A Yonkou's Preparation

The crew had entered the mountain and descended upon a long winding staircase. There was some growing case fungus located around them, which caused all of them a particular fright, except Enma who seemed genuinely interested in the unique phenomena. Never before had they encountered such a thing on their journey. He wondered if he shouldn't cut some off and hand them over to Sage as a present.

If Sage could re-grow the fungus, they could use that to illuminate the insides of their ship. Save a bit on the oil they usually burned. Even if not Enma was genuinely interested in them for the scientific reasons as well. Illuminating areas of the body that weren't working right was his first idea.

Nonetheless Enma had no time to further study the glowing mushrooms as the crew was pulled further into the lair. One of the Tuxedo Geckos had taken the lead and was leading them down there. He seemed to be an unofficial member of the Shogun Pirates as he had a hurriedly sketched in jolly roger on his left shoulder. He was croaking a bit as they went down, making sounds as if he was trying to tell them hat to expect, but since none of the crew spoke lizard, not even Mikoto or Lily, two Zoan Devil Fruit users, they only occasionally grunted in response.

Finally they had descended down deep enough through a twisting staircase and multiple side corridors to get to the lowest level where the Jolly Roger remained proudly painted on the door. The lizard continued to chirp a little bit as he stood by the door, he seemed to be trying to update them on the situation, but he was just a lizard.

"Ah, screw it!" shouted Mikoto, "I came here with my own agenda anyways!" Mikoto strode the remaining steps forward and towards the door, which seemed to worry the lizard a little as it began chirping quicker even trying to dodge in front of Mikoto, but due to its pacifist nature quickly dodged out of the way allowing Mikoto to walk nearly unhindered.

"I can understand you're worried for me lizard man," Mikoto stated as he finally put an arm out and on the lizard's shoulder pushing him aside, "but I'm a pirate captain. I'm not going to shy away from her just cause she's a Yonkou. I'm going to make sure she thinks of me as her equal."

Once more as a last ditch attempt the lizard dashed in front of the door and began screeching causing Mikoto to stop in his tracks. Before Mikoto shook his head, "Why did you bring us here if you weren't going to let us in!?"

The Tuxedo Gecko began to rapidly turn his head and screech causing Mikoto to take another step back before finally shrugging it off and stepping forward harshly. He placed one hand on the geckos shoulder and pushed him out of the way and headed towards the door. The gecko didn't bother getting up, but once again began screeching.

"Maybe he wants us to wait," offered up Rosa as she looked at the poor lizard, sitting there screeching his head off. "Like this is where we are supposed to stand by and wait for Victoria to come to us whenever she is done."

"And let her dictate the flow of this conversation," Mikoto barked, "if we let her do that then we'd lose the precious upper-hand we had by coming to her. We can still get something like an upper-hand if we can take control of the conversation right, Ridley?" Mikoto seemed to not really know what he was talking about and was for the most part mimicking back what Ridley had said earlier.

"Yeah, I can agree with that," stated Ridley as he eyed up the door, "nonetheless you're the captain. You're going in first." Despite Ridley feeling it was a good idea to try and get the drop on her he didn't feel like it was safe. She was a Yonkou and by extension a pirate. He didn't like thinking of pirates as friends. His experience as a pirate has told him that was never true. Many pirates hated them.

Mikoto shrugged it off, he didn't seem to be bothered. He shrugged it off and charged forward, he lifted one leg up and launched a powerful kick right into the door, kicking it wide open and walking right in and immediately regretting his decision. There is a reason for the gecko's weird habit. It turned out that this is the local bathhouse. This mountain had a bunch of natural heating ducts, which naturally ran through the mountain and hit a few certain pools. These pools were superheated by natural gases, which made his place a natural relaxing bathhouse that even a Yonkou could enjoy.

Which she was.

Mikoto stood there for a brief second with most of his crew now straining to get a look at what managed to stop their captain cold. Mikoto wasn't really someone who would usually stop when he got something on his mind, so seeing this was definitely weird. However, when most of them caught sight of what caused Mikoto to pause they all immediately took a step back, except for Ridley who dashed right out of sight.

Of course, ever quick on his feet Mikoto felt tempted to follow in Ridley's tracks with his speed he was fairly certain he could catch up to Ridley and possibly over take him. However, for once Mikoto had another idea pop up in his mind. As far as he knew it was stupid, but right now he was fairly certain NOTHING he could say would make this encounter any worse.

