Swordsman's adventure 27

The last of the three Kingdoms that were united into the Alvarez Empire was Stella, and as the name implied everything was named after stars and constellations. The biggest port was on the northernmost tip of the whole archipelago, named Genbu. 

“-so hypothetically, it is quite possible for a star to be placed so that it appears to hang stationary in the sky, and it would always allow one to point north.” Tanya finished, “I read a book series a few years ago that called such a star ‘Polaris’. But we don’t have such a luxury, so you must instead pick out the eleven stars of the Genbu constellation after figuring out what arrangement it should be, given the time of night. Much less convenient.”

“I always wondered why the stars spun around over the night.” Kuina said, humming thoughtfully up at the sky. “Dad didn’t know either. What’s that book called?”

“I don’t recall.” Tanya lied; it was just her go-to excuse when she wanted to talk about some of the major differences between the planets she’s experienced. “It has this fold-out star chart in the back that had the alien sky, so if you’d like to find it, look for that.” The sad part was that she actually recalled just such a book back in her first life. It was a sci-fi thing that used colony ships instead of FTL, so it was about life on a planet that was almost but not quite Earth. The plot wasn’t very good, but the science was amazing. 

Hm. Perhaps she could… write something like that? Food for thought. Maybe if she runs out of things to draw. 

“Princess, alert!” Boenkyo called. They do a specific trill when they’re calling her specifically… she just wished that they chose to apply it more generally to someone other than Princess Vivi, calcifying the meaning of that specific vocalization to ‘Princess’ instead of something more general like ‘Your Highness’, ‘Boss’ or even ‘Captain’. Making a language from scratch is hard. …Wait, if she gets them to use it in reference to a Prince and makes it stick, it’ll become best translated as ‘Your Highness’! Brilliant. 

Still, Boenkyo’s trying to convey something complex with her arms, and Tanya had missed a bit. “I don’t understand, start over.” Tanya signed, a single sharp gesture with two fingers starting from her ear that leads to a horizontal twirl of the hand at the wrist. As she didn’t end the gesture with a firm stop still pointing down, she did not tell the monkey to repeat it more slowly. 

Boenkyo slowed down marginally anyway, but it was more because she was enunciating each gesture. “There is no language man, instead? Shouty man, cannons pointed at us.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake!” Tanya shouted in exasperation. “That’s it.” She stormed to the front of the ship, so she could see what’s going on. 

True to Bornkyo’s testimony, the port had apparently been locked down, and the humandrills were too stupid to realize that they should have stopped their approach twenty minutes ago. 

The man who was on the Marine warship on picket duty was known to her: Rear Admiral Pomsky, a large-ish man with a thick blonde moustache and a stupid-looking hammer that looks like a clamshell on a stick. Of course, the man used it as a meditative totem to bond with his devil fruit, the Otter-Otter fruit, so he can attempt awakening in the future, but that didn’t make it look less stupid, just made it not actually be stupid. 

He was, of course, speaking through a snail loudspeaker, but with the sea being the way it is, it took a little bit of straining to fully make out his words. “-or you will be fired upon as a collaborator with the Revolutionary Army.”

Still, she used her haki to project her voice to reply. She was so sick of this… “No wonder the Revolutionaries managed to sink their claws into the populace with bureaucracy this incompetent!” She shouted, drawing Shodai Kitetsu for emphasis. The blade’s bloodlust radiated, adding its menace to her own. “This is the Argent, Flagship of the Grimm Navy and personal vessel of its royal family, led by one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Any cannon that fires upon this vessel will have its entire parapet cut off your fortress walls as if they were cake and left to fall into the harbor, and your superiors will command you to apologize to me for the inconvenience, you wet rat!” She’s seen Vice-Admiral Tokikake forced to apologize to Doflamingo in full dogeza before. It was not a pretty sight. While the World Government would probably not actually demand that of him as she wasn’t her father, she did have free rein to bully anyone who wasn’t a Vice-Admiral or better. 

The Rear Admiral gaped in shock at Tanya’s toss of temper. “...Princess Tanya!?” He eventually stammered out. Ah, he remembered her. 

“Yes!” Tanya shouted, no longer caring about the hated title. “Now let me dock and go about my business, or I will start cutting things. I have not decided when I will stop.”

