Chapter 24: Subterfuge

While Thomas, Caenis, and Chiron were lugging treasure back to the ship, Astolfo landed next to Drake, revealing, "There are three Marine ships en route to our location, around sixteen clicks out."

Nodding her head, Drake replied, "We'll wait for them to arrive and see if they would rather play games or do their jobs properly. Inform our Master and the rest of the crew. If the Marines try to steal our booty and label us as Pirates, we may as well play the part."

Returning a nod of her own, Astolfo hurried off to pass on Drake's orders while the latter looked to the sky and mused, "I wonder how big the stash of that Nezumi fellow is~?"

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A little less than an hour after Astolfo informed them that the Marines were on their way, Thomas stood on the Hind's quarterdeck alongside Musashi, Benienma, and Chiron. Drake was also present, sitting on the quarterdeck's railing with a dauntless smile as she awaited the Marines' response.

While two of the three ships positioned themselves in a way that would allow them to open fire with their canons, the third sailed over to block off the flood gate serving as the entrance and exit to Arlong Park's artificial inlet. Afterward, a tall and skinny man with mousey features, a rat-eared Marine cap, and literal whiskers on his face appeared with a megaphone in hand, stating, "This is Captain Nezumi, Commander of the 16th Branch of the Marines. Unknown vessel. You are ordered to drop your anchor and await boarding. We have reason to suspect you are hauling stolen goods. Failure to comply with our instructions will result in the destruction of your ship and the arrest of your crew."

Turning to face Thomas, Drake narrowed her sapphire blue eyes as she asked, "Well? What do you want to do? If we allow them to board, there is a 100% chance they will try and impound our loot. I know I would..."

Exhaling a sigh, Thomas replied, "I would prefer to avoid sinking Marine vessels and attacking them directly. Doing so would make it harder for us to become Shichibukai, so we should fly over or dive beneath them..."

As the Hind was capable of submerging, albeit at a tremendous cost to its reserves, Thomas chose to flee rather than fight. The Marines didn't have their photos just yet, so it was impossible to assign them Bounties, even if they were regarded as Pirates. As for Arlong and his crew, Thomas was half-tempted to drop them off in the Calm Belt and let fate sort them out. Losing out on sixty million when they just gained a boon of twelve-and-a-half billion wasn't a big deal...

Nodding her head, Drake replied, "Then that's what we'll do." before telepathically compelling the Hind to submerge. She would much rather sink the Marine vessels and be done with it, but she knew it would take something drastic to convince Thomas to stop worrying about the lives of people who would bar his path. You didn't reach the pinnacle of the world by worrying about what others thought about you.

Seeing the Hind abruptly begin to sink, Nezumi's beady eyes widened as he softly asked himself, "Are Arlong and his men still alive...?" If that were the case, he needed to have his men and the other two ships pull back so he could 'negotiate' with the Fishman Pirate.

Before Nezumi could think to give his men their orders, an exceptionally loud 'thud' resonated through the hull of his ship, followed by the Marine at the helm exclaiming, "Captain! Something just took out our rudder! We have no control over the ship...!"

Believing Arlong and his men were attacking, Nezumi hissed, "Shit...!" before ordering his men to prepare depth charges. He knew Arlong would eventually betray him, so he developed several countermeasures against Sea Beasts and Fishmen.

Unfortunately, while Nezumi's men were quick to act, there were no Sea Beasts or Fishmen for them to attack or repel. The person that had torn off their rudder was Caenis. As for the Hind, it had already sailed beneath them and out to sea by the time the first depth charges fell into the water.

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Staring up at the bubble-like membrane of Magical Energy preventing the water from crashing in on them, Thomas remarked what he already knew, "This must consume a ridiculous amount of power..."

As the Hind was 37m in length, the spherical barrier of Magical Energy had a similar diameter. The barriers that Thomas produced were much smaller, but even they consumed a significant amount of power. Thus, he wasn't even remotely surprised when Drake remarked, "With the amount of Mana we've stockpiled, we'll last around three-and-a-half hours before we're forced to surface. We'll breach long before then, but you'll still need to return to Engine Room duty to replenish what this little maneuver cost us."

Before Thomas could respond, Ceanis breached the barrier around the boat, briefly producing a highly pressurized spout of water as she landed on the deck, rose to her feet, and revealed, "I took out all three rudders and left cracks in their keels. They're not going anywhere without taking those ships into drydock."

Nodding her head in approval, Drake offered a curt, "Good job," before adopting a teasing smile as she added, "Now, why don't you accompany our dearest Master to the Engine Room? I'm sure he would appreciate the company as he works to replenish our rapidly dwindling reserves."

Looking at Thomas, Caenis adopted a teasing smile of her own as she remarked, "Man, you can't catch a break, can you? Then again, this is the result of your decision to flee, so you can't really complain. Come on. I'll at least accompany you for a bit."