"Well," Mikoto stated simply before taking a step back, "I can see that you are busy at the time so me and my crew will just wait outside for you." Mikoto got out of the room and gently closed the doors behind him, hoping that for whatever reason she could possibly think of Victoria would be fine with just letting him be. That was his hope.

"So," Mikoto stated, turning to face his crew. "That probably could've gone better."

"Bend Bullet."

All of a sudden a blast of nothing, but air rippled through time and space. It blew the two doors wide open and with something close perfect accuracy sniped Mikoto right in the back, throwing him forward and into the wall in front of him. Mikoto's entire body was smashed pretty badly. But then again what could he expect? He just saw intruded on a Yonkou while she was taking a bath.

In all honesty he should count himself lucky that it wasn't a harsher punishment. Nonetheless she was now approaching them, this time dressed in a bath robe. Even in such a modest garb it was still apparent that she demanded respect and that on top of that she quite beautiful. She was tall for a woman, easily hitting 5' 11" possibly even a bit taller. She had long blonde hair and a sizeable bust, which was evident even beneath the furry bath robe.

"I hope you have a very good reason to interrupt me," she muttered as she strode towards him. She was guided by two guides, both young females, they were also apparently bathing. These two looked even more unhappy by the intrusion although in all honesty nobody really paid attention to them. Their eyes were all on the Yonkou. A Yonkou like Victoria Shogun demanded complete attention.

Victoria picked up her sword, which had been on a rack near the door and she swung it downwards towards Mikoto as well as making a quick swing at the rest of his crew. "I am a Yonkou, Victoria Shogun. I am one of the four deadliest forces in the world. Do you really believe that it was a wise idea to spy on me?"

"I'm pretty sure what I did doesn't count as spying, it was more like accidentally walking in on you," Mikoto defended himself poorly. "Besides its all that damn lizard's fault!" Mikoto shouted once more putting up his defense and pointing at the poor lizard, who was still screeching his head off. "He lead us down here."

Victoria's sword seemed to waver for a second, apparently this wasn't the first time this had occurred. "That stupid lizard," she swore, while although Mikoto's story was still plausible it didn't seem to really effect Victoria's opinion on skewering him. Mikoto still saw her naked, killing him was still justified.

"He was told to bring any pirates on the island straight to Victoria," one of her aides stated, who was also obviously a pirate and was beginning to get dressed as best as she could without flashing them again. "The problem is he doesn't quite understand that THAT DOESN'T MEAN WHILE WE ARE IN THE BATHS!"

"Or sleeping," the other girl stated with a gruff and unkind voice, "he's woken Victoria up like five times already."

"He's also interrupted us while we are eating."

"He's a good guy," the first girl stated before sighing, "at least I think he is. He's beginning to learn not to open the door for you guys and he warns you as well I take it, but he still hasn't grasped there are some places he shouldn't escort you to."

"Can you kill him instead then?" asked Mikoto as he looked over at the gecko who continuously screeched, "or at least make him shut up?"

"Not until I have figured out what to do with you," Victoria glared menacingly down her blade and at Mikoto, "why have you come here? Have you taken up my offer?"

"Listen I'm not here about your thing, I just want to talk about avoiding this blasted war the Marines and Revolutionaries are about to start up," Mikoto stated, "I don't even know what your offer is exactly. The only thing I know if that your messenger, Kai, tried to kill me."

"He could've killed you if he wanted to," Enma corrected Mikoto, earning him a stone cold glare. However, Enma was not incorrect, Mikoto and Shane were both just rag dolls in front of him.

Victoria remained in her stance, her sword still pointed down threateningly at Mikoto as if debating what to do with it. Finally as if breaking the stalemate her sword was lifted up and out of the way, but not by her.

Zesiro had interjected, using one of his swords to pick up Victoria's sword and lift it out of the way. "If you were going to kill us I suggest you get on with it. If nothing," Zesiro stated adding in a quiet chuckle, "I suggest we get on with things. We are pirates after all."

There was a moment of silence when Victoria sized up the crew. She believed that even by herself she could take on all of these pirates. They weren't particularly devastatingly strong, but still there was something that told her that she shouldn't go all out against these guys. Not because she couldn't take them, but just that they may prove worthwhile.

She withdrew her sword and quickly sheathed it, "I suppose anybody who can cause such a strong feeling of loyalty within their crew deserves to live. However, I am currently busy with my own issues so I would appreciate it if you managed to keep yourselves contained while I attend to it."

The Proposal