One Piece: Open Waters (IC, 1x1, Pacifista and DeusExMachina)

((OOC))

Chapter One: Moonlit Passage

The night skies were clear, full of stars, moonlight reflecting on the seas in the open water of the South Blue. The only thing visible for miles around was a passenger liner, the ‘Golden Crest’, sitting as still has it could in the light waves. On the upper decks, a few guards patrolled, but the passengers were below decks on this chill night in late autumn.

There were two main levels, the first class cabins, mostly empty at present hour, and the large hold, separated into cargo storage and lower class storage. Above, a large hall was dedicated to entertainment, the richer passengers having themselves a party, conversing over fine food and wine. But below decks, it was like a different world, with passengers huddled up, the few lights barely keeping it at a habitable temperature, joyous noise from above keeping them awake and envious of the rich. The price for passage was either astoundingly cheap or absurdly pricey; there was no middle ground. The same could be said of the South Blue seas, where such wealth differences were common wherever there was a suitable population, the few rich lording over the struggling poor. Those in the middle class, on little islands not worth charting, dreamed of those riches only seen elsewhere, not knowing the whole truth, while pirates sail to snatch wealth of their own, in this Great Age of Piracy.

Mia grinned to herself mentally as she watched the rich enjoying their food, unknowingly losing fortunes to her because they either had the money to lose without being hurt, were to drunk, or to preoccupied to notice they were even losing money in the first place. Mia had a brilliant idea, which was to disguise herself as a "house" dealer in one of the card game stations. She was a master at cheating when it came to card games, so she would swindle a couple million beli from each player at her table, and then she'd take one of the life boats and get away. It was an ingenious plan that she had thought up, and now was the time to execute.

She walked over to a table and tapped the dealer on the shoulder, whispering "Take a break, I'll handle it." The man nodded and thanked her before finishing the current hand and letting Mia take his place. She slowly shuffled the deck, inspecting the cards first, and then did a blind shuffle, sliding the best of the cards up her sleeve to use when she needed to win. She dealt a few hands and let the players win, giving them the idea they could get even more money than they had. With that, she turned the tables in an instant. After one hand, she won 500,000 beli in a single play, and after ten hands in total, she had a whopping 5 million collected. She kept 2.5 million under the table for her to take when she was done, and after a few more hands, another dealer came out to take her spot. She took her chips and was off the table, grinning as she slipped into the bathroom for the next part of the plan.

She switched from her dealer outfit to a beautiful red dress, and after handling her makeup, making her look like an extravagant courtesan, she made her way over to the cash-in area to get her money. It took only a few minutes and with that, she was on her way to the life boats, money in hand.

As Mia moved onto the outer decks, the night air’s biting chill greeted her. The rear end of the ship held the life boats; four good sized ones, which could only hold most of the women and children should the ship be in danger of sinking. As Mia got close, a voice came from nearby, “Who’s there?” Holding up a lantern, a tall, broad guard moved closer, wearing a heavy gray uniform to protect from the cold, only his face and round jaw visible. Blinking as he saw Mia, fairly easily between the moonlight and lantern, he said, trying not to gawk, “Ma’am, you should be back in the inner parts of the ship; it’s too cold out here, we’ll be at our destination tomorrow.”

“Something up?” Another voice rang out, from the other side, a shorter, thinner guard with a scar on his chin and hair poking out from under his hat. He also eyed the woman, before looking at the lifeboats. Gears turning in his head, he gave her a look before asking, “You weren’t trying to leave, were you?” The realization hit the other guard, who had seen the direction she’d been walking in not moments ago. He studied her a bit more curiously, not hearing a set of footsteps from behind her.

“So what if she was?” Another passenger approached, wearing a blue coat and bucket hat, orange hair covering his eyes. His hands were in the pocket of his coat, and despite the cold, he wore white shorts and sandals.

The first guard rolled his eyes, wishing he didn’t have to deal with the situation. “Sir, you should get to the lower decks. What are you doing up here anyway?” His voice was harsher than it was when talking to Mia.

“Uh, bathroom?” The man shrugged.

“Hey, what’s in your pocket!?” The shorter guard said, pointing at the pocket that bulged slightly more than the other.

“Hey, I didn’t steal anything!”

“Who said anything about stealing?”

