"So this is the place, huh?" Jackie seemed much more cheerful to the rest of his crew, much to the relief of Elma in particular.

The Whitebeard pirates were making plans to approach the harbour. Of the three ships, only the main ship, which was Whitebeard's, was to dock at the island. Supplies would be delivered to the other two ships by smaller boats.

The two captains of the ships were quite interesting. Out of the two, the most dangerous-looking was the man wearing a white coat, and a wide-brimmed hat of the same colour.

He looked to be in his late forties, and had a light stubble covering his jaw. His black hair was quite long and messy, and was combed lazily to both sides of his head. His brown eyes were barely open, and made his already tired-looking appearance look even more weary.

His name was Michael Caine, and he was apparently the captain of a research vessel before defecting from England and joining the Whitebeard pirates. Eddie was keen on talking to him since he was also a professor, but he was next to unapproachable.

They had already met the second captain. She was captain Sue Cotton, and wasn't nearly as intimidating as Caine, despite her all-black fashion sense and the apparent respect everyone in her crew had for her.

In fact, she was quite bubbly and cheerful, and seemed to harbor a dislike for Caine. Though Caine didn't appear to care at all.

Now, the two continued their conversation with their captain, Whitebeard, as the ship prepared to make contact with Tierra Dorada.

"You two can hold the fort here. We don't need to provoke Spanish forces right now. We're just here for supplies, after all." Cotton raised an eyebrow and looked at him dubiously. "Like I believe that. You just want to explore this garbage heap of an island."

Whitebeard grinned mischievously and walked away. Cotton sighed and elbowed Caine. "He's gonna stir up some trouble for sure. You should keep an eye on him."

Caine's eyes were just barely visible under the shadow of his hat. "Huh? Why should I go? You should be the one to go, since you're useless on land anyway. Nobody will notice you when you hide your ley." He let out a clearly deliberate yawn, and started walking away.

"Oi! Are you calling me weak on land or something, Weed Head?" Cotton yelled. Caine only laughed dryly and continued walking away.

Rosa watched all this and asked Eddie, "Is this really gonna be fine? They don't look very...stealthy...to me."

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Listen, Rosa, those are captains of an Ascendant's fleet. I'm sure they'll be perfectly fine."

He then proceeded to give the old fish eye to the short, blonde haired idiot in the black leather coat behind him.

"Though I can't say the same for our own captain."

Naturally, Jackie heard this. And immediately chose to ignore that, too. "When are you ever gonna be excited when we're about to visit some place new?" He asked, glaring at the nonchalant expression of Eddie.

"Oh, would you prefer me to skip around squealing like some kind of a humanoid pig whenever we see land?" Eddie shot back.

As the two continued their bickering, Whitebeard spun the wheel of the ship to the right to steer it to the island's shores. "Don't those two piss ya off, Captain?" Brice asked him, another chicken leg in his mouth as usual. It's almost like a fashion sense at this point.

Whitebeard laughed. "Them? Piss me off? They aren't even close to the level of annoyance Caine and Cotton have in their arguments. And not to mention you constantly stealing food from the storage room." Brice bowed down humbly. "It's my pleasure ta annoy yer, captain."

As they got closer to the island, the general idea of what life was like there became apparent. The houses were small and build from hardened clay. The roads were gritty and uneven, and occasionally littered with wooden crates for the shopkeepers and farmers to carry fruits and vegetables in.

Whitebeard knew quite a bit about Tierra Dorada. He was wary about the Spanish defence of the place, but that wasn't the main issue.

The issue was the citizens of the island themselves. It was a seedy place to say the least, and people were constantly getting robbed, murdering each other or dying of starvation. This was one of the reasons why he wanted the two other ships to stay back and just approach with the Ivory instead. It was too much trouble to jump into.

Borris understood all of this as well. Out of all the people on the Ivory, the only people who understood Whitebeard to such a level were Borris himself and Old Man Jack. Nobody knew how Jack was connected to Whitebeard, though.

He tied his hair back in the usual ponytail, and walked downstairs to prepare the crates and check the food storage room.

