The Madman Part 12

The Madman Part 12

\____-o(X)o-____/​

There's a lot to be said about leather, some bad, some good.

One of the things it wasn't great at in most situations was the whole water thing. I'd have to be sure to add some oils to it after these rains eased up to make sure it didn't get messed up.

"AAAGGGGHHHHH!!!"

*BOOM!*

Well… maybe? It was metal like the rest of me, so it's possible that it wouldn't need my attention later. How would that work? It's actually an interesting question…

Pebbles and splinters pinged uselessly against my form as the tree exploded.

"COME ON!"

At what point did a crack become a bang? That's actually a pretty hard question to answer, though I think the way that tree snapped is more the latter than the former.

It was strange actually, it seemed I was able to get tired in my purely metallic form. I don't think I had a cellular structure in this form… it'd be like if someone like Pica or a Logia had cellular structures in a purely elemental form… so how was this getting used up…? Was it like using up Armament Haki…? If it was, then why didn't powers generally tire people out?

My fist went through a small boulder, shattering the thing.

"GAAAGH!"

No, no, that didn't make sense. If Devil Fruits drew from Haki then they'd be reliant on Haki and fruits would vary based on the person's personal reserves… they're linked in some way though…? No, no that's not right. Haki bypasses the fruit, my best guess being that it allows for direct interaction with the life force of the target… that being the case, maybe it was the same idea… the fruit was interacting with the Haki…

Yeah, that made sense… especially if a person's persistent Haki signature was how the fruit operated in general… yeah. It might not have to do with any single physiological thing really given Logia's and fruit like mine, but the fruit could link up to Haki such that… well, that it acted as the link or the signifier that something was a part of the person… and by hitting the thing with Haki, you were hitting the underlying form directly… and the same way that moving around would exhaust me, my haki pattern moving around would have a similar retrograde impact on my physiology.

*BOOM!*

… maybe not retrograde… not that so much as the forces converting the metal back into flesh and blood being a simple conversion algorithm that works off of what the Haki has… so if the Haki changes to be more 'used up', the fruit converts back like that.

Like, I didn't need to breathe while I was solid metal, but I did it reflexively… just by force of habit really. I didn't need oxygen… hell, my heart didn't beat…

"Cease and desist this at once!"

I froze midswing, and the boulder survived to see another day… or at least a few more moments, "Sorry, what?"

Taking a step back, I looked over at the source of the command, a small man as well as about half a dozen soldiers and a couple more civilians hiding behind them. The man in the lead had a small, but extravagant crown on his head, a well kept, aged bible at his side, pirate experience pegged them at several dozen million belly and nearly a million belly respectively. Sorta stupid for them to have come mind, but whatever.

"Cease and desist."

I shrugged, "Alright."

"What are you doing?"

"Venting. Had a bad day, trying to do that away from people."

"By destroying a mountain."

"Better than destroying faces."

"Could you at least destroy it in that direction? There's a village on the other side that could use a quicker way to reach than going through the jungle."

"Sure."

"… seriously?"

"Sure. Fuck mountains. But fuck that mountain in particular. Anything else?"

"Could you keep it down when people are sleeping?"

"Sure. Anyplace I could stay over to sleep?"

"You may use my palanquin, I shall have my people leave it nearby."

"Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me."

I brought my arm back, setting it to vibrating. A resonant hum took up in the air as I tried to focus the vibrations down into my hand, the effect creating a barely visible buffer of air around it. My legs bunched up, and I launched myself in the indicated direction and slammed my singing palm into the mound of dirt and rocks.

For a fraction of a second, the ground merely shook beneath our feet, and then my hand found the right resonance, and the hill in front of me exploded.

"Lord Musa, is this really a good idea?"

"We'll call in further backup if we need it. Otherwise, I am not one to cause a fight unless we must."

-oOo-​

I carefully poured a bowl of sugar water for the little jewels, the little hummingbirds swarming around within the palanquin.

"I must admit, I am surprised to see the little jewels with you."

A smile crossed my face, "I am as well. This group decided to come with for some inexplicable reason they've only made token efforts to explain to me."

The king gave a little nod, "They have always done as they wish. Their knowledge is second to none, but one must entreat them and only hope for their acquiescence."

"They could be disinclined to acquiesce to a request, of course."

"Quite." He paused, looking at my face, "Why do I have a feeling I'm being made fun of?"

"You're not, but it reminds me of a phrase someone said, it was funny. They had to explain what that meant to someone. The comedic timing was great and you using the word 'acquiescence' reminded me of it."

