One Piece - Merlin - Chapter 5

AN

I hope you all are still enjoying this, though I think I got most of it out of my system now. Still, I like this story and plan to continue writing chapters for it. Here's to hoping the next chapter my muse demands I write is for Fabricator!

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Chapter 5

As Merlin moved to follow Nami and Luffy, who were walking in the opposite direction of where he'd been watching their interaction, he called out, “Nami!”

Nami turned around to look behind her and grinned when she saw Merlin, “There you are!”

Luffy, drawn by the voice calling out, also turned and grinned widely, “Magician! Join my crew!”

Merlin smiled at the pair as he addressed Luffy, “Sorry, but I can't join your crew unless Nami does. I owe her everything and will only follow where she leads. You could say, she's my most precious treasure.”

He added that last bit as an after thought, if nothing else calling Nami his treasure would at least get Luffy to understand just how important Nami was to him. He was completely oblivious to the blush that sprang up on Nami's cheeks at the declaration.

Seeing Luffy turn somewhat serious, Merlin knew his little tidbit was working as expected. Luffy turned to look at Nami, “That wont be a problem! Nami is going to be my navigator after all!”

Nami huffed and didn't bother replying, instead she realized she was supposed to be slightly upset with Merlin. She completely ignored Luffy as she marched up to Merlin and poked him aggressively in the chest, “You! I'm supposed to be upset with you! Your stupid invisibility spell ended at the worst time! Some gigantic lion spotted me and alerted the entire crew that I was there!”

“So that's why you were being chased...” Merlin frowned, “Wait! You went in alone without me there to make a distraction?!”

Luffy, meanwhile was listening to the conversation with stars in his eyes, Invisibility! SO COOL!

Nami flushed slightly but powered through it, “They were all distracted by drinking and partying. I've robbed pirates in similar situations in the past without trouble. I figured with your spells making me invisible and silent that it would be a cake walk!”

Merlin thought for a bit, “You said an animal spotted you first?”

Nami glared at him, “Not just some animal! It was a gigantic lion! I thought it was going to eat me! If it wasn't for the wall walking spell, it just might have!”

Merlin nodded, “Well, there's the answer right there. The lion didn't see you, it smelled you.”

Nami froze for a moment before she asked in a dangerous voice, “Are you saying I smell?”

Merlin shrugged his shoulders, “You smell like the soap and shampoo you've been using in the mansion. Compared to those filthy pirates you smell divine. It's probably what made you stand out more among the stinky men.”

Nami flushed once more and stomped away from Merlin while muttering under her breath. Merlin looked at Luffy and in an odd display of synchronicity, they both shrugged their shoulders. Merlin quickly followed behind Nami, “So, we still going after that map and capturing Buggy?”

Luffy piped up, “Map?”

Merlin glanced to where Luffy was walking beside him, “A map to the Grand Line.”

Luffy was instantly excited, “That's awesome! That will make getting there together so much easier!”

Nami looked over her shoulder and glared at Luffy while Merlin just chuckled and shook his head. Deciding to change the subject, Merlin asked, “So, where's Zoro? Didn't he join your crew?”

Luffy tilted his head like a confused puppy, “Zoro got lost. I'm not sure where he is.”

A new voice shouted from the side, “I didn't get lost! You're the one that got caught by a giant bird!”

Three heads turned to see an annoyed looking Zoro walking around the corner of the next intersection. He took a moment to look over Nami and Merlin, stopping for a moment when he saw the sword hanging from Merlin's waist. He could tell that it was a good sward with just a glance. Though it wasn't nearly as good as the sword he inherited from his sensei.

Zoro focused back on Luffy, “You find any food yet?”

As if it was triggered by the question, Luffy's stomach let out a growl that sounded more like the roar of an angry beast. The sound caused Nami to stare at Luffy with a look of incomprehension, “Was that your stomach?!”

Merlin snickered while Zoro rolled his eyes. After Nami recovered, Merlin gave her a questioning look while arching an eyebrow. Nami saw his look and tilted her head in through for a moment. Eventually she sighed and nodded her head. With Merlin there it was easier to think about Luffy being a pirate with a clearer head. So far, she hadn't actually seen Luffy do anything evil. In fact, he'd taken out the trip of pirates chasing her. Sure it was more of a coincidence, but still. Finally she signed and nodded her head in acceptance.

Seeing her acceptance, Merlin looked at Luffy and Zoro, who'd gotten in to a shouting match over... something, “Hey!” When they stopped and looked at him Merlin continued, “You two can come to my place to grab some food. There's plenty there to eat.” He looked at Zoro and smirked, “And drink.”

