Ch 09 - The Beginning

And that's how I come face to face with the leader of the village.

After some back and forth where they question me and I answer that I'm a wandering bounty hunter, they seem skeptical at first but after I resort to freezing all of them with the regular slow-slow beam, which entraps them for 30 seconds, walking around them, and then going back to where I was, they seem to accept my answer.

With that quick display of my powers, they seem to become frightened of me, but at the same time lower their weapons, as it's true that if I wanted to, I could have hurt all of them very easily.

It also appears that even though they are afraid of me due to my abilities they don't find my powers very strange, which would mean that devil fruits here are not too uncommon, unlike what I remember in east blue, where they are considered a myth.

With that out of the way I quickly go around looting some belly and some golden trinkets a few of the pirates had on their person and pocketing them, it wasn't much, about 100 thousand bellies in total and some gold, which together might earn me half a million belly, not much but it's a start.

After the quick scavenging session, I ask the chief of the village, which was busy ordering people around in order to tie up all of the unconscious pirates, if I could stay in the village for a bit, and if it's too much trouble I can even pay my keep with the money I just picked up.

He declined my offer and generously lent me a small one bedroom shack in order to repay me for stopping the commotion that the battling pirates were causing.

He also muttered something about saving them from having to waste more precious flowers in order to end the conflict.

I ask him on what he meant, and he replies that it isn't the first-time multiple parties of pirates come to this island -- as it's known as Lily Island -- which is famous for its collection of rare flowers with many effects; and that they usually end up becoming hostile and fighting each other, and that most of the time the village receives significant damage.

So now when multiple hostile parties seem to be interacting with each other the village closes its sturdy village gate and throws burning flowers and slow burning wood in order to propagate certain effects caused by the flowers, sometimes it's calming gas, sometimes it's sleeping gas, and sometimes as was used in this specific battle is enraging gas, which usually lead to more destruction, but at the same time much quicker battles.

It all depends on where the fight is taking place and what the situation is (calming and sleeping when inside the village, rage outside, etc.)

They then apparently call over a marine ship to collect the bounties and use the money to repair the village and upgrade its defenses and such.

After I hear about this crazy plan I'm amazed by such tactics, firstly at the fact that a small village in a remote island employs such underhanded tactics, that seem to always somehow work for whatever reason.

Secondly, that somehow this village is still standing, because from my point of view this tactic seems quite risky to me, and its probability of backfiring is quite high.

As I mention this, he laughs a bit and replies, "young man, is this your first time visiting small islands here in the West Blue? It's quite common knowledge that many small islands and villages use underhanded tactics in order to safeguard against pirates and criminals."

This statement tells me a few different things, firstly I'm in West Blue, and secondly that I shouldn't judge things in this world based on my prior pre-conceptions, I for one didn't think that a small village like this had the balls to pull something like that on dangerous pirates, which might have bit me in the ass in the future if I hadn't known.

This revelation gives me a few things to think about.

After all of the commotion and hubbub of the day dies down, it's already sunset and I ask the village chief where I can sleep for the night, which he sends a villager to show me where.

-----

A few hours later as I'm lying on an uncomfortable mattress staring at the roof of this wooden shack I ponder on the events of the day and what I just learned not so long ago.

I am in One Piece, I have the powers of the Slow-Slow Fruit, which to be honest wouldn't be my first choice of fruit, but not the last either; I'm apparently in the south corner of West Blue on an island called Lily Island, and lastly the year is 1520, 2 years before cannon starts.

All of these facts lead me to one final thought before I close my eyes.

"I have two years to get strong before all the crazy shit starts happening."