Intermezzo: Birthday Gift

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #1 

After finishing everything on the Strawberry Hill, Gabriel with Myra went back at the sea. The first few days were a little confusing as Myra had to explain him the situation with Isaac and the Bald Pirates as Gabriel naturally wanted to continue in their hunt, while Myra was claiming that it´s not necessary at all.

“So you want to tell me, that your little brother alone will be enough to take down whole pirate crew?”
He asked doubtfully, when she explained their plan to him.

“Well, I hope you are right, because if he won´t, I will have to re-think the whole thing about you and my last will.”

Saying that Gabriel was grumpy would be serious understatement as his mood was getting lower and lower with every passed hour. He still felt cheated by Python and to a lesser extend Myra for the whole thing about the Python´s tournament and the fact that after their arrival he found a note pinned to the main mast with the message: “Your next fight will be in 30 days in Loguetown, East Blue” didn´t helped him much.

To avoid any unnecessary argument, Moon headed to warehouse to take something to eat, but all thoughts about food leaved his head right after he noticed small chest that was laying on top of one of their barrels with fresh water.

“For Myra from Dad, Happy Birthday my little devil.”

After reading the message that was attached to it, Gabriel was even more confused than before.

Myra had birthday? When? And how did this thing get here? Was her father on Strawberry hill too? Or did Isaac put it there.

With a silent curse, he raised the box and carried it back to his companion.

“I guess this is for you.”

The professor muttered as he offered the box to Myra.

“By the way, why didn´t you mention that you had birthday?”

[Cat]

Myra #1 

Gabriel was grumpy. There couldn’t be better description for his behavior. Myra sometimes thought about leaving him in the middle of the sea and improved her mood by imagining of his face, while she will be slowly sailing away. Despite it was nice idea, she didn’t do it in reality.

When Gabriel headed to the warehouse she didn’t care. After all it meant she hadn’t to ignore accusing silence which was settled between them since they left Strawberry hill. So she was surprised, when Gabriel went out after only few minutes and spoke to her.

“Birthday?”

She asked surprised and then quickly change her intoantion to "nothing interesting or to care about".
“Yes, I will have birthday next week.”

She stretched out her hand for small box. She was curious and opened it. Inside a box was another box and inside it was only paper with something written. Myra frowned and took out the paper to saw better what was written on it.

“Coordinates and time?”

She muttered and frowned even more. It was typical for her father, he didn’t give them – his children – something for free, even birthday gifts had everyone deserve.

“Seems like we will have break during our voyage...if I want to saw what my father prepared as a gift for me”

She said and hurried to cabin to look at the map. If she wasn’t wrong, the place was in the middle of the sea and no island was near.

“Interesting”

She said and pointed her finger at place which matched to coordinates.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #2 

When Myra confirmed that she will actually have birthday the next week, Gabriel slightly frowned. It bothered him, that she didn´t share this detail about herself with him, even through they were traveling together for some time. Maybe he shouldn´t be so grumpy around her, but than...he couldn´t get rid of the feeling, that the there was even more to the tournament than they bothered to tell him until now. After all it seemed to be too much of hustle to just earn some money from some underground fighting.

But than again, maybe he should try to be more nicer.

Breath in, breath out. As he was curious what a patriarch of family full of assassins could give his daughter as a present, Moon peaked over Myra´s shoulder looking on the box, she was opening. To his surprise, there was just another box inside.

“What? Your father is fan of matryoshka?”
He asked with a hint of confusion in his voice which became even bigger when the other box revealed just a piece of paper.

“Woof?”
Asked Beast who, for some reason looked a bit bigger than when they set a sail for the first time. Just as her master, she was naturally curious, even through in her case, she hoped that the mysterious box could contain some meat.

But Myra´s own remarks quickly clarified everything. When she mentioned a break in their voyage. Moon wanted to remind her, that they have important things to do, but then remembered that it will be her birthday after all.

“Alright”

He said calmly.

“We can do that, just tell me that your family humor doesn´t include heavily armed guards who are ready to shoot all intruders, because...”

He raised his left hand that was still in cast.

“I won´t be in full strength anytime soon.”
Well this one piece of information wasn´t really accurate, but still, he hoped that they won´t have to fight they way to her gift.

[Cat]

Myra #2 

Gabriel was confused because of the emptiness of the boxes.

“Matryoska?”

She asked bafflingly. It took her a while before she remembered, that in some books were written something about giving presents directly without any prerequisites. It was a strange idea that someone would give something for free to someone else.

“No it wasn't empty, there were coordinates of the gift”

She replied to Gabriel and decided to not describe other details about her family and its traditions. She was more interested in maps and coordinates. She was silently looking at it and thought about possibilities when Gabriel asked again.

