Bounties & Where to Next?

The party went on for the whole night and no one was awake before noon the next day. Zoan's seem to be really useful at this moment as Taiga seemed to be the only one not completely hungover right now… and was back to drinking booze again!

"So, Captain! What's next? Grandline? We are on the last island before Grandline in South Blue." He asked Cliff while Cliff sat next to him nursing a hangover.

"Huh? Oh, no. Not Grandline. We'll go the other 3 blues first." Cliff spoke while chugging down some water.

"Oh? Which one then? North, West or East Blue?"

"Eh? I haven't decided yet." Cliff answered.

Immediately after…

BAM

THUD

"OOWW!! CASSY, why'd you throw a bottle at me?!?!" Cliff asked as while getting up from the faceplant while holding the empty bottle of rum Cassy had just thrown at him. He even had a lump on his head where it hit him.

Cassy ignored him whining and went back to nursing her head.

May and Mio seemed to still be sleeping next to where Cassy sat as Cliff stumbled over to talk with Cassy.

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POV CHANGE~

A Few Hours Later~

A knock sounded before a man enter the room.

"You called for me Fleet Admiral?" The man spoke after a salute.

"Yes, I did Vice Admiral Calloway. It would seem your grandson has started to cause trouble back in South Blue." Fleet Admiral Sengoku said.

"My grandson? He's causing trouble?" The neatly dressed Vice Admiral asked.

"Yes. We got reports of him stealing a ship made of Adam Wood alongside his pirate crew from Centaurea nearly a year back. That was when he was given a bounty of 5 million beri. Then he fought the Feather Pirates and killed them to the last man where he and his first mate got their bounties up to 15 and 10 million beri." Saying this Fleet Admiral Sengoku brought out 3 bounty posters that corroborated his words. "Within the next few months, he and his crew fought the leaderless fleet that Feather seemed to have been building and absolutely decimated it. This got them to a bounty of 25 million for your grandson, 20 million for his first mate and another woman on his crew has a 1 million beri bounty."

"Wha-" Vice Admiral Calloway started but was cut off as Sengoku continued speaking.

"Now, he and his crew have just departed from Baterilla after killing nearly 200 marines and the Captain stationed there. We have no choice but to upgrade his and his crew's bounties." Saying this Sengoku brought out 5 new bounty posters.

The Vice Admiral picked them up gasped seeing the price listed, "That much?! Fleet Admiral I mus-"

"This meeting I asked of you was not to ask you for permission Vice Admiral. I am telling you that this is going to be your grandson's and his crew's bounty!" The Fleet Admiral interjected.

The Vice Admiral then slowly lowered the poster's back down, "As you command sir!" he saluted once more before turning around and walking out of the room.

Sengoku sighed as he saw Calloway leave and looked down onto the posters.

"Seriously what is it with South Blue lately? First Roger's rumoured child and now this. Damn you, Roger! Why couldn't you have died silently? Did you have to start the 'Golden Age of Pirates'?" saying this Fleet Admiral Sengoku returned to his paperwork paying no attention the poster's still present on the table.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, CLIFF 'BLUE COAT' CALLOWAY, 60 MILLION BERI, with a picture of Cliff standing with his cutlass drawn still wearing his blue Captains' coat.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, RED SWORDWOMAN CASSY, 40 MILLION BERI, with a picture of Cassy from when she stabbed the marine she had shot. Her sword was still stabbed in the marine's chest in the picture.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, HIDETAKE 'THE TIGER' TAIGA, 25 MILLION BERI, with a picture of Taiga swinging his kanabo with blood being splashed on him.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, MAY D. WILD, 5 MILLION BERI, with a picture of May slashing through someone with her dagger and their blood splashing outward onto May.

 WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, 'TRIPLE CLAW' MIO KAZUE, 15 MILLION BERI, with a picture of Mio just standing with her claws out ready to battle.

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Meanwhile back on the Roaring Tigress', a celebration was going on. Taiga seemed to be the happiest at finally getting his first bounty, that too 25 million from the get go.

"FINALLY! A bounty of my own!!" He yelled while dancing all over the deck with a mug full of South Blue Vodka in one hand as well as his bounty poster in the other.

Cassy too seemed to be happy at finally getting recognised. She too had a mug of vodka in her hand as she admired her bounty poster.

Mio had long since stuffed her bounty poster in her pocket as she sat down with Cassy to drink.

May too had put hers back in her room as she still had to man the helm especially with all this powerful wind blowing from portside.

Cliff was done dancing with Taiga though he was happy still at getting his bounty raised. Right now he was laughing while rolling on the ground at having seen Taiga epithet.

"Tiger 'the Tiger' Tiger" He managed to get out between waves of laughter, "Even the marines know what your name truly means! Rahahahahahahahahahahah…"

You could even hear the girls chuckling in the background, but the usually easily riled up Taiga (only on this topic though) wasn't fazed at all.

