OP C10 - 2 of Blackbeard's Titanic Captains

The next morning as I opened the clinic, I ended up meeting one of my favorite marine characters after Garp and Kuzan: a freshly promoted Rear Admiral Hina.

She stood there in all her smoking, red-suit-wearing, white-coat-draping glory with a few of her crew.

"Do you guys need help? Got a patient for me?" I asked as I nursed the hot coffee I made in the kitchen moments before. I needed some help after I ended up foregoing sleep entirely.

"No, but you treated one of Hina's men when he was hit in the head by one of the citizens trying to rush their child to you. Hina wanted to thank you for it," the marine officer said, ending with a big drag from her cigarette and with a serious expression on her face and a grateful nod.

"Oh, then there was really no need. Treating people is what we do here," I offered with a sincere smile. "If you really want to repay me, you could stop smoking as much as you do. Helps keep your pretty skin young and is good for your health and stamina."

Hina didn't react much to me, but the men behind her looked offended. One of them who I supposed looked a lot like the former Black Cat vice captain Jango with his two heart-shaped glasses even started shouting profanities, suggesting I just called his boss old.

"Uh... in any case, I suppose I recently read about your promotion in the paper Rear Admiral, so congratulations on that. Can I help you with anything else?" I asked with a twitching lip as Hina's subordinates held each other back while trying to break free from the ones holding them back individually as they hurled insults my way trying to be the first to slap some sense into me.

"No. Hina is on a short vacation in her home island, and I will have my men from the Black Cage Corps keep standing guard here for as long as you stay. Thank you for helping Hina's home-town."

She reproached her subordinates slightly with a disapproving frown that had them all swoon on the spot and walked away, leaving her men behind. They were about to continue telling me off, but I held up my hand.

"I meant no disrespect to your captain, so please save your spit. If this is how you will continue behaving and inadvertently scare some potential patients away, I'll report it to the Rear Admiral."

With that, I went back inside and had Hator resume his post as a sort of bouncer who controlled who entered the ship for me. My sparring buddy looked a little distressed because he saw how tired I was from staying up all night but didn't say anything.

Around the time for a late lunch that Raki prepared for me, I finally felt the urgent care patients, mostly people with dirty, scabbed over open wounds, drastically ebb. Instead, there were only 'minor' things left.

I read the newspaper at the table and noticed with a frown that despite some major setbacks, Blackbeard was well on his way to becoming the fifth emperor in the New World. He attacked an insland under the protection from Red Hair Shanks, and while the outcome of their fight was unknown, both Blackbeard and Shanks lived while the island now sported Blackbeards 3-headed flag.

He did the same to a few islands from Whitebeard, and so far, nobody fought Blackbeard to get those islands back.

I got the feeling Ace and Luffy might interrupt their training with Rayleigh to do something stupid, but if neither Whitebeard nor the Dark King could stop them from doing it, it was probably an inevitability.

When I gulped down more food, my observation haki noticed two extremely strong presences entering my detection range, and I hurried to the deck while giving Raki, Lope, and Hator a silent warning.

These two figured calmly made their way through the docks, and then I heard it. A rhythmic tock-tock of footsteps followed by the sound of a cane hitting the floor, adding a sort of melody to it.

Apprehensive of the people coming, I grabbed my spear from my cabin quickly and waited for them near the gangplank. Yet, when I saw the first of the two making his way through the crowd and them dodging to the sides unconsciously, but reverently, I turned solemn.

Speak of the devil. I had only just read about these bastards and here he was: Laffitte, Demon Sheriff. Though, I didn't see the second, and I noticed that they weren't in my observation haki range either. So, a stealth expert. Didn't I kill Absalom so that Blackbeard wouldn't get his hands on this fruit?

Was this a freaking canon event, and they ended up finding the fruit in the New World during one of the many raids of Blackbeard?

"Hello, you fine marines. May I trouble you to let me through? I wish to talk with one of the ship's passengers without blood on my hands," Laffitte offered with a polite, empty smile and a slight tilt of his head that made his top hat cast a deeper shadow over one side of his pale face.

The two marines standing guard in front of the ship made room with a dazed expression despite them guarding the ship until that point in time because of the doctor's lunch break. When Laffitte just passed them, one of them mumbled, "'Demon Sheriff' Laffitte, one of the notorious Blackbeard Pirates from the New World..."

The man turned to his comrade and whisper-shouted, "Dude, snap out of it! Take out your snail and contact Rear Admiral Hina!"

