Chapter 14 - Remember This...

『 Omniscient POV 』

"Fire the Buggy special cannon!! Fire!!"

"You idiot!!"

"Oi, Luffy!! Do you wanna kill us all?!!"

Along with Buggy's shout of command, Nami and Zoro's panicked screams were also heard by Luffy.

"You think I'd be scared and move an inch just because of a cannonball?"

But instead of answering them, the straw hatted pirate just decided to show his capabilities than talk about it.

*Boom!!*

"Gomu-gomu no-!!!"

After saying his own comment, Luffy suddenly began to inhale a large amount of oxygen, which resulted for his body to inflate like a...

"-Balloon!!"

As a result of that, once the cannonball hit Luffy, instead of it exploding at them, his ballooned body sent it back towards the place it had come from.

"You should've warned me at least!!"

"What the hell are you?!"

Although Luffy's quick defense allowed Nami and Zoro to sigh in relief, which allowed them to say their thoughts, the previous words of the former person were still at the head of the thieving woman.

'Not only is he an idiot, he's also fearless!! A fearless, idiot monster!!'

That's why she thought of that.

"Luffy~!! Zoro~!!! You guys are here?!"

Shortly after the bar was turned into nothing but ruins, a loud shout was heard by the trio, which made them turn their heads towards the owner of the voice.

"Izuku~!! You're safe!!"

"It's good to know that you're still alive, Midoriya!!"

And once the pirate duo identified the owner of the voice, their faces lit up in excitement as they both exclaimed their responses.

"I'm the one that should be saying that to you two!!"

Exclaimed the agitated hero, before he turned his head to look around them in confusion.

"Anyway, what kind of situation did the two of you find yourselves in? Why are you here? And who is she?"

"Oh, right! Izuku, I bet you'll be surprised at what we found!!"

"Ohh? What is it?"

Ignoring the fact that Luffy did not instantly answer his question, as he found it amusing how excited the said person could be, Midoriya decided to just go along with his pace.

"We found a navigator!! Her name is... uhmm, what's your name again?"

"How could you forget about my name already!?"

"Sorry, sorry, I'll remember it this time, I promise. Shishishi~!"

As Nami scolds Luffy, Zoro, and Midoriya can be seen laughing their asses out loud.

"And you two!! Quiet it down, will you?!"

"Yes ma'am!!"

Answered Midoriya like a soldier, which made Zoro's laughter go wilder than before.

"... Nami, that's my name. Don't call me ma'am, it makes me feel like I'm one of you idiots and I don't like that one bit."

After giving the still laughing Zoro a stern gaze, Nami just sign in resignation before she introduced herself to Midoriya.

"Ye- I understand, Nami-san!!"

"Nami!! Just Nami is fine!!"

Exclaimed the thief as her blood was slowly increasing.

Thankfully, Midoriya decided to just shut his mouth this time and nod his head as a response to her.

Shortly after that short talk, Zoro, who now managed to stop himself from laughing till death, began to explain the reason as to why they were here.

He went on details by details, even as their opponents began to get out of the debris of building that buried them alive.

Even Mohji, who was peacefully knocked out just earlier, is now standing up while mubbling about how things turned out into a mess when he just took a short nap.

And as he looked around his new surroundings, not far away from him, Mohji found how Richie and some unnamed pirates were used as a shield by Cabaji and Buggy to survive the explosion that occurred.

Of course, when Mohji saw how Cabaji easily threw away Richie like a ragdoll, he couldn't help but get angry at the later person... which started an argument between them.

Temporarily ignoring the antics of his men, and throwing aside the ones that he used as a shield, Buggy just turned his head towards the reason for their current situation.

"You bastard!! Who-! No, what are you?! Didn't you eat the Nosu Nosu no Mi and could only stretch out your limbs!?"

"Who said that to you? There was only one Devil Fruit that I ate, and it was a Devil Fruit called, Gomu-Gomu no Mi! It was that fruit that made me a rubber human, see?"

Although confused by his opponent's claim, Luffy still humored his question as Zoro was still not done at what he was saying to Midoriya.

After he spoke, Luffy began pulling his chin down than the norm as a demonstration of his ability.

After hearing his words and witnessing his following actions, it seems like Buggy was not the only one who was enlightened because even Nami was relieved to finally get some answer at her question.

'I thought Devil Fruits was nothing but a myth, but now that they are admitting that it was true... I don't doubt that they exist anymore!!'

