The enemy ship was late, probably delayed by something. After 2 days of waiting, when they were about to give up, the ship finally appeared on the horizon, its sails were torn to shreds, they obviously had been caught in a storm, the hull was slightly damaged but nothing serious.
Ars let the ship come closer before moving in to attack, when it got close enough they moved as fast as they could closing the distance, and boarded the ship.
Ars went directly for the captain, and in a single swing he killed him, but sadly for them, because of the delay, one of the world government agents had come back.
At first Ars wasn't too worried, their strongest member was already dead, that was until he traded attacks with someone else. Ars realized that at least one of the agents must have come back during the delay, without his eyes leaving the enemy, he shouted.
"Be careful there is an unexpected strong fighter here, there might be more."
Everyone raised their guards when they heard that, Ars on the other hand was busy trading blows with the agent, at first Ars was ahead, he managed to feint a few attacks in, didn't do much damage but he would take what he could get.
Then the agent showed an opening, and Ars went in for the attack, but when the attack was almost landing, the agent smiled and whispered.
"Tekkai!"
Ars got caught by surprise, and his weapon bounced off the enemy body, if he had put more strength behind the attack he might have managed to cut the enemy, but Ars decided to go for a light attack so he would be able to dodge in case the enemy countered.
While Ars was still recoiling from his attack and the agent attacked him, and while Ars managed to defend on time, he still got injured on his Arm.
Then they both looked at each other before the agent smiled and started transforming into a big bulldog.
Ars, now at a big disadvantage, thought about how he could win, and he quickly realized something, he didn't need to win the fight he just needed to nullify the enemy, Ars knowing if he didn't risk it, he would most likely lose, decided to gamble, the opponent after transforming looked down on Ars arrogantly, thinking he had no way to lose now.
Ars smiled and rushed in, the agent attacked and Ars used the injured arm to block the attack, if before it was injured now it was out of commission for the next few weeks. Ars clenched his teeth, used a dagger to go for the neck, caught off guard by the insane move, the agent used Tekkai and thought he was safe, but the dagger attack never reached him, instead Ars grabbed on his head and jumped overboard into the water pulling the agent along.
The agent hadn't realized that he was on the ship's edge, or maybe he did but simply didn't care, Ars on the other hand thought if he didn't finish the fight soon he wouldn't live to tell the story, so he went all in and won the gamble.
Now in the Air the agent still struggled, he realized Ars played too late… But Ars didn't let go.
The agent's last words before falling into the water were.
"Let go you worthless insect, you are attacking a world government agent …" and before saying anything else, he fell into the water, and quickly sank, Ars soldiers had quickly decimated the enemy forces, and were now awaiting him with a rope to pull him up, back into the ship.
Rook and the rest of the soldiers quickly rescued the prisoners, then ransacked the ship for extra gains.
They didn't find much, only a few notes from the previous agent, a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, and then things that were expected on a ship with soldiers, like melee weapons, ranged weapons, ammunition, medicine and food.
The soldiers thought the biggest gain were the weapons, the medical apprentice thought the medicine was, but for Ars the biggest gain was the agent notes on the Rokushiki.
While it didn't explicitly explain how to train, the things on the notes would make it possible to reverse engineer the techniques or create new similar ones.
When everyone was off the marine ship, Ars decided to sink it, to erase any proof that remained on it.
Ars then looked at everyone and ordered.
"Let's set sail, towards the closest inhabited island."
Ars noticed at this time there were a few injuries on everyone, but the worst one was his injury, Ars sighed in relief and thought to himself 'Thank god, there weren't any additional agents, or would have all have died here'.
The medical apprentice was slowly bandanging everyone up, and the prisoners were hidden from sight just in case someone on a ship passed nearby.
Once they arrived on the island Tom and the building crew quickly went to work on the ship, to restore its original appearance.
Ars decided to burn the parts of the ship that were previously used as a disguise, the cloaks and the masks. Before 3 hours had passed they were setting sail, again, now leaving anything that could link them to the attack besides the prisoners, behind in the form of ashes.
While resting, Ars was studying the north blue map, and saw a village on the map that reminded him of something.
The Kuen village, it wasn't that important in the story but he remembered it because of a particularly interesting maid… That worked as an assassin for the Donquixote family, Baby 5 was born there, and if there was a 5, then at least 4 more people should be there, and there might even be a 6, 7 and more.