With that threat, The Argent was docked within minutes, behind the Marine ship’s picket. After hopping aboard the warship, she approached the Rear Admiral. Naturally, the rank and file Marines generally just moved out of her way, each one refusing to look directly at her in fear of inviting challenge. Rear Admiral Pomsky was in his hybrid form, larger and bulkier than his normal form. This was despite the fact that an otter was a very small animal, because it was still a carnivorous zoan. “Is there something I can do for you, Princess?” He asked grumpily. 

“I would like to apologize for my loss of composure.” She said calmly, still showing no weakness in her body language, “You are simply doing your job, and while it is part of that job to be able to recognize ship markings, I’m sure the Revolutionaries have been giving you some substantial grief.” That was nonsense, Revolutionaries didn’t generally attack ports with conventional naval warfare for the most part, but it didn’t hurt her position to extend a bit of mercy to what was likely the most powerful Marine presence in the local area. 

“Would you be lending your assistance in defending against said Revolutionaries?” He asked through gritted teeth. 

“I have been keeping an ear to the ground, you know.” Tanya said, “I haven’t heard of any of their heavy hitters present; you can handle things without me, I’m sure.” Pomsky growled something under his breath. “That said, be sure to give me a call if anyone with a bounty greater than, say, three hundred million comes around.” Fun fact: the current Grand Line Army’s head, Sabo, isn’t a very well known figure, even Tanya only knows the name, and thus doesn’t have a bounty assigned to him specifically yet. You could still get fifty million for capturing a Revolutionary Army officer of his rank, if proven, but that was an ordeal to cash in on if the member was obscure enough that they didn’t have an individual bounty. The only two people who meet her requirement that have even a remote possibility of showing up are Dragon himself or his Chief of Staff. “Then it’ll be worth my time.” Hopefully, that won’t actually happen, because once bounties get that high, victory is no longer certain in most cases. She’d need to actually fight, and she’s probably pretty rusty; her training schedule wasn’t nearly as rigorous as it was back when she had Father and Grandpa pushing her to keep it up. 

“Better than nothing, I suppose.” Pomsky grumbled. “Is there anything else, your highness?”

Hm. Politeness was wasted on this brute. “I’ll instruct my crew to keep the rear chase turret loaded and ready to fire at whatever you fire at. That should help in the unlikely event something actually happens here.” Turning away, she hopped onto the railing of the warship. “Sayonara, Sea Weasel.” She said idly before jumping with full force back to her ship, causing the warship to list to the side for a moment from the force of her leap. She could have done it without disturbing the thing she was jumping off, but that was no fun. 

Honestly, how’s she supposed to do some good old fashion war profiteering if people keep pointing cannons at her? Rude. 

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Genbu, naturally, had pretty much all local goods available for bulk purchase. Sure, she could maybe get a few percent off the top if she tracked down the supply chain an extra step or two, but if those guys had the kind of bulk she was looking for, but if she wanted the goods in a timely fashion, it was best to just buy off the merchant houses that buy up the output of the island before anyone else could and sell it to people who had ships to transport those goods. 

…Well, that was her plan after she double-checked what kinds of margins the merchant houses were claiming. 

Meanwhile, Kuina followed her around with a barrel on her back, holding the remainder of their sword inventory. Apparently, the reason for the commotion at the dock was that the port was being besieged on all sides that weren’t the sea, as the Revolutionary Army had control over all other parts of Stella’s main island. 

Naturally, Tanya had been keeping an eye out for people who looked like they could afford ruinous prices on a new sword. She’s made four sales already. There were fourteen blades remaining. 

“Look, you can’t take this marble with you.” Tanya explained, “The instant the Revolutionaries capture the city, they’ll take each and every one of these twenty-five ton blocks and sell them to fund their revolution.” This was not strictly accurate; whether or not they dismantled an industry depended on factors such as how much slavery was involved, and such funds raised were used for the benefit of the new administration, “So if you want to convert this into something a bit more liquid, I’m the only one buying. So it’s my price, or nothing.”

The merchant, a woman wearing furs and even more jewelry than Tanya was, intensified her glower. “At that price, I’m being robbed anyway!”

