Naval Battle Island Eater

[Einsauer]

A grin crept onto Bill's face that, on a younger man's face would have insisted on being called "shit-eating" but had to settle for "dangerously cheery", the sort of smile you'd see on a shark headed bazaar merchant when a wide eyed tourist marches up to their stall excitedly talking about 'doing a genuine haggle'.
"Aye lass, 'es not just a fish. 'Es a fishman, an' 'es gonna be one of them big shots."

Sweet ominously peered down, on Bill without lowering her head, she conversed with Bill as if he were hardly there at all. Her shadow-cloaked eyes were locked onto the little fishman that recognized her, was it a native street-urchin from Fishman District...?
And if so, the ever-mysterious Captain Sweet would need to ponder the severity of her past getting ahead of her.

"Who's to say that thing isn't your pet?" She asked, lifting a lavender-grey finger to point Gochi out. "...Or your slave?"
Gochi interjected, blind to whom she was pointing out. "I'm a pirate, not a slave-owner." Catching Sweet in a momentary loss of words for the fishboy.

"I got an eye fer this. I been on a lotta ships, served a lotta captains, even been captain meself a few times. So believe me, this one's got potential. I got meself a picture of me holdin' him, gonna show that to folks when i retire. I'll be able ta claim I've caught the future King of tha Pirates! An' all yer giant goldfish is ever gunna be is a sea monster. Thar be no prestige in that!"

Sweet continued her carefully controlled stance of dominance, avoiding bringing her eyes down to these pests...At least until Bill mentioned Gochi's candidacy for King of the Pirates. A jolt ran down her spine and slowly her head fell to look at Bill while he spoke, being sure to look long and hard at the piranha-boy.
"King of the Pirates, huh." She muttered.

But if'n ye wanna argue semantics."
He turned to Gochi, "Lad, why don´t you tell the nice Lass what crew ye told me ye were the captain of?"

Gochi's head turned to meet the friendly, old fisherman's voice and responded to his request while he turned back to Sweet with pride sparkling across his teeth.
"Captain Gochi of the roughest crew to sail the seas; storms followed in my-- our wake. I'm sure we need no introduction; The Big Fish Pirates were an unrivalled friend OR foe to any and all that dared cross our path..." Gochi said with a soft bow. "...You're one of my heroes:" He added excitedly, changing the topic immediately. "You and Big Bro Arlong and Boss Jinbei and" Sweet raised an eyebrow as her gaze shifted back to Bill as he asked for an introduction from her as well (Gochi still listing role-models in the background).

"Fisher Tiger and Big Bro Hody and"

He turned back to Sweet, while he started stuffing the bowl of his bent cherrywood calabash:
Speakin' of.. What crew are ye? Last time I met yer boy Gerald he wasnae inna crew yet."

"It appears you've made the mistake of challenging the Sweet Pirates to a Davy Back Fight, old man." She said over the piranha's prattling. "I'm Sweet Einsauer, and I'm next in line for the pirate throne. So-" Confidence creeping across her demeanor like a shadow.
"the three princes and Vander Decken and..."

"VANDER DECKEN!? EW!" Her voice broke, in a mixture of disgust and embarrassment. Gochi was getting reactions from Sweet very rarely seen by her crew. Mikami, the resident guide of the crew dynamic, seemed just as confused as the other swabbies. "Do not compare me to that slime-ball, kid."

"HEY, I'M NOT A KID!" Gochi snapped back. "MAYBE YOU'RE JUST AN OLD HAG!"
Sweet's eyes narrowed on the two strangers, migraine forming.
"So I get my pick of the two of you, then...?" She asked Bill with a frustrated sigh, still clearly convinced she won this contest without question.

@Magimasterkarp @Lamby

 

[Lamby]

Gerald Branched away from the others, He felt a job well done; He placed himself in the frontlines and stood as strong defense for the Cotton Blossom. Though with the introduction of a new phobia he'd say that this journey was a job well done; "I never imagined to see Bill again and in such a strange meeting as well, Atleast I greeted him. Now what truly snags my curiosity, is who or what that Little guy was; He's intriguing and maybe I'll know more about them in the future."

He barged into his quarters, the sounds of the ocean loudly emanated within it's walls. A Kind array of Gadgets and Small technologies and weird components were scattered about the room wildly left in a neat disarray in which Gerald saw as his own. He reached into his personal chest and retrieved a small box. He removed his helmet, his hair was let down and allowed to flow freely...

"I found this little trinket along my way, I've heard many stories and I've had many warnings of the fruits of that's to come however I am ready. I am ready for them all, TEREH-HI-HI-HI-HEH!"

 

[Magimasterkarp]

"Who's to say that thing isn't your pet?" She asked, lifting a lavender-grey finger to point Gochi out. "...Or your slave?"
Gochi interjected, blind to whom she was pointing out. "I'm a pirate, not a slave-owner." Catching Sweet in a momentary loss of words for the fishboy.

