The Shadow Assault

Genkai effortlessly made its way through the erratic seas that signify a no man’s land of weather where the climates of multiple islands fight for supremacy, and entered the stable climate of the nearby winter island. The imposing ship of the Yonko had a set destination in mind, and it couldn’t be bothered to be led astray from its path, even by the fierce weather of the New World. In fact, its path held true since the moment it was decided that they would be making an early stop at this island.

On board the ship was the bulk of the pirate crew’s main forces, including Yonko Daikaku himself. As they neared the island, they never once slowed. They didn’t even approach the port. Instead, Karoshi, separating his upper body at his hips, flew backwards, leaving his legs standing at the ship’s stern. As his upper body flew off, he continued separating into smaller increments. His forearms shot forward, grabbing Genkai’s sides near the front and began pulling up, while his torso flew aft to the stern end of the keel and grabbed on, hugging the keel with his upper arms for greater stability. With his forearms raising the fore-end up out of the water, the rear-end became cradled by his torso, and began lifting it in turn. Karoshi’s head flew off his shoulders next, moving beneath the now flying ship so as to have a clear view of his flight path. The whole process felt very smooth and practiced.

Karoshi carried the mighty Genkai over the coniferous forests to a lake well inland, and gingerly let her down into the chilly waters. The Monk Pirates had reached their destination of Hiyayaka Island, an island that was a part of their territory. Having arrived, Karoshi’s legs began walking forward as his separated body began coalescing around his lower half. The various eccentrics that made up the crew began exiting the ship, ready to call this island their home for the immediate future.

Not Daikaku and several of his top officers though. There was a reason they rushed straight to this island. The monastic Pirate Emperor had been making plans to meet face to face with Legs, a Yonko much like himself, for several months now. They were both rather hard headed though, making the negotiations about everything rather difficult, from where to meet to how many men should accompany each pirate warlord. However, once they had finally settled on an arrangement that they could both agree upon, Daikaku set his ship on a direct path to the nearest island in his territory and called the reigning Wild Card to inform him of his imminent arrival. Since they had agreed to only bringing a small retinue along with them, Daikaku decided to leave Genkai and the rest of his crew somewhere familiar while he and his escort would take Harlequin’s smaller, personal vessel, Yatagarasu. As the Yonko had yet to settle down on any one island to be his main base of operations, Genkai itself was his main base, and contained what little physical information regarding his crew that he kept within it. Because of this, he never left the ship unguarded. For the express purpose of safeguarding the ship, he docked it in the heart of this island that was part of his territory.

Ebenezer met with his captain as he set foot on the island that he ruled over in Daikaku’s stead as the acting Wild Card, exchanging indifferent pleasantries with each other, more as formality than any actual interest. This continued for a short while before Daikaku left his ship in Ebenzer’s care, asking him to watch over it. With his retinue that would be joining him in tow, he then made his way along a shallow creek that connects the lake to the waters of the New World. The brackish waters where creak meets sea had been the decided meeting place with Harlequin, who had been on a separate mission on his smaller bark before being told to meet up on Hiyayaka.

Karoshi was chosen to stay behind to watch over Genkai, along with a select few other high ranked officers, who would be keeping watch in shifts. Karoshi didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to try anything, but precautions had to be made anyways.