16 Chapter 12: Azure Blue Co. #1

Midpoint Island, West Blue

Inside the Marine base of Midpoint Island.

"Captain, someone barged in, I narrowly escaped," one of the two men that were fighting in the warehouse was in front of a Marine Captain.

"They found out you were a rat? Nevermind that, did anything happen after that blonde man enter the warehouse?" the Marine Captain frowned.

"I don't know, I came straight here," he panted.

"Go take a break, we'll check it out," the Marine Captain dismissed him.

"Yes," the man walked out of the room.

The Marine Captain leaned back on his chair and rubbed his eyes. He let out a long sigh as he reached out his hand towards a snail on his desk. The snail was very similar to the one Ulysses found in the warehouse.

The leader grabbed the circular speaking device on top of the snail's shell.

"All marines prepare for battle!" the Marine Captain spoke into the device and his voice was transmitted throughout the entire building through various smaller snails in the area.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the island, Ulysses and Mizuki were walking to the shipwright company that Aunt Martha mentioned. From asking around, it seemed that Azure Blue Co. was the biggest shipwright company on the island.

"How much do you think a small, fast ship would cost?" Ulysses turned his head towards Mizuki and asked.

"It should cost around 60,000,000, but we can afford a higher quality ship for like 120,000,000 beli," Mizuki replied.

The two were approaching a large open space with a few ship frameworks. Despite, the large space, there was only one large building, which had the words 'Azure Blue Co.' written on the front.

The two stopped in front of the building and were in awe of the sheer scale of the work that was going on in the shipyard. They slowly entered the building, and were met with loud yells coming from the counter.

"Fuck do you mean that it'll cost 50,000,000? That ship is fuckin' tiny, and you're telling me it'll cost 50,000,000?!" an ungroomed middle-aged man with a pirate coat slammed his fist on the counter.

"S-sir, you went into the contract agreeing to pay 50,000,000 for the small ship of your design," the female clerk cowered.

"I didn't think it'd be that small! Lower the price!" the middle-aged man's saliva flew everywhere.

Behind him were 8 menacing men, who stared at the clerk with cold eyes. They were clearly not civilians, and were most likely a small pirate crew. One of the men spotted Ulysses and Mizuki and tapped the middle-aged man.

"Hey, I'm sure those guys can 'help' us pay," the man was bald and had a parrot on his shoulder.

"Help us pay! Help us pay!" the parrot repeated after the man.

"Oh? I'm sure they can," the middle-aged man looked at the crate that Ulysses held with greed.

It was obvious that the crate was filled with money or at least had a decent amount. No person would walk into a shipwright company with no beli by their side.

"P-please stop! Or else I'll have to get Alec and Enkiri," the female clerk cried out.

"Alec and Enkiri? Who the fuck are they?" one of the menacing men snorted.

The female clerk gulped and was about to hit a bell by her side, but suddenly stopped when the door leading upstairs opened. A young, brown-haired man walked down with another young, brown-haired man.

"Hey, Penelope, what's going on?" one of the men asked.

"Yeah, you were calling for us?" the other man spoke.

"Alec, Enkiri... these guys are giving us trouble, they don't want to pay the 50,000,000 beli, and they're harassing our new visitors" Penelope explained the situation to them.

"Oh? Hey you guys, pay the money and beat it, or else we'll have to do some persuasion," one of the men cracked his knuckles.

"Shut up, Alec. That's my line," the other man, Enkiri, scoffed.

"What?!" flames shot out of Alec's eyes.

"You two, stop it... take care of those crooks first before arguing," Penelope interrupted them.

"You think these pipsqueaks can stop me?" the middle-aged man, who seemed to be the captain, laughed out loud.

"Pipsqueak?!" Alec and Enkiri glared at the middle-aged man.

They both shot out with full force and started to attack the pirate crew. The pirates, who weren't expecting the two to actually attack them, were caught off guard and a few pirates were knocked down.

However, the pirates standing up took out their weapons and charged at the two.

"Hmph, you stupid pirates will never be able to touch me," Alec and Enkiri said at the same time, and suddenly glared at each other.

"Hey! That's my line!" they dodged the pirate cutlasses slashing down on them.

