Ch.33 Dried Squid

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　「Chakra : 1,02/1572,97」

　'huff* huff* wheeze* huff'

　Rei sprawled on his back with difficult breathing on the deck, he put one of his hand over his forehead. His chakra reserves was now truly on the verge of emptied completely after many "failed succesfull" attempts using Suijinheki.

　"Fucking useless! Come on Rei, is there any 'bad' idea you haven't come about?" He mumbled while trying to adjust his breath.

　"If only the system give me water jutsu, i might be out of this current situation!"

　Rei still couldn't think calmly. Instead of assessing his current inability to control the chakra, in denial he just blame the technique for being an 'asshole'.

　"System gacha open!" Rei said faintly.

　At first Rei wanted to proof his suspicion regarding his level up by saving his G-pts until he could rolls at least 100 times, however he felt he doesn't have any choice for now.

　 「Ding! you have 101 G-Points, would you like to use it? x1(10pts), x10(100pts), x100(1000pts)」

　'Wham!'

　Rei sat down abruptly, he saw with hopeful eyes at the system panel.

　"10 times? Hehehehe! Thats good! Come on give me something good! gacha roll!"

　「Ding! would you like to use your G-pts?」

　"Yes! Damn it!"

　「Ding! congratulations, you got x7 wooden boxes, you got x3 silver boxes. would you like to open it? current G-pts : 1」

　「Ding! congratulations, you have leveled up! you got x1 special box rewards」

　Rei's eyes suddenly turned wide-open! he couldn't careless for his level up for now, his focus was only towards the row of boxes!

　"No black box? HAHAHHAA! GREAT! FUCKING GREAT! System, open wooden boxes!」

　「Ding! Congratulations, you got x6 Hiraishin Kunai, x4 Hyorogan, x1 Blank Ninja Technique scroll (D), x1 Blank Ninja Technique Scroll (B), x1 Battle Needle Sets」

　Seeing the rewards, Rei couldn't help but frowned.

　"Come on! Give me water jutsu! Open silver...."

　Rei stopped abruptly, as if regained his clarity.

　"Wait wait, lets open the silver box one by one...."

　And yet, unexpectedly within next moment the system prompt appeared all of a sudden cutting Rei short!

　「Ding! Congratulations, you got x1 Jōnin Close Combat Mastery...」

　"What the fuck? I haven't...."

　「....You got x1 Yorozuya Clan "Kiseru" ...」

　"Come on! Give me water jutsu!" Exclaimed Rei almost given up, he felt the system rewards prompt was being too slow to appear while in fact it was all normal.

　Rei couldn't even think clearly at this point, his silvery eyes were bloodshot in anticipation! Then finaly,

　「 ....You got (D) ninjutsu....」

　"YES!"

　「.....Suiton : .....」

　"YEEESSSS! YESSSS!"

　「.....Kirigakure no Jutsu....」

　"FUCK ME! NOOOOOOOO!"

　Once again, thousands upon thousands of insults and profanities could be heard from the boat in the middle of nowhere.

　'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

　Like a madman Rei slammed his head repeatedly on the deck, there was no such words in the whole dictionary to describe how resentful he was currently feels!

　「Chakra : 0.98/2074.04」

　Taking a deep breath, Rei sprawled on the deck once again seemingly at lost of all hope,

　"Hu hu, hehehe, HAHAHAHHAAHA."

　Rei burst into maniacal laughter, seems like our Rei had finaly lost it! However at the moment of desperation, he suddenly recalled about Apis, Bokuden, Mono, Carl. everyone he had met even Hardy.

　Rei let out a sigh of breath as he mumbled, "System, open Disciple Live Moments..."

　「Ding!

　Disciple : Apis (early stage Genin)

　Status : Healthy

　　Live Moments : (practicing chakra while cooking, trying to incorporate chakra into food) 」

　Finaly, a faint smile appeared on his face. In the desperate situation, watching his disciple good condition could actualy elevate his mood. Rei's chuckled as he saw what Apis currently doing. it reminds him of the first time he tasted Apis "wonder food".

　It has been more than a month since Rei and Apis said goodbye to each other, and now Rei really missed her dearly.

　Closing the panel, Rei saw straight towards the blue sky, he smiled wryly and thought, "who would have thought, my journey would end like this...."

　「Chakra : 0.76/ 2074.04」

　"....Apis, Mono, Bokuden, Carl. i'll miss you guys, i hope we can meet once more, maybe in future? Or in next life...."

　Continuing his thought, Rei closed his weary eyes. He felt his rugged breath and strength began to leaves his body. Keeping his smile, he said faintly,

　"...The sun are still beautiful today, dying as dried squid? Huhuhu, thats not bad though..."

　Finaly, Rei couldn't held on anymore! The infamous White Ghost actualy lost his consciousness on the boat! In the middle of nowhere, seemingly at the gates of death!

〜〜〜〜〜

　Unbeknowns to Rei, just a few distance away. There was actualy a huge ship coming closer towards his current position!

　In fact, if only Rei didn't lost his mind and keeping his cool since 30 minutes ago, he could see the ships coming out from the horizon!

　The ship could be seen steadily cruising through the waves, on top of its main mast one could see a black flag of Jolly Roger waving by the wind.

　The Jolly Roger has peculiar appearence, it depicted the skull turns towards its right side with crossed bones on its background and a huge red love siganage at the very middle of the skull, tattoed on its left cheek.

　On top of the newly appeared pirate ship, one of its crew atop of the ship's crows nest shouted while holding a binocular, "CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN ALVIDA! THERE'S A BOAT AHEAD!"

