Warning! Chapters 19-21 were all released back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any!

Chapter 20: Last Steps to the Starting Line

It was two months after the death of Arlong that Luffy once again sat alone with Kaya. Luffy had, just a few moments ago, confirmed that Kaya was one hundred percent free of the tangles in her Spiritual Energy that had caused her wasting illness. It had only been confirmation, since Kaya had grown to the point that she could trace her own energy and treat the lesser tangles herself. Even so, it had been welcome news, worthy of a celebration. Which is why the slight tension in Kaya's shoulders, despite the radiant smile she'd had few a few minutes ago, was a bit of a surprise. Still, as she fiddled with a very old, but extremely high-quality leather journal that she'd pulled out just before becoming tense and quite, Luffy was willing to wait and let her break the silence in her own good time.

"Apparently, the women of my family were some sort of priestesses."

Luffy blinked. That…had not been among the things he thought Kaya might say. And how did she…oh, duh.

"The journal?"

Kaya nodded, setting the journal she'd been idly flipping the pages of down.

"Yes. I and Merry made an extensive search of the house, and eventually found a hidden panel in the wine cellar. The only things inside were a few more journals and a set of crystals that seem to help channel Spirit Energy. The journals, as it happens, explain the details carefully not mentioned in the rest of the family archives. My ancestors apparently fled from an island in the Grand Line long ago, Asuka Island, was its name. There was a terrible war, devastating the populace, and my family were among those that fled. They escaped with little, but my direct ancestor was apparently a priestess of the island, though not a particularly high ranking one. She recreated what little she could of the training, all of which focused on Spiritual Energy, and recorded it all here in this journal."

Luffy was very interested now. But wasn't about to insult her by asking if he could read it. If she offered, he'd be thrilled, but it was obvious by the way she was half-cradling the thing that it represented a lot to her.

"Kaytrian, that was her name. She was a healer first and foremost. But her order apparently also dealt with things like curses, ghosts, and monsters. Her journal contains information on crafting Spirit Tags, wards, and other such things. Some of which do have applications for use on people. Such as a seal that I think restricts Haki, and a series of tags that can alter how someone acts. Even put them to sleep. There's also some information on a martial arts style that allows one to disrupt Spirit Pathways…"

Luffy blinked, taking that all in. That was…interesting. It made him think of the very fuzzy memories he had of one of the Baroque Works agents. Miss…Golden? Or something? He struggled to remember anything about her aside from her ability to manipulate moods with paint, and her partnership with Mr. 3. But she'd been such an unimportant side character, and his memories were so faded by now, that he couldn't even remember what she'd looked like. Young, he thought. But that was all he could remember.

"I want to go with you."

The statement jerked Luffy out of his attempts to force his memory to cough up more details. One look at Kaya showed she was serious. There was a determination in her eyes, a fire that had been lacking even after her recovery.

"Why?"

It was the only question that mattered. Though only a truly poor answer would have him turn her away.

"Because I think I can be more. The things that the journal describes that are possible, but which Kaytrian herself never learned or figured out…I want to be able to do them! To cure diseases that are thought to be incurable, to make the world better the way that she described her order of priestesses tried to! But I can't do it on my own. I'd never survive the World Government's inevitable attention. For that matter Kaytrian herself was hunted by them, once they realized someone from that island had gotten away. This home was originally built on an empty island as a place for her to hide. It was only much later, when some of her descendants showed signs of her gift with Spiritual Energy, that the small home here was expanded and the whole family retreated to it…"

Luffy smiled. He'd been afraid that Kaya had merely built on the desire to follow Usopp. That wouldn't have stopped him from letting her come along, her skills were too potentially useful. But it would have been less than ideal. This though…she'd found something she was clearly passionate about.

"Are you hoping that we find this Asuka Island?"

At that question, Kaya simply shrugged.

"If we do, we do. But I got the impression most of the order of priestesses had been wiped out. There's a good chance there's nothing left there that could help. Though it couldn't hurt to look, if we happen to find it. And I'm betting there are a lot of other places on the Grand Line where similar groups might have existed. Both good and bad. Searching for knowledge of Spiritual Energy and how it can be used to help people is what I'm after, rather than seeking details about my family's past. I know enough about that now to be satisfied. For the most part, at least."

