Sea of Dreams Re: Preparing for the Worst

Since I came to this world and was stuck in this body, I had run through dozens if not hundreds of plans to break out of the mine. I never wanted to be here and though my drive for life may have been lower than most, I'd be damned if I spent my new life bound to the people who had burned their symbol in my back.

Unfortunately, all of my plans stayed just that. None of them would have planned out in any direction other than ones that would end with my head on a chopping block or maybe with a bullet in the back of my skull. People had tried to break out before, many of them smarter and with a much more well thought out plan than I had. None of them had even come close. Unless you considered catching a bullet and driving in whatever waters laid beyond these walls close.a

I didn't want to risk mine and Umi's life on whatever plan might see us die trying to escape. Any plans that I had made so far had some glaring flaw, usually multiple. Things that would pretty much guarantee that it would fail, and as much as I hated to say it, I would rather spend a few more years in here rather than accidentally getting Umi killed trying and failing to get out.

Unfortunately, that choice had been taken from me. I had to think of a plan as quickly as possible and put it into action before everyone in the mine was forced to line up and face the wall.

It took a few days and even more sleepless nights to come up with something that might be useful, but eventually I managed to think up a tentative plan that might not crash and burn the moment I put it into action. It was shaky and about as prone to going wrong as the others, but it was my best one yet so it might not immediately fail like the rest of them.

Unfortunately, the entire thing all hinged on enough of the other slaves around the mine not having their spirits completely broken by their conditions. If I could get them to actually man up and try to take their lives back, then at least some of them would be able to get out of here.

And with any luck, Umi and I, or at least just Umi, would be right there with them as they walked out the doors.

I needed to take care of some things before that if we wanted to have a chance, though. The first thing that I needed to worry about was what exactly we were going to do if and when we finally got out of this place. One important fact about the mine was that nobody enslaved here really knew where it was. Sure, some people swore up and down they did, but the trip here was apparently so disorienting and long that pretty much nobody could make heads or tails of our current location.

That meant that nobody could navigate the ocean outside, and if they set off without any sort of plan, then they were fucked. The oceans of One Piece weren't anything like the ones on earth. They were a breeding ground for monsters that could swallow a frigate in one gulp and pirate crews that would happily kill or rape any they came across. Trying to cross any of the four blues or god-forbid the Grand Line was a death sentence if you didn't know what you were doing.

Of course, that was assuming we could even get a ship in the first place, but I was pretty sure that I had that somewhat figured out at this point. If not, I could just burn that I when I got to it. There was only so much she could actually prepare for without compromising the whole plan.

What I could do was make sure that when we got out, we had some semblance of knowledge on where we were going. That meant we needed a map, and fortunately, I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be too hard to get one. I just had to talk to the right guy.

I walked up to a mineshaft that was much larger than any other in this section of the lines. The sound of a single pickaxe pounding on rock reverberates throughout the area and I could practically feel the rock under my feet shift with each strike. Even the Marines walking around gave this single tunnel a wide berth but I felt no free as I strode inside without a second thought.

Deep inside, surrounded by the rumbling of rock and the clanging of metal, I raised my voice to call out to the massive figure going to work on the wall in front of me, “Hey, Jerrik! I need to ask you a question!”

The clanging stopped instantly, and the towering mass of muscle slowly turned to look back at me. Jerrik was absolutely huge and clearly had some form of giant blood in him, or so I assumed. Humans in this world came in all sizes, after all.

Even so, Jerrik towered over the likes of someone like Whitebeard and I was like an ant to him. He loomed over me without any effort, shadowing me with his presence. Covered with tattoos and scars from head to toe, he made for an intimidating presence. Despite this however, the voice that came out of his mouth was anything but.

“Irana,” He rumbled in a warm tone as he recognized me, “What brings you to my humble abode?”

“This is business, not pleasure I'm afraid.” I said, looking up at him, “I need a map. Preferably one of… whatever ocean we're in right now.”

Jerrik, despite his large size, had a habit of getting his hands on things that he shouldn't. Food, clothes, fresh water, pretty much anything that you could think of that you would need in this hellhole, Jerrik usually had. That made him the go to person if you needed something that you wouldn't normally have access to, sort of like some black market dealer except he dealt in basic human necessities.

