I can't believe I'm back and not travelling anymore in the foreseeable future. It's been a really, really weird year, guys. Like life had lots of catching up to do and decided to do everything in twelve months. I've been mostly out of commission, writing-wise, since last August, but I think I'm finding my footing back at long last. I have too many stories to tell to waste time sulking!
Thank you for all the encouragement you keep sending me! I'm so glad that many of you like this story and want to see where it's going. And to those who didn't like the development in the last chapter, I'm sorry, and thank you for sticking with the story up to now. The course is set and has been from the start. The possible romance was the cherry on top and isn't going to change the plot at all.
Also, apologies to everybody in advance, but this chapter is going to end on a cliffhanger. I'm already working on the next one, and, as I said above, I have some stability now, so it shouldn't take me three months to update. Good Lord, what is wrong with me.
As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
23. When the going gets tough
(And you can tell from the smoke at the stake that the current state is critical)
Saki hadn't worked on a big piece since that tacky dragon for the big burly pirate she'd made cry. She wouldn't deny that that had been unprofessional of her. She wouldn't admit that it may have colored Law's view of her ability and thus made him reject her magnanimous offer to get rid of the eyesores he wore on his fingers.
But that was a subject for another day, because if she thought about it at the moment, she was liable to do something indelible and that she'd likely she'd regret later.
Simple tattoos were often more difficult to do than busier designs. Lines were longer and cleaner, and any mistakes stuck out like a sore thumb. To make it even better, their lovely Jolly Roger was symmetrical, which meant all of it had to be perfect.
Saki had a steady hand, despite what her attempts at eyeliner might make one think. The real difficulty came from the client, who had to stay very still so the movement didn't make her screw up a line. The last guy she had tattooed in Asteria, for instance? Would have been terrible. Even if with years of experience one learned which spots were more sensitive and made people move on reflex, being half a second too late to take the needle away could be a problem. Thin lines would need to be evened out, affecting the end result. The client would notice, or not, and she'd be grumbling and sulking the rest of the day because somebody could not stay still.
Law didn't even twitch through the whole process. Which made sort of sense, she guessed, because he already had a lot of tattoos, but it struck Saki as unnatural and had her on edge for the whole session, because what if she lowered her guard, and he twitched out of nowhere, and she botched up a line? This was their captain. It wasn't like he went around shirtless out there and any random person was going to see the tattoo on his back, but she had a duty to make it perfect, both as a tattoo artist and as a Heart Pirate.
"Are you even breathing?" She asked after a while, when she passed over bone for the third time and no reaction came from him.
"I might fall asleep." He did sound sleepy.
"Please don't. Sleeping people move."
"I won't," he said.
More time passed in silence, the rumbling of the needle the only sound in the room. From outside, sometimes Saki could hear the tinkering of the mechanics, and Mack with his cooking utensils. She'd asked him for permission to skip some of her duties that day, because she had expected the tattoo to take the whole afternoon. Law had asked to do it in one sitting, if possible, and she had agreed. It made sense that he'd want to get it out of the way as fast as possible, instead of having a wound on his back for over a week. In their line of work, they were bound to see action sooner than later, so better get it out of the way soon.
"Do you know finger tattoos fade away very fast?" She asked conversationally.
"Really?"
She couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smiling.
"Uh-huh. They need touch-ups pretty often."
"I see."
"How long have you had yours?"
"It's not going to work, Saki."
She lifted the needle to wipe away excess ink and blood from the skin, and also to let out an unrestrained sigh. "Can't blame me for trying."
"I'm not."
"What's your problem now, anyway?" She said as she resumed her work. She didn't sound accusatory, because indignation required a focus and energy she needed to put into something else, currently. "You know I'm good at my job. You've seen it first-hand and you even asked me for a big tattoo. Why won't you let me fix that mess already?"
"Part laziness, part having fun seeing you squirm."
"Oh joy."
"Don't take it personally."
"This is revenge for when we first met, is it?"
"I am neither denying nor confirming that claim."
"Should you be taunting me when I'm holding a needle to your skin?"
"It won't make a difference," he replied with absolute confidence. "You are still going to do your best."
Saki kept quiet for a few seconds. "How am I supposed to stay annoyed at you when you say things like that?" She complained. "And don't laugh. This is delicate enough as it is. In another life, please, pick a less symmetrical Jolly Roger."
"You don't like it?"
"I do. But it's easy to mess up."
"That's why I'm letting you do it."
"Oh, shut up," she said with a smile.
—
The flags of the newly arrived ships danced wildly in the wind, and so did Marina's hair, so she missed her superior officer disembarking and by the time she'd secured it behind her ears, the man was in front of her.
"Congratulations on your promotion, sir," Marina said, back straight and hands behind her back, giving no hint that she'd just been waging war against her own curls.
She and her men hadn't been able to work on the ruins of the base yet, and other than wait until qualified personnel got there to fix what was broken and throw out what was destroyed for good, it didn't look like they could do much. They were sailors, not builders. But at least the new docks and the main tower, which had remained upright despite the unholy winds that tried to topple it down every day, were in good shape for visits.
"Thank you."
Former Commander Curtiss, now Rear Admiral, because memory in Marineford was in short supply if it meant sweeping failures under the rug faster, surveilled the tower in front of him with approval, though his face changed when he looked to his right.
"I see your requests have fallen on deaf ears," he said.
"I'm sure help will be on its way when the time is right," Marina replied with an even tone.
Curtiss shook his head dismissively, "I suppose we can't expect efficiency where power struggles are involved."
Marina's brows knit together. "You sound critical of the system."
"You would too if you spent as much time as I do on Marineford. Trust me, I'd swap places with you in—"
"What is this pile of rubble?"
Curtiss stopped speaking and immediately looked as if he had swallowed a whole lemon. Marina looked behind him to see who had spoken, and her day was unmade when she laid eyes on the newcomer.
"Do we honestly need to make a stop here?"
An officer approached them, glaring at the demolished tower like it was personally offending him, green waves straight out of a shampoo commercial billowing in the air behind him. The all-white suit and boots he wore under his official coat gave Marina the urge to pick up a fistful of mud and fling it at him.
But since she refused to be so infantile, she only said "No" to Curtiss.
"Apologies, Marina. We'll depart to Enies Lobby in a few days."
"Nothing to apologize for, sir," she replied sounding very, very tired.
The irritating man walked with airs up to Marina, a condescending smile growing on his face at the same rate Marina's frown deepened.
"Marina! What a surprise," he said, as if he hadn't noticed her before, which he had, and he put a hand on her shoulder. "To think you'd grace us with your presence in the Grand Line! How long has it been?"
Marina weighed her options, and though clocking him in the face was the preferred one, she hadn't forgotten yet what had brought her to an abandoned base in the middle of nowhere.
