Undying Will

Below deck, the rhythmic beat of the drums rumbled outward. "Boom, boom. Boom, boom." it rang as I stood over it bare chested, my shirt tied to my waist.

Barts sat on a corner, sweat pooling off her forehead as she attempted to keep pace with the rest of the folks around her, her side only making do because of Fawkes" steady and reliable presence. But still she persevered, on her first day on the ship she had complained bitterly, on the second she had wailed piteously, and on the third she had silently accepted her fate.

Of the crew, only Sorren had a pa.s.s, too injured to do so he made do with his own coping exercise on deck.

Rein groaned loudly as he slumped forward, the grueling exercise proving too much for him. His red hair matted limply on the side of his temple as his pants drowned in the sweat that he let off. He groaned and panted, yet was unable to move.

Angella walked up to him, patting his shoulder before calmly and easily lifting him up and placing his gasping form at the side.

"You alright there, red hair?" I called out cheerily as I looked at him. He gasped as he caught my eye, flipping me off before resting his back against the wall.

I paid him no mind, only paying attention to the drum in front of me and the apt rhythm of my rising and falling arms. Slowly the pace of the beats slowed, the thick drum membrane vibrating softly as it quaked less and less.

With the beat the crew began to slow, their arms resting safely and slowly at their side as I stopped. Fawkes breathed deeply as he looked around, his eyes caught mine before he nodded.

The calming beat controlled their rhythm, the rumble of each beat controlled their intensity. With how the exercise had repeated itself over the past few weeks since we had entered the calm belt, there was no surprise that it had served its purpose.

This was a method that I had discovered back when I lived on the island with dad, it helped people learn to tune themselves well with their Haki. Already most of the crew had a preliminary understanding. Even the complete rookies on the ship, Rein and Barts had managed to grab onto something!

Rein, regardless of how weak he was now proved to be a true talent. He had already awakened Observation Haki! At least enough to predict anything within a three feet radius around him!

"Ok gang, this session of rowing comes to an end! The afternoon session shall belong to Scipio, Angella and me! Disperse, Fawkes prepare our lunch!" I called out, with a loud roar of approval welcoming my decision.

Rein groaned as he hobbled to his feet. The man could barely see straight let alone eat at the moment. With his hands on the walls he began to trudge forward, the red muscles of his shoulder and arms popping with even the slightest of movements. Today seemed to have taken a huger toll on him than expected.

With a swift look at Terrick I walked behind the red hair, hooking my arms under his armpit and lifting him off his feet. Fawkes did the same from the other side. With quick steps we ran to the stairs amid feeble protests from the man we ran into the kitchen and depositing him on a chair.

Within the next three minutes the entire crew had gathered, Angella had gone off to gather the absentee doctor in the time it had taken the rest of us to dry off.

Amidst loud chatter and even louder rebellious stomachs we barreled through our lunch, there was little to no information that was shared amidst the collective.

Halfway through the banquet however, Barts, who had been until that point sending Rein the stink eye spoke up.

"Captain, I"m quite new to the pirate life, so I wanted to know," and from within the folds of her recently-changed-into dress she brought out a pink fruit. It had spirals all over the sides and a pointy stalk that called out conspicuously to all those around. The fruit, though mango shaped obviously was too big to belong to common conceptions of the mango.

" Can I eat this? I found it a few hours before we left fragrant island…" She said, quickly silencing herself as she took in the gob smacked expression that I knew that most of the crew shared. I must confess, the only reason that I remained silent for as long as I did, having Barts loudly call out to me over three times, was because I had lost most cognitive function, I mean what were the odd?

A sigh and a few Heimlich maneuvers later, when we had finally calmed down I looked at her again. "hah…. Most pirate crews even in the new world follow this policy, Barts. At least when it comes to devil fruits. Finders keepers. You found it, so do what you want with it. The captain has no control of what a crew member does with a devil fruit he or she has found.

But, if you want to eat it, I want to remind you of this. You will never be able to swim again!" I said, my final words just being spoken when Barts already slammed the fruit into her mouth. Two bites later, she had swallowed it.

As if that curveball wasn"t enough however, another jumped out of the corner to a.s.sault me almost immediately. Rein, who had been silent over the last exchange finally looked at me.

"Lorean. No, captain. I want to ask you something." He rumbled out, his baritone voice cutting through the racket that Barts snap decision had caused. Again the crew settled into silence, Sorren pausing in his attempt to toast the recently inducted devil fruit user.

"Go ahead, Rein." Was my only reply. The man would have my undivided attention, if he requested for it, then I suppose that it was important.

"I want to join your crew." He said, simply and succulently remarking as if to ignore the absurdity that he had just spouted.

I still regarded him seriously however. Though all my many instincts begged me to spit take, I looked at him calmly. Through the entire situation my brain roared at me to accept, to toast him and her. But I could not, so instead I could only nod.

As soon as I did, as if an ironic replay of the scene that had just occurred he pulled out a sweat cloth from his breast pocket. With deft fingers he unknotted the cloth before swallowing the purple grape underneath. It was another devil fruit!

Throughout the ensuing celebration I could only sit mute, the captain and his first mate had been successfully dumbstruck.

Oh and, later that day, we entered the New World!