Smooth Sailing Chapter 8: Clatter Town 1

Chapter 8: Clatter Town 1

As I’d promised Buggy, as soon as my crew was done grabbing all the supplies we needed we departed Frauce, setting sail off into the horizon.

Our destination, the Bund Span, was a stretch of ocean that had several sparsely populated islands and was generally not gone into due to the presence of monstrous sea life prowling the interior. Most ships stuck to the outer edges, where the majority of inhabited islands within the Span could be found.

It was starting to get late in the afternoon, though, and I hoped we’d reach the Span soon and find a harbor to rest at before night fell. Nobody liked sailing in the dark, and especially not a monster infested patch of ocean like the Span!

“Shouldn’t be long, now!” Pep called out, his hands on the ship’s wheel.

“Aye, the Bund Span is close,” Buggy agreed, peering at the horizon.

“Hey, does anybody hear that?” Eliza asked out of the blue, looking around in confusion.

“No. What do you hear?” I asked her.

“It sounds like a rumbling noise,” the tailor replied.

Everyone began to look glance around, trying to find the source of the sound Eliza had heard. Nobody found anything, though, despite everyone onboard eventually detecting the same thing. It was a low grumbling coming from below, like grinding teeth on a massive scale.

“The fish,” Pop murmured in worry as he leaned over the railing and stared into the water. “I can’t see any fish!”

That caused everyone to straighten up in alertness. There had been several species of fish swimming past them, but now they were gone. and that could mean a couple things out at sea. None good.

As I was about to give the order to break out the oars and start fleeing, bubbles started to rise from the water. Then, the surface of the ocean bulged, and an enormous shape could be seen appearing right beneath the Lovey Dovey!

The significantly smaller vessel shuddered and forced everyone to hold on tight to whatever they could grab ahold of as a head, then a neck, then a humpbacked body with four flippers and a long tail, made itself known.

A massive plesiosaur rose up out of the water, a rumbling roar echoing deep within its thick throat, and it stared down at us with a hungry gaze.

“A Long-Necked Dragon?!” Buggy exclaimed in disbelief. “What’s one of those doing out of the South Blue?!”

“Dunno, but somebody domesticated it!” I pointed out.

Indeed, the sea monster had a giant kabuto helmet atop its head, emblazoned with a Jolly Roger of a pirate crew and adorned with a pair of crab claws.

Leering down at our tiny ship, it opened its mouth in preparation to devour us and lunged, but as its head dove down, I jumped up and punched it in the snout, causing it to rear back in pain and more than a little surprise at the ‘audacity’ of a tiny creature like myself to dare harm it.

“Somebody fetch me my club!” I shouted as I landed back on the deck, glaring up at the prehistoric monster.

Hep and Pop rushed off to the cabin and grabbed my mighty iron maul, dragging it out to me as quickly as they could.

Just in time, too, as the plesiosaur had recovered from the punch I’d given it, and tried to bite down on me once more. Only now, what hit it was my giant iron club, the spikes digging into and tear apart flesh, and the force of the blow itself shattering its jaw.

Gurgling in pain as blood and teeth filled its mouth, the plesiosaur began to writhe about, the waves it was creating coming dangerous close to capsizing us.

Not wanting to be thrown overboard, I didn’t dare to hesitate and jumped up, club held in both hands. I swung it downwards onto the back of the dinosaur head, breaking its neck with a brutal crunching sound and at the same time knocking its fancy head wear off, where it clattered to the deck.

“Jeez, you kicked it’s ass,” Buggy muttered as it sank below the waves, the rest of my crew staring at the brutal beat down I’d delivered onto the plesiosaur.

“Damn straight,” I huffed, before picking up the now dented giant kabuto helm that had fallen off of the aquatic monster.

“Whose pet even was that?” Jodie asked, still in disbelief at how I’d dispatched the sea monster.

“That’s the mark of the Ganzack Pirates,” Buggy informed me.

“He had, what, an eight million beri bounty?” I mused, trying to remember the One Piece OVA they’d appeared in.

“Nah, ten. Got it bumped up recently,” Buggy replied. “And if he’d tamed a beast like a Long-Necked Dragon, then that would explain it.”