Tanya didn’t even blink at the exaggeration. “Does that mean you won’t sell me all eight remaining blocks? Because I can leave, if you won’t.” She looked towards Kuina. “What do you think, should we check out that mansion we saw earlier, see if they’re willing to buy some of your swords?”

As usual, her threat to walk away got them quickly counteroffering a price that Tanya was willing to accept. She was going to make a mint! 

Once the marble blocks were brought to the ship on a caravan of wagons, each heavy duty cart lashed into pairs and pulled by Kuina, Kiyou, Tate, and Cookie, the dockmaster took one look before getting a very specific look on their face that she knew well from her first life: it was the look of a man who realized that the executive is about to do something extremely stupid. “Ah, your highness?” 

She looked at the cranes normally used for such things, each one unoccupied. “Don’t worry, we have our own crane.” She assured him, before signing instructions to Swabbie, who had seen the blocks pulled by his fellows and had already started setting up the cargo crane. “It can handle the blocks.” It was designed to be able to haul sea kings, because Tanya would never wish to be in a situation where she was forced to waste an entire sea king’s corpse. 

“That is… not what I was referring to.” The dockmaster said delicately. 

What else could he… She looked at her marble. “Oh! You mean the weight.” She said, and the dockmaster’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” She said, before hopping up to the ship. “We’ve got a long day of moving stuff ahead of us! Do exactly what I tell you!” She signed furiously. “If everything’s done with no major mistakes, double wine rations!” The monkeys cheered. “If everything goes smoothly with no mistakes at all, triple!” She added, which led to even more enthusiastic hooting. 

The thing about transporting extremely heavy goods like stone was that ships could only handle so much weight, on top of the physical space you need to use. Furthermore, the balance of the ship was also important. 

The first of these concerns were easy enough to handle; the ship’s construction meant that as long as each block was securely strapped to part of the Adam wood frame, it wouldn’t break through the ship moving, even in storms, as long as the straps held firm. Which is why she was using the good chains for that, padded of course so as to not damage the blocks. A pure Taolf wood vessel would break under the forces, but with the Adam wood handling the weight of the blocks structurally, the Taolf wood can handle the buoyancy problem with its nigh magical properties. 

The second problem wasn’t difficult, it was just annoying. They had to disassemble parts of the deck to get two blocks each into the brig and gun deck, and the other four had to be put in specific portions of the cargo holds that had openings large enough to handle the exotic good. 

25 ton marble blocks was a standard-ish unit, and usually you could get them for around two million beri each, and sell them for ten times that much, maybe more, depending on the market. She got all eight for half the normal price, so her expected return was quite high. She also got to, as per the latest laws, skip the tariff that tripled the price, and she didn’t even need to pay them to move the goods! It was a good day. 

It was shortly after the last block was secured, with only the re-assembly of the top deck to finish up, that a familiar presence practically shouted itself to her. “Hm?”

What could be nothing else than Raml’s ship had just gotten past the picket line; it was a colorful yacht with the Ajeel trading company’s logo on the sail, and like his little oasis, its front was decorated in a manner that shouted that the man had an unhealthy fixation with Alabastan culture. 

Wait… didn’t Vivi mention, when they were talking about annoying suitors, something about a merchant prince like that? Was this the same guy? The age was right, five years older…

Not important. He had brought along his slave soldier, presumably to follow up on his boast to defeat the Revolutionaries with him. Hm… This would be easier if she knew what the man’s crimes were. 

Oh! Idea. She hopped over to the dock where the ship was stopping at. “I see you had the same idea I did, Raml.” She said in a faux-friendly manner. “Buy up the good stuff at rock-bottom prices before the Revolution’s over, one way or the other.”

Raml looked at The Argent. “How in the world can you fit-” He paused. “Nevermind. Stay out of my way, or you’ll have to face both my bodyguard and the Rear Admiral.”

Tanya huffed in amusement. Yeah, she couldn’t exactly ignore Pomsky, but he was not an opponent that she was worried about defeating. “Look, you’re not exactly going to scare me with your mystery bodyguard. When you have a title like mine, the list of people stronger than you is small enough that I can actually keep track of it. If I don’t already know this guy, I can probably win.” Besides, good odds the man had a devil fruit that made Raml so confident. Near the sea? Easy money. 

