"Look, Mr. and Mrs. Gabon. This is a private institution, not a daycare center. Simply popping in for a week or so is ludicrous. I'm sorry, but your daughter has to find somewhere else to go."

Theo looked between her two supposed parents. Morgan looked really annoyed, but Cap was unfazed. Obviously. When Cap was showing her most uninformative smile and didn't speak, people always made the mistake of filling that silence, like the principal was about to. "Think of the hit to our reputation. Parents pay to send their kids here and expect a stable school life. If they learned-"

"Entire year's tuition for one week, maybe two." It wasn't even a proposition. Cap said it like it was already a done deal. Even though she spoke quietly, her words felt heavier than the two men's did. "Parents that want to copy us can't argue with that."

"Yes, but there's an application process-"

"Don't patronize us," Morgan snapped. "You have a certain class at this school, one partitioned away as an example to the other students. How many people do you think applied so their child could get in that class, knowing they won't graduate?"

"It would increase the workload of the homeroom teacher, and I'm afraid-"

"If that teacher can handle the current class and not a single person more, I doubt they would have lasted in that position for very long. It doesn't matter anyway, since the class is handled by both the homeroom and assistant teachers and more than one student has been expelled already this year."

"I'd like to know who's telling you all of this!" protested the principle.

Morgan smirked. "I'm sure you would. Whether Anou learns anything or not is irrelevant. She doesn't get to spend a lot of time with people her age."

"You know about the class. Do you really want her to spend time with those kids?"

"Our daughter is tougher than she looks. She can handle herself."

"But-"

"We won't hold you responsible if something happens to her," Captain said in that same quiet voice. "We love our daughter, and we trust you to step in if anything life-threatening happens. One year's tuition for nine days, starting now."

The principal stared at her, then looked at Morgan. He eventually sighed and reclined in this chair. "I must admit, this has been a first for me. You understand how suspicious this all seems. I assume that's the tuition right there in cash."

"The World Government needs certain materials gathered along the Line," said Morgan. "They have provided us with the funds to keep Anousheh's academic life as undisturbed as possible as my condition for accepting the position. She's going to that class out of consideration for you. We want to affect the rest of your students as little as possible. The contents of this suitcase are confidential, however. We are paying by check."

"Ms. Bleze! Call Mr. Bakshi and Mrs. Timm into my office!" They waited until the two people entered. "Mrs. Timm will handle the finances. Mr. Bakshi, this is Anousheh Gabon. She will be joining your class for the next nine days."

"But there's no guarantee the check will clear!" protested Timm.

"Even if it doesn't, what do we lose? We can just refuse her entry to the school the next day. They won't force their way in as is proven by their presence here right now. They are paying for the entire year to have her stay until their Log Pose sets."

Timm looked at them in shock. "The entire year?"

"Explain it to them," Cap said. "We are signing the check and leaving. Mr. Bakshi, take Anou to your class."

"Have fun!" Morgan said cheerfully.

Mr. Bakshi had already begun moving before the principal nodded his head. Theo waved good-bye and ran to keep up with him, trying to keep her lunchbox from banging against her leg. "Looks like your parents don't exactly know what I do. I don't really know why the chief allowed this. Little thing like you will be eaten alive if you set one toe out of line, and not by me. I guess money talks, eh? Well, you wouldn't know. The rules in my classroom are a little different. We have kids of all ages younger than high school. As long as you are in my class during class time, not seriously hurting anybody, and not committing any serious crimes, anything goes."

"Aren't I going to be learning anything?"

"You can try to learn on your own, but since you weren't admitted at the beginning of the school year, you don't have any learning materials. My class is basically daycare for kids whose parents want them to be in a safe place and not getting themselves sent to juvie. Education is optional. They're here to hopefully mature and grow out of their behavior."

"Do they?"

He threw his head back and laughed, then suddenly became dead serious again. "Around half the time. The others have to go to specialists. Anyway, the only homework assignment is not to misbehave outside of school. Most of them eventually complete it."

Theo frowned. "The principal said this wasn't a daycare."