Sadly for him, his totally inappropriate use of 'stealth' failed completely, and Laffitte vanished from his spot, piercing the man who talked just now through the throat with his cane. As Laffitte's smile turned a little more deranged, he said in completely fake reluctance, "Oh my, you went ahead and did it. This was not how I wanted to meet this person..."

Before anyone could say or do anything else, the second marine gained a red line on his neck. With glazed eyes, he fell to his knees, which coincided with the marine's head falling of his corpse. Most normal citizens close to the ship started to snap out of their daze and panic at the sight. The panic quickly spread, and the people at the very front tried to desperately stomp over the people in the back to get away from there as fast as possible.

I watched it all with a solemn expression. Laffitte continued toward the ship and entered with measured steps via the ship's wide gangplank. He briefly regarded the spear in my hands and asked, "Doctor Perry, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, I ask that you call for your vastly overqualified guard. Our boss, the great Admiral Teach, wishes to extend an invitation to one of the ladies on your ship. Could I trouble you to call for Miss Raki?"

Before his creepy smile and pale skin could unsettle me even further, I felt an intent to pierce my chest. I fully concentrated on my observation haki and noticed the sword coming.

With a sweeping kick to deflect the sword's path and slightly leaning forward to extend the range of my spear to simultaneously deliver an armament haki clad thrust to the stealthed attacker, I could by now confidently identify as Shiryu, I managed to draw first blood. And I probably looked ridiculous doing it with one leg and my full upper body pointing forward. Like the photograph of a butterfly knife mid-opening movement. Or a smashed shrim.

"I see! How very interesting. Now I wish I had the orders to get you both," Laffitte said while his teeth started to show as his smile widened.

Shiryu was seen smoking a cigar a lot, so together with my haki, I concentrated on my sense of smell also. In his short time with the fruit, Shiryu managed to get good enough that I couldn't see or sense him - I only felt his intent and when he manages to conceal that in the future, he will be an absolute menace.

Fragrant wine started to wash up next to me in a fluid wave as Raki slowly took form, her Logia form leaving no traces of her coming and going other than the lingering scent. She looked to me and then to Laffitte.

"Good thing the rabble took the two women out for shopping during the break. It's only us four and glasses below deck," Raki informed me while talking in code. Us four meant the four fighting forces Hator, Lope, Raki, and I, while glasses meant our 'prisoner' Kalifa.

My own physical strength always hovered around the strength of a HQ Rear Admiral as I used up my training to enhance my crew mates and the occasional friend from the RA, like Sabo. I was confident the blues couldn't send anything my way that was a challenge to me with my busted haki and assassination techniques, but it looked like I miscalculated.

I could fight Shiryu with my superior haki alone, but I would probably have to show my conqueror haki to do it. Especially if I wanted to come out as the winner.

Since they attacked first, I didn't think they would let the rest of the crew live if we do fight back before they took away Raki. They only mentioned that they wanted to invite Raki, but not for what. Teach could just try to steal the fruit if he wanted.

"Hator, the two of us are going for the invisible guy. Try to smell him. The dude probably didn't shower in months," I said to try and rile them up, but except for a slight twitch in Laffitte's left eye, I gained nothing. "Raki, if you don't feel like going with the creepy gentleman, please take care of the uninvited guest. I don't know his fruit, but his arms can turn into wings, making him quite fast. He also knows Shave or something similar, and he has some form of auditorial hypnotism."

"Very flattering, you know so much about me. But do you really wish to make an enemy out of the Blackbeard Pirates?"

"Well, you come onto my ship uninvited, and ex-Head Jailer Shiryu over there tries to stab me in the heart. I wasn't really left with many choices in the matter," I casually answered while pointing in a random direction to throw the two off their game. I identified the invisible swordsman without ever even seeing him, but I didn't manage to point out his whereabouts despite looking confident.

"Am I correct to assume that Van Augur is trying to snipe us from some ridiculous far distance away?"

Laffitte furrowed his brows. Okay, it looked like they didn't bring the sniper with the warp-warp fruit. Or would he have gotten that fruit already? It was eaten by him somewhere during the time skip after all and many things could change...

"You seem awfully calm. Are there more little monsters hiding on this ship?"

I inwardly scoffed at Laffitte's weak attempt at gaining information and instantly gained a mocking grin, "I'm more than enough for the pervert. Is he done trying to find a naked woman in my ship's bathroom?"

For the first time, I heard an unsteady footstep and immediately lunged in its direction with Shave. My spear play was kept at the easiest level I could get away with for now, and I simply stabbed forward.

