His pay is docked. You are going to play nice. When we get to the next island, we're going to look for a replacement. But until we find one, you play nice."

That last bit made my eyebrow twitch and I scowled at her, the statement like a kid poking a fire with a stick, making it flare back up.

Not that she seemed to care, scowling right back, "No. Listen. You don't want to be a pirate. Sure, whatever. You don't want to stick with the crew after the first part of the Grand Line? Alright. Go for it. But that means you don't really get a say in this shit."

I started to scowl, but then a confused look crossed my face.

"… what?" I pointedly glanced down at her hand still over my mouth. "Oh. Right."

She pulled her hand away, letting me speak, "I don't have a say in this, but you're still dumping him."

The pink-haired woman gave me a disbelieving look, "He tried to fucking stab you in the back. He tried to do that after I saved his ass and after throwing an agreement between crew members in your face. Jacob, even if I fucking hated you, that's top shelf quality dumbass, no way he's staying." Her hands moved to her hips, "It comes down to him or you, I'd pick you any day of the week."

I couldn't help the heat that surged to my cheeks at the frank and blunt statement, "Ah."

Then her finger was jabbing my nose again, "But you can't go around ignoring my rules or killing a member of the crew. It's my job to punish transgressions, not yours."

Again with the poking of the fire, "It's my rule Bonney."

"Yeah? And it's my crew, my ship, and my agreement. It's my job to punish this shit, not yours."

I bared my teeth, "I'm not fucking training him."

Bonney shrugged, hands on her hips as she stood over me, "Don't blame you."

"It's not enough." I half growled.

But she didn't budge, "It'll have to be."

I looked away, thinking. Was it? Would that be enough? Without my anger, without my fury and without me wanting to take Daniel's head and shove it up his own ass… putting that aside and being honest with myself, it really would be. As angry as I was, she was right. No matter how scared the rider had been, he was alive and apparently unhurt now. Sure, the animal was dead, but the kid had almost certainly been patched up by Bonney after that shit…

"Provided he doesn't try that shit again," I said simply, holding her gaze.

Bonney smirked some, "That'd be a lot more meaningful if you were more than three feet tall."

Unable to help the small snort of amusement, I fired back, "Oh suck my dick Bonney."

"Balls haven't dropped yet," she said with a smirk.

"Aren't you gonna fix that?" I returned, unable to help the small smile that threatened to appear on my face.

Bonney turned serious again, "Are you going to go after Daniel when I do?"

I had to consider that, actually weigh my emotions against my logic… I was still pissed, but… eventually I answered, "... no. But I make no promises about anything if this shit happens again."

"You leave that shit to me."

"Bonney."

"Break a leg and bring him to me if you fucking have to. But don't fucking kill him while he's part of the crew." I twitched, but the golden piercing in her cheek jumped, "Damnit Jake, if you kill him I have to kick you out!" The anger melted away from her face into a complex moment, "I don't want to have to do that."

My protests died in my throat and I looked away, "I… damnit Bonney, I don't… I can't promise that. If he provokes me like that again, I can't promise anything."

"At least fucking try."

I sighed, slumping in the chains, nearly dislodging the hummingbird from atop my head, "Just… just keep him away from me until he's fucking gone and I'll try to do the same."

She must've seen something in my eyes or heard something in my tone, because Bonney's eyes softened as she crouched to get closer to my current level, "... you want to stay in here for a bit till you're calmer?"

I blinked, pleasantly surprised at the consideration… and actually considered it, looking out the window. I could be comfortable here but… it wouldn't help me cool off. I needed to do things, to work the anger out of my system rather than just stewing over it. I shook my head, looking back at her, "No… I want to just work in my lab for a bit, I have things to do."

With a nod, Bonney stood, kicking the bits of chair out of the way, "Alright."

She paused as she took a step forward, a small scowl appearing on her face, earning her a look of confusion from me, "What?"

