Chapter 13: Of Mountains and Garbage
Maybe heels weren't such a good idea to wear for a trek to a mountain.
"Haaa." Krys huffed out, putting one foot over a large and steep step before leaning nearby on a tree. 'Why did I have to wear Yelan's outfit, I could've just worn boots.'
Looking behind branches upon branches and leaves covering the area, she still couldn't see the height of the mountain. She curses how she was going to have to stay somewhere in the night.
Krys continued her pace, she kept hearing distant howls and signs of predators that stalked the humid and hot area. She regrets having to carry out this job but it was necessary.
'It's already noon, all this mud is getting to me. I hope there won't be rain soon.' She slaps her upper arm after feeling even the slightest pressure.
"Damn Mosquitoes!" Krys yelled in frustration.
A growl arrived, much like a response to her outburst. She wasn't even scared, just really annoyed she has to deal with a beast when she should be in Gray Terminal.
"Look, tiger. I know I may look like easy prey but I can seriously destroy your entire species if I wanted to, your friends and family got beaten by a bunch of kids, do you really think you have any chance-"
The tiger lunges.
Krys sighs.
Planting her left foot on the muddy floor, she cocks back her entire body and as the tiger closes in, her other leg swings hard. She felt her hit crumple the skull of the beast, killing it instantly as its corpse flew so hard it broke trees and continued tumbling down the steep ledge as Krys swayed her head.
"Told you so."
Hours passed and Krys continued her long hike, it was helped that her height was much taller than before and perhaps aided by the much better physical endurance of her inherited body of Yelan.
"Finally!" Krys saw it, the top. The trees stopped upwards and ceased, she could see the sky with clouds forming. 'Now if I could only remember where I am.'
She wasn't the greatest at triangulating where she was based on locations. Not that there was any landmark she could actually use apart from Foosha Village in the distance and the massive trash pile slowly forming from its torching in years past.
Krys took her bag strapped to her side and opened a spyglass and extended it to its full size and peered through the lens. She was going to take down sentries, guards and overall movement.
Not only that, she needed to circle the entire location.
It was going to be more than just a day this time. Preparation was much more important, they were killing royalty, not marines.
"Hey!"
That wasn't her, she didn't recognize the voice, and was that civilization?
'Hold on… the only place I know that has people is… Dadan and her bandit group!'
Of course, more people could be there but Krys only has ever heard from Larc about the bandits that 'took care' of Luffy and Ace. I mean, it wasn't the best way to raise kids.
"Name yourself!" A rifle was pointed in her direction.
Krys raised her hands in the air, her spyglass along with it. With a calm demeanour, she tries to explain herself. "My name is Krys, I am just passing through."
"Why?" The bandit interrogates further.
"…Sightseeing?" Krys gestures to her spyglass.
"You're sightseeing in the middle of a deadly mountain filled with predators?"
"…Aren't you the ones living inside that same mountain?"
"Huh… you're right." The bandit had an epiphany, he started questioning himself, trying to answer the remark but then shakes his head and grips his rifle tighter. "How do you know that?! A-Anyways! The boss doesn't want anyone here, so get out!"
"Or what?"
The bandit looked confused. "Or I'll shoot you!"
"Shoot? Me? Wow, I never would've thought that! No, seriously, what are you going to do? That rifle is the same kind we keep loading with corks to shoot at each other with my crew. I don't doubt I can dodge the same way."
"That would mean you're travelling faster than sound!"
"How would a bandit living in the middle of nowhere know how physics works?"
"That's true… wait, you can't distract me!"
"Don't you think I already am?"
"Huh… wait no!"
Krys chuckled a bit, was this a comedic routine? She honestly couldn't hold back the laugh. The bandit couldn't let himself not get taken seriously, so he did the obvious.
He shot.
Krys, in reflex, moves to the side, faster than how anyone could react.
The bandit drops his jaw.
"See? I keep warning the animals here not to fight. I really just want to sightsee and now I have people doing the same thing and attacking me even when I warn them."
"Y-you warn animals?"
"Yep. There were like ten different species of tigers I kicked off the mountain. A bear came and tried standing up but I kicked it so hard it started whimpering and rolled off the mountain. Oh! I saw a puma… I think! Honestly, you should just open up a zoo with this many exotic animals."
"That's actually a good idea… hold on, I ain't scared! You're either leaving or I let my boss come here!"
"Okay."
"Huh?"
