Home, Sweet Home!

Arrival at Argost Island!

The ship came into dock at a small island. Its entire perimeter was surrounded by a large wooden fence. The fence was at least seven feet high. Then there was another singular fence cutting the island into two unequal halves. The dock had two doors, one leading to one half of the island and another to the other.

There was a single guard wearing wooden armor standing guard in between the two. He had a long wooden spear in his hands. Zesiro stood at the helm. The dock was empty. Their ship was the only one in the harbor. This island had been abandoned. Enma was the first one off of the boat. He was glad to be able to step onto solid ground. This had only been his second time at sea, but this was his first time on a big boat. Underneath the deck when the ship was rocking made him feel a bit queasy.

Enma approached the guard and saluted him. "We are explorers and we are here to dock on this island for the next few days."

Zesiro walked up behind him and spoke, "We need to recheck our supplies and among other things."

"Hey," said Enma pulling Zesiro aside, "are we planning on pillaging this island? If so, I would like to do a little recon first."

"We haven't pillaged an island at all," said Zesiro. His mind couldn't help but return to their dwindling finances. If they had any foresight at all they would've stole some of the Pimp's money. Too bad they were too focused on keeping the crew together, that they weren't thinking straight.

"Can I see the entire crew," asked the guard.

"Sure," said Zesiro. An organized place this Argost Island must be. He knocked on the ship, "everyone, front and center."

Hiro-Shu touched down on the dock in a few seconds as he was simply resting on the dock. He looked sleepy, as if he hadn't had any sleep in days. He sat down on the dock and laid back against one of the poles.

Sage and Ridley both wandered out onto the dock at the same time. Sage was spinning around in a light blue dress. Ridley was holding his head in pain. "What a wonderful island this is!" said Sage with pure happiness in her voice.

Mikoto leapt from the ship and onto the dock. The dock split open. The wooden fell off right beneath Mikoto's feet and Mikoto fell straight through the newly made hole. Mikoto couldn't even let out a scream for help before he sank.

"I didn't see that one coming," said Zesiro as he leapt from the dock and into the water.

"The dog's luck has finally ran out," said Ridley as he peered down the hole. "Serves him right…" he fell down onto his butt, "can't laugh, right now. Head's throbbing."

"This all," said the guard. "Six people. Five males. One female." He made a quick mark onto the wall. "Females go to right and males go to the left."

"Okey-dokey!" said Sage as she waved goodbye to the crew, "see you all in a hour or so for brunch!" She entered the door and left.

"Wait!" shouted Enma, but he sighed when he found out he was late. "Why are you splitting us up?"

"Boss' order," said the guard.

"Can I speak to the boss?" asked Enma.

"No," replied the guard.

"And why not?" asked Enma.

"Boss' order," replied the guard.

"Lord of Death, I would be very pleased if you took this infernal…" said Enma as he began to pray.

"Glad you guys waited for us," said Zesiro as he brought Mikoto onto the surface. "Where'd Sage go?"

The entire crew pointed to the door on the right. "Males are supposed to go to the left," replied Hiro-Shu.

"So, Sage is going to be all alone on this island?" asked Zesiro as he brought the drowned dog onto the dock. "She'll be alright. She can kill anyone who annoys her."

"You alive Mikoto?" asked Ridley. Mikoto managed a thumbs-up.

"Males go to the left. Females go to the right," the guard repeated.

"Are you alright with this, Mikoto?" asked Enma.

"I still think Sage is trying to kill me, so yes," said Mikoto still not moving from his position. Hiro-Shu grabbed his feet and dragged him into the left door. Zesiro and Ridley followed. Enma decided to stay back and pray for the guard's eternal damnation.

"So, Ridley," began Zesiro as they continued to walk through the time, "why did you come up with Sage? Asking her about something?"

Ridley coughed. "Um…yeah, I asked her about lifting the ban on alcohol…wait. She can't see me drink over here! I can get drunk! Where's a bar? Where's a bar?"

Zesiro caught the back of Ridley's collar. "You are not going to get…drunk?" The tug on his hand vanished as Ridley stripped out of his shirt and went running towards the nearest bar he could find.

"I think I'm going to tag along with our weird little friend," said Enma as he started to trail behind Ridley. "I have a feeling if anyone is going to get hurt, its going to be him. I'll catch up with you guys in time for brunch."

"Okay, see you," said Mikoto, "okay Hiro-Shu. I think I'm ready to stand up again." Hiro-Shu peered down at Mikoto, who he was still dragging due to his lack of usual enthusiasm. When Hiro-Shu let go, Mikoto stood up and patted himself off. He strolled behind the two giants of his crew.

The trio walked along for awhile along the wooden fence's line still worried for Sage's safety. If they stayed close to the wooden wall, then if Sage screamed for help they'd knock it down. Hiro-Shu was positive that it would take little effort on his part or Zesiro's to knock it down.

A small pub soon loomed into view. Mikoto stopped at the sight of it. An eerie feeling washed over him as if he had seen somewhere before. The yellow bricks that merged into the red ones. The sign. Mikoto scratched his head, "Xavier's Pub."

"Calm down," said Zesiro, "we promised Sage that we'd be back in time for brunch. The last thing you want to do is fill up on someone else's food."

"No, its not that," said Mikoto, "I could've sworn I've heard that name somewhere before. Have we ran into a Xavier's Pub sometime during our journey?"

Zesiro paused for a second. "Its possible. We've been to quite a few islands around here. Maybe Ridley knows…if he hadn't ran off to find some drinks. Why did we allow him back on our crew?"