He decided he wanted to check if he could find a few nice looking maids. He called Rook and said.
"Change course for Kuen village."
Rook nodded and then asked.
"Any reason in particular??"
Ars looked at him, smiled and replied.
"There might be a few interesting maids there…"
Rook looked at Ars and murmured.
"Maids? Did he hit his head during the fight?"
Ars then thought about baby 5, calculating her age according to the time line, she should be around 16 or 17 and should be gone by now, but if she had any siblings with similar disorders, he could win a few extra maids from this trip.
By night they had arrived at Kuen village, but decided to remain in the ship resting until the following morning.
The next day, Ars, still injured, left the ship accompanied by Rook and a few soldiers. Rook and the soldiers would go buy anything that was needed for the trip and a few extra provisions to take home. Ars on the other hand would go search for info on the siblings of baby 5.
It didn't take long until Ars found an information source, an old woman rocking on a chair while keeping an eye on a few children nearby.
If there was something he learned related to rumors, was that the best people to ask about those were old women and bars, he approached the woman and introduced himself.
"Hi, I would like to ask you a few things if possible…"
She smiled and replied teasing Ars at the same time.
"And what would a young and handsome boy want with an old woman like me?"
Ars laughed, and replied.
"My lovely lady, I would like to inquire about information about a few children or a certain family that should reside on this island."
The old woman narrowed her eyes, and questioned.
"What kind of info?"
Ars decided to ask directly about Baby 5.
"I would like to know information about baby 5."
The woman wasn't happy about that, she grabbed a bit of wood she had nearby and threw it at Ars, and pointed away from her and finally screamed at Ars.
"Leave that poor child alone, even after leaving the island, people still come to get information that could be used to hurt her…. SHE HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH, LEAVE HER ALONE ALREADY!"
Ars was surprised by the old woman's outburst, but then she broke in a coughing fit and fell on the ground feeling unwell. Ars was about to approach her to help, but then the kids attacked him and the older one said to him.
"Don't hurt granny, you bully!"
Ars laughed awkwardly and retorted.
"I'm not bullying her…"
He was about to explain to the old woman why he was asking about Baby 5, but got interrupted when an adult woman came out of the house with a knife in hand.
Ars saw that the woman was preparing to throw the knife at him, and put his hand up and said.
"Let's calm down, I mean no harm."
The younger woman narrowed her eyes and instructed the kids.
"Take your grandmother in!"
Then glared at Ars, and asked.
"What do you want from Baby 5?"
Ars scratched his head and replied.
"From baby 5, nothing… What I want is to find maids, and people to serve me."
She finally relaxed a bit, but asked with a suspicious face.
"What do you mean by that?"
Ars, now seeing the situation de-escalating, replied calmly.
"Simply put, Baby 5 ended up with a personality disorder that makes her a really good subordinate the majority of times, the remaining ones she is almost an obstacle. And while this doesn't sound nice, I need good subordinates that follow my orders properly, and I remembered that she was born in this village, and thought I would try my luck. I'm not here to force or hurt anyone, I promise."
She relaxed, now close to normal levels. She looked at Ars and then said.
"Come in, I will help you with that."
He nodded and followed her inside.
The female sighed, and looked at Ars, before inquiring.
"How can I help you?"
Ars was confused, he had already said what he needed to make himself clear. What wasn't she understanding…
Before Ars could give a response, she clarified.
"Let me explain what I meant, that bit*% that gave birth to Baby 5 kept reproducing, and she kept throwing away children... The father is a bastard, to say the least… A small petty criminal, the mother not too far off either… For them, having children was a good way to try to cheat merchants that came by, but having too many didn't serve any purpose, but being pregnant did… People are most likely to help her then, or even if they were discovered they were less likely to attack her."
She took a short break and then looked at Ars in the eyes and added.
"So you have from baby 4 to baby 10. Baby 4, 7 and 9 are boys, the remaining ones girls… Ho yeah, that's right, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Moon Blinkie, and by the previous names of my siblings, I should be named Baby 1… After I grew up and started refusing to help my parents, around 12 years old, they kicked me out, and Granny adopted me and gave me my current family name, Moon. Later on, I ended up falling in love and marrying her child, a good man, he works as a carpenter here on the island. "
Ars smiled and nodded. He finally understood the old woman's reaction, while she probably wasn't too close to Baby 5, but they were family for her daughter.