The Mad Doctor of One Piece - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Once the group learned flight, it opened the floodgates on Ki and its uses. Soon the majority of the crew had their own 'signature' attacks using Ki. Really, there was nothing special among the attacks as they were all just basic Ki blasts and beams, all yellow in color.

Naturally, Peter had tried to use the Kamehameha Beam. Anyone in his position would have tried to do the same thing! Sadly, he'd failed at it, thus far, but he wasn't about to give up. He was also trying to teach himself Vegeta's Galic Gun. He honestly thought the Galic Gun was cooler than the Kamehameha. Honestly, Vegeta was a better role model for inventing Ki attacks than Goku anyway. After all, every technique Goku knows was either taught to him, or stolen from seeing an enemy use it.

Flight was still the favorite on the crew, though they didn't do it very much and always out of sight or at night. They did not need rumors of the Stormbringer pirates all being able to fly. It couldn't come as a surprise if it became common knowledge!

Other than Ki training, Peter had also progressed significantly in his physical training. He could now pull of Soru with ease and Geppo was no problem as they all had more than enough strength for it. He'd also gotten pretty descent with Rankyaku. Where he shone though? That was in fist fighting. Even now, he and Alex were going at it fast and hard. Alex made the ultimate sparring partner because as Peter became better, so did Alex at the same time. It meant he always had an opponent on his level to fight and get better.

Peter's head whipped to the side as one of Alex's attacks got through hit Spider Sense and his guard. The blow hit hard enough to crack his jaw and knock a few teeth loose, though the injuries healed a moment later. Is body wouldn't even pretend to bruise thanks to the healing factor his whole crew shared. It was great because it let them go all out in their spars without having to worry about injuries.

Of course, even without the healing factor they wouldn't have had to worry. Between his medical knowledge and potion brewing, Peter could handle anything up to and including death, so long as the person had only been dead less than a few hours. So, yeah, no reason for them to hold back at all as Peter and Alex pounded the snot out of each other beneath the massive parasol tree.

Tobirama, having been forced to give his ninjutsu research a break, was off to the side watching the spar. Peter and Alex had both insisted that Tobirama needed to not only take a break, but to also train in how to control his body and to fight. It was a necessity for the entire crew and he was no exception.

Peter and Alex attacked, dodged, and counter attacked each other. With both of them being roughly the same strength, both having the Spider Sense, and being roughly the same skill, actually landing a hit on one another was a rarity. From the outside it looked like a well choreographed fight scene from a movie. In reality, they were both doing their best to lay each other out.

After nearly five solid minutes of neither of them landing a blow, Peter finally managed the snake through Alex's guard and repay him for the broken jaw with one of his own. Peter's fist slammed into Alex's jaw and knocked the man back a couple of inches. After spitting a bit of blood out of his mouth, Alex grinned, “Not bad Captain. We'll call it here. Maybe work on your Rankyaku?”

Peer, barely winded after the fight, nodded in agreement. The Rokushiki were excellent skills for him to use as a melee fighter. He planned to master them to a degree never seen before. Zoro could cut mountains with his swords, Peter planned to cut islands with his kicks.

While Peter moved off to launch Rankyaku's into the air, Alex turned to Tobirama, “Your turn.”

Tobirama sighed and moved to stand across from Alex. His red eyes narrowed in annoyance, “I don't see why I must partake in this training. My research on Ninjutsu is much more important. This feels like a waste of time compared to that.”

Even though he complained, he dropped into the same stance as he'd seen both Alex and Peter using. Alex took his own stance as he answered, “Perhaps. Yet it will take time for you to do much of anything with Ninjutsu aside from what the Captain has managed to pass on. Who knows how long it will take for you to actually make something usable in combat. Until such a time as you can throw around balls of fire or streams of water, you have little more than your own body to rely on. Best to learn how to do so, wouldn't you say?”

Tobirama nodded, causing his naturally spiky gray hair to bounce, “I can find no fault in your logic. Still feels like a waste though.”

That was the last thing he had time to say before Alex was all over him. Tobirama hadn't trained in melee combat at all and it showed immediately. It was only thanks to the Spider Sense that he was capable of doing anything but get pummeled. Even then, he took significantly strong blows pretty often.

To almost anyone else it would have seemed extremely brutal seeing Alex beating the hell out of Tobirama. Except, Tobirama could take it an was smart enough to learn from it quickly. He might not have the instant mastery that Alex had, but he learned quick and after just ten minutes of getting pounded, he was already showing marked improvement. He wouldn't be defeating Alex anytime soon, but he could put up a good fight against people with some skill at least.

Peter, meanwhile, stood off to the side kicking the air. Every kick sent a blade of sharp wind slashing through the air. He alternated between which foot he kicked with to train them both. There was a slight difference in power between his right and his left, with the left being slightly weaker. He was right handed so the right side of his body was slightly stronger. He was working hard to close that gap and get both of his legs to put out the same power. Each kick let him close the gap just a bit.

