Session 24

**Session 24** is unofficially titled “Search Party”

## Summary

After the game show had ended, the crew regrouped in the middle of a town on Oria. They could see that the town only had a few dozens houses, with most of the land take up by fields of crops. They also came across some odd trees, whose branches went upwards and eventually curled forward back to the center of the tree. Stede spotted the Jolly Roger of a pirate ship from the distance and wanted to check it out, but Ashton reminded him that they needed to discuss the newly acquired devil seed first. Stede asked anyone who was interested in having it to raise their hand, which only Ashton did. Stede handed the devil seed to Ashton and then went on to investigate the pirate ship.

The crew approaches the pirate ship and sees a tall man with a full body tattoo of a skeletal serpent, as well as a short fishman. The whole crew begins to get closer to greet them. The crews captain is wary of them at first, asking if they’re gonna start trouble with them, and that he’s not in the mood for that right now. Stede reassures him that they’re not looking for a fight despite the rest of the crews odd threats. The captain explains that they’re trying to locate their crew mate he calls “Morty Long”, and that he hasn’t come back after trying to investigate the marines of the island. The crew offers help in finding him so they all begin to formally introduce themselves. Leon lies about being the captain and that their crew is named the “Baseball Pirates”, which he believes despite Stede trying to correct him. The captain tells them his name is Mézan, leader of the Jurassic Pirates, and that the fishman standing next to him is named Komoro. He explains that Komoro has integrated the fighting style of fishman karate into his swordplay, allowing him to cut the humidity in the air to cut people from the inside. Stede asks him where they got the name Jurassic Pirates from, so Mézan shows off his devil fruit ability, the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Ankylosaur, an Ancient Zoan-type. Stede then shows off his devil fruit ability to him also, which surprises him as it’s a rare Mythical Zoan-type.

Stede finally gets through to Mézan that he’s the captain and that their crew is named the Gorilla Pirates. They then agree to form an alliance and go into town to search for “Morty Long”. They split into two groups, with group one being Low, Leon, Mézan, and Komoro. And group two being Stede, Kushay, and Ashton. After they split up to search for the so called “Morty Long”, Leon gets an sudden epiphany that the person they’re looking for is actually Moe D. Lonne from the similarity of the names. With this strike of knowledge Leon begins to look in the tall grass for anything out of the ordinary and notices a patch of grass that’s much shorter than the rest. Lonne pops out from the ground and is surprised to see Leon and Low standing there. Leon asks him why he’s a pirate, and he tells him that he felt of no use to Milaiya after the war had ended. So he decided to set off to sea, thinking of joining the marines at first, but ultimately chose to be a pirate because he was inspired by the Gorilla Pirates helping end the war peacefully. Low starts pestering Lonne about his outfit. He offers to help him getting what he thinks would be a better outfit, but Lonne refuses over and over, claiming he is just fine with his hospital gown. Mézan asks Lonne about what he’s found out about the marines. Lonne says that they’ve been having the citizens of the island gather tree sap from the odd trees that grow on the island, and that they have even substituted the tax payments for it.

The second group observes as a withered old marine harasses an older lady about multiple late shipments of tree sap, rudely demanding that they get it to them soon. After the old marine begins to walk off, Low sprints up to him and places one of his swords against his throat. Low asks the old marine for one reason to not kill him there and then, and the marine responds terrified that he doesn’t have one, as he perfectly fits Low’s criteria for a murder target. But the marine retaliates against Low by kicking him in the knee before he could do anything, which causes Low to begin to violently vomit. The marine introduces himself as Lieutenant Commander Byogen, and attacks Low once again by punching him in the face, which makes him to begin bleeding profusely. Byogen taunts Low for attempting to fighting and threatens that he will deal with him before leaving for the islands marine base. The second group goes over to the first group after witnessing Low’s encounter with Byogen, and is surprised to see Lonne with them. Lonne explains that much to his dismay, the captain calls him “Morty Long” because he can never remember his actual name. Some of the crew begins to get riled up about the marines, and say that they want to go after them. Ashton questions the size of the marines forces on the island, and Lonne explains that the marines shouldn’t have an overwhelming amount of soldiers because of the islands relatively small size.