"Where're we headed May?" Cliff asked, "It's been 15 days since we've set sail from Centaurea, I thought Baterilla was really close from there?"
15 days had indeed gone by since the crew set sail. It took naught but 4 days before they got their own bounties.
FLASHBACK 11 DAYS~
It was a nice day in the south blue. Cliff and Taiga were sitting on chairs on the bow of the ship with a barrel between them. Cliff was sleeping with his legs on the barrel while Taiga in the same position as Cliff was drinking rum. Cassy was found further towards the centre of the deck training with her sword while May was sitting near the helm occasionally adjusting it otherwise reading the previous day's newspaper.
Upon hearing a seagull's cry, she looked up and saw a seagull slowly descending towards their ship. She stood up then and moving towards the starboard (right side of a boat) and waved to the seagull.
The seagull landed on the railing near her and plucked a newspaper from the satchel it was carrying. Upon handing the newspaper over to her, he lifted his right leg, showing a smaller satchel for money, in which May deposited a 10 Beri coin.
The seagull then gave her a salute with its wings and flew off, leaving May to read the newspaper.
A few minutes later, she ran the length of the deck, straight towards Cliff before slamming the newspaper on the barrel so hard, Cliff not only woke up but fell from his chair. Taiga having seen her coming had already repositioned his legs.
Before Cliff could even think of something to say, May screamed, "They're here! The bounties are here!" Cliff, now didn't even complete his previous thought process and instead latched onto the new one, snatching the newspaper from May's hand.
Opening it, a few papers fell which he picked up. From them the 1st few were all Grand-Line pirate bounties, which he kept aside instead looking for his own. A few more bounties set aside which were from the other blues he came the last 4 bounties left. Seeing them he became excited and began to read them aloud. By now, even Cassy had seated herself to hear the bounties they had been issued.
"WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE, CLIFF CALLOWAY, 5,000,000 Beri" alongside this, the image that was used for the poster was of when he emerged just after Taiga had stopped the wrecking ball. It showed his face a little bit of his light blue shirt.
"Yeah! I got 5 million!" Cliff cheered but just as he was about to cheer some more, Cassy took the remaining posters from him and looked through them.
2 of the remaining ones were for others but the last one was one of theirs. She read, "WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE, MAY D. WILD, 1,000,000 Beri" the image used for her poster was of when she was standing next to a pile of knocked out marines.
"HUH! Where are ours?" Cassy screamed. Taiga seemed to agree with her as he nodded.
"The whole crew doesn't usually get a bounty. Its only the Captain and some of the most well known of the crew that get one usually." May answered back.
"What sense does that make? I did just as much work as you. I beat up a bunch of marines too!" Cassy seemed to be getting angry.
FLASHBACK END~
Of course, that wasn't all they did, they took down the white sailcloth that the ship had before and put up a black one which had their own symbol on it.
Their symbol- drawn by May- had a skull in the front with 2 cutlasses going behind it (diagonally like they are usually shown). The pommels of the cutlasses had a roaring tiger's face (sideways) drawn on them.
"Baterilla is really close from Centaurea but it is also the last major island before going to Reverse Mountain. So, I set sail towards Torino Kingdom. We can dock on the south. It has a natural harbour there; we can anchor the ship and get supplies quick and easy. Plus, the marines on the island usually pay attention towards the north and western parts of the island. That's where majority of its population lives. A few small villages are there on the eastern part but the main town is in the west. That's where the King lives too. His palace is in Torino town. It is also where more towards the centre of the island. The marine base is on the western docks." May replied to her captain's question.
"How strong are the marines there?" Cliff asked.
"I wouldn't know. But I do know that the commanding officer present there a Commander, with a Lieutenant Commander also present. Both are stronger than John who you beat up back on Centaurea."
"Hmmmmm…" seeing Cliff thinking on something, Cassy turned to him, "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking we make a name for ourselves by stealing from the marines."
"Really? Stealing from the marines?" Cassy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, I'm not saying we slaughter them or something! We just go in, show 'em our faces, knock 'em out and loot them dry!" Cliff said defending his idea.
"That could work…" Cassy said.