When he got tired of working on Rankyaku, he moved over to one of the parasol tree's massive roots and began working on Shigan. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the best way to train it was to practice it. Though Peter was taking a less than straight forward approach. To learn Shigan the person training would have to toughen up their index finger then work on getting enough power behind it. Peter was training all of his fingers, as well as his knuckles, and fist, at the same time.

He wanted his fists to be harder than steel. He was getting their pretty quick too. The tree roots were huge making them solid and tough. He'd lost count of how many times he'd ripped the skin of his hands or broken their bones. Every injury healing before he could land another punch. Every time he healed his bones became a little stronger, his skin a little tougher. It was agonizing feeling a surge of pain that faded only to return over and over again. He could numb it, but he felt like he would lose something if he cheated his training too much. If he didn't get used to the pain now, how would it effect him in the middle of combat?

No, he would train himself properly, pain and all. The rewards at the end would be worth it.

-----Line Break-----

All of the girls on the crew sat in the mess hall eating snacks Erina had taken the time to make. Merlin sidled up to Momo and nudged her with her elbow, “So, spill about your date with the Master.”

Momo blushed a little but she'd known this would happen the moment the girls managed to have time without one of the boys around. She let out a little sigh at finally being cornered but smiled happily at the memory of the date, “It was very nice! We went to a restaurant, ate and talked a bit.” she smiled broadly, “He encouraged me to find a dream of my own to pursue. I still don't know what it will be, but it's nice knowing he will support whatever it is.”

Sakuya, among others, gave Momo pouty looks. Sakuya even went so far as to mutter about the newbie stealing a march on her. Merlin smiled coyly, “Any advice for the rest of us?”

Momo shrugged her shoulders in a devil-may-care attitude, “If you want to go on a date with the Master, you're going to have to ask him. I got the feeling he didn't want to 'abuse' us so he'll never make the first move. Well, unless you were to be super obvious, like throwing yourself at him naked obvious.”

That got several giggles and a few contemplative looks. All of the girls cared about their Master in one way or another and none of them would complain about spending time in his bed. Frankly, many of them really wanted that. He was their maker, their Master, and him wanting them like that would be the ultimate fulfillment of their being. The only other thing that came close was fulfilling the purpose for which they were made. Their boss made them based on not just their inherent talents, but their looks as well and they knew it. It was flattering to them and why they tended to almost exclusively wear bikini tops while out at sea.

Merlin hummed then spoke to the gathering, “In that case, who shall be the next one to ask the Master out?”

Momo giggled, “Whoever it is better move quickly. I already plan to ask for a second date!”

That got everyone going. There was plenty of arguing, but no actual fighting. They were a collective and knew that any rifts between them would have a negative impact on their Master. The arguments were friendly, if a little fierce.

No one noticed when Sakuya disappeared from their midst.

Sakuya was different from the rest of her fellow Homunculi, she remembered her original life. A long, long time ago Yukari Yakumo, the yokai of boundaries, had removed the boundary between her memories and her genetics. This was necessary because Sakuya was human and the human mind could only store so much information. By removing that boundary she could remember the entire time she'd lived, well over a thousand years. It wouldn't do for a proper maid to forget ANY details.

So, unlike her shipmates, she remembered her past. She was also aware that she was not the original Sakuya, but merely a copy, and that was alright. It meant her mistress back in Gensokyo still had the original Sakuya working for her. She had been mildly miffed at her creator for a couple of days, the inbuilt loyalty of her creation the only thing keeping her from simply leaving. Yet, now she found herself rather happy with her circumstances. While her new master was a bit of a pervert, just seeing how many beautiful women he'd created was proof of that, she didn't mind. In fact, she was a little excited. She'd served her mistress, Remilia Scarlet, for a thousand years and never once had her mistress taken proper advantage of her!

Now she had a much more mature body, which she was really quite happy with! Her power had left age frozen in time leaving her to appear rather... undeveloped. She'd never appreciated that aspect of her power. Now though? She looked down at her chest and grinned widely. Now she looked like a proper woman. For that alone she would love her Master. What really made her stick around though was the fact her new Maser was willing to take advantage of her, to fulfill her thousand year old fantasies. He just needed a little push to know it was something she wanted as well. After all, a proper maid should serve her Master's every need, right?

She finally arrived at her destination and looked over the scene in front of her. She smiled a little at the sight of Tobirama's face being distorted by Alex's fist impacting it. She giggled a little at the smooshed look that the man was sporting on his usually serious face. Alex looked calm and collected, punching Tobirama was not personal at all, it was training and Alex took his job of training the crew very seriously.

She moved past the two frozen men and over to her master. She circled around him, taking the time to look him over from every angle. If only he knew just how often she spent time doing this exact thing. That was one of the great benefits of being able to freeze time at will. She could take all the time she wanted to do anything she desired in perfect privacy. She'd spent... well she didn't know exactly how long, but at least several months in frozen time just looking over her Master.