"He's a good guy," said Mikoto as he looked over his shoulders. The more he thought of it, the more the island as a whole seemed familiar to him. The wooden fences stuck out, though.

"Ridley?" asked Zesiro, even Hiro-Shu looked questioningly. "I think you got Ridley mixed up with someone else on our crew. He used us to solve his own ulterior motives with his dad, not to mention he left us soon after that."

"Then he came back and saved us," said Mikoto as he approached the wooden wall, "besides you can't deny he is a good musician." Mikoto crouched and looked closely at the wall. Not scuffs, splinters sticking out, and no weather damage. Either this is an extremely peaceful island or the wall is new.

"Good musician doesn't mean good guy," said Zesiro. "Why are you studying the wall?"

"I know this place," said Mikoto. "But this wall…I can't seem to remember this place, because of this wall. I guess I'll just have to knock it down!" Mikoto leaned back about to fire a punch to break the wall when Zesiro grabbed him and pulled him down to the ground.

"We don't want to cause a ruckus before we have even been on an island for one hour!" shouted Zesiro holding Mikoto to the ground.

"I know this place! This wall doesn't belong here!" shouted Mikoto, "I'm only trying to return this place to how its been originally where I can remember it!"

"It's the worst rainstorm in the history of Loguetown. Its raining cats and dogs on every square each of the place. Roofs are leaking underneath the pressure of the rain. One guy is daring enough to go out on this day," said another voice, not belonging to anyone on the crew, "and yet he does not get wet. How did this happen?"

Mikoto swerved from his spot and looked at the speaker, "I REMEMBER YOU!"

(-With Sage-)

"What a lovely day!" called out Sage to anyone who could hear her. The entire island on this side was basically populated with women. The only men on the island were the guards who seemed pretty lax. They were stretched out in their armor on the ground and in chairs. "What a wonderful island this is! A day away from my entire crew! No antics to slow me down!"

Sage skipped along the grass. She found herself a nice small inn and decided to stop in. The inn was composed of wood, neat wood at that. The inn wasn't painted and there was no graffiti or any other dirt around it. It was one-hundred percent clean! Not a speck of dirt had ever even approached this place.

The inn was quiet and besides from the guards stationed in there the place was basically empty. Sage approached the first person she saw not wearing a guard's uniform. She sighed as she stepped over the man who was passed out on the floor. She was dressed in a green shirt and a long green skirt. Her long brown hair flowed to her waist. "Not again!"

Sage felt unnerved. She hated seeing people in distress! To the rescue! Sage wandered up to the woman and inquisitively asked, "need any help?"

"Oh, yes, please," said the woman as she turned to her, "um…I'm sorry. I don't happen to remember seeing you here before."

"I just arrived on a ship with my crew," smiled Sage.

"A crew?" asked the woman a glimmer of hope spreading across her face, "are you guys Marines?"

"Nope," said Sage she watched as the hope disappeared from her face, "we're… adventurers, I guess."

"You guess?" asked the woman, "oh, well, too bad. At this point I'm fairly certain the people of this island would take help from anyone." She handed Sage a plate full of dirty dishes.

"What do you mean?" asked Sage gracefully taking the plates without a complaint.

"It's a long story," said the woman, "just don't stay here too long. I don't like to impose…wait. Come to think of it, your face does seem familiar."

"People say I look like a movie star!" said Sage as she struck a pose and laughed to herself. She froze. She turned around quickly hiding her face. She just remembered she had herself a bounty in these waters. A big one, too. People might just know her from her face now…she'd have to play it more careful. Especially around this girl, she seemed too smart to be tricked.

(-With Ridley and Enma-)

"Let's see where would a bar be?" asked Ridley as he scanned the area. He saw houses made of wood and the whole thing, but not enough to really interest him. He was on quest to find himself some alcohol. He hadn't any in awhile now.

"Why don't we just stop and ask for directions?" asked Enma as he trailed behind Ridley. "Somebody here probably drinks. Maybe a guard or two." Enma's eyes were trained on the vast majority of the guards that were wandering around the island. The guard out front didn't seem fazed by their brand-new pirate flag, nor did he seem shocked when Mikoto stepped off of the boat. Mikoto had accumulated a pretty big bounty.

"Hey! We'll find it! Asking for directions will only slow us down," said Ridley. He noticed the guards that were walking around, "besides they have these huge walls. They care an awful lot about safety so their guards wouldn't get drunk."

"Interesting point," said Enma. His eyes jumped back to the walls. Big wooden walls, a guard taking roll of a ship's crew, but no one noticing the fact that a pirate crew with a bounty of over 70 million belies just stepped onto the shore? Something was off. He stopped when he noticed a spot void of all plant life. "Hey, Ridley, what's over there?"

The duo walked up to the plot of land. The grass stopped neatly around the edges of the place. There were two gravestones in the center of the place. "It's a graveyard," replied Ridley, uninterested in the death of two people. "I still need to find me a bar."

Enma crouched down and looked over the names. He froze at the sight of the names, "Ridley…I think these gravestones are more interesting then any bar."

The Island Named Argost!

A Welcome Back Party!

I hate writer's block! I had to power through this one! It's a pain writing! Oh, well, maybe I'll get a genius idea with the next chapter. Let's hope so! In case you are wondering you may know what island they are on. I have given at least three clues throughout this entire chapter! I'll let you know in the next chapter. Who is that man that Mikoto remembers? Will Sage be found out as a pirate all by herself? Whose names are engraved on those gravestones? All that (maybe) and more next time!