“Er...well, it’s not my fault you didn’t have the right medicine in the lower decks, all the good stuff is up here.” The larger guard started after him, his free hand reaching out to grab him, but the orange haired man was quicker, ducking out of the way and running off, the guard chasing after him. As he ran, the man in the coat said disbelievingly, “Damn, you guys are good. Where did you get hired from?”

The short guard sighed, before turning back to Mia and saying, “You should get back to your cabin...”

As the man turned his attention back to Mia, he was greeted with a hit to the face from a red 4 sided dice as Mia said "Gamble Gamble, four sided dice!" As it hit the floor, Mia grinned as she saw that all but the x10 side was visible and said "Now, eat this you bastard!" She slammed her fist as hard as she could into his gut, sending him flying back into the wall, and through it, of the outer ship and grinned as she saw that he was gone from sight. She picked up her dice and held it, not absorbing it once more. As long as it remained outside of her body, her strength would still be multiplied.

She turned back and watched as the other guard moved after the orange haired man and she ripped the lower half of her dress enough so she could run and took her heels off, peeling after the man with her increased speed. She easily caught up to him and kept pace, saying "Come on, we need to find another way off the ship now, and before you ask why I want to help, you helped me back there and I hate having a debt to people, so lets go."

She punched a hole straight into the floor board with her increased strength and pushed the man through first before following him down and asked "So, do you know any other way to the life boats? If not, we can just cut through the lower half of the ship to the rear where the life boats are and I can get us through the floors to get back to the deck where the life boats are on, sound good?"

The blue garbed man had outdistanced the guard chasing him when Mia rushed to his side. When he noticed her presence, he turned and dropped his jaw. He barely took in what Mia had said before she broke through the floor and shoved him in. They dropped down into an empty cabin, lavishly decorated, likely to make its guest feel right at home. Above the guard that had previously been chasing them shrugged, not wanting to chase after someone who busted through the floor that easily, or at least not alone. Below, the blue hatted man stood up from the floor, stupefied as Mia continued on about escaping.

“W-what do we need to escape for!? Well, I guess now we have a reason...” He sighed. Scratching his head, he said, “I’ve gotta go to the lower decks, so I guess that’s fine. Why were you escaping in the first p-“ He got his words in his throat before shaking his head and grumbling, “Well, I guess it’s not my business, but I suppose the least I could do is introduce myself; you did help me out there. Cornelius Williamson, Cornelius is fine though.” He offered a hand to shake, using the other to scratch the back of his head.

Mia absorbed the dice back into her hand so she wouldn't accidentally crush the man's hand when she shook it and said "Mia Feral, but everyone just calls me Gamble." She smiled and looked around before saying "Alright, another floor and we'll be in the work service area, then another one and we'll be on the lower decks where the poor are, one sec." She looked around the room and grabbed some of the decorations and roughed them up before arranging them over her own clothing, making her look more like the poorer class than the upper class there. She smiled and said "Alright, i'm gonna bust through, and then we get moving back to the rear."

She pulled out the four sided dice once more as she said 'Gamble gamble, four sided dice," but rolled an x5 this time and sighed, saying "Damn, this'll be a little tougher." She had to hit the board a few times before breaking it, and then did the same for the next floor, surprising the crew that was working on the floor for sure. Once they were both through, she turned to the man and said 'Well Cornelius, are you gonna be leaving the ship with me, or are you staying?"

“Gamble?” Cornelius echoed quietly, wondering where the nickname could come from. When Mia suggested busting through the floor to get lower, Cornelius considered bringing up the possibility of walking, but he was distracted when she started using her power. He opened his mouth to ask about it, but Mia started busting through the floor. He held his tongue until she finished, and they jumped down, onto the work deck, when Mia once again broke downwards, making quite the racket.

Farther down, they were now on the edge of the deck reserved for the lower class passengers. Will exhaled, a little relieved to be down here, though he wasn’t sure what the guards were planning. Mia made her offer, to which Cornelius replied, “I might, I guess it doesn’t really matter where I head next, as long as it has people. Working on a...not sure what you’d call it really. Project?” Changing the subject, he said, “I’ll be right back.”

William headed into the deck, stepping through a few bundles of passengers, whom stirred, looking at the orange haired man. He soon found his way to a family that was wide awake, tending to a young boy. The boy was laid out on a blanket, his face red and his breathing hard. Cornelius took a small white bottle out of his coat pocket, handing it to the boy’s father. “That should help,” he nodded.

