Chapter 108

108

Johnny and Yosaku, were having an intense training session with Zoro right now, still on the Going Merry. They looked quite beaten and bruised.

Granted, it was because Zoro was working them to the bone, but that wasn't really the point. While it was training for both Johnny and Yosaku, it was also training for Zoro to hold back his strength with his new blade.

The flames of Akaiittou Nozarashi were hot and hard to control, but Luffy suggested Zoro use this against allies. This might make it hard, but with the stakes high, Zoro was getting good contorl over the famed blade.

Even though it was risky, Sparky and Luffy were just around the corner if things got out of hand. Speaking of Luffy, he was also busy…

Kuina was training with Luffy on her bladed attacks. While Sanji was using blue walk to dive into the sea and look for new fishes to catch. Hatchan had found some rare fishes that he was having trouble catching, so Sanji lent a leg for the job… it also worked good for his training.

As things were going now, they would reach Loguetown within a few hours. The Straw Hats peaceful afternoon was interrupted with a cannon firing, paired with the cannonball landing in the water near them.

"Gah!" Usopp shouted, sounding terrified as he fell backward onto his back. "What the hell was that?!"

"Sounded like a cannon," Sanji replied as he got back to the ship, and squinting his eyes to see the enemy ship.

Usoppo was worried because it was a marine ship… with this close to Logue Town, they could be surrounded in minutes.

But then looking closer, it was actually two ships fighting amongst each other, a big marine ship and a smaller pirate ship. And it seemed that both by both ships firing canon balls at each other some of them got near their own ship. Usopp almost felt glad that they weren't the target.

"What's going on out here?" Zoro asked, looking out of the ship along with Yosaku and Johnny.

"There's a fight going behind us." Usopp pointed. "Luffy, What do we do?"

"Hm… we should get near first and understand the situation before acting." Nami who was also steering the ship nodded and fearlessly saied through the canon fire. Her other crewmates easily handled the canon balls before they could hit the Going Marry.

"The marines are being attacked," Coby cried angrily. "We need to do something!" Well, Luffy and the rest of the crew could see how the marine ship was getting slaughtered by pirates.

But the numbers of the pirates didn't add up. The pirate ship was much smaller, a quarter size of the Going Marry, and yet there were too many pirates. But maybe the other pirates were prisoners, because some of the pirates were even killing each other. Logue Town was a good place to doc the pirates, before sending them off to Impale down.

So most likely what happened was a small-time pirate group orchestrated a prison break to get some of their crewmates free before they could reach Logue Town. More so now that Smoker was no here.

"Chill out, Coby." This time it was Gin who spoke up. "Only captain can call the acts…"

Zoro and Kuina nodded.

Luffy was almost touched by his crewmates' loyalty. And gave the charges to help the marines… if he had a reputation of a hero, so why not help them. And he didn't like meaning less slaughter anyway.

The Going Marry speed up, coming near the other ships… Luffy commanded Mommo to spray water on them to stop the fighting for a second.

And it seemed to do the work. Now both marines and pirates were looking at Luffy. And all of them were scared for different reasons.

"That's the fallen Hero… Mario." One of the Maine soldiers said, "Is he here to help the pirates."

"Stupid… didn't you read the newspaper, it said that the former marine Nezumi is the one that set up the whole mess." One of the pirates said, "He's clearly with you guys."

Similar conversations were being held while Luffy docked the boat with the crewmates.

"Find every single one of those pirates, and help the marines clear out the trash," Luffy ordered as the marines sighed in relief and the pirates screamed in panic.

Zoro went after a pair with his sword, quickly knocking them unconscious, while controlling his blade. Sanji and Gin went after a group as well, both kicking the enemies in the side of the head. Luffy shot the rest of the fleeing pirates with his finger gun.

All the while Marines stepped aside and saw them take care of the pirates with ease.

Johnny and Yosaku were too tired to fight. But also Sparky would stop them in case they wanted to join the fight… as Luffy wanted them to still have an active bounty hunting license in case they wanted to cash in for some info or bounties later on. He didn't want them to labeled as pirates.

Usopp was aiming down the enemy and shooting them from the Going Marry, rather than go to the Marine ship and fight the pirates.

"You lot will pay for this!" The enemy pirate captain said. "Mark my word, Mario…"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence as he was bonked in the head and knocked out. "Name's Luffy…" he said a bit irritated.

But he soon steadied himself when the rest of the marines were looking at them weirdly.

"Um… thanks for helping us." The man in charge of the marine ship said. "We would have lost more lives if it weren't for you." Sadly many of the marines were already dead or got seriously wounded before Luffy got there.

Now that all the pirates were captured, the marines, especially the low level soldiers were a bit glad that Mario was still a hero and doing his good work. Even while he was a pirate.

"Please leave the ship!" the marine in charge requested, genuinely, "We won't try to capture you… but as marines even if you are good people you are still labeled as pirates, I'm sorry we can't treat you any better, but I have already called for backup from Logue Town, and I don't want them to capture you."

The others were surprised even Luffy… it seems that every good deed does get rewarded. So he just nodded and jumped back into the ship. Along with his crewmates. But before he went he said something…

"Don't worry, we won't go the Logue Town anyways, we will directly go the grandline and get out of your hair." Luffy said smiling. Of course, it was a lie, but he commanded Mommo to sail in the direction of the reverse mountain, until the marine ship was out of view, and then changed course.

But nobody saw that Johnny and Yosaku had actually gone along with Spakry and looted the smaller pirate ship while the battle was going on. Even taking down some pirates without the marines knowing.

"Look what we found!" Johnny called with a huge smile on his face. "You'll love this, Big Sis Nami!"

"Will I?" She asked. "Why?" On cue, both men opened the treasure chest to reveal glittering gold coins and Berry notes.