"I’d say it’s likely a mixture of both." Fearlessness had its merits, even she could admit to that. But she also believed heavily in choosing your battles and that seemed like something the Strawhats didn’t have much experience with. From what she understood, they threw themselves into every fray that they came across—all to help people (civilians, usually) who could do nothing for them in return.
It just didn’t make sense. “I get that—believe me, I do.” She leaned back in the chair and sighed heavily, choosing her words carefully. “But risking your lives and gaining nothing for it just seems foolish.”
Maybe that wasn’t right—they gained some meager sense of self, or something, from what they did. That wasn’t a spoil Bonney was interested in. “They charge into the biggest issues and repeatedly get bullseyes painted onto their backs.” She’d done that herself, of course—but doing it over and over again reaped no benefits. “It seems like they walk that line perfectly.”
Killer remained silent as she talked, giving a small nod every now and then to let her know he was listening. "I can say the same. I'm not interested in things that wouldn't be of benefit to our goals."
The East Blue he knows is completely based on what he read from books: a peaceful sea, a sharp contrast from their South Blue. Maybe that caused the difference in thinking. But this is the New World, and from what he's experienced, it wasn't a matter of if this will eventually be their undoing but when. "Well if they get themselves killed in the process, that's less competition for us."
As he said "killed" a nervous clatter of plates came from behind him. The waitress had arrived with their food.
Names are pretty important especially for us pirates so I decided to look up what Kid's name breaks down to. The prefix "Eu-" means "true" or "good". So from that, I conclude that his name means "good ass".
While Bonney was at best a troublemaker, she liked to think that she had a good head on her shoulders and that she knew when to control herself. (Of course, she never seemed to be able to pass up a little bit of heckling. But that usually didn’t escalate too terribly.) Like now—she didn’t want word of her presence to spread too far so she was making a semi-conscious effort to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
Whether or not it was working was a different story altogether.
Her lip curled up into a sneer when Killer said the name and she offered a stiff nod in confirmation. “Yeah, him.” She offered no other immediate explanation as to her nearly violent distaste for him, but she was also sure that most of her fellow rivals were at least vaguely aware of what exactly she had gone through concerning him. “After the shit he pulled two years ago it’s a miracle he’s still upright and breathing.”
"...I see." So it wasn't just the captain. "That confirms it then. Either the Strawhats are incredibly fearless or incredibly stupid." Their actions had serious consequences for everyone on the island so Bonney's anger was not at all surprising.
"But it was pretty impressive, wasn't it. Everyone who came to Grandline know that they will most likely die here... but not everyone can readily put their lives on the line like that..." His voice trailed off into an icy silence before he spoke again.
"If you truly want your dream to come true you should risk no less than your life to achieve it." It was their crew's most fundamental philosophy and the reason why they could readily kill without a second thought. Cowardice was punishable with death. "Not that running away is absolutely intolerable. There's a fine line between courage and rashness."
The meal that she ordered was just a little bit larger than her companion’s, but she made a point to curb herself a little bit. This time, she only ordered a couple dishes and she’d have to make herself satisfied with those until she could get back to her ship, where she was sure her cooks would make her whatever she wanted.
"Just passing through," she answered, though she was just as stumped as he was in regards to why everyone had ended up in the same place. “Didn’t expect to see much of anyone here, much less four other crews at the same time.” He brought up Marineford and she nodded stiffly; while she hadn’t been at the actual battle, she had watched from Sabaody as he said. “Hope not. I mean, so long as that stupid swordsman stays away from me it shouldn’t be. I can’t speak for the rest of you, though.”
"I just want to have a nice, quiet meal for once." he replied almost dismissively. Four crews, huh. If Kid crosses paths with one... hopefully he had enough sense not to start something. But if something does happen, he could easily track him down based on the direction metallic objects are flying towards. This was supposed to be a peaceful island according to the Log Pose. Perhaps the reading changed with the arrival of all these pirates -- he'd rather not check. Let's leave room for the possibility of doubt.
He diverted his attention to non-headache inducing matters. The fact that she held back on her order didn't escape him. Jewelry Bonney wasn't shy by any means so it must be as a measure to avoid attention. He'd like to ask more but it seems like a private matter so he steered clear of it for now.
Now about that 'stupid swordsman' she mentioned.There were plenty of swordsmen on Sabaody that day but it's unlikely she'll call any of the sword-bearing captains that way so it narrows down to one person. "Are you speaking of Roronoa Zoro?"
"It sounds exhausting, being everyone’s mom.” She couldn’t even imagine having to deal with Eustass Kid on a day to day basis. If she didn’t already know Killer and how he was, she’d have pegged him as a saint for his patience alone.
"Hawkins seems like such a chill dude, you wouldn’t think he’d end up being a handful. But I guess if you put him in a room with two of his rowdier rivals then the behavior might rub off a little." A waitress approached behind her, walking lazily until she realized who she was about to speak to—Bonney couldn’t see her, but the girl straightened immediately and as she stopped by the table, her eyes were averted like she was scared to make eye contact.
At the arrival of the long awaited waitress, he wasted no time in ordering his meal. She stuttered out a weak "y-yes!" as she jotted down his order, avoiding eye contact with them as if they were gorgons. Well, it's not like he's not used to this sort of reaction so he paid it no heed.
"So, what are you doing here?" He returned his attention to the other pirate after they finished taking their order. It's not like the New World was so big that they wouldn't run into each other but it was still pretty rare occurrence. "This isn't going to turn out like Sabaody, is it? I heard you were also there around the time the Battle of Marineford broke out."
