TIME SKIP 4 DAYS~

These past 4 days, all 4 of them had fun. Talking among themselves, drinking and hunting.

They made friends with May easily, especially after since she started to ask about their pirate crew. They explained to her, their roles in the crew and their motivations to set sail. They even told her what happened since they set sail. She was awed at their motivations, she laughed at why Taiga started the fight with Cliff and was sad at how they lost their first boat due the storm. It probably has been covered in sand by now.

"Now that we're so close to our destination, why don't you tell us about the ship?" once again, Cassy seemed to be the voice with any kind of reason in this merry band of pirates plus one.

"Oh alright! It's a double-masted ship. Roughly 50 meters in length and about 40 meters in height at the tallest crow's nest. Its railings are about 15 meters from its keel. The ship is designed for speed and is aero-dynamic and sleek. It's made entirely of Adam Wood which is the best wood for ship-building ever. Oh, it was made in Water 7, the place where the best ships in the world are made. Water 7 is in the Grand-Line by the way. Its figurehead is that of a Tiger roaring." She ignored a 'Heh!' from Taiga and continued, "the ship is named 'The Roaring Tigress'."

"A little too much 'tiger' in there, no?" Cliff asked.

"Heh, I suppose the maker had a fondness for tigers." May answered.

"How do you know all this? And how did you get it?" Cassy asked.

"I stole the ship. I had to make sure to know its specifications to actually do anything with it. It was actually made for the marines. Dunno why they had it stationed here but it was here. I stole it a few months ago. Kept it hidden in the one place they don't search on the island. The river-bend. Its just a few miles inland of where the river meets the sea. They never look there."

"Why'd you steal it? I mean if the marines had a ship made of Adam Wood lying around, they wouldn't really let it out of their sights." Taiga chipped in.

Seeing Cassy raise an eyebrow, Taiga defended, "Hey! Just because I don't know a lot does not mean I don't know anything. My mother knew somethings from having sailed with my grandfather."

"I stole it because, the Marine Lieutenant here was about to destroy it."

That stopped any potential reply from Cassy as they looked towards May.

"The Marine Lieutenant stationed here is John Felty. He is a complete cheapskate. He considers his old ship to be more than enough and only thinks of 'The Roaring Tigress' as money. He initially wanted to sell it for money that he could keep but after his request was denied by the higher-ups in the marines, he decided to destroy the ship and sell its wood. As you can guess, since Adam Wood is best for ship-building, it sells for very high."

"Okay, that I can understand. But why steal it? and how do you know all this?" Cassy asked.

"I… *sigh* I know all this because he told me. When that ship first came here, I sort of was 'with him'. He told me all his plans. I took a liking to that ship. I wanted to sail it. I am a trained navigator, see? My father used to be in the marines as a navigator and he taught me all he knew upon retirement. It's in my instinct to know which ship is better for sailing. And upon seeing the 'Roaring Tigress' in all her glory, my instincts just screamed that it would be the best ship I would see ever if not a very long time. I couldn't let him sell it or destroy it."

"So, why lead us to it?" this time it was Cliff who asked.

"I don't know. A gut feeling. My instincts. Something told me to and I followed it."

"Do you want to sail it? to navigate it?" Cliff continued.

She nodded, "Ye- Yeah I want to navigate such a ship."

Just as Cliff was about to say another thing, they turned around a curve and she screamed, "NOOOOOOO!"

"What Happened?"

"The ship! It's gone! He must have found it! He could be destroying it right now!" May started panicking.

Cliff walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders prompting her to look up at him.

The moment she did, her eyes gained some clarity and she looked right into his eyes and said, "How could I forget about you? You can help me, right? Please help me get my ship back!" by now she was starting to cry.

Cliff meanwhile looked back towards his crewmates who nodded and then he said, "Which way?"

May looked at him for a moment before pointing in a direction. She pointed across the river towards the sea. Likely a place where docks could be made. The base wouldn't be far from the docks. Nodding, Cliff picked May up in a princess carry and moved, his crewmates following him. within moments they had swum across the river, and were now running in the direction they were pointed at before.

Within minutes they came upon the ship, seeing it still intact they sighed in relief as Cliff let May get down. She too looked relieved before she gasped. She pointed towards the wrecking ball being swung around straight for the ship.

"Taiga!" Cliff yelled and within moments just a few meters before the ball touched the ship it was stopped.

The marines gasped as they saw it stop. When the Marine Lieutenant himself got over his shock he saw a Tiger-man standing in front of the ball, stopping it with just one hand. Then a few seconds later, 3 more people walk forward. One was the familiar form of May D. Wild wearing pink shirt and black trousers, and 2 unfamiliar figures. One was that of a man wearing light blue shirt, rolled up sleeves and black trousers while the other was of a woman wearing a white shirt in the same fashion as May and the man while she had dull-red coloured trousers.

"Looks like we're just on time, Captain!" The tiger-man growled out. The other unfamiliar man nodded and moved forward.

Seeing this the marine lieutenant too step forward. "You're obstructing official marine work. And you're in the presence of a criminal wanted by the marines. Stand back and let us complete our task and let us arrest May D. Wild and you have my word as Lieutenant John Felty that you shall not be arrested and prosecuted." He announced for all 4 of them to hear.

May looked towards Cliff, but she could only see the back of his head, as did the marines waiting for his answer.

Cliff then spoke, "Firstly, your task as it were is to destroy a ship that we have claimed as our own. As such we cannot let you lay even one finger on the ship. Secondly, May D. Wild is a friend. I do not sell out friends, nor do I let my friends get arrested."

