I'm actually not all that mad at the Marines.

I am, however, incredibly pissed at Diceros Keita. If he hadn't been such a damn charismatic speaker, half the Hunt (the actually useful half) wouldn't have sailed away with him the day before the Marines popped up.

That leaves us with eleven ships, most of them cruiser sized or smaller, against three Marine battleships.

The smart thing to do would've been to not even give fight with our ships. Remain at dock, pull everyone into the city, and butcher the Marines in close quarters when they closed in. The Wolves alone would make bloody tatters of ten times their number, to say nothing of what would happen when the Basilisks started taking out commanders and the Wraiths hit them from all sides.

But our ships sail out anyway, Ends Justified at the head of the formation.

I sigh, and stretch, keeping my wings in at the moment but ready to let them out the second the shooting starts. This is going to be a bloody fight, no questions asked, but any ships we lose to the guns of the Marines, well, there's a bunch of perfectly good warships right in front of us. Not like our guns would do much - even the ship-killer shells Unbroken Hope and Necessary Means have aren't meant to take on full-scale battleships.

"C, I suppose you'll get to test your powers. Can you handle the lead ship?" I ask.

My brother cocks his head, before taking off his suit jacket. Cloth tears, and the pair of segmented, swordlike blade-limbs that make up his first kagune coil around his right arm. Ozone sparks in the air.

Earth. Shielding, strong to defend but slow to move. And something else… the dragon whispers in the back of my mind. Ah. I see. He stole the Devil's power...interesting.

Makes sense. Devil Fruits screw around with DNA, and…

And we incorporate, grow and thrive, off the same. But this is something new, something permanent. Not a gift to be lost when one dies, not something that will fade from a corpse before we can devour it, no, this is ours.

It's his, you old fart. And if someone thinks otherwise, I'll put them down.

A flicker of motion in the corner of my eye. I blink, shake my head, and it's gone.

There's something else...ah, right.

"Oh, C, package came for you. Rapid delivery," I say, tossing him a flat box. "I'm sure you can guess."

C pauses after catching the thing, before slowly opening it. Inside, to my complete lack of surprise, is a blue mask, and C puts it on instantly. It's a simple thing, in comparison to the white one that he shattered (somehow) fighting Kid. A wooden mask, painted dark blue, that covers everything below his eyes. White-painted teeth protrude like a boar's tusks in a snarling grin.

"I like it," C says simply. "Feels right."

"Good, because I have a feeling you won't be getting another until you eat at least a few hundred people, and that's going to take a while."

"But there's three thousand over there," C half-whines.

"Yeah, but you'll have to get in line, and I'm pretty sure Lauren isn't intending to leave anything in salvageable condition," I say, pointing at our gunner, who is giggling while stroking her flamethrower.

"...This is fair. Lead ship for me and Lauren?"

"Yup. I'll take the one on the left...Herman, want to take the right?"

"Long as I get Gin to back me up, sure," the blacksmith grunts, rolling his shoulders. "Jack's on your end?"

"Damn straight, someone needs to make sure at least one ship is taken intact," our bosun replies, giving me a look.

"I resent the implications of that," I say primly.

"You're still the one who's caused the most damage to the ship. Do you realize how expensive it is to patch holes in multiple decks?"

"Cheaper than replacing the ship because nobody knocked some sense into the Captain until it was too late. Fine. Let's get ready to -"

"Belay that."

Everyone freezes as Vinci walks past, grinning like a madman. "We're almost to gun range, aren't we?" he asks.

"Theirs, not ours," Jack grunts. "We going to broadside them?"

"Hardly. Full stop, and signal the rest of the Hunt to do the same."

"Captain…"

"That," Vinci said, very quietly, "is an order, Bosun."

He's planning something. Something he hasn't told the rest of the crew.

The arrogance of it…

Hush. Still, behind my mask I snarl, crouching low. This is going to result in violence anyway, might as well let Vinci pull his strings.

"Understood, Captain. FULL STOP!"

Slowly, achingly, Ends Justified comes to a halt just out of the range of the battleships' turrets, the rest of the Hunt falling into line, and the Marines...also halt.

What.

I straighten as Vinci walks towards the bow, glancing at the other officers. Everyone looks confused. Great. Vinci's about to do something ridiculous and nobody has the slightest idea what.

Well, could be worse. It's just Marines, and given that nobody has leapt off the battleships to engage someone in hand-to-hand combat that probably means there isn't anyone particularly high ranking.