　'BAM!'

　Suddenly the captain's cabin opened forcefully making the pirate crews flinched! Which since the ship appearance had done nothing but cleaning, swiping, polishing and anything needs to be done in order to make the ships clean and shiny.

　After the captain's cabin door opened, someone stepped out from inside, she could be seen carried a huge spiked iron mace on her shoulder.

　The captain of the pirate ship which surprisingly a woman walked towards the deck after hearing what her subordinate had said.

　"WHAT DO YOU SAYS?"

　Her raucous voice shriekes loudly, her appearance couldn't be described as pretty nor beautiful. She was a tall obese woman with freckles on her face, her long wavy hair were being kept by her white cowboy hat and red plume atop of it as decoration.

　She wore a red neckerchief, a pink plaid shirt, and a blue captain's coat over it. Her fingers also being occupied by rings on each of it, her fingernail were long and painted red.

　Seeing their captain on the deck, the pirate crews stopped at what their doing and gathered in front of her, much to her displeasure!

　'WHAM!'

　Knocking her spiked iron mace on the deck, Alvida yelled loudly, "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS STOPPING FOR? KEEP CLEANING! I WANT MY LOVELY 'MISS LOVE DUCK' SPOTLESS!!!"

　The crews immediately answered before they continuing their cleaning job,

　"AYE AYE MY LADY!!"

　Alvida turned her attention towards the crow's nest and ordered loudly,

　"AND YOU! COME DOWN HERE!"

　The watcher gulped slightly as he followed the command, when he stood in front of the lady captain all of sudden.

　'Grab'

　The obese woman grabed his poor head, and closing her round face towards the jittery watcher.

　"What did you say just now?"

　"...The, theres a boat ahead..." Stammered the man with cold sweat trickling down his back.

　Alvida squinted her eyes and asked once again, "...Before that?"

　In confusion, the watcher answered, "..Ca, Captain?"

　'WHAM!'

　Poor man didn't even knew what happened as Alvida slammed her spiked iron club towards his head!

　"UWAAAKH..." The man couldn't help but shrieked loudly in pain, he watch in horror as blood spewing out of his head!

　"LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU BOYS! WHAT DO YOU SAY WHEN YOU CALL ME?!" Shouted Alvida as all of her pirate crews answered in unison,

　"LADY ALVIDA, MY LADY ALVIDA!"

　Alvida harrumphed in satisfaction, then she took out the binocular from her back, and pointed it towards the small boat.

　"Hmm, there's someone laying over there...Men!"

　"AYE MY LADY!" The crews began to gathers when Alvida called them.

　"Fish him up from there!"

　Not taking too long, one of the crew descended by using a rope stairs, he couldn't help but exclaimed when he saw who it was laying on the boat!

　"LADY ALVIDA! IT'S SEEMS WE CAUGHT A BIG FISH!"

　When the pirate crew carried Rei onto Alvida's ship, everyone were flabergasted! Alvida herself couldn't help but wonder, what kind of fortune or misfortune gonna befell on them as she witnessed who was the one they caught.

　The man has sunken eyesocket and cheek, his cheekbones protruding out and his skin almost become one with his bones all over his body, he wore black yukata which by now loosely hanging on his body, his long white ponytail sprawled messily without care, there were 2 small horns protruding out shyly out of his messy hair.

　Alvida nudged one of her crew to check on Rei's body. Helplessly without choice, the crew moved closer slowly while nervously gulping.

　When he finaly check the body's condition, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, "My lady, it seems he's just unconscious, he's got accute dehydration and his condition doesn't seems too good!"

　Hearing him, Alvida couldn't help but frown. however, the rest of the crew began to whispering each other.

　"Hey, hey, do you think he's 'him'?"

　"I, i think so. He's got horns afterall."

　"White skin, white hair, 2 horns, this is undoubtedly him..."

　"Yeah, the notorious rookie, the White Ghost!"

　As the last crew's said the name which appeared on everyones mind, silence suddenly descend!

　They began to wonder in agitation! 45 Million Bellies! The destroyer of 8th Branch Marine Base which had been famously known in East Blue for its naval superiority, now laying unconsciously right in front of their eyes!

　"Silence!" Said Alvida, even herself right now didn't want to raised her voice in the presence of such a man.

　"My lady? What are we gonna do to him?" Called one of the pirate in wonder, in fact everyone presence has only one thing inside their mind, money!

　Alvida lowered her head as she scrutinized Rei's face which even with his current condition couldn't hide his superior looks.

　However, after considering its pros and cons, Alvida finaly made up her mind, she said.

　"Tie him! Lock him in the brig! We'll exchange his bounty in our port!" Alvida then shook her head and leaves the scene.

　Alvida actualy wanted to help Rei, as maybe he would repays her back his gratitude. Who doesn't want to have 45 million Bellies man as subordinate? However, she still has some rationality left, if it was Rei owing her a debt it might still be possible. However, there was no way Alvida could turn him to become her subordinate after saving him.

　And so, while the White Ghost still unconscious. The best way and the safest thing to do was to get Rei's bounty from the bounty center at the port. There's a reason why the wanted poster has 'Dead or Alive' on it after all.

　"NO ONE TO GIVE HIM ANY WATER!" Alvida gave the crews one last order before she returns towards her own cabin.

　'BAM!'

　Hearing the cabin's door closed, the pirates began to heed her order, they tied Rei's body tightly and locked him up inside the ship's brig.

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