Even better, as far as Luffy was concerned. He as extremely interested in that area of study himself. But Kaya clearly had a much stronger affinity for it than he did. Assuming she was willing to teach him what she learned, he could likely get a lot farther with her help than on his own. Besides, he liked her…and she and Usopp were adorable together. Grinning, he stuck his hand out to her.

"Welcome to the Crew, Kaya! Now, we just need to figure out how best you'll fit in, and maybe get you started on that martial style you mentioned, if you haven't started on it already…"

... ...

Luffy had considered this course of action long and hard. In the four months since the death of Arlong, his initial thoughts about Nojiko had proven well-founded. While she had yet to unlock Haki, she had managed to learn Soru from him. Better yet, given access to proper training for the first time, she'd smashed through the ceiling she'd hit before and already hit level 30. She was proving to be an incredible high-mobility fighter, someone who could easily become one of their most capable combatants. There were also some strong indications that she was leaning toward unlocking Armament Haki first, rather than Observation, which meant that she'd actually have a dangerous level of stopping power.

That said, there was still a power gap that wasn't going to be easily overcome. The basic fighting style that Nojiko was using was intended for, at best, low level Marine Officers. Certainly, no higher than a Captain, and probably not even that far. It was solid, but it wasn't great. Adding a better gun and Soru to it had pushed her fighting style to the brink of being something better, but it wasn't quite enough to turn her into the same sort of monster that he, Zoro, and Kuina were. Worse, trying to learn a new style at this point would be folly. That left one additional option to overcome the gap…and if he was going to offer her the chance, better it be sooner than later.

Nodding with finality, he committed himself to his choice, spending the single Spirit Fruit Coupon that he'd gained for the death of Eldoraggo when they'd taken his bounty. A moment later, he had the Paramecia fruit he'd carefully selected after perusing the list of all those available at the moment. Taking it, he left his room in the now-somewhat-crowded little hideout by his hidden dock and sought out Nojiko. He found her, as he'd half expected to, working on her marksmanship. Given the noise level gunfire caused, she'd had difficulties working this part of training in without Arlong's crew finding out, and was now putting her freedom to use closing the gap in skill between that part of her training and the rest.

Making sure she heard him approach, he simply watched as she worked through drills. Despite agreeing not to repeat their little fling, he certainly appreciated the sight of the blue-haired beauty in shorts and a tight shirt, a bit sweaty from practice and wielding the gun he'd made for her. The weapon was the closest thing he'd been able to manage to the famous M1 Garand rile. There was more metal in the design than what he remembered of the real deal, simply because wood tough enough to take the pounding her rifle would was hard to come by. He'd managed to purchase a small amount of an ironwood that took spiritual energy well from his System Shop. But it hadn't been cheap, so he'd limited its use as much as possible, preferring one of the alloys of lunarian and wootz steel that he'd come up with while working on new swords for Zoro.

From what he could see, she'd gotten used to its heft…and he could swear he saw little flakes of black Armament forming from time to time. That was a fantastic sign, if he wasn't seeing things. The materials would take the energy well…and hopefully she'd eventually figure out the trick of imbuing bullets with it. He had no idea if the fact it fired proper cartridges would make that easier or harder. Though he was still frustrated that he hadn't yet been able to figure out a working blowback system. Which means she needed to 'rack' a slide on the side of the gun to pull another round out of its 8-shot magazine. It was still a hell of a lot faster than the vast majority of guns used in this world, and its possession of a bayonet made it work marvelously with the fighting style Nojiko had learned. But he'd hit the limit of Alex's knowledge about how guns had worked.

In crude theory, he knew that automatic weapons and autoloading semi-automatics used the gas from firing to move the rack and load the next round. The details, however, weren't something he'd ever known. So far, most of his attempts to replicate the trick had exploded and the few that hadn't simply weren't reliable enough to want his crewmates using. Oh well. Something for the future. He could dream about having a machine gun to unload on villains, at least. Even if it was unlikely he'd be able to figure it out just yet. And it wasn't like it would probably work on the more powerful people out there, anyway.

