Jones was indeed not aware of his reputation. He had known that pirate doctors were rare; that’s why he was able to find work on pirate ships so easily. The doctor just didn’t think that he would’ve been that noteworthy. After all, he had only been a pirate for a few years, and most of the crews he had been with didn’t last. Not that being a pirate was his first choice, of course, but he didn’t feel like boring Siobhan with his life story. Jones smiled at the woman as she explained how the people on the list were all good at what they did, nodding in agreement.

Her life story, on the other hand, sounded more interesting, and Jones wanted to know a bit about it. “Good! So you said you had a captain before this?”

"I'm a pirate," Ragnvald corrected him. "I'll do what I've got to in order to survive."

Watching the swordsman plop himself down on the ground, a vein slowly rose on the pirate captain's head. To say he was pissed off would be a gross understatement to say the least. "Alright, you wanna to be difficult, you bastard?"

Drawing a flintlock pistol from his sash, Ragnvald aimed it at a nearby hostage, squeezing the trigger without another word. The crack of a gunshot saw the man's head thrown back, his body falling limp onto the ground. Returning his gaze to Grauwulf, he sneered. "For every minute you remain here, I'm going to execute another one of them!"

"Make your decision, swordsman!"

---

Blinking when Jones brought up her old Captain, Siobhan's surprise expression was quickly exchanged for a warm smile. "I did...he's a great man, like none other. More like a da to me than anythin'. Certainly more than my real one."

Resting her chin on the rim of the small trawler, she watched the light of the sun slowly fade beneath the distant horizon. "He's a Fishman, and an amazin' fighter, like none I've ever seen. Even I'm no match for him yet, like. He also taught me everythin' I know about bein' a pirate, from how to throw a punch to how to manage the riggin'."

Reaching up to tug one side of her recently donned shirt down, she showed Jones the tattoo on the right side of her upper back: a blazing sun. "His name's Jinbe, and he once sailed with Monkey D. Luffy, right up till the battle with Blackbeard."

When Eadgar heard the shot he sprang to his feet and stared daggers at Ragnvald. "You little prick! You say not to make a move then to leave you alone. I did both by making it so you knew exactly where I was so I wouldn't be in your way. I was making this easy on you but it seems you have no brain in that tiny head of yours. If you want me out of your sights I'd be happy to. Unfortunately for you that means you won't have the benefit of knowing where I am. I'll be meeting you on the next island, Rags." Eadgar turned his back to the disgrace of humanity and walked away.

Once out of sight he used all of his speed to get back to his dinghy. Making sure no one watched him he sunk the small raft to make it appear as if he were gone and then quickly sneaked to the church then leapt to the top. He looked for a good hiding spot and once he was sure no one would see him he sat back down in the same position as before trying to determine what the situation inside was like. He was limiting his chances to get this guy but he had to be stopped sooner or later. It definitely needed to be done before those idiot pirates could leave.

Galen’s eyebrows rose when Siobhan showed him her tattoo and told him that her captain was Jinbei. He had definitely heard of the guy. A very skilled user of fishman karate who was extremely honorable as well. Although Siobhan didn’t seem to inherit Jinbei’s sense of strategy, she definitely took after him in combat and most importantly, in integrity.

Jones joined her by the rim, watching the sun go down, and smiled. “That’s lovely, it really is,” the doctor said, “it sounds like you had a good teacher. You’re very lucky.”

This made Jones wonder if he would’ve done better with a teacher, but he seemed to be doing okay so far, so he didn’t really worry about it. This also made him think about his family back home. His parents were still alive; they didn’t agree with what he did, but they understood why he did it. Maybe someday after Siobhan became the Pirate King, he could go back home and see them again.

But for now, he was just happy to be where he was.

“Who are the other names on your list, anyway?”

Glancing over to where her regular clothes were stacked in a neat pile, Siobhan smirked. "Their names are Taimi Taitale, Eadgar Grauwulf, and...uh..."

Scratching her head, she felt her cheeks redden when she realized that she had forgotten the third one's name. "He...I know it's a guy..."

Crawling over to her clothes, she began to rustle through them for the list. Right as she managed to find it in her right coat pocket, something in the corner of her eye drew her attention away from the task at hand. It was a shadow rising above the horizon off the port side...land!

"Hey, do ya see that?" Siobhan perked up like a startled prairie dog. Glancing up at the stars, she grinned. "That's right, I lost track of the time! We're here!"

