A Separation

"I don't think you understand Shane," Mikoto stated as they hooked their sails up and turned towards the sea, "back when we first started we actually did split up for awhile. It was my idea. Ridley recently left us to accomplish his own ideas and then I decided it was enough. So I decided to quit being a pirate."

"That's weak," Shane barked at him, "if you thought for even a second that you were done being a pirate then you would've never came back. You don't give up being a pitate and then return to being a pirate. You wouldn't quit and come back if you were tired of being a pirate. And if that was the case then what are you doing back?"

"I'm pointing it out for you," Mikoto stated, "its tough to just ignore the problems when we were in the past. I'm just saying I'm not certain if my crew separates if we'd be able to pull ourselves back together a second time."

"Then you don't," murmured Shane, "if they don't come back then there's nothing more to it. You can't force them to be a pirate and more to the point I don't think you in particular would want to. If they lose their momentum just by being away from you then they probably weren't made out to be pirates in the first place.

"Unless that's what you are worried about," replied Shane as he finished up hauling up the sails. He moved over to Mikoto and looked at him. "I heard it from the rest of your crew, but it appears that not many of them were actually ever planning on becoming pirates. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for you most of them would never would've become one. You're worried that if it came down to it they'll go back to their old patterns and leave the pirate life."

In all honesty had everybody's life went completely the same along the line Mikoto was fairly certain only he'd, Enma, and Aaron would've became pirates. Ridley might've, but nobody else really cared for the pirating life. Maria was fine on the fighting circuit and Zesiro probably would've been too. Sage would've been content to stay on her little island and grow plants and Hiro-Shu was an explorer not a pirate. They weren't exactly a group of pirates out for treasure.

"They'll stay loyal to you no matter what," Shane stated with a shake of his head, trying to dispel his 'partner's' negative thoughts. It still didn't sit right with him to think of them as partners. This was only supposed to be a one-time deal, but since Mikoto offered Shane such a promising partnership he had no reason to turn it down.

"I'm just worried," Mikoto murmured causing Shane to slowly nod his head.

"Problem is you're worried for nothing," Shane pointed out, "they are good people you got underneath you. Its reflection of their captain, that's what a crew is. A crew is a reflection of their captain. So if you believe you're a pirate they'd return the favor and think of themselves as the crew. A captain's crew will always return to him."

"I guess you're right. I should put my faith in my crew all the way without ever blinking an eye about it, that's just the way we should push forward and into the future," Mikoto agreed, realizing that it was entirely possible that he had been focusing on the past. He wasn't quite sure on why they were heading off to war, but he supposed if he was going to say some kind of bullshit answer, 'the future' would probably be it.

He didn't know how to change the world, but he figured this was good step in the right direction. He was kind of trying to head forward at all of his power, but he still couldn't ease this feeling that was swelling up in his stomach. If it wasn't with them, then it must've been something else. Nonetheless he would head out with unfailing conviction.

A straight shot into the new world was coming at him. He was being a little bit foolish in heading towards the area of Victoria Shogun, the Yonkou. Ideally if things worked out well his goal would definitely be grand. It was a risky move considering the last Yonkou they talked to beat them around for the fun of it.

Nonetheless no pain, no gain. The more they risked the more they got. That was Mikoto's outlook on things at least they were going to get something out of this exchange at least. Not to mention the rumors of Victoria were a lot better than Kai.

He wasn't sure how much truth there was to the rumors, but they were nice at least. They spoke of her as being a general friend to pirates. She was also strong, swift in action, and wasn't too horribly fond of Marines. There were a few other big news of her in the papers, but she did a good job. She didn't like striking up wars she could avoid, however, the problem was that the rest of the news also wasn't as kind.

The rest of the rumors explained that she had to act the way she did because she didn't have the same resources or power that Kai had. Kai had an entire nation throwing their weight behind him, so it was difficult for them to handle him and the problem was that he was viewed as the bigger of the two. So Mikoto had to hope the first half were true, but the second half was false.

Their ship lurched forward a bit. Mikoto stood on unsteady legs. He was surprised that such a surge of water suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was unexpected and it definitely signaled bad news. The weather around islands were generally the safest places, but here it was nearly trying to rip their ship out to sea. Mikoto could only imagine what it would be like out on the seas. Once they got far enough off of the docks their ship would possibly be ripped asunder by the vicious winds and waves.

Mikoto sighed and stood up. He took a deep breath and jumped off of the ship and onto the ground. They were beginning to split it up. Of course, this basically affected everybody, but Mikoto didn't really care to be present during most of it. He knew which ship he was going and where he was going after that. The rest was up to them.

He couldn't help but notice that Zesiro and Hiro-Shu were both on separate sides. Maria was on the same side as Hiro-Shu and Ridley was with Zesiro. That didn't leave all too many people left. 5 were spoken for and Mikoto knew that number would soon begin to rise. He shook his head at the sight, he was watching his crew be split up.

He knew it was only temporary, but it always brought back painful memories, he was beginning to worry more and more about what would happen when everything would begin to come back to normal. He was anticipating something big soon. Something was beginning to slant out of their control, and he was worried it wouldn't begin to slant back.

They were splitting up again. A slight nervous tick began to appear in his body, his foot began rapidly tap something out on the ground. He didn't know how to advance things any more. They were coming into some major problems and they were betting on being able to split up and accomplish everything it was unlike them.

