Chapter 117: The Cog Witch
Chapter 117: The Cog Witch
While most of the crew were merely keeping their ‘ear to the ground’ and looking for interesting things after splitting up, Robin and Luffy were following up a more specific lead. Aldrich had been more than happy to tell them where Dorinda Harkness lived, though he’d also warned them that the ‘Cog Witch’ was an oddball and that they should ‘watch out for explosions.’ Frankly, to Luffy, that just made him far more certain she’d be a good lead. Pattern recognition was a thing, and it was the oddballs and crazy people that tended to know all the interesting things on the Grand Line. Mostly, he assumed, because it took those sorts of personalities to poke the odd thing to begin with.
Properly sane people native to the Grand Line knew not to poke mysterious ruins or unknown objects. Thus it was the slightly crazy, suicidally brave, or just plain odd that ended up knowing the most about the islands on this strangest of seas.
As it happened, ‘The Cog Witch’ had apparently been half-banished out of town, after the fourth time something she’d done had nearly burned said town down. She wasn’t actually an exile, as Aldrich had explained it, being far too well respected for that. But the Mayor and Town Guard had both insisted that she move her workshop outside town limits. Since she very rarely left said workshop, it had become as sort of accidental quasi-banishment. Though one that the woman had apparently never shown any care or concern about.
It was as they approached the large, sprawling and warehouse-like building that they’d been told was her workshop that they heard a boom that sent them moving forward a bit faster. Part of the building was now visibly on fire, after all. Yet, before they could arrive even at their quicker pace, an entire squad of Clockwork Animals had come seemingly out of nowhere to start hosing the building down with water and some sort of foam. Seeing that and remembering the warning about explosions from Aldrich, both of them slowed again, assuming it was probably just a normal daily event. Or at least a frequent enough one not to worry much over.
When they finally reached the building, it was to find a large door on one side of the workshop already open…apparently as a way to let out the smoke and allow the fire-control animals inside. A slightly singed but happy looking woman, appearing to be in her fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, was dragging a mangled pile of mismatched clockwork three times her size out of the workshop. It had to weigh at least a ton, but she wasn’t showing the strain, something both of them notice…just as they also noticed that one of her arms had been replaced with intricate clockwork. The woman sat down with a thunk, seemingly uncaring about the dust she got all over herself as she did, and pulled a set of tools from somewhere as she began to disassemble the…whatever it was.
“Mk XII failed! But the failure was a new one! Why, I’ve never seen a hurdy-gurdy explode before! I didn’t know they could do that! Maybe it was something to do with the resonance crystals? They are sound based, after all, even if I haven’t been able to consistently get the right frequencies. I was so sure the hurdy-gurdy was the answer, though…”
Luffy and Robin watched the woman for a long minute, until she seemed to spasm for a moment, then grumbled as her clockwork arm stopped working. Sighing, the woman put down her tools…and reached over with a different one to manually wind the arm. Robin took that chance to step forward and call softly to her.
“Hello, are you Dorinda Harkness by any chance?”
The woman jumped a bit, looked around wildly, and quickly spotted them.
“Oh! Guests! Are you here about my new Tonal Resonance Core Creation device?! Are you trying to get its secrets?!”
The woman looked ominously at them, Robin and Luffy blinking at the sudden change in demeanor. Only to blink again as she abruptly went back to smiling
“Because if you are, I’ll happily tell you! Not that I’ve totally figured it out yet! But I’m making progress, and once I’ve got it figured out, I’ll be able to power my arm without having to wind it all the time! Simple sound will keep it charged!”
Taken aback by the quick switch in personality, Luffy was careful when he followed up on that comment.
“Sound? How would sound allow you to wind clockwork?”
Apparently, it was the right question to ask, as Harkness lept to her feet excitedly.
“Come here, I’ll show you! I figured it out, well part of it at least, on my last trip to the ruins! Pity I lost my arm then, too. I doubt I can get past the vault guardian now that its awake properly.”
Luffy and Robin didn’t hesitate to follow the woman as she darted back toward her workshop. Though as he did, Luffy made a mental note that this ‘guardian’ might well be the ‘challenge’ of the island. Given how strong the woman had casually shown herself to be by lugging that giant chunk of mangled clockwork into the yard, whatever ‘guardian’ had taken her arm was likely at least somewhat formidable.
The workshop, once they got inside, was…eye-opening. Even just the Clockwork Animals were of note, clearly more advanced than those in town, as they were actively repairing the sizable, blackened chunk of space at one end of the lab. But they weren’t even close to the most eye-catching thing present. A dozen tools that Luffy only recognized because they were clockwork equivalents of power tools from his first life were one stand out. Another was what looks suspiciously like a motorboat, powered by clockwork windings.
Those things were not alone. Not even close to alone.