---

Hopping off the boat, now in her usual overcoat and pants, Siobhan's eyes darted about the island. "Per usual, I did a brilliant job gettin' us to where we needed to be! Welcome to Coverie!"

Spreading her arms wide, she expected to see the sight of a bustling town full of lantern lights and nighttime activity. What she received instead were the sound of crickets, and nary a shadow in sight.

"...I said welcome to Coverie! Hello?!"

Jones smiled at Siobhan’s apparent forgetfulness. He didn’t have a photographic memory, but this was the first time he had seen her blush and the doctor thought it was kind of cute. Galen’s attention shifted with his captain’s, however, when she said that she saw land. He didn’t notice it before, but he saw it when Siobhan pointed it out. Jones promptly responded, saying “that’s great! Let’s get to shore!”

-----

Before Siobhan could yell more, Jones covered his captain’s mouth. “Sshh,” he said in a whisper, “this is strange. There should be at least a few people here right now. Maybe we shouldn’t draw so much attention to ourselves.”

The doctor then looked around, squinting at something he saw in the distance. To confirm what it was, he took out a pair of binoculars from his duffel bag and looked at it through those. It was indeed a shipwreck, but the flag that was there was what Jones found the most noteworthy. It was torn, but the doctor could still make out whose jolly roger it was; it belonged to the Whip-Fang Pirates, led by Bluewell himself.

Putting the binoculars back, Jones whispered to his captain “okay, so bad news and good news. The bad news is that the Whip-Fang Pirates are shipwrecked here and that people could be in danger right now.” An empty town plus evil pirates meant that a lot of things could be going wrong for a lot of people right now. “The good news is that you will probably get to punch Bluewell sometime soon.”

Thinking for a moment, he then added “also, we should probably hide our trawler while we find out what’s going on. If that’s their only ship, they might try to take ours.”

"Mmnmmnmnn," Siobhan replied.

She then removed his hand. "Ah, so it's them again."

Well, it was pretty obvious they would encounter more of Blackwell's men at some point, she was just a little surprised it was this soon after dealing with the last guy. It did appear that this one hadn't exactly chosen to be here, though, given the state of his vessel...not that she was complaining. The more of the Marquis' men she took down, the greater the chance of her getting to face him personally became!

"Fine, let's hide our ship and then see what exactly your man there's up to," Siobhan agreed.

They could probably get away with docking it about a mile's walk from town. She doubted they would be looking for such a small ship from that distance, particularly while it's dark out.

---

"Right, so I've never properly been here before," Siobhan admitted, "but I have heard this is a fairly busy town, due to bein' a bit of a trade hub for the island."

Having secured their little trawler some distance away from Coverie, they were now once more on the outskirts of the settlement. They could see pairings of torchlight moving down the streets on occasion, but otherwise all of the structures were dark. The only concentrations of light seemed to be from the wrecked vessel of the Whip-Fang pirates and an old church near the center of town.

"So, unless they just slaughtered everyone, then they've probably got the town held hostage."

My man? Jones took insult at being affiliated with them, even in passing, but he was part of their crew in the past so he supposed it was fair. Now on the outskirts of town, the two were assessing the situation and Siobhan was probably right; the citizens here were probably Bluewell’s hostages.

The doctor nodded, then thought for a second before speaking. “We should try and get some intelligence before we do anything. If we walk into a trap, it could cost people their lives. Finding a good position to scout their forces would be nice, and since there are probably pirates by their ship, the church would be the better choice.”

He looked to his captain for confirmation, then began sneaking with her towards their destination. This was a bigger town than the last one, so it took a little more time, but they were eventually able to get to the church without being detected.

Mostly.

When the pair were at a point where they could scout the church and its surroundings, they saw a pair of eyes meet theirs from the building’s roof. Jones thought he saw a weapon on the man; was that a sword? Just to be safe, the doctor grabbed his pistol, hoping that whatever came next didn’t end with the loss of innocent lives.

