Chapter 4: Koby Judges Others.....Arrival At Shells Town!!
"So what your saying is that you have two personalities?" Koby asked for the tenth time in the whole four hours they had been travelling.
Jade had listened to Koby explain what had happened and was caught up on all the details about what Jode had been up and what he had been doing. It was safe to say that Jode was once again fucking up his life for the worse.
"Yes, I have another personality named Jode," Jade explained patiently. "I'm actually not from this world but was reincarnated into this body. I've obtained all the memories of someone named Monkey D. Luffy."
While Jade had been unconscious, he had received years worth of memories, memories of a lid named Luffy, a full 17 years worth kf memories to be more accurate. He could recall everything about this person at will and knew everything about this world, or at least everything that Luffy had known. As for the reoncarnation bit, he was merely making a guess and wasn't too serious about it.
"It just seems so ridiculous though," Koby said as he continued to row. The boat did have sails but it was blowing in the opposite direction from where they wanted to go, leaving them no choice but to row. "Coming from another world, being reincarnated as someone else. Though the split personalities I do believe in."
Koby had witnessed for himself the miraculous transformation of the "Jode" into "Jade". His cold eyes disappeared and the bloodlust he always seemed to have vanished, being replaced by a surprisingly warm aura that Koby could actually feel. It was so easy to see the difference that it wasn't hard to accept the existence of two extremely different personalities in a single body.
"Well in my opinion, the ridiculous part is where the only way to reverse from Jode to me is with saltwater." Jade said as he lay back, fiddling with the straw hat on his head. He hadn't really found this hat stylish but he kept it because of the powerful emotions Luffy had had for it.
"That is pretty stupid, though its a relief because the seawater managed to bring you back to your senses." Koby said, more then a bit happy to have the kind Jade in place of the terrifying Jode.
"Where are we going anyways?" Jade asked as he gazed off into the distance. "You seem pretty sure about the direction, but you never really told me where we're going."
"We're heading to a place called Shells Town," Koby explained as he stopped rowing. He moved from the seat and Jade took his place. "From there we'll head to the 153rd Marine Branch where I can sign up to be a member of the Marines."
He spoke proudly and raised his small chest into the air, clearly pleased with himself. "After that, if you want you can join me...we can try out for the marines together!!"
Jade shook his head, a sad smile on his face. "Unfortunately for you there are a nunbe rof things wrong with that. The first being that Jode is uncontrollable, unwilling to listen to anybody no matter who it is. Secondly, the memories I have and the convictions held in them wouldn't allow me to do such a thing.".
"Okay, I get the Jode part but what do you mean the convictions?" Koby asked, feeling a bit offended at Jades rejection. "You mean the memories of Luffy?"
"The one named Luffy had a goal for himself that he worked towards," Jade began, smiling a little. "He wanted to be the King of the Pirates, he trained himself for years, in hopes of reaching this very goal, putting himself through hell. It'd be like spitting on his very name if I were to join the Marines."
"So your telling me that you wont join the Marines based on some guy you don't even...." Koby began, but was stopped midway when Jade suddenly shouted that he saw land.
Koby was cut off but didn't complain as he also spotted the small blip of land on the horizon, the blip belonging to their destination, Shells Town. "We made it, its time to finally to reach land."
"So...do you have any money? Because I'm starving!!" Jade said as he put more effort into rowing the small boat. He wanted to reach land quickly in order to get some food, preferably meat.
"Well no, but there is something that I'm curious about and that is Roronoa Zoro, the bounty hunter," Koby said, he eyes filled a tinge of awe and a bit of fear.
"Is that a type of food? Because it makes no sense that we switch from food to a bounty hunter." Jade said as he continued his rowing. "However if we must talk about him, then tell me what you know about him."
"I only know a couple of things about him, and most of its based off of rumors." Koby said as the island got steadily closer. They were still about a half hour away from the island so it was okay to kick back and relax for the time being.
"Then don't bother," Jade replied with a frown. "I'm not big on any kind of rumor about others. I like facts, facts that I can use to tell if a person is decent or not. Even if one were called a pirate, there are many people who are pirates that are kind."
"Pirates that are kind? Thats insane," Koby said as he leaned back against side of the boat. "Thats like saying that The Bounty Hunter Zoro is a kind hearted soul thats misunderstood."
"Are you saying that he couldn't be?" Jade asked a full minute of silence, his arms continuing to row. "It's highly possible that he may be a good guy, you've never met him personally so you can't judge him."
"Your right but still...he kil...I mean murdered a ton of people with high bounties." Koby explained as he gkanced over at the island. It was approximately 5 minutes away, which was surprising because it meant that quite some time had passed.
"Well, a guys gotta eat," Jade replied, glancing over his shoulder. Once he saw how close they were, his face broke out into a smile and his arms moved lightning fast, rowing with all his might.
"Why are you so adamant about refusing to accept the truth?" Koby said as their speed increased, shortening the distance between them and the island at a rapid pace. "He's an evil guy bent on carnage, dicing up his victims with no remorse. The only good news is that I heard he's locked away in the Marine Base somewhere."
"Well in that case, we should go looking for him," Jade said, half joking. "We can then prove once and for all who was right and who was wrong."
Koby was about to complain about this when the boat hit the side of the islands dock, signaling that they made it to their destination. Jade dropped the oars and jumped out of the boat, more then happy to be back on solid ground while giving Koby no time to say anything.
"Well, lets go and find a place to eat," Jade said, beginning his walk down a concrete path that lead into the city. "If we can't pay then we'll just offer to wash dishes or clean up for it."
"That's a bit optimistic don't you think?" Koby asked as he ran to catch up after tying up the small boat. "I dount anyone would be that kind after just meeting you."
"Remember that earlier conversation about NOT judging people?" Jade asked as he slowed down his stride, allowing Koby with his short legs to catch up. "I dont think a ten year old kid should be hating on people based on his own bias."
"I'm not ten years old..... Im 16," Koby exclaimed, clearly a bit offended. "Im just vertically challenged...but I am sixteen!!"
"Haha, no your not." Jade said as they passed by a couple of houses. "I also noticed that you got rather offended by that remark. Didn't feel too good for me to assume things about you now did it??"
"I see your point...Il stop judging people," Koby said with a defeated face. "I meant no harm, it was just rumors.."
After walking for roughly a mile in, they entered something that was akin to a market place. Various buildings advertising products as well as food vendors were scattered around on both sides of the large street. The prices ranged from 1 Beli to 10,000 Beli in the currency of this world.
Fishing around in the pocket of his blue pants, Jade felt his fingers brush against a couple of metal coins and excitement rushed through him. He immediately grabbed one of them and pulled it out, observing it in his hand. It was gold with a symbol of some kind he dodnt recognize, definitely not money that he had ever carried with him.
"Oh, you have money?" Koby asked as he peeked around Jade's body to get a good look at his hand. "Well that willl make things much easoer for us. Just have to be careful about what we spend it on."
"What are you talking about?" Jade asked as he handed the coin to a vendor and took an apple. "Be careful about what? Oh, the coin? My bad." He took a bite into the red apple, a crisp crunch coming from it.
"Oh I almost forgot to ask," Jade said, swallowing the piece of apple and turning to face the vendor. "Do you know where we can find the guy named Zoro?"
The area surrounding them, or at least everyone who had heard what he asked went quiet in mere seconds after Jade had uttered the name, most even backing away from him. Jade however didn't seem to bothered by it as he took another bite of his apple, the crunch even louder this time as it had gotten so quiet.
"Hey, Jade," Koby said, pushing gently against his friends back. "I think its time for is to continue on walking forward. And try not to utter that name again when around other people."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone