Preparation for The Yonkou

The crew had arrived without any further issue. As a matter of fact such was to be expected. This was Victoria D. Shogun's territory nobody stepped in it without her permission. Even the Marines who wished for nothing more than her solemn death didn't dare to trespass into her territory. They took their time and made sure not to over-step their bounds.

Someone like Kai who had vast amounts of lands was less caring if someone crossed into their territory. As a matter of fact if an island of his went up in flames it was questionable if such news would even reach his ears for months. However, there wasn't a doubt within the Infinity Pirates that Victoria knew about their docking the instant it happened. Hell, she probably knew of a ship approaching when they were still miles out at sea.

Her reach was absolute. That was one of things given to Yonkous and no one else. Nobody ever dared question a Yonkou and especially not within their own territory. And that read clear as day on this island.

Nobody cared about the pirates that just docked.

Mikoto and the rest of them were given a one second glance before the locals began going back to their own conversations ignoring the possible killers who had just stepped onto their island. Actually if you believed what the Marines said more likely a certain killer of hundreds of men. The island still even had their bounties up on the walls causing Mikoto to stop and look.

"I'm amazed she has bounties up on her island," Mikoto murmured as he picked his off of the wall. He looked over and caught sight of even Victoria's Bounty Poster thrown up. More than 700 million belies for her head. That was a lot of food. Mikoto went to grab it when he caught a whiff of a Den-Den Mushi and turned his head to the side and saw one of them sitting back.

"Its a trap," laughed Ridley as he walked up to it. "Kind of. I'm sure Victoria doesn't care if people hunt for Bounties on her island unless they are going after her crew. Plus it helps these people stay on their toes when one of us shows up. She can only stop us after we do something stupid, not before."

"But you said it was a trap?" Mikoto whined tired of getting the run around.

"Simple," Ridley stated as he stepped forward and snatched Victoria's poster from the wall and held it up to the Den-Den Mushi. "If we are to take the poster and walk with it Victoria can be like 90% positive we are aiming for her head."

"So why did you take it?" shouted Rosa as she snatched the poster back from Ridley and plastered it back up on the wall. However, it was soon snatched back off of the wall by Zesiro who repeated Ridley's action of showing it to the Den-Den Mushi.

"If its a trap," Zesiro stated although he didn't sound 100% convinced, "the people who avoid it probably aren't worth much in Victoria's eyes. We are telling straight up that we don't care that she's a Yonkou. Cause we are of the same level as her."

"Then I should do it I'm the captain!" shouted Mikoto as he snatched a random Bounty Poster off of the wall and shoved it all the way up in front of the Den-Den Mushi, rather than from a distance like the others.

"Uh, I don't think you understand the point," Rosa stated with a slight chuckle as she walked up to him to correct him, but Ridley put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back.

"Trust me, its for the best if she has absolutely no idea what Mikoto's doing...if Mikoto doesn't either," Ridley stated while shaking his head. "If she thinks that that specific bounty poster means something than we may have an upperhand in negotiation."

"What if she thinks Mikoto's just stupid?"

"That's even better!" Ridley applauded. "It means she won't come expecting anything from him. She understands him so well already."

"I UNDERSTOOD THAT!" Shouted Mikoto transforming into his coyote form and latching his mouth around Ridley's head causing Ridley to quickly jab an arm backwards and knocked Mikoto off of him.

Mikoto didn't bother transforming back and instead opted to just travel around in his coyote form, which actually wasn't all that popular with him. He learned to fight as a human, so bothering to learn a whole new fighting style based around his coyote form wasn't all too cool, so he just stuck to human and hybrid. Plus people tend to spend a couple extra seconds when it came to gawking at a talking coyote.

"Have you put any more thought into how you are going to approach Victoria?" Asked Enma. In all honest should a war break out between them then they would really be screwed. They were in her territory after all, escaping it would be difficult.

"Nope!" laughed Mikoto, "I figure if I think about it I won't say what I want. So I'm just gonna wing it and hope for the best!"

"Later that day the bodies of the Infinity Pirates were found burned and sliced into multiples pieces," Ridley copying the title of what he guessed would be of tomorrow's newspaper. He finally sighed and turned to Mikoto, "good plan."

"I don't need your sarcasm," Mikoto sighed, "but what do you say to someone like that? She's a Yonkou! In all honesty I never thought I would even get this far. I'm just some two-bit pirates when I started out. My father is regarded as someone who ran out of the New World and Grand Line to escape to the East Blue."

"I don't understand why your father doesn't get more credit," Lily stated as she patted Mikoto on the head. The young girl still had some amnesia problems, but she seemed to get along with Mikoto and Rosa (of course).

