Lia's POV;

“We have to raise this flag or they will shoot at us”, informed Igaram us shortly before we reached the secret port. Jonny quickly climbed our mast up and the flag of the royal family of Nefeltari was fluttering next to our own.

“Shoot at us like this?”, I asked only a few minutes later, while watching the incoming cannonballs. None of the dozen black orbs would hit us, but they did fire at us while having the flag raised.

Igaram's shocked outcry and shouted why was drowned by the sound of exploding water. A fine mist of water began to soak us and I had to shoot down a few cannonballs that would have hit us with their next volley.

“This can't be right, aren't they seeing the flag? Even pirates are allowed to approach with this flag”, questioned Igaram afraid.

“Lia can you see something?”, asked Lara me from my side, she was calm, knowing that I would not let a single shot hit us.

“Yes, there are a dozen cannons built into the cliff, all of them are aiming at shooting at us. The attackers are wearing clothes that seem to be of military design. Am I allowed to take the cannons out?”, I replied and readied a couple of steel pebbles.

“You can't kill them, this could all be just a misunderstanding”, pleaded Igaram. I looked at Lara for confirmation and got a nod with a sorry. So no killing it was. Too bad.

“I have to destroy the cannons, this might hurt those close to them, but probably not fatally.” Igaram did not look happy with this but nodded nonetheless. He knew that this was the minimum we could do without getting ourself in danger. The closer we get the harder it will be to destroy the cannonballs.

I aimed and then threw two pebbles at once. Each hit the barrel of a cannon right after it shot. The hardened steel hit the cast iron and left a deep indent. The cannon would not be useable now, or they risk an exploding barrel.

I then shot the incoming attack down and threw two more pebbles at the next two cannons. This repeated until none of their weapons was left intact. Without being shoot upon we could sail into the port.

“It's me Igaram, stop attacking”, shouted Igaram while standing on the railing. The answer came in the form of a bullet. Lara had only enough time to pull him back down before it hit the railing.

“Yosaku, Jonny, Jo take them out, but don't kill them”, ordered Lara. The three addressed jumped off board and landed in the middle of a group of Alabasta soldiers. They at least looked like them.

The next second one of these soldiers fell limply down, his joints dislocated. Two others were bashed into a wall from Yosaku's heavy sword, while Jonny used his lighter one to inflict numerous small cuts on his opponent.

“Huh? That was easy, how come they are so weak?”, questioned Yosaku slightly confused. He looked at his sword, a sword he could only lift with two hands when he got it but was now holding easily with one hand.

“Well, doesn't matter now”, he then said with a shrug and run into two more soldiers. They tried to parry his attack, yet were ultimately overwhelmed and pushed away. Yosaku then hit one of them with the pommel of his blade and the other with his fist. They were out cold and no longer a threat.

Igaram still tried to speak with the soldiers, but none of them was listening. And the reason for that was quickly found out by Lara. She has walked to one of the downed soldiers and inspected his wrist. There she found some bandages and under them the tattoo of the Baroque Works.

“These aren't your soldiers Igaram, they are agents from Crocodile, most likely here to stop you or any attempt of escape”, she then said and showed him the tattoo.

Igaram visibly deflated under these news. If even trusted soldiers like these were under the payment of Crocodile, then nothing and no one could be trusted.

“Well, well, well, who have we here. Some filthy pirates trying to pillage?”, asked suddenly a man. He came out of a guard house was fairly okay in the looks department and had black and short hair. A woman, who also has black but long hair, was standing next to him, she too was not uneasy on the eyes.

They both weren't clothed in the soldier uniform. He wore a black suit and she a red gala dress. A strange style for a desert island. It would be more appropriate on a ball or some high society party.

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“Who are you?”, asked Igaram angrily. Isn't that obvious? They are the Baroque Work agents in charge of this. Probably some number agents. But which number?

“Ah yes introductions. My name is Mr. 12 and this lovely lady here is Miss Saturday. And you must be Igaram, leader of the Royal Guard as well as the sisters Slicer Lara and True Shot Lia. What high guests we have today, am I right Miss Saturday?” He finished his introduction with a mockingly low bow.

“Indeed Mr. 12”, she gave us a gracious curtsey but said nothing else.

“It's a pity, really, we both are well aware that we don't stand a chance against you in a fight. And yet we are forced to, if we don't want to face the wrath of our boss. A dilemma truly.” Yes, that was really a pity. He was between a rock and a hard place.

“You see, I would really like to live for a few more years. Isn't it possible to come to some form of agreement?”, he further said. Not having to fight here might be good, it would allow us to conserve our strength.

“And that is why I wish to ask you to simply leave this place. Maybe you could hand over Igaram and then set sail to the next island? All this is surely way too much trouble for such esteemed and powerful pirates such as you, am I right?” Yes, having Igaram with us did slow us down and we had to change our course for him. Without him we might have been able to hunt more Marine ships or some pirates.

“Lia, use Haki”, said Lara suddenly. I looked over at her and noticed how she was glaring at Mr. 12, what has he done against her? Nonetheless I did as she said and added Haki to my whole body. My skin gained a purple colour and I even added it to my lungs and eyes.

Suddenly, I had to cough strongly and some whitish slime came out. I looked at it for a moment and then realised that this guy must have some Devil Fruit that allows his victims to agree with what he says. But why isn't Lara... oh yes, [Calm Mind].