That got both of their attention. Luffy looked excited and had a bit of drool dribbling from his chin. Zoro actually looked slightly suspicious but didn't actually voice any concerns. While they focused on him, Merlin picked a random door to a house and opened it into his mansion. Luffy's eyes widened as she shouted about how cool it was while even the stoic looking Zoro seemed rather surprised.

All it took was a glance through the doorway to know that the interior they were seeing was significantly bigger than the outside of the house would indicate. Luffy immediately ran inside, shouting the entire time. Zoro, seeing his captain's lack of concern just sighed and walked in with a more sedate pace.

The three more mature individuals watched as Luffy ran around the mansion like a child and examined everything within the main entrance area. Luckily he didn't get far since he stopped to examine every vase and tapestry in the area.

Pretty quickly they got bored of watching the excited teenager and made their way to the dining area where the King's Buffet was set up. Merlin gestured to the table filled to the brim with all kinds of food, “Feel free to eat as much as you like.” He pointed to a smaller table that had an ice chest sitting on it, “That one contains bottles of beer.”

Zoro grunted but turned to look at Merlin once more, “You a swordsman?”

Merlin wondered how long Zoro had wanted to ask that. If he remembered right, early on Zoro was almost obsessed with challenging any swordsman he came across, even if it was suicidal. He smiled and pat Kashu on his waist, “I'm a magician, but I'd say I'm alright with a sword as well.”

He ignored Nami's loud scoff at his statement, but Zoro didn't. He turned to look at Nami, “You got something to say woman?”

Oh yeah, Zoro was also kind of rude as hell at this point too. Yet, despite the rude question, Nami just smirked at him, “Nothing important. Just remembering the last time Merlin drew his sword.”

Zoro studied Nami for a few moments, unsure what to make of her comment. Soon enough his focus was back on Merlin. Merlin could tell that Zoro wanted to fight him so he headed off any chance of that, “I only draw my sword for two reasons. First, to train with it. While I'm not opposed to spars, you're too inexperienced for it to be anything but me teaching you. We're not friends or crew mates so there's no benefit to me teaching you. Second, to kill. A sword is a weapon meant for killing your enemies. If we fight right now, you will die.”

Merlin looked deep into Zoro's eyes, “I'm not being arrogant when I say that. If we cross blades you will die a pointless death. Whatever dreams or ambitions you have will end.” Merlinn sighed, “Aside from that, while I know how to use a sword and can be considered competent, I'm more of a part-time swordsman than one who has dedicated his life to the art of the blade.”

Zoro, hearing Merlin state how a duel between them would end in his death and seeing the certainty in Merlin's eyes, did nothing but encourage him. A fight like that, a fight to the death to see whose skills were superior, was the kind of fight he lived for. He had no problem dying to a superior swordsman. But then Merlin kept talking and his interest waned. Merlin was no swordsman. Being able to competently use a sword and being a swordsman were indeed two very different things. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but Zoro could and so could Merlin, apparently.

With a grunt, Zoro made his way to the table filled with food. Any desire he had to duel Merlin left behind in the past.

Nami looked at Merlin questioningly. Seeing her curiosity he approached her, after getting a random plate of food. It didn't matter what food he got because everything on the table was excellent. As he stepped next to her she asked, “What was that about?”

Merlin shrugged one shoulder in an uncaring manner, “Just an obsessed swordsman. If I'd been a swordsman like him, he would have challenged me to a duel.”

Nami snorted at that, “Guess it's a good thing, for him, that you're not.”

Merlin chuckled a little but didn't comment. Zoro was a sword prodigy. Merlin could definitely defeat Zoro, easily, at the moment. However, that was only due to the sheer difference in strength, speed, and stamina. If it came down to experience, then Zoro would win since he'd been fighting real opponents for a while now and Merlin had never crossed blades with a living soul. Then, in the near future, after two years of training on the home island of the worlds greatest swordsman? Forget it. That version of Zoro would crush him in a sword duel. It was only to be expected though, Merlin's true strength lay in the use of his Devil Fruit.

A moment later, Luffy came charging though the door, “This place is...”

Merlin assumed Luffy was going to say 'amazing' but didn't get the chance to as the instant he saw the table of food, he attacked it and had an entire ham shoved into his mouth. Nami looked both disgusted and surprised as Luffy ate the entire ham, it was her first time seeing someone else with a Devil Fruit. There was also a visceral difference between Merlin's and Luffy's. When Merlin used his it was impressive and useful, but lacked a real... impact.