"I…" Bonney looked away almost… bashfully? I stared at her in surprise as she sheepishly admitted, "I actually don't know where to start to get you out."

"... of course."

-oOo-​

With deliberate motions, I sewed the musculature together for the major muscle groups of the arm. Dr. Vegapunk's book had described the artificial muscles and 'tendons' quite well, as well as the bone structure and nerve connections and utterly rudimentary tactile sensors. The tendons in this case being actually a form of this elastic glue that connected to both the musculature and the bone structure it talked about.

While I could reasonably hold the smaller muscle groups together long enough in a bunch to apply the stuff before applying insulation to the outside to prevent the muscle groups from activating one another, the larger ones like the biceps and triceps had to be basically sewn together to ensure that they'd stay in alignment and shape while the tendon-esque solution cured.

It was a menial and exacting task, and while not great for the purposes of blowing off steam, it was sufficient for now.

The tarp that covered the entrance to my makeshift 'lab' rustled and I glanced up to find Lucca peeking past it, "Um… hi?"

"What?" I didn't snap, but I was admittedly a bit gruff.

"Um…" Lucca adjusted his yellow head band, "Sorry… about Daniel. Sorry."

"Mmm," I half grunted, turning back to my work, "Don't worry about it, you don't have anything to apologize for."

I could practically hear him cringe behind me, "We're not all like that. Cruel and violent."

With some effort, I resisted the urge to sigh. It wasn't his fault, but I really just wanted to work on other things for a bit and not think about this, "Lucca?"

"Yes mon ami?"

"Can I just work on this for a bit? It requires some concentration." It did, but not so much that I couldn't talk, I just didn't want to talk for right now.

"Um… sorry…"

"Don't worry about it, I need to work this out of my system."

"Be well, mon ami."

"Y tú, hombre."

The dark haired man slipped back out of my lab and I let out a little sigh, taking the needle and thread in my hand, arranging the muscle carefully–

"Ah… Florida?"

I sighed, letting my hand drop, "Yes?"

Half turning, I looked up at Tom, once again in a wife beater, this time with 'Big Man' in english on the front, his usual cowboy hat on his head, "Y'er doing okay…?"

My irritation eased at the concern, though not entirely, "Yes. I'm fine."

"Ah… I ask because it had to be bad getting transformed like that…"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to my work, "It makes sense if your goal was to keep crew from killing one another. Made me unhappy, but I'll deal." The actual transformation was more embarrassing than anything else, and being transformed wasn't the problem. The fact that it'd prevented me from taking the Stupid Tax out of Daniel's hide was.

"Just… ah… wanted to be sure," Tom said, and it sounded like he was scratching his black beard.

"Thanks, don't worry about it," I said, waving it off with a hand over my shoulder before bringing my hand back down to hold the artificial muscle group in place. An awkward silence ensued, at least for Tom, for which I felt a little bad, he hadn't done anything to deserve it. But seriously, I just wanted to be left alone for a bit right now.

"Ah… well… okay then… I'll… just go make sure that Daniel doesn't do anything stupid."

I snorted in slightly bitter amusement, smiling in spite of myself, "Probably a good plan."

With a bit of shuffling, the large First Mate slipped out of my laboratory.

A small sigh escaped me as I set my hands on the workbench, I was being an ass, which bugged me some, but I'd make it up to them later somehow… I'd figure it out later though, right now I needed to finish this before I got to the seastone. I raised the needle again–

"Hey–"

*Thump*

"… what?"

I took a slow breath. In, and out. "Bad timing." I set the needle and thread down before swinging side saddle in the chair to look at Jaime, "What is it?"

"The hell happened back there?" It wasn't accusatory, but not by much.

A small twitch, "Back there as in ten seconds ago? Or back there as in earlier today?"

"When you tried to kill Daniel," Jaime said, crossing his arms over his chest with a serious look on his face.

My eyes narrowed at him and my lips pressed into a thin line, "Daniel tried to kill someone who didn't do shit. I told him to stop. He fucking didn't and basically flipped me off. I… took exception to that."