"My class is the only one where corporal punishment is allowed. That sound like daycare?" He chuckled. "Don't worry; nothing really bad will happen. Just try not to piss anyone off. We won't step in until it gets too bad."

"Okay," she said, knowing that Raven would step in way before things got too bad.

She was a little confused when they left the school building, but there was another, smaller building near the edge of the fence. It wasn't quite three floors, and the windows were all boarded up, which didn't fill her with confidence. The faint sounds of a ruckus grew louder as they approached. Mr. Bakshi laughed and lit a cigarette, and Theo just knew Cap would be able to smell it on her later.

A solid wall of sound hit her when he opened the door. Around forty kids were all around the single enormous room, a few of them smoking as well. The walls were covered in graffiti and had several embedded weapons. Many desks were scattered about the floor, a few of them in pieces. The chalkboard on the far wall had several pictures on it that Theo was pretty sure were inappropriate.

"Listen up!" Mr. Bakshi yelled, hammering his fist on the wall. "New kid for the next nine days, name's Anousheh! Don't kill her! You three know the rules, if you smoke in class, do it by the vents!"

"Hi, Anousheh!" The nearest girl said brightly. "My name is Paisleigh. Nice to meet you!"

"Same!"

Theo shook the offered hand, and the girl's face clouded with confusion. Paisleigh squeezed harder, then drew her hand back in annoyance. "You're a tough one."

Theo was about to ask why before she saw the tack taped to Paisleigh's palm. Several different responses came to mind, but she went with the automatic one: act like Cap. She smirked and crossed her arms. "That's cute. Maybe try a little harder next time."

The girl Paisleigh had been talking to pinned Theo against the wall. "You think you're hot shit, do you? What's with your face? You look like someone deep fried your head. Want me to do it again?"

"The boy who did this to me can't talk any more. You think you're better than him?"

The girl glared at her, then grinned and lightly punched Theo's shoulder. "I'm Abcde. Lemme show you around."

"But we were talking!" Paisleigh protested.

"Yeah. Were." Abcde dragged Theo away by the hand, and only the thought of her crew's disappointment in revealing her identity kept Theo from detaching her forearm. She couldn't let their efforts go to waste. "What's with the kiddie lunchbox?"

"Don't touch this!" Theo shouted. Grinning, Abcde reached for the lunchbox. Theo clamped her hand on Abcde's arm and started increasing the pressure.

"Okay, okay!" Abcde withdrew her arm and wrung it out. "I get why Paisleigh was pissed now, damn. Anyway, what'd you do to get put in here?"

"I, uh…" Why was it so hard to come up with something? "I spend too much time with bad people."

"Bad people? What kinds of bad people?"

"People who don't always follow the law."

Abcde grinned and tapped her nose. "Ah, those kinds of people. You'll feel right at home, then. Everyone here has done something like that. Except for Swann." She pointed at the boy reclining at one of the intact desks and staring at the ceiling. "Don't bother him. He always does things that are barely legal so he can't get in trouble, but he won't do anything if you don't do something first. The Sasooli triplets over there sell stuff that definitely wasn't stolen." She waggled her eyebrows. "That lot over there used to tag any wall they could find, but they've actually stopped and restrict it to here."

Theo followed Abcde around in a trance, amazed by what the students had done outside of class. This girl was a pyromaniac, that boy didn't stop mooning people, this group committed fraud, that boy liked to joyride, her father was the head of a crime family, he was an extortionist… As much as she knew Cap had done all of her research beforehand, she wondered why she had been put with other young offenders instead of normal kids. She bounced for a couple steps knowing that she was the worst offender of them all.

Someone suddenly called out, "Omigod, someone hid a bomb in here!"

Theo immediately dove to the ground, only to find herself the target of raucous laughter. "That's Gianna," Abcde said, still laughing as she helped Theo up. "She likes to cause panic. Don't listen to anything she says."

The girl in question winked and blew Theo a kiss. Theo did her best to ignore her. A tall red-haired girl strode across the room and smacked Gianna with a ruler. "That's illegal! I could get you sent to jail for that!"

