Kuina sat sulking in her seat as the rest of the crew laughed at her expense.
As soon as they started sailing towards their destination, Bonney approached her, and patted her on her head, making her turn into a baby.
She was taken aback by the sudden attack, but as soon as the crew started laughing at her, she understood why Bonney did it.
"You can help Laboon?!" Nami unbelievably looked at Bonney. The two sisters had seen Bonney age herself, but they did not fully understand how her Devil Fruit worked.
"Yes." She nodded her head. "I can help make Laboon younger, which would make it smaller as well."
"Then why did we not take Laboon with us?" Nojiko frowned and asked.
"I can not make living beings younger indefinitely without sacrificing my Lifespan." Bonney lightly said, and it scared the two girls. "Also, we have our own journey and plans to go through. We will help it once we reach the end of Paradise, taking Laboon with us to the second half of the Grandline. Let's give Laboon some more years to grow more and get stronger."
Nojiko and Nami obediently nodded their heads to her words, and then they started giggling too as they looked at the baby Kuina.
"You are cute!" Nami scooped up the baby in her arms and spun around with her.
Kuina did not dare to open her mouth. She knew she would start crying as soon as she opened it. By how young she was now, she would not be able to form proper words anyway. And tears were already brimming from her eyes.
"That's enough, Bonney." Hancock came to the rescue of the little girl.
"I will get back at you for this!" The dark-blue-haired girl glared and said as soon as she returned to her normal age, and Bonney challengingly smirked back at her.
"I will be waiting for that day."
A few minutes later, the crew found themselves dealing with a storm that came out of nowhere. And when it subsided, they found themselves passing through swirling tides. For the rest of the day, they did not even get time to rest. The sea seemed adamant about devouring them, but Black Pearl held its own against it and prevailed through all the tests.
Those of them, who were experiencing the mood swings of the Grandline Sea for the first time, found it really hard to get used to it. Nojiko got seasick as well, and at night, they could not get some sleep too.
The next morning, some of them had dark circles under their eyes and looked haggard. Sin, Robin, Hancock, Bonney, Bepo, and Hachi seemed fine, and they decided to give some rest to the others, relieving them of their early morning duties.
The crew, except for Bepo, who was steering the ship, and the two little sisters, who were accompanying him, were gathered in the Meeting Room after lunch. They were looking at the map of the first half of Paradise that was spread across the table. It was not detailed and only had some famous Islands on it as well as the Marine Bases that were spread all over the Grand Line.
"Why is there no Marine Base near Twin Capes?" Kuina curiously asked when she saw that the nearest Marine Base was nearly five days' journey away from the Twin Capes. "Wouldn't it be better to have a base there and catch all the incoming Pirates?"
"They don't need to expend forces there." Hancock shook her head. "More than half of the Pirates lose their lives within a few days of entering Grandline. And the rest don't survive for long either."
"There are 170 Countries affiliated with the World Government that the Marines have to protect at all costs. They don't have a force large enough to be present everywhere." Robin informed them. "Also, if they formed a Marine Base near Twin Capes, it would cost too much because of the continued battles. And even if they are ready to bear such costs, soon the news would reach the Blues that there is a base at the entrance of the Grandline that catches all the newcomers, and the Pirates will be discouraged from entering this place, resulting in them staying in the Four Blue Seas, terrorising them."
"Oh." Kuina seemed satisfied after the explanation and looked at the Grandline Headquarters of Marines.
The nearest one was the G-12 Base, situated between the Drum Kingdom and the Arabasta Kingdom. The next one was the G-2 Base which was situated between the Arabasta Kingdom and the Lulusia Kingdom. Even if Pirates managed to pass through the initial hurdles of Grandline, they were most likely going to fall before they reached any of these Kingdoms.
"Holiday Island." Sin pointed to the Island and placed its Eternal Log Pose on the map. "This is where we will be heading after exploring the initial Islands to gather the Eternal Log Pose for all of the Kingdoms in Paradise. There will not only be Marines but also famous Pirates on this Island, and we will be taking them all down. This is our first quarter-year objective."
Everyone nodded to his words.
"Afterwards, we will start searching for a suitable base of operations for us."
"Can't we just keep the Holiday Island after taking down all the Marines and their Pirates on it?" Law looked at Sin and asked.
"No. The Island is not big enough." He shook his head. "It is also one of the most famous destinations in Paradise and is important to the Marines. We can control it for a month at most before the Marines will send their main forces to liberate it. There are a lot of important businesses that will take a hit because of our actions, and some of them are affiliated with the World Government. We will take temporary control of it, and rob the Businesses, Tourists, Marines, and Pirates. And then we will leave."
Law understandingly nodded his head and frowned when Sin placed a marker on Karakuri Island.
"Vegapunk's home Island?"
"Yes," Sin nodded his head. "There's a laboratory on that base that the Marines protect. It was where Vegapunk started his scientific experiments."
"What are we after?"
"Chaos." Sin evilly smiled. "It will make us a hot topic in the world. And if we are lucky, we might just find something that could prove useful to us. Keep training, because once we hit the Holiday Island, we will have our hands full for a long time and the enemies would keep getting stronger. Understood?"
"Aye, Captain!" All of them replied in unison and then left the meeting room to get back to their duties.
Now that they had a three-month time limit to improve as best as they can, they were determined to get stronger.
Law decided to take a rest from his Medicine studies to solely focus on his Haki Training. He was still not proficient in Armament Haki, and his Observation Haki was the worst in the crew. Even if a part of his mind kept advising him against it, he approached Hancock and asked her to train him.
Bepo did the same after he saw his best friend forfeit his life to Hancock, and a three-month-long hell started for them.
Kuina was focused on getting physically stronger, and making her reflexes sharper so that she could also start on her Haki Training. Both Hachi and her were training their Swordsmanship under Sin when he had time on his hands, and Sin was also guiding Hachi in getting acquainted with Armament Haki in the evenings.
The following days and nights did not get better for them, and the Grandline Sea was never calm. But they had accepted the reality, and even if they did not feel well in the morning, they did not slack off from their duties.
Augur had been a mystery to Kuina, Nami, and Nojiko. He seldom talked, and usually stayed inside the Crow's Nest. And one day, Kuina could not help but ask him out about his Devil Fruit. She remembered Hancock telling her back in the Conomi Islands that everyone in the Crew except for Bepo had a Devil Fruit. But no one had told her about Augur's Devil Fruit, and she had never seen him using it.
"Mizo Mizo no Mi." Augur told her. "It is a Paramecia Fruit that enables me to drain energy from any living being that I touch, and I can replenish my energy reserves in this way."
Kuina just stared at him at a loss for words.
"Doesn't that mean that you can never get tired in a battle?" Nojiko curiously asked, impressed by Augur's Powers.
"Depends on the enemies. Armament Haki resists my Powers, but more or less, yes. I can keep fighting as long as there are people for me to steal energy from." He nodded.
"Wow!" Nami happily clapped her hands. "You are strong!"
And that was the first time the younger girls saw Augur feel a little embarrassed at receiving the praise.