Across the Line

With a Cherry on Top
"Way hay and up she rises, way hay and up she rises, way hay and up she rises, early in the morning!"

The seas of the were as fierce as ever. The weather was virtually unpredictable, and so in a matter of seconds since leaving, the ship of the Titan Pirates' Fifth Division was caught up firstly in a twister, and now more currently in the midst of a brutal storm. "Shave his belly with a rusty razor, shave his belly with a rusty razor, shave his belly with a rusty razor, early in the morning!"

The ship was tossed around, forced to angle left, then right almost immediately to avoid the forthcoming onslaught. And even then it was caught by the miniature tsunami, only to be spit out seconds later as a jagged bolt of lightning narrowly missed the front deck.

"What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning!"

But even so, those upon the ship were in as joyous a mood as ever. And why not? Surely a lost captain was no way to celebrate an expedition from Dressrosa! Surely the promise of a terrifying battle was no way to appreciate the food, the culture, and most of all, the women they had seen in a kingdom lush with dandelions!

"Stick him in a barrel with a hosepipe on him, stick him in a barrel with a hosepipe on him, stick him in a barrel with a hosepipe on him, early in the morning!"

Yes, the sea shanties were as loud as ever aboard the The Good Burger, as members of the Fifth Division of the Titan Pirates, led by second in command Foxpack, swarmed the seas with the island of Bedina held closely in mind. But that was a matter of several days even still; and so what if the Xros Pirates awaited an inevitable duel with them? For now they were free, for now they were well fed and for now they were content with the ways it all had went!

"Hoy, hoy! Keep that junk away from me-gara!" Foxpack barked, as a tipsy subordinate of his bumped into him, nearly spilling his alcohol over his coat, "and for god's sake, put on your clothes already! It's been over a day since we've gone and left Dressrosa-gara!!"

From the front of the ship, a large man could be seen flying through the air, almost as if he had been launched by the waves lurching the ship up and down. Many crew members yelled at him to come down, some drunk in their merriment, some legitimately concerned that he was about to fall off. Then seemingly as if it was trying to catch him, the mast swung between him and the edge of the ship he was heading for, moving as the ship rocked back and forth. Flipping in mid air, Katashi landed feet first on the mast, before shooting off towards the deck below.

“THERE’S A BANANA IN THE OCEAN VICE-COMMANDER!!!!” could be heard above the storm from the man in the air as he rocketed towards the deck, slowly spinning forward before he crashed back first into the deck. Using the last of his momentum, he rolled forward before flipping over his commander, to land about four feet in front of the mink.

Katashi straightened to his full height of seven feet with a salute before looking down at his shorter commander. “Foxy-Vice-Commander Sir, there is a banana in the ocean directly in front of us. I felt you should be made aware Foxy-Vice-Commander Sir.” he informed the mink with a serious expression.

As the waves consumed his boat, Tabart inhaled deeply, and grabbed the sides of his banana-based vessel tightly to avoid being cast away into the ocean. Though the salt-water passed quickly, the inside of his small ship had been drenched in water that now rested up to his ankles; Tabart could feel his strength being siphoned away, and he expected it to get worse as he hit more waves. Simply put, the situation wasn’t good, not that any other situation he had been apart of in the last few months was good at all either.

Tabart’s eyes fell to his side, noticing a large vessel that treaded the waters without any signs of struggle. His face lit up in excitement, if not utter desperation.

“Hey,” he called out loudly, grabbing a paddle from beside himself. He slammed it into the violent waters, mustering his strength to battle the wrath of the seas itself to get to the boat.

“Hey! Please, help me, I’m—” a wave crashed from behind him, nearly carrying him into the waves. He had managed to grab onto the boat quickly as it tipped over, and through sheer luck, he had pulled halfway onto it. However, as lower body rested in the waves, he felt every ounce of strength that he did have depleted. He barely managed to drag himself to the top of it and out of the water before the ocean had stolen all his energy. However, as the next wave in the distance approached, Tabart knew that he wouldn’t be able to survive it. He looked to the ship.

“I’m going to die out here if I don’t get any help! I swear, I’ll pay you if need be. Just help me!”

"Hoy!" Foxpack barked, seeing Katashi flop around the deck like a fish right before his own eyes."Get up and pull yourself together-gara! Is that any way for a pirate worth 84,000,000 to behave, Katashi?!"

Foxpack's ears twitched at the thought of a banana boat. Had he heard that correctly the first time? The storm was loud, but his hearing was far too acute to doubt. As Katashi straightened himself out, towering over his petite frame, Foxpack received the conformation he had been looking for.

"Hoy, just once is enough-gara," he spat, grasping the pommel of his sheathed meito for no reason in particular, "now what is this about a banana boat?"

Foxpack stormed ahead, nearly creeping over the figurehead as he looked yonder at the devilish seas that awaited them. And good golly, what he saw greatly surprised him: a man sailing on a piece of fruit!

"Hoy!!!" he hollered aloud as if scolding the man for his idiotic ventures, "what are you doing out there-gara?!?!" Help? That man needed help? Yeah, no kidding! Foxpack turned back around to Katashi and the rest of his crew. "Hoy! That man needs help out there! Fetch the rope-gara!!"

A rope? He didn't think a rope would be nearly enough to save that banana. But he needed preparations to be made, in the least, to save that man's life before the sea consumed him as it did so many countless others!

“Right Away Foxy-Vice-Commander-Sir!” Katashi responded sharply while he looked around for something that would be helpful. A light could almost be seen lighting up above his head as he saw the front anchor, chain attached and all. He jumped over to it, reaching it within a single bounce. Grabbing the first link of the chain, he stared intently at the front of the ship, waiting. He had to time this perfectly.

As the ship crested the wave that had almost sunk the banana boat in front of them, the front end dropped, severely. Leaving Katashi with a perfect view of the boat about to be consumed by the next. His muscles bulged as he pulled with all of his strength, whipping the anchor around his body before he let it fly forward, arching up towards the sky at a breakneck pace before coming back down straight at the boat and it’s single occupant. A large splash could be seen from the deck of The Good Burger, even from this distance, as it impacted the water directly next to the boat with aplomb.

“COME WITH US IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!!!!” could be heard by all around as Katashi yelled it to the heavens. “WE HAVE COOKIES!!!”

"Oh thank the gods!" Tabart expressed dramatically, leaping from his boat onto the anchor directly, clutching the anchor in his warm embrace. "Pull it! Please, for the love of the gods, pull it before that wave hits me right in my freakin face!" Tabart screamed towards Katashi.

Foxpack looked over his shoulder at Katashi's bizarre promise of cookies. Technically he wasn't lying. But what a way to convince a man to remain with his life intact; as if the banana man was going to come for some chocolate chip infested dough!

"What are you waiting for?" Foxpack barked again. "Pull him in-gara!!"

Katashi grunted, throwing the chain up in the air for a moment, before stretching his arms out forward. Twin spikes formed out of his arms, one at where each of his elbows were. He had consumed the, making him a bladed human.

As the chain dropped back down, he brought his right arm back, shoving the spike inside the center of one of the links. Continuing with his backswing, he pulled on the chain to draw the anchor closer. Then once his arm was pulled all the way back, he punched his arm back out as he ducked to the right under the chain. Where he repeated the process with his left arm. With a rapid series of punches and elbows, the anchor started reeling back towards the ship, dragged by the force of the man who had thrown it.

“SUPA PULLING ELBOWS!!!” he shouted as he went through the storm of elbows and fists.

The ride was somehow bumpy as the anchor skidded across the water effortlessly, pulled by the man that had launched it hundreds of feet out from their ship. He looked up, but everytime he did, water would slam right into his eyes, so, for the most part he kept them closed. The next time he did open them, he was sitting upon the deck of their ship, his turban drenched in water. He coughed as he gathered his breath, and prayed as he sat upon the deck of a much larger ship. He looked up to Katashi.

"Thank you so much! I have no idea how I'm ever going to repay you! You must be the captain of this vessel, I suppose! I mean, you're huge."

Katashi just rubbed the back of his head with a smile as the smaller man thanked him, slightly tired from the force of his efforts "I'm glad you think so, but I'm just in charge of the preperation crew." he explained before pointing at Foxpack. "Vice-Commander Foxpack is the commander of this ship."

Drawing out his sword the moment Tabart's bottom had slammed against the deck of The Good Burger, Foxpack pointed it toward what he was forced to assume was an intruder for the time being. Yes, it was by his command that Tabart's life had been saved and yes it was through his command that Tabart was let onto the ship in the first place, but even still, as the stand in leader of the Fifth Division, he couldn't let his guard down. Especially not as they were drawing closer and closer upon Xros territory.

"Explain yourself-gara. What were you doing in the middle of nowhere on that... banana?" It took Foxpack no more than a few seconds to comprehend just how utterly ridiculous that sounded. Oh why was he surrounded by idiots?

His brow narrowed and he flexed his face along his eye-patch as he studied Tabart's drenched frame. "Hold on a second. You seem familiar-gara. Where have I seen you before?"

Tabart looked at Foxpack, and squinted as he made eye contact. "Oh wait, it's you!" Tabart jumped. "Y-You were on Elbaf during the wedding! Foxpack, the dude that murdered that one marine! Er...what was his name?" Tabart continued, snapping as his attempted to remember. "Dario! Yeah, that's his name. I don't know when we actually met, but it's possible you saw me there."

Tabart stood up slowly to ensure he wasn't interpreted as a threat. "But, after Elbaf, I spent time running from the marines and everything! Then, I got...er, kidnapped by some crazy people on Dressrosa, and I finally escaped their clutches!" Tabart's truth was only a half truth. He was saved by the Dressrosa Royal Family, but made forbidden to leave the island under the command of his mother, the King: Longinus Niu. However, revealing himself to be royalty to a band of pirates, no matter how helpful, was still dangerous. Especially someone with a bounty like Foxpack's.

"Anyway, I couldn't steal a boat, so I made my own, but as you see, it didn't hold up well."

"Elbaf...? Oh, now I see-gara!" He sheathed his weapon at once. Yes, now he remembered. Though they had never formally met, there was a certain character known as Benjamin Tabart that had grown in popularity since the events of the royal wedding. A bounty of nearly half his own, it would have been odd to not have remembered seeing Tabart in the newspaper that very next day, at the very least.

Foxpack quirked his brow. "You have my confused with someone else-gara, for I did not take a single life during my time on Elbaf." He recalled the events leading up to the royal wedding. His bout with Salazar, his bout with Catrina. His eyes narrowed.

"The only death I recall is that of Jack Stalkman's!" His tone became fierce. Veins bulged around his eyes. "That rotten wench of the Fire Rocker Pirates... it was she who took his life! And I shall never forgive her for as long as I live-gara! I will see to it that even now she is slain by my blade!"

Foxpack, of course, had no idea that Tabart was the one truly behind the death of the legendary giant war hero. "Eh? You made that banana yourself-gara? Just how did you manage that?"

Tabart gulped nervously. "Yeah, that stalkman incident was soooo terrible ya know, hehe?" A sweat dripped from his brow as he nervously wiped his forehead. "Anyway, it's the power of my devil fruit!" he changed the subject quickly. "I ate the Mosa mosa no Mi and became a Plant Human! I can generate and manipulate all known plants! I call that boat thing a banana boat, haha! Get it? Like the ice-cream snack thing?"

"You can what?!" Again, did he hear that right? Foxpack's eye widened. This boy could grow crops of that magnitude with his ability? Imagine the tandem he and Katashi could join forces to create! The dicing of unimaginable vegetables and fruits that the Fifth Division could use for the rest of their culinary needs!

"So what are you up to now-gara? I recall the staggering bounty you have over your head... do you belong to any crew at present?"

"Technically, I am the First Mate of the Purple Pirates! But, it's been a long time since I've seen them; in fact, the last time we had actual contact with one another was when were in Paradise," Tabart reflected, his tone growing slightly solemn. "I'll see them again, I know that, and we'll go on adventures like we always have. But, for now, I'm just trying to survive until they find me, and to avoid the marines and whoever else is after me."

He looked at Foxpack confusedly. "Why? Don't tell me you're going to turn me in!"

"Turn you in? Don't be silly-gara. What I see within you is the potential to become a member of our forces. Just imagine, an invitation to serve under one of the Yonko, the mightiest of the pirates across these seas! What an offer it is! Surely one that you cannot deny?"

"Uh! Me? Yonko crew? I-I don't think I'm good enough for your ranks honestly," Tabart admitted. "Most of my bounty is made up stuff! Especially the Ashley bit. Nothing ever happened between me and that woman; I promise. I'd only be a detriment, I think."

"At least consider it-gara! Who's telling you to fight for us? We're the culinary division after all!" He pointed toward Katashi. "Take him for example. To you take him to be a chef? Most certainly not-gara! The boy can't make a damn sandwich on his own, but he has an important role within our mix nevertheless.

"Now, that's not to say that he won't become an extraordinary cook in due time. Matter of fact, I'm almost certain you'd find his cooking to be excellent now if you were to try it, but that's aside from the point. The fact of the matter here-gara, is that your ability is simply to fitting for our needs. Do you have any idea as to how much easier you'd make our work?"

Foxpack was somehow surprisingly intense for his small stature, and while Tabart truly had no desire to join their crew, per say, he did somehow fear that he would be thrown off their ship if he denied. Or, he feared that Foxpack would learn he killed Stalkman-sama and be furious. In fact, if that happened during this ride, being apart of his crew might make that a tad bit more lenient. Tons of thoughts ran rampant through Tabart's head, and in the end, simply saying yes seemed the better option.

"Ah, yes!" Tabart responded, putting his hands up defensively, "If you think I can truly be of help, I have no problem joining the crew, of course. My main worry is that; but how exactly, am I going to be of help?"

Foxpack smiled, for once. It was assuring to have someone with such a useful ability with them at long last! "We'll get a garden of your design going here right on this very deck-gara, that's how! I can see it now: the amount of ingredients that we shall have at our disposal with you on our side!" Foxpack's tongue escaped his mouth and licked around his snout.

He was enjoying himself all too well when one of his subordinates called out to him in angst. "Foxpack-sama! An Xros ship has been spotted in the distance!"

At once Foxpack regained his conscious mind. An intense composure possessed his mind, like that of a natural born leader. "Avert this ship in the other direction! No matter if Bedina takes another day's trip; under no circumstances are we to engage that ship in combat! Hurry before they set their sights upon us-gara!"

Now among their ranks, even if only temporarily, Tabart was going to have to experience the horrors of the Yonko wars from up close and personal. "Arm your stations, men! Turn this ship around-gara!!"

Katashi heard the command of his leader, before quickly turnng around. He crouched down, before leaping through the air once more, heading towards the central mast. It was a leap he made within a single bound. Katashi's combat post just happened to be in the crows nest, far up into the sky. He was a member of the rigging team when it came to combat, though he was regularly told to participate in boarding actions. Reaching the base of the mast before many members of the crew had even fully reacted to the order, he grabbed the side of the mast. He quickly scaled up the mast itself, not bothering with climbing up the rope rigging, reaching the crow's nest in less than a minute from the moment that Foxpack gave his commands.

As he tied himself off to the nest, to prevent himself from being flung off by the force of the waves, he simply said to his nestmate with a hint of sadness, "We should probably just take out the ship... but orders are orders..."

Tabart gulped and looked around confusedly. As everyone scurried around, his eyes fell from one spot to another. "Um, excuse me sir, but..." he paused as he looked at the Xros ship. His eyes froze. "I-I..." Tabart swallowed his fear, and pulled his eyes away from the enemy vessel. He looked into Foxpack's own, his resolute will made evident by intensity of his eyes. "Where would you like me to go?"

Foxpack looked back into Tabart's with a certain degree of intensity. "We're off to Bedina: we're headed straight into their territory."

He reached into his pocket, clutching his Den Den Mushi. He made to call Apu immediately. There was no looking back now.

Burning Chains
Within an underground training center in were 5 masked individuals, of varying heights and builds, lined up in straight rows and columns, looking directly towards a leader on a podium. They were a smaller individual, with long purple hair and wore very large robes and a long white mask. As they spoke, all movement within the crowd desisted as they listened.

"Fellow members of the Night Parade," the leader spoke with an echoing voice, "War with the Xros Pirates is nigh. We require information, and thus we will send a single operative to confirm or deny recent rumors, and gather more combat intelligence, for the sake of our Empress. The member we send shall be decided by tomorrow at dawn. Reconvene here. You are dismissed."

Almost every individual present in the large hall had nigh-instantly disappeared, leaving not a trace of their existence behind, sans a single person. They wore a grey mask with two horns and were seen with a white mane. They took said mask off, revealing their face. This was Fukuoka Soren, the normally cheerful apprentice of Kosaka Isshin, appearing quite frustrated at the recent turn of events.

"...They won't send me...I'm an apprentice, and this stuff is important for the Black Widow Pirates..." The man grumbled, his gaze peering down. "But..." Visions of two children smiling with a blue-haired parent came into his mind. "They're always there! With her! It's annoying!"

He disappeared from the training hall in an almost gliding-like fashion, before appearing in a smaller room. He began to pack his baggage, and wore his mask. He looked towards the horizon, and departed without hesitation.

He reached the port, and noticed a small ship with a crew that were about to depart with supplies. Without the crew noticing, he made his way onto the ship and hid himself in one of its many bags. Soren overheard the crew talking, saying that their ship was sailed towards Ishitani, an island that the Titan Pirates recently made their debut upon.

In approximately a week, he had appeared on Ishitani's port. He noticed its barren terrain, but kept himself well-hidden. He found a vantage point on one of the few buildings in the area, and scanned his outwards. Rather than focus his Haki through his eyes, he instead used his ears as the sensory medium. He began to pick up on the faraway sounds a normal human could never hear, and managed to find one of the ships that were sailed to Beldina. It was another supply ship, so it'd prove relatively simple to infiltrate.

Soren once more hid his presence by moving with the wind and shadows. Eventually, he found his way onto the ship and hid once more within the cargo. His ability to survive in low-oxygen conditions had been enhanced due to his training with the Night Parade, which note that the most confined places are the easiest places for a spy to hide.

In a couple of days, the supply ship from Ishitani had reached Beldina to retrieve supplies. In the process of their unloading, Soren had sneaked past the senses of the crew by sticking to the shadows of the ship, before moving into the plain town without anyone noticing him. Fukuoka Soren had now reached Beldina, and would now look for information on the Xros Pirates.

"I will be acknowledged," He said to himself, as he changed out of his Night Parade uniform. "More importantly," His eyes grew fierce, "I will help the Black Widow Pirates win!"

Some days had passed since Soren's arrival on Bedina. He had been forced to keep his movements around the island to a bare minimum due to the sheer number of forces the Xros Pirates had around. Simply put, it was a staggering amount; even some of the more well known officers of the Yonko crew had made their presence felt upon the island.

Home to countless natives, along with intelligence pertaining to the Xros Pirates, Soren had come to know about the immediate culture of Bedina's people. And, for the last few days, word encircling the premier of a new film had stolen away the interest of many.

The hype was real. The island's locals couldn't wait to see their beloved star, Nectar Ellis, on the big screen. He was a man who had been brought up in Bedina's very own soil; now, he was a movie star, one who was on the rise and could potentially take over the movie industry with his brilliant work. His new film was a much anticipated one, and tickets had been sold out a week prior to the film's premier.

That day was today.

Hundreds stood outside the line of Bedina's movie theatre. Their hearts were racing. Children couldn't hardly contain their excitement and the women… oh the women, they nearly lost consciousness simply at the thought of seeing Ellis on the big screen. What a man he was!

Ticket after ticket, ticker after ticket. The bouncers did their very best to maintain the wild crowd outside of their theatre. And as the hour came upon them, there were still hundreds left fighting for a chance to see Nectar Ellis' new movie.

Soren, who had utilized his skills in some capacity to obtain a ticket, was among those fortunate enough to be let inside. Of course his intentions were most peculiar: he closely anticipated at least some officers from the Xros Pirates to be present for the showing. But as he sat down and the film started with a fludder of cheers, he was surprised to see that not a single one of them had bothered to show up. Not yet at least.

The moment Nectar Ellis' charming face appeared on screen was the moment the projector went black. The crowd erupted into a bitter rage. That is, until the doors to the theatre which had been locked up until now, swung open, light flooding into the dark auditorium.

"Alright, alright, get out, every last one of you!" a man with long red hair announced, hands in his trouser pockets. He was a most sheepish looking man, with glinted eyes that glew in the dark, a red jacket unbuttoned to unveil his musculature, and a pair of yellow pants that were tight to his skin and folded above his ankles. He cleaned his ear with one hand while the other held a sheathed katana over his shoulder. "As of three minutes ago, I've decided to rent out this theatre for myself. The rest of you can watch this movie some other time."

The crowd groaned. But they knew better than to challenge a member of the Xros Pirates. As if on cue they all rose up from their seats and climbed up the theatre isles, departing from the movie theatre without a refund.

Soren identified the man as Al Rauf Najeem, a member of the Xros Pirates with a bounty of 320,000,000. And, oddly enough, by the designation of "Omega', whatever that meant. Since his arrival onto the island, Najeem had amounted in nothing but trouble. He was as self centered as they came.

Najeem stood lighting a cigarette as the public poured out of the two exits of the theatre on either side of him.

Soren was frustrated, undoubtedly. But he wasn't an idiot. He was trained to be a Ninja, and a Ninja did not reveal their identity so quickly. Especially during this crucial moment. So he followed the crowd and left the theatre from the left. Although his eyes made contact with Najeem's, he soon acted the part of the frail victim and shuddered, turning away and hiding his head.

The act didn't have to be convincing, for he had already exited Najeem's range of sight — or so he hoped. As opposed to completely call off his reconnaissance, Soren instead patiently waited for the crowd to disappear from the theatre's entrance. The moment Soren confirmed that nobody was in his range, he quickly hid into the shadows.

He identified the closest air vent and approached it. In the next second, Soren used the power of his Koru Koru no Mi, a Coal Logia, to deconstruct his body down into a black ash-like material. He travelled into the air vent without the need of breaking in. Without a sound, his whole body had made its way into the air vent and traveled to the theatre room's vent without an issue.

Returning to his standard human form, Soren used his trained flexibility to ensure that his body did not make unnecessary noise. To do so, he made sure he didn't collide with the ends of the air vent. He looked upon the self-centred Xros Pirate with disdain, but paid close attention to whether he would continue speaking of the operations of the Xros Pirates, knowing this was an opportune time to gain intel.

