– Bellamy –
"Aisa, can you please stop squirming in there? You're going to get us both caught!"
"But it's stuffy! And dark!"
"I promise I'll let you out in a little bit, so please just quiet down!"
"Also, your clothes stink!"
"It's not my fault that the guard hasn't washed his uniform in days! And I can't just not wear them."
"Why not?"
"We need to fit in with the other guards and we can't do that if I'm not dressed like them! I told you this ten minutes ago!"
"Fresh aaaaaaair!"
"Don't open my buttons! People are going to see!"
"Aaaaaair!"
"Aisa, let me button up my damn coat!"
"Never!"
Now, if anyone is confused about why I'm currently sneaking my way through the underbrush with a passenger in my gut, do allow me to explain. It all began with a den den mushi call…
Purupuru…purupuru…click
"Bellamy speaking. How can I help you?"
"Yo!" came the cheerful greeting.
"Shanks?"
"The one and only! How are you doing?"
"Very well, thank you very much. How about yourself?"
"Can't complain. Just gave Queen another thrashing so we're celebrating." Already? It's only seven o'clock in the morning.
"…congratulations?"
"You don't sound very enthused to hear from me." The emperor groused petulantly. "I suppose I'll keep the news to myself then."
"What news?"
"And to think that I put in all that work to contact the revolutionary army for you." You could HEAR the man pouting. And grinning. "I even used a favor to request they put out feelers for Nico Robin for you."
"Did they find her?" I demanded to know, but Shanks kept going as if he hadn't heard me.
"But you surely aren't interested so I'll just keep the information to myself then. I'll hang up now."
"Oi, Shanks!" click. "Shanks? The bastard hung up on me!"
Unwilling to let this slide, I immediately punched in the numbers to call the bloody carrot-top. How dare he dangle that tidbit before my eyes only to withhold it from me like that? Where's the bro-code?
Purupuru…purupuru…purupuru…purupuru…purupuru…click
"Hello, you've reached Auburn Acquisitions Assistance, your primary provider of private pilfering and plundering needs."
"Where is Rob...auburn acquisitions assistance?"
"We offer a wide range of services including but not limited to adventuring, buccaneering and casual disregard of eminent fishbowl-wearing god-complex-espousing halfwit imbeciles. As well as generally having a good time."
"…how long did it take for you to come up with that?" I deadpan.
"To be perfectly honest, probably way too long." Shanks cheerily admitted. "But it's not like I had anything important to do like sniffing out the current location of a friend's crush. After all, if it were important, a certain rookie would have been much more enthusiastic and grateful to hear from me so quickly."
"I am absolutely overjoyed to hear your charming voice and do so find your tale of bravery and skill in battle immensely impressive. I really would love to spend more time listening to the rest of it but as I am overcome by the urge to walk in your footsteps and be a dashing hero, I humbly request that you reveal a mere fraction your great wisdom and grace me with the knowledge of Robin whereabouts." I waxed, putting all my acting skills to use in order to play the part of the most smarmy, greasy sycophant one could ever imagine. The cringe was horrific, but what was merely cringeworthy for me was a nauseating experience for the target of my tribute.
"…actually, you know what? Never talk to me like that ever again and we'll call it even." Shanks told me, the shiver clearly audible in his voice. "That was disturbing."
"No promises until you tell me what I want to know." I replied, crossing my arms to glare at the den den mushi's red hair.
"Are you…are you BLACKMAILING me?" he asked incredulously, the snail's eyes bugging out at my sheer audacity, probably mirroring his disbelief at what he had just experienced. Well, it wouldn't be blackmail if I didn't follow through, right?
"This humble one has no idea what his eminence may be referring to. The very idea that anyone would dare to even imagine doing such a thing is sacrilege and heretic in its very character and requires immediate marine inter-"
"STAAAP IT!" Shanks wails over the speaker. "I'll tell you! I'll tell you what you want to know so please stop it! It's too much!"
"-vention to remove any chance of the worship of the great hero and legend of our times being besmirched…"
"The revolutionaries are waiting for you on Cozia in the East Blue!" Shanks' panicked voice interjected. Oh, poo. I could have kept going for another three hours, but I guess I should spare him this once. I will have to tell Buggy about this if I ever saw the clown again. I'm sure he'd have good laugh before deciding to try it out himself.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?"
"You're a monster. How could you do that to an innocent pirate like me?" the snail shudders.
"There are no rules in love and war." I simply returned, causing the den den mushi to visibly jump in outrage.
"That's not how you use that phrase, you asshole!" Well, if he's going to call me names…
"Oh, I am so flattered that an emperor would find little ol' me worthy of his personal annoy-"
"Stooooppp!"