Some might think that made her a pervert, especially since she'd spent plenty of time studying him naked, but she didn't think so. It was her job to know every little detail about her Master, so she could anticipate his wants and needs. If that meant she got to enjoy the way he looked stepping out of the shower dripping wet from the steaming water, then so be it. She needed to make sure his towels were drying him properly, of course.

After getting her fill of her Master's determined face, she moved to an appropriate area where she would easily be spotted. When she was ready, her maid uniform perfectly arranged without a single spec of dirt anywhere, she returned to the normal time stream.

'THUD!'

Her Master's right hand index finger slammed into the thick root of the parasol tree. His finger was most definitely not meant to bend in the particular direction it was. Thankfully, moments later, his regeneration healed the damage and his finger was once more good as new. As he was no longer mid thrust, she moved into his sight and caught his attention. He turned to face her and gave her a bright smile.

Time froze once more.

Sakuya took all the time she needed to let the blush on her face fade away. It wasn't fair when he smiled at her like that! Thankfully, if he could cheat then so could she! He'd never know. Once she was fully composed, she returned time to normal.

“Sakuya, what brings you by?”

She calmly walked up to him while keeping her hands one over the other in front of her skirt, “I wished to speak with you, privately, for a moment, Master.”

She would never capitulate and call him anything else, as was her duty! Peter gave her a nod and gestured off to the side where they would be out of sight and earshot of the other two men. Once they had their privacy he gave her a questioning look. She began speaking, “It has come to my attention that I need to be clear with you when it comes to our relationship. I am happy to be your maid, I quite enjoy it as a matter of fact. However, you have failed in your role as my Master.”

Peter frowned and became serious, “I see. If I've crossed a line somehow or done something I shouldn't have, let me know what it was and I will ensure it never happens again.”

Sakuya shook her head, “You misunderstand, Master. It is not what you have done, rather it is what you have not done.” Now he just looked plain confused so she filled him in, “I am your maid, to be used in any manner you see fit.” She stepped closer to him, her face and voice stoic, “I repeat, I wish to be used in ANY manner you desire.”

She had to freeze time to get over the giddy feeling in her stomach after Peter had swallowed heavily at her very thinly veiled innuendo. When time resumed Peter asked, “Are you sure, ANYthing?”

Still stoic on the outside, Sakuya nodded, “Anything, anytime, anywhere. You need but command me, Master.”

Peter swallowed thickly and Sakuya once again had to take time to fight down the giddy feeling. She could see the desire in his eyes. It was probably taking everything he had not to take advantage of her right then and there. She knew he wouldn't though, not with the other two men so close by. She'd learned much about her Master and while she still didn't know everything, she was certain exhibitionism was not one of his kinks.

After recovering, Peter spoke to her once more, clearly slightly nervous and licking his suddenly dry lips in anticipation. He held his hand out toward her, palm up, “In that case, give me your panties.”

Sakuya immediately froze time before she let out a squeal and did a little dance in excitement. As a die hard maid she had a few kinks related to her profession, this was one of them. In the past, she'd often spend days without panties in the hopes that her Mistress might notice and do something about it. Now her Master was 'forcing' her to do something so degrading. It took her a fair amount of time to get back into character and let time resume.

She looked her master dead in the eyes as she pulled her skirt up just enough for her hands to slip beneath it. Without ever breaking eye contact, she shimmied out of the pure white thong she'd been wearing without letting him see anything more than her legs just above her knees. Just because it was a kink of hers didn't mean she couldn't be a tease about it! She calmly placed the ball of white fabric in his hand, taking a pause to fight off the embarrassment of the clearly wet spot on the cloth.

-----Line Break-----

Peter curled his fingers around the warm piece of cloth and stuck his hand in his pocket. His heart was hammering like mad. He had no idea what had gotten into Sakuya, but he liked it! Still, he couldn't do much more with Alex and Tobirama so close by, even if they were still wailing on each other. He studied his stoic maid before saying, “That will be all for now. We'll 'talk' more later.”

Sakuya gave him a polite curtsy and turned on her heels and walked away, her purpose for coming to the mountain complete. After just a few steps she vanished. Peter felt slightly envious of her control over time, but let it go. He patted his pocket where the pure white panties, with the suspicious wet spot, now resided. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd done that, but Sakuya seemed into it and he had no complaints about that!

He returned to the area he'd bee practicing in and returned to trying to master Shigan. He fully intended to master all of the Rokushiki so he'd be able to use the Rokuougan, the secret seventh move that could even hurt Luffy's rubber body by dealing internal damage. All they needed where the training methods of Tekkai and Kami-E to finish their collection. He had some clues to Tekkai, but was clueless about Kami-e.