Every wall, the ceiling, and even parts of the floor were covered with clockwork creations ranging from the simple to the breathtakingly complex. A dozen iterations of the woman’s clockwork arm. What looked suspiciously like a scaled test model of a clockwork ballista, which made Luffy abruptly suspect what was in those watchtowers they’d seen. A series of clockwork music boxes that Luffy made a special note of, as he hadn’t seen anything like them in this reality before now. If the woman was willing to sell them, one of them would make a fantastic gift for one of the girls.
Perhaps most impressive of all, there were even a trio of what, to his eyes, looked like credible but-not-quite-right attempts at clockwork aircraft. Each one hanging from the rafters in various states of ‘crashes.’ Two were obvious dead-ends. Yet the last look suspiciously like some of Davinci’s designs that had grasped the fundamentals, but hadn’t quite gotten the details right. Luffy didn’t think it would fly, particularly with the weight the clockwork added, but he wouldn’t be at all surprised if this woman had at least generally grasped many of the concepts needed to make powered flight work.
“Here! I’ve recovered a bunch of Tonal Resonators from the ruins over the years! But I finally made these two work right in a new housing!”
Harkness had led them to a surprisingly neat and orderly workbench, on which rested a pair of small blue spheres arranged on opposing corkscrew shafts. Notably, they glowed, both physically and to his spiritual senses. Their owner took out what Luffy abruptly recognized as a tuning fork, along with a rubber-head mallet. Perhaps predictably, she hit the first with the latter and the fork began violently resonating. It created a pure musical note and, more importantly, the two blue spheres began to move as it did so. He could almost, but not quite follow what they were doing. Somehow the spheres were taking in the sound waves and converting them to kinetic energy, and using that to race up and down their shafts. Harkness cheerfully set her arm in a ‘charging station’ and removed a key to let the device start winding her arm…and Luffy abruptly processed what he was looking at.
Dorinda Harkness had created, or recreated at least, a way for soundwaves to power clockwork.
“You see! I got it to work! But I’ve been trying to figure out how it works, so I can make my own Resonators! So far, all of my prototypes have exploded horribly! But I’m getting closer every time, I’m sure of it!”
Well, color Luffy intrigued. Despite that, it was Robin that managed to speak up first.
“You say you got these resonators from the ruins? Was there some sort of ancient civilization here that used them like you are, do you think?”
Harkness nodded eagerly at that.
“Not exactly the same, I don’t think they used them for clockwork! But they absolutely did use them for their guardian devices! They only wake up if you’re too loud, you see. I had a little oopsie the last time I was there and woke up one of the big ones. I’ll have to wait until it goes back to sleep again from losing power, but that could take years, since I made a lot of noise to give it power!”
Well, well. It seemed highly likely that both the challenge and the history to be found here on Highwater were linked. Now, they just had to figure out how to fight the challenge without damaging the ruins, so that Robin didn’t lynch them all. Easier said than done, but the more information they had the better. Having a good idea of what drove the off-kilter woman in front of them now, Luffy began asking careful questions about ‘Tonal Technology,’ and tried to process her gushing about the sort of things she’d seen it do. Hmmm, from the sound of things, they might need to get Brook involved, too.
Cringing at his own pun, even if he hadn’t said it aloud, Luffy continued to fish for information. Robin managed to get some of her own questions in as well. Even if the ‘Cog Witch’ clearly wasn’t as interested in answering those, she still did so, if only to get quickly back to gushing enthusiastically at Luffy…
… … …
Hina was amused that Sanji continued to dote on her, even spinning and dancing around her, despite their relationship. It was part of why she’d decided she was keeping him, as it was rather nice to be the primary center of attention for a hopeless romantic. The fact that he was quite good at domestic skills was certainly a plus as well, given that Hina herself was not. It was something in evidence now as he, despite talking shop with a local baker, was also continuously plying ‘Hina-sama’ with little treats he and said baker were working on.
Every single one of them was delicious, of course.
Honestly, if not for the insane training regime that the entire crew put themselves through, Hina suspected she might have the misfortune of looking like Big Mom. Of course, even that internal joke was more than a bit misaimed and she knew it. Despite the constant little treats and such that Sanji provided the crew, particularly the female members of it, she knew the man kept a shockingly complete and complex mental tally of their nutrition. He somehow balanced it all so that, even with the little treats, they were getting what they needed, rather than just what was tasty.
Which wasn’t even touching on his constant drive for improving what he made.
Even now, he wasn’t just talking shop for recipes, but had somehow found the one baker in town that had once been a chiefmedical officer aboard one of the most famous merchant lines that risked the Grand Line. The Grand Imperial merchant line was one of the few that even the Marines made use of occasionally, with their own private military forces that could legitimately fight off most pirates in Paradise. To be a doctor with that merchant line had meant seeing a lot of weird things, and when the man had finally seen too much of blood and retired to Tide’s Watch…he’d taken what he learned in an odd direction.