“No, not heavily armed I suppose”

She replied to him as if she was partially lost in thoughts and didn’t understand his sarcasm.

“It seems that my present would be on some ship”

She said.

“So the only question is what type of ship? Merchants, mercenaries or pirates, what do you think Gabriel?”

She asked and headed back on the deck to inspect boxes more precisely, but the beast was faster and used her absence to tear it to pieces.

“Oh come on… so it would be complete surprise I suppose…Well, we will see in five or six days”

She hoped her father remembered her abilities when she left home, so the challenge for her gift would be easy.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #3 

While the Beast was chewing on Myra´s gift box, Gabriel was silently watching his companion with mixture of confusion and disbelief. Because what she was telling him sounded like she would expect him to help her to steal “her birthday gift” for someone and to top all that, they didn´t have the slightest clue about what it´s supposed to be and from whom are they supposed to steal it.

“What I think?”
Moon asked sternly. From there he wanted to list all the reasons why is this utterly crazy, dangerous, stupid and even illegal, but than he realized that if this wasn´t some bad joke from her side, but real tradition of her family, nothing he could say would change her decision and so, the only thing he could do was to make sure, that she won´t get hurt, or worse.

“I think...”
He continued.

“That your family has pretty distinctive traditions. But seriously Myra, your father doesn´t expect you to steal your birthday gift from someone else right? Because the last thing we need to add to this mess is a bounty on our heads.”
Gabriel didn´t mentioned that because of his injured left hand his fighting abilities were limited, as he expected that as a doctor Myra realized that already.

“Speaking of which, there is one more thing I would like to ask you. The tournament I entered on Strawberry Hill, are there any other hidden rules I am still not aware off?”
This was a question that bothered him since he won the Battle Royale and leaned that according to the contract he is forced to advance into the main tournament. He was thinking about this arrangement for a time, but the more he thought about it the less sense it all made for someone like Python to organize such event without any motives deeper than simple monetary gain.

[Cat]

Myra # 3 

Gabriel didn’t understand her thoughts and was again grumpy. He asked about some minor details as if her father expected her to steal her gift from someone.

“Probably… It isn’t important I suppose”

She replied to him and rummaged through pieces of the box but she didn’t found anything new. Myra disappointingly looked at the box and then at Gabriel, who had another strange question.

“You still didn’t read your contract?”

She looked at him with mouth wide open because she forgot to close it.

“Uhm….. All right…….The next tournament and the previous tournament is part of bigger series of tournament, where the winner had to attend another tournament. It is the reason why I was so surprised you win.”

She replied to him with intonation which someone should use to explain something to small children.



The next few days she spend by intensive training and preparation for many options that could await for them. Maybe a few preparations were a little absurd, but she needed to distract herself from worries. It was her first birthday without family and her brothers.

When she finally saw sails of another after five days, she almost panic. It seemed like a normal ship and everything seemed normal.

“Gabriel, what should I do?”

She asked Gabriel with traces of slight hysteria in her voice. She wasn’t so self-confident and also wasn’t sure if it was really the ship they were looking for. She also didn't know if it was good idea to simply attack unkonwn ship.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #4 

Professor Moon was left dumbfounded when Myra nonchalantly mentioned the possibility of them stealing her birthday gift from someone as if it was no big deal. He started to have feeling, that her family may be a bit more peculiar than he initially suspected, but he refrained from making any remarks on that matter and instead listened to the information Myra had about the tournament he signed himself into.

“So basically I have to lose a fight or I will be forced to fight for him to the rest of my life?”
Spoken aloud the whole idea sounded pretty strange.

“And someone actually tried to become part of it?”

He shook his head in disbelief.

“Well, guess I will just throw the next match then.”

Gabriel shrugged. With that the whole thing was finished for him and so he went back to the storehouse to prepare their lunch.



Not knowing what was ahead of them, in the next few days Gabriel focused almost solely on his training and some light sparring with Myra. As his moveset was limited by his broken hand, he was practicing mainly the Imperial Tiger and it´s elbow, shoulder and knee strikes, together with some basic kicks from the Imperial Phoenix. He was also thinking about extension of his repertoire of techniques, however nothing he tested sit well with him and so he left that matter for the future.



After five days they finally saw sails of another ship on the horizon. Standing at the helm, professor Moon didn´t noticed Myra´s expression and so he almost ignored her question, only to realize second later, that her voice sounded like if she was on the verge of…

“Panic? Myra?”

Gabriel raised his eyebrow and looked in her direction to check if she isn´t just faking it to let him do all the hard work but to his surprise she looked sincerely frightened.

