A young swordsman's adventure 15

Ironically, while the Humandrills could navigate the Grand Line just fine, albeit in a manner that could use improvements, they were completely hopeless in the Blues, where you couldn’t just go ‘point the ship in the direction of this Log Pose/Vivre Card’ and expect that to work. 

In the Blues, you needed an actual education to navigate. Fortunately, she had one. “Adjust left by two!” She shouted at them…. Well, it was more of a roar and two hoots, but they got the message anyway. 

Tanya’s ship, the Argent, was a two-masted corvette with gleaming silver accents to decorate it, The silver was coated by some sturdy transparent paint that protected it from the seawater, and the fast, sturdy warship was perfect for her needs. Like the Kamisogi, large sections of the ship were made of Taolf wood, which was very sturdy but also physics-breakingly buoyant, allowing the ship to carry incredibly heavy loads for its size. Unlike the Kamisogi, the bones of the ship was made of the much sturdier Adam wood, which was expensive and on the heavy side but it meant that the ship could take absurd amounts of punishment without sinking, as it was a nigh-indestructible skeleton liberally supported by floatation devices. As long as a tenth of the Taolf remained, the skeleton’s weight would be supported, no matter how unseaworthy it looked. 

She wouldn’t want to put it in front of an Emperor, and she could definitely destroy the ship herself if she tried hard enough, but the fact that she would need to put in significant effort to do so was enough of an endorsement that it was well worth the price tag. Three hundred million… was honestly a decent deal, she had checked in on the wood markets, the materials alone ran eighty million. With the master shipwrights of the Galley-la company working on it, a two-twenty million markup was incredibly reasonable. 

It helped that they ordered ten of a similar but cheaper model using inferior but still high quality wood for the Grimm Navy. They’re about seventy percent as effective for a third of the price. They also got a bit of a discount for allowing Galley-la two whole years to fit in the builds, as long as they put a high priority on the Argent. To her historical eye, that seemed like a very tight timetable, but the Galley-la workers were Grand Line natives, and each one had the strength of a forklift and the precision of machines. It really accelerated things when you had the equivalent of power armored engineers working with things. Their four hundred shipyards could produce all ten at once within two months if they put everything they had into it. 

They were just very busy, and their schedule was packed. Putting a long lead time in so they could just assign workers to the project sporadically when other projects got delayed meant that they could afford to buy ten, which would be enough for all of the current sailing-trained humandrills to be able to operate them. 

The part where they also agreed to send a handful of experts with the ships for a year of sharing their expertise for a reasonable price was icing on the cake. 

…Hm. She needed someone to talk to. The humandrills weren’t much for conversation. They preferred dancing and playing music, which was nice, but not very intellectually stimulating. 

Wait. What is that? “...is that a circus tent?” She said out loud. A circus tent? On a ship? With a Jolly Roger… She should get one of her own. 

Well… she’s seen weirder. Now, the question is: pirate-themed circus, or circus-themed pirates? Either way, she’s spent the last three days without human contact, so… “Ahoy!” She shouted to the Humandrills. They knew that one. Switching to HSL, the designation she decided on for Humandrill Sign Language, she hooted and pointed to the circus ship. “Another ship! Peaceful Approach! Adjust right seven!” she signaled once a few turned her way. 

The humandrills hooted back. “Yes, Princess!” before passing on the message to the ones out of her view and worked together to adjust the sails appropriately as Kaiten, the helmsape, turned the wheel the designated thirty-five degrees. 

She could theoretically run the ship completely on her own, ungracefully, in calm seas and with liberal usage of extra ropes, but for practical purposes, four crew was the minimum, and that assumed the helmsman was also navigating. 

As in Grimm when they led themselves, one quarter of the humandrills slept in six hour shifts. On Gloom Island, day and night were frequently academic distinctions for about half the year, so the native fauna laughed at the idea of being nocturnal or diurnal. Aside from that, Tanya didn't bother enforcing any kind of strict scheduling, just assigning tasks when things needed to get done to whoever, if she didn't take care of it herself. Their work ethic wasn't the best, but they followed their leader: if she was working, they were working. 

The other ship didn't really seem to clarify if they were clowns or pirates as she got closer. They wore clown makeup, but a few were carrying weapons. The captain even had a clown nose, jester shoes, and was juggling knives… which sounded familiar for some reason. They even had a lion. A big one. 