"Shut up!" the middle-aged man roared as he swung wildly.

The pirate crew swung around their weapons, but failed to get get a clean hit on the two. Alec and Enkiri were elusive and nimbly dodged everything. As the pirates tired out, the two began to strike back.

Alec's fists struck out accurately and hit a few of the pirates straight in the jaw, wobbling them. Enkiri's kicks flickered and the pirates around him were knocked down in an instant.

"You're too slow, Alec!" Enkiri rushed towards the middle-aged man.

"Says you!" Alec finished beating the other pirates around him.

The middle-aged man was the only pirate left standing, he looked around in shock at his crew being beat by a couple of greenhorns. Enkiri appeared behind the middle-aged man, and sent out a flying kick.

"Flying kick!" he yelled as his leg sent the middle-aged man flying towards Ulysses and Mizuki.

"Nice nam- oh shit!" Alec laughed but immediately realized that the middle-aged man would hit the two.

Ulysses stepped forward in front of Mizuki and casually grabbed the middle-aged man's head in mid-air. The movement was seemingly effortless, as the middle-aged man's body flapped around in the air like a doll.

Ulysses threw the man on the ground and tried to hold back his yawn.

"So, are you guys still doing business? Or should we come a different time?" Ulysses casually asked.

"O-oh, of course. Please, come up," Penelope nodded her head incessantly.

Ulysses and Mizuki went up to the counter and began to talk with Penelope. Meanwhile, Alec and Enkiri stared at the middle-aged man's unconscious body, wondering what Ulysses exactly did.

"We'd like to build like a caravel or a really fast ship," Mizuki told Penelope their intentions.

"Ah, alright! How much is your budget?" Penelope replied as she mentally noted Mizuki's requirements.

"We have 170,000,000 beli to use," she replied.

"Our best middle-class caravel will cost about 150,000,000, but you can get a smaller, modified ship for about 120,000,000 beli," Penelope gave her the options.

Mizuki turned to Ulysses for his choice, but Ulysses shrugged nonchalantly.

"Your choice, I don't have a clue."

"Alright, then we'll take the caravel!" Mizuki made her decision and chose the caravel.

"Very well, is there any possibility for down payment?" Penelope inquired.

"We can pay all of it up-front," Mizuki nudged Ulysses and Ulysses put the crate on the counter.

He uncovered it, revealing the racks of beli in the crate. The two had also added the beli they got from the bounties into the crate, meaning that there was about 170,000,000 beli inside! Alec and Enkiri looked from the side, with drool running down their mouth.

Penelope glanced at them and noticed their cavalier manners. She hmphed in annoyance, and the two jolted up, wiping their drool and straightening their faces.

"That's perfect! It'll take about 2 days, but we assure you that the build of the ship will be of the highest quality in West Blue," Penelope gave Mizuki a smile.

"As we hope," Ulysses remarked as he took 20,000,000 out of the crate and put it into his trench coat.

"There should be 150,000,000 in there now, feel free to count personally if you want to make sure," Ulysses said.

"I'm sure you guys are honest," Penelope replied with a smile.

"Yeah! Better not break our Penelope's heart," the two men on the sidelines raised their noises.

Ulysses chuckled lightly at their display.

"May I ask you two your names to keep our records straight?" Penelope asked.

"Ulysses."

"Mizuki."

"Alright, I got you two set. Please come back in two days for your caravel!" she smiled.

Ulysses nodded and began to exit the building with Mizuki. They would have to wait two days and do something in the meantime on the island. As he left the building, a crowd of people were walking to the building in the distance.

"They reek of blood," Ulysses grimaced.

"What?" Mizuki, by his side, heard his words.

"They're pirates, and they're brutal, there's blood all over them," Ulysses spoke as he kept walking.

"Clear the path for them, if you think they're dangerous," Mizuki began to walk to the side.

"When did I say that I thought they were dangerous?" Ulysses kept walking straight.

Inside the Azure Blue Co. building, a figure in the top floor was looking at the shipyard. Out of the corner of their eyes, they noticed a crowd coming towards the building. When he saw the leader, he winced and his eyes grew wide.

Immediately, he hit a red bell nearby, and the entire building had sirens go off. Numerous figures stepped out of their rooms, tired and confused. The figure picked up a circular speaking device on the snail on his desk, and talked into it.