"Is that a white flag?" Herman questions, and I snap my eyes to the lead battleship. Which is, in fact, raising a white flag.

"Parley, then," Vinci says, still grinning. "Let's return the favor, shall we?"

"This doesn't make sense," I grumble. "Marines actually negotiating? Did we get some chivalric idiot who feels obliged to offer noble surrender?"

"Hardly, Kaneki. Jack, would you mind getting our transponder snails and linking them up to the Hunt's? We're going to have a lot to talk about."

Jack bellows an order to a crewman in lieu of doing so himself, and we all spend the increasingly tense interval glaring at Vinci and/or the Marines in the distance.

"They're running up numbers," Lauren reports, shading her eyes as she stares at the colorful flags rising and falling on the foremast of the lead battleship. "Looks like a...transponder snail number?"

Vinci nods as one of the crew arrives and begins setting down transponder snails, twenty-three in total. We'd stocked up before leaving Bacanar, purely out of the need to keep track of every ship in the Hunt. Vinci grabs one, and starts dialing as Lauren rattles off a string of numbers. One after another, the snails connect, the one in Vinci's hand last. That one, I notice, forms an expression of immense distaste. Whatever Marine is on the other end of the line must have some rat ancestry in their family tree, that or they bit into a lemon before opening the connection.

"Grigori Vinci, the Alley Doctor," the Marine says. "This is Commodore Morumoto of the Navy. I have been...instructed...to parley with you on behalf of the World Government."

Vinci lights a cigarette. "To what end, then?"

"To...offer you a position, as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. A pardon for yourself and your...subordinates, is contingent on your acceptance. You will obey lawful orders given to you by the Elder Stars or such people as they deign to put in charge of you, share any and all knowledge that they order you to divulge, and work with us, in exchange for that pardon and our backing in legal endeavors."

"I see." Vinci's grin widens. "I…"

What was Sengoku smoking? Offering Vinci a pardon might just work, but threatening to take his work away like that, restricting his freedom? That's doomed to fail.

"...accept."

What.

"I see. Well, then, if you do not comply we will give battl- wait, did you say you accepted?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I take pardon? My conflicts with the government have purely been ones of survival, and I have born no ill will towards it in total. Joining the Seven Warlords will give me and my organization the legitimacy we need."

Lie. Vinci's harder to tell than most, but the subtle speeding in his tripled heartbeats tells me everything.

"What…" the Marine trails off, and the snail connection clicks closed.

At which point, the twenty-two other members of the Wild Hunt start shouting.

Lauren gaped for long moments, as the massive outcry built and built and built, captains near-panic, thinking they would be thrown to the wolves -

"Quiet."

For half a second, she had thought Vinci had been the one to speak, in that voice ringing with confidence and power. Then she realized that everyone, Vinci included, was looking at Six. The cook sat back, face impassive but posture slumping. "Arguing does nothing," he said quietly. "Let the Captain speak."

"Thank you, Six," Vinci said softly. "Very well. Be grateful for the Cogs, my fellow Captains, for they're ensuring that we're not being listened in on at the moment. And listen, because this concerns all of you. Two days ago, after we defeated Eustass Kid, the World Government received a great deal of information concerning the formation of the Hunt, Kid's defeat, and the creation of the Augments. Suddenly, we became...dangerous."

"We purged our ranks of Cipher Pol agents," Siegfried replied, the ex-Krieger's snail adopting the albino's pinched expression flawlessly. "This information...you planned for them to receive it, didn't you? Your Fae could impersonate any of their agents…"

Vinci's grin widened. "I don't think they planned for me to accept. But accept I did."

"WHY?!" nearly thirty voices shouted at once, Lauren's among them.

Vinci laughed. "Because of Arlen. The next island in the Grand Line."

"There's nothing on Arlen but the quarantined City of Gardens, a huge Marine base, and the Center for...oh," Diceros Keita trailed off, snail's brow furrowed. "You think there's something hidden there. Some sort of secret."

"Fifty years that quarantine has stood, the only link between the City of Gardens and the outside world being the train line leading from it to the Marine base," Vinci said. "In addition to this, there's one simple fact that makes me question the purpose of their Center for Disease Research and Prevention. I have a cousin stationed there. Let me tell you, my family performs many tasks for the World Government, but it is never something mundane."

"And you need Warlord clearance to get into the Center," Jack rumbled.

