Chapter 3, Friend or foe?
"Gather up all of the crew!
Time to ship out Bink's brew!
Pirates we, eternally are challenging the sea!
With the waves to rest our heads,
The ship beneath us as our bed!
Hoisted high up on the mast our Jolly Roger flies!"
.
Ugh! Make that noise stopped! Killer thought as the bar's patrons were chanting the followingverse. They weren't even pirates, barely local thugs with a couple of boats and the masked man kept thinking no one would miss them if he ended their show right now. And what with that song for fuck sake?! He heard it so much you'd think that was the only pirate's song existing in this world. And now it would be stuck in his head for the rest of night!
The blonde sipped his drink, getting more and more annoyed from waiting for the Heart's pirate to show. Killer saw him when he was about to enter the bar they'd agreed to meet in. The hatted man was making sure Killer was alone and he wasn't going to fall into any kind of trap. But the Kid's pirate was becoming impatient under the fearful glares the bartender was giving him and the unnerving singers of this shady place.
From his spot at the back of the room, Killer heard the main door opened and the crowd's hubbub softened a little at Penguin's arrival. It was about time! Even if they weren't the most noteworthy among the pirates, the Heart's crew held a certain reputation. Either way in that lawless pub, people were too aware or too drunk to cause the pirates any trouble.
Penguin joined his table, his hat darkening his face. He crossed his arms as he sat and stared at Killer with a serious face. Fine, they were here to talk about business after all.
However the hatted man posture was closed, he seemed to come here with no real intention to listen to what Killer had to tell. How could he convince someone decided to give him no credits from the beginning? Things couldn't start straight away or the Kid's pirate would speak for nothing.
"See? I wasn't lying. No tricks."
Penguin was tempted to answer the night wasn't over yet but he kept his mouth shut. He had dwell on that encounter all day, wondering what lied in stores for him. Now he was facing the masked man though… he didn't know what to think.
The man was still the same who had threatened him the day prior. With his long blond hair spiking out of his striped helmet. He was still wearing a black shirt with white dots, opened wide on his tanned chest where some scars could be discerned. One of his hands was holding his drink on the wooden table, and Penguin's eyes lingered on the armband on the Kid's pirate's wrist. Its twin was laid on Killer's thigh, right under the bright red band circling the man's hips.
Penguin wasn't anxious –and he would firmly deny any shaking of his hands stuck under his arms. Maybe was he actually curious about what brought him here? But in the same time he wasn't ready to believe in Killer's peaceful intentions yet.
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Searching where to start, the blonde drank a sip of his tankard from a straw and suddenly remembered, "The first time I had a drink I was quite young –something like fourteen. I wasn't allowed to, but it'd been a while since someone had authority on me. With a few liquors I got completely drunk and stupid enough to provoke the wrong guys. I can't remember how but they almost slit my throat."
Raising his hand to his exposed neck, the masked man mapped out a thick apparent scar on his jugular. With a gesture of his finger, he imitated the movement of a blade along his neck. Then Killer realized how gruesome this memory was and surely wasn't the right way to break the ice… Shit he wasn't good at that.
"A shard of glass made you that," Penguin heard himself comment, "and… huh, the guy who was holding the bottle of course."
"A bottle?"
"Broken glass can be as sharp as a real blade, but it leaves a larger cut. And a cut in that angle certainly comes from a broken bottle hold by its neck. The man didn't get too deep; otherwise you would have bleed to death in seconds. The shard was rubbish," the Heart's pirate continued, drifted into his examination, "it got infected didn't it?"
Killer nodded, uncomfortable from the facility Penguin had showed from deciphering his oldest battle scar. That studying look made him feel too exposed and willing to pull up on the collar of his shirt.
"A pretty bad wound. You're lucky from having survived this."
"None of my previous injuries could compare to what I've gone through the Grand Line though," the blonde declared, changing for a more recent subject now he had Penguin's attention rather than his suspicion.
Killer saw it echoed to the Heart's pirate as the hatted man's left shoulder twitched imperceptibly. "We all got our scars during this journey," Penguin appeared to recall, but no fear or regret were tainting his voice. The blonde couldn't help from looking at the man's arm though, where he had hurt him the previous day. There was nothing but a topstitched seam, barely visible on the overall's sleeve.
"What a journey up to there, indeed," the masked man added with his ankle propped up on his knee. This way he appeared more at ease and made Penguin realized how familiar they had gotten in a so short amount of time. His caution warned him, recalling to his mind who he was talking to, a dangerous pirate and as Killer had aptly put it: out of his league.
"We had experienced Grand Line in very different ways…"
Penguin's colder tone caught the Kid's pirate off guard, for a moment he had thought the hatted man had warmed a little. Apparently it would take more than sharing history.
"Speak frankly what's on your mind," the masked man commanded curtly.
"You and your crew hurt innocent people, harmless citizens… you don't care about casualties."
Killer snorted but the Heart's pirate saw his fists tightened. "Don't try to tell me off," the blonde replied, "You won't be the first to fail. You ain't better than me Penguin."
"I don't kill for pleasure," the Heart's pirate affirmed harder than he'd wanted to.
"Me neither," Killer responded instantly, "I live with what I am. A lawless, a fighter and a wanted man… a pirate. And if people get in the way it's their problem."
"Being true to yourself isn't incompatible with respecting others' life."
The Kid's pirate huffed, visibly making efforts to argue with Penguin on a matter that was already settled in his mind.
"The Grand Line is a survival tournament; it means to test our will and strength. Not our kindness or empathy. I wouldn't be here if had cared about every person I met."
Penguin saw what Killer meant; he won't get anything by lecturing the man. They had different views of piracy, he wouldn't change that.