Eadgar had been sitting in the same spot for quite awhile. He was pretty sure he knew how many people were inside of the church at this point. Unfortunately he wasn't able to distinguish how many were enemies and how many were hostages. That's when he heard the faint sound of feet shuffling in the direction of the building he was perched upon. He stood up from his position and walked to the edge when he saw a pair that didn't look like locals or members of Bluewell's crew. He stood there a moment watching them move towards the church. That's when the man looked up and their eyes met. Eadgar eyed closely the two and realized they were definitely not Whip-Fang. When Eadgar saw the man grab his gun, Eadgar stepped forward and dropped from the roof to the ground. In a hushed tone, "Imbecile. Put that thing away before you hurt yourself or someone else. The scraps of human decency here have hostages in the church and working on their boat. I don't know if you have any idea who your dealing with but the man in charge is Ragnvald. He's already killed someone. So either stay out of my way or help free the hostages." He looked the pair up and down. The man, despite his cool hat, looked like he couldn't even rip his way out of a paper bag. The woman, however, seemed different. Eadgar wasn't sure but she seemed strong. Well, at least stronger than the other guy.

Jones thought this had the chance to get worse. While he was relieved this guy wasn’t with Bluewell, the arrogant and assumptive way he acted made him wonder just what was going on inside his head. How was he supposed to know who was and wasn’t with Ragnvald? It wasn’t like this man was wearing a sign that gave away his allegiance. Nonetheless, any ally was good and this was not a time to argue with this guy. Maybe he could take some shots for them while they freed the hostages or something. Jones put the pistol away and took a deep breath, then addressed the apparent swordsman in a whisper.

“We know that. We defeated Redwell.” After saying this, Jones searched his duffel bag for proof, taking out the hilt of Red Blade and showing it to this guy before continuing. “We need to work together to find a way to save these people. Captain?”

The doctor then gestured to Siobhan so she could add anything she wanted to. At this point, Jones needed to think of a plan anyway, so now wasn’t the time to be talking anyway.

Siobhan visibly winced when Jones withdrew a pistol, her hands waving for him not to shoot. Thankfully, he lowered it without taking a shot at the stranger. "Oi, keep that thing tucked away for now. We're tryin' to be stealthy, remember? A gunshot would let every pirate here know where we were."

Exhaling for a moment, she turned to the swordsman and extended a hand. "Sorry for the whole gun-pointin' incident there, sham. The name's Grace D. Siobhan, and this here's my doctor, Galen X. Jones."

The situation sounded pretty dire, though. Honestly, she hated scenarios like this, where she couldn't just punch the bad guy in the face. This was going to require a lot of thought.

When the man mentioned that they had defeated Redwell Eadgar's eyebrow raised as if surprised. He had heard the man was taken down but by a party of two. Guaranteed Redwell wasn't the strongest of the bunch but maybe these two were stronger than he first thought. Upon hearing the word captain, Eadgar looked Siobhan up and down again. She didn't look Marine so he assumed that these two were pirates. Already Eadgar was intrigued by the two. He had heard the stories of Straw Hat Luffy and his crew. One of the reasons Eadgar and his father didn't go after people just because they had a bounty. But most of the pirates he had met were scoundrels. The two before him already seemed different. He was even more surprised that this Siobhan introduced herself semi formally. He reached forward to shake her hand and responded, "Names Eadgar Grauwulf. I'm more known as the Silver Swordsman. If you two are willing to help that'd be good. Have either of you got any ideas?"

Upon further thought, Siobhan had a point. A gunshot would attract too much attention. Jones had figured he would just shoot the guy if he started calling for his allies, at which point it wouldn’t mattered, but considering the circumstances it would probably have been-

Jones then heard the man introduce himself as Eadgar Grauwulf and his thoughts ground to a halt. “Oh god damnit, he’s on her list,” the doctor thought, “I know Siobhan knows things about these people I don’t, but-“

This was the second time in a minute or two that his thoughts had changed in a moment. This time it was because Eadgar had asked about ideas. People’s lives were at stake here. Jones knew he needed to focus, so he quickly thought of a plan and revealed it.

“I have one. On the way here I was reading a book I looted from Redwell; Gangster Gastino’s Medical Encyclopedia. It’s a book all about making poisons. I figure if we stealthily poison Bluewell while he’s alone, we should be able to then take out the remaining members of his crew before they can kill any civilians. How does that sound?”

Siobhan's eyes briefly cast away the darkness of the night when the swordsman introduced himself as Eadgar Grauwulf. Barely suppressing an urge to leap into the air and squeal in joy, she instead shot him a shining grin. "Feckin' deadly! You're on my list!"

This was perfect. Not only did they get to take out another one of Blackwell's pirate captains, but they would also pick up another comrade! "Alright then, Eadgar, it's settled! We'll rescue the hostages, smash Bluewell, and then you'll join my crew!"

