Jet Stream Island

"I'm willing to sacrifice everything, even my own life, to achieve my dream."

Enma stared at their captain in complete and total shocked silence. His captain wasn't someone who would say such pointless words. He wouldn't try and bluff his way with such damnable words. He was someone who had no choice, but to be honest and upright with his words. He wouldn't lie, much lie say something with such heavy consequences as that without thinking it through yet.

Whether it was a blessing or a curse Mikoto had truly inherited everything from the namesake of his Devil Fruit. A coyote's speed and wild instincts were inbred in Mikoto, possibly from before he even had eaten the Devil Fruit, that was just who he had always been, but there was more thing that made Mikoto a true coyote. An indomitable will.

Very few animals when trapped reacted well under the pressure. Most animals may panic and rampage a bit and even more will accept their fate afterwards, but the coyote was unique. If a coyote got trapped it would chew off its own leg to escape. Gnawing through the bone, ignoring the pain it suffered it would gnaw off its own leg for freedom.

That kind of willpower was rare amongst living beings. A kind of creature willing to sacrifice life and limb for a chance at freedom. Few humans would dare to muster up that kind of resolve to, in a moment of crisis, to summon the willpower to intentionally lose a limb. To ignore all other possible outcomes before them and focus only on surviving. That kind of will was passed straight into Mikoto.

The speed, will, and instinct of a wild animal completely focused on its prey. And right now as a predator and as a pirate he had set his eyes on only the biggest prey in the seas. The Yonkou. Enma didn't know if he should be worried that Mikoto never matured past this childish mindset or excited that he kept such a strong will.

"Well, I hope you can keep saying that even as we approach our next island," Enma wished. Mikoto liked staring straight ahead at his target, but everything else was often inconsequential. "Jet Stream Island."

On the horizon was a small island...if it could be called that. It was more like several rocks which were firmly planted in the ground and made up a small series of pointed places for ships to crash into. However, through the rocks ran multiple fast currents all, colliding, twisting, and swarming around.

"Jet Stream Island is named so because of the thousands of current it forms. Its not really an island more like a rock formation, but that doesn't mean it is any less vital to ships," Enma stated as he went into what he knew. Had Hiro-Shu been here he would've been more helpful as a navigator, but Enma would just have to make due.

"The rocks and currents form rushing rapids. When a ship sails into it the rushing rapids pull at the ship and try to direct it in one of several directions, including into rocks," Enma explained. "However, the upside to such an island is that the currents there grow incredible strong capable of catapulting any ship that sails into it great lengths."

"So it basically turns our ship into a rocket!" Mikoto shouted eagerly.

"I was hoping for a little bit more of an intellectual reply, but I'll accept it," Enma stated, "the currents that run through it can reach speeds that even you yourself cannot hit. Modern day machines fail to reach speeds even a quarter as high as a ship that sails through this location. In other words if you hit the currents in this island just right you can catch a powerful current which will basically rush you to a destination."

"Is it going to take us to Victoria's location?"

"It'll take us close," Enma stated, "in all honesty there's only about eight exits here so there's only eight locations to go to. It'll take us about a day's travel away from her location. Not bad, better than sailing eight days when we get to Jet Stream Island in about one, stay on the current for another one, and then sail to hers in the third."

"Sounds like it'll be busy," muttered Mikoto.

"Eh, like I said there are a lot of rocks and a lot of currents running into rocks," Enma brought up, "the odds of someone crashing into a rock are about 76%. However, for a talented navigator like Hiro-Shu, that's probably reversed."

"Hiro-Shu's not with us," muttered Mikoto, recalling that their crew had split up. Suddenly he felt like half of his energy just left his small frame. He was already beginning to miss the rest of his crew.

"Yup, but for a Fishman with a decent navigational sense like Zesiro, the odds are even lower," Enma declared, "Fishmen are actually the absolute best kind of navigator when it comes to finding and avoiding certain currents. A sort of natural affinity with the oceans help. However, as a result many Fishmen stopped bothering with maps ages ago. They just found their ways around using currents. Without practicing the art of map making, a lot of them lost a good sharp navigational sense like Hiro-Shu has."

"So, which one is superior in terms of navigation?" asked Mikoto cocking his head to the side.

Enma looked up at the ceiling as he quickly weighed the pros and cons of each navigator before finally bringing his head down and stared Mikoto in the face, "I'd say Hiro-Shu is superior in terms of pure navigation, but Zesiro is better in this case and similar cases. A natural affinity to the ocean. He can't lose in this case."

"Man, we're really lucky all of our crew is so talented," laughed Mikoto as he got up and began to head out and onto the deck.

