Please let them be inside the castle. Please! They're not. Lance, Leaf and Trice must all be inside the village shopping. Shit! I have to find them before they're caught. I tell the ships to leave shore and look for the rest of the ships. If we're seen before then we'll be in trouble. If we attack the pirates here, we'll lose all chances of gaining the ninjas as allies. Not only that but they might kill the hostages they have.

I can't afford to let them find us. PURPLE… BOOBY TRAP!

“What is it master?”

“Help! Link me with Lance!”

“He's out of range, we need to head into the village for me to reach him.”

“Hurry. Connect with all my small pets as well. Pokodo, Sock can turn into a mice, Morpheus can change as well and Red can change her size.”

“Ok master... Done.”

“Everyone listen up. We are headed into the village on a search mission for Lance, Leaf and Trice. If any pirates see you… Actually it should be fine, since we'll look like tiny animals.”

We head to the edge of the village and Purple connects us with Trice mentally.

“Where are you Trice?”

“We're in the back of a room of the trinkets shop. We're hiding from some pirates who are looking through the shop."

“Purple try to connect us with Nami. We're going to need a reason for what I'm about to do.”

He unconnected me from all my other pets. And connects me with Nami.

“Nami can you hear me?”

“Y-yea. This isn't looking good. If you're seen here in town, all of us could be in danger.”

“You need to tell them a lie. Say that a band of monsters has been terrorizing the village, normally attacking people on the outskirts trying to collect food. The pirates shouldn't know about my pets and will most likely assume you're telling the truth if we show up. It is only a precaution.”

“A-Alright. I'll do just that. Is there anything else I can do?”

“We need to keep them from looking on the opposite side of the island. The side where my ships might show up on. They've all been sent away but I can't get a hold of them. So after we exit the village, we'll hide on that side of the island.”

“A-Alright, I understand.”

From what it sounds like. Lance, Leaf and Trice should be safe. The pirates aren't harassing the villagers. They are there for items and the pirate queen has probably put an order to not injure any of them. It is bad business to hurt the people making things for you for free. It might also be an attempt to avoid them revolting. They needed their entire force to acquire hostages. The 100 pirates here would stand no chance against the 50 ninjas.

You can really tell that Gold is a tactician. She fought the ninja's on her terms. Instead of drawing the fight out, she did a full frontal assault. Ninja's specialty is stealth attacks and hit and run tactics. Assaulting them in full force over one day, this didn't allow them the chance to retreat or counter attack.

I just have to be careful. Me and my team of mouses head towards the trinket store. The pirates aren't throwing a huge ruckus. Some are talking with the murine folks. I hear laughter between them. Over the past 10 years, the rule of the pirates has started to wear down. You can see that they've grown accustomed to each other. Most of the pirates are preoccupied with something else. We are still careful, trying not to be seen.

We make it to the entrance, I look inside and see a pirate talking with the owner of the store. Trying to joke and be funny while looking at her wares. She is making small talk but is uncomfortable. Trying to not make the fact that she's hiding three people in her back room obvious. We wait outside. He eventually leaves and passes by us. We sneak in after that.

Heading into the back room. I reform myself into a human. Some of the others do as well, a few stay in their small forms. I speak first.

“Has anyone seen you in town?”

Trice answers. “No, I noticed them first and managed to get into the back room before we were caught.”

“Good, we'll have to wait here for tonight. We'll sneak out in the darkness. I hope they don't check the shores and no more people try to visit… I'll have Purple and Red head between and try to run interference if anyone shows up.”

I send Purple and Red outside the building. They'll try to stop people from heading towards the shores we were docked at. We continually hear more people entering to look at the wares then leave. A few agonizing hours of this later. It is now nighttime. We need an escape route. I guess it is my time to make one.

I head outside. Exiting out of a window in a room. Too small for normal size person to exit. I've been in contact with Purple this entire time. Asking weather or not anyone has tried to head that way. No one has, thankfully. I sent them their as a precaution. I'm going to start a fire at the edge of the town. When the commotion starts, we'll attempt to head out of the village. I get to the edge of the village and vault over the wall in a concealed area of the town. It had buildings lining the part I jumped over so it isn't visible from the streets. I head towards direction the pirates are docked in.

I pick up sticks and twigs while heading there. Collecting as much as I can carry. I place them all on the road and start a tiny fire. I yell.

“Help! Help! Fire!”