With a smile, he worked on opening it up as the mother nodded, “Thank you.”

Will leaned down, patting the barely awake kid on the head and saying, “Get well soon, kay?” He smiled before standing back up and heading back to Mia. When he reached her, he said, “You got any ideas on getting back up? Guess I’m going with you: I’m done here. Although I’d rather it be you coming with me, er well, sort of. Same difference.” Cornelius readjusted his hat as he waited for Mia to lead.

Mia chuckled as she watched the man tend to the boy. It was nice to see a kind person in the world that she had grown used to seeing filled with corruption and greed. When he spoke, she shrugged and said "Well, I need some help to make more money. Also, seeing you show some kindness has forced me to do the same." She pulled out a wad of about 50 thousand beli and walked over to the family, saying "If you need to have him see a doctor, this should cover the cost and then some." She handed the family the money and then began to lead Cornelius as she said "Hurry, we have to get out of here."

She led the man along for a few minutes before she asked him "So, this project, mind me asking about it? Of course you don't need to tell me for free. You can ask me about anything you want to know about me, basically a question answered for another question answered, sound fair to you?"

As Mia complimented him, Cornelius pushed his hat down on his head, pushing his hair down a little more. “Not really, I just didn’t want him to die, I probably wouldn’t have given them money, even if I had it. I’d call that kindness,” he added sheepishly as they headed back.

They weaved through to the upper levels, doing their best to take paths without the bobbing of guard lanterns visible on them. Mia asked about Cornelius’ project, to which he responded, “Well, I’m nowhere close to finishing even the planning stages. I want to infiltrate a certain place.” William ducked into a side room, pulling Mia along and letting a pair of guards past. The quickly went back onto the path and continued the dash to the lifeboats, while Cornelius continued his explanation, “My first goal is to get a crew of pirates to sail there in the first place, hopefully working out the details in the process. Luckily, it’s not exactly time sensitive. And the more I think about it, the less possible it seems.”

The two came through the door back onto the decks; they could see the lifeboats a few meters away, while they were under an overhang, another level above them. “Have you ever heard of a place in the Grand Line cal-“ Cornelius began, before suddenly grabbing Mia and jumping off to the side as a gunshot rang out. After they landed close to one of the pillars supporting the upper level, Cornelius sat up with a grunt, looking at the assailants: the guards wouldn’t fire at first sight like that. Off to the side of the boat where the shot came from were three large men, all bundled up in long pants, coats, and boots. In the moonlight, it could be seen that each had an accessory or article of clothing that was vermillion in color. The pirate closest to them pointed a rifle at the two, still steaming from its shot. The two behind him had pistols, and all three had swords at their side. Grinning cruelly as he raised his rifle, he laughed, “Why don’t you toss over every beri you got. I might let you cute couple leave here alive; I’m in a good mood.” Cornelius gritted his teeth as he heard gunfire from inside the ship. And screaming of the passengers.

Mia groaned as she felt Cornelius grab her and heard the gunshot went off. One distraction was bad enough, but now another group just being straight forward and robbing the ship had to show up. When the man spoke about handing over the money, her face went from slightly annoyed to full out angry. She yelled out "Gamble Gamble, 8 sided dice!" and threw it down, waiting for the dice to land. When she saw it sit still and didn't feel the sensation of sleep come over her, she laughed loudly and picked the dice up, saying "You are messing with the wrong gambler tonight!"

She ripped out a plank of wood from the floor with so much strength she made it look like she was ripping paper up, and with the plank she swung it straight at the man's rifle. The collision was so strong that there was an audible crack as the wood splintered and bombarded the man holding the rifle, giving him a series of cuts. She quickly followed up her initial strike with a dash that covered the distance in a split second and merely flicked the man's forward, sending him tumbling back into his other two men. She then said "Gamble Gamble, six sided dice!" and rolled it, getting a sword marker.

The dice took the shape of a blade and she held it to the man's neck and said "Hand over all the beri you have on you right now, and I promise I won't take off more than an ear." She gently slid the blade along the side of the man's head. She grinned and said "You chose the wrong girl to mess with, I'm Mia Feral, a.k.a. Gamble, the eater of the Gamble Gamble Devil Fruit, and if you don't comply right now, I won't hold a single ounce back!"