"Flagel," she said curtly, slapping away his hand without contemplation. "Since the academy, as you well know."
They had never gotten along, and he had never forgiven that she broke his wrist during a public training demonstration. It was a small consolation for every ill-intentioned comment she'd had to endure for years.
If he was offended by her gesture, it didn't show. He probably had wanted to provoke it. He put his hand behind his back, too, mirroring Marina. "It's Commodore Flagel now, haven't you heard? I even received a Devil Fruit for my services. "
"Really? I had no idea. You know how news work in the sea. Word only gets out when something big happens."
That jab seemed to hit the mark. "One has to wonder how you got to ranking officer at all with that attitude."
"Kids," Curtiss said, and both stopped glaring daggers at each other to look at him.
"Follow me," Marina said, turning away from Flagel, "I'll show you to your chambers." She glanced at the crowd where her soldiers had gathered and picked up Howe and Philip near the front. "You two, show the sailors around the base."
"Yes, ma'am," both said at once, heading to the two ships at the docks.
Marina dismissed the rest of her soldiers with a hand wave, and they followed the other two to help the newly arrived sailors securing and unloading the ships.
—
Bepo wasn't happy. It wasn't about being sleepy, or tired, or sick of his job. It was that Law had gotten them into a problem that should have never happened, and he had kept quiet about it in hopes that he was just worrying without reason.
But his worries were turning out to be founded, and he didn't feel like shutting up anymore. The situation was dire enough that the captain had to be notified. He'd just come down from the bridge and was about to start looking for him when he saw him and Saki coming out of the sickbay.
She was lecturing Law without paying attention to his attempts to interrupt, and Bepo was glad to have companions who could draw the line when Law was being stubborn.
Because, let's face it, he needed to be stopped sometimes. Or sent to bed. Or reminded to eat.
"You need to apply this three or four times a day for—"
"I know how to take care—"
"Do I argue with you when you're operating? Same shit applies. You basically got minor surgery."
"And I'm the surgeon here."
"So here," she put a tin on Law's hands, "if you notice something weird, tell me, and don't scratch it or pick at it or—"
"Saki—"
"—wash it with a scrub like that dickwad from three years ago did and then came to complain—"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Saki. I am not stupid."
Her gaze drifted to one of the hands on her shoulders and lingered for too long. Then she looked back at him. "Right."
If Law felt insulted by that, it was difficult to say. And then he looked up from Saki – because everybody had to look down to see Saki – and saw Bepo, and Bepo was denied an answer to his doubt.
"You need anything, Bepo?"
Bepo hummed. "I wanted to talk about the route."
"Who's at the helm now?"
"Tuttu. He's big, so he's good at steering it."
"I'll have to keep that in mind," Law replied.
"That's my cue," Saki said, and stepped aside, but not without pointing at Bepo before leaving and saying very seriously, "You are next."
Bepo didn't realize immediately what she meant, but when it dawned on him he shuddered and he put his arms around himself in reflex.
"Don't touch my fur!" He said.
"Don't threaten my navigator," Law warned her.
As a reply, she blew a kiss at Bepo and disappeared around the corner.
Bepo stared in her direction with worry for a few seconds before he relaxed and turned to Law. "Captain, I'm seeing something I don't like on the way to our destination."
"Bad weather ahead?"
Bepo shook his head. "Whirlpools."
Law rubbed his forehead as he thought, and through Bepo's mind briefly passed the accusation that they could have avoided this had they stuck to their original course.
"What can we do?"
Nothing short of ignoring the Log Pose and getting lost. "Try to avoid them when we see them. I'll need help at the helm."
"Whatever you need."
Bepo nodded curtly and thought to go back to the bridge, leaving the conversation there and not point any fingers. It wouldn't have served any purpose, anyway, other than blowing off some steam and making Law feel guilty.
But Law stopped him as soon as he moved. "Bepo, wait."
He did. He wondered if he should have come down at all, maybe waited until later, because he felt like he had only approached Law to take his bad mood out on him.
"Are you upset?" Law asked.
"No," Bepo said without thinking.
They stared at each other.
To hell. If he wanted to know, he would tell. Throwing his arms in the air, he exclaimed, "I am!"
"Is this about the route?"
"Of course it's about the route! Do you know how long it took to gather all that info before entering the Grand Line? There's so little, and we spent so long putting together the pieces—"
"I know," Law said, sounding a tad guilty, which made Bepo feel guilty in turn. "But we knew there was a chance we couldn't stay on that course."
"I know that, but did we really have to, this time?"
Law didn't reply right away. "We had to shake off those Marines, Bepo."
"That's not the only reason and you know it," he said, regretting right away how accusatory he had sounded.
He huffed. "What were we supposed to do, then?"
"I don't know! I'm not saying you did wrong! But…"
Bepo knew that, as the captains any important decisions were ultimately up to Law. He could accept that. But if he had no say in the matter, at least he wanted to know the reason why, and the feeling that Law was hiding something from him was more unsettling that he cared to admit.
They had been friends longer than anyone. It wasn't fair.
"You are wondering if I made the decision for the right reason, aren't you?"
A perk of having longtime friends was that, often, they knew you before better than you did.
"Yeah," Bepo admitted, eyes downcast.
"I'm sorry."
Bepo looked up alarmed, "No, forget I said anything! You've got enough work as it is."
"No, you're right. I should've been honest with you."
Bepo mulled over Law's words. "You know you don't have to do everything alone."
"I can hardly do anything alone nowadays."
"You know what I mean."
Law closed his eyes briefly and exhaled. "I'll try to be more considerate form now on."
Bepo's stare filled with doubt. "Just try?"
Law crossed his arms defensively. "What's up with all of you? Does no one in this ship have any faith in me?"
"No offense, Captain, but you're a human disaster."
Bepo felt much better at his indignant face. Maybe that was what he needed to put the matter to rest finally. Sometimes uncomfortable conversations had to be had. It didn't mean anyone had to dwell too much on them.
"From now on you'll refrain from spending time with Saki."
"You wish," Bepo said smugly, but on second thought, his face fell a little. "I think she's avoiding me."
Judging by his reaction, he hadn't noticed. "Really?"
"Do you think I've offended her?" Bepo asked in a whisper.
"It's hard to imagine."
"I was hoping she had told you something." But Law didn't seem to be worried, so he guessed it was nothing important. "She's been acting weird since Niva. Weirder than usual, I mean."
"She's had a lot of things on her mind."
"So you know," Bepo said smugly.
Law sighed. "Corner her in the galley if you need to talk something private. I won't say anything."
"Private?" That was suspicious. His ayes narrowed as he searched for Law's reaction. "What do you mean private?"
Bepo expected a reply. What he didn't expect was Law taking a step back and shutting the sickbay door in his face.
"Captain!" He cried, pounding with a paw on the door.
"Go bother someone else. I have work to do."