They didn't seem to notice her or her ship, too busy partying to have anyone watching. There were some small rocky islands nearby, and their anchor was down. 

When they got within a half mile or so, she commanded the humandrills to weigh anchor once they got closer and leapt through the air, crossing half the distance before using Koka to close the gap in two smaller jumps. 

“Eat! Drink! Laugh!” Commanded the captain, to the cheers of his men. “For today we celebrate another great haul!”

At a glance, it looked like they robbed a shipment of supplies heading to Tequila Wolf, a merchant ship employed by the construction company rather than an independent one. She recognized the symbol on the crates. 

Given the fact that the food they were eating was of high quality and the captain had a very nice fur coat on that clashed with the rest of his aesthetic… It looks like they stole stuff bound for the overseers, not the slaves. As inoffensive as piracy can get, really. Even Father did that once, back when she was seven and they had lost their food to a rat the size of Saifu. 

She’ll give these guys the benefit of the doubt. She sat down at the table next to the captain and announced herself: “Thanks! This is really good!” She complimented, pretending everything was normal as she took a big bite of some kind of bird leg. Saifu barked as she settled in next to her and started scarfing down the scraps of meat Tanya cut up for the dog. 

“Oh you're too kind.” The captain said, grinning widely. 

After about forty seconds of enjoying the feast, the clown seemed to actually notice her presence. “Whaaaaat?” He suddenly shouted. “Who the flashy hell are you?”

Tanya burst out laughing. That was even funnier than she thought it would be! She was usually Father’s tsukkomi, so being on the boke side of things for once was nice. Saifu started barking wildly, jumping around in a dance. 

“Captain Buggy!” Shouted a man who came down from the crow’s nest. For some reason, he was riding a unicycle. “There's another ship anchored off starboard.” 

“I'm the captain of that ship.” Tanya explained unhelpfully. Wait. “Where have I heard the name Buggy before?” She was sure she would have remembered circus pirates if she met him on a previous trip to the East Blue…

“Why are you on my ship!?” Buggy screeched. 

Tanya picked her dog and started rubbing Saifu’s belly. “I thought this was a floating circus.” She half-lied. It wasn't that weird of a concept in this world. “I was bored.” She elaborated honestly. She pointed at the knives in Buggy’s hands. “Can you start juggling again? That was pretty cool. You must have practiced a lot.” it was base flattery, but she didn't want this to end in bloodshed. 

“Well, shucks.” Buggy said, idly starting to juggle the knives. “I mean, this is mostly talent, but it does take more than talent and nerves of steel to juggle knives!” It was super effective. 

“It helps that the Captain’s knife-proof.” Added the lion tamer. She could tell it was him because of his whip. 

“Mohji!” Buggy shouted, incensed. “Don’t tell her that!”

“She’s got a sword, Captain.” Mohji said, “It’s best that she does not even bother to draw it, knowing that it’s useless. We’re not sword-proof, after all.”

Eh? “Oh, are you a Logia?” Tanya asked, interested. “I thought your name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.” 

“Captain Buggy’s head is worth fifteen million beri, rich girl.” Said the man with the unicycle. “He’s one of the top five bounties in the East Blue.”

“I didn’t even bother looking those up.” Tanya said dismissively. In hindsight, it wasn’t really a smart thing to do. She did know about the largest bounty, Arlong the Saw, but that was just because Jinbei had his poster.  The fishman seemed rather sad about it, too. “It had to have been somewhere else.”

Still, Buggy seemed to have realized what her casual attitude meant. Good survival instincts. “No, I’m not a Logia. I ate the Chop-chop fruit.” He said, “Who are you?”

Ah, she remembers now! “Chop-chop? Oh, Grandpa told me about you!” Tanya said, slamming her fist into her palm. “He used you as an example of a fruit that haki couldn’t break the rules of.” Specifically, no amount of haki will let you kill a user of the chop-chop fruit by cutting. Because he does get cut, he just doesn’t care. You might as well try to kill someone with a haircut for all the good it will do. You need to use blunt or crushing force, break his bones, if you want to hurt him. Or fire, that works too. Haki could turn a sword-swing into a blunt attack, too, so it wasn’t exactly a big deal. 

