A hobbyist: streamer, writer and rare ship enjoyer

*Six Months Later, February*

Sabo was trying on the new coat Lily Rosa and Violet made for him. More pirate captain style, as they put it. When panicked Daniela came in. 

“Another ship docked on the other side of the island. Yellow Salamanders, a crew under the Beast pirates,” Daniela huffed.

“Well, looks like the coat is getting a full test today,” Sabo grinned and marched up to the deck with the triplets following him as Daniela stayed behind to catch her breath.

The deck was deserted aside for Shamrock, Stelly, Kuina and Killi. From the beach, they could hear laughter and hollering. And someone calling them cowards. Well, it wouldn’t last long. 

“You three go get the ship ready to leave at any moment,” Sabo commanded the triplets, who ran off to the navigation. They were planning to leave the next morning, but it was safe to assume their hideout wasn’t all that safe anymore. “What’s the situation? Any chance we can talk this out?”

“No chance, they want to talk to you and Shamrock,” Stelly sighed, shaking her head. “They are part of the Beast Pirates.”

Sabo hummed. Beast Pirates are an Emperor-level crew. Their main crew, that is. All the small crews under them were just errand boys. Meaning no challenge at all. They can manage them. 

They also might have information on Kaidou’s movements. Wano. Any marine outposts monitoring Beat Pirates. Or literally anything else about New World. 

“Considering the side they came from, they’ve either come looking for us or are meeting someone here, and them meeting us is a coincidence,” Sabo theorised, rolling his shoulders. Either way, this was ending up in a fight. Salamanders didn’t seem too eager to chat over tea and cake. “Stelly, Shamrock, you two go find their ship. They might have some useful intel, or in the worst case, supplies. I don’t think we’re talking this through.”

“If Kaidou wanted to talk, he’d send someone higher ranked, less… hot-headed,” Kuina nodded as Stelly and Shamrock got ready to leave.

Sabo nodded and jumped off to the beach with Kuina and Killi following him. "Can I help you?" he asked politely.

"You can agree to join the Beast Pirates, or we can drag you and your friends to Lord Kaidou," the man Sabo assumed was their captain said.

They were silent for a moment before breaking out into laughter. 

"You do know who I fought not too far from here six months ago? Do you really think I'll agree to follow someone without the balls to come and talk to me himself? Though he probably has no idea about your offer," Sabo mused, feeling Killi's observation spread out. 

"Someone's coming up from the sea," the celestial warned. The Salamander crew took half a step back. So their offer was just them taking advantage of the opportunity. "Three ships."

"They probably have nothing of use for us, you two can deal with them, I'll take care of the mess here," Sabo shrugged as his tails and ears manifested. Puffing out his coat and knocking his top hat askew as he grinned before charging the leader of the other crew first.

Killi rolled his shoulders, transforming into his half-dragon form and taking Hypnos out of the case that doubles as a quiver. Meanwhile, Kuina unsheathed Shirayuki and ran off to where the ships were surfacing, the ocean freezing under her feet.

Deciding he'd rather keep an eye on Sabo, Killi shot burning arrows at one of the ships until the crew jumped off, then left the rest to Kuina. And turned to watch the show of Sabo overwhelming the other pirate crew. It was fun to watch Sabo blink between his wisps, leaving explosions of blue flame behind him. 

Kuina, in the meantime, reached the remaining two ships and simply cut them into three pieces each before running back with a wide smile under her mask.

While they had their fun, Stelly and Shamrock dispatched the guards left behind to watch Salamander's ship. "Split up to search it faster?" Stelly asked as they boarded. The deck was empty.

"Yeah, let's not waste time. Who knows who else knows we're here." Shamrock sighed, and they separated.

There wasn't much of interest. Shamrock, though, found something peculiar while Stelly raided their supplies and their captain's office. A red parrot with some blue feathers in its tail and on the underside of its wings. Sitting in the mess hall, visibly bored by their flight ability being impeded by a short rope keeping them in place. 