If it were any other crew on any other ship, I probably wouldn't have dared to make the journey. The distances involved alone were nothing to sniff at, not to mention the necessity of having to pass through the monster infested waters of the calm belt…which also had no wind. But what probably constituted an insurmountable obstacle to others (including the Straw Hat Pirates) was nothing more than a training opportunity for us.
It's really far away? The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in existence, she'll make it in a fraction of the time a conventional vessel would need. There is a crippling lack of wind? No problem, just activate the jet dials and we're golden. Sea Kings are ambushing us? We're having sushi for dinner. We ate a lot of sushi.
Admittedly, we couldn't have done it entirely on our own if Izou hadn't been there to take care of some of the bigger specimens. However, the times when Izou or even I had to intervene were few and far in between, the older and hence truly dangerous beasts having some sort of instinctive feel that there was a larger predator in the area and thus staying away, leaving only the immature younglings to volunteer for live target practice.
While all members of my crew got their fair share of action, a special shoutout went to Laki for using the data gathered from the various engagements to use as benchmarks, continually upgraded her rifle to pack more of a punch. By the time we left the calm belt behind, her rifle had several different modes ranging from a simple sniper rifle to the equivalent of a miniature Star Wars artillery piece. Needless to say, there wasn't much left of a sea king once Laki got to work.
Thus, having safely made our way to the East Blue in record time, we met up with Dragon's revolutionaries atop the ruins of what had once been a prosperous kingdom. Sadly, I didn't recognize any of the revolutionaries, but it didn't matter as from the beginning the meeting went exceedingly well regardless. It turned out that almost being the cause of death of one of the World Government's heavy hitters earned you a lot of points with those trying to bring down the World Government.
From there, it didn't take a lot to convince them to let us join their liberation attempt of Tequila Wolf. The Revolutionary Army was always starved for manpower and rare was the day when they had a numerical advantage and even if we weren't going to enlist, the current Bellamy pirates were a significant force by any objective metric. After all, how many pirate crews in Paradise could claim to have taken down two former Vice Admirals, even if it must be said that they had been very weak for their supposed rank?
Furthermore, as a pet project of the celestial dragons, Tequila Wolf had a substantial garrison guards from Mariejois. The bridge itself was fortified to hell and back with watchtowers, tall walls, barbed wire and a multitude of traps, all of them designed to keep the slaves in and potential liberators out.
But none of these factors were expected to pose a serious threat.
The true challenge lay not in the (in my opinion secondary) objective of freeing thousands of slaves from their hereditary bondage. Far more, it lay in ensuring the safety of two specific individuals amongst thousands of slaves in the inevitable chaos accompanying any liberation attempt.
The proposed solution? Have someone sneak in prior to the assault and secure the targets. However, just because we agreed to the general structure of the plan didn't mean we saw eye to eye on the details. For one, revolutionaries and I had differing ideas as to who should comprise the search party.
The revolutionaries advocated leaving all of us behind while they did the looking. I objected. And no, it wasn't just my personal desire to be Robin's knight in shining armor, though I'd be lying if I said it didn't play a part. Rather, the physicist within me refused to accept that we wouldn't be taking full advantage of the autonomous intelligent scouting assistant at our disposal.
"Captain Bellamy, please be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable. Aisa here has observation haki and is familiar with Nico Robin's aura signature. Isn't that right, Aisa?"
"Yup. I remember her. She was pretty and smelled nice." She says, giving us all an adorable smile.
"Look, I'm thankful for your concern but I assure you, Aisa can take of herself." I argue, patting my crew mascot on the head. "Additionally, the overall risk of discovery will drastically decrease if she's part of the team, so it would be a waste to leave her behind."
"…the kid knows haki?" Joe asks, surprise if not disbelief visible on his face and I take comfort in the fact that the knowledge of our haki is not yet public knowledge. If the Revolutionaries don't know it, chances are that neither do the marines.
"I can attest the fact that Aisa is very skilled. She'll definitely be a boon to any search party." Izou confirms when Joe doesn't look convinced by my own nod.
"Well, if you say so, Izou-san…in that case we'd be grateful for the help."
"We're not letting Aisa go on her own are we, Captain?" Laki interjects, causing Joe to pivot towards her, trying to assuage the worries of an irate mother-bear.
"Ms. Laki, I can assure you that she won't be alone. We'll make sure to keep an eye on her."
Laki wasn't appeased.
"I don't mean you guys. One of us will have to go with her."
"Miss, adding more members to the search party is only going to put your ward in more danger." Joe argues, gesturing emphatically with his arms. "Especially if the new additions are not trained infiltrators."
"Well, we're sure as hell not sending her into a dangerous area alone with you guys. Who knows what could happen without us?" Laki just scoffs in response, making the eyes of every Revolutionary in the group harden.
"Miss, are you insinuating something?" If Laki is notices the warning in Joe's voice, she doesn't show it, her eyes never wavering from his.