When Soren looked through the vents and into the auditorium, he did so to the sight of Najeem sitting in the middle row with his legs kicked up on the seat in front of him and his arms resting behind his head. His sword was aligned with the pommel against his shoulder and the sheathed blade standing up against the carpet.

For the longest time, Najeem didn't do much of anything, save for a small chuckle here and there. He appeared to be very concentrated on watching the film; he ran threw no less than two packs of cigarettes by the time the film had reached its intermission period.

It was during this interval that Najeem's Den Den Mushi began to ring. He was hesitant to answer it, but did so nevertheless, placing the snail on the side opposite to his sword on his shoulder, so that he could tend to more important matters with his hands: his lighter and another cigarette. "Hello?"

"Hoy, Honey Boo Boo."

"What is it, Kettle? I'm in the middle of something here."

"What could ye possibly be doin' that's so important, eh?"

There was a long silence. Najeem inhaled the fumes from the cigarette into his lungs with a long flare of his nostrils. He grew impatient of his comrade's pointless banter. "I'm watching Ellis' new picture and I'd rather not be disturbed right now. We'll talk again later."

"Hoy, wait just a second ye damn!-"

Najeem turned his head to the side, facing the transponder snail. And then, opening his mouth, he bit into the snail's throat, until its eyes faded into a blank canvas. He puffed a red smog from his mouth, intertwined with blood and ash. Just in the nick of time too, for the interval had subsided and the movie had returned to the screen.

"..." Soren did not open his mouth, but on the inside he was infuriated. However, when he heard the name Kettle, he instantly realized who was on the line. "Black Hand" Barney Kettle, a dastardly Slaver to say the very least. But what did he have to do with the Xros Pirates? He couldn't determine that from the information given to him. He continued to wait patiently until Najeem finished watching that new Ellis movie.

On that note, though. He wondered why Najeem was so entranced with the movie when it seemed so lackluster. Perhaps Najeem just had bad taste.

In time, the movie ended. But rather than leave, Najeem remained in place long after the credits had subsided. He had found the theater's seats to be most comfortable, and even despite the fact that there were hundreds of people outside waiting for him to leave so that they could watch this incredibly hyped film for themselves, he decided that now of all times was the best time to take a nap.

And so to sleep he went, snuggling his face against the grip of his sword.

Najeem didn't plan to leave anytime soon. And most of all, he truly didn't plan to return Kettle's call.

"He's a tough nut to crack, huh..." Soren thought to himself, wincing at the fact such laziness existed in the Xros Pirates. But, if he was actually this lazy, he wouldn't have such a high bounty. Soren had assumed that Najeem was aware of his presence somehow and was waiting for him to leave, but Soren had no plans of doing that. Sleepless nights weren't new to him.

The Xros Pirates would be well aware to not underestimate the intelligence gathering skills of the Night Parade. As a matter of course, Soren stayed within the confining air vent and continued to wait for Najeem to say something of value. Simply learning about Kettle's involvement in this conflict was not enough. Just what was he contributing to the Xros Pirates' forces?

Ten hours. That was the duration of Najeem's slumber.

At the ten hour mark, he sneezed himself awake, looking around the room as if he had forgotten where he was. The odor of the dead snail on the seat beside him had rung its way into his nose, and he grimaced at the sight of it. Flicking it onto the carpet, he stepped on it as he stood up, taking his sword into his hand and hauling it back over his shoulder.

Lightning another cigarette, he figured that it was time for a proper meal. He took his sweet time to depart from the theater, and as his figure came into view in the lobby, the crowd did its very best to be patient, waiting until he had exited the whole of the building before rushing into the auditorium to claim seats, where parents fought their own children for the privilege of seeing Nectar Ellis.

Into the morning sun of a fresh new day went Najeem. He had a certain destination in mind as he walked through the streets of Bedina.

As Najeem had finally left the venue, frustration was evident in Soren's eyes. But he restrained himself. Even a slight misstep was fatal here. "He pisses me off...so...damn...much!"

Soren suppressed his frustrations again, instead turning once more into a black particles and exiting the theatre within moments. Najeem had walked along a path on the ground, so Soren had decided to traverse across the buildings. He kept to places with a lot of cover, and as opposed to jumping, moved around with the help of his Devil Fruit to avoid any excess sound. He had hoped Najeem was a little more dutiful this time, lest he leave without obtaining any intelligence at all.

Where Najeem ventured next was a small shop with a big line. The shop itself was a small building dedicated to a kitchen, with a small counter created on one wall to allow for customers to contact the cooks inside. A child stood in line, awaiting his meal after having paid his dues.

However sad, he would have to wait for his food a moment longer. For Najeem had come into town, which meant that now he was suddenly second in line, to him. Najeem expressed absolutely no remorse whatsoever as he simply walked up to the line, fetching the meal from the cook that was meant for the child. No one said anything as Najeem walked away and took a large bite out of the sandwich. No one but the child.

"Hey! That's mine!" he cried, his father a second too late in covering his mouth. Najeem turned around, feeling suddenly threatened. He took another bite of the sandwich and walked up to the boy.

"Oh, I'm sorry little guy. I didn't know this was yours." He bent over to be eye level with the boy. He offered him the sandwich. "Here, take it."

When he reached for it, Najeem threw it onto the ground and grabbed the boy by his hair. "Come on, eat it!" He smashed the boy's face against the sandwich, his father left with no choice but to watch in horror as this pirate brutally fed his child in an all too derogatory manner.

"Eat it, bitch! I thought you were hungry?!"

As Soren saw Najeem brutalizing the child, his eyes began to widen in anger. As he was about to move in to rescue the child, he stopped himself. Soren wasn't anywhere close to his optimal condition, and trying to rescue that child in this situation would do nothing more than cause his own capture.

Instead, he broadcasted his Kenbunshoku Haki outwards to try and find a figure that could fight against Najeem at this point in time. He located Marines a few blocks away, and quickly moved across the roofs in town to reach the base. As he reached closer to the base, he began to play the part of the helpless victim.

"I-is anyone there!? T-the Xros Pirates...they're terrorizing the town again! They're even hurting the children! P-please h-help us, Marines!!!" He cried, hoping that he could draw the Marines attention towards Najeem and, should the Marines prove powerful enough, draw some information out of him.

The scene inside of the Bedina's marine base, which Soren walked into, was one of complete bewilderment. In fact, it was an oddity in itself that a marine base even existed at all on an island that was believed to be apart of the Xros Pirates' territory.

What Soren witnessed as he came into the base was a man around his own age, with bright purple hair that was neatly trimmed and groomed --suspiciously so-- lounging on a chaise between two voluptuous women. The woman on the right was feeding him grapes directly to his mouth while the one to his left was at work fanning him with the use of her own hand.

By his uniform, the man was a marine officer, and seeing as though there was not another one anywhere in sight, likely in charge around here. He regretfully lifted up his head at the sound of Soren's frantic banter. The last thing he needed now was someone interrupting his precious moment. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had bothered to so much as step inside his base and here was this man all of a sudden complaining about… the Xros Pirates?

"The Xros Pirates? Terrorizing the town?" the man said aloud, standing up rather dramatically to his feet. "Not if I can help it!"

The two women cowered at the marine's bravery. They stuck their hands to their heads, struggling to retain their consciousness, being in such awe of his authority that were it not for Soren, they would have most certainly bed him at once! "Oh, Grape-kun!"

"Please, excuse me, ladies! For this is something I simply cannot tolerate! No pirates will be making a ruckus in my town! Not when I'm here to stop it!" He rushed forward, leaving the women behind on the chaise lounge.

He turned dramatically toward Soren, walking over to the man and setting his hands down upon his shoulders to quell his panicked state. "You! Don't you worry a second longer! I assure you, I will see to it that those nasty pirates are dealt with. Believe me!

"In the meantime, why don't you come along with me to file a report?" He winked at Soren. "That way the credit of reporting the crime will go to you. And let me be the first to tell you that the ladies are absolutely going to love you for it."

As if the promise of getting girls was convincing enough, Grape motioned for Soren to come along with him into his immediate office, where he further had him accompany him down the ladder of a trapdoor. Leading Soren a ways into a dark basement, Grape used his lighter as a source of light to illuminate a metal door.

"You seem like a smart guy, so I'm sure you probably already know. But this is normally where we bring criminals in for questioning and the like. However, since our base is one of the smaller ones out there, this room doubles as a waiting room." He inputted a brief series of codes, unlocking the door and gesturing for Soren to step in. "Why don't you go inside and make yourself comfortable for the time being? I'll bring the paperwork down and be right with you momentarily."

The room was entirely blank, with no furniture whatsoever. Only walls made of pure steel on each side, painted white. And as Soren stepped inside, Grape gave him one final nod, before shutting the heavy door.

Lights from the ceiling flashed on. It was as though Soren were staring into a blank canvas. Well, on the bright side, at least he only had to wait a few minutes before he could continue with his espionage. That was what he initially thought. And then a few hours went by.

Soren was noting the oddity of the Marines' attitude. And as he observed the room, he was suspicious considering the lack of lights. However, when he was caught into the room, his exhaustion seemingly caught up to him. Despite the bright lights, he ended up falling asleep regardless.

A few hours passed before Soren's eyes flashed back open again. "...Shit!!!" Soren recollected all that happened to him before he slept. He was angry at himself and punched the ground, but to no avail. The material was surprisingly hard. He found it strange, however, that there was no seastone used against him. But he decided to use this to his advantage.

He conserved his strength for now. There was likely something the Xros Pirates wanted with him. His powers should have been restored enough to escape at any moment he'd like, provided he wasn't assaulted by someone with greater power than his own. "I hope I get outta here alive..."

The locks clicked and clacked one by one until the door at last swung open. But the person on the other end wasn't the Marine Officer that had led Soren inside of there; no, it was a much larger man, and by comparison, far more intimidating.

He was a man two stories tall, over twenty feet in all. He was a man whose face was covered by a red handkerchief, a man who wore a brown leather hat on the top of his head, and a man who was so large that he had to walk in sideways with his head tucked against his chin in order to fit through the doorway.

The tough looking man was dressed in an open waist jacket, fashioned with a skull pattern that showed off his massive physique. Tight pants tucked inside of hard boots with spurs completed his attire, giving him an all too menacing appearance in all.

Judging by looks alone, there was no mistaking it. Even someone without as much intel as Soren would have little difficulty recognizing this guy; as if the "D" tattooed on his forehead wasn't evident enough, this man was none other than Gilbert D. Bertram, member of the Xros Pirates with the designation "Lambda": a pirate with a bounty of 686,000,000.

"Well, well, well, looky what we have here…" he chimed, his voice muffled by the cloth in front of his lips. Flicking his index finger against his thumb, the monster used his ridiculous physical strength to slam the metal door shut. "...Another bug needing to be squashed by my boot."

---

Above the metal cellar inside of the basement, Grape had taken the women from earlier before into his private "office". With his back against the rail of the bed he sat, his uniform in a pile on the floor.

"That guy will never live it down," he said, speaking to no one in particular as the women began to strip themselves in front of his eyes. "Do you ladies know why they call that man the 'Birthday Boy'?" He knew telling these women anything wouldn't make any difference at all. "It's because he absolutely dominates every fight he's ever in, making it all about him. Everytime he fights, he's the center of attention, the middle of the spotlight, just like a boy on his birthday!"

Grape bursted into a loud laughter as the women leapt onto him.

Man of Steel
Soren's body shook up as he noticed the man in front of him. Gilbert D. Bertram was allegedly one of the heavy hitters of the Xros Pirates, and was no doubt an opponent to be feared. Especially in this situation, where Soren was incapable of mustering his full strength, nor make use of his sword.

If Soren was coal, then the man before him was steel. Soren had not reached that level yet. But...he had no choice. "I am a Black Widow Pirate..." Soren thought to himself, as determination framed his face, "I am the child of "Blade Thief" Kosaka Isshin and "Black Widow" Daddy L. Legs! I will fight!!!!!"

As his thoughts echoed in his head, fear had left his body. Instead, he was fueled with a surprising determination that was echoed through his body. He was poised, his legs stretched somewhat outward with his knees bent, right arm in a knifehand position in front of him, while his left arm was above his head, clenched in a fist.

Mustard eyes without the basis of a brow persed unto Soren's frame. Bertram stretched out his neck, touching his ears from shoulder to shoulder. The sound of his joints snapping echoed against the steel walls.

One step at a time, the massive man slowly walked toward his prey.

Soren heard the noise of his joints cracking, as Bertram's imposing figure came moving towards him. Rather than give Bertram any opportunity to fight, Soren decided to try and steal it all from the beginning. However, he had very little energy left. This fight had to be short.

Without delay, Soren released a wave of black ash from his body. The ash flooded the room and made it difficult for his opponent to see with conventional vision. Using the small opportunity given to him, Soren pinpointed Bertram's position and appeared behind him without making a single noise.

He gathered his strength into his right hand, which had now clenched into a fist. He began to rotate a large mass of coal around said fist, dispelling the makeshift smokescreen. The spiraling mass of coal intensified in its rotation speed, before sparks began to ignite. At this very instant, Soren yelled, "Spiraling Coal Fist!" He released the coal by lunging his fist outwards, sending the rotating mass of coal towards Bertram's neck.

Upon collision, it would ignite and smother Bertram in an explosion that would no doubt engulf the room, and force both Bertram and himself to sustain considerable injury.

Bertram stopped dead in his tracks the moment he saw Soren release a torrent of ash from his body. He persed his brow further, not having thought much of the lad from the moment he had walked in. So now apparently this guy was a Devil Fruit user; and not just any old Devil Fruit, by the looks of it, he was a Logia.

But Soren was much too naive to imagine that his skills as a Shinobi would do him any good in a battle where there was quite literally nowhere else to run to. Normally, a tactic like Soren's was juvenile, if not altogether idiotic. To produce large quantities of your element was no different than expanding your own body, thus expanding the region an opponent could target for attack. However, in this stead, spreading himself out across the whole of the cellar confused Bertram's Kenbunshoku Haki.

Well, almost. He wasn't one to openly boast about his skill with Kenbunshoku, but more times than he had to guess, his enemies normally showed up behind him, on his flank. A common principle of battle, to target the part of an opponent's body they had left uncovered. But poor Soren had rushed himself into attack long before he had even learned of Bertram's ability.

In the moment Soren had flung his fist forward, Bertram's upper body contorted as if made of a thin, fabricated cloth. It distorted itself like a ripple, fluttering quickly out of the way while Bertram's lower body remained entirely still and in place against the floor. This led the coal to instead fire straight forward and into the metal wall ahead, leaving Bertram largely unhindered.

The man twisted his upper body around, while his feet remained facing forward. It was a phenomenon not unlike the Rokushiki technique "Kami-e", yet on a different scale, being the result of a Devil Fruit.

"So yar a Logia, are ya?" he said in a muffled voice through his handkerchief. "And here I thought ya were any ol' lad runnin' 'round our parts."

He contorted his body again, snapping his lower body into place to align with his torso. At the very same time, he flung himself forward, his body incredibly flexible yet hardening at once with the application of Busoshoku Haki. He sought to slap his upper body against Soren, a sensation not unlike being slapped by a towel, yet many, many times harder.

With no time to react, Soren barely managed to make use of Busoshoku Koka to defend against the attack. That being said, the attack was still plenty strong, and despite his black, hardened skin, it penetrated through him and caused him to fly into the opposing metal wall.

He panted, and beads of sweat dropped down his face. "That ability is tough as nails..." Soren said out loud, noticing how easily the man avoided his Spiral Coal Fist. His stamina was depleting, but any offensive tactic he could make seemed to be completely irrelevant here.

As opposed to expand his own body, he instead created coal separate from himself. Unlike before, he molded the coal around his fists, and then subsequently turn them into a lustrous black by applying his own Busoshoku Haki over it. Close combat seemed to be the only possible option here. A single, deadly strike when an opening was revealed...if even that was possible.

How lovely. Bertram had his opponent up against a wall, literally. And better yet, he appeared exhausted. As if ready to bite the dust sooner than expected. Bertram grinned under his handkerchief at the sight of Soren readying his hands for combat.

"Yar tirin' out quick, wouldn't ya say?" He stood up erect, hands gripping the sides of his waistcoat and parting them towards his hips. He puffed out his chest, as if to show Soren something. "Lookie here. I want ya to see this with yar own eyes."

Trickles of sweat, whole beads of it had been spilled from Soren onto Bertram's chest. And, in a matter of seconds, they seeped into his flesh, dissolving entirely.

"Did ya see that? I can absorb the moisture from yar body into mine. I'm a Towel-Man who ate the Moku Moku no Mi." He flexed his muscular arms over his head, veins pulsing from body. "In other words, yar sweat replenishes my stamina. The more we fight, the more ya get tired. The more we fight, the more I stay just the same.

"Ya can't outlast me. Not yar nor anybody else. No one can outlast a Towel-Man!"

"...You...can't be serious..." Soren grunted, he could barely stand at the moment and then there was this guy who used all his blood, sweat and tears as an energy source!?

Soren was pissed beyond belief, but even more than that, he felt helpless. What he was about to do would be his last move. Whether he survived or not...Soren did not care.

"Black Dragon." Soren muttered, his entire body transforming into a black dust. The black dust spiraled continuously and became like a typhoon. Soon, his entire body had turned into the shape of a spiraling dragon, sparks igniting through his body.

"RRRAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The boy screamed, his voice no doubt reaching the room above where that bastard Marine was. He pushed forward with incredible force, the sparks becoming more and more frequent. There may have been no escape for himself, but there was no escape for his opponent either.

He would crash into Bertram, and with all his power, explode, and go out with a bang!

A large, resounding blast erupted inside of the basement cellar. Bertram was sent flying toward one end while Soren was sent flying toward the other, out cold. What had happened to Bertram had yet to be seen.

A large smog of ash and dust surrounded the room. Bertram's large frame slamming into the steel wall with such incredible force had left a small dent in it, an impressive feat that only spoke volumes of the stellar attack. However, while it had been enough to push him back, the attack in itself hardly damaged Bertram, with regard to his Busoshoku Haki protecting him from any major damage.

Even so, Bertram was slow to get back up onto his feet. And when he did, he felt some soreness in his chest --nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little shower.

One step at a time, Bertram made his way over to Soren. The boy may have been rendered unconscious, but at the current moment, there was still some life in him. He was not entirely fatigued, and so he wasn't in a state Bertram was yet content with.

The Xros Pirates didn't bother to kill their enemies in a private setting such as this. In a cellar in the deep of the basement… here there was no one present to acknowledge their might. Here there was no one to witness their superiority, to fear their greatness!

That was why the Xros Pirates were firm believers in public executions. There wasn't anything they cared for more than to show off their strength, to show off just how better they were than everyone else. They were the most feared crew on the seas and they were going to stop at nothing to show that!

Bertram was the single best member of the Xros Pirates when it came to stabilizing his prey's physical condition. Most members fought defensively so as not to accidentally kill their opponents, but Bertram on the other hand had a very sound degree of control over how close his enemies were to dying. And he had nothing else to thank than the powers of his Devil Fruit.

Lifting Soren up effortlessly with a single hand, he fitted one hand around the lad's wrists and another around his ankles, hauling him high overhead. As an awakened Paramecia, Bertram had the ability to expend his powers over matters separate from his own likeness. In other words, at his command, Bertram could make various objects --including other forms of life-- take upon the properties of a towel.

And that was exactly what he did with Soren. He turned and churned the lad's body while it was within his grasp, Soren's flesh and limbs spiraling into a helix. Like a waterfall, sweat poured out from Soren's body, spilling on the metal floor.

In the same manner he absorbed sweat, Bertram could also expel it. Forcibly relieving Soren of whatever energy he had left inside of his body rendered him completely fatigued, to such an extent that --while still breathing-- it became increasingly difficult to so much as open his mouth. It was a phenomenon not unlike being paralyzed, yet with all his bodily functions still intact. That way, his internal organs could still be meshed with on the day of the execution.

Tossing the smaller man over his massive shoulder, Bertram carried along with the rest of his day.

Hitch-Pike
It was silent. Awfully silent.

It was peaceful. Awfully peaceful.

Two elements that didn't quite ever work in unity. Not on the seas of the New World.

Was it luck? Or perhaps it was the doing of another. Whatever the reason, they had been lucky. Fortunate even, to not have encountered more than a few Sea Kings following their departure from Ishitani.

Since leaving, Draco D. Damon had fallen into a deep slumber. As was to be expected, of course. The lad had only partaken in a battle against Mengis, a mink of such incredible fortitude that the as a whole had refused to let retire his services, no matter how many times the bloody fool had gone against their morales. As a result of his last encounter with Asura, the tiger mink had been demoted… again.

This wasn't the first time such a thing had occurred, and it most certainly wouldn't be the last, either. The 44 year old had been a now for well over 20 years; the fact that he was a Captain in rank at current only went to show for how little he cared for honorary positions. Ten years, ten years ago he had held the rank of Vice Admiral, and ever since then everything had gone downhill. He had seen all the ranks a Marine could ever possibly see, except of course those above that which he had reached, and seen them more times than any other Marine should see fit.

He had managed to become a Vice Admiral no less than twice; a Rear Admiral no less than ten; a Commodore fifteen times; a Captain now for the twentieth. And should he be demoted any further, then he would see it be his twenty-sixth time that he had been demoted to the rank of Commander. Demotions were nothing new to him. At this point, he was so used to it. At this point he had forgotten what rank he even was; hell, by all means, if things carried along as they did, he was just as good as any other Ensign!

In light of his opportunistic thinking, Apu had the luxury of an entire household at his disposal in his taking care of Damon. The house he had ripped from Ishitani's foundation was one of three complete stories; he had lain Damon to rest up in the master bedroom on the third floor, while he worked the kitchen on the first. And my was he a sight to see.

The Titan Pirates' Fifth Division was in charge of the Yonko crew's meals; they were a division comprised of the very finest chefs and cooks the crew had to offer. Apu was of no exception. Even in his time on, he had operated under the banner of his own restaurant, the famed "Bubba Gump", and his craft was admired by many on the face of the island.

Using the kitchen of the house to his complete benefit, and having left it in pursuit of that which lay below, Apu had prepared an absolute feast for his wounded ally. Trays and trays of seafood were aligned along the table, ranging from soups and salads to fish and meats. Not only was it a glorious sight to behold, but better yet, each of the foods were heavy with nutrients that would ensure a fast recovery for Damon.

Carrying up a tray filled with everyone of those dishes, Apu made his way up the flight of stairs until he had arrived in Damon's room, to see the injured man still fast asleep with a newspaper over his face. What's this? Where had it come from?