"That's a fat lie! Captain!"
But he was ignored until he gave up insisting, and Bepo was pretty sure that Law would get actually mad at him if he took the sickbay's door down.
Besides, unlike others, he had a job to do.
—
The smooth sailing only lasted a couple of days, and then Bepo had interrupted dinner in a hurry to say they were in danger.
The ship had entered an area of strong winds and currents, so Bepo had decided to avoid half of the problem and sail underwater.
The currents were unavoidable, though, and Bepo had warned them that there were whirlpools ahead and to prepare for a night on the lookout.
Mack, Saki, Uni and Asuka were sent to bed, to relieve in a few hours the ones that would stay up throughout the night. Bepo was hoping that by, morning, they would have gone through the worst of it.
Saki had been listening to the rumbling of the Polar Tang's turbines for most of the night, and it was no different when she got up to see what was going on. She popped her head down the stairs to the engine room, where Penguin and Shachi had to be working. They had been unable to rely on the sails since the day before, and the engines had to be working full time against the currents of the area, so they had decided to stay up during the night in case an emergency repair was in order.
Mack, Uni and Asuka were still sleeping. The remaining three were in the bridge, trying to get them out of those waters as soon as possible.
While Saki might have felt nervous about a million things since she had embarked, navigation hadn't been one of them up to now. But seeing Bepo so worried that he had asked for help, for once, and the routine of the entire crew upended, made her realize the gravity of the situation.
She had known Bepo was exceedingly good at his job, and that was why she had underestimated what the Grand Line had in store for sailors.
"Guys, do you need something?" She called downstairs.
Penguin replied immediately, "Saki? What hour is it?"
"Around five AM."
"Damn, you wake up early."
"I wasn't sleeping much anyway."
"No wonder, the sub's swinging like—"
"Can you get us something to drink?" Shachi interrupted. "This room's an oven."
"Sure, I'll check up on the others and be right back."
"Thanks."
Skipping steps on her way up, Saki got to the bridge to see Law and Tuttu steering the rudder, or rather, trying to prevent the rudder from going the way it shouldn't. Bepo was staring through the windows and giving instructions, and when Saki looked in that direction, she understood why he had been so worried.
It wasn't only a whirlpool. The submarine was surrounded by them on every side and, more than sailing, they were sneaking in between them. The only things that kept them from getting swallowed by one were Bepo's indications and the sheer power of the engines fighting against the underwater currents.
Hesitantly, Saki asked from the door, "Can I help with anything?"
"Not now," Bepo said without looking at her.
"Alright. I'll be on standby downstairs."
And, feeling less than useful, she headed to the galley to retrieve a couple of glasses and a pitcher full of juice from the refrigerator. She guessed it was better than bringing the guys hot coffee.
Someone, however, complained when she got there.
"You could've brought us beer," Shachi said.
"I could have not brought you anything, ass," she said, shoving a glass his way, which he readily accepted. "I don't know how you can stand the heat down here."
"Same to you when you're in the galley," Penguin said.
"Mack gets the worst of it now, so I can't complain."
She sat down on a step and placed the pitcher on the floor between her feet. The sub moved erratically, and she didn't trust it wouldn't tip over.
"You okay about it, though?"
She looked up from the swaying liquid. "About what?"
"You used to spend a lot of time working in the galley."
She shrugged. It was true that she missed being more occupied. "There are more hands on board, so I don't need to do so much now."
"That's the thing. You seem like the kind of person who needs to be always busy."
"Oh. I can deal with that."
"He's asking because he's lonely," Shachi said. Penguin glared at him and sighed. "Don't look at me like that, it's true. You don't come down here anymore," Shachi said, and it sounded pouty.
Penguin pointed it out. "You sure you aren't projecting on me?"
"It gets old being surrounded by the same dudes all day, you know?" He admitted grudgingly.
It made Saki smile, and she realized she had needed it. "It's nothing against you, really."
It was true that she didn't visit as often since the other guys had joined the crew, but she had figured they had enough company with the new additions and she wouldn't be missed.
"Too many people in here, maybe?" Penguin asked.
"I suppose," she replied weakly at being caught.
"You don't like 'em?" Shachi asked.
"It's not like that. I thought you could talk about guy things if I left you alone. Screwdriver types, monkey wrenches, all those things you like."
"Oh, yes, the arguments about welding methods are savage," Shachi said sarcastically, and he made a pause for dramatic effect before declaring, "Iiiiidiot."
"…I can't really deny that, you know," Saki said sheepishly.
But circumstances wouldn't have allowed her to make her case if she'd had one, anyway.
Before they could register what was happening or take cover, the world around them started shaking, the lights went out, the floor switched places with the ceiling, and the last thing Saki heard before she hit her head hard enough to fall unconscious, even over the roar of the engine, was the yelling two floors above.
—
Saki's head hurt like a flock of woodpeckers had been broadcasting SOS messages against it for the last several hours. The feel of the floorboards under her arms told her that the submarine wasn't capsized, but it took her minutes to open her eyes and focus them to confirm her location.
The absence of sound told her that the engine was dead. She sat up with a huge effort and realized that only the emergency lights were on. So power was out, too.
It took her even more time to realize that she hadn't been alone in the room, because why would she be, and it was then that she started panicking at the lack of movement.
"Shachi? Penguin?"
She heard a muffled sound nearby. Slowly, not because she wanted to, but because she tried to stand upright and couldn't, she crawled towards the source of the noise. The cap she bumped against and could barely make out revealed that she had found Penguin.
"Hey," she said weakly, touching his arm. "Penguin. Penguin," repeated, tugging at his arm more forcefully. "Penguin, this isn't funny, say some—"
"…Huh?" He rolled over and his hand went straight to his head. Saki let out a long breath. "What's going—" He winced at the sound of his own voice.
"Concussed," she said. "Both of us. Sit up."
Penguin didn't argue, and with some help, he was sitting in a moment. "Where's Shachi?"
"No idea. We need to find him."
As if on cue, an unidentified person came rolling down the stairs, and before Saki and Penguin were able to get close to check who it was, another very identifiable someone came jumping from above with a war cry to land on the man who had just fallen.
Their abused brains needed a few seconds to take in the situation, which Shachi used to punch the man on the floor repeatedly.
"Shachi?" Penguin asked. "Who's that?"
Only then, Shachi took notice of his surroundings. "You're awake!" He squinted at Saki. "You too! Hurry up and help me beat these guys!" And he grabbed the now unconscious man by the collar and wave him at them.
He was wearing a Marine uniform.
Fortunately, the other two made the connection quite fast, and scrambled to their feet in a lamentable display of balance.
Shachi wasn't impressed. "Well, shit."
"Thanks for the reassurance," Saki said without thinking, which she took as a good sign that her reaction time was going back to normal.