A fight broke out between some of the lower ranking sailors during lunch. Something about Boa Hancock’s statistics, didn’t really care. Had to bring two idiots to the infirmary.The spaghetti al nero was really good today.
At the mention of the three captains’ names a sigh subconsciously escaped him. ”They’re like preschoolers. I’d say it’s a miracle they behaved long enough to work out the alliance.”
"Kid by himself is already a handful. Apoo is excessively loud and picks fights with Kid every moment he could. Hawkins…" Pausing to rub the tense muscles on his neck, he continued. "He’s just as stubborn as the other two in his own way. I think I got older by 10 years that day."
I'd like to recommend keeping that porcupine of yours on a leash. You wouldn't want that temper of his to ruin your new fancy alliance I've been hearing about~♪
I’d recommend you doing the same thing to yourself before you end up dying a pathetic death after ruining your fancy new alliance. Just my friendly advice.
[As they went, Bonney had half a mind to ask Killer about so-called invisible reporters. She was admittedly curious and her conversation with Kid hadn’t really given her any insight—the trouble with invisible reporters, however, was that they were invisible, as the name may or may not have suggested. She couldn’t be sure that one wasn’t lurking around somewhere, watching them and waiting for someone to blab some important, majorly secret information.
A subtle hush fell over the restaurant as they entered and she quickly scanned the current patrons—there weren’t too many (that she could see, anyway) and that seemed like a good thing, certainly better than a crowd. Firstly, it meant that orders would likely arrive faster. And it meant it’d be harder for anyone to eavesdrop, since no one would really have any reason to be standing close enough to listen.
Not that anyone should have wanted to stand close to them in the first place. Especially not once she got food in front of her.
Her thoughts returned back to the invisible reporter and his penchant for leaking information. The thick-skulled captain of the Kid Pirates hadn’t divulged very much, and she doubted that Killer would give her much, either.]
Do you have any ideas about your intruder? Like, any at all? It sounds weird for invisible people to be running around. [Of course, she knew better than to brush off such claims. She’d seen weirder. Maybe smalltalk would be a better idea.]
How’ve you been, Killer? Aside from playing mom to your captain, I mean.
"We’ve been really busy since the news leak. It’s a real pain in the neck." Even moreso than the usual 24-hour babysitting job, he silently added in his mind.
He tried not divulge too much about their situation. The base had been in an uproar ever since the incident and he has had very, very little sleep as a consequence. It was a given that they contacted the other two-thirds of the alliance but both parties denied having to do with anything. They never had plans of keeping the alliance a secret but the fact that someone got into their headquarters without their knowledge was really troubling.
"There was a sighting of a ship but we weren’t able to identify it."
A little of his bad mood came back. The bastard got away. He had a lot of hand in keeping the base secure, so the whole incident had hit him hard.
"No one noticed it docking on the island. The way it was reported to us…" He briefly considered for a moment if this was something he should be telling her. "It just sort of appeared out of nowhere then disappeared. Some of the crew members have been whispering bull about ghost ships and such since then. It’s gotten a bit ridiculous."
A ghost ship — of all things! Preposterous! He took a sip of water to douse out his irritation.
……………………
No, wait. That’s not actually a bad idea. Disappearing… ghosts…? Wasn’t there a sea where ships would go missing? Now where did he hear about that? It was such a vague memory, it must have been something he've read during his boyhood. He put his musings aside to focus on the woman in front of him.
"What about you, is it alright for you to be out in broad daylight like this?" How this petite woman managed to get that high of a bounty was a real mystery. Sure, her powers are troublesome, but...? He had no doubt he could take her down right now without breaking a sweat. Not that he would, it was a pointless risk to take at the moment. Still, the copious amounts of effort and resources the government was willing to use for her capture was suspicious.
I’m not an unr— [She stops herself, realizing that, yeah, she’s sometimes an unruly child. The comparison isn’t quite as far-off as she’d have liked it to be, unfortunately. At his behest, her hand balls into a fist and she places it over the spot she would assume that her heart is, bowing ever-so-slightly at the waist.] I guarantee that you will get at least one plateful for yourself.
[Killer raised an eyebrow - not that anyone could tell. Was he supposed to do things like get on his knees and kiss her hand now? Anyhow, he was amused at the gesture.
Their feet and stomachs led them to the nearest restaurant. For anyone familiar with the bounties on their head, the pair walking in together must have been a suspicious sight. It was one thing for two captains to be drinking together. It was another thing for a captain and another crew's vice-captain to be casually eating together.
Hopefully, there weren't any of those pesky invisible reporters lurking around. There was also the chance of lower ranking members catching sight of him but they knew better than to spread rumors, he's made it clear he wouldn't tolerate such things. He had no doubt that Bonney simply wanted to eat but mere mortals cannot understand relationships based on complex carbohydrates. After a quick survey of their surroundings, he decided his worries were unfounded and relaxed a little.
They took their seats and waited for the waitress to take their order.
He never intended to act all friendly with the other pirate crews outside the alliance but it was a good opportunity to gather some information on everyone else's movements. Nevertheless, he ended up silently letting the time pass between them. He wasn't much of a conversation breaker even within their own crew.]
Well it's not like I'm unused to unruly children. [But you're paying for your own share he almost added, but quickly cut himself off knowing there's no way she'd be able to do that. Oh well. They can just calmly walk out of the shop afterwards after threatening to burn down the entire block. They've done enough damage that the act would appear very nice of them.] Alright. I want a guarantee I'll have at least a plateful to myself though.
[ Whispers conspiratorially ] I have a special shampoo from Amazon Lily- Maybe you could rub some on his face and see if eyebrows will spontaneously sprout?
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