His mix of appreciation for both his work and Nojiko's beauty as she worked up a sweat kept him occupied until she slowed down for a break. She finally acknowledged him with a grin, heading over to where he was leaning next to the worktable where she cared for her weapons. As she cooled down and began stripping the rifle to clean it with brisk efficiency, she sent a teasing comment his way.

"Here to finally ask for my help seducing Nami? I've got suggestions! There's this one spot behind her left ear that…"

Luffy had come prepared. He whacked her on the head with a newspaper. She blinked, staring at him incredulously, before he made it vanish and held up a hand. Not acknowledging the action at all, he held up the Spirit Fruit with the other.

"Serious talk time, not teasing! I managed to acquire this on our most recent trip. And I think it would be a good fit for you."

Nojiko's confused, incredulous blink from the newspaper whack shifted to curiosity as she looked at the Fruit.

"…Wait, is that a Devil Fruit?"

Luffy grinned, spinning it on his finger.

"Yep! This is a Paramecia Type Fruit called the Crystal-Crystal Fruit. It allows you to form and control Crystal, either from your body or on something you touch. So, you can use it to summon up shields or create cutting surfaces. Or, since you can control them after they've been made for at least a little while, you can use them to create floating platforms to move between or leave them behind to explode. Given your high mobility style, the number of options this would give you…"

Nojiko was clearly intrigued. While he'd considered other Fruits, like the Warp-Warp and Door-Door Fruits which would both offer greater utility to the crew as a whole, none of them quite meshed with the way Nojiko fought. But with her preference for quick dashes, hit and runs, and sporadically opening the range to fire, the Crystal-Crystal Fruit offered some serious advantages. The ability to punish anyone trying to follow her when she faded, create raised firing platforms, and a defensive ability that she currently lacked, were just a few of those options. Given that the Crystal would be formed from her own Spirit Energy, it would also likely take Armament Haki flawlessly, making its defensive boost in the long run all the stronger.

"You're just…offering it to me?"

Luffy nodded.

"Devil Fruits are something I'm always going to prefer stay in-crew, if we have anyone that can use them. This one happens to suit you better than anyone else. Kuina and Zoro flat out don't want them. Nami prefers not to be a front-line fighter, which is what this Fruit suits, and Usopp is even less likely to have a use for it. Kaya's not currently a fighter at all and focused on her own abilities besides. You're the logical one for it to go too, if you want it. And I think it would push you over the edge into being one of our strongest combatants."

Nojiko considered it for long moments, even as she returned to servicing her rifle. Then, as she put it back together, she nodded slowly.

"I accept. But I want to actually talk to the others, first. To make sure none of them want it. But if they don't, I'll take it."

Luffy beamed. He was already confident how that would go, given that he had told the exact truth about it not really suiting the others. It looks like he'd made a good choice, after all…

... ...

Five months after the death of Arlong, Luffy was taking one last trip to Orange Town for supplies to finish their ship. At this point, it was really down to interior fittings and some specialty items that would allow him to add a few extras he wanted. In particular, he needed more wire, something he wasn't willing to put in the effort to make himself. Wiredrawing was an annoying process, and it was only one of several steps needed to make electrical wire. Given his Fruit, not wiring the ship for some basics like electric lights, water heaters, and refrigeration was dumb. But that meant he needed a lot of wiring and had zero interest in making the stuff himself. So he'd taught someone else the process and paid them plenty of money to make it in bulk for him. Picking up that order, along with a few other bits and bobs, was the official purpose of this trip.

It was the unofficial reason that was what he was nervous about.

Even if knew he probably shouldn't be?

Sighing, he worked up his nerves as Nami jumped off the ship, brightly smiling as she helped him tie it to the dock. He'd managed to arrange for everyone else to be busy when they'd left, so it was just him and Nami. As always, she loved sailing his old catamaran, even if it was starting to show its age and the limited shipbuilding skill he'd had when first making it. It had made for a pleasant atmosphere, filled with laughter and banter as they traveled. Which only made his decision firmer, as he grabbed hold of his courage and stepped toward her with the best smile he could manage.

