chapter 57

We spent the rest of the time looking at the workers go about their business while chatting with the middle-aged Shipwright until the work on the black pearl was done.

We then boarded her and set sail immediately after bidding Seamus his fees and bidding him farewell. We didn't anchor the ship at the docks, however, but we remained on the waters near the Irishia kingdom shores instead to be ready to act if anything happened since we were still alert about the marines.

We, of course, didn't forget to keep a lookout in the night, and we all took turns to keep watch in pairs except for Byron, who still needed as much rest as he can get to recover quickly from his injuries.

The only thing worthy of note about the pairs was the Wilson, and myself were not allowed to take lookout duty with just the two of us because we weren't trusted to not fight the enemy alone without alerting the rest of the crew if the enemy does appear.

We even avoided drinking as much as we can to stay sober, so we can react with haste if something expected or unexpected happens. Luckily nothing happened in the end, and we passed the night peacefully, with no excitement.

The sun soon showed itself on the horizon, and the morning hours passed just as peacefully as well as we had our breakfast and spent the time training or just lazing around because we had little else to do.

The boredom thankfully didn't last long, thanks to a call from ensign Obrien informing us that the captain of the marine base had just arrived and that we're expected to arrive at the 80th branch to claim our reward now.

We set sail immediately and made our way there. We were able to see the silhouette of the marine base after an hour or so, causing me to order Laffite to stop the ship outside the marine's canon and addressed my companions after I told them to gather.

"Alright, I'll be going alone, so you guys stay here and turn the ship around to get out of here at the first sign of trouble," I ordered with a calm tone as I looked at my companions. "I'll fight my way out and catch up with the ship if it's a trap, so don't worry about me and just leave," I concluded in a grave, commanding voice as I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"But, captain, it could be dangerous. You should at least take someone with you," said Laffite hurriedly as he took a step forward.

"Laffite's right, captain. If you think that some of us will get in the way, then you should at least take Wilson or Laffite with you," Elly said with a reproaching voice as she glared at me.

"Rehahaha, It's not like I think any of you will get in the way," I said as I moved forward and stood up in front of Elly. "You know what this ship means to old Jim, and I won't risk it getting damaged here, which is why I'm leaving everyone here to guard her," I concluded as I took off my hat and placed it on Elly's head.

"Look, I'll even leave my special hat with you. That's how much I trust you," I stated with a smile as I began patting Elly's head over the hat.

"I'm not a kid to be pacified by offering a toy, captain," Elly said while trying to get my hand away from her head, but I can see the smile on her face, so she wasn't fooling anyone.

Laffite was still concerned about my safety and looked like he had something to say, but Wilson put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, "It's Johnny we're talking about here. He'll be okay," Wilson said with a smile, causing Laffite to shake his head with a sigh and smile as well.

"Alright, you kids, be careful and don't do anything I wouldn't do," I said with a smile and turned around to jump into the sea immediately.

I've chosen to swim my way to the base so as not to show my mastery of Soru and Geppo, as that would only get me more unwanted attention.

I swam towards the marine base with my fastest speed, and I was soon close enough to hear the marine soldiers at the docks shouting about someone approaching the shores while swimming. I ignored the shouting marines as I had to focus on a large creature speeding towards me from below the surface of the water.

'Might as well give the marines a show of force. They might think I'm a pushover, otherwise,' I thought with a smirk as I used geppo with my legs submerged in water to avoid being noticed, dodging the creature's enormous mouth that was trying to swallow me whole.

The creature, a giant blackfish with spikes covering parts of its body, flew out of the water after missing me by a hair's breadth, showing its figure as it flew above the water.

Looking at this, I smiled as I began channeling my impact fist through my muscles, waiting for it to descend back within striking distance. I planted an impact fist-powered punch in its side immediately when it was close enough to do so, destroying its internal organs and killing it on the spot.

I watched as it sunk into the ocean with a smile on my face while the marine's shouting became even louder and dived behind it a second later, dragging its dead body with me towards the docks as I resumed my swim towards the docks as soon as I reached the surface of the water.

I jumped into the docks while dragging the large sea fish and was received warmly by a hundred or so rifles and swords pointed in my face.

"Stand down, men. This person is a bounty hunter here to claim a bounty," came ensign Obrien's voice, causing the marines to lower their weapons, but not without glaring at me first.

"Excuse the crude welcome. We were expecting a ship, not someone swimming towards us while dragging a sea monster," ensign Obrien said as he pointed the oversized fish behind me.

"Oh, this? I didn't want to come empty-handed, so I brought a present with me. I'm sure your cooks can do something with it," I said with a shameless smile, ignoring the fact I just killed this sea monster in front of everyone and dragged it here, causing the marines and the ensign's eyes to twitch in annoyance.

"I also left my crew and ship near the base so we can set sail as soon as I get back since we're kind of in a hurry," I added with a smile.

"You shouldn't have. No, really, you shouldn't have," the ensign said with a blank face, barely holding back the twitch in his eyes as visible black lines appeared on his forehead.

"There's no need to be shy. You can accept it without holding back," I said with a warm smile as I shamelessly patted the ensign on his shoulder assuringly, causing him to lose control as his eyes began twitching intensely again.

"Now, do you have my money, or are there any more procedures I'll have to go through before that?" I asked with a serious tone as I took a step back, dismissing my playful attitude so far.

"The money is ready to be handed over to you. You only need to be present as the captain signs the last papers before we can hand it over," He stated with an equally grave voice as he looked me in the eye.

'I guess I won't be able to avoid getting out of here without finding out what the marine's intentions are, one way or the other,' I thought with a mental sigh.

