I decided to do a transition after a certain amount of time, since I was writing it and it felt weird when I did it, as if it were all at once and out of nowhere, so now I'll do it this way: *1000 years later*. This way it doesn't feel weird or all at once.
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Dante: "Well, what do you think?"
Trini: "I kind of want to leave."
Arthur: "It could be worse. It's a world government country, so we can get certain supplies or necessities that the islands couldn't offer us."
Dante: "Yes, and that's one of the main reasons we came to Alabasta. From what I understand, there's a drug dealer hidden here who can offer many useful things."
Arthur: "Really?"
Dante: "Yes." Not really, but I couldn't say that. "The idea is for me to find this guy who's near the capital, so we'll have to travel, but before that."
I look at Hunter, who's always on my shoulder, silent and hidden, perfect for this kind of work.
Dante: "Go and look at the city. If there's anything interesting, it'll fly around us. If not, it'll come back to my man. Now go," I say to Hunter, who opens his wings and takes off.
Dante: "Now let's find supplies, clothes, and a map for our journey."
And we set off. It took us about three hours to do all of that, and while we were doing all of that, Hunter came flying around us.
Trini: "Looks like Hun found something."
Dante: "Let's leave immediately."
So we ran after Hun until we reached a man in his 40s and his family. We approached them, and it turned out some bandits had stolen their money and jewelry.
Dante: "Hunter, do you know the direction the thieves went?" He/she nods, "Then lead the way to their hideout."
At that moment, she lifted her wings and departed for the outskirts of the city. We followed behind her until we reached a shack.
Upon entering, we saw 11 bandits, all armed with sabers and pistols. Inside, there were jewels and money scattered around.
I saw Trini and Arthur ready for battle, so I decided to play Pokémon.
Dante: "Trini, Arthur, go after them," I said, pointing a finger at the bad guys.
The two of them stared at me for a moment.
Dante: "Go, both of you. If I go, I'll finish them off very quickly, so you won't be able to gain any combat experience. So, defeat these guys. I'll be here in case anything bad happens."
Reluctantly, they followed my orders. After a few minutes of battle, the bandit robbers were defeated. I told my companions to rest here while I went to find some sailors and inform them of the situation.
I also arranged for the family to come along, so the Navy wouldn't take credit for the achievement, as there were witnesses.
In the end, there were more victims of this gang, and all the belongings were returned to their owners. The Navy thanked us for our help and gave us a small reward for this achievement. It was a new canteen with wine.
The good thing is that the victims thanked us personally, so their fame and reputation increased in one way or another. Plus, I ended up being the biggest contributor to the matter, despite doing almost nothing.
And so our trip went. We visited several cities in Alabasta, where in each one there was some problem to solve. This was both a good and a bad thing. The good thing was that it increased our reputation and fame. The bad thing was that it delayed our walk to the capital.
Among the problems that arose, I can single out one incident involving the use of poisons. Arthur poisoned himself. We spent five days in the city waiting for him to recover so we could continue our trip.
And with that, after two months, we arrived in the capital. There are several things to do here, and it's already April, because I have to hurry so I don't have to be here all the time.
The first thing I did was get three rooms for a week. I met with Trini and Arthur to tell them I was going to find the guy who could sell what we wanted and that we were leaving in a week, so they could do whatever they wanted during this time.
Then I ran to a blacksmith to get the new weapon I wanted. I gave him the plans, and we made a deal. I'd give him the plans and the rest of the materials, and he'd make the weapon for free. I accepted, since the materials wouldn't be of any use to me with the weapon already created.
I looked for a secluded, shady, and hidden spot. Once I was settled in, I asked Hunter to get me water and food that was as non-perishable as possible. Once the preparations were complete, I took the pill. It was a horrifying sensation, feeling your bones being destroyed and rebuilt, over and over again. In the end, I passed out again.
When I woke up, it was afternoon. Hunter was lying down, resting, next to some cans of food and my canteen.
When I stood up, I felt stronger, more durable, almost indestructible.
I woke the bird up, started eating and drinking with him or her. I'm not leaving here without knowing if it's male or female.
I returned to the city. It turns out I'd been missing for three days. I think it's a good amount of time to get what I already have. He might make up other excuses at the moment.
When I entered the hotel where we were staying, I found him with Trinity. He was eating a pie in the lobby. It's worth mentioning that before I went to the cave to hibernate for these three days, I divided the money I had into three parts and gave one to each of us.
Trini: "You're back. I thought you wouldn't be back until after the week."