Setting down the tray, Apu peeled it off of Damon's face. And his expression was one of astonishment when he had seen that Damon had made the front page. Entitled "Demon of the West" it featured Damon in a state that Apu hadn't quite seen in its entirety: a number of additional arms sprouting out from his backside.

What stood out to him immediately was Damon's new bounty of 170,000,000. A smile formed on his fat, fishman lips. "The bastard's gone and surpassed my bounty."

He narrowed his eyes as he read further along the lines. "The culprit behind the murder of the Asha Kingdom's King?" Apu read aloud softly to himself. Perhaps there was a darker side to Damon than he had known. Or maybe, just maybe, this was what Damon had been mumbling about in his sleep all along. Maybe this was what he had been having nightmares about, maybe this was what he had been framed, accused, and marked for having done, when in reality, he was innocent.

Just as innocent as he was.

---

"Kresha!!" Apu screamed, his face in his hands. He was currently in hiding, but his heart ached with such intense agony that he could not help but give away his location to his pursuers. "Kresha!!" he screamed again, feeling so lost. Feeling like he no longer had any other place in the world to be, nowhere to belong to.

He was squatting down in the crevice of two buildings, his figure obscured by two barrels of garbage. He had hoped that the stench would keep the humans from chasing after him, but he was wrong. The moment he screamed was the moment they were able to find him, having followed the long trail of blood that was seeping out of him.

"There he is!" a human from the mob of over fifty hollered, igniting the rest of his human friends and pals to roar wildly. Torches and spears and pistols and swords in hand, the mob angrily charged toward Apu, a bullet running through the barrel to his left and causing feces that had been stored within to funnel out like a volcano.

Apu had no time to sulk, even when the dung had spilled into his wounds and entered the insides of his body. Only one thing came to mind and that was to run. To run and run and run, all the while screaming Kresha's name. Maybe, just maybe she was there on the same island as him.

Maybe fate would see to it that they would meet again very shortly and that it was just a cruel dirty prank the world had played on them. He lost his footing on a puddle of his own blood and rolled down a hill, straight into a pool of mud. By now the mustard fishman had been turned all brown, brown with mud, brown with dung, brown with fear.

When a human tossed his torch into the mud and it burst out into flames, Apu had no choice but to use his Sudden Burst to thrust his way out of the there quickly. His shirt had been caught in the flames, however, and so he had to discard it quickly as the fire torched his fishy flesh.

Tears in his eyes, he was forced to a slow jog as his fatigue caught up with him at long last. His mind nearly snapped as he felt the force of a bullet skim his ankle. "Kresha…!" he hollered again, this time as he tripped on a loose liquor bottle. Falling onto the brick road of the town, he found himself unable to move. He found that his arms and legs had finally given in to the days he had been running; it was over. It was all over.

And that was when he turned his head to the left, to look away from the ensuing mob. But instead what he found on the other side of his body was… another human. A large human, so large that he made Apu, as a fishman look small by comparison. And of all things, this man, this bald man had a chestnut on the top of his head, oddly enough.

His cheeks flush with a blush, the man was laying in the middle of the town with alcohol dripping from his lips. He was so drunk that perhaps he hadn't the slightest of clue where he was. And as the man sat up, Apu prepared himself for the worst. "Ehhh?" the man flashed his wobbling gaze at Apu. He itched his long, black beard with one hand while the other tightly grasped a bottle of some liquor Apu had no interest to identify. The man clogged his lips with the bottle, taking a long swig as the mob appeared in sight.

Apu clenched his eyes shut. "Y-you probably want to kill me like the rest of them, don't you?!" Apu hollered, his mind and body, his soul too, tense with stress and agitation. "So then do it! Just do it already!!"

The man's brow narrowed into a glare as he drank more and more of the rum, emptying it down into his throat.

"What are you waiting for? Kill me! Just kill me!!"

The mob appeared before the two men with renewed brutality. They had no interest in the chestnut headed man, but should he get in the way of their justice, then they had no qualms trampling him along with the monster.

It all clicked in his mind. The chestnut headed man met the mob with a powerful glare. And in that moment, the bottle shattered in his grasp. It was as though time itself had froze, for a mysterious force emanated from within the man's figure, and in the next moment, every last person that had made up that mob, fell to the floor, unconscious.

Apu's eyes widened. He looked over at the man, not knowing what he had done. Not knowing what awaited him. Not knowing that in the coming weeks and months, he would forever and always swear his allegiance to him; forever and always swear to serve under the great Montblanc Burling.

---

Folding the newspaper neatly, Apu set it aside on the counter beside the bed. He had no idea what Damon could turn out to be, but if he matched his potential in the slightest, then that newspaper could end up being a vital artifact serving as a humble reminder as to where it all began.

Placing the tray of food down onto Damon's lap, Apu shook the man awake. He had changed his bandages every few hours over the course of the now three total days that Damon had been asleep. "Hoy, wakey, wakey."

When Damon didn't get up even after all that, Apu resorted to slapping his face subtly. "Hoy, wake up already, come on now, Damon!"

"Huh huh huh, what?! You guys dumped tar in the pot-" Damon blinked rapidly turning his head around. "Oh." He settled his eyes into Apu's figure and they softened, as he smiled. "It's you, sorry for that." Damon rubbed his head with his left hand and finally saw the food in his lap. "Oh, this- I could've helped you, y'know." This had happened the first time Damon had fallen asleep, though he was sure this was the second time, Apu went and just prepared some meal for him, and it was delicious, he wouldn't lie.

Properly sitting up, Damon munched on the food gently, savoring each bite as best as he could. He looked up to Apu and extended his arm. "Do you want some?" He said while using his other hand to hold the food he ate. "Have we arrived anywhere?"

Apu pulled over a chair and sat down beside the bed, folding his arms as he watched Damon eat. He shook his head and showed his palm to the man, refusing the food. "No, no, I made it all entirely for you. Besides, I've already had plenty to eat for myself."

He shook his head again after. "I got out a few times myself to ask for directions along the way, docked the house on some few islands. I have a good idea as to where we are, now, but I don't think it's a very good idea to get off here. Matter of fact, that's why I didn't wake you up when I left."

He motioned towards the window. "...We're not exactly in the greatest of spots, right now. We're in enemy territory, to be more precise."

"A'right, next time, it'll be my turn." Damon replied between munchs, having a blank expression as many ingredients drifted through his mind, it had been so long since he had last cooked something. "Some few... islands? Um, how much did I sleep?" He swallowed a piece whole and cleaned his saliva, continuing to listen, Damon hadn't left Asha for quite some time, most of the missions were on nearby islands.

With Apu's gesture, Damon then looked at the window and his eyes widened, taking in the visage of the sea and an island. "Enemies- Marines?!" He moved abruptly in the bed, his veins showing up. Part of his pants could be seen, the same ones provided by Princess Mariel back at Enji, though, they seemed to be cleaner now.

"Yeah, quite a few islands, actually. I lost track of time, to be completely honest, but if I had to guess... I'd say you've been out for at least... at least three days. Maybe four, maybe more." He chuckled. It was hard to remember much of anything when you were too busy being chased by humans every time you stepped foot on land.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned being a cook yourself, right? Gee, that's really convenient. You see, the division of the Titan Pirates that I belong to, the 5th Division, actually is in charge of preparing the meals and everything else for our crew. We're a crew full of cooks and chefs; of course we do lots of other things as well, but that's our main priority."

He looked at Damon with a proud smile. "You've had my cooking so many times now. I'd love to eat by your hand someday."

Apu's expression became more fierce after that, following the mention of being on enemy lines. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as the Marines this time around. "No, not the Marines. If that were the case, I could just bring up Captain's name and maybe, just maybe they'd let us slide by again. But no... it's much worse than that."

He moved his eyes toward Damon. "Ever heard of the Xros Pirates?"

"Holy shit-" Damon mentally slapped himself and cut short his words. "I-I see then... seems like that Tiger man really got the best out of me..." He wouldn't want to confirm it again, but, Mengis' amount of aura was similar to that of Damon's teacher, Bambina. He wondered if they had even met, considering both were Marines.

Damon frowned at Apu's words, he shouldn't be surprised that a crew needed chefs, but... not so many chefs. "Your bandana does remind me of a Chef's Trademark... don't tell me you're sorta' Self-Taught too?" He scratched his chin, as if to increase his observation skills while looking at said piece of clothing.

His mother, who is named Helena and is the one to have gotten him into the cooking ways, has told him that Chefs would dress differently to prepare food, depending on their methods and teaching schools. She pushed Damon through the first steps, he was just 8 back then, but had to leave the island soon after, going back to work at a a large bar or something. He wasn't approved to be a Soldier of the Kingdom, at first, but was elected as one of the new cooks after someone tasted his meals. He just had to improve from there, and, Damon would never say he was unhappy.

Damon was snapped out of his thoughts by Apu, once again, and smiled at him. "I'd gladly offer my meals to you!"

That smile soon faltered, as the Fishman went back to the true matter at hand. "Much worse... do you mean..." His hands felt to his now empty lap, and Damon gulped, hearing the name of the crew. "Xros... my old master has told me that those are supposed to be one of the four strongest Pirate Crews around..." The information had slowly sunk into his mind, Bambina had a deadly serious tone when speaking about it, these people weren't ones to be taken lightly, and Apu's reaction just cemented it. "That's the single thing I know..." He shook away his shuddering, this wasn't the time to fall back.

"Self taught?" Apu probed his chin. "I mean, not entirely, I guess. Well, definitely for sure not self taught anymore. Back home on Fishman Island, I only really did one of two things: train and eat. I didn't have the money to buy any food, so I really just ended up making my own. And I guess that gave me a lot of practice.

"It wasn't until I met Captain Burling that I became as good as I am now, though. That man... aside from saving my life, he's taught me so very much. His cooking is easily the best I've ever had... my mouth is watering now just thinking about it!" He wiped his mouth before proceeding.

"He taught me how to use Haki, too. Boy, I didn't even really know what that was before then. And I'm not the only one, either. He's taught us all, everyone in our division has the luxury of training with him. That is, whenever he's around." Apu chuckled, thinking about how he had even managed to run into him in the first place. Maybe it was a good thing that Burling was always lost. If he wasn't lost when he was, Apu may have been as good as dead. "Great! I'm looking forward to seeing how you are in the kitchen, Damon!"

He chuckled. "So you didn't know about the Titan Pirates, but you've heard about the Xros Pirates, huh?" He smiled. "That only goes to show what a force those guys are... they're not to be taken lightly. They're a gang of brutal pirates, the most brutal these seas have seen in quite awhile. Like I said before, we're not in the best of spots right now. We've been lucky enough not to encounter anyone yet."

"Oh." Damon briefly dropped his gaze, many people had a good life, but there was also many who had a bad one. His glare lowering, though, made him see his right arm and finally pay attention to it, noticing the black tattoo which was on it. "Seems like I really slept long, even the skin I sprouted disappeared" He mumbled, feeling as if he could shoot down the mood, Damon quickly snapped up. "Fishman Island? I've heard of it, all of you guys come from there 'n all that. I'd like to see it, one day." He glanced to the window, imagining what it would look like.

There it was, about that Burling again. Damon could only imagine the kindness of this man, to take in so much people under his wing. "Dorahaha, I can only imagine! I'm glad even Pirates got bonds, though, like a tribe of yellow meerkats in the middle of a savana." He shoved the sheats away, feeling as if his legs were too suffocated by them, and sat on the side of the bed. "Haki, huh..." A brief pink aura appeared on his left hand as he looked at it. "He sounds like a damn good grandfather to y'all." Damon chuckled.

Then, he realized that was why the Titan name felt so familiar. "Wait, you guys are one of those crews too!" Damon waved his hands around, almost slapping himself for not recognizing it earlier, Bambina had mentioned all of the Yonkos' crews to him. "Goddamn... I guess so, I haven't seen much... but, what are we gonna' do then?"

His gaze sharpened suddenly and he looked to the window once again, and to the island. "I could use Haki to sense around the island and we could sneak in? I managed to, last time... I mean, we'd have to do something anyway." Despite saying this, Damon knew there was a difference between a territory and a simple kingdom. "Depending on the amount of auras I feel, we might be capable of fighting back. Either way-" He glared at Apu and stood up from the bed. "I won't be falling back." His right hand tightened into a fist.

Apu carefully observed Damon. He wasn't a doctor, but in the time they had left Ishitani, Damon had a lot of time to rest. More than that, he had been fed food that was rich in nutrients responsible especially for stabilizing one's health. Traveling into a Yonko's territory ascertained battle. Apu only hoped that Damon was ready for whatever awaited them next.

"I plan to find Captain Burling before anything. He is my Captain after all, and whatever he says goes. That's my top priority, and unfortunately, so long as you're here with me, I have no choice but to force you along the path. My apologies for getting you involved in all of this, Damon."

His eyes ran down Damon's figure, to his hand as it clenched into a fist. "...How are you feeling now, Damon? If a fight were to break out... how would you suffice? Are you anywhere near your top form?"

Damon nodeed at Apu's statement, it wasn't a surprise, he had left it clear ever since they left Ishitani. "I'm fine with that. You don't need to worry on apologizing me, maybe, somehow, I will also find some information about whoever really tricked me back in Asha." He ran his finger along his nose, smiling once again and flashing his right arm at Apu. The tattoo was much more easy to see now, having a dark color to it and a rather strange shape. "I just figured I didn't tell you. I'm from Asha, a former member of theKingdom's Elite warriors!"

He felt like he should demonstrate it, not out of arrogance, nor out of pride. Damon, sometimes, felt like words were better than actions. The key word being sometimes, and this wasn't one of those times. However, they were admist enemy territory, and his mind had been much clearer than ever since he left Asha.

Apu truly took care of him and he couldn't thank him with words. "Enough to make the both of us survive!" The fishman, too, was in top shape, he could tell. Damon glanced at the island again. "I suppose we should clear things, dock this somewhere and go... what is it called?"

Apu was glad to see that Damon was in high spirits. It made things a lot easier when you had a powerful ally to count on. He noticed Damon's tattoo at last. "Asha? No way! I've always wanted to go there, I heard so much about their Five Sins." He quickly corrected himself. "Seven Sins, rather. Matter of fact, I was on my way there when I ran into you. Ishitani isn't very far from Asha at all; I thought maybe I'd use Captain's absence as an excuse to pay it a visit."

Apu clenched his own hand into a fist. "Right! If we don't believe it, who else will? We can take on anyone so long as we think we can!"

As the two pirates shimmered their pride, a transponder snail in Apu's pocket began to ring. Apu looked up at Damon as it rang, not having expected another call from anyone so soon. At least not until someone had found a lead on Captain Burling. Maybe that's what it would be about?

The snail took the appearance of a fox with an eye-patch. And as Apu flipped it on, his vice-captain's voice roared on the other end.

"Despite what the fuc- what happened, Asha is a really nice place to live in!" Damon smiled and rubbed the back of his head, though, he didn't know that these places were close. Maybe that's why he survived reaching Groot and Ishitani. He moved to the window, openning it to look at the skies."Maybe, after all this shit show, you can visit it or something." He turned to smile at the Fishman, putting his right foot over the window's base.

He liked that determination. According to himself, Apu had been through some heavy things, but he was still up, he was still fighting. Damon felt like he should be more like that. He clenched his fist and simply shook it all away, again. Damon was about to say something when a ring sounded off.

"Hoy, Apu! Are you there-gara?" Foxpack's voice roared through the Den Den Mushi. His vice-captain's fierce tone caught Apu by surprise. Had something happened to the captain?

"Y-yes, Foxpack-sama! I'm here. What's the matter?"

"Listen closely, and listen well-gara. What I'm about to relay to you is urgent news."

Apu looked up at Damon. This information was meant for and only for a member of the Titan Pirates. But somehow, Apu felt as though he could trust this man with their secrets and intel.

"Hoy-gara. Are you listening, Apu?"

"Yes, Foxpack-sama."

"Good. Now listen: we've obtained a very thorough lead on several members of the Xros Pirates. It has been brought to our attention that Sengoku is calling forth a meeting between his top executives, however not all of them will be able to attend due to certain circumstances. Out of them all, only a single one of his biggest guns will be remaining behind, and that is Reach, who is in charge of looking after Bedina.

"Bedina is among the most important of islands within the entirety of the Xros Pirates' territory-gara. Seizing control over it and eliminating Reach from the equation is the first step to ensuring Sengoku's demise."

Apu couldn't think past the whereabouts of his captain. "But what about Captain Burling?"

"Burling-san will be just fine, you know that just as well as I do, Apu. The fact remains that this is too good an opportunity to let slip away. If we don't act now, we may never get this chance again!" Foxpack's tone grew even more fierce. "As powerful as Reach may be, if we're able to corner him, there is no way for him to call for backup. Not now, not when the Xros Pirates are in a bundle. The time to strike is now, with or without our Captain!"

"I understand…"

"We await your arrival, Apu. Me and the rest of the crew arrived here last night. We will plan our invasion for three days from now. Be careful not to give yourself up in the meantime. I'll see you soon-gara." The transponder snail flipped off.

Pocketing the Den Den Mushi, Apu stood up. "Damon… I must ask you for your help. We are gravely outnumbered as it is, but our 5th division isn't to be underestimated. We are a proud bunch of pirates! Please, won't you assist us in taking down our enemy?" Apu got down upon his knees, jamming his fist against the floorboards and bowing his head before the wounded figure laying in bed. He knew how much this meant to Foxpack, and so he was willing to throw away his ego entirely to raise their chances, even if only by a little.

"Even with you aboard, our chances of victory are slim at best. I cannot force you to risk your life for our sake, so I will leave it to be your decision to make."

It was that funny-speaking guy again, Damon found out. He took in the information they begun to discuss, it seemed Yonkos clashed way more often than he thought they should do. Damon chuckled at the name of the Executive, somehow finding it funny, he had to make a joke of it later when they meet the guy. Indeed, even before Apu had asked him on it, Damon was willing to go and help them out with this. After what had happened at Asha, he figured that, sometimes, people couldn't pick sides.

There was no right nor wrong in this conflict between Yonkos. Apu was too kind to him, and he would willing help him. Which is why reluctance showed up in his mind once Apu's gaze dropped at the mention of Burling, Damon didn't like this, how the man got down so fast, but, he understood it.

"Nope. NOPE. NOPE!" Damon lowered his body to tap both his hands on Apu's shoulders. "My answer is no, but it's not the answer for the help." He snickered a bit. "NO, that's not what you should be worrying about, I'm itching myself to go and help you guys. You should be worrying about this damn island's name, like, what the hell? I get a territory and give it a name like that? Feels like those shitty dog owners who just get them to defend the house or some shit. Yeah, you guys need to conquer this one, I don't like this name." His eyes widened as his mouth moved in several shapes. Damon was, indeed, trying to complain and cheer the Fishman up.

Damon rose Apu, still tugging at his shoulders. He then let go and went for one of the wardrobes on the room, he figured he should get a better cloth for himself, having seen one on their first day in the house boat. Damon found a pair of black pants, which had odd white belt-like accessories on the legs, they crossed over and around the thighs. The boots were dark, tight and reached to the middle of his lower leg.

He didn't even wait, and instantly got himself into them, using the belt of the previous pants to hold this one up. "Now, let's do this, regroup with these compatriots of yours and get into action-" He was about to head out for the window, but looked back for a second, scratching the back of his head. "-Um, they don't know about me, do they?"

Apu smiled. It was a relief to officially have Damon on their side. Still, the real challenge awaited them. Nothing was promised, not even their lives.

"You placed the world on notice with your antics in Ishitani. There's a good chance they've recently seen your name in the newspaper. I think we should both preserve our identities as best we can for the time being."

He walked toward the window, moving the curtain to gaze out at the sea. It was going to take them a few days to arrive at Bedina. Apu and Damon were going to need every bit of that time to rest and prepare for what lay ahead of them.

It was time for two Yonko crews to clash.

Under the Estimate
It was a certain kind of silence, a very painful kind, that upheld the inner chambers of the Bedina dungeon. This was an area separate from the one in which Fukuoka Soren had been kept inside of earlier, yet with much of the same pretext. It was an area that was still designed to entrap him, to keep him from going much of anywhere with its seastone pillars.

He had been awake for some time now, his eyes open to the cold, dark world around him. And yet, he had yet to speak a single word. There was someone else there with him, someone else who unlike Soren --who was left laying on the floor-- was chained up with his back against the wall in a seated position.

Blood spilled from every inch of this man's flesh. Snot oozed from his nostrils; from his armpits there was sweat; from his trousers there was fresh urine and bool. How he was still alive was anyone's guess, but every hour or so he kept on calling out to Soren, hoping to make some bit of conversation with him. And yet, every time he was left empty handed.

"You know you can talk to me-wa yo!" he beamed again and with a suspicious sense of enthusiasm given his current state of being. "I'm not going to biiite!"

Soren had struggled to even look towards the man because of the exhaustion he was put under. Every ounce of energy within his body had been sapped, but somehow he had to continue fighting. If he could gain an ally under a common enemy, then he had a chance to turn this situation back.

"H-how a-a-re y-y-o-u a-live...?" Soren spoke, albeit in fragmented letters, panting as he completed the single sentence. The situation that damned Bertram put him in was unforgivable. But Soren needed to speak, it was his only way of communication...the only movement he could make without his entire body searing in pain.

The man fluttered his elongated eyelashes as if in surprise. He was taken aback by Soren's inability to speak. There wasn't enough damage on him, from what he could make out visibly, to suggest that he was in such an intense situation.

But as much as he was worried for Soren, just as much happiness filled the man's hear to finally hear the voice of another. How long had it been since he had heard someone else's voice aside from Najeem's?

"Us Fire Rocker Pirates are tougher than we look-wa yo!" he cheered. "People don't seem to want to give us any credit, but we're among the New World's besssst!" He batted his eyelashes, a hint of a blush escaping both sides of his face as he admired Soren on the floor. If only he wasn't chained up..!

"Allow me to introduce myself-wa yo! I am Daryal, member of the Fire Rocker Pirates." He blushed again at how much he was about to boast himself. "There's a good chance you've heard of me, I have a bounty of 101,000,000 on my head!"

"I-I...d-don't know..." Soren struggled to say once again. But as he continued to move his muscles, it became ever-so-slightly easier. "A-a-nyways..." Soren tried to say, his body still hurting as he did. "W-w-what....d-do...t-they w-want...t-to...d-do...w-with...u-us..."

"They.." Daryal began with a smile. "Th-they.." he repeated again, but it was clear as day that the persona he had been creating up until now was no more than a facade. His smile shattered into a million broken pieces as he was forced into the realization of the cold reality about them.