As she didn't have much else to do, Caenis didn't mind chatting with Thomas for a couple of hours. Musashi, Benienma, and Astolfo were also likely to come along, and, if they asked, Beethoven would doubtlessly join them. Her Ode to Wrath, a Symphony inspired by Thomas's explanation of Heavy Metal, was excellent at getting the blood pumping.

Accepting his fate, Thomas adopted a wry smile and made his way to the Engine Room. The interior was like a steam room due to the Equivalence Engine effectively overclocking itself, but he didn't particularly mind as it resulted in most of the girls that accompanied him changing into bikinis...

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As Thomas had suspected, the Marines had no way of issuing Bounties on him or the member of the Wild Hunt as they had no photographs. Instead, they issued a notice to nearby Marine Branches to be on the lookout for a red ship bearing a Jolly Roger depicting three vertical lines. What Thomas found insensible was the crime they had been accused of, conspiring with the Arlong Pirates to extort the people of the Conomi Islands.

Fortunately, while a description of the Hind had been given, there were no photos. Nezumi went to great lengths to keep his actions under wraps, so the ships he commanded lacked audio and video recording devices. They even left their Den-Den Mushi back at their headquarters, so they needed to disembark from their damaged ships and row nearly 160km just to file a report back at the 16th Branch.

Because of a freak storm that happened to be passing through the area, the dinghy ferrying Captain Nezumi ended up getting lost at sea. He was eventually found, but only after twenty-three days had passed. By then, the man was hysterical and on the verge of death, requiring him to spend nearly a week in intensive care before he croaked out his report to a Rear Admiral dispatched directly from Marine Headquarters.

With literal weeks passing without incident, Thomas and co managed to pass off Arlong and his crew to Marines at the 45th Branch without much trouble. Drake had to register the Hind as a Free Merchant Vessel, pay a fee, and have her photo taken, but she didn't particularly mind as, shortly after their getaway from Arlong Park, she swapped out their original Jolly Roger for a white flag depicting a red drake.

As red ships weren't uncommon, the only thing linking the Hind to the events at the Conomi Islands was Arlong and his crew. However, as the 45th Branch was located nearly two thousand kilometers away, Drake was only asked a few cursory questions as it was considered impossible for a caravel to travel such a considerable distance in such a short period. More importantly, Asclepius had given Arlong and his crew 'medicine' to help them forget the incident, so there was nothing to contradict Drake's assertions of finding them imprisoned in the brig of a derelict ship floating around the sea with broken masts.

When the Marines inevitably insisted on boarding and searching the Hind, Drake readily complied, having already swapped out the authentic Golden Hind for another ship in her fleet. Thus, the Marines couldn't find anything amiss even after searching the ship from tip to stern. They were looking for indications that the ship had been coated at some point, as not even the actual Hind had received a coating, there was no evidence to indicate they were capable of submerging and traveling underwater.

With most of the suspicion removed from them and Captain Nezumi under investigation, the Hind was able to moor unharassed at a prosperous port city on the northernmost tip of the Polestar Islands, 683 kilometers from the world-famous Logue Town. The latter was famous for being the site where the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, was executed. It also placed the Hind just fourteen-hundred kilometers away from Baratie, so Thomas and crew could make their way over once Luffy's name began appearing in the papers. Until then, they made themselves at home within the aptly named Northport City, fully aware that the Marines were keeping a close eye on them...

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[Three Months Later]

After purchasing the most recent newspaper from a News Coo, Thomas's eyes lit up when he saw the photo on the front page. Caenis immediately noticed this, questioning, "What's got you all excited? Is there a hot chick on the front page...?"

Shaking his head, Thomas turned the paper around to reveal an article titled, 'New Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates! Fire Fist Ace's Meteoric Rise in the New World!'. Ace was only a Division Commander for a few months before starting his pursuit of the treacherous Teach, so if his understanding of the Timeline was accurate, Luffy's journey would be starting any day now.

Seeing the photo of a fairly handsome man on the front page, Caenis raised her brows and teased, "Have you finally started batting for the other team? I can produce a horse-sized strap-on if you want to try it out."

"..."

Returning his gaze to the newspaper, Thomas flatly replied, "I'll pass..." as he began reading through the other articles. Afterward, he looked through the updated Bounty posters, finding a few Pirates within the 5-10,000,000 Belly range that he could measure his skills against. He had spent the last three months learning Pygmachia and Palé, an ancient form of boxing and wrestling that originated in Ancient Grece. Getting consistently dominated by Caenis had its perks, but Thomas was getting weary of having his ass handed to him for 4-6 hours a day...

Finding an updated Bounty poster for Buggy the Clown, a smile returned to Thomas's face. He hated the imbecilic clown at the start of One Piece, but after witnessing his rise to a literal Emperor of the Sea, many within the community, including Thomas himself, considered Buggy one of the GOATs. The man had failed his way to the top of the world as a comic relief character, so Thomas was looking forward to eventually crossing paths with the 'legendary' Pirate...

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(A/N: I wonder if Caenis makes Thomas call her mommy...?)

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