Chapter 631: Hyottoko
To say that Barbossa was in a bit over his head would be a rather large understatement.
Miss T- Swann had certainly pulled a fast one on all of them, but Barbossa especially. It was clear to him now that she was far more capable than he gave her credit for. She must have read him like a book.
The situation was still salvageable, though. A bit of diplomacy, and a bit of trickery should let him weasel out of this.
"What say you to making a deal, Miss Swann?" Barbossa proposed right up front.
"And what do you have to offer me?" Elizabeth smirked.
"Everything, of course," Barbossa ground out. "All the wealth in the room can be yours, in exchange for helping us lift the curse."
"If you lift the curse, what is there to protect you from my rescuers?" Elizabeth squinted her eyes. "Or me."
"Nothin’, I suppose!" Barbossa admitted freely, not that he wouldn’t take the chance to kill her if it showed itself. "Your word will have to suffice!"
Elizabeth barked a laugh that didn’t suit her in the slightest. "My word, yes. I am a part of the nobility in a fashion, as daughter to Port Royal’s governor. Very well, you can have it; my word, that I shan’t take any advantage of your vulnerable state if and when your curse is lifted!"
Barbossa let a moment of silence pass as he digested her words, and the expression she had when she said them. Oddly, he didn’t think she was lying. He expected that she would lie right to his face; it’s what he would have done. It’s what he was doing, in fact.
"I suppose it’ll have to do. I can’t rightly expect you to guarantee the same of the navy, but they’ll be a ways away if they can ever find us to begin with." Barbossa accepted.
"Excellent. Chop chop, then. Get all these treasures packed up and ready to go!" Elizabeth clapped her hands as motioned to his crew to do as she said. "Do be careful with them. The destruction of your half of the deal would be grounds for a legal contract to be voided, let alone a handshake with pirate scum."
Barbossa suppressed a frown, but his smile became strained nonetheless. "Of course."
"Mm, good," Elizabeth smiled much more cheerily. "By the way, all the real coins were the ones in the chest. I put mine back in there when nobody was looking. The fakes were just a joke to distract you."
"Right," Barbossa thought that was probably true, but he wasn’t entirely certain. "And how are you going to get Turner blood here to end the curse, might I ask?"
"He’s already here," Elizabeth revealed. "William, that is; my fiancé. I’m so excited! Who knew he would come all this way just for me?"
Barbossa didn’t believe that it was at all a coincidence. Assuming it was even true to begin with. "Right. And how do you know that?"
Thudding footsteps quickly approached from the caves. "Captain Barbossa! There are ships coming out of the fog towards the island!"
Barbossa glanced back at Elizabeth, who was examining her nails for dirt.
"Sit tight, Miss Swann. I’ll go greet our visitors personally," Barbossa said with a purposefully even tone.
"Uhuh," Elizabeth didn’t seem at all concerned.
Barbossa let her keep her nonchalant attitude. It would serve him well as he captured the visitors in an ambush, then used them against her as leverage.
...
Will heard the call; they’d spotted land.
He might have hid below decks to avoid being recognized, but he would not hide when it came to the actual rescue. Fortunately, he found a mask to wear. It would conceal his face, though it did make him look a bit silly.
"Ah, it’s Yasuie?!" Luffy exclaimed when he stepped above deck.
"That’s William, Luffy. He’s wearing one of those masks you bought in Wano," Nami pointed out the obvious. "What was this one called again?"
"I believe this one is Hyottoko," Robin informed.
So it’s the mask of some sort of character, then? Well, he could admit that it was pretty unique.
"I’ll not stand by while Elizabeth is in danger," Will declared.
"How heroic!" Franky clapped.
Will felt his cheeks burn and was glad he had the mask to conceal his blush.
"This is as close as we can get!" Usopp shouted. "The rocks won’t let us go any further."
"Drop the anchor!" Luffy commanded. "We’ll go to shore in the thingies!"
"The dinghies, Luffy," Nami off handedly corrected.
"The dingers!" Luffy mucked it up again.
Regardless, the anchor was dropped and the crew set to preparing the smaller vessels to make landfall. The other ship had the same idea, from the look of it.
*clack clack clack clack* *drip drip drip*
An odd clicking sound and the sound of dripping water drew Will’s attention to the side of the ship.
"Boarders!" Will shouted, drawing his sword.
He already knew that his weapon was useless, however, as he took in the skeletal forms of the pirates clambering up the anchor and over the side. They themselves clenched blades between their teeth which they swiftly wielded once they were free and clear from their climb.
"Eh? Did Brook have babies?!" Luffy was thoroughly shocked.
He got walloped upside the head for that particular remark. Will thought it was foolish to attack one’s allies with an imminent battle upon them.
Or not?
"What happened?" Will had only been distracted by Luffy’s antics for a moment, then when he turned to face the threat, they were all on the ground?
"We already fought these guys back at Port Royal. We know their schtick," Zoro grunted. "They don’t die, but they’re still all a bunch of weaklings."
"Hmph, as if we’d have trouble with them," Sanji lit a cigarette. "They should have brought their whole crew if they wanted to have a chance at killing the Mosshead. We’d have avenged him afterwards without any effort at all."
"Oi, if they could take anyone, it’d be you, shitty cook!" Zoro growled.
"What did Cherry even torment us for if those dorks just took out the undead pirates by themselves?" Usopp asked Nami and Chopper. They shrugged and Nami said, "I’m not complaining. Especially since Cherry might kidnap some of them and make us fight them if I do complain."
All three shuddered.
"Torment?" Will hadn’t been too tempted by Cherry’s offer to whisk himself and Elizabeth away on some grand adventure into the world unknown, but hearing that Cherry apparently tormented her own crew (even for training purposes) didn’t exactly sell the idea to him.
"They know we’re here! Get moving!" Jinbe reasonably pointed out.
Will could hear the sounds of battle over on the other ship, but... well, he had his hands full with one rescue already. It’s not like his own sword arm would sway that fight much.
"Don’t worry about the boy. I’ll keep an eye or two on him," the witchdoctor offered.
That actually did give him pause. While he would not be so rude to make baseless accusations at the woman, he didn’t really think they should entrust a child with her alone.
The straw hats disagreed, apparently, because they all started jumping aboard their dinghies.
Will shook his head. If they’d trust her, then he would too.