"Nevaeh," Abcde provided. "She's weird, cuz she isn't really a criminal-in-waiting like the rest of us. She's so harsh on people who break the rules that she got sent here. Her dad's a judge."

"Are you slandering me?" Nevaeh shouted, pointing her ruler at Abcde. "You'd better not be!"

"Of course not!" Abcde called back. She waited until Nevaeh had turned her attention elsewhere before muttering, "stuck-up bitch."

"Hey, baby." A pale blond boy approached in a way Theo could only think of as slinking. "I heard from the boss that your parents paid full tuition for two weeks, and that's not cheap. And yet, you choose to dress like this. I have to say I'm digging it. Very thrift store chic."

Theo was reasonably sure she was being insulted, but not sure enough to say anything about it. "Thank you. Who're you?"

The boy looked at Abcde in irritation. "Why didn't you talk about me? I saw you giving the tour."

"This is Preston," Abcde said with a complete lack of enthusiasm. "He's rich as shit. That's the only interesting thing about him."

"She's kidding," Preston told Theo. "Not about the rich part, of course. Your folks must be pretty loaded to be able to just drop that much. How much are they worth?"

It took everything Theo had to not blurt out their combined bounties. "I dunno. They make a lot."

When Cap was smug, you were always extremely worried about what she knew that you didn't. Preston's smugness was just an invitation to punch him in the face. Abcde turned away to hide her grin when she saw Theo's fists ball up. "Well, my parents are multi billionaires. They could even buy this whole school if they wanted without thinking twice. I know your parents can't be worth as much, but don't worry. I won't hold it against you."

Now Theo was definitely sure she was being insulted. "Thanks. Could you excuse us for one second?" She pulled Abcde some distance away and lowered her voice. "Why is he even here?"

"His parents give hush money whenever he does something wrong, but as rich as they are, they got sick of having to bail him out all the time."

"Hey ATM, your money's due." Theo looked over to see four thick boys looming over Preston, who laughed and tossed them a thin stack of bills. They moved over to surround her, and Theo couldn't help but notice the conspicuous absence of the girl she had just been talking to. "Couldn't help but overhear," said the one who was probably the leader. "Now we like to get along, don't we, guys? Things can either go smoothly from now on or not so smoothly. We can keep nastier guys away from you for the measly sum of 50 grand. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?"

Theo shrugged. "Nah, I'm good."

The leader leaned down. "You know, that really hurts our feelings. We're just trying to help you get through your stay here as comfortably as possible. Aren't your feelings hurt?"

"Yup," said another boy, beginning to fake sob. One of the other two hugged him and patted his back.

"See? Look what you did. He's a sensitive guy. Now he'll have to go to therapy, and that ain't cheap. We can pitch in, but you have to take some responsibility here. 75 grand is your fair share, but since we're friends, I'll let you pay 50."

"That's so sad. Can I go now?"

Theo wasn't entirely surprised to find herself hoisted up by her shirt. Mr. Bakshi was listening to a radio at his desk, and Nevaeh was chasing around a group of boys who were waving underwear around. The boy holding her up dropped all pretenses. "Look, bitch, it's just 50 grand. You better show up with it tomorrow or-"

"You'll do what?" she taunted.

He threw her against some broken desks and crouched down. "Or your stay here will not be great. Just because we can't break the law doesn't mean we can't mess you up a little. We can stop short of assault."

Theo propped herself up on her elbows. "One."

He frowned. "One?"

"Two," she said, nodding at him.

"What?"

"Three."

"Did you break her, boss?" asked one of the other boys.

"Who cares," he sneered. "Did anyone clean out that locker?"

"Four."

"What locker?"

The leader smacked the speaker in the head. "There's only one fucking locker."

"Five."

"No, there are a whole bunch of them over- ohhhh. You mean that locker. I don't think so."

"Six."

"Yeah, yeah." The leader grabbed her by the neck and began dragging her towards a row of damaged lockers. "Hope you can count up to 50,000."

Theo had been mildly annoyed that the safety number wasn't nine, but she couldn't argue against Raven's decision. "SEVEN!"