"Hey, Nami? Want to get something to eat first? Maybe just…sightsee a bit?"

Nami froze, seemingly to intuitively realize just what he was asking.

"Are you…asking me on a date?"

"If you want to? Yes."

The beaming smile on her face as she lunged to give him a hug was more than enough of an answer for him. Even if he wasn't looking forward to how insufferable Nojiko was likely to be…

... ...

Luffy yelped as the slicing shards of razor-sharp crystal managed to draw a shadow line of blood across his cheek. Thankfully, he'd dodged most of the blow and his Zoan durability meant even the incredibly-sharp edge of the crystal didn't cut very deep. Even so, when he closed in for another exchange with Nojiko, he took her far more seriously. Not only did he sharpen his focus to the same level he'd use against Kuina or Zoro, but he pulled up his Armament Haki to better protect against those edges.

Nojiko couldn't keep up as he took things up a gear, but she did her best to draw the fight out, pulling on every trick she'd figured out over the last month. Crystal gauntlets to deflect his jian, a small shield to intercept a shot from his revolver. A shrapnel grenade like the one that had caused his shallow wound before, when she was forced to retreat. The fight went on for another minute before he landed a solid hit to her temple that dazed her, then knocked the air out of her with a follow up. She collapsed, then groaned in acknowledgment of defeat as he rested his Armament-blackened blade against her throat. Even if she could summon a shield fast enough, which she couldn't just yet, the Haki would have let him slice right through it. She fell back, still gasping for breath, and glared lightly up at him.

"Hey, you're the one that managed to actually nick me. You shouldn't be surprised that I took the fight up a level. You're getting good with your Fruit powers, and far faster than I'd have thought."

The bluette finally had her breath back enough to respond a moment later.

"Yeah…well, if you hadn't given me that guide, there's no way I would have been. And I'm starting to hit a wall. The guide said I would. That the easy gains from a Paramecia would level out after a few months. But I'd hoped to get a bit farther before I had to focus on rote repetition to reach farther Mastery."

Luffy shrugged, tossing her a bottle of recovery smoothie. She sipped at the concoction appreciatively. As she should. Luffy had put years into making it taste as awesome as it worked.

"From what I can tell, every type of Fruit has ups and downs. Paramecia are the most easy-to-use up front, but Mastery takes a whole lot of long-term effort, since it means pushing the conceptual boundaries of how they work. Shattering the very air with something like Whitebeard's Quake-Quake Fruit, for example. Logia are harder to control up front, but easier to master once you get basic control wrestled into place. Zoans are…a wild mix depending on the animal or being. But the biggest issue with them is adjusting to or overcoming instincts."

Luffy raised his hand to shift it to lightning. It was…mostly hand-shaped, but had talons in place of fingernails.

"Even now, I struggle to overcome the instinct to take on an animal form when I shift to lightning. I'm fighting against the Fruit's natural inclination for animal forms every second I do. Years of practice has made it possible. But shifting more than my arms in combat is still very much a work in progress. Whereas that would be easy as breathing at this point, if I had the Rumble-Rumble fruit instead. Since it would make me an electric-focused Logia type."

Nojiko nodded. Nothing was free. Not even power-ups like a Devil Fruit gave. Struggling upright enough to lean her back on a tree, she summoned up a bit of crystal in her hands, trying to decide what to focus on. Density, maybe?

... ...

Nami backpedaled as she deflected Kuina's katana. Her crystal staff, a gift from Nojiko's practice with density and flexibility, spun into the opening the strike had left in Kuina's guard. The older woman easily side-stepped the blow but grunted in approval. Staff users were pretty much the bane of any swordsman's existence, if the staff wielder was even vaguely competent. Nami was certainly that, but Kuina was far more experienced than Nami was. Not to mention faster and stronger. All of which was making the match far more even than it should be. In fact, if Kuina had been going all-out, Nami would have been quickly in trouble.

That wasn't the point of today, though.