Thought the thieving navigator.

"Oi, Luffy! You know how important it is to have a reliable campanion than a practical one, right? Are you sure you wanna trust this woman with our lives?"

Then, as if ignoring the fact that they are being surrounded by several pirates, Midoriya turned his focus to Luffy as he asked that question to him.

"Of course, I'm sure about it!!"

As for the response that he received, it was, of course, the familiar goofy smile that his captain usually uses and a short but firm affirmation.

"If you say so, Captain."

Commented Midoriya before he took a stance as he prepared himself to fight the pirates around them.

"Midoriya, don't touch that bastard. He's mine."

"But I'm more than enough to fight them all, you know? You shou-"

Shortly after he did, Zoro also took a stance of his own before he spoke, while looking at a tall man who was sitting on a unicycle.

Then, moments after that, the green-haired swordsman finally bit his third sword and started to increase his focus.

Although he was quite shocked because of Zoro's decision to fight, despite not being fully healthy yet, Midoriya still managed to shake his head and speak out his thoughts.

"I've rested enough, now I just need to exercise my body, and I'll be at my best health again."

However, although Zoro appreciated Midoriya's concerns for his health, the truth was that, the former person barely managed to stop his body from fighting earlier, after he witnessed how Shushu fought Richie.

So now that there are more than enough enemies for Midoriya, Luffy, and him, there is no way in hell that the swordsman would just miss this chance to wake his sleeping muscle up.

"... Fine, but don't overdo it. Recovering from malnutrition is no easy task after all, and although exercising is good, too much exercise would just give you the opposite effect that you desire. So don't you dare overdo it, I repea-"

"Alright, alright, I get it already. Let's just get this started with."

Midoriya's reluctance at his decision was clear in Zoro's mind but that still didn't made him change his choice, which is why he interrupted the former person's mumbling before it goes on forever and beyond.

"What the hell are they talking about?"

The woman behind them just shook her head in confusion when she heard their conversation.

Although she knew that Zoro was hungry because he said so earlier, that doesn't mean he will get malnourished instantly.

'Or are they all an idiot and that's why they think that's the case?'

Nami thought to herself, but some moment later, she finally decided to stop making some sense out of the things that the trio in front of her would do or say.

On the other side, when Buggy saw the newcomer, he couldn't help but get a feeling of familiarity from him.

But instead of pondering where such feeling were coming from, he ignored it as a nonsense before he turned to his top fighters to stop their pointless arguments.

"Stop fighting each other, you bastards!!"

"... You're lucky captain saved your ass!"

"You are the one in luck..."

However, even when his words were clearly heard, the two only stopped their physical argument but still continued the verbal ones.

"Oi, you bastards!! Don't you dare lose to those two!! I will personally kill anyone who lost to them!!"

"""Yes, Buggy-sama!!"""

Although frustrated with their responses, the clown pirate just decided to release that emotion to the men who was now facing Zoro and the newcomer.

Initially, Buggy had 25 members in his pirate crew, excluding himself, Cabaji, and Mohji.

But because of his own hands and commands, before Luffy and the others even arrived before them, that number went down to just 22.

And after the explosion that occurred, Buggy now only have 15 available combatants, who are now surrounding the cause of their problems.

"Hey, you two. Get everyone else down and leave their captain to me."

"Consider it done, captain."

"Understood."

Luffy's words acted as a signal for Zoro and Midoriya because after they responded to him, both of them had already appeared at the closest opponent that they could reach.

"Wha-achk!!"

"Ba-!!"

And before the pirates could even react to them, Zoro's sword and Midoriya left fist had already touched their target.

And not even a second after that, the duo had already reached their next targets.

Then two by two, the number of the pirates began to decrease as their bodies dropped onto the ground with some of them containing a sword marks on their bodies, while the others were full of green nasty marks.

But although their wounds are different, they all have one thing in common, and this is the fact that, they are all bleeding.

And regardless of the fact that there are some pirates who managed to dodge a little number of the duo's assault attacks, the following punch or sword slash that were sent towards them after were sure to connect no matter how much they tried to dodge or counterattack it.

Zoro and Midoriya's assault continued until the only remaining ones of the mobs were three pirates that brought the lost swordsman to this place.

The first one to reach the trio was none other than Midoriya, who already had his left leg in front of one of them.

*Bang!*

After he sent that mob towards a debri, which has quite the size, one of the two left hurriedly fired his gun at Midoriya.