“What the...guess she is still just a kid after all.”

Muttered Moon for himself.

“Alright, just relax, I´ll take care of this. First of all, find some white flag or something to signalize that we are not pirates that are going to rob them, understood?”

Gabriel was well aware of the irony of his statement, but he left it be as for the moment he didn´t have any better ideas how to get closer to them and avoid being gunned fro cannons at the same time as the other ship was alarmingly bigger than theirs.

“Hmmmm”

After several dozens of minutes, when they got closer to their target Moon frowned as his sharp eyes showed him something rather disturbing.

“Myra, are you sure that it´s the right ship? Because the upper deck is completely empty...”

[Cat]

Myra # 4 

She asked Gabriel and he stayed silent. She looked at him with shock and panic slowly raised. She really didn’t know what to do. When Gabriel finally replied, she wasn’t able to critically think about his idea.

“Sound like a good idea...”

She hurriedly headed bellow the deck and looked for a piece of white cloth. The first thing she found were Gabriel´s shirts, but it wasn´t a good idea to tear one and make from it a white flag. She continued and found a white bed sheet. She didn’t hesitate and used part of it as a flag.

When she finally came upon the deck, the first thing she heard was that the ship´s deck looked empty.

“Empty?”

She frowned in disbelief. Myra had to admit Gabriel was right, when after a few minutes she didn’t see any movement on the upper deck. She doubted it could be the right ship.

“Maybe it isn’t what we are looking for….”

She muttered but her curiosity forced her to continue and then jump on the board of another ship. She didn’t saw anybody.

“Is someone here?”

She asked and overlooked more carefully board.

“Someone alive?!”

She added, because she saw traces caused by a fight and found one body laying near helm.

“Gabriel?”

She asked him and really slowly walked around the whole upper deck and then stopped before the doors bellow the deck. She was too curious to find out the reason why seemed the ship empty and maybe who attacked it.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #5 

Gabriel was puzzled. He knew Myra as headstrong and manipulative woman that was very self confident to the point of arrogance. But Myra that was in front of him right now, was completely different, scared, insecure teenager who didn´t know what to do next. This sudden change in her behavior confused him as he couldn´t wrap his head around it, but at the same time it made him want to protect her and resolve whatever was bothering her. And the fact that right now Myra most of all resembled lost puppy had nothing to do with that. At least that was what Moon was telling himself as he was leading their ship towards the empty vessel

“Wait for me...”

He told Myra as their ship finally caught up to the other one. However she didn´t listen to him and instead jumped on the board, giving him no other choice than to follow her with a rope in his healthy hand.

While Myra was walking around the board, Moon tied their ship to this one and than turned around as he heard his name.

“Hmmmmm?”

The situation didn´t look very well. All evidences on the board were suggesting that there was intense fight, but only one body could be found. And also, who would attack this ship and why? Did someone learned about the gift, whatever it was supposed to be and decided to steal it before them? Or did Myra´s father arranged this whole thing for…? No that was absurd, no one would go so far.

“Wait a second, I´ll go first. Indestructible, remember?”

Without delay he bypassed Myra on the way down. He had two reasons for that. First one, which he told her was his Indestructible technique, that was giving him a better chance of surviving if someone used surprise attack on him in an enclosed space. And the second one, which he didn´t tell her and that was the fact, that Gabriel didn´t fully trust her ability to defend herself. Not in the state of mind she was in.

As he was walking down the stairs, the Professor was noticing another evidences of battle together with more bodies, but something wasn´t right.

“That´s weird...”
He muttered when he finally got down.

“All the victims have the same uniform of local shipping company. I don´t see anyone from different group...”

With that he squatted down to the nearest victim.

“He was shot...”

Moon muttered, before checking a simple pistol that was laying right next to him.

“And whoever did it took him by surprise or was incredibly fast, because this one...”

He pointed to the gun

“Is still loaded so this guy didn´t even have enough time to fight back.”

[Cat]

Myra # 5 

Gabriel stopped her from going bellow the deck first. She didn’t protest and let him go first. The young doctor followed him slowly down and saw more bodies, but couldn’t saw somebody alive.

“Strange...”

She had a bad feeling from it and looked around really carefully as if she expected an attack at every moment. When she heard Gabriel´s information about the shipping company and then about someone who wasn’t fast enough to shoot she frowned and bent over his body.

“I see a bigger problem… he is dead for less than an hour”

She said after a while.

“And we didn’t saw other ship...”