Buggy paled, then put on an obsequious face. “Ah, yes, that’s right! Now, ah… who exactly is this grandfather of yours?”

“He was your vice-captain back in the day.” Tanya said obliquely. Just to confirm it for him… “He specifically mentioned how you got sick before going to an island, so you missed the fun.” That was a hilarious story, what was at Laugh Tale. To think, all that hubbub… for that? Yeah, it makes sense in context, it was very valuable in her opinion, but… Heh. 

Buggy stiffened. “Yep, that’s him.” He agreed. “So how is he, nowadays? Retired, I hope?”

“He keeps himself busy with Grandma at her bar on Sabaody, and a few odd jobs between gambling sprees. Visited him just last week.” Tanya said easily, before looking over his crew. “...I don’t think this lot would make the trip, though. Better stay away.” After all, her sense of his strength… Well it was far weaker than she thought it should be, for a former Roger pirate, but he was head and shoulders above his crew. She turned to the crew. “Hey, this is still a party, yeah? Where’s the music?”

“Men! You heard them!” Buggy paused. “You still didn’t give your name.”

“Tanya.” 

“Right! Tanya’s family, so keep partying! We have more food than we can eat! Your captain commands it!” Buggy shouted out, to the cheers of his men. 

The humandrills finally got the Argent within ten meters of Buggy’s ship, and dropped anchor. They screeched in joy as they saw the party, all holding up the celebratory hand sign for the word ‘Party’, with the pinky and pointer finger extended upwards from a fist. Tanya signed it back to them, and invited them to join up. 

“Aren’t those the monkeys from that gloomy island in the New World?” Buggy deadpanned. Grandpa did mention that the Roger pirates visited Gloom Island while going to Lodestar for the first time… “Why did you teach them to sail?”

“They’re useful.” Tanya replied, wine glass in hand. “But I’ve also been sailing with nothing but them for company for the last three days. They’re not much for conversation.”

“Yeah, these flashy idiots may be weak, but they’re enough for me to live my low-profile life.” Buggy said, nodding seriously as Tanya took a sip of wine. 

“I completely understand.” Tanya said seriously. It was nice to meet someone with the same understanding of what was important in life as her. “If you want to retire from piracy and move on to turning this into a real circus performance, I could maybe arrange something. It’s the least I could do for my grandfather’s old junior.”

Buggy glared at her, clearly insulted. “Hey! I am a proud pirate. I am not a dancing monkey or a clown!”

Tanya bowed slightly. “I apologize.” It was rather tragic that he missed his calling like that. He’d make a wonderful clown. “I don’t really understand the allure of the title of pirate, but I can respect your commitment to it.” She turned back to the party, noticing that some of the acrobats challenged the humandrills to a handstand contest. That looked like fun! 

What a pleasant start to her adventure, finding the one Roger pirate that Grandpa didn’t know the location of. 

-------------------------

Her first actual stop was Shimotsuki Island, of course. She had found suitable cloth in the hold to make a Jolly Roger, as well as a copy of Father’s flag, but wasn’t currently flying it, because she hadn’t finished drafting out ideas. The symbol of the Grimm Kingdom was on the sails, though. It was a picture of the moon highlighting one of the distinctive curled hills of Gloom Island, with the word ‘GRIMM’ written on the moon but above the hill. 

The dock was a fairly simple affair, more for fishing boats than for trade. There was but a single dock large enough for her rather modestly sized ship, and anything bigger would need to anchor themselves a distance away. Hardly unusual for smaller islands, but it was noteworthy. This was not a rich island that could afford the expense to maintain that level of infrastructure. 

The dockmaster was a typical old salt that wore a Wano-style straw hat, smoking a pipe as he watched her approach, doing nothing to discourage her. “Docking fee’s five thousand beri for the night.” He said immediately when she disembarked. 

Quite reasonable. Cheap, even. “Saifu. Wallet.” The dog dutifully put the requested item into her hand. “Good dog.” She withdrew a single bill from the stack and handed it over. “I’m here mostly on a personal visit, but I’m also looking for trade goods to buy and sell elsewhere. I bought a high quality sword here years ago.”

