“They call them the Rainy Forest Pirates.” Oak said as the six gathered at the edge of the strange jungle. “They got several bigger name members of their crew.”
“Says their captain is 99 Mill.” Cedar said as the poster was passed to him.
“About as much as Cherry.” Aspen pointed out.
“Aka a good test of our skills.” Alder said, taking the posters. “Captain Coakin, Helmsman Gortu, and Doctor Precip. They combine to well over two hundred million berries.”
“Rest of their crew are small fish, but we could catch them if we really try.” Oak said. “They were docked on the other side of the island. They raided a few ships from my understanding, so they got loot.”
“Stealing from pirates is completely legal.” Willow stated proudly.
Alder gave her a patient look. “Why bring that up?”
“Look, all I'm saying is that we don't have the benefits of Cp-6 anymore, we gotta make money somehow.” Willow said, waving her arms casually in a defensive way.
“I mean she does have a point.” Cedar said. “I would rather that loot go to good people who hunt pirates then to stay with pirates.”
“Shouldn't we give it to the marines though?” Aspen asked.
“Marines?” WIllow said with a laugh. “Come on Assy, think with your head for a minute.”
“Assy?” Pine questioned.
“Its a cute nickname don't you think?”
“You going to explain your thought process.” Alder said patiently.
“Well Aspen, Ass, add the ie sound and it becomes cute, Assy here could use some cutening.” WIllow explained.
“I meant why its a bad idea to give the money to the marines.” Alder said with a sigh.
“Oh that, well,” Willow began, “We give the money, we dont get to keep the money, simple right? And all the Marines would do is use it to pay us anyways, might as well keep it and the bounty.”
“What logic are you using?” Pine said, just as confused with the train thought as Alder.
“Alright, lets go take down some pirates!” Willow said, pointing towards the woods and beginning to head towards them.
Alder grabbed her by the back of her flannel, a baby blue color. “Where do you think you are going? You and ‘Assy’ are going back to the ship.”
“Not happening.” Aspen and Willow echoed.
The conversation became a massive debate as Alder tried to convince Aspen and Willow to stay back, but they refused. Eventually the others chimed in and agreed that it should be fine for them to come. They are devil fruit users after all.
“Captain, look at this.” Cedar said, having returned from scouting with his devil fruit. He reassembled from his feet then let his arm split off. The arm floated with a slight bob as it normally did, but began to pull downwards after a moment. “The gravity gets stronger the closer we get to the center of the island. It seems anything that isn't on the ground naturally attracts towards the ground.”
“Explains why we haven't noticed anything weird.” Alder said, looking around the woods. They had remained quiet for a long while and planned to sneak up on the pirates. Alder jumped upward, the gravity pulling him swiftly back down, far faster than the normal gravity he was used to. “Willow, Cedar keep that in mind moving forward.”
“Why me?” Willow questioned.
“Your devil fruit shoots things you eat.” Alder explained. “Gravity should effect those.”
WIllow thought about it, then picked up a berry from a bush, then swallowed it.
“That could be dangerous!” Alder shouted far louder than he wanted to.
Willow blushed deeply. “Things I eat for my devil fruit dont get processed by my body its okay!” She said, face a deep red and staring towards the grass. She pointed a hand out towards and opening, and fired the berry from her palm. The berry streaked thru the air, but fell quickly after a few yards. “Alright, guess i'm a close ranged fighter.”
“You shouldn't risk it.” Alder said.
Willow spun a small hatchet on her finger. “Don't worry, Ill be fine.”
“Hey that's one of mine!” Cedar said suddenly.
“You got enough, don't stress it.” Willow said, waving Cedar off.
“When did you take it!” Cedar questioned.
“Sounds like your stressing.” WIllow said before they continued onwards.
The six had snuck up to the edge of the camp that the RainForest Pirates had set up. The camp was built near the edge of the island, their large ship a backdrop with several members of the ship moving crates from a gangplank to the land. Several members of the crew sat around a large bonfire, two being identified as their captain and Helmsman.
“Shit and Fire.” Aspen said suddenly. “Gortu is a Giant!”
“Half Giant.” Oak clarified. “He isn't from the Giant Island of Avadlis so we don't need to worry about some Giant trained soldier.”
“He is still over twice our size!” Aspen whispered loudly.
“Sounds fun to me.” Oak said, staring directly at the Half Giant who ate and laughed near the bonfire. “Captain, send me after him would ya?”
“You think you can handle him?” Alder questioned.
Oak was silent for a moment. “Yes.” He said, his tone that of excitement. Even before eating a Devil Fruit Oak was a fierce fighter. He entered a state of pure joy when he got to let loose, which did not match his normally calm demeanor.
“Precip isn't out here.” Cedar said, his eye darting around the individuals around the bonfire.
“Probably on the ship.” Pine said, directing their vision towards the ship where it was clear more supplies were being pulled from. The ship stood tall over the coast line, a true behemoth of a ship, though it needed to be with a Half Giant on the crew.
