Chapter 32: First Pirate Encounter
It's been a few days since we departed from Baterilla; I'm sure Rear Admiral Hina or some other high-ranking marine officer has discovered what's transpired at Baterilla; however, currently, Freyja and I were heading toward the next closest Island, which isn't too far away, we should arrive at the said island just before dusk.
While lying in a hammock, which is placed on the upper deck a few meters behind the helm that Freyja usually occupies, I spotted a white seagull flying about through the sky, and while that wouldn't usually arouse any interest, it had a hat and what looked to be a pouch attached to its body.
"What the?" Muttered Diddy in confusion as he eyed the bird descending towards him after noticing their ship.
Eyeing the incoming bird, I hopped off the hammock I was lying in and neared the edge of the ship; a few moments later, the bird arrived, landing on the ship's railing just beside me. Now that I got a better look at the bird, I spotted what seemed to be newspapers in its pouch, causing me to raise an eyebrow, but since the bird was already here, I decided to take one; I was slightly curious anyway.
After I took a newspaper from the bird, it cawed at me before flapping its wings as it took to the sky once more, going to continue delivering newspapers to people out at sea; at least, that is what I assumed it would do.
Ignoring the bird, I headed back towards my hammock, and once I was comfy, I started reading through the newspaper while being bathed in the ocean breeze; however, the instance I opened to the first page, the first thing I saw was a picture of Freyja and I along with two photos of what looks to be Karate Island and Baterilla, of course, the aftermath of the two islands.
~Two Islands in South Blue, the birthplace of all martial arts, Karate Island and Baterilla, have been destroyed, and every single resident has been brutally murdered. Marines say only two individuals did it; the pictures below are the ones responsible. The culprits are still at large, and until they have been caught or killed by the Marines, no island in South Blue is safe!~
Chuckling at their description, I smirked as I hopped off my hammock again and approached Freyja, causing her to turn around from the sound of my footsteps while glancing at me before her attention shifted to the newspaper in my hand.
"Heh, looky here, Freyja, we're on the newspaper's front page; it seems our hard work has really started to pay off." Remarked Diddy with a smirk as he handed the newspaper to Freyja, who was interested in reading the article about them.
"Yes, but it doesn't mention anything about our Pirate group, so we still aren't deemed important by the Marines. At least not yet." Replied Freyja lightly as she returned the newspaper to Diddy, who merely grinned before setting it on fire with his lightning.
"That just means we haven't caused enough chaos! Speaking of chaos, look what we finally encountered; a pirate ship." Stated Diddy with a grin while pointing toward a ship in the distance with a jolly roger atop its mast.
"Pirates, what an unlucky day for them to have encountered us." Muttered Freyja while licking her lips as she changed the ship's course, intending to intercept the pirate ship.
While Freyja steered the ship to head directly for the pirates in the distance, they seemed to have noticed us as well since they shifted their course as well; now, they were also heading toward us. A few minutes later, our ships arrived side-by-side, allowing Freyja and I to properly view the pirates, consisting of several men with swords on the deck; however, I could sense more people down below.
However, before we started fighting, unlike the enemy pirate's much larger ship, we didn't have an anchor to quickly halt our momentum, causing us to continue sailing right by their ship; of course, I wasn't going to let that happen, we had business with them after all.
Jumping to the lower deck, I ran to the fore of the ship and clutched the large middle wood, or the stem of the vessel if you will; digging my nails into the wood, I made my other hand flat as I utilized geppo, slamming my palm against the air, which momentarily created a solid platform, causing the ship to instantly come to a halt, resulting in the back of the boat lifting out of the ocean from the sudden loss of momentum; though everything was fine as the ship landed back into the water, after a few seconds.
"God dammit, Diddy; next time, inform me when you're about to do that!" Said Freyja in anger as she stood up and approached the ship's side while cursing Diddy, who merely chuckled in response.
Once Freyja and I arrived at the middle of the ship, which is where the enemy pirates placed their plank as they all quickly boarded our ship while unsheathing their swords, though they all ignored me since they were too busy ogling Freyja.
"C-Captain, do you see her!? We've stumbled across the jackpot!" Yelled one of the pirates who was eyeing Freyja with desire and lust.