"I must say, I have never seen an Ability such as yours. It is similar to others I have read of, but it is still unusual."

"Some of what you might be assuming is my fruit could be my techniques instead." I noted with a smile, "My only actual ability is to turn into metal, the explosions, carving, and cutting things at a distance are all effects of my techniques rather than my ability."

It was actually pretty nice to have a pleasant conversation with a king without having to worry about my bounty or them being a total asshat. Masa had come out due to the worries of his people about the noise, and had come with guards in case I was problematic, but had been plenty ready to call in Shaka over the Den Den Mushi if I'd turned out to be too much for his local guard to handle.

"It is fascinating. Now that the wars have been settled here, I may even leave the island to venture forth into the Grand Line on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land on the Grand Line."

He'd sworn himself into Shaka's service when pressed, Shaka's forces were far stronger than his own despite his wealth.

"I'd… well… I'd say to temper your expectations of the World Nobles. They tend to be complete fuckfaces."

"That's blasphemy!"

"It's true. The lack of checks on their power over the centuries has allowed them to wallow in their own extravagance and arrogance. They're spoiled brats of the highest degree."

"I am easily the wealthiest of the kings in our land, and I can assure you that wealth does not lead to being… as you so boorishly put, 'fuckfaces'."

"It's less the wealth and more the lack of restraints upon their actions, the wealth just helps enable it. They have no responsibilities that I know of, they just have power, and wealth, and the legal 'right' to do whatever the hell they want. They can even make slaves of anyone they see, and I've known them to take people as 'theirs' from the streets casually, killing any other family members before abusing them into uselessness or death."

"That… truly?"

"Mhm."

"Then I do believe I shall avoid the 'Holy Land' on my pilgrimage."

-o Elsewhere o-​

"Mother! It has been done!"

…

"Mother…?"

…

"… mom…?"

-oOo-​

Okay, straight metallic power is a significant increase in my physicality and clearly makes me more durable, but it's slower just due to sheer inertia, though given mass is appearing from nowhere without slowing me down… ugh, Devil Fruit Fuckery.

Dirt and gravel pinged into my metallic skin as I punched the wall before me. Huh, form was off, fixing.

I was trying to keep my internals flesh and only my outside metallic, it gave me about an inch of this weird metal as a defensive armor but kept me mostly immune to bullets and shrapnel and such.

Palm flat, I built up vibrations in my arm, turning my hand into solid metal and leaving a gap of flesh between it and the rest of my arm. More and less of my hand turned into metal as I tried to 'tune' the metal, to find the right resonance–

With a keening, solid low note without any warbles or beats, I knew I'd hit the point.

"Rankyakou: Chisel!"

My hand stabbed forward, blue shining at the tips of my fingers as my hand plunged into the cliff face of the trench I'd been beating into the mountain and… that was it, no fractures, no chipping, no further damage.

"… not what I was expecting."

Still… could take advantage of that. I shifted my stance slightly and tried to re-tune my hand to the resonance of the wall.

It was weird to be mostly punching down, so… I didn't. I'd actually shattered the sword I brought with me with a powerful overhead ranged cut. I was actually expecting that though, 'cause one of the things that higher grade swords could do was withstand greater techniques like flying blades and such. A run of the mill cutlass couldn't really withstand the stresses of my metallic form's full strength in a help splitter sort of move.

That said, it'd done what I'd needed it to and carved a decently sized furrow into the mountain. It wasn't much, but it was enough that I could get started without having to punch downwards all the time.

The little cliff wall exploded as I found the resonance and amped it up. There we go, that's… what…

*rumble*

"Ah fuck."

I dodged backwards as the upper parts of the mountain collapsed downward, unsupported by the rock I'd just blown up, a small avalanche happening and hoo boy I was glad I could move when I needed to.

Within a few minutes, the avalanche stopped, and I considered what had happened.

Y'know, aside from me being a dumbass.

I looked over the trench I'd been carving, very narrow, only about a football field long now but getting progressively higher as I dug into the (admittedly small) mountain.

Thing is, it wasn't also getting progressively wider at the top.

Even if I was doing this entirely to vent, that was a stupid mistake on my part. Right.

Get the boulders out, some good throwing practice there, then start carving the place out some more… maybe try jumping up to the top of the 'cliff' that I was digging into and then punching my way down…? Yeah, that'd work. Good and physical and visceral. Something to do for most of the day.

-oOo-​

"Iron Shockwave."