Instead, Kuina was pushing Nami right at the edge of her limits, doing her best to encourage Nami to instinctively reach out for Observation Haki. She and Luffy could both tell Nami was close, but not quite there yet. Something that was shown as Nami almost managed to react to a pebble thrown with considerable force from her left side. She hesitated, not quite trusting the feeling, and yelped as the pebble took her in the side of the boob. She shot Luffy a glare, only to scramble again as Kuina pressed another attack. Just a little bit more, and Nami would have her Observation Haki unlocked. After that, it was just a matter of practice…

... ...

Their new ship splashed into the water, just moments after a wide-eyed Makino smashed an expensive bottle of champagne on it's hull. Luffy had wanted his Big Sister/Mother figure here for this, but he'd actually succeeded in keeping it hidden, apparently. She'd been completely blown away by both the extensive hidden dry dock and the rather large and unusual ship resting there.

"And so launches the Discovery! All aboard, everyone! Time for the tour!"

There was a mix of excitement and amusement from his crewmates as Luffy bounced onto the ship with the energy of a five-year-old given his own body weight in sugar and coffee beans. Instead of jumping up the considerable height of the ship's side like Luffy had done, the rest of them trooped up the ship's ramp from the dock once he lowered it.

"Now, I know some of you know bits and pieces of this! But I'll go through it all to make sure everyone gets it! Particularly Makino, who hasn't had a chance to see her yet! The Discovery is a 165 foot long, 57 ft beam dual-hulled vessel I call a catamaran! Designed to handle extremely rough seas, despite a very shallow draft, her dual-hull nature makes her extremely stable and equally fast!"

Luffy thunked the side of the ship with one hand and the noise it made was…not right.

"The wood veneer on the outside of the hull is just that, a veneer. A thin cloak of lies that hides the truth of her reality. She is a metal ship. Built from a special alloy I've slaved over for the better part of a decade, her hull is stronger than steel! And it's that same alloy, along with the nature of the dual-hull design, that allows her to get by with one massive 180 ft mast! Despite its size, the specialized rigging allows it to be controlled far more easily by a small crew than traditional vessels. You'll also note, of course, the four swivel guns. Two to port and two to starboard. They are a bit special, designed for better rapid fire than normal, but we can cover that later."

Everyone was onboard at this point and looking around appreciatively. The ship's Main Deck was as odd as the rest of her. They'd boarded near the back of the ship, into a nice open space that could be used for training. That space had a decent amount of open real estate…but about half of it was overhung by an additional smaller deck that was built on top of the ship's pilothouse. That pilothouse itself was quite large, and contained more than just the steering for the ship. It also had a fairly good-sized interior lounge space and partially walled off work areas where someone could work on their weapons, gear, or stuff for the ship while still being more or less on watch.

It was forward of that, as well as on top of the pilothouse itself, where things got odd by local standards. That extra upper deck had some currently-empty planters for Mikan trees, and also a lot of pully rigs and other control systems for the ship's rigging. The fact that such was UP, off the Main Deck, was certainly weird. But it suited the highly-mechanically-assisted rigging quite well. It also kept those working on setting sails and such as far as possible out of the waves and spray. Which, since this was a multideck ship, meant they were a good bit up in the air. Even odder was the foredeck, which mostly acted as storage for a pair of life/expeditionary boats that could be outright dropped between the two hulls. Aside from those longboats, there was a latticework of crossways between the two hulls…hull which were flat topped and far more obviously metal than anything else. Close inspection, which they wouldn't be doing with Makino still here, would reveal that there were slide-away doors set into that metal.

Instead of going forward, Luffy took them through the lounge/dining area and down into the interior space that hung between the two hulls, but suspended well over the waterline. There was a full-height deck here, and he quickly pointed out the kitchen, workrooms and storage areas toward the rear, which took up the majority of the space on this deck. In this central area, the only thing forward were a pair of Cabins, which he quickly showed off. One was his, the Captain's Cabin, while the other was the First Mate's cabin…though Kuina had already made it clear that she would be sharing it with Zoro. Luffy had cackled at how much Zoro had spluttered and blushed, but not protested, at her blunt reveal of that fact. The Cabins were pretty spacious, more so than the rest, but not to the point of serious extravagance. There were perks for being the boss, yes, but he didn't want to rub anyone's nose in it too badly.