All four boys froze. With varying degrees of shock, they put their hands to their necks. After a moment, they all looked at their reddened fingers, then at each other's necks. Theo took advantage of her captor's loosened grip and wriggled free. She straightened her clothes and tried to look as smug as possible when they turned to her as one. "Okay, one more time: I'm not giving you a beli. Don't think that's voice activated either. If I can't talk, everything will be a lot worse. For you. How about we just leave each other alone from now on? That sound good?"

They nodded dumbly. She pointedly looked at the dampening pants of one of the boys, then back up at the leader. "Good! Have a nice day!"

She skipped over to Abcde, who was talking to Paisleigh again, and slapped her back as hard as she could. "It was just a minor misunderstanding. Nothing to worry about. What're we talking about?"

\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\

"There they are!"

Lyn, Cain, and Alexander faced down the street. A lot of official-looking people were heading toward them at a brisk pace. They were all armed, but didn't seem interested in using their weapons at the moment. Cain and Alexander looked to Lyn, who sported her most cheerful smile. "Just follow behind me." She raised her voice and waved her arm. "You have to catch us first!"

She dashed away from the museum entrance with her nakama hot on her heels. Cain looked confused, but Alexander, riding on Cain's shoulder, was grinning too. She was pretty sure that if the group had wanted to hurt the pirates, they would have opened fire first. They probably wanted to talk about something, and what was the harm in making them work a little for it? She wasn't planning on taking to the roofs or anything, and her top speed and stamina weren't extraordinary. Passersby watched them with bemusement, frozen in place with only their heads turning.

When she finally had enough, she came to a stop on a park bench. Cain lumbered up behind her, and they were soon partially surrounded. "Will you please stop?" asked the guy with the biggest badge, trying not to appear winded.

She rested her arms on the back of the bench and crossed her legs. "Sure! What's up?"

He almost recoiled. "'What's up?'"

"What's with that reaction? You obviously know who I am!"

"If I had to guess," Alexander said, sitting down next to her, "on our official recorded crew records, everyone is super detailed and you only have your name with nothing else."

"What? That can't be true!" The man with the second largest badge sucked in his lips to keep from smiling. "No fair!"

"Where did your captain go?"

"Search me! She said she'd be back later this week. Is she in trouble?"

The first man frowned. "You are Lyn Mojigata, first mate, right?"

"Mmhmm!"

"So you are the person to talk to when your captain cannot be reached?"

"That's me! Who're you?"

"Sergeant Apsan." Everyone waited as he mentally shifted gears. "Are either of these two men in any position of authority?" he ventured.

"We're just her bodyguards," said Alexander.

Apsan's gaze slowly panned back to Lyn. "Then there are matters we must discuss."

"Okay! Discuss away!"

"It would be better if we moved somewhere private."

Lyn cocked her head to the side. "Mmm… no, we're fine here! I can't think of anything Cee'd need to talk about privately!"

"Who?"

"Cee? Captain Cassandra? My girlfriend?"

"You are Libera's girlfriend? How does- You and her- So differ-" He took a calming breath. "Okay. Still, this must be a private discussion so as not to incite a panic."

"Well, you have guys; set up a perimeter! That's a lot less work than us going somewhere!"

He stared at her, and Lyn could almost see the frustration threatening to break his professional attitude. He gestured with his hand, and his men spread out to secure the area. One woman even went down on all fours when Apsan snapped his fingers so he could sit on her back, and Lyn had to take several deep breaths in an attempt to quell her growing distress. Apsan ignored her, instead straightening his back and meshing his fingers on his knees. "As wanted criminals, you cannot be allowed to do and act however you please. Your notoriety and presence is frightening the locals. We ask that you peacefully leave Doell Bay and go elsewhere."

"I peacefully decline."

"We ask that you relay this request to your captain so she may make the final decision."

"Peacefully decline that too."

"But why?"

"Don't wanna!"

One eyebrow was starting to twitch, and more of his people were struggling to keep their faces straight. "Can you enlighten me?"

She shrugged. "Why should we leave? We haven't hurt anyone here, and we'd definitely have heard if Damien did something."

"You haven't hurt anyone yet."

