Chương 14: The Operation Begins
Later that night, Professor Jones entered the bar and immediately got to work on getting drunk. The barkeep noticed Professor Jones knocking back drinks like no tomorrow and asked, " Rough day? I'm never seen you knock back drinks this much. "
" Shut up and pour me another one. I've got a secret that's been weighing me down this entire week. " Professor Jones said in a drunken stupor.
" You wanna talk about it?"
Professor Jones yelled, " Are you deaf? I just said it's a secret. I can't just go tell everybody about it. Hmm, actually, why can't I talk about it? This is stressing me out and I'll be fine even if I do talk about it, probably, maybe. Fuck it, I'm going to do it. "
Professor Jones then slapped his money on the table and exclaimed, " Hey everyone, next rounds on me! Once your good and drunk, gather round for a tale of epic proportions that might've happened."
Everyone in the bar gathered around Professor Jones, eager to hear his tale.
Professor Jones began, " It all happened a week ago when those kids Raven and Viktor showed up to my door in a panic. "
The crowd gasped, " Oh my god you got attacked by the monster twins! How could they do that when you've supported them so much."
Professor Jones replied angrily, " What the hell are you talking about? They didn't attack me. They'd never do that. Speaking of which, you should really stop calling them the monster twins. "
The crowd was shocked. Why wouldn't they call them monsters? The monster twins are just kids, but they terrorized their kids and beat them up when they tried to deliver justice.
Sensing the crowd's hostility, Professor Jones tried to convince the people there that Viktor and Raven weren't the monsters that they were made out to be. However, even when presented with facts and logic, people's prejudices are hard to break.
Professor Jones eventually gave up as Viktor and Raven themselves didn't care much about others opinions. What they did care about was him completing his mission.
Professor Jones continued, " Now back to the story. Viktor and Raven were panicked because they'd seen pirates approaching O'Hara. And not just any pirates, the Roger pirates!"
One of the onlookers gasped, " No way, the Roger pirates! Their joking, right? Please tell me they were joking. "
Professor Jones replied, " I thought so as well. Or at least they were mistaken about them being the Roger pirates, so I followed them to the spot they found the pirates."
" When we got there, I saw a pirate ship anchored near the beach and a bunch of pirates on the shore getting ready to have a banquet. To my horror, the jolly roger on the ship was that of the Roger pirates. And their crew was on the beach, included Gold Roger himself. As Roger approached us, we were frozen in fear, ready for death.
" However, Roger simply invited us to their banquet. We of course obliged, thinking we'd be killed if we didn't. I was even thinking that they invited us to actually be the banquet, if you catch my drift. "
An onlooker interjected, " Oh my god, they wanted to eat you guys! Just when I thought pirates couldn't stoop any lower, they pull this. How the hell did you escape?"
" Actually, they just wanted to party and they figured the more the merrier. I kept on waiting for a twist to happen, but it didn't. Eventually, the kids and I joined the fun. And let me tell you, the Roger pirates know how to party!"
Everyone in the crowd had their jaws drop in suprise in typical one piece fashion. There was only one thought on everyone's minds,' When did pirates start being nice to civilians?'
Professor Jones agreed, " It's surprising right? Eventually, I worked up the courage and asked them why they were partying with us. After all, pirates are supposed to raid and plunder civilians."
Everyone collectively nodded at this statement.
Professor Jones continued, " Roger laughed at my question and said that they never robbed innocent civilians. They only robbed pirates and the navy, along with anyone that attacked them. With this shoking revelation, I finally let my guard down and joined the party. "
It was at this moment that the matron walked onto the bar and listened in on the story.
" In fact, Viktor fought against two of the Roger pirates trainee crew members that were the same age as him. He beat the first one fairly easily, but he tied with the second, fainting in the process. "
The matron interjected, " What?! Viktor fought against pirates and fainted. Why didn't anyone tell me? Considering I didn't notice anything amiss, he wasn't hurt badly, was he?"
Professor Jones assured her that Viktor was fine and the matron was relieved, " Whew, well it's good he's ok. I can't garuntee he'll still be after I'm through with him for lying to me. "
Professor Jones then said, " Well, back to the story. We partied all night long and it was the best party I've ever been to. The food and drinks were great and the company was even greater. They told amazing stories about their adventures all night long. It was only after we woke up the next morning that trouble happened. "
Professor Jones continued, " The naval hero Garp appeared and attacked the Roger pirates. It was then that they held us captive as hostages. "
The crowd finally realized why the pirates were being nice to Professor Jones, they wanted to use him and the kids as hostages. After all, there was no way that pirates could really be nice guys, right?