Specifically, when he’d settled in a town already known for exceptional baking, he’d started applying all of the weird bits and pieces of knowledge from his medical days to the task of making food better. That included having sourced a number of herbs from far off places that he grew himself, some of which had incredible properties. Hina suspected only the fact that Sanji himself was happily trading similar knowledge back, and obviously cared about the subject, was causing the man to share secrets and cuttings of the plants in question so readily.
Well, that and he obviously shared Sanji’s appreciation for Hina’s low-cut top. Still, looking was free and the older man wasn’t leering, just appreciating. Which, as far as Hina was concerned, was a well-justified complement. Her tits did look fantastic, thank you very much. Sure, she might be outsized by Nami, Robin and Yamato on the crew, but that was an anomaly. Also, Yamato obviously didn’t count. Stupid Oni blood and Devil Fruit obviously making those titanic-
Oh! This newest tart had created a sort of spark on her tongue that energized her! Hmm, she wondered if Sanji would beg for more or beg for mercy if she had Perona give him a blowjob after eating whatever that was…
… … …
Kaya smiled indulgently as her boyfriend oohed and aahed over all the gadgets and gizmos in ‘Cogswell’s Finest Cogs.’ Admittedly, she found a number of the devices here intriguing herself, even if most of the ones Usopp was drooling over were more ‘cool’ than ‘useful.’ She found it adorable how easily Usopp was being taken in by ‘Watson C. Cogswell,’ and knew they’d be leaving with a bundle of assorted useless things. Still, she wouldn’t stop him. Usopp had a talent for taking useless things like that, figuring out their principles, and turning them into something absurd and absurdly useful and/or powerful. Like the first generation of Nami’s Clima-Tact had been.
On the other hand, Kaya herself was interested more in the tools she’d seen Mr. Moonstone use as he worked on the things his slightly sleezy boss was talking up to Usopp. A number of them looked like they might be useful for helping her with various projects. Certainly, that ‘auto-carver’ that he’d been using on some wooden cogs for decorative-but-function display pieces seemed like it might speed up working with things like Jotun-stone quite a bit. Sliding over to him as Usopp kept his boss unintentionally distracted, she began asking the man about the tools.
Mr. Moonstone seemed pleased as punch she was interested, and even told her where she could get some of the best tools. Apparently, despite best efforts on his boss’s part, the really good tools were made by some fellow named George, who worked at Sprocket’s just down the street. Tucking that information away, she continued to ask about just what sort of things were possible. Not just with the tools, but with clockwork in general.
She had a feeling this would be a productive stop…
… … …
It had taken a while for Nami to figure out just what she could do to spend time with Yamato. Despite liking the cheerful girl for more than just the giant boobies she could die happy being smothered by, the two of them didn’t share a lot of interests. Robin could be counted on to be legitimately interested in weather phenomena and navigation, purely out of an unquenchable thirst for all knowledge. Vivi was closest to Nami herself in age and temperament, enjoying a lot of the same fashion, romance novels, and more.
Yamato, though, despite her incredibly likable personality, had proven a bit harder to connect with outside the bedroom. The reality was that Yamato was a simple soul in a lot of ways. Not stupid, far from it, but very…focused. Focused on getting stronger, or on living up to her idol, for the most part. Thankfully, Luffy had hit on a good way to connect with her, even if Nami didn’t share their interest in art. She could, in fact, draw. At least in a technical sense. That much was required in order to make her charts and maps as high-quality as they were. Nami didn’t have the eye for artistic drawing, though. Not even to the extent Luffy did, with their mutual lover still being a far distant second to Yamato’s raw talent and rapidly growing skills.
Finally, it had occurred to her that she didn’t need to do art, to be involved in it. Which is where she’d hit on the idea of acting as a model for Yamato. Nami was self-aware enough to know she was a little vain, possibly even mildly narcissistic. Which also meant that she appreciated being immortalized on sketchpads and canvas…and all the better if she got to try on new styles of clothes in the process!
Which is how they both ended up in a local clothing shop, with Nami trying on various interesting local fashions, and Yamato quickly and happily sketching them. All while cheerfully chatting both about how good the clothes looked, even if for very different reasons, and about the fascinating things all around town that they’d seen so far. Eventually, Nami would have to pick an outfit for Yamato to do a proper full painting of her in, possibly alongside one of those cute Clockwork Foxes?
Hmmm, personally she was thinking that one of the outfits with a corset. Oh! Or that ruffle dress that was short enough to flash her panties! Sure, ruffles were usually more Perona’s thing than Nami’s, but it could make for a decent painting, right? It would be something different, for sure. Just like those bunny-girl costumes she knew Luffy had acquired back at Spa Island. She had to admit she was a bit impatient to see how she’d look it one of those, but suspected he was saving them for a special occasion…
… … …
“So, that’s how it is, huh?”