It was the same concept as Geppo and Razor Walk, create a hypocenter to detonate. For geppo it'd push the user away, but this used my enhanced strength and metallic hand to instead bounce it back and vibrational energy and effects to push forward almost like a 'vibro-hammer' sort of concept. Overall, the idea was to create waves of sufficient amplitude to cause sheering force damage to the target, and the harder and more immobile it was the better.

Basically, I was doing my terrible best at imitating the poor man's Whitebeard.

With a crack and rumble, the shelf in front of me started to crumble and I danced back through the falling rubble even as the hummingbirds on my shoulders gave some criticism by holding up little signs.

Mostly 6's and 7's, though there was one that had a 2.

In theory, if I could ramp it up enough, I could actually simulate Whitebeards airborne shockwaves. But I have a feeling that was the basis of the final Roukushiki technique, and that required two hands to perform.

I'd need to create an contained hypocenter within the air and then detonate it while both preventing it going where I didn't want it as well as amplifying the effect with constructive resonance. So… theoretically possible but likely beyond my limited physical power even with my fruit. Mostly because I had no clue how to create a hypocenter from nothing like that, two converging shockwaves…? Blech, no clue.

Some of the hummingbirds darted back under my coat briefly to dip their beaks into the vials of color dye I had on me before flying back up to the wall.

Made some damn good progress on the mountain so far. I was approaching a third of the way through.

This sort of attack was far better for shattering stone than what I'd started with, and the hummingbirds had started to help out by pointing out potential fracture points. It was surprisingly helpful since their eyesight was better than mine, and my Observation Haki was worthless against purely nonliving things like the rock.

"Iron Shockwave Cascade!"

The locals here had been basically supportive once they'd realized that I wasn't something dangerous. Though the initial support of some food and water had stopped, but I was more than able to take care of myself when it came to food, especially this close to the jungle.

Observation Haki might not work on the rocks, but it worked great on the animals in the jungle, it was pretty unfair.

Air pulled into my lungs like bellows, "Intake Manifold."

Even if it was a psychosomatic thing or just a weird conversion quirk of Devil Fruit, getting more oxygen into my lungs increased my functional output and endurance. Turning my lungs, esophagus, and diaphragm into metal allowed them to draw in harder and contain greater pressure and expel the gasses harder than I normally would've been able to.

I hadn't gotten circular breathing practiced enough in this life to try it out, I knew the technique from my last life when I was in band, but never really had reason to practice it here.

Still, this technique made it easier for me to really move quickly through the boulders and debris, either shattering it into gravel and dust with more Iron Shockwaves or chuck it out of the trench I was carving.

It was actually pretty satisfying to powderize this much stuff this quickly, especially for a worthy cause.

"Alright guys, gather up, gonna get a bit windy again."

"MmHmm!"

With the rocks powderized, I walked to the current end of the path, putting my back to the wall before I started to breath in deep. And then more. And more. I sealed off my lungs, pulled more air into my mouth, pushed it down, and repeated again and again in rapid succession. Heat gathering in my chest as the pressure built in my metallic lungs.

The hummingbirds dove beneath my jacket, hiding inside of pockets and folds in the clothes, getting out of the way and staying away from my increasingly warm chest.

And then I opened the valve and pushed.

The air exploded outwards like a compressed hurricane, blasting the sands and stones and debris out of the trench. Like a pressure washer, I moved the jet-stream blasting from my metallic lips and throat about to clear out all of the bits of gravel and rubble that my work was causing.

As the dust clouds settled and the last of the air whistled its way out I smiled. I was getting faster at this, wasn't really a good combat technique, but damn if it wasn't effective for the task.

I tilted just a bit at the lightheadedness that always followed that technique washed over me, but quickly straightened myself out, glancing at my shoulders, "How you guys doing?"

"HmHmmmhmhmHm!"

"I only got like, half of that."

"MmmHmmHmmmm!"

"Okay, that one I got." I couldn't help but grin, "Basically get back to work?"

"Mhm!"

-oOo-​

I was honestly surprised that the King was taking the time to speak with me, but it seems he was merely curious about the world outside of the island. He was fabulously wealthy and made much of his money for controlling rich natural resources and safe travel points as well as one of the major holdings of Eternal Log Poses on the island.

"I hope to meet you out in the Grand Line, Jacob. And I do so hope you have more stories for me at that time."

The dark skin man smiled at me warmly, he'd followed through with the promise, and had actually come to speak with me in the evenings like this every now and then over the past week and change.

"Knowing the Grand Line," I grinned, "Maybe you'll have stories of your own by then."

"Ah! That reminds me," the king nodded and opened up his bible, pulling out a big… golden ticket that I wasn't sure how he fit into the bible. Eh, whatever. He held the ticket out towards me, "Your payment. For the pathway you carved through the mountain."

