Second Guessed

Chapter 4

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Bang Bang Bang.

"There! Wait— Luffy don't just leave a screw sticking out, it won't even do anything in the middle of a plank of wood like that!" I walked over, sighing as I saw the decidedly less structurally sound area of the treehouse-in-construction that the four of us were making. Mine was the cleanest, most professionally looking area, though only because I had a better idea of what a proper building should look like. Sabo's was almost as good as mine, Ace's was passable. Luffy... oh, it was okay. Sabo and Ace made sure he didn't leave any holes, but there were screws and bent nails peeking out of the outside of the wall, and the planks were set down in just about every imaginable direction, even overlapping occasionally. But it was stable, so we could live with it.

The wood and metal mostly came from Grey terminal. It had taken some painful days to scavenge it all, but we had gotten it done. I say we, but it was mostly the boys. I was busy practicing with my axe most of the time, trying to get the hang of the weapon. Practicing with staff and hatchets was all good in theory, but the actual weapon itself was still alien in my hands. It was slow going, but I was gradually learning how best to heave it's tremendous weight (the blade was huge, meant for an adult-sized axe for sure, so I wouldn't have to replace it later. It also meant that practicing with it could double as my weight training for the day!) and how to position it for the best damage.

And it had come in handy when we decided to make a treehouse and move out of Dadan's, too. I was just barely able to convince the boys to wait to move out until the house was finished, but it was a close call. While the boys were scavenging for materials in the dump, I was using my new weapon to cut down an old tree. It was large, as thick as the bandit's whole hideout and as all as the wall that wrapped around Goa. It had taken an entire week for me to chop through it, only "resting" for my daily hundred spars with the boys, mealtimes, and restroom breaks. But chop through it I did, and received massive satisfaction at the sound it made when it fell.

My whole body was stronger from it, and I had gained a whole new familiarity with my axe. I could feel it's length in my mind's eye, my aim with it was now far more accurate since I had a new knowledge of just how far it could reach and how it would hit when I swung it.

I could feel myself getting stronger, I could feel myself getting closer to the powerhouse I would have to become to make a name for myself in this massive world.

"Maven! You're already done?!" Sabo exclaimed, pulling me out of my thoughts. I blinked at him, then looked at the small addition I had built on a thick branch just to the left of the main treehouse, and nodded. This small building was entirely made of wood from the tree I was chopped down, making it look newer than the rest of the house.

"Yeah. I'll make a hallway leading to the main building right now," I told him simply, pulling up one of the planks I had cut from the tree. This one was larger, the size of an entire wall. I had cut the tree into large planks like that to limit the amount of hammering I had to do. I positioned the plank over the branch, and began hammering it into place.

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The treehouse was marvelous, much better than the little rinky-dink thing that had been in the manga. The main building was still the round, hobbled-together structure I remembered, but there was a pretty hallway stretching to my equally pretty building, set aside for me to use when I hit puberty. I just told the boys that I'd be a lot bigger as a teenager and would need my own space, which they bought. I pitied whoever would have to give the three innocent minds the sex/puberty talk, and I would make sure that that person was not me.