It was a few days later and Aden's crew were all busy with their own things. The new ship allowed for proper training as it was far larger, so they were using that to their advantage.
Aden was, as always, immersed in his own training, trying to come up with different attacks and uses for his abilities. Which were making less and less sense by the day. His fruit was Air element, yet he could use others? It made no sense to him, but he decided he would figure it out sooner or later and left it at that. No sense wasting his efforts on it, when he knew he doesn't know enough.
Nojiko was as usual steering the ship, keeping her eyes on the weather and following the Log Pose. There were huge sea-beasts swimming alongside their ship, courtesy of her own training.
Robin surprisingly trained on her own. She practiced a combination of martial arts, using her Devil Fruit to sprout extra limbs to attack from otherwise impossible angles.
And Buggy was working on his range. He always felt limited by the range he could send his parts to, and decided to extend it. So far he managed to increase it by about ten metres, but the progress was steady.
Hours later, once they were done with training for the day, Aden had called them for an important decision.
"We have to name the ship." he said simply.
"...This is the very important thing you wanted to discuss?" Nojiko asked, flabbergasted.
"Of course. A ship's name is it's soul. It gives it identity beyond a simple piece of wood. Without a name, the ship is just that. But with a name, it will be a part of the crew." Aden spoke passionately, nearly bringing the others to tears.
"I agree with our captain. We should pick a name." Robin said calmly.
"Sure" "Okay then" Buggy and Nojiko nodded.
"Sweet. So. Ideas?" Aden asked.
"Buster?" suggested Buggy.
"Nah, that's crap." Aden disagreed, shaking his head and walking back and forth.
"Reaver?" was Nojiko's suggestion.
"Crap."
"Jackdaw?" came Robin's idea.
"That's pretty good." Aden pointed at her "But taken." he said after a short pause.
"Oh. How about Vanguard?" he threw in his own idea.
"Well you basically threw out our ideas, so i guess that is the name." Nojiko pouted.
"Oh don't be like that. I can see the smirk, you like the name." Aden joked.
"Okay, fine. It is pretty good."
"So we are in agreement?" Aden asked, recieving nods of approval.
"Alright, from now on our ship shall be called Vanguard!" he shouted happily, with others cheering along. Besides Robin. She just smiled.
A bit later, they spotted one of the newspaper carrier birds, and bought the papers to see if there were any updates on them.
And after flipping through the bounty posters they found their own.
WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE
Calamity Pirates Captain
"The Four Winds" Aden D. Hum
B 145.000.000
(Picture shows Aden in his captain coat, holding his hands together with cold mist flowing around him)
WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE
Calamity Pirates Member
"Killer Jester" Buggy
B 95.000.000
(Buggy is shown kicking out with his leg, shooting a Buggy Bomb at a group of marines, his other parts wildly circling around.)
WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE
Calamity Pirates Navigator
"Kleptomaniac" Nojiko
B 90.000.000
(Her photo is unchanged)
WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE
Calamity Pirates
"Devil Child / Butcher" Nico Robin
B 100.000.000
(A clearly older photo shows her standing in the middle of a street, wearing a doctor coat covered in blood, with corpses of both marines and pirates laying around, a scalpel in each hand. Her face, a mask of cold and calculated bloodlust.
Everyone looked at Robin with a worried look.
She was calmly sipping tea as if the situation didn't involve her at all.
"I got cornered. I had a clinic much like the one you found me at. Marines found me one day, someone told them about me. I killed them all including the little birdie's whole crew." she calmly explained, but got a more and more bloodthirsty look in her eyes.
"Okaaay, ignoring that terriffying image... Quite the price increase." Buggy stated, a single drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"And they seem to have finally figured out we are a crew. Cool name too. Calamity Pirates, has a nice ring to it." Aden spoke calmly. He expected Robin to be a bit...different.., so he was not really shocked, merely a bit surprised at the revelation.
"It's that pompous asshole. He caught us trying to rob him and now he made the marines go after us like dogs after a bone." Nojiko complained loudly, banging her fist on the railing.
"Mine has only increases by a little bit. Shame. " Robin said, calmly reading the newspaper.
"Well what matters is they know us now. By the way, any increase on Luffy's?" Aden asked Buggy, who held the stack of posters.
