Soldier Town

"Alright we are still not done yet, let's take their valuables and their heads, maybe we can exchange them for bounties later…when we finish, we'll burn down the ship" Kai gave orders, and everyone started searching the ship.

"I doubt the Marines we'll give us the money, we're pirates now remember?" Kid said to him.

"We are still not wanted yet. They don't even know of our existence, so let's take advantage of that while we still can…these guys might have some good bounties on their heads, the more money we have the better" Kai stated before he and Kid joined the rest and proceeded to plunder the ship of the Claw Pirates.

The pirate crew had a lot of gold and silvers on them as well as expensive jewelry that Kai did not hesitate to take. After finishing, they burned down the ship and boarded the Victoria Punk again and sailed away.

A few hours later on the Victoria Punk…

"That was a pretty good first fight, right Kid, Kai?" Killer said while steering the ship, the rest of the crew were chilling on the deck near him. Heat was holding a map alongside the navigator of the ship trying to decide their next destination, Wire was using a stone to sharpen his trident while Kid was having a nap.

"It was better than I imagined, I guess we're stronger than I thought" Kai responded while leaning on the ship's mizen-mast, enjoying the sea view. Even in his past life, Kai never got to sail on a ship, so it was a new experience for him as much as it is for Kid and the rest.

"It was our debut, things could have gone wrong if we ran into someone strong. But I guess it's the way it's going to be since we are pirates now…we should be expecting to run into dangers from now on" Wire responded while examining his weapon.

"I don't care who we face, pirates, marines, the world government, I will crush anyone who stands in our way!...it is as simple as that…" Kid declared while clenching his fist "If we want to get to the top, we need to keep pushing forward no matter what the obstacles are"

"I gotta agree with Kid on that, we can't go easy on ourselves. The stronger the enemy we fight, the stronger we get…it's going to be a wild journey and I'm going to make the most of it…" Kai said before he turned to Heat and asked him about their next destination.

"The nearest place to us is Soldier Town, it's located in the Arashi Island Region" Heat stated before he approached Kai and showed him the map "The only problem is that a Marine Base is located there"

"A Marine Base? If they notice a pirate flag, they will definitely take actions against us" Kai thought about it carefully before he decided "But fuck it, we're going to run into them sooner or later so let's just go, we can take the opportunity to exchange the bounties before they notice us as well"

"*Smile*…Good decision bro, let's sail to this Soldier Island, I'm sure we can give those Marines a good beating if they dare to get in our way!" Kid said with grin while cracking his knuckles. Kai frowned at his brother's comment before he grabbed him by the head.

"Don't you dare do something reckless again!"

"Don't be a pussy Kai!"

"Pussy? There is a fine line between bravery and recklessness, and I'm going to have to teach you that apparently!" Kai said in anger, he knows very well Kid's reckless nature and he also knows very well where that will get him in the future 'Him and the crew completely destroyed' so Kai wasn't planning to go that same route.

Using his future knowledge, he's going to rewrite the future into a future where the Eustass Pirates will stand on top of the world, a future where the Red Hair Pirates are the ones getting destroyed instead.

In his past life, Kai didn't care about Kid the slightest since he wasn't a fan of him, and his defeat in the manga didn't make any difference to him. But right now, it's no longer a manga, but a real world with real people and Kid is his brother whom he grew to care about, and he wasn't going to let something like that happen to him or to himself and the crew.

'I'll become the strongest pirate and find the One Piece' is what Kai's goal is, and he already started planning out for the future. His motivations weren't only money, power and adventure, but also freedom and to protect the people he cares about, since he couldn't make the most of his previous life and live the way he wanted and also couldn't protect his brother and mother as well. And to achieve that he needs to be strong, it's a fact that the stronger people in this world can do whatever they want without consequences…

…and to achieve his ambitions his willing to do whatever it takes.