"You…" John felt himself grow angry at the audacity of those 4 to go against him. "Who do you think you are?" He roared out.

"My name is Cliff Calloway." "I'm his first-mate, Cassy." "And, I'm Hidetake Taiga."

Seeing them give their introductions so casually infuriated him but he also found out that they were pirates. "Pirates, huh? You're not well known. Perhaps, just started your journey? Not that it matters, this will be the end of your journey!"

He then addressed his fellow marines, "Make sure to capture May and both the other girl and the tiger zoan. I'll take care of the captain." Saying that he began to move towards Cliff.

Cliff too orders his crewmates, "Take care of the marines. May-"

He was cut-off by her shout, "I'll fight!" Seeing her so determined, he nodded and turned his attention towards John who was racing towards him

Within moments he reached Cliff and reared his right arm for a punch. Cliff followed the movement with his eyes, also rearing back his right arm.

Both punched at the same time their fists meeting each other. That was a signal to start for both sides as Taiga, Cassy and May moved towards the approaching marines, around 50 in number.

Cassy moved forward, parrying and blocking cutlasses as they were swung towards her, and moved leaving behind wounds, both light and deep, on the marines. She started off good but was accumulating cuts herself too as she was not used to fighting more than one person at a time. As such, she was unable to counter many swinging swords as she was busy defending another direction.

Taiga had an easier time since his zoan fruit seemed to have increased his defences. Sure, he was accumulating just as many cuts as Cassy but his were just a very light as none seemed to have enough power to cut through more than a layer or two of his skin. His kanabo was plenty useful in knocking people out of the fight in one hit, if he got a solid hit in.

May seemed to be doing okay. She was fighting without a weapon but had knocked out plenty of marines as she advanced. She seemed to have trained on fighting multiple opponents a little and was certainly making use of it here.

Back with Cliff, he and the lieutenant were trading punches and kicks, often having one get past the others' guard and get a hit in. both seemed to be even but one could see the lieutenant gaining ground in the fight. Even barehanded, he seemed to be better than Cliff at fighting.

Cliff himself had very few options. He wasn't able to get the lieutenant off his back for enough time to draw his cutlass and the marine wasn't letting up instead speeding up.

As another punch went past his guard and hit his face, Cliff ground out his teeth, 'I need to find a way to defeat him and quick!'

Punches were either blocked, parried or met with punches themselves. Similarly, kicks were either blocked or met with kicks themselves. Both were going all out and some punches and kicks that did get in each other's guards and scored a hit were ignored prompting nothing more than a grunt of pain.

A few minutes of combat more and Cliff felt the lieutenant slow down. He started to take advantage of it by going on the offensive. A few more punches made it through his guard but his attack started to yield results. He punched all over the opponent, and it seemed to work as his opponent got sloppier and sloppier, failing to block more and more attacks.

Cliff saw an opportunity, an opening in the opponents' guard that could win him the fight, which he took immediately. He kicked at John's left knee, upon hitting which, John lost his footing for a mere moment but that was enough for Cliff to lay into John a series of punches and kicks carrying nothing less than his full strength.

As John staggered back from this only half-conscious by now, Cliff finally had time to draw his cutlass. He smashed its side into John's head firmly pushing the man into unconsciousness by now. After confirming that his opponent has fallen, Cliff looked towards his crewmates.

Cassy had only one last marine left to handle while Taiga and May were done with their sets of marines.

Cliff moved towards them and Cassy joined the other 2 by the time he reached there. All 3 seemed to have a variety of cuts on them while Cliff had a few bruises all over his body.

"Well, that's done! We got ourselves a ship!" Cliff said cheerfully.

"We need a navigator for the ship you know?" Cassy asked.

"And we have one! What say you, May? Wanna sail with us?"

May looked at them as her eyes-filled with tears, "Sail with the pirate king? Navigate him to the last island? Hell yes, count me in!"

Cliff smiled a most joyful smile, before he spoke to all of the crew, "Alright! Let's do some actual pirate work! Let's tie up all of these marines in their cell holdings and loot their supplies and gold and make off before they wake up!

"Yeah!" His crew cheer alongside him as they set to work.

A few hours of work resulted in all the marines tied up and locked in their own cell holdings, supplies worth months were now aboard their new ship, rooms picked and adorned with their belongings and of course a total of 10 million worth in Beri and 10 million in gold, according to May atleast. No one else in the crew seemed to have any experience with gold, so they left pricing it to May.

The ship they had claimed was huge from the inside. Its insides had a kitchen and a dining room, though this was on the deck level. Towards the stern, there was a stairway down where it had around 20 fully furnished bedrooms, aside from the obviously better furnished Captain's room. These rooms covered the entire length of the deck though they were just below it. below even this room, were 2 rooms, one for treasure and one for the weaponry and ammunition for the 10 cannons 'The Roaring Tigress' sported. That ammunitions were already stacked inside the ship having been brought inside from the marine base. The treasure room was where all their cash and gold. Back on the deck, the helm was out in the open though having a wall of wood just behind it and on its sides allowing it to be protected from nature all the while the navigator could use it from its front. It was positioned to be out of the way of the door leading inside and also in the centre of the 2 sets of stairs that led to the elevated stern of the ship which had the secondary mast. The main deck had the primary mast which was roughly 25 meters in height from the deck up. The crow's nest was on this mast and was above where the sailcloth would be tied.

"Well! What are we waiting for? Lets set sail!" Cliff said.

"AYE AYE CAPTAIN!" came 3 voices comprising of Cassy, Taiga and May.

And so, the 'The Roaring Tigress' set sail.