– Bellamy –

I was never calling anything a walk in the park ever again. Ever. Honestly, I should also have known better than to trust Sabo's stupid grinning face. At the very least, I should have suspected something was up when the chief of staff hadn't specified where the island actually was. As it turned out, Silver Mine was located in the initial sections of the New World and Sabo had forgotten to mention that little tidbit until we were well on our way to Sabaody.

Understandably, I was tad miffed at the whole situation. Not about the need for us to travel to the New World, mind you. Heavens knew we'd been travelling to and fro from Paradise every time we visited Baltigo. It was about the route Sabo had chosen. Now, under normal circumstances the underwater passage near the archipelago would present the fastest, and arguably safest, route from Paradise into the New World. Unfortunately for us, present times were anything but normal.

Despite the chaotic aftermath of the Summit War and the heavy casualties they had sustained, ten months had been enough time for the Marines to put their house in order. The new Fleet Admiral hadn't been idle either after assuming his new office and had energetically gotten to work dyeing the marines with his brand of Absolute Justice. New recruits had been trained, order in core areas reestablished and the Akainu had managed to solidify his control over the global organisation. The final piece of puzzle in removing Sengoku's influence was to be the relocation of the Marine HQ from the pulverized Marineford to the New World.

As a consequence, the route from Sabaody was absolutely clogged with marine vesssels, personnel and civilian contractors. Meaning that trying to sneak an infamous pirate frigate past all that security unnoticed… that had sounded like a spectacularly stupid idea. Sabo, who I had been increasingly certain would be classified as being certifiably insane by any self respecting psychiatrist, had just given me a bright grin and said:

"Trust me."

I hadn't. Not in the slightest. Unfortunately, with no other viable plan of action, I had been forced to hand over the reins of the operation to my friend of questionable mental stability. After a brief stop at Shakky's, both to say hello and pick up the letter she'd asked me to deliver, Sabo quickly got to work. For all that it was a monstrously powerful and dangerous organisation, the World Government was also horrendously corrupt and rotten to its core. Likewise, not every marine in the navy was a dedicated guardian of justice, whatever the trending definition may be at the time. Nezumi being a prime example.

Thus, a few stacks of bills in the right hands resulted in the guards waving us through with nary a fuss. Those senior officers, who turned out to be unbribeable, were conveniently drawn away from their posts at the right time by an accident requiring their urgent attention elsewhere. Of course, my Crew and I had to stay hidden during the entire process while Sabo's men manned my disguised ship, but that was a small price to pay for our safe passage.

Robin and I spent that time continuing our regular training sessions. More specifically, training her haki. Despite knowing a lot about it, Robin hadn't ever displayed the capability to use either armament or observation in the canon timeline. At least not to my knowledge. And honestly? I had never understood why.

In terms of sheer strength of will and determination, she would have placed very highly even amongst the Straw Hat crew. In terms of theoretical expertise, I highly doubted that any of her crewmates would be able to hold a candle to my girlfriend. And finally, the Revolutionary Army should have been more than capable of providing an instructor had she ever needed one. The ingredients were all there, but for some unknowable reason, Oda had neglected to give Robin haki.

Personally speaking, this was an affront that needed to be rectified. And rectify it we did. Izou's lessons had proven invaluable at the start in helping Robin to unlock both observation and armament, but he had left the two of us to our own devices afterwards and wandered off to focus on the others. He had also given me a rather conspicuous wink before closing the door, much to Robin's amusement.

"How was that?" Robin asked me after we finished sparring for a bit.

"Better. Much better." I answered. "It already wasn't easy to get into close range before, but now it's actually a challenge to try and hit you."

Once she had clued in to the fact that her usual method of breaking her opponent's spine wouldn't work on me, she'd turned to other means to stop my approach. We were experimenting with a lot of different ideas, some useful and others not so useful but we were making steady progress. One such brainchild had been blooming a veritable forest of limbs into existence around her to create a defensive barrier, composed of hundreds of arms all coated in armament and using fishman karate to slap unwary attackers into submission.

"Yet, you still succeeded. Rather easily too." Robin pointed out, though without losing her smile. I matched it with one of my own.

While such a fortress theoretically had the potential to be inpenetrable, its effectiveness depended a lot on Robin's ability. As she was still in the first stages of learning both haki and fishman karate, bulldozing my way through today had been a viable strategy. However, it was far from certain that the same method would continue to work in the future once she got the hang of both disciplines.

"I've haki too, you know, and I've had it for longer." I reminded her. "You'll get there with time."

"Hmmm." Robin hummed in agreement, palming her left cheek. "It won't take that much longer either, I think. Especially when I have such a nice practice dummy."