Next time he had a Marine mind controlled, he'd remember to have the marine produce a bunch of skill potions. That was one hell of a lost opportunity with Captain Morgan back in West Blue. He didn't intend to make that kind of mistake again.

He returned to his training. Even with a skill potion for Shigan, he'd have to practice it to strengthen his body. Well, at least he was getting stronger!

-----Line Break-----

Merlin examined the Kaze Kaze no mi in her hand. She'd been studying it and the Zaza Zaza no mi to understand Devil Fruits better. So far it had been rather fascinating, even going so far as making her create new scanning spells to get more information from them. She so did love researching magic! Her Master, bless his soul, had given her all the information he could on magic from various sources, including the world her original was from. It helped, but not nearly as much as he had clearly hoped. It mostly acted as inspiration for things she could develop.

Regardless, she was a genius, as her Master intended, and it was showing as her work progressed. She'd learned much and, as she cast her newest scanning spell, continued to learn more. Her eyes glittered as the results of her spell were fed directly into her mind.

“Well, isn't that interesting?”

She ran her scan a second time, to confirm the results. When the second scan came back the same, she traded Devil Fruits and did the scan twice more. She hummed at the results and set the two Devil Fruits to the side. She picked up her notebook and pen, both provided by Momo's wonderful Quirk, and started taking notes.

While she wrote, Vivienne sat in a different section of the workshop and ignored the curiosity arousing words of Merlin. She'd learned quickly that Merlin only ever explained herself when she felt like explaining. So, instead of focusing on her curiosity, she focused on her enchanting research. She'd figured out how to do basic elemental enchantments pretty easily. They were mildly useful, but using them on a basic weapon didn't make that weapon any better. Hell, if the weapon was of a poor enough quality, enchanting it would actually destroy it as the weapon couldn't handle the energies involved.

She was also fully aware that super high end enchantments would require alchemy, something her Master had already said he was willing to teach her. That would save her a lot of effort and experimentation. Though not all of it. At the moment she was attempting to enchant a steel bar, provided by that wonderful Momo, to become more durable.

It fit with her current goal of making a weapon that was durable, eternally sharp, and self cleaning. Right now she was trying to weave both durable and self cleaning into the flat barstock without overloading it or having the enchantments break down on her.

As she slowly weaved her magic into the metal, it had initially looked to be going good. Then the steel had started to heat up. Now the center was glowing cherry red and beginning to melt. It the table had been made of wood it would have already been on fire.

She stopped the enchantment process and cast a quick spell to cool the metal, and surrounding area, down to a more comfortable temperature. Once she could handle it, Vivienne picked up the barstock and tossed it into a pile of similar pieces, all in various melted states, “Stupid metal. Stupid enchantments.”

Merlin looked over at Vivienne and giggled, “Still having trouble?”

Vivienne groaned, “I know regular steel can handle at least two enchantments. I can feel it in my bones! Anything more than that will require enhancing the metal with Alchemy. I've seen the Captain's memories of the Excalibur that my alternate self made in another world and I want to beat it! I want to make a sword so strong, so great, that it makes that Excalibur look like a piece of junk!” She glared at the pile of ruined steel, “But at this rate it's going to take decades, if not longer.”

Merlin hummed in thought, “Well, there's no telling how long it took your alternate self to learn her skills. Fae are known to be immortal. She could have been working on her skills for centuries or even millennia. I think the fact you can even make basic enchantments in such a short time is testament to your natural talent and skill in the field.”

Vivienne hummed at that, acknowledging that Merlin is correct, “Still, it's frustrating. I don't blame the Captain, but I do wish he knew more on the subject.”

Merlin sighed, “I think we all feel a little like that about our various fields. We just have to remember that, to the Captain it was all just fiction in stories he read or watched several decades ago. We're lucky he remembers anything worthwhile!”

Vivienne sighed and nodded her head in acceptance, “True, very true.” She picked up another bar of steel and got to work layering the first Enchantment, “Well, nothing to do but keep practicing. At least when it comes time to learn Alchemy the Captain will be the best teacher in the universe!”

Merlin giggled at that and nodded, “True, very true.” she parroted back to Vivienne.

In another corner of the workshop, Valeria sat working on schematics within a notebook that contained many notes, designs, and ideas on various technological devices. Currently she was working on a repeating rifle for Domino. While the revolver she had was serviceable in short to mid-range combat, she wanted something that could fire a bit further. They'd agreed on a repeating rifle, similar to a Winchester, instead of something more modern. Peter had a rather broad and detailed knowledge of guns that came through in skill potions. She already had designs for more modern military rifles that used magazines and could be fired fully automatic.

Though they could make such a weapon, doing so would attract the wrong sort of attention. It would also become a very large problem if they somehow lost one and it ended up in the hands of the marines. The last thing they needed was for Vegapunk to reverse engineer it and provide the marines with a way to mass produce fully automatic assault rifles. That would be bad news for everyone everywhere.

