The circus needs a band, a band needs a leader!

I found Buggy in even better mood than I expected. Sure, I had brought in a good haul money-wise and Mikita being one of Crocodiles (former) top-agents meant she was probably a capable recruit. However I had not even looked for a musician and also made it clear, that I planned to go to a desert island, that we had to expect to be swarming with marines.

After telling him that I had retreated to my cabin to give Annaisha a treat.

When I came onto deck the next morning the island we were heading for was already visible on the horizon and Buggy seem to be even more chipper than yesterday.

“What's got you in such a good mood?”

“Oh, you know, while you were busy on Kyoka Island, I got busy looking at Annaisha's map again and realized, that you picked a great course: This”, he pointed at the island on the horizon, “Is Velvell Island, or how it's commonly know, shanty-town!”

“So it's a slum?”

“What? No! It's the home of paradise's greatest musicians! Some fifty years ago there was a really flashy crew, called the Rumba-Pirates and inspired by them all manner of people on that island decided to become bards, minstrels, troubadours and bandsmen and offered save harbor to pirates. If we're going to find a flashy musician to get our band in order, it'll be here!”

“I mean... that doesn't sound bad, but is that really all it takes, to get you into this good mood?”

“No, the best part is what's coming next:”, Buggy started to sing:

“Set course for Booty Island

Where the rum flows in full streams

Set course for Booty Island

The land from all pirates' dreams

Set course for Booty Island

Where sun shines brightly, even in the dark

Come on, let's get a move on this barque!”

Soon half the crew had joined in, which would have sounded a lot better, if they could agree on the key, the exact melody, the rhythm or the text. While they at least somewhat sang along during the chorus, the verses were impossible to make out with everybody shouting completely over each other.

“GOD! I better find a conductor or SOMETHING on this island!”

Thankfully the attempted music had stopped, but from my cabin I could still hear them fighting over who's fault it was, that it had been this awful, which was marginally better. Alvida took lifted her head until my dick was no longer down her throat.

“Why did you figure, there'd be anyone good there?”

“Apparently Velvell Island is known as shanty-town and home to some of the best musicians of the sea.”

“Shanty-town? Not like in slum, right? Maybe Annaisha had heard of it? Tourist attractions was kind of her job, right?” And with that her attention returned to my dick, which I was perfectly fine with.

“You're kidding, right? Shanty-town, Jaya, Water 7, the booty isles, those are the most famous harbors for pirates! Of course after Roger died the marines did their best to crack down on them. Water 7 is still around because the World Government can't afford to lose their shipyards and Jaya is a dead end, so instead of cracking down on the island they simple send out a raid from G-8 once in a while.”

“Booty isles sound made up”, I brought up.

“What? It's a massive archipelago! World famous for the 'plunder-citadel' in the town of 'plunderville' on the tiny 'plunder-island' in the 'plunder-strait'!”

“... is... is that a joke?”

“Yeah, Captain Blake wasn't the best with names.”

“I feel like I've heard this name before...”

Annaisha didn't like that. She made an indignant face and said: “Now you're mocking me”, and left.

“... Captain Blake is...”, Alvida started, unsure of how to explain, “kind of the ultimate pirate. Like the likes of Buggy and I aspire to one day be like Whitebeard, Kaido or Big Mum. They in turn want to be the next Gold Roger. And Gold Roger wished he was half the man Captain Blake was... except he's made up.”

“I don't get it.”

“Captain Blake is effectively a joke. Literally. For example: Do you know where the Red Line came from?”

“No?”

“When Blake first wanted to set sail, he had difficulty finding a crew, because they were all afraid he'd steer their ship over the edge of the world. So Blake swam out, grabbed the edge of the world and bent it into the sphere we know today. The Red Line is the seam he made so it won't collapse back into a flat shape.”

“That's a really bad joke!”

“We're on a ship of clowns, you're just spoiled!”

We finally dropped anchor within sight of “Shanty town”. The fact, that the marines had cracked down on it was very much evident: At first sight it looked like a ghost town, that had been completely abandoned: Most of the buildings were overgrown ruins and even a lot of those that didn't looked uninhabited. Many windows were missing, some were boarded up, some houses had untiled roofs and the streets appeared empty. Only after wandering for a bit did I see, that the city was not completely abandoned: A small percentage of the former population must have remained here. Now this remnant amounted to a village within the old city.

One thing stuck out to me, as I made my way through the abandoned houses: The kids ages seemed to all fall into distinct groups. There were a bunch of kids about ten years old, some about six and some maybe four years old being watched by their older brothers. But no children in between.

