I can't leave you with nothing :)
…
Shortly after Chapter 11, in the days following Kai's departure from Shellstown.
Derren hated the new tables.
Food Foo had replaced most of the ones destroyed during the brawl, and every time he walked past the restaurant, he was reminded that half his wages had gone toward buying them.
He was also reminded of Kai, which made him hate the tables significantly more.
"Stupid fucking tables."
The table did not respond, but Ririka did.
"You planning on fighting this one too?"
Derren looked up. She stood behind the counter, cleaning a glass.
"No."
"Good. I only just got it." She said, placing the glass down.
Derren grunted and returned to his food.
Things had changed since Voss left, and that was putting it mildly.
Captain Vale was now dead, and half the officers Derren had spent months saluting were suspended, imprisoned or suddenly claiming they had always been deeply concerned about corruption. Sergeant Mallor was somehow holding the branch together while investigators crawled through every ledger Vale had hidden.
And Kai Voss was now a wanted murderer and traitor.
Thinking about him still made Derren's jaw hurt, he touched it unconsciously.
"Still sore?"
"Mind your business."
Ririka frowned; Derren was a dick.
The restaurant door opened and three younger recruits wandered inside. Derren recognised them as new intake, barely a month in uniform and already walking as if Shellstown belonged to them.
He knew that walk all too well; he cringed slightly. They took a table, ordered enough food for six people, then started getting loud.
Nothing unusual.
Then the bill arrived.
One recruit looked at it.
"Marine discount."
Ririka continued wiping the counter.
"There isn't one."
"There is now."
"No."
His friends laughed.
Derren stopped chewing.
The recruit leaned farther across the counter.
"Come on. We keep this town safe."
Derren stared at his plate.
Not his problem.
Definitely not his problem.
He'd already spent one evening getting his face rearranged because Voss had decided to play hero over this exact woman.
He could continue eating.
The recruit reached across and caught Ririka's wrist.
Derren's fork stopped.
Fuck.
"Let go."
Nobody heard him.
Derren sighed.
Louder this time.
"I said let go of her, dipshit!"
The restaurant quietened.
Three heads turned.
Ririka looked at him too.
He couldn't believe he was doing this right now.
The recruit frowned. "What's your problem?"
Derren pointed around the room.
"See these tables?"
The recruit looked confused.
"Yes?"
"They're new."
"So?"
"The last lot got destroyed when ten Marines tried doing what you're doing."
Derren took another bite.
"We lost."
One of the recruits laughed.
"Against who?"
Derren chewed slowly.
"You know the giant white-haired psychopath on all the posters?"
The laughter ended.
The hand left Ririka's wrist.
"Yeah."
"That guy."
The three recruits sat down very carefully.
Good.
Derren went back to eating.
Ririka continued staring at him with a slight smirk.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You're thinking something."
"Maybe you've become a better person."
Derren almost choked.
"Fuck off."
She laughed.
"I am serious."
"No, you're not."
"A little."
Derren pointed his fork at her.
"This has nothing to do with Voss."
"Of course."
"I still hate him."
"Obviously."
"He broke my arm."
"Yes."
"My jaw."
"Also yes."
"He threw me through a table."
"That one was actually pretty funny."
"Fuck you too."
Ririka smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.
Derren looked down at his meal and across the room, one of the young recruits quietly placed the full amount of berries on the table.
Derren noticed.
He said nothing.
A few minutes later, Ririka returned and dropped a drink beside his plate.
Derren frowned.
"I didn't order this."
"On the house."
His eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
She shrugged.
"For keeping my furniture intact."
Derren stared at the glass, then at the new tables, and finally at the wanted poster visible through the window across the street.
Kai's stupid, grinning face stared back.
Derren raised his middle finger at it.
"Still a prick."
He drank to him anyway.
…
Immediately after Chapter 20, during the Marine investigation into the Port Tragedy incident, while Kai and Nami are already at sea.
"Start from first contact."
Smoker exhaled smoke through his nose.
"He was wearing seastone."
Harland's pen stopped.
"During the fight?"
"The entire time."
Harland slowly looked up.
