16 Stray

Sitting on the deck, Dante bit the sugarcane in his hand, "Monta. According to the map, when will we reach Bokka island?

"About a week."

"Haizzz. It is so boring to sail with only two of us. Should we have a few more crews? Should I really hire some weakling to make it marrier?

No, at least they should have some decent strength or other quality. Like grandpa said, sailing is the best with good companions. Even a burden should have something to offer." after sucking all the juice, Dante munched the cane and spit out the waste.

"Asking and answering by yourself. You are that bored?" Monta mumbled as he wiped the floor

"Ehhh, what was that? A boat?" from far, Dante saw a floating boat in the middle of the sea. Its mast had been broken and the boat was drifted by the wave.

Dante moved his ship to the boat. Seeing the condition of the boat, he was sure the boat was hit by storm recently.

After he get close to the boat, he saw a person was lying on the deck. Dante immediately jump to the ship and checked whether he was alive or not.

* *

"He surely can eat." Monta commented.

"Just like you." Dante added.

"Tch. It's not like you eat less." Monta refuted.

After he found that the young man was alive, Dante did a simple treatment. The guy woke up not long after that.

He was in state of hunger the moment he woke up. Dante give him some food and they were gone as fast as lightning.

He kept asking for more. It was as if his stomach was endless. Dante didn't ask much and kept on feeding him.

After a few more round, he finally stopped.

"Thanks for the food." the young man bow down.

"No big deal. Sit down." Dante didn't care much about it as he had plenty of food.

"Now. Can you tell me, what had happen to you? You didn't survive a whirlpool too right?" Dante asked.

"Too? Have you survived a whirlpool before?" the boy asked.

"No. Not me. Forget it. Just introduced yourself and tell me what had happened." Dante immediately denied.

"My name is Daiki . Dominic Daiki. I was a pirate." Daiki introduced himself.

"Pirate?" Dante looked toward the broken boat.

"Did you just started your journey? Are you a captain? Aiming to become Pirate King? Why did you say 'was'?" Dante kept asking.

"Err.. No. I was just a pirate crew. Our pirate was disbanded not long ago. I am on my own now. " Monta explain his situation.

"Then, tell me one more thing. What kind of pirate are you? Grey or black?" Dante asked again.

"Grey? Black? Are you sure we are talking about pirate here? As far as I know all pirate use black flag. Never of grey flag before." Monta confused.

"My bad. I never explain this before. I separate pirate into 2 type. Grey and Black pirate. In a simple words, grey pirate are the bunch of people who traveling on the sea for the sake of adventure and freedom. They won't hurt people or village they visited.

"The black pirate on the other hand, they do the stuff pirate was infamous for. Robbing, killing innocent people, espionage and every other bad thing. In other words scumbag pirate. Well, 90% pirate usually black. " Dante explained.

"In that case, we were grey I guess. My former captain was a good man. And we never rob any village. We did robbed another pirate we met though. But sir, I prefer you don't separate us like that. After all pirates are prideful people. Whether good or bad, pirates are pirates." Monta explained.

Dante nodded a few times as sign of understanding.

"Then, let me welcome you again. I am Dante. Mustang Dante. I am welcoming you to on board on this merchant ship, Akatsuki. Here, this is your food bills." Dante passed a bill to Monta.

" B-bills?" Monta was surprised as he looked at the bills.

"Did I just eat a 2.1 million berry food?!!!"

"There is no way all that food will cost that much." Monta shocked looking at the bills. It was totally rip off price.

"Of course it cost that much. You just eat 30 portion of food. My food never comes cheap. It cost 70,000 berry for each portion." Dante smiled.

"Are you sure you are not pirate? Daiki asked angrily.

"What? You don't want to pay?"

"Listen up Daiki san. In my ship there is one and it is the most important rule. Everything you take from this ship shall be paid. I will charge normal price for normal people and double price pirate like you.

No matter who you are, you will pay what you already eat. Even if you refuse to pay, I will make you." Dante raised his fist and started to warming up.

"I am grateful for the food. But I really didn't have much berry to pay all that. I am totally broke here." Daiki admitted his economy's status.

Hearing the answer, Dante suddenly froze. His right eye blinked a few times.

"See, I don't even checked your broken ship and preserve it in case you have a valuable asset. Maybe you got something? " Dante pointed at the broken ship.

"No. I had nothing. I am sure of that. Daiki shook his head.

"Damn it. This is my first business on the sea.

To think you are can't afford to pay your food.

Am I going to take one more freeloader?" Dante sat on a chair and began to grumble.

"What do you mean 'more freeloader'? I work for you. Shitty Boss" Monta curse. He was still holding a grudge over Dante's decision of not turned back for his money.

"That's it!" Dante suddenly stood up and slapped his fist to his palm.

He turned to Daiki and smiled.

Monta immediately get a cold shiver seeing the smile.

"Hey, you looks strong. Work for me and pay for your food." Dante grinned.