Time to pick them up

The storm that Nami had warned him about was really picking up. The five of us had to make sure we were standing securely to not fall on the wet planks. And the Domingos just stared me.

"What are you waiting for?"

"In situations like these Captain Buggy or Cabaji and Mohji tell us what to do..."

"It's them we have to try and pick up, so go and make sure the storm doesn't sink us and we can cast off! I'll try and think of a way to make sure they get here as quickly as possible!", I shouted at the three crewmen, who still were not moving.

"... What exactly do we have to do?"

"What?"

"We never had to handle a storm like this on our own! Captain Buggy always told us what to do and then we always had the entire crew aboard."

Shit. How should I know what had to be done? Lightning came down in the center of the city, the thunder shook me almost at the same time. Annaisha stood in front of him holding out a book. A manual on the operation of sailing ships.

"Annaisha, you wouldn't know the relevant chapters by heart, would you?"

Suddenly she looked smaller than she was: "Well, I do, but there are plenty of subtleties these theoretical works don't account for, I mean page 127 paragraph 3 states: 'The behavior when, or even if at all the ship capsizes depends largely on hull shape and integrity as well as cargo. For example battleships filled with large amounts of ammonition won't get tipped over even if the sails are left open during storm, however are much more ..."

Before she could fully recite the rest of the manual I stopped her: "Hey, listen you are as well trained to for this situation as you could be, without actually commanding a ship before! It's normal that can apply your theoretical knowledge to instruct these three numbskulls so we can get this ship going!"

It worked, she immediatly started giving instruction. I still had to tell the Domingos to do what she said and I formulated a statement in my head, to make sure the crew got here without it interfering with whatever Buggy had planned, when I noticed my new crewmember staring at me.

"Aren't you busy?"

"I want to see how your Devil Fruit works?"

"What?"

"You're gonna use it to make sure your crew gets here alright, right? I want to see how you do it!" Her hand was in her pants again.

"The problem is, that without knowing how things are on their end I could fuck up Buggy's plan while it's still salvagable."

"Don't you have a Den-Den-Mushi?"

"I don't think he has one, yesterday he just ... it's normal that Buggy leaves one of his ears on in the captains quarters." As I made my way to his cabin, I remembered, that Buggy had only been able to free his body with his Devil Fruit, when Alvida and I had gotten him close enough. So if I wanted Buggy to somehow react to me, I would have to take care of that to: "It's normal that Buggy can wiggle his ears even when they are detached." Finding the ear was easy: It had was pulled after Buggy, when he left the ship until he got far enough away, so it was laying right by the door and I stepped on it.

"Captain, one wiggle for yes, two for no: Are you trying to get back to the ship right now?"

One wiggle.

"You should make them come to the western quayside. If we stay here the storm won't let us leave and push us to far out if we go south." Fuck Annaisha was good at sneaking up on me.

"Did you hear that?"

Two wiggles. Then a lot of wiggles. Apparently they really needed our help.

"Listen up: It's normal that the entire crew get's going right now! If you guys keep on running so the wind comes from right to left, the entire crew will normally be back on the ship in less than two minutes!" I turned to tell Annaisha to get give the respective orders, but she was already gone and seconds later I felt the ship starting to move.

The first ones back were Mohji's group. They were holding onto Richy's tail who seemed to have been running the right way through sheer dumb luck. Mohji had enough experience to quickly catch up to what Annaisha was up to and after I confirmed that Buggy would meet us there he helped her keeping the sails under control.

The first one to reach us, when we reached the western quayside was Alvida. She ran, slipped and skittered through a tight alleyway that ran at an angle westwards her shirt acting as a sail. She held Buggies shoes. Buggies head came next, Cabaji holding onto him. Buggy was really carrying the team. Literally his body was split into several dozen pieces with a crewmember holding onto every single one. Of course he couldn't carry the entire crew, but thanks to him the slowest ones got on board quickly. 117 seconds after I told Buggy to run we lifted the anchor and succesfully escaped captain smoker.

The sun was shining again when Alvida, Annaisha, Buggy, Cabaji, Mohji and I were assembled in the command room.