Taking it from him, I turned it over, "One Crew for The Grand Masquerade...?"

"It is meant to be the greatest, most extravagant party this century, and even I, in this wartorn country, have heard of it and been able to purchase tickets. I hope to see you there."

"If we're nearby at the time, I wouldn't be against it, though I have a feeling you wouldn't appreciate most of the crew there."

A crew I honestly should get back to. I didn't think Bonney would ditch me here, but I could picture Daniel without the need to rip his spine out and strangle him with it.

I could restrain myself long enough for us to get rid of him at very least.

That said, moving a mountain felt good.

-oOo-​

My joints actually creaked and groaned slightly as I walked through the pouring rain through the town. This was… both amusing and problematic. I was literally rusting. Thankfully it wasn't something stupidly fast or anything, but damnit.

The people were less active than they had been last I was here… then again, three straight weeks of pouring rain tended to keep you inside more.

… as an aside, it probably also meant I could oil myself up to prevent this with the local equivalent of WD-40. But still. Fucking rust.

"Florida…?"

I turned at the sound of the voice, a grin already starting to appear on my face as I faced the dark-haired crewman, "How ya' doin'?"

The french-esque man gave me a little smile, he'd gotten an umbrella leaf plant, the roots of the thing entwined in his hair, the rain sliding off of it around him, "I am doing good, mon ami. How about yourself? Are you less…" He made a little gesture with his hand as he came to stand beside me.

A little grin crossed my face unbidden, rain sliding down my coat, "Murder-stabby?"

Lucca smiled back, his understated mustache curling upwards as well, though there was a hint of hesitance to his smile, "Yes, zat."

"Less. But… let's keep Daniel away from me for now."

He cringed, "I heard. Z'at… shouldn't have happened."

"No. It shouldn't have." The two of us started walking together through the town, the few people on the streets shooting furtive glances our way, not that I could blame them given I was still full on 'Organization XIII' at the moment, with a gunmetal cloak. "What's been happening since I've been gone?"

"Mostly selling z'e McPuffin meat. Zey are selling for quite z'e price."

"Good to hear there was more out of it than just for food."

"Captain Bonney's still saving some of it for herself."

I grinned, "You say that like it wasn't expected."

"Touche, mon ami."

-oOo-​

"I rather like z'e bullets, but z'ey always turn into such strange shapes when you fire them."

"Only the casings are really recoverable honestly."

The two of us moved through the town towards the docks, talking a little loudly due to the roar of the pouring rain, "Why not z'e bullets themselves? You'd always lose some of course, but why not have ze bullets retain z'eir shape?"

"Generally, the pointed shape's better for piercing armor and will fly straighter, farther, but the deformed, wider shape does more damage since it's bigger. You add copper or some other, harder, higher melting temperature metal to bullets to 'jacket' them to get the former, which is more useful for sniping than what we usually do."

Lucca nodded contemplatively as we walked up to the docks, "How would we do z'at?"

"I'll need to modify the bullet press a little and create a few dies to make it work and there's a bit of a process to it, do tell me if you figure out a better one. I know the concept, not the best method for this."

"I'd like z'at," the man with the dark, broccoli shaped hair noted as we approached the dock that the Cake was anchored at, "Distance and accuracy are more important for me z'an yourself after all."

"Florida?" I glanced at Claude, who was still working the stall, we had a lot of McPuffin meat. The heavily tattoo'd man blinked at the confirmation and beamed, "Bae!"

"You wish."

"Well, yeah." I rolled my eyes even as Claude grinned, "Good to have you back. The Captain's been moping since you left."

I cocked an eyebrow at him before looking at Lucca. The larger man just shook his head, "She's been reveling in having Rodger see what he can come up with to use z'e McPuffin meat for. She's just been grumbling about z'e fact z'at you put off getting Seastone for so long."

A smile crossed my face, "I can fix that pretty easily thankfully."

There was a twitch in my cheek at a presence in my Observation Haki. But I took a slow breath and shoved down my anger as I moved towards the ship. Keep smiling, it'll make it easier–

"Ironhide? There you fucking are!" I glanced up at the pink-haired woman coming down the gangplank. One of the crew members following after her with a proper umbrella to ensure she didn't get soaked. Mind, she'd still stuck with the dark T-shirt.

"I said I'd be back!"

Purple eyes rolled as she got under the awning of the stall, the crew member peeling off to head off into town, "Just be fucking happy we're still here dumbass!"