Right after that, more footsteps of people coming down the stairs resounded in the room, and as soon as the shapes of another two Marines came into view, the three pirates tackled them without remorse and punched like their lives depended on it.
Which they did.
But the guys were still breathing when they stepped back, so there was that. Saki hoped their bad karma was cancelled by the fact that they had acted in self-defense.
While Penguin and Saki stood guard at the bottom of the stairs, Shachi ran to grab a rope and tied the knocked out Marines together. And, once they were secured, Saki and Penguin dropped side to side on the stairs. Shachi just sat on the floor to catch his breath.
"Guys, this is really bad," Shachi said, fanning his face with a hand.
Penguin's voice was hushed by necessity. He was pressing a hand against his forehead while he spoke. "Why do we have Marines on board?"
"Beats me. They were here when I woke up."
"Where are the others?" Saki asked, glancing above. If the uninvited soldiers hadn't been proof enough, the sunlight coming from the hallway confirmed that they had surfaced, and that must have been intentional of Bepo. If they had been in risk of sinking, staying underwater would have been a death sentence for everybody, since with the ballast tanks flooded and no power, they would've had no way to leave the ship.
"Gone," Shachi croaked out. "When I woke up and you wouldn't answer, I went upstairs following the noise, and instead of the guys I found those three rummaging through the sub."
"You think we were raided?" Penguin asked.
"I think we washed ashore after a whirlpool swallowed us. I saw land through a window."
"Best case scenario, they've been captured," Saki drawled. "They wouldn't have disembarked and left us down here."
"That's what I thought, too," Shachi said.
Penguin didn't sound so sure. "I find it hard to believe that someone could capture Captain." But he didn't want to come up with another possibility. The options were too grim.
"Maybe they got him while he was knocked out, too? That whirlpool gave us a good thrashing."
"There must be a lot of Marines out there if they also got everybody else," Saki muttered. Her head protested every time she spoke any louder, but it was clear she'd have to get over that soon.
"Then we'll have more company anytime now," Penguin said. "We need to find them."
"We can't go out blindly. For all we know, we're surrounded."
"We don't need to," Shachi replied.
Saki didn't know what he meant until she stooped staring at her knees saw him nudging towards the bound Marines.
"Ah."
Penguin stood up, significantly more stable than before, and also more clearheaded at the prospect of forming a rescue party, and said, "Dibs on bad cop."
—
Marina wasn't sure if hers qualified as good or bad luck.
She had been sent away from Lymes after punching a jerk.
That was good.
She had been assigned to a derelict base in the middle of the Grand Line.
That was bad.
It was only her and her soldiers there.
That was good.
Then another jerk that she wanted to punch more than the previous one showed up.
That was pretty bad.
The ship of the pirate that had ridiculed her a few months ago had washed ashore on her base.
That was good.
Said ship, as she had dreaded the moment she saw it, contained her older brother.
That was the worst fucking thing.
The scales undeniably tipped towards bad.
Mack eyed the cracks on the ceiling's paint with interest, handcuffed and sitting on a chair in front of her desk. Marina was trying to drill holes into his skull with a glare, and her interlaced fingers were white from the pressure.
Deep breaths, Marina, deep breaths.
She was, as always, fascinated and highly annoyed that his brother could take the muddiest situations with unshakeable aplomb.
They hadn't seen each other in the last decade, and this was not the kind of reunion she had imagined. Hers involved more parents, feelings of relief, and less law enforcement.
"Why are you doing this?" She said. An accusation, and not the smartest or the most professional thing she could have said, but damn if she hadn't wanted to ask the question since he had left their home island.
Mack lowered his gaze from the bad paint job and looked at her with that unreadable face of his. "I could ask you the same."
She froze momentarily at his words. "You have the gall the compare me to you?"
"When did you get so snippy? You always said you wanted to sail when you were older."
She slammed an open palm on the table. "I didn't run away to become a criminal!"
Mack's eyebrows rose, but that was the only recognition he conceded to his sister's outburst. "I didn't 'run away.' I would have been running away from myself if I hadn't left."
"That's your excuse?"
"I left to be me. Isn't it the same for you?"
That hit too uncomfortably close home, and he had absolutely no right to hit that mark when they hadn't spoken in so long. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Are you running away, then?"
She got up from her seat, nails digging into the desk so hard that she made indentations on the board. "Do you realize what position you're in?"
Mack stared quietly at her sister, rubbing a hand over suspiciously curling lips, and replied, "Do you, Mari?"
—
"This is straight out of a bad comedy," Shachi complained as he peeked out of the door of the main deck.
"Actually," Saki replied, "in those stories the clothes always fit."
"Proof that no one's writing a story about our adventures keeps mounting."
Because dressing up like Marines to be slightly less conspicuous wasn't embarrassing enough on its own.
Perhaps they would've been able to come up with something better, if they hadn't been in such a hurry and they hadn't fallen to collective hysteria when the Marine they managed to wake up told them they'd had the misfortune of drifting onto a Marine base.
Managed by the woman who had almost got them in North Blue, no less. Then again, it could have been a blessing in disguise if she had any sort of sympathy for Mack.
Saki hadn't shared this one little detail, in case the matter didn't pan out as she hoped, because Marina hadn't struck her as the sympathetic type.
"Are you sure you aren't gonna trip in those?" Shachi asked her.
"I shoved the pants into my boots and rolled up the sleeves four times. If you have any better ideas, I'm all ears."
"Mine's kind of tight at the seams," Shachi said. "Maybe we should trade?"
"Maybe we shouldn't waste any more time," Penguin grumbled.
Gripping their weapons, they stepped onto the deck.
The view that greeted them wasn't pretty.
Past the beach where they had run aground were the ruins of a collapsed building and several smaller constructions that for all they knew could be teeming with hidden soldiers, and on the opposite side of the island stood a tall tower. It was the only hospitable building in sight, so it had to be where their crewmates had been brought.
They observed the tower for longer than it was advisable, taking into account that they were in a very visible spot, but Saki had hoped to notice some sort of disturbance. Anything that indicated that their captain was alive and kicking.
Penguin was thinking along the same lines. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
"This is going to be fun," Saki said without any joy, trying to adjust her sword in her belt.
"It kinda loses its charm when we aren't all together," Shachi said.
"No kidding." No time to have fun when you were worrying tis much about someone else.
"Time's wasting," Penguin said. "The sooner we move, the sooner we'll be back."
He led the way to the makeshift gangplank the Marines had placed against the hull, and Shachi followed behind. Saki gave one last look at the shut door behind them, the door to their home, and went after them with an uneasy feeling that she wasn't able to shake off.
—
"LET. ME. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT."
"Fuck me," Uni grumbled.
A guy they couldn't see due to cell placement hadn't stopped screaming his lungs out since they had been thrown behind bars.
"LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOO—"
Tuttu agreed. "Someone kill him."