"He obtained a bounty back in the New World, but then according to him and my mom that's when she got pregnant and he decided its not a safe place to raise a kid, so he and her both left to go down to the East Blue where reports of pirating, Marines, and all around evil are much smaller," Mikoto explained, recalling much of it from back in his early childhood.

"The problem is!" Ridley intervened. His father always kept a close eye on local pirates to see if anybody of any note came out of the works every so often. Of course his father immediately laughed when he saw somebody running out of the New World, "the problem is that people reported him running away and out of the New World and eventually the Grand Line. He had a big name and a good crew, but he was viewed as a coward who ran away.

"Even from Marines," Ridley continued as he looked over to see how annoyed Mikoto was getting, but he didn't seem bothered. What was true was true. "Of course, when you have your loved one, who is pregnant on your ship you're going to try your hardest not to get into any naval battles. So he eventually became known as a coward."

Mikoto cleared his throat to signal that he was going to take over. He was beginning to have a hard time to see if Ridley was being serious and undermining his father or if he was just explaining what happened, either way Mikoto was interjecting.

"This was all to protect us and my father did plan to go back to his pirating way once I was born and my mom was set-up in a nice little cottage back on my home island," Mikoto explained, "he made a bunch of small runs, mostly just petty thievery cause he wanted to set my mom up so he could go on a longer run without worrying about us. During this time I grew up and got to know my dad, but eventually his luck ran out.

"My house caught on fire and he died in it. When you know the back story his tale takes on a much more tragic and saddening light, however, to the world he was just someone who fled from the New World to the East Blue, resorted to petty thievery, and then disappeared from the world scene."

"And just cause of that most people see him as a terrible pirate?" asked Rosa. She supposed it made sense in some light he probably got enough publicity starting in the New World where people thought they were witnessing the second coming of Monkey D. Luffy or at least Eustass Kid, but instead they found out he's just some two-bit pirate.

"Nobody ever said the world was fair," grumbled Zesiro as he stopped in his tracks. They had been snuck up upon. Zesiro just now noticed it because they didn't exude any killing intent. Mikoto would've probably noticed them sooner with his nose had he not been pre-occupied. They had dropped their guard in Yonkou territory.

Large yellowish tan lizards walking on two feet had surrounded them. They had large bulbous red eyes with black slits in the middle of them they looked around and at the group of pirates who had unwittingly allowed themselves to be surrounded. The lizards seemed harmless, for now. More than harmless actually.

The lizards had one other defining feature asides from their large size, tanned skin color, and red eyes. They were all wearing suits or so it looked like. It turned out the black suits they were wearing along with the white undershirts and red ties were all actually their skin. These lizards were naturally dressed to the nines.

"Its about time the welcoming committee came!" joked Ridley as he took a step back. It wasn't a question of how tough the lizards were it was a matter of how many they were. They were already beginning to swarm around them. As much as it was Yonkou territory it was also lizard territory. One of these two were bound to be trouble.

"Don't worry about them," stated a man suddenly appearing behind them, "well, pretty much harmless, they won't attack you. Just don't accept any tea from them. They grew up in a very well-contained area. No wars, more than enough food for everyone. They evolved into highly peaceful creatures for the most part. However, the food they grew up varies from the food we eat by a lot. Namely they eat poisonous foods. They'll occasionally off people tea, thinking they are being generous but they kill them. To make matters worse they don't like it when you turn down their tea. They think you are being rude."

One of the lizards turned towards the man and the 'suit' he was wearing suddenly lifted up, revealing it to be frills similar to a frilled lizard's mane. The lizard obviously didn't like the man and was letting him know that. He must've rejected some tea at one point or another.

"Anyways, you must be the guests Victoria was talking about," the man stated, ignoring the lizard, which any guy in their right mind would do. "Ignore the lizards they like to make their presence known to new-comers, but there has never been an incident of them attacking people. Anyways, follow me I'll take you to her."

"What? You're not even going to question our motives even a little?" asked Ridley, honestly a little annoyed at her trusting this girl could be.

"We're a little busy with all the pirates coming here right now," the man stated, "if I began questioning why everyone was coming I'd be in for a whole lot of trouble. So I'm afraid I'm just going to have to trust you."

"Wait? What other pirates?"

"Hmm, I guess I just assumed you've heard of it. Victoria is gathering a lot of rookie pirates together. Apparently after sitting on the pinnacle of piracy for so long she has decided to take an interest in the lower ranked plebians."

A Yonkou's Preparation