"So ... I take it you ran into Captain Smoker?"

"Yes", Buggy admitted through gritted teeth.

"And judging by your mood it was before you could get to the Strawhat?"

"No", he said, but if anything he looked even angrier.

"So ... you won our little bet?"

"No."

"No?"

Buggy was clenching his teeth to hard to elaborate to Alvida answered for him: "He was hit by a fucking lightning just before Strawhats head was about to come of and than Smoker showed up before we could try again. If it wasn't for you we'd be in prison right now... Captain Tsujo!"

"I'll be honest: after what seeing you carrying half the crew back on board I feel bad about taking the title from you... not so bad I won't do it, but still bad."

"Yeah, just throw me overboard, you flashy bastard!"

"Why would I do that?"

"Than make me your flashy first mate!"

"You're not my first mate!"

Buggy wanted to respond, obviously with a threat in there, when Alvida put her hand on his shoulder: "The first mate is a position of trust Tsujo knows better than to trust you just now. That said, we do have to talk about the new hierarchies on this ship... captain." Her stare made it clear she wasn't only talking the distribution of offices.

"Okay, first mate is easy: Alvida, obviously. Now I don't want to shaft Buggy, but I don't know what office would be best", I turned to him, "It's obvious that you can keep order on the ship I heard you've been to the Grand Line before, so of course want to give you some authority..." Then my musings were interupted by a heavy book being slammed on it and opened.

"You want to make him the boats- or coxwain." All turned to Annaish.

"I don't like the sound of being Tsujo's cock-swine."

"Cox-wain. Both mean the person responsible for making sure the captain's orders are executed. In theory a coxwain would outrank a boatswain, but the former is rarely present outside of large marine battleships. The boatswain is at all times the second highest position on the ship even outranking the first mate, when acting on the captain's orders."

"I won't be bossed around by Buggy!"

"Oh, small misunderstanding: The boatsman can only order the other offecers as a deputy of the commander of the ship. For example if Buggy told Mohji to drop the anchor and you told him to open the sail instead, he'd have to open the sail. However if the Captain told Buggy to stop the ship, Buggy's orders to close the sail and drop the anchor are to be treated as if they came from the Captain himself. If the boatswain abused this authority he'd be replaced."

I considered it, but quickly came to the conclusion, that I had no better idea: "Buggy, do you want to be my boatswain and help me lead this ship and crew through a flashy adventure?"

Buggy tried to look angry, but my attempt at complimenting and flattering him had paid of: "You had me at 'flashy'!" He held out his hand and I took it.

"What about us?"

"What about that girl", Mohji and Cabaji said respectively.

"What were you previous positions?", Annaisha asked.

"Before Tsujo became part of the crew we were first mates..."

"Then how about second and third mates?" The whole room, aside of me, gave her **** stares and as they began preparing complaints, insults and threats she picked her book up, taking cover behind the pages and pointing the finger at one line.

"'The mates after the first mates are not to act as replacement of the captain, like the first mate would, but to uphold the chain of command, if both the first mate and the captain are unavaible. They do not outrank the boatswain even if both the first mate and captain are killed. In this case they are to maintain order on the ship and lead it in the spirit of the last given commands until a new captain and first mate can be elected/appointed. If the captain/first are only temporarily unavaible (captured by an enemy, sick, on land but not contactable,etc.) the mates are to make the effort to reinstate them into active command. The authority of the mates is over the crew, not the ship'", I read out loud. Alvida and Buggy calmed down considerably, when they realised, that they were still the highest ranking people, below me of course. The tamer and the acrobat looked at each other not quite processing what that meant. I took the opportunity: "That would mean, that the next time we're in a situation like that, Alvida, me and maybe even Buggy captured by the marines, it would be on you to save us. Are you confident you can do that?"

They shared one last glance at each other before straightening up and saluting.

"We don't ... do that here...", I said as Buggy screamed: "GET YOUR FLASHY HANDS OUT OF YOUR FLASHY FACES, YOU'RE FLASHY PIRATES!"