Jones then began outlining his idea. Listening carefully to her doctor's plan, Siobhan cupped her chin in thought. Did any of them really have the stealth skills to pull something like that off? She herself probably didn't, as she was trained to be a martial artist, and only had the barest idea of how to effectively sneak around enemies.

"Hmm, alternatively...we let him repair his ship," Siobhan offered her own plan with a smirk. "Then, when he leaves and is well enough out to sea, I will swim below the ship, damage its rudder and knock a hole in the bottom. Meanwhile, you two will sail up on our trawler and attack!"

A list. What the crap was this woman even talking about? Eadgar's mind was about to be floored. What does she mean list? Then she said that he'd be joining her crew! He'd be angry if he wasn't so surprised. He barely had the ability to think right now let alone respond. When Jones then gave his idea Eadgar pushed aside the surprise for now to be angry. POISON! Eadgar hated the thought of using poison. Only cowards and weaklings would think to use the substance. Then Siobhan spouted off hers. Eadgar didn't like either but at least it helped him figure out how they think. "I'm going to forget you said anything about me joining your crew so that we can focus on the issue at hand. Now as to your plans, Jones I refuse to take part in it. Poison is tantamount to cowardice. Siobhan, your plan would be ideal if not for the fact we have no idea of what Bluewell may do to the villagers once they've completed their task. Our only choice to take action soon. From what I know the pirates and hostages are split by two separate locations. One group here at the church and the other at then ship. I believe our best course of action is to eliminate the ones in the church then to move onto the larger group."

Looking down and grabbing his chin he started going over everything he knew so far. He knew that there weren't nearly as many pirates in the church as there were at the ship, but he had no way of getting inside without them noticing. "If only there were someway to get the pirates to come outside I know I could eliminate them before they could warn their comrades."

Jones was incredibly angry now. While Siobhan’s plan was flawed for the reason Eadgar stated, at least it was a plan. The “Silver Swordsman’s” plan basically amounted to “attack the pirates and hope nobody dies.” The doctor knew what Bluewell was like; at the very least, the pirates they attacked would kill some citizens in the crossfire, and at the worst their captain would find some way to ensure that innocent people would be killed. Ragnvald could and would order his men to go down fighting just to kill people, plus his sword/whip weapon that he had was deadly. Jones had been a part of Redwell’s crew; he knew all too well how cruel these people could be.

The doctor then whispered his objections to Eadgar with a look of unmistakable rage. “Listen. People could die if this goes wrong. Your plan is not a plan; you are hoping to attack people, cause a scene, and hope nobody notices or gets killed. The only thing that accomplishes is putting people in unnecessary danger. You are underestimating these pirates and you are putting people’s lives on the line for the sake of stupid pride. Bluewell is an evil man and I know he would kill people simply out of spite. You even said he killed one person already. If poison isn’t the best plan, fine, but I refuse to let people die if I can help it.”

After all of that, Jones took a long, deep breath and calmly asked Siobhan “maybe one of us could poison their captain while the others sneak in and free the hostages? Perhaps you could use that 360 degree fishman move you did last time to block anyone attacking them.”

Siobhan had a feeling they were about to get into an argument, and this really wasn't the time for it. If those two really wanted to save these people that bad, then they had to all be on the same page. Pointing firmly in Eadgar's direction, she smiled. "That man's goin' to be my swordsman, we have to have confidence in his abilities. If he says he's fast enough, then he is."

"The only issue," Siobhan noted, "is gettin' them all outside. I have a feeling that even if we did somethin' to draw their attention, only some would come out, while a few others stayed inside to guard the hostages."

She then glanced back towards the shipwrecked vessel. "There's also the challenge of makin' a distraction loud enough to draw the pirates in the church out without alertin' the pirates with Bluewell."

"Also," she hadn't failed to consider what Jones had said,"my Arabesque Brick Fist is kinda indiscriminate, as ya noticed. Usin' it around civilians wouldn't be smart. However, I do have somethin' else..."

Reaching into her coat, she produced a pair of black gloves. Despite the darkness, they could see that they were not quite normal: there was webbing between the fingers. "Havin' human hands as I do, some Fishman Karate techniques are a wee bit difficult for me, particularly underwater ones. So I wear these..."

