Chapter 14: Chapter 14: A Mysterious Challenger!
"Are you sure about this captain? I don't think we can trust her." Jack told me as he prepared to set sail.
"We're not going to trust her, we're going to use her abilities. You have to admit we were in desperate need of a navigator. Don't worry about it, we can handle it if she tries anything." I replied while calling her over. "So how does your ability work?"
"I ate the Locate-Locate Fruit so I can perfectly track the location of anywhere I've been before or anywhere I've seen on a map. So I basically have the ability to point you in the direction of anywhere you could want to go. I can also detect the locations of people within a certain distance of myself." Rei replied.
"Whoa! That's awesome! Hey couldn't we just instantly find the One Piece using her ability?" Yuma asked excitedly.
"No of course not. I just told you that I can only locate things that I've seen either in person or on a map. Nobody other than Gold Roger's crew has ever seen the One Piece and there's no known map that shows its location so that's impossible."
"Aw that's too bad." Yuma said.
"It's no big deal, the adventure wouldn't be as exciting if we could just head there straight away anyway. Still her ability will be a big help." I said.
"So you guys are planning on going to find the One Piece? What do you want to be the Pirate King or something? That's such a childish dream." She said while rolling her eyes.
"No I'm not particularly searching for the One Piece, and I'm not interested in becoming the Pirate King either. Me and Yuma just have a dream of sailing around the world and going on a grand adventure."
"You're just sailing the Grand Line for fun? That's even more childish. So what about you? What brought you on to this crew?" She pointed her line of questioning towards Jack now.
"I want to be a hero of justice. This is just the place I determined would be the best place for me to pursue that goal." Jack replied.
"Eh, these guys are all crazy. It's going to be tough to work my usual magic on these guys, but I can always try to work another angle I guess." She thought. "So captain, do you have anywhere in mind that you want to go to first?" She asked in a forced friendly manner.
"Yeah I was just thinking that we should go to Water 7 to pick up a shipwright. Have you ever been there before?" I asked.
"No, but if I see it on a map I can lead us there no problem. Should we set course for there now?"
"No not quite there's somewhere that we need to go to first."
We then set course to go along the same path of villages that the Black Flag Pirates had just raided. We went there to return all of the money and valuables that they had taken.
"You know when I saw you dragging all this loot out of our wrecked ship this isn't what I expected you to do with it. I know you're a Warlord but aren't you still a pirate? Pirates aren't typically known for giving treasure to people." Rei said skeptically.
"Yeah well, I only ever became a pirate because I wanted to be free to go on a fun adventure and do whatever I wanted. I happened to be in a position to help these people and I wanted to. So I did, that's all there is to it. It's nothing that serious." I replied.
"Hmph, that's a naive way of thinking. This sea isn't kind to soft hearted people like you. It's a brutal world out there. You have to be ruthless to survive." She retorted.
"Yeah I guess so. But that only applies to weak people. If I'm strong I'll be free to do whatever I want. I guess it's because you're weak that you've had to live the way you have until now." I said bluntly. This seemed to rub Rei the wrong way because she just clicked her teeth and walked away.
I then ordered Rei to show us the way to Water 7 and we set sail in that direction. The trip had started out smoothly until Rei had an intense reaction to something nearby.
"Hey captain! We need to stop the ship and change course right now!" She shouted.
"Huh? Why?" I asked.
There's someone up ahead that's really bad news! We have to avoid him at all costs!" She desperately pleaded.
"Oh is that all? Yuma maintain current course." I said reclining back and relaxing.
Rei had pleaded some more with me but I ignored her. Soon after I found out exactly what she was talking about. As we were traveling along the coast line I suddenly felt a ridiculous amount of bloodlust.
"Whoa that's intense. What was that?" I thought to myself. As I scanned the coast with my eyes I saw a tall man with a pink kimono and a wicker hat. He had blond hair and was covered in both tattoos and scars. On his waist wasa sword with an extremely thin blade.
"Sorry about that friend. You see I was just wanting to get your attention." The man said.
"Well you have it. Can I ask your name and what you need me for?"
"I'm not particularly interested in exchanging pleasantries with you. As for what I want, it's a fight against you!" He said grasping his sword.
"Captain you can't fight him! I know you beat Captain Stash easily, but this is a guy that's on a completely different level. He's crazy, you can't reason with him. This is our former vice captain, "Thousand Winds" Ducet Charlemagne!"
"You don't have to tell me I can tell how strong this guy is just by looking at him. Very well I accept your request for a dual!" I announced .