"They're here! They're back for revenge! Everyone, prepare yourself!" the figure shouted into the device, his voice resounded throughout the building.

"What, they're here?!"

"We thought they would sink in the middle of the seas!"

"Quick, get our weapons!"

"Fuck! I knew we shouldn't have agreed to sabotage their boat!"

The people inside the building clambered as they got their weapons and dressed. On the ground floor, Alec and Enkiri jolted. They understood what the figure had meant when he said 'they're here' and were shocked.

"Penelope, hide!"

"They're gonna storm the building!"

Outside, the distance between Ulysses and the crowd was growing shorter and shorter. The people in the crowd weren't flamboyantly menacing like the pirates before, but had a gloomy atmosphere to them.

Ulysses looked forward and rubbed his sheath as he anticipated the next few moments.

However, at this moment, he heard numerous footsteps behind him. He turned his head and saw that the people inside the building had come out with weapons, apparently intending to meet the crowd of pirates head on.

'They have a history with these people,' Ulysses narrowed his eyes as he went to the side with Mizuki.

"What happened? I thought you were gonna take care of them?" Mizuki asked, confused.

"I was, but I want to see how this plays out. Azure Blue Co. clearly has some history with these pirates, don't you see?" Ulysses explained.

Mizuki narrowed her eyes, and realized that the eyes of the Azure Blue Co. made it seem as if this wasn't their first time with the crowd.

The leading figure of the crowd started clapping out of the blue. He was a pot-bellied man, with a scarred face. His hat was tattered, along with the cape on his back. The man kept clapping as he detached from the crowd and walked to the middle of the two groups.

"President Kennel, how I've missed you. I must say, your gift was quite a surprise, me and my men were caught off guard, and I lost quite a bit of stuff from that surprise," the man kept clapping.

"Captain Jones..." President Kennel, the same figure that was looking out of the window, stepped forward.

He gulped and cold sweat began to run down his back, moistening his blue and black-striped suit. His appearance was very formal, but he wore square sunglasses, covering his eyes.

"Nothing to say to your old friend?" Captain Jones, the leader of the pirate crowd, began to form an angry expression.

"Nothing to say about the fucking defect in my ship?! Nothing to say about that?!" he growled.

"Captain Jones, I-" President Kennel tried to speak.

"I won't have any of it! I will kill you and raze your company to the ground!" Captain Jones cut him off.

Ulysses and Mizuki looked on from the sidelines, completely ignored by both of the crowds. It seemed that this stemmed from the Azure Blue Co. intentionally tampering with the pirate captain's ship. Ulysses frowned, couldn't this shipwright company do the same to him?

The captain put his hands on the ground, and looked down at the ground.

"Machine Gun Wall!" he roared.

Suddenly, the earth began to transmutate. Five machine guns appeared in front of the captain, spread out, and aiming at the Azure Blue Co. crowd.

"Devil Fruit!" President Kennel gulped.

"So what if he has a Devil Fruit? We'll stop him!" Alec and Enkiri's voices rang out as they dashed towards Captain Jones.

Captain Jones sneered and the machine guns began to rapidly shoot bullets at the crowd. Two middle-aged men stepped forward from the Azure Blue Co. crowd and knocked away the bullets with a weird cape.

Alec and Enkiri dodged the bullets and approached Captain Jones. However, two figures shot out of the crowd of pirates and kicked the two back. Alec and Enkiri groaned as they fell back, they looked at the people that blocked them.

In front of them were two twins, they had spiky green hair and lean frames. The twins sneered at Alec and Enkiri and went on the offensive.

Figures from both of the pirate crew and the Azure Blue Co. crowd shot out, fighting each other. The two middle-aged men also entered the fray, soaking up all the bullets with the unusual cape they waved around.

"Ahahahahah! AHAHAHAHAHAH! Struggle! Struggle more!" Captain Jones materialized more machine guns that sprayed bullets all over the Blue Azure Co. crowd.

Though it seemed even from an outsider's point of view, the battle was leaning slightly towards Captain Jones and his crew. President Kennel gnashed his teeth as he tapped the ground rapidly with his shoe.