"—OOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT."
"I'll do it myself," Uni said, "just get me a tool. A rope. A paper sheet. I'll make it work somehow."
"LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—"
"SHUT. UP," Asuka yelled at him from his cell.
The screaming prisoner, against all expectations, shut up and only to reproach him. "You're going nowhere with that attitude."
"He speaks human," Uni said, aghast.
"Rude." And then they heard a sharp intake of breath, and he continued, "LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—"
"Just wait until I'm out of this cell," Uni said. "You'll be begging to go back."
—
Law had had better days.
He was quite sure he had broken a couple of ribs during the tumble in the Polar Tang, his left arm had been shot, his sword confiscated, and he'd been handcuffed before being thrown in a cell separated from his crew. Which still wouldn't have represented that big of a problem if the aforementioned handcuffs weren't made of seastone.
The man guarding him on the other side of the bars was a familiar face, as had been the other woman prowling the base. Last time he had escaped him thanks to Bepo's timely entrance, but he couldn't count on that at the moment. However, he had the advantage of knowing what he had to face, this time, and could plan accordingly.
With the guys down in the dormitory captured, along with everybody in the bridge with him, their best option were the three that had been in the engine room, assuming they hadn't been gravely injured.
Law wasn't a man of faith, so he kept watching his surroundings like a hawk, waiting for an opening to break free. As the captain and doctor of the crew, it was his duty to keep everybody safe, and he was doing a poor job at the moment.
He thought back of Bepo's annoyance at his decision to change their course. Let the current situation be a lesson to not take any important decisions regarding the ship without consulting him first.
The Marine keeping him unwanted company saw fit to bring him out of his thoughts.
"It seems we're destined to cross paths," Curtiss said from a wood chair, rolling over Kikoku in his hands and inspecting the blade.
"Don't flatter yourself," he replied. "It's a stroke of bad luck."
He had never understood how Cora-san had been able to consider the Navy a home. Filled with self-righteous people that thought their way was the only one, inflexible, corrupt, preaching about a higher good that in the end only benefited those in power. As far as Law was concerned, Cora-san was the only Marine that deserved his respect, and that Marine was no more.
"For you, certainly," Curtiss said, and it grated on his ears. "You and your lot have caused enough trouble. Where are the missing people in your crew?"
He didn't deign to look at him. "The sea saved you work. They fell overboard when we lost power. Aren't you happy?"
"Death should never beget rejoicing," he said gravely. "Though I don't expect a pirate to share the sentiment – nor can I take his words at face value."
"Don't let me stop you from wasting your time on an empty chase. It's in the job description, after all."
"There's no use in trying to taunt me, Trafalgar. This is the end of the line for you. The ship to Impel Down departs tomorrow, and you'll be in it." He ran his fingers over Kikoku. "I don't know much about swords, but it seems like a fine blade. Does it have a name?"
"It does."
"Is it ranked?"
"Cursed."
Curtiss seemed taken aback at the revelation, "You carry such a thing with you?" And the moment he turned the sword over to examine the edge, he accidentally split the palm of his hand open.
"Are you sure I am the one struck by bad luck?" Law commented.
"I am not a superstitious man," he replied, setting Kikoku on a table, and from the wound in his hand, glue started to pour out until it was sealed together. "But I'm not one to leave things up to chance, either."
And, to make a point, he shifted on his chair, crossed his arms, and leaned back.
—
The one stroke of good luck Saki, Penguin and Shachi had took the shape of a cage near the sub, between the ruins, with a sleeping polar bear inside. The group of Marines guarding it was a laughable obstacle in comparison. Finding Bepo first was hitting the jackpot.
The three pirates huddled behind a corner as they tried to agree on their next move.
"We've got our first man," Shachi said.
Saki craned her neck to stare at the soldiers closer to the cage. "Do you think any of those guys have a key?"
"Are you sure you can't pick the lock?"
"Shachi."
"I don't know how flimsy the bars are, but I'll bet they aren't prepared to keep a kung-fu bear inside," Penguin commented.
There was a hum of general agreement.
"So we wake up our boy and press onwards?" Shachi asked.
"Sounds good. We kinda need reinforcements."
"Okay," Saki said. "We should split up for a moment and sneak behind the soldiers."
Shachi made a face. "I was hoping we could jump them like the ones in the sub."
"And then we can have the whole island on our asses," Penguin retorted.
"I know, I know!"
Saki gave one last glance from behind the wall they were using as hiding and advanced towards the soldiers, using the debris as cover. The crunch of the gravel with each step made her extra cautious, and thus slow, which she didn't need help with after taking a blow to the head. When she managed to sneak behind a nearby wall, she positioned herself behind two of the soldiers and waited for signs of the other two.
There were five of them, and she didn't see any others roaming the vicinity. She thought they had good odds with the surprise factor.
She jumped out of cover when she heard the shifting of gravel behind another half-demolished wall and stabbed the nearest soldier. The second one was quick to react, but even then, he didn't have enough time to load his carbine before Saki closed in.
She wasn't sure she wanted to know when she had made the switch from thinking killing people was horrifying to a necessity, but she didn't doubt those soldiers would have returned the favor without a second thought if they could.
When she looked up, Shachi and Penguin were done too. They stayed still for a few seconds, waiting for sound of alarm, but none came. They were still safe.
Any pretenses of sneaking the rest of the way passing as Marines were out the window as soon as Bepo tagged along, but the longer they could stretch the stealth phase, the better. First, thought, they had to get him out.
They circled the cage, shook the bars and kicked the lock to no avail. Bepo didn't budge, either. After further inspection, they found no keys on the Marines.
"Those bastards shot him a tranquilizer," Shachi said after circling Bepo a few times. Indeed, there was a dart sticking out of Bepo's backside. He put an arm between the bars and reached for it, and then he threw it to the ground and stomped on it until it wasn't unrecognizable.
"I was almost waiting for the needle to prick you through the sole," Penguin remarked.
Shachi contemplated the possibility. "That would've been plain sad."
"But very much in line with our track record."
Saki crouched down to look at Bepo's face from closer up. "I wish I could sleep like this."
"Do you want a dart too?" Shachi asked.
Saki scrunched her nose. "No more needles to go to sleep, please."
"We can't really yell in his ears, can we," Penguin murmured. "I guess there's only one way."
He lifted his spear and pointed its butt at Bepo. Following his example, Saki took her scabbard in one hand.
Shachi's sword didn't have one, so he took off his Marine cap and proceeded to slap Bepo while the other two poked him relentlessly.
When Bepo finally stirred, he went through several stages that were plain on his face:
First, confusion.
Then, agitation.
Afterwards, rage.
Lastly, recognition when three pairs of hands reached inside the cage to cover his mouth before his cries were heard everywhere. The owners counted themselves lucky to keep all their fingers.