Jerrik paused, looking down at me, “And what could you possibly need one of those for? People like us don't need to know how to get around outside of this place.”

“Cut the shit, Jerrik. I'm not in the mood.” I grunted.

He shrugged his giant shoulders, “I was just trying to have a little fun. It's very dull around here, as I'm sure you know. I still need to know why you need it.”

Jerrik was good people. He was a little bit eccentric sometimes, but he had been good to both Umi and I, helping me get the hang of things around here after my ‘amnesia’ and protecting Umi any time I couldn't be there for her. That was why I didn't mind telling him exactly what the map was for.

“The mine's running out of seastone.” I said simply, “We can't stay here much longer or they're going to execute us once they realize that. I'm not planning on staying around and letting Umi get killed so we're leaving as soon as we can. I need a map so we don't sail into the calm belt the moment we get out of here.”

Jerrik nodded, accepting my explanation without hesitation, “I see. Well in that case, or in any case really, I'm afraid I can't help you. I don't have anything like that. Your best bet would be the acquisitions office.”

I sighed, “That's what I was afraid of. Thanks anyway, Jerrik.”

Jerrik nodded as he returned to his task of digging out the tunnel, “I knew the time for this was arriving but I didn't expect it to be so soon… Or is it? I can't quite seem to remember how long I've been here.”

His words confused me, “What do you mean? Expect what?’

“For my former comrades to receive the order to empty out the place.” He responded, slamming his axe against the stone with a bit more force, “If we're really running out of seastone, then there's no reason for them to keep us any longer. Standard procedure in situations like these is to clean house, as you said.”

I stared up at the giant man with a shocked expression, “I didn't know you were a marine.”

The sheet of rock he was hammering away at gave way, and he gave me a wry look as he set his axe against the wall, gathering stones in his arms, “I don't spread it around. Besides, it was in the past. Has to be if I'm here, right?”

He shuffled forward and I grabbed the bucket from where it was sitting by his feet and pulled it in front of me. Well I say bucket, but it was really more akin to a small bathtub. A heavy metal bathtub that could probably fit Jerrik himself if he wanted to squeeze in.

“You'll have to tell me the story some time.” I said as he dumped the rocks in his arms inside.

“Maybe.” He said before leaning towards me with curious eyes, “For now though, tell me what that plan of yours is. How are you planning on getting little Umi out of here?”

I gave him the broad strokes of what if cooked up so far, knowing that he was probably the last person who would snitch on us. As I finished, he nodded slowly, thinking over what I had said.

“Hmm, it's rough, but it might work.” He said after a moment, “Not many will make it out, though.”

“A few is better than none at all, right?”

He nodded, “Very true. If even one of us makes it out, then this will have been a victory. Which is why I would like to join you when the time comes.”

I grinned, “You’re more than welcome to. Strength like yours will go a long way to helping us get out of here.”

“I'm not nearly as powerful as I used to be, but I will try my best to help.” He said as he picked up his axe and went back to mining.