"Wow. Way to make a man feel appreciated."

"Nice of me, wasn't it?" she teased before scooching over to hug me. I returned it. "But really. Thanks. And I'm not only talking about today, either."

"Uhm…it was nothing?"

"No, it wasn't nothing." Robin refuted while gently grasping my face between her soft hands. "You saved my life on Tequila Wolf. And even if it weren't for that, I know that you went out of your way for me when you didn't have to. Several times in fact. So, again. Thank you for helping me, Bellamy. I'm not sure how I can ever repay you but I will."

"You don't need to, Robin. Honestly, it was my pleasure."

"Then this is for mine."

Then, as I had half been hoping, she slowly leaned in and gently covered my lips with her own. It was brief kiss and mostly chaste, but regardless I was left gasping for air afterwards. Robin was breathing heavily as well, her cheeks tinted red and her eyes shining with mirth, as well as something I could not quite identify. On instinct, I reached out to take hold of her cheeks in the same way she held mine, slowly closing the distance between us once again.

"Captain! You're gonna want to see this!" Or at least I was going to, when Rivers slammed the door open before proceeding to close it just as energetically. "Errr… I didn't see anything?"

"Rivers. This better be important…" The or else was implied, but from the way my sniper slash scout blanched, the message was delivered loud and clear.

"Uh... Aisa sensed something and sounded the alarm? Does that count?"

Exchanging a quick glance with Robin, I sighed and got to my feet. "I suppose it does. Let's get out there and have a look. Rivers, your bloody timing was impeccable by the way. It physically couldn't have been any worse."

"I'm sorry?" Rivers squeaked. Robin just giggled.

"Fufufufu."

Seriously. What perfect timing.

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– Lily –

Lily knew that the world was odd and filled with crazy people. This had been true back home in the Blues and it was doubly true on the Grand Line. Heck, the old coots back home were liable to have thought her insane for casting away her inheritance and running off to join a pirate crew. But in her entire life, she hadn't believed she'd ever meet anyone with a less sea worthy mode of transportation than the Blackbeard pirates and their raft.

"Here, have some tea. It will warm you guys up in a jiffy."

"Thank you, Mr. Cook. That's very kind of you."

"Oh, think nothing of it. If you need anything else, just let me know. Like Blackleg would say, nobody goes hungry on my ship."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Blackleg? As in the Straw Hat Sanji?"

"Yeah, he's somebody I respect a lot."

Fate had laughed and decided to prove her wrong. Like it always did. You'd think that she would learn, but Lily continued to be surprised each and every time. In a way, it was the consequence of maintaining a tenuous hold on her faith in rationality and reason in an absurd world.

But even with all that… a fish?

"Funkfreed, can you get a couple more blankets from below deck? These girls are freezing."

"Arouu?"

"No, I don't need anything else. Just the blankets, please."

"Pawoo?"

"On second thought… that's a pretty good idea actually. Funkfreed, well done. Mind picking up a packet while you're down there? They should be in the third medicine cabinet."

"Arouuuh."

"It's the fifth, you say? Are you sure?"

"Barooha!"

"When did you reorganize the cabinets?"

"Pawoo."

Admittedly, it was a large fish and kitted out with all manner of gadgets and weaponry, but at the end of the day, it was still just that. A bloody fish. And this lunatic had decided to enter the New World while riding on its back. As had the redhead's crew of thirty female racers. For a quartermaster like Lily whose entire job consisted of trying to keep her crew fed and alive, this decision was like the very incarnation of incomprehensible negligence.

What was it about the East Blue that kept producing nutjobs like these?

What about supplies? And shelter? Where would they sleep? How were they going to keep themselves from getting lost on the Grand Line? For that matter, how had they remained together as a cohesive group without the crazy weather scattering them to the four winds?

"Not that I'm ungrateful or anything, but how did you guys find us in time to rescue us? Vision was severely limited due to all that mist."

"You can thank Aisa over here. She's the one who heard you and convinced us to come have a look. She's also the one who told us that you seemed like a nice person which clinched it, so to say."

"You've got to be kidding me, captain. That little girl?"

"Yep, her. She's probably worth thrice as much as you are by the way, so do play nice."

"She's got a bounty of a hudnred and fifty million belli? Wait a goddamn minute. There's only one child on the six seas with that bounty… which means you're…"

"Springtrap Bellamy at your service. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Captain Desire."

The utterly ridiculous amount of arrogance this girl must have had to dare enter the New World in such an unprepared manner… it boggled Lily's mind. Not that the girl, who'd introduced herself as Desire, seemed that confident or arrogant now. When they'd fished her and hers out of the water, they had looked more like a bunch of drowned cats with how they were bundled up in borrowed towels.

