The past month of training for the fight against Captain Crow, has my body burnt out. Every night I would sneak off to the church to train in my werewolf state all night. My body recovers fast because of the nature of Zoan fruits, but the mind needs breaks. I still don't know what the rest of my abilities as a werewolf are, but I'm getting stronger and my senses are top notch. The moonlight definitely means something but I haven't been able to understand it yet. The ability to control moonlight sounds like a great ability on the surface but not being able to use it during the day has me worried. During the day Pedro and I would either spend the day training or gambling at gamblings dens all across town. The lucky bastard's moniker the owner's gave us happened to stick, building us quite the reputation at the gambling table. Unfortunately, now we have been barred from most places because nobody can be that lucky. We still made over 200,000 belli that we've been using to feed the kids and fund our operation. 

"Pedro, what time will they be here," I asked.

"I saw the collectors going to the tavern down the street so they'll be here in about 10 minutes."

"Alright, do you have everything we might need? We can't let them notice we're following them."

"Yeah I've got everything and I even managed to grab a bag of gunpowder like you asked for, in case we need a distraction."

We waited patiently for the knock on the door from the collectors coming to get this month's payment. We dressed ourselves up in our simple rags and hid the cloaks we had bought off a merchant in another room. The loud bang on the door came as we expected and I moved quickly toward the door. Getting a carpenter to fix the door has been expensive and I'll be damned if I let them break it down again. 

"Looks like you brats learned your lesson from last month's beating." The Pirate Wabul spoke up and behind him stood the same two henchmen from last time. He pushed me aside into the wall and stepped inside. 

"It's just you two? Where are the rest of the kids?"  

"We sent them out so they wouldn't get beat up again," Pedro replied. His voice contained a hint of venom which Wabul responded to with a kick to the chest that sent Pedro flying. 

"Pedro!" I rushed over to his side to help him get back up. He didn't look to be hurt, so I guess the last month of training wasn't completely useless.

Wabul called out to his companions, "Search the place and make sure they're not hiding valuables." The two pirates walked past us and started to search the rooms.

"We have about 18,000 belli right here," I said, pulling it out of my pocket. 

"Huh, but it was 20,000 last time. That's not what I like to hear. Maybe I should take one of your arms since they're so useless." Wabul slid the sword out of its sheath and pointed it toward us. I tensed up and got ready to turn into a werewolf but he just started laughing. 

"I'm just kidding. If I cut your arms off, how would you steal for us? Keep up the good work and maybe Captain Crow might give you kids a chance. Eckbert! Boyle! Let's go. I'm trying to get back to base before it's too late. Shiela is waiting on me."

Eckbert and Boyle stopped sifting through out belongings and left with Wabul.

Once they were out of earshot I helped Pedro to his feet. "Alright time to go. Put the cloak on and make sure to stay out of their line of sight," I said. 

We crept out the door, immediately spotting the three. We followed not far behind using the carts and alleyways of busy streets to stay out of sight. My senses since eating the Ino Ino no mi werewolf model have been heightened. Pedro and I split up to not draw attention to ourselves and continued to follow them at a safe distance behind. The three pirates stopped from house to house and with reluctance the townspeople contributed. Wabul apparently had an eye for wealth, a true glutton for anything of value. He knew just where to check and who to push further to get more money. Pedro and I stood silently in the shadows, while the Fleawater residents watched in anguish with their neighbors, through the curtains. Living on basic sustenance and nothing more does something to a person. In the residents' eyes I couldn't see hope and that scares me. I'm no Luffy and I'm not doing this completely out of the goodness of my heart. Still Captain Crow deserves what's coming to him. 

"Pedro come on, the sun's almost all down. They should be returning back to base soon."

We hurried to keep up with them as they headed to their boat. Pedro told me their ship and base was on a tiny island near here, which we would have to sail to. The problem was that neither of us knew how to handle a boat. We were stuck on what to do till I had an ingenious idea. Pedro unfortunately didn't understand the idea of a Trojan horse but he laughed at the boldness of my plans. The pirate collectors approached a caravel with three large men moving barrels and boxes on board. 

"How are we going to sneak on board," Pedro asked. 

"Don't worry I bought us a distraction," I said with a smile. Pedro looked at me confused till he heard the sounds of drunken yells. 

His eyes opened wide, "Is that the doctor from down the street?" 

"Yeah. It took a little convincing but Doc has a thing for expensive wines. Plus he hates paying Crow as much as everyone else. Let's hurry up before we miss our chance."

Sailors broke out into laughter as the sun burnt doctor rushed around causing a disruption. We passed through the alleyways, coming to stop close to the back end of the boat. Pedro pulled out a rope with a grappling hook on the end and waited to make sure the coast was clear. The doctor ran up and pulled Wabul's pants down and exposed his underwear for all the port to see. Wabul's face turned red and sailors all around broke out into laughter. The doctor scampered off back where he came from. 

Wabul yelled out, "Don't let that idiot get away." Eckbert and Boyle immediately gave chase, while Wabul glared at the sailors around which brought an end to the laughter. Pedro had used distraction to catch a hold of the back of the ship and we began climbing. I tied the rope to a sturdy post so that we wouldn't fall into the water, but I couldn't help but be nervous near water with my devil fruit weakness. 

"Pedro, hurry up, you're moving too slow," I whispered urgently. We're currently upside down, using our hands and feet to slowly get to the top. The other three men had gone off the boat with Wabul to force some extra belli from the sailors who dared to mock Captain Crow's crew.

"I'm trying but the rope keeps swaying. I'll help you up when I get to the deck."

  

I stopped climbing and just hung on so Pedro could get to the top. After a minute he whispered," Alright come on we need to get down below before they get back on board."

He helped me up the rope before reeling it in and stuffing it in his pouch. We crept down the stairs and headed for the hatch to the cargo room. I could hear steps rapidly approaching from the gangplank and pushed Pedro in and jumped below deck. We moved to a room filled with barrels of beer and boxes of food that nearly filled the room. 

"Let's lay down under the tarps there," I whispered.

Above deck I could hear footsteps and voices through the cracks in the floorboard. I can only pray Doc got away safely as I settled behind the barrels. A pair of boots rushed down the steps dropping another crate right next to us hiding. 

"Boss, we got everything. We are ready to push off!" 

I felt as the boat slowly dislodged itself from port and the rhythmic bounce of the sea played a new tune. Pedro tapped on my shoulder with his face spread in the grin he was so fond of and whispered, "Step one complete."