Summary: The Discovery gains a new ability, and the crew a new potential crewmate...

  Warning! Chapters 48-52 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

  Chapter 49: Unexpected Additions

  Luffy stared at the status window in front of him, almost disbelieving at their good fortune. Almost. He had to admit that pride was the other thing he was feeling as he stared at the Discovery's new Milestone ability.

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  The Discovery

  Grade: Epic (Current)

  Hull Material: Lunarian Steel/Ducol Steel Composite

  Spiritual Development: 9743/15000

  Dimensions:

  Length: 165ft

  Beam: 57 ft

  Draft: 10.5 ft

  Armament:

  2 – 4 Inch Navl Guns (Turreted)(Hidden)

  4 – Swivel Mounted Deck Guns (Breech Design)

  Abilities: Greatly Improved Stability, Greatly Improved Speed, Extreme Durability, Self-Repair, Assimition, Growth Item

  Description: Crafted with loving care and great skill by Monkey D. Luffy, and named after a famous ship that, paradoxically, no one but he has ever heard of. This ship has the potential to reach the ends of every sea.

  1) Milestone: The care its crew has shown for The Discovery has imbued the ship with a little bit of their own Spirits. As a Growth Item, this has caused it to develop the Self-Repair Function. So long as the raw materials are present in its hold, the ship will slowly heal itself from any damage. This can be sped along by a crewmember donating Spiritual Energy.

  2) Milestone: The care its crew has shown for The Discovery has imbued the ship with a little bit of their own Spirits. As a Growth Item, this has caused it to develop the Assimition function. Just as its crew had adapted and overcome, focusing ever and always on improving themselves, so the Discovery has gained the ability to do the same from soaking in their spirtual energy. Provided suitable materials and guidance, the ship can now Grow. Be that growth a matter of physical size, or the inclusion of new materials. Be careful what you feed it, as it will take on traits of what it consumes.

  3) ?

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  Luffy had felt the change in the ship, as had Kaya, Kuina and Zoro actually. Even the others had, once Kaya voiced her confusion at the change, realized something felt different about the ship. Kuina had commented that it felt distinctly like it was gaining its own spirit, like her own Wado Ichimonji. Something that had caused Hina to perk up and mention the existence of Kbautermann. Interestingly, despite being half-distracted by quietly checking the Status window of the ship, Luffy had noted that Hina treated them like a fact, instead of a fiction.

  He supposed, given that she was a solid decade older than everyone but Robin, and had spent much of her career sailing the Grand Line for good measure, it made sense that she'd be more knowledgeable about mysterious ship spirits. Idly, even as his mind raced with the implications of what he'd read on the Status window, he listened into the expnation she was giving to the curious. She'd already covered the basics, that Kbautermann were water spirits that inhabited ship hulls, and now almost everything she was saying was new to him too.

  "Kbautermann are virtually unheard of on Marine vessels, as they develop only on ships that are loved and cared for, but the phenomenon has occurred enough times on pirate and exploration ships that at least a little is known about them. Hina was always fascinated by the idea and kept the same ship for years, hoping hers would be one of the rare few to fully manifest."

  There was a brief note of pain as Hina paused, blowing out a puff of cigarette smoke. No one spoke, understanding at least a little that losing that ship at Drum truly had hurt for Hina.

  "Most Kbautermann don't fully manifest, but the ship's crew start getting feelings of warning when the ship is in danger. Most annoying with pirate ships, as several have evaded capture when their crews would have otherwise been surprised. More rarely still, some can grow strong enough to actually sail their ships on their own. This is suspected to be the source of many myths about ships like the Flying Dutchman. That such 'ghost' ships were ships with a strong enough Kbautermann to continue sailing even after losing their crew. Such strong manifestations can even repair their ship, somewhat, sometimes."

  Luffy finally chose to interject at that comment. It was a good segue to expin something he hadn't been able to before.

  "Actually, it had already reached that point at Drum. When I went to repair the damages caused by Wapol and Mr. 3, the ship simply absorbed the materials I was going to use. We haven't taken more than incidental damages since then, so I hadn't been able to show anyone. I somehow knew that the ship's spirit was responsible, though."

  Nami, surprisingly, was the one that spoke next, before Luffy could expin the new ability.

  "Wait! There were a couple of times, during the storms we've sailed through, that I could have sworn someone whispered about currents I couldn't possibly have seen in my ear. Never about the weather, that was all me, but about the waters we were passing through…"

  A few of the crew were looking a bit disturbed by this point, though others were looking properly fascinated. Usopp, one of the ones that looked a bit disturbed, was the one to speak next.