Once the Ivory was safely tied to the harbor's stone platform, some of the crew members brought over a plank and laid it out over the gap between one of the lower decks and the platform.

"This ship is way too big for us to descend from the top deck, huh?" Eddie asked the two men, who were checking to see if the plank was steady.

"Huh? Well yeah. This ship has 14 decks, so it ain't a big shock." One of them replied. He seemed proud of the ship, though.

The other one grinned, his smile a bit lacking in teeth, but genuine. "This ship is captain Whitebeard's, after all. It has to be on his level."

Though it was to be expected, the amount of complete faith and awe of Whitebeard among his crew members was nonetheless heartwarming to Eddie.

"So are we gonna disembark now?" Jackie asked. Normally, he'd have run off straight away, so Elma was relieved that he understood his position on Whitebeard's ship.

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Why do I always have to babysit him though? Why can't it be Eddie or Rosa?

Whitebeard laughed. "Well we ain't exactly gonna check the island out with our telescopes, are we?" He took a few baskets, and handed two to Jackie.

Jackie gave one of the two to Elma. "What's with the baskets? I thought we were here to restock the supplies?" Jackie asked.

"Well why not buy some extra stuff now that we're here? Lighten up a bit!" Whitebeard replied cheerfully, and skipped over the plank onto the island.

Jackie was about to follow when he heard Borris yelling in their direction.

"HEY!" Borris ran over, holding a drab brown cloak on each arm. "Were you trying to run off without wearing these?" He demanded. Whitebeard slowly shifted his eyes away from Borris. "Nope. No way."

He's a terrible liar! Jackie thought in awe. Here stood the second most feared pirate in the world, and it appeared he couldn't lie to save his life.

"Whatever. In any case, you're wearing this whether you want to or not. You really have to remember you're one of the most famous pirates in the world, you know." He muttered, giving his captain and Jackie the cloaks. As Jackie was pulling the hood over his head, he saw Elma running towards them with a cloak already on over her blue shirt and black trousers.

Crap. She's coming too? He wondered. His day definitely didn't seem to be getting any easier. "Hey, asshole! Ready for some exploring?" She was even more difficult than usual. Probably because she just had breakfast.

Borris sighed. "Can you all at least try to behave for goodness sake? Everyone is busy at the ship, and I'm one of the guys managing them. So try to think for us too, alright?"

Whitebeard laughed his usual flamboyant laugh. "I'll keep my eyes on these two kids, don't worry!"

Borris pulled out his pistol with a smile. "Say that again, Captain-Who-Accidentally-Blew-Up-An-Entire-Island-While-Drunk?" He pointed the gun at Whitebeard, the aggressive smile still on his face.

"Alright, I get it. I'll be careful. Happy?" Whitebeard finally caved, and sulked his way towards the noisy streets just a few dozen meters off the platform. With his head under the hood of the cloak, Jackie discreetly followed.

Elma leaned towards him as they walked. "Did he really say Whitebeard blew up a whole island while drunk?!"

"Dunno. But if Borris said it it's gotta be true." He whispered back.

Tierra Dorada was an eerie place. There were plenty of people, but almost all of them seemed to be beggars or among the homeless. The houses weren't all too well built either, with a lot of them were actually made of clay rather than stone. Jackie and Elma could both smell rotting garbage and decaying meat everywhere on the poorly paved street.

"I mean it when I say you two have to be cautious, you hear me?" Whitebeard turned around, and the two could see he was being serious. "This place is a haven for thieves, outcasts and murderers. Watch your backs."

Jackie grinned. "What, you think this is our first party in a place like this? We've seen quite a few trashy places ourselves, thank you very much!" I can't say a lot can beat this place... Elma thought to herself, catching a whiff of what seemed to be steak. Only this particular steak smelled as though it had been burned to ashes.

Whitebeard shrugged and kept walking. They turned into a dark, narrow alley, and walked out onto what looked like the main street. Overhead were five arching bridges, casting even more dark shadows on the already gloomy road.

"This city is actually pretty well-populated huh?" Elma murmured.

