31. New Bounty

Two days have now passed, since we left Firewind Island towards Doxtor Island, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

I was currently laying on the front of the deck, sunbathing.

Even though we are now two people on board, but I still continued with my soft training, as I still can't be sure, when an unexpected enemy shows up and we have to fight, even if there shouldn't be anyone in the East Blue, who could beat me anymore. Well at least logically speaking, but who knows, what kind of hidden people are still here.

Coo

When I saw the newscoo, I quickly waved it over and paid it for the newspaper.

Oh interesting, so it's now this time eh?

The O'Hara incident seemed to have happened. And it really was the same shit as the anime. Sigh, what a mess.

I have already thought about, taking Robin in my crew, but there were two problems. One I don't really know where to find her, and I doubt, that I will be able to track her down, if the world government was unable to capture her for twenty years. And secondly, I don't know if she would be even willing to follow me. From what I can still remember, Robin was pretty paranoid, which would slowly accumulate and become stronger the longer she's on the run, so if I don't find her soon, then she would probably be unwilling.

But this didn't mean, that I were unwilling to take her with me, but I decided to let nature take its course, and if I were to meet her and she's willing to come with me, then I am definitely more than willing to welcome her to my crew, she will be a real beauty in the future after all, and who doesn't like more beauty's being around oneself?

Gorarara!

This time O'Hara wasn't the only interesting article, there were two more.

One was about Firewind Island, where the massacre was mentioned, and how it supposedly happened. The legend being true and all, but they don't know who unsealed the beast, and the  beast was already being tracked down, so no need to panic. Well what a load of bullcrap. But what can I say? I mean I'm happy, they didn't put the blame on me and all, but it slightly reeked of a conspiracy, as this didn't really align with the usual style of marines and the world government.

They rather blamed something elusive like an beast, even telling that is is still on the run, creating unease and anxiety in the general populace, than simply blaming me, a supposed pirate. A pirate, who was even sighted there. This smells fishy.

The next interesting article, also had something to do with me. It was me killing Rear Admiral Horin. It talked about how I the vicious ruthless and cruel pirate killed the noble, honorable and admirable Rear Admiral Horin, who always had only the safety of the East Blue on his mind, in cold blood and without reason. Yeah, sure this selfcentered idiot, who only had his fame in mind, was truly a hero.

It also talked about his successor, Commodore Fanri, who will get promoted soon. There was also an interview with her, and how she thinks about me, where she declared, that she would start hunting me down, as soon as she got promoted and bring me to justice and all that crap.

Doesn't matter.

Ah right!

It should be here.

I shook the newspaper a bit and soon a few loose papers fell of, two of them let my eyes shine.

New Bounty posters!

One from me the other from Alex.

Wanted Dead or Alive

‚Freedom Sword'

96.000.000 Berry

Wanted Dead or Alive

‚Traitor' Alexander Ridfield

30.000.000 Berry

The bounty poster of Alex depicted her in the standard marine uniform, standing ramrod straight. She looked indeed very manly, even with her beautiful face.

Gorarara!

„Alex! Come look at this!"

I shouted for Alex, who was currently under deck, doing who knew what. I mean there wasn't really anything special in this ship. Just the captains quarters, 2 crew quarters, each with 4 beds, one for males one for females, the kitchen with a small dinning room, the storage and some small shower and toilet.

After not even a minute, I could see Alex already walking over to my side. When she stopped besides me, and before she could say anything, I shoved our two bountys into her hand.

„Look! We both got new bountys. Gorarara!"

Seeing them I could see her smile slightly, but it soon turned into a sour Look, when she saw her picture and nickname.

She grew black lines on her face and crumbled the posters in her hands, when she clenched them.

She seemed angry.

But just as I was expecting her to punch or kick something, hopefully not me, in anger, she suddenly sighed and let go of the bounty posters, letting them fall to the ground. She then turned around and walked back, the way she just came.

But as she turned around, I could see her sad face, and something stirred in me.

„Alex! Don't worry what those mongrels, wrote, or what your title is, I know who you are, and know I can trust you with my back, as you are no traitor! So just forget what the world calls you! And you also don't have to worry about your manly photo. I know you are a beautiful woman! Gorarara."

Alex stopped, and glared at me with a dark look.

„What was that, Captain?"

„Ah, nothing nothing. Gorara..ra."

