The Beginning of a Legend

I've been sailing for a day now and have come to the conclusion that I'm in one of the blues (thank God). I say this because the weather has not been spontaneous and has been pretty constant, had I been in the Grand Line I'd probably have died for drowning.

Anyways I hadn't seen any ship so far and I'd considered just flying on my black rods, the only problem with that is I don't know how far the next island is and constantly controlling the rods for an extended period was quite draining, so I was basically stuck on open waters until I came across a ship or an island.

The sun was setting when I finally spot ship in the distance. The ship was a large brig coloured in red and blue with the figurehead of a mermaid. Forming a rod I increased it's length to 1.5 metres and got on it like a skateboard. I sail through the air where I eventually shrink myself and jump of the rod. No one seemed to notice my landing on the main deck as I started moving around.

It seems like this is neither a pirate ship as the ship had no Jolly Roger and the passengers all seem like regular passengers with only a select few carrying weapons. It also wasn't a marine ship as no one was wearing the standard marine uniform. Leaving this as a merchant ship. I left the main deck and got into the lower deck which seemed to just be the living quarters.

Going a level below to the hold I saw all their merchandise. Seems like this guys were transporting antiques and hand crafted items.

Suddenly the ship started rocking violently and people were....screaming? Making my way back to the main deck I saw pirates attacking the ship. A plan started forming in my head. Even if I got to an island after this I currently had no money, buuut the ship currently being attacked was a merchant ship probably carrying a good amount of Belli and in exchange for saving their lives I ask for a decent amount of Belli plus whatever I got from the pirate ship.

Growing back to my original height, my sudden appearance suprising many people.

"Who's in charge of this ship" I shout

"I am" shout a man behind me. He was dressed in a plain black suit with dark brown shoulder length hair with a few strands of grey, which contrast his youthful face.

Smiling I turn to the man and say "What say you and me come to a little agreement, I get rid of the pirates and you pay me for my troubles"

"How can I be sure you can get rid of them"

"Well not like you have much of a choice, either you here by their hands or you take my deal and get to live another day, so how about it?"

The man look back between me and the pirates the man simply nod.

Seeing his reaction I smile. The pirates at this point were close enough to lay a bridge do across the 2 ships and start attacking. Making my way to the plank the pirates laid out I started attacking. The crew had about 50 people with a large man who seem to be in charge of the crew standing by the helm with a frown on his face.

I simply shot out rods at speeds faster then the eyes could track killing them all on the spot. I refrained from using large attacks as I wanted to keep everything relatively intact so I could take their shit, unlike the time eith my clan. By the time I was out of my thoughts everyone was already dead. Making my way across the plank I got onto the ship and started looking around.

Immediately going up to the helm I searched the Captains clothes.

"Tsk, he's got nothing on him, hopefully the ship actually has something valuable."

Stomping on the floorboards I creat a hole and jump into it getting into the lower deck. It waa filled with cramped beds with and a door with the words 'Captain's Quarters' scratched onto them. Making my way in I looked around smile. It seems like that bastard was keeping all his treasure in his room. I got a sack and stuffed the money inside then shrink the bag and put it into my pocket.

As there was nothing else of value I decided to go down to the hold and see what they kept there. Breaking the floorboards I made my way down and saw a large cage.

Inside the cage were people of all ages with some of them huddling together, there was even an interesting one among them,he gave off quite the large lifeforce, much greater then my fathers but less then me. Seems like these crew dealt with human trafficking.

As I walk towards the cage one of them spot me and I saw hope in their eyes, that is until they saw my appearance which caused them to move back.

"Well thats not very nice, especially to someone who's gonna be your new owner" I said with a smile causing everyone to look at me with fear and resignation in their eyes. Seeing their reactions I started laughing which made them even more scared, with some kids even crying.

"I'm just fucking with you, I killed the pirates so now you're free," I said as I got to the cage and pull the bars apart.

"H-hh-how c-c-an we be so sure you're saving us and you're not one of them " a young gril managed to stammer out.

"If I was one of them why would I damage one of our own cages, surely I'd have a key for the cage" I countered.

"Whether you believe me or not is up to you, there's a merchant ship next to us, you can go board the ship and we'll drop you off at the next island."

Walking back up to the main deck I wave to the man I made a deal with.

"This guy have a bounty?"

"Not that I know of" the man shout back as he shake his head.

"Tsk, useless even in death, atleast he seemed to be carrying a decent amount of Belli".

It seems like the prisoners believed me as they started streaming through the trapdoor leading the the lower decks.

"H-he wasn't lying, we can finally go back!"

The ex-prisoners broke out into cheers and tears. The prisoners run up to me and fell on their knees.

"T-thank you so much sir, we can never repay you for your kindness" one of them said with many others nodding in agreement.

I honestly didn't really know how to react to this, so I simply gave an awkward smile.

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It's been 30 minutes since that little incident. I was currently sitting across the head merchant on the lower deck as we were negotiating my rewards.

The man was Rudolph SmithSon, the head of a newly formed Merchant group called the " SmithSon Merchants ". He was from a rich family and started this to prove himself to his parents.

"So how does 500,000 Belli sound" he inquired.

"Knock it up to 750,000 Belli and we got a deal" I countered.

"The most I'm willing to do is 550,000 Belli, nothing more nothing less"

"Is that how much you value your life, after all I could just kill you and take all you have"

Despite me threatening him the young master held his ground and refused to change his mind. Seeing as I wouldn't be changing his mind anytime soon, I decided to simply just acceot his offer and not waste anymore of my time.

He called on of his servants who handed him the money. He count the money and after confirming the amount he handed it to me. When I got back to the room he gave me I took out the bag I shrunk and changed it back to its regular size. The pirates had about 250,000 meaning right now I had 750,000 which would probably last me a decent anount of time.

I needed to start gathering a crew soon, and I knew just where to start. I noticed that guy with the strong lifeforce join us on the ship. Leaving the room I started making my way towards the strongest lifeforce here.

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There's probably gonna be another chapter later on today too. Also go read 20th Century Boys, it's a great mystery manga with a cool villain.