"Exception meaning killing him?" The Mexican seeming man asked, his mustache twitching slightly.

"Yes." I said simply, holding his gaze, "Especially when he blatantly disregarded me and the agreement we all had about cruelty."

"He's nakama."

"Which is why I didn't break his face when he stabbed the guy and instead tried to talk him down. But then he blatantly told me off and moved to torture the guy more."

"And you were going to kill him."

Belatedly, I realized both that we were both getting louder, and I stopped myself. Taking a slow breath but not breaking the staring contest we had going, "Jaime…" I said slowly and at a more reasonable volume, "I want you to think about what you would do someone took all of your booze, lit it on fire, without reason, and when you tried to warn them and stop them, they spit in your face." I nearly snarled the last bit out as I held his gaze, my eyes boring into his, "You'd kill them."

"I…" he twitched slightly, looking away briefly, unable to meet my gaze, "They're still nakama."

I growled, "I argue that they forfeit being nakama when they deliberately fuck you over like that and then spit in your face when you try to warn them."

He turned back to me, brown eyes locked on mine, "I still don't like it."

My own softened a bit, though I was still utterly unrepentant, "I'm not asking you to, just understand why I felt it necessary to end him at that moment."

"So if we don't listen to you, we get killed?"

An exasperated sigh escaped me, "Jaime, are you going to go out of your way to flaunt and flagrantly ignore the agreement we made about training and the rules I laid out?" He started to make a face, but my hand shot up to cut him off, "No, seriously, do you see yourself just going out and torturing people?" I gesticulated at that, "Do you see yourself just… killing civilians for no reason?"

He hesitated, realizing I was serious. And to his credit, he actually thought about it for a moment before answering, "... no. No I won't."

"Then we have no problems. That's what Daniel was going to do. And when I tried to stop him, he spat in my face, he was throwing the fact that we're nakama out like it was some sort of shield against the consequences." I stood, pushing my chair in, "And if he tries that shit again, I'm not going to kill him. But he'll regret it for the rest of his miserable life." I walked towards the doorway of my lab, passing by my 'interrogator'.

Jaime tilted his pear-shaped head at me and asked in curiosity and with a hint of heat, "Where are you going?"

"To talk to Bonney, I can't stay here," I gestured at my lab, "I'm not getting anything done."

Seriously, at this rate I wouldn't even get the biceps done before the day was over! And I needed to cool off… and from the looks of things the crew themselves had to cool off.

-oOo-​

"Bonney?" I knocked on the frame of the door to her room.

The pink haired woman looked up from the book on her desk, "Yeah?"

"I'm going to be taking some time off on the island. I need some time away. I'm not able to calm down like this."

"… like what?"

My eyes narrowed at her briefly, that was a little too innocent. But her expression didn't change for a few moments so I went on, "I need a day or two off, try not to blow up the ship while I'm out blowing off steam."

She smiled just a bit, leaning back in her chair, "How long?"

"Few days, probably two or three. No more than two weeks, tops."

She hummed in thought, looking up at the ceiling before nodding, "Alright, we can stay that long."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "It wasn't a request." Her own eyebrows went up, "I was informing you what I was doing."

Bonney's pink eyebrows drew downwards and her lips pressed into a thin line, "Really."

"Really." I said simply.

Purple eyes bore into my own, but I just raised my eyebrows at her, daring her to question me on this. After a moment, she snorted, a small smile on her face, as she said without any real heat, "Alright, don't be surprised if we're gone if you take too long."

"Yeah…" I rolled my eyes, "Riiiiight."

She snorted, "Oh go fuck yourself."

"Not that flexible," I countered with a small smirk before it faded, "But seriously, I'll be back. I need to cool off."

"We might not be in this port then."

"If you're still on the island, I'll deal."

"Take the birds with you."

"I don't think I'd have much of a choice, actually."

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The Madman Part 11 End