Saki had never seen Bepo so affected, but he was holding back tears as he bended the iron bars like they were made of butter and threw them out. He was shaking of rage, and she didn't need to be a bear expert to know that it was a really bad idea to be near an angry one.
With caution, they made him sit down while he came back to his senses fully and summarized the situation.
They were fortunate the bear was on their side.
—
Marina was fuming, and Mack didn't seem to mind at all.
"What am I supposed to do with you now?"
"Isn't there a protocol for that?"
"Do you think I am following protocol right now?" She sneered.
"You could let us go. Say we broke out or something."
"You, not them."
"Differentiated treatment? That doesn't sound very professional."
"What, do you honestly want to end up in Impel Down?"
"I don't know, Mari, do you want me to end up there?"
Marina felt tempted to flip the table, leave the office, and forget her brother was there. Let it be someone else's problem. "Don't turn the question on me!"
"I think the fact that we're having this conversation is an answer itself."
Before Marina could protest, Mack directed his eyes to something behind her.
"Is that a Meccano model?"
"…Yes."
He strained to see. "Does it light up?"
"There's an individual switch for every window and streetlight under the board," she said very quickly. "Now can we stay on topic?"
"Sure," he replied cheerfully. "By the way, do you still keep that blue dress?"
Marina facepalmed hard enough to leave a mark.
—
In the end, shoving Bepo back in the cage was their only option. They covered it with a tarp and pushed to the tower, managing not to draw more than cursory attention. It looked like the Marines were busy preparing two ships, and they didn't think odd that they would be moving an unidentified lump through the island.
"I can't believe we've made it," Shachi said as he surveyed the main entrance of the tower.
"Told you," Saki said. "You can get anywhere you shouldn't if you look like you're meant to be there."
"Getting in's the easy part, though," Penguin whispered.
"Bepo and Captain alone are one-man armies. We should be okay as soon we're all together."
"Maybe we should send a group ahead," Shachi said. "I'm not sure the sub will start up without a once-over."
"Shit. Hadn't thought of it."
"Not your job," Shachi shrugged it off. "I think Tuttu, Asuka and Uni can manage, and I wouldn't count on them being in shape to kick ass. We should send them back right away."
Saki kept to herself the thought that they weren't in any shape to do so, either.
"I can help get us ready to sail," Bepo offered from behind the tarp.
He was promptly shushed by his three companions when a soldier stopped them as soon as they entered the tower.
"Wait," he said, getting in their way. "What's that?"
"That bear that was with the Heart Pirates," Saki said with a grin before any of the others could get them in deep water. "It's sedated, but the tarp's to keep it in the dark. Just in case."
"Oh," the soldier nodded. "Can I look? I heard it talks and walks on two feet."
"It's asleep now," Penguin said.
"A shame," the man said. "I wonder where they got a pet like that."
Saki laughed out loud to cover an offended sound coming from inside the cage. "We need to lock him in the dungeon. Where should we head?"
"Oh, you're from the Rear Admiral's crew? No wonder you didn't look familiar."
Saki liked easily convinced people, but she didn't like people who spoke too much, especially when she was in a hurry to get lost. "That's right!" She said, hoping he wouldn't question more.
He nodded assertively, as if Saki's confirmation made a lot of sense. Going along with assumptions was usually a good way to lie to someone's face without breaking a sweat.
"I don't think you'll be able to get that down the stairs. There's a lift around the corner that goes to the basement." He pointed them the right way.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome." And when Saki passed near him, he commented, "By the way, you should get that uniform fitted."
"Ahaha, yes, I had an accident with the older one."
"They don't make small sizes anymore," he lamented. "Anyway, good luck with the prisoner."
Saki smiled and waved him goodbye, though she wondered what he had meant by that last remark.
"Sometimes I think you could charm the pants off any guy," Shachi said, looking back and forth to make sure they really weren't being followed.
Saki held back a snort. "Pants are like the easiest thing to charm off anybody."
"Don't go there."
"You called me an 'it,'" Bepo moaned.
Saki automatically felt like a terrible person. "I'm so, so, so sorry, Bepo, you know I didn't mean—"
"There's the lift," Penguin interrupted. "Ready?"
They pushed the cage into it and squished themselves in the remaining space.
"Ow, ow, ow—
"Screw this, I'm getting in the cage with Bepo."
"Stop it, madwoman, you're crushing me!"
The lift stopped while Shachi was grabbing Saki by the back of her shirt, and when the door opened, they were greeted by an infernal ruckus.
"—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT."
"Kill him!" The prisoners yelled at them.
"We'll say we did it!"
"Guys?" Penguin asked with uncertainty. "Are you okay?"
"Penguin?"
"Uni?" Shachi tried.
"Shachi!"
Saki lifted the tarp to allow Bepo out, who stretched as he stepped on the stone floor and rushed to the cells at a speed that someone so big had no business moving at.
"Bepo!"
"Tuttu!"
When the two guys and Saki got to the cells, they saw bear and mechanic joining hands and jumping in joy from each side of the cell.
"Well," Saki said, turning back, "I'm going to look for keys over there."
"Me too," Shachi hurried behind her.
Penguin followed along. "Me three."
"Don't act like you're ashamed of us!" Uni yelled at them.
"Alright," Saki without looking them in the eyes, "can we keep it quiet for a second while we get you out?"
Penguin picked up a ring of keys hanging on the wall and set to trying them on the locks.
"Where are Captain and Mack?" Shachi asked.
"Mack was here with us, but the Marine captain took him out a while ago," Asuka said from his sitting spot on the floor. "Captain was brought elsewhere."
"Damn," Saki muttered, looking into every cell in case there was something interesting. Instead, she found another prisoner leaning against the bars and staring at her in silence.
"What?" She asked.
"Are you friends?" He asked. "You gonna let me out?"
Uni reacted immediately. "DON'T!"
"Keep it down!" She hissed.
Shachi craned his neck to look. "Who's that guy?"
"A murder victim, that's who," Tuttu replied. The four new arrivals hesitated before saying anything else, because Tuttu was only this verbally violent when someone stole the last slice of pie.
"Come ooooon," the prisoner whined, "I was only trying to help."
"Let's be sensible. We could take out his tongue with pliers," Asuka suggested. "Uni, you cauterize the wound with a welder and he doesn't have to die."
"Sounds like a plan."
"You can't blame a guy for trying until the very end."
"Oh, your end is near, that's for sure."
"Who the hell are you?" Saki asked.
"Sturgeon. Got thrown in here a while ago. I've been working. I got rid of the guards here without moving because I'm useful."
Saki appraised the guy quickly. He had a dark toupe that had seen better days and was growing a rather sad beard, but she supposed it was to be expected after being locked up for whoever knew how long.
Bepo, done busting locks, walked up next to Saki while Penguin removed handcuffs and Shachi stood guard near the lift.