"Call her here. I still have a few spots I need to look for while you are away. Oh, and if you have any kind of mosquito repellant, can I have some?"
"…Sure."
The bandit was complacent at that, Krys thought it was just how the people were in the One Piece world. That couldn't have gone any better, at worse she'd have to kill him but this was a much preferable outcome.
Krys started taking notes after viewing the wall for the moment she wasn't getting attacked. Most of the guards were concentrated on the entrance, the wall didn't have many people patrolling it, Krys guesses it was because nobody was crazy enough to climb it.
"So you're the lady he was talking about." A relatively overweight and tall woman with orange curly hair declared. A dozen or so other men were around her vicinity as Krys collapsed her spyglass and approached slowly.
"Curly Dadan. Who knew you had wanted posters that would be placed far away from where you occupy territory in? Around 8 million Berry, I believe?"
"Hah! Close, 7.8 million. So, why is there a lady in this place? Sightseeing? I don't believe that for a second."
"We are here to kill nobles."
The sudden admission of their motivations made everyone's face darken and gloom. Dadan's confident attitude became serious, like a person who just heard that there was a sale for eggs in the local supermarket.
"You are here to kill nobles? Who are you?"
"Krys, although your subordinate might have already told you that. I assume you are asking for my crew's name. We are the Reaper's Bones, we came here for one purpose only, to kill the heir to the Goa Kingdom."
Each word felt heavy for the measly bandit crew, sure they were used to crime but this was on a different level.
Krys continued. "I am scouting ahead, seemingly as the capital is far away, we are in need of a forward base to stay in. That's why I let your friend bring you here, will you accept us into your homes for a while?"
"So you are killing a noble… why?"
"I cannot say."
"Then no."
"Why not?"
"You are a stranger saying something ridiculous like that. You came here with a spyglass and a reason that may make you a target, you spout this to us, aren't you scared that we will tattle?"
"Nope, I know who you are and what you have done. My crew might be less than enthusiastic once I tell you this but… you should be proud, I won't say what specifically."
Dadan furrows her brows, she's getting suspicious at every second that passes. "If you have nothing else to say, then scram!"
"No, we need to do this. Just let us stay for at least a week or more depending on the circumstances."
"Why should I let you."
"Because… don't you hate them too?"
Dadan pauses, flickers of memories resurface but she battles them down. "Hmph… what makes you say that?"
Krys got ready to bolt away when her legs started to tense. "Think about it for now, I send my regards… to Sabo."
This time Dadan's face couldn't hold her stern look, with eyes widening from everyone nearby, Krys, in impressive agility, took to the trees and leapt off each trunk, leaving Dadan in a dazed state.
"H-how?! Who are you!" Dadan yells at her farewell.
"You know who I am and when I will return! Goodbye~"
Krys left the area with much better speed. A closer inspection was required, and the anime and manga have not shown the full geography of the Goa Kingdom. For that, she had to seek out more information about the circumference of the wall.
More time had passed, the sun was nearing its close and the moons started showing their glow. Krys wandered around, aiming to find holes or people to get more information out of.
There was a lot of trash and a population had started to form. Previously, Gray Terminal was burnt to the ground years ago during Luffy's younger time. An incident that had shaken the residents and scarred them.
Except that now, it looked like it never happened. Years of trash started accumulating again, abandoned materials or reconstructed wood from what Krys assumed was from Edge Town, a town that was inside the wall but the people there were waiting to get booted out, much like the people already living in the garbage dump.
"Excuse me?"
That scared her, a child it looks like.
"Yes?" Krys answered, kneeling down to meet the eyes of a 5-year-old girl who was carrying a torn-apart teddy bear. A sad but normal sight for this area.
"Why are you so pretty?"
Oh, now that caught her off-guard. Children say the most random of things sometimes. It was a nice chance for Krys to get to her parents.
"Why thank you. Although, being pretty isn't everything. If you want to know, then you have to work hard. Some are blessed, some are not but if you do what you can, you'll be surprised at what you can do."
The child looked and fumbled at the explanation but nodded along. "Okay. Is this why daddy is gone and mommy is here? They are not… uh… blessed?"
'Oh shit.'
Gone? As in, he didn't get milk but instead was gone? How do you even tell a kid that everything in their life was just natural and that their fate of being poor was left up to chance?
"Erm… what do you mean daddy is gone?"
"Mommy said he left somewhere much better than here and that we can't join him… yet. I hope we can follow him someday!"
