Conflict

A few minutes earlier,

The marine main battleship near Logue Town,

"I can't believe I have to come personally here to catch these pirates!" Commodore Asahori complained.

"We don't have a choice It's an order from HQ" Captain Brody said.

"Yes, I know. It would be troublesome if we let them escape this time"

"Our reputation will be dragged in the mud if it happens" Captain Brody stated

The marine fourth ship near Logue Town,

(Captain Merumi Pov),

"Captain Merumi! We were able to spot the enemy!" an officer informed me.

"What's the situation?" I asked him.

"There is a battle taking place near the port between several pirate groups sir!" he replied

"What about the Ashen Pirates, can you see them?"

"Yes sir! We can see Their captain engaging other pirate groups"

"Alone? Isn't he too cocky?"

"Just get us there, I'll take care of him!" A female officer boldly stated. She was a relatively slim women with a long fuchsia hair tied in a ponytail, grey eyes, and a hairstyle similar to a mohawk.

"Don't be impulsive bell-mere, they are a dangerous group!" I warned her.

"There is only two of them as far as we know, there is nothing they can do!" she said while she was checking her rifle.

I kept observing the island from a distance until I started hearing big explosions coming from its direction.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!!"

"*BOOOM!!*" there was a huge pillar of flame visible from a far.

"What in the world is that?" I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"It's Ashen Sir!"

"What?!! Are you telling me he did that?" I took the spyglass and got a closer look.

"What kind of monster is he?" He was wrapped in flames.

"HURRY UP BEFORE THE WHOLE TOWN GET BLOWN UP!!" I gave orders to everyone.

"YES SIR!"

(First Person Pov),

"There brought five ships, looks like they are determined to catch us this time" Calvin said.

"Let them try!" I heard a lot of noises behind us. When I turned back, I saw a lot of people started gathering near the area, they were civilians curiously observing us, when I scanned the people, I saw a familiar face standing among them by coincidence.

When we made eye contact, he quickly turned his head back and faded into the crowd "I'll be back in a minute" I said to Calvin then proceeded to follow him using Soru and managed to catch up to him in a minute.

*SWOOSH*

"…" The man looked shocked when he saw me appearing out of nowhere.

"Yo! It's been a long time, Kevin!" I said with a fake smile, I knew there was something off when he ran away after he saw me.

"A-Ashen it's been a long-time man! How have you been?" he said while smiling back at me nervously "I heard that you have become a pirate!".

"Yeah, what about you?" I went along with the conversation.

"Nothing much Hahaha!"

"What are you doing in Logue Town?" I asked him.

"We're just here to rest and resupply before our next sail"

"Good. So, do I look scary?" I asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you run when you saw back there?" I asked him with a serious face.

"What do you mean? I didn't see yo-" I stopped him before he finished his sentence.

"Don't play dumb in front of me!" I glared at him, and the atmosphere changed suddenly.

"What are you implying?" he replied in aggressive tone.

"You know, since I got my first bounty, I was wondering how the marines knew about my name"

"W-What are you dumb? They obviously did a background check on you!"

"Well, my real name is not Ashen, the only two people I told them that name, is you and Calvin" I stated then I pulled out my gun and aim it at him.

"Now, speak!" I threatened him.

"W-What are you doing man, aren't we friend? We owe each other's live...I saved you from that island!" he said to me with his hands up in the air while backing away from me.

"I don't recall any friends selling each other"

"WHAT ABOUT CALVING YOU SAID HE WAS THE ONLY ONE BESIDE WHO KNEW!!" He shouted at me "WHY ARE TRUSTING HIM AND NOT ME!"

"Enough talk, speak and I might spare your life!" He looked at me for a second then he quickly reached to his right side and tried to pull out his pistol. When I saw I immediately shot his leg without any hesitation.

"AAARRRGHHHH!! WHAT DID YOU DOOO?!!" He screamed in pain while holding his leg on the ground.

"Last chance…was it you?!" I tried to ask him one last time, I already knew it was him, but I just wanted him to confirm it personally.

"W-WAIT PLEASE!..." he tried to beg for his life, but I didn't flinch and kept aiming my gun at him, and just the moment I was going to pull the trigger he finally gave up.

"I'M SORRYYY!! I DID IT! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE!" he exclaimed.

"Go ahead!" I lowered my weapon and tried listened to what he has to say.

"I was the one who sold both of you to the marines, when we parted our way…" he confessed "They promised a lot of money in exchange of information" He had a look of fear and guilt when he said that "I got blinded by money! So please give another chance!".

"I'm disappointed in you. But that would teach me not to trust people that easy"

"S-So can I go now?"

"Let me think…Hmmm?...Nope!"

"But you said-" I kicked his face and sent him crashing into a wall.

"What kind of dumb bastard trust a pirate word?!" I said to him in a mocking tone of voice while looking down on him.

"*COUGH*-*COUGH*-y-you bastard!" he glared at me while he wiped the blood off of his mouth.

"I always make sure to pay people back…" I put the gun on his head.

"YOU WILL REGRET THIS I WI-*GUNSHOT*-*GUNSHOT*"

"…"

Back at the port,

The marine ships arrived and docked at the port, and they proceeded to disembark at once.

The first person to step out of the ship was a one-eyed man with a grey hair and a scare across his forehead, he is wearing a justice cloak and carrying a spear in his back. He was accompanied with dozens of marine soldiers, and they immediately surrounded the area.

"Shit! Where did the captain go?!" Ken said in worry.

"Maybe he just abandoned you guys and escaped" the girl said.

