15 Chapter 15 - Set Sail, Black Artemis! To the Grand Line!

As dawn lit up the whole region of Conomi Island, on the east side of the coast, in the old (and cleaned) Arlong Park, a couple could be seen sleeping peacefully on a beach chair, enjoying the sea breeze and the pleasant chill it brought.

But as the sun began to warm their bodies, the orange-haired woman snuggled even closer to the man, muttering a few things angrily.

"I don't want to wake up..." Nami complained, having found the time she had just slept very short. Her body was still wrecked and she couldn't move her legs properly without experiencing a good discomfort.

"You are already awake..." Noah laughed a little as he stroked her head, liking the way she was with him. He had to be honest with himself and admit that there is no better feeling than this.

"Did you have to be so rough?" Nami gave up trying to sleep and took her arms to his neck, climbing completely on top of him. She brought her face to his neck and sniffed there, biting lightly, "It was my first time, after all..."

"You complain too much." Noah held her by the chin and took her lips, staying like this for a while. And with a devilish smile, he continued, "Your sister didn't complain as much..."

As the breeze passed, the silence began to become deadly, and Nami's affectionate expression was slowly replaced by one of indifference and anger.

"Noah." Nami checked her nails and saw that they were at a good length. And with a smile on her face, she brought her hand back, as if she wanted to pierce something, "You should have kept quiet!"

"Woman, calm down!" Noah easily grabbed her hand, which threatened to hurt his great friend, and easily immobilized her in the chair.

"I'm going to bite you!" She was too angry to care about anything and just wanted to take it out on him. But then, seeing that he was removing his potency from his pants, she raised her eyebrow in doubt and fear, "N-Noah, what are you d-doing?"

"This?" Noah smiled at her and kissed her cheek before whispering, "This is called educating..."

And when they were about to restart the act, a murderous intent began to emanate from the gate of Arlong Park. And feeling this, Nami and Noah turned to look.

"Hehe..." Nojiko, with a discreet and dark smile, began to pull a flintlock from her back with all the grace in the world.

"I hope you are resistant to shots..."

°°°

After a few hours past dawn, and a thruple fight nothing short of fantastic...

As Genzo and Noah speculated, the navy of the 16th Branch Base really did return with an even larger contingent of soldiers, all of them armed to the teeth to try to face their greatest enemy.

But it only took a beating to calm them all down. And it was a very well given beating, but without concussions. About 30 sailors were beaten by Nami, Noah, Nojiko, Genzo, and anyone who always wanted to hit a shameless and nasty sailor. He also found out that Nezumi was in a serious condition and could die at any moment if he did not have medical help. The only problem is that there was no doctor good enough in the East Blue.

And after the beating, Noah forced them all to go back to the branch base and take all the money and supplies that was there, leaving only what was necessary so they wouldn't starve for a week. Genzo stayed on the island while he began to organize a large amount of material to repair a ship, at Noah's request.

At that moment they were inside Nezumi's personal office, in front of a gigantic safe that the injured commander managed to open.

"This amount..." Nojiko looked at the large amount of gold and golden notes inside the safe, shocked at the way this captain's greed made their lives miserable.

"And we're going to donate it all." Noah looked directly at Nami as he said this, as she was practically drooling at the sight of all that treasure. But after receiving a tearful look from her, he gave up, "Just enough to buy some necessities. No discussion."

"Hmph!" Nami turned her face away, not wanting to look at him. But deep inside, she was very happy that he would return all the money to the people. Definitely something her man would do!

Putting all of this on the ship, they started to head back to the island. In one corner of the deck was a huge squadron of sailors tied together, all of them battered but not daring to make a sound.

Meanwhile, Noah was at the front of the ship and looking at the vast ocean around, the sight of the islands getting closer and closer. He could feel the breeze of the wind carrying the salty waters, and briefly imagined how special this world really is.