  "U-um…if the ghost-spirit-thing is already that strong…why does it feel different this morning, then? I mean it doesn't feel bad, so I'm not w-worried or anything! Just…why, though?"

  Hina shrugged ignorance, as did everyone else. Thankfully, it was the perfect opening for Luffy's expnation.

  "I think I know, actually. But we'll need some of those giant jet dials off the Ark Maxim to prove it."

  Nami perked up, though she looked a bit confused.

  "You know what you want to do with them? I still wish we had enough crew to just add that ship to our fleet. Having a flying ship could be fantastic!"

  Luffy smirked and stood, gesturing everyone to follow him. Nami might just get her wish yet. Probably not now, he would need a lot of time and some extra expertise in Dials to safely modify the Discovery in full. But in the future, if some of the wilder ideas running through his head worked out? The Discovery might just become a monster even beyond his own original dreams for her…

  ... ...

  They had already moved the Ark Maxim down to 'ground' level to more fully investigate it. As such, it wasn't all that far from where they had 'anchored' the Discovery on one of the more permanent Milky Roads of Upper Yard. Calling it anchoring, when they'd really just tied it to a set of trees at four points, seemed a bit off. But it couldn't really be called properly docking the ship, either. Parking might have been the most accurate, but they'd all agreed that would have been just wrong as a term referring to a ship of any kind.

  Regardless of nomencture, the important point of the moment was that it didn't take them long to retrieve a few of the Jet Dials from the Maxim and return to the Discovery, the crew curious just want their captain was going to show them. Carefully calcuting the best pce to put them as a form of propulsion, Luffy took two of the Dials and…tried to figure out how to activate the assimition ability.

  Thankfully, it turned out to be fairly intuitive once he extended his spiritual energy toward the ship. With a brief fsh of light and a somewhat disturbing 'nom nom' noise, the Jet Dials vanished…and reappeared as part of the ship, almost exactly where he'd pnned for them to be. Interestingly, they now appeared to be made up of a Lunar Steel alloy, rather than the shell of the natural Dial, but when he tentatively reached out to command them to activate, they still worked. He let them blow air powerfully for a few moments, before turning them off and turning with a grin toward his crew. His crew who were staring at the ship in various degrees of shock. Hina had outright dropped her cigarette, joining Usopp at one extreme, while the ever-unfppable Robin was restraining herself to wide eyes.

  "I believe I'll call the ability Assimite. The Discovery can now take on the properties of something it absorbs as material. This means it can, over time, do everything from physically expand in size, to…well, gaining new abilities by absorbing the Dials. Though we'll still need to guide her in how we want her to use them."

  There were several moments of silence as everyone incredulously absorbed what he'd just told them. Then Usopp proceeded to blow Luffy's mind with a possibility he hadn't considered yet.

  "Does that mean you can feed the Discovery a Devil Fruit? Like, say, the Goro Goro no Mii? Not having to power the ship yourself would let us use the engines more completely and easily. And I can see several ways to improve her weapons if she has endless electricity to draw on."

  Luffy gaped. The rest of the crew shifted to look at Usopp in equal surprise. Then Nojiko pointed out the potential problem.

  "Um…wouldn't it gain a weakness to, you know, water? That seems a bad idea for a ship."

  There were a few nods and a few shrugs. Even Luffy wasn't sure what the answer there would be. But Kaya seemed to have an idea, stepping forward to touch the Discovery's Hull. Luffy could sense it, vaguely, as she sort of communed with the ship. Kuina looked startled, apparently able to feel the connection herself. Everyone else just stared in confusion when his first mate roughly silenced them and waited. Whatever she was doing took several minutes, but Kaya eventually stepped back.

  "Discovery isn't quite fully aware yet, but it understands enough of its own nature that I was able to get a partial response to that. The Ship and the Water Spirit aren't quite the same thing. One just resides in the other. From what I could gather, it should be possible for us to guide the Discovery in assimiting something like a Devil Fruit only into part of its structure. Such as, in Usopp's example, the turbines that power the ship's engines. Those reside inside the ship, so there would be no issue with them coming into contact with water. Not unless there is battle damage. Even then, I doubt it would do anything but make the engines stop working."

  There was a pause as they all took that in, with Nojiko finally breaking the confused silence.

  "I…guess we know what to do with extra Devil Fruits now?"

  Luffy and Kaya both shook their heads as one, firmly, but it was Kaya that spoke again. Even if what she said was something that Luffy intuitively guessed.

