It was still morning and the sun was only just rising, the sky above Blanchio was as clear as usual and didnt have a single cloud in sight. Our pirates were already back on their ship and were almost ready to get back to has agreed to join them! SO at this point, the crew are only missing Graesa and Austell. Remember, Austell left them a note saying that he will catch up to them 1 hour after they set sail, what could he mean by that?

Tora had his arms folded tightly due to the cold stood near the bow of ship and was tapping his foot impatiently with a bitter look on his face while he waited for Graesa to show up so they could finally leave the island. "Ughh dammit! What's taking that brat so long?! I'm starting to doubt that she's even going to come! "

Daiko patiently sat on the floor of the deck and reassured Tora "Oh she'll come alright, she's definetely one of us now! Didn't you see that look in her eye?"

Tora looked annoyed "I have no idea what you're talking about, Captain."

Moments later, our pirates can hear a loud cry coming from the evergreen forest.

~"Whoooooooo!"~ the noise was a high pithced tone.

Semi turned her head "What was that?!"

Tora's ears twitched "Kinda sounded like an... owl..."

Tora nodded his head in confirmation "Yep, that was definitely an owl..."

The noise became louder: ~"WHOOOOOOOO!"~

She shook her head "No it can't be an owl! It sounds like a girl! I think that's Graesa!"

Tora sighed "In that case, I really hope it's an owl."

Sure enough, Graesa popped up from out of the forest, running with a huge backpack in her tow. With one arm she was dragging her huge backpack through the snow, and with the other she was happily waving to Daiko Semi and Tora who were on the ship.

It looked strange really, a rather small framed woman dragging a a huge bag that could easily weigh about 2 tonnes as if it weighed nothing, she was unusually strong indeed.

Tora grimaced as she came into view, while Daiko and Semi smiled and waved back at Graesa. "Heeey! Graesa what's up?! You ready to go now?!" Daiko asked as he waved backed.

Using the momentum from her breath dial boots, Graesa jumped 20 meters high into the air while holding her bag. From the point of view from the ship, Graesa's huge bag blocked the sun while she was in the air. *~SLAM~* Graesa and her large bag of gear hit the deck of the ship causing a loud noise.

Graesa was wearing her signature black bandana with red flame patterns. Underneath her bandana, she had her scarlet, wavy hair cut at around neck length. She wore a brown tank top that was a bit too large for her and sagged a bit to the left. Below she was wearing black short tights that ended right above her knees, and on her feet she wore brown, laced soldier boots. A strange combination of clothing indeed, Graesa doesn't seem to care what she wears too much. Tightly strapped onto her back was Graesopp, her black rifle that also had flame patterns going along the barrel. Her skin was a light brown and she has a few freckles underneath her eyes. And her most striking feature, her eyes, were wide and a yellow-orange and almost owl-like.

Tora sucks through his teeth as Graesa lands on the ship "Was that yelling really necessary?"

Graesa smiled and rubbed her nose "Heh, sorry bud, that's just my victory cry! Ya can't blame a gal for being excited, yeah?!"

Tora turned away and faced Daiko "Whatever, can we just leave already?"

Daiko completely ignored Tora and ran next to Graesa "Welcome to the Eve, Graesa! Glad to have you aboard!"

Graesa smiled back at her new captain and patted him on the shoulder "Glad to be aboard, Cappy Docky! This sure is a nice ship! Best I've ever seen!"

"YEAH! Isn't she awesome?!" Daiko then briefly raised an eyebrow after hearing the nickname that Graesa gave him but simply shrugged it off. He held his fist out towards Graesa and the two fist-bumped one another with huge smiles on their faces, it was actually kind of cute. Clearly, these two have very complimentary personalities.

Daiko patted Graesa on the shoulder "Alright Graesa, you're officially a Black Tooth! Are you ready to leave?!"

Full of excitement, Graesa nodded multiple times to Daiko's question "Yup! Now how do I get to that cannon room!"

"Right over there!" Daiko pointed to a trap door on the floor of the main deck that led to the belly room of the ship. Which held the four cannons as well as other important supplies.

"Awesome! I'll see you guys in a bit!" In a flash Graesa opened the trap door and looked inside. "OH GOODIE! LOOK AT ALL THOSE CANNONS! WOOOOWEE!" Graesa went back and grabbed her huge supply bag, holding it over her head. She then slam dunked the entire thing through the trap door, nearly breaking the entire floor. Afterwards, she jumped in along with it, slamming the door behind her. Graesa doesn't seem to have any consideration for how much noise she is making.