I doubt my voice will be noticed as either not murine or a pirate. I assume it is safe to yell but not to be seen. I'm still connected with Trice and Morpheus. Morpheus will turn into a mouse and tell them when the coast is clear to make a run for the exit. I meet them near the wall I had vaulted earlier. We weren't noticed… From what Nami said. They'll only be here until morning tomorrow. Leaving tomorrow after the supply of weapons and wood has been loaded.

We'll only need to remain hidden until sometime tomorrow. If we attacked the pirates, we would have to assault the pirate fortress before they would normally return to get a surprise attack off. I need more time for preparations before then. It is in everyone's best interest if we're not found out and that the few pirates here leave alive.

Sparing 100 pirates now will result in a sneak attack that will end with far more pirate deaths than we can take if they're aware of us. The pirate ship we had already taken was too far away and could be taken without much consequences. It sounded like they were part of a group that was already fighting a raid boss. Gold had probably sent them there for that specific mission. This ship is far too close to the pirate base for it to be assaulted by a raid boss. At least one big enough to not have been noticed before.

We camp out on the shore the rest of the night. I don't sleep. I can't sleep for now. We'll have to wait for the ships to return eventually. I still feel like we avoided a very dangerous situation. Like one misstep could have ended with us losing the ninjas as an ally and alerting the pirates to our army. At least a force strong enough to sink a single ship.

I will not take Gold lightly. She will be the toughest opponent I've ever faced. I'll have to be careful. Their forces outnumber ours 5 to 1. Even taking into the fact that I can get the ninjas on our side. We are still overly outnumbered. The first attack could be the difference in winning or losing this war.

It is finally daytime. The light is skimming the surface of the water. I'll let these few rest now that Sock has woken up. He can guard them in case some pirates head here. I doubt they will. I have to wake up Purple. He needs to connect me with Nami if she's awake. I need to know if they were suspicious of that fire. If any small details makes it back to Gold. I feel she could gleam the meaning better than her captains. I know I'm being overly paranoid now.

I try to make contact with Nami. Purple says her brain waves are giving off the impression that she is sleeping. I'll have to wait. I continue to wait in mouse form on the wall around the city. Trying to continuously remain hidden. Spying on them, there are far less pirates roaming the areas. Most are either loading the ship or sleeping on the ship.

Watching for a few hours. They finally leave. All of them leave the village and head towards their ship. I follow after them and make sure they leave. They set sail and are finally leaving… Nothing really came from them being here… I breath a sigh of relief and start to feel tired from staying up all night. I head back to our side of the island and wait for my ships to return. All return and we store the fish on Greed's island.

I head into the village and talk to Nami directly. She is training like normal… I guess you couldn't say it is normal. She is attacking the target dummy unarmed. It looks like she is using chi waves in unison with strikes. She is already training the new class she had learned from me. With her stored chi from ninja and samurai. She can already use high powered attacks with the chi.

It is scary how strong her chi strikes would be if she had monk since she was born. Meditating every day for years at a time could result in her throwing out attacks strong enough to kill everything in a hundred foot radius including herself. You would need to use extreme caution with that much chi. She notices me.

“Ah, its good to see you again. I'm just practicing this new class I've gotten.”

“Nice… So did the pirates say anything about us or the fire I started?”

“You started that fire! The pirate captain thought it was one of his pirates. He thought they had gotten drunk and started the fire as a joke.”

“I needed a distraction to get my friends out of the city. So if he thought it was one of his pirates. It should be fine then.”

“I'll leave you alone for now than. I need to go kill like 1000 fish before the end of the day.”

“A-Alright…”

I leave her to continue training. Heading to the beach I start gutting fish for the remainder of the day for false soul stones. I now have all the soul stones needed for all of my pets… Tomorrow, I'll check out the tree with them and teach them classes as well as give them each a false soul stone.

I try to head to sleep that night. With all my boats returned I feel far safer. I yawn before noticing Gobber is on the ship… Hmm, I haven't seen him in awhile. He looks both extremely tired and excited to be here. He sees me then yells.

“Hello master! I got some free time to come and visit.”

“Ahh… I was just going to bed… I'll stay up to talk with you though.”

“Thank you master. It's… It's been tough to take care of all my new children… They're getting old enough to walk now… Some of them like to sneak attack me while I sleep… I haven't had a decent nights sleep since they've been born.”

I can see the fatigue on his face. My poor friend. For him to only get a few hours of break after over a month of them being born. I feel sad for him. His nose looks different as well.

“What happened to your nose?”

“…One… One of them likes to punch me in the face when I pick her up…”

I think… After I train my pets. I'll babysit for him and Hilda to give them a break.