I held out my hand for them to shake on after the other and used the opportunity to it's fullest: "Don't look like you've signed up for a suicide squad, you'd normally never dissapoint me, so you've got nothing to fear." I expected Annaisha to draw in her breath at witnessing using my ower again, but her face showed only curiosity.

"That leaves only her", Alvida said pointing at Annaisha, "Why did you bring her here?"

"He wanted my book on Devil Fruits, but couldn't get it with his power so he took me instead." Just a few weeks ago I would not have considered it possible someone could say that in a cheery tone or even say that in reference to him.

"Why didn't you just rob her, you're a flashy enough fighter, aren't you?", Buggy wondered.

"I guess after I told him I killed a pirate with a bounty of several million, he didn't like his odds. Though I have to admit, that I did make myself more ... dangerous than I actually was. On the other side prison was pretty boring so I worked out a lot for those eight months."

"Didn't you have to be arrested by Smoker?"

"I was arrested by him, but only because he was right there anyway."

"How about you tell us the complete story?", Alvida suggested.

"Good idea. So after asking him for about two and a half years Smoker finally allowed me to examine his jitte and some kairoseki handcuffs because the World Government is keeping all information on this stuff really close to its chest so unless you go to Wano ..."

"So you had Smoker's jitte, can you skip to the part about how you killed that pirate, because unless it was Joe Schmoe, that doesn't explain how you killed him before the marines or the police were there", Buggy interrupted

Annaisha got small again: "You're exactly right." She presented a bounty poster 3.2 million for Joe 'the invulnerable' Schmoe.

"I never even heard of that guy", Alvida said with suprise. After all 3 million was quite the stand out in the East Blue. Mohji and Cabaji however seemed to recognize him as well.

"He wanted to be on my crew some time back. however he was completly useless. So weak he'd make Tsujo look like Kaido in comparrison", I was fine with Buggy insulting me like that, my self-confidence wasn't tied to my feelings of physical strength, " and so clumsy he trained to juggle two balls and failed. If he could at least cook I might've let him stay but he managed to burn my cooked eggs... I have no idea how he managed to get a bounty at all."

"He ate a Devil Fruit that makes everything that tried to touch him so soft that it couldn't hurt him. So when he grabbed my book Smoker's Jitte was kind of the first thing I got my hands on..."

"Wait that would have been counted as self-defence! Why were you thrown in prison?", Alvida threw in.

"Uhm, when Smoker came in to get his Jitte and arrest Joe he found him with his hands tied, not moving and me kicking him. So I was arrested for manslaughter and insulting an officer."

Buggy smiled: "You're flashy. Welcome to the crew."

"That stil leaves the question of what you'll do on the ship. I'm sure you're proud of all the training you did, but you don't strike me as the frontline fighter type", Alvida cut in before he could get to excited.

Annaisha however remained chipper: "I want to be the quartermaster ... or quartermistress?"

To my suprise Buggy appeared tofind the idea agreeable: "Every circus needs someone to watch the register and fix the equipment. If somebody does that voluntarily that's a gift from the gods and from what the crew's told me you're good at it, too." She beamed with pride as she shook your hand.

"Well... what's our course... Captain?", Buggy asked.

"Not much of a question, is it? TO THE GRAND LINE!"

Sadly we didn't go right to the Grand Line. Buggy plotted a course and informed me, that we'd have to wait a few hours before we could actually enter the Grand Line, because of 'Laboon' only saying "you'll see" when I asked him what that was. Then Alvida dragged Annaisha and I into my new cabin.

"Tsujo, I recall the two of us having an agreement."

And instantly I was scared and aroused. Alvida had not killed me. Yet. "Of course. I'll always come back to you!"

"Yes. I'm your queen. Now, I have to admit, I only told you to always come back to me, not that you couldn't bring anybody new back with you... Can you guess why I haven't killed you?"

The suicidal part of me wanted to point out that she was as addicted to my huge dick, as I was to her smooth pussy, but through an heroic act of willpower I managed to keep my mouth shut.

"Because you showed good enough taste, so if you let me find out how much of my arms I can fit into that cutey you're on your way to redemption."

We turned to Annaisha who was already mostly naked and currently removing her drenched panties: "As long as I get some time between those legs of yours there's not much he needs to do."