Tears began to flow from his eyes. He sniffed up the blood leaking from his nostrils to make himself more audible. "Th-they're going to execute us. They're going to kill us in front of a large crowd." He clenched his eyes shut tightly as the emotions roared out of him. He couldn't fight back the tears nor the screech from his throat as he yelled aloud. "J-Just as they did my nakama!! Just as they killed them in cold blood-wa yo!!"

"..." Soren kept quiet. His response was evident, even if his expression was motionless. The Xros Pirates were cruel, very cruel. To think they would dispose of their enemies in public executions as opposed to battles of life and death.

"They are completely different from Mom and Dad...from all of the Black Widow Pirates...Only to boost their reputation, they do public executions? Grrr...." Soren tried so hard to grind his teeth, but even that movement was proving exhausting to him.

"I-I...m-m-ust...r-r-est..." Soren told his comrade in prison. "I-I...a-am...s-s-orry..." Soren muttered, before his body had been almost completely still. No energy was used to maintain his current position, as he was seemingly trying to build it all up once again.

Rest was what Soren's body desperately required. It differed greatly from what Daryal's mind needed: salvation. He simply couldn't stop himself from weeping. He had expressed his remorse to the darkness for the past week. Now there was finally someone to hear him and he needed to capitalize in this moment.

"They're going to kill us.. they're going to kill us..!!" he continued to weep. "But I'm not ready to die yet.. I can't die yet..! Who other than myself can relay what has happened to Captain Korag to the others? Catrina! Cazzar! Don't you know what befell Korag-sama?! Jones, you bastard! Shouldn't you know the fate of the Fire Rocker Pirates?!

"It's my duty to tell them, mine! Oh if only I had access to a Den Den Mushi!" Memories of his allies flowed through his mind as he spoke of the Fire Rocker Pirates. And what of the Okama that he had left with? How would he face Lieselotte-sama after he had failed to protect their lives? He had to know that they had been slaughtered by the Xros Pirates and that he was next!

Daryal's weeping came to an abrupt end the moment he heard footsteps coming down the dark hallway. Though he couldn't see for the life of him what was approaching, a certain tingle down his spine was all he needed to confirm that it was the very man who had brought him here to begin with.

Daryal went silent. Even as he tried to speak out and curse Najeem, he couldn't. The words just weren't forming.

Soon enough, Najeem came into view, dragging along a new body with him. A trail of blood led up to the entrance of the prison cell as he opened it up and tossed the blue scaled fishman inside.

Sword hung over his shoulder, Najeem looked around at the three inside. Pitiful sights they were. He was responsible for two out of the three, and it was midway in his reflection that he realized that the third, Soren, was not here by his design.

In a heap of anger, he hauled the blade into his hands and grasped it tightly. Though as he drew upon Soren, he didn't so much as move it from his hands. In reality, he was no swordsman at all. He had his reasons for carrying around a sheathed katana, but he had absolutely no experience in using it whatsoever. Kick after kick was sent upon Soren's body. Najeem's boot connected with ninja's face and arms, his neck and chest, his ribs and thighs. In his fit of rage, Najeem didn't care as to where he was swinging with his foot, just that it was making contact with him.

"You fucker!! So you were following me around the whole time, were you?!"

Kick after kick.

"You thought I wouldn't ever find out about it!? Well you thought wrong, bitch!!"

Kick after kick.

The fact that Soren was so weak that he couldn't so much as groan in pain only angered Najeem all the more. He went into a furious fit of rage, abusing Soren with no end in sight just as he had done with Daryal all those times.

"Trickshot told me all about your fucking Logia!! What is it that you turn into anyway, dung?! You flying heap of shit!!"

Kick after kick.

"There's nothing that could happen on all of Bedina that Trickshot wouldn't know about! He sees all!"

Kick after kick. Daryal clenched his eyes closed, and screamed aloud. "No!! No, leave him alone!! It's me that's next, isn't it?!! My execution is before his!!"

"You keep your mouth shut you faggot!" Kick after kick. "I'm sick and fucking tired of everyone looking down on us lately!"

Lifting up his feet, Najeem began to stomp them down upon Soren.

"How dare they?! How dare they look down on the Xros Pirates?!" Stomp after stomp. "What, they think we're just going to roll over a die?! They think they can team up on us and that we're no big deal?! They think that we're just a bunch of no good cock suckers who don't deserve to be a Yonko crew?!"

Stomp after stomp. "Well how's this, ya fuck?! The world won't be disrespecting us any further!! Not after we've killed every last one of you guys who dares team up against us!! What?! You think we didn't hear of it by now?! Of course we know of the rumors!! Bring on Raptor! Bring on Legs! Bring on that fucking moron Daikaku!! We'll slaughter all of them at once!!" He went on until his foot had went numb. At which point he just stood there, catching his breath. Najeem looked around at the three of them again before swimming through the pool of blood he had made on his way to Daryal.

"Let's go, the time has come," he declared, placing the sheathed blade against his shoulder again and unwinding the shackles from the chains so that Daryal would fall to the ground. Grabbing the man by his shirt collar, he began to drag him out.

"Banzai!!" Daryal cried as he was dragged out against his will from the cell. "Banzai, Korag-sama!! Banzai, Lieselotte-sama!" He continued to cheer until his physical likeliness had vanished into the dark, and until his words themselves were swallowed away by the blackness. Najeem hadn't bothered to close the cellar door. He knew of the state the two of them were in: they could barely make to speak. Escaping was beyond their imagination. Leaving the door open was the ultimate mind trick: his way of messing with their sanity. So close to escape and yet so far away. To see the door open ahead and yet to be unable to so much as rollover of their own accord.

Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. All that Soren could feel was pain stomping upon him. But he wasn't capable of reacting to the pain. Not even a single word, nor groan came out of his mouth. He was so exhausted that his body simply refused to react to it. Bleeding be damned, so it seems.

He looked at Daryal being taken away, he heard his cries, but ultimately it amounted to nothing. He was going to die. Soren knew that very well. But...Soren could not let himself die. Soren had to stay alive. Not just for himself, but for everyone he owed it to. "Mom, Dad..." The young man thought in his mind, even as his consciousness was fading.

That open door was aggravating. Soren couldn't even move! He wanted to burst free and move into the free air! Rejuvenate his strength and destroy Najeem and Bertram! But he couldn't. Not yet...somehow, someway, he had to restore his strength. But in these conditions...just what could he do?

Grunting out slightly as the all loud noises disappeared leaving a numbing silence, Worden Luhr Luhr slightly opened his right eye which in it self was a struggle seeing as his entire body was screaming in pain. Glancing around the area all he could clearly make out was walls signalling he was in a room of sorts but judging by the cold and uncomfortable feeling against his throbbing back he could only guess he was in some sort of cell or prison, which in itself wan't anything unusual for him having spent the majority of his teenage life in a cell.

Slightly shuffling about which proved harder than he anticipated Luhr just barely managed to turn his head catching sight of another body beside him and judging by the shallow and pained gasp was in a similar situation as him. "F-f-fuck,". Grunted out Luhr painfully as he tries to will his body to move and ignore the pain that was running thought it.

Through the Grapevine
She had come to him out of desperation, fearing the consequences behind her husband's actions. Little did she know that he was as good a man as they came; he hadn't explicitly done anything wrong at all. In fact, the only crime he had ever committed was marrying a woman as beautiful as her. So beautiful that Grape had exerted his authority as the Marine of most significant rank upon the island to warrant her husband's arrest, knowing that it would have brought her closer to him. And closer to him it did.

Grape titled his head from side to side, capturing her mouth with the hunger of an endless supper. His hands shifted around her waist, feeling firmly around the happenings of her larger than life glutes. Breathing into her mouth, he pulled her over himself as he laid back down on his office desk. And as she began to descend lower, unlacing the buckle of his belt, he tightly gripped the sides of her head with his hands, issuing a powerful kiss to her forehead, anxious to see her go to work.

Oh how he had been waiting for this day. For days he had been slapping around her husband while he was within his custody. And now here he was with his wife, seducing her into the ultimate act of betrayal.

"Oh you are just so fucking wonderful," Grape managed under a weakened breath. He was so aroused he could hardly think straight. His pants were right about to come off when the door to his office, thankfully locked, was met by a knock.

"J-Just a moment!" he called out, standing up quickly to his feet and tucking his uniform back into his pants as he pulled them up. He grabbed the woman by her neck and slammed his lips to hers, pulling her toward an open window and motioning for her to escape.

"I'll be right there! Just… just finishing up some last bit of paperwork is all!" Shit! How could he have forgotten? The inspection was today! It was now that he realized how powerful a beautiful woman could truly be. He was so lost in her curves that he had forgotten all about the Marine Captain that had been sent from Headquarters to inspect his beloved Marine Base.

Fixing his hair as he stood before the closed door, Grape took a deep breath and turned the knob, opening it up. "Oh, w-welcome! Welcome to Bedina!"

At the other side of the door, a man seemingly alone standed. He dressed like a monk, with a black robe covering his body with more cloth than needed and the Marine coat on his shoulders like a cape. His arms where nowhere to be found, until he moved his right hand in the Officer's direction, flapping the long sleeves of his robe in the process.

He was taller than Grape, looking him from above with an extremely serious expression. His bald head shined with the light reflected on it. "You must be Grape." He said. His voice was deep, but oddly comforting. "I'm Captain Sanzo. I'm here for inspection." He kept his arm suspended in the air, waiting for Grape to grab his hand. He was wearing white gloves.

And Grape in fact reach over to shake the Captain's hand, albeit very slowly and with equally as much caution. If first impressions meant anything at all, then man was this guy weird. For a guy like Grape who did nothing but womanize all day long, this tall, bald-headed, robe-wearing Marine was anything but pretty. Heck, Grape even felt bad just looking at him. How did this guy ever get any type of pussy?

"R-Right, that's me. I'm good ol' Grape, haha. It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Sanzo. Why don't you come on in? I've been keeping an eye on everything around here so I assure you, everything is in tip-top shape!" Oh god. Couldn't this guy just leave so that he could fuck that woman already? Hurry up and finish this stupid inspection! Grape's cock was practically throbbing. What a cockblock this fucker turned out to be!

Granting Sanzo entry into the base's office, Grape lightly closed the door behind him. "Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee? Maybe some wine?" Maybe some bleach?

"A cup of water would be nice." Sanzo walked through the room with long, but slow steps. It was almost like he did it on purpose to piss off the Officer that was with him in the room, but, it was, in fact, just part of his calm nature. However, Sanzo wasn't someone to be taken lightly. His eyes followed every move that Grape did; from the handshake to the way he opened the door, the way he talked and the way his body responded to the situation. Sanzo acted like a predator, just waiting for the right moment to kill his prey.

"You don't need to be nervous. It's just an inspection." Sanzo approached the window, touching the frame with his index finger. Pushing it, he opened the window, feeling the pure air fill his lungs in a deep breath. "This place is filthy. It's smells like..." Sanzo couldn't find the word.

"Nervous? Who's nervous?" Grape shrugged. But then he almost began to panic when the Captain addressed the smell in the room. He didn't expect the bald man to know what semen smelled like at all. In fact, he didn't even expect him to have a dick of his own altogether.

"Uh, let me go get that cup of water for you. I'll be right back." Retiring into the small kitchen that was there in on the main floor of the base, Grape began to pace around as he searched the cupboards for a glass. He needed to drug this man, to slip something in his drink and knock him out. Yes, then he'd call up Najeem or Kettle or better yet, Bertram, and this guy would be out of his hair for good.

But no, that simply wouldn't work! This man had to report directly back to headquarters. If, for whatever reason, he failed to do something, then they'd only end up sending even more Marines onto the island, and that was the absolute last thing that Grape needed right now.

Bringing with him a pure cup of water, Grape stepped back inside of the office. "There you are. I hope I'm not in your way? If you'd like me to, oh I don't know, step out of your way and go on a walk, don't hesitate to let me know..."

Sanzo was found sitting on Grape's chair when the man arrived in the room. With a straight posture, without even touching his back in the backrest, he passed his fingers through the many papers he carried in his hands; not only his hands, but the entire desk was covered with reports and the drawers of the cabinets were open. "I took the liberty to look into your reports." Sanzo said, without even bothering to look into Grape's direction. "You can leave the cup on the desk."

Fuck. He looked through his papers? Well, maybe he could somehow managed to play this one off. Grape walked forward, setting the cup down on the desktop. "Okay, and...? What're you trying to say exactly, Captain?"

Sanzo sighed. He got up from the chair, leaving the papers on the desk. "There's nothing wrong with your reports and, apparently, everything is in good conditions." Sanzo walked past Grape, ignoring the cup of water and heading to the door. He opened it completely, stopping before he could leave. His back was turned to the Officer, but he adressed him anyway. "Just be aware of who you bring to this room. The place is impregnated with the scent of women." Sanzo turned to Grape, grabbing the door knob and slowly closed the door as he talked. "If you don't mind me, I have business to take care of."

The smell of women? So what, did it smell like perfume? Grape had gone nose-blind to all of that. He couldn't tell. "So I'm supposed to apologize for having mostly female clients?-" He was cut off as the door closed. He sighed in relief.

At least that was over and done with. Now, he hoped, there'd be no more interruptions. But how was he going to get that woman to come back? He had invested day's of effort into ensuring that they made love. And now because of this bald headed buffoon, he may have lost his only chance.

Walking up to his seat, he slumped into it, thinking things over. What business was that guy going off to do now? He reached for his Den Den Mushi. "Hoy, Kettle-san. This is Grape speaking."

---

Sanzo wasn't sure on who exactly he had to do business with. The only things he knew were the man's name, his rank in the Marine and what he had to deliver. Any information about his appearance wasn't revealed and Sanzo didn't even have a photo or something that he could use to tell apart the man from the rest. It was a tough task, but it didn't concern the Captain that much.

While leaving Grape's room and heading to his ship where the package was left, Sanzo realized how many years he worked as a Marine and how much its strucutre changed since his time as an Ensign. Since 16 years old, bringing peace and justice to the world. And now, 20 years later, he couldn't be more happy for what he achieved. Lost in his delusions, he had reached the base's entrance without even noticing.

In the docks, he could see his ship from afar. It was just like the others near it, with the exception of the crew that adressed him formally. "Captain, it is nice to have you back." A man said, wearing the usual marine uniform, as Sanzo approached the ship; which he replied nodding. Already on board, he entered his room. It was small cabin with a chair, some cabinets and a desk; on it, a casket. Inside it, it was the object to be delivered: a devil fruit.

Sanzo carefully picked the casket and walked out of his room with it on his hands. He sat on the deck with his legs crossed, putting the casket in the middle of them. In a proper meditation position, he closed his eyes, waiting for Swain to arrive any time soon.

---

The door to Swain's personal quarters slammed open as the newly promoted Ensign Yed rushed in, clumsily saluting at his superiour officer as he made his announcement: "Commodore Swain-san, we have just docked in Bedina. We are ready to disembark upon further notice, Captain Sanzo-san is waiting aboard a neighbouring marine vessel for your arrival!"

In his hurry to present himself as worthy of his newly assigned post, Yed had somehow failed to note that the Cabin was at first glance, quite empty. Zander had gone and vanished again, without leaving word of his errand to anyone, but Yed had faith in the Commodore, he was a great man. Surely he was away chasing pirates and making the world a better place. After all, the Marines would newer elect a sleaze to a position of authority, that'd be absurd. Yed chuckled to himself and went about arranging the paperwork on Swain's desk for his return.

Zander's fist slammed onto the counter with significant force, causing the brothel madame to take an involuntary step backwards. "What do you mean that this brothel doesn't run towards my tastes, you mean to tell me that there's not at least one desperate single father or concerned big brother to be had here in this establishment? I've been at sea for so long now that I'd even settle for a disgraced ex-pirate!"

The madame regained her composure quickly, Swain look her in the eye like a mad dog inches away from biting. He supposed she had what ordinary men called "curves", hundreds of them even, with how her obese form struggled within the constraints of her garish pink evening gown. If a snail had somehow grown to human-size and managed to squeeze its way into a pink piece of sausageskin, it would likely look identical to this morbid woman.

Nevertheless, the madame leaned over the counter in a manner that was probably meant to seem seductive and alluring, but which to Swain simply looked like a drowning woman desperately clinging to a piece of driftwood. Each movement likely took extraordinary effort on her part, it was kind of inspiring really.

Swain turned around, dejected at the lack of male company for the evening, as he uttered to the group of marines behind him. "Well lads, it seems this was a waste of our time, this shitty establishment isn't worth our whi--" Zander's eyes thundered when he saw that each of the young men had found a buxom beauty to entertain them for the evening, and the Commodore cursed at them underneath his breath as he pushed them aside and left the establishment.

"Traitors, the lot of them." abandoning their brother for some women, an outrage. But not Swain, oh no, he was man who knew to quell his urges for the sake of his comrades. It was after all why he had been made a Commodore, for his stellar chara--

A young handsome man came into view, carrying a bag of groceries, the light illuminating his features and hazel eyes. His shapely physique, his long legs and a shirt kept slightly unbuttoned because of the heat. An extraordinary specimen, a bronzed god in the flesh, an exotic delicacy from the farthest reaches of the grand line! Oh what joy, oh what excellence!

Swain's nostrils flared, and some passerbys might've sworn to witnessing a release of hot steam from them in that moment. As the Commodore's eyes seemed to turn into pink hearts. "B-Bellorine!" Swain shouted at the unfortunate man as he dashed across the town square to meet him, seizing ahold of his hands as he spoke darkly... "Roses are red, violets are blue. All of my naughty thoughts involve you!"

---

Roughly an hour later, Swain climbed aboard Captain Sanzo's ship and approached the man at last. Much had happened in the past hour, some of it really REALLY good, but most of it not. He'd gotten used to rejection, but that first guy had rather creatively smacked him across the face with a baguette with enough force to leave a long thick diagonal red mark on his face. He approached the meditating Captain and hollered.

"Oi! I'm Commodore Swain, are you Captain Sanzo?"

Sanzo took some time before answering Swain. He was too concentrated meditating that he lost track of time and space; he was, in fact, sleeping for over an hour without interruption. But, hearing a strange voice invading his dreams, he woke up. Sanzo stood up, picking the casket with his left hand. He was much taller than the Commodore, but wasn't as big as an oversized human, just above average.

"Yes, I'm Captain Sanzo. Nice to meet you, Commodore Swain." Sanzo extended his right hand to greet the man. He was much different than Sanzo thought. He looked like a delinquent and not a Marine; but Sanzo himself didn't look like a Marine either. He put these thoughts in the back of his mind, prefering to not judge the man by his appearance; he was his superior in rank, after all. "I was assigned to deliver a package to you."

His interest piqued, Swain addressed the Captain personally. "Oi! A package, from who? Is it from Sam, Rudolph, Thomas, Chrisopher, Hans or Roberto? Wait, don't tell me its from those fine but oddly-named triplets, Dewey, Lewey and Huey? What fun that was.."

Folding his arms across his chest, Swain tried his best to hide his excitement. And he did a modestly good job of it, it was difficult to make out whether he was jesting or being serious, only he knew the truth.

Sanzo recoiled his arm, holding the casket on the palm of both his hands. "To be honest, I don't know who sent it to you." Swain's excitement was something that Sanzo didn't expect from the Commodore; he looked like a delinquent, but his expression remembered him of that of a kid. "The only thing I know is that I'm supposed to give it to you." He extended both his arms, approaching the casket to Swain.

As the two marines exchanged greetings, a literal house floating on water drifted ever closer to the docks of Bedina. From inside, Apu peeked through from behind the curtain, identifying the vessels for their affiliation with the Navy immediately.

"What's the Navy doing in a place like this?" he thought aloud, hand reaching for the Den Den Mushi in his trousers. "Hopefully we can avoid a confrontation with them. There's no telling what'll happen, but in the meantime, I'll notify my crewmates that we've arrived."

"Fucki- Damn, I knew they would be here." Damon muttered and his teeth grinded against each other. "Just because I wanted to feel the breeze..." He observed them along with Apu, waiting as he prepared to call that Foxpack person once again, or so he assumed. "That's a'right." Damon felt a bit uneasy. "These auras though... damn." He cocked one eyebrow, he felt the full blunt of these auras, but, made sure to try and hide his presence.

The Den Den Mushi rang and rang, until Foxpack finally picked up. What had taken him so long? "Hoy, Apu! Where are you-gara?"

"Uh hey, Foxpack-sama! I thought we agreed to meet along the west coast? There's two marine ships docked right here!"

"Nay-gara! We agreed to meet on the east side!"

"...Oh, well that changes things a tad bit. Either way, I'm here now. It might take me a moment to locate you, though."

The house drifted into the small space that existed between the two large ships, squeezing in like a hot dog between two buns. This of course stopped the house from moving any farther, and grinded its stone body against the wooden hulls of each ship, charring pricks into the waters below.

"Shit, shit, shit! I did not mean to do that!" Apu hollered. "Uh, I'll catch you back in a bit!" He switched the snail off, tucking it away into his pocket.

Grabbing his dreadlocks with his hands, he tied them into a ponytail behind his head and turned to Damon. "How you feelin', dude?"

As the two exchanged talk, Damon realized he knew something had been wrong. They took off to the wrong side, nothing that some sneak skills couldn't fix. Or so he supposed, assuming that the Marines wouldn't notice them.

Damon felt chills at how nicely the house fit between the ships, almost like a... he shook his head. Only then, as it got stuck, Damon nearly fell to the side and tried to sustain himself, waving his arms around. "Woah woah, I'm okay, you seem okay." He looked around, and then at Apu. "Let's pretend this didn't happen and sudden burst out of here, okay?" Damon made weird gestures with his hands.

The sound of stone grinding against wood and the resulting tremors throughout the ship was unmistakeable, Swain rushed towards the railing and looked down to see the most unusual sight of a floating house. Simultaneously intrigued and amazed at the same time, Swain hurled himself off of the railing and landed onto the balcony of what might with some generosity be called a 'Boat' he supposed. He looked through the window and spoke up immediately.

"Oi oi, what is the meaning of this? Look at this, you've just damaged marine property you hoodlu--"

Swain's eyes turned into fluttering hearts the moment he locked eyes with Damon. "B-B-Bellorine!" He squeeled before he shook his head wildly from side to side, he recognized that face, those sculpted abs, the gentle jawline and those firm hands. "Well. I'll be damned, it seems the convict to be has run right into the arms of his executioner... Draco D. Damon..."

