[Birka's temple basement],
"Ashen, this one look just as weird as the one you ate" Calvin said, as handed me a blue fruit that had shapes like a thunder.
"Goro Goro no Mi…" I looked at it closely before I put it in my coat's flap pocket.
"It was hidden in this dusty old chest, I happened to stumble upon it by luck" Calvin said, then added "I guess no one thought of searching this area of the basement, and even if they do, I don't think any sane person will eat something like that"
The wooden chest that we were looking at was quite huge, it also contained other things inside of it other than the devil fruit. But there was something strange about it, it was smaller in the inside than it looked on the outside.
'Hmm…Does it have a hidden stash?' I proceeded to load it out and checked it carefully.
"Is there something wrong?" Calvin asked while standing beside me. The rest of the crew was looking around the basement which was quite big.
"Just checking…*Knock*-*Knock*…I guess we hit the jackpot" I said as I punched through the chest's wooden bottom, only for my hand to touch something other than the ground.
"*CRACK*…Well, well look what we have here" I proceeded to destroy the fake bottom. Before two fancy looking swords appeared, they were placed on elegant sword stands.
The first one was mostly black with red shades while its hilt was striped with the black and red colors. The second one looked the same except that it was in golden yellow color instead of red.
"Twin swords?" Calvin examined them with interest "There is something written in their hilt" he said.
"Eclipse and Limbo… It must be the names of these swords" I said as I checked one of them closely. (If you have better names leave them in the comments)
"They must be some good quality swords" Calvin remarked.
"They are…" I proceeded to unsheathe it 'They must be Graded swords since they are named…This interesting, I might just go dual wilding like Shiki' I thought as I proceeded to wear them in my belt instead of my old sword 'I'll get rid of this since I don't need it anymore '.
"How about you look for something that might suit you?" I suggested to Calvin.
"I'll look around and see"
…
'This place has so many treasures, yet it was locked away without being used. It must be the doing of those old men, the elders or whatever they called them' I thought as I walked past Ian.
He seems to have found something he could use "You! What do you have there?" I asked him. He turned to me before he started swinging a bat.
"I found this metal bat lying on the side…*SWOSH*-*SWOSH*…It suit my taste" he said before he changed his gaze to my newly acquired swords.
"I also got a new weapon" I said, he looked at them for second before he cracked a smile.
"Seems that our next fight is going to be interesting, captain…I'll show you some new moves" He declared.
Ian always comes asking me for fights and doesn't seem to mind getting beat up as long as he gets to fight someone stronger or equal to him. But on opposes to what might look, he doesn't fight mindlessly as he always tries to find new ways to fight me.
He's also fierce and doesn't seem to fear anything, the nickname 'Mad Dog' describes him perfectly. While his personality will cause him to grow faster since he always seeks strong opponent, it might also lead to his downfall if he meets the wrong person.
"We will see…" I turned to everyone after that and got their attention before speaking "Alright, let's wrap this up! Take anything valuable to the ship!" I gave order and proceeded to leave the place.
While on the way out I saw Enel was still sitting in the same place near the temple's gate. I observed him for a moment before I proceeded to sit beside him, he was surprised when he saw me.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked me with a frown.
"I should be asking that question. You attacked your own people…Do you think they will still let you stay here quietly?"
"Why do you care?" He answered without looking at me.
"I'm curious that's all"
"I'll just beat them up if I have too" he calmly said.
"You are so cocky, the only reason you got to beat these monks is because of us" I stated.
"Are you just here to look down on me?...If that's the case, then just leave me alone" He looked angry as his forehead veins became more visible.
"Alright, tell me what's your ambition?...What do you aspire to achieve?" I asked him seriously while keeping eye contact. He raised an eyebrow at my questions before he proceeded to speak.
"What's with the sudden questions?...is this an interrogation or something?" he said, I didn't answer him and stayed silent while looking at him "Fine! Stop looking at me so intensely!...You are right I got to beat up those bastards because of you" he stopped for a moment before he spoke once again "There is a place I want to go to…People in this island believe the kami resides there"
"The land there stretches out farther than the eye can see" He stated while stretching his arm out "They call it Endless Varse"
"Endless Varse?" I raised an eyebrow hearing it 'It's basically the moon'.
"Anyway, I have my reasons to do that, but I'm not going to spit them out for you" he said, then he stood up and walked away.
