Finally, the pirate Captain is down.
Seeing him on the ground with his eyes closed like that strangely gave me a sense of relief.
And before I knew, I was gasping for breath.
Looks like this was even more taxing than I even imagined, I can only wonder how I can even continue all of this struggle without falling dead tired.
While I had a bit of stamina, I shouldn't be to this extent, even if I counted all the time I had been training on the island.
"Woooh…Huff…Woooh…Huff…"
I collect my breathing, and the glow of the Hamon appears vividly.
"No matter how I think about it, this should be the only reason."
This magical wave-like energy should be why I can go on all of this time.
Otherwise, I can't think of any other thing that can help me stand against those inhuman monsters.
And that brought me back to reality.
'There is no time for me musing now, I have to move fast!'
As there is a more pressing matter, I need to do.
With all the pirates now down, I have to move on to the next step.
'I need to tie them up or something, should I look for a rope? No, I should…!'
Clack-Clack!
No need for me to look for anything, as the object that was conveniently away all of my fight suddenly appears in front of me.
The Box!
'Honestly, where were you all of-no now is not the time!'
Kneeling down and opening the Box, I began to stuff it with everything I could get my hands on in my surroundings.
Swords, guns, hats, woodchips, anything until it was full.
Then I close it, flip it upside down, I concentrate on what I need right now.
Click!
The Box opened, and inside it was the thing I wanted right now.
Handcuffs.
The Box was full of thick, sturdy handcuffs.
Spilling them from the Box, I got a good pile of them, and if anyone would take a closer look, he would see there was something different about these handcuffs other than being bigger than usual.
None of these handcuffs had a key, nor did any of them have a hole for one.
Yes, they didn't have any keys, if you lock someone with them, they can't get out.
No one was black hearted enough to attempt such a thing normally, even if they were, they wouldn't want to take away the other options from them.
But since I will be stuck with these pirates in this ship for who knows how long, I didn't want any funny business.
And I wanted to release them, I can use Hamon for that…properly…
Click-click!
Anyway, without wasting any time, I began to handcuff all of them. Each one with two handcuffs, one on his hand behind his back, and the other on his legs.
Each one, I used a bit of Hamon on him just to make sure they are not dying from injury.
I had to 'Order' more handcuffs from the Box because I ran out of them two times.
The last one I handcuffed was the baster that wanted to rape me—I forgot his name—and surprisingly he began to wake up when I used Hamon on him so I knocked him out again and used more handcuffs on him.
'That was dangerous.'
The endurance and recovery of these people are monstrous, I need to be more careful.
I returned to the captain and used two more handcuffs on him after 'Selling' his giant axe to the Box.
With that, I began to relax a bit.
But also, this was the time for a more important thing.
'It is time to figure out where the hell I am?'
The best way for that is to see if I can find information written in a journal or something on the ship.
And that I did.
After searching around for a bit, in the captain's cabin—at least from what I can gather, as it was the biggest cabin in the ship—I found what looks like a travel log.
But it was written in English.
While I could understand English decently, it made me question why it was written in English, not Japanese, as all the crew were speaking Japanese.
Moreover, I couldn't recognize where anything is where, none of the places or islands recorded here are recognizable to me.
I also looked at the maps in the cabin, it was the same problem. I couldn't recognize any place from there.
However, there were two places recognizable to me that made me question my sanity.
Because there was no way that was true.
'And I was under no delusion that these places were real, this must be some kind of coincidence…Right?'
With no use of reading anything on the ship, the best I can do now is to ask one of the damn crew.
In other words, interrogation.
As I know, I have no experience in this field, so I, again, have to improvise.
The first thing I do is to pick a place, while I can use the deck as a place, I was sure that this could turn violent or rowdy with other people around.
So I had to get a quiet place to talk and focus.
There was no need for me to choose, the best place was the captain's cabin, of course.
Returning to the crew, I found the one who looked the meekest of them, and carried him to the cabin.
Putting him down on a chair, with him being unconscious, I started shaking him to wake him up.
"Oi! Wake up!"
"Guu…waaah…"
No matter how much I shook him, he only made those weird voices, but stayed asleep.
'Okay, let's be a bit harsher!'
With him being like that, I decided to slap him to wake him up.
SLAP!
"Oi! Wake Up!"
"AAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The moment he awoke, he started screaming madly,
BAM!
He scared me for an instant, which made me punch him to stop him from doing anything unusual.
"…"
"…"
But he was knocked out again.
'Looks like this will be a pain.'
SLAP!
"Wake Up!"
"AAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
BAM!
"…"
"…"
SLAP!
"Wake Up!"
"WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
BAM!
"…"
"…"
SLAP!
"Wake Up!"
"WAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
After a circle of waking him up and knocking him down, he was finally stable? Enough to talk to.
"S-s-sir, p-p-please d-don't hu-hurt me!"
"Answer my questions and I won't hurt you."
"Y-yes! A-Absolutely! A-ask me anything!"
Good grief, out of all the tense situations I was in, this one takes the top.