Enma had been moved onto the same side as Zesiro, which made sense as Hiro-Shu also had some basic medicine knowledge. He used to be able to make it by himself, so he knew the basics of being doctor and giving them small help here and there. Not to the same degree as Enma, of course, but still good enough.

Soon enough Sage was slung over to the side of Hiro-Shu. If Mikoto had to guess it was because Enma knew how to make nutritious meals and Sage knew how to give people food with decent healing properties to let them overcome diseases. So Sage and Hiro-Shu about equaled one Enma.

This left Mikoto with trying to figure out where Aaron, Rosa, and Lily were going. He'd assume Rosa and Lily would go with them, meaning Aaron would probably go with whoever was going to get Melanie. It would be a smart idea if they all split up that way. Aaron was probably best off going on whichever side Mikoto wasn't on. Split the speed, would be the simplest way of doing it. And a Yonkou would probably have the resources to give them a way straight to their home.

However, that may have seemed like the sensible thing to Mikoto, he still didn't now how they were actually going to split up. Maria and Shane's shipwright had built another ship for this reason alone and not to mention even some of Shane's members were going to be joining the small ship that was going on down to recruit Melanie.

"This will probably be the last time you see them as they are," stated Shane with a brief chuckle as he came up from behind him. "You guys will probably be separated for a month maybe more. With the pressure that this scenario is creating, one month is all the time it'll take for pieces of coal to become diamonds."

Mikoto nodded. As they were now they weren't enough he understood that for himself, and he knew the same could be said for him. He was going to meet with a Yonkou, a demonic beast that was said to have roamed the sea for a time much longer than any other man. When you got to be a certain age as a pirate there was a short of instant respect for you. Even surviving two years at sea could be considered some sort of achievement.

This Yonkou had been on the seas for more then twenty. In terms of respect there were probably too few who deserved the same amount she did. Mikoto didn't know why she was calling him down to see her, but to say it simply he was getting excited at the prospect. Even if they didn't need her help now to help calm the war or whatever it was exactly they were going to be doing he would still go.

It was actually kind of sad to say it, but he didn't know the last time he felt this way. He didn't feel worried about this mission. As a matter of fact despite going up against someone of Victoria's level it wasn't a regular kind of worry. It was more exciting. His heart was pounding. It had been awhile since he felt this out of his element.

He had been a pirate awhile now and now as he was about to head out towards something as exciting as this he was going with only half of his crew. It was almost the same as starting over. The last time he had this few members on his crew was probably back when he fought Trevor. And now his gears were also getting into the same pace.

He was starting over basically from the beginning. It was just what he needed right now he guessed. A complete restart with half of his crew, half of the world still to be seen, half of his future to unveil. He was still amazed at what was coming down the line. He had come so far and yet he turned around to see half of the world was still before. If the same thing could be said for him, if he was only as half as strong as he was going to get it was going to get even more exciting from here on out. And that is truly what he wanted.

He wanted and needed to get stronger. To get to the degree of power he needed would take time and effort and he was willing to put in that effort. He just had to hope that he still had the luxury of the time.

(-With the Marines-)

Nicholas kicked his head back, a clear chuckle spreading across his face. "I like this kid."

He instantly received Rybeck, another Admiral's scornful look for that, however, even Nicholas just had to shrug at his look allowing another chuckle to ripple across his face as he replied calmly, "if he was Marine I'd promote him straight to Vice Admiral. Hell, perhaps even give up my position and let him take it."

"He's a pirate, not a Marine let's talk about how we are going to handle him now."

"He's a pirate who took down three out of the most illustrious pirates in the world," Nicholas pointed out, "caused a fourth one to drop out and he's getting the attention of two Yonkous now. True, one wants him dead, the other wants him on her team, but still you've got to admit. The kid's dangerous and could become king. He's a monster of a different breed now."

"A monster of a completely different breed once more. A monster of this type comes up every so often, you don't think he can do much damage, but he always does. How are we going to handle this," muttered Rybeck as he looked up at Nicholas, "how are we going to handle your new best friend?"

"If he wants our Shichibukai, I say we give him our Shichibukai. Have Lin, Ravenbone, and Melanie head out towards Victoria's grounds."

"I'm sorry, but Melanie can't go," muttered Nicholas. "She doesn't want to go and even if she did sending all of our Shichibukai after one guy what's it going to look like? Like was can't even handle this one guy ourselves? Come on now, be honest, we can't do that."

"We need more Shichibukais!" shouted Rybeck, pounding his fists onto the table. "We need a capable and powerful pirate, whose not afraid to handle the Revolutionaries. We need to force ourselves to have an advantage somehow."

"We do have a couple of promising people willing to join us, but..."

"BUT WHAT!?"

"Do we really want people like this? One guy in particular seems like a nice catch, but someone of his standing probably wouldn't want to give us the upperhand for free."

"Who?"

"They are three people in this world currently vying for position of the World's Strongest Swordsman, he's one of them. 'Air Sword' Burakku, the man who came up in the Underground Rally Arena, our old ex-Admiral who quite being a Marine for the sole sake of defending this title, 'Survivor' Thorne, and the latest Shichibukai I'm guessing, 'Sacred Sword'."

Racing Against the Superior

Okay, so I bit the bullet and got me a new laptop. Its running okay. I should be all okay to start uploading on a semi-regular basis. Probably the same as last year, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sights on Tuesday and IH and Saga alternating on Thursday. I'm just uploading bonus Chapters today to kind of...say sorry for not uploading more often.