“You’ll want to go to the Isshin dojo. The old master’s dead, but his student’s gotten pretty good.” The old man said, pointing in the appropriate direction. “See that hill with the rice fields? Dojo’s behind it, two more hills down.”

“Your input is appreciated.” Tanya said sincerely, handing him a five hundred beri coin for his information. She turned to the ship, whistling for the attention of the humandrill and signaling her message with wide motions: “Go fishing, I’ll buy some wine for tonight.” She’s not sure how much they’ll like sake, but if she orders the sweetest kind they have, it should go down fairly well. 

The humandrills cheer, acknowledging her orders by preparing to shove off for a few hours, breaking out the fishing nets as they do so. 

-------------------------

The Isshin dojo always had a forge next to it. Tanya went straight there, knowing what to expect. At least, until she actually saw it. 

Kuina was in the middle of filing and sharpening a sword when Tanya arrived. She had grown into a rather beautiful young woman, lithe with heavily muscled arms and shoulders, hair tied up in a bun. She would be… eighteen now? Yes, four years older than her. 

She was also not wearing a shirt underneath her blacksmith’s apron. It was a thick apron, and she was not well-endowed enough for the apron’s weight to not suppress what was there. How lucky… 

Kuina looked at her the instant the sword was ready, which took about three more minutes of work. The girl was intensely focused on her task, completely shutting out the world around her. “Eh? Who’re you?” She asked, glaring. 

“You don’t recognize me?” Tanya asked, fiddling with one of her rings. She was wearing her rainbow ring set again, along with some golden bangles on her wrists and ankles, a pearl necklace, and the sapphire stud earrings. “I know it’s been a few years, but I told you in my last letter that I’d try and visit soon.” Granted, that was two months ago. 

Kuina’s eyes widened. “Oh, Tanya! Wow, you look good.” She said, looking Tanya up and down. “You look strong.”

“Well, my father insisted on a certain level of strength before he would let me travel too far from him.” Really, ‘within the same sea’ was plenty permissive enough to get into trouble, but it meant that he could bail her out if needed. The concern was appreciated. “I’m enjoying something of a working vacation, trying my hand at sea trading instead of administration.” It also doubled as a stress test for the systems she set up back at Grimm. Any system that couldn’t hold up without the direct intervention of the system’s creator was a poor system, after all.  

“Well, give me twenty minutes to clean up and we can have a duel!” Kuina said, grinning savagely at the prospect. “See how much you’ve grown.”

Eh… “I suppose.” Tanya said, not seeing any way out of it. Saying that Kuina had no chance would be rude. “Where’s Zoro? I’ll find him while you do that.”

Kuina’s mood immediately cratered. “That bastard’s not here.” She spat. “Took the boat to go fishing three months ago and never came back.”

Oh dear. “So he’s dead?” Tanya asked. 

“No, he just got fucking lost.” Kuina said, wordlessly screaming in frustration to punctuate the statement. “And now he’s gallivanting around the East Blue as some big-shot bounty hunter…” Wow, she’s really angry about him not being around, huh? Was this what romance was like? “-WITHOUT ME!” She finished, punching an anvil and creating a loud ‘gong’ noise. “And I have to stay here because I don’t have a damned boat to chase after him!”

Well, that’s a problem she could address. “You can use mine.” Tanya said, waving her hands placatingly. “I don’t have anything pressing to do, helping you reunite with your…” Should she say boyfriend? “-sparring partner won’t distract me from anything important.”

“Really?” Kuina asked. “You’re a good friend, Tanya. We’ll track him down.”

-------------------------

“I don’t like this.” Koushiro said. Tanya had been invited to lunch, of course. “Zoro should be free to wander, to hone his skills. He’s already stronger than I, or any of my fellow Masters.” That’s probably because they are in the East Blue. 

Kuina immediately snapped. This sounded like an old argument. “I don’t want to bring him back, Dad! I want to fight him again! It’s already hard enough to keep up with the meathead when I can duel him every day, he’s probably already surpassed me.”

“That’s likely.” Koushiro agreed, “I’ve told you before, he has the advantage. You’ve grown more than I expected, but in the end, there can be only one best.”

“You always do this!” Kuina whined, shoving more rice in her mouth in an unladylike fashion. Koushiro’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance. 