Myra added slowly and looked carefully around again. It wasn’t good. She quickly headed to the closest doors of some cabin and looked around it seemed like a kitchen. She could guess that whoever attacked – he surprised everybody during their lunch.

Without hesitating, she opened one door after another until she found a place where was storage. Whatever they transported it wasn’t there. The boxes were open and broken and someone stole precious content. She frowned even more and looked carefully for something that could indicate that her birthday present was there too.

After a few minutes of examining broken boxes, she found one, which was supposed to be hers with a letter inside it.

“Happy birthday Myra, enjoy your present.
It is the last thing you will probably get for free.

Dad 

P.S.: By the way, consider your holidays as slowly ending” 

Myra took the rest of her box and throw it against the wall. She wasn’t frowning. She was furious, the world around her lost its colors and was suddenly black and white.

“Who?”

She growled angrily.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #6 

As he was carefully walking through the ship, Gabriel noticed that the biggest amount of victims were located in the kitchen with their uneaten lunches still on the table.

“Yeah, looks like it...”
Professor agreed with both Myra´s observations, visibly nervous as the only logical explanation was, that the perpetrator was still there on the ship with them. Or maybe not.

While Myra headed inside the cargo space, he carefully went through the whole ship but didn´t found anyone else besides the two of them. However, the explanation presented itself when he found the captain´s diary in his cabin.

“Myra listen, this is interesting.”
Moon said after his assistant vent her anger on the innocent box.

“6th July, four days before departure. I was approached by mysterious individual who went only by the name Thomas. This gentleman offered me substantial sum for delivering ordinary looking box to his sister. As she is supposed to pick it up on the sea we won´t have to change our course to finish this job.”



“8th July, two days before departure. I am starting to be a bit nervous about the whole deal. I found some clues about this “Thomas” fellow and it looks like I involved myself with really shady people. I hope that there is nothing illegal in the box.”



“9th July, Devil Fruit, there is ******** Devil Fruit in that box! If I didn´t think that he would go after me I would just dropped that box into the ocean. Now I have to pray that no one knows about that thing because the last thing I need are power hungry pirates on my back.”



“10th July, the day of departure. That Devil Fruit is still on my mind. Just to be sure, I hired some additional security. They cost me more than half of the extra I got for that fruit, but they are ***** fishmen. Now I want to see how any third rate pirate will dare to attack us!”



“13th July, third day after departure. The fishmen are acting weird or more likely I am starting to be paranoid because of that stupid fruit. Last night, I noticed as one of them was sneaking around the cargo. And our navigator told me, that their leader was giving him weird questions about our course and some small uninhabited island we should be passing around. I hope it´s nothing. But just in case I asked the boatswain to inconspicuously look after them.“



“16th July, sixth day after departure. Maybe I was really just paranoid, because it looks like the fishmen are pretty good guys after all. Nothing suspicious from them in the past three days and their leader even caught this big fish so our chef will make a feast for the whole crew tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the day when I am supposed to get rid of that box, and after that everything should be just alright.”


Gabriel stopped reading.

“So Devil Fruit huh? I have to say that your father have really expensive taste for birthday gifts.”

He muttered.

“Too bad it´s probably at the bottom of the ocean right now.”

He intentionally didn´t mentioned that mysterious island again as for bunch of fishmen there would be only one reason for going there and that was selling the stolen goods to some third party probably smuggler or pirates. Either way nothing he would like to get himself into. So better when Myra will forget about the whole thing.

[Cat]

Myra #6 

She angrily turned to Gabriel, because he interrupted her before her burst of anger ended. She narrowed eyes as angered cat before attack. She slightly calmed, when she heard reason why he interrupted her right after she throw the box and before she could do more.

“So they took my devil fruit, killed so many men just to run away on some uninhibited piece of rock?”

She asked angrily and looked for maps on this ship. She hurried, but luckily captain was a little paranoid and had maps prepared on his table in cabin so he could probably quickly change the course of the ship.

She even didn’t answered Gabriel´s questions and completely forgotten about them right after he asked. Myra was more concerned about finding the nearest island.

“Found it”

She victoriously smiled and pointed her finger at small island, which could be considered more as a cliff then an island.

“Hurry, Gabriel. We have a lot to do!”

She said to hesitating Gabriel. She almost sprinted back to her ship and prepared ship to continue by cutting the rope which was tied to another ship. She wanted to be at the island before the fishmen disapear forever without any traces to them in the depth under water.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #7 

As it turned out, anger helped Myra to find her old self, which was unfortunate, because she immediately focused on the only part he wanted to hide from her and without consulting anything with him, she immediately started creating her own plans for retrieving her birthday gift.

“Exactly...”

