4 From the Shadows

AN: [Hi guys, the author note section would be too small for what I wanted to say so I'll be saying that here itself.

I am conflicted in my decision about whom to involve with Raymond, romantically.

Although I love Harems, I strongly feel about involving only one person with him. As for who that is, you'll know that soon enough, but I still can't make up my mind regarding this.

Even if I make it a Harem, I will not be going above five women.

So your input would be strongly appreciated.

Thank you]

AN END

< --------------------------FTS--------------------------->

The sun was high up in the air, with fresh ocean breeze kissing my skin, when I saw a huge ship, I think about the size of a Galleon, at the horizon coming in the direction of the island I was stranded at.

A good thing too, because all the waiting was almost touching the limits of my patience. They will probably reach the island in about 3 hours. Although it can't clearly be seen from here, it does not look like it's a Marines Ship. My guess is that it belongs to some two bit pirates from the East Blue.

Even if I can just take care of them in a single blowout, no pun intended, I want to capture at least a few of them to double check my knowledge and gain some information about the local seas.

So in order to make them all come out at the island, and thus keeping the ship out of the harm's way (It was my getaway vehicle!), I decided to hide above the clouds and keep an eye, well ear?, on them.

It's astonishing how mundane the energy requirement for such a heavy task is, though the focus and concentration required would probably make mentally exhausted in just a couple of hours.

Keeping the frequency of my explosions as well as the [Silentio Serium] to the bare minimum, I rise well above the clouds, away from their sight. Hmmm…. I wonder if I can travel to Skypiea in this manner. If I can, that will give access to the lost city of Shandora, which means a lot of capital to work with in the future.

Not to mention I can also take away the Rumble Rumble fruit before Enel even has the chance to consume it. Although it's impossible for me to gain the powers of that fruit for myself, I would still be able to wield the power of such a fruit, though in an extremely unorthodox way.

Like making a loyal aide of mine to ingest the Rumble Rumble fruit.

Maybe I should also try to remember the locations where various other Devil Fruits were found in the anime.

"A crew full of powerful Devil Fruit Users. Crazy."

As I was remembering the possible locations of the Devil Fruits, I 'heard' the pirates approaching the island using five row boats. They numbered around fifty which, while looked like a lot, could be taken care of with just one blast.

I soon followed down and first observed their ship in which they had traveled. It was definitely a Pirate ship as they had a huge jolly roger on their sails, as well as on their mast.

The jolly roger of this Pirate ship seemed a bit odd. It looked oddly similar to Big Mom Pirates with their candy and hat but instead of the lipstick, it had a thick black mustache and the hair was black as well.

"Is Big Mom male in this reality or something!?"

As I was suffering from the shock of my life, the pirates reached the shore and started investigating the beach. Well, more like gawking around and giving each other incredulous looks. Their leader, a tall man about 6 feet in height wearing a tan coat and jeans shorts, was cursing at this gawking subordinates. I started snickering and thought of playing a prank upon them.

I reached near the pirates and spoke to them in an incredibly serious voice.

"Congratulations."

I nearly lost my serious demeanor by almost bursting out laughing looking at their gaping faces.

I still continued with the act.

"You have initiated First Contact."

They just kept staring at me with absolute silence.

Their leader snapped out of it and started grinding his teeth together. He pulled out a flintlock from his back and pointed it towards me.

"You brat! I don't know what sorcery you're using but I need some answers and you're giving them to me!"

His reaction honestly baffled me. Here was a person, no matter the age, Standing on air with what looked and sounded like Explosions coming out from his feet. And he dared to threaten such a person with a gun, of all things considered, seemingly without any fear.

I would have understood his attitude if he was strong, but he could not even detect my presence until I spoke out loud enough for him to hear.

It always pissed me off when people acted with such stupidity. My mood soured and I wanted nothing more than to just annihilate them. But I held myself back. I needed to keep at least one of these morons alive to extract information from them.

My gaze fixed on to their foolish leader. Dylan, or whatever his name was. Yes, that dumbass would be more than enough. I just need to take care of others.

"Have you guys watched the movie Bird Box?" I questioned them amusingly.

"What?"

"Bird Box? What is that?"

"Is that some kind of a treasure box?"

As the other pirates started murmuring with others. The leader looked like he was about to shout something. I immediately cut him off.

"Too bad, you guys could have related to them."

[Lux]

I let loose a blast of pure light energy. Bright enough not just to hurt someone's eyes, but to Burn their Retinas within their sockets.

Everyone screamed as they fell down to their knees, clutching their eyes and bawling at them. Further damaging them. It would have been a horrific scene if it wasn't just so funny and ironic.

"My eyes! AHHHHH!!!"

"It's BURNING! Help! Someone STOP IT!!!"

I descended amongst the rolling pirates and wanting to finish quickly, I stomped on their heads one by one, exploding them and moving towards Dylan who had conveniently passed out from the pain.

Some leader he was. Maybe he was one of the higher ups in the crew or something. Let's ask him when he wakes up.

I pick him up by the collar and jump towards the direction of the galleon. As I keep jumping in the direction of the ship, I try to sense the remaining people on the ship whose sound I had 'heard' earlier. It seemed that I cannot sense matter hidden behind physical objects as of yet. Whether that's my limit or just lack of proficiency in using my Devil Fruit Power, that's an issue which will be needed to be checked.