"Oh, please. We don't really start fights. We either join them to help someone or defend ourselves very aggressively. Just because we're criminals doesn't mean we break laws to hurt people."

"How can you break a law without hurting people?"

"Purely speculating here, resisting arrest and eviction? Making a mockery of losers in power?"

He glared at her. She beamed. "Are you going to take this seriously?"

"Why should I? I've said all I need to, and I'm not going to change my mind. We can go in circles all you want, but my answers'll be the same." She leaned forward. "Now, if you want to actually do something, I'll remind you what I said ten seconds ago: we defend ourselves very aggressively. We don't bring the noise, but we sure love raising the volume."

A lot of eyes went up to Cain. Apsan's remained focused on Lyn. "We have you outgunned."

"Then do something. Otherwise, there's a really cool barbecue/soul food place we want to try."

Apsan held her gaze, then got to his feet. "We will pay a visit when your captain returns."

"Dumb idea, but okay. She's not nearly as nice as I am."

He scoffed a little as he turned away. As he took his first step, his foot sank into a deep puddle that hadn't been there a second ago. He pulled himself out of it and glared daggers at the smirking alchemist. He marched off, every other footstep squelching loudly, and his retinue fell into rank behind him. Cain waited until they were way out of earshot before talking. "What are we going to do now?"

"Right now, we're getting some damn soul food," Lyn said as they departed in the other direction. "Afterwards, we're letting everyone know what happened. The order is important because I'm hungry."

Alexander chuckled. "This is fun, isn't it? This is what I've always wanted to do as a pirate: do whatever we want with the occasional naughtiness, knowing that the authority can't risk doing much. This is freedom."

"But-"

He slapped Cain's leg with the back of his hand. "I know we do way more than naughtiness, but we deal with those consequences separately. Captain may enjoy participating on every possible side, but we all know that keeping the savory from the unsavory activities works to her advantage and act accordingly. Well, I guess not you. Worst non-combat thing you've done is intimidate people, right? Stealing Theo's suits doesn't count."

Cain rubbed the back of his neck, but couldn't deny it.

"That's how you want to behave, and doing what you want to do is our crew's silver rule. Plus, it's not like you don't have your hands full already. Why unnecessarily add stuff you don't want to do to your plate?"

"The golden rule is help Cee," Lyn reminded Cain. "The bronze rule is do anything I say."

Alexander laughed and hooked his arm around her neck. "Of course it is."

They arrived at the restaurant without incident. Cain claimed a table outside by sitting next to it as the other two went inside to order. It was still unclear to Lyn why she couldn't combine several different entrees to make a super tasty entree, but Alexander helped navigate their way through their order and got everything sorted out. He was extremely generous with the tip for some reason before he sat outside with Cain. Lyn sat inside next to the window.

"Wow, this is actually pretty good," Alexander said. "I didn't think vegan soul food was actually a thing. Didn't think vegan food could taste good in general"

Lyn frowned. "Have you never eaten vegan before?"

"No, actually," he said. "I haven't ever had vegan cuisine before. I've eaten vegan meals before, but nothing that was prepared to be vegan. It was more like there was nothing else to eat."

A couple ran past them out of the restaurant.

"Oh yeah, your middle years."

"Is that what they're called?"

"Well, I had to call them something. I was gonna call them the Post-Apocalypse Hunter Gatherer Ambush Marine Survival Era Duo, but for some reason, Cee said I had to call them something else."

Alexander nodded slowly. "So the 'middle years' was her idea?"

"Well, duh. I don't get why she didn't like any of mine. Her names are always so boring."

"But maybe easier to remember?" Cain ventured.

Lyn scoffed. "Who remembers boring things? It's things that stick out that are memorable. Do you remember every night watch you've taken, or do you remember the time we shot off a wave and landed on a river floating hundreds of feet in the air that corkscrewed back to the ocean?" They both said nothing. "Exactly. Plus, now that I've told you that they should actually be called the Post-Apocalypse Hunter Gatherer Ambush Marine Survival Era Duo, you'll have no problem remembering them."