Raml mirrored her arrogant huff. “Either way, starting a fight with the local defenders while the Revolutionaries are outside the walls would absolutely be enough to get your privileges revoked, so go away so I can get my glory!”

Incidentally… “Does Pomsky even know what you’re doing?” She asked idly. “The Marines aren’t, historically, fans of letting this kind of thing fly; they’d much rather bring in a so-called high bounty.” Well, they might let the man crush the revolutionaries first, but still… Tanya watched Raml’s face carefully. “How high was it, again?”

“Pomsky doesn’t have the authority to stop me.” Raml insisted, “Prince Larcade is the one in command, and he’s already agreed to my demands if I crush them.”

Hm. From what she understood of the Marine’s standard operating procedures, they do generally subordinate themselves to the local military when operating on islands, although they are not obligated to do so. Actually… that’s probably why Pomsky’s staying on his ship, because that way he could perform a valuable action without needing to do that, handling the picket on his own, securing a line of retreat for the last remnants of the local government, including this Prince Larcade, because even if the Revolutionaries do win, there’s still the rest of the archipelago to protect. 

“You won’t mind if I ask him, then.” Tanya said, glancing over to her ship. She couldn’t really keep transmission snails inside Saifu, it was mollusk abuse. Still, Yari and Tate were sparring on deck, as they tended to when given spare time, so she used a tiny burst of conquerors to catch their attention before making the sign for ‘snail’, which was thumb and pinky out, pointed down, before flipping the sign up to indicate that they should go get it. Yari gave a big ‘OK’ sign and went to follow orders. 

“The Revolutionaries will be defeated before he can do anything.” Raml spat. “Come, slave! Do well and your precious women will survive me turning you over to the Marines.”

“Yes…” The man said, even more despondent and resigned than before. 

It seemed to tick off the merchant prince. “It’s a battle, a monster like you should be excited!” He said testily. “We’re going off to victory! Not a funeral!”

“Maybe I should dance?” The man said sarcastically, which, to her Observation, sounded like he was planning something. 

“You can dance?” Raml asked, before considering the question. “Yes, slave! I would like to march to victory as a two-man parade! Onward!” Grinning, he started walking. 

The man stomped his foot as he took a step, lightly hopped forward three times on that foot, before stomping back down with the other foot, hopping three more times. Wait… she knows that beat. She knows that dance! 

…Why the hell would he know the Dance of Liberation? That was one of the things the World Government had gone through a substantial effort to bury… Was he a Revolutionary even before he was enslaved? She doubted he was a slave of Marejois, which is the largest group of people who practiced that particular cultural tradition intensely enough that only total extermination would get rid of it, and that was not a step they were willing to put themselves through the consequences of taking. Well, either way, he was moving slower than a normal walking pace, so he’s certainly bought himself some time. 

Yari landed ungracefully onto the dock behind her, and presented their snail. Picking up the receiver, she pointed the snail at the ship and pressed the short wave button. “Puru puru. Puru Puru.” The snail said as it indicated that it was in communication with a snail on the marine ship. “Click.” It said, before shifting its expression to annoyed anger. “Who is it!” Pomsky shouted. Oh, he must have already been in the communication room. 

“This is Tanya. Tell me, Rear Admiral: Slavery’s still illegal, right? Even if they’re notorious pirates?” Tanya asked rhetorically. 

The snail looked confused. “Yes, of course it is.” He said, before the snail looked horrified. “There isn’t a Celestial Dragon around, is there?”

“No, just one of the top dogs in the Ajeel trading company.” Tanya said, “He’s enslaved a man by holding his family hostage, and this man is supposedly a wanted criminal with a substantial bounty, although I don’t recognize him through the mask.”

“Yes, that’s incredibly illegal. Harboring a pirate is a grave crime,” One of the few bits of mercy in the World Government’s laws is that an accepted legal defense for harboring a criminal is claiming to be unable to stop the pirate from doing what they please, even if the pirate didn’t directly extort the assistance. This is a defense that Raml has absolutely zero chance of successfully applying. “Taking slaves further compounds the issue.”

“So what you’re saying is, that starting some trouble to attempt to capture this pirate would be acceptable, even in the presence of Revolutionaries?” Tanya asked sweetly. 