The reports described Voss running across rooftops, throwing Marines through stalls, escaping Vice Admiral Garp and fighting Smoker throughout the dock district.
"With respect, Captain... are you certain?"
Smoker's stare answered that.
Harland wrote faster.
"What happened when you engaged him?"
"At first? He couldn't touch me."
"Of course, cause of your Logia intangibility."
"Yes."
"And later?"
Smoker's jaw tightened.
"He started reacting before I formed."
Harland paused.
"Observation Haki?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because he was watching the smoke." Smoker shifted his sitting position and tapped ash into a tray.
"Every time I attacked him, he got better at predicting where I would become solid. I think he was able to...see the currents of smoke, then base his prediction on that; I don't know"
"And eventually?"
"He hit me."
"With seastone?"
"The first time, yes."
Smoker became considerably less pleased.
"The last time was his fist."
Harland looked down at his notes.
Possible acquisition of anti-Logia interaction through repeated exposure?
He underlined it twice.
Lieutenant Harland had been given one instruction.
Find out what Kai Voss can actually do.
Three hours later, he wanted a completely different job. He'd already sat opposite the now-promoted Captain Smoker with a notebook open between them.
His next interview was worse.
Vice Admiral Garp ate throughout the entire thing.
"So," Harland began, "how dangerous is Kai Voss?"
"Pretty dangerous."
Crunch.
"Could you elaborate?"
"He's got potential"
Crunch.
Harland waited.
Garp smiled.
"Gets stronger too."
"How?"
Garp reached for another cracker.
"I hit him."
"Yes, sir."
"Then I hit him again."
Harland's eye twitched.
"And?"
"The second one worked less."
His pen stopped.
"You observed this despite the seastone cuff?"
"Especially with the cuff."
Garp leaned back.
"He could barely stand when I first grabbed him. Later he was running rooftops."
"So he's resistant to seastone?"
"Wouldn't say that."
Garp scratched his chin.
Harland stared at him.
"What would you say?"
"Bwahahaha!" Garp simply laughed.
The next statement came by Den Den Mushi from Shellstown.
Sergeant Mallor was quieter.
"Voss was one of ours, yes."
"I've read his service record."
"Then you've read the version headquarters wrote."
Harland stopped writing.
Mallor continued.
"He is reckless. Arrogant. Disrespectful. He enjoys fighting far more than anyone his age should."
"Anything useful?"
"He isn't random."
That caught Harland's attention.
Mallor's voice hardened.
"If Voss wanted indiscriminate destruction, Shellstown would have been worse. He killed Vale. He did not kill the Marines who attacked him afterwards."
"So he exercises restraint."
"When he wants to."
"Any known motivation?"
Mallor was silent for several seconds.
"He hates people who use strength to prey on people beneath them."
Harland glanced at the wanted notice beside him.
A dangerous murderer. A Marine traitor.
Fifty million berries.
"That's not in his file."
"No," Mallor said. "It wouldn't be."
The interview ended.
Harland spent the next hour comparing statements.
Smoker.
Garp.
Mallor.
Thirty-seven Marines.
Civilians from Port Tragedy.
One merchant who insisted Kai Voss had committed "premeditated violence against his cabbage inventory."
Eventually, Harland pulled a fresh sheet toward himself.
MARINE THREAT ASSESSMENT
NAME: Kai Voss
ALIAS: "Branchbreaker"
STATUS: Wanted Criminal / Former Marine Petty Officer
BOUNTY: 50,000,000 Berries
DESCRIPTION: Male, adolescent. Exceptionally tall and heavily built for estimated age. Distinctive white hair. Wheel-shaped marking observed across right hand. Frequently engages targets at close range. Displays unusually rapid physical recovery.
SUSPECTED DEVIL FRUIT: Unclassified.
OBSERVED ABILITIES: Subject demonstrates progressive adjustment to repeated hazards, attacks and environmental conditions. Confirmed examples include increased resistance to blunt trauma, edged weapons, gunfire and physical restraint.
Subject has demonstrated the ability to progressively predict Logia manifestation and subsequently strike an intangible Devil Fruit user by unknown means.