I am not even sure who is more tense than the other,
But who am I kidding? I am not the one in cuffs right now.
"First of all, who are you people?"
What I wanted to actually ask is 'where the hell are we?' But I don't know what reaction that would generate, so I opted for a more indirect route to get the whole picture first.
"W-We? Y-Yes! We are the S-Storm Axe Pirates, Sir! B-But I swear I d-didn't want to be h-here, my stepfather kicked me out and I w-was d-d-d-drunk in the p-p-pub when they sca-sca-scammed me to join! I wanted to l-l-leave I swear-!"
"Shut up! I didn't ask for your résumé!"
'What stepfather? Your beard is already graying you damn liar!'
It is already the first question, and he was spouting nonsense. Looks like this will be more difficult than I thought.
Anyway, so they were truly a pirate crew. No shit Sherlock, after all of that and did I have a doubt, thankfully Yukinoshita is not here or would have mocked me for years on this.
'No time for that, I have to focus!'
He at least answered what I asked him, even if he added nonsense, then let's go on like this.
"Tell me, why are you here? And where were you going?"
I asked him about the route and the cause for them to be here, and with this, I could get a good deal of information about them. And even if he lied, I will pick his story apart.
"We-We were trying to run away f-from the M-Marine and pirate hunters that are after us. The Navigator is a cunning piece of shit, he got us here at the edge of the Storm region, were ships have hard time sailing here!"
"So you were hiding here?"
"Yes, we were planning to wait here for a bit until we find someone from the underworld to sell the treasure to in Weasel Harbor! I swear I was against the idea the moment I learned we were deceived, I told them that we have to get rid of it and cut our losses!"
From what he told me now, they were being chased after because of the 'Treasure' they stole. This usually should be the case with pirates, but I do feel that there is more to that story than that.
Moreover,
'I have no idea where the Stormy region or nor the Weasel Harbor is.'
'Is he lying to me? Should I-' amidst my train of thought, the pirate interrupts me.
"Sir, you are a Pirate Hunter, right? I swear there is no bounty on my head, only the Captain has a bounty, so killing me won't be helpful, but I, alive, is way more usable for you!"
Somehow, I didn't like what he was saying.
"I have been in the sea for a long time, I have seen the high waves and the turbulent storms! I assure you, not many people are as knowledgeable as I about the sea, if those bastards had listened to me from the start, we wouldn't have been in this-"
"Shut up! I have no need of your nonsense!"
"Y-Y-Y-Yes, Sirrrr!"
He finally shut up after I glared at him.
Good grief, this bastard was trying to manipulate me to leave him be by offering his services.
'He must have gained the idea from my young appearance.'
This is why I shouldn't lower my caution against these people. Well done me for handcuffing them all.
"What is the treasure that was this valuable for you to be chased like this?"
This question was a bit of a gamble, but it is one that I have to make.
If my guess were true, then I could learn more. If not, then I will have to cover it up.
"It is a Devil Fruit…"
"Huh?" the answer of the pirate took me off guard.
"What did you say?"
"It is a…It is a Devil Fruit, Sir! We-we didn't know it was something this valuable from the start, we-I mean they thought it was just the King of Delsol was jealous of other Kings in the Levely because they had some valuable toys, you know gold, jewels, and stuff, so he ordered some merchant to bring it for him."
"…" I stay silent as he talks, not knowing what kind of emotion I am feeling.
"It was that informant's fault, he didn't tell us what it was. Even after we-I mean they made the raid and got the Devil Fruit, those ignorant bastards didn't think it was real, that sucker Fiadh even wanted to eat it to prove that it was just a myth."
"…"
"But the Captain and I, of course, stopped him from eating it! While the old- I mean I told them to leave it and run away, the Captain said he can sell it with his underworld channel even if it was fake! He said it was expensive and can be sold for a lot, so these greedy fuckers agreed."
"…"
"We, I mean they didn't expect that the King would send the Marines and the Pirates Hunters after us like that. I told them! I told the-"
"Oi!"
"Eh?"
It was only then that the pirate was finally looking at my face.
And from the fear that suddenly possessed him, it looks like I had quite the bad expression.
It should be quite fitting for the rage I was feeling inside me now.
"You said Devil Fruit?"
"This…"
"You said Devil Fruit, right?"
"Si-Sir?"
"And let me guess, we are in the East Blue, right?"
"…"
"And should be some boy wearing a straw hat trying to find the One Piece while shouting 'I will be the Pirate King!', right?"
"…" The pirate's eyes were shaky, he looked like he couldn't understand what was going on, and was starting to panic.
However, I no longer had the patience to think about what does that means, or what should be the best path forward.
I am sick of this,
I want to go back,
I want to see my family,
I want to see my friends,
I want to just return home.
I am just a high school student.
'I have no time to waste on stupid games!'
Click-clack!
BANG!
…
A/N: Hachiman finally snapped!!
And well, that's it for now.
Thank you all for reading! Hope you enjoyed this one!
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