"Now! Let's move to the port hull! The port and starboard hulls are just repeats of each other, so you'll have a good idea what's in one from the other. Watch your step! Since the dual hulls are two decks each, the ceilings are a little lower and we have to step up a bit here!"

True to his word, there were two steps up into the rest of the cabin spaces…and six that would take you down instead. The result was two decks with only 8' ceilings, compared to the 10' of the cross-connecting area. But it allowed the separation of the rest of the crew cabins from the cargo deck.

"Forward on each side is our guns. Sorry, Makino, but those are going to be a tightly held secret for now, so we'll have to skip that on the tour. For now, take a peek inside the cabins! I think you'll like them!"

There were two cabins on each side of the hull toward the rear, for four per each dual hull, a total of eight overall. Everyone shuffled between themselves so they could get a look in one of the four, while Luffy stood outside to let them admire. They actually weren't that much smaller than the Captain and First Mate cabins, but they were dual-bunk. Less space for each person, though the fact that those bunks could flip up into the wall meant you could still get a decent floor space if you wanted. Better yet, Luffy walked them through the reveal that the underside of the beds could fold down into a desk. Meaning you could transform the space from two beds to two desks if you wanted to. There were a pair of wooden folding chairs available in each room, along with decent sized closets for clothing and other personal effects. By ship standards, they were quite luxurious, and got appreciative noises from everyone as the beds and furniture were tested out to reveal that Luffy had spare no expense. Everything was high quality and a solid mix of comfortable and durable.

"In total, this gives us the capacity for 16 crew in the bunks, plus the Captain and First Mate Cabins. With Kuina and Zoro intent on sharing the latter, that actually gives us a total capacity of 19! We could technically rearrange these berths for more crew than that, of course. But for now, with our crew not exactly filling up even these spaces, I felt it was best to give each person a solid amount of personal living space."

That got more appreciative murmurs from the crew, and the tour continued on. Given that there were a few more little details he didn't want getting back to the revolutionary army just yet, he skipped some of the extras while Makino was still present. He showed the cargo holds, but made everyone think they extended all the way to both ends of the dual hulls. They didn't, but that would be a reveal for his crew once their guest was gone. Makino did know about his Fruit already, though, so he didn't hold back on showing off the electric lights and a few kitchen appliances that he hoped would be additional incentive for Sanji to join. After another half an hour, the tour wrapped up with a simple meal in the dining area in the lounge…and then he escorted Makino back to the village.

By the time he returned to the ship, the rest of the crew had claimed cabins and settled their things aboard. Nami and Nojiko had taken a cabin together…as had Kaya and Usopp. The latter two had tried not to make a big deal about that, but Nojiko had caught on and was busy tasing Kaya into roughly the shade of a tomato when Luffy returned. He chuckled, but spared Kaya by announcing his return.

"Alright, everyone! Attention! Now that Makino is gone, I have two more reveals that are important. Technically, there's a third, but that one is minor. Down to the cargo holds first. That space isn't all about cargo. There's a bit of a secret down there."

Curious, they all followed after him. It was a bit cramped, but they managed to all get a view as he took them to the last of the compartmentalized spaces on the lower deck. There, they all stared in confusion at a massive metal monster…and a much smaller rack of a dozen or so arm thick tubes and a sizable tank. As in, a several-hundred-gallon tank. He pointed to the tank and its apparatus first.

"That's actually important, but not really secret. It's a desalination plant that I can power with my Fruit to turn seawater into freshwater. I don't need to tell you just how useful that can be on sea voyages."

There were a lot of round eyes as they all shook or nodded their heads. In truth, it wasn't complicated. He had no real idea how to build something more sophisticated like a reverse osmosis plant. So this was a old-school freshwater generator. The water was pumped through the smaller tubes, heated until it evaporated up through a mesh there and down into another set of tubes, there it was run through a charcoal filter and into the tank. Salt and other particulate was left in the original tubes, which had been designed to clean easily. If he powered the thing for an hour, it could half fill that tank.