One day later…

[Soldier Town, South Blue]

A small island with dense forests appeared in the horizon, the Victoria Punk slowly and steadily sailed towards it.

"Is that it?" Kid questioned while standing next to Kai on the front of the ship. The latter was holding a spyglass in his hands and using it to take a closer look at the island.

"Yep, I can see a big town with a port, and…marine flags flying over some tall buildings…" Kai informed him. There is Marine Base is located on the island just like Heat said.

"Should we dock on the port or hide the ship somewhere else?" Killer asked while slowly steering the ship towards the island.

"Don't be ridiculous Killer, why should we hide like rats? We're docking at the port!" Kid responded with enthusiasm and Kai nodded in agreement, and in a few minutes after that they finally arrived.

"Be careful Killer, we don't want to crash the ship into the dock" Kai said to Killer who carefully docked the ship and then they threw the anchor into the water to secure the vessel to the bed of the water and prevent it from drifting due to wind or current, the rest of the sailors disembarked and used ropes to tie it to the dock as well.

They weren't any pirate ships at the port, just some merchant ships and small fishing boats.

Kai proceeded to give orders after "Heat and Wire, you take the pirates heads to the Marine Base and exchange them for money, if something go wrong don't fight back, come and find us first. Me, Kid and Killer will check around the time!"

"Got that Captain!" Heat and Wire nodded in understanding before they went inside and brought a few large bags that contained the heads of Captain Wood and his crew, it smelled so bad and was dripping with blood.

Even now Kai is still not 100% comfortable with that kind of scenes, severed human heads are still too much even for him who's used to blood and violence, but he's bound to get used to it eventually.

"The rest can do whatever they want, just make sure not to get caught!" Kid added, and everyone left to different ways.

The people who were present at the port were wary of them and some even intimidated, but no one tried to stop their way.

"Hey, you should go inform them in the Marine Base about this…" Someone whispered in a guy's ear and the latter nodded before he sneaked out of the port without being noticed.

"…"

Kai, Kid and Killer strolled around the town while Heat and Wire made their way to the Marine Base. The two made sure to wear hats and black sunglasses to hide their appearance just in case.

"This town is pretty calm, must be because of the Marines maintaining the order around here" Wire remarked while looking around. Heat who was walking beside him didn't look comfortable.

"Hey Wire, let's go quickly, this shit smells so bad I can't take it any longer" he said while trying to hold his breath.

"Hahaha! You need to toughen up a bit"

After walking for a little bit, they finally arrived at the base. It has walls surrounding it from all sides and one large iron gate protected by two armed Marine soldiers, and small towers on each side equipped with cannons. On the inside there was a one tall, blue, prominent building that could be seen from the outside, it has the word 'Marine' written in it and it is reinforced with cannons as well.

As Heath and Wire approached the gate, one of the guards gestured with his hands for them to stop.

"Halt! This is a restricted area, state your identity and businesses!" The guard demanded. The two exchanged a quick glance before Heat spoke.

"I'm Ape and this is my partner Snake. We are bounty hunters, we took care of some pirates, and we'd like to exchange them for money" Heat stated while handing out one of the bags to the guard, the one that has Captain Wood's head.

The guard gazed at them for a moment making sure they were serious before he took the bag and checked the inside. The moment his eyes landed on the severed head of Captain Wood, he instantly recognized him and his facial expression changed, looking very surprised at what he saw.

"I never heard of you before, you must be rookies. I can't believe you took down the Claw Pirates on your own, you must have some skills…" The guard said before turned to the other guard and gestured to him before the latter opened the gate "…Follow me"

The guard proceeded to take them to an office inside the building that deal with bounty hunters. The base was also very calm.

"Looks like they still haven't noticed our ship yet--" Wire whispered to Heat before he was interrupted by the guard again.

"We're here, you can talk to the officer and take the money worth the pirates you hunted" he said before turned back and left. The two spoke to the officers after that and showed him the pirates heads.