The bird looked at Shamrock, tilted its head, growled (Shamrock at least would call the noise that) and went…. "Bitch!"

Shamrock blinked. 

"Ass! Bastard! Jerk!" the parrot continued. 

He could leave the rude bird here, but that just sounded wrong. It did not ask to learn such a language. Which was very likely going to be impossible to train out of it. Leaving it to die felt wrong, too. Rosi liked birds, even is mostly corvids and owls.

With a sigh, he freed the bird's leg from the rope. It didn't even try attacking him. Just watched, flapping its wings but not taking off once free. "Bastard!" the bird yelled.

"You're free to leave or come with me." Shamrock had no idea why he was trying to have a conversation with a bird.

"Bastard!" the bird yelled and flew to his left shoulder.

"Whatever you say," he sighed and went to reconvene with Stelly. Hopefully, she found something more useful than a foul-mouthed bird.

"Who's that?" Stelly asked, spotting the bird.

"Asshole!" the bird yelled before Shamrock could speak up.

"It felt wrong to just leave it there," Shamrock sighed. By now, he knew the bird got loud when it wanted attention, so he scratched its neck gently. It made a content clicking noise.

"Reminds me of your brother," Stelly chuckled.

Shamrock just shrugged, and soon they were back in Wonderland, leaving the smouldering ship behind.

"Shamrock got a pet!" Stelly yelled out as soon as others boarded the ship. Prompting the rest of the crew to flood the deck. 

"Brats!" the parrot yelled. 

Sabo laughed so hard that Killi had to support him. "Shamrock, why do you attract rude people?"

"Most of my friends aren't rude. And I refuse to claim ownership of this rude animal," Shamrock protested.

"Well, would you mind if we named it after your brother?" Sabo asked, coming up to take a better look at the bird.

"No," Shamrock knew his brother liked attention, and so did this bird. 

"Red it is then," Sabo grinned.

"Brat!" Red yelled in agreement.

"It might be hungry," Kuina guessed.

"Lunch, we look over what you guys found, and then we leave," Sabo decided.

"There wasn't much, but at least there was something," Stelly shrugged with a sigh as they went to the mess hall for lunch.

At least the new coat did well in active combat. Sadly, Salamander pirates weren't a good measure of their current power level. Hopefully, whoever was in Marine Base G-6 would be a better measure of their power.

Why Marine Base G-6? Because they were the main base monitoring what Kaidou and his crew were up to in Wano. From a safe distance, of course. They would have the most up-to-date information about the Emperor's movements. They would need to know what he's up to if they want to look for information about Gumiho. Maybe even a temple dedicated to them, Rayleigh mentioned.

It was, of course, a fair distance away. And they had to go around Dressrosa.

"Captain, we got a letter from Mihawk," Violet said as he passed an envelope to Sabo. Why would Mihawk be writing to them?

Sabo opened the letter and quickly scanned it. "Apparently, the navy is getting desperate to fill Hanafuda's spot, and Doflamingo is hosting a tournament for them to maybe lure in candidates. Not in Dressrosa, but on Mallomar Island, not too far from it, close enough to be in his sphere of influence," he picked out the most important information. "There's a sword as a reward for the winner."

They sat in silence for a moment. 

"It would be a good chance to gather information about his crew, and we have to go that way anyway," Stelly spoke up first.

Shamrock hummed in agreement as they pulled out the best New World map they had. It left a lot to be desired. Hopefully, the nearest marine base would have a better one.

"How possible is it that G-5 would have an eternal log pose for Mallomar?" Sabo asked. G-5 is the 1st Marine base in the New World, so of course they would visit. 

"Considering its connection to Doflamingo and rumours that he rarely allows Marines to visit Dressrosa, it's quite possible," Daniela theorised. 

"Especially with the competition coming up. All high-profile Marines connected guests are bound to be passing through there," Kuina was clearly excited to get a new sword.