"Sometimes I just wish I could see inside your head," Alexander said with an expression Lyn could only describe as dazzled. "It must be incredible in there."

"I show you what's in my head all the time!" she reminded him.

Someone else exited the restaurant with notable speed.

"I'm not sure that really-"

"How does that not count?" she protested. "I just wish I could show you what's in Damien's head since you all whine about that. I don't get why I can't since I remember what we talked… um, communicated about, and since I can remember it's a memory, and I can show you my memories, but not these for some reason."

"Maybe…" Cain scratched his chin, "maybe it's like a museum? You can show your art in your own gallery, and you can see into other peop… Damien's gallery, but you can't have his art in your gallery because you don't own it?"

Since her own guesses hadn't proved useful, she actually thought over what he had said. "Okay, I think I got what you were trying to say and totally didn't. It's like when I'm in his brain, I can't take pictures or bring anything back with me, and I can't show anything that was is his head because my experience was made in his head, not mine."

Cain frowned. "How is that not what I said?"

"Well, that's not how galleries work. I can always draw what I saw in his head and put that up in my gallery and show that to people."

Alexander and Cain exchanged glances again, prompting Lyn to once more wonder why people did that so much when she was talking. They seemed to be saying an awful lot with just their eyes. She was pretty sure she was the only one that could transfer memories, and she still couldn't do that while sitting up. It was true that Cee could practically read minds just by analyzing everything from facial expressions to heartbeats to blink frequency, but even Miserie did the looking at other conversation partners thing, and Miserie definitely wasn't as perceptive as Cee was. Maybe they were playing some kind of game that she wasn't part of, which seemed pretty unfair.

Another small group sped out of the restaurant. "What's going on?" Lyn asked.

"Cain and I are famous."

Lyn sighed. "So that's why you-"

"Yup."

"But you haven't-"

"Doesn't matter."

"The restaurant-"

"They got enough."

"But that's not-"

"Life isn't."

"How are you-"

"How long have I known you?"

"I'm not that-"

"In very specific circumstances, you are." Lyn stomped her foot, but didn't even get a word out before he spoke again. "But it's fun!"

She whirled about to face Cain. "I'm not that bad, am I? You couldn't follow that, right?" Cain pressed his lips together and looked to the side, causing Lyn to immediately lose interest in the previous topic in favor of a new one. "Look, you may not be a criminal at heart, but you should at least learn to lie convincingly. Well, I guess you'd just remain silent no matter what people did to you to get you to talk, but still! Not being able to say even one false word without looking guiltier than Theo is so pathetic! What happened to your bodyguard face?"

Cain looked helplessly to Alexander. "What? She's right. It's so obvious when you're trying not to tell the truth. You're the worst liar on the crew, and that's amazing because Damien never lies at all. ...Which I realize technically doesn't make him a liar, but my point still stands."

"But why should I need to lie?"

"Sometimes, lies make things easier," Lyn said, watching two locals who were clearly hesitant to approach the restaurant. "Obviously not things that are important, but little lies. White lies. They can spare people's feelings or someone's safety. Cee lies to us all the time for our sake. Remember how she said not to tell Theo about Seamine's condition? You know nothing good would have happened if she had learned the truth. What about when Theo asks me about her outfit? The outfits she chooses make her so happy that I can't just tell her she sometimes looks like she fell in a clown's laundry hamper. What would that do to her self-confidence?"

Cain chuckled and fingered the scar on his face. "You might just have a point."

"Of course we do, silly." Lyn hopped onto his shoulders and hugged his head. "You did help me get Cee to confess to me because you suck at lying, so in that case it was okay. Other than that, you're a criminal whether you like it or not, and you should be able to at least tell lies like those." She thought for a second. "Think of it like being an emotional bodyguard. You could just let everything hurt who you're guarding, or you can protect them as best you can."

"Okay, I get it. I'll try my best."

She swatted his ear. "Do your best. I'm not asking for much, just your bodyguard face when you're telling a teeny-tiny lie. That's it. And you're gonna do it, or I'll tell Cee to kick you off the crew. Literally. In the middle of the ocean."

"Yes, ma'am."