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A few minutes later, Lina had nearly finished patching up Chester's cut when Reno returned from outside.

Noticing him, Lina asked, "Is something wrong?"

Remo hissed, "Nav might be down, but there are still more of them on the island. It could get ugly. Are you finished?"

Lina gave one last tug of the bandage on Chester's arm, before confirming, "Yeah."

"Take Lino to...the mayor's. No, too close to the Azure Company's headquarters. Suan's then."

Lina frowned, "Then what are you going to do?"

Reno insisted, "We're not sitting around here while the Azure Company can still move. I know the island as good as anyone here, so..." Reno pointed to Chester then back to him, "We're going to give things a look before they make another move. Any questions?"

---

"Ma'am, there's been a problem..."

Lifting up her head, Lady Momo had already had enough after that long night. Seeing her messenger, she growled, "What did he do this time!?"

"He's beaten Nav'ey. We don't know what he plans to do next yet..."

Puffing at her pipe, she clenched her teeth before it snapped like a twig in her hands. Throwing it down, she insisted, "No change in plans yet, but prepare a crow anyway. And try to keep eyes on him. All of them!"

Once left alone, Momo retrieved the shards of her pipe. She'd liked this one. And much like this town, she didn't want to see it broken.
Grimacing, Freya noted to Zepp, "I'm not sure how I feel about handling the cleanup with someone who can pull off attacks like that on the loose."

Her mood sank even lower as she heard the rancor of the one who caused most of this mess. She did over hear a couple of ludicrous comments, like the idea that any prison in the East Blue was at Impel Down's level. Then...

"Captain Freya, you wouldn't happen to be taking requests would you?"

Freya cringed, pointing at Xerxes before ordering with an uncharacteristic coldness, "Gag him and stuff him a cell. If he doesn't comply then knock him out." As he was roughly pushed along, her men finally got the dragon man standing as he regained some consciousness.

After some disarray, he asked, "Who are you and how were you able to cut me?"

Sighing out some of her frustration, she scratched her head, before mumbling, "Well, that's...eat your vegetables."

With that taken care of, Freya was hesitant to issue more orders, as her crew was still busy with trying to get the ship into a manageable state. Thinking ahead, she began, "Okay, once we can get this ship to deck we need to start the relief effort! Teru, call for any nearby backup! And someone find whoever chucked that scythe at us! And the Lieutenant while you're at it!"

There she was, giving a shit again. What a day...she'd have to sleep for a whole week to make up for it.

@RyoRyoRyoken@LokiLeo789@dragonmancer@Hillan
Standing at the door as Chester arrived, another Azure Company member with a black overcoat stood, though not as tall as Chrome before him. All around the house were more than a dozen others, mulling about as they waited. Tipping his hat up from his bald head, he looked over Chester before beginning, his voice gravelly, "Morning, fella. I got an offer for ya."

Leaning on the doorframe, hands in his pockets, he began, "Let's be honest: you're damn tough. Chrome wasn't a pushover, but you sure as hell pushed him over. Truth is though, you're not gonna want to be here in a week though. We've got, ah, 'Company' coming. You saw that big old unfinished building? We've been relocating here so Boss Cerulean'll be along with some of his top guys in a week or so. If you're still fucking around with us by then he won't take a liking to that, and chances are he'll have your shit pushed in."

Pointing a finger, he finished, "If you're a smart guy, and I know you're not dumb, you'll take our offer: a nice little boat ride outta our hair. It won't be free but we can work out the specifics on the way."

Stepping back, he saw Reno hovering nearby, and added, "Oh, and you'll want to come to. Separate matter." Briefly glancing past the two into the house, he concluded, "Trust me on this one."

A few small footfalls coming from behind, Lino came in, rubbing her eyes. She mumbled groggily, "Hnn, what's the noise..?"
Also, Ira hasn't posted IC since the marines stopped Marxo's attack, so we're waiting on him.
"The best drink in the world..." Lina mused, before smiling, "Between our Melonberry Punch and old man Devo's berry mead, you might find what it here, but they only go on sale tomorrow~" Knowing the sugar would need a night of hourly stirring to fully mix with their punch, Lina had an excited spring in her step, her hands clutched on the brick of sugar tightly.

---

As the evening sun was starting to set, Lina busied herself in the kitchen of her family's modest home. As the smell of cooking fish moved to the adjacent living room from the open kitchen, the rest of the family finally arrived. Lino came in first, practically bouncing as she realized what dinner was, while Reno came in later, a bit less amused.

Spotting Chester lying around, he grunted, "What are you doing here?"