Vivi watched with interest as Lensa Harkness, current Mayor of Tide’s Watch, leaned back and considered what he’d been told. The man, in his mid-twenties to Vivi’s eyes, was a direct descendant of the two founders of the village. Despite that, and despite the fact that he managed the island’s limited contact with the World Government, his position wasn’t an inherited one. Elections were held every four years, though with the entire island having less than 15,000 people on it, they weren’t huge or complex affairs.
Still, others beyond the Harkness family had held mayorship at various points. Though individuals from his family were by far the most frequent to hold the position. Personally, Vivi thought the idea of electing leaders seemed to work well enough on small scale like this, but had doubts about its viability if scaled up. Not that Kings and Queens as rulers was perfect either. Despite believing her own family had done a good job, she knew of entirely too many other hereditary rulers who hadn’t been nearly so fair to their people.
Still, that wasn’t the topic at hand right now. Tide’s Watch was a little too far from the current Alabastian Alliance waters for her to pitch joining directly to them. However, with the addition of Amazon Lily and Fishman Island as allies with a mutual defense pact, it was true that the Alliance was creeping inevitably east toward the Red Line. Hightide wasn’t too far off a South-East route between Jaya and Amazon Lily. Which was, in fact, whole reason Luffy had chosen it for a test. The island was near the Southern Calm Belt on that general path, with the Torino Kingdom they were heading for being almost straight south from St. Poplar.
In other words, Tide’s Watch was a great potential place for a quiet trading post between the two powers, if they didn’t want to keep relying purely on Vivi’s Devil Fruit. The fact the Marines were doing something big down south of St. Poplar, along the Calm Belt, meant having eyes closer might be a good idea too. The people involved seemed to be from Water 7, which had done a good job of purging itself of spies recently. There had apparently been an infiltration by Cipher Pol that had been discovered by the locals when the group involved pulled out in a hurry, in order to play bodyguard during the Whitebeard War. Irritatingly, that meant the Alabastian Alliance hadn’t been able to able to determine what the Marines were doing. Only that whatever it was, was a big project.
Of course, all of that would come with a certain amount of risk for Tide’s Watch if they agreed. Though in exchange, they’d also get support keeping pirates out of their seas and a steadier trade route. The Strawhat crew now knew how to make Eternal Poses, after all, so the fact the island wasn’t on a Log Pose route wasn’t an issue. The increase in regular trade could be a big deal for the locals, and the security guarantees wouldn’t hurt either. The question remained if they would decide it was worth the risk.
“I can’t say that I’m uninterested, Princess. But let’s talk some details. I’m not sure I want Alliance-flagged vessels blatantly traveling to Highwater regularly. However, if we could work out a deal for neutral merchant vessels, some of which just happened to load at Alabasta or one of its allied states…”
Suppressing a smirk at the sight of cautious interest from the mayor, Vivi leaned forward and began to negotiation in earnest. Another small victory to expand their influence! Soon, they would expand through the whole Grand Line and choke the WG with their own hubris and dickishness! She could see it now!
Wait, was this how megalomania started?!
Nah. That couldn’t be it. She was just making sure Alabasta’s future was properly secure. That doing so obviously meant taking over a small portion of the world wasn’t Vivi’s fault. The current owners should have done a better job of managing it…
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: I apparently REALLY couldn't resist the references this time. Meaningless internet bonus points for those who (probably dating themselves a bit in the process), recognized the various Jetsons references in Kaya and Usopp's snippet ;-).
A/N 2: Nami's 'ruffles' outfit was inspired by the art this time. Which is someone's AI creation. To tired to bother linking it since it's just AI anyway, and their name is on it for anyone really curious. A/N 4: Mwhahahaha, Vivi is secretly the Melomaniac of this story! Possibly ;-).
A/N 3: Hey everyone! Most of you should know that I have a for Early Access chapters (find the link for it in my profile, or just search 'Novus's Fanfiction Works' in your browser of choice). This particular note, though, is to let everyone know about a new Update Schedule that's resulted from my attempting to go full time with my writing :-). Going forward, updates look roughly like this monthly:
1st - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken
4th - 10,000 words of (Monthly Poll Winner)
8th - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!
12th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story
16th - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken
20th - 10,000 words of (Monthly Poll Winner)
24nd - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!
28th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story
At a Random Point in the Month - 10,000 words of Extra Content (Patron Only). Extra content is either original fiction, teasers for possible future stories, extra lemons, or artwork (yes, I can technically draw, I'm very slow and only middling in skill though). In June the extra content was 10k words of an original work tentatively labeled Cyberpunk Hero.
Total Word Count = 90,000+ words
Since I already am on this schedule this month, look forward to a pretty solid increase in number and size of updates next month as it starts rolling onto the public sites too!