A Minor Skirmish

Before we started sailing towards Water 7, I had to let Whitebeard know that we were going to get a new ship. 

He was still grumpy over Dragon bothering him, so he was more than happy to get rid of me for a bit. When the rest of the Pirate crew had heard what had happened earlier, they couldn't help but laugh at the both of us. Such was the relationships that had been fostered within the Whitebeard Pirates.

Either way, we wasted no time starting our sail towards the ship building island. Our first stop ended up being within Fishman island. The territory had yet to be claimed by Whitebeard, but I had already advised Whitebeard to secure it as an act of sincerity. He never really said anything in response, but I could tell that he had at least taken my words into consideration.

Anyway, the fishmen never really gave us too much trouble, so we promptly resupplied and made our way out of the island. It was quite troublesome getting the resin coating for the ship, I would need to get a ship coater in the crew soon. 

Now we had been sailing along Paradise for quite a while, I remained seated on my trusty couch with Stussy as we both did our own thing. Stussy had been reading the World Economic News while drinking some tea, and I was smoking a cigarette while daydreaming. I was fresh from a nap that I had taken earlier so I didn't feel like taking another one.

However, in the distance in front of us, one of our spotters managed to see part of the sea freeze over completely. The ice was quickly spreading towards our direction, and he was currently yelling at the crew that was handling the ships direction to turn around. It was too late, unfortunately, our ship immediately stopped moving as the ice hindered the ships movement. It also started covering the ship with ice too, almost turning the ship into complete ice; had it not been for my lightning that is. 

I quickly summoned some lightning to break the ice that was trying to coat the ship. Because of my lightning's temperature, the ice immediately melted, solving the immediate problem on the ship. However, the overlying problem remained.

"How are we going to move the ship?" Ken looked up to me while asking.

I immediately used my Observation Haki to detect the source of where the ice came from. I wasn't a fool not to realise that this was the doing of Kuzan, the Ice-human of the Marines. 

Sure enough, I could sense an intense battle happening in the distance, judging from what was revealed to me through the Observation Haki. I concluded that it was Kuzan fighting Donquixote Doflamingo. He was notorious for ruling over the underworld with an iron fist, but he wasn't that person at the moment. Right now, he looked more younger, more ambitious, and.... weaker.

However, that really didn't matter to me. It wasn't a plain secret that the Marines had been after Doflamingo when he was younger before he could get the position as a warlord of the sea. He had probably done something within Paradise or the New World; and was currently going back home to North Blue so that he wouldn't land himself in too much trouble with anyone. 

Suddenly, I could see a stray cannon head on over our way as we watched the two groups go at it. Ken immediately appeared before he kicked the cannonball away from the ship before it could cause any major issues.

"Commander Boris! What should we do?" Ken immediately asked me after landing in front of me. 

I continued smoking as I pondered our options, in plain sight, this wasn't even our fight to begin with. So it wouldn't make any sense to jump right in and fight for no reason, and it wasn't like we had allied with the Donquixote Family or the Marines either. 

"We'll just have to burn the ice and be on our way, there isn't a reason to fight these people; ignore them," I ordered before closing my eyes, and letting a puff of smoke in the air. It wasn't my fight, and I wasn't planning on making it either.

Stussy could only smile and spread her Observation haki in the distance, I guess she was curious as to how the Family was doing against Kuzan. The rest of the crew began using their Rokushiki techniques to break the ice away and continue sailing. As they did so, I couldn't help but think about the advantages of having a tanker as a ship. The bow could have a oval-like tip so as to break through the ice a bit better whenever we go through situations like this. 

Also, we could have a paddle for proportion instead of relying on wind to propell us from one island to the other. This all sounded great, but I couldn't help but think of the consequences, It would be a lot slower than most ships. Also, the maintainance would be quite the headache for me; I continued to weigh over the pros and cons while we kept sailing.

It was only then that I felt a presence stare at me. I slowly opened my eyes to identify the presence, but nothing came up. Instead, I felt a massive attack coming our way, Ken must have sensed it as well, because he immediately leaped into the air before he kicked away a large piece of Magma coming our way.

"You're not getting away from me, Pirate scum," A man could be heard speaking from the back of the ship.

Everyone within the ship immediately became alert as they heard footsteps coming closer and closer towards the front of the ship. It was funny, because up until now, this had been the second time I hadn't sensed the presence of other Marine Forces behind us; it was getting annoying quite honestly. I could easily sense whatever was under the sea, but whenever it came to the Marines, I never seemed to be aware of what was happening.

"I must be complacent, to let you on my ship so easily," I commented, I hadn't left my position on my couch. Though I couldn't say the same for Stussy.

"I thought Admiral Kong's orders to use submarines to keep an eye on Doflamingo was stupid, he's a man who never lets go of his pray," Vice-Admiral Sakazuki commented, "I never thought that I would be able to meet more members of that wretched Whitebeard Pirate crew. This is a gift I refuse to give up."

"Well that's unfortunate, because it looks like you're going to have to vacate the ship," I snapped back.

"There's no need for me to vacate, because I will be burning this ship to the sea," Sakazuki commented. I could sense his arm raising in temperature as lava began dropping on the deck, burning it while doing so.

Ken wasted no time lunging at Sakazuki, he drop-kicked him square on the chest and sent him back a couple of meters, it was only thanks to his haki that his limbs didn't seem to be burnt off.

However, it would take much more than that to be able to stop someone as persistant as Sakazuki.