"Counter question. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me with absolute confidence that when it comes to a choice between keeping Aisa safe and completing your mission, you would choose Aisa?"
In the end, it is Joe who looks away first.
"…we would do our best not to let things reach that point."
"This is what I'm talking about. Unlike you, I can confidently say that any one of us would prioritize her well-being above anything else." Laki declares, standing up to gesture towards our crew who all raise their voices and tankards in support.
"Hear hear!"
To be fair, it is not fair to surprise someone with the choice between the cause he has dedicated his life to and the safety of a child shooting him the most adorable puppy eyes in the world. So, I was not going to accuse Bunny Joe of being a bad person or a cold rational being, who would willingly sacrifice others for the greater good. That didn't stop me from using Laki's verbal assault to bully my way onto the team as the responsible adult in charge of Aisa. Thankfully, I did manage to deescalate the tension afterwards by getting them to focus on our common enemy.
The meeting went on for a while longer as details had to be hashed out and contingency plans made in case anything went wrong. Their enemy being what it was, the Revolutionary Army was almost always at a steep disadvantage when it came to supplies and manpower, making this sort pre-operational planning standard procedure. After all, while it may be impossible to prevent any and all setbacks, suffering severe losses meant very different things to the Revolutionaries than it did for the World Government.
But eventually we drew the line at planning for the possibility of cloudy weather with meatballs raining from the sky and made our way over to Tequila Wolf, arriving just as the sun dipped beneath the waves and slipping ashore under the cover darkness.
In the interest of staying as inconspicuous as possible we kept our party small, as particularly with Aisa around we didn't need to spread out to cover a lot of ground. Speaking of Aisa, we decided to hide the obvious target by having her sit inside my torso once I had turned that part into a giant coiled spring and buttoned up my captain's coat. Which brings us almost back to where we were…sneaking into a heavily guarded camp with Aisa complaining about the quality of air.
At least, for all her childishness, Aisa knew when to focus and quieted down once a guard was in our general vicinity. Said guard was shortly thereafter shocked, gagged and spirited away to a dark hole out of earshot of the camp where Bunny Joe got to work tickling the codes and patrol routes out of him. Being the big, strong, tough man he was, the guard lasted a whole three minutes before breaking down into sobs. Within ten, he'd told us everything he knew.
As a change of the watch was planned to happen soon, I exchanged my captain's coat for the guard's uniform, adjusting my body composition with appropriately shaped springs to mimic the silhouette of the man I was replacing. It wasn't anything that would hold up to scrutiny, but I didn't need it to. All I needed was for my cover to last long enough for the unsuspecting guards to get within arm reach, so that I could take them out quickly and silently.
And it worked without a hitch. The years of relative peace and safety had turned the garrison into complacent rabble. Nothing interesting had happened in decades so why should today be any different? Our prisoner got two friends to keep him company and we got two more sets of uniforms.
That same laxness that had been the downfall of their colleagues also opened the doors to the camp, though calling it a camp was doing the settlement a disservice. While yes, a new one was built every few years as the bridge made more and more progress, the settlement of Tequila Wolf was composed of brick and concrete buildings, poorly illuminated by a few flickering lamps. The only individuals on the streets were the occasional guards, plodding down the alleys ostensibly on the lookout for any escapees but in reality, looking for a secluded corner to have a brief nap before reporting back to the barracks. No one noticed three shadows entering the warden's tower.
More guards were active here, but nobody paid us any much notice, too busy drinking, talking and abusing the occasional prisoner, uncaring that a set of keys were misplaced nor that their previous holder was laid out flat, his clothing reeking of alcohol.
One password later and we were making our way down into the dungeons, listening for the sounding of the alarm to signify our cover being blown. Yet, all we heard was the clacking of our boots against the stone floor as we went from cell to cell, most of them empty, looking for Robin.
I found her sitting in the far cell with little Soran crouched outside the bars, who almost shrieked in surprise by the presence of an unexpected
guard. It came out as a muffled grunt once I clamped my thick gloves over her mouth, furiously whispering into her ear for her to calm down. Thankfully she did, allowing me to change my focus to the beautiful woman staring at me in bewilderment.
"Hey, Robin! Did you miss me?"
Author's note:
We have reunited with Robin!
The timeline has been fudged a bit to make this happen, but here, Luffy & Ace took long enough to recover and convince Rayleigh to sail over to Marineford (never mind the longer travel time when compared to the Pearl) that Bellamy had time to help Byron and then sail over to Tequila Wolf. This arc takes place more or less on the night after Luffy's stunt at Marineford.
Also, if you have any ideas that you'd like to see in a Marineford Daily article, do let me know in the comments.
As always, please do leave a like and a comment as it really helps my motivation to write.
Especially if it has constructive criticism. (Seriously, if you don't like something please let me know. I can't promise I'll change it but I really appreciate it.)