“I’m sure your grandfather would be proud of the smith that you’ve become, Kuina.” Koushiro said, “Already you’ve made a masterpiece. Your skills will languish if you travel about the seas.”

“The Argent is equipped with a small forge, actually.” Tanya interjected. It was meant for making replacement ammunition, as their proprietary artillery shells and bullets weren’t commonly available. Being able to make nails and other sundries was also handy. “It won’t be able to handle large quantities, but if she brings her tools it should be able to handle swords.” Granted, it was not supposed to be used while on the sea, it was a portable forge meant to be set up on an island while anchored, but she made sure one of the holds was insulated with ceramic panels, just in case. “At least, it can run hotter than your average forge, and the dimensions are right.” It was Vegapunk-designed, after all. 

“See, Dad? I need to get stronger.” Kuina said, adamant. 

“I could give her some lessons, as well.” Tanya added, “Make sure she can give Zoro a good fight once they meet back up.”

Koushiro’s expression darkened. “I will not allow it.” He said, his usual smile gone. 

“Why!?” Kuina shouted. 

“Kuina’s an adult.” Tanya observed, “You really can’t stop her from leaving.” Both of them gaped at her. “You can, however, stop her from returning.” It was something that Grandma said, mentioned in a story about the first time Father set out to sea. As someone who values free will and self determination, it really stuck with her then, just how flimsy the bonds of filial duty really were. There was a debt, certainly. But creating something didn’t make you its Master. Being X never understood that. 

“...Get out.” Koushiro said, “You are no longer welcome here.”

“That is your right.” Tanya said easily, standing up. “Kuina, will you be coming with me?” She walked to the exit, lingering at the door. 

Koushiro stood up and drew his sword, grabbing it off the wall and drawing the steel in one smooth motion. It was just… too slow. Tanya knew he wasn’t going to actually attack her with it, so she didn’t even react, ignoring the empty threat. “She will not.” He said, pointing his steel at Tanya. 

“Not your decision.” Tanya said, hardening her glare. “Kuina?”

Kuina appeared to be in shock as she looked at her father. As if she couldn’t even recognize the man. “...Yes. Let’s go.”

The instant Koushiro’s killing intent erupted, Tanya punched him in the face. He went down like a sack of bricks. “I’ll buy up your entire stock of weapons for resale.” Tanya added, taking a cloth to wipe his blood off of her rings. “That will leave him with enough funds to recover.” She should probably invest in some good iron for Kuina to turn into more swords, while she’s at it. 

Some tension left the burly girl’s shoulders. “Yeah, that sounds good.” She said, looking between where Tanya had been standing and her current position. It was only four meters apart, not very far at all. “Can you afford it, though? Wado Hajime is my finest sword, and it’s not my only Graded blade.”

Wait. She managed to create more than one Graded blade? “Let me see them.” Tanya demanded. 

-------------------------

The Isshin dojo’s swordsmith business was apparently rather slow; while Kuina had sold two of her Graded blades (each authenticated) to the Marines, and many more ordinary blades individually, they lacked the fame required for there to be more customers than she could provide for. 

As such, Kuina had brought three crates of weapons, the fruits of her labors over years. In addition… 

“It’s easily Gintama’s peer.” Tanya said immediately on drawing Wado Hajime. “Sadly, it was broken.”

Kuina looked stricken by the news. “What happened? That was my grandfather’s last masterpiece!”

“It was my fault.” Tanya admitted, “I put too much stress on it, attempted to contest the durability against something I shouldn’t have.” While Tanya wasn’t entirely sure that Divine Departure worked by somehow managing to cut atoms, it made sense to her that’s why it was such a powerful and destructive technique. She had never had the chance to use it in a non-practice manner since. Kokuto Issen is powerful enough to cut most ships in half, which is plenty. Sure, if she ever sees the Queen Mama Chanter, that would be a good reason to break out Gol Roger’s signature technique, but it was overkill for pretty much anything she’d want to use it for. “As you can see, I have a much more storied blade now.”

Kuina focused on Shodai Kitetsu. “Is that Sandai Kitetsu? The cursed blade?” She asked. 

Tanya scoffed. “Even I heard your grandfather scoff at the idea of cursed swords.” Tanya said chidingly. 

“I know.” Kuina said, “But that’s still what it’s known as.”