However there were A LOT of kids, so ...: “Buggy, have you found a good place to set up our tent?”

“Our tent?”

“For the circus? Please don't tell me, we don't have a tent!”

“You've been to the ship, right? Why would we also have a tent?”

“How...? Never mind, just find a good spot to set up the show. There's lots of kids here, so we'll have loads of viewers for sure.”

“Sure thing, captain. You're of spruiking?”

“What?”

“Spruiking. You know? Banging the drum? Barking? Market-crying? Flashing? Advertising?”

“Probably. I'll talk to my favorite quartermistress first, though.”

I ended up doing pretty little advertising. Annaisha had prepared leaflets, flyers and posters and so the two of us, Alvida and two crewmen went around handing them out. When we had put up all the posters Annaisha and I returned to the ship to make sure all the preparations for the show went well.

There was surprisingly much to do for me: I went over the schedule again, I had to write a speech, since as the captain it was my job to moderate the programm, I fingered Annaisha, while she was doing her best to solve the logistics of the stage entries and exits, I helped setting up seating for the audience as well as fencing and a both to make sure they paid for it and I had to instruct the “band” so they would play the right flourishes and fanfares when given the signal. The problem wasn't their lack of skill, but their utter refusal to work together.

“I really hope this is worth the hassle”, Buggy huffed, when you were done with the setup and waiting for Alvida and the other advertisers to come back.

“Don't worry. In a place like this, where there's lots of children and there is no rampant poverty it's normal we'll make a decent income on the circus show alone, not even considering what we'll take while the folks are distracted.”

When Alvida returned, the stands were still empty.

It was five minutes before the show was supposed to start, when the first spectator showed up: A man in his fifties, who had obviously been drinking.

“What the fuck? Didn't you tell the parents where we are?”, I hissed to the crewmen, who were tasked with getting an audience, while watching through the curtains. Of course a lack of marketing didn't explain what I was seeing. After all I had made it explicitly normal for us to be practically overrun with spectators.

Alvida seemed to read my mind: “It was really weird. The kids who could read took one look at the posters and than seemed to lose all interest, the younger ones were really excited, asked when and where it was. Than their parents or some of the older kids said something and suddenly they were 'guess I'm not coming'. Similar story with the parents. We tell them about the show and they say, that their kids'll love it. We tell them when it is, they shrug and sometimes apologize, that they probably won't come after all.”

“What the fuck could make this entire town not care about us?”, I wondered out loud.

“You guys gonna start any time, or what?”

It was our viewer. I stepped out into the manage to answer him: “Do you expect us to put on a show just for you?”

“You already prepared it, didn't you? I paid your fee and its not like them kids gonna come.”

“What the hell is up with that? Shouldn't the kids be running down our door?”

“What did you expect? Music classes have started like five minutes ago.”

I ended up giving the drunkard his entry fee back so he would tell us what was up with the music classes. There seemed to be only one adult musician in shanty-town and Buggy immediately insisted on recruiting him, even though the drunk called him a foreigner and a “no good troublemaker”.

I left the drunkard with a bottle of rum and took Alvida, Annaisha, Buggy as well as couple of crewmen, while leaving the ship under the care of Mohji and Cabaji.

The music teacher lived at the shore opposite to where we had laid anchor and the lessons were held out in the open right in front of his shack. The shack itself looked like an outhouse next to the barn next to it. The door of the barn was open and left no doubt, that the person it belonged to was a musician: To the side were boards, bars and banners that could be built up as a stage and the rest was filled up with everything one could want for a concert: a number of floodlights next to some fireworks, a selection of costumes over disassembled stage settings and of course instruments.

In this room alone there were more instruments than I had seen in total in my life up to that point. Stacks of drums of different shapes and sizes all the way up to the ceiling with all matter of bells, cymbals and tambourines filling the gaps.

Enough horns to outfit an army some in cases, some without.

A wall that displayed dozens of flutes like swords in an arms shop.

And in the bag there were the pipes of a disassembled organ.

The most impressive part was, those weren't even all of the supplies this musician had.

As mentioned, he had just started a lesson. The start of this lesson apparently was a puppet theater, where he currently performed “the rat-catcher of Havlum”. He didn't really operate the puppets though and had just stuck them onto whatever he could hold in front of the screen he had erected in front of the kids while he was playing and singing. One of the puppets was stuck on top of the fingerboard of the guitar he was playing, while the other was glued to the right side of the accordion he was playing at the same time. I could tell, because sometimes he raised it up that tiny bit to high and it was visible beneath the puppet.