Luffy's, on the other hand, was something to see. Watching his mouth stretch to accommodate the ham and the additional food he kept shoving in was more of an impact because she could see it doing something unnatural to his body. The human body just did not stretch that much! Watching him swallow it all down was actually worse.

After watching Luffy chow down for a few minutes in horrified fascination, Nami eventually managed to pull her eyes away. Merlin smiled at her and tilted his head back toward the door out. Luffy was going to be eating for a while and Zoro had already moved on to trying to drink all of Merlin's booze.

Though their departure didn't go unnoticed, Zoro didn't make a big deal out of it either.

Once they were far enough away in one of the sitting rooms filled with comfortable leather seats, Nami looked at Merlin inquisitively. Merlin quickly spoke up, “I wanted to talk to you a bit about what we should do after we take down Buggy.”

Nami nodded so he continued, “Now, I want you to listen to me until I finish talking. Please hold your temper until I can explain, alright?”

Nami eyed him suspiciously, but gave him the benefit of a doubt and nodded. Merlin sighed and explained, “I think we should join Luffy and Zoro, at least temporarily. My reasoning is simple. Everywhere we've gone together, Luffy has shown up. He was on Alvida's ship, at Shells Town, and now he's here. I don't know if it's luck, fate, or random chance, but he seems to find his way to places where something interesting is happening. In two of those places were pirates with bounties on their heads. If the pattern continues, he should run into more pirates. That's more pirates we can capture and turn in for their bounty.”

As soon as he'd mentioned joining Luffy, Nami had wanted to fly into a rage, but she kept her promise to listen. By the time he was finished, she looked contemplative. Hanging out with the stretchy kid and the swordsman wasn't too terrible of a prospect. She'd hung out with worse people for the chance to rob them blind. If Merlin was right and the kid had some sort of strange luck...

Nami smiled, “Alright, but only a temporary thing. We'll get as many bounties as we can before we ditch them.”

“Sounds like a plan. I'm certain we can make plenty off of them.”

Merlin might not have remembered who it was Luffy would fight against or run into, but he did remember that all of his enemies seemed to be other pirates. So, why not take advantage of that and grab all of them and turn them in for their bounties? He was completely unaware that, excluding the Arlong pirates, all of the pirates they would run into with bounties would total eighty-one million Belly.

It was a while before Luffy actually finished eating. By the time he was done only a quarter of the food the table summoned per day was left and Luffy looked like a giant ball. Zoro, on the other hand, was just calmly sipping on a bottle of beer. On spotting Merlin, Zoro lifted the bottle in his hand and called out, “It's not sake, but it's pretty good. Can you make something produce unlimited sake?”

Merlin shook his head, “Not at the moment. Maybe some time in the future?”

The unlimited beer chest was from his gacha after all. He hadn't a clue on how to reproduce it. He'd tried conjuring and making copies of foods and drinks in the past and always failed. The copies had no flavor and provided no nutrition. His best guess was that the moment the food hit stomach acids, it broke down into either nothing, or back into magical energy that did nothing.

Zoro looked slightly disappointed, but got over it quickly and returned to drinking his beer. It might not be the best flavor he'd ever had, but it was unlimited and free. Only a fool would complain about that!

Meanwhile, Nami was looking between Luffy and Merlin with an arched eyebrow. He could practically hear her asking 'Really?' with just that look alone. Merlin just shrugged in response. He'd never said Luffy was amazing or anything, just that he was lucky.

Merlin faced Nami, “We should go rob and capture Buggy.” He glanced at Zoro, “I'm sure Buggy has at least one swordsman on his crew, if you're interested.”

He ignored the overfilled Luffy for now. The 'fight' on this island wasn't going to last long and he couldn't deal with Luffy's usual 'blast them far away' method of dealing with enemies. He needed Buggy to stay nice and close so he could collect the bounty.

Zoro grunted in acknowledgment and climbed to his feet, though he didn't stop drinking his beer. Rather, he grabbed a few more from the chest for the road. Merlin wondered if Zoro was a drunken swordsman for a moment.

Luffy... just rolled around groaning and was promptly ignored by the other three. Merlin led Nami and Zoro to the exit and stepped outside, only to come face to face with a giant lion. Nami paled at the sight of the beast while Zoro only looked mildly interested. Merlin, meanwhile, looked at the giant lion with wide sparkling eyes, “KITTY!”

Before either of his companions could react, Merlin launched himself off of the ground hard enough to leave small cracks in the paving stones. He then slammed into the giant lion with enough force to roll it over onto it's back. Nami and Zoro stared, deadpan, as Merlin began giggling while crawling on the lions stomach to scratch it.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!”

