6th Heavenly Demon

After saying what he needed to, Ori didn't pay the duo any further attention. He could feel them glaring at his back, but he didn't care in the slightest. He walked over to Benjiro and gave him an odd look as he asked.

"Why did you let her blind you?!"

Benjiro faced Ori as if he could see him even without the use of his eyes as he calmly replied.

"My eyes were what lead me astray in the first place. Blinded by her beauty, I failed to see her for what she truly was. So from now on I'll use my other senses to explore the true nature of the world around me!"

Ori could see that despite losing his sight he seemed to have gained clarity. He let out a satisfied nod before asking another question.

"So?!"

Confused by his question Benjiro raised an eyebrow as he asked back.

"So what?"

"So will you join us?!"

Benjiro knew that Ori already knew about Akainu and as far as he was concerned if Ori didn't care, then why should he. He shrugged helplessly as he replied.

"You pretty much just declared it to the world. I don't really have a choice anymore!"

Hearing that, Ori grinned ear to ear.

"Hahahaha from now on, you are the musician of the Heavenly Demon's!"

Hearing the genuine joy in Ori's voice and remembering that this new captain has effectively put his life in more danger to save his life despite only knowing each other for a matter of days, Benjiro felt truly blessed to have met him.

Ori then looked at the assassin before turning back to Benjiro and asking.

"Who's your friend?"

It was only then that he remembered the assassin was still here.

"Her name's Malia, we met in the ruins I retrieved those 3 songs I played."

Ori nodded his head and smiled at her.

"Thank you for protecting our dear musician."

Malia shrugged indifferently as she replied.

"I only held up my part of the deal for him saving my life."

Ori smiled teasingly as he said.

"For someone who claims to only protect him as part of a deal, you seem to care a lot about him."

Even though she was wearing a face mask Ori could still see she was blushing from the colour of her ears which was the only part of her body on display.

"Wha… What are you… You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Hahaha. Benji, it looks like you have an admirer!"

Hearing that, Malia's ears blushed like a bright red tomatoe. She glared at Ori looking as if she was ready to pounce.

"You bastard!"

"Someone's feeling a little touchy aren't they?!"

Benjiro could sense that Malia was desperately resisting the urge to attack his shameless captain. Before she did, he changed the subject to avert another crisis.

"Thanks again for everything, if it wasn't for you I never would've realised I was being played!"

Malia calmed down and turned to Benjiro and replied.

"You don't need to thank me, I was only fulfilling my end of the deal!"

As she said that she turned to leave. Before she left Ori asked.

"What are your plans for the future? If you want you could always join us, if you do you'll get to be near your beloved Benji."

As he said that her ears once more turned cherry red but Ori couldn't tell if it was because she was blushing or just angered.

After taking a few seconds to calm down, she turned back to Ori and said coldly.

"Someone has raised a 1 billion Belly bounty with us at The League of Killers to take your life. The next time you see me will likely be as an enemy."

Ori didn't seem to care about the new bounty as he asked casually.

"Is that a no to joining us then?"

Hearing that, Malia almost lost her footing as she saw his lack of care. She decided that she should leave now as talking to people like him got nowhere.

Seeing her leaving them Ori shrugged before helping his new musician to his feet.

As he got to his feet, Benji couldn't help but re-evaluate this captain of his who seemed to have a knack for making enemies on top of enemies.

"You know now that the League of Killers have their eye on you there is almost no escaping? Don't you care?"

Ori shrugged as he calmly replied.

"What good will worrying about the things that I can't change do?

Why, are you scared? If you are it's not too late to change your mind, I'll drop you off somewhere safe and you can go your own way."

Benjiro shrugged indifferently as he replied.

"How could the musician of the Heavenly Demon's care about a bunch of mere assassins? What was it you said before… Come one kill one, come in pairs kill in pairs!"

Ori looked at the blind musician whilst letting out a chuckle.

"Hahaha well said!

By the way why did that Hallorian guy want you dead so badly. At first I thought it was because you stole his wife but clearly it wasn't that…"

Benjiro smiled helplessly as he said.

"I was the useless son of Admiral Akainu, who only knew how to flirt with women. Even though I was weak and had no interest in becoming a powerful Marine, I was able to get a spot on the genius camp because of my father's connections which originally would've gone to his little brother!

Since then he's made it his mission to try and make my life a living hell, but because of my background he could never take it too far and as I knew that I never paid him any attention which only angered him more.

When I first started talking to his wife he probably saw it as the last straw. In his eyes I was probably some pampered elitist that thought I could do whatever I wanted just because of my father. So when Sakazuki allowed him to kill me he more than likely jumped at the opportunity.

He and his wife were probably laughing at me for being so oblivious to the fact that I was being played by a woman I had clearly fallen for as a ploy to silently kill me!"

As he said that Ori nodded finally understanding the reason behind the enmity. He put his hand on his shoulder and reassured him.

"In the future you'll show the Marines that not seeing your true potential was the biggest mistake they could've ever made."

As he said that, Benji could feel the genuine faith Ori had in him which warmed his heart.

[I've spent my whole adult life as part of an organisation that didn't care about me at all, but after knowing Ori for a couple of days I feel like I've finally felt the warmth of having a family. Joining the Heavenly Demons is so far proving to be the best decision of my life.]

The sound of Ori's voice woke him from his thoughts.

"Are you ready to go, I promised the others I'd hurry and make my way back to the ship as soon as we were done."

Benji nodded with a smile as he put away his zither and replied.

"I'm ready whenever you are."

Hearing that Ori placed the now blind musician on his back and was about to leave when he realised he didn't know the way. He was about to ask Benji for directions when he remembered that he was now blind. He scratched his head as he thought about what to do.

[I guess I can only follow the seatrain's rail tracks back to St. Poplar and then make my way from there.]

After coming up with his plan Ori began running on the air above the tracks making his way back to his crew.