But unknown to the pirate, before he could even pull the trigger, Midoriya's [ Danger Sense ] had already warned him about the bullet that was about to be fired.

Because of that, Midoriya managed to dodge the bullet that was about to land on his forehead, and that's not all as...

"Achk!!"

... After dodging, the lost hero even had enough time to deliver a counterattack of his own.

*Crack!!*

An attack which, once again, broke several bones of a pirate.

The same brutal outcome that all of the pirates that faced Midoriya received, just several seconds ago.

"Die!!"

But as if expecting that exact scenario, the last one of the mobs quickly moved his body as he slashed at the monster's exposed rear.

*Clang!!*

Despite his quick reaction to attack, however, the blade of his sword still met a resistance in the form of a blade of a white-colored katana; which is being held by his new nightmare's mouth.

"Rorono-!!"

And once again, before the pirate could even complete his sentence, Zoro decisively slashed his other katana at his opponent.

"Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro! Fight me!!"

*Cling!!*

And just as the body of the last mob dropped to the ground, Cabaji finally made his presence known to the duo.

"I was just about to ask the same thing."

Replied the green-haired swordsman before he sent a slash at his new opponent.

His desire to fight this acrobatic pirate was because Zoro instantly knew that the former person had a unique way of using a sword.

And he wants to know how he would fare against that technique.

*Cling!*

*Clang!*

*Cling!*

"Is this all you've got?"

But as the fight goes on, Zoro's disappointment slowly begins to pile up, which forces him to ask that question to his opponent.

"Acrobat Technique: Fire Tricks!!"

In response to his words, Cabaji just released a series of hot flames from his mouth, which startled the swordsman for a moment.

"Zoro!! I'll hel-"

"Don't!! I said this bastard is mine!!"

But despite being startled, Zoro still succeeded in dodging the bastard's flames as he jumped back and put some distance between him and his opponent.

And while he does that, he interrupted Midoriya's words, which angered the concerned person quite a bit.

"Put your trust on me, will you?!"

Exclaimed the agitated swordsman before he began to run towards the flame spouting bastard.

Unbeknownst to him, however, his previous words made Midoriya remember a forgotten memory of his, once again.

『 Midoriya's POV 』

'Remember this...'

As Zoro starts to fight his opponent once again, I suddenly remember the words of my friends... at the same night that I lost them.

「 "Put some trust on us, will you?!" 」

I remember how loud Kirishima's voice was as he yelled at my face while holding my costume's collar.

「 "That's right, you bastard!! We're not just some extras like the rest, we are also a part of the main characters of this legacy!!" 」

I remembered how Kacchan pushed Kirishima away from my face, just to yell those words to me.

「 "Deku, please always remember this..." 」

And I also remembered how Uraraka spoke her thoughts out loud, behind me, as she held back her tears.

'... Doing things alone will not get you anywhere.'

Remembering her words now, I realized that she was right.

Although I was the only one who was able to face Shigaraki at our last battle, it was thanks to the efforts of other people that I even got the chance to fight him alone.

Because there is no way that I would be able to challenge Shigaraki if I were to face the hundreds of villains that he got at his front.

Even more, despite the fact that I was an outsider of this world, I still met Luffy... the same person who didn't even show any fear at me but just pure amusement and awe.

And although his knowledge about me was very limited, he still put his trust in me when we first sailed away from the Shells Town.

It was an act that I actually took for granted.

'Thank you, Zoro.'

I thought that to myself the moment I realized that fact.

Being grateful for his words are not enough as I knew to myself that if not for his words, I would not have realized my current error; which could end up with me repeating the same mistake that I made when All Might died.

But even though I want to say my thanks to him, I already knew enough about him to come to the conclusion that words won't be appreciated by him, and thus, I decided that I will just show my gratitude through my actions.

*Tud!*

Then, not long after I finished my mumbling, I heard the sound of Zoro's opponent dropping on the ground.

"Good job, Zoro."

After I turned my head towards him, I gave him a smile that showed my apologies before I said that.

"Of course I'll win! After all, there is no way I will be the greatest swordsmaster if I were to be defeated by the likes of him."

Waving off my apology, Zoro just released a satisfied smile as he said those words to me.

And as a response to that, I just nodded my head on him with a renewed smile before we headed towards Luffy, who seemed to be done with his fight as well.

「 To Be Continued 」