"Nope. Still the same one." he responded after listing throught the posters.
"Shame. Anyway it's getting late. I'll take first watch. Get some rest. We should reach the next island by tomorrow. I have no idea what to expect, but we should be ready." Aden spoke in his 'captain voice'.
"Aye aye." everyone said and went to relax, or do their own thing. Nojiko handed him the Log Pose, so he could keep them on course, and went to sleep. Aden settled in a chair at the wheel, and grabbed the newspaper seeing as Robin has finished reading it.
Buggy also went to sleep.
Robin chose to stick around for a bit, and started a conversation with Aden.
Over the next hour they talked about their dreams, their hobbies and how they thought the journey would go. Robin told him a bit more about herself, as she felt he could be trusted by now. He opened up about his past, and how he believed himself to be crazy because of the memory glimpses.
That made her ask him more about it, but he had little to add to what he already explained. The glimpses came randomly, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not force one to pop into his mind. She said she understood, and after a bit more talking, she also went to sleep, patting him on the right shoulder as she went past him.
"...that was ...weird... not bad weird, but weird." Aden thought to himself as he watched Robin leave, just because he was confused, no other reason at all.
He settled back into his chair after adjusting the wheel and securing it with a rope.
An hour later, Buggy showed up to take over for him, so he went to sleep.
.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN NICO ROBIN JOINED 'FOUR WINDS'?!!!"
Sengoku shouted into the Snail.
"Nico Robin was seen assisting 'Four Winds' Aden with their escape from Pleatau island. Evidence shows she joined the now named Calamity Pirates." said a much calmer voice from the Snail.
"Gahahaha! The brat is becoming quite the big shot, isn't he? I'm homestly kinda proud!" Garp laughed, sitting on a couch in Sengoku's office, munching on rice crisps.
"Garp, i swear to god..!"
"HAHAHHAHAH!"
.
"LUFFY STOP STEALING FOOD FROM THE FRIDGE?" Sanji shouted, kicking Luffy out of the kitchen. Literally.
"Swowwy." Luffy mumbled with a swolen face.
"Hey look at this! Aden and the others have a new bounty. And a new crewmate." said Nami as she listed through the papers.
"Let me see!" Luffy suddenly appeared and took the wanted posters.
After reading them his eyes began to twinkle.
"Big bro is so cool! I have some catching up to do." he cheered.
"That is quite a bounty." Zoro said after looking over Luffy's shoulder.
The others gave their own responses, but they all boiled down to being happy for Aden on some level.
.
In the morning, just as the sun began to illumimate the sea, painting the waves in a glimmer of silver and gold, the Calamity Pirates woke up to a cheer of joy.
Stumbling to the deck, they found Aden and Robin leaning over a big black flag on the floor. Robin was kneeling right next to it, while Aden stood on her left, a happy grin on his face. A bunch of paints and brushes were scattered around, and Robin had some paint drops on her.
The black flag now had a white skull facing left with Aden's daggers instead of cross-bones.
Behind the skull was an image of a grey tornado.
The skull also had a red compass on its temple, showing four cardinal directions.
(A/N If anyone can draw this that would be awesome. I cant draw for shit.)
"Is that our Jolly Roger?" Buggy exclaimed with clear enthusiasm.
"Absolutely. Me and Robin were thinking and arrived at this design. What do you think?" Aden asked, his happiness clear.
"It's awesome." Buggy admitted with a grin.
"I'll admit, i'm impressed. I like it." said Nojiko with a nod. Robin just smiled, happy her work was appreciated.
"Great. Buggy, put it up!" Aden ordered.
"Aye aye captain!" he responded, grabbing the flag and floating his upper half up to the mast to hoist the colors.
"Finally. Our pirate crew is official now." Aden said, looking up at their new flag with deep emotion in his eyes. The others just stood there for a while, letting the moment sink in.
(And done. Sorry this one is a bit shorter. I had bit of a block, and between still looking for a job and my own personal issues, i quite frankly didnt feel like writing at all. Im sorry. But I tried my best as always. Hope you enjoyed and ill hopefully keep up the one per week thing going. Maybe two if inspiration strikes. Peace.)