Nami and Zoro turned to look at the person shouting, both trying to ignore the loud rumbling purring coming from the lion and the, somewhat psychotic, giggles of Merlin. Standing off to the side, covered in dirt from rolling on the road, was a weird looking man they didn't recognize. The man, Mohji, wore a white fur vest, green pants held up by a black sash, and shoes in the shape of white furred animal feet. The most distinct feature had to be his head though where his white hair was made up to somewhat resemble a teddy bear.

Instead of waiting for anyone to answer him, he looked at his lion partner, which was currently under the ministrations of a complete stranger and apparently loving every moment of it. Richie was laying on his back while his stomach and chest were being vigorously scratched. Granted, that was behavior more reminiscent of a dog, but neither Richie nor Merlin seemed to care as one giggled with not a little bit of insanity in the sound and the other purred happily.

Three deadpan stares were given to the lion and man before Nami had enough. Those weird giggles coming from Merlin were just wrong. She stomped over to the pair and grabbed Merlin by the collar of his vest and tugged him away from the lion. Merlin pouted like a spoiled child, but didn't put in any effort to escape Nami's grasp. Rather, he looked up at her with the pout and said, “C'mon Nami! It's been so long since I've gotten to pet an animal!”

Nami didn't budge and continued to pull Merlin away from the lion. Meanwhile, Richie seemed to come to his senses and quickly flipped around so that he was back on his feet. Somehow everyone could see that the lion looked a bit embarrassed.

Once the moment passed, Mohji looked at Richie while pointing to Nami, “Richie, we were looking for that thief girl, is that her?”

Richie sniffed the air then let out a low rumbling growl. Mohji grinned and turned to face Nami, Zoro, and a still pouting Merlin. He crossed his arms over his chest and spoke in the most arrogant voice he could muster, “I'm Beast Tamer Mohji, First Mate of the Buggy Pirates! The only appropriate punishment for attempting to steal from Buggy is... DEATH! Prepare yourselves!

Mohji then pointed at all of them, “Get them Richie!”

“...”

There was silence as Richie, a slightly more intelligent being than Mohji, didn't move to attack. Rather, Richie was giving Mohji a look that anyone could see meant 'are you serious?'. A moment of thought was all it took for the lion to know it couldn't beat Merlin, so what was the point of even trying? Merlin had tackled and flipped him over in an instant and he'd been unable to do anything but enjoy the belly rubs. No way was he going to do something that might lead to pain instead of scritches.

Mohji slowly turned his head to look at Richie. The lion quickly looked away and tried to appear innocent. Mohji looked between the lion and the trio he wanted the lion to attack. Flushing with embarrassment, he held up a finger to ask for a minute. He quickly stomped over to Richie and began furiously whispering into his ear. Richie growled back at certain points as the two had a conversation, of sorts.

Eventually, Mohji got annoyed and practically shouted, “Fine! I'll do it myself!”

As he turned to address the trio watching him, he froze. Zoro had all three of his swords drawn, which prompted a memory in Mohji's head that indicated he was looking at Roronoa Zoro. Scary! Then he looked at the woman, she was holding some weird staff that he hadn't seen a moment ago. The look on her face suggested it would be painful to try and get close to her. Lastly, he looked at the man that Richie was afraid of. Merlin was sitting on the ground with his arms crossed over his chest and a childish pout.

Mohji began sweating profusely as he tried to figure out what to do. Richie was his big gun and the lion refused to do anything with Merlin around. He had a whip but... that didn't really comfort him as he looked at the three swords Zoro was wielding. He began to perspire heavily as his brain tried to come up with a way out of the situation.

The three watched Mohji as he slowly began to sweat and look more and more nervous as the silence continued. Before too long, Mohji did the smart thing. He leaped on top of Richie and directed the lion away from the three people scaring the hell out of him, “You got lucky this time but you wont be this lucky next time!”

Together lion and man fled into the distance to return to the safety of their crew members.

There was a moment of silence as the trio watched the retreat. Nami was the first to break that silence by snickering, though it quickly turned into full blown laughter. Merlin smiled a little at hearing Nami laugh while Zoro just looked at her like she was crazy.

After Zoro sheathed his swords, he looked at Merlin, who was climbing to his feet and dusting his pants off, to ask, “Are you sure there's a decent swordsman among a crew with such a weak first mate?”

Merlin shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, “No idea! I just said there might be. It's a pretty big crew so, hopefully, one of them is a swordsman for you. If not... I dunno, come back here and drink some more?”

Zoro tilted his head as he contemplated that. With a nod, he accepted Merlin's logic, “Let's go.”

