The frizzy haired man jumps on my offer and not 10 seconds later is scanning the horizon with his new toy. "Well...the base seems to be fine...ooo Jack take a look here!" He spouts excitedly, moving out of the way for me.
I lower my head and squint one eye into the viewing lens. "A ship?"
"Yep. That's my Dreamwinder. First ship I ever had. She's smaller than her siblings but the extra speed that offers has gotten me out of some pretty sticky situations. I bet she beat us here by a week."
I hummed noncommittally. "What about your other one?"
"The Taniwha. This ships twin sister." Korka replies as he gently pushes me aside and retakes his position. "She travels at the same speed we do. Taking into account our late departure and the storm though, she should be here alrea-" A strangled choking noise comes from the mans throat as he backs away, his skin suddenly ashen. Confused, I peek back into the spyglass, focus in where he was looking at and...Oh my.
'That is one fucked up ship.'
The mizzen-mast appears to be in good shape but it's just about the only sailing component that is. The main is barely standing, it's base is so damaged that a single axe chop would probably send it crashing down over the edge. The fore-mast is straight up gone and all that remains of the decorative bowsprit is the back half of what I'm guessing was once a sea-serpent.
The sails are shredded. The railings in splinters. Just from the one side I can see I count no less tan six holes in the hull near where it meets the water.
"...how is that thing still afloat?" I can't help but mutter.
The Marjhan isn't exactly in pristine condition after our encounter with the 'Pellora Pirates' but this thing is trashed. Scuttled. I am frankly dumbfounded that it somehow made it into port. It doesn't even seem possible. The only explanation that I'm willing to even entertain is that it was attacked less than day away from its arrival.
It's about an hour later when the mooring lines are tied to the dock and Korka hops off the side of the ship with myself only a few seconds behind him.
We don't need to hunt anyone down to interrogate as someone is already rushing down the pier-side to greet us. A revolutionary soldier wearing what appears to be a hippo-hat of all things.
Masaru, Anti-Government Rebel, Lv. 17
The soldier snapped off a quick salute but by his posture it was clear that it was a gesture he was unaccustomed to. "Korka -err Sir! It's excellent to see-" "Enough with that," my employer cuts him off. "What the hell happened to my ship? And why isn't anyone picking up the damn phone!"
The lower ranked revolutionary straightens up and it's obvious from his face he has bad news he doesn't want to deliver. "Five nights ago an enemy saboteur set fire to our communications hub. We were able to save…some... of the Den-Den-Mushi's but almost all of the logs and long-range equipment has been destroyed. Thankfully there were some replacement parts you had on board the Dreamwinder, so we're at least operational again, but overall the stations been effectively crippled."
Korka scowls but doesn't voice any complaint. "...and The Taniwha? That was the ship I thought would be safest of the three. Embo was the point man on that vessel and he's one of the best bounty agents in South Blue."
"Yes sir. As the crew tells it, he's the only reason the ship managed to survive at all. The enemy was apparently...voracious. I'm sure you'll want to interview them yourself. We've started patching the most immediate concerns, but the simple truth is she's going to be stuck in port for awhile undergoing repairs. Two or three months at the least."
"Sounds like they ran into someone pretty nasty." I piped in, adding to the conversation for the first time. "Which of the big hitters was it?" I ask, pulling some wanted posters from my [Inventory]. Big names that I knew to stay the hell away from. "Hornigold? Montauban? 'Oaken Fist' Kowalik?"
"...It wasn't that fucker Eustass Kid was it?" Korka adds with a sneer.
The soldier shakes his head in the negative. "No. Crew says they didn't recognize her flag. Looks to be yet another hotshot rookie."
Korka ran a hand over his face in frustration. "Great...more bad news...as if there weren't enough problems on this sea." he groaned out in resignation. "Well do we at least have a name?"
"Yes sir! News Coo dropped it off just yesterday." Masaru replied as he produced a rolled up brown poster from a satchel on his side. "Evidently we're not the only ones she's hit. Two weeks ago she attacked a Marine frigate for the sole purpose of stealing all the food on board. She didn't even leave them the hardtack sir."
Korka unfurled the weather-beaten paper and for the first time since entering this world I caught a glimpse of someone I knew from canon.
"They're calling her 'The Glutton'."
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE JEWELRY BONNEY B: 22,500,000 Korka regarded the profile impassively for a moment before rolling it closed and handing it back. "We'll just have to be even more cautious from now on then. Nothing can be done about it right now. What's been happening in the capital? My last news is a week out of date."
For a minute or two I lingered nearby, listening in on some general updates of the war front, but as the conversation slowly devolved into logistical details about ship repairs I lost interest and silently excused myself.
I strolled sedately back onto the deck of The Marjhan with no hurry in my step and a small but worried frown on my face. Pondering over the handbill I'd just seen.
It's not that I'm concerned about potentially running into Bonney. 'Though admittedly it's a fight I want no part of. Even if it's possible she doesn't have her Devil Fruit yet.' The odds of our ship running into hers on the same stretch of sea that she nearly sank The Taniwha on is rather low. Pirates tend not to linger in one place very long, always trying to keep one step ahead of either Marine retaliation or a rival crew.
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