Dante: "Well, it was simpler than I thought it would be. It turns out the guy was a scammer. He used the items he had to trick people, then set a trap and sell them on the black market."
Trini: "Hmm, good thing it was you this time then," she says as if my lie wasn't important. Imagine if what I said were true.
Dante: "Hey, do you know where Arthur is? Even if they were scammers, they had the things he needed, so I'm planning on giving them some important things, as well as some important explanations. So it would be great to do it just once."
She stares at me for a moment, looks at her foot, eats it quickly, and stands up.
Trini: "The last time I heard about him was in a casino. Follow my lead."
We went to a casino, which would later be Crocodile's base. It wasn't in the capital, but very close. There's Arthur, outside, naked, with nothing on.
Dante: "I see you lost everything, like Farkas."
(Note: The Farkas thing is an old joke from my country)
Arthur: "Like who?" he says, a little irritated and embarrassed.
Dante: "Forget it," I look at Trini, "let's see if we can get his belongings back at least."
Once inside the casino, we went to the manager. The guy recognized us as the group of heroes. That made him happy, since our efforts here hadn't been in vain.
They couldn't just return Arthur's things. But they gave us a chance: if we won a betting game against the house, they would return everything except the money.
We accepted the bet, and after some discussion, we decided that Trini would play the bet. With a three-hour poker game, we were able to get Arthur's belongings.
With that, we decided to return to the hotel and discuss our situation tomorrow morning.
On the morning of the fourth day, we got up and did all the routine things one does when waking up. Once everyone was ready, we gathered at a table in the lobby to talk.
Trini: "Well, tell us what you brought back from your trip. I hope my birthday present is among those things." It's true that he's already 17. It doesn't bother me much when he says that, since she didn't give him anything for mine.
Dante: "Well, I have something for you. If you want, you can think of it as a birthday present." I looked at Arthur. "You can think of what I'm going to give you as well." I got up from the table and said, "But it can't be here, since I don't have them handy. Let's meet on the left side of the city."
Without letting them answer, I decided to go to my room, climb out the window, and get the hell out of there. I needed to get there before them to make things seem right, but first I needed to get my weapon from the blacksmith.
When I arrived, my weapon was ready. I looked at it, tried a few tricks, and when I saw that everything was okay, I thanked the blacksmith.
With Soru, I quickly arrived at the place where we were going to meet. I took out the things that were for them and wrapped them in a blanket I had found. In a few minutes, the two of them arrived, walking.
Dante: "Welcome, I have something here for everyone, then we'll see who has what."
I passed the longest object on the blanket to Arthur and the other to Trini. The spear to Arthur and the rifle to Trini.
Arthur's eyes lit up, and he took the spear and started playing with it. I threw him the spear-style manual while he was at it.
Trinity was inspecting the rifle. I saw he didn't know how to use it. Luckily, it also had instructions on the parts of the gun and how to use it. When I passed that to him, he stared at me for a while.
Trini: "What about the bullets? This thing uses special bullets, and gun stores don't make those."
Dante: "You don't have to worry, since I have the solution right here." I showed a box. Upon opening it, a Devil Fruit was revealed. "This is the Devil Fruit of Transmutation. With it, you can transform matter, creating layers that recreate the bullets your gun uses with any available material. It can also do other things, but for your case, that's all that's important."
I saw him nod at the fruit, but he stopped abruptly.
Trini: "And who will eat it?" A silence followed. "I can't, since I'm a fisherman, so I'll have to go into the sea in certain cases."
Dante: "I can't either, since I need to go into the sea in case of an emergency and save drowning people. Plus, I have this." I took out the weapon the blacksmith had made for me.
Trini: "Three sticks attached to a chain?" I asked.
Dante: "It's called sansetsukon and it's made of sea stone, it will serve us for annoying devil fruit users, as well as a way to combat the lodges at least until we learn armament haki, therefore if I eat the fruit I won't be able to use the weapon."
(Note: To give you an idea of the weapon, it's the one Toji uses to kill Dagon in Jujutsu Kaisen.)
After my explanation, both Trini and I stared at Arthur. He opened his mouth, trying to explain why he couldn't, but couldn't say anything. So he ended up eating the fruit, complaining that he would have preferred something that would help more in combat. Poor fool, he doesn't know anything about transmutation.
With all this done, we decided to practice the new things we had so we could head off to the fishing town the next day and leave Alabasta.
As we were heading back to the hotel, I stopped by a store where I bought a lot of paper, pencils, and ink.
Trinity: "What's all that for?"
Dante: "It's something we'll use to make a deal with a bird that likes chaos and delivers newspapers all over the world."