"Its not luck," thought Enma, "Its just natural evolution. You're willing to give up your life for your dreams and we are just the stupid, reckless crew who will follow you down that path." Enma sighed as he turned around and began to re-address his files. He had examined Mikoto to see about the strain on his arms and legs. He had hit a good speed against Aaron it was possibly that he pulled something, so like any good doctor Enma looked into it.

Thankfully no structural or bone damage had been born from Mikoto's reckless attempts. Mikoto was still in perfect shape or good enough. No damage was on his body. However, there was one unique element that occurred, which made Enma paused. Burn marks were covering Mikoto's legs.

Enma had brought it up, he was worried that it was possible that Mikoto fought some fire user, but he didn't say anything like that. Which could only mean one thing in Enma's mind. A friction burn. It was common when people run around on carpet or slid down a rope. High speed over a rough surface.

Enma chuckled and threw his head back, he couldn't believe it. Mikoto's speed was on a whole other level as usual, he create enough friction to burn his own hands and feet while running. Enma shook his head and returned to his usual workings. It was odd to see such a thing. Mikoto's top speed could create such a friction. Maybe Mikoto needed to start wearing shoes or he would probably horribly damage his own legs.

Still these kinds of wounds never showed up until today so Enma assumed he had some sort of control over his legs. It was never an issue until today, so Enma assumed he would just push it all aside for the future. Could've been a fluke or maybe Mikoto was finally accelerating to the point where he needed to actually bother wearing shoes.

Like Enma stated it was an issue for another day. They wouldn't be able to hold their own against Victoria had they been stupid and he told Mikoto to hold back. Unlike Mikoto would even bother listening to him. "All things for another day," Enma whistled as he moved on through the pages, he'd work on the next few things before racking his brain over Mikoto's flukes.

(-With Kai-)

The large emperor of the sea went down to rest on his own chair. Of course, just as Mikoto and Shane received their invitation he had as well. Victoria Shogun wanted to see him as well. A kind of gathering of the world's greatest pirates she had wanted. She wanted to know who to back and who she should bother protecting. She had no real interest in this war, only in changing the future.

Truth be told she didn't really care to bother with Kai either, it was more like a hand extended for the sole reason of courtesy with the full knowledge that he wouldn't bother to return it. He had no interest in her. But nonetheless she felt it was necessary to allow her to keep up ties with him. They were 'allies' in the manner that they weren't enemies and had a few civil talks in their days.

Nonetheless Kai had every intention to turn down Victoria's invitation, but now he had a slight growing aggravation with the two men who had been invited. Mikoto and Shane, he had heard good things about both of them, but they were both insects to him. Not only that, but Victoria had invited other insects.

She seemed to be eying up the latest and greatest pirates who had recently started. They had given these types of pirates cut names like 'Supernovas' and she seemed to be fully hunting them down and trying to find them for some reason. Had she been trying to eliminate them she would've told Kai about it or not have invited him. He would've been fine with smashing their heads in if he knew about it ahead of time.

No, that wasn't what this was about. Perhaps she was looking to expand her crew? That was possibly be the worse thing for Kai. As it currently stood these two people weren't enemies, but they weren't friends either. They were more like rivals. So if she got a lot of these small-fries on her side it would mean trouble for him. Even flies were a pain when they were in a swarm.

He supposed if he was going to be doing all of this worrying about them, he would have to do something about it. He took a deep breath and moved forward to his Den-Den Mushi, "Shigoro, please report to my room." Kai sat back down as he awaited for his trusty pirate friend to come back.

The monster was a very trusted man, he happened to locate throughout his journeys. He was a trusted monster, who would never stray from any of Kai's orders. Kai's men were all like this, but Shigoro was a special kind. He had escaped from slavery and as a result he would never disobey Kai. Shigoro knew what true torture was and he knew Kai's kindness was nothing of the sort.

Soon the large fishman was at his doorstep. He was large, probably greater than 9 feet and he probably weighed over 400 pounds and that was from muscles, not body fat. There was not a single ounce of fat anywhere on his entire body. He was someone who was impressive in every sense.

"What do you need boss?" he asked as he walked in. He didn't sit though, he remained standing as if he was a military man. Whether it was out of respect or due to his training as a slave there was no clear indicator as to what was the reason Shigoro seemed to want to stand at attention.

"Go to Victoria's little get-together," Kai stated giving Shigoro the invitation, "if she starts slaughtering the insects you're welcomed to join her, if its a trap for me get out of there quickly, nonetheless go there and cause as much destruction and pain as you feel is necessary."

"No matter what's the limit," Shigoro stated with all of the respect of a Japanese Samurai, "I would've done so regardless."

The Vices of the Marines