“You know, I was tempted to let you go. Only just because you haven't attacked us, but then I saw how my dear sister was so easily agreeing with what you've said and noticed that you were doing something.

Influencing my sister against her will can only mean death”, declared Lara. Mr. 12 was now looking slightly pale and fearful at her.

“How could you resist my allure? No one ever was able to resist it so easily, especially with something so small,” he questioned.

“Your Devil Fruit is interesting but ineffective against me. Now please be so kind and die!”, declared Lara. She drew her sword and rushed at Mr. 12 only to be blocked by two daggers, wielded by Miss Saturday.

Lara only glanced at her, before applying some of her own power on her sword. And with a metallic ping the daggers were cut in two. Then a short sound of something getting shredded was heard and Miss Saturday was also cut in two. One half of her fell to the left, the other one to the right.

Her organs spilt over the ground and a large red pool of puddle started to form. Mr. 12 was looking wide-eyed and with horror at the remains of his partner.

“Nooo Valer...y!” The clearly anguished cry of Mr. 12 was cut short by impalement. Lara pierced his throat with her sword. He could only gurgle a few not understandable words before dying as well. He fell right in between the bloody remains of Miss Saturday.

“That will teach him, no one mess with the mind of my Lia”, huffed Lara. She sheathed her sword, kicked the dead body in the groin and then stomped over to me and gave me a hug.

“I'm sorry, “I apologised. If I had stayed more aware I might have been able to defend myself from this. This clearly shows that you don't have to be physically strong to be dangerous.

“It's okay, nothing happened”, she assured me and let go of the hug. She then used her vibration to burn the corpses into ashes.

“I, thank you, Lara, I, would not know what would have happened without your intervention”, stuttered Igaram. He was starring at the still burning remains of the two, slightly pale.

“Sis Lara, we're finished over here”, shouted Jonny suddenly from further upwards. He was looking down at us from the balustrade that holds the cannons.

“Good, round them up, we have to look how many of them are from Baroque Works and how many were controlled by this Mr. 12 guy”, ordered Lara. We three, Igaram, Lara and I then went up the stairs to see how many there were.

We found 15 soldiers, five of them were from Baroque Work. The remaining ten did not have any symbol or tattoo of the organisation.

“Let's wake them up and listen to what they have to say”, declared Igaram. He woke one of the 'good' soldiers up and waited for him to gain his bearings.

“Who are you?”, questioned the soldier.

“I'm Igaram, you should know me”, answered Igaram with a frown.

“You can't be him, Lord Igaram is with Princess Vivi. He wouldn't leave her. Mr. 12 told us about you, you are one of those criminals that can change faces”, he shouted back.

“No I am not, I, ehem, mimimi, I am Igaram, leader of the Royal Guard. Princess Vivi is on her own way with trusted guards”, he declared and pulled some medallion out. It showed the emblem of the Nefeltari family.

The soldier eyed the emblem for a moment before he became wide-eyed and pale. “But that is, that is the Insignia of the Royal Guard. Then, please Lord Igaram I didn't know. We thought you were an imposter.”

“I understand and don't condemn you for what you have done. It seems like you had almost no choice. This Mr. 12 had a Devil Fruit that allowed him to convince people to do things that they would normally never do.

Tell me, what is the state of the country?” Igaram loosened the ropes that were binding the soldier and stepped back.

“Yes, my lord. We were stationed here like always. I am sorry to say, but we don't know much about the recent happenings. Our guard shift lasts for a whole months and we are in our third week. But from before that, it doesn't look too well.

The drought hasn't stopped and the plight our people are suffering from hasn't lessened at all. Only Rainbase has enough water for everyone now.

If nothing happens soon, civil war will truly break out. You must do something, Kohza is hell bend on ending King Cobra.” The soldier was on his knees and pleaded at Igaram with tears streaming down his face.

“It is not Kohza we have to worry about. But that is for a later time, tell me, is one of the super spot-billed duck squad still here? We need them to reach King Cobra”, said Igaram. He was way more serious and even stopped with his stupid mimimi thing.

“Yes, they are always stationed here, in case an emergency happens. Follow me”, answered the guard. He led us in a stable with four ducks. Giant, pony-sized ducks.

“Quack?”, greeted us one of the ducks, he was smoking a cigarette.

“I need you and your squad, we have to reach Alubarna as quickly as possible. Can you do that?”, asked Igaram the duck.

“Quack!”, answered the duck with a salute.

“There are only four of you, we are eight. Some of us have to stay here”, cursed Igaram then. He turned around to me and Lara and looked at us apologetically.

“No problem, I think Nojiko, Jo will come with you, while Lia and I will use the last one and biggest duck to go to Rainbase. I heard it is the town in which Crocodile resides mostly in.

Both of us are small enough to be carried together if the duck is strong enough”, answered Lara with a looked at said ducks. They puffed their feathers out and looked at her as if they got insulted.

“QUACK!”, shouted the biggest of them. He stomped up to Lara and looked down at her. Yes, this duck was taller than 1.6 meters.

“Hoh, so you say that you can carry me and my sister easily to Rainbase?”, questioned Lara. She got a resolute nod from the big duck.

“Good, then that is cleared. Let's go back and make some plans”, she then said and we left the stable. The soldier stayed to prepare the saddles.

Why are we going to Rainbase? Crocodile will come to Alubarna anyway. Have to ask her later, she will have her reasons.