"This is garbage!" Mayando shouted as he threw the soggy taco he had just been given on the ground.
"You have something you want to say about my cooking, kid?" the elderly man said with venom in his voice.
"Sir, I'm sorry about him," Sakazuki said apologetically as he attempted to pull Mayando away. "He's just very passionate when it comes to food," Sakazuki said as he awkwardly smiled at the nearby family staring at them.
"You can't call this crap food! The lettuce is old, the meat tastes like you scraped it from the bottom of the pan, and the seasoning is non-existent! You're a god damn fraud!" the young navigator shouted as Sakazuki finally managed to pull him away.
"Calm down, you idiot. It's just a taco. An awful one, but it's just a taco," Sakazuki said as he attempted to ignore the awful taste that was still on his own tongue.
The process of calming his crewmate took quite awhile, but Sakazuki made use of the time to take in the sights of the city. Though Water 7 was not a glowing representation of what he had expected life outside of his home town to be, it was still fascinating to him to see the lives of the people that lived so differently than he had.
"God, just nothing can go right," Mayando said in a dower tone.
"My God man, it's a taco. Just have Zeff make you one when we get back to the ship!" Sakazuki exclaimed in frustration.
"No, not that, you idiot. I'm talking about that," he said as he pointed to what appeared to be a beaten down newspaper stand. He reached carefully through the shattered glass that used to be its cover, and pulled out of the single remaining copy of The World Economic Journal.
"Why do you care about that rag? Isn't it run by someone around our age?" Sakazuki asked, though he still looked toward the headline curiously.
"Yeah, but I don't think he could get away with making this up," Mayando said as he pointed to the massive headline.
After decades of terrorizing the seas, Elbaph officially joins the World Government
"Ugh, Rocks isn't going to be happy. Didn't he want to go straight to Elbaph once we got back to the New World?" Sakazuki asked as he continued to read the details of the article.
"Yeah, we still need to go to Alabasta first, but I doubt we're going to Elbaph now. It's a good thing that we were going to stop by Lulucia before Elbaph anyways, hopefully seeing his family will put him in a better mood," Mayando said before Sakazuki forcibly pointed to another article in a smaller section of the newspaper's corner.
"See this is what I'm talking about, you can't believe what the bird that makes this paper says! There's no way that Wano would be-" Sakazuki started to say before a series of shouts from the next block over cut him off.
The pair immediately ran toward the noise, cutting through the alley between the blocks and emerging to see a squad of marines surrounding a giant and a trio of fish men children. Sakazuki grabbed Mayando by the collar of his shirt before he could run out, yanking him into the alley and ducking out of sight.
"What are you doing?!" Mayando asked as he struggled against Sakazuki's grip.
"Keep your head on straight, Mayo!" Sakazuki said with the loudest whisper that he could. "Rocks told us to keep our heads down, and that's an entire platoon of marines. We need to at least see if this is worth blowing our cover for," he said with a stern yet calm tone, and Mayando eventually relented ass Sakazuki let him go.
"The moment it gets out of hand-" Mayando began to say before Sakazuki cut him off.
"Then we will get involved," Sakazuki said with an affirming pat on Mayando's shoulder, the navigator nodding before peeking back out toward the situation.
The group of marines stood at 7 strong, each of them holding either rifles or swords menacingly at the shaking group of fishmen children. Standing between them though was a giant with his arms spread out as if to shield the fishmen. His navy coat gave away the allegiance that he was supposed to have, though his actions would certainly not indicate that he was on the side of the men holding the weapons.
"They did nothing wrong, what are you all doing!?" The giant shouted as his "fellow" marines didn't seem to even think about lowering their weapons.
"Stand down, Lieutenant Saul!" One of the older marines barked at him. "These things belong to Saint Champagne, do you want to disobey a Celestial Dragon?!" He shouted as he attempted to walk closer to the children, though the giant's unflinching stance blocked him from making any significant progress.
"Things!?" Saul shouted in disgust, stepping toward the man who immediately cowered in fear. "These are children!"
"Enough of this," the marine said nervously, hopping backwards as he pulled a Transponder Snail from his coat pocket. "We have a situation. A rogue soldier is disobeying orders, send Silver-" he began to say before a fist cracked into the side of his head. Everyone, including Saul, looked toward the perpetrator in shock.
"I can't believe you were the one holding me back," Mayando said, coming up behind Sakazuki as he shook out his fist.
"Things…what a piece of garbage," he said with disgust before turning toward Saul. "Are you and the kids alright?" He asked as the rest of the mariners looked on in both surprise and horror.
"Yes, and thank you kid, but you shouldn't have done that. The Navy is going to be after you now," Saul said as Mayando approached the children, adding another body between them and the marines.
"We're pirates, man. We aren't exactly buddies with them anyways-" Mayando said with confidence before a different fist cracked into his face.
With the same sudden shift in energy that Sakazuki's punch had delivered, Mayando felt his confidence immediately slip away as he was launched into the air. His body sailed dozens of feet, the immediate pain in his jaw along with the air time he was getting being a clear indication of his attacker's strength. With an intense, cutting pain, Mayando finally crashed through a window and landed mercifully on the ground.
The sounds that he could hear were muffled from the head trauma that he had just suffered, and he let out a pained groan as he saw a figure standing over him. The face of his captain came into view, and he wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or not.
"Oh, hey captain," he said woozily as Rocks looked down at him with concern.
***
Rocks stood in the now wrecked workshop, his young navigator in a bloody heap at his feet. Though he looked out the window ready to leap out of it to find the perpetrator, he did not have to look far.
The black duster coat that hung off the man's shoulders blew in the salty sea breeze, and the nicely ironed collared shirt made sure that he was able to still give off his mobster persona. In one hand he held Sakazuki by the collar, and in the other he held a massive double headed battleaxe. Despite it's immense size, he seemed to easily be able to carry it as if it weighed no more than a feather.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect to see you here," Rock said with a scowl as he raised his sword against Silver Axe, one of the 7 warlords of the sea and Rocks' former crew mate.