So, they stuck to the less modern repeating rifle. It fit the aesthetics of current weaponry better and wouldn't stick out as much as a weapon based on the M4 carbine would. Of course, Vivienne and Peter could enhance the weapon in subtle ways that couldn't be replicated. Peter would also provide the explosive powder to replace normal gunpowder. So, even if the repeating rifle was stolen and reverse engineered it would only provide a minor improvement to current weapons. After all, it really wasn't much different from a revolver.

Aside from the repeating rifle, she was working on a semi-automatic pistol for Domino, one that used a more modern magazine. Outwardly she was designing it to look like a custom designed flintlock, internally it was modern with a magazine cleverly hidden in the handle and a free floating barrel. It would be powerful and accurate on top of being extremely easy to reload. Domino would love it.

Aside from the weapons she also had designs for more electric items. She had designs for large batteries, electric engines, and even wind turbines to charge the batteries with. The ship they intended to have built at Water 7 would be the most modern ship in existence. Not just in the propulsion system either! She was also designing electric appliances such as a stove slash oven, washing machine, dryer, hot water heater, and more.

Some of it might not be used, replaced with magical equivalents. She wasn't even bothering to design a fridge. Merlin had made a stasis spell, though it only lasted for a few minutes. Of course, thanks to her bullshit inherent ability Infinity, she essentially turned her short stasis spell into a permanent enchantment. Anything placed in their icebox now was essentially frozen in time. When taken out it would still be perfectly hot, or cold, and ready to be eaten or used even if it had been in there for years. What good was a fridge compared to that?

It wouldn't stop her from making a freezer through! She, and the other girls, would want icy treats and the stasis spell couldn't change the temperature of items. In a similar vein was the most important machine she'd designed, an ice cream machine!

Momo sat next to Valeria with her eyes closed in concentration. After a few moments, her back glowed with a rainbow of color and a duplicate of Domino's revolver popped into existence and fell to the ground. Momo panted slightly from the effort, something she was still getting used to. Once she recovered her reath, she picked up the revolver and examined it closely for even the smallest of defects. If the barrel was misshapen by even a millimeter it could cause a catastrophic failure. That was not something she wanted to happen.

It was only when she opened the cylinder to examine it that she found a small gap in one of the chambers. With a deep sigh, she tossed the revolver to the side where it landed in a small pile of at least a dozen similar revolvers. All of them had some flaw in them somewhere, but they were dozens of times better than her first attempts. Before she makes another attempt, she picks up one of dozens of potion vials, pops it open, and downs it with a grimace. A shudder runs down her spine as she gags, “I swear they're getting worse.”

Valeria looks over at Momo and the potions, “You could just eat normal food you know. Erina's cooking is significantly better tasting.”

Momo shakes her head, “I'd have to eat too much and I don't want to make Erina have to work non-stop just so I can practice. These potions might taste horrible, but they provide more than enough calories for me to work with.”

Valeria shrugs her shoulders and goes back to sketching and writing notes, “Your choice. I don't think Erina would mind though. She's always looking to get more practice. I swear she had the Captain in the kitchen for hours just making ingredients.”

Both of them giggled at that. All of them could be said to be obsessed with their particular fields but Erina took it to a whole other level. No one blamed her though. As much as her sense of taste was a blessing, it was also a curse. If there was even the tiniest thing off with the food she ate, it would cause her distress. The captain clearly understood as he'd spend hours making any ingredients Erina could name so she could experiment with her cooking.

Their Captain really doted on all of them, was it any wonder they all cared for him?

-----Line Break-----

Peter sat at a table within one of the many pubs on the island. The place was rather nice and had decent food and drinks. It didn't compare to what Erina could make, but what could? He sat on one side of the table while Tobirama and Alex sat on the other. Between then the table was filled with food, snacks, and tankards of ale.

Peter hadn't really taken a true break since he'd gained the Essence of the Mad Doctor and after his discussion with Sakuya, he'd decided he needed a good stiff drink. Unfortunately, there was no one willing to give him anything stronger than ale. The island apparently had some weird rules around acohols and minors. Beer and ale were fine, even wine was fine, but any true alcohol was off the table.

Of course, that didn't apply to Tobirama and Alex who had teasing smiles as they sipped on their rum. The pair looked to be in their mid twenties and were treated as such while Peter still looked seventeen. Sure he was covered in good muscle and no longer looked like a street rat, but he definitely still looked seventeen.

Seeing Alex smirking while sipping on his rum makes Peter scowl, “It's not fair. You literally barely qualify as months old, but I'm the one not allowed to drink the good stuff!”

Alex's smirk grows while Tobirama speaks in a nonchalant tone, “Sucks to suck.”

Peter's glare turned to Tobirama, “Traitor!”

Alex chimes in, twisting the knife, “Get gud scrub.”