Nodding slowly, I tried to remember what exactly Ganzack had been like. From what I recalled, he’d been trying to build a giant cannon to ‘take over the world’ with. Even managed to finish making it, though not before Luffy kicked his ass.

‘He also had some sort of cybernetic crab claws attached to his back,’ I thought, thinking carefully. It was yet another example of the bizarre mix of science and technology that this world possessed.

“His base ought to be nearby,” I spoke up, glancing around in the hopes of spotting any sign of an island.

“Well, there’s Clatter Town, one of the islands that acts as a gateway to the Bund Span,” Buggy offered. “It’s fairly close. We could get there in an hour, see if he’s there.”

“Clatter Town…” I muttered to myself, the name sparking something within me. Or rather, it stirred up memories that belonged to Alvida. “I’ve been there before…”

It had been a while ago. When I, or Alvida, had been just starting out as a pirate. According to what ‘I’ recalled, the settlement had been well-known for its metallurgy and smithing.

‘Would explain why Ganzack decided to conquer that island for himself,’ I mused. Then, aloud, I announced our next course of action. “Adjust course! We’d heading to Clatter Town!”

Though there was some confusion from my crew, they obeyed all the same. Buggy didn’t look pleased and he shot me a frustrated glare.

“Why are we going there now?” he demanded.

“I want to show my displeasure to Ganzack for his pet trying to eat me,” I replied, spinning the dented helm around on a finger. “And maybe get some upgrades.”

His ship had been a fearsome vessel, and more than enough to handle the Grand Line. The Lovey Dovey was great, but it was just too small for all of us!

Buggy wasn’t entirely convinced but as he was a guest on my ship, he simply nodded curtly and began to shout at Hep the directions he’d need in order to take us there.

As we got closer to our destination, it became clear something was off. Before we even spotted the island itself, a large gold-bronze tower was visible, jutting up towards the sky.

I knew what it was: the Devil’s Tower, a truly absurd super-mortar that, supposedly, could launch shells capable of shattering islands.

‘Though if I recall, it was incredibly inaccurate, since the barrel is pointed straight up,’ I mused. You needed to have a bit of an angle on a cannon like that if you didn’t want it to just fall right back down onto your head!

“That’s new,” I commented dry, pretending like I didn’t recognize the towering weapon.

“Is that…” Pep muttered, squinting off into the distance. “A cannon?”

“Maybe?” Eliza said, staring at it.

“I think it might be a mortar,” Jodie replied in wonder. “How did anyone build something that big all the way out here?”

“I think the better question is ‘why’ would somebody build that eyesore out here,” Hep commented.

“Obviously because they don’t want to be spotted,” Buggy huffed. “Though I agree, that thing is too damn big and flashy to be anything other than a vanity project.”

“And it’s pointing straight up!” I pointed out, jabbing an accusing finger at the giant pillar. “How is that useful?!”

Murmurs of agreement rang out, everyone finding something wrong with the super-weapon. And as the sun glinted off of the metal, we carefully approached the island.

Rather than head straight for the town we could see, we decided to dock the Lovey Dovey at a rocky beach a short distance away. A couple of steep cliffs would hide us from view, and the area seemed abandoned. Perfect spot to leave the boat for a bit.

“Here we go,” I said, hopping off the deck with my iron club in hand. I’d be keeping my weapon close by from now on. No way I’d let the pirates here catch me without it!

“Hep, Pep, Pop, you three protect Eliza and Jodie,” I requested. “I’ll be going with Buggy to see if this Ganzack fellow can be reasoned with. And if not…”

I swung my club and smashed it into a nearby boulder. It exploded into shrapnel, some of the pieces Sliding off of me, while I grinned like a madwoman. My point made, my crew nodded hastily, agreeing to my request.

“Kinda annoyed you volunteered me for this,” Buggy muttered under his breath as he waddled along at my side while we walked away from the isolated beach.

We soon found a slope that led to a path we took, taking us up away from the rocky beach and onto a dirt road through a forest.

“I think this leads to Clatter Town,” I suggested, and the red-nose pirate at my feet nodded.

“Probably. Come on, let’s see what we can find out about Ganzack.”

“You think he’s here right now?” I asked, curious as to what his thought process would be. I already knew, but I wanted to know why Buggy thought so.

“He calls himself the ‘Pirate Shogun,’” Buggy snorted in disdain. “Who else would build such an extravagantly useless weapon other than him?”