"What are you going to do now?" Nami came to his side and leaned on the wooden barrier. She also looked at the great sea as if it were her old friend and acquaintance.

"Isn't it obvious?" Noah smiled at her, and then at Nojiko as he felt her coming to his side, "I want to see how big this sea is and where it will take me."

"So you're going to be a pirate?" Nojiko asked, even giving Nami a glance when saying this. But seeing that she had no kind of rejection, she gave a little smile.

"Well, someone is definitely going to put a bounty on my head for what I did." Noah looked at the resentful sailors in the distance and then at them, "So I guess it's a yes. It's going to be exciting to be a pirate."

"That's not quite how the world works, but I'll leave you be." Nami rolled her eyes at Noah's innocent statement about how the world worked. Even so, thinking about him as a pirate, it didn't seem like a bad idea. Not with what she was thinking.

As they were conversing, they arrived on the island and offloaded all the money, which was joined with what was in Arlong Park and placed in the hands of Genzo to redistribute to all the victims and their families. As everyone had been affected, it was going to be quite a while until they recovered.

With all that done, it came to the part where Noah was especially anxious. The ship's renovation. Using the sailors as a form of free labor, about five or six shipwrights from different villages were gathered to reform Nezumi's ship. They were particularly excited to do this for the hero of the Villages on Conomi Island.

The first thing they did was to search the entire ship and study its structure in depth to see what could change or not. This step was completed very quickly, as it had a very common design among the navy's low-rank ships and the villagers were experienced.

And so the renovation began. First, all excess objects were discarded and the ship's weight was reduced as many useless things were thrown away. The large number of individual rooms with double beds was reduced to just ten rooms, and the furniture was replaced with what the villages sent. The captain's room and office also had a slight expansion and the furniture gave a somewhat luxurious touch to it. Bathrooms, regular rooms and kitchens were only renovated with new furniture and utensils.

After that came the painting and renovation. The wood inside was polished to the extreme and left with a livelier color, while the exterior was painted with touches of black and dark green. The hull of the ship changed to a grayish-black color, while the deck and masts were polished and remained their original color. The number 16 on the main mast was also erased.

And finally, the sails were also replaced with black sails. As there was no pirate flag, they left it for Noah to make, at his own request.

And so, in about two days, the navy ship was completely refurbished and renovated. You didn't need to be very experienced to know that the ship was from the navy, but surely no one would complain too much. This would only increase Noah's infamy among the sailors.

°°°

"Noah?" Genzo knocked on Nami's house door and called. It was still dawn, but he didn't care about that.

A short time later, Noah appeared at the door rubbing his eyes since he had just taken a nap. He deserved it after having burned to death again.

"Genzo? Any news?" Noah asked, even though he already knew the answer. Currently, he was just missing one thing so he could leave.

"Yes. The ship is already loaded with supplies..." Genzo looked seriously at him, but then a few sweat drops appeared on his forehead, seeming a little nervous, "... well, maybe a little too loaded..."

"No problem, Genzo." Noah laughed, realizing that the villagers must have gotten a little too excited when loading the ship with food and drink. 'As long as it doesn't sink the ship in the middle of the sea.'

"Boy, when are you going to leave?"

"Maybe tomorrow. You will know when I do."

"That's good then." Genzo looked at Noah for a while and lightly tapped his shoulders. He seemed to get a little emotional at the moment, "Noah, we are men and it's strange to say these things, but... you are like a son I never had. Thank you for helping us."

"I appreciate your sincerity." Holding his arm, they stared at each other for a while and just gave a firm handshake in the end, going their separate ways.

Upon returning to the inside of the house, Noah changed his clothes and picked up a huge bag on the floor. And after looking at the hallway leading to the girls' rooms, he waited a while and then sighed. Putting the bag on his back, he went to the door without looking back anymore.

But as soon as he touched the handle, he smiled a little.

"You two are quite stubborn, aren't you?"