Nami deconstructed her staff and slipped it into the holster she wore on her thigh, then joined Merlin and Zoro so the three of them could head toward Buggy's location. They either didn't notice, or didn't pay any attention to, the old man peeking at them from around the corner of a building further down the street.

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As they got close enough to the Buggy Pirates to hear the ruckus they were making on the roof of a building near their ship, Nami turned to face Merlin, “Magic me up magic man.”

Merlin rolled his eyes a little but began casting his spells on Nami. Zoro watched with a fair amount of surprise as Nami completely vanished from sight. Once he finished his spells, including the protection ones, he spoke up, “Just make sure to wait until the lion is out here with us before trying to go in this time.”

Merlin rolled his eyes as Nami stuck her tongue out at him, “Yeah yeah. I'm counting on you boys!”

With that, she gave Merlin a wink and sauntered off with far more sway in her hips than usual knowing that only Merlin could see her. Merlin rolled his eyes once more and turned to Zoro, “Time to get the party started.”

Zoro gave him a deadpan look, “More like interrupt the party going on.”

Merlin pouted at Zoro, “No fun.” He turned to face the building while casting a spell on his throat, “OI! BIG NOSE! GET YOUR STUPID BIG ASS NOSE DOWN HERE!!”

Zoro grimaced at the sheer volume of Merlin's voice, no way he was able to naturally shout that loudly. At the same time, all sound from the top of the building came to a grinding halt. A few moments of tense silence preceded Buggy's head appearing at the edge of the building and looking down at them, “What. Did. You. Say?”

Merlin smirked, “I SAID GET YOUR BIG ASS RED NOSE DOWN HERE YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

Buggy let out a wordless roar filled with rage. He gestured wildly at the pair down below, “FIRE THE BUGGY BALL!! FIRE FIRE FIRE!!”

There was a lot of noise as the pirates scrambled to obey Buggy. Zoro looked slightly nervous as the large canon was pointed down toward them. He glanced at Merlin and, seeing Merlin's completely relaxed demeanor, relaxed himself. As the canon fuse was lit, Merlin turned to look at Zoro, “You can stop canon balls, right?”

Zoro jerked at the question and looked at Merlin with shock, “You mean you can't?! Then why the hell are we just standing here?!”

Merlin shrugged in an uncaring manner, “I didn't say I couldn't. Was just curious if you could. You should work on that.”

Zoro opened his mouth to retort, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by the loud 'BOOM!' of a canon going off. Merlin casually moved into the path of the cannonball and gently caught it with his bare hand. Zoro, Buggy, and all of Buggy's minions stared at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Buggy was aware that such feats were possible, he had sailed with Gold Roger, after all. But seeing it done so casually in the East Blue, the weakest sea in the world?! Impossible!

Merlin looked at the clown-faced cannonball and smirked, “You can have this back!”

All the Buggy Pirates gaped as Merlin casually tossed the cannonball back at them with slightly more force then it had been shot. There were screams of fear that were quickly followed up by a massive explosion as the Buggy-ball detonated far more fiercely than a standard cannonball would.

Merlin smirked as he looked over his handiwork. The entire building had collapsed and he could see legs and arms sticking out of the rubble. Zoro recovered from his shock about the same time as various piles of rubble began to move. Buggy, a dude with a weird hairstyle, and several fodder level pirates managed to pull themselves out of the rubble.

Buggy appeared holding the corpses of two of his men that he'd casually used as shields. Meanwhile, the man with the weird hair, Cabaji, was holding the body of Richie as a shield. That annoyed Merlin, who casually tried to decide if he should decimate Cabaji for letting the first kitty he'd seen in decades get hurt. Kittens should be protected! He didn't move though, Cabaji had a sword at his waist, so hopefully Zoro would be slicing him into ribbons soon enough.

It wouldn't do to take away a potential friends plaything, after all.

Rather, he focused back on Buggy and the other pirates that managed to pull themselves together. Merlin smirked at them all. Cabaji didn't take kindly to Merlin's smirk. Drawing his sword, Cabaji somehow found and mounted his unicycle and charged at the duo, “I'm Cabaji the Acrobat, Chief of staff of the Buggy Pirates! I'll kill you to avenge the crew you've hurt!”

He charged directly at Merlin, but Merlin didn't even blink or pay him even the littlest bit of attention. The moment Cabaji drew a sword, he became Zoro's property. True to his expectations, as soon as Cabaji was within striking distance, his sword was intercepted by one of Zoro's, “I'll be your opponent.”