Damon stiffened at the sound of something landing outside and shuddered even more when the figure made itself known by entering. What followed next was really unexpected by him, however. "What the fuck?!" His eyes and mouth... widened at the scene before him, to him, this guy acted like a paparazzi who had found his celebrity. "It's Damon... but, who are you?!" Damon assumed his stance and stood partially in front of Apu. He really hoped Apu had a plan now.

Sanzo heard the weird noises, but just moved after Swain ignored the package and jumped from the ship. He hid the casket inside of one of his longs sleeves as he walked through the same path Swain did, but, instead of jumping, he just watched the scene from above.

A house in the middle of the ocean was something new for him. Even after more than twenty years sailing, he never saw a floating house before. What really surprise him, though, was Swain's reaction; there was someone inside it. He heard the conversation, but didn't pick up its content. "Is everything all right down there?" Sanzo stood at the border of the ship with his usual serious expression.

Swain flashed a wicked grin at Damon, as he withdrew the dual tonfas from within his coat. The seastone encrusted tips of dark green standing in immediate contrast to the reinforced steel that made up the weapons in question.

"My name is normally withheld from the likes of you, Damon. Traitor to your own country, filfth that poisons the minds of the masses and here you are, in league with this frogman. Is there no depths that you won't sink to?"

Zander was momentarily brought up from his tirade by the shouting of Captain Sanzo. He didn't look away as he shouted back. "We have work to do, Captain Sanzo, it seems we've chanced upon two wanted fugitives. This demands a summary execution.. that is the order I give you, as Commodore Swain of the Marines!"

Damon looked above, he could feel another powerful person upwards. He gritted his teeth and looked back at Zander, who had now been using some sort of weapons.

Once the Marine began to say what had been typical now, Damon rolled his eyes and felt some veins on his head. "Yeah yeah, all that shit about Asha... don't bother, for real." He sighed and snarled at the rest of the comment. "Apu's no frogman, whatever-fish he is, he is a cool dude!" Fully entering his stance, Damon stood with both his knees bent and his hands in front of himself, opened into gripping palms. He hadn't expected them to run into trouble so soon, but this wasn't the time to complain.

Like before, Damon had stood in front of Apu and smirked at Zander, cocking on eyebrow. "Trust me! No one will be executed in here!" He swiftly dashed in a ducking manner towards the Marine, prepared to deliver an entrance right kick against Zander's right leg.

"Whatever he is, he is guilty by association with you. Those tainted by pirates are no better than pirates themselves. If he stands back and allows me to do my job however, I'll let him off with a warning, this once.."

Swain watched as Damon assumed a battle-ready stance and dashed towards him. He could tell that the other man possessed the spirit of a warrior, and obvious martial training. Fortunately, Swain had faced countless others just like Damon the past few years.

Zander's movement was so explosive that it could only be the result of using. Employing it delicately in order to make the most out of even this enclosed a space, as the Commodore vanished from sight and reappeared behind Damon. With his right Tonfa, nicknamed Rudolph being brought down towards the Asura's back with force sufficient to crush regular bones upon impact, as he sought to pummel Draco to the ground and use the seastone to render him immobile by continuous contact.

"Tch!" Damon gritted his teeth again, he wondered if all these high-ranked Marines would know Rokushiki. He would get back at Bambina for this. Even so, his senses could keep up for now, and his Haki even more, his eyes flashing red. The man was fast, and while Damon himself hasn't achieved extreme levels of speed, he could predict movements and react.

Instantly, as Zander vanished, Damon used his free leg to execute a Geppo, even if he was at ground level, and push himself back to where he came from, ducking under Zander's punch. Not minding his body rocking against the wood, Damon quickly brought his left elbow back-upwards in order to meet with Zander's torso.

Swain's eyes narrowed when his quarry employed the Rokushiki. But impressed at its creative application, but not impressed enough to be caught off-guard. Everything went as Damon had intended it to do, as his elbow connected cleanly with Swain's torso. But instead of landing a direct blow, it instead met what seemed like a wall of compressed steel, as Zander employed another part of the Rokushiki, known as.

Ordinary users could not move while using the technique, but Swain had grown to master the technique enough to the point that this limitation no longer applied to him. With purpose he raised a foot in an attempt to pin Damon to the ground while he raised a Haki-imbued tonfa overhead and brought it down with great speed and purpse with the aim of crushing his torso and putting an end to the legacy of Draco D. Damon.

Taking in all that unfolded before his eyes, Apu shifted ahead the moment Damon looked to be in any sort of danger. He had been responsible for the Asura's recovery after all; the last thing he needed was Damon out of commission again when they were in Xros territory.

Without announcing his arrival or the name of his attack, Apu dove in, halting to a stop as his heels slid across the wooden flooring of the master bedroom. Slapping two fists together, he aimed a very well placed blow intended for Swain's middle back.

Not only was the pike fishman's attack sudden and fierce, but more so, it was at an angle that was hard to defend from, even with the reinforcement of Tekkai or Haki. After all, even a master who was able to move around with Tekkai active couldn't do it at the expense of his true speed. Apu hoped that his attack would make direct contact with the marine and send him toward the opposite end of the room, freeing his ally.

"Madaronigawara Nijūgū'!" Apu exclaimed, though not until his fists had at the very least made contact with his enemy.

The Fishman's gamble was correct, if unnessecary, for Swain was so assured in the might of the Marines that he'd never even considered that Apu might raise a hand against him. Under these circumstances, the Fishman's attack connected cleanly and sent the Commodore hurtling throughout the room and into the wall on the opposite end.

Fortunately for Swain, his Tekkai prevented him from suffering any significant injuries from the attack. But the main objective of Apu had been a resounding success all the same, even so, his back groaned in protest. Rumors of Fishman Karate were not exagerrated, it had punched through most of his Tekkai. For now, Swain's attention turned towards Apu, evidently considering him the greater threat at the moment. But when he spoke, his words were directed at Damon.

"You know Rokushiki, Damon. It seems we have a traitor in our midst. I'll have a quick search conducted and so we might weed out and punish whomever shared the secrets of the Six Techniques with an outlaw."

Using Soru, Swain repositioned himself on the balcony in a sudden surge of prodigious speed. Before he kicked off of the railing and flew up into the airspace between the two marine vessels as he shouted for the Captain. Where he hovered quietly in place with the use of Geppo.

"Captain Sanzo, why are you still standing there like a blushing virgin about to be deflowered. Get down here with me and do your duty to the marines!"

Sanzo wasn't a violent man per nature, but he had a duty as a Marine that stood above his own desires right now. Although he had some concerns on taking someone's life, it didn't mean that he was incapable of fighting. Sanzo had spent many years training as a monk and learned how to use the force of his opponents against them. He was more of a defensive type of fighter, but he could easily bring someone to the verge of death if he wished to.

He was about to descend when Swain suddenly appeared hovering. Hearing his words, he didn't think much before acting. Sanzo moved backwards spinning with strange hand movements in a type of dance. He repeated it to the opposite direction, heading to the border of the ship once again. Stopping there, he extended his right arm in a brute movement. All the dancing allowed him to create "flow" with his body, transfering it to the air through the palm of his hand. With it pointed to the house, a sudden stream of concentrated wind left his hand like the bullet of a cannon, destroying instantly the upper half of the house.

Damon recoiled as Apu sent Zander flying, raising himself from the ground to stand alongside the Fishman. "Sorry for that recklessness!" He panted, reacquiring his fighting position while the Marine recovered, which happened rather quickly, and began to spoke at Damon. The latter rebounced: "Whatever you say! I've learnt there a long time ago."

Zander had then yelled for the other person's support, whom Damon learned was named Sanzo, not that it mattered at the moment. "Apu-san!" Damon yelled and his eyes widened, as he felt what would come next, and before the air or whatever... hit the house, he lowered his arms and tightened his hardened fists. "BUTTERKUCHEN!!!" Damon dual-punched the air-wave, creating an impact of his own, as both of them destroyed the ceiling.

Upon witnessing the peculiar powers of Captain Sanzo, something resembling a plan formed in Swain's mind. Black ichor extended from Swain's palms and seeped into both Nicholas and Rudolph. Turning the pair of Tonfa pitch black with a surrounding nimbus of purple, it was a strain on his haki to employ this technique to this extent, and under ordinary circumstances he wouldn't. Were it not for Captain Sanzo's unusual abilities which appeared to have the ability to manipulate air from what he could tell, which made it worth the significant drain.

Steadying his footing as much as possible with the use of Geppo. Zander issued himself into the required motions, as he employed the Rokushiki principles behind the technique of to his Tonfa, while employing controled bursts of Soru upon his arms to generate sufficient momentum. Geppo being used in order to fight against the recoils produced by his own attacks.

"Captain Sanzo! Empower my attack with your abilities!"

With a wordless cry, Swain's Tonfa punctured the air again and again in shrill cacophonous roars. Their movements enhanced by Soru and their striking power enhanced by Haki to immense levels. Zander's furious assault manifested as a continous barrage of vacuum pockets that threatened to rip the two men to shreds from afar, and annihilate the very house they resided in on its own, and he hoped that Sanzo would heighten the power of his technique significantly.

"Fine." Sanzo moved both of his arm in a circle in the front of his body, until both of his palms clashed together. The air around him followed the same pattern, moving in a big spiral that disturbed the current flow of the wind. He then moved both of his arms foward with his palms open, sending the "spiral wind" in the direction of the vacuum pockets. Upon reaching then, it deformed their structure and movement; they got bigger and started to spin, as well as their speed was significantly increased. They had about two times the strength and the same size of Sanzo's last attack. A single "bullet" would be enough to open a hole bigger than the body of their targets could fit, ripping them in two pieces of flesh and blood.

When the roof was ripped right off of the top of their heads and a round of air bullets were sent reeling in their direction, there was only one thing that came into Apu's mind.

"Run!" he hollered, clasping his hand around Damon's wrist without any prior warning. If he succeeded in making contact with his ally, then the fishman went to quite literally dive headfirst into the wooden flooring beneath them, burrowing his way into the house's lower levels.

As they escaped into the bottom floor, the two of them were allowed only a handful of seconds before the bullets would make their way down and consume the rest of the house. At current, they were ripping the bedroom and all that existed on the house's top floor to shreds.

"Listen, Damon! We can't risk exerting ourselves here! This isn't our main battle; this isn't the reason we came all this way. The Marines aren't our real enemies, not here on Bedina! If we allow ourselves to be hurt, then our deaths at the hands of the Xros Pirates will be sealed! Do you understand?!"

A tinge of desperation filled his voice. "We have to get out of here while we still can..! You.. you're a Devil Fruit user, right? Well, you've got to trust me with this, but there's only one way I can see us getting out of here with our bodies still intact." But of course. Leave it to a fishman to elect the waters as an escape route.

He looked back as the bullets arrived into the lower levels of the house, tearing through the wall in front of them and leaving a large opening for some water to begin flowing in.

Damon's eyes widened as Apu yelled and took a grip of his hand. He felt the push and, as he trusted Apu, let himself get dragged by the fishman through way down below. "Tch!" Damon gritted his teeth, Apu had been right, as much as he despised some of the Marines... that's not why they were here, he had to think straight or else he would doom not only himself, but Apu as well... and maybe his comrades. "I DO!" Damon wouldn't allow himself to do that.

"Gotcha'! Don't explain, DO IT!" Damon yelled back, staring at Apu's very eyes, and waited for his plan. User or not, he had to survive and would trust Apu right away with this.

With no time to lose, with the air bullets breaking into the lower room, Apu clapped his hands together. When he began to spread them apart slowly, strings of gooey water, which looked all too much like saliva, connected his fingers together. He pulled his hands farther and farther apart, until what he created was a bubble the size of Damon himself.

It was a carefully executed display of Fishman Jujutsu; while the art revolved around the basis of using the bodies of water made readily available to him, Apu instead used the small bits of water that were there in the air to create this bubble. The subtle fragments of water allowed the bubble to be as thin and portable as it needed to be, while also having the inside of it be filled with fresh air suitable for a Devil Fruit user such as Damon. It was no different than a, yet created through Apu's own skill.

"Quick, get inside!" Apu said. But just as soon as he did, a stray air bullet connected with his creation, popping the bubble just as it had come into fruition. "Oh for the love of-"

With no more time to waste, he shoved Damon into the water and dove in after him.

Few among the marines were as driven in their desire to exterminate outlaws as Swain, and his men could witness this demeanour of him from the railing of his ship. As large bullets of air were created with his raw physical prowess, blasting apart the house in quick order, sending debris flying throughout the immediate area and causing seawater to splash and surge all around the points of impact.

Some might call it zeal, others would call it madness. But as his technique began to dim and nothing remained of the floating house beyond an island of scattered flotsam and driftwood, Zander's expression turned into a triumphant smile.

Only, there were no pirates to be found with the rubble that was floating on the ocean's surface. No pirates in sight, but most definitely pirates still in mind.

Where had they gone? Recalling that one of them was a... "frogman", as Zander had initially professed, perhaps it was possible that they had escaped into the waters below?

Down underneath and safe from the eyes of the Marines above, Apu and Damon continued to sink lower and lower. For Apu it was a long awaited reunion with his home, but very much the opposite for Damon, who literally could not move so much as in inch.

"Don't worry Damon, I'm here!" Apu announced, speaking freely underwater without having to hold in his breath. He parted his hands, this time creating a more durable --yet less portable-- bubble through the water that surrounded them.

Pushing Damon inside of it, he awaited his partner to collect his breath.

Despite the destructive power of their attack, Sanzo was sure that the criminals were still alive. The water was clean, except for the remaining of the houses, and there was no sign of blood or body parts floating. He looked in Swain's direction and could only feel the ingenuity in his smile. With a single hand movement towards his own body, a strong blow of wind forced Swain to fly to the ship's proximity, making him land safely on the wooden deck.

"They are still there. Do you plan to chase them?" Sanzo waited for his response before he did any action. He was sure that he could stop them from fleeing, but he wasn't there for this. He was assigned to deliver a package; and nothing more.

It was a weird sensation, for Damon had been unconscious the last few times he got into a large body of water. He could hold his breath for some minutes, but worry he did not, as Apu had quickly arranged another bubble for him. "GAH!" Damon gasped as he regained breath. "Thanks.." He held his chest and looked ahead. "Can this move forward...can they see us?"

Apu shook his head. "I don't think they're crazy enough to challenge a Fishman this deep underwater. It'd be suicide, even for them." Apu had the utmost confidence in his abilities underwater, but even so, now was not the time to showcase his skill. No, it was time to escape, to swim toward the opposite side of the island and meet up with his crew members.

Without wasting another precious second, Apu turned to Damon. "Ready?"

He reached behind with his arms, positioning the bubble on his back. Arming it into place, he then concentrated heavily on the long road ahead of them.

"Sudden Burst!" he declared as the two of them flickered out of comprehension, amassing a large distance between where they were previously and where they were now. The bubble, being made from the waters of the deep trenches of the New World, managed to sustain the short burst of impossibly fast movement.

From there on, Apu swam on ahead as fast as he could, leaving the ruins of the house far behind.

"Well, Fishmen sure have some advantage over Users..." Damon sighed and smiled, feeling his surrounds with Haki, despite his vision seeing through the water.

With Apu ready, Damon felt more than ready and braced himself, yelling at the top of his lungs. "BAAANZAAAAAAAAI" His eyes widened and all of his teeth could be seen as they burst through the water. Damon could already see that the ground was rising and they were close to it.

Ordinarily, Swain rather enjoyed being manhandled, but that was in an entirely different setting. When he was in the midst of meting out justice however he was less passionate about certain things. "We lost them the moment you decided to use your powers on me, as opposed to them.. the work ethic of marine forces are clearly lacking, it seems. Who do you think we are? I'll give you a standing order right here and right now, Captain Sanzo, the next time you see a pirate.. kill them immediately, or if that bothers your conscience, capture them and have them brought to Impel Down."

Zander turned his head halfway around as he peered into the distance, his hands tightening into fists in frustration at his quarry getting away. "Now then, what was it you wanted to give me again?"

Sanzo heard Swain complaining with his eyes closed. He was in peace with his own decision, but he acknowledge his negligence; he was a Marine, after all, and he was supposed to at least capture the pirates. He inhaled deeply, exhaling the air from his lungs before he answered Swain's question.

"Well, it is inside the casket." Sanzo put his right arm inside the left sleeve, taking the wooden casket that he hid before the fight started. How it was kept unharmed was still a mystery; the sleeve was so big that it could fit an entire body inside it, but he never tried to do so. Holding the casket on his palm, he approached it to Swain.

Taking the offered casket, Swain open it up like a child on christmas, expecting something juicy and amazing, the most recent issue of Muscle-Bara Magazines or maybe even Marines Exposed Volume Seven. Steam shot out of Zander's nostrils at that awesome thought and a tiny trickle of blood dripped from his nose onto the casket.

"I knew it would get here safely! I've always said that the mail delivery services of the marines is the best in the wo--" Zander's naughty hopes were dashed against the stony cliffs of fate when what he unveiled was not gorgeous pecs and sculpted abs, but instead a very peculiar looking fruit. It almost resembled that of an, but its stem was curiously twirled and its skin had visible spiral patterns.

Swain looked at the fruit and turned towards Sanzo. "Oi, what the hell is this!"

"It looks like a fruit; a devil fruit, to be more precise." Sanzo himself had eaten one when he was younger, which allowed him to do the many deads he showed up today. "I have eaten one myself; the Gare Gare no Mi. It's been such a long time, but I still can feel its awful taste in my mouth." His face wrinkled with the thought of experiencing it all over again.

"They are quite rare, even though every pirate seems to have eaten one these days... but whoever sent it to you must trust your persona." The usual seriousness of Sanzo's face was substitued by a faint smile.

Convinced by Sanzo's words, Swain took the Devil Fruit, guided it to his lips and gobbled it down all at once. He regretted it immediately.

Describing the taste of the Devil Fruit was an impossibility, it was almost as though his mental faculties ceased to function altogether as his brain struggled to process just how terrible the fruit tasted. Swain's vision blurred, and he the grounded rushed up to meet him as he doubled down on all fours, coughing and hacking like a drowning man inches from death. Beads of sweat formed on his face as they fell to the wooden floor of the ship in short order, and the weakened Commodore looked up at Captain Sanzo in a face of utmost defiance.

"Y-You traitor!"

He'd been poisoned, he'd extended a hand to a fellow marine and the devious mastermind had taken this opportunity to do away with him. How clever! No one would think that the serene and gentle Sanzo was in fact a cold-blooded murderer who killed his teammates by offering them fake Devil Fruits. Zander howled with laughter at the irony of it all, causing the poor ensigns and subordinates aboard Sanzo's vessel to turn around and look at the madman who clutched the ends of the Captain's robes desperately, a strange fire burning in his eyes. Flickers of pink and burnt orange dancing amidst his pupils.

"P-people will l-look for me.. Lewey, Dewey and Huey will miss me when I miss.. our s-scheduled appointment.." Swain raised his pleading eyes at Sanzo as his knees began to buckle.. "T-tell them.. tell them that I love all of them e-equally.. but especially Dewey b-because he's got the biggest co--"

Swain Zander fainted before he got to complete that sentence.

Sanzo watched the whole scene in silence. He remembered the sensation of eating a Devil Fruit, but it was nothing near to the point of fainting. "Perhaps he ate too much?" Sanzo asked himself. As his crew approached Swain's body, he raised his left hand with his palm open; they instantly stopped advancing. "I can take care of that. Find a bed or-... a coffin would be better in this situation, right? No, no. He is still alive. Find a bed to Commodore Swain. We'll keep him on our ship until he regains consciousness."

Sanzo bended his kness, putting his big arms under Swain's legs and back, lifting him. He carried his body to the improvised bed made with a mattress and some barrels, laying him on it. The entire crew stood around, watching him. "Is he really alive?" said one of the soldiers. "We will know soon." Sanzo answered. "Now, go back to work. I'll report the whole situation to our superiors." Sanzo left the deck, heading to his cabin.(edited)

Although he wasn't concious, Swain could feel himself being drawn to a place.. somewhere. Maybe it was a dream, maybe it was the afterlife. His eyes opened and within his dreamscape he stood up and looked around.

It was a sight he could scarcely fathom. As he stood within an enormous empty space, an endless ocean expanding from horizon to horizon, churning around the middle, whirling around him. Yet this sea was different from any sea he could ever imagine, it was not composed of water, but rather prismatic currents of raw energy, that shimmered and scintiliated between ranges of shocking pink to burning orange. Somehow he knew that all of this power was his.. all of this energy was now a fundamental part of who and what he were, like venom to serpent, like wings to a bird, or fins to a fish.

Without thinking he reached out to touch the colorful ocean and upon his touch it surged into his very being, filling him with a sense of power the likes of which he'd never felt before. With this kind of power he could easily annihilate the entire island if he wanted, to wipe the filth that resided therein out in a single gesture, why hadn't Admiral Fuyuki thought of something that simple. He'd just take the entire ocean into himself and bring justice to the entire world at once!

The powers of neon filled his entire being as he drew upon the ocean, but to his growing frustration he noticed that past a certain point he simply could not maintain his control over the raw energies. With the infinite energies reaching a point that they overflowed from him and returned to the ocean. Zander was like a chalice to his own power, he realized, a finite vessel to an infinite source. With training and mastery of his Devil Fruit, he assumed that one day his cup would expand in order to be able to command much more of its powers. But for now he was an infant in its use, and he could appreciate what it meant for some to denote themselves a Logia Master.

Sanzo's cabin was quite simple compared to the ones found in other Marines' ship. It had no chair, but a big orange cushion on the floor, and a low wooden table with some drawers and materials on it. He sat on the cushion with his legs crossed, one foot placed on top of the opposite thigh, and vice-versa. He slowly moved his hands, reaching the blank papers and the pen that were on the table, approaching them to his body. He started writing his reports: the inspection of the Marine' QG in Bedina and the whole situation with Commodore Swain and the other two criminals. Before officially reporting, he waited for Swain to wake up and confirm all the information he had written.

Within Reach
Along the east coast of Bedina existed a small underground cave. A cave lush with a rocky terrain, plastered over a swamp that reeked of days old discarded feces.

But in their time of desperation, it had become the perfect hideout for the members of the Titan Pirates' Fifth Division. Led by their vice-captain, Foxpack, the pirates had assembled here some days ago, awaiting the arrival of the rest of their allies. And now, finally, they had all gathered together.

"Seems everyone is now here-gara," Foxpack announced, walking into the center of the cave so that he was surrounded by his men. He lifted his foot, bringing it to rest over the top of a large rock. With a hard look around, he eyed each and every last one of his men with the one eye he had available to him. "The war draws upon us-gara. Today we draw first blood!"