"I don't care~ This won't affect me at all today~" Taiga replied in a singsong voice as he continued dancing.

...…The next few days for the Roaring Tiger Pirates can be easily predicted...

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"You wanted to tell me something back on Baterilla when we were about to set sail May?" Cliff asked about 3 days after the new bounties had been revealed, while the crew ate dinner.

"Huh? Oh Yeah! I wanted to tell you what I found out about the Grandline, while asking around." May replied.

"Go on." Cassy said, the whole crew seemed to be listening intently.

"Apparently, a normal compass won't work in the Grandline. You have to have a special compass called a Log-pose. In the Grandline, each island has different magnetic fields that make a normal compass useless. The log-pose catches onto one and keeps pointing in that direction until you reach the island. Then you have to wait for the log-pose to reset before it starts pointing to the next one."

Mio asks, "What if you want to return back to the previous island?"

"The log-pose will not point backwards. You can always buy eternal-poses that always point in the direction on one island only, no matter what. I bought a few log poses, but we can always buy eternal-poses for all the islands in the grandline when we actually sail to an island there." Saying so May brought out one log-pose to show the crew.

"Moreover, the weather in Grandline is very weird according the merchants that have come back from it. They say we can never predict it nor can we predict the sea currents. They told me check the log-pose very frequently." (May)

"Weird?" Taiga and Mio asked her.

"Yeah, weird is the correct term for the grandline. Everything on it defies logic. Anything and everything can happen on the grandline and quite possibly even more weirder things exist." Cliff said.

"How'd you even know that?" May asked.

"My grandfather told me." Cliff answered.

"And how would your grandfather know?" Mio asked this time.

"He's a Vice Admiral in the Marines!" Cliff said with a fond smile.

"VICE ADMIRAL?!?!" 3 voices shouted out.

"And why didn't you tell us that before?!?!" Mio and May asked.

"Umm… because you didn't ask?" Cliff said with a confused expression.

THUD

THUD

THUD

Cliff turned around when he heard Cassy chuckle, "Why are yo-"

BAM

BAM

THUD

Taiga had barely raised himself from his faceplant when he saw his Captain join him on the ground just with 2 lumps on his head.

'Seems like May and Mio really didn't like that answer' Taiga and Cassy sweatdropped while thinking the same thinking.

Taiga opted to continue their previous conversation while ignoring their Captain who still lay on his face, "Yeah what he said about the grandline checks out. And before you say anything, grandpa may have not left behind much about his journey but he left behind enough to know that describing the grandline to a blue sea resident is like describing nonsense. They just won't believe it."

"Really that weird?" May asked with her scepticism shining through.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't been there, have I? We'll just have experience it once we get there." Taiga answered back.

"He-e-ey" a barely audible voice made its way to the 4 pirates.

"It can't be that weird, can it?" May still questioned it.

"Are you ignoring me?" the voice seemed to have gotten some strength back.

"Yes" came 4 voices as an answer to the voices question.

…

2 minutes of talking later, the 4 pirates looked towards their captain only to see him crouched down drawing circles on the deck with a depressed aura emanating from him while he mumbled, "so mean… my crew doesn't respect me… they're so mean… keep ignoring me"

"Just leave him be." Cassy said to which the crew nodded and dispersed to complete their tasks.

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A few days later, Cliff was standing near the figurehead watching the sea as they sailed when Cassy came up to him.

"We'll reach Reverse Mountain by noon tomorrow. You set on going to the other blues before the Grandline?" she asked as she passed a bottle of booze to him.

"Yeah" Cliff said, "I'm certain. We need more crewmates before tackle the Grandline. Especially on a ship as big as ours. You saw how many people it took to run grandpa's ship. Plus, we're nowhere near ready to sail in the Grandline especially if grandpa's stories are true. We need atleast 5 or 6 more crewmates before we set sail for the 'Pirates Graveyard'." He took a sip before passing the bottle back to Cassy.

"Heh, well you'll find no complaints from us Captain." Cassy said as she took a sip, "West Blue next huh? Wonder, what we'll find there…"

"Adventure Cassy. For as long as we sail on the seas, we shall find adventures everywhere we look."

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That night when Cliff went to sleep, he dreamed a familiar dream, just a little different.

Cliff once again found himself on a familiar ship laughing his heart out. This time he heard many a laughter behind him. He turned only to see 4 people he could never forget. Cassy, Taiga, May & Mio all seemed to laughing alongside him alongside many others he still couldn't identify. He turned back to the sea, and by chance saw his coat. It wasn't black like before, now it was his familiar blue one.

 As the sound of laughter fell behind him, he asked in a loud voice, "READY?"

 And an answer came almost immediately as multiple voices cried out (of which he could only identify 4, "YES CAPTAIN!"

 A huge smile made its way to his face as declared, "SET SAIL!"