“That's all any of us can do these days.”

~~~

The acquisItions office was not a place that some random slave could just wander into. As a matter of fact, it was the type of place that some random slave would be immediately executed if they were found snooping around in. It was where all of the paperwork for every single slave that ever came through the mine resided, as well as a load of other stuff such as shipping documents and trade ledgers.

Which meant that if you were sneaky enough to get in and out without being seen, it was the perfect place to go snooping if you needed a map. I wasn't sure if my sneaking skills were up to the task, but I didn't really have a choice but to find out. We needed that map.

Which was why, as I was hauling a full load of freshly broken stone down to the dumping point, I stopped about halfway there, halting the constant flow of traffic just for a moment before the slave behind me stepped around me and continued on his way, giving me a dirty look as he went.

I ignored his bad mood as I looked around at the unwashed men and women around me. Hollow, haggard expressions met my eye every which way I turned. They varied in intensity, from tired to broken, but every once in a while, I came across something different. A spark of emotion in the eyes of the few who still had the spirit left to possess such a thing.

It was these that I focused on, searching for something in particular as my eyes ran from person to person. And after a moment, I found it in a massive tower of a man, hunched over his spilled bucket of loose stone. His face was pinched and I could see his shoulders trembling noticeably. He was clearly new here, and ready to snap at any moment. That worked perfectly.

A stone thrown with careful precision hit him on the top of the head with an audible thunk, and he froze, his eyes going wide as he registered what just happened, before a vein pulsed on his head.

He whirled around, eyes frenzied as he practically frothed at the mouth, “WHO'S THE DEAD MAN WHO THREW THAT?” He demanded, looking at the fearful slaves around him. Most of them shied back, but the stronger willed ones glared right back at him.

He only seemed angrier at the lack of response, “DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'LL FUCKING KILL WHOEVER DID THIS!” He screamed, practically frothing at the mouth.

“You ain't gonna do shit!”

“Yeah! Nobody cares who you are! We're all in the same boat here! You're not special!”

With a roar, the man launched himself at the two slaves who had spoken, starting a fight with them right there in the middle of the frozen crowd surrounding them. Punches were thrown and bones were broken as more and more people were drawn into the fight because of their mere proximity, and it didn't take long for someone to take notice.

“Hey! Break it up!” A marine yelled, blowing loudly on a whistle to alert his fellow soldiers. He pulled the rifle from his back, aiming it at the brawling slaves as if that would accomplish anything, but his aim was thrown off as a stone struck him in the side of the face, sending his bullet towards the ceiling instead of at the crowd.

And after that, all hell broke loose. The violence seemed to ignite something inside even the most broken slaves because soon everyone in sight had joined in. Marines from farther away noticed the growing commotion and made their way towards it, including several who came rushing out of a nearby tunnel to try and quell the growing crowd

As the violence began to get more intense and years of anger and frustration poured forth from those who didn't think themselves capable of it anymore, I decided it was time to make my exit. I ditched my stones in a nearby alcove in the rocks before slipping down the tunnel the marines had come from, escaping the commotion as I made my way into a long, dark hallway carved from the stone.

It was smoother than the rest, clearly carved with a purpose other than just mining for seastone. The walls were lined with burning torches and the floor was actually boarded with wood instead of just more stone, which normally meant that it was for official use by the marines. No slaves allowed, in other words.

Too bad for them then, that my goal lied at the end. The acquisitions office was deep into the hallway, nestled in between two storerooms and thankfully left unguarded thanks to the commotion just outside. It was only thanks to the panic that they hadn't locked the door, and getting in was as easy as turning the knob and slipping inside.

The room was large and looked somewhat like an office back in my old world. Numerous desks were shadowed by flickering candles, hundreds of random papers and books were strewn around the room in seemingly random stacks and yet there was some semblance of order to it all. Controlled chaos, I believe it was called. I was a master of it before my death, or at least that was what I told anyone who visited my apartment.

In the dead center of the room, lay a table with even more papers strewn about, and it was that which caught my attention as upon closer inspection, those papers revealed themselves to be what I was looking for. Maps, dozens of them, all scattered haphazardly among a ton of other, randomly sorted documents.

I made my way over to them, sifting through them all as I looked for one that would work the best. Half of them were covered with red marks and x’s for reasons I couldn't really discern and didn't have time to think about. I just needed one that would let me know where I was going.

I grabbed the most detailed and least marked of the bunch and stuffed it in my shirt, folding it up and sliding it into the waistband of my pants with the sound of crumpling paper. Mission complete
That was much easier than I expected, but I couldn't leave just yet. There was one more thing I needed to do while I was in here.

Turning away from the table, I made my way towards the massive filing cabinet sitting against the back of the room. There was a sign above it that simply read, ‘Acquisitions’, and dozens of dates were written on the various doors.