“Fair point,” I said, conceding the point. We took off down the trail, heading deeper into the woods, when snippets of conversation drifted over to us, carried by the wind.

“Where the hell is she?”

I blinked, then held up a hand for Buggy to stop. He did, having heard the same thing I just did.

“Dunno!”

“Then keep looking! She couldn’t have gotten far!”

I tilted my head. There were three voices coming from the trees up ahead. I couldn’t see anything, but from the tone being used, they weren’t happy.

“Sounds like somebody is being hunted,” Buggy said.

“Yeah, it does,” I agreed. “Should we wait and see who it is? Could be some of Ganzack’s men.”

“I heard something coming from over here!” a voice called out, and the bushes up ahead began to rustle a bit.

A moment later, a trio of pirates stepped out of the underbrush, brushing twigs and leaves off of themselves. They froze when they saw me and Buggy, and I raised an eyebrow at them.

They appeared to be boringly generic. One was slightly portly, but also shorter than the other two. One had an orange bandana, and the third wore a white shirt with a crab on it. All were carrying weapons, with the fat guy having an axe, the bandana dude having four pistols on him – two in his hands, and another two slotted into bandoliers on his chest – and Mr. Crab-Shirt had a machete in his hands.

‘It’s like looking at a couple clones of Hep, Pep, and Pop,’ I thought with a bit of wonder.

“Who the hell are you?” Bandana demanded, pointing his guns at us, one trained on me, the other at Buggy. His companions recovered a moment later, tensing up with wary expressions.

“You don’t know who I am?!” Buggy asked, insulted by their lack of awareness. “I’m Captain Buggy!”

“And I’m Captain Alvida,” I continued. “Take us to Ganzack.”

“Pfft! Yeah, right!” Crab-Shirt scoffed. “Buggy the Clown ain’t no midget, and Alvida is a fat bitch. You two ain’t them.”

“We should still take ‘em to the boss, though,” Fat-Axe said, licking his lips as he stared at me. “In chains, though. He could always use more slaves.”

“Slaves?” Buggy asked darkly, voice carrying a hint of iciness.

“Come on, hands in the air!” Crab-Shirt ordered, pointing his machete at us. “Yer coming with us! No funny business!”

“You really want to do this?” I asked. “We just want to speak with Ganzack.”

“You heard us! Hands URK!” Fat-Axe began, only for his words to be cut off as the blade of a naginata suddenly pierced clean through his back, emerging red and bloody from his chest.

“Die, pirates!” a squeaky voice cried out, as the owner of the pole arm came into view as they yanked the weapon out and the axe-wielding pirate collapsed dead on the ground.  

The ambusher was a small person, no taller than four and a half feet, clad head to toe in a full suit of full plate armor and accompanying full helm. The knight lifted their visor, revealing a red-headed girl underneath. She looked queasy as she took in the sight of the blood on her weapon, but remained determined and glared defiantly at the remaining two pirates.

“Damn brat!” Bandana screamed angrily, and he pointed his pistols at the girl, firing at her point blank. However, the bullets all bounced off of her suit of armor and she let out a battle cry, charging forward.

She was not a very good fighter, though, and her blind rush just carried her forward past the gunman as he simply sidestepped her, and then she ran between Buggy and I. She only came to a stop when she ran headfirst into a tree, her naginata getting stuck in the bark.

“You two! You’re in cahoots with her, ain’t cha?!” Crab-Shirt exclaimed accusingly.

“Wait, what?” I uttered in a deadpan. They were seriously blaming us for this just because she’d run past us?

The two remaining pirates were clearly angry, though, and not thinking straight, and I quickly reacted as Crab-Shirt charged at me. My club smashed into his chest, sending him flying down the road.

‘There go his ribs… and spine,’ I thought with a wince, hearing the crack and crunch of meat and bone from where I struck him.

As for the bandana wearing gunner, he tried to turn his guns on me, but Buggy reacted quicker, his throwing knives flying out and stabbing him in the chest and throat. With a gurgle, Bandana collapsed, blood pooling beneath him.

“That takes care of that!” I said, trying not to sound shaken as I stared at the bodies in front of me. I’d just seen two men die, and I’d crippled another! This… I think I was going to be sick!