„It better was."

Alex, sure can be scary, no woman can be scary.

Alex continued on her way under deck, but now not as gloomy as before, as I could even see her smiling. Making my stomach flutter a bit.

Sigh

Her smile is just too charming.

Anyways.

Mission accomplished!

…..

A few hours after the little escapade with the new bountys, I could see at the horizon a brewing storm, but this didn't really matter for me, as I already sailedthrough a few dozen of them in the past, even in the Grandline, and never with any problems.

So I continued sailing along the same route, I calculated towards Doxtor.

A while later, in the middle of the storm, something, I hadn't thought about happened. Our second mast broke, and as fortune, or more like misfortune would have it, it crashed into the main mast, breaking it too.

What!

I was so confident in my previous successful sailing, that I didnt even have the slightest thought about something like this happening. Because of this, I was too late to do anything to stop the second mast crashing into the first.

Even though I had my Attack Domain already up, this was to emulate there being a bigger crew, able to sail such a big ship. As I would use weak forces, through my Attack Domain to do the things, that normally other crew members had to do.

This was also partly a reason I couldn't react, as I was concentrating on something else as it happened.

But still, the biggest reason for this accident, would have to be my own arrogance about my navigation skills.

Sigh

This is something I still didn't get. Just skill alone is not enough!

Experience is something just equally important. And I should always stay focused and open, as even with my experience, I don't know everything. And on the sea there can always happen something unexpected, just like this.

Although I navigated in the Grandline, and yes the storms there were many times worse than this one, but that was always with a good and intact ship, not like now, where I sailed with a barely repaired second mast.

Don't get me wrong, Alex did a good job, something I would have never been able to do, but she still wasn't even considered a rookie shipwright.

Speaking of the devil, Alex just now came running onto deck.

She usually stayed under deck, even when it's storming outside, as she knew, I could handle it usually.

„What happened?"

„Well, the second mast broke, and as I wasnt expecting something like this, I was too late to react and it crashed into the first mast, taking it down with it."

As she looked towards the place where the masts should have been, she only saw two stumps and the two masts laying besides them.

Seeing that she looked slightly guilty.

„Don't worry! This was my fault. I was too confident in my skills and got careless, otherwise I could have prevented this."

She slightly shook and a small smile crept up her face, but she soon turned neutral again and shook her head.

„No. If I had done a better job, then this wouldn't have happened. I'm sorry."

She slightly lowered her head and sounded a bit depressed. Which stirred something in me again.

She is just too charming.

Sigh

„Don't worry about it. It also isn't the time for us to debate whose at fault, which by the way was mine, but we have to first look how we can get out of this situation. Having no masts is a real problem."

She smiled a bit at my words and nodded.

Ah!

Just too gorgeous.

Ah it's not the time to think about that. I should consider my advice myself.

Yeah, the storm shouldn't be that much of a problem, even without masts, as we can simply let us take away from the current, but after the storm is over, it will become a big problem, for us to move anywhere.

We can only count on our luck now.

...

The storm was indeed not that much of a problem, even without our masts, as the storms here are still considered relatively light.

What is a problem, is that we now have no way to move anymore, without our masts, traveling with the wind.

We also couldn't repair them, as we lack in tools and materials to fix them.

A true headache.

We can now only hope to meet a ship or find an inhabited island before our supplies get empty.

Luckily Alex, refilled them before we departed Firewind Island, as we still have enough food and water for one and a half months in normal times, but I decided to ration it a bit to let it last longer, so they are now enough for two and a half months. This was already the limit, in order for our body's to not detoriate.

We can now really only rely on luck, a massive amount of luck even, as after my calculations, we ended up in a very deserted part of the sea, thousands of miles away from the next inhabited island, or the normal routes merchants would take to travel.

So we indeed needed a good amount of luck.

....

And we indeed got lucky.

Well a bit.

After six weeks, being at the mercy of the currents, and two more storms we finally arrived at an island.

But this island, was on not even one map, so the chance of it having a civilisation, is rather low. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as who knows, what stance these locals may have towards outsiders and how strong they were.

I just hope it will have food and water, as if it has, we can simply stay here and wait for my Master, who should come within the next year or so, in order to teach me haki.

And so, we let the anchor of our wreck down, at the appropriate distance and boarded a small lifeboat, to set foot on the island.

We were not prepared for what was about to come.