Chapter 13: I Have Good Defense

"You got me. Though I didn't lie to you guys."

"Only liar will say that they don't lie." Replied one of Masira's man.

"Rather than arguing with him, why don't we just throw him down into the sea?" Said another one.

"He look young and weak. We shouldn't bully some weakling."

"Hey kid, did you get lost? Oke- we got some spare ship, though it is very small."

"Er... should we really help him? Captain is not here. Can we decide?"

"Ah!! We need to find captain. Hurry!"

The guys on the ship started to panic once again. One of them looked at Rex as if couldn't make up his mind. In the end, he dragged Rex away, and let him board the spare boat.

"Eh? Hey, what are you doing?"

"Sorry kiddo. We have urgent thing to do, and can't guide you back to the land. Here use this to guide you." Said the man, handing out a compass to Rex. He then let the spare ship down.

"Hey...wait..."

"Have a safe trip kid."

Splash!

The ship landed on the sea. Seeing that the spare ship is safely floating on the sea, the people on the big ship nodded to each other. They then waved at Rex, and then sailed away.

"Captain Masira, where are you?"

"Heeey!!"

"Let's go to that direction. I think I saw the pirates group moved in that direction."

"Oke- let's go!"

"We are coming, Captain Masira!!"

Just in a short time, the crews under Captain Masira sailed away to find their captain, and disappeared into the distance. On the spare ship, Rex stood still in daze as he watched those guys moved away. For some reason, his mouth twitched in frustration.

Did they think that I'm Zoro? How dare they look down on me! These monkeys need some beating!

In the end, Rex just sighed to push away his irritated feeling. Those people are too immature...no, they are just some monkey. I shouldn't degrade myself to their level, thought Rex.

He then checked the compass. Then he become irritated once more. The compass that he get was just a normal one. It couldn't be used to check the direction of the Grandline.

"Those monkey... really need some beating!"

In the end, he decided to just follow the direction on which those people have used as their route. That group will eventually go back to visit Monblanc Cricket, and if he follow them, he should be able to find the Straw Hat Pirates.

Woosh!

Rex then jumped up and stepped on the sky. After storing the spare ship, he then started running and headed out towards the direction that the 'monkeys' chose.

One hour later.

After travelling for one hour, Rex still didn't manage to find the monkey's ship. What happened? Did they changed direction midway?

"This is not good." Mumbled Rex. Right now, he knew that his situation is not so good. "Sigh, am I gonna do another random search again? This is sucks."

Having no other options, he decided to just pick a direction according to his gut, and sped up towards that route.

...

Night time, Jaya Island.

At this time, Luffy and the others are having a little feast inside Monblanc Cricket's house. As they clicked well with the man and his two friends, they become entranced in the story about the rumored sky island.

Monblanc Cricket also become intoxicated with the happiness and began showing all some of the thing that he found in order the pursue the trueness of the story that his ancestor, Monblanc Noland told the world.

He was not trying to prove that his ancestor didn't lie to the world. However, he wanted to fight his fate against the fate of liar that has befallen onto his ancestor, and affected him as the later generation.

While he showed some of the thing that he found related to Monblanc Noland story, he suddenly remembered the importance of the South Bird after showing the gold statue of the South Bird.

He then urged Luffy and his team to go find the bird, while explaining rhe function of the South Bird.

"Without that bird, you guys won't be able to even try getting onto sky island." Said Cricket.

"Ah!!?"

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

"It's already past midnight. Yet, we need to go to the forest to find it?"

The Straw Hat members were indignant with the late warning.

"Quit complaining. There is no time. Go find the bird!" Urged the man.

This forced Luffy and his teammates to act fast. They hurriedly borrowed some bird catching equipments, and then quickly entered the forest in the dark night.

Seeing them being serious about catching the bird causing Cricket to feel gladdened. Not many people have a strong desire to head to sky island, as those are just a story that was deemed false or only exist in fantasy. However, this little group still strongly believe it.

The man smiled as he watched the group disappearing into the night forest. He then decided to help those little brat. "Masira, Shoujou, let's go. We will help them enhance their crappy ship "

"Alright." Replied the two.

The three of them then started checking on the ship and planning on how they will enhance the Going Merry, in order to make it survive the journey to sky island.

Just then, a ship reached the shore close to Monblanc Cricket's house, and docked at the nearby beach. A group of pirates then came out of the ship and headed towards the Cricket and his two assistant.

Seeing the new group caused Cricket to frown. Masira and Shoujou on the other hand were just some simple-minded people. Therefore, they just approached those stranger with a desire to knock them out.

"Yo, Ossan. I heard you found some gold from the bottom of the sea. So, I'm here for that. Give me those gold." Said the leader of the group, Bellamy the Hyena.

"Oi oi. Don't mess with us, bro." Scolded Shoujou frowning at the sudden demand.

"Coming in the middle of the night and saying 'give me the gold'? That's impossible. Okee go home boy." Said Masira, waving his hand to shuu those strangers.

"So, you two are the bodyguard of this old man? Ah. Such a bad luck for you then." Bellamy smirked at the two who looked like a monkey and an orangutan.