By the time that Lily and co had reached the scene, the Sweet Pirates were in the process of being gunned down by a cruiser and she'd seemed rather shellshocked after her crew's close brush with death. In fact, Lily was certain that most of them wouldn't even be alive right now if it hadn't been for Laki and Rivers sinking the hostile vessel.

"Laki, I don't think I like her anymore."

"Is it because she didn't recognize you, Aisa?"

"Uhhhh… no?"

The attackers themselves had been allowed to flee on a lifeboat, though unbeknownst to them they were being followed by Rivers and Fuza. It was only a matter of time before they found the pirate base, though Lily had the faint suspicion that she already knew where it was. After all, there was nothing of interest in the near vicinity except from the Isle of Silver Mine.

Her hunch was proven correct not long after that when Rivers returned from his little scouting mission along with another informational tidbit. Turned out that Silver Bill had been behind the attack against the Sweet Pirates, though what reasons the newest Super Rookie could have possibly had remained a mystery. Perhaps he'd been trying to protect his silver mines from possible interlopers?

"Do you have any idea why you were attacked?"

"None whatsoever. From our perspective, the ambush came out of nowhere. When I get my hands upon the one responsible for this, I'm going to make the bastard regret ever messing with the fastest racers from the East Blue."

"You certainly seem motivated."

"Why not? They hurt my friends. That should be reason enough. Though, may we trouble you for a ride?"

"You're going after them right now?"

"Yep. Granny always used to say not to leave problems unsolved until tomorrow. It's like old grease on the stove, she'd tell me. You either use a little bleach now or the whole bottle later."

"Makes sense, I suppose."

If that were the case, Lily pitied the man. She wouldn't begrudge a man fighting to defend what he believed rightfully his. Not to mention that the whole might-makes-right attitude had been slowly loosing its lustre for her. But the Revolutionary Army wanted that island and the Bellamy Pirates were honor bound to assist them. Plus, from the way her captain was comforting Desire, it seemed that he'd taken a shine to the East Blue rookie.

"Well, we were going after him already, so why not?"

"I call dibs on the bastard."

"Sure. You can have the first crack at him."

"…that was easy."

"If you want to do my work for me, please. Be my guest."

No, Lily wouldn't begrudge Bill the right to defend his current territory. However, when it came down to it, she would always prioritize the interests of her crew and their allies. Anyway, with the Bellamy pirates and the vengeful Sweet Pirates bearing down upon him, Silver Bill was about to have a very bad day.

"Guys, let's move! We've got an island to liberate."

"Aye, aye captain!"

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Cancelled Holiday Plans

Welcome to Marineford Daily News, your only source of accurate and unbiased truth.

The past few weeks were surprisingly peaceful in the South Blue resort island of Bali, though they were by no means, calm. While the seasonal flurry of activity is in keeping with the traditional holiday season, the extent of the desperation excitement was rather unusual. But with good reason.

Following the age old custom of his forebears, one of the gods had decided to descend from the holy land of Mariejois and grace the island with his divine presence. While we mortals may never truly know what the reasoning had been behind this decision, it was undoubtedly a wise and virtuous one. The slanderous rumors coming from some corners of uncivilized society are clearly deceitful in nature. After all, how dare they suggest truthfully that someone as busy with their celestial duties as a World Noble would have the time to be… malicious?

Regardless, the entire population of Bali pulled out all stops to welcome St. Charloss and make the task of inspecting their home an easy one.

However, much to the terrible disappointment of the locals, the anticipated arrival of the Celestial Dragon never occurred. And that despite the entire populace, from the smallest babe to the most grizzled senior, having been voluntarily assembled at the beaches by the marine garrison in preparation for the welcoming ceremony. After two days, the crowds were finally permitted to disperse, once the news arrived that the visit was cancelled.

Ostensibly, this was due to St. Charloss's merciful nature deciding to spare the island the burden of feeding his relatively humble retinue. It definitely had nothing to do with the private yacht inexplicably requiring urgent repairs, which had taken too long for the World Noble's fickle nature not to force a change of plans.

Though, with the yacht being only the latest in a long series of unexpected accidents, it seems likely that the holiday plans of the World Nobles will sadly have to be put on hold this year.

Reported sightings of an orange-haired, curvaceous young woman wearing a crimson newsboy cap with gold goggles, a pink shirt with a frilly collar as well as a maroon short skirt and brown high heeled boots in the vicinity of the yacht just prior to the accident were unable to be independently confirmed by this paper.

This was Marineford Daily reporting.

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