It had been several days since Beth overheard the pirates' conversation from behind the kitchen door, and she'd closed off from them quite drastically ever since. The only words exchanged between them were responses to Kidd's orders. A curt "Yes," or "Of course," here and there.
Killer noticed first, wondering what was up with the small woman as she silently scrubbed the deck railings. Usually, her gaze wandered everywhere, taking in as much as she could while still getting her duties finished. Now, as he secretly watched her work, she looked only at the wood she was cleaning.
Heat had also began to wonder what was wrong, though he looked more towards Killer than the girl herself.
'Why the hell does he keep watching her?' He thought, shaking his head and going back down below deck.
Wire didn't care either way what the girl was feeling. She was still basically a stranger to him, though he did appreciate her good cooking.
Kidd, however, was probably the only one who was too busy to see that Beth wasn't exactly feeling all herself. There were several preparations to be made before he recruited any more men, and he wasn't exactly looking forward to it either.
The list of wanted posters seemed to grow everyday, piling up on his desk in a stack of messy papers. He didn't mind the clutter, just that nothing seemed to be getting done. None of the people he looked over sounded strong or tough enough to last through the New World, and the Marines saw fit to give them such high bounties? It was all a pathetic joke.
He crumpled up another poster in his hands, tossing it behind him into the overflowing trash bin. With a frustrated sigh, he ran his hands along his forehead. The more he looked over possible recruits, the more he seemed to hate them all.
There came a knock on the door, and the rest of the crew entered the room. Kidd glanced up, rolling his eyes.
"I've almost decided to take down Big Mom with just the four of us." Killer walked up to the desk followed by the others, eyeing the dozens of faces looking back up at him.
"We've been talking about targeting Big Mom, and I think we should change targets." Heat said, sitting in one of the chairs across from Kidd. The captain frowned, placing his elbows on the table.
"What's with the doubts now, huh?" Killer picked up a wanted poster, inspecting the person from under his mask.
"We need to aim higher." He crumpled it up in his hand, looking back up towards Kidd. "Red-Haired Shanks is the best option in terms of strength."
Kidd scratched his ear, getting rid of an annoying itch. "We know almost nothing about him." Killer handed him a newspaper, and Kidd took it.
"I found this." He didn't say where or how, and Kidd didn't ask. On the front page was an old picture of the Red Hair Pirates, Shanks standing at the front with arms crossed. They looked to be facing off against another pirate crew.
"What about it?" Kidd questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion. There didn't look to be anything insightful from the picture. Even the headline of 'PIRATES FACEOFF AT NUNCE ISLAND' wasn't anything surprising or noteworthy. Killer pointed towards the picture, specifically at Shanks himself.
"Remind you of someone?" He said, and Kidd finally saw what he meant. Shanks was wearing a familiar straw hat in the picture, fit with the same band of red around the base. Kidd narrowed his eyes.
"So…Shanks and StrawHat have a connection…"
"Taking down Shanks could potentially result in StrawHat becoming less of a threat to us." Heat implied, rubbing at his forehead idly. "We don't know how strong that connection may be, but they are tied together somehow."
"If we're going after Red Hair, we'll need to get more info on him." Killer took out another paper from his pocket.
"He's a former member of the Red Hair Pirates." Kidd took the paper, still not questioning where Killer received the information, and saw a wanted poster of a man on the front. Comparing both pictures, he saw the man was present at the conflict on Nunce Island, wherever and whenever it had occurred.
"So, we give this guy here a visit and see what information we can get from him." Kidd said, placing both papers on the desk. He smirked. Things were getting a little clearer, finally.
"The girl is escaping." Wire interrupted, and the others swung their gazes to him. He was watching out the window, though he didn't seem too concerned. Kidd stood abruptly and looked outside. In the distance, rapidly running away from the direction of the ship, was Beth.
"She's not very fast." Heat commented, watching her stumble slightly, as if tripping over a branch in the ground. Killer stayed silent.
"Fuck…" Kidd muttered, pushing past the men and out the door. His good mood was instantly gone, replaced only by the irritation that dinner would probably be late that evening.
"Huff…Huff…Huff…" Once Beth was a good distance away from the ship, she slowed to a jog, trying to catch her breath. If only she'd been more athletic…
Well, she'd never really had a chance to be active with her duties as a slave…
Looking back towards the ship, further away than what she'd expected, she turned east and continued her escape.
'Just keep going. I hope they haven't noticed I've left yet.'
ns 15.158.61.54da2