Cabaji and Zoro moved off to a different part of the plaza to fight. Merlin wasn't the least bit worried about Zoro losing to the pathetic mess that was Cabaji. Frankly, the only one with even a remote bit of skill was Buggy and even he was a loser. Merlin's prediction came true in a shockingly short amount of time. After just a few quick exchanges, Zoro turned Cabaji into sashimi.

Seeing his Chief of Staff go down in a pool of his own blood sent Buggy into a frenzy, “CABAJI! Damn you thieves!”

Buggy pointed his hands at Merlin and Zoro and launched them off of his arms with some force. Each hand held four knives, one between each finger and the thumb of each hand. Zoro was surprised to see it happen but quickly adapted, Buggy was now the third Devil Fruit user he'd met and was not the weirdest one either.

As the hands got close, Merlin drew his sword and easily parried Buggy's hand while Zoro did the same. Without looking toward Zoro, Merlin called out, “Watch out for the hand coming back. Buggy's definitely the type of coward to attack from behind.”

True to his words, both hands came flying back at them from behind. Though, once again, neither of them had any issue with deflecting the attacks. When the hands returned to Buggy and reattached, he clicked his tongue in annoyance. Merlin just continued to flash him a confident smirk as he began walking forward with Kashu held casually to the side. He had nothing to say to Buggy, but apparently the same couldn't be said for the clown, “What do you think you're going to do with that sword huh?! I ate the Bara Bara no Mi! Swords are useless against me!”

Merlin looked down at the sword in his hand then back at Buggy. With a shrug of his shoulders, he sheathed the sword. He still continued to smirk and walk toward Buggy as golden ripples formed in the air by his hand. Merlin reached into the ripples and what he pulled out caused Buggy to gulp, loudly.

Merlin set his new weapon on his shoulder, a massive black metal kanabo that looked eerily reminiscent to Kaidou's Hassaikai. Because it was. Even so, Merlin moved the massive hunk of metal around like it weighed nothing.

Some might think that the weapon was a 'win' from the gacha, but they would be wrong. Though Kaidou used the weapon with great effectiveness and for many decades, it wasn't actually anything all that special. At least, not in his hands. Though, maybe if he used the gacha prize to unlock his Haoshoku and infuse it into the giant spiked club it might be better?

Buggy, panicked by the massive club that his Devil Fruit couldn't counter, aimed both of his hands at Merlin, “Bara Bara Cannon!”

Both of his fists launched off of his wrists and flew at Merlin. Merlin just arched an eyebrow and casually swung the kanabo to smack both hands in a single swipe. Though the swing looked casual, the sheer amount of force behind it was breath taking. Buggy could only scream in agony as the blow shattered all the knives and bones in his hands.

Buggy fell to his knees as pain lanced through his hands. He barely managed to call the mangled appendages back to himself. All of his fingers were clearly broken and both hands were bleeding from areas where the bone was sticking out of the skin. His once white gloves were now stained red.

Merlin finally came to a stop, the kanabo resting on his shoulder once more, “I suggest you surrender now before things actually get ugly.”

Buggy looked up at Merlin with tears and snot running down his face, “I wont surrender to a flashy thief!”

Merlin just shrugged and lashed out with his left hand. A moment before his fist crashed into Buggy's cheek, it turned pitch black. The blow instantly lay Buggy out on the ground, conscious. Merlin let out a sigh and shook his head, “So anti-climatic.”

He stored his kanabo away and looked behind himself, “Hey Zoro, see if you can find an empty barrel for me, will ya?”

Zoro scoffed, “You're not my captain, or a member of the crew. If you were, you'd know I'm the First Mate. Do it yourself.”

Merlin rolled his eyes while shaking his head in exasperation, “So cranky. Are you still mad about that loser on the unicycle?”

Zoro clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked away. That was all the confirmation Merlin needed. He scoffed and started looking around for an unbroken or mostly intact barrel. He could repair items if they weren't too badly broken. A barrel with a few cracks of broken planks? Easy as pie to fix. A completely shattered barrel? No hope in hell.

As he looked for a barrel, he addressed the conscious pirates nearby, “I suggest all of you quit being pirates and look for a normal life.” He turned his head to sweep his gaze over the group, “If I ever see any of you again, I will kill every last one of you.”

All of the pirates watching him shuddered in fear. The look in his eyes told them all they needed to know. They'd seen the same look in Buggy's eyes before he did something violent. There was a distinct lack of sanity behind the look that freaked them out every time. They all nodded their heads and many swore to themselves that they'd never sail as a pirate again.