"You guys better be obedient and hand over those gold. Otherwise, you will regret not doing so." Said Sarquiss, Bellamy right-hand man. "Let me remind you of one thing. This man in front of you has a bounty of 55 Million Berry."

The three could not help but squint their eyes when they heard the given bounty. This is higher than the bounty on each of them. Masira got 23 Million bounty, Shoujou got 36 Million bounty, and Monblanc Cricket only got 25 Million bounty.

"Tch. 55 Million Berry bounty and you are already getting cocky? Small fry, who are you trying to show off to?"

Just then, a voice that showed disdain can be heard from the distance. This caused the pirates to frown, and subconsciously glanced towards the direction on which the voice came from.

A young man can be seen walking up towards them in a steady step. This young man is Rex!

After running around for so long until he almost feel his feet going to break, he finally found Jaya Island. However, it was already the middle of the night when he reached the island. Fortunately, the place he reached is on this part of the island, and coincidentally he saw these people trying to make a scene here.

"Kiddo, who are you?" Asked Sarquiss. Let's see if you are worthy of our attention. If not, you will regret it for suddenly barging into our business, thought Sarquiss.

"I'm Portgas D Rex. Nice to meet you guys." Said Rex, introducing himself sincerely.

Hearing that made Sarquiss squint his eyes for a moment. He seems to have heard a similar name like this man. However, he couldn't remember it.

"Nice my ass. Did you look down on the boss just now?" At this time, one of Bellamy's man questioned Rex for his last comment.

"Huh? Are you a dog? Why are you barking?You are his dog, right?"

"You!"

"Ok ok. No need to get angry. Oh right, I do look down on you boss. His bounty is high? 55 Million Berry? Pfft. Weakling." Rex was not polite at all towards this little subordinate.

The man who got insulted as a dog was so angry that he pulled out the knife that was fasten on his waist. "Kiddo, you seems to be eager to leave this world. Let my use. This knife to send you away then."

As soon as he say that, he dashed towards Rex with his knife already moving in stabbing motion. Within a minute, he already reached Rex, and stabbed him on his head.

Just then, Rex's hand swiftly moved toward the attacker. The movement was so fast that the attacker didn't even see the hand already on top of his head.

As soon as he grabbed the head, Rex swiftly pulled it down to the position where the knife are going to stab.

"Ah ahh!!"

Chuck!

"Gyaahh!!"

The knife stabbed right into the nose of the man. Fortunately, the man instinctively loosened his grip on the knife. However, the knife still got pushed until half of it stabbed into the flesh.

"Tss.."

"Geh!!"

"..."

As soon as the guy turned his head up, all the spectators saw the frightening sight of knife stabbing halfway through the head. This coused them to shiver in fright. Some of them could almost feel the pain in their flesh just by looking at the scene.

"Ugh! My bad. You should hurry up and find some medic to treat your wound." Said Rex, feeling a bit of sympathy to the guy.

However, his leg was so honest, that he swept a kick toward the wounded man. The man didn't even have the chance to evade the kick, and got sent away, dropping into the sea.

A momentary silence pervaded the area. Everyone was not ready to see the scene. Bellamy on the other hand frowned when he saw his men got beaten down. He then turned to look at Rex, and showed a sinister smile.

"I see that you have some ability, huh. Oh, I forgot. What did you say your name before?"

Before Rex could answer, Sarquiss volunteered to reintroduce his name. "His name is Portgas D Rex."

"Right. That's your name. I seems to remember hearing some similar name like yours." nodded Bellamy, thinking for a moment but couldn't remember where he heard that similar name. He then looked at Rex and asked, "Have you been to New World before?"

"Nope. Not a chance. I just started my journey in this Grandline." Replied Rex as if it was a matter of fact.

"Just started? How much is your bounty?"

"I don't have any bounty yet. Why?"

"Then you are more weakling then me. Hahaha!" Bellamy burst into a laughter for a moment. Then he turned serious. "How dare a weakling like you belittle me.

Spring Lunge!"

In that instant, Bellamy shot out so fast that he reached Rex instantly. He threw a punch that was powered by the spring propulsion directly at Rex's stomach.

Then something unbelievable happen in front of Bellamy. At the critical moment, Rex instantly moved to his side as if he already predicted the sudden attack. Bellamy could even see him smiling at him while saying, "You missed. Try again."

The moment Bellamy passed by Rex's side, he kicked the ground in the front, and propelled back towards Rex.

"I don't believe that you can evade all of my attack. Spring Lunge!"

This time around, Bellamy purposefully avoided Rex, and propelled randomly on the ground. While he did that, he made sure to be close to Rex. As time goes on, he become faster and faster.

"Now, let me see if you can evade this!"

At some point, Bellamy felt that his speed is already beyond what this young man can evade. Therefore, he decided to launch his speedy punch.

Bam!

Crack!

"ARGHH!!!"

As Bellamy punch landed on Rex's stomach, he suddenly felt his fist punching on something hard. It was so hard, that the bone on his arm got broken upon the collision.

This caused him to scream in utmost pain. Rex on the other hand looked at him in pity.

"Ah, sorry. I forget to mention that I have good defense."