Chapter Four
The Brandy Rock dock looked perfectly peaceful.
"So how many wrong things can you spot?" Captain Kuro inquired from where he was leaning against the rail.
Tashigi raised a hand to shield her eyes as she squinted at the dock. "Too many ships, sir," she said confidently. "At least five different flags that I know, and several that I don't. There's no way that those captains would all be cooperating with each other, or even tolerating each other. I'd expect half the town to be in flames."
"Good," Kuro commented. "And?"
Tashigi frowned. "No guards, either. Just one little man over there taking names and fees. Even in a well-regulated place, having him do it on his own without a guard would just be asking for trouble."
"And?"
"Someone's taken over the local Marine Outpost and is flying their own flag above the Marine one," she commented. "It's the usual skull and crossbones, with a five-petalled rose on the forehead."
"Is that anyone you know?"
She shook her head. "I know about two hundred recognised pirate flags, sir. That's not one of them."
"You do keep busy," he remarked.
Tashigi shrugged. It wasn't as if one could expect Colonel Smoker to keep track of that sort of thing. "Can be useful, sir. Anyhow, it supports the thesis of someone new trying to put a coalition together."
"That it does. Mm. What do you make of the wall paintings?"
There were a number of brightly coloured scrawls on the port walls. They weren't identifiable pictures, no matter how much Tashigi stared at them, but they did somehow seem to be in the same style. "Don't know, sir," she eventually said. "Maybe they've been having an urban renovation program?"
Kuro sighed. "Indeed, they may have been doing something as utterly pointless as that. Get yourself in order, Claw. You, me, three sailors as backup. Siam and Butch stay here to keep an eye on the ship and deal with any attempts."
"Attempts at, sir?" she queried, straightening her fluffy ears.
"Attempts at anything," Kuro stated flatly. He called to the steersman, "Bring us in! Carefully."
---
The little man on the dock came running up to catch the rope thrown from their ship and make it secure as they docked, then stood there amiably with a clipboard and pen. He didn't look aggressive. He wasn't even carrying a sword.
Other sailors leaned over the rails of their ships and watched in bland passive interest.
It was too nice. Tashigi could feel the area between her shoulderblades twitching.
"Name and ship, sir?" the little man asked helpfully.
Kuro looked at him and adjusted his glasses. "Captain Kuro," he intoned. "You will know my ship."
The little man smiled perkily. "Oh yes, sir! So good to see you! You're a legend in your own lifetime!"
"Better than after it," Kuro remarked. "We're expected?"
The little man chewed his lip. "Well, sir, I've got instructions that anybody of your, ah, calibre, should be requested to call in at the Headquarters for a top-level discussion."
"The Marine Headquarters?" Kuro enquired, and Tashigi blinked at the image.
"These days we just call it Headquarters, sir," the little man said cheerfully. "Much easier that way. We're all a very cooperative bunch round here. Now, if you wouldn't mind signing here, here, and here -- thank you very much, that'll do nicely. Do enjoy your stay on Brandy Rock!"
Kuro turned to Tashigi and the crew as the little man trotted off. "I don't expect to hear any disturbance from you while I'm away," he stated amiably. "However, if you get word from me -- the usual passwords, Siam, Butch -- then I expect assistance rapidly. Understood?"
The entire crew saluted, and Tashigi found herself doing so as well.
"Very well." He swung his bag over his back. "Let's go."
---
Town was unnervingly quiet. Tashigi darted quick glances to right and left as she brought up the rear of their party; first Kuro, then the three sailors, also hushed and nervous, and then herself at the back. The weight of her sword was a comfort. Without it she would have felt utterly alone.
Everywhere, those wall paintings, those great scrawls of colour. She thought of commenting on it to Kuro, then realised there was little point. He could hardly have missed them. With a deliberate effort she kept her pace to a saunter, slowing it from her usual stride, and eyed the world suspiciously through the golden tint of the glasses which Colonel Hina had given her.
Suspicious. Right. That was what a pirate would be. (Aberrations like Straw Hat Luffy and his crew didn't count. They'd already have charged in by this point, anyhow, and would be wrecking the place with cries of glee. So much for investigation.)
Marine Headquarters -- she refused to think of it as "just Headquarters" -- had a couple of actual Marines standing outside, just as it normally would. She felt herself tensing. What if someone recognised her? What if they said something? What if they attacked Captain Kuro on the spot and she had to defend him and hurt one of them . . .
. . . of course they were saluting him and asking him to enter. Life was so annoying sometimes. She gritted her teeth and pasted a watchful smirk on her face. I am the Captain's incredibly dangerous bodyguard. Ignore me.
The three sailors got diverted elsewhere by some of the Marines. Oh, that itched, that really got under her skin, seeing Marines apparently doing what they were told by some pirate. They left her with Kuro; possibly a Captain was expected or allowed to have at least one minion with him when seeking audience for a "top-level discussion", even if they still hadn't been told who it was with yet.
The paintings tracked along the walls here inside, too. They were all quite recent; wall paintings inside Marine outposts were (a) against regulations, and (b) didn't survive to get old anyhow due to natural wear and tear and banging people against the walls. It was highly probable that they had something to do with what was going on. She didn't look at them too closely.
Kuro crooked a finger, and murmured, "Claw."
She stepped over briskly. "Sir?"
"Cover my back," he said, and led the way into the main reception area.
