Chapter 25: We need a place to sleep.
The three separated and began to help out the villagers with the cleanup of the village. Alex found a spot and used one of his hands to start cooking food while the other turned into shovels and started to clean up a pile of rocks that was blocking a road.
Alex handed out the food for free while throwing in a vial of his healing potion for the people who were heavily injured.
By the time he had finished feeding everyone who came up to him the pile of debris was already clear from the road. Alex walked over to it and tapped a pouch he had on his waist. The pouch opened and a tongue stuck out of it as little eyes opened. The pouch used its opening as a mouth and the tongue grabbed all the debris before eating it and shrinking back down to normal size as the mouth and eyes disappeared.
This was one of the things that Alex had been a part of making. He still didn't know much about the lineage factor but he was able to learn about its existence and had a hypothesis about it. What he was able to do, was to provide ideas for how to use different devil fruits with certain objects.
Because of this, he was allowed to keep one of the designs he created. Alex chose this one, which was inspired by some of the fantasy novels he had read about. He combined a pouch with a frog devil fruit and was able to create his own storage system. Alex had also slowly been stealing things from the marines labs and storage.
A little seastone here, a couple different metals there. He even found some seeds to Adam and Eve trees that happened to 'accidentally' be swallowed by his storage while he was looking the other way. Marineford was in a panic for a week after that one happened.
Basically, anything Alex could really want, he now had, at least materials wise.
After Alex collected the debris he used it to build a makeshift shack. It only had walls on three sides as the front was open. It was one story tall but large enough to fit any normal human in it.
Alex made it the size of at least two houses side by side and it had pillars in the middle supporting the roof. Alex used some leathers and fabrics he had to create bedding areas. He made enough for 100 people to sleep side by side. It might not be much, but just having a roof over your head can mean a lot and be very helpful.
Alex continued around the village and made two more shacks out of other debris he collected in the village. Killing two birds with one stone.
Alex figured that this would probably be enough for everyone. It was a small village after all with probably around 1,000-2,000 residents.
Alex found the village's library and looked around. He found a couple books he hadn't read before so he collected two into his archive and started to read the third one manually. It was less efficient this way, but reading was one of his hobbies, sometimes he just wanted to enjoy a book normally.
By the time he was finished with everything and began to walk back to the marine's temporary base the sun was setting.
Alex was reading with one of his fingers as a flashlight, serving as a reading light.
Alex looked up and realized there was a commotion.
"W-why? Why are you doing this?" A woman carrying a young boy cried.
A marine kicked her in the back. "We're the ones working hard to save you. We need someplace to sleep!" The marine said while standing within one of the shacks Alex had made.
Alex put his book into his pouch and started walking over.
"What are you talking about? You built these for us! A marine told us we could use these shacks if we had nowhere else to go!" A man said as he helped the women up.
The marine scowled. "Fine, maybe we should just leave, see how long you last against the pirate then!"
The man and woman both started crying. "No, please! Anything but that! You can take the shack! We'll sleep on the streets! Just please, please don't leave us!" The woman screamed.
The marine smiled. "Then, maybe you would understand that we also need a little…service."
Before the two villagers could answer, Alex tapped that marine on his shoulder from behind him. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Commodore Dragon has orders."
The marine looked annoyed. "Can't you just tell me here?"
Alex looked past the marine and at the villagers with a disgusted look on his face. "Special orders. Can have anyone HERE listening in."
The marine chuckled. "Right? These are the dregs of society. They dare to take our base just because they don't have anywhere else to go. It's not our fault they couldn't protect their homes."
Alex nearly slapped the guy right then and there. How much of a prick could you be? Like it would be hard to be a worse person than this guy unless you were just a serial killer.
However, Alex held back and nodded, before leading the guy away.
On the way Alex took his book back out and started reading with his night light. "Did you know, some Frogs have extremely acidic stomach fluid?"
The marine scoffed. "So?"
Alex flipped a page on his book. "I just had a thought… wouldn't that make a frog-frog fruit pretty strong? As long as you utilize it properly."
The marine looked confused. "Why do you care? You clearly already have a devil fruit."
Alex hummed. "You're right. It was just a passing thought. I mean, lets just say you had a human sized frog, that could control how acidic its stomach acid was. That would be deadly… no it wouldn't even leave remains." Alex closed his book loudly causing the marine to jump. "Not even the bones."
The marine looked at Alex. "Can't you just tell me what the new orders are? I can't even see the town anymore."
Alex nodded. "Just one more question. Do you think people deserve second chances?"
The marine laughed. "Are you joking? What kinda childish question is that? A second chance? What for? That's the dumbest question I've heard in a while."
Alex smiled. "Yeah, it was pretty dumb, wasn't it?"
Alex's index finger and thumb stretched out. Forming a pair of scissors. Alex squeezed them together and sliced the marine's neck in two.
The marine's laughter was cut short as his head fell off his body before being caught by a tongue. Alex's pouch swallowed the head before quickly grabbing the rest of his body and swallowing that too.
Alex sighed and shook his head. He turned around and watched the setting sun from on top of a hill. A light breeze rolled in and blew his hair out of his face.
"Some people just deserve to die, right Pops?" Alex mumbled while recalling an identical scene from two years ago.
Alex smiled sadly. "I miss you Pops. I'll be back soon."
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