"What do you think?" She asked Bepo.
"He's offending my nose."
"The bear can talk?!"
She threw her hands up and began to walk away. "Sorry, buddy, the king of the ship has spoken."
"WAIT! I can guide you to the rest of your crewmates!"
She turned away immediately and roared, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO EARLIER?"
"Saki, volume," Penguin warned.
She let out a very long breath and had to resist an urge to reach for her sword. "Someone else do the talking here."
"Now you get us," Uni said.
"Listen, I was a pirate, too! I know how to sail a ship! I used to come to this island before the Marines took over! I know how to fight!" He tried to do some sort of karate move on one leg, but fell on his butt. "I'm top quality! You won't get any better for this price!"
The Heart Pirates looked at each other.
"I guess he's in bad shape after all those days," Shachi conceded.
"I can't believe—" Uni started, only to get cut by Penguin.
"Do you really know where the others are?" He asked Sturgeon, deadly serious.
"I swear on my mom's grave," he said. And he spat on the floor. Bepo made a face.
"Worst case scenario, we use him as bait for Marines," Saki said. "We should really stop wasting time."
"That's the spirit, cupcake!"
"Call me that again and I'll rip off your eyeballs."
Bepo took her gently by the arms and guided her towards Shachi.
"What would that worst case scenario, exactly, entail?" Uni asked with too much interest.
"We're trying to keep him alive now," Asuka said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Right. Right."
Sturgeon grinned. "So I'm out?"
Penguin looked at Bepo. "Boss?"
"Go ahead."
"FUCK YES!"
"VOLUME!"
Sturgeon lifted both hands in a gesture of apology, but he didn't drop the grin.
"We need to decide who goes back," Shachi said. It was odd to see him act so businesslike, but he'd been thinking about the state of the Polar Tang from the start of this mess. "Peng?"
"I'm staying."
He nodded. "Alright, guys. Time to prove what you're made of. We need you to sneak back in the sub and make sure we can get the hell out of dodge the moment we come back with Captain and Mack. You already got the hang of how it works?"
They looked at each other and nodded. "We can do that," Asuka said.
"Good. Then…" He eyed Bepo.
"I know. I'll go with them." He paused in thought, and then got Shachi, Saki and Penguin by the shoulders and pushed the three together in front of him. "I leave Captain in your hands."
People who spoke of being weak for puppy eyes had never seen a polar bear looking at them with that face.
Saki patted the paw on Penguin's shoulder. "We'll bring him back safe."
Bepo nodded. "I know you will." And with a commanding pose, he turned to the crewmates behind him, motioned them with an arm, and said, "After me, subordinates! Let's get back our ship!"
The three mechanics agreed with yet another cry that should have alerted someone if they weren't having such suspiciously good luck, and left the dungeon through the stairs.
"We don't give him enough credit," Saki said.
"It'd go to his head," Shachi quipped though he was nodding.
"He's bossy," Penguin added.
"Give him an inch, and he'll take an arm."
"He said 'subordinates,' didn't he?" Saki asked.
"So!" Sturgeon interrupted them, sounding entirely too energetic. "Who am I working with, guys?"
"Heart Pirates," the three said at once.
Sturgeon's jaw dropped. "For real? The guys in the newspapers?"
They had a moment of trying to act detached and cool, and posing a little so they looked like their bounties.
"Those," Shachi replied with a smirk.
But Sturgeon didn't seem to find that so impressive. "Oh, cool, it was nice to meet you, my dudes, but I left the stove on and—"
Three hands grabbed Sturgeon as he tried to slink away.
"What do you think you're doing?" Saki asked.
Shachi threw an arm around his shoulders, and truth be told, it only needed to be tightened a little more to become a chokehold. "Where's our new best friend going?"
Penguin blocked his escape route with a sinister smile. "We had a deal."
Not for the first time that day, Saki thought there was something very dark inside Penguin.
Sturgeon put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, it's not like I'm not grateful to you guys, but you gotta understand me, I'm out of my depth—"
Saki stepped next to Penguin, arms crossed. "You said you could fight and knew your way around here."
"Yeah, but that was before I knew who was dealing with here."
"Weren't you a pirate, too?"
Sturgeon sighed, looking displeased that he had to explain himself. "Look, maybe we raided a few ships and towns here and there, but we weren't like you. We didn't go around blowing up buildings and dismembering people. Standards, man. Woman. Bear. Whatever."
The other three stared at each other silently, and the mood in the dungeon changed.
"Nobody blew up anything!" Saki said.
Penguin seemed to be very offended at the accusation. "We just cut the main powerline of a town."
"And you can put the body parts back together, it's not like it hurts."
"Besides, it was self-defense."
"Definitely."
"We don't attack civilians; that's disgusting," Shachi sentenced.
"We technically kidnapped you," Penguin said, and he laughed a little as he remembered it.
Shachi snorted. "Yeah, I don't know what I was thing back then."
Sturgeon looked at them strangely. "But your captain's bounty—"
Shachi put his face very close to Sturgeon's. "Do you believe everything you read, you wilting cauliflower?"
Penguin took a step forward too and leaned near the man. "You got a problem with our captain, you got a problem with us."
"I'll help. I'll help," he said quickly. "Now please leave my personal bubble."
—
Law didn't look away from the wall when an alarm started blaring through the speakers of the base.
About time.
He shouldn't have felt relieved to have his crewmates found out, but it was good to have confirmation that they were in there and moving.
He couldn't help the smirk growing on his face.
"What's so funny?" Curtiss asked.
This time, he looked at him. "I heard once that cursed swords don't take kindly to strangers handling them."
"If anyone's been cursed here, it isn't me."
"We'll see about that."
—
"How did they find us?" Penguin asked, extremely confused, while he and his three companions ran for their lives inside the building.
"To be fair, I was yelling nonstop for two weeks, so maybe the silence was suspicious."
"I'm going to kill this guy," Shachi muttered. "I'm going to kill this— Yargh!"
"Why are they shooting?!" Saki exclaimed, and then yelled some more over her shoulder. "BULLETS RICOCHET INSIDE CORRIDORS, YOU UTTER MORONS, WHO TAUGHT YOU TO—" She was yanked by the arm by Sturgeon and led down another hallway.
"If they've put you're captain in a cell, he must be in the cells upstairs," he explained, and Saki didn't know what lung capacity he had to be able to run like that and not run out of breath. "If your other friend's with the Marine captain, they must be in their living quarters. That's another way."
"I don't get why she picked out Mack," Penguin wondered.
"Interrogation?" Shachi suggested. "Torture?"
Saki didn't get what was so mysterious when she realized that she had put together the pieces when she had seen the picture in Mack's house, but not those two. "She's his sister!"
"She who?"
"How many women do you know in this island?"
