"Ohara was so close! Why'd we have to go to Ilussia first Captain?" May said after she finished giving Cliff directions. Cliff had become the Helmsman of the day.

"We'll visit Ohara later! Ilussia's closer to Ballywood Kingdom." Cliff answered.

"Why's Ballywood so important?" May continued to ask.

"Ballywood is known as the 'Best Ship-Building Island' of the 4 Blues. It is so good that its ships are ranked just below that of Water 7." Cliff answered her patiently.

"EH? That's why we're here? Ilussia's just a stop before we move onto Ballywood?" Taiga asked from near the figurehead.

"No, you idiot!" Cassy replied to him.

"Then why are-" Taiga started.

"LAND AHOY!" Mio's voice cut in.

The entire crew assembled on the deck looking towards small island they could see coming up.

"That's one of the smallest islands bordering the Ilussia mainland." May said looking at a map in her hands.

"That's where we'll be anchoring our ship." Cassy said and upon getting quizzical looks from everyone she explained, "Ilussia's not very hospitable to even its own people. The mainland is reserved just from nobility and the extremely rich. The islands on around the mainland too have varying levels of population. The richer you are, the closer you can live to the mainland."

"So, about 90% of the population lives on the outskirts?" Mio asked.

"Yeah. Even the marine base is not allowed on the mainland. Its on an island very close to the mainland, to the west of here I believe." Cassy said.

"You got this much from the bars back in Las Camp?" Cliff questioned.

"The black markets sell more than stuff you know…" Mio deadpanned.

Cliff had a quizzical look on his face for nearly a minute as his entire crew watched him. And then…

"Got it!" He exclaimed.

The entire crew just sighed, shook their heads and started preparing for anchoring the ship.

…

…

…

"How much inside is the first village? It's been 2 days since we began trekking into the forest." Mio asked just before a shot rang out and she jumped back.

"Looks like we're close!" Taiga exclaimed, ready to battle.

The entire crew looked around before having to dodge as multiple shots rang out.

"Who the heck's shooting at us?" May asked as she took cover behind a tree.

She received no answer as the crew got themselves behind cover.

"Got one!" Taiga exclaimed as rushed in one direction and swung his kanabo. It got nothing, "Okay, don't got one."

"Taiga! Get back behind cover!" Cassy said.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

2 shots rang out and hit Taiga square in the head.

THUD

Taiga fell on his back, completely motionless.

Just as he fell, Cliff spotted a brown shoe near him. he creeped up to the man hiding and swung his cutlass.

CLANG

CLANG

'It seems one more was found!' Cliff thought.

The hidden man had turned around on time and intercepted Cliff's sword with his gun's body.

Cliff was taken aback, seeing his cutlass blocked by a rifle. The man taking advantage of Cliff distracted state, tilted the rifle just enough so that the blade at the mouth could face Cliff. He moved it forward to stab Cliff, who recovered just enough to block the stab with his cutlass' handle guard. Seeing this the man stepped back to make space and so did Cliff.

"A blade at the mouth of a rifle?" Cliff asked the man.

The man grinned showing his perfectly white teeth and Cliff took the opportunity to observe the man. Black eyes, black hair, tanned skin complexion, muscular wearing a black sleeveless t-shirt, light pants and black boots.

"Like it? I made it!" He boasted pointing to himself while he moved his rifle to rest on his shoulder.

"You made it of metal?" Cliff asked since the wood should have been cut when they clashed.

"Nah! Just some metal on one side of the rifle to act as the shield for when in close combat." The man replied, "So what's your name?"

Cliff raised an eyebrow but answered nonetheless, "Cliff Calloway."

A look on recognition came upon the man's face, "Ah! You're Cliff 'Blue Coat' Calloway! The man worth 60 million beri. With the entire crew as valuable as 145 million beri."

"That's me." Cliff said, "But who are you?"

The man looked at Cliff for a moment before replying, "Oh yeah, I never told you my name. I'm Joshua."

"Well Joshua, care to tell me why you attacked my crew?" Cliff asked still ready to attack Joshua.

"Oh, I thought you were the pirates me and my brother defeated a few weeks ago. A few escaped and we thought they were back for revenge."

They both could still hear the sounds of fighting still going on in the background.

"That your brother?" Cliff asked gesturing to his left with his head where the fight was still going on.

"Yeah!" Joshua nodded, "Want me to stop him?"

"Nah! Let them fight!" Cliff said, relaxing his guard and walked back to where his crew was. He found May and Mio both standing around Taiga who sat on the ground rubbing his forehead.

Joshua paused, "How is he still alive?! Both me and my brother shot him in the head!"

Just as Cliff was about to answer, another man fell through the branches close by. On first glance the man seemed to look like a literal clone of Joshua. As one looked deeper, the similarities became even more extreme. The only difference being James had on a blue sleeveless t-shirt, grey pants and black shoes.

The man looked up and saw Taiga sitting up and spoke the same thing as Joshua, "How is he still alive?!"

"Your brother?" Cliff asked.

"Yeah," Joshua nodded, "He's James."

"Identical twins?" Mio asked seeing both of them.

"Yup!" Came 2 voices, namely Joshua and James.

Cassy walked in carrying a rifle on her shoulder which she promptly threw at the James the moment she saw him.

"All that aside, how's he still alive?" Both Joshua and James asked.

"Devil Fruit." Said Cliff's crew in unison.

"Nonsense!" Said the brothers in unison, "They're a myth of the sea! A legend!"

"Are they?" Taiga said, standing next to the brothers in his hybrid form.

The brothers looked back at him, having looked towards Cliff a moment before. They took a look at a nearly 10ft tall tiger-man and…

…just faint.

They woke up a few minutes later and had to be told everything the crew knew about devil fruits.

"…And that's all we know!" Cliff said happily after spending the last 4 hours explaining devil fruits to the brothers with repeat demonstrations from May and Taiga. It would not have taken this long if Cliff hadn't made a comment of the relative commonality of the devil fruits in grandline, which prompted the conversation into everything grandline related as well.

"That's unbelievable…" "…but somehow makes some sense." The 2 brothers said.

"Now onto the main point. You're both snipers?" Cassy asked.

"He's the sniper…" Joshua said pointing to James.

"…he's the gunner." James said pointing to Joshua.

"He's much better at sniping but alright at hand-to-hand…" Joshua said still pointing to James.

"…and he's much better at using guns in hand-to-hand but somewhat okay at long range gun use." James said still pointing at Joshua.

Cliff suddenly smiled while Cassy sighed.

"Join my crew!" Cliff said extending both his hands towards the brothers.

The crew just stayed silent, watching their captain recruit the 2 brothers.

The brother looked at each other for a moment and smiled before facing Cliff once again, taking hold of his hands, "Sure thing, Captain!"

"YEAH! Party time!" Taiga and Cliff roared in unison. The girls smiled as well.

Just as Taiga was about to roar once again, ready to party then and there, one of the brothers spoke, "How about we postpone the party until we reach village, and party there?"

Taiga paused while Cassy said, "You heard them, to the village."

…

An hour later, the crew was in the village diner/bar treating the entire village to a party.