"Wait!" I called him before he left.
"Sigh…What is it this time?"
"You said you want to go to the 'Endless Varse'? I'll help you achieve that" He looked surprised when I said that.
"Why would you do that anyway…It doesn't make any sense"
"I see potential in you, if you join my crew, I'll make you strong and help you achieve your goal…And since you're going to join me, you will also be helping me achieve mine eventually" He looked at me in silence while I was speaking.
"I will also travel the world, so you might find a new goal along the way, who knows?…besides, isn't it a waste that you want to travel to a new land while you still haven't discovered this one?"
'And I'm also pretty sure that the sky people and the lunarians are related to the Ancient Kingdom, so he will also get to learn the history of his ancestors' I thought, as I waited for his answer.
"Even if what you're saying is true, how can I trust your word?"
"You can't, it's up to you whether you want to trust me or not" I calmly said while crossing my arms 'Depending on his answer right now, I will decide if I let him in or not'
"I won't give you this offer a second time, so think about it carefully before you answer" I said while standing thoroughly in my place.
Enel kept looking at me with a serious expression for a while before he closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh then proceeded to speak.
"Alright, this sounds foolish but…I will put my trust in you!" He declared loudly with no sense of hesitation in his voice tone.
I looked at him with a smile and proceeded to reach for something in my pocket.
"Since you decided to put your trust on me…" I threw something at his direction "Then I won't disappoint you!" it was the Goro Goro no Mi.
"Hum? What's this?" He looked at the devil fruit in confusion.
"It's your welcoming gift, you are now officially a member of Ashen Pirates" I approached him for a handshake "I'm Ashen by the way"
"Enel…" He said while looking at the fruit "What kind gift is this?" He asked while raising an eyebrow.
"Eat it"
"Nice joke" he said with a forced smile.
"I'm not joking, you said you will trust me, didn't you? So, eat it"
"Are you trying to make me regretted my decision?…" he said before he reached for a bite "*CHEW*-*CHEW*…*Gulp*…Taste like shit!" Enel commented before he changed his gaze to me.
"Now wh-…I feel something strange flowing through my body"
"Let it out!" I said to him then he immediately released thunder from every direction of his body "You are now a thunder human!".
He looked at his body in surprise before he released thunder from his hands once again.
"This is…"
"You are now a devil fruit user like me" I said while releasing flames from my hand as well "I'll explain everything later, for now I will give you your first job"
"My first job?"
"Since you can move at a lightning speed, you can help the crew load the treasures from the temple's basement to the ship"
…
A few hours later,
After we loaded with our loot, we proceeded to embark the ship immediately and waited for a bit on my command.
"Boss, what are we waiting for? And what is that guy doing on the ship? He's been helping for a while now" Ken asked me.
"My bad, I forgot to introduce him…This Enel your new crew mate!" I said as I proceeded to introduce him to everyone. After that I changed my gaze to the outside of the ship when I felt someone approaching.
"What took you so long?!"
"Hoi! Why did you attack the temple?!" Urouge shouted at me with an angry tone of voice.
"What do you mean? They were the ones attacking us. We were just trying to peacefully pay a visit to the temple, right guys?" I turned back to the crew who nodded in agreement.
"Stop the nonsense! Why did you have to take the treasures from the basement then?!"
"As a compensation"
"A compensation?"
"For the emotional damage of course, my poor crew mates were shivering in fear because of them!"
"Are you taking me for a fool?..."
"Just get in the ship already or we will leave you here!...I don't have time for this!" I said to him before I added "I didn't hurt any civilians and I even held back against them. They attacked us full knowingly about the consequences, if that's not enough for you then I don't know what it is"
He looked at me hesitation for a moment before he sighed in defeat and proceeded to jump in "Sigh…Since you put it that way, I guess it was also partially their fault"
"Don't worry, you won't be lonely here, we've also got you pale Enel with us" I point at Enel who was sitting calmly with his back on the ship's main mast.
"Enel?" He was shocked looking at him.
"Now we can Introduce our last member for today, Urouge!" I said then proceeded to introduce him to the crew as well.
"How many people will join in today?" Diana asked.
"I guess we have some great additions this time around" Calvin said while observing the new recruits.
"The log pose has already captured the magnetic fields of the next island, are we going to leave now?" Ken asked me.
"Yes!...We'll be heading out immediately"