Looking up from the stove in the next room, Lina stopped what she was doing to explain, huffing, "You told me to watch him, didn't you? What did you expect? Besides, Chester saved our butts this season: he took some sugar from the Azure Company goons who were harassing me. What have you done today?"

Reno looked at her not with anger, but bewilderment. Eventually, his face hardened, and he admitted, "You're right...but my day's not over yet." Turning on his heel, he stomped from the house.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Lino asked curiously, but Reno didn't respond. By the time Lina came to check, he was long gone.

"What's gotten into him..." Lina wondered, starting back to the kitchen.

When she was gone, Lino noted, "You're being weird too..." Tossing thoughts of her silly older siblings to the side, she bounced over to Chester, wondering innocently, "How'd you get sugar from the blue guys? You don't look like you have money."
As the goons came to encircle the pair, Lina hissed, "This isn't a good place to fight..."

Taking her weapon in both hands, she took a breath, before lunging at the first thug to come at her. While he had a blade of his own, he was caught off guard by the smaller girl, the blade piercing his shoulder. As he backed away, blood staining his coat, he grimaced at the minor wound. His bluster seemed to fall, and he backed up. The others were pretty hesitant to move in as well: despite her age, she was no slouch.

After a moment, one of them reached down, grabbing Chrome by his arm and dragging the lanky man along the floor. During the retreat, the wounded one cried, "Don't think you'll be getting off scot free on this one!"

Once they were gone, Lina sheathed her blade, and the two were met with a round of cheers from the crowd. A few comments could be made out. "I didn't know Chrome could fly like that!" "Told ya she wasn't just playing around with Reno..." "That about made my day..."

Blushing, Lina sheathed her sword before taking her drink. After taking a sip, she suggested, "Things could get a bit dicey...I hope Reno doesn't get too mad."

---

Across the way from the unfinished blue roofed building higher up on the island, a few Azure Company thugs went into its smaller twin. Going through the oriental styled sliding doors, they reached a room lit by the sun from an open window two figures surrounding a Go board. As each side studied the black and white beads, one of the mooks stepped closer, beginning, "Ma'am, we have an update on the situation with the sudden arrival."

Wrapped in a blue kimono, collar coated in white fluff, the meaty, middle aged woman puffed at her pipe for a moment, before saying, "He wasn't into the idea of joining up then?" As the mook shook his head, the woman took another puff of her pipe, proclaiming, "Cerulean isn't set to arrive for another week, and the festival is tomorrow. He hasn't started trouble on his own, but anyone at Chrome's level and above should be able to handle him, right?"

"Er, well..."

The woman sighed, before emptying her pipe out in a tray with a clack. Bringing a hand to her chubby cheek, she muttered, "What a handful. Chrome's one of the best we have. Just keep an eye on him, and if he gets in the way of our operations, let me know and we'll deal with him. If he just leaves then no skin off our nose. And if he decides to stay then I'd like to see him stand up to Cerulean."

Nodding, the mook took his leave. Left to her match, Lady Momo wasn't liking what she was hearing about this fellow, and the fact that he was getting along with those upstart kids surely wasn't a good sign.

---

After finishing their drinks (paid for by the patrons who'd enjoyed the show), Lina and Chester made their way out of the Raspberry Inn. "I should probably be getting home. But what are we going to do with you though? I can't imagine you staying on the island longer than the night. If you don't have the money for the inn though you can stay in our attic: Reno won't notice."

Passing that off, she looked over to a bit of visible ocean for a moment, before beginning, "I was wondering though...you have that ability to just do whatever you want whenever you want when you feel like it. Where does that come from?" Thinking back to the wine that Chester so easily chugged, Lina wondered, "Alcohol?"
Lina grimaced. "More of them...they can't be the same ones though, right?" One of her hands moved to the hilt of her blade, which she'd moved to her lap as she sat down earlier.

Most of the six Azure Company guys began to mull about, one or two of them heading to the bar, but one clearly made for Chester and Lina. As he got close, he had a long black coat splayed over his shoulders. He was also rather tall: probably almost twice Lina's height, made worse by the fact that she was sitting. Uneven black hair poked out from under his hat, and he scratched at his bare chin with gloved hands as he looked over Chester.

Glancing over to Lina, he laughed, "What's with the nasty look, honey? Doesn't fit a sweet face like you. I don't want any trouble." Lifting up the sleeve of his suit coat, he chuckled, "Blue, see? The color of being chill. Probably."

Adjusting his collar, he looked back to Chester, asking, "You're the fella you laid Kin, Gin, and Seido out flat? I saw them: it wasn't pretty. Lucky for you, I'm a smart guy. Name's Chrome. What's say you lump up with us? Strength can get you far. Smarts even farther. What do you say? We've got a pretty good gig going on here."

