Chapter four: Brown

I followed the crew to the main deck as everyone gathered there except Sally and Miss Yalta, they were on the water ready to board and inspect the pirate ship as soon as they board ours. Nobody in the crowd was worried as it was exactly how it went during previous raids- let them board our ship, get them close and comfortable, then when the captain gives the permission, everyone attacks. But I on the other hand was afraid shitless after hearing what the captain whispered to me. He said, "I leave it up to you to kill the captain of the other ship, and I'll only make a move after you are successful in doing so." I kept repeating in my head what he meant by it. Does he intend to test my abilities? But why would he put the crew in such a dangerous situation for that? Am I missing something? Maybe the pirate captain was weak and easy to kill. Maybe I could accomplish the task with ease.

My fantasy about the pirate captain didn't last long as the pirates begin to board the ship a few minutes after we raised our sails. There were some fifty men armed with cutlass and pistols. Half of them surrounded the crew on the main deck and half of them surrounded the captain, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Gates who were on the helm deck. The crew acted scared of all the guns and blades pointed at them, but that was just to make the pirates feel secure. But in truth, everyone on the main deck was ready to plunge no the pirates at a moment notice from the captain. But only I knew that today was a different story. I had to kill the pirate's captain, and only then would the captain make his move.

The captain and the other two raised their hands like they were surrendering. "Alright! Alright! We won't make a move, nor will we stop you. Just take whatever you want and leave," the captain said politely. Hearing that the pirates made way for their captain and that was the first time I saw him and he did not look weak. He was very tall and muscular. He was naked from waist up but his torso was fully covered in all sorts of scars. He looked very scary, and I now had to kill him somehow.

"What do you have to offer for your crew's lives?" he asked the captain. His voice, deep and nerve-wracking.

"Well, we have some silverware, grains, some old rubbles from ruins, nothing of much value," The captain said. He still sounded very polite but after hearing the captain's reply the pirate captain's expression darkened.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"Yes, no more than sixty cargos." The captain lied, we had only sold a third of our cargo at Nerlena Island, and so we should still have seven hundred cargos. Why did the captain lie? It didn't matter if the pirates knew how much we had or not. It was not like they were gonna be successful in robbing us. So what did the captain intend to do there?

After hearing our captain's answer the pirates looked visibly confused, they all turned to look at an old man, who was just a few meters from the pirate captain. The pirate captain stared at this old man as if demanding an explanation.

"H-he-he's lying! That man is lying!" the old man said as he stumbled back from where he was standing. "I-I-I'm certain, I'm certain that they have more than what he said they have." Two pirates grabbed the old man to prevent him from retreating any further.

While this all was happening, the captain glanced at me and winked, which left me further confused. I had no idea what I had to do and I had no plan on how to kill the pirate captain. I was on the main deck with everyone else surrounded by more than twenty pirates. The pirate captain was on the helm deck which was a deck higher than where I was and the only way of getting there was through stairs, and those stairs were occupied by the pirates at the moment. The only way for me to get past the pirates and to the pirate captain was by using my devil fruit, but the problem with that was that I had never consciously controlled this power in such a serious situation. The only times I controlled my powers consciously was during training, and even then I could not control them properly. Did the wink mean I had to do something NOW? But what was the captain thinking?

The pirate captain grabbed the old man by his shirt and lifted him. "Were you lying, old man?" he growled," didn't I say they don't have much? See? You just wasted our time old man." He then threw the old man to the railing. I could see the pain in this when he crashed.

"N-No-no, I know," the old man struggled to finish his sentence," I know-I know for a fact that they have a lot more than that, their ship- it looks like it's caring heavy load if we observe how much of their ship is submerged underwater. So either their ship is leaking, or they have a lot more cargo."

"No, No, our ship is much larger and heavier, also we have ancient rubbles which add to the weight, plus the ship is getting old, so it might look like it's caring heavy load but I assure you that that's not the case." Hearing our captain say this, the old man looked terrified beyond belief. He slowly turned his head to the pirate captain who was staring at him even more intently than before.

"I said exactly the same thing, but you kept on insisting that you were right. Now you've wasted hours of our time. What were you intending to accomplish? Were you hoping that someone on this ship would save you from me?" the pirate captain said to the old man as he approached him.

As the events unfolded, Captain nodded at me as if saying," Now!" which pulled me back to the situation at hand. I had to kill the pirate captain. And now I finally understood what the captain wanted to do all this time. He wanted to stall the pirates and give me a window of opportunity, which I now HAD to take.

I calmed my breathing as best as I could. I cleared my mind of all unnecessary thoughts and only focused on the path from where I was to where my target was. I imagined myself on the stage and I imagined myself being completely unnoticed by the crowd. My surrounding turned to just shades of gray and, I sprinted.

