Our Fight Begins Now

Kai's serene calmness had been stirred. He moved and got up. He stirred uncomfortably, he was a Yonkou and yet he was stuck doing errands for some champion of justice named Jugo. It was unfair, but nonetheless both Kai and Jugo were intelligent beings. Jugo was somebody who benefited greatly from not getting involved in external affairs. While Kai preferred that kind of business.

Of course, this naturally turned Kai into some sort of errand boy. When it came to bashing in skulls such errands never bothered him, however, for the first time in awhile his mission was not to bash in any skulls. Such a thing seemed odd to the monster, but naturally he understood where it came into play. Jugo returned the favors when it came time to. That was kind of guy Jugo was.

The problem came when it was time for Kai to pay up. There was this weird kind of unevenness to how the favors seemed to be doled out. It seemed like Kai always paid his dues first. Which was perhaps why Kai liked Jugo. If that was true than Jugo was doing a good job taking advantage of a Yonkou, which was a smart move.

This one was possibly one of Jugo's weirder requests. Taking down Marine bases or other obstacles, acquiring funds or materials from time-to-time, both were simple to Kai. However, this was the first time a possible threat to their mission was to be left alone. Not only that, but per to Jugo's latest request Kai was actually supposed to deliver a message to him?

It amazed Kai how many people were apparently beginning to bank on the upcoming age of pirates. As one of the men of the past era, he didn't like people believing the next age was coming up when his age was still here. Still when it was considering Victoria, she wasn't somebody who would discount anyone based on age.

However, Kai had had a few chats with Victoria. While neither was particularly fond of the other, they also had no particular hatred for the other. They had talked, chatted, and discussed possible new worlds for a platitude of reasons. But for no other reason than lack of good topics for pirates to bond over they had never hit on something they both loved or both hated.

As a result they never got along or decided on anything to chat about for long enough to become friends. But here he was the only person Jugo could turn to to deliver a message to someone for the sake of Victoria. Still Kai supposed being left in charge of some stupid errand meant a higher chance of them securing an incredible partner.

However, that didn't change the way everything was going. Kai got up and stumbled onto his feet and headed off. He muttered barely a grunt to the people around him. Still he supposed he had no problem with his life. He needed to handle people like this sooner or later anyways. Up and comers.

That was one of the huge differences between him and Victoria. Victoria looked at the new up and comers like precious bulbs of flowers that were soon to bloom into a miraculous pirates that were going to change the world. Kai, on the other hand, viewed them as annoying flies. Pests that were just going to be around until someone swatted them.

The differences in their approach to the new guys on the block was quite possibly the biggest difference in how they behaved. Of course, Kai never outright sought them out for the sole purpose of destroying them. They weren't worth the trouble. Out of the hundreds of new pirates that started each week, within a month those numbers were halved. In half of a year, Kai could count how many of people survived on one hand.

So Kai had no reason to even think about the other people existing, much less that he had to deal with them. As a matter of fact, aside from Shane and Mikoto and maybe two or three others, he couldn't hardly put his finger on any extremely notable new pirates. A few butted heads with the Marines here and there, but once more that wasn't Kai's problem. Only Shane and Mikoto seemed inherently interested in causing trouble for EVERYONE.

Which meant only Shane and Mikoto had operated in everyone's view. If somebody only attacked Revolutionaries, than only Revolutionaries take note of them. If they only attack Marines than only Marines care. It was a quick way to garner a lot of attention, but it was also a guaranteed way to make enemies.

Still a job was a job, no matter how much he didn't care to meet them.

(-with Mikoto-)

Mikoto slowly descended to the ground using Geppou, "okay, note to self. Do not press buttons randomly when you are on a ship that's about fifty feet in the air." He looked back up at the falling colossal ship that was careening somewhere into the ocean, "it ends with you falling 50 feet."

"I think it was never a far stretch to say that," said Kurai Ai, who currently had her arms wrapped around Mikoto's neck, riding piggy back. She couldn't use Geppou, which meant that she couldn't land herself safely.

While Mikoto had every ability to turn her down, he realized fairly quickly in his tired state it was easier to let her ride him down rather than pick a fight with her on a falling ship. So the two of them slowly began their descent. Mikoto used Geppou every few feet or so to slow their fall. He just hoped their made-shift truce will last when they landed as well.

Their gentle landing went off without a hitch and even when Kurai Ai let go of Mikoto's back, she made no attempt to stab him in the back. It was a welcome change from Mikoto's current affairs. Still he didn't expect it to last any real amount of time.

"Thank you for your aid," Kurai Ai muttered, "both in letting me get a ride down and in taking out that infernal brat Alistair." Mikoto just shot her a thumbs-up, hoping to make this truce last as long as possible. "We've already decided," she continued, "that as long as those three fall we won't worry about each other."

