– Lily –

Her captain really had a thing for theatrics it seemed, although she wasn't sure if this was a new development or if it had always been a part of his character, which she simply had not noticed until now. Either way, it was nice seeing this playful part of the old Bellamy shining through once in a while, as he had been getting increasingly more serious and tense ever since they had set foot on Jaya all those months ago. Not that she could blame him of course. Not with what they went through to get here. The Knock Up Stream, Enel and his priests, the Pacifista…Doflamingo. While there was no way that Bellamy could have known what was coming towards them, it was clear that he did have an inkling, some sort of sixth sense screaming at him that their journey was going to be much more dangerous from then on. That instinct in turn had lead him to push his crew to ever greater heights, breaking through barriers they didn’t even know could exist before...

A clear example of not only their growth but their change in perspective had been their fight with Gasparde. Before Jaya, Gasparde would have been their boogieman, an insurmountable giant wall before which they should have crumbled into despair. At the time when they faced him, he’d been a difficult challenge to fight but as they had witnessed first-hand, not an impossible one. Furthermore, that had been with only a small part of their crew and had Laki or one of the others joined in, Lily was certain that the fight would have been over much more quickly. Now though? While she wasn't confident that she could take him down by herself, Lily knew that she’d give him a good run for his money. Especially with the abilities granted to her by her new devil fruit.

“You’re wide open!”

She really wasn't open, not if the attack were this slow and this obvious. Here was a tip. If you were trying to ambush someone, it was counterproductive to scream at them as you approached. More than that, it was liable to get you hurt as the middle-aged fucker found out, when she bent him over her fist and knocked all the breath out of him. The following elbow to his spine was probably overkill, especially when combined with her knee simultaneously impacting his sternum. Consequently, the man sank to the ground, wheezing in pain before losing consciousness.

Ah, fuck. She was supposed to test out her new powers, but how was she going to do that if her opponent didn't put up a proper fight? Fuck her sharp instincts and well-trained reflexes, making her automatically take advantage of an opening. But surely this guy had a bit more in him, right? Surely, she hadn't hit him that hard and he was a paradise pirate who had reached Sabaody for crying out loud. Muret tanked blows like that regularly when they sparred and she was fragile as fuck.

“Oi, wake up! Wake up you damn fucker!” she growled at the prone man, grabbing his hair to lift his face out of the sand in order to slap him across it several times. “Show me some backbone, you little shit! Where’s your pride as a paradise veteran?”

On that note, how did one define a paradise veteran anyhow? By the length of time spent on this ocean? Or on the amount of progress made in traversing it? Did the Bellamy Pirates count as veterans? Lily reflected that it was something she could ask Izou about later over dinner as she kept slapping her opponent in an effort to wake him up.

Finally, her opponent’s eyes did snap open before he began to wildly flail around in an effort to escape. Laughing in delight, Lily released him and stepped back, granting him the time and space he needed to reorientate himself. Which he did eventually, slightly groggily getting to his two feet and shooting her a fearful look.

“M-monster!” he stammered out, trembling like an autumn leaf. He probably would have liked nothing better than to high-tail it out of here, but unfortunately for him, Lily had him trapped between a warehouse and a stack of boxes at the docks. He was not going anywhere unless it was through her, which was currently looking rather unlikely and he knew it too.

“Now that’s just plain rude. You don’t say that to a lady, ya bloody pirate!” Puh-lease, true monsters were people of the likes of Blackbeard, the Admirals or Whitebeard’s commanders. Izou had trounced her captain in a friendly sparring match yesterday and that had been him going easy. True, her captain was someone who had the potential to become a monstrously strong combatant in his own right, but he wasn’t there yet. Something her captain wasn’t ashamed to point out regularly. But he would get there eventually, Lily was sure of it.

“AAAAAHHHH!!!!” Apparently having come to the realization that he had no choice (standing still and letting her pound him probably wasn’t an acceptable option), her opponent charged her in desperation, sword held high over his head and ready to let it come crashing down on her. Quickly stepping into him, Lily placed herself on the inside of his swing radius, thus removing all chances of his sword hurting her. Then to make doubly sure, she reached out and lightly grabbed his weapon by the blade and activated her new ability. Her other hand did the same, just on his neck, his eyes consequently widening in surprise then in horror, as his body refused to listen to his commands, his rusted cervical spine no longer capable of transmitting his brain’s instructions to the rest of his body. Rusted, just like the man’s sword, which was rapidly flaking away into nothing but a handle.

