Formation of the Spade Pirates
Washed up on the shores of a deserted island at the edge of the East Blue Sea, two men from different backgrounds unite in their shared thirst for adventure.
One of them, Portgaz D. Ace, will follow in his infamous fa...
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This man was our crewmate and wouldn't you guess it, he went by the name of Skull.
"I like your style. You got nothin' but style," he said to the bounty hunter pointing the gun in question. The hunter seemed a bit confused by this kind of attention. "The problem is, this gun went outta production real quick. You wanna know why?" Skull grabbed the gun. "Because when you do this, it jams."
"Huh? What the...?"
The trigger of the gun clicked to no effect, other than the bounty hunter's sudden panic. It wasn't shooting.
"And that's why I gotta compliment you on your style, man." The bounty hunter's face went pale, just before Skull's fist connected with it. "Heh heh. This really is a rare piece. Gonna hang it up in my cabin," Skull raved, gazing greedily at the gun left in his hand.
Like Mihal, he wasn't your typical sailor. Skull considered himself a collector, and his category of choice was pirate goods. He collected items with skulls-in other words, he wasn't even a pirate himself.
He just loved pirates so much that he would sneak onto any manner of pirate ship, then work as a swabbie until they reached the next port and let him off. Only someone more than a little crazy would lead a life like that.
Many pirates took one look at Skull and appraised him as nothing more than an eccentric, good for little more than deckhand work, but Ace saw him differently. Ace relied on his vast experience as someone who'd sailed around the world on many different ships. Skull was valuable as a source of information about the seas.
After meeting Ace, he'd gone from being Skull the collector to Skull the info agent.
For his part, Skull was deeply grateful to Ace for seeing such potential in him, and joined the Spade Pirates vowing to become the world's greatest dealer of information. According to him, however, he was only an info dealer, still not a pirate.
"Your collecting methods really freak me out," I said to Skull, who was rapturously examining his new loot. "Don't forget, we're still in battle."
"Hey, Master Deu!" Skull said, looking up.
I couldn't actually see his face, because it was hidden behind a skull mask.
As an agent of information, he considered his own features to be part of an inventory of valuable details he could sell. I could relate to that. We had arrived at essentially the same place through different logical paths.
Incidentally, though he considered his face to be premium information that came at a price no one had ever paid him for chose goods. Given that he was happy to boast about his looks when newcomers joined the crew, I had the feeling chat he actually wanted to take the mask off, but had waited too long, and now it would only be awkward.
Skull, Mihal, and I were considered the brain trust of the Spade Pirates. We were the intellectuals. The crew tended to attract combat types, as personified by Ace. So because of our roles among the crew, I ended up talking to the other two more than anyone else.