Shiryu apparently parried the blow and tried to kick me with a sweep that I countered by taking a step back and stabbing forward once more using the momentum gained by my hip, becoming the center of rotation that enhanced the power my upper body's forward thrust. That time, I landed a clean hit, but my spear didn't manage to pierce Shiryu too deeply.

Armament haki. And the level was pretty high, too. It made sense for someone of his original position. And the fact that he could use me landing a hit to land his own shouldn't have come as a surprise to me either.

A deep cut tore through skin and very faintly into my chest muscle. True to the user of a mythical zoan however, I already felt the cut heal. I also lost no mobility or range of motion despite the damaged muscle. I'd been hurt during training quite often, but this is my first injury in battle that went deeper than skin.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Raki and Laffitte starting their own fight. But their blows, while aimed at lethal spots, looked more like test blows so far. They were casually talking about something, too, but I was a little too deep into my concentration to follow the conversation.

Another swing came at me from an impossible angle, but my observation haki picked it up a little earlier than the last. But I could still allow myself to react slightly later to keep this improvement from being known by my adversary.

Like that, Shiryu and I fought for a good two minutes until Hator suddenly joined the fight by using Shave. His spear thrust was parried by Shiryu's sword, but that was within Hator's plan. With a smirk, my sparring partner thrust forward in quick succession, and every one of his moves was parried quite easily by a bewildered Shiryu.

To save his own stamina, Shiryu released his devil fruit after gaining a bit of distance from the two us and regarded Hator with a mocking expression, "Was that supposed to do something?"

"Well, it was so fast, you couldn't counterattack. I get the feeling we can beat you by outlasting you," Hator answered by using another mislead.

I really taught him well. Because, obviously, he was trying his best to stack his fruit powers in the swordman's sword. The grade and therefore quality of it was high, so he only gave it a sheen of superficial rust even in all those hits. Well, except for the spot where he managed to stack the effect of his fruit.

"Beating one weakling or two won't make a difference to me. I've entertained you ants long enough," Shiryu spat with a quickly darkening expression.

Recognizing the fact that the kid's gloves are getting taken off, I grew solemn. I gave Hator a discreet signal and positioned myself in front of him to receive the next blow.

Shiryu came at me at a speed that was much higher than his previous one, but this time, I could see him. That quickly changed as he turned invisible at the moment of his swing, but I used and reacted based upon my improved observation haki and countered by unleashing a swing filled with a good fourth of my total armament haki.

At the last moment, I even used a smidgen of my conqueror haki, barely enough that someone with knowledge would notice it, but also just barely enough that would hopefully leave Shiryu and Laffitte left wondering if it was what they thought it was the moment they leave here.

When sword and spear met, my muscles were screaming at me. Simply holding onto the spear left my palms bleeding. I was sent backward a bit, and it took my full core strength to not simply fall over or fly off the ship.

Yet Shiryu wasn't done. From a different, more treacherous angle, another sweep followed that I once more blocked using more armament haki but no conqueror haki. I didn't want to give my game away. And this time, the preparation by Hator paid off: Shiryu's sword that was as long as I was tall chipped at the point of contact between sword and spear.

As his white coat billowed and Shiryu was left horrified at his beloved meito, or named sword, Raiu getting damaged, Hator capitalized on this moment and used up more than half of his armament haki to leave a devastating punch to Shiryu's back on the same height as the man's heart. Hator had a very faint grasp over the Hasshoken variant I developed, and he managed to impart the energy current into the swordman's heart and lungs.

Ignoring my screaming muscles, I capitalized on this by using my spear like a javelin, fully embedding the spear into his shoulder and I grabbed Shiryu's head with both hands and brought it down into my knee with as much strength as I could muster.

As we were both left falling after hearing a sickening crunch that hopefully fully broke at least his nose and part of his skull, I managed to grab my spear that narrowly came out of his back near his shoulder and I used up my full concentration and devil fruit powers to make the spear head inside Shiryu's body expand into a circular, two-sided axe head with most of my remaining armament haki while keeping the honed, incredibly sharp edges intact.

His arm and a huge chunk of Shiryu's shoulder came off when I finished the change in my weapon. The axe head's 'inside' was a brittle mess, but this trick of leaving the spearhead's edges intact worked perfectly for amputation when the spear was already inside someone. I tested that on a sea king we caught for food in North Blue during the last month.

The battle came to pause at that, not just between us three but also Laffitte and Raki, who still hadn't drawn any blood between them. Taking deeper breaths than necessary to invite either of the two to continue the attack, I used this moment to make the spear go back to being a spear by bringing the two edges of the axe head closer together again.

