102 Pride Of A Heavenly Demon

After travelling non stop for 6 hours, the unassuming island the Heavenly Demons left their ship was finally in sight.

Ori still had Benji on his back as he ran on the air towards the island. Ori didn't seem to notice that Benjiro looked sickly pale, he was just happy to have arrived back at the island.

"We're finally back!"

"Thank god!"

Benjiro climbed off his captains back and immediately collapsed on to his knees throwing up on the ground beneath him.

It was only when he saw Benjiro puking did he notice how ill the musician looked.

"What's wrong, are your injuries getting worse?"

After finally suppressing the sick feeling in his stomach he snapped back at Ori.

"You ran at 100 mph in the sky for 6 hrs, who'd be alright after that?! And you didn't even warn me you bastard!"

Ori scratched the back of his head as he replied helplessly.

"Haha sorry, sorry. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Benjiro wanted nothing more than to beat this senseless captain of his.

"I tried, but the wind resistance was too strong to open my mouth!"

"Ooh haha, whoops!"

Just as Ori was being scolded he felt a ship approaching from the direction they'd just arrived from. As he looked over he smiled and said softly.

"They're finally back!"

It was his little ship and on board was his Aunt Otohime, his crew, as well as Jinbei and the other guards from fishman island. As the ship docked, Ori lead Benji over to welcome them back.

From the ship Roman and the others had long since noticed Ori and Benjiro's presence. They knew how fast Ori was so him beating them back wasn't a surprise, what surprised them was that they noticed that Benjiro now had a fresh horizontal cut travelling across his eyes which seemed to have blinded him. That didn't really surprise Jinbei and the other guards as this was their first time seeing him, but it did shock Otohime and the Heavenly Demons as they had seen him just hours ago and at the time his eyes were still intact.

When they departed the ship Ori introduced Benjiro to everyone. Despite Benjiro's lack of sight, his observation haki was no weaker than Ori's so he could still feel the aura's of the people in his range.

When Roman shook his hand he couldn't help but ask.

"What happened to your eyes?

Benjiro smiled wryly as he replied.

"It's the price I paid for my naivety."

Not understanding what he meant Roman turned to Ori for an explanation. Ori looked at Benjiro who shrugged indicating he didn't mind. Seeing that, Ori proceeded to give a brief summary of what happened when Benjiro was confronted by the Marines.

When they heard the full story, there wasn't a single person who didn't feel enraged on behalf of the handsome musical prodigy.

Sabo looked at Ori and asked.

"Why didn't you kill those bastards?! They don't deserve to live!"

Ori just shrugged and replied indifferently.

"Benji asked me not to, he said he wanted to finish it himself in the future."

When they heard that, Roman and Shaya both nodded appreciatively at the musicians character.

"Ooh and that assassin woman said that someone's put a bounty on my head in the League of Killers."

Even though Ori said it in a carefree manner, other than Sabo who didn't know who they were, Roman who like Ori didn't care about matters he couldn't change and Benjiro who already knew, everyone was frightened by that sudden revelation.

Silk was the first to recover as he asked.

"The… The League of Killers… Want you dead?!"

Ori nodded indifferently not seeming to care.

Seeing that, Jinbei questioned the carefree teenager.

"You do know who the League are don't you."

Ori shrugged as he replied.

"The number one assassination organisation in the world."

Silk's childhood friend Shayle looked incredulously at Ori not understanding how he could be so blasé regarding such a major matter.

"The power of their organisation overall is only slightly weaker than the World Government and the Federation. They have several Admiral level individuals with a select few who are said to have even surpassed the strength of an admiral, rivalling a Yonko…"

As he stopped, he turned to his old friend and scolded.

"Look Silk, this is your new captain. He treats a monstrous entity such as the League as if their nothing. Is he really the kind of captain you want to serve? A Captain who overestimates his abilities is one who will lead his crew to an early grave. A captain like that is no different than trash!"

When he said that, other than Ori himself all the Heavenly Demons gave the young fishman guard an icy stare as if daring him to say something else. Even the blind Benjiro opened his eyes despite not being able to actually see.