"This place has a total population of 470,000. At least, that's what it was the last time I was here. Who knows how many people live here now?" Whitebeard replied.

The street was extremely crowded, with dozens of people walking together in groups. Several of them, Elma noticed, had knives and pistols strapped to their belts or to knee straps.

"Come get your fresh fried shrimp here! You won't find any better than these!"

"Every kinda fish yeh could ever want! Right here in Rico's fish stand!"

The reason for the large crowd was quite obvious. Everyone here was shopping, or working for the shops and wooden stalls set up along the side of the road.

Whitebeard walked up to a particularly large stall, with two boys around the age of 13 or 14 helping a bulky man who appeared to be in his late 40s. Despite the thick beard that lined his jaw and the tattoo of a dagger on his neck, his brown eyes were bright and sincere.

"Kuko, you sly fox. How have you been?" Whitebeard asked the man as he stepped towards the stall. The man, whose name was apparently Kuko, was delighted to see the Ascendant .

"Edison! It's been two years! You should've told me if you were coming!" His voice was also quite gentle, and yet still firm.

"Who's Edison?" Elma asked Jackie.

"I've heard that's what Whitebeard's real name actually is. I heard the old guy, Jack, also say something about an Edison on the Ivory." He replied. Kuko glanced over at them and raised an eyebrow at Whitebeard. Rather than reply or explain, Whitebeard chose to laugh instead.

"Don't worry about these two. They ended up on the Ivory after getting shipwrecked by Blackbeard." He said this rather casually. Too casually, perhaps; two or three men glanced uneasily at them as they passed the stall.

"Edison! Talk about these things quieter than that!" Kuko whispered frantically. Whitebeard only chuckled. "Come on, Kuko. There's nobody in Spain I fear, forget this island."

Kuko shook his head. "At least think about your crew for goodness sake." He looked over at Jackie and Elma with an apologetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry you've had to deal with him."

Elma waved his apologies aside. "Please. My captain and him are two peas in a pod." Kuko smiled at Elma. "I'm sure, miss. I have an eye for people like him."

Jackie raised an eyebrow. I'm standing right here, Kuko.

Kuko put his hands together and returned his gaze to Whitebeard. "In any case, you're my customer today, so I must ask you what you need from this humble stall owner." He said, his tone high and bright.

Whitebeard inspected the several baskets piled high with oranges, pears, apples, and water apples. Most amazing of all were the dozen red-and-green coloured dragonfruits in a basket at the back of the store. Clearly they weren't for sale, though Jackie's stomach rumbled at the thought of eating a couple. They cost way too much anyway. Six Gold for a single dragonfruit was ridiculous. (Author's note: 10 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin)

"I'm just here on some shopping, Kuko! We need to restock the ship's supplies, so I'd really appreciate it if you gave a hand." Whitebeard motioned at the crates at the back of the stalls, and Kuko nodded in acknowledgement.

Are we supposed to just stand around here? Elma wondered, watching Jackie play around with a white moth. I'm surprised there's enough life here for moths to live.

Whitebeard motioned at the two of them, and they walked up to the stall. Elma was expecting something heavy duty, like carrying the big crates to the ship. Instead, Kuko motioned them to the pile of pears kept in one of the rectangular crates.

"Now go ahead, fill up those two baskets with pears so we can get the hell outta here!" Whitebeard ordered, and walked off into the street with Kuko.

Elma stared hard at Jackie. "Did we come here along with him just to be his unpaid servants?"

He shrugged, and started taking pears. "Beats me. But we owe him for saving our lives and giving us a place to stay, so I guess it's the least we can do." She knew he was right, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

She heard the footsteps before Jackie did.

They were small, quick steps taken by light feet. Elma whirled her head around, and saw a small hooded figure flash past Jackie. His basket was gone, and a couple of pears rolled around on the ground.

"Fuck!" He yelled, and dashed off after them.

Elma started following, but realized two people chasing one particularly small person would be too suspicious. Not to mention someone had to tell Whitebeard what happened. Dammit! Why am I always the one who gets the chores?

All she could do was pray he didn't do anything stupid.