18 S***** K******

As the crowd watched on helplessly as the marines abused the father and son, a man carrying an extremely long blade walked out from the crowd and went towards the marines.

"Are you guys Marines or Pirates?? Forgive me for asking since it's quite hard to differentiate between them these days??" said the man mockingly towards the group of marines.

The group marines where shocked when they saw someone had the audacity to mock and question them. They were used to their tyranny here and the citizens of the island were always too scared to retaliate. One of the marines from the group walked up to the man and bellowed.

"Who do you think you are?? A hero?? How dare you question our Justice?!! We are Marines and what we are the rules around here!!"

"Well, Thanks for clearing that up. I almost thought you guys were pirates dressed as marines after seeing your actions." taunted the man once again.

All of the gathered crowd could see that the group of marines where completely enraged by his mocking, all of they has either drawn their swords/guns.

"Now you will pay for your arrogance punk!!" shouted few marines as they dashed towards him.

"Enough nonsense. You are making my ears bleed. If you all are swordsman then let your swords do the talking." said the man as he draws his lengthy blade from the sheath.

Six of the marines who wielded swords rushed forth while the other three stayed back with their guns ready. They started slashing at the man as soon as they where in range but no matter from which angle or speed he dodged or parried them. This exchange went on for a minute and seeing that they are not making any progress the other marines decided to join in. One of the marines aimed at his blind spot and shot him but before he could rejoice he felt something piercing his shoulders followed by extreme pain.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!! M-my shoulder!!!" shouted the marine as he dropped his gun while his comrade stood there stunned.

"He deflected it!! And done so gently using his blade." said Nate astonished, although he was a swordsman he could never do that purely using his skills.

"Time is precious. Allow me to act a little rough." said the man as the marines stood there still shocked. "Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū : Tsubame Mai!"

Almost as soon as he finished his sentence his blade seemed to warp through space as it divided into six blades that slashed through the marines. All the crowd could see was the flash of the blade and the next thing they saw was the heads all six of the marines that surrounded him being separated from their bodies.

Even Nate and Rin where surprised seeing that attack, him and his blade seemed to have duplicated as it slashed into six different directions almost simultaneously. Nate was shocked because of the name of the technique reminded him of something.

"Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū : Iai!" the man seemed to have initiated another attack as he attacked at the remaining three marines from a distance. He slashed his blade which released a wave of blue light shaped like a crescent, before the terrified trio could react they were bisected in two.

The entire crowd stood there in shock as they watched the man walk away from the corpses of the marines while sheathing his blade. Seeing him walking away, Nate separated from the crowd and followed him along with Rin. The crowd panicked and dispersed worrying that they might end up getting caught under the rage of the marines when they hear about this news.

After following him for few minutes Nate noticed him turning into an alley way and knew that he must have noticed them following him. Nate and Rin looked at each other and they followed the man into the alley way, as they walked in deeper they saw him standing while staring at them with blade ready to be drawn.

"Hey there!!! Please calm down.. We are not here to fight." said Nate peacefully as he raised his hands.

"Then why would you be following me?!" asked the man perplexed.

"I saw you fight with the Marines earlier and was impressed by your skills." said Nate

"Thank you for the complement.. But that doesn't explain why you would be following me." said the man still suspicious

"I wanted to invite you to my crew." said Nate as he introduced himself and Rin "My name is Nate D.Walker by the way. And this here is my crew mate and friend Rin."

"Crew?! As in a pirate crew??" questioned the man.

"Yes we are part of a pirate crew, I am the captain and she is the navigator." said Nate while pointing towards Rin. "By the way you have introduced yourself yet."

"Forgive me.. My name is Sasaki Kenshin." said the man while wondering about the two in front of him.