Physical adaptations appear capable of persisting beyond immediate exposure.
KNOWN WEAKNESSES:
Standard Devil Fruit vulnerabilities to seawater and seastone CONFIRMED.
Seastone causes significant immediate weakness.
WARNING: Prolonged restraint with seastone may become less effective as subject appears capable of compensating for resulting physical debilitation. This does NOT indicate confirmed seastone immunity.
ENGAGEMENT RECOMMENDATION:
Do not prolong combat.
Do not repeatedly employ identical attack methods.
Do not assume an injury that was effective once will remain effective.
If capture is required, use overwhelming force immediately and maintain continuous seastone restraint.
Marine personnel are strongly advised against allowing subject time to observe, recover or adapt.
Harland stared at the last line.
Then added one more.
Under no circumstances should personnel interpret apparent early success as evidence the engagement is under control.
He sat back.
Outside, workers were still repairing two warehouses Captain Smoker had passed through.
Harland looked at the photograph attached to the report.
Kai was smiling.
…
Several days after Chapter 20, Kai and Nami are travelling toward Cocoyasi, while Marlo Crest attempts to rebuild what remains of his Port Tragedy operation.
Marlo Crest had survived.
Financially, things were less certain.
He sat behind a borrowed desk in one of the three warehouses he technically still owned, staring at a stack of figures that appeared to become worse every time he blinked.
Three warehouses destroyed.
One public operation exposed.
Half his Marine contacts under investigation.
One private dock unusable.
One extremely expensive ship stolen.
And, most painfully, a hidden fortune aboard said extremely expensive ship that he had specifically instructed everyone not to lose.
His accountant stood opposite him.
"How bad?"
The accountant adjusted his glasses.
"Would you like percentages or berries?"
"Whichever hurts less."
"Neither."
Crest closed his eyes, but then the Den Den Mushi rang, and every man in the room went silent.
Crest opened his eyes.
The snail rang again.
His accountant took one small step backward.
"You should probably answer that."
"Why me?"
"You're the boss."
"I hate being the boss."
The snail rang a third time.
Crest picked up.
"Hello?"
A familiar laugh came through the receiver.
"Fuffuffuffuffu…"
Crest immediately sat straighter.
"Yes, sir."
His accountant suddenly found the ceiling fascinating.
"No, sir. Everything is under control."
Everyone looked through the missing section of wall at the remains of Port Tragedy.
"Mostly."
The voice continued, and Crest's face changed.
"What?"
Another pause.
"You're raising my rates?"
The accountant winced.
"Yes, but surely considering our long-standing relationship…"
More laughter.
Crest swallowed.
"How much?"
Silence. His face went pale.
"That's extortion."
The entire room stared at him; Crest realised who he had just said that to.
"I mean excellent pricing, sir."
The call ended, and he slowly lowered the receiver.
His accountant waited.
"Well?"
Crest stared into the middle distance.
"He raised the prices."
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Crest stood.
"Emergency meeting."
Within twenty minutes, every surviving manager of Crest's operation had gathered around a table.
"We require immediate profit stabilisation."
One manager raised his hand.
"We could sell the eastern properties."
"No."
"Reduce spending?"
"No."
"Temporarily suspend shipments?"
"No."
The accountant sighed. "What exactly are you suggesting?"
Crest placed both hands on the table.
"A five-step recovery strategy."
He turned toward the board behind him and wrote:
P.S.5
PROFIT STABILISATION: FIVE-STEP PLAN
The managers exchanged uncertain looks.
Crest tapped the board.
"Step One. Increase docking fees."
The accountant frowned.
"By how much?"
"Thirty percent."
"That'll upset merchants."
"They'll pay."
They didn't, and the shipping traffic fell.
Crest reconvened the meeting.
"Step Two."
The accountant already looked afraid.
"Warehouse storage surcharge."
"You're raising prices again?"
"We lost revenue."
"Because you raised the prices."
"Exactly. Therefore, every remaining customer needs to contribute more."
"That is not what therefore means."
"Next."