Bill was just about to counter that he would never dare cheat like that in a competition (a blatant lie) when the tiny pirate captain answered first, so he just chuckled at this display of peerless self absorbtion and blew a big smoke ring.
He listened to Gochi introduce himself. As the captain of the Big Fish Pirates, he was surely a greater catch than a mere non pirate big fish. But it was interesting how the small fishman looked up to the adult Captain, as if they both came from the same environment. And he listed her in the same breath as Jinbei, First Son of the Sea? Then they must be hailing from Fishman Island, probably the Fishman District. He remembered seeing it once, a desolate place, full of disaffected youths, pirates and one of his ex wives. Not a pleasant place. Then that left the question of just who this young woman before him was.

It appears you've made the mistake of challenging the Sweet Pirates to a Davy Back Fight, old man." She said over the piranha's prattling. "I'm Sweet Einsauer, and I'm next in line for the pirate throne. So-"

Breathing a small sigh of relief over the unfamiliar family name, Bill blew another smoke ring, recalling reading about the Sweet Pirates in the newspaper. The two smoke rings were just unraveling each other into the shape of a jellyfish when Gochi mentioned a certain name. He reacted at the same time as Sweet, but where she was mostly disgusted, he nearly swallowed his pipe in shock.
"Ye know Van Der Decken the first, captain of the legendary Flying Dutchman? What kind of mythical witch are ye?"
But then, just after Sweet called Van der Decken (IX in her case) a slime ball, Gochi answered:

"HEY, I'M NOT A KID!" "MAYBE YOU'RE JUST AN OLD HAG!"

And Bill burst into laughter like a madman.
"Wahahohoho, Hagfish! Yer not a witch, yer a slimy Hagfish, Hahaha!"
After a few more wheezes he caught himself.
"I ain't laughed like that in ages. Maybe being in a crew like this ain't so bad a thing? I already know yer Gerald boy, an' that musician seems like a bright lad all right. Ye been inna news as well, been a while since I been in a crew what made it into tha news. Besides, tha coin ta start tha Davy Back was me payment fer riddin' these waters of sea monsters. That and a great recipe for piranha bait, it seems. So maybe I owe ya one. I ain't like being captain anyways."
His words called to mind the last verse of his shanty, detailing one of his disastrous voyages on a doomed merchant ship:
We´re all Rats onna ship in a roling storm,
And a short while, the captain was me.
Then came the next storm an' I drew their scorn,
Yo Ho, Overboard.

Something held him back from just asking to join the Sweet Pirates, though.
"It's just me anglers pride... Ye ain't gonna see that giant corpse make a pun like that."

 

[Einsauer]

Bill joined in with Gochi's game of mud-slinging and guffawed at the pirate captain, who was seemingly attempting to brush off the childish mockery. Sweet tilted her head into her awaiting hands and gently pressed into her shut eyes as her migraine nibbled away at the inside of her eyes.

After a few more wheezes he caught himself.
"I ain't laughed like that in ages. Maybe being in a crew like this ain't so bad a thing? I already know yer Gerald boy, an' that musician seems like a bright lad all right. Ye been inna news as well, been a while since I been in a crew what made it into tha news. Besides, tha coin ta start tha Davy Back was me payment fer riddin' these waters of sea monsters. That and a great recipe for piranha bait, it seems. So maybe I owe ya one. I ain't like being captain anyways."

Her eyes shot up at Bill, she hadn't seen any News Coos since their departure from Lulusia. "News?" She asked, a hint of anticipation tinging her voice. The fishwoman wasn't keen of having her face plastered on papers across the world, especially if it had a number beneath it...

Something held him back from just asking to join the Sweet Pirates, though.
"It's just me anglers pride... Ye ain't gonna see that giant corpse make a pun like that."

Sweet gestured to the living island she had slain in unarmed combat in mild frustration then sighed. "A vote then..." She looked around. "Who has the better catch?"
An enormous outpour of support for Captain Einsauer came from her swabbies, also Johnny who had suddenly been promoted from random passerby to crew musician.
"That settles it then..." She said folding her arms. "...Hey, Motormouth- You're over here now, get a move on."
Without hesitation Gochi had flung himself at the larger ship and latched on like a jumping spider, crawling his way up despite coat sleeves covering his fingers. Before long the little, blue creature with jagged blades for teeth was sat in front of the Sweet Pirate crew, standing only to the knees of the swabbies around him, and only to calf of Einsauer.
She spared him little attention before looking back over to Bill's boat:

"I'm gonna need to see your copy of the paper, old-man." She demanded, seemingly glossing over the fact he was friends with her newest crewmate, Yopenheimer.

@Magimasterkarp

 

[Magimasterkarp]

Sweet gestured to the living island she had slain in unarmed combat in mild frustration then sighed. "A vote then..." She looked around. "Who has the better catch?"

