One Piece – Halfway Broken

Summary:Arrival at the Archipelago

Warning! Chapters 70 & 71 were posted together! Don't miss chapter 70!

Chapter 71: The Archipelago

It had, of course, taken a little bit of effort to find the Archipelago. Thankfully, Luffy and Hina were both aware of the critical little detail that said ‘island’ didn’t have its own magnetic field. Better yet, Hina had known of markers on the Red Line itself that were used by the Marines to help guide ships toward the 79 giant mangroves that actually made up the false-islands of the Sabaody Archipelago. She’d also known how to make sure you approached the islands from the lawless side, in the low-number trees that were largely controlled by pirates and bounty hunter groups.

Of course, she’d also warned them that the lawless zone wasn’t nearly as unmonitored as most of those pirates thought it was.

It made sense, of course. A lot of sense, actually. No one could move through to the second half of the Grand Line without using either WG approved locks to get over the Red Line…or else go through Fishman Island. Allowing the lawless zone to exist so close to their own place of power gave them a chance to monitor the flow of pirates into and out of the New World. All of which meant that the supposedly lawless zone had watchers. Agents of the World Government and Marines both, who tracked who moved through the Archipelago. Mostly, they were locals that kept an eye on who moved in and out of the various ports on the low-level island. They were impossible to pick out due to legitimately living and working around and at those ports. Given just how utterly distinctive the Discovery was, that had meant avoiding the actual ports entirely and instead anchoring in deep among the mangroves.

A regular ship with a more normal draft couldn’t have done it. The Discovery’s design and insanely shallow draft for her size, though, allowed them to pull it off. Just as Nami summoning up a fog bank had allowed them to approach the Archipelago as a whole without Marine long-range spotters picking them up. As it was, so far as they could tell, their careful maneuvering had allowed them to slip into position with no one the wiser that they were now present.

Now, all that was left to do was some careful scouting.

… … …

Luffy, Nami and Robin stepped into the somewhat infamous bar on Grove 13. It was one that Luffy had vague memories of from his original life…but also the name of from discussions with Benn Beckman in this one. The latter memories were crystal clear due to his eidetic memory perk, even if the former were slightly faded. He knew from both sources that this particular location was as much information brokerage as bar, part of the reason people put up with the Rip-Off Bar’s overinflated prices. The other reason, of course, was the fact that the owner’s husband was frequently around and only an absolute moron wouldn’t respect the bar as neutral territory as a result.

None of them missed the way the bartender assessed them with barely a glance.

Nodding politely to her and glad that the place was relatively quiet and empty at the moment, Luffy approached the bar with the other two trailing behind him on either side. As they approached, that quick assessment by the owner turned into open curiosity, with just a hint of suspicion. Luffy’s lips twitched as he stopped at the bar and swept his hat off in a courteous bow. It was something he’d copied almost precisely from Shanks, and he saw from her twitching lips that she recognized both the hat and the gesture.

“So you’re the brat the brat talked up last time he was through to talk to my husband. I did wonder just what you were like after I saw your latest bounty. Quite impressive, and gained without nearly as much rampant bloodthirst as the only other Super Rookie who has one higher than yours.”

Luffy scowled, knowing who she was talking about.

“Kid is a psychopath who needs to die. The exact type of monster that lets the Marines paint anyone and everyone that so much as looks wrong at them as a pirate.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose at his scathing comment but, after a moment, she shrugged.

“What’re you having?”

Luffy let the moment pass, not really interested in the other ‘Super Rookies.’ Maybe half of them were people he might be able to work with if he had to, but for the most part they were simply of no interest. Despite the World Government’s insistence, he barely considered himself a pirate, after all. Eustass Kid is the only one he’d kill outright without hesitation, the psycho having a bad habit of wracking up entire islands worth of civilian casualties when anyone so much as mildly pissed him off.

“Whiskey neat for me, a strawberry daquiri for Nami, and a tequila sunrise for Robin, please. I would also like a few bits of information if you’re willing.”

The woman nodded, hands moving with professional speed as she made the three drinks. Notably, she put the right ones to Nami and Robin despite him not having gestured to them. Expected, really. It might have been more telling if he’d brought one or two members of his crew with no bounties. Oh well.

“That depends on what you’re asking, of course. That will be 15,000 belli.”

Luffy smirked as Nami twitched at the ludicrous price for three drinks. He’d warned her, and she wasn’t as bad about money as she once had been, but it still clearly bothered her. Particularly when Luffy casually paid double the price without mentioning or flaunting it.

“The first thing is where we can find your husband for a coating job. He’s supposed to be the best and my ship has a very nonstandard profile. I’d rather not trust it to anyone else.”

The bartender snorted.

