Chapter 37

A day has passed since Rowan's crew arrived at the island, for they decided to stay on the ship and refill their energy first, since they were exhausted from the sail.

Currently, they are situated on the deck, with Rowan distributing the wealth to the crew mates.

"Our primary focuses are to restock the food supplies and to gather more information regarding the Grand Line. Other than that, we can try to explore this island and see what it has to offer." Rowan stated with a smile as he watched the enthusiastic antics of his crew mates.

Carina's eyes turned into Beli, remembering that Rowan mentioned of sighting other pirate ships in the previous day. Carmen seemed excited to see the food ingredients that the Grand Line offers. Dan simply wanted to enjoy the exploration.

Without waiting any further, Rowan and his crew jumped off Prominence and advanced to the town. They had to walk through the palm tree forest for quite some duration, since their ship was parked quite far away from the town.

Eventually, the town was revealed in front of their view as they finally exited the forest, which seemed to be in a complete chaos.

Up ahead, the lawless pirates were walking, running, or shouting without any care, without any restriction. Some were seen holding a mug of beer on their hands and getting themselves drunk without a care. Few were blatantly waving their weapons at the others, causing said others to respond back with hostility by taking out their respective weapons. Some corpses were lying dead on the sides, which were casually ignored by the other pirates.

"What... just what is this?!" Dan said in disbelief, as his expectation completely shattered. What laid in front of them was a dystopia. He turned to the right, and saw the broken board that read: Breman town: safe haven for the pirates.

Rowan, Carina and Carmen remained stoic. Rowan has already killed over a thousand men from Rowly's crew previously, and such scene no longer bothered them anymore.

"You should get used to this, Dan. The Grand Line is constantly being bombarded with new waves of pirates from the four seas. This was bound to happen." Rowan patted Dan's shoulder and got him out of trance.

*Clank* *Clank* Even right now, there was an ongoing fight between two pirates who were fuming against each other. Not wishing to spend any longer out here, Rowan's crew quickly reached the building nearby: Gran's Deli & Bar.

*Creak* Opening the door to the building, Rowan's crew entered the Deli. Immediately, the pirates inside the Deli turned their attentions to Rowan's crew, as if assessing how dangerous they are.

"Heh, newbies?" One pirate muttered as his eyes dangerously gleamed, which were staring at Carina and Carmen. Another pirate on the next grinned as he stood up and cracked his neck, as his hand reached for the sword strapped on his back.

"New preys to hunt." The pirate with a sword approached Rowan's crew. However, not paying any attention, Carmen immediately bolted out and started to inspect the ingredients, leaving the other pirates dumbfounded.

"Oh, smoked ham? Very unique. The seasoning seems to be different than the typical, and I don't recognize the aroma. New ingredient from the Grand Line?!" Carmen shouted excitedly as she roamed all around the place without any care.

*SLAM* The angered pirate slammed his sword on the ground. "Listen to me, y'all newbs! If you don't wanna die-" Before he could finish, he was instantly blasted off of his spot and crashed into the wall. His sword too was broken into pieces.

Rowan was holding one of his fist out with an annoyance engraved on his face. The eyes of the other pirate widened as they processed what just happened.

"Anyone else?" Rowan said halfheartedly as he placed his hand back into his pocket. Carina ran to the pirate who crashed into the wall, before digging into his possessions.

Before long, Carina stood up with a disappointment and disdain. "How come you are so poor? There's nothing to take!!"

Behind them, Dan was seen to have walked up to the counter, and ordered a mug of beer for himself. 'First beer in the Grand Line!!' Dan clenched his fists in an excitement.

Although the domineering characteristics of Rowan's crew was shown, the other pirates didn't seem to be that intimidated. After all, they are the pirates who managed to sail through the Red Line or the ones that sailed backwards from the other islands!

Another small pirate crew was seen to have sat down in the corner of the place. A muscular man with spiky and bright red hair, red-orange eyes, red-purple coloured lips, and square-shaped goggles on his forehead, who seemed to be the captain of the crew, was holding a particular paper in his hand. He slowly stood up to the full glory of his height, reaching to approximately 205cm, with a grin on his face.

"Rowan the 'Grimheart,' a notorious pirate who has been given a bounty as large as 65 million Beli in the East Blue, which is known as the Weakest Sea!" The man's grin widened as he saw an individual matching to the bounty poster he's holding. The other pirates who were watching the interaction, became shocked.