“Absolutely.” Pomsky said, before the snail paled as he realized what he just said. “Wait, hol- Ka-click.” Tanya chuckled as she hung up the snail. 

“Yari, go back and leave a skeleton crew.” She signed, handing the snail back. Yes, there’s a sign for most nautical terms. “We’ve got a fight to win.”

“Fight, win!” Yari signed back before giving out a hooting call. “Ready for Battle!”

The rest of her crew called out back. 

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[Portgas D. Ace]

The plan was set. Ten’s mom had been moved, but Deuce was able to locate another dungeon area, and while they weren’t one hundred percent sure that their target was in that area, Ace’s gut had a good feeling about it. Even better, the new dungeon was a lot closer to where Ten was pretty sure the armory and/or treasury was. 

The only question was whether or not they tried to blow a hole in the fortress or if they went through the existing hole and simply ‘got lost’ to find the dungeon. In the end, they decided a quick smash and grab was preferable. 

So they sailed up to the fortress again from a new angle. Deuce had his hand on the rudder; it took a little doing to make a functional one on a fire jet propelled ship, but by now Ace usually just used the control he had over his fire to steer by pushing the flames more to one side or the other. 

The fortress fired cannons at them, as did one of the ships nearby it, but Deuce’s Observation let them sail between the detonations. “Ready, pipsqueak?” Ace asked. 

“Ready.” Ten said firmly. She was in disguise, wearing a wig and outfit that made her look like Tanya. It was part of the plan. Hopefully the Captain has an alibi. 

“All right!” He said, condensing a large amount of flame. 

Ten took a deeper breath than usual. “Sky Dragon’s Roar!” She shouted as she used her devil fruit to unleash hurricane force winds. 

“Fire Fist!” Ace called out. 

“BLAZE DRAGON’S ROAR!” They shouted as their moves combined into one powerful explosive. 

The side of the Fortress blasted open, creating a hole big enough that they had two options of entrances. With a sharp inhale, Ten sucked the remaining fire back up quickly, leaving their entrance free of stray flames. 

Ace went into the higher entrance alone, allowing Ten to take over powering the striker by exhaling flames out of her mouth while Deuce steered. They’ll be fine. 

Someone that looked guard-like was moaning in pain, not currently on fire but clearly burned. “Hey!” He shouted, lifting up the guard. Ace slapped the man. “Where’s your treasury!” He shouted thuggishly. 

The man looked at him like he was insane. “You don’t know?” He croaked. 

“It’s somewhere around here, give me specifics!” Ace shouted insistently. His hand burst aflame. “Or else!” 

That did it. “I don’t know!” The guard said, panicked. “I just guard the dungeon! It’s that way.” He said, pointing. Ace believed him. “So the treasury should be that way.” He continued, pointing the other way. “There’s no other way to go!” 

That gave Ace an idea. “You’re trying to trick me!” He said, before going straight towards the dungeon. “I’m too smart for you!” He added, because that seemed like the kind of thing Luffy would say. 

“Ah!” The guard shouted, “How did you know?”

Shit! Ace turned back around. “Stop trying to trick me!” He said, punching the guard unconscious. Then he went towards the actual dungeon. 

He found a few more guards in this direction, which meant he was probably going in the right direction. After bursting through another thick door, he shouted: “Where’s the treasure?”

This dungeon had what appeared to be two large cells, one of which held about a dozen tough-looking men, while the other held a single waifish woman with small wings. Ten’s mom! Great. There were also about four more guards that felt as strong as the last one (see: weak) and one man that seemed like he was actually dangerous. “Treasure?” The man asked. “You’ll find no treasure here. This is the dungeons, and it is where your raid ends, pirate.” He spat. 

“Help me!” Ten’s mom shouted. 

“Quiet!” The dangerous guy shouted back, swinging his fist in the woman’s direction. A cracking explosion occurred from the force of the movement, which rattled the cell door but also seemed to pain the winged woman. 

That’s a pretty good excuse. “Hey!” Ace said, “You know what? Forget the treasure. Now I’m just gonna kick your ass.”

The man grinned. “I am Bakel.” He said, “Hand of Ajeel. I like your hat.” 