With that taken care of, Merlin returned to hunting for a mostly intact barrel. It took a few minutes but he eventually found one. He set it to the side and pointed his hand at it, before he could cast his spell though, Nami returned with a giant sack of loot. Many of the pirates nearby had their eyes bugging out as the sack seemed to float on its own. Their shock only grew after Merlin canceled his spells and they saw Nami appear from thin air. Those who hadn't already sworn to stop being pirates, quickly changed their minds and made the same promise to themselves.

“I can see it went pretty well.”

Nami grinned broadly, “He had so much treasure! I took it all. Oh!” She set the bag down and pulled out a rolled up piece of thick parchment, “I also found the map to the Grand Line!”

Merlin gave her an encouraging smile, “Well done... Though you might want to consider leaving some of the treasure here.”

“What?! Why?! I found and stole it so it's mine fair and square!”

Merlin grimaced at the suspicious gaze she was sending his way. He held up his hands in surrender, “I'm not saying you didn't. It's just that some of it had to have come from the citizens on this island. Taking treasure from pirates on the sea and not returning it to the people it was taken from is one thing. No one would expect you to interview the pirates to find out where it came from so you could return it. But here? Taking that money instead of giving it back to the people of Orange Town would be like you were stealing it from them yourself.”

Nami gave him an outrageous pout as she hugged the treasure sack tightly to herself, “I hate it when you get all logical. Why can't you have a bout of insanity right now, huh?”

Merlin just chuckled and left Nami to think while he returned to what he was doing. He lifted his hand toward the broken, but not destroyed, barrel and cast one of his favorite spells, “Repair.”

When the magic circle flared to life in his hand, the barrel began to glow with a soft white light. Everyone nearby, and awake, watched in awe as pieces of broken wood floated out of the rubble and attached themselves to the barrel. All the cracks where the wood had broken resealed themselves becoming one homogeneous piece once more.

When the glow faded away, the barrel looked almost as good as new. While the repair spell was amazing, it couldn't restore wear and tear or make something old look like something new. It could only really put something back to how it was a short time before it broke. A vase that just fell and shattered? No problem! A decades old vase with various chips and cracks that broke? It'd be back together with the same chips missing, though the cracks would probably seal.

With his newly repaired barrel, Merlin moved on to securing his prize for this trip. He set the barrel down near the still unconscious Buggy. Merlin casually pulled his sword with his right hand while grabbing Buggy by the hair with his left. Nami looked confused until the sword flashed and Buggy was decapitated. Nami looked a little green as she questioned Merlin, “Not that I'm complaining, but why did you do that?”

Merlin looked over at Nami and sighed, “Missed the fight again didn't you?”

Nami nodded so Merlin explained, “Buggy has a Devil Fruit called the Bara Bara no Mi. It basically makes him completely immune to slashing attacks. I could slice him up into tiny pieces and his power would let him pull himself back together. He can even control all of his parts and make them fly around.”

Nami looked surprised, “Really? Scary. Still, his head?”

Merlin chuckled, “Well, because of his fruit, cutting his head off wont kill him.”

He held up Buggy's head and showed her the neck where it was sliced. Instead of blood, bones, and gore, there was just a flat flesh colored area. After showing her he set the head down and picked up the rest of Buggy's body, “Because of that, putting him in handcuffs or tying him up is pointless. He could easily break his body apart to slip out of any bindings.”

He stuffed Buggy's body into the barrel and grinned, “Hence the decapitation and barrel.”

Nami tilted her head to the side, “I don't follow.”

“Well, all Devil Fruit users have the same basic weaknesses. Once a person eats a Devil Fruit the ocean immediately hates them. We're all hammers if we ever fall into the sea. We lose all of our strength, can't swim, and even lose access to our special powers.”

As Merlin spoke he gestured to the sea nearby and cast a spell. A stream of ocean water flew through the air and began filling the barrel. Buggy's body was quickly submerged. Nami perked up, “Oh! I get it! Since cutting his head off wont kill him, you can cut it off and submerge his whole body in water to keep him from escaping or using his Devil Fruit! Clever.”

Merlin smirked and nodded along with Nami. Once the barrel was full, he slapped the lid on and set Buggy's head on the lid, “Now Buggy can't escape no matter what he tries to do.”

Merlin grabbed Buggy by the hair once more and lifted the barrel with his other arm, “We're all done here.” He looked over at Zoro, “C'mon. There's still plenty of cold beer back at my place.”

As they walked around a street corner, they were stopped by an old man in ancient leather armor holding a cheap spear, “Wait!”

The trio came to a stop and looked at the old man, “Thank you for defeating Buggy! You three are the heroes of our village!”

Zoro scoffed and looked away. He was still annoyed about his 'fight' against Cabaji. Merlin smiled brightly, “No thanks. Being a hero sucks. I'm just a greedy bounty hunter, M'kay?”