"65 million?! Who is that man!! Why would the marines ever issue a bounty that high outside of the Grand LIne!!" One pirate cried out in disbelief, as he began to sweat out of nervousness. Some pirates quietened down and became wary of the situation, looking around with a caution. Few revealed greedy eyes as they gazed at Rowan.

"Haahahaha!! To think you've chose the route same as me, what a fortune!!" The red-haired man laughed boisterously as he ripped the bounty poster in half before throwing it away. "What did I say Killer? I said lucky 7th path, didn't I?"

Another blond-haired man, whose face was covered in a unique mask, shook his head. "Only you would consider this as lucky, Kid."

Stomping on the ripped bounty poster, the red-haired man, now revealed as Kid, exclaimed with excited eyes, "Grimheart, what a perfect way to begin my path of becoming the Pirate King!!"

The others stared at Kid with 'are-you-stupid' looks.

"Pirate King?! Haha, what a foolish dream!"

"""Hahaha!!!""" All the pirates laughed out loud, having lost their composure from the phrase of Kid.

Watching such a scene, the eyes of Kid pirates were set in ablaze, as they started to unsheathe or grab their weapons. Kid's face darkened and the veins popped from his forehead in pure rage. "Nobody laughs at my dream!!"

The furious Kid stretched out his right arm as if grabbing onto the air, with purple-coloured electricity cracking around it. Simultaneously, the whole Deli store began to shook! The other three members of the red-haired man's crew stood up as well and joined their captain, preparing for the battle.

Witnessing the sudden development, Carina, Carmen and Dan quickly returned to Rowan and stood by.

'Kid? Who's this man?' Rowan thought as he steadied himself for an upcoming battle.

*Clank* *Clank*

"I'll kill you all!!!" Kid roared as all the surrounding metals, including the bars, swords, guns, bullets, utensils, frames and more, all flew towards Kid and swirled around him like a metal storm. The pirates, fearing the sudden aggressiveness, began to flee out of the Deli store in urgency.

"Repel!" In the next moment, Kid snarled with his eyes locked on to the pirates who insulted him. The metals that were rotating around Kid all shot towards the hoards of pirates, before stabbing and slicing through! The place quickly turned into a bloody mess as numerous corpses fell on the floor and the structures broke down.

Watching the lethal objects flying towards them, Rowan pulled his arm back and slammed his fist forward.

*BOOM* With a large sound, all the metal objects were blasted back in the midair and lost their momentum.

*Clank* *Clank* As the objects fell down on the ground, Rowan's crew and Kid's crew were standing in a deadlock, while glaring at each other.

"Another devil fruit user? What happened to it being rare?" Dan said in exasperation. Contrary to what he has experienced for the past 22 years of his life, Dan met four devil fruit users in less than 2 weeks!

"Metals? An ability to manipulate it... along with the electricity. Most probably about magnetism." Rowan said as his eyes were firm on Kid, watching in caution.

Carina sighed before taking her daggers out. "I think I know where this is going."

Carmen placed the bags of food ingredients down on the side; she had no other choice.

"Tch, a devil fruit ability to bounce off the objects. Quite annoying to deal with." Kid frowned and cliched his tongue as he saw Rowan easily neutralizing his attack. "Killer, Heat, Wire, split up. I take the Grimheart."

'Seems that he's locked onto me. Since his offences mainly come from the metals, Carmen's Flame Flame fruit will be the perfect counter. Assuming that he controls magnetic force, melting the metals will cause them to lose the magnetic properties. However, I'm not too sure if that's the only card he got on the sleeve.' Quickly thinking, Rowan made decision.

"Guys, it'll probably be the best for us to split up as well. I'll handle the captain alone. You three handle the other enemies." Expecting such answer from Rowan, the members nodded.

Rowan knew that his members are capable by themselves as well. Carina possessed an incredible dagger-wielding skills and quick reflex that always allowed her to gain an upper hand in a quarrel. Carmen ate the most devil fruit he has seen so far. Dan proved himself as quite formidable back in Sixis through their spar, with his intelligence. Rowan believed that they would win even without his help.

Blasting off his spot, Rowan quickly dashed towards Kid, who grinned and held out his hand as it cracked in purple electricity. Taking this as a queue, the crew members of both Rowan and Kid's crew dashed and clashed against one another!

Carina's daggers clashing against Killer's scythe-like blades.

Carmen's fire melting one of Heat's sword as it went through her body, which transformed into the fire.

Dan jumping back to dodge a stab from Wire's trident.

*BOOM* Rowan's fist met the metal shield formed by Kid's ability, before blasting it backwards, revealing Kid's maniacal gleam behind.

"Heh, prepare to become my stepping stone, Grimheart!!"