  "No. Not entirely, at least. It can probably handle more than one, unlike a human. But there is a limit before the spiritual 'weight' of the Fruits it too great, for ck of a better way of putting it."

  Only Kuina, Zoro, Hina, and Robin looked like they really understood, but the others just shrugged. In this bizarre situation, they weren't going to naysay the only person who seemed to understand. Usopp did speak up a moment ter, though.

  "I think feeding it the Goro Goro no Mi would be a good idea, though. While I'm still a little tempted by it, I can hardly imagine a better Fruit for the ship. We could do a lot with it as a powerpnt, maybe even eventually figure out how to make the ship fly like the Maxim is made too."

  That was a good point. A really good point. Though Luffy did have to put a slight dampener on it.

  "Eventually, maybe. We might need another Fruit to make that possible, though. The Discovery is a dramatically different configuration and, tough as she is, I didn't design her structure to take the right kinds of strain to fly. Given the ability to absorb and grow, I might be able to alter her over time to achieve that. Or we might find a Devil Fruit that works in combination to make it possible. Something that could reduce the strain of the effort like the Kilo Kilo no Mi. Though, of course, that one specifically is out. I wouldn't want to deprive King Cobra of his favorite new Maid and Chocotier, after all."

  Luffy's wry remark at the end, commenting on the former Miss Valintine's odd fate, got more than one chuckle or snort. Others, though, were still too stunned by even the possibility that their ship might someday be able to fly. Luffy cpped his hands to gather all of their attention, using his sound powers to make the cp extra sharp, snapping the more stunned individuals out of it.

  "Well, I think Usopp's idea has merit. But we don't have to do it right this instant. We can think it through and talk it over. I also think this makes it more important than ever that we find a Dial Engineer we trust, though. I'd love to rework the Discovery to include Dial Tech throughout the ship…"

  There were firm nods at that, and Vivi spoke up.

  "Actually, regarding that, I think we already know one. Pagaya has expressed interest in seeing the Blue Sea. I think, in truth, he's as much wanting to be away from Skypiea as anything. Apparently, he and his fellow engineers were forced to work for Enel on things like the Maxim a lot. He's one of the very few survivors of that and was constantly being watched because of it."

  Luffy winced. The older man's constant need to apologize took on a bit of a nastier implication with that knowledge. Still, it was something to consider. The man actually moved like he'd had a bit of combat training in the past. Not enough for Luffy to have been wary of him, but enough that they could probably teach him some basic self-defense. Still, there was also his daughter to consider. Nodding Vivi's way, Luffy responded to the information.

  "I'll need to talk to him, I think. But I certainly wouldn't mind consulting with him on Dial pcement, at least. Doubly so if he worked on the Maxim. Thanks, Vivi."

  She smiled at him and, slowly, the group began to break up as they each did their best to absorb all the new information…

  ... ...

  "So, I hear you're interested in traveling with us to the Blue Sea."

  Luffy, having entered the room near-silently, was interested to note that Pagaya had still tensed ever-so-slightly when he did so. That tension had ratcheted up for a moment when Luffy spoke, then shifted into something of a slump as the older man registered the words. The engineer had been working on a Dial, using a jeweler's loop to do something with it, and he remained silent for long moments as he drew back from it and carefully put away his tools. Luffy let him have his silence, noting with curiosity that his empathy was having a tough time reading the man, but that he seemed to be bracing himself for something.

  "As I understand it, your crew is one of dreamers. Dreamers with wildly different dreams. Some of which would seem more to be general purposes rather than dreams, at least to my mind. So tell me, Captain, does dreaming of redemption qualify a man for your crew?"

  Completely unprepared for the question, or the seriousness of the voice used to deliver it, Luffy forced his racing mind to quiet. To ignore supposition about the 'why,' and instead merely focus on an actual answer. He was silent for several long moments as he thought it through and spoke just as seriously as the other man had when he finally responded.

  "In a way, I suppose it would. But a lot would depend on just what someone intended to do while seeking that redemption. Only a fool brings a suicidal man aboard his ship."

  Pagaya chuckled at that, tone thankfully a bit lighter as he responded a moment ter. His voice was tired, but no longer quite so serious.

  "No, Captain. I could never seek my own death like that. Indeed, the very reason I feel the need for redemption is because I was too much of a coward to take that way out. No, I would rather do something constructive to rid myself of the stain I feel on my soul. I have spoken with most of your crew, and many of them seem to hold the very idea of 'fixing problems' as the heart of their dreams. Even if the problems are often different. Were it not so, were you only after power or money, I would not find a pce with you, I think. It would only make what I have done worse."