I land on the deck of the ship and drop Dylan on the floor. Turning towards the remaining people on the ship, which were huddled up in one corner trembling. I swipe my hand towards them.

[Bala].

A concentrated bullet of energy is hurled from my fist towards the survivors. As soon as it touched the first person in that corner, it denoted and the energy burst out from its confinement.

Blood and Charred human remains rained down on the ship.

Hah! Take that Mr. Five. I don't need to flick my boogers as a means of long distance attacking.

Now let's wait for this twit to get up from his lala land.

< --------------------------FTS--------------------------->

The first thing Dylan comprehended when he gained consciousness was the darkness.

Followed by the intense pain at the location where his eyes were supposed to be, panic started spreading in his mind.

"Oh look, the sleeping beauty had awaken."

And upon hearing that sound, all that was left was pure unadulterated terror. He started hyperventilating and scrambled on his knees facing towards where he thought Charles was present.

"Please! Please don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want! Money! Girls! Slaves! Everything, just please don't kill me!"

As he was pathetically begging on the ground, he felt something take hold of his left hand and with a sudden twist, snapped it at the elbow joint.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Dylan screamed hoarsely. Seemingly screaming at absurdity of the situation in anguish.

"Do not speak until I tell you to. Understood?" Charles spoke with a voice as cold as ice which pierced through his scream.

Dylan just whimpered, not wanting to get hurt more. Though that was not meant to be, as his right arm was next to be clamped. Then he felt his thumb getting twisted in an unholy manner.

Another scream escaped from his throat. The anguish not fading in the slightest.

< --------------------------FTS--------------------------->

I scrunched up my face at the smell that suddenly spread everywhere and quelled the thick smell of blood permeating the atmosphere.

"Did he just pass out in his own urine?"

As amusing as that would have been, I lacked the patience to allow him to get comfortable at his own interrogation.

I pinched his nose for about a minute and he was suddenly up gasping for breath.

"Next time you pass out, you won't be waking up ever again." I declared with my tone as flat as possible.

It seems I may have taken it a bit too far. His pain tolerance was close to shit as was his will. I will have to try this differently.

He seemed capable of learning though; no reply or pleas for mercy came out from him.

"Good. You seem to be smart, so I will keep it very simple. I will ask questions and you will answer them truthfully, otherwise you don't speak. Understood?"

"Y-y-yes. I Un-underst-st-stood."

I asked him all the questions that I thought would be important to cover up my lack of information as well as to confirm certain details.

I was correct in assuming that this guy, Dylan, was not the actual captain of this pirate crew, but actually a first mate. Though that in itself told me the standard of this crew. I was proved wrong.

His captain was a Half Giant going by the name of Big Daddy.

I burst out laughing when I heard their crew name and their captain's goal.

Although this Big Daddy was Crazy with a capital C, His strength was not to be underestimated. He has been in this line of work for the past decade. And his bounty of 12 million Beli was not just for show. He had the strength to back it up.

But that did not make him immune to explosions did it?

On a similar note, these guys were real pirates. The scum that went about spreading mayhem and destruction.

There were quite a few prisoners present on the ship according to him. Most of them being young girls and women they had kidnapped and raped.

Though what caught my interest was that they had caught a slave who, according to Dylan, uses weird and freaky voodoo magic.

Apparently she is always surrounded by spiders of different kinds and she could even make them do her bidding. Fortunately as instructed by their captain, like all freaky voodoo magic users he had seen, as rare as they were, when submerged inside water, they lost all their powers as well as strength. So they had kept her submerged inside a tub filled with sea water.

Hmm… This feels like something a Devil Fruit would grant. Maybe a Fruit related to spiders, though there was no mention of such a Fruit in the anime. It's definitely worth checking out.

After knocking Dylan out cold, I go down towards the hold of the galleon. As I reached at the hold, I could 'hear' about 8 females ranging from young teenagers to fully grown adult women.

When I saw them, they were all huddled up together, seeking warmth and company in one another. They were barely covered in rags, which looked soiled and had spots on them.

As soon I came in their view, the young ones started whimpering and the elder ones held them close. But as they took in my whole image, they were completely confused.

Of course anyone would be. They were in place where they were constantly tortured and exploited. And when it looked like it's going to happen again, they see a child covered in blood, instead of their would-be tormentor.

"Don't worry." I spoke softly, trying to keep my voice as firm and gentle as possible, being a child actually helped here "I took care of those disgusting pirates. Nobody will harm you now."

They didn't believe me first but when I told them to follow me towards the deck and they saw the blood and the scattered body parts of some of the pirates, they all started bawling and crying in happiness.

I left them alone, not being interested in them at all, and started checking the ship out.

And what a mesmerizing sight I saw. Boxes filled with gold coins and ornaments. Heaps of cash stacked neatly on top of each other. It dazzled me with its brightness.

This is all mine now. I was rich. It had not even been a week since I came in this world and I had already obtained power leagues above what I had thought was physically possible, and gained such wealth which amounted to a value that I had not even seen in my previous life.

Yes. This feeling of being drunk on Power and Invulnerability, I can definitely get used to it.

This maybe my first successful endeavor, but it definitely won't be my last. I will have it all. I will take it all.

I shall take the whole world for myself. Even if it was not possible to do it in person due to the presence of World Government and Celestial Dragons, I shall still possess it.

From The Shadows if I have to.