'Oh shit. Oh shit. I'm not a counsellor, how am I supposed to deal with a dead dad's kid?!' Krys quietly wanted to just move on from this conversation.
"…Your mother sounds… nice. Can I meet her?"
"Sure!" The child then grabs Krys' hand and leads them through more piles of splintered wood and appliances that look relatively okay looking. Maybe the nobles just saw it not working once and decided to throw out the whole thing. Wasteful… but good for those who need to scrounge up whatever they could.
The place Krys got led to was honestly appalling, there were wooden constructs that look like a house but it was held not with nails but any scrap metal thin enough to act as nails.
More than a dozen tents lined a single massive campfire, Krys noted that it was probably because the nights here are frigid and they have to resort to massive fires to keep everyone warm instead of singular candles or lamps.
"Mommy! Look! I found a pretty lady!"
'Why am I being treated like a showcase product?' Krys was then introduced to another woman that looked exactly like the kid apart from the eyes. 'Gods… I didn't notice before but these people are thin as hell.'
The mother looks at her child in worry, looking back at her and Krys over and over. "Umm… head back home and play with your friends, I'd like to speak with the 'pretty' lady alone."
"But mom-"
"No buts, it's adult talk."
"…Okay."
When the child couldn't be seen behind more piles of rubble and what looked like a small made-up playground for more children, the mother approached Krys with suspicion.
"Are you… from the inside?"
"No, but I am looking for a way to get inside."
The mother was surprised but her face instantly went to a frown. "No one can get inside. Even if we try to scale the walls, there's more of a chance for a royal guard to burn our ladders or stairs."
"So you've checked most of this wall? Maybe there's something weak holding up a part of it. Have you tried underground?"
"N-no… I would know."
'Oh… that's how her husband died, by trying to enter the city. So infiltrating through walls isn't a possibility. Climbing up would be hard even with Karma's Devil Fruit since we are supposed to be sneaky.'
"Is that so…" Krys mused. "My condolences, by the way, I didn't think asking for that would bring up a memory. I was just here to visit for a second, are you from here? Or born?"
"I was from Edge Town, we were merchants employed by a minor noble but when a scandal occurred, the person we worked for fell in grace. Just associating with him was enough for us to be detested and set to be thrown to Gray Terminal."
"A scandal? Aren't the nobles working together there? Being all haughty and all that?" Krys pressed further, more information would work well.
"Far from it." The mother answers with full confidence. "A lot of nobles are at odds with each other, more than once have we seen challenges of honour that end in indecisiveness, only for the nobles to end up dead because another one had a grudge."
"Personal experience?"
"No, just rumours. Everyone inside might look like they see each other as equals but everyone thinks they're better than the other. One moment they are working together for business, the next they're starting to destroy each other's work by paying third parties."
"Does this happen often? Maybe the port receives a lot of people that do that. Have you heard of anyone in the city having… special abilities?"
"I'm not sure… My husband and I rarely saw any action but the result was always there. Destroyed homes, blood spilt and guards trying to arrest someone. If there was someone you describe, the nobles in High Town can finance such a thing."
Krys nodded at every answer, she would take all of this down later in her notes. A distraction was going to work, the only part they needed was to get in. A certain cat-girl was the key to that. They only needed someone to take that key and get him inside.
"Thanks for everything. I can offer you Berry but I don't know if that would be useful here since everyone from the city dislikes meeting with you."
"Oh, no need. I'm just glad someone is concerned enough to just ask. I really hope things will change…"
"Oh, don't worry. It will."
With a wave goodbye, Krys headed back the way she came, passing through more garbage and finally reaching the base of Mt. Colubo, the mountain she recalls from Larc's story on Dawn Island, where the Goa Kingdom is based.
As she went up, rustling sounds and voices came from the darkness beyond. Lights start appearing as she hides from the trees, and her breath quiets down while she keenly observes.
It was Dadan, her bandit gang and a few friends that Larc mentioned were at her side holding torches. Deciding to take her chance, Krys walks out in full view and announces her presence.
"Dadan!"
"You…"
"I have told you my name, haven't I?"
"…Krys. I don't know how you know that brat Sabo or how you even know the events that happened here. The Reaper's Bones are a name I don't recognize… but… if you tell me more… we will allow you to stay in our home."
Krys smiled. "Got a Transponder Snail?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Jake_Hansel
Jake_Hansel Oyoyoyoyo~
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