The fact that there was actual record keeping about the slaves in the mine came as a surprise to me, but I guess it made some sense when one thought about it. This place was technically an official mine, of one run by indentured servants. They needed to keep track of their ‘workers’ so nobody slipped through the cracks.

Looking for one in particular, I pulled out the drawer, searching through the papers for one in particular.

“Gotcha.” I muttered as I found what I was looking for.

Umi's file was several years old and clearly hadn't seen the light of day since it was out in the cabinet but it was still completely legible in spite of how yellowed the paper was. Not much was written down, just a general appearance and the place that she had been acquired, but that was exactly what I was looking for. The place she used to call home.

Umi was from the South Blue, a place called Nostra Island. The file didn't give any more information besides that, but that was really all I needed to know to get her back there, wasn't it? I memorized the location, making sure that the name of the island was burned into my mind like my own name, before slipping her file back with the others like I had never taken it in the first place.

Closing the cabinet, my hands went down the row and immediately opened another, much older one. I ran my fingers along hundreds of tiny files as I searched for my own, curiosity guiding my hand. It took a little bit to find the paper, but I managed it quicker than before as I got the hang of the filing system in place.

Whoever was in charge of this clearly either got paid extremely well or was very passionate about bookkeeping because the organization on display was better than most government buildings I had seen in my old life. I managed to find my own name in less than a minute, way quicker than most banks back home managed to do it.

Inside, just like Umi's, there was a small description of what I looked like, my name, as well as my apparent place of origin. There was also a picture of Irana when she was much younger and about as happy as one could expect a child to be as they just entered the slave trade. I ignored the picture of the crying child, instead staring at the three innocuous lines of printed text beside it with a bemused expression.

Irana D. Porter
Found in: East Blue
Appearance: Female, brown hair, topaz eyes.

Irana D. Porter, huh? Well wasn't that interesting.

I digested my full name, running it over in my mind for the first time ever and as I did so, I couldn't help but laugh dryly. Was this some sort of joke? Not only had I been dropped into the body of some poor little girl post suicide attempt, but that same girl had the infamous Will of D? Guess the desire to change the world wasn't quite enough to overcome the desire to leave it.

I wasn't sure why Irana wasn't executed the moment her middle initial was discovered, especially considering who this mine belonged to, but I had a feeling there was divine trickery going on. For all the good it did her.

I put the files back exactly as I found them and closed the drawer, thinking about what this meant. Which was… not much, honestly. This wasn't my body and that letter wasn't mine to inherit. And even if it was, I had no big plans to change the world or become king of the pirates or anything grand like that. I just wanted to get Umi out of here and make sure the girl was safe.

After that… well, I guess I'd see, assuming I lived that long.

Deciding I'd spent too long in here already, I began to make my way back to the door before I was discovered. As I moved however, something caught my eye, unearthed from underneath the maps and other papers I had moved around earlier. I snatched it as I passed the table by, holding it up to inspect my find.

It was a dagger. A well made one too judging by the sturdiness of the blade as I unsheathed. It shined dully in the light, marked by numerous precious battles yet clearly just as sharp as the day it was first honed. This would be useful.

I bent down and cut a thick strip of my ragged pant leg and lengthened the strip into a long ribbon. I tied that around my upper thigh and slid the dagger inside, holstering securely against my skin.

Just as I slid my pants leg back down, my ears caught the sound of distant footsteps growing closer. I darted behind the door, hiding in the shadow of the frame just in time as the door opened less than two seconds later.

It was a marine, young by his frame or maybe just not that well built. He was clutching a pistol in his hand and was walking with a slight limp. Blood dripped down his leg and my nose twitched at the smell of spent gunpowder. Clearly his gun had just been used.

“I don't know why I even accepted this post.” He groaned as he set his pistol on the desk and bent down to slide open a nearby drawer, pulling out a medical kit, “Those slaves… every day it's something else. Never seen that many of them go at it before. I'm so glad we'll all be out of here soon. I'm not gonna miss this place at all.”

So I was right. I listened to the man gripe about the borderline riot that I had apparently started with something akin to resignation. If the regular rank and file were expecting to be out of this place soon, then things must really be dire. It seemed that I made the right choice in preparing to get the hell out of dodge when I had the chance.

From the way the man was speaking, things were going to become really bad really soon. As he was distracted with his complaining, I slipped out the door, darting into the hallway behind his back while he wasn't looking.

Sneaking back to the greater part of the mine was a little harder than sneaking out of it but I managed it without issue. I grabbed my bucket full of stones and dumped it in the issued place like nothing ever happened, before making my way back to my section of the mine without any issue.

“Where you been?” One of the slaves I worked with aske, looking at me strangely as I picked up my axe.

“Doesn't matter.” I said as I began to work, and that was that.