Peter throws his hands in the air, “This is what I get for sharing my memories with all of you, isn't it? What did I ever do to deserve you two?!”

The smiles being sported by all three of them shows it's all in good fun. After dropping his hands down, Peter smirks at both of them, “How are you guys doing anyway?”

Peter picked up his mug of ale and took a drink from it. It was honestly pretty tasty. Once they hit Water 7 and got a bigger and better ship, he would definitely have to dedicate a room to brewing. The room would have to fuck with time, but that was alright by him. If his magical researchers could create a spell that accelerated time in a small area, even if it only lasted a single second, Merlin could turn it into a permanent enchantment. That or Vivienne could just make the enchantment. Whatever came first.

Tobirama was the first to answer, looking mildly annoyed, “I'd rather be working on my chakra studies. I'm this close,” he holds his hand up with his fingers a few millimeters apart, “from replicating some of the stuff you've shown me. Just a bit more and I think I can replicate the replacement technique.”

Peter's eyes widen, “Really?”

Tobirama nods, “I think I know the proper sequence, I just need some more experimentation to make sure.”

Peter grinned from ear to ear. The replacement technique was the single most broken technique among the 'academy three' from the show. So broken, in fact, that it vanished from the story pretty quickly. While it was supposedly not a space-time ninjutsu like the Flying Thunder God, it was so fast that it might as well be one. Being able to swap with an inanimate object in an instant to dodge in incoming attack was a hell of an ability to have.

Alex hums, “That's good.” His gaze focused on Peter, “Once those chakra fruit are purified, Tobirama should have plenty to teach us.”

Peter nodded in agreement, “Yup. That's why I'm in no rush to give everyone either magic or chakra, there's no point until it can actually be used properly. What we've got now makes us one of the strongest crews on the ocean, there's no need to split our attention in a million directions chasing every scrap of power we can. The only thing I'm willing to let anyone do to gain new abilities at this point is eating a Devil Fruit. Even then I'd prefer we wait.”

Alex nodded, “Even I will have trouble keeping up with so many different power systems. What we have now is an excellent foundation, one we should work on fortifying before we add any additional layers to it.”

Tobirama nodded in agreement, “I believe that as I am now, I am stronger than the Tobirama in your memories, at least physically. Eventually I will be an even greater master of ninjutsu.” His red eyes narrowed at Peter, “Though I shall sadly never surpass him in the art of fuinjutsu.”

Peter sighed and lamented, “That really is a complete shame. There's just nothing I can do about it. Fuinjutsu was hardly explained and barely shown within any of the stuff I've seen. It's basically the programming language of the world and we can't use it at all!”

Peter pauses and then shrugs his shoulders, “It might be possible to learn in the future though.”

That catches the attention of both men, though Tobirama is the one to very seriously ask, “How?”

Peter takes a sip of his ale, reveling in keeping the clearly interested men on the edges of their seat. After he lets out a sigh of contentment, he answers, “Well, It can't be done now and I can't do it alone, but I think if Merlin, Vivienne, Valeria, Momo, and myself all work together, we may be able to create a way to travel to other worlds.”

That causes both men's eyes to widen. Alex voices the question, “Are you sure?”

Peter nodded, “I can see some stuff I can make that would be part of it, but not the whole. There are potions I can make and alchemy I can perform that would prepare or finish materials for creating a portal, but parts are missing from it. It will take time and experimentation but I know its possible.”

“So once we're done here...”

Peter finished for Tobirama, “We can move to a whole new world and go on all new adventures.”

That clearly excited Tobirama. He was a man of knowledge and gaining the knowledge of many worlds appealed to him on a deep level, “I would like that, very much.” His eyes glittered as he looked at Peter seriously, “I believe I've found my dream. To travel to new worlds and learn new things. To see things no one else has ever seen before.”

Peter immediately grabbed his mug of ale and held it up in a little salute, “Hell yes! That is a wonderful dream!”

Tobirama and Alex tap their cups against his mug. Tobirama smirks, “I think I'll start with this world.”

Peter grins, “I know just the lady to get you started. We'll have to see if we can borrow her for a bit to pick her brain while we visit Arabasta.” He taps his chin after expressing that idea, “You know, it feels like, maybe I'm not abusing my potions on our enemies enough. I mean, Mr. 3 is still around, I'm sure he has at least some useful information we could exploit.”

He looks across the table at the other two and grins widely, “What do you guys say? Up for kidnapping an asshole for a few hours?”

Tobirama frowns, “Just for a few hours?”

Peter nods, “I don't want to mess with the events of Little Garden or anything that follows it. A few hours with some false memories to cover it shouldn't change anything at all.” His grin grows wider, “I'm also curious about what will happen if I were to extract his Devil Fruit while he's still alive. He'll survive the process, but then what?”

The two men look at each other, then shrug. Alex speaks for them, “We're in!”