“You know, I never quite understood why people explained how their power worked to their opponents. That’s basically just asking for them to find a counter and use it against you.” Lily told her opponent, whose skin was starting to turn reddish-brown. “But perhaps, they were onto something. I ate the Sabi Sabi no Mi, turning me into a rust human. Anything I touch gets turned to rust, the process happening several orders of magnitude faster than you'd find in nature. You can’t move because I rusted your spine, paralyzing you from the neck downwards. Your weapon is gone, your organs will soon shut down, oxidized into scrap. There’s literally nothing you can do against me.”

“Spare me, please.” He begged, deathly pale as he no doubt felt death’s grip tightening around him. “I’ll do anything.”

“And this feels fucking great, actually.” Lily continued, ignoring the pathetic man’s pleading. When had been the last time she had cut loose? Let out the sadistic side within her? Against Gasparde? “I’m a nice girl, so I’ll let you know how you’ll die. Right now, the rust has spread through your skeletal musculature into your organs, shutting them down one by one. When it reaches your heart…well, it’ll be goodnight, no?”

“I-I have children. And an old mother. P-please.” he tried but she wasn't having any of it.

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.” Lily replied in a singsong voice, “I can see it in your eyes.”

“Let go of him, you witch! Urgh…” Lily’s free arm snapped out to grasp her victim’s comrade by the neck, the same hold his friend was in.

“And you brought a friend! How delightful!” She wished she had another pair of hands so she could clap. Oh well, turning both of them to rust would have to do. “You thought I wasn’t aware of you sneaking up on me? How foolish of you! Like I told your friend, if you want to sneak up on someone, don’t talk. What do you say to that? Huh?”

But instead of showing her the fear she craved, the man smiled…

“B-boom, bitch!”

…and released his finger from the dead man’s switch.

“You fucker!” Lily immediately tossed both of them as far as she could from her before jumping behind a crate for cover. And not a moment too soon as the dynamite he had strapped around his chest blew both of them into smithereens. “Fuck!”

A brief look around revealed to her that she was the last one to finish up her fight, her crew mates giving her looks of concern. Fuck, this wasn't what was supposed to happen.

“Lily, are you alright?”

“I am, Shithead. Not a scratch on me. Just, fuck, I wasn’t expecting that!” Lily swore, trying to get her breathing under control and have the adrenalin rush die down. “I suppose that teaches me not to play around.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“As long as you learn, darling. As long as you learn.” Sarquiss grinned, wrapping an arm around her now that he was assured of her well-being. The others also let out relieved sighs and went about their tasks, cleaning up the battlefield. Off to the side, she saw a group of trembling captives under Eddy’s watch, most of them local villagers who had been operating the gas canisters, but with two surviving pirates amongst them. All of whom were looking at her like she was a monster. And in contrast to just a few moments ago, Lily found that it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

“I told you, don’t call me darling, Shithead!” The familiar routine felt nice, comfortable, warm. Why did their fear not excite her? Hadn’t she always wanted to see that look in the eyes of her enemies? She had liked it when she was fighting. Why not now?

“You know why, darling!” Sarquss teased, dancing out of the way of her punch, her fist missing his unprotected side by mere millimeters.

Why? Was she going soft? Why?

----------------------------------------

– Eddy –

“Well Eddy? You wanted ten minutes with the prisoners. I gave you twenty. What do you have for us?”

Eddy noted that Shura looked distinctly uncomfortable at the mention of his side-profession, but everybody else was giving him expectant looks. In hindsight, Shura had posed a challenge when compared to these mooks. This time, he barely got started before they started singing like bloody canaries on death row. In fact, they broke so fast, he didn’t even get to pull out the cheese.

“For one, they really don’t like bananas. In fact, they started going green about a minute in at the mere sight of them.” Expectation quickly morphed into exasperation, causing Eddy to cough slightly in embarrassment. Why did conversation starters have to be so difficult? “Ahem, sorry. I guess that joke fell flat…honest, just a joke. Anyway, as you may have already guessed, our visitors were members of the Musical Pirates, Byron’s old crew, although these guys were newer recruits. The only ones who were part of the original crew sadly aren’t around anymore thanks to…well, one of them electing to blow himself up with the other nearby. Hence, the quality of intel these guys had is limited to say the least.”

“Doesn’t matter. Any intel is better than no intel at this point. As long as it is accurate of course.”

“Not sure about the accuracy, but I can assure you that they at least believed what they were telling me to be the truth.” Eddy briefly glanced over to the captain who nodded for him to continue. “According to them, their main crew, which numbers some thirty members, is holed up within the mines for some reason that they aren’t aware of. They had been residing in the mayor’s mansion up until recently before their new captain suddenly decided that they were moving their base.”