He actually had zero greed, but being held up as a hero would suck. Far too much work and people would have expectations. No thanks!

Nami, meanwhile, was biting her lip in thought before she sighed and set down her bag-o-loot. She quickly dug through it pulling out all the stacks of Belly bills she could find. The pile of cash wasn't small and probably totaled a million of more in smaller denominations, “Here, this is all the cash I stole from Buggy's ship. It should be enough to help rebuild the town.”

The old man, Mayor Boodle, had tears in his eyes as he looked at the money pile. Unknown to him, Nami chose to give back the cash because she calculated that it was actually worth less than all the gold and jewels she took from Buggy's treasure vault.

Once she gave out the money, Nami grabbed Merlin's arm, ignoring Buggy's head in his hand, and led him away while the mayor profusely thanked her. Nami looked distinctly uncomfortable and embarrassed at the praise.

The trio quickly arrived back at the entrance to Merlin's mansion and made their way inside. Nami immediately disappeared deeper into the house to hide her gains from the others. Zoro made his way back into the dining room where Luffy was happily sleeping in ball form.

Meanwhile, Zoro took Buggy to one of the smaller bedrooms, which was still massive and fully furnished with its own bathroom. While his mansion came with many amenities, it did not come with a prison or dungeon area. Sad. Didn't all rich people in One Piece have a dungeon built into their mansions? How come his didn't?!

Either way, Buggy wouldn't be able to escape from the room as long as he was stuck in the barrel. It just meant he got to look at a well appointed room instead of bare stone and metal bars.

Merlin left the room and returned to the dining room, which seemed to be the unofficial hang out spot at the moment, and grabbed himself a snack. Though he didn't do all that much, using his magic still cost him energy and even the little bit he used was like running full out for a few hundred meters. Little spells just left him peckish while big spells one after another always left him starving.

Of course, transforming to his half-beast or full-beast states made his spells stronger and less energy intensive, it's just... He hated his alternate forms and wouldn't use them without a damned good reason.

Zoro was back next to the ice box full of beer and after a few minutes Nami joined them in the dining room. She looked at the three men as she addressed the room, “So, now what?”

Merlin shrugged, though he focused on Nami, “Did you make up your mind?”

Nami sighed but nodded, “Yeah, I suppose we can join Luffy.”

Those seemed to be the magic words as Luffy instantly woke up, slimmed down, and threw his hands in the air, “Yes! I knew I would get you two to join me!”

Nami glared at Luffy, “We're only coming with you since it seems like we can earn a lot of money working with you! We're only cooperating as long as it serves our purposes!”

Nami sighed while Merlin chuckled. Luffy stroked his chin as if he had a long beard, “Now that the crew has gotten so big... we need a ship!” He looked at Nami with a broad smile, “Let's go to the nearest island and see if we can get a ship there!”

The group of four left the mansion and made their way down to the docks. Their small boats were parked near each other. As the group got close, three pirates popped out of Nami and Merlin's boat holding their weapons up, “You've finally returned! Now we can... have...”

The leader of the trio trailed off as he saw Zoro glaring at all three of them. The pirate trio let out girly screams and dove into the sea to swim away. Nami looked over at Zoro, “What was that about?”

Zoro shrugged and continued walking toward his a Luffy's boat, “Just some garbage I picked up in the sea. They said something crazy about a guy cutting their ship... in... half...” He turned to look at Merlin as the lead pirate's words echoed in his mind, “It was you, wasn't it?”

Merlin smirked and didn't answer. Rather, he went onto his and Nami's little boat. Neither boat was all that big, but Nami's boat was definitely the bigger one and the only one with a cabin. The boat Luffy and Zoro had seemed like a large row boat with a small sail stuck in the middle while their own looked like a massively scaled down ship.

Both crews climbed on board and set sail, Luffy's boat closely following Nami's since neither Luffy nor Zoro could navigate anything anywhere. Luffy probably couldn't navigate his way out of a paper bag and Zoro was notorious for not being able to walk in a straight line, even when on a straight road.

As the crews set sail, Merlin couldn't help wondering which island was up next and what the next adventure might be. Hopefully, it would be one where Luffy could show a bit of his personality to Nami. No matter how much Merlin could talk the guy up, if Nami didn't witness it she wouldn't believe it.

Merlin couldn't help smiling as their ships sailed out to sea for their next little adventure. It was so amazing to have such an old dream coming true. As soon as they got their hands on the Going Merry he'd have to help train the crew up for the Grand Line. He was definitely looking forward to that! So much to see and do, man was he glad to be alive!