-----Line Break-----

Peter looked at where Mr. 3 was sitting on a beach recliner wearing his entire outfit, yet laying down as if he was trying to get some sun. It was... very weird looking, but he remember Mr. 3 as being a rather weird man. He'd had to cheat a little by asking Sakuya to locate the man for them. He didn't know how long it took her in subjective time, but to him it had only taken her a second to find the man and provide him with the location.

He'd have to see about giving Sakuya a reward for her hard work, later.

As they spied on him from a distance without being blatant about it, Mr. 3 suddenly sat up and answered his ringing Den Den Mushi. They couldn't hear the conversation from where they were sitting, but Peter had a pretty good idea what it was. If he was right, that meant the Strawhats had picked up Princess Vivi and were on their way to Little Garden. If he was right, Mr. 3 was now being ordered to Little Garden on a different mission. It would be a coincidental meeting that had him run into the Strawhats there.

Well, none of that mattered to him, what mattered was picking Mr. 3's brain for any skills and seeing about his Devil Fruit. There is a lot to be said about the Doru Doru no mi. Mr. 3 was mildly creative with his wax powers and the fact the wax could be made hard as steel was pretty impressive. It wouldn't stand up to a good swordsman, but in Paradise it was damn near invincible. It also had a lot of utility, Mr. 3 demonstrated that when he made copies of keys with it.

When Mr. 3 leaves the poolside to head into the hotel, Peter and the other two follow him discreetly. To make sure they're not seen, all three of them drink potions of invisibility. It makes their job significantly easier as long as they remain silent. When Mr. 3 arrives at his room and unlocks the door, Alex strikes. A quick use of Soru put Alex directly behind Mr. 3 while a single blow to the back of his head rendered Mr. 3 unconscious.

They all moved into Mr. 3's room where they quickly got to work. Peter pulled out his mind control potion and fed it to the unconscious man. While he did that, Tobirama began packing Mr. 3's bags. No need to put the man too far behind schedule. Butterfly's and all that. As soon as the drug is working on Mr. 3, another potion is used to heal the hit to his head and wake him up. Mr. 3 looked to Alex with wide eyes, “Master?”

Peter grinned, “My man Alex here is going to ask you some questions. You will answer them truthfully and to the best of your ability.”

Alex had a wicked grin as he got into it, his job was to search out any skills Mr. 3 had that were worth taking. While he did that and Tobirama packed, Peter pulled out a syringe filled with a very familiar pink liquid. He disinfected his chosen injection sight at Mr. 3's elbow and carefully slide the needle in. Unlike Admiral Cain who was on his deathbed and died from natural causes, Mr. 3 was still in great health.

The same swell appeared on Mr. 3's chest. Once more Peter disinfected the spot before using the empty syringe to drain the swell and fill the syringe with the same black goo. As the last drop was removed from Mr. 3's body, he gave a little shudder, but was otherwise unharmed.

“Mr. 3, please attempt to use your Devil Fruit.” Alex ordered once the extraction was complete.

Mr. 3 quickly did so by lifting his hand which immediately began to deform like wax exposed to heat. Peter smirked at the sight. He remembered a major amount of discussion once the concept of 'Lineage Factor' came about. Essentially, a Devil Fruit modified a persons genetics. So, even if he took the source of the modification away, the modification still stayed. Hell, Vegapunk was able to do something similar without the same cheating that Peter did. Case in point, the copy that Vegapunk made of Kaido's Uo uo no Mi, Model Seiryu. Only, Peter's extraction and collection did not lead to a 'failure' as Vegapunk considered his copy to be.

Peter quickly stored the extract away and got to work with Alex to extract a few skills from Mr. 3. They copied his artistic, stealth, tactical, infiltration, Grand Line navigation, and, of course, his skill with the Doru Doru no mi. Once they had several copies of his skills, he was given the memories of packing his bags while the drug erased his memories of being under their thrall.

Peter, Alex, and Tobirama left Mr. 3 in his room with his perfectly packed bags. They waited in the lobby of the hotel for a bit and smiled when Mr. 3 eventually left as if nothing had happened. They stayed put until a few minutes after he was gone, then Peter spoke, “That went perfectly.”

The other two nodded though Tobirama chimed in, “I'm still surprised that he could use that strange ability after you took it from him.”

Peter nodded, “When you remember that a Devil Fruit changes a person's genetics, it makes more sense. Though...” He rubbed his chin, “I wonder if he'll be capable of swimming now?”

They all consider that but have no idea what the answer might be. With their work done, they make their way back to The Coming Storm where they split up. Peter makes his way to the lab while summoning an apple. One injection of creepy black goo later and he's looking at the candle-like form of the Doru Doru no Mi. The majority of the fruit is white and covered in the standard swirls while the top looked like the top of a candle where the green T shaped stem stuck out and almost looked like it was going to drip wax.