“And they have no idea why?”

“None at all. Though one of them did mention that the day after, two new recruits joined the crew. While this isn’t anything unusual per se, these two were significantly older than the average age at recruitment. Our prisoners estimate them to be in their mid-fifties, though apart from that, they haven’t noticed anything unusual.” Eddy answered, “The two apparently keep to themselves and only have minimal duties around the camp, because the captain told them to respect the elderly. What is more interesting is the stack of dynamite the Musical Pirates have buried in one of the side tunnels.”

“So like Sarquiss & Eddy mentioned earlier? Wouldn’t that trap them as well?” Mani asked.

“No, as they had an escape tunnel prepared, which is also rigged to blow as soon as they’ve escaped through it.”

“Ok, so we know which tunnels NOT to go through. But the fact that they prepared traps implies that they knew we were coming, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, captain. Apparently, they started preparing the day after they moved into the mines, some five days ago. Which is also when they started taking the women and children of the town hostage to force the locals to cooperate.”

“They didn’t do that previously?”

“My former first mate isn’t stupid enough to think that such a method will work long term. It’s much more effective to give the townsfolk hope and enough normality to motivate them to work, rather than something this heavy-handed.” Byron stated, frowning slightly. “This seems unlike him.”

“Like I said, it was a recent development. In the three months prior to this, they did like you said, just demanding a regular tribute as protection fees.” Eddy explained, shrugging. He wasn't sure why they changed either. Neither of his prisoners knew.

“What about the local marine garrison?” Nero raised a hand.

“Slaughtered to a man. There weren’t many left to begin with, not after Marineford drained the garrison of every marine above the rank of petty officer.” At that, Nero leaned back, seemingly unconcerned with their fate, satisfied that the marines weren't around anymore.

“Can we wait them out?”

“We could, Rivers, if we were prepared to wait about half a year. They’ve stashed near every scrap of food in the town within those mines as if they were preparing for a siege.”

“Or it’s just another method to maintain control over the locals.” Laki interjected. “Like Enel did with the V-earth on Shandora.”

“That’s what their captain told them at least.”

“Fuck, we’re going to have to go in there, aren’t we?” Lily groused. “Unless we want to wait around for the marines to come back.”

“I’m more interested in knowing how they found out we were coming. Didn’t the captain say that Disco was covering our tracks?” Ross wondered aloud.

“Disco is only blinding Doflamingo to our movements, not these chumps.” Hewitt replied, “Though, you’re certain that they were waiting specifically for us?”

“Yup. Their mission was to use poison gas to kill us if possible or lead us into the trap if plan A failed.” And hadn’t that been a revelation? Just because Disco was keeping Doflamingo off their backs didn’t mean they were safe. Though, did this also mean that the Warlord could find them sooner than Disco had estimated? Questions for the future.

“And it’s only the one tunnel that is trapped?”

“Only the one. They aren’t suicidal.”

“Might as well be, challenging us like that.” Hewitt snorted. “These guys were chumps.”

Eddy found himself agreeing with the sentiment. Each and every one of them could have taken their attackers down on their own tonight.

“One of the locals has agreed to lead us to where the enemy is residing in exchange for his safety and that of his family. Plus, one other thing.” Eddy continued, before glancing at Lily who bristled in response.

“What, dickhead? If you want to say something, just say it!”

“He requested that, and I quote: the crazy woman be kept away from him and his family. You made quite the impression earlier, Lily.”

“Grrrr. Why I oughta…” Lily made to get up, a scowl on her face when the captain held up a hand.

“You ought to calm down, Lily. Sit down and let Eddy finish.”

“Aye, captain.”

“There isn’t much more to say. The only other factor to consider is that they’ll be waiting for the ambush party to return soon, so if we want to catch them by surprise, we should move sooner rather than later.” Eddy finished, sitting back down.

“I suppose that’s decided then. We’re going into the mines of Silverstadt. Rivers, Laki.”

“Yes, captain.” “Yes, captain!”

“You guard the ship. Both of you will be more effective above ground. Aisa, you too.” The captain rattled off, getting nods in return.

“Are you sure we won’t need Aisa down there? It’s a warren from what I’ve heard.” Having a competent sensor would be a huge boon down within that maze.

“Izou-san is coming along, so we should be fine.” Bellamy answered, jerking a thumb in the commander’s direction who happily waved. “Helping us avoid ambushes shouldn’t be too much trouble for him. Any more questions or comments?”

“No, captain!”

“Then people, let’s move!” Bellamy ordered. “We’re finishing this tonight!”

“Aye aye, captain!”

The Bellamy Pirates were on the hunt.