Phase 1 & 2
I smiled a little. 'I don't really remember what happened directly after Roger's death, but I think there was some interaction between Buggy and Shanks, so let's see what he wanted to ask.'
"So, what do you want to ask? It must be important thanks to you following my hand here."
He smiled and said "It is a little serious, but I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me! Come with me and join my crew!" And he reached his hand out in front of him, as if I was going to take it.
'Should I go with him? It might be interesting to see what he gets up to. But doesn't he just go around like how Luffy did and find his crew that way? I mean, he becomes strong that way, and I don't see an issue with it. But I still have The One to make.' I had my arms crossed, and smirked a little. "I could, but you know I wouldn't. You were the first one to hear my new goal, a 'will' in a way. You know I can't just join someone else to do what I want to, it'd be impossible for me to do it."
Shanks didn't change facial expression, and just put his hand on top of the straw hat. "I guessed you wouldn't have said yes. And he turned around to start walking away.
"Well, Shanks, we are still rivals, don't forget that."
He turned his face to the side with his hand on his hat still. "We are." And while walking away he yelled only to me "Keep that promise to Captain too! He might strike you down with lightning if you don't!"
My smirk immediately disappeared as I heard Shanks chuckle a little before he disappeared.
An irk mark appeared on my forehead. 'Okay, did Roger really tell him my secret too? I can't believe there are still two people in the world who know that I'm not even the original Buggy! I would curse you Roger, but I bet you would actually hit me with lightning if I did! Even if it was clear skies!' I stomped on the ground a little before walking back into the Hideout.
And when I walked in, I heard Taki ask "Bugs, what did you do to make your hand move on its own? Even off of your body? And who was that? Why did you cry so much at that person's death? What made him so important?"
'Ooooh crap. I forgot to tell Taki. No time like the present.' I felt like a statue and turned towards Taki, who was sitting on one of the blanket chairs. "Sorry about that, the first.. few questions I can answer quickly. So, just like you, I ate a devil fruit as well. But the difference is, while you can make tiny moons and control them, my ability only allows me to split my body apart into multiple pieces. Which means I can split my hand apart from my body..." And I split my hand off my body as a demonstration "... and still use my hand. I can basically get cut by a sword and survive without any pain." And under my breath, I said "Unless Haki is used."
I noticed Taki's ear twitch a little at that last thing before she asked "What was the last thing you said? I didn't hear."
'Caught red handed. Frick. Gotta change the subject real quick.'
"Nothing. Anyways..." I sweat dropped "...that was Shanks. Shanks and I were apprentices on the ship of the man who just was killed."
Those words seemed to be enough to have her not ask about what I said under my breath. 'I can teach her Haki later, it would probably be pretty beneficial, especially with those moons.'
"Oh, I uh, didn't realize that he was that important to you, I also didn't know about you being a pirate before, so, I'm sorry."
I waved it off. "No, no, it's fine. While he is important to me, he will live on in the minds of everyone, no matter how much people will try to forget. I had a promise, and I'm going to keep that promise, especially since he is now dead." I realized a tear was in my eye, and just wiped it away. 'Man, my emotions are a little all over the place. But I have to focus on actually working on my goal now.'
I was still standing and decided to sit down in the other blanket seat, took off my cloak and tossed it to the side, and then layed down sprawled out on the surface of the blankets.
I noticed Taki was being docile at the moment, and decided to talk again. "He was important for reasons other than that promise. Because he is the one who started a whole new era, and in a couple days, I bet we'll start to see more pirates appearing, especially on this island. And when that happens, I can start on Phase 2 of my plan."
Taki tilted her head, with a question mark popping out over her head. "What? Your.. plan? Phase.. 2? What about Phase 1?"
'All somewhat expected questions.' I put my hands behind my head, still partially laying down. "Well, Taki, I'll start with my plan and work my way to the phases. My plan is to create The One, a treasure even greater than the One Piece, the treasure my captain had hidden somewhere in the world. I have several things the world has never seen before planned to be made specifically for The One, so don't expect it to just be treasure itself. It will be secrets hidden from the world, and even people, eventually."
I saw more question marks appear above her head, but continued talking before she could say anything. "Phase 1 is simply to get stronger. With help from one of the crew mates on my Captain's ship, I had some basic combat training, and learned two special abilities that I will tell you more about later. I do hope you'll be with me on my journey that long though." I smirked a little, and looked at Taki who wasn't questioning as much anymore. And then she realized what I just said, and with some vigour, she said "If it takes you long enough to get me to my homeland, then you can train me then!"
"Okay then. When the time comes, you shall learn about it. Next, Phase 2. This phase requires a bunch of pirates with bounties. I will basically become a bounty hunter to gain more money. Now, I did just tell you I was an apprentice on a pirate ship, and I will be a pirate again, but I have this bounty hunting.. errand to run." Taki was about to ask something else again, but I cut her off a second time "Why? Because the money we have, or had, was a lot, but not 'a lot' enough to jumpstart a pirate career. We should probably get around 200 million berri's. It might take a while, so going to the other seas might be good to get even more money quicker." Taki was shocked at that number. "As I said before, a couple years. Maybe.. two or three. Anyways, Phase 3 is not needed yet, as we haven't even started Phase 2. One thing, Phase 1 will be a continuous thing, and training will take a while."
And with that, Taki was still a little shocked, the shock disappeared as she processed everything I just told her. I even had time to go count the money we had currently, especially after the expensive thing of going and getting food at a restaurant.
The pile of briefcases just held straight money, and we normally spent around 525,000 berri whenever we ate out, and we ate out several times, and add in the expensive clothes, I really just counted an approximate number of 20-ish million berri in cash.
And then Taki yelled out "YOU WERE A PIRATE BEFORE?", Which made me, who was sitting on the ground counting cash, jump a little.
I turned and said "Yeees? I thought you got that from me being an apprentice to the guy who just died for being a pirate."
Taki then jumped out of the seat and backed away a little, saying "I heard from people that pirates were bad, people who stole from and killed innocent people, and burned and looted, and plundered!"
Those hurt me a little. "Okay, the assumptions weren't needed. My captain only fought and plundered other pirates, he may have killed some PIRATES before, but it was just pirates he did that to, never civilians. Don't lump him in with misconceptions about that please. Besides, the pirates he did kill, were the ones you just described, being scum of the earth and deserving of death. There are some pirates who are pirates for other reasons, so I want you to watch how pirates are, basically learn about the different types. It may help you some day. Also, those preconceptions ruin my Captain's reputation of being the Pirate King, the man with the most freedom."