"Shiryu, my friend. It seems that you... were disarmed?"

Everyone looked to Laffitte in wonder, even Shiryu. He was in the mood to joke at a time like this?

"If you want, I can take a look at that wound. I've reattached worse amputations. The cut is very clean," I offered to keep up the distraction, and when Shiryu grimaced but Laffitte's smile grew more sadistic, I knew my window was closing.

The spear head was still not fully closed because the Treasure Tree Adam wood of my spear was reinforced to its maximum of my current powers, but I still used the spear and Shave to stab Impel Down's ex-Head Jailer in his guts.

He managed to parry the blow, and as I was about to get another hit in, I felt Laffitte's arms change, and at the same moment, the 'Demon Sheriff' had his knee buried in my side. I still didn't know Iron Body, and my armament haki reserves were pretty low, but I did raise my defenses just enough to prevent my ribs from cleanly shattering and embedding the bone fragments into my organs.

It seemed Laffitte didn't have the time to raise his armament fully either. But Raki didn't let this pass either and attacked Shiryu, who was trying his best to turn invisible to get out with his arm that might still be salvageable.

Raki's attack was something I had her train until she fell: using a very fast, very thin blade of wine to cut. Like a waterjet cutting machine, though Raki had to give up quite early reaching the necessary pressure and instead developed the edge to be as thin as possible.

Using that technique, she managed to land two hits on Shiryu, one on his hand holding both his sword and hand, making him drop everything, and the other one landing on his head. Shiryu had enough battle experience to turn his head at the last moment, but the very tip still left a cut on the man's eye. The cut reached there from all the way of his neck below his ear on the same side of his head.

Laffitte didn't try to attack me another time but instead chose to retreat. With another swoop, he tried grabbing both the sword and the arm, but instead, he could only grab a stick roughly in the same dimensions as my thigh bones.

As he raised high into the air above our ship, I showed him a middle finger as I limped over to Shiryu's arm. I was sure he couldn't quite see what I did, but I didn't care much. I made the wood of the deck swallow up Shiryu's arm so that it was forever lost to him.

"You okay, doc?"

I looked to Hator and shook my head.

"It will take a few days until I'm okay. I'd lose in a one on one against Shiryu, I overestimated myself. So thanks for having my back. Let's see who saw this battle and how many excuses and lies we have to tell," I answered with a sigh.

"Hmm, maybe I should have just gone with them?"

I looked at Raki and shrugged, which made me hiss in pain. "FUCK! Haaa, you could have, but Shiryu attacked me way before that. And the chances that Blackbeard offers you a place among his titanic captains or just kills you to get his hands on your fruit is fifty-fifty in my opinion."

I wanted to lift my shirt right then and there to check the bruising, but I was sure the marines weren't far off and showing my Whitebeard pirates tattoo wouldn't be good. So I looked to Raki and asked, "You look fine, can you handle our guests while I check on my wounds?"

Inside my infirmary, I undressed my upper body and looked into the mirror. My entire left side was already green and blue. With my powers and control over my own body, I felt the hairline cracks on four ribs in many different places. Laffitte's single hit did quite the damage.

I disinfected and bandaged all the cuts Shiryu left on my body before sitting on the sick bed and concentrating my powers to heal myself as best as I can. I turned my observation haki inward and only concentrated on the door as opposed to the whole ship. Only two minutes later, I heard a knock.

I thought it would be Raki informing me of the marines asking what happened, but it was Kalifa instead.

"Come in," I ordered while staying seated with my eyes closed.

"You look quite battered."

"Yep, here to gloat?"

She stopped walking and stayed where she was before unsurely answering, "No... I thought I could offer my assistance in dressing your wounds..."

"You're too late for that. I didn't feel your presence anywhere close to the deck during the battle. Is this you telling me you observed the fight because you know observation haki?"

Kalifa froze on the spot and I knew that she did indeed hide from me that she knew observation haki. Yet, since she lied about it, I could never be too sure of when she unlocked it. If it was before coming onto the ship or during our travels.

"I-"

"Yeah, no need. Tell me, what are you here to do?"

My expression had turned icy by this point. I was beginning to think that allowing her to roam the ship was a mistake.

"I-I don't know how else to prove to you I changed. I'm not allowed to interact with anyone outside this ship, and not even everyone on it. You're not allowing me access to even the newspaper!"

Huh. It was true. I allowed her outside the brig even when docked, though I didn't allow her to leave the ship or speak to the patients. I never really gave her a chance. I wanted her to show me she no longer thinks of regular people as lesser, but I didn't really give her an opportunity...

