"This seems to be problematic," moaned Jugo as he flipped through the papers as he shook his head. He had a large stack of newspapers right next to him, a little bit to the left. And now in front of him he had several bounty posters that he was giving a bit of a glance to.
Kai was also in the room, but he wasn't paying any attention to the bounty posters nor the growing stack of newspapers that Jugo had. Jugo added newspapers to that stack day-after-day whenever something new happened he immediately shuffled the papers into it. He was a big fan of such news and always wanted to keep attention of it.
However, while Kai was busy dabbing his sweat off from his latest training he was soon interrupted as the paper flew right in his way. Kai paused and looked over at Jugo, Jugo motioned without any words added onto it. It was clear invitation to read the papers.
"Victoria Shogun makes her stake in the war clear," stated Kai, "creating a third alliance and manages to scoop up the recent Shichibukai killer, Mikoto. This also includes the downfall of both a Shichibukai from the Marine side as well as a fellow pirate from the Revolutionaries, a man called Shigoro." Kai laughed quietly, "this is surprising. I was wondering what her goal was."
"She did want to talk to them," Kai stated, "she also wanted to pull out some of the great people from our army like Trevor and Revenont, not only that there was also Armani Dove mentioned. If she is forming an army she can get one to form a big enough third party, but it will only be an empty threat. The Revolutionaries and Marines are too big to create a coherent army quick enough. It'll fall apart."
"Except for the fact that 'Lucky' Lin has dropped from the Shichibukai ranks to join them, not to mention Melanie Stars is following those footsteps. As is Kurai Ai," stated Jugo slamming his fist onto the table. "These three Shichibukai, minus Trevor, Raphael, and the Fox Brothers...leave nearly no Shichibukais left. Their force is growing, and the Marines are weakening. If the Marines need to they'll be pushed too far and they may do something drastic."
"That's why you're going to war, right?" Kai laughed, "because the Marines do too many drastic things?"
"Doesn't mean I'm prepared for such a wild card," Jugo chuckled as well as he began to think about it himself. He walked towards the window and looked out. "We need to head out as quickly as possible though. The Marines are making mistakes, but they are still moving. This is a huge problem we need to move out as well." The man snapped his fingers and motioned for everyone to follow right behind him.
Kai sighed, the guy was good, talented and worth following, but it definitely didn't catch Kai's attention. The two of them met out again in the hall and Kai sighed. "We are over-reacting to these pesks, I've fought them and trashed them. They are not worthy of our time nor worry. Just focus on the Marines and that is it, understand?"
"I'm saying we can't," Jugo earnestly grunted. "Did you forget they have taken down one of your own men? The poor Shigoro has fallen."
"The guy kind of deserved," muttered Kai, "Shigoro was strong, but strong-headed. He was a very talented guy. I liked him and trust me I'll handle the pirates when the time comes, but he was just Shigoro. Me, you, and the Admirals are still leagues ahead of him. Maybe they can qualify as threat to me pinky finger, but he wasn't a bad man. I appreciate you thinking about him."
Jugo leaned back and into his seat. "You better be capable of keeping up your end of the bargain," explained Jugo as he took a deep breath and took out a large cigar. He had quit smoking while he was a part of the Marines, but over the years as he saw the shadows of the world and the dark secrets slowly revealing themselves to him. He had to go back to some sort of bad habit. Smoking seemed like the least dangerous gamble he could do at this point. He wasn't planning to live past fifty anyways.
"They are going to be making their own moves soon."
"They are kids," Kian griped, moaning loudly, dropping his own two arms to his side. Shaking his head as he done so, suddenly shooting his hand up and bringing the palm against his face. His hand dropped down, dragging his eyelids and bottom lip as he did so, creating a very exaggerated look, "Not some trained army. I've never seen people who are more scared of rats than you are."
"Rats tend to ruin clocks, chew the cables, steal the cogs, break the machine," Jugo analyzed with a short chuckle. "This is a plan. A well orchestrated plan and we cannot afford to have small problems like this. Smaller problems lead to bigger problems. You really should've learned that in your years. You understand things, but not this?"
"You're an idiot," Kai laughed, "they are insects. They will be crushed like insects. They are practically egging us on. We'll get up and we'll kick him beneath our boots. They're aren't even strong enough to kill my boredom." Kai chuckled to himself, enunciating his last few words to make sure that Jugo got the point. Kai had no need to worry about him.
"Let's see if you still feel that way," offered Jugo as he stepped forward, hand-waving beneath his body and making a quick sweep over the able. "You'll see a couple of ants grow up and become a problem for bears eventually. Even if you want to talk about our superior strength you'll see a lot of problems eventually come up."