Professor Jones agreed," Yeah, I also thought they were being nice just to use as hostages, but Roger told me he was worried that we were going to get hurt in the subsequent fighting so he had us act as hostages to try and negotiate for our safety. However, it turns out that neither me nor the kids were good actors and Garp figured us out right away."
" Oh my god, then how'd you survive such a dangerous situation?"
" It was super easy, barely an inconvenience."
" Oh really?"
" Yeah, turns out Garp also didn't want to see us innocent civilians hurt and we were able to take a row boat away from the action. And let me tell you, the battle we witnessed was unbelievable. "
" What do you mean by that?"
" Well, to start of with, turns out Garp is a humanoid cannon. He started throwing cannonballs at the Roger pirates even faster than from a cannon. In fact, I remember hearing sonic booms a couple of times. "
An onlooker said in disbelief. " You have to be kidding me. You expect us to belief that a human can actually throw cannonballs at supersonic speeds. If your going to lie, at least tell a believable one. "
" Hey, I'm just telling you what I heard. At the very least, the cannonballs were going fast enough that I couldn't see them once they left Garp's hand. I thought the Roger pirates were done for, but they manages to intercept all of Garp's cannonballs with their swords. "
The onlookers all gave him incredulous looks. Professor Jones continued, " Once Garp realized his throws weren't working, he revealed he had a ship sized cannonball underneath his ship."
The onlookers were stupefied and said, " You're not saying.. "
" Yep, Garp threw a ship sized cannonball at them and they narrowly avoided it, but their ship still took considerable damage. It was then that the most unbelievable thing happened.
An onlooker said, " What could possibly be even more outlandish? "
" Garp started running on air via the navy martial art Geppo and punched towards Roger. Roger meet Garp's fist with his sword. The two weren't even touching, but the shockwave split apart the sky and sea. "
" Bullshit! There's no way that's real!" How can humans split the sky and sea. Are you saying Moses's feats were real?!"
" Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw. And then, their stalemate broke and that shockwave sent both of them flying in opposite directions. Since they clashed near the pirate's ship, the pirate's ship flew into the air and somehow used that momentum to escape without sinking. The End. "
" Cmon ProfessorJones, if you're gonna tell far fetched stories, at least acknowledge that their legends instead of facts. "
Professor Jones then said sleepily, " I'm telling you what I saw. Whether you believe me or not is up to you. I'm going sleep. "
As Professor Jones fell asleep, the crowd dispersed, everyone convinced that his story was just the drunken ramblings of an old man. One person, however, believed him and set out to inform her boss.
After she informed her boss of what happened, she was considered to have completed the mission and was assigned back her old mission of looking for evidence of the scholars researching the void century.
Professor Jones's mission somehow succeeded. However, his success was the culmination of many things going his way.
First, as pointed out by Raven, the world government didn't want to provoke the Roger pirates. Or rather, the matron and her boss didn't want to provoke them. They were well aware that they'd be used as scapegoats for the Roger pirates rage if Professor Jones was Roger's friend and they hurt him.
Additionally, this was before the Roger pirates actively pursued the ponaglyphs and laugh tale, so their wasn't as much emphasis on them. They pretty much let Garp handle them and were preoccupied with the Golden Lion and Whitebeard.
Also, while the world government was wary of O'Hara researching the void century, it was more that they believed they had the ability to, rather than they thought they were researching it. It wasn't until later when they actually caught expeditions such as Nico Olivia's that they figured out they were researching the void century.
In fact in the manga/ anime, it's shown that the five elders actually felt some regret that they had to wipe out O'Hara and its knowledge. Just the fact that they agreed to talk with Professor Clover before executing the demon slaying order shows that they actually had some form of respect for him. The destruction of O'Hara in the eyes of the five elders was really a necessary evil, but one they wished didn't have to happen.
In conclusion, the matron and her boss were simply looking for an excuse to complete their mission and Professor Jones's outburst provided them the perfect to due so. While they were loyal to the world government, they also valued their lives. It was only later that they regretted letting the matter go so easily.
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