Forcing herself up, sheathed blade in hand, straining to look up at Chrome, Lina bit her lip as she growled, "You...you're monopolizing our most important import! The neighboring islands won't even trade with us anymore, and you're just trickling down whatever you stole before then at a stupid price!"

Lina's anger silenced the inn, and a few grumbles of understanding from its patrons followed. Chrome merely shrugged, "So?" Backing up, arms spread wide, he laughed, "The Azure Company runs differently from our partners, but all the groups base their rules on how they think the world works. And in the Azure Company it's might that makes right! Back in the day, the Government had absolute power because they had the most might! Roger? Whitebeard? The Monks? Who cares! But now that no one group has full power, it's practically every island for themselves!"

Lina's hand shook, her hilt in her palm. Chrome looked over his shoulder to Chester, grinning, "What do you say? Sounds good, doesn't it?"
"You okay, boss?"

Freya flopped down on her back as Jackal was being taken away, kept in chains. She sighed, "Look at this mess. Just looking at it makes me so...tired. We have one ship even close to seaworthy and even then its only barely...more importantly though there's all the casualties. And the wounded. We should probably get on that as soon as possible." Letting out a groan, she stood up, grunting as her side throbbed. That tail got her good...

Before she could get to work, however, it seemed the Sunny Molasses Pirates weren't done with yet. Johnny moved first, meeting the massive scythe midair. It wouldn't be enough though. Freya charged forwards, reading the lines of the scythe's path. It's sweeping arc made a clear danger zone swirling its way to the ship, the path marked by the inner side of the blade. As she caught a flash from Zepp's direction, she took a few steps to the side, turning as the scythe came to cut her rear. Blade met blade, but the one enshrouded by Haki won out, denting the iron of the blade. Her arms winced under the strike, but the two blows were still not quite enough to stop it.
Lina's jaw dropped as the wad of cash plopped into her hand. As she stared, she mumbled, "I can't accept this..." Despite her protest, she stuffed it into her purse, noting, "Well, I'm going to have to pay for your booze and clothes anyway..."

Stepping through the crowd, Lina's path moved to the Raspberry Inn. Stepping in, Lina got a refill on her Melonberryade (the bartender was rather sympathetic after hearing of Lino's mishap), while Chester got his wine. As the two took a seat, Lina began, "So...you don't pillage anything, you still call yourself a pirate? Why? Or I guess...why even be a pirate?" Taking a sip of her drink, she wondered, "...Taxes?" Turning up her nose, she added, "Never mind. You don't look like you make a lot of money..."
Lina and Suan dropped their collective jaws after the lightning fast brawl. After a moment, Lina quickly scooped the brick of sugar off the ground, handing it over to Suan, who quickly stashed it under his counter. Looking back down at the fallen thugs, she said, "Well, I'm not cleaning this up."

Face smug, she took her leave for a moment. A minute or two later, she returned, but not with other islanders: instead, it was another pair of mafia guys. Upon seeing the defeated lumps, one of them laughed, "Ha! They really did get wrecked." While they worked on shuffling away the mess, the other one seemed to be taking a strong note of Chester, but said nothing. Within another minute, they were gone.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Lina began, "The Azure Company are all scummy assholes, but they have a weird power structure. If you start something they might gang up on you, but if one of them does something on their own then it's up to them. He might come back at you, and if he can talk some of the others into it then it could be bad, but-"

"After that, he'll have you in his nightmares!" Suan laughed, slamming his palm on the counter in hysterics.

Lina frowned. "They're...basically in charge of the island. We're not close enough to any Government Kingdom or Four Seasons country to get any help." Going over to the counter Suan passed over the brick of sugar, whcih Lina held up briefly in triumph.

Then, another figure appeared in the doorway, though much smaller. Though she was also clearly distraught, as while her hands were full with three cups and a small skewer of meat and veggies, most of the drinks were half empty. Lino moaned, "I spilled the Melonberryade..."

Going over to her side, Lina took two of the cups, before realizing, "Oh, it's everywhere...How about this: you go home and eat your snack, then get cleaned. After that you can try to find us or play with another of your friends, but be sure to get home around dinner time! There'll be punch~" Lino stared for a moment, before spotting the brick of sugar. Not asking any further questions, she let out a giggle before heading off again.

Turning back to Chester, Lina offered, "It'll be easier to talk with just us." Glancing over, she saw Suan giving her a look. Lina sated firmly, "No."

"Gahahaha! Sorry lad!" Suan laughed.
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