I maneuvered through the pirates surrounding us. Then I ran up the stairs avoiding the pirates there. None of them had seen me coming, none of them saw me going. Within seconds of activating my power, I had passed through most of the obstacles. I was about to reach my target who had now lifted the old man again by his collar. I was in his field of vision but he had not noticed me. I stopped for a moment to take in the information. The distance between me and my target was about six meters. He was twice my size, so I had no chance of reaching his neck if I want to be quick. Stabbing his abdomen won't kill him instantly which meant he would have time to fight me back, but the captain said he would make a move only after the target dies, so stabbing his abdomen was a bad idea. The only route left was to stab his heart, it was a good thing that he was shirtless and not wearing any armor. But then I would have trouble reaching his heart unless I jumped, but jumping would make me unstable and I might miss his heart entirely. But I had no time to think of any other plan. I had to make a decision quickly.

So, to the heart it was.

I unsheathed the dagger that the captain had given me and sprinted straight for my target, ready to jump at him. But just as I was about to reach him, the color returned to the surrounding. He saw me. I saw death. But with no time to stop or retreat, I jumped for his heart. And with the quickest reaction I have ever seen from a man of that size, he slammed me with the old man he was lifting. The impact made me hit the ground head first. In a matter of seconds, I was surrounded by other pirates. They had the edge of their blade pressed against my neck treating to dig in at my slightest move. In a panic, I raised my hand in surrender but then I notice I was missing my dagger. My right hand, with which I held the dagger moments before was now drenched with blood. Did I get my target? I looked at my target who was standing where he previously stood, but there wasn't any blood on him. He didn't look upset anymore but amused.

No way! The realization hit me and my eyes moved from him to the old man who was now on the ground laying on his back. Pressing his belly from where the hilt of my dagger was sticking out. Only then did I heard him crying in agony and only then did I heard the pirates laughing at what just happened. And only then, did I realize how badly I had failed.

The pirate captain pushed the crying old man away from his way with his feet on his way to me. He crouched down to me. "What were you intending to do kid?" he asked. Now he looked angry. Every fiber in my body told me to run but I couldn't even move the muscle that made me talk, let alone run. "What? Too scared to even answer?" Yes.

Annoyed at not getting my answer he clenched and raised his fist, ready to punch me. That massive fist, I know would kill me the moment it hit me. And had no way of dogging it with this many pirates holding me even if I could move. So, resigning to my fate, I closed my eye shut.

Seconds passed but the punch didn't land. I opened my eyes and was now on the other side of the deck, and before I was Captain, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Gates, with their back turned towards me. The pirate captain was standing right where I was a moment ago. I was half expecting him to roar and go on a rampage on a fit of rage like some wild animal but my expectation was shattered once again as he fell hard on his back. And just as his body hit the ground, his head detached from his body and rolled on the ground. Just like a ball. But there was no blood, the wound looked like it had been cauterized. And just like that, he was dead.

The captain was looking at the dead pirate captain and his subordinates who were still trying to make sense of what just happened. On his right hand was his sword fully unsheathed and the sword was burning with red flames. Only then I truly get what had just happened. Had I, due to fear of death, actually forgotten how strong the captain was?

"While I didn't expect you to succeed, I didn't really expect you to fail this miserably either, Brown." The captain looked at the old man who was stabbed by me.

"S-Sorry!" was all I could muster to say.

"Yeah, don't worry. He'll live." He laughed. And that got the pirates shivering.

The captain turned to the guys that were on the main deck and said, "Have fun." With that everybody lunged on the nearest pirate, they first disarmed the pirates and then they beat them unconscious in less than a minute. Men and women everyone joined in on the action. The half that was on the helm deck with us, frozen with fear, noticing the dire situation they were in and made a jump from our ship to their. Some made it, some didn't, and were now trying to climb back to their ship from the water.

Nobody followed them as everybody knew what the captain would order next. And they were right, "Ready the little cannons!" the captain roared. Miss Anne took a few men with her to the gun deck below.

The pirate ship lowered all their sails and sailed their ship away from us at a fast pace. We too lowered our sails and followed them. Both ships were side by side and going at the same speed. They tried to distance themselves from our ship but they had too little manpower to man the ship to its fullest. Though their ship was half the size as ours, they needed just as many men to man it as ours, and some fifteen men weren't enough.

We followed them for some five minutes before Sally and Miss Yalta jumped from the sea to the deck, Miss Yalta carrying a big bag and Sally carrying some pirates that couldn't make their ship earlier. Seeing this the captain shouted, "FIRE!" And the cannons were fired. One, two, eight, twelve, the pirates didn't have any way to defend their ship. The pirates were on the main deck but the cannons were fired aimed just to sink the ship and not to kill the pirates. Crew members were betting on how many small cannons it would take to completely sink the pirate ship. I took a total of only seventeen fist-size non-explosive cannon to do the job. Everybody enjoyed the part where the ship sinks, so they all cheered when it did.

The injured pirates were picked up from the wreck. All of them were tied up except their doctor, who was now treating them.

And after everything was over, I was once again informed by Sally that I had been called by the captain.