Screw It, I'm Going Out to Find It!

Chapter XIII: Juniper D. Arc

"Just look at this guy! He has to know what he's doing." Jaune pointed excitedly at the flier he had found. "He sounds like just the kind of guy we want heading this project." Blake made sure Ruby couldn't see despite the girl's protests. There was nothing on it more explicit than what could be found at the beach, but it was still a bit much.

"I suppose that it's better than nothing," Blake conceded. She had recently become more on board with the plan. The others noticed, but let it be. With that in mind, she wanted this all to go smoothly, and hiring a professional was leaps and bounds beyond doing it themselves. "Our first issue is having the funds for it, but an even bigger one is finding him. The log pose takes us from island to island, and it's already difficult to deviate just a bit. We only got to that marine base because of its size and how close it was to our path."

"That seems like a pretty big flaw for a company in a place like this," Ren said. He took the flier from his captain and began scanning it for information.

"There's probably an easier way for civilians to navigate all of this," Blake threw in.

Cardin grunted. "Yeah, and it's probably headed by the marines or something."

Jaune grimaced at that. "We probably shouldn't push the marines too far right now. We've taken a log pose from them, we've invaded one of their bases, and there's a group of them after us, right?" It had never been explicitly said anywhere, but there were rumors of an up and coming team of marines hunting down pirates. The descriptions felt too familiar to ignore.

Ren held the flier forward, pointing to a bit of text toward the bottom. "It says that it's part of a few islands that are connected together." His finger slid over to a small diagram of dots connected by lines. "This shows that any route we take will lead us to one of them. I'm not sure how they're connected, but I suppose the theory is that if we can get to one of them, we can get to any of the others."

"Right," Jaune motioned for Blake to take the flier. "We'll start heading that way. Make sure we don't pass it. The islands being connected gives us a chance going forward, but I don't know what would happen if we had to go back. As for the funds, we won't have any clue unless we talk to him first. Worst scenario, he gives us too big of a price and we carry on like we would have anyways."

Cardin went to pilot, giving Neo a well deserved break. Blake took the flier and began comparing it to their map of the Grand Line. Jaune followed along to try and help her, though there wasn't much for him to do. All that he could really help with was trying to match the small drawing to a section of their map. Nonetheless, it helped calm Blake a bit. Her job had been a stressful one so far, and it was nice for him to at least try.

"I've decided that you were right." Blake said it almost offhandedly. Her hands were still roaming the map and checking sections where marked islands were aligned. It took a moment for Jaune to realize that it wasn't really related to their current task — and even then, he was still confused. "When we talked the other night, about how I ran away, you were right. I know they love me — that's why they acted that way in the first place. My parents would never have been so against what I was doing if they didn't care about me. Even now, I'm just hurting them more by being silent and keeping away."

She paused and met his eyes. "That's why when we finish this, I'll make sure to call them." Jaune perked up at that, his joy written all over his face. "So long as you do the same." Then his face faulted.

Suddenly unsure of the conversation and his stance, Jaune attempted to escape back into the map. Blake was ruthless. "You said you haven't spoken to them in a while, Jaune. You were the one who told me I should contact my parents. What about your sister, Saphron? Why shouldn't you do the same?"