The warehouse occupancy collapsed. So Step Three introduced an Operational Security Levy, forcing merchants to pay for repairs to buildings that had mostly been destroyed during Garp and Kai's rampage.
People became angry.
Step Four was worse.
Crest raised food prices.
The accountant found him before the announcement went public.
"Sir."
"What?"
"People need food."
"I am familiar with the concept."
"You're charging them nearly twice as much."
"Then we'll make twice as much."
"That isn't how this works."
Crest leaned back.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Yes. Lower the prices."
Crest stared at him like he'd proposed communism.
"Get out."
Then came Step Five.
Medicine.
Even Crest's managers objected.
"Absolutely not."
"We need revenue."
"People will riot."
"People always say they'll riot."
"They're already outside."
Crest paused.
"What?"
A brick came through the window.
Everyone ducked.
Crest slowly approached the broken glass.
Hundreds of people filled the street.
Dockworkers.
Shopkeepers.
Sailors.
Families.
The bakery owner whose oven had been destroyed stood near the front with a rolling pin over one shoulder.
The spice merchant Kai had landed on was holding a shovel.
Someone had made a sign.
P.S.5 = PLEASE STOP, FIVE TIMES WAS ENOUGH
Crest's accountant read it.
"That's actually quite good."
"Shut up."
Crest stepped onto the balcony.
"My fellow citizens!"
A tomato struck the wall beside him.
"Port Tragedy has recently experienced unprecedented economic hardship!"
"BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Crest ignored that.
"As such, minor price adjustments were unfortunately necessary to maintain continued commercial stability!"
The crowd booed.
"However, I hear your concerns!"
That quietened them slightly.
His accountant almost relaxed.
Crest opened his arms.
"And therefore, beginning tomorrow, I am introducing a small public-order surcharge to offset today's damages."
The accountant closed his eyes.
There was a moment of absolute silence.
Then somebody in the crowd yelled:
"HE'S RAISING THE FUCKING PRICES AGAIN!"
Port Tragedy achieved unity.
The front doors disappeared inward beneath several dozen angry civilians.
Crest ran.
He made it twelve metres before the bakery owner got him first. The spice merchant got him second; after that, determining individual responsibility became legally complicated. When Smoker arrived twenty minutes later, Marlo Crest was hanging upside down from a streetlamp by his trousers, missing both shoes and most of his dignity.
Smoker looked around.
"What happened?"
The accountant stepped forward carrying Crest's remaining ledgers.
"Profit stabilisation."
Smoker looked up at Crest.
Crest groaned.
The bakery owner folded his arms.
"He raised the prices."
Smoker stared at him for another second.
"Fair enough."
Crest whimpered.
His accountant handed over the ledgers and adjusted his glasses.
Thus ended Marlo Crest's revolutionary P.S.5 economic recovery model.
Five stages.
And somehow, every time things got worse, Crest reached exactly the same conclusion.
Raise the fucking prices.
…
Alright, I genuinely just wanted an excuse to make the P.S.5 joke ＞﹏＜
I have a PS5 myself and WHY DO THEY KEEP RAISING THE FUCKING PRICES??? I already bought the console; why am I being punished for continuing to own it??? Every couple of months it feels like somebody walks into a meeting, looks at the numbers, sees people complaining and goes:
"Hmm... interesting. Have we considered charging them MORE?"
Business genius.
I also hope you guys liked these little omakes in general! I wanted to use them less as random filler and more as chances to show what happens around Kai that we normally can't see because the story is stuck inside his POV. Derren changing slightly after getting his shit kicked in, the Marines trying to piece together what the fuck Kai's power actually is, and Crest dealing with the financial consequences of Kai and Garp turning Port Tragedy into a natural disaster were all really fun to write.
I'd definitely be down to do more of these between major chapters/arcs, especially with characters who don't normally get much screen time.
SO GIVE ME IDEAS.
Seriously.
Characters you want an omake about, events you want shown from another perspective, stuff happening off-screen, reactions to Kai's bullshit, anything.
Give them to me so I can shamelessly steal them, write them, and then we can all pretend this was a collaborative creative process instead of theft :)
Hope you enjoyed the bonus content!