That got a disbelieving grin from me, "Uh huh. Right."

She glanced at me as I headed towards the Cake, "There gonna be any problems?"

I paused, the rain falling onto my coat and sliding off of my hood. Quietly, I noted, "Depends on Daniel."

"Just fucking stay away from him then."

I grunted noncommittally. I was gonna, but didn't mean I was happy about it.

-oOo-​

It was a little over two hours later that I was getting my diving suit on and the rest of the equipment set up on the deck of the Cake with assistance from José, one of the gunners.

A tickle of intent hit my Observation Haki, and I looked into the reflection of the metal on the suit, finding Daniel glaring at me from across the deck of the Cake.

Metal spread across my skin beneath the diving suit until… well, Wallace came along and swatted Daniel upside the head and dragging the navigator off.

The screws and bolts squeaked a bit as I tightened them with what would've been inhuman strength in my previous life. Here? It was just unusual strength.

With a sigh, I let the flesh return. I… honestly wasn't sure if it was relief or frustration. Some of the crew on the deck were giving me funny looks, though almost killing Daniel probably was a part of that.

With a huff, I set the air pump to working, the battery I'd thrown together would last this thing for a few hours since it wouldn't draw too heavily on the power. It was mostly meant to keep the air circulating in the diving suit while drawing in air from the outside as well.

…

"José, make sure this thing keeps working, please."

The man nodded a bit uncomfortably, "Right."

One final check of the bulky diving suit to ensure all the pieces were in place and tightened properly and watertight.

With that, I walked to the edge of the railing on the ship and vaulted over it, dropping into the water. The weighted boots letting me sink downwards quickly to the sea bed. I had a few hundred feet of air hose, which should be more than enough to get to the deposit of seastone near the docks.

I hit seabed and silt rose into the water. Taking a moment to orient myself based on the sense of the crew and the hose, I began to walk forward. Big Daddy for the win, I guess. Now, if I remembered correctly, based on my step size and the distance to the deposit from our location I should start looking beneath the silt or keeping an eye out for rock at about 110 steps. Thank you marching band.

-oOo-​

*Crack!*

Rock.

I walked a bit further.

*Crack!*

Ooh, granite? Huh, surprising.

Couple more steps.

*Crack!*

More rock.

Eh, turn a bit and go a bit further.

*Thump*

And so I did the ouchie dance. Standing fully and hopping from one foot to the other and shaking my right hand rapidly as I hissed in pain.

Eeeeyup. There's the seastone.

"Florida, are you okay?" José's voice came over the Den Den Mushi beside my head.

"Tchsshhhhh… yeah… found the seastone."

"Really? How?"

"Punched it. Only way to tell."

At least the only way to tell while I was underwater and looking through the silt and sand and water. Mind you, I could probably figure it out by touching it with my bare hand now… but, well, underwater. So that was bupkis.

I took a knee and raised my right hand, flattening it out into a blade shape. I took a deep breath and focused. Armament Hardening!

The power of my will poured outwards across my hand as I crystalized it. Armament Hardening made the body part rigid, and only a master could use it while flexing the body part at all, and a master I was not. But that was useful in this case, "Rankyaku: Chisel!" I flexed my hand beneath the diving suit into metal as I began to vibrate the hand, a resonant hum going through the water as a surprisingly dark blue glow appeared at my fingertips.

… huh… new color…? Wonder why… not the time though. I was limited by battery time here, and I couldn't just ditch the diving suit and swim if my air ran out.

I lowered my glowing hand straightened fingers first to the rock below me and sparks flew as I began to carve my way into the seastone very… very slowly. The force of the grinding blasting silt away from the stone beneath it, kinda hoped that the coral not too far away from here wasn't damaged by this, but with any luck an hour of this wouldn't be too bad–

Something spiked in my Observation Haki, it wasn't aimed at me but I hadn't been paying attention to it at all so I'd missed it.

I blinked in surprise, the vibrations of my hand coming to a sudden stop, "What's going on up there guys-?"

"Bang!" I nearly flinched as the Den Den Mushi beside my ear shouted the word bang, my head jerking to the side to glare at it. The snail looked at least a bit apologetic before it shouted the word again, "Bang!"

I frowned, but then the snail made a face I recognized. It was the 'sucking on a lemon' face Den Den Mushi's made when too many people were talking at once. There was a jerk on my air-hose before it went slack.

"… oh…?" I turned to watch my air hose and tether start to drift downwards, "… oh…" Well… that was… wait, the torn open end was in the water wasn't it-? "… ah… fuck."

---

The Madman Part 12 End