Peter takes a moment to look over his growing collection of Devil Fruits. It might only be three of them, but they were all pretty damned useful ones. One Logia and two Paramecia. Although, it was possible the Zaza Zaza no Mi was a Logia, though he doubted it. Control over rain really seemed more like a Paramecia power.

He set the Doru Doru no Mi down with the rest of the Devil Fruits and left the workshop, which had been, surprisingly, empty. He planned to relax until dinner in a few hours.

-----Line Break-----

Sakuya calmly walked out of the Captains cabin of the ship just as the sun was rising over the horizon. She paused when she saw the female portion of the crew all on deck staring at her with various looks ranging from indifference to mild hostility. Sakuya paused, then gave all of them a smug look that lasted just moments.

Her message delivered, she made her way below deck to get some cold water from the galley. The memories of her Master doing everything he could to dehydrate her combined with the tingle she could still feel between her legs put a little smile on her face.

-----Line Break-----

A while after Sakuya left his cabin, Peter finally pulls himself out of his bed. The previous night had been... well, he'd had sex in his previous life but it was nothing like he'd experienced last night. He didn't know if it was the world, the powers they had, or a combination of both but it had been the greatest sex of either life. They'd gone for hours and could have gone for more if they hadn't decided to get some sleep.

Today was the day the Log Poses would reset and they could be choosing the next direction of their journey. The last two weeks had been amazing and he knew his crew was now more than prepared to deal with just about anything Paradise could throw at them. Only the top echelons of each group could fight them. He could only estimate their strength though so some caution was required. After all, he could be completely wrong and get his ass handed to him by someone like Bellamy.

Now that would be embarrassing!

While thinking about that, he got himself dressed in some light pants, shoes, and a shirt. The temperature was still warm and he didn't know what it would turn into as they sailed. Once dressed, he stepped out of his cabin to find Alex and Tobirama giving him knowing looks. Peter fought down a blush, damn hormones, and pretended he didn't see them. Instead of acknowledging their presence, he made his way down into the galley where Erina was already hard at work.

Breakfast was a quite affair. It was also a very awkward affair as EVERYONE was giving him knowing looks. Yeah, keeping what he and Sakuya had been up to on the ship would have been impossible. Especially since Sakuya was not the least bit quiet. It was like she wanted everyone... ohhhhhh.

That sneaky maid did want everyone to know! Oh, he was going to spank her for that!

Later though. Right then he was feeling way to awkward to do anything but stare at his food while eating it.

Once breakfast was finished things returned to normal, more or less. Mera got behind the wheel and began shouting out orders. She'd gotten a dose of Mr. 3's Grand Line navigational knowledge so she was even better then she had previously been.

It wasn't very long until they were swiftly pulling away from Kyuka Island and making their way toward their next destination. Peter hadn't even looked at the Log Poses, leaving the choice up to Mera. However, he did compare their heading to the single Eternal Pose he'd purchased while on Kyuka. Judging by the angle of the needle, they were not on course for Arabasta. That was fine. They were still pretty far ahead of the Strawhats who should still be on their way, or getting close to, Little Garden.

After Little Garden they would hit Drum Island where they would meet Chopper. He had no intention of changing that event. Though the odds were pretty low that they would even make their way to Drum Island so he didn't have to worry about it!

-----Line Break-----

“Fuck you Murphy.” Peter muttered to himself as his breath fogged the air in front of him.

Not too far away sat an island covered in snow with monolithic mountains that looked like drums. Mera had chosen a Log Pose that led them straight to Drum Island. The only bright point was they hadn't seen any sight of Wapol or his submersible ship. He'd had Mera in the water looking for it since the moment the island had been visible on the horizon. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally lead that moron to the island.

As they drew closer to the island, Peter wanted to know how long it would take for the Log Pose to reset, there was a bright flash of light from the inlet. The glow didn't die down, in fact it grew brighter as it drew closer. Peter quickly picked up the spyglass and looked through it. A grin split his face as he instantly recognized the man coming toward them on a custom designed skiff.

“Portgas D. Ace.” he whispered.

Blitzing directly toward them was Luffy's elder brother, and the man he'd been hoping to find in Arabasta. Only then did he remember that Ace had left a message for Luffy on Drum Island. They must have just missed each other by a couple of weeks. That would explain why Ace was leaving Arabasta just as Luffy arrived, he'd already had the time to search for Teach.

He moved toward the rail of the ship when he heard a shout, “Hiken!”

Seeing a massive column of fire heading right for them, Peter growls out, “Sonuvabitch.”

-----Line Break-----

AN

Hit 8.5k with this one, but felt this was a truly cruel place to stop the chapter. Muahahahahahaaa!

Also, earlier in the chapter I wasn't trying to rag on Goku but, can anyone name a single original Ki technique used by Goku? And no, transformations do not count. Both Vegeta and Piccolo were masters at making their own techniques.

Anyway, what did you guys think? Let me know!