“We should split into groups.” Oak said to Alder. “Taking out the big three will destroy the morality of the crew, making it an easy victory.”
“Agreed.” Alder said, eyeing Coakin as he tore meat from a bone with his fang like teeth. “Any Devil Fruits?”
“Only the Captain.” Oak said. “He ate the Noko-Noko No Mi and became a Mushroom man.”
Alder looked at Coakin again, at the strange mushroom shape to his head that he could no longer unsee. “Alright, Ill take him. Cedar, Willow you two take the ship and find Precip.”
“What I gotta go with Ceddy!” Willow said angrily in a whisper.
“Why do I feel like I'm being accused of something?” Cedar said with a sad tone to his voice.
“Cedar, Ced, add a Y, Come on numbnut keep up.” Willow said, snapping a finger at Cedar. “Anyways, I should go with you, Alder.”
“Both of your abilities aren't as strong on the island.” Alder said looking over the RainForest Pirates. “On the boat you both should be able to operate at max power, which would benefit us greatly.”
Willow pouted. “Fine!”
“If you think that is for the best Alder.” Cedar said.
“I'll go too if that is okay.” Pine said. “My fruit could help turn things in our favor if we need it.”
“Alright sure.” Alder said. “Aspen stick with Oak, I'm counting on you two taking down that giant and any small fries you can.”
“Captain is all yours Cap.” Aspen said encouragingly.
Alder looked over the camp again. “Alright, I'll keep things as balanced as possible. Cedar, Pine, Willow, We won't make any moves till you're on that ship. I want you guys to take that gangplank away so they cant get reinforcements on either side. Once you guys remove the plank we will move, everyone got it?”
“Roger.” The crew said in unison.
“Lumberjacks, go!”
The six broke into their groups, Willow, Pine, and Cedar sneaking around towards the gangplank. They hadn't been noticed in the moonlight due to the fire and began to sneak up quietly with Pine in the front. As they were about halfway up a pirate emerged with a large crate. He took in the scene curiously, but would soon realize the issue.
Pine lunged forward, his double headed ax drawn. He didn't have the time to bring it into a swing, instead thrusting it forward and slamming into the man's stomach. The man let out a gasp of breath mixed with bits of bile as Pine shoved him forward to the deck of the ship. The crate in his hands fell free, but was caught by Cedar’s floating hands.
The pirate was unconscious upon the back of his head making contact with the wood planks of the ship that were reinforced to handle the weight of the half giant. Willow rushed past Pine’s side and got to the railing of the ship, hopping over as two other pirates' attention were drawn to the scene at the gangplank.
Willow had already swallowed two of her tiny ax’s and loaded them into her left and right hand. The axes hit the pirates hard in the head with their handles, knocking the two men out cold. Willow pouted, she wished the blades had hit them instead. Still there was a small trail of blood from where her weapons had hit, so she took that as a win.
Cedar retrieved his hands, locking them in place, then pulled the gangplank back. Now the ship and the island were two isolated entities, the three would now just have to go through and take down as many pirates as they could to guarantee their capture. Most importantly, they had to bring in Precip. Cedar turned to look at what his captain was doing, and was once again reminded why Alder was their caption.
As soon as the gangplank was pulled back the other three Lumberjacks emerged from the underbrush. Alder eyed the bonfire and willed it to do his bidding. A benefit of the Mera-Mera No Mi was its ability to not only turn into flames but control flames. With this, he made the fire expand and form walls, cutting off large chunks of the RainForest Pirates from their allies.
Aspen and Oak were with a few members of the Rainforest Pirates that were too close to be isolated, as well as Gortu. Aspen drew his hand ax and moved into his Tekkai stance. He had mastered it after his time with Cp-6, as well as a few other techniques that Ryoto said would be useful. Oak didn't summon his light weapon yet, hoping to get as close as possible and make the Half Giant believe he was defenseless.
However, that began to change as he spotted the small fries all around. Suddenly his battle lust began to fill him and he smiled, letting a large Halberd like ax form in his right hand as he swung towards the mob.
Alder had drawn his Firefighting ax and had already begun mowing down grunts left and right, knocking them out with each swing. Whenever he needed to he would use his powers to push away a crowd that was growing too large. He could handle it with his fruit, but he dared not risk it after learning about the existence of Haki from Nale. As he dropped another group of ten Alder suddenly felt a strange sense and jumped back.
Mushrooms sprouted from the ground, and began to release spores into the air. Alder acted quickly, twisting his body into a tornado of flames to burn away the spores. It was a mistake, as the spores suddenly burst upon making contact with the flames, encompassing Alder in an explosion that sent him reeling back.
A chunk of his flame wall dissipated, revealing the Mushroom headed Captain of the RainForest Pirates, Coakin. He had a wicked curved blade in hand that dripped with a purple ooze and bore a smile that pierced into Alders soul, even though his mushroom hair hid his eyes.
“Dont you fucking dare underestimate me you little shit!” Coakin yelled loudly, a long tongue lashing out villainously.
Alder got to his feet and prepared for the battle that was about to unfold.