“So you do know who I am. Good. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen my lazy husband in weeks. Best guess is you might be able to find him in Sabaody Park. He often hunts for other girls there when he gets bored. Sometimes he brings them back for some joint fun, but he hasn’t lately. Who knows what he’s up to this time”

That comment got Nami to choke on her daquiri, getting a smirk from Shakky. Luffy, on the other hand, merely shrugged. He had at least a small idea where Rayleigh might be, but he wouldn’t count on being right. The butterfly effect had long rendered most of pre-knowledge useless and there were far too many things that could have changed the course of Rayleigh’s path.

“Eh. That’s unfortunate, but probably not critical. I’d have liked to see Fishman Island, but we aren’t planning to head into the New World just yet anyway. More importantly…I’d like to know just how badly drawn down the Marine base on GR 66 is at the moment. The Marines have been busy pulling in everyone they can for their fight with Whitebeard, so I suspect it’s in rather poor shape.”

Shakky’s eye sharpened instantly, piercing Luffy’s nonchalant expression at the question. She weighed him for a long, long moment before she nodded tightly.

“You are correct. The base is attempting to put up a front that nothing is wrong, but it’s operating at barely more than a skeleton crew level. Almost all of the major elements present were stripped and sent to Marineford as emergency backup after word of Doflamingo and Moria’s deaths reached the base.”

Luffy smiled in satisfaction that his guess had proven correct. Continuing to ask a few more questions, even as he overpaid for already overpriced drinks, he hoped the others were finding confirmation of this information just as easily as they were.

… … …

Kaya and Usopp sat on a random roof on GR 2. It had been Kaya that had gotten them this far unnoticed, her abilities to move nearly unseen and detect anyone around them with Haki having served them well. Now, it was Usopp’s modified eyes that were assessing the target Luffy had assigned them to scope out on GR 1. Both of them were scowling, itching to do something about what they were seeing. But for now, they merely watched and listened, gathering information for when it was time to act…

… … …

Hina hummed as she took in the information that Perona had gleaned with her negative hollows. Slowly, she nodded.

“The base really is almost empty then, with no sign of those robots Luffy said might be here. That odd bay you described might be housing for them, but if it’s empty…these ‘Pacifistas’ the Captain was worried about might really have been called away to Marineford. Hina suspicious, but Hina also thinks they might just have too much at stake and chanced it.”

Perona shrugged, seemingly indifferent to what she was reporting. Hina tried not to scowl at that. She hadn’t been overly approving of adding Perona to the crew, as the woman was far more of a traditional pirate than the rest. Still, she was proving useful and even attempting to work hard at improving herself. Hina would keep an eye on her, but accept her presence for the time being…

… … …

Kuina’s eyes glittered as she and Zoro observed the stupid looking man with a fishbowl over his head as he terrorized the locals. She was, despite what she was seeing of the slimy jackass, glad to see it. She had to admit she was a little startled to see that these fools really did meet the seemingly ridiculous description of their Captain and Hina, but that was a small thing. They had merely been instructed to confirm their presence and determine the easiest places to find them on a regular basis.

“Good. They either don’t know how weak the Marine presence currently is, or are too stupidly arrogant to think it matters. Come, time to check in with the others, and plan exactly how we are doing this…”

… … …

Vivi smiled at Chopper’s delight as the Ferris Wheel hit its peak. She hadn’t initially been convinced that this particular location was worth scoping out, but she’d been wrong in a way. The crowd wasn’t as oblivious to the situation as it might appear. Lots of small air doors, inspired by how Robin used her powers, were allowing Vivi to get a good finger on the pulse of the Archipelago. They’d started in the shopping districts, of course, but had hit several of the other ‘tourist’ mangroves that were normally well-protected by the local Marines. Despite said Marines doing their best to make sure things looked like business was going on as usual, the locals had already picked up on the fact that it wasn’t true.

Like the little detail that no one had seen anyone above the rank of Captain in days.

Or that there were an awful lot of exhausted looking junior officers running all the patrols. Almost like they weren’t being properly rotated with anyone.

Besides, she had to admit that watching Chopper have so much fun at the amusement park, now that they’d made it this far, was quite entertaining in its own right. Of course, it would be time to head back soon to exchange the information she’d gathered with the rest of the crew. So far, she had to admit that her Captain’s audacious plan was seeming more and more likely to work…

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A/N 1: Yeaaahhhh...if you all haven't figured out at least the general form of their plan by now, you aren't very good at predicting things :-p. Though I think I still have a few surprises to spring on you...

AN 2: Once per release, I remind people that...I have a Page! Nothing I write, fanfiction wise, is ever permanently paywalled. That said, I do have Early Access chapters. There is, in fact, currently another 18,000 words of One Piece - Halfway Broken in Early Access (Chapters 72-76). Content which covers pretty much the entire Marinford War arc. Also, of course, you also get access to my other Early Access chapters for my other stories. There is typically around 45-65k words of various works in early access at any one time. I always appreciate any support, since it helps me free up more writing time...but most of all I hope you just enjoy the stories!