"You got Captain Wood 'The Claw'…worth 8,000,000 Berries…Crow 'The Maniac', worth 4,500,000 Berries…Dog Burgess, worth 3,500,000 Berries and the rest of the crew's bounties are estimated to be around 2,000,000 Berries…" The officer stated before he got on his feet and opened a big safe and took out a lot of money "…You have a total of 18,000,000 Berries"

Heat and Wire couldn't hide their excitement as it was a big sum of money, probably more than they ever earn in their whole lives.

"Good job, we'll be looking forward for you next hunt" the Marine Officer said before he put the money in a large bag and handed it to them. The two took the money and immediately left after that.

"Wahahaha! The smell of money is the best, 18 fricking million! That's more than we ever made as gangsters back at home!" Wire said in excitement while holding paper money.

"I bet the captains and Killer will be excited too!"

Shortly after the two left the base, a middle-aged man who looks like from his close and his smell that he works as Fisherman approached the guards.

"Halt! State your name and business here!"

"I work at the port, a pirate ship showed up earlier"

"Pirates?!!"

Meanwhile…Somewhere in town…

"Where should we go now?" Killer asked while walking next to the twins.

"I'm starving, we should get something to eat!" Kai said, his stomach growling from hunger.

"Yeah, me too, let's find a good place to eat" Kid agreed and the three walked around for a bit before they passed by a bar that serves food, the sign hanging above the entrance read…

"…Stormy Skewers Tavern…"

"What a lame name…" Kid remarked before the three walked in. Their presence was pretty intimidating to the people there.

They proceeded to take the seats at the counter before a jovial bartender with a warm smile approached their table. "Welcome to the Stormy Skewers Tavern! What can I get for you all today?" she asked.

Kid, wasted no time in placing an order "Bring us your strongest ale and a plate of your best skewers!" he proclaimed, flashing a confident grin.

Kai, calmly chimed in "And beer and some additional grilled seafood skewers"

Killer, nodded in agreement, "I'll have what he's having, and add some extra hot sauce to those skewers"

As the bartender went to fulfill their orders, the three pirates leaned back in their seats, allowing themselves a moment of relaxation. They noticed a stack of newspapers nearby and picked up the latest edition to catch up on the world's happenings.

It didn't have anything interesting other than some wanted posters of pirates. While Kai was checking them, he randomly found a poster with a picture of a familiar figure.

"Interesting…" After the food arrived, they proceeded to eat and once they finished, they had a couple more drinks.

"Man, that's some good food right there" Kid commented.

"We need a cook for the ship that for sure" Killer added.

"It's been a while since we ate a proper meal. Reminds me of Doruyanaika, she used to cook some delicious meals for us from time to time" Kai recalled, before his keen ears caught snippets of a conversation from the table behind them. The words "treasure" and "famous pirate" caught Kai's attention, and he exchanged knowing glances with Kid and Killer.

With a friendly smile, Kai pulled up a chair and joined the conversation. "Mind if I listen in? The idea of hidden pirate treasure sounds fascinating" he said, pretending to be an intrigued traveler.

The group looked surprised but welcomed Kai to sit with them. One of the men, an old sailor with a weathered face, began to share the tale of a famous pirate captain who had buried a vast fortune on an uncharted island long ago.

"The pirate's name was Captain Blackthorn" the sailor said with a twinkle in his eye "Legend has it that before he met his end he hid all the treasures he gathered in a mysterious island and he left a map marking its location behind…Well, it's just a story after all it might not be true, it started spreading around recently and some pirate captains began to take it seriously and started looking around for this treasure"

"It could be real or a lie, nothing is guaranteed" Killer commented on the story.

"I don't think something spreading like this would be complete lies, I think it's worth giving it a shot" Kai said with a smile, he was hoping that this treasure could be something more than just gold and silver.

Back at their corner booth, Kid grinned mischievously "Well, well, looks like we stumbled upon a real treasure hunt, eh?"