In one corner of the cave was Apu, suited in a sleeveless gi with a sash tied around his waist. Noticeably absent was his usual bandanna; instead he had tied his dreads into a long ponytail. With his arms folded across his chest, he silently listened to what it was his superior had to say.

Even so, Apu couldn't help but think how fortunate they would have been to have their commander, Montblanc Burling, present there along with them. There was no doubting Foxpack's capability to lead --he did so even with Burling there-- but the level in their strength was all too obvious. Even with the addition of two undoubtedly sound allies in Damon and Tabart, Apu knew that they were still gravely undermanned against the Xros Pirates. Keeping his eyes sealed, he tried to find some sort of peace to ease his doubts over their mission.

“You okay, Apu?” Tabart inquired as he approached the isolated figure.

Though Tabart was among the newest recruits of the Titan Pirate’s fifth division, he had proven invaluable since he was pulled from the ocean. While the members of the crew waited in this underground cavern, Tabart had set up a garden to provide the men access to plants that could be used to make herbs, vegetables, fruits, raw materials such as rubber and latex should they desire to indulge in their desires. However, what he seemed to provide was a sense of security to many of the pirates. He was another body to be used in what seemed to be an impossible mission, and his bounty indicated that his body was at least somewhat useful. Yet, Tabart knew that his bounty, at least when it was assigned to him, was not a matter of skill but of sheer accident. Though, he made sure not to speak about such terms to the members of the crew, lest Foxpack figure it out for himself. He was worried about the fate of this crew, and for himself. “You thinking about how crazy this mission is?”

There was a long silence that followed Tabart's words. To be frank, Apu didn't know what he was supposed to say. Should he risk speaking his mind, the truth, and derailing everyone's morale all the more? It was true, what they were doing even now with the Xros Pirates' ranks diminished and out on duty was nothing less than suicide. Their chances of victory, while greater than they ever could be, were still next to impossible. What were they doing?

"...Yes. Something like that," Apu mumbled in response. He couldn't bring himself to shoot down their spirits any further. If they were planning to emerge victorious, then at the very least they needed to believe in their capabilities to do so.

"It is nice to make acquintance with you all!" Damon had said and bowed at everyone, donning the outfit he found earlier. Now, he stood quiet beside Apu, not knowing anyone who stood present on the cave. His arms were crossed, and one of his legs stood in front of the other, as he leaned against a rock close to the Fishman.

He, however, had recognized Foxpack's voice and almost panicked at how much crazy the... man looked. Reminded him of Mengis. He was surrounded by men, by Cooks, all of these guys were Cooks. Then, there was this Tabart, presumably part of the Titans as well, who had already helped them lots even before the battle began. As much as the man put Damon to shame, the latter already liked Tabart. He seemed to be a nice guy, even for a Pirate, and certainly cared about his... team mates. "Looks like he came straight out of some Desert Chronicles..." Even so, he had never heard of him.

Damon eyed Tabart and Apu as they conversed, feeling the uneasiness in Apu's words and the worry in Tabart's. He wouldn't lie that he felt uneasy too, more because of who they were going to face, but, also because Apu had been focused on somewhere else. Damon would not blame him though and moved himself, placing a hand on Apu's right shoulder, "Easy there, Fish-bro." Damon turned to look at Tabart and licked his lips. "I assume these plants have been your doing... erm, Tabart-san, right?"

"Two thousand four hundred and forty-two, two thousand four hundred and forty-three, two thousand four hundred and forty-four" came from the back of the cave, as Katashi worked out to pass the boredom, doing crunches as he waited for something to happen.

Continuing with his crunches, he merely spoke up. "We'll be fine. Sure, the Xros take pride in their crew, two thousand four hundred and sixty-three, but so do we. We'll win, because we're the Titan pirates, strongest crew in the world. Plus, with Foxy-Vice-Commander-Sir on our side, how can we lose?" he finished with a smile, continuing with his crunches before saying. "Two Thousand Five Hundred." he then paused for a moment, before rolling over to start with push-ups.

Seeing the large group that had gathered on one end of the cave, Foxpack opted to approach them himself. He eyed Apu first, carefully noting the fishman's demeanor. In the time that he had known him --a few months now-- they hadn't shared all that many precious times. Apu was far closer to Burling than he was to him. But as Foxpack learned time and time again, respect was earned with time, not acquired through position.

Almost as if he were looking through Tabart, Foxpack settled his eye upon Damon next. He stared long and hard at him, until his snout weaved into a gentle smile. "So you're the one I heard about on the news a few days back-gara. Damon was it?"

Waiting for Tabart, who had been busy with his plants, Damon looked oddly at the man who had been pushing himself up. Only then...

The approach of the Mink made Damon stiffen slightly, as he hadn't properly met Foxpack beforehand. He had been curious. This... man spoke in a funny way, sometimes. He didn't sound, didn't smell like the rest of this Fifth Division, much like Apu, although Damon attributed Apu's demeanor to Burling's non-presence. Burling's absence meant that someone else had to stay in charge, and Damon didn't ever need to guess to hard in order to know that this would be Foxpack. He faintly remember him from the Den Den Mushi, back at Ishitani, having been too tired to pay much attention.

Nevertheless, Damon felt an immense aura coming from him, greater than anyone present at the cave. But, that wasn't the highlight of it. Damon strangely felt at ease, since, as much fierce as Foxpack's aura was, it also possessed... order.

This was the other man that Apu respected. It amazed him how someone could stand so strong, after so much, maybe this man would serve as an inspiration for him. Damon had, in fact, presumed that Foxpack was a proper veteran, he couldn't guess if that eyepatch was due to a wound, yet, the Mink's aura told him not all, but many things. "Like... Captain Hook from the Neverlands..."

His head snapped to look at Foxpack's figure, due to his words, which made Damon even calmer. "News- Oh, right right! Yes, name is Draco D. Damon, pleased to finally meet you, Foxpack-san." He smiled at the Mink, quickly nodding as greeting as his arms uncrossed from over each other and he stood much much straight. Damon could do this, Foxpack looked like nothing he had ever saw, aside from Mengis, but, he wouldn't get freaked out.

Seeing Damon straighten himself out and become overly conscious of the way he was standing made Foxpack burst into a light chuckle. "Fufufufufufu!" It didn't take much for him to take a liking to the human.

"There's no need to be so formal with me-gara. Besides, if what I read on that newspaper is true and you truly did manage to defeat Mengis, then you must be even stronger than I am!" But of course. For the better part of their clashes, Mengis and Foxpack had always been even. Their fights had always resulted in stalemates and draws; they were about as even as it came. And basing what he had seen on the newspaper, if Damon defeated Mengis in a one on one battle all by himself, then boy was Foxpack glad to have him here on their side. Heck, he might even just have Damon be the one to challenge Reach.

"Glad to have you on our side-gara! I suspect that you'll be an even match for Reach if you didn't have a hard time with Mengis!"

Damon gave a happy sigh at Foxpack's laugh, relaxing his body a bit as he closed his eyes and smiled again. "It's because I've just met ya'... but, if you say so, I'll comply, like the quiet student who always nods at his classmates' remarks." Then, his eyes widened a bit at the mention of Mengis. Damon pondered on how Foxpack had even met Mengis, but then, it hit him. The Tiger was a Marine, the Fox was a Pirate, both of high ranks, so it was very likely that they have crossed fists before.

Damon would ask that later, as of now, he focused on the other aspect of the conversation. "Oh- OH, wait, I haven't beaten Mengis-san." His voice was calm and held no hesitation, that fight had no merit to him. They were fighting for something higher... and then, they just weren't. A part of him hoped Foxpack wouldn't be disappointed, he was looking forward to lending help and didn't want to throw the morale in the dirt. "...We had clashed indeed, but, he turned out to be a Monster-Eater." Strength, resilience, Damon certainly had it.

"Can't say he went easy on me, tho', his entire body had been sparking with that power of his... the whole island trembled at Blue Viper." He shuddered, tet, this made him remember how his speed had been lacking. Damon lowered his gaze to glance at his palms, and looked up back to Foxpack. This just reminded him that he ought to ask Apu about that ability of his, and maybe Foxpack, as he seemed to be the same as Mengis.

Even though he knew nothing about their relationship, Damon felt the urge to reassure Foxpack. "Mengis was insanely strong, both as a fighter and as a person... he wouldn't be defeated easily." These words held venom, but, not in the way that Damon was berating Foxpack for believing in the news. It was because the figure of Carter Pine came to his mind, yet, it was gone soon with a breath and a wave of calmness.

His eyes got filled with resolve and his right hand closed into a fist. "I'm not that strong nor fast yet, even so, let me help, let me be glad to stay on your side too, as a friend of Apu and a fellow fighter!!!"

I haven't beaten Mengis-san... his entire body had been sparking with that power... Mengis was insanely strong... I'm not that strong nor fast yet. As Damon spoke, Foxpack merely nodded his head. As much as he hoped he hadn't shown it, inside, a fire had went out in Foxpack's heart.

The hopes he had for defeating Reach... yes, of course it was too good to be true. Of course the media had lied about Mengis' defeat. They had been mocking him for years as he lost rank after rank after rank. Perhaps it was his hope alone, his desperation to believe that they had any chance, any chance at all at topping Reach that made him overestimate the situation. But even so, he could hardly blame Damon for the World Government's ploy of covering up their antics.

"But of course the government would find a way to cover what truly occurred. I know of that far too well-gara." Foxpack dropped his eye. So it would be him against Reach after all. Just as he feared.

Picking his head up just as quickly as it had gone down, the fox flashed a warm smile to Damon. "It's of no issue, Damon-kun! If anything, the fact that that tiger bastard had to employ his signature techniques on you the way he did is merit enough that you are a worthy combatant-gara! Believe me when I say that I'm very glad to have you among our numbers!"

Talk of Ishitani brought Apu back to recall the events. He couldn't believe it had already been a week since he had met Damon. The way the two of them had bonded so easily... it felt as though they had been friends for years.

Damon didn't know what to think of Foxpack's nods at his words, and merely continued into their conversation. Even then, it made him want to help even more, to reassure even more just how much they are capable of defeating this Reach, if they work together that is. It also made him ponder, if he had enough strength... power, for his revenge.

He agreed at the statement about the Government, having been victim to it once... no, twice. Damon bit his lip and his eyes got bloodshot for but a single second. A visage of Linster came to his mind. Friendly laughs, which soon became cries of anguish. A cell for two, men in black robes, loneliness. But, it got filled with orange hair, a rough encounter, but then... warm words, then touches, then kisses... In a blink, it was all gone into red, Heaven became Hell.

This was Bedina, not Linster.

Damon breathed, "We will all fight Reach." Said he simply, bearing a smile towards the Mink once again. "I'm glad too, of receiving such praise and faith, dorahahaha!" Damon ran his finger below his nose, "Do we know anything about him at all? Like, is the guy the only Officer at Bedina?" His eyebrows arched and his head tilted, while his arms crossed.

"Yeah," Tabart interrupted, stepping forward into the conversation, "I don't even know who the heck this guy Reach is." He looked towards Foxpack. "He sounds powerful, but if all of us are here, I don't think it's possible that we can lose. Afterall, he can't be stronger than that pink-haired transvestite that was running around Elbaf. We managed to push him back with a bunch of scrubs; I'm a very different man than I was back then too. If we can push that dude back, then I think we can take care of this fella named Reach."

''I don't even know who the heck this guy Reach is. ''

We will all fight Reach.

I think we can take care of this fella named Reach.

Do we know anything about him at all?

Foxpack sealed his eye shut. As words of ignorance from a privileged generation loomed about him, the fox mink recalled his first ever encounter with Reach, more than ten years ago. Long before the seas had come to fear him under the name of the "Dark Knight".

---

The sun had crept high in the skies, stabilizing its place amongst the clouds per the perception of those whom admired its beauty from the earthen lands beneath. It was noon, and about as noon as it could possibly ever get, which could have only meant one thing: it was lunch hour at Marineford, the time of day where the vast majority of the marines stationed their at the Navy's primary base of operations were off duty. Well, most of them, at least.

"Fufufufufu! Aren't you forgetting something-gara?! Come on now, put it on!" Seated among countless other peers on a large table inside of a very, very crowded cafeteria was none other than Foxpack, clad in the honorary garb that upheld his position as a Marine Rear Admiral. He feasted both of his eyes upon the tiger mink that was the only one within the near vicinity who was standing, as opposed to being seated like the rest of them.

The tiger mink, who had recently received yet another demotion was now ranked Ensign. The Marines in the New World, in particular those who reported to Marineford, did not take lightly to the newbs. Hazing of all kind was methodized in all its glory, made all the more delightful when taking into account all but a single factor: karma.

Yes. This very tiger had once held the rank of Vice Admiral in the not so distant past. How he had been demoted to the utmost trenches of the commissioned marine officer ranks was the center of every marine's jokes, though none ever forgot the way he had treated them during his time of authority.

Simply put, that darn tiger was the worst! He ate everyone's food, forced marines that served beneath him to trim his toenails, and any time he saw a fish of any kind, it was game over. He'd abandon entire missions to see to it that he devoured the poor sea critter, perhaps that was why his career had panned out the way it did.

This time around, they would be the one to have the last laugh. They would make a mockery out of this darn tiger mink, and show him just how utterly ridiculous it felt to be humiliated in a public setting as staggering as this!

"Hoy, come on Mengis, put it on already!" a Marine Commodore tittered, while a Marine Captain who was seated on the same table added in, "yeah Mengis! We wanna see it on you!"

Grumbling some not so pleasant words under his breath, Mengis set down the pot of steamy soup onto the table, placing the large ladle spoon he had been wielding up until then inside of it. The former Vice Admiral was without his coat and even worse, without the prestige of his epaulets and badges; in their place he was dressed in an apron, under which he had been allowed to wear… absolutely nothing. Now reaching into the front pocket of the apron, he unveiled a hairnet, and as he pulled it over the top of his pointed ears, the entire cafeteria erupted into a siren of whistles and an uproar of laughter.

"Fufufufufufu!!" leading the laughter was Foxpack, of course. His fists slammed against the table in front of him countless times as he laughed the whiskers right off of his snout.

"Grrr… I'll get you for this, you damn fox!" Mengis grumbled, with no choice other than to lift up his utensils and return to work serving the rest of the marines.

Cackling with no end in sight, Foxpack purposely spilled the contents of his food upon the floor. "Hoy, I'm sorry Mengis, it would appear as though my hand slipped-gara… again!!" His fist connected again with the table. "Fufufufufu!"

Mengis snarled. Under ordinary circumstances, he'd have charged at Foxpack long ago and wiped that grin right off of his filthy snout. But at this point he couldn't risk another demotion. If he fell beneath the rank of a commissioned officer, then not only would he very likely be transferred into one of the four seas, but be stripped of his privilege to wear the kanji of "justice" in the name of the Navy. They could shame him all they wanted. But there would be no greater knock against his pride than that.

Another Ensign, one who was actually still fashioned in the way of an actual marine, charged into the table and stopped on the dime --exalting great form at that-- right before Foxpack. Tossing his hand up against his head, he greeted the fox mink with a salute. "Rear Admiral Foxpack-sama! I have been told to inform you that Admiral Raptor-sama requires your presence inside of his office!"

"Eh?" Foxpack lifted up his brow. Couldn't he see that he was enjoying himself here? It was lunch time for crying out! "Alright, alright. Tell him I'll be right there."

The Ensign puckered his face. Tension boiled along his cheeks and nose, sweat trickling down every pore as he held his hand against his head in salutation. "W-Well y-you see, Foxpack-sama-sir… in lieu of y-your frequent delays, the Admiral has explicitly requested that y-you…"

"That I what-gara? Out with it boy!"

"That you not take your sweet time getting there!" The Ensign gulped. He quickly covered his mouth as the laughter all around the cafeteria stopped at once. Only the sound of wind passing through Mengis' nostrils as he covered his mouth --so as not to break into a laughter of his own-- could be heard. Aside from that the cafeteria had gone entirely mute.

"...Is that so?" Standing to his feet slowly, Foxpack dusted off his epaulets with his paws. "Very well-gara." Seeing himself out, Foxpack departed from the cafeteria to the sound of Mengis' chuckles.

When Foxpack arrived within the "sanctuary" that was Raptor's office, he did so without knocking --they were far beyond the necessity for that-- and to the sight of the Admiral scolding his right-hand man, Marine Vice Admiral Montblanc Burling.

"You pissy drunk! Can you even understand what I'm saying?" Raptor jested, a hinge of youth enlightening his face. The admiral was draped in his coat, seated behind his desk. His hair was slicked back with a greasy pomade texture and his facial hair had been groomed into a handlebar mustache.

Burling was sitting fairly upright in his seat, which was a rare sight to behold, however with an empty sake bowl aligned over the top of his head like a hat. His eyes were rolling around every corner of the room and his face bore a crooked smile.

"Yeah, what?" Foxpack chimed as he walked into the room. His eyes drifted to the sight of the Vice Admiral picking his nose.

"Oh good! You're here. This puts as way ahead of schedule," said Raptor.

"Okay, okay, what did you call me for-gara? Come on, out with it!"

"No, no, like really. I don't think you understand. I honestly didn't expect you in here for about another hour or so. I can't believe my eyes right now. Is this a dream? Burling, pinch me!"

Burling flipped his head from side to side, puckering his lips together and playing with his hand, pretending it was a motorboat. "Brrr!!!"

Foxpack sighed. He turned around and made for the door. There was a damn tiger mink putting on a show in that cafeteria and he was here doing… whatever this was!

"No, wait!" Raptor called out. "Okay, my bad. There's actually something I need to talk to you guys about."

Foxpack turned back around. "I'm… listening-gara."

There was a long silence. Perhaps, too long. So long in fact that some of the dramatic tension was cut short. The fact that Raptor felt the need to imitate Foxpack's pattern of speech didn't help solidify the seriousness of his case any better.

"So, listen-gara-gara. That bastard Shiguma… he's been catching a lot of wind under his sails lately." Raptor narrowed his eyes. "And by that… gara-gara-gara, I mean he and his crew have been conquering islands left and right.

"They're calling him the 'Emperor' now. 'Emperor Shiguma'."

"The emperor?" Foxpack quirked forth a brow of his own. He calmly stroked his whiskers as he tried to grasp a hold of what the admiral was talking about. "What a silly thing to call him-gara!"

"Brrrr!"

"Yeah well, there's a bit of merit to it. Matter of fact, there's a strong bit of merit to it. If what we've gathered has any meaning behind it, then it's all the more likely that he'll be headed for Dressrosa next. And then…"

"Zou…" Foxpack intervened. His hand curled into a fist. Now this was personal.

"Exactly."

"But how-gara? Over the last several years, he didn't amount to much of anything! On the contrary, he was a rather shitty pirate!" Foxpack didn't see how any of this was adding up.

"Yeah, and I'm with you there, man, gara-gara-gara, I don't think I've ever whooped anyone's ass as many times as I've whooped his."

"So then how-gara? What is he doing differently now?"

"Well… and there's no way yet to confirm any of this… but what we're suspecting at this point is that Shiguma has been getting a great deal of help from an outside source. A source who isn't directly apart of his crew but very closely linked to them."

"Brrr-" Foxpack prevented Burling from making any further noises by flicking a wallop of hot caramel into his mouth, glueing his mouth shut. The Vice Admiral slouched back into his seat and remained silent for as long as required.

"Just think about it for a second, gara-gara-gara. There's no way, just no way in Davy Jones' locker that the Xros Pirates had the sort of manpower to eclipse that many armies in that short span a time. They should have ran out of ammo, ran out of supplies and the like a long time ago! Unless…"

"Unless-gara?"

"....Unless someone was supplying his crew with everything he might ever need. Someone who can create weapons, create equipment on a whim and nigh effortlessly. Someone who, ideally, would have to be living on an island around the Xros Pirates' ever growing territory, say… Liega? Someone who-"

"Reach!"

"Someone who-"

"Hoy, shut up already! It's Reach isn't it?!"

Raptor slammed his fist against his desk. "Goddamn it is! At least, that's what I'm thinking too. That greedy bastard will do just about anything for a good price. Did I ever tell you how much he charged me for a simple back-scratcher? All the ones I ever used snapped in my hand!" Raptor leaned over in his chair, reaching down into the lower drawers of his desk. When he sat up, he had something of a metal rod in his hand. "But *this* baby, gosh, it's really something else!"

The admiral put it to use right away, pointing his elbow up toward the ceiling and bending it on an angle over his shoulder so that he could reach his favorite spot. He let out a sudden groan, much to Foxpack's dismay. "Hoy…"

When the admiral moaned even louder, Foxpack was forced to shout louder himself, and the Rear Admiral did his best to stray from the sheer ridiculousness his superior was upholding himself to. "Hoy!! Should we go and confront him about it-gara? Should we head for Liega?"

"Oh, good idea!" Slamming the metal backs-cratcher against the table, Raptor stood up from his seat. Several joints could be heard snapping from the admiral's legs as he relieved his body of several hours of being in one position.

He leaped off of his desk in a dramatic fashion, stopping only to pick Burling up and toss the large man over his shoulder as he ran out the door. Foxpack followed along, yet was pushed aside when the admiral came running back into his office. Raptor glanced around the room before his eyes caught sight of it: the backscratcher he had shamefully left behind. Fetching it back into his hands and securing Burling in the other, he ran out of his office again, cheering, "gara-gara-gara!!"

The sun was dropping back down into the horizon. From the perspective of the three monstrosities that were currently lounging inside of a small, wooden hut on a beach along the coast of the island known as Liega, it almost looked as though the sea itself was devouring the blazing ball of chaos.

Cards in hand, cigars in their mouths, and countless liquor bottles scattered around the floor, inside sitting upon a table enjoying each others company were three boisterous men who would go on to reshape he history of the pirate world forever. However at current, they were a very, very peculiar trio. It was anyone's guess as to why and more importantly how they had even managed to come together the way that they had.

The objective of the game the three men were playing was quite simple. They each set down a card from their deck --drawn at random-- facedown on the table in front of them. Then, depending on their gut feeling, they had either of two choices: to bet and check, or to withdraw entirely.

It was a game meant to be circumvented almost exclusively on luck, and yet after over a hundred rounds, the same man had won every single match!

Sitting in the center of the table was the man who was at this point in time at the very center of the storm. He had the reins to the pirate world in his clasps. The way he had conquered island after island after island in such short a time.. it was an unprecedented event, and even if he were to die at this very minute, he would have already forever etched his name into history as a dominant force to be reckoned with. He was none other than the recently crowned "Emperor", Michael D. Shiguma.