"Definitely the strangest person we've recruited so far..." Semi said with a giggle.

"That's probably why she gets along with Captain so well."Tora still had his arms crossed form the cold and impatiently tapped his foot "OKAY! ANYWAY, Now that you two have become well acquainted can we PLEASE LEAVE NOW! I'm freezing to death!"

Semi shook her head "Not yet Tora, we still have to wait for Austy! How are we going to do anything without our navigator?!"

Tora was clearly not having it "We don't need him to set the sails for us! Lets just get out to sea already, I'm sure he'll show up somehow!"

Semi sighed "Alright but if he doesn't show up within 1 hour, we're turning back around!"

Daiko nodded in agreement with Semi's terms and then finally shouted "Alright then SET THE SAILS!"

And so our pirates finally set sail, leaving behind a them a more peaceful, safer island than they had arrived on.

1 Hour Later, Austell still hadn't shown up

Semi lowered her eyebrows in discontent "This was a stupid idea... turn the ship around, Tora. Austy's probably looking for us back at the island!"

Tora protested "Then WHY would he leave us a note telling us to set sail without him? You're always worrying about that damn kid too much, Cook!"

Semi sighed, she knew that Tora had a point but was really unhappy withe fact that Austell's whereabouts are completely unknown.

Daiko was sitting peacefully up in the crow's nest, looking at all parts of the horizon for Austell but saw nothing. He frowned as he lowered the telescope from his eye. "Ugh! We still have to find Kuma too! Austy, where are you and what are you doing?!" he said to himself.

And then suddenly, a large, black circle randomly appeared on the floor of the main deck. It was emitting some kind of black smoke. Tora and Semi noticed the circle immediately and stepped back. This circle was an optical illusion in itself, it looked as though you would fall forever if you were to jump into it, like an endless pit.

Semi shrieked as she backed up "Tora! What is that?!"

Tora raised an eyebrow "Hell if I know. Looks like a carpet or something."

Semi gave Tora a bad eye "Carpets don't appear out of thin air, Tora! And it looks nothing like a carpet!"

"It was just a speculation..." he said as he rolled his eyes.

Daiko noticed Semi yelling so he jumped down form the Crow's nest and looked at the pink-haired cook "Semi! What's wrong?!" Semi pointed towards the mysterious black circle on the floor. Daiko studied it for a second and smiled "Oh cool, we got a new carpet? Nice!"

Semi sighed "It's not a carpet Daiko! There's like smoke coming out of it and it appeared out of nowhere!"

Daiko yawned and stretched as Semi complained "Oh... well that's weird. Anyway, I'm gonna go take a nap, wake me up if Austy shows up."

Tora yawned too "Yeah, I think I could use a nap too..."

Semi was baffled at their carelessness "Are you two serious? How could you go to sleep at a time a like this? "

"Well what do you want us to do?" Tora asked.

"I want you to stay here until we find out what this thing is! It could be dangero-" before Semi could finish speaking, a huge column of black smoke emerged from the mysterious hole. The smoke rose high into the air. And soon enough, an aura of black smoke enveloped the entire ship.

However, eventually, all of the smoke began to fade away. As soon as the smoke was all gone, our pirates could tell that the mysterious black circle was gone. And standing in the place where it was were two people, a woman and young boy.

The young boy was Austell, our young and timid navigator. His skin was pale as usually, he was still wearing a black beanie on his head as well a large black scarf around his neck that also covered his mouth. Black coat, black mitts, black boots, black backpack (you get the point). His long black hair hung from his beanie reached down to his chest. His innocent eyes were gazing in all directions. As he appeared before his crewmates, he avoided making eye contact. It was clear that he was very ashamed and nervous of something.

"Austy!" Semi loudly shrieked with excitement as she noticed Austell. She ran up to him and hugged him tightly. She was so distracted by Austell that she didn't notice the woman standing next to him. She was so relieved to see him that she temporarily ignored the absurdity of the situation.

Daiko smiled "FINALLY! Austy's back! Now we can go get Kuma!"