Before I could lose my cool in front of Buggy or the girl, the latter finally got her weapon free from the tree and ran over to the still alive machete-wielding pirate, who was groaning weakly and twitching.

“Die! Die!” the girl screamed, hacking away at Crab-Shirt until he stopped moving. When she was finished, the knight-clad girl was panting heavily, before spitting on the body.

“Damn, that’s a lot of anger,” Buggy muttered, eyeing her warily, but with a hint of respect in his tone.

“Thank you for helping me,” she said, turning towards us and giving us a polite bow.

“Err, don’t mention it,” I replied.

“Good. I won’t,” she said, before leveling her polearm at us. “Now, die, pirates!!”

She ran at us, screaming angrily, but once more she missed as we were able to side-step her mad bullrush. And, once again, she got her weapon stuck in a tree.

“Okay, time out!” I demanded sharply, reaching out and picking her up by the scruff of her neck. “What is with you?!”

“I heard you talking to them!” the child shouted, flailing wildly in my grasp. “You’re pirates, too! Just like Ganzack!”

“Heh, seems like it takes a brat to recognize out our reputation!” the clown-like pirate laughed.

“What? No! You two clearly aren’t Buggy or Alvida!” the kid retorted. “You’re obviously just a pair of other pirates pretending to be them to steal their rep!”

“I need my body back soon. This disrespect is getting old!” Buggy grumbled to himself under his breath.

“Yeah, we’re pirates,” I confirmed, not bothering to hide the fact. “And we really are who we said we are.”

“I won’t let you join Ganzack!” the kid shouted, still punching and kicking the air in a vain attempt to break free of my grasp.

“We’re not here to join that blowhard!” Buggy shouted back, insulted by the insinuation.

“Yeah, we just wanna have a nice little ‘chat’ about his ugly long-necked pet trying to eat us when we were passing through to the Span,” I told her.

She stopped flailing for a moment and twisted around to stare at me. “You survived Plesio?”

“I broke his jaw and his neck,” I claimed with a vicious grin, and the girl stared at me in disbelief.

“Yeah, Alvida hits hard,” Buggy confirmed. “Though considering it’s a prehistoric monster, it should be pretty durable, so I don’t think it’s dead. Still probably having a bad day all the same.”

“…You really beat it?” she asked, quieter this time, and I could see the gears turning in her head.

“That’s right,” I nodded, before dropping her onto the ground. She let out an “Oof!” before standing back up and dusting herself off.

“You’re here to beat up Ganzack, then?” she inquired, and I nodded in confirmation.

“I don’t like it when somebody’s pet tries to eat me,” I told her.

“Okay,” she muttered. “I’ll take you to him.”

She tugged the naginata out of the tree it’d gotten stuck in and waved at us to follow her. “Come on, I’ll show you around Clatter Town.”

I shared a look with Buggy, and he shrugged. Deciding we’d better keep up with her, we walked behind her.

“So, kid, that’s some damn good armor,” I said leadingly after a bit.

“Yeah. Dad taught me but I made it myself,” the youngster said, a hint of pride in her voice.

“Really? That’s impressive. What are you, six years old or something?”

“I’m ten!” she snapped at me.

“In that case, what’s your name, Miss Ten?” I asked with a chuckle. Beside me, Buggy groaned at the dad joke.

“Medaka,” she replied curtly.

“You’ve got a good name,” I said, and patted her helmet. She didn’t like that and swatted my hand away, but it only made me laugh a bit.

A few minutes later, the forest ended, and we reached a proper road instead of the dirt path we’d been using up till now. Said road led towards a town, which was our ultimate destination.

Clatter Town was a relatively large settlement close to the center of the island. It had cobblestone roads, and the houses were well-made and constructed from stone and wood. It was also cleaner than Vercase or Port Nice had been, though I attributed that to the smaller population. Probably no more than five hundred people lived here in total.

However, what was worse compared to the two kingdoms was the atmosphere of helplessness and fear that clung to the handful of citizens I could see out and about. Only women, children, and the elderly were left, Ganzack having taken the men for the sake of building his giant over compensation weapon.

Eyes naturally fell onto the three of us. Wasn’t every day a midget clown, a girl in armor, and a sexy woman with a giant spiked club walked into town, after all. Though I noticed that most of the gazes were focused on Medaka. Rather, they were looking at her blood-stained spear with dread.