"I just don't fucking get it!" Shiguma exclaimed, an swaying from side to side upon his head as he shuffled through his cards. "How do you keep winning?! I just don't fucking get it!"

Sitting on his left side was a man on an impeccable win streak. A man so lauded that wars were fought over the right to name their children after him. A man that after a span of over two decades as a pirate was now entirely exempt from the bounty system the World Government had professed, for they deemed him so ridiculously ridiculous --in lack of a better word-- that they no longer bothered in issuing him a bounty.

This man had defeated the bounty system and no longer possessed a bounty because the World Government truly didn't believe he could ever be caught. A man so vulgar, so very shameful that he spent most of his day making love to his own hand. A man whose greatest skill was in swordsmanship and yet his most formidable weapon remained the very schlong that hung between his legs. A man so cheap, so disloyal that at current, he was not only cheating at this card game, but reading every word of this role-play.

"Yeah, jeez Daz, you might want to tone it down a little with my intro. Like why's mine so much longer than Sig's? People are going to rage about that. I guarantee it man, they're always bitching about something, am I right? I'm willing to bet everything I won from Sig that they're gonna bitch about it."

This man was the man whose presence perhaps could not be explained. For even the narrator has little as to no idea why he's here…

"Oh come on, you know exactly why I'm here Daz. It's what you always do, isn't it? It's nothing new! Of course you're going to have me, a character that you're really in love with, steal the show in a couple of minutes. I'm willing to bet on that too! Watch it guys, watch it I'm calling it. I literally have no reason to be here right now. This role-play is supposed to be about the Xros Pirates and Sigma and shit, and yet he's trying to make it about me!"

The infamous Black Panther, the man who fucked the world for well over 72 hours… Aoshin. "Haha, is that a Kendrick Lamar reference, Daz?"

To Shiguma's right was the very man who was responsible for the arrival of the other two, and the reason the marines, headed by a Navy Admiral, were headed in their very direction. A cigar held between his pursed lips --which were hidden by the massive beard on his face-- he held a rather dull demeanor when compared to the other two. He for one didn't care how many games he lost. It was Shiguma's money, after all.

This was the man the world knew at current as the so called "Greatest Blacksmith in the World", for his prowess in crafting weapons was so utterly unmatched that all others dulled in comparison to him. No matter the scope of success he achieved however, he remained as greedy as ever. There wasn't much of anything he wouldn't do for a quick buck. In recent times, his love for money had seen him become affiliated with Shiguma.

This bearded man who lacked any type of personality at all was Reach.

"Wow that took long enough. Seriously, Daz? This role-play was hyped up with Reach being the main antagonist and all, and it took 160,000 bytes to debut him? And holy shit, this isn't even real time; it's a fucking flashback!"

Shiguma quirked a brow at Aoshin as he kept talking to… himself? But he lost the right to insult the man fifty matches ago. Now all he could do was lick his freaking bung. Burying his face into his deck of cards, Shiguma professed one of his many, many tantrums. "Fucking bullshit! How in the fuck did I lose every game?!"

Aoshin was all smiles. Of course he knew why he was winning every game. He could see everything, including the unseen. He could see the past, the present, and the future. He could see through walls, through illusions all the same. He could spot an ant from over an island away and even see the dead. He could even see you as you're reading this, and Daz. Oh Daz. The things he could see in that man. He could see everything in Daz, except potential.

All that into account, to see what card Shiguma and Reach had face down was like taking candy from a little bitch.

"Hey, lighten up, man. It's not your fault that you're not as awesome as me." The level of generosity in Aoshin's voice was through the roof. The Black Panther reached over and ran his hand up and down Shiguma's back in a comforting manner. "Here, maybe I'll let you win the next game."

Shiguma lifted up his head. His straw hat slipped down his backside, hanging unto his neck via a loose thread. Hope, determination, and poise filled Shiguma's heart. "R-Really?" "No. Of course not. I'm just kidding dude, you really suck at this. Believe me when I say I have absolutely no idea why you gamble as much as you do. Seriously, you should quit, man. Know when to fold!"

Reach calmly smoked from his cigar. He looked between the two of them with nothing to add on. The fact that he scarcely knew either of them didn't help him much at all.

"But that's enough of that. Why don't we discuss your guys' next move?" Aoshin continued. He swiped the cards, chips, and bottles that had accumulated unto the tabletop over onto one side, so that the map that was engraved into the wood could be visible to them. This was Aoshin's forte: his prowess as a navigator.

Aoshin ran his finger along some blots on the map. "Alright so… this is us…" He circled his finger around and around. "You guys have already taken these islands, so up next would be…" As if he didn't already know. The Xros Pirates had come as far as they did for three reasons: for one, they had the absolute greatest weapon supplier in the world in Reach at their disposal. Secondly, they had a power house in Shiguma, whose Devil Fruit ability alone upheld him as an inconceivable threat to the rest of humanity. And third and perhaps most important of all… they had a member of the Black Widow Pirates, an incredibly proficient navigator who was so bored with where he was in life that he had gone out of his way to assist an enemy and damn well made his career.

"And there it is! Wow! Even I'm a bit shocked, honestly. You'd think Daz would have a limit to how much he's willing to troll the rest of you guys. But no! I'm literally only here because I have the biggest dick in the world!" Aoshin exclaimed.

"Huh?" Shiguma looked up from the map.

"Nah, nothing. Now pay attention here, alright Siggy? I'm tired of having to teach your ass how to be a pirate. You should have the common sense on how to do this by now."

Aoshin and Shiguma had always shared a very odd relationship, dating back over the last few decades. Shiguma was known as that guy who ran around and meddled into matters that didn't explicitly concern him, and demanded that he be let into all the exclusive things in life. Right now he so desperately wanted to be a Yonko that he was willing to do anything to acquire the title, anything.

Aoshin's motive in helping Shiguma was very simple. The Black Widow Pirates were simply far too ahead of the game; they were so much better than all the other pirate crews out there that Aoshin figured he'd go out and even the playing field some. At the very least, he thought, they should have some decent competition. But training Shiguma gave him more headaches than anything else. Mapping out every route he should take and literally detailing everything the pirate had to do in order to be considered a top notch pirate… Shiguma was being given everything on a silver platter.

"Alright yeah, so I guess at this point it doesn't even really matter whether we, I mean, you guys go after. Dressrosa or Asha, pick your poison. But just don't go after Zou, I think Legs wanted that or something."

"Wait, Legs wants Zou? Why?" But Shiguma wanted Zou!

"Dude quit being such a baby, sheesh. I literally gave you all those other islands. Be happy with what you have." What a fucking jock! And it was just as his statement came to an end that Aoshin's eyes suddenly widened. He snapped back in his seat and sat up. "Ohhhh shit."

"What?" Shiguma wanted to know. Even Reach, as silent as he was, expressed some sort of interest in the matter.

"It's a marine vessel. A rather large one, at that. It's headed in our direction… only a few kilometers now before it's visible in the horizon." Aoshin turned his head, gazing out of the hut and toward the sea, where the sun had been consumed by the sea and the moon had come out in its place. "In three… two… yep, there she is. Have a look at that one, boys."

Aoshin pointed out at the sea as a marine vessel came into view with his countdown. "Good luck with that one, you guys. Admiral Raptor is onboard. Which means my work here is just about done." Gathering the many bags of cash he had won from Shiguma into his arms, the Black Panther made like the wind and rushed out from the hut, leaving Shiguma and Reach to themselves.

"....What might they want?" Reach finally spoke aloud. He puffed a fat cloud of smoke into the room.

Inhaling the smoke by accident, Shiguma started to cough. It took him several seconds just to be able to speak again. "T-They must have caught on to what we were doing! Either that or that bastard Aoshin set us up! Y-You've got to cover for me, Reach! Tell them I'm not here!"

"...Tell them you're not here? Do you honestly believe that'll work?"

"It has to! It has to or we're screwed!!" Shiguma had begun to panic. Not only had he lost his precious money, but now he might just lose his career too. If he fell here, then there was no telling how it would impact his chances of becoming a Yonko!

"Tell them I'm not here!" Shiguma exclaimed yet again as he dove into some bushes behind the hut.

The large ship drifted ever closer to shore, docking along the beach. As three illustrious marines stepped foot onto the sand and approached the hut, Reach very calmly stood up from his seat and went to greet them all by his lonesome.

Raptor, for the time being, was all smiles. "Reach, my man!! That back-scratcher's been working like a charm!"

Reach was silent. Was that really why this buffoon had come all this way? For another one of those?

Foxpack growled. "Hoy, Raptor! Cut to the chase-gara! Tell him why we're really here." "Umm, oh.. Right!" Raptor cuffed his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. "Yeah, so… are you friends with Shiguma now or what?"

Reach was silent. His silence made Foxpack impatient.

"Is he here or not here-gara?"

Reach remained silent.

"Reach we… we stopped a ship a few days back that was headed for Dressrosa and we trailed it back to here. Do you have any idea what was inside of that ship?"

Reach puffed another fat cloud. The fattest cloud to date.

"There were tons of weapons aboard, Reach. Weapons with your imprint written all over them. Might I ask what your ships were doing sailing along the territory of the Xros Pirates without being shot down?"

Reach puffed another-

"Reach," Raptor said again, demanding an answer.

"I have a warrant from Admiral Kurama-san. The day I agreed to supply the marines with weapons and ammunition was the day I thought you all agreed to stay out of my business," Reach finally snapped back.

"Reach, I don't give a fuck about any warrant. I'm going to have to bring you in with us for some questioning. And I'll tell you right here and now… I don't need no damn warrant for that."

"Oh, he's here alright." Burling was surprisingly sober now. The voyage all this way had done the man some good. That and the fact that Foxpack didn't let a single cup of liquor onboard. Burling was the right-hand man of an admiral for a reason. His senses were as sharp as they came. Through his peerless skill in Kenbunshoku, he spotted the man whom they had come looking for hiding behind some bushes. He pointed towards the hut. "He's in there, Raptor. I can see him. He's right over there."

"No I'm not!" Shiguma yelled back. "I'm not here!"

Raptor sighed. He cupped his hand into his face. It really pained him to have to say what he was going to say next. Where else was he going to get another back-scratcher in case the one he currently had broke? But he had no other choice. Raptor looked up and out of his hand. "Reach, I'm going to have to bring you in-"

Thwak!

In the time he had shielded his face, Raptor had shamefully let his guard down. And before either of his two men could have thought to come to his defense, Reach's left hand had become a block of metal and connected hard with Raptor's gut.

The admiral grunted as he felt the wind in his cheeks gush out from his mouth. He went flying backward, only to break any further ascent through the use of Geppo. Rebounding off of the wall as if it were a wall, he caught himself before he traveled any farther and touched his hand to his lip. Blood.

Foxpack tried to quickly unsheathe his sword when it occurred to him that Reach was thrusting on over his way. However to his fortune, Burling had intervened in time and matched Reach's foot with his own, resulting in a triumphant clash of Busoshoku Haki.

Foxpack snarled as a surge of wind emanating from Reach and Burling pushed him backwards. The fox pink planted his feet into the sand to avoid skidding off too far and he was forced to hold up his sword in way of a defense.

He looked on over to the admiral. "Raptor! Are you alright-gara?"

Standing upright, Raptor didn't feel the need to acknowledge Foxpack. Nor did it occur to him that he should. A powerful aura emanated from the man, and his aloof expression was overtaken by one of deceit, one of pride.

He would teach Burling to make a fool out of him. "Move, Burling. This one's mine." As the struggle ensued, with neither Reach nor Burling gaining any sort of advantage over the other, Burling leaped backward, retreating. He landed beside the admiral. At times like this, even he couldn't joke around anymore.

Burling narrowed his eyes as he looked into the distance. "Shiguma is fleeing into the jungle, Admiral."

"Then go after him!" Raptor roared.

"Roger that." Burling shared a glance toward Foxpack, and upon nodding to one another, the two of them took off, leaving Raptor and Reach alone on the beach.

"I'll tell you only this once, Reach. Stand down."

Reach moved the cigar in his mouth to the end of one side, gnawing on it. "...Am I supposed to be afraid of you because you're an admiral? You humor me, Raptor."

"Fine. Have it your way. But tell me this, at least. Why? Why would you align yourself with a man like that? Were you not successful enough on your own without him? Did the Navy not give you as much as you wanted?"

"...Just as you may never understand my methods, I fail to fully grasp ahold of your own, Raptor. To me there is no such thing as 'satisfaction'. There is no being content. No matter all that I may have achieved, it's not nearly enough.

"Do you think a man dies when he's shot? When he's stabbed or when he's hung? Nay, a man dies the day he grows content with the fact that he's alive!" As the words exploded from Reach's mouth, bars and wires of metal sprang out from his skin, covering every portion of his body until what he was wearing was a full suit of armor. A helmet clasped shut over his face, shielding him from the admiral. In his hand dawned a warhammer and the other a broad sword, the perfect tools for cutting down a dragon.

Meanwhile, Shiguma was running for his life inside of the jungle. He had the lead he wanted when all of a sudden, he tripped on a loose vine and fell flat on his face. "Fucking bullshit!" he exclaimed as he quickly got up onto his knees. But as he looked up and faced forward, two marines were staring him right in the face.

"I've beaten his ass enough times. Do you want a turn at him this time?" Burling sincerely asked Foxpack.

"It makes little difference to me-gara. Just so long as he's dead."

"Wow! Will you just look at that! Daz is going to have me be a hero in this role-play too!" The marines looked around, puzzled by where this voice was coming from and who the fuck "Daz" was.

Emerging from within the shadows of the jungle, Aoshin approached the group, until he was standing behind Shiguma. The Black Panther was holding a small twig in his hand.

"Black Panther!" Burling exclaimed in disbelief. "What are you-"

"What am I doing here? I'm trying to figure that out for myself, to be honest with you. For whatever reason, Daz seems to think my being apart of this role-play will make it better than Operation: Elbaf." Everyone was confused. "But that's aside from the point. Where it may concern you is simple: I can't have this guy die just yet."

"And why's that-gara?"

"Oh, I have my reasons, star fox. Now I suggest you step aside… unless you want to be absent in the next super smash bros."

"Star fox?!" Foxpack unsheathed his sword. Its blade glistened under the light of the moon. "Who are you calling-"

But Aoshin was no longer paying attention. Instead he was looking up. Up at the moon. "Wait a second! Aren't you a mink?"

"...Just what are you trying to say-gara?!"

"Well, aren't you supposed to transform or something under a full moon?" And as if to add insult to injury…. "Hm? Gara-gara-gara? Oh wait, sorry. Does Raptor already do that?"

"RAH!!!" Foxpack raced forward, swinging with all his might to slay the beast that was the Black Panther. Numerous trees in the near vicinity were heaved in two, a spectacular sight to behold. But the most spectacular of them all was that of Aoshin blocking his blade with… a mere twig.

"Good job Vulpix! I really felt that one!"

Foxpack's eyes widened. "I-It can't be!!"

"Oh, but it is!" In the next instant, a tremendous killing intent escaped Aoshin's devilish frame and he lunged ahead, using Shiguma's back as footing.

But, just as he had earlier, Burling yet again intervened. He caused the ground from beneath Aoshin and Shiguma to rise up, higher and higher until the two were elevated into the sky. Missing its mark, Aoshin's twig swipe cut down nearly as many as Foxpack's own.

"B-Burling!" Foxpack exclaimed, relieved. Staring into Aoshin's eyes at the moment of his lunge was the most frightening thing he had ever known.

"Get your act together, Foxpack! Now's not the time to be counting stars! Get a move on!" Foxpack didn't need to be told twice. He sprang up, and just as he did, the ground beneath him opened up as if on cue, courtesy of Burling. With it acting as a platform, he rocketed high into the air, getting a good view of the pirates.

Aoshin was gazing down upon Foxpack all along as he shot up. He had a huge smile upon his face, the kind he normally had when a busty woman walked along his path. "Oh Shiguma, won't you keep Burling-san down there busy for a minute or two? I may not have brought along my pokeballs… but I'd still like to explore this Vulpix some more."

Back on the beach, a battle was brewing. And it didn't look at all to be in the favor of one of the Navy's top fighters.

With his hands tainted in blood --his own blood-- Raptor created some bit of distance between he and the armored Reach. He had done good keeping a calm mind up until now, but even he was starting to lose his patience. "I see… so you plan to have me tire myself out. Is that it?"

"...Who knows." Reach's voice had become muffled from behind his helmet, giving it a colder, more ominous projection. Unlike Raptor, he had conserved pretty much all of his stamina. He had yet to move an inch since their battle had begun.

Vanishing with Soru, Raptor appeared along Reach's flank. Aiming a Shigan for the knight's shoulder, he was forced to pull away at the very last second as a series of sharp spikes sprung out from the armor and in his direction. Leaping back just in time, Raptor sighed.

'Hoy, hoy.. I'm not making any progress here. Can't you at least move around to make me feel better, Reach?"

Though he didn't have to, Reach turned around in order to face Raptor. "...Happy?"

Raptor smirked. "Very." His body started to grow suddenly. His flesh was replaced by blackish scales and horns protruded outward from the top of his head. He grew into a serpent, one spanning several miles in length that he coiled around the entire island --though it were smile-- several times.

Looking around, Reach was puzzled. If he didn't know any better, he would think that Raptor was preventing anyone from escaping the island by blocking it with his own body. As astounded as he was by the admiral's dragonic transformation, he couldn't help but think that it was he who needed to retreat, not him.

"Prepare yourself, Reach!" came Raptor's voice from around the island, as it wasn't entirely certain where his head had ended up at this point.

Looking up, Reach noticed a subtle spark of electricity in a cloud.

"Oh! Who gathered the dragon balls?" Aoshin pondered aloud. "I have a wish! I have a wish!" Foxpack lay in a heap on the floor, inside of a pool of his own blood. Using the twig to sharpen his nails, Aoshin whistled away. "Hey, that Sulong thing you did wasn't half bad. But, don't worry. Since you managed to cut down more trees than I did earlier, I'll let you have this win. See, I can be a reasonable guy every once in awhile too!"

Foxpack grumbled some inaudible words.

"Hm? What was that?" Aoshin tried to deduce the mink's grunts. "Oh yeah, I know. Leave it to Daz to show your transformation off screen, right? I guess you have to have a dragon zoan in order to transform on screen!" Looking over his shoulder, Aoshin had a look at the other fight that was going on. "Oh Siggy! How's it going over there?"

So this wasn't exactly how Burling remembered it. Truth be told, he was having a rather hard time. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as he and Shiguma eyed one another in a deadlock. Shiguma seemed really happy, though.

"Fuck yeah!!!" he exclaimed, finally feeling useful for once. "I'm finally doing it! I'm finally-"

"Being useful for once?" Aoshin intervened. "Yeah I know, I'm really surprised too." Looking to make use of the dialogue exchanged between the pirates as a decoy, Burling summoned up a fist made of the soil below to attack Shiguma. But the soon to be Yonko amounted to the very same, quite literally using the Vice Admiral's attack against him.

The two earthen fists collided, canceling one another out. Another stalemate.

"Hahaha! Fuck yeah!!!" Shiguma cheered. "I'm the shit!!"

"You do realize that you've just been copying everyone of my attacks up until now, right?" Sweat trickled down Burling's face. He really could use a cold beer right about now.

"Yeah, so what? Do you want a fucking cookie?" Shiguma snapped back. "Who cares! In case you didn't realize, I have you against the wall right now!"

"Yeah, Shiguma has a knack of ripping off people's shit," Aoshin explained, "which is why there could be no greatest user of the Yabu Yabu no Mi. He might be unoriginal, he might throw around money until he's emptied all his pockets, and he may very well be the biggest liar you've ever come across, but Shiguma is the world's greatest conman. There isn't anything or anyone he can't rip off."

An incredible burst of light lit up the jungle, momentarily springing night into day. It was the result of a tremendous stream of lightning that had shot down from the sky, raining down upon the beach where Raptor and Reach were having their battle. Burling was surprised. "That was…"

"N-Neutrinos…" Foxpack coughed out.

Aoshin rose up his eyebrows. Time to google whatever that meant!

The serpent around the island uncoiled itself until only Raptor's ordinary figure remained. Before him was Reach, his precious armor shattered. His chest was torn asunder, a gaping scar left in the place of a once formidable defense. The blacksmith fell down to his knees, blood fountaining from his nose and mouth.

"Your defenses are most admirable, Reach. Even with an attack like that, I failed to break all of your armor. Incredible." Raptor had nothing but praise for the man. After all, he had done quite the number on him as well.

"..." Reach was silent. He managed himself for a long while on his hands and knees. And then at last he fell forward onto the sand, unconscious.

"Admiral!" Burling came running out of the jungle, Foxpack lugged over his shoulder. He stopped in front of Raptor's wounded figure. "Admiral! Shiguma has escaped. It was the work of the Black Panther."

"Aoshin? What was he doing here?" Raptor said in disbelief. "Either way, we have what we came for. Let's go."

Walking forward, Raptor stood over the top of Reach's defeated form. Opening up his coat, Raptor unveiled the back-scratcher from before. "Here. where you're headed, you're going to need it more than I do."

---

"And from there Reach was taken into custody by us for questioning, but he was even more silent then than he is on an ordinary basis. We got nothing out of him-gara. And but of course, he was released by popular demand. Kingdoms aligned with the government themselves scorned the Navy for keeping Reach for long. He was a man who simply meant far too much to the world. Even now, he is the man holding the legacy of the Xros Pirates in place."

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. I need to confirm something," Tabart started. "You're telling me...that the man we're working for...that you, Foxpack-sama, and even the commander of this division...you were all high ranking marines in the past? And even more, the admiral...our Yonko, Raptor-sama, couldn't even kill Reach upon fighting him directly?" Tabart's inquiries were confirmed with a silent nod. He smiled weakly, his voice growing tired. "Holy hell, haha. W-What are we even up against then? What IS Reach's weakness? How could the marines let him go in the first place? They have no qualms about lying in the newspapers, so why did they even care about popular demand!?" Tabart shook his head and paced around. "Okay...shoot...Okay, now I'm nervous. I'm really nervous now."

Damon himself hadn't shown much reaction to the report Foxpack had said, despite liking how these kind of stories were told. It was as Apu told him, Burling, despite his alcohol tendencies, seemed to be a great leader, and this Raptor person was very amusing to him. He would have never said they were Marines and wondered if they truly had cut all ties. Narrowing his eyes, Damon wondered if this other Yonko, Shiguma, was really much of an opponent, feeling that Reach seemed much more intimidating.