"Lead the way then," I stated with a calm tone, and the ensign nodded as he turned around and started walking in the direction of the base's interior, causing me to follow behind him.

"So, your captain, what are they like?" I asked while following the ensign out of boredom, trying to pass the time.

"Our captain is the best. She's strong and caring towards her subordinates..." the ensign said and proceeded to praise the captain of this base with a passion. I, however, stopped listening to the word "she" and began imagining all kinds of situations where the marines would use a honey trap to distract me and then try to arrest me or something.

'I really need to get laid. I didn't get any action since Toroa island,' I thought with a bitter smile as I shook my head to clear it of any distracting thoughts, and it happened just in time as the ensign stopped in front of a door and stood aside.

"The captain is inside. She's already expecting you, so hurry up and don't keep her waiting," the ensign said with a stoic voice as he stood next to the door and didn't enter himself.

I made my way into the room and halted my steps in surprise for a second as I saw who was waiting for me inside, but I shook it off and resumed walking.

"Captain black cage Hina, I heard much about you," I said with a smile as I sat down on an expensive-looking, red leather couch.

'She's probably trying to go for one of those cliched power plays where she would ignore me without offering me a seat or something. Unfortunately for her, I don't have even a shred of the patience required to go through that kind of bullshit,' I thought as I adjusted myself to make myself comfortable on the couch.

"All good things, Hina hopes?" She asked in a stoic tone as she stopped reading the papers on her desk and raised her head to look at me instead.

"Nothing but good things, especially from ensign Obrien," I replied as I lit a cigarette.

"Ensign Obrien's opinions might be biased since Hina saved his life before, so take his words about Hina with a grain of salt," She replied just as stoically, but there was a faint smile on her lips at the respect her subordinate had for her.

"I would definitely love to stay and chat with beauty like you, but my companions are waiting for me, and I'm sure you're quite busy as well," I remarked while blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Why don't we get this over with quickly so we can both get back to our business," I concluded with a smile.

"Hina is at least a decade older than you. So flattery will get you nowhere," she said with a raised eyebrow. "And Hina agrees we should get this over with as quickly as possible, but You have to answer some questions first," She concluded as she unconsciously crossed her arms in front of her chest, making her already ridiculously large tits look even larger and drawing my eyes to them.

"Age is just a number, and I'm super into older ladies," I replied with a shit-eating grin as I shamelessly kept staring at her breast, causing her to snort in disdain. "But I guess I can answer some questions, so ask away," I concluded as I finally stopped looking at her mounds and raised my eyes to look her in the eye instead.

"A retired shipwright known as the old Jim personally built your ship even though he did not accept any commission in years now, so how did you convince him to do it?" Hina asked while ignoring my earlier remark.

"We didn't convince him to do anything. He took over the commission from another shipyard by himself," I replied with a shrug. Hina didn't look convinced, but she moved on to the next question nonetheless.

"Your prosthetic arm seems to be made with very advanced technology. From where did you obtain it?" She asked again as she looked at my silver prosthetic arm.

'That's why I didn't want to deal with the marines in the first place. Thankfully, I already have a somewhat convincing excuse for such a situation,' I thought with a mental sigh.

"I lost my arm while saving a certain scientist, so he gave me this one instead," I replied while patting my left arm.

"Who is this scientist, and where is he right now? She asked, trying and failing to mask the impatience in her voice when it was time to ask about my prosthetic arm.

"I'm afraid I can't help you there as the man didn't want to tell me his name nor did he tell me where he was going, and I prefer not to talk about this subject any further," I replied with a resolute tone, making it clear that I won't answer any more questions about the subject.

"Hina sees, moving on." She said with some disappointment in her voice.

"You were seen using a secret technique that belongs to the world government in the Ballywood kingdom while fighting Frank Nitti, the mob boss. Who taught you such a thing?" She asked, and there was a warning tone in her voice as she spoke, meaning that I'll have to answer this question.

'I guess the marines have more presence here than I thought. They even know about something like this," I thought with another mental sigh at my carelessness.

"No one taught me. I figured it out myself after reading about it in a pirate journal I found buried with the pirate's treasure when I was stranded on a deserted island," I concluded with a shrug.

"Hina is not convinced. It takes years for people to learn those secret techniques even while under the guidance of masters. Hina doesn't believe you learned by yourself, let alone figured it out by simply reading about it," She said while glaring at me, not even trying to mask her outrage at my remarks.

"What can I say? I'm just that good, Rehahaha," I replied with a chuckle, without falling for her attempt to provoke me into saying something I didn't plan to say.

Hina then proceeded to ask me all kinds of questions for the next half hour about matters both small and big, and I answered most of them with half-truths or outright lies since I expected to be asked about them eventually and prepared the answers ahead of time.

The only question to take me by surprise was about Laffite and the circumstances of him joining the crew because Hina seemed to be particularly interested in that piece of information, and I answered her truthfully without mentioning the parts about piracy, of course.

"That's all the questions I have," Hina said as she looked down and picked up a paper which she signed and offered to me to sign as well. I signed it but not before carefully reading its contents to make sure it didn't have any hidden clauses or traps and gave it back to her, causing her to reach under her desk to retrieve a suitcase full of cash and throw it in my direction.

"Thank you for the business, captain Hina," I said with a smile after investigating the contents of the suitcase and was about to get up and leave, but I was interrupted.

"One more thing before you go," Hina said with narrowed eyes, causing me to halt my actions and tense my body, preparing to jump into action if necessary.

(Author's note: discord gg/sEtqmRs5y7 <—- the link to my discord server it already has a couple of awesome guys with memes and constant discussions about one piece)