"You seemed to hold a lot of prejudices against me," the blonde carried on and here it was Penguin's time to snigger, the sarcasm evident in the hatted man's tone. "Because you don't have any against me? You'd already decided of what I was before we even fought!"
A wounded tone had crept into Penguin's voice. And when he realized it, the Heart's pirate blushed with annoyance.
"You're right," Killer conceded, "But how could I know who I was dealing with, when I had so little information about you?"
"I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself here."
"Actually… you already proved me wrong," Killer begun, earning an inquisitive look from the hatted man, "About being Trafalgar Law's first mate. I always thought the polar bear was the brain in your crew."
The mere image of Bepo conceiving battle plans or taking major decisions for their crew made Penguin genuinely laugh. The hatted immediately covered his mouth regretting his outburst already. He wouldn't make fun of a great fighter as Bepo, they could always count on him and he held an important place at Law's side. But he was clearly too emotional to be a right-hand man.
"No, he wouldn't fit as a first mate," the Heart's pirate replied getting serious again, "he lacks the… huh, not the coolness but…"
"The composure?" Killer suggested.
"Yes," Penguin agreed, and he couldn't believe how fast the man had hurt his pride then lightened his mood. However a little voice in his head whispered him, he couldn't unfairly blame Killer for the fluctuation of his own emotions.
The hatted man thought about his own position in the Heart's crew. He surely wasn't the brain, that role was devoted to his captain. Law was the one scheming, always having a head start, but he was playing on so many fronts… and he wasn't infallible. So Penguin was trying his best to support him. Tonight he was glad from being here instead of him, his captain already had too many tasks.
"A captain can't carry the protection of his crew on his own," the hatted man continued, "Each member has their own skill. We couldn't go far without a navigator, a carpenter, a doctor or a cook, but a first mate… is the captain's main support, he must al–"
"–always have his back," the first mates said at the same time.
They stared at each other for a brief quiet moment, before Penguin remembered he had gotten a drink at one point, and focused on finishing his beverage to avoid looking at the Kid's pirate. The alcohol burnt his throat and he tried to pretend it was the cause of the heat pooling in his face. The most troubling in that conversation though, was the fact he wasn't feeling ill at ease, on the contrary.
"So, are you often meeting with your rivals or am I a special one?" The Heart's pirate asked earnestly, setting his elbows on the table when he took upon himself to look back at his interlocutor.
"You're my first actually. It's never been in my habits to talk with my enemies."
"What changed then?"
"I sailed on Grand Line," Killer explained with a deep tone full of recollections, "There was a time I never thought I'll ever set a foot on that cursed ocean, the Pirate's Graveyard, and here we are, at the end of what we now call Paradise. We've gone though many dangers on this part of the ocean but… what's waiting for us on the other side defy everything we know until then."
.
The New World… it was a dreadful perspective in Penguin's mind, and apparently Killer shared a similar worry. Usually pirates were overjoyed from crossing Red Line and discovering that unexplored territory. But suddenly, the Heart's pirate knew it was an important matter for the supernova. The way Killer talked about it was more serious than anything he told before. That was how Penguin guessed it was what Killer wanted to talk aboout from the beginning.
For them the New World was a bigger deal than anything they went through up to then. Clearly it wasn't something they could talk about like the weather. The Heart's pirate would have never listened to him if Killer had told him this straight away.
"What do you know about the second part of the Grand Line?" The hatted man inquired prudently.
"First, it's a very changing world, the weather is instable and the sea unforgiving. I've got very little to start with actually," Killer replied visibly annoyed by that fact, "Most are hearsays and tales. That's what makes me wary of the future of our journey."
Penguin remained quiet for a moment, stunned by the simple fact that Killer had spoken exactly what was on his mind for quite a time now. They had so little tangible information concerning the New World. The only man who had ever sailed to its end was Gol D. Roger, the King of pirates, and now a bunch of ultra-powerful captains were competing over its pieces.
All the stakes of an unexplored world were precisely lying in the fact that there were neither guides nor books to tell you where you were setting foot. You were on your own. That's what was making the main danger of the journey, but Penguin had never voiced that worry out loud.
As the masked man had told it so well, hearsays and tales were all they could rely on. It seemed nobody knew anything about the rest of the world. It was infuriating! Or very exciting depending on your point of view. However when it came to the crew's safety not knowing what could potentially kill your nakamas was a nightmare.
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Despite sharing the masked man's preoccupations, Penguin was wondering. Killer could have started with the danger represented by the Navy or the Four Emperors. There were shichibukai residing in the New World, revolutionaries and they had to worry about the other rookies –the Worst Generation ahead of everyone else. The Heart's pirate had agreed to meet him –a little bit to avoid immediate death– but above all because Killer had insisted on having valuable information to share. So why begin with the environment?
"Sailing on Paradise was already a challenge, not knowing what kind of island we would land on," the Heart's pirate settled, "I'm not pretending the New World would be easy –the hotness of desert islands will always be awful wherever we find them–"
"Heat isn't so bad."
"Heat is evil!"
"Typical of North Blue people," the masked man smugly commented and the Heart's pirate gave him a scornful look.
"Well up to you if you like to cook in a ship covered with metal," the hatted man retorted to Killer's surprise. He hadn't suspected Penguin to know about that. That particularity of the Kid's pirates' ship wasn't notorious at all. But it was always useful to know about your rivals' assets, and Killer had done his researches too.
"If you prefer to hide in a submarine and never see the light of day, it's your choice as well."
Now each one of them had his point, they began to wonder about how much the other actually knew. The pirates were generally aware of some members the adverse crews had, through their wanted poster and newspapers, but nothing more.
They were touching the most risky part of their interview, one of these moments when they had to choose how much information they would reveal to the other. It was all about protecting their crews and their secrets, there was information they could never share. It was time for them to decide how much they could trust each other.