"Who the fuck names a baby Reach though?" His brows furrowed together and he shook his head.

As much as he disliked War, Damon constantly sat at locations known as Bonfires, along his many companions from the Ashanian Army, and listened to many stories. The Sin of Wrath before him, the late Sir Elias Mirio, had been a veteran in battle and loved to share his experiences with the rest of the squad. The Sins had been formed a long time ago, and many generations came and went. If only... no, this wasn't the time.

As Tabart spoke, Damon felt a pang and lightly clutched his chest, looking with a frown at Tabart. He really didn't know this dude, or even read anything up about him. If he was here, must have been strong though, and his attitude seemed interesting enough. Damonw was all up to meeting such different people, from different places, cultures and races, as odd as he found them.

He didn't, however, ponder much on the man ignoring him and quickly agreed with most of his words. Their morale had been on the ground, by now, it should have gone to hell, "It's like Allahu here said, if Reach truly is that strong... we better have a damn good attack plan to engage him." Only then, a thought hit his mind. "However, without meaning to offend your Captain... there is the factor that he was facing Reach alone." Damon looked at Tabart, Apu, Foxpack and everyone else, raising his fist, "Individual strength is only a sum when in a group... however, if we manage to build TEAMWORK, our strength will be multiplied instead."

It was a kind of phylosophy entrusted to him by Mirio, Zachary and Diana, "The power of trust." Damon met their eyes this time. "It won't guarantee victory, but, it will offer a path for it." Then, he approached Tabart a bit, wanting to help relieve the feeling, "Tabart, right? You should calm down dude, who are you, anyway?" Despite saying this, Damon pondered if he himself would follow his own advice, if he would stay calm during this entire conflict.

Tabart's eyes jumped as Damon asked him a question, as if noticing him for the first since his arrival. "Oh, you mean me?" He asked rhetorically, pushing his index finger into his own chest just out of instinct. Though it had seemed that he was broken from his slight panic by Damon's words, truth was that it was Damon's question that pulled him from his panic. Ever since his time on Elbaf, Tabart had run into hundreds, if not thousands of people that knew almost everything about him, and either wanted him dead, alive...and in the case of his time on Dressrosa: married. It was almost a relief to have someone who didn't seem to know who he was, who wasn’t trying to capture him for his bounty. Yet, even despite his ease, he wasn’t directly prepare for the question.

"I-I'm Benjamin Tabart, a lover of plants and stuff. What about you? Who are you?"

Damon nodded at Tabart's initial question, standing next to him. He noticed that the man seemed to be much at ease when thinking about something else, it made him wonder if he had any siblings, if he had any lover, if he had any home to go back to. Damon felt relief, that maybe he would suceed at easing this dude.

"Plants, huh?" Damon smirked and cocked one eyebrow, "What an odd taste, I assume this is the work of a Fruit. You look kinda' out of place here, dorahaha, with this appearance." The man must have come from a Desert Kingdom, there was no other explanation, and these seemed to be royal clothes, due to all the jewelry. Damon didn't know much about other Kingdoms' royalty, but the few he's seen were like that.

Quickly remembering his responding question, Damon continued: "As you've heard, my name is Draco D. Damon, you could call me a Martial Warrior. I hail from a Kingdom known as Asha, from these areas of New World." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, not wanting to go much further than this and figuring they might get to know more of another soon. Damon licked his lips and said, "How many battles like this have you fought?" He would have asked if Tabart had ever fought, but the man's aura had already answered that.

Across the Line
There was a large tower in the center of Bedina. A tower so large that one resting upon its top floor could see the bulk of the island, at least through a bird's eye view. Here lounged the Xros Pirates' immediate officers, at least those of whom directly reported to the infamous Dark Knight, Reach.

Within the central lounging area, slouching into the comfort of a bulky sofa cushion was the man the government knew by the name of Najeem and whom the Xros Pirates better knew as Honey Boo Boo. His sheathed sword lain up against the sofa, he calmly sat, smoking from a cigarette. On a longer couch towards the back wall sat a well endowed woman, and laying upon the couch with his head resting in her lap was Reach's most trusted subordinate, Bertram. His hat and scarf however, were noticeably absent this time around, unveiling an unpleasantly characteristic appearance.

Bertram was bald, save for a single strand of hair that was very, very neatly groomed and incredibly well taken care of. By the looks of it, it had been recently shampooed and conditioned, then blow dried and most bizarre of all, gelled. Aside from that single strand, there wasn't a single speck nor dot of hair on the rest of his head.

But most terrifying of all was the large man's chin. For there were two large lumps, two enormous spheres of solid flesh hanging from the lower fraction of his jaw! And worse yet, the woman sat there tickling it all, her finger sliding in and out of the vast cleavage in between. "Eeeheeehee!~" Bertram giggled, his face red and flustered with a strong blush on either cheek. "More..! More..!"

The woman smiled down upon the notorious pirate, using one hand to tickle his chin while the other scraped the surface of his bald head. When she ran the lone string of hair on his head through her fingers, his eyes nearly rolled back from pleasure.

Puru puru puru… puru puru puru…

At the tone of his new Den Den Mushi, Najeem reached into his pocket and made to answer it. Kacha!

"Hoy, it's Boo Boo. What's up?"

"Hello, Booooooo Boo," a new voice came from the Den Den Mushi. The transponder snail had magically elongated its neck to over twice its ordinary size, and dawned a large, bowl shaped hat over the top of its head in its attempt to take the appearance of the man speaking on the other end. "I take it everything is in place?"

"Oh, Trickshot, it's you." Najeem puffed out a fat cloud. "Yeah, we're about ready to begin. Those darn Titan Pirates won't ever see it coming. To think they thought they could get by your Kenbunshoku. What a joke! Rananana!"

Trickshot was the Xros Pirates' backbone. He was the greatest sniper of their crew and one of the greatest to hold such a position in all of the New World. His skills and observational prowess were essentially peerless; to such an extent that he had been keeping an eye on all of Bedina at virtually all times, not to mention that he was doing it all from a neighboring island. The sniper wasn't even on Bedina itself! It was no surprise that Trickshot had amounted a bounty of 672,000,000 berries.

"Goooood. I'll be sure to keep an eye out, per usual," Trickshot responded.

Najeem looked through an open window, and knowing damn well that he was currently being watched by Trickshot, he waved without aim in the air as he clicked the Den Den Mushi off. Puffing the last of the cigarette, he leaned over in his chair and grinned at the sight of Daryal tied up on the floor with his back sat up against the ground.

"Are you ready?" Najeem smirked, touching the lit end of the cigar to Daryal's cheek, watching it burn. "Your death is going to play a pivotal role in us killing the damn pests that ran onto our island."

Daryal's screams were overtaken by the sound of Najeem's laughter. "Ranananana!!"

Held within the confines of his inner dormitory, Trickshot didn't budge an inch after the Den Den Mushi switched off. He had been in the same exact position without fail for over three days now. Three days and counting without sleep, having his meals fed to him so as not to lose track of all that transpired upon Bedina. A second of miscalculation could spell great danger and he simply couldn't risk putting the Xros Pirates through that.

A member of the, Trickshot was something of a giraffe with his incredibly long neck. At current, his slender frame was hunched over his custom made sniper rifle, which enabled him to comfortably outstretch his neck as much as he pleased without any disarray on part of the scope. In other words, it was fitted to his longish form: a long rifle, perfectly suited for a long man.

While his Kenbunshoku surveyed the island as a whole, his scope had been drawn out over a single area on Bedina. Precisely three and a half days ago, a certain man, whom even Trickshot could not define, had arrived to Bedina, not by ship, but by sky. How this man had flown here was anyone's guess, but as this was the New World, it wasn't a truly surprising spectacle in the least.

Since his arrival, the golden haired man had sheltered himself inside of a pub, and while Trickshot could not entirely see what was taking place within, he could however make out a few bizzare qualities. For one, there was no one present, no bartenders nor waitresses around, to serve the golden haired man. Instead, the bottles and cups, the pipes and glasses, had all flown to him as he remained seated. How hadn't he cramped up by now?

There was a truly powerful aura emanating from within this man. An aura that was arguably the most fierce across Bedina at present; more so than Foxpack though unclear whether or not it eclipsed Reach's own. Whomever he was, it didn't seem as though he planned to make a move anytime soon. But Trickshot couldn't risk swaying his scope away from him.

"Is that lard still there?" an eerie voice scrambled from the doorway behind Trickshot. The master sniper didn't need to turn to know it was Barney Kettle.

"Noooooo, he's stayed right there. I don't knooooow what's with this guy." Trickshot tightened his eyes, as if to perplex his observational prowess all the more and see with greater clarity. But it was to no avail. Even for him, an island's distance was stretching it. It was unfathomable that he was even able to see as far as he was to begin with.

Taking a seat on one of the couches, Kettle treated himself to a bottle of liquor. "Fuckin' shit, man. Oi didn't think he'd be this stubborn. Ye think he knows yer lookin' at em?"

"Definitely. He hasn't elected to unite with our enemies, however, so I'm hesitant to place him in their category. Nooooo, this man may perhaps very well be here on an ulterior motive."

It was Kettle's job to make sure no one managed to disrupt Trickshot. He was their advantage in this battle. With him in the works, victory was their's without question. In this circumstance, however, there wasn't very much he could do. "The plan is goin' into action any second now, Trick. Shouldn't you be more focused on that?"

"Of coooooourse not. What sort of idiot brings only a single gun?" Held within Trickshot's other hand was another sniper. He was dual wielding them as if they were handguns; with their long nozzles hanging out separate windows, he kept one entirely fixated on the man in the tavern while allowing far more freedom with the other. "Thoooooose Titan Pirates will never know what hit them."

"Yeah…" Kettle sat back, his leg shaking.

---

It had begun. The roar of the crowd cascaded across the island as thousands of spectators gathered around a wooden platform in the heart of Bedina. A wooden stage, as it were, it held upon it a long metallic cross, which had been embedded through the planks and buried into the soil beneath.

With his arms and legs tied and a piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth, Daryal rested with his back against the cross like a backrest, yet to be hung up like the towel he was. Sharing the platform with him was the boisterous Gilbert D. Bertram, whose sullen chin and shiny head lay concealed by the use of some western garbs.

"As you lot know, we have gathered here for a single purpose!" Bertram announced, walking back and forth across the platform. At the sound of his voice, the crowd erupted into cheers. Hands were reaching out towards the stage, seeking to rip the throat of the prisoner themselves. "And that purpose is to lynch this faggot!"

Reaching down, Bertram retrieved the cloth from the vassals of Daryal's mouth, and so began the carnage. Looking upon the crowd with beady eyes, the Okama shivered at the thought of his opposers. An army of those whom resented his kind. An army of those who despised what he was and all that he had lived for. Terror was infused in his mind as Bertram cupped his chin and kneed his cheek.

Daryal's cries were accompanied by his long sworn pledge. "B-Banzai!" he hollered into the skies, his words devoured by the mayhem of the crowd, "B-Banzai Korag-sama! Banzai Lieselo-" Daryal's words were eaten away again, this time with another one of Bertram's hard knees connecting with his face. Blood from the Okama gushed on the wooden stage and he found that it had become increasingly more difficult to breath. But he did not waver. This was the least he could do now to honor his heroes. "B-Banzai!! Banzai, Korag-sama!!"

"Shut up, you faggot!" His hand like a claw, Bertram fastened it around the whole of Daryal's neck. He lifted the Okama up, grinding his spine against the hard metal cross behind him. He held him up higher yet, tightening his hands further until he heard the crunch of his voice box shattering. "Come on, say it! Scream again!"

It was no use. He could hardly yeep, yelp, or bleep. Daryal's face turned red as he exerted the very essence of his being into trying to form words. But the air did not formulate quite the way it was meant to down his esophagus. He wheezed, back and forth, to and fro, madly in his attempt to mutter something. Anything would do. He couldn't be dehumanized, not like this!

Not far away, the Titan Pirates had scurried from the crevices of their hideout and made their way into town. With haste they hurried through the long streets, blitzing past innumerable buildings.

Their goal had little to do with Daryal's survival. Truth be told, Foxpack didn't mind his death. He was no comrade and most certainly no ally. He was merely a decoy they could comprise in the moment to gain an advantage in war. He was but another life that was meant to be lost to claim that of a Yonko; what a feeble price to pay.

"Hoy, hurry-gara!" The fox mink exclaimed, his men on his tail. "We must not be divided under any circumstance! Our method of victory shall be achieved through our comradery!" The battle for Bedina had begun. The Titan Pirates planned to first and foremost assassinate Bertram, whom they identified as the most threatening enemy outside of Reach himself. With their combined forces, it should be a task they could very well achieve. That would place them in the best position going forth.

As the Titan Pirates traveled further along the incredulously long street, the sight of a red haired man came into fruition. At first they were uncertain as to whom it was, but very swiftly did the complexion of Al Rauf Najeem, one of the Xros Pirates' heavyweights, become clear to them.

"Halt!" Foxpack hollered, stuttering his feet into a sudden stop. Surely there was method behind Najeem's madness; no man would dare confront so many enemies by his lonesome, not when their group was comprised of the dangerous pirates that it was. Foxpack immediately grasped ahold of his swords --both of them-- as he glared at Najeem.

"Rananana! And what do we have here, hmm? Surely you didn't think we would be oblivious to your whereabouts?" Najeem chimed. "Oh yes, we knew about you all along!" Suddenly his expression turned morbid. Najeem glared intensely, the grip he had over the sheathed blade hung over his shoulder tightening fiercely. "Did you take us for fools?"

"We must not waver here! This is only the very beginning-gara! We shall shoot and cutdown any enemy that comes in our way on our way to victory!" Foxpack exclaimed to his comrades. "Apu, Katashi, take the front!"

Apu didn't need to be told twice. He and Katashi were among their best martial artists. Squashing this guy with their skill would be a piece of cake.

"I'm way ahead of you, Senpai!" Apu cheered. He glanced towards Katashi as he himself ran forward. "Come on, Katashi!"

Looking to coordinate his movements with Katashi, the pike fishman looked to land a devastating blow upon Najeem from the get go. "Madaronigawara Nijūgū!!"

Katashi had taken his stance from the moment that he had realized who stood in their way. His hands up by his face, elbows tight to his side, almost like he was doing the dinosaur. He bounced from leg to leg, a trait of his art that had given him his epithet. While Najeem was taller than him, Katashi himself dwarfed over most of the other people here. He was ready for this even before Foxpack howled his command.

So when he heard the fox say to go, he went. He went hard. Katashi surged into motion, charging headlong towards the big man along with his elder fish brethren. His guard was high, focused on the sword the man was carrying, as it was his most dangerous tool. He timed his movement with the Karate-man's blow, moving to attack at the precise moment the other man's shot landed.

"Ti Lan" He shouted as went low, dropping his stance before shifting into a slide, skipping across the ground to the swordman's side. His leg lashed out, steel gleaming from his shin as he looked to cripple the man's leg from the get go with a brutal kick to the back of the knee, or barring a direct hit he would at least allow the fishman's attack to land. A crippling blow either way.

The two fighters were very cute in the way they very cautiously analyzed Najeem's every move. Najeem loved just standing there, entirely motionless even, observing them as much as they observed him. It was not surprising for him to see them eye his sword; after all, it was one of great quality, and while most certainly comparable, not officially of Meito quality. But Najeem remained still. Long after the two fighters had closed in on him, Najeem… remained still. He showed no hint of a counterattack, revealed no such movement on his part. As if daring the two of them to challenge him while he himself refused to move.

But he would not make a mockery out of them. Apu and Katashi were renowned pirates in their own right; they would not be shamed by his scornful methods. They had been instructed to attack, and so attack they did, both dishing out named attacks and at full speed. With such speed, such vigor that perhaps they did not realize that neither one of them could back out now.

Coordinating his attack with his comrade further, Apu noticed that Katashi had slid towards Najeem's side and that he aimed to attack the enemy from below. To better compliment this, Apu instead dove towards Najeem's opposite side, attacking from above.

The improbable happened. Najeem did not dodge or evade, nor did he somehow manage to best their speed with his own and escape. No, he just stood there, laughing to himself as Apu's two fists phased through his head and Katashi's foot phased through his legs.

Apu's eyed widened. It was hard to comprehend within that very moment, but their attacks had somehow slid through Najeem as if he were a ghost. As if he were nonexistent, as if he were some form of illusion. There was nothing felt along their limbs; absolutely no connection made with anything. This was no work of a logia, for in that case they would have at the very least been able to make contact with his element through their use of Haki.

But none of that happened. Instead, their attacks slipped through Najeem's forms, and it was at that moment that the two fighters realized that they did not possess the fluidity nor opportunity to retreat. No, they had invested far too much into landing their attacks with the intention of crippling Najeem.

And now Apu's fists were ready to slam down against Katashi's chest, and Katashi's leg was ready to clob Apu across his neck and face, simultaneously. They had read one another so perfectly that they had intended for their attacks to land at the very same instant, and at the very same instant they would.

Katashi wished he was fast enough to move his leg out of the way before it would contact the fishman's head, but he knew he wasn't. It was all he had time for to soften his leg, removing the blade to weaken the power behind the kick somewhat before it came into contact with the smaller man.

The punch on the other hand, was going to hurt. Katashi flexed his pecs, his body hardening like steel under the influence of his fruit. That and his momentum away from Apu saved him from much more egregious injuries. The fists slammed into his chest with the force of a raging bull. The ground cracked underneath Katashi as for a moment he felt like his sternum was going to break. His steel body had held up under the impact, albeit barely.

He slid across the ground, ending up a good two dozen feet away as a trench of scraped up earth marked the force of the blow's passing. He shook his head as he gingerly stood up, patting his chest and the two fist shaped marks on it.

"I wish I had known he could do that..." was Katashi's only response as he straightened up to his full height, before settling into his stance again.

Any remorse Apu had felt over striking his comrade was stripped away the second Katashi's foot connected with his face. It was as if the pike fishman had run face first into a steel wall. Blood gushed out from his mouth and nose as his feet never touched the ground from his descent; instead he was elevated by Katashi's blow and sent flying backward.

"Oh my, now I did not expect that! Rananana!" Najeem chuckled. "Friendly fire between two subordinates of a Yonko crew? Who would have ever guessed!"

Thankfully for Apu, on his end, Katashi had been able to weaken the attack enough to profess a swift recovery from him. After a brief moment of losing control over himself, Apu twirled around whilst airborne and brought himself to land feet first on the ground. He wiped the back of his wrist across his nose while his tongue licked away at the blood seeping from his lips. Katashi was one tough bastard, just like he had always known.

"What the fuck just happened?" Apu panted out, still feeling the effects of Katashi's kick against his cheek and chin. He spit out a wallop of blood from his mouth. "Our attacks ran right through him..!"

Without leaving a moment to waste, Foxpack drew in upon the enemy. Yes he had seen what had occurred to Katashi and Apu, but he could not let this opportunity go to waste. A man was most vulnerable between the transition of each fight, and Foxpack had learnt this through experience.

Racing towards Najeem, Foxpack unclicked his swords in unison, unsheathing them both in the blink of an eye. "Ni-Ryū: Unari no Kitsune!!"

However, he too simply phased through Najeem's body and sword, as if the man were made of air itself. Foxpack's eye widened in confusion as he looked back, the dual swipes of his blades slicing through Najeem yet failing to draw blood. Clearly this was the work of a Devil Fruit, everyone present knew that.

"You seem surprised!" Najeem mused, "why is that? Did you expect your attack to land when you just saw theirs fail?"

Foxpack furrowed his brow, his whiskers quirking in anger. Something was amiss. As a consumer of a Logia himself, Foxpack knew better than to suspect it as a power of that variety. But then what could it be? How was it that their attacks simply slid right through him?

As if dismissing the existence of those whom had attacked him, Najeem looked yonder at the other two who instead had opted to remain still. He flashed a grin at Tabart and Damon, recognizing them both from prior meetings. "What a small world..!" He slammed the sheath of his katana against his shoulder. "To think I'd be running into you guys again…"

Najeem took a few steps forward, walking himself out of the crater that had formed beneath his feet. Flashing a grin towards Damon and Tabart, he soundly approached them.

If you’ve met him before,” Tabart begun speaking to Damon, his tone etched in a layer of seriousness that he had not yet displayed since his inclusion into the Titan pirates’ ranks, “then you will understand that as of right now we are in no immediate danger from Najeem. Relax your body, Damon. Our goal, as of right now, is not to piss him off, but to somehow convince himself to reveal his true location. That’s the only way we’ll ever find him,” he continued in a hushed mood.

“Najeem,” Tabart announced calmly, “What in the heck are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re working for the Xros pirates right now. But, I guess, if you are, you could be a pal and help me out, for old times sake right?” A small chuckle succeeded Tabart’s statement. There was a level of awkwardness, at least from Tabart’s perspective, between the two men.

Damon had surely meant to warn everyone else before they had attacked, but, their hurriedness and Najeem's surprising appearance threw him off guard. "Apu, are you okay?!" Damon bellowed, holding out for him, only to see Foxpack attack Najeem as well, "Wait-" It was no use, he proceeded anyway.

It all made him remember of roughly two years ago, when Najeem tried invading Asha. His companions had drove him off, after struggling with his power. Those were the good times at Asha, and that just made Damon sadder.

A copy of his torso appeared before Foxpack, Katashi and Apu, "Are you guys okay?!" He asked, hurriedly checking them over. "If anything, I can make limbs to help you move for now!" They weren't that damaged, making relief wash over his body, while several limbs appeared should they need support.

Eyes widened when Najeem directed words at both him and Tabart, of course they knew each other, maybe that was why Najeem had a different name, they came from the same place. Damon felt like becoming a detective now, "A hell of a small world." He flashed a smirk and held a bored expression at Najeem. "Ya're the guy Xias scared off," Damon beamed, raising one eyebrow.

Snapping his neck to his companions, Damon noted, "It's as Bart says, it's no use attacking this idiot at the moment." He closed his eyes briefly, and they flashed red when opened, signaling his Kenbunshoku. Ready to proceed and search for the real Najeem, Damon stopped at the exchange between him and Tabart, wondering if they indeed hailed from the same place, or just were part of the same crew.

As that happened however, Damon didn't lose concentration, having summoned many eyes and ears to search for Najeem.

"Anyone mind telling me what is going on. I don't like ghosts..." Katashi said from over past the image. "And I am at least 62.3 percent sure that's a ghost." He paused for a moment before saying in a quiet voice. "I can't punch ghosts, I've tried..."