"I see her; you fool; you don't need to tell me!" Said the Captain, who was a rather large rough looking man as he slapped the pirate back his head and approached Freyja while observing her with lustful intentions.
"I'm Gruff, Captain of the Gruff pirates with a bounty of 1,234,567 Beri's! Board my ship, and I shall protect you; all you must do is become my woman and service me with your body." Stated Gruff sternly as he looked down at Freyja, who he towered over with his large size.
"You see, Captain Gruff, while I'd love to become the woman of such a strong, large, and handsome man, I can't; that man over there refuses to let me go, and as long as he is alive, I'm forced to follow him." Replied Freyja as she seductively leaned against the man while erotically touching his chest before her expression morphed into fake sadness, causing the aroused Gruff and his men to look at Diddy in anger.
"I understand; after I kill that bastard, you'll be free to become my woman. Men, kill him!" Said Gruff in anger as he commanded his subordinates to kill Diddy while he took this time to feel up Freyja.
Having seen the entire thing play out, I couldn't stop my eye from twitching as I watched the pirates run toward me with their weapons held high; once they arrived near me, I sighed at Freyja's actions before switching my focus to the man before me.
Blocking the man's sword with my bow-staff, I kicked him away before slamming my bow-staff atop his head, instantly killing him, though I suddenly stopped moving when I realized what I had just done, causing me to groan while rubbing my head.
"That's going to be a pain to clean up." Muttered Diddy as he nimbly evaded two slashes from the front before swinging Naga-sa horizontally at the attackers, caving in their chests, causing them to spit blood as they got sent flying overboard.
Since I didn't want to make a disgusting mess on the deck of my ship, I opted not to aim for the head, which made no difference to me as the pirates were weak, and just one swing of my bow-staff killed three or four; however, this battle was rather enjoyable since, unlike what transpired at Baterilla, these people are actually fighting back.
Unfortunately, there weren't many of them; after killing roughly thirty-five, the only person left was the Gruff, who was currently too preoccupied with fondling Freyja's breasts to even realize his entire crew had been killed. Approaching the two, I tapped the man's shoulder with my bow-staff, causing him to break out of his stupor and glance at me, only to ignore me and continue fondling Freyja's breasts.
"Good, it seems you've killed that man. Now that you're my woman, let's get back on my ship; I don't think I can retrain myself any longer!" Said Gruff lustfully as he grabbed Freyja's hand and turned around again, only to be stopped by Diddy.
"Hehe, where do you think you're going with my Vice-Captain?" Asked Diddy with a grin as he blocked Gruff, who displayed a shocked expression when he noticed Diddy was still alive.
"H-How are you still alive, and where are my men!?" Exclaimed Gruff in anger as he released Freyja's hand and eyed Diddy.
"Dead, obviously, and you'll be next." Said Diddy while smirking, his words filling Gruff with anger as he flexed his muscles, causing him to look even bigger than before.
"You! For killing my crew, I'll kill you!" Yelled Gruff in rage as he grabbed the massive axe off his back and powerfully swung down atop Diddy's head.
Seeing the incoming attack, I didn't bother dodging and merely used tekkai to block the axe; although tekkai is naturally more vulnerable to bladed objects, against someone like this man, it didn't matter; he may have massive muscles, but in my eyes, they were all for show.
"Haha; that's what you get for killing my c-" Said Gruff happily, though before he could finish his sentence, he noticed Diddy was completely unscathed while his axe had a massive dent.
Pushing the dented axe off my head, I used soru, something I hardly use simply because I hadn't come across an opponent that forced me to use it, and appeared right in front of him using a speed he couldn't even track; before he could respond, I used one of my seventy-two techniques I'd mastered over the past five years.
"72 Bian: variation 13; Exploding Heart Release." Said Diddy as he timed his attack to be in sync with his heart, resulting in a devastating punch to Gruffs body that sent him flying far off into the distance.
Seeing Gruff shoot off into the distance while leaving a trail of blood, I looked over to Freyja and smirked before approaching her, my killing intent leaking out.
"Just because you're the Vice-Captain doesn't mean you don't need to be straightened out every now and then." Declared Diddy with a grin as he neared Freyja, who responded by also releasing her killing intent.