Crumbling Worlds (A Charlotte Cracker x OC story)

Chapter 4: Decisions- Part 2

Convincing her parents of her decision was not necessarily an easy task. Especially her father was rather conflicted when Michelle suggested they should sail to Tottoland and that she now considered it as an option to settle down. Although he had calmed down his anger from the previous encounter with the pirates and was a lot calmer by the time his daughter approached him, he was still anything but thrilled at the idea of following after them and entering their country.

...But with that being said, Michelle wouldn't be her father's daughter if she didn't know how to properly negotiate. And after a long conversation of backs and forths, she managed to persuade her parents into letting her have this opportunity.

And thus Matthias begrudgingly changed the ship's course and the family sailed for Tottoland. Luckily it only took a few days for them to already arrive at the outer parts of the Yonko's territory, which was still more than enough time for Michelle to search through the ship's library and look for any sort of information they might have on the strange country so she could prepare herself. And, admittedly, what she found was not much, but at least enough to give her a rough idea about what to expect.

However, both Pekoms and the flyer he handed them failed to mention one little detail though- if you wanted to participate in the moving system and independently check out all the different islands, you needed to sign a contract to promise that you would actually move to Tottoland once your journey through the country was over.

It was the first thing a Chess Soldier told the family when their ship tried to pass the border between Tottoland and the rest of the New World. According to him, the 'contract'  primarily existed to keep regular tourists from leeching off all the special offers, but Matthias quickly retorted that it sounded more like a plan to lure in people and force them to stay dead on arrival. At that point the merchant was already prepared to turn the ship around and leave again, when his daughter made the probably brashest decision of her life- she would sign the contract and agree to move to Tottoland. That decision alone almost caused another fight with her father to break out, but thankfully the Chess Soldier from the Border Patrol offered a more detailed explanation on all the good opportunities this choice would bring to her, and Michelle did her best to agree and calm down her irritated father. She could take all the time she needed to sail through the country and then decide on the perfect place to move, plus her family and ship were also allowed to accompany her as both means of transportation and to possibly help her decide.

With no other option but to accept their daughter's brash decision, both Marina and Matthias slowly started to come to terms with the fact that there wasn't really much they could do to change her mind. It was her choice to make, and although it was extremely rushed, the contract was already signed. So even if Michelle came to regret it, this decision was now fully set in stone. There was no going back for her.

And from there on out the merchants did their best to loosen their pessimistic attitude and choose to assist Michelle with her search for a perfect home instead of making her feel doubtful. And in the end they actually came to enjoy their time in Tottoland, despite the rough first encounter with the Big Mom Pirates.

Besides, if this was really what their daughter wanted, who were they to deny it?

~Present~

And now, weeks after she made her fateful decision of moving to Tottoland, Michelle and her family were finally at the end of their journey through the country. Two more weeks had passed since their departure from Biscuits Island, and from there on out she and her parents continued to always stick together like they had done before. Tottoland definitely had much to offer, and just like she previously read in the books on their ship, every part of this kingdom was as unique as it could be. And that exactly was a prime reason why Michelle was so quick to decide that this might be a good place for her to move to.