“There,” Medaka said, ignoring the stares of the people and pointing towards the mansion rising up above the town. “That’s where Ganzack is. The Devil’s Tower.”

“Bigger than it looked from a distance,” I hummed.

From atop the hill, a tall, white wall could be seen. Six towers were placed evenly around it, and from the center jutted the ridiculous super-mortar. From Alvida’s memories, most of the original building had been a factory, used for forging the metalwork that made Clatter Town famous. And it certainly hadn’t possessed that weapon.

“What happened to the mayor?” Buggy wondered, a question I wanted to know as well. He had owned the manor and the factory, and was essentially a noble in all but name.

“Dead,” Medaka said bitterly.

That made an unfortunate amount of sense. Killing the mayor would have allowed Ganzack to rule the island unopposed.  

“Are you going to kill Ganzack?” the little girl asked me, her expression far too cold for a child.

‘Did he kill someone close to her?’ I wondered. Her father was supposed to be alive as a slave in the factory… but what if he wasn’t?

I didn’t reply, and just started walking up the street towards the fortified building.

“We’re wasting time,” Buggy grumbled as he caught up and gave me an annoyed side-eye.

“Maybe. But this is still the right thing to do,” I replied.

“We’re pirates, or did you forget that?” he spat out. “We’re not Marines! We don’t do ‘good things!’”

“Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but didn’t Straw Hat free a town from being terrorized by you?” I inquired. “And he aims to be the Pirate King. So surely that means that pirates do good things, even if by accident, or for ulterior motives.”

Buggy glared at me at the mention of the straw hat wearing youth, before grunting. “And what exactly is the reason you’re helping these people, then?”

“Simple. Clatter Town is famous for its craftsmen. It’s no Shimotsuki Village which makes the best swords in the East Blue, nor is it Clockwork Island with its advanced technology, but its metal work is exceptionally good all the same,” I explained, before waving my mace. “And it’s where I got this bad boy years ago.”

“So, you want weapons,” Buggy guessed.

“Yup. A new cannon or two, a sword, some guns, and something for Jodie and Eliza to use,” I explained. “Plus nails, hinges, screws… all the fiddly bits that go into ensuring a ship is able to stay in one piece. I think Hep, Pep and Pop got the cheapest scrap the could, because the stuff we have is shit.”

“Alright, fine, your logic is sound,” the red-nosed pirate grunted. “You sure this place has high quality stuff, though? Enough to challenge Ganzack in the heart of his base of operations?”

“Yup!” I replied. “That girl’s armor withstood several bullets without so much as a dent. If that’s the sort of quality we can expect a kid to get ahold of while the adults are enslaved and forced to work, then clearly I want something like that for my own crew!”

“Good point,” Buggy muttered. “And I could use some new knives of my own. Mine are getting a bit old and rusty.”

He then blinked and slapped his forehead. “Ugh! And I forgot the retrieve the ones I left in that idiot back in the forest!”

I chuckled at that. His misfortune was very amusing to me, which just made him glare back at me. Ignoring him, I continued to walk up to the mansion built at the top of the hill overlooking the rest of the town. Medaka also trailed behind, keeping her distance, but also making sure we didn’t veer off course.

Soon, we came to the gates of the fortress-like factory, and I whistled as I took them in. Big, solid steel double doors barred our way, with several murder holes and gun emplacements that could turn away a besieging army overlooking the entrance.

Nobody had fired on us or challenged us as we’d approached, though. The island was under their command, the townsfolk too weak and scared to oppose them, and any large ships would have been spotted as soon as they got close to the island. As such, there were no guards watching over the gates.

With a grin, I reared back my mace before slamming it into one of the doors, smashing into it. There was a loud “CLANG!” as I struck, a massive dent forming in the side of the gate. I repeated the action.

Once! Twice! Thrice more I hammered my weapon into the entrance, before finally on the fifth blow the doors were knocked down, torn off their hinges and heavily dented.

My rhythmic drum solo on the gate had not gone unnoticed, and several pirates were already rushing towards us, but I simply stood my ground, Buggy and Medaka at my side.

“Come out, Ganzack! Let’s brawl!” I laughed eagerly. It was time to crack this crab’s shell!