The puppet theater must have been the intro of his music lesson, as judging by how much he went into detail about how all those kids drowned he must've been at it for quite some time. I wondered why the drunkard had called him a troublemaker, since there was not much less trouble one could make than telling the kids a story with the moral not to trust strangers before teaching them something relevant to the culture of their home.

When the puppet theater was finished he stepped out behind the screen and started the actual lessons. Annaisha and Alvida sucked in a breath in... shock? Surprise?

He was a sight to behold. First of all he was covered in even more instruments. Aside from the guitar and the accordion I had already heard, there was a violin strapped to his shoulder, a large drum tied to his bag with a rig so he could bang it with a jerk with his foot. Cymbals on top of the drum, a signal-horn beneath his heel and several percussion instruments along his limbs. He skillfully moved not making much noise despite all of this, while moving the screen from the puppet theater aside to reveal a piano.

And than there was the worst problem. “Oh no, he's hot!”

For a second I was afraid I had said my thoughts out loud, but it was Buggy. You turned to him in question.

“We're gonna get so much relationship drama on the ship”, he explained. “Damn, he's really flashy.”

I couldn't argue that. He had instructed the youngest children which instrument to take out of the garage, while the older ones already knew what to go for and now they were playing figures high and low together. Than without a tuning fork he instructed his students how to fine-tune their instruments.

“I'm so happy, that all of you decided to join us again today! Now for some exciting news: First of all Kinji here has been doing some work at home and I am proud to say, that yesterday evening he passed his last exam and I can not imagine any reason not to call him a conductor!”

The teenager in question stood up and bowed towards his teacher, obviously nervous but also more than equally proud.

“Now, Kinji, I think you earned yourself a treat do you have a wish what to play?”

“... actually...” with the spotlight suddenly on him the nervousness briefly got the better of him.

“Actually yes,” he caught himself, “the circus is in town and because their shows are in the evening we won't have the time to see them so I thought I'd like to play 'Spinning wheel'.”

“It's been some time since we tried, so I hope you plan on freestyling a bit!”, the teacher said while giving Kinji a stick and taking a place among the children.

And to our surprise, Kinji made it work.

He waved at the trumpeter and she started playing swelling into action, though Kinji wasn't brave enough to sing. Instead he directed the teacher, who did so with joy:

“What goes up must come down

Spinnin' wheel, got to go round

Talkin' 'bout your troubles, it's a cryin' sin

Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin' wheel spin

You got no money, you got no home

Spinnin' wheel, all alone

Talkin' 'bout your troubles and you, you never learn

Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin' wheel turn.”

The teacher's voice was a pleasant bass. Kinji had been taught well, letting the more experienced kids play solos, while making the others stand back at the same time and hushing his teacher.

“Someone's waitin' just for you

Spinnin' wheel, spinnin' true

Drop all your troubles by the riverside

Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin' wheel fly”

When they were through the text the song turned into a sequence of solos until everybody had had their fill and they finally ended it.

“Today I planned a lesson that not strictly music, but important for any kind of show. Now I did make some preparations, but if some of you could help me...”

While he went on with his lesson we started talking.

“We need him! You've heard what our band sounds like”, I started out.

“No argument here”, Alvida and Annaisha agreed.

Buggy nodded: “He's the flashiest musician I've ever heard.”

Just as he said that our ears were assaulted by weaponized sound.

The younger kids were reading off of cards the older ones were holding up and in between the sentences they banged their instruments and screamed, as if they wanted to kill somebody.

“Lesson two: Strophe

AAAAHHH!

Lesson three: Bridge

AAAAHHH!

Lesson four: Refrain

AAAAHHH!

Lesson five: Solo

WUUUHHH!

Lesson six: Dramatic climax

… AAAHHH!

Lesson seven: Buster call

OOOHHH!

And now to

complete the song

please combine

each part

with another

part

AAAHHHAAAAHHHAAAAHHWUUUHHHAAAHHHOOOHHH!!!”

Apparently the lesson was to show how due to the contrast of the reading and the banging all possible intensity was replaced by comedy.

We decided to wait until the lessons were over, before we would make our move and so while the kids were putting their and he was still wearing his, we wanted to recruit him the same way Alvida had first recruited me: Telling him and overriding all objections physically.

“Hello!”, I greeted him with a smile.

“Hi, you must be from the circus! Please tell me you also making a show in the early afternoon, it's been to long that I've witnessed a showman other than myself!”