The tank as it happens, had its own pump that could take the water up to the kitchen or the communal showers in each hull, or to the private showers in his own and the First Mate's cabin. The pumps, like the lights, could be run without him. He wasn't anywhere near being able to make something like an ion battery bank. But bulkier lead-acid batteries weren't actually all that sophisticated. There were a dozen heavy duty banks of them scattered around the ship, which he could charge periodically. Those battery banks would keep the lights on, power the appliances in the kitchen, and the water heaters for the showers. Because fuck no he wasn't going without hot water showers, thank you very much.

Of course, all of that was only really possible because of his Spirit Fruit…and the other, far larger, occupant of this section. He pointed everyone's attention to it and explained.

"That is an electric engine. A damn big one and one of two. Both can be fed power from the pilothouse via my Fruit…and they turn a pair of screws under the waterline. If any of you have heard of using steam engines and paddle wheels for ships? This is that but far better. We won't be using them day-to-day. But if we need to get somewhere in a hurry? My best calculations say that adding the engines to the sails will get us damn close to 30 knots of speed. Though that might be a little generous and the conditions would have to be almost perfect."

Nami, the one who understood just how absurd that was best, let out an incredulous noise. Luffy grinned at her.

"Hey, I told you this ship would be something special. And like I said, that would be pretty much running full tilt under good winds. Still, there's one more thing. Something which Usopp is already aware of since I've had to train him heavily on their use."

Usopp perked up.

"The guns! Yes! I want to see them actually deployed, damn it! And when can we shoot them, finally?!"

Luffy's smile was predatory at that comment, even as he chivvied everyone back upstairs.

"We'll need to find somewhere isolated for testing. For now, we can at least show them off!"

With everyone quickly ushered back up into the pilothouse, Luffy moved to the ship's wheel and reached under a panel to its side to flip a pair of switches. Like the water heaters and lights, this function was connected to the battery banks, though it put much more of a strain on them. He'd have to remember to top them up via the engines, which doubled nicely as generators, before they set out on their shakedown cruise.

Usopp had helpfully directed everyone's attention forward…and they all gaped as the hidden panels on each hull's forward surface slid open. None of them had been close enough to see those panels yet, and they definitely weren't expecting the pair of guns that rose on elevators from within the hulls. The guns were only barely recognizable as guns to most of those there. The swivel guns hadn't been a huge visual departure from traditional cannons. Proper inspection would show them to be breech loading affairs, which fired cannister shot instead of cruder grapeshot, allowing them to be loaded like a more modern gun. That was a nice boost…but it was nothing on what Luffy had worked his ass off to make happen for the ship's main armament.

These guns, now fully deployed, were something akin to a 4-inch/33-caliber naval gun. Not fully modern in the sense of military equipment from Alex's original world. Duplicating fully modern naval guns would have been beyond him. But he'd come just a few steps sort of that, creating a pair of turret-mounted guns that wouldn't have been at all out of place on a WWII frigate or small destroyer. At over 11 feet long, there was no mistaking these two monsters as anything like a traditional canon. Even with the bullshit alloys he'd had to work with, the things weighed upwards of a thousand pounds each, and could only rotate because they were built right into a mechanically assisted spinning platform.

"Those two beauties may well be the most powerful two guns currently equipped to a ship, anywhere. That's maybe not true, but if there is anything outside the New World that can match them? I'd be surprised. We may only have two guns to everyone else's full broadsides…but those guns are breech loading and fire shells instead of cannon balls. That might not mean much to anyone but Usopp just yet…but this will. Those guns? They have an estimated range of 6.8 miles. And they can fire their entire hopper of 8 rounds in under a minute, once you've been trained properly on how to do it."

