Three days later.
Dawn.
Jinzo, Grit, and Raito were walking through a circus camped outside The Alexandria on the hotel's exclusive property reserved for their acts.
They came to a wagon of colorful descriptions.
At that point, the door burst open.
"Ayeee, mother fuckers!"
Swiss had a cigar in his mouth, in his hands were a bottle of sake and sake cups.
Gorgeous George followed behind carrying soapboxes for everyone to sit on.
They all sat outside the wagon enjoying the morning air.
Gorgeous George brought out the kettle and Jinzo brewed a pot of tea.
"EH?! A fucking admiral?!" Swiss spat out his sake after hearing Jinzo's story at the tea house.
"I know, I'm still shocked."
"And you said small thunder clouds low diffed them all? Hmmm…"
Swiss immediately had the visualization of Nami's weather eggs. But Jinzo said that a bullet passed straight through Admiral Strife's head.
Thus, it is safe to assume that the thunder clouds and Admiral Strife's body are connected. Wolfgang Strife was likely a logia fruit user.
'Hmmm, considering he's an admiral it would make sense. I wonder what fruit he ate?'
Swiss scanned his brain for any correlations of a logia fruit user having the ability to make mini storm clouds.
In neither the game of One Piece Online nor the One Piece manga did anything come to mind.
The only option he could assume was Monkey D. Dragons fruit or Enel's. But even then, Swiss did not have enough information to affirmatively say.
"Trololol, interesting. And Grit, you say you walked into Dick-shit? Sounds smelly"
"King-Hit! It's King-Hit! You know, that pirate?" Jinzo corrected.
"TROLOLOL! Once you hear it, you can never unhear it. That dude will forever be immortalized in our hearts as 'Captain Dick-Shit'. Agreed?"
Swiss, Jinzo, Grit, Raito, and Gorgeous George mumbled 'agreed..' And chinked their sake cups together,
"Kanpai!" Swiss said with joy, downing his sake in seconds.
"So Swiss, how's the circus life treating you?" Grit asked.
"Oh, you know. Mop around backstage, shovel shit out of the animal cages, it's been a dream! Thinking maybe we should stop our voyage and settle down." Swiss joked.
"Ooo!" Gorgeous George said eagerly, taking the words of Swiss seriously.
"And this girl I heard about?" Jinzo asked with a cheeky smirk.
"About that! Boys.." Swiss leaned in towards the group, "I think I'm in love!"
"I thought you told me your only love is the sea?" Raito said in perplexity.
"What? When the fuck did I say that?"
"You really have to mind your drinking, Swissan…"
Swiss scoffed at the words of Jinzo, "Yeah yeah, whatever… Ooo! Shhh! Here she comes."
Swiss straightened his posture and the group chattering stopped as Vivienne Tara walked past.
"Morning, Tara-chan!" Swiss hollered.
"Morning… Have you done the stables yet?" She replied.
"Not yet. Here, these are my friends!" Swiss motioned towards his companions with pride as if showing them off would raise his status in her eyes.
"Right… just make sure you do the stables. The smell was atrocious yesterday."
"Hey, that was George's fault!"
"Noooo!" Gorgeous George spurred in his seat.
"I'm serious. Tonight is the most important performance yet. A representative from the Shelby clan is watching. If they like what they see, we will be invited to the Royal Jam!"
"The Royal Jam?" asked everyone.
The Royal Jam was the greatest stage in the world.
At the heart of Jam Land was the Main Stage, where the Shelby clan would host the biggest performances in the world.
The stadium was a dome that could seat 180,000+ people.
The Royal Jam was a key event held each year that the head of the Shelby clan personally attended.
If you could get applause from the head of the Shelby clan, your career would be made.
In show business, it was the equivalent of achieving worldwide acknowledgment as a great pirate.
It was the dream of any aspiring performer. Make it big in the Royal Jam and have your name immortalized.
"Wow, talk about pressure.." Swiss said after hearing the explanation.
"What do you mean 'pressure'? All you do is sweep backstage!" Tara chastised.
"Hey! Everyone contributes! I have no doubt this Royal Jam business is due to my hard work!" Swiss barked back at her.
"Jeez… It's like watching a married couple." Jinzo teased as he sipped on his tea.
"… I miss Francesca" Grit mumbled, too quiet for anyone to hear.
Tara sat on the spare soapbox and chatted away with the gang for a while.
They were all enjoying each other's company when a loud commotion could be heard in the camp.
"Oh no!"
"The horror!"
…
Swiss and company ran after Tara as she went to investigate what was going on.
Laying on the grass surrounded by the troupe was a performer with a knife in his heart.
"What happened?" Hugh Antonio shouted.
"We were practicing our new knife trick for the big performance tonight and this happened.." One half of the knife juggling duo explained.
"My god, this is terrible! What about the performance?!"
The troupe ignored their dead member and immediately got to discussing how this impacts the biggest night of their lives.
"We will just have to do tonight without the knife throwing."
"Without the knife-throwing?! But that's such a great part of the show!" Hugh Antonio said, his face in his hand as he processes the tough information.
"… I can do it.*"
"…Eh?"
The troupe all gasped in amazement at the originator of that proclamation.
Sitting at a nearby table outside his wagon was Kimagure Joka, playing with his pack of cards.
"I said I'll take his place in the act. 3" Kimagure Joka promptly said.
"Take his place?" Hugh Antonio looked at Joka, bewildered, "This knife-throwing act took him years to master. You're saying you could take his place?"
"Of course. I've only watched him practice it hundreds of times.*"
"Prove it." Hugh Antonio handed Kimagure Joka a set of knives.
"Sigh… very well."
Kimagure Joka then got up and juggled the knives effortlessly, "This is how he does it, correct? And now I just pass the knives with Furio-san. +"
Furio, the other half of the knife-throwing act that is still alive, watched Kimagure Joka imitate his partner's moves with ease.
'Impossible! That took us years to perfect!'
"Ho!.." Hugh Antonio clapped his hands ecstatically, "Very well! Joka will be Furio's new partner. Alright everyone, let's mourn the dead and get ready for the show!"
And that's what they did.
Like clockwork, the troupe got to their allotted tasks.
All the while, Swiss and company stood still, watching it all.
"Wow, they sure got over the death of a comrade rather quickly.." Raito mused.
"Trololol, tell me about it. If I die, I want you assholes to hold a raging party in my honor!"
"Haha, you won't die, Swissan. We're destined to be annoyed by you forever." Jinzo said.
"Sometimes, it really does feel like that.." Grit added.
"Pfft. Whatever assholes. Now if you don't mind, I got a show to prep for. See you bitches later." Swiss said as he left his companions.
"We can't wait for tonight! See you then!" Jinzo hollered.
"Yeah, yeah…"
Swiss went to rush through his tasks so he could spend the rest of the time before the show drinking.
The rest of Swiss company left and hung out in the city for the rest of the day and went shopping.
For tonight, they were attending a show at The Alexandria.
They needed something good to wear.