An indignant snort escaped Bill's nose, making quite the convincing display of discontent.
"A vote? All yer crewmates ain´t gonna be unbiased, here. Yer riggin the game! I like it, plyin' the pirates trade."
He tapped his nose. Of course fair play wasn't a concept in a Davy Back Fight.
"But all of ye be wrong, an' you'll know it soon!" He wagged his finger at the assembled cheering pirates, "All of ye will see that I'm right!"
While the mob was still cheering, Bill turned on a heel, briskly walking into the cabin of his boat with a spring in his step seemingly incongruous with his indignant grumbling. After some rumbling he came back out with a big packed sea bag, which made a lot of glass clinking noises. Slung over his other shoulder was his trusty marlin weapon and a few fishing rods.
"I´m gonna call this a draw, but I´ll be watchin' ya! And the moment I have proof that the tyke is a greater fish than yours, I'll be there to contest this result."
He picked up a towline and threw it towards a swabby on the deck of the Cotton Blossom.
"Put 'er in tow, will ya? I'm gonna put 'er in storage next harbour. But don't ye dare scuff her! I'll have yer hide, ya hear?"

"I'm gonna need to see your copy of the paper, old-man."

Bill stopped by his little folding table and chair set on his way to the other ship, to pick up the newspaper he'd been reading that morning.
"You know, fer a crew what stuck a king to the bowsprit, ya seem quite jolly fellows." He craned his neck. "Did ye already clean 'im off? Woulda liked ta see that. Oh well."
He clambered up the railing with his luggage on his back and the paper in his mouth until he stood in front of Sweet. He held out what she asked for.
"There ya go. I already filled out the crossword puzzle and took the coupons, but ye can still read the articles. Also, I'm inviting meself on yer boat. Gotta keep an eye on the kid. Names Santiago Bill, smutje extraordinaire. Where is the kitchen?"
Bill sauntered off without even waiting for directions. He had been on enough ships, he knew where to find his territory. The kitchen was his seat of power, where he could distribute food and amass loyalty, content like a fat spider in her web. A few seconds after he left the deck, a shout rang out:

"Why is there a lizard in me kitchen?"

 

[Einsauer]

Sweet ignored the arguments put up by the geriatric seafarer, simply awaiting the paper while new crewmates suddenly huddled around like fleas to a hound.

"You know, fer a crew what stuck a king to the bowsprit, ya seem quite jolly fellows." He craned his neck. "Did ye already clean 'im off? Woulda liked ta see that. Oh well."
He clambered up the railing with his luggage on his back and the paper in his mouth until he stood in front of Sweet. He held out what she asked for.
"There ya go. I already filled out the crossword puzzle and took the coupons, but ye can still read the articles. Also, I'm inviting meself on yer boat. Gotta keep an eye on the kid. Names Santiago Bill, smutje extraordinaire. Where is the kitchen?"

Bill's remarks did not sit well with the Captain Einsauer; her face remained cold as she waited for Bill to board her ship, but just beneath her mask she was fighting back a bit of panic. She had been as cooperative with both marines and royals: what in the hell was written in that article about her?
The old man, with luggage in tow, climbed aboard The Cotton Blossom and greeted the captain with an outstretched copy of the World Economic Times.
She removed the paper from his hand with no proper greeting or response to his announcement of joining her ship, instead she wordlessly flipped through the pages, turning quickly to the story regarding her and the crew:

'Lulusia Left Lawless: A Kingdom Left to the Fishes'
'After the emergence and subsequent rampage through the peaceful land of the Lulusia Kingdom, pirates have taken the land as a criminal territory. The self-proclaimed captain of the Sweet Pirates: Sweet Einsauer has taken the lives of the two reigning regents of the kingdom, reportedly parading King Seki's corpse through town before stringing it to the hull of their ship as a figurehead.'

'Reports from marines paint a grim picture, as she was able to dispatch a Commodore with relative ease. Due to the extreme violence spread in the wake of this fish-woman and her gang of pirates, a bounty of 260,000,000 beri has been placed on her head: dead or alive.'

'DEAD OR ALIVE'
'SWEET EINSAUER'
'฿260,000,000'

"You've got to be kidding me..." She murmured to herself as the swabbies gathered around to get a glimpse of the paper. "...This makes me out to be a psycho." She resisted the urge to shred the paper into bits, instead gently folding it once over and tucking it into the waistband of her shorts.

She walked for the captain's quarters then looked back to the mingling crewmates. "We set sail and continue our course by nightfall, anything not chopped off that giant fish and on ice by then gets left for the sea-kings!"
With a doubled-clap of her hands she turned and entered her private quarters to deliberate her next move.

The swabbies hopped to work, properly setting up Bill's boat to be towed and also loading up heaps of fishy goods from the colossal goldfish. Gochi tore into the raw fish flesh, exclaiming his excitement as sushi while all the other pirates worked.

Captain Einsauer, sitting in the dark while she nursed her migraine, thought to herself...
Whatever her next step was, it seemed there was a new level of complication being added on. Sweet was no longer flying under the radar, she had to start making her moves at a faster pace...

It was time to visit Water 7.