---
"So you're the famous Captain Kuro." The woman lounging in the chair at the end of the hall caught the eye; behind her, the coloured scrawls of painting across the walls seemed to point in towards her like the pathways of a maze. Several pirate captains who Tashiki recognised from the Wanted posters were grouped in a corner of the hall, playing cards together with Marines still in full uniform, and --
-- yes, there was Colonel Smoker. Tashigi looked away from him, only letting her eyes rest on him for a single moment, so that she could know he was well and healthy and sane, before looking back at the woman again, and remembering to guard Captain Kuro's back.
The woman was sitting with one ankle folded over another, reclining in her chair with every non-verbal signal possible of at ease and happy with it. She had short dark hair cut to the nape of her neck, brushed back at her forehead to either side, framing her face, and round glasses that were pushed up into her hairline and holding the hair back. Her face was precise, elegant, with defined arching eyebrows, and she was smiling. Her leather jacket was open at the collarbone, the wings of the collar turned up to frame her neck, and a fraction of bosom showed. A cigarette dangled between the fingers of her right hand.
Kuro gave her a precise half-nod, shifting mannerisms easily and casually into something that was more like an upper-class servant than the pirate captain. "I am, madam. And you are?"
"Bonney," she said, smiling. "Call me Bonney. I apologise if my request that you drop by has inconvenienced you."
Kuro shook his head. His glasses slid down his nose slightly, but he did not move to correct them. "Not at all. I always like to know what's going on in the places that I visit. I hope that I'm not inconveniencing anything?"
"Oh, no, not at all. But I hope that you'll hear me out before you go."
"But of course," Kuro said mildly. He folded his arms. "Please go on."
The patterns on the walls of the room nagged at Tashigi like the verge of a headache. She squinted behind her glasses, flicking a glance to the left, then to the right, but never at Colonel Smoker, no, ignore his casual laughter and his comment as he deals out a hand of cards, something's been done to him and by god she's going to fix it but not right now, she has to keep a stone face and be Claw of Kuro's crew or risk letting everything out and wasting all the preparation so far, and for it to be her fault that it failed would be the bitterest pill of all. She focused on Bonney and tried to remember anything she'd heard about the woman. Nothing. And that in itself had to mean something, didn't it?
Bonney took a drag from her cigarette, stained fingers flowing into a graceful curve of the arm. "I'm proposing an alliance among pirates in this area. Not -- believe me, not -- anything like Crocodile's game with Baroque Works. I'm sure you've heard about how that went down. No, I'm thinking something much more rational. I have ways of making sure that the Marines stay away from boats in my group. Now, if we simply don't raid each other, then all the merchant ships out there are clear profit. I'm not talking about huge mountains of gold. I'm talking about cooperation and us all doing much, much better for ourselves."
"Hnn." Kuro gave her a thin-lipped smile. "I like your way of thinking, Madam Bonney. It seems sensible. The big question is, how do you propose to do it?"
Bonney pointed her cigarette at the group playing cards. "I don't propose to give away all my methods, Captain Kuro. It'd be far too risky. I'll just point at my results and let you think about it."
Kuro gave a little nod. "I trust that I'll have time to think?"
"I'd appreciate a decision by tomorrow," Bonney said equably. "No hard feelings if you say no, of course. But in the meantime, I'd be happier if you were to stay in the vicinity. We've got plenty of spare rooms here, with the Marines all going out on spontaneous patrol duties."
"Of course." Kuro quirked his lips again. "I wouldn't think of leaving."
---
When they were alone in one of the Headquarters guest rooms -- newly adorned with those damn paintings all over the walls -- Kuro turned and raised an eyebrow. Tashigi nodded, and tugged at an earlobe, then turned, scanning the room, trying to remember where the usual hiding-places and listening-vents were. Every Marine Headquarters had a few rooms that were designed to be listened in on, and Tashigi was sure that Bonney would have put them in one of those. After half a minute she nodded firmly, and indicated a vent at the top of the east wall.
Kuro nodded in response. He folded down into a chair and lounged in it, leaving Tashigi to stand by the barred window and look out over the square below.
Tashigi stared at the people crossing the square. Mid-afternoon. Perfectly normal. Everything looked so normal, except for those paintings everywhere -- and something was snagging her memory now, something about paint that she'd come across recently . . .
"It's very impressive," Kuro said idly. "All so well-organised. I have to admire it."
"Of course, sir," Tashigi agreed flatly. This was, no doubt, for the benefit of those listening.
"You noticed the people in the corner?"
She nodded. "All very -- well, organised, sir."
"Indeed." He reached into a pocket, flipped out a notepad, and scribbled something on the front page, then turned it towards her as he said, "We'll need to send a message back to the ship. I wouldn't want anyone trying anything while I'm considering."
Tashigi leaned forward to read the note. It said, Hang sheets over the walls.
She nodded, and strode over to the bed. As she briskly dismantled it for sheets, she said out loud, "Naturally, sir. Wouldn't want to destabilise the situation."
"Of course not," Kuro nodded. "And we'll be here in the meantime."
"Doing anything in particular, sir?" Tashigi asked. Surely he could think of a way to give her a hint about his plans without letting any eavesdroppers know. This was Captain Kuro, after all. He'd invented sneaky. He had to have a plan.
"Why." Kuro adjusted his glasses with the flat of his hand. "Thinking about it."
---
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