Turning about and picked up the stacks of papers and began thumbing through some of the old newspaper he had stockpiled. He was interested in what was going on in the world, it would soon be a world he and Kai were running. The world was going to come crashing down in on them in a couple of weeks, but after they would work on rebuilding.
A new world is definitely needed to come out of the ashes of an old one. Things were going to be making great changes, which was made Jugo all the more worried. His hopes were balancing on a pinhead. It was to be completely even and Jugo had been making several different juggling acts to make it work out and now a new person was coming onto the field and tipping the balances, about to send everything crashing down.
That was what Jugo's mad plan was, but Kai was willing to throw it all to the side because he didn't want to properly prepare for the latest insect crawling onto the plate. Objects were already shifting, sliding about. News that Mikoto 'left' the Revolutionaries to form his own party were already spreading. And the Marines were making sure of it, just like Jugo was planning to play up the losses the Shichibukai had occurred.
The scales were far from balanced now though. The war was becoming a riskier and riskier play.
"Make Mikoto a high-priority target. Along with Victoria and Shane. They have declared their dependance from us, we need to crush them before others get the same idea," explained Jugo as he moved over, pulling himself to the side and writing his thoughts out onto the paper.
"They aren't worth it," moaned Kai kicking his head back before sighing once more and looking to his two sides. He understood Jugo well and was getting to understand him more and more as time went on. And started to hate him as well. The guy was nice, but such a brute. Kai sighed, shaking his head and suddenly turned around and beginning to leave.
"I hope these pirates won't live long enough to prove you wrong."
(With Victoria-)
Victoria waved her arms around her, motioning at the table beneath them. "It is now time to move," she stated curtly. "I've already gotten in contact with the rest of your crew."
"I don't remember giving you permission to do that," Mikoto growled unfavorably. He was all for this last ditch effort, the world was beginning to fall apart and the Marines and the Revolutionaries were already beginning to cross more often. Tiny fights have broke out over several islands and many villages had been razed.
And in Mikoto's opinion nothing really made much sense right. They could take the war to the Marines or Revolutionaries and probably wind up getting skinned fairly quickly. Mikoto wasn't going to talk his skills up at all at this point. They were outnumbered and probably fairly outgunned too. They didn't have the infinite bank that the Marines had, nor they broken down-trodden souls that the Revolutionaries attracted. Just a couple of crazy kids with a dream.
"I got in contact with them because we are already running behind as is," Victoria stated as she produced a couple of newspapers, "see?
Wars between the Revolutionaries and Marines have started to break out. There was no rhyme or reason to the towns that were being sieged, so the only assumption they had to go off of was that they were just bumping into each out at sea and deciding to fight it out. But they were both getting incredibly brash in their attacks, ordinarily they had a bit more discretion, but they definitely weren't showing it here. They were just attacking and keep attacking, putting more and more pressure on each other as well as the people.
Mikoto sighed and nodded. Things were definitely going wrong and they were going wrong faster than what they expected. A pit appeared in his stomach as he shook his head, trying to focus on the good news rather than the bad. "How did Shane and my crew do?"
"Shane is refusing to come back into contact," Victoria honestly stated stubbornly, "the only news that I've received from them is that he is doing what he can and would appreciate being left to his own devices more than us interfering with him."
Sighing again Victoria moved into the rest of the news, "your crew is doing quite well. They have managed to convince Melanie to join us, which further weakens the Marines' side and strengthens ours. Melanie is escorting them closer to us. We'll meet at another island."
"What island?" asked Mikoto, wanting to know a little bit more about whatever the crazy plan was.
"Its a nearby island not too far from here. The majority of the travel will be on them," Victoria stated as she stepped forward and towards the window. There is a nearby Marine base, which is where they are holding a kind of a Marine graduation. One of the Marine Admirals greatly opposed the war and has decided to step down, refusing to be a part of..." Victoria looked disgusted and throwing her arms down, she seemed to emphasize the disgust in her voice, "this."
"So we are going there why?" asked Mikoto.
Victoria smiled, "as a Yonkou my power and reach is very far-reaching and this Marine Admiral is already stepping down and he is fine with 'falling' to us. Of course, when I say that I mean we will fake his death and have the newspapers spread word of that. Which again due to my power will be simple. I have men and women in the newspaper industry which will make sure our accomplishment spread wide."
"It sounds like a dirty and cheap tactic," Mikoto groaned, but Victoria didn't seem bothered by it.