Slipping the gloves over her hands, her teeth gleamed in the night. Holding her now enclosed palms opposite of one another, a tiny blue sphere formed in between them. "S'not much to see up here on land, but underwater is another story."

"I have a plan that I think will work now, but I'll warn ye," she glanced between them, Siobhan's smile vanishing and her eyes taking on a weathered hardness that Jones had yet to see in the normally upbeat girl, "this plan is simply our best option for minimizin' the number of innocents that die here. In all fairness, some people will still die. That's the reality."

Her voice carried no condescension or arrogance at this, rather, it was one of acceptance. "This isn't a world where you can promise a happy endin' to everyone. In some situations, ya just have to make the best choice ya can, and that's not always clear."

"I, however, believe this plan I have is the best choice," she concluded. "Are ye willin' to live with the consequences of it?"

Eadgar was not happy. Nowhere near it. If it wasn't for the fact that they were such a small group he would legitimately contemplate knocking this nimrod out. It didn't help that right after Siobhan said he was going to be her swordsman. When she mentioned fishman karate he was surprised. So many secrets behind this person. She then went on a tangent about her skills and then about the frailty of life. He knew this crap. He'd already seen death. Came with the job. His only thought was to keep as many people safe while taking out Bluewell and every member of his crew. He looked to Siobhan and said, "Just get on with the plan. We have limited time here."

Jones listened to what Siobhan had to stay with a mix of emotions. He did not have any real confidence that this brash swordsman could do what his captain said he could simply because of how he had acted so far. However, Jones did know that Siobhan’s plan was better than his. It would draw the pirates away from the church, which would allow them to save any citizens that were there.

It was what his captain said about minimizing casualties that really bothered the doctor though. As a rule, Jones had always tried to save anyone that he could treat. He did this even at the cost of his friends and family; this was why he was a pirate in the first place. Deep down, the doctor knew that Siobhan was right; there was no way that everyone he ever met could be treated. Even without the dangers associated with pirates, diseases could kill people. But if this were true, why did he even bother with this? Why not just let that pirate die and continue treating people back home without living as an outlaw? Jones did not have an answer for that right now and he did not have time to think of one, but he did know that people would need his help very soon. So he resolved to help as many of them as he could, even if it costed him his life.

Jones said none of this to the two people next to him, though. Instead, in his usual calm voice, he simply said to Siobhan “okay. What do you need me to do?”

It was important that everyone was behind her on this. They couldn't pull this off with a divided crew. They were already ridiculously outnumbered, and for once that actually mattered. Thankfully, both men were able to put aside their pride and agree to follow her on this.

"Good," she replied. "Listen closely, then..."

---

"It's one O'clock in the morning, Cap'n, and all's well!" The whip-fang pirate reported to Ragnvald, the larger man dipping his head in acknowledgment.

Thankfully, they hadn't seen hide nor hair of Gauwulf since earlier in the day. It seemed his execution of the hostage had struck home. Good, because he didn't want to be here any more than that blasted swordsman wanted him here. Though, there was always the possibility that he would come after them after the set sail, so he was probably going to have to take some of the townsfolk with him as insurance.

With the "assistance" of the town, however, their ship should be seaworthy soon. They might even keep to the admittedly short deadline Blackwell had given them.

They still didn't know who was behind the loss of contact with Redwell. It could have possibly even been a freak storm like the one that hit them. Either way, they needed to investigate, and then complete his task by ensuring that town paid its due to the Marquis.

Smoke poured from his cup of joe, the exhausted Captain drawing a heavy swill. He'd much prefer rum, but he had to stay awake right now, just in case something--

"Captain!"

"Ughh...what? Don't tell me it's Gauwulf?" Ragnvald groaned at the panicked cry of his subordinate, already knowing this was going to be something he didn't want to hear.

The man was sweating profusely. "N-no, Cap'n, the tide around the Blue Lynx is seriously starting to batter the hull! The men are starting to panic and--"

"Gyagh!" Ragnvald yelped when his vessel rocked, his coffee spilling onto his lap. "Goddamnit! What the hell?!"

Quickly pushing past the smaller man, the ten foot tall Captain of the Whip-Fang pirates ascended to the deck above. What he saw caused his face to pale.

It was an actual-fucking-whirlpool off the coast of the island, and it was sending increasingly violently waves into the sides of their hull. At this rate it was going to be dragged out to sea.

"What's with the weather today?! Abandon ship!"