The Dream Pirates' Flag

"The helmsman's position will be kept for Jinbe. Once he stops being one of the Seven Warlords, we'll invite him aboard immediately."

As Rune spoke, he calculated, "We're still short a dedicated navigator, cook, and ship's doctor. We might also need a sniper and a shipwright."

For now, everyone shared the work of those positions. Naturally, it would be better if they could find specialists.

The most important among them were the navigator and the ship's doctor.

But where should they find new companions?

"Forget it, let's not think about that yet. Kuma, take us to the Sabaody Archipelago first. We need Uncle Rayleigh to coat the ship."

Rune stopped dwelling on it, intending to think things over once they reached the Sabaody Archipelago.

"Now we have another problem. What should our pirate crew be called, and what should the symbol on our flag look like?"

After arriving at the Sabaody Archipelago and leaving the ship with Rayleigh for coating, Rune discussed this new issue with his companions in their room.

Before, he had always introduced himself as the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Seventeenth Division. But he was no longer a member of the Whitebeard Pirates.

He couldn't exactly call himself the former commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Seventeenth Division, could he?

That would be far too strange.

"You're the captain, so you decide."

Bonney looked unconcerned. "Why not just call it the Rune Pirates?"

Bonney's former crew had been called the Bonney Pirates. Naturally, Rune's crew could be named after him as well.

However, Rune shook his head.

"This isn't just my pirate crew. It belongs to all of us. I want the crew's name to be connected to every one of us."

"That's way too hard to come up with."

As Bonney said this, Yamato nodded as well. After thinking for a long time, she still could not come up with a name that met Rune's requirements.

Rune was troubled too. Clearly, he did not have any good ideas either.

Everyone aboard came from vastly different backgrounds and had very different personalities. Finding something connected to all of them was far too difficult.

"How about... the Dream Pirates?"

Shirahoshi spoke softly, watching Rune as she spoke. "Didn't everyone on this ship set sail because of that?"

"Wouldn't that be too ordinary?"

Tashigi voiced her doubts, but after thinking for a while, Rune nodded gently.

"Then we'll be called the Dream Pirates. Everyone has dreams, and we struggle across the seas to fulfill our own dreams."

Rune looked at Shirahoshi and gave her an encouraging glance.

"Shirahoshi, that was a good idea. You can be more confident in the future."

"Th-thank you for the praise, Lord Rune."

Shirahoshi's pretty face flushed. She had only mentioned it casually and never expected it to actually be adopted. Rune's encouraging words warmed her heart even more.

"Next, we need to come up with an emblem for our pirate crew."

Rune took out a sheet of paper and a drawing pen.

"Do any of you have ideas?"

"Base it on your image."

Yamato said, "You're the captain. When people see the emblem, they should immediately think of you."

The others nodded as well, agreeing with Yamato. The crew was called the Dream Pirates because it was connected to everyone aboard.

Then the pirate flag needed to clearly point to Rune, their captain.

"My defining traits... don't seem all that distinctive."

Rune blinked. "My Devil Fruit ability is unusual, but darkness... there's no way to express that with a simple drawing, right?"

If it were the Magma-Magma Fruit or the Ice-Ice Fruit, it would be quite easy to design. But for the Dark-Dark Fruit, pirate flags generally already had black backgrounds.

This was too difficult.

"I don't have any signature weapon or anything..."

Rune did have a greatsword, but to him, it was only a tool and could not be considered his symbol.

"I have an idea..."

Shirahoshi spoke up again, though this time her voice was slightly more confident than before.

"We could use black and white blocks to form a vortex, with a skull in the center. Black mist could rise from the skull's eyes, and then two letter Ls could form a cross..."

The more Rune listened to Shirahoshi, the more pleasantly surprised he became. This design actually seemed quite good.

The vortex made of black and white blocks represented one form of his Devil Fruit ability. The black mist in the skull's eyes was both cool and similar to what his power looked like when activated.

The cross made from the letter L was for Rune's name.

"Let's use that design. Tomorrow, we'll find someone to make the flag."

Rune looked at Shirahoshi and smiled gently.

"Shirahoshi, it's all thanks to you. Without you, who knows how long the rest of us would have spent trying to think of something."

"As long as I could help Lord Rune..."

Shirahoshi's face turned red as she lowered her head. Receiving Rune's praise once again made her very happy.

Having decided on the flag's design, Rune immediately went out to find someone to make the pirate flag. Of course, this time they only needed one.

There was no need to make many. Rune no longer needed to offer protection to others, and a pirate crew of his current size could not manage such a thing anyway.

When the new flag was raised on the ship, Rune's feelings were somewhat complicated as he looked at the emblem that represented him. After leaving the Sabaody Archipelago once more, he had Kuma send the ship directly to the New World.

"It seems the first priority is finding a ship's doctor. With Kuma here, it isn't too much of a problem if we don't have a navigator for now."

Thanks to Kuma's Devil Fruit ability, Rune's ship would not encounter much danger even without a navigator. However, no one aboard had any ability to treat people, nor had anyone studied medicine.

As for a candidate for ship's doctor, Rune was having some trouble.

Famous ship's doctors were either already doctors on someone else's crew or captains themselves. Marco and Trafalgar Law, for example, were highly capable, but neither would join Rune's ship.

Actually, if Rune wanted to, he could tell Whitebeard about it, and Whitebeard would probably be willing to send Marco over. But when Rune thought of Ace's terrible personality, he felt it was better to leave Marco there.

Otherwise, Rune feared that such a large pirate crew would be wrecked by Ace within days.

Trafalgar Law could cooperate with him, but under the current circumstances, getting him aboard was somewhat unlikely. After all, Law had his own convictions and dreams, so he was unlikely to join Rune's crew.

Or perhaps Rune could recruit him after the Blackbeard Pirates wiped him out...

Oh, Blackbeard had already been beaten to death by him.

Then never mind.

Rune shook his head and stopped thinking about all that messy stuff. He had nothing much to do now and could only sail aimlessly across the sea every day.

After all, Luffy's Nika Fruit had yet to awaken. Even if they found One Piece now, it would be useless.

Besides, Rune was also considering where he could find a second Devil Fruit to pair with the Dark-Dark Fruit.

These days, a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit was not so easy to get his hands on.