"I mean, the other option was to take on the entirety of the Marine garrison, whatever resistance base security could throw up, and then have to sift through the rubble, but this plan worked a lot more neatly."

"So," Vespucci asked, snail's expression a perfect mask. "What does this mean for us? Do we work for you now?"

"If you want to be marked as subordinates and share in the pardon for a time, I won't stop you," Vinci said. "But you will take no orders from me. And when I sink the knife in…"

"That pardon ends, and we're back on the sea with ten times the enmity," Vespucci finished. His snail grinned. "Crazy."

"And what does that mean for my throne, my kingdom?" Diceros Keita asked. "If I regain it, am I to see it stolen again once you turn your coat?"

"Wasn't your plan to set the people of the Shrouded Kingdom on Wapol by revolution? The World Government cannot interfere if Wapol gives up his kingdom...or is toppled by civil war and executed by the new regime. The World Nobles only extend one gift, and if a mere mortal fails to keep it...well, that's their problem. Worst comes to worst, the Shrouded Kingdom loses a turn or two in the Reverie, but your 'crimes' were committed to restore the rightful throne, and the World Government tends to turn a blind eye to successful regicides, provided there's still a king at the end."

"I see. You are playing a very dangerous game, Grigori Vinci. And despite your claims...you are still playing the master, by gambling with the lives of others like this. Think carefully, before you make another move like this. If my kingdom is lost again...I will be coming for you."

Vinci's eyes narrowed. "I understand, Keita. My intent was not to harm you or your people."

"But it might, because you made a decision that affects us all, and did not think to tell any of us. What next? Will we find that you've made truce with an Emperor that we hate, offered one of our homes to them as collateral? Will we sail into an ambush and have our lives used as coin to buy you victory?"

"I would nev-"

"You would," Kaneki said, face impassive. "Gods above and below forgive you, but you would." The ghoul sighed. "Vinci. Illusions are nice, but do you really want to keep stringing these people along on the pretense that they can do precisely as they want, all the while boxing them in? Be honest."

The ship went very still.

"There is one rule," Six said. "For pirates, for demons, and for monsters. Do as thou wilt."

Vinci swallowed, sweat dripping from his temple.

"If it comes to that…" Mavros Thorakis began, the captain of the renamed Gothic Pirates slow and precise. "Then it is simple. The Gothic Pirates are yours to command, bound to the Wild Hunt, as long as you shall have us."

Vinci went pale, and kept growing paler still, as more and more answered the challenge Thorakis had set.

"The Ringout Pirates will follow."

"The Equation Pirates as well."

"The Solar Flare Pirates will heed your call."

"The Metalheads answer."

"The Night Pirates will follow you."

"THE BARBER PIRATES BOW TO THE ONE SUPERIOR IN MANLINESS."

"The Fortress Pirates will keep to oath, as long as you hold to yours."

"The Teatime Pirates are in, this is quite dashing, isn't it?"

"The Eraser Pirates are with you."

"The Daydream Pirates...hell, we were yours already."

"As with the Night Terrors."

"The Nomads ride with you, Khan of Khans."

"The Navigators sail with you."

"The Patriots know a good ruler when they see one, we are your soldiers to command."

"The Shockwaves will guard you as our own."

"The Friend Pirates are yours, friend."

"The Kabbalic Pirate is with you, secret-keeper."

"The Miasmics will be by your side."

"And while the Wealth Pirates may soon be disbanded, for now we hold to you."

Silence again, as Vinci sat frozen.

"We of the Heart Pirates," Trafalgar Law said with a note of finality, "do not. Fuck this. I'm out."

Off Ends Justified's port side, the Polar Tang vanished beneath the waves.

"For the Redemption Pirates…" Lytros Jeremiah began. "I ask this. If you gained the world...what would you do?"

"I…" Vinci swallowed convulsively, before his eyes refocused. "If I had the world? The whole thing, to do with as I wished?" He paused. "I would see to it that nations did not burn for the crime of seeking knowledge," he began, in a voice that rang in Lauren's ears like iron. "I would end pointless squabbles over resources, tear down ancient cruelties, exorcise the demons of the past. It would be an end to the constant selfish, ignorant stupidity that even now ends with countless dead at the orders of the Elder Stars. I would break the power of the unjust and the mad, place highly the learned and the kind and the selfless. I would do so many things, to make a world of perfect order...and that is why I will not seek that poison crown."