"That's a great idea. I can get behind that!" Taiga weighed in.
"You know, the more you open your mouth, the more I am unable to picture you as a polite man that these 2 said greeted them on Bridge Island." May said looking at Taiga.
"Hey, I'm a pirate now! I can speak how I want. Mother wanted me to be polite with the guests, so I was. But manners aren't something pirates are famous for now, is it? I can act like how I want now and not be restricting myself to keep with mother's wishes!" Taiga defended himself.
"Hum that's true." May nodded.
"Is that why you're different now, Taiga? I thought you had multiple personalities or something." Cliff said.
"HEY! Is anyone even paying attention to what I'm saying?" Cassy said, already developing a pulsing vein next to her left eye.
"No" 3 voices came.
Suddenly her fist tightened and in an incredibly quick movement she was now in front of the 3 instead of behind them. Behind her, all 3 collapsed clutching their heads that had a lump suddenly appearing there.
"It hurts…" "You're telling me…" "Why…" 3 very weak voices whimpered.
TIMESKIP 2 DAYS~
"Land Ho!" said May as she maneuvered the ship as near the land as she could. Taiga let the anchor down when signalled and then all 4 just jumped right onto land.
"The land's rather close to the ship, isn't it?" Cassy asked.
"That's cause the land abruptly falls like it would in a cliff. We anchored really close but the ship ain't in danger." Taiga answered.
The other 3 looked at Taiga weirdly, as usually he's clueless, who looks back at them with a confused frown, "What?"
"Nothing" all 3 said. Taiga looked at them with a suspicious look for a moment but it disappeared a moment later as he shrugged.
"Well, all of the things we need can be bought from the towns. We just gotta hide our faces." Cassy said.
"I can do that!" May said.
"I thought your fruit doesn't work on others beside yourself?" Cliff said.
"Just because I have a devil fruit that disguises me, doesn't mean I can't know how to disguise without using it!" she said looking happy.
"Right, you can disguise us when we get closer to the villages. Till then we gotta go through the forest." Cassy said.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Cliff said as he ran into the forest.
TIMESKIP 4 DAYS~
May was sitting on a tree stump in a destroyed clearing. She had bruises all over and seemed to be alone. The other 3 were in the clearing 'sparring'.
"How'd it come to this? Oh right! -
FLASHBACK 7 HOURS~
"I'm bored!" Cliff said before perking up as if realizing something, "Hey Cassy, Taiga, May wanna fight? Let's fight!"
Taiga perked up at his words while Cassy let a small smile on her face. May thought it was an alright idea and said yes.
Within moments a four-way fight started, all 4 attacking anything in their range. Kanabo met cutlass met sword met fist.
May managed to keep up for about 2 hours before a few hits knocked her out and her body was thrown out of the clearing. She regained consciousness within minutes afterwards and sat on the stump of a newly cut in half tree.
By the 4th hour since the fight began and 2 hours since she was knocked out, Taiga had gone hybrid and Cliff and Cassy were both mostly ganging up on him, sometimes attacking each other.
FLASHBACK END~
…
…
…
After the fight, all 4 sported a few bandages that weren't there before and now were sitting in the same clearing eating and drinking.
"We really ought to do this more!" Cliff said between bites.
"Yeah! it's fun!" Taiga cheered along.
Cassy too was smiling while drinking some rum.
"Fun they say, I was rag dolled around and thrown out." May grumbled.
"You just need to get stronger and continue fighting us. One on one or all of us, it won't matter it'll help." Cassy reassured her. "Train with me from tomorrow! We'll get you up to speed really quick!" Cassy offered.
May nodded and let out a sigh.
"Hey isn't the deck of the 'Tigress' strong enough to fight on it-" (Cliff)
"Absolutely not!" May roared. "I am not letting you barbarians destroy the beauty of my ship by fighting on it!"
"O-okay! We'll have to get some training gear from the town. W-we can train on the ship, right?" Taiga carefully asked May who had seemingly calmed down upon that suggestion.
She gave them a curt nod.
The next 5 days went by in a similar fashion. Though May did last a little longer each day in the spars but so did the spars.