"And you're quite hard-headed." Nami walked up to him, herself dressed normally and with a bag on her back... and several travel bags behind her. One of the most notable changes was that there was a tattoo on her arm that was a bit fiercer than in the anime, going up to the shoulder and entering a bit into her chest.

"Even you, Nojiko?" He asked the blue-haired woman who was also carrying her share of bags.

"Someone needs to take care of my sister." She looked him up and down and paused a bit in the middle before smiling, "And of you too."

"Perverted." Laughing a little, he just accepted the moment and kept staring at them. After a while, he asked again, "Is everything really okay? Are WE okay?"

Knowing that he was talking about the relationship between them, the two being women of the same man, they looked at each other a little before smiling. The two walked up to him and each one kissed a cheek.

"We want to go with you!" The two laughed when they noticed that his expression was a bit strange, as if he was looking at an abnormality.

"Well, if you say so." But with a shrug, he calmly accepted. It's not like he hadn't made them fall for him, so the blame was entirely his.

And so, laden with bags, they set off in the dead of night.

Circumventing the night guards who were watching their ship, Noah and the girls stole their own ship by hoisting the sails and undocking from the harbor.

"Someone is stealing the ship!" One of the guards saw what was happening, but noticed that no one else seemed to care.

And when he looked closely, illuminated by the moonlight, a pirate flag began to rise on the main mast. Its black design was almost imperceptible, but it seemed extremely unique.

The Jolly Roger that looked like a normal skull with bones, had a type of fire coming out of the eyes, and there was a triple circular line around the skull. The bones that were supposed to cross the skull were replaced by a sword and a flintlock pistol. And the most imperceptible detail was a mysterious symbol behind the skull, hidden by it, which was a divided circle that resembled a crown and six exact divisions.

Shocked by this, everyone watched the Black Artemis (name of the ship) go away and slowly disappear into the horizon.

What no one knew was that this would be the start of a great adventure, and the world would tremble with what this new pirate crew would do to the world.

This marked the first step of the Hunter Pirates!

°°°

At the 16th Branch Base, the door to Nezumi's office suddenly opened, with a body hitting the floor shortly after. Coughing up blood several times, the body slowly rose. And illuminated by the moonlight, it was clear who it was.

Nezumi, completely pale and looking like he was on the brink of death, staggered over to his Den Den Mushi. Sitting down on the chair, he waited for the call to connect to the base.

"Reward request by Captain Nezumi, Code Number 00735821. Black Code." Speaking with a hoarse voice that was hard to make out, Nezumi tried his best not to spit out another mouthful of blood.

"Authorization received." The voice on the other side spoke after some time.

"Noah D. Avery, Alive or Dead. Reward Value... Cough" Nezumi couldn't resist and spat out several coughs of blood, his heart slowly stopping beating. After several coughs, his breathing began to slow down.

But with all his remaining strength, he continued.

"Reward Value..."

"฿50,000,000.00!"

___

A/N: Black Code was something I created in the moment, but it means that it is a request from a captain, or any higher rank, who is about to die due to a pirate attack.

___

Another Author Note: It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have reached the end of the Arlong Park Arc, the first arc of the East Blue Saga, showing the beginning of Noah and his crew's journey in the world of One Piece.

And with that comes two interesting pieces of news!

The first is that, unfortunately for you and fortunately for my hands, the number of chapters posted per day will be reduced to just one! Obviously, there are some Power Stone goals and comments, as well as reviews, in which I will post a bonus chapter, but only one.

The second news is that I am preparing a P@treon to post the advanced chapters, along with images of the main characters and even some hot images! Being honest with you, at this moment I have around 25,000 to 30,000 words saved, and we haven't even arrived in Alabasta. Therefore, it is noteworthy that I am striving to build a good story for you.

I think that's it, folks! If I remember any more necessary information, I will put it in some notes in the later chapters.

Thank you very much for reading and following my work!

Set Sail!