  Luffy nodded. Even if he has some vague ideas, though, he needed an answer regarding what this was all about.

  "Is this stain on your soul about your work for Enel?"

  Pagaya tensed again, but then sighed and slumped, nodding and speaking quickly, seeming to want to get it out before he chickened out.

  "I heard from one of your crew that you found the Ark Maxim. Did you figure out what it was for? Not just the flying, but the weapons systems aboard?"

  Luffy hadn't actually considered them. But he had a cheat here in that he 'remembered' what Enel had intended to do to Skypiea.

  "The ship was meant to magnify his powers, to be used destructively I assume. You helped him?"

  Pagaya nodded, not able to look at Luffy as he expined.

  "You might not know this, but Enel wasn't from Skypiea. He was from the isnd of Birka…which he destroyed when he left it, bringing only his priests with him. Skypiea is much rger, and Upper Yard in particur would have been far more difficult to bring down. The Ark Maxim was designed to amplify his powers so that he could do so anyway…"

  Luffy could see where this was going.

  "He needed engineers to help him. You did so, despite having a good idea what he pnned. Because of Conis?"

  Pagaya finally met Luffy's eyes, his own wet with suppressed tears. He nodded, then struggled for a moment to speak. Luffy gave him the time he needed. Whatever had muddled his empathy was gone now, repced by raw emotion that Luffy could tell Pagaya needed to get out somehow.

  "I-I…I did not master the Waver for fun, Captain. I intended to use one to get myself and Conis out before the Ark Maxim could be used. To protect my daughter, I would have doomed the entire isnd. No one knows but me…but I cannot look at my neighbors. Nor even at my incredibly kind daughter. Not without seeing what I would have done, had you and your crew not appeared like a miracle sent from an actual God. If such a being exists."

  Luffy sighed. He understood. Enel would undoubtably have killed Conis right alongside her father if he'd refused. Pagaya had been forced to choose between his daughter and his people. An impossible choice. If he'd actually have gone through with escaping and leaving all the other Skypieans to their fates with no warning or not didn't really matter. The older man believed he would have and was haunted by that belief.

  "Captain. Much like a few of your crew, I would like to spend my life doing good. Conis will be fine here. She's a grown woman now and doesn't need me any longer. Negotiations, with your Princess Vivi acting as a mediator, are going well. My daughter is safe. But I…even if nothing came of it, I have done something I cannot easily forgive myself for. I hope to earn that forgiveness, from and for myself, not anyone else, by helping others in dire straits. Something which your crew seems inordinately good at for a group of supposed outws."

  There was a lilt of humor that returned to his Pagaya's voice with that st comment, causing Luffy to snort despite the seriousness of the conversation. Lips quirking into a smile, he acknowledged he was probably taking this man along with them. Still, he should at least have to sell himself.

  "Alright. Then what do you have to offer my crew? And you know it won't be a safe journey, yes?"

  Pagaya seemed to sense the proverbial winds shifting to his cause, as he smiled and regained some of his energy.

  "I understand, Captain! And I'm not entirely untrained. I did a stint with the White Berets when I was younger, learning Sky Combat! I also asked a lot of questions of Enel and his priests about Mantra. I coached it in terms of trying to figure out ways to help them enhance it, of course. But in reality I was trying to learn it myself! I'm not very good at it, I can't seem to stabilize it and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong! But I can use a little bit of it, at least. And, of course, you already know I'm an exceptional Dial engineer!"

  Luffy nodded along, before asking a few probing questions. He'd already decided to offer the man a spot, but better he get a full idea of what the man could do. If for no other reason than it would expin away how he knew any information he might get from the man's status menu ter…

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  A/N 1: Pagaya! So...why Pagaya? Wellllll, the truth is...he's literally the only Dial engineer we know about. I was tempted to cim Conis as one and have her join instead...but that ran into another issue. Specifically, the crew is female heavy. Five men and seven women prior to him joining. This is the natural result of, frankly, the non-crew female characters in One Piece being more interesting. Most of the males we see that have any real development are either already on a crew or with the Marines. Thus, I decided to make some minor tweaks to Pagaya to make him a believable addition. This actually wasn't that hard, as he shows quite a bit of legitimate courage during the Skypiea Arc. Added to his profession, I only needed to make some minor alterations to his past and motivations that fit pretty well into the world, I think.