Sabo thrust his staff at Shayle, and with his recent improvements his strength had increased by leaps and bounds. Shayle who wasn't expecting an attack so suddenly had to block hastily and ended up being pushed back 5 steps.

He looked up in surprise at the young child who had just forced him back. He was angry that he was shown up by a child and wanted to attack to regain his face. Jinbei was just about to stop the fight before it got out of hand but was stopped by Otohime.

"Your majesty…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Queen Otohime shook her head and said.

"By the standards of Pirates, the Heavenly Demons are very easy going and easy to get along with, but insulting one of their own is crossing their bottom line and when that person being insulted is the Captain who they all love and respect… It's no different from courting death!

Shayle already insulted Ori once before, but they didn't say or do anything at the time out of respect for me and Fisher Tiger. But even though they respect us, it doesn't mean they fear us. Shayle is now going to learn the hard way that there are some people that he can't afford to offend!"

Just as the angered and embarrassed Shayle was about to attack, Sabo darted towards him.

"Don't think because you're a kid I won't attack you!"

As he said that, the white skinned shark styled fishman thrust his trident forth with everything he had.

Sabo who saw his attack noticed that even though the man was physically faster and stronger than him, because he wasn't at the Trident Student boundary his attack was full of holes waiting to be exploited.

He thrust his staff forward towards the fishman. Shayle who was facing the attack snorted in disdain assuming that Sabo was trying to make his attack land first.

"I'm faster and stronger than you, you're naïve if you think you can attack after me and still have your attack connect befo…"

Before Shayle could finish his sentence he was silenced by Sabo's attacks.

As the staff and the trident passed by each other about to carry on towards their respective targets, Sabo flicked his wrist and the tip of his staff hit the tip of the trident shifting the direction of the trident slightly. Sabo pulled his staff back and twisted his body a full 360 degrees skilfully avoiding the attack of the trident, but he wasn't finished. Mid-twist, Sabo swung his staff using the force of his turn to increase the power of the attack and swept Shayle off his feet. When he landed on his back he was scared to see the tip of Sabo's staff centimetres from his face.

Sabo looked coldly at the scared fishman and said indifferently.

"I'm the weakest member of the Heavenly Demons and you can't take 3 attacks from me… What qualifications does a waste like you have to speak about my captain?"

As he said that, Sabo took his staff from Shayle's face and walked back to his position with his crew. The others didn't reprimand Sabo as they also wished to bring the fishman down a peg or 2.

Roman who was still annoyed by Shayle's comments said coldly.

"The difference between you and Ori is the difference between the ground and the sky. Where you hear the League of Killers and want to run for the hills, he sees just another obstacle on his way to becoming the king of the pirate!"

Shaya continued indifferently.

"You may think it's arrogance, but he knows that they have people stronger than him in the League, he just refuses to bow down and hide from them. If he was to shy away from every challenge then how could he dare to aim for the seat of the king of Pirates?!"

Silk didn't care about his past with the shark-fishman, Ori was someone he deeply respected from the bottom of his heart he wouldn't tolerate anyone badmouthing him, not even a childhood friend. He said emotionlessly.

"A Heavenly Demon is someone blessed with Heaven angering talent but has to claw their way through inhumane amounts of adversity to reach their goals. Even when the Heavens use the world to stand against him, he carries on moving forward with only his goal in his sight.

As the Heavenly Demon, do you think that a mere group of killers is qualified to make him retreat in fear?!"

Benjiro, despite being the newest member still felt just as strongly as the others as he said.

"If they dare to come, we dare to kill! If one comes then we'll kill one. If they come in pairs, then we…"

As he said that, other than Ori all the Heavenly Demon's finished his sentence.

"KILL IN PAIRS!"

When they said that, Shayle felt a myriad of emotions. Everything from fear to shame, but above the other emotions he was feeling, he felt his blood boil in excitement clearly affected by their words.

Even Jinbei was affected by their words.

[So this is the true Heavenly Demon Pirates…]

Otohime looked at the Heavenly Demon Pirates with tears forming in her eyes.

[The reason why they dare to act so brazenly doesn't come from a place of ignorant arrogance, but from their belief in each other, but above that it comes from their pride as Heavenly Demons…

Mira, Marcus, if only you could see your son now and the crew he's started!]