Sighed Gabriel when he finally caught up to her in the captain´s cabin in an attempt to talk some reason into her.

“they killed so many men, probably without suffering any casualties themselves and there are only two of us, not to mention...”

He waved his bandaged hand in front of her face

“that I am far away from being at full power, so why don´t you let it go?”

The professor felt sorry for his companion, he really did, but the thing she was planning to do was basically suicide with some extra steps and he definitely didn´t want to be part of that.

“Look...”

Moon tried to persuade her even further.

“I know that you are angry. At least I would be if someone stole something from me, but you heard the legends about fishmen right? When it comes to fighting they are complete monster with the strength of ten men and they own versions of Karate and JiuJitsu that are unparalleled even if compared with the most famous schools of humans.”

From this short description of his were two things obvious. First, Gabriel never really met, much less fought real fishman in his life and all his knowledge about them was coming from books, stories and martial arts manuals. And second, despite trying his best to advocate for the safer route, deep inside he was excited from the possibility of witnessing true Fishman Karate with his own eyes. But that was something he would never admit because right at the moment he was responsible not only for himself, but for Myra as well.

“Also...”

he continued

“They probably won´t be alone. If they were, they wouldn´t need a dry land, they would just hide at the bottom of the sea, so the most logical conclusion is that they are meeting with someone there, possibly with some smugglers or pirates that are buying the stolen goods from them. And we have no idea who, how many or how strong they are.”

[Cat]

Myra #7 

Gabriel followed her and didn’t stop to lecture her. She would normally understand his urge to do it. He was professor after all. At the moment, she didn’t have the patience to do so. Myra couldn´t let it be. Those fishmen stole her present and this present was too precious to forget about it.

“Yeah, I get it”

She replied to Gabriel to silence him.

“We could speak about it later...”

She added and navigated their ship in direction of that island. She continued without a single world and whole her stress forced her to do everything precisely and as fast as possible. Every her movement was in harmony with the rest of her tasks. She didn´t doubt her ability to get her property back and the only thing which mattered was time which she needed to succeed.

As the result, they were able to see the small rocky island without flora nearby. No other ship or boat nearby, only one visible was at the horizon. Myra looked at it and then at the island, which was closer and closer. Myra was able to saw a heap of different things prepared on the island. She frowned and thought about how to hurry the ship, but before some crazy idea, she was interrupted.

“This is private territory”

An unknown voice sounded from the opposite part of the board. Myra quickly turned and saw two fishmen with amused smiles and hands folded on their chests.

“And this is MY ship”

She replied to them coldly, while she relaxed whole her body and prepared herself to dodge a possible attack by Clef.

[Mr. Moon]

Gabriel #8 

“Yeah I get it.”
That was Myra´s response to Moon´s reasoning. However, as far as Gabriel was concerned these were empty words, because right after saying them, his assistant cut the rope that was connecting them to the second ship and grabbed the helm to navigate their own vessel towards the fishmen hideout.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

The professor muttered for himself while scratching Beast behind the ear. Honestly, he was pretty upset by Myra´s behavior, but the last thing their small team needed was infighting right before serious battle and so he kept his thought for himself, at least for now. If they´ll survive, he will have enough time to scold her later, and if they won´t he will have eternity to do so.

Just fifteen minutes later, Gabriel spotted something between big rock and tiny island, in front of them.

“Hmmm, guess we are here.”

He said to Beast who poked him with her wet nose.

“Hmmm, what?”

As if he could understood her, Moon turned his face to the other side, where on horizon appeared another ship, judging by the size and distance at least one class bigger than their own, with a pirate flag raised on the top of their mast.

“See, I told you, pirates.”

Said Gabriel grimly. Yes, the island was small so they still had enough time, especially if the fishmen didn´t noticed them, but they will have to hurry.

Just as he finished this thought, two figures jumped from the water right on the board of their ship.

“And there goes the moment of surprise.”
Moon sighed for himself, while slowly getting up on his feet.

“Is it?”

He asked with relaxed, calming voice.

“Well I have to say, you picked really beautiful home, it´s obvious, that you have very refined taste.”

Despite seeing the first fishmen in his life, Gabriel was too upset to be either scared or excited and his bittereness got the better of him.

The duo looked at each other confused by the direct contrast between Moon´s tone and the mockery presented by his words.

“Y...yeah!”

Said the one who spoke before, tall and wiry guy with sharp pointy nose..

“Normally, we would probably kill you on the spot, but today we are expecting an important visit, so we are going to be generous. We will let you go, if you turn your ship right away and...”

“And leave all your valuables behind.”
Added the other one, shorter yet more muscular one with wide jaw full of sharp teeth.