"SHUT UP! THE CAPTAIN WILL NEVER DO THAT!"

Asahori approached Calvin.

"You are Calvin, the right hand of Ashen" Commodore Asahori stated while scanning the area around him "Where is he?" He asked Calvin.

The other marine captains also appeared, they were three of them in total including Brody, and dozens of officers and lower ranking marines also left their ships in order.

"You don't have to worry about him, I'll be your opponent" Calvin declared while standing thoroughly with his arms crossed in front of him.

"You sure are confident in your strength" The captain of the second ship Merumi said, while walking to Asahori's side.

"Bringing five ships to capture a few pirate groups is absurd, no matter how you look at it" The captain of the third ship Suzuki stated.

"We have strict orders from HQ to capture them before they enter the grand line no matter what the cost is" Brody informed them.

"As serious as ever Brody" Suzuki said to him.

"Just turn yourselves criminals! you stand no chance!" Asahori declared. They were around one hundred marines spreading across the coastal area of Logue Town.

Even after the battle between Ashen pirates and the other pirate groups they were still other pirates left in this island who weren't involved in the fight.

So, now instead of the pirates fighting amongst each other it was pirates against marines.

"Here they come!"

(First Person Pov),

I was walking back to the port with two pirate captains and their crews beside me.

"I'll deal with you later Demon of The Sea, for now I'll teach those marine bastards who rules the sea!" A tall silver haired man said to me with an aggressive facial expression, he was wearing a black outfit and carrying a saber in his side and a short rifle.

['Silver Rain' Seth Williams Captain of Williams Pirates]

"We'll see about that" I said in a mocking tone.

"Captain are we really going trust our backs to these two?" A black-haired man with an eye patch in his left eye asked him while walking in his side.

[Itsu Allison a combat crewman of Williams Pirates]

"We'll just teach them a lesson if they try to do anything funny!" Seth Confidently stated.

"Just hold off the small fries while I'm dealing with the big shots!" A woman said while carrying a long Katana, she has blue eyes, pink hair and tattoos across her arms and wearing a red tricorn with blue feathers attached to it.

[Aela Kristin Captain of Guardian Angel Pirates]

"Enough! we're here" I informed them.

"CAPTAIN! You're finally here!" Ken said in relief.

"Sorry I'm late! I had to finish some business"

"Hmm? Who are these people?" he asked me.

"It's just some help I found on my back"

"We're not here help you, we are here to fight the marines" Seth stated.

"I'll cut you in half if you get in my way!" Aela said then proceeded to unsheathe her katana.

"We have some troublesome people gathered here" Asahori scanned the pirates then he gave order to his men to help evacuate the civilians from area.

"Make sure to not let anyone near this place!" Asahori gave orders "The situation might get ugly…" he proceeded to pull out his spear and the other marines did the same and took out their weapons and loaded their guns.

"Calvin let me handle this guy!" I said to him, he then walked to the side and stopped in front of Captain Brody.

"Hoi! I'll be facing that guy! He seems to be the strongest one" Aela said then she started walking toward me, but she was stopped by Captain Merumi.

"Not so fast…I'll be your opponent!"

"Tsk! Now I have to waste my time on a weakling" she said with annoyed expression.

"Big sister! We'll take care of the other ones so just focus on your fight" One of her crew members said to her.

"Ah! I'll be counting on you!" She replied to her then started swinging her Katana "Hope you can entertain me!"

"Seth Williams, we've been tracking you for a while" Suzuki approached Seth with his weapon drawn "This will be your execution stand!".

"I don't know who you are, but I just have to kick your ass!" Seth ordered his crew members to take care of the lower ranking marines and Aela did the same.

I was standing in front of Asahori who looked calm and confident, after a few seconds of eye contact he came charging at me.

"Soru!" he used one of the Rokushiki techniques and disappeared, then in a blink of an eye he appeared again in front of me and swung his spear at my chest.

'Shit! He can use Soru' The attack took me by surprise, but I managed to sidestep and avoided his slash.

*SWOOSH*

"Not bad kid!" Asahori said to me.

I felt something in my right arm and when I looked closer, I saw a small cut dripping with blood. I was surprised as getting injured was the last thing I expected 'That was close! If I didn't dodge that attack, I would have received a fatal damage' I sighed in relief.

'He must be using a seastone weapon. This guy is pretty dangerous.' I thought, then I gathered flames around my index fingers and released them at high speed at him like a machine gun.

"Higan!-*BAM*-*BAM*-*BAM*-*BAM*" he used Soru again to dodge the bullets.

"Is that a devil fruit power?!!" he was dumbstruck, but he quickly recovered his composure and came thrusting his spear at me, I turned my body to the side, lifted my leg and kicked him in the stomach as hard as I can using Rankyaku.

he was able to step out of my kicking range but the compressed wind blade that I created still flew to his direction and sent him flying back.

"*BAM*" He used his spear to reduce the impact but still got hurt in his forearms.

"That surprised me…that technique looks familiar" He commented on my attack.

Without wasting any time, I focused my flames on my right hand and created a short lance then hurl it at his direction then before it hit him, I quickly used Geppo to fly above him and gathered my flames again and created another one and threw it at him and kept doing the same thing without giving him any time to rest.

"*THUD*-*THUD*-*THUD*" he used Soru to avoid them and his spear to block them. I just kept attacking him without a stop and waited for an opening.

After a few minutes later,

I was getting tired since this is my second battle and I used my devil fruit power too much, so I was forced to reduce its usage to save stamina.

"What a troublesome power you have" Asahori said then he added "I can't let you develop any further than this or you will be out of control!"