"Then...the Redemption Pirates will cleave to you. Master of the Wild Hunt. Command us."

"Command us," twenty-one voices chorused, and Vinci threw back his head and laughed, a broken, defeated, mad sound that made Lauren shiver.

"Very well," their Captain said. "If that is what you need of me...Keita, your kingdom takes priority. That plan is unchanged. Disband once you gain it if you wish, but those of you with him, touch one part of his kingdom afterwards and I will come for you. As for all of you...once the Marines figure out how to respond to me, you're pardoned alongside us. Sail the seas. Grow stronger. Bring more crews to the fold, if you can. When the knife goes in, I will warn you all. When you need assistance, call on each other. I will see you all again, at Sabaody."

"We hear, and obey," twenty-one pirate captains, full of pride and fire, said as they bent the knee, and Lauren chuckled, for despite everything she'd done so far it still seemed the captain had her beat when it came to terrifying scenarios.

Puru puru puru...ka-click.

"Uh...this is Petty Officer Jones...Commodore Morumoto's still passed out on the floor, but I passed on your acceptance to Rear Admiral Gripper. Would you...uh...mind sailing for Arlen, under escort?"

"My dear friend," Grigori Vinci said, eyes dripping gold ichor to the deck, "it would be my pleasure."

Arlen, C thought, was the first place that could be said to be wrong.

First was the cold. He had thought the Archipelago was cold, but he'd been very wrong. Icebergs floated off of Arlen's shores, and the mere hint of the wind was enough to make him shiver. He needed better coats. At least the Augments were warm - the Wolves had armor, the Basilisks were bundled up in greatcoats, the Wraiths had their cloaks, and he was pretty sure neither the Fae nor the Cogs had the ability to feel cold. But everyone else?

"Motherfucker and I thought I couldn't get cold anymore," Kaneki groused, shivering in shorts and a t-shirt. "Where the hell did you guys get those coats? I want one."

"Sorry, boss," Eka said from within his fur-lined, extremely warm-looking trenchcoat. "There aren't any more left."

Brother growled. Eka just laughed.

C really hated him, just for a little bit. He wanted a coat too, being cold sucked.

Second thing about Arlen he didn't like. It smelled...sick, somehow. There was a big city with walls all around it that they and the three Marine battleships (steel hulls, one hard pull and each would be drowning or capsized) had not gone anywhere near, sailing instead to the docks near a Marine base and large town on the other side of the island. The wrong-sick smell had been worst when they passed by the walled city, but traces of it were still present here, drifting on the wind.

The Marine base was huge, but there were another set of buildings that he could just barely glimpse past it and a bunch of small mountains that were even huger. Probably that Center the Captain had mentioned, the one the Captain would be dealing with.

There were a lot of plans in motion. C didn't really care, even if Brother did. Besides, he'd just been told to 'be himself'. Which didn't make much sense. He was always himself.

Six sneezed, looking miserable. He was even worse off than Brother - at least Brother was built like a bear and had the temperament to match. Six, for all the two inches of height he had on Brother, was scrawny. Wouldn't do well in the cold

"Okay, so first thing on the list," Brother noted. "Warm fucking clothing."

C nodded. Very sensible.

"For you, maybe," Eka joked. "For me, I've got something else in mind."

"Chasing tail, more like," Percy growled, but despite the words there wasn't any heat in them. None of the Oni were like that.

C knew all their stories. Brother did, too, had made them all tell them after Pamca had revealed a past of chains.

Eka, thief and vagabond, cleaving through problems as he forged the path ahead. Dui, son of a noble family who'd fallen into piracy and realized he had a taste for it to match his taste for the finer things. Tina, who'd become a pirate solely to spite her own family, and discovered a better one. Percy, bald prizefighter down on his luck who'd found peace living by his fists no matter the arena. Pamca, the breaker of chains and kindest of them all. Chandos, who had slain his Marine captain and been forced to run for fear of his life, skill at the sabre and a bristly mustache his only qualifications. Six of them, and they clustered close around C and Kaneki and now Six, all of them a bickering, snarling little knot of men in a crew full of such things, but his nonetheless, and all of them willing to fight and die for the others.

C sighed as he exhaled the scents of a deeply wrong place, and breathed in those of his pack.

The game might have been afoot. Wheels might be turning. It didn't matter.

They had each other. And when the time came, C would hunt with his brothers and sister by his side.