That figure had everyone's eyes snapping toward him. Traditional naval cannons had ranges less than one mile. Luffy gave them a face-splitting grin as they gaped at him. He was very pleased. Sure, his attempts to make a railgun using his Fruit had so far failed…but these monsters were still far more powerful than anything the Marines had, at least to his knowledge. And the vast majority of those confident admirals who thought they could deflect anything aimed at their ships? Well, he'd like to see them try to shrug a shell from one of his guns off. So what if they only had two of them, if they could put down a Marine galleon before it ever got into range of them! He just really hoped he'd gotten it right and they didn't explode and kill them all the first time they were fired…

Patting the ship, he let Usopp handle the barrage of questions now pouring out of the others. With a deep breath of anticipation, he finally let himself pull up the Status window of the ship itself…

... ... ... ... ...

The Discovery

Grade: Epic (Current)

Hull Material: Lunarian Steel/Ducol Steel Composite

Spiritual Development: 1500/15000

Dimensions:

Length: 165ft

Beam: 57 ft

Draft: 10.5 ft

Armament:

2 – 4 Inch Navl Guns (Turreted)(Hidden)

4 – Swivel Mounted Deck Guns (Breech Design)

Abilities: Greatly Improved Stability, Greatly Improved Speed, Extreme Durability, Growth Item

Description: Crafted with loving care and great skill by Monkey D. Luffy, and named after a famous ship that, paradoxically, no one but he has ever heard of. This ship has the potential to reach the ends of every sea…if it's crew cares enough for it.

... ... ... ... ...

Luffy's eyes widened at what he read. Apparently, he'd done even better than he thought…

... ... ... ...

A/N 1: Kaya! So, I've seen Kaya taken along before in other fics. But I wanted to do something different with her here, as she's usually barely more than a tag along to give warm fuzzies between her and Usopp. I've taken the time to set her up over several releases as exactly what I've revealed her to be here. A nascent Priestess/Miko. The Island mentioned is from one of the movies I haven't seen, so I was working off of the wiki information regarding it. But Kaya's actual abilities are being pulled from a variety of sources. Within one piece, there are unexplained abilities, such as Miss Goldenweek's Color's Trap ability. Not to mention some of the Devil Fruits that imply things like Voodoo exist in the One Piece world. A lot of these are being drawn together, then sprinkled with some typical Shrine Maiden type powers like Paper Seals/Wards/Tags. Add in a dose of Martial Arts inspired by Ty Lee from Avatar the Last Airbender and you have a general idea of my long-term plans for her.

A/N 2: Nojiko's Devil Fruit. This Fruit is, so far as I'm aware, 100% original to me. Oh, there are similar powers in other series of course, but this isn't (so far as I know) a Fruit that exists in One Piece. I did, as the chapter implies, seriously consider several DFs that are already known. But none of them quite fit. I was trying to create a unique fighting style for Nojiko to help her stand out as more than a background crew member. The Crystal-Crystal Fruit was my solution, as it offers her a solid power up that will make her a fairly unique fighter, without overpowering her. The Fruit is also generally in-line with the power level of a good Paramecia, I think.

A/N 3: Two notes about their ship! I mean, I could talk about it a lot, since I've put quite a bit of thought into it. But these two notes are to clarify things people might take issue with. The first is about the Guns. No, those aren't fully modern Naval Guns. Without computer/satellite support, they couldn't even USE modern naval guns to their fullest extent, even if Luffy could have made them. They aren't actually modeled off one specific weapon, but off my reading about several different guns. Their closest real counterpart is a WWI/WWII deck gun used by submarines. They aren't some all-powerful battleship main gun. But they ARE several large leaps forward from the tech seen through most of One Piece. They have a lot of range and stopping power, as seen in Chpater 21, but they aren't an unbeatable advantage. The ship's speed. This is really something from Chapter 21, but I'll cover it here. Yes, I know that their max speed is beyond even what a Catamaran can manage. Even racing catamarans tend to top out around 30-40 knots. And they aren't nearly the size and weight of the Discovery. Realistically, even with the engines, the Discovery should probably max out somewhere in the high 20s. 30 knots would, as Luffy indicated, likely be an absolute max. But, well...there's a reason the ship has its own Spirit Energy score. I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say that One Piece fuckery is afoot regarding its top speed.