Mikoto did remember that. Shane was going to fight them, she was going to turn them in for a nice wealthy sum of money for her ship, and Mikoto was going to get famous off of it. But still after all that happened was their plan really just going to go off without a problem?

"Stop where you stand," stated a new voice as a man in a large cowboy hat came into view, his gun trained on Mikoto. "I came as soon as I saw somebody fell from the sky. Of course, I got Minase watching the skies so when he saw two more people begin their fall I came here and I finally found someone annoying Mistress Ai."

"He's not annoying me."

The man paused for a moment, but didn't let his gun's sight leave Mikoto's head. "I could still shoot him. He's the 'Kid Coyote' Mikoto. He's going on rampage against Shichibukais. That may eventually mean us."

"I don't agree with your statements," Kurai Ai brought up lightly, "No matter how much we cling to the title of Shichibukai we won't be able to change the incoming tide. The Revolutionaries and the Marines are going to clash. And I can't guarantee which team will be standing in the end."

"The best thing we can do is roll a pair of dice and gamble," replied the gunslinger as he jabbed the gun forward and at his target. "The Marines are in turmoil, the Revolutionaries are growing stronger, we can't afford to sit on the fence. We pick wrong or don't pick at all and we get our heads placed on the chopping block first."

"I understand your worries, but that's just what I'm saying we have got to pick a side to stand on," muttered Kurai Ai, "and we've got to be careful about it. I opt that no matter who we pick we need to decide on this as a crew."

"I vote for whatever you want to vote for," muttered the man with his utmost confidence in his captain. He took a deep breath as he spun his gun around and pocketed it without worry. "And I'm guessing from the simple fact that you aren't letting me blow this guy's over 100 million belie head in, you don't want us to side with the Marines."

"I've only ever joined up with the Marines where I can view their files and find out who attacked my village when I was younger. Alistair told me straight up that he had convinced them to do his dirty work for him," Kurai Ai pointed out, "which means the only thing left is to follow the paper trail. Find out who he's talked to and from there I can put the rest of it together."

"We'll find everything out eventually," the man reassured her. "We sat at those Shichibukai councils every time. We did everything we possibly could to find out the necessary information. We've made a couple of small steps forward each day, but ultimately we never have found anything out about them. This is the first step forward we've made in awhile.

"The crew will infallibly follow your decision," he emphasized.

"While I do enjoy seeing this kind of loving friendship," Mikoto stated as he backed away slowly, but Jeremy, the gunner already had his gun lifted up and trained on the coyote. Mikoto froze and threw his hands up in the air.

"Where do you stand on all of this mess?" he asked, "still going to hunt down the mistress even if she quits the Shichibukai? Cause if you do, I'm shooting regardless of what she says."

"I'm fairly certain I'm not getting anything from fighting with you," Mikoto pointed out, "if you quit the Shichibukais I'm fine. Its not like me or Shane ever actually wanted to fight with you to begin with. No, our interest lied more in taking out the bastards here. I'm pretty sure that's as far as our interest ever went."

Suddenly out of nowhere a young man fell from the air, he careened down and right into the ground. All of them jumped back a few feet, eying up the new fallen man. However, Kurai Ai and Jeremy seemed to be the most shocked. "Minase!" shouted Jeremy as he went down to one knee and grabbed onto his fallen comrade's head.

Jeremy rolled the fallen man over and looked at his head. It was still in its hybrid form so it wasn't quite human and it had a huge beak jutting from his face, but for someone who knew him as well as his own crew mates, it was still without a doubt Minase. They paused for a second and looked over towards Mikoto.

He took a step back and had no idea what to say. He raised his arms above his head and shook his head, "I had absolutely nothing to do with this." However, upon a closer inspection it was obvious that someone he knew was involved. A large burn wound was present on Minase's chest. Mikoto's face fell as he understood who was responsible.

"I'm sorry about having to shoot that birdie out of the sky," muttered Shane as he came from around the forest trees, pushing and bending one of the trees out of his way, "but he was talking about some nonsense like fighting and defeating Mikoto. And I can't have that."

"We've already decided that you and Mikoto are to have free pardon from my crew," Kurai Ai stated, lifting an arm to hold back Jeremy from quickly firing another shot. "You may now leave us, I guarantee you that nothing will happen to your partner."

"I don't give a damn about him as my partner, but my blood's boiling now," Shane muttered, lifting his massive axe into the air, "I saw Mikoto beat that one Fox Brother off of the ship and for that reason and that reason alone I'm getting excited again." He brought the axe up and above his head. He swung it around in circles making an excited war cry. "OUR FIGHT BEGINS NOW MIKOTO!"

Shane lowered himself down and went into a charging position. Finally without missing a beat he pressed against the ground and let the ground become super-heated due to his Devil Fruit power. It exploded and propelled him forward like a cannon as he closed the distance between him and Mikoto in a heart beat.

Those Who Lack Common Sense