Shachi almost tripped and took Penguin down with him. "What, no, that can't be!"
Penguin shoved him off unceremoniously. "What are the odds?"
"And how do you know?"
"It's not my fault you're denser than Mack's pumpkin soup and this is not the time to explain!"
"Yours is all watery."
"Shachi, I'm going to bash your skull with a cooking pot when we get back."
"Children, save the hostility for the enemy!" Penguin yelled.
"Are they always like this?" Sturgeon asked.
"Yes."
Shachi was offended by that, "Like you're any better, you just keep it—"
"Halt, pirates!"
The four pirates stopped bickering, but not running. A green-haired man clad in all white clothes stood proudly in the middle of the corridor, blocking their path to two sets of stairs.
He looked like high-ranking trouble, so they did what any self-respecting pirates would do, and, instead of slowing down, ran him over.
Which would have worked perfectly, had it not been for Shachi's scream as they were headed to one of the staircases.
The Marine's left arm had extended with tendril-like consistency and wrapped around Shachi's ankle to pull him down. He snapped it back as he rose, and when the tendril retracted and turned back into an arm, it had torn Shachi's pants and left a red mark.
Penguin ran to help Shachi up, and as he moved, so did the Marine, plucking a hair from his head and whipping it towards the two. The hair widened and elongated, and it was about to hit Penguin when he stopped it with his spear.
It was torn from his hands and landed out of reach.
"The vermin thinks they can stand against Commodore Flagel? Please," he threw his head back and whipped the hair against the floor. A trail of blood was falling from his nose from the previous impact. "You'll be a stepping stone towards my next prom—"
Sturgeon smashed Penguin's weapon against the back of Flagel's head and slid it back to Penguin.
"Thanks!"
But before any more pleasantries were exchanged, Flagel was up and whirling more whips in every direction, making indents in the walls and cornering the pirates near different staircases. The rank and file waited at a safety distance to not get hit.
Shachi and Penguin watched Saki and Sturgeon in a panic, clearly at a loss of what to do.
Sturgeon, however, proved to be a quick thinker. "Yo, tentacle man!" He taunted Flagel with a hand. "How are you gonna catch us if you just stand there? Are you waiting for reinforcements?"
Flagel hissed. "I don't need help to deal with you!" And he lunged towards Sturgeon and Saki, who didn't have enough space to escape his reach.
Shachi and Penguin took the opportunity to bludgeon him down.
Try as she might to avoid them, Saki felt one of the whips wheeze past her nose and a trail of blood going down her face. She wiped it with a sleeve, and it felt like a shallow cut, but even those bled like crazy when made on the face. With a quick glance at Sturgeon, she saw he had taken a hit to an arm.
Saki cursed as the Marines that had been waiting stepped forward, some to reanimate their superior officer, others to capture them.
"Your captain should be up those stairs!" Sturgeon yelled at the two mechanics as he dug an elbow in a soldier's stomach. "But the woman and your friend will be in the wing over here!"
Saki parried a blow as she stepped backwards, careful not to trip on the steps behind her. "Let's split up!" She yelled. As much as she disliked thinning their forces, it didn't look like they had any choice. The longer they stayed there, the worse they'd have it.
"No way!" Shachi snapped.
"Get Captain, and we'll be able to get out!"
Those two with Law had a good chance to get out, at any rate, and Bepo was with the others. Her team's chances didn't look so bright if they were going against Marina, but she guessed that if worst came to worst, she could send Mack ahead while she distracted her.
She wasn't counting on reinforcements this time.
"We're not leaving you alone!" Penguin yelled. He and Shachi must have been aware that she couldn't win without help.
What was certain, though, is that they couldn't win at all without Law. "Don't be stupid! Captain needs you more!"
"Remember!" Sturgeon yelled. "At the topmost of the stairs! There's only one way!"
The guys looked conflicted as they stabbed and kicked Marines down. Penguin was making a good job of creating a perimeter with his spear.
"Don't you dare kick the bucket before you draw this island for Bepo!" Shachi yelled.
A mirthless laugh escaped Saki, and she turned around and started to fight her way up the staircase while the guys did the same on the opposite end.
—
The tower shook and some dust fell from the ceiling. Law chuckled at that. Either they were doing well, or they were screwed beyond salvation. But chaos played in their favor.
Curtiss frowned at him and got up to take a look from the doorway. But he didn't notice anything out of place.
"Nervous?" Law asked.
"I don't see any flying bears around."
Law didn't appreciate a sense of humor when it came from a Marine. "Give it time."
—
A gigantic man with a hammer and a squad of Marines cut the path of Bepo and his guys.
Bepo growled at the leader of the group as everybody readied their weapons.
But to his surprise, Bepo's three human companions made a wall in front of him and stared down the Marines.
He didn't understand what was going on. He was responsible for them. He had to be leading the charge. "What are you doing?"
"There are three of us," Tuttu said, getting into a battle pose, "but there's only one of you."
He swallowed all the retorts that came to mind, which were many. He didn't want anybody getting hurt on his behalf. They were his to protect.
It so happened that this wasn't the way he was meant to protect everybody, that day.
And in that instant, Bepo understood exactly how Law felt, and hoped he never had to take over his job.
—
"I don't like this," Saki told Sturgeon. "If more soldiers go after them before they get to Captain—"
"We should keep going this way, because if you're right about your friend, he won't be in a cell." He tugged her along a bend of the hallway. "It should be one of these doors, this is where the best rooms—"
He was interrupted by two voices arguing nearby.
"YOU LEFT ME ALONE WITH THEM!"
"You were a kid, Mari, I couldn't bring you along—"
"You didn't even write!"
"Wha—I never stopped writing to you all this time!"
"Don't lie to me!"
Saki had to imagine who the woman was, but the other voice was unmistakable. "Mack!"
A curly-haired head emerged form one of the doors. Mack didn't look physically hurt, but there was something in his expression that Saki didn't like. "Took you long—"
"What are you doing here?!" Marina bellowed.
Saki froze mid-step and looked back for a second. A few stray Marines were still coming after them, but thankfully they weren't shooting anymore.
Marina shoved Mack aside – she stood a head taller than him, but they absolutely had the same hair, only hers was much longer and out of a shampoo advertisement – and Saki didn't have time to dwell on the family resemblance when she caught Marina's hand going to her belt to take out her chisels.
"Sturgeon?" Saki said, trying not to pay attention to her frantic heartbeats, nor the memories of when she very nearly got her ass handed in Lymes. "You may want to take care of the guys in the back, because this is about to get ugly."
"You don't have to tell me twice," he said, facing the approaching Marines. "But, uh, try not to bite the dust, because I have a feeling your friends will kill me if you do."
"Don't worry about that," She said, unsheathing her sword, her eyes glued on Marina, "they're going to kill you anyway." And with that, she leapt forward before Marina could throw the first chisel.