Eh? “Thanks?” Ace said, before his head was suddenly occupied by fist. He discorporated, of course. “Yeah, that’s not going to work.” Ace added with a grin once his head reformed. “I think you’re going to be the first guy I’ve fought in a while that my fruit actually works against, now that I think about it.” Ace said, thinking about the subject. 

Meanwhile, Bakel continued to flail uselessly at Ace’s body. “Get the seastone shackles, you idiots!” He shouted to the other guards. “I’ll hold him off!”

Okay, that could be a problem…

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The Revolutionaries, despite not generally being a conventional army, still acted like one when it came down to brass tacks, when they coordinated with local rebels: there was a scattering of camps and light fortifications, including some field artillery, around Genbu port, enforced with a series of Revolutionary Army flags as well as a flag that Tanya gathered was supposed to be the flag of the united democratic council or whatever they wanted to call the new form of government they wanted to install on Ishgar. 

It was only due to the Eyes of Suzaku that Tanya could discern the confusion that the Revolutionary Army officers had over seeing a man in a metal helmet use the Dance of Liberation as he marched forward with his cocky asshole of a slavemaster watching over him. 

Raml had a loudspeaker snail, and used it: “Attention, rebel scum!” He shouted, his words echoing throughout the area. “You think you can take over mighty Alvarez? Overcome the iron fist of the law? Worse, you think you can do this without sending your mightiest warriors!” Raml spat. “An insult! Behold, our secret weapon! For twenty years, this monster in human skin has hidden among our rich lands, and now he fights for his betters, as is right and proper!”

Lucy strode forward, walking about twenty meters ahead of their fortifications. “We are the Revolution!” She started, “We are strength given to the weak! The breakers of chains, who support those who rise up to overthrow tyranny! With these Hands of Liberation, the chains of pain and fear are as glass: Broken at the slightest touch!” She pointed at the slave soldier, and twisted her hand. “Key-key Open!”

The iron mask practically exploded off of the man’s head, and the man looked back at his master, cringing in fear. 

…Wait. That’s… oh. All the little hints clicked together. Seagull Guns Nozdon, Cook of the Roger Pirates, bounty of four hundred and fifty million beri, sighed in relief when Raml merely pointed back towards his enemy, his slave collar’s removal not scaring the man into doing something unwise. He needn’t fear: the thing about hostages is that you can only kill them once; if Raml executed them unfairly, he would not survive it. Raml didn’t seem quite stupid enough to not realize that. 

Well, looks like intervening was the correct move: Lucy’s crew has absolutely no chance; Nozdon was in the bottom half of the Roger Pirates in combat power, but that was still enough to utterly destroy anyone who can’t walk on equal footing with a Vice Admiral, bare minimum. 

Leaping into the air, Tanya drew Shodai Kitetsu. “Kokuto Issen!” She shouted as she flashed the high-speed slash, creating a large furrow between Nozdon and Lucy. Landing atop it, she started speaking: “Tch. Ajeel Raml, I’m insulted!” She shouted, letting her voice cut through all other sounds with her conquerors. “You think my goods are worth less than four hundred and fifty million? Nevertheless, I am here as a representative of the World Government, and don’t you know? Slavery’s a big no-no! Only the Celestial Dragons are allowed to have them!”

Raml roared in anger. “You couldn’t wait ten minutes? You’re siding with the Revolutionaries!”

Tanya scoffed. “Of course not!” She shouted back. As no one but Nozdon could clearly see her face, she winked at him. “I’m a representative of one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, someone of my rank couldn’t possibly be siding for the Revolutionaries!” She gestured, and attention was drawn to her subordinates: Kuina, Tate, Yari, Kiyou, and Cookie, who arrived around her. “Not only will I claim this Ex-Roger Pirate’s bounty, my crew will put these Revolutionaries to rout, fulfilling both obligations! It’s a fairer fight this way!” Behind her back, she gave one of the signals she and Lucy had worked out; Tanya having to pretend to fight them was an outcome that was easy enough to anticipate that Lucy had shared a little bit of the Revolutionary’s hand signals. It wasn’t a proper sign language, but when the person who just said they were going to fight you just gave your own secret signal for ‘retreat’, it was a clear enough message that more than just her friend figured out what was going on. 

Now, they just needed to make this look good…