The woman next to Austell was rather beautiful. She was pale skinned and had an entirely black attire. She wore a black wedding dress, had black lipstick, black mascara(So as mentioned before, imagine something like Arachne from Soul Eater). The lady had a black rose in her hair. After Semi hugged Austell, she looked at the mysterious woman with a menacing expression, and right afterwards there was a rather long awkward pause between the five people standing on the deck.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Tora scratched his head "I really have no idea what's going on here..."

After observing Daiko, Semi and Tora, the mysterious woman suddenly had an unpleasant look on her face "Mmmmmm? ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING, ALL OF YOU! You three 'people' should be ashamed of yourselves!" she pointed at the three pirates after calling them disgusting. It's pretty clear that she doesn't really like them.

"What?" Semi raised an eyebrow.

Austell apologized before an argument could arise "I know, I have alot of explaining to do and I'm sorry but-"

Tora interrupted him with a question"Who is this lady, kid?" he asked.

"H-her name is-" Austell was interrupted again, this time by the lady.

She patted Austell on the shoulder and smiled "It's okay beautiful, I can introduce myself." she paused and then continued "My name is TAIJA, that is all you need to know!"

The name was immediately familiar to Tora he seemed shocked after hearing the name "Taija?! As in 'Black Rose' Taija?"

Daiko turned to Tora "What is it Tora, you know that girl?" he pointed at Taija.

"Yes, a bit. I'm pretty sure she is a Shichibukai!" he said with a surprised look. Semi was also in shock, a warlord was standing on their ship! Austell wasn't surprised at all, it seems he already knew of Taija's title.

Daiko scratched his head "Huh? What's a Shittybukai?"

Tora prepared to answer his captain's question "A SHICHIbukai is a- wait a second, Captain! Didn't I already tell you this back in the West Blue?!"

Daiko pinched his chin "Uhhh... I guess. I don't really remember..."

"Umm... guys." Austell was trying to get everyones attention but alas, he was not loud enough.

Taija looked like she was angry at everyone. She lowered her eyebrows and looked like she was extremely disgusted with them "You all are DISGRACEFUL! You don't deserve to have little Austell!"

Austell tried to intervene again "Can we not do this..." he was interrupted again by Tora.

Tora seemed ticked off by Taija's insults"What's your problem? What's someone like you doing here and what have you been doing with our navigator?"

Daiko joined in "Yeah! And what was that black stuff?!"

Taija loudly shouted back at Tora and Daiko "I answer to NO ONE! You fools should be ASHAMED. Such DISGUSTING hair color! YUCK! You don't deserve someone as beautiful at Austell! BE GRATEFUL I SPARE THEE, FOR YOU ARE AT MY MERCY!"

Semi was very unhappy with Taija's insults "Really?! You hate us because of our hair color? And what do you mean 'deserve'?! He's our friend!"

At this point Austell was so embarrassed by Taija that his entire face turned from white to pale pink. he was fiddiling around with his fingers and looking to the floor.

"Especially YOU! Girl with pink hair, ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING! You call yourself a woman?!" An angry Taija pointed at the pink-haired cook with a furious expression.

"Excuse me?!" Semi said with a slightly offended look.

Austell had had it "TAIJA STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!"

Taija turned her gaze to Austell and after hearing his plea, she began crying aloud "I'm...I'm so sorry my Austell! Please forgive me... what can I ever do to... earn your forgiveness?!"

Austell looked up at Taija as she began to cry her mascara off "Look Taija, thanks for the help. But I want you to leave now... we'll meet again soon... I think."

She wiped her remaining tears away and nodded at Austell's request "Very well then, but only because you ask." and just like that, Taija's entire body began to fade away as black smoke.

Daiko watched Taija with curiosity "What's happening to her?'

"Devil fruit." Tora said. "That probably explains the black circle and smoke we saw earlier too."

At this point, Taija had completely vanished but somehow, her eerie voice still lingered around the ship "Enjoy your time of peace now, Black Tooth pirates! But one day little Austell will be MINE all MINE! Ha ha ha!" her voice then faded away.

"Well that was pretty interesting." Tora said with a faint smile "What are the odds! Looks like the kid made friends with a Shichibukai!"

"Was that your mom, Austy?" Daiko asked.

Semi bitterly crossed her arms as Taija vanished into thin air, "You have ALOT of explaining to do Austy!"

Austell nodded "I know... I'm really sorry about all of this."

And so the young navigator explained to his crew about how he met Taija when he was walking through the Blanchio forest. He told them about his strange first encounter with her but left out the fact that he talked about Kuma with her.