“True.” Tanya allowed. “But no, this is Shodai Kitetsu. It’s a temperamental blade, very bloodthirsty, but we’ve come to an understanding.” Namely, that she’s in charge and its temper tantrums will only take it further away from the blood it craves. 

“One of the twelve Supreme-Grade swords!?” Kuina asked, shocked. “...can I see him?”

Tanya drew the blade, holding it for her inspection. “Do not touch it.” The black blade gleamed with violent intent. 

“I feel like looking at its edge will cut me.” Kuina said, in awe of the patterned steel. “The Kitetsu blades were forged by the Kitetsu sword school, whose patron in Wano was the Kozuki family.” She said, clearly reciting her own history lessons. “Sandai Kitetsu was the only such sword forged in the last fifty years, as their teachings were banned by…” She paused. “...something. Dad didn’t know why the Kitetsu swordsmithing techniques were banned, but whoever made Sandai Kitetsu using them did so after the ban.”

That was fascinating. “Do you know who could have had access to them?” Tanya asked, curious. 

“The Kozuki dynasty, certainly.” Kuina said immediately. “Beyond that, I don’t know.”

“Well, I promised the crew a barrel of sake for them to drink tonight, so do you know where…” Tanya trailed off. The humandrills were rather simple creatures, when you got right down to it. 

“Oh yeah, follow me.” She said, turning left and dragging the cart full of swords with her. She insisted on handling it herself, as a further muscle workout. Smart move, honestly. 

-------------------------

“You know, I really wish you’d have told me that your crew are a bunch of apes.” Kuina deadpanned at dinner. 

“Thank you, Cookie.” Tanya signed to the most culinarily inclined of the humandrills. “That should be enough food for everyone.”

“Good!” Cookie grunted, taking a large saucer of sake and taking a tender sip of it. “Delicious.” He signed, a thumb upward with pinky half-extended. 

Conversation with the cook over, Tanya turned back to Kuina. “They’re monkeys, not apes. Monkeys have tails.” Tanya corrected. Saifu barked in agreement. “Good girl.” Tanay said, feeding the dog a bit of the teriyaki beef. Tanya may have bought more Wano-style food while she was here. The flavor wasn’t quite the same as her first life, but it was close. “The humandrills learn quickly, as long as they don’t need to do too much thinking. Cookie’s one of the smarter ones.” While Tanya did develop a system of writing for the humandrills, only about one in four was smart enough to actually be able to write in it, not just read it. Cookie was one of them. 

“That’s even weirder than the monkeys.” Kuina said. Saifu gave a soulful stare of sadness at the girl. 

“The East Blue’s kind of a backwater.” Tanya said dismissively. “This world has many wonders, and you’re going to need to learn to accept strangeness if you want to survive the Grand Line.” Tanya chuckled, “If you want to grow strong, you can’t stay in the East Blue. The Grand Line is the crucible that smelts the steel of the strongest people in the world.”

“There has to be a limit.” Kuina insisted, “This is ridiculous.” She gestured with her off hand to the dog now in her lap, getting belly scratches from  her primary hand. 

“No, not really.” Tanya said idly. “Grandpa’s stories were very clear on how ridiculous this world can get.” Nothing provided a better example than the One Piece itself. But she’s not about to go blabbing about it. 

Still, a Graded Blade, even a relatively weak one, was still worth at least a million beri, with two as her goal. The other swords were reasonably high quality, as expected from someone capable of forging a Graded blade. In the New World’s competitive weapon markets, such swords would be worth around fifty thousand beri each. From the ratios and figures taught at Sabaody Academy, that meant that the East Blue’s Kingdoms would probably pay double that, due to the weak blades being seen as higher quality than they were. As a result, finding such a buyer would be difficult, but it wasn’t that many swords, so it should be manageable. 

Her starting budget for this trip was one hundred million beri. While she didn’t have any actual standards for how much she had at the end, as it was only her own pride that wanted to turn a profit, she’ll be tallying up her expenses and comparing the amount of time the trip takes with her money at the end to see how profitable the whole trip was. 

So, for the sixty swords and Wado Hajime, Tanya paid the Isshin dojo a total of 3 million beri. If she gets her estimated revenue of eight million, that would be a good start to this endeavor. 

Now, the question was… Where was Zoro?