"Saint Charlos decreed that Marie, my nurse, was to be his slave wife while in Sabaody almost a year ago. She was just a regular woman with a fiance. A fiance Charlos killed in cold blood when he tried to save his wife-to-be from getting abducted while everyone just watched. I killed the Cipher Pol agent transporting her to the noble's ship and hid her before fleeing Sabaody with her," I explained with narrowed eyes, carefully trying to read her emotions.

I continued with my condition, "Train Marie in all six skills of the marine six styles until she can unleash the seventh. The day she kills a Celestial Dragon with Rokuogan or Six King Gun is the day I fully trust you."

"T-that's ridiculous! I don't even know how to use it because my Iron Body and Moonwalk are not on a high enough level!"

"Then you better start getting better soon. And don't worry about Marie. She's physically stronger than you at the very least. I bet she would be on a slightly higher level than even Rob Lucci at this point. And she already knows Shave," I countered as I put on a shirt to head outside. Raki didn't need to get me, I felt Hina arrive.

"Two captains of the Blackbeard Pirate fleet attacking a doctor in West Blue and the doctor not only survived but even managed to cut off an arm from someone as infamous as ex-Head Jailer Shiryu. Do you want to explain something to Hina, Doctor Perry?"

I looked at Hina deciding how to play my cards. I chose not to be outright confrontational but also not as kind as usual.

"Was I not allowed to defend myself? The only marines on scene died right at the very start when one of them snapped out of 'Demon Sheriff' Laffite's hypnotism and pretty much screamed out his intentions to call you with the man right next to him."

"Hina just wants to know why you hide your strength, Doctor Perry?"

I almost wanted to believe her, sadly my answer wouldn't just be for her ears but for her employers, too. And since they now knew that Raki wasn't the only one strong on my ship, things might get vastly more complicated. And despite having alibis, I might still get associated to the dead slave traders...

Fucking Blackbeard!

"My strength is to defend those around me. I lost more in this life than I care to admit and I decided I lost enough."

Hina somehow looked convinced, but the woman didn't respect personal boundaries and asked something I'd rather not discuss in great detail. Sadly, saying nothing at this point as an 'upright citizen' would only put me and my cover into even deeper waters, so I had to give something to her.

"Who trained you in haki then? And did he also train you in spear arts and hand-to-hand combat?"

I decided to humor that question but also put a stop to any follow-up by responding, "I get the feeling you're interrogating me like a criminal. How come you know about my haki and fighting styles yet only me and my two guards fought the two people with a bounty? Will you put me under arrest for being strong enough to defend me and my crew?" I looked at her with narrowed eyes, hoping she gets my point.

I continued, "And as you know, I'm from the grand line. My mentor Doctor Kureha from Sakura Kingdom will happily say as much. Knowing about haki isn't so uncommon. The rest I taught myself with the basis of my martial art developed from an incomplete manual I was given on a random island from a strange middle-aged man. Knowing the human body through medicine was a big help in the development."

Dragon would probably show me the 'Fist of Love' for calling him a strange middle-aged man and referring to the outpost we first met a 'random island', but like this, I did not tell a lie in case Hina's haki is much stronger than I know.

"Why would someone as strong as you not choose to become a marine?"

"I'm helping people in my own way, aren't I?"

Hina was stumped. There was no way she could say I didn't help people, I was pretty much known as a saint in North Blue.

"Couldn't you do more in the marines?"

For a short moment I showed disdain on my face before I reigned in my expression and just shook my head. I sighed and said, "I've seen enough of the world to know the marines would never allow me to do what I do."

I wanted to say much more about the marines, but I was still on good terms with marines and the world government as far as I knew. It probably depended on whether or not someone felt my conqueror haki.

Hina looked disappointed at my admission and finally excused herself, likely to give a full report to the headquarters. But not before leaving me with one more piece of information.

"Blackbeard recently killed Wapol, the former king of your teacher and reportedly ate his fruit after ripping it from his corpse. You might be able to survive against his subordinates, but Blackbeard ate two devil fruits. Don't fight him."

I watched them leave and felt Lope returning moments later.

"What did you learn?"

"A single two mast caravel. Well constructed, only one woman on board. I got her out and left the splinter time bombs like you instructed. If you get lucky with your guess, they'll drown."

"Unlikely, Laffitte has wings, and I doubt he can't reach an island with those. Best case scenario is he has to leave Shiryu behind, probably. Worst case scenario is he finds the splinters first and leaves them with a bunch of innocents at the port."