“We certainly are thinking about it. You're not the only one, who didn't come in today, Mr …?”

The others left the talking to me. Annaisha and Alvida knew why, the crewmen we had taken along knew better than to talk, when I was talking and Buggy wanted to see how I'd do.

“Oh excuse me. Morgan Hurley-Bannok at your service.” as he bowed down theatrically the horns under his feet honked.

“And who might you be, Captain...?”

“Tsuki... How did you figure, that I'm a pirate-captain?”

“I didn't... though nobody who lives in shanty-town can't see the signs. That swagger of a man, who has shaken of the stiffness of the law.”

“The parents seemed pretty eager to send their kids to a pirate ship then.”

“You said you were here as a circus and those who want to start trouble are usually stupid enough to say so up front. Now was there something you wanted to talk to me about? Because I am expecting a call in a few minutes.”

“If you want to be so forward: I'd like you to join our crew. We need a good musician, and as far as we can tell you are the best.”

“That's all? No reason for me to actually do it?”, he paused for a moment but without really giving me an opportunity to answer, he gave an answer: “Till, then: Fuck you.”

At least to me it was obvious, that it was a challenge. He wouldn't give up his life for just anybody, and I genuinely wanted to take him up on it before forcing him either physically or normally.

However the crewmen didn't see him as sympathetic: “We won't let you disrespect Captain Tsuki like that!”

They stormed forward intent on beating Morgan up. He sidestepped them with a disappointed expression on his face: “Really? You want to travel this lane of the Grand Line? I could beat you up while improvising a song.”

“Wanna bet?”, I offered while holding the crewmen back.

“What are you proposing? What are the stakes?”

“If they can beat you, you're part of our crew”

“So I won't be.”

“I wasn't finished. If you manage to beat them up while playing and without making a single wrong tune we have to leave you alone.

However if you play a wrong note, we are can keep on trying to recruit you for as long as we're here.”

“Deal! Bring it.”

I had underestimated him and overestimated my crewmen. He played a fast-paced powerful tune on the accordion while tiptoeing around his attackers shoving them into each other with his shoulder.

“booelleboelleboelleboelle” the signature sound of a den-den-mushi could be heard from his shack.

Three quick punches and he ran to his shack under loud honking.

Annaisha, Alvida, Buggy's head and I followed him as he took the call.

“Hey babe”, he said as he picked up.

“Hey ba... Sorry”, answered a man on the other side, who had attempted to imitate a woman.

“Masao! It's nice to hear you, too. No offense, but why are you calling?”

“None taken, I guess talking to me isn't quite the same as talking to your girlfriend. That's actually what I have to tell you: She's on mission to Alabasta, so won't be able to visit her for the next few weeks.”

“Aw man... how long are we talking?”

“She's supposed to help a pirate crew, that's still at large and escort the ones that were caught to Enies Lobby... when I said a few weeks I was going really easy on you.”

“Damn... Are you in charge now?”

“I wish. We just got a number of new recruits and they came with a captain.” I could practically hear him looking around.

“Honestly I might have complained in the past how our captain is eccentric but I take talking in third person every time over how she's riding our asses with the rules and regulations.”

“That sounds like a you-problem”, Morgan laughed.

While they exchanged pleasantries I already made a plan to exploit the bet I had made: I had promised not to try recruit him, however if he slept with Alvida or Annaisha he would become a harem girl and might just join on his own accord.

Morgan turned to us.

He sighted: “I guess you won our little bet. Goddamn foot-horns...”

“Honestly that was so impressive, that I don't really want to annoy you any more today”, I said, as I couldn't believe my luck, that he was counting that.

“After all it sounds like you're sleeping alone tonight,”

“unless...”, Alvida half-continued your sentence. It was a huge gamble to even try flirting: I had made it normal, that men who wouldn't accept turning female wouldn't find harem girls attractive. Of course Alvida had no objections to less voluntary intimacy. Only the person bothered her, only agreeing to do it, since he would become a harem girl in the process.

“Girls, don't get me wrong: I'd love to blow your collective minds. However I do believe you heard, that I am already in a committed relationship...”

Oh, well.

“Hey, we we're only offering, because men like you, gifted and into us, are normally exempt from all expectations of monogamy. In fact as far as I'm concerned it's normal for you to take Alvida up on her offer right now.”

“Fuck it. When you're right, you're right. I was just angry, because...”, he gestured at the den-den-mushi and at me, “No offense.”

“Don't push it.”

I left as he pulled Alvida to his bed.