CH-15 : Day before the start of Journey 2

While Pride was trying to find his way back home~

On Neko island in the middle of forest a boy about 5'4 meter tall was standing in a area surrounded by trees.The boy had short brown hair and black eyes.A sword could be seen hanging in his waist.The boy was Mark....

"Piewww~~"

Mark inhaled a deep breath...

Then we saw Mark slowly extending his right hand towards his waist and tightly gripping the hilt of the sword.

After gripping the hilt of his sword Mark's eyes flashed with a sharp light and he slowly took a battle position while staring at trees in front of him....

Then he unsheltered his sword at a fast pace and slashed out towards the trees in front of him, following the slash a 10 meter wide half moon like flying slash came out of his sword which resulted in cutting down every trees in front of him with in 15 meter radius.

"sigh~ I am still far behind.... Pride said that worlds strongest swordsman Mihawk can cut hundreds of meters in one slash." Mark said, then continued with another, "Sigh~ Mihawk, what a monster... when will I be able to reach that level"

then as if remembering something....

"Maybe.....maybe if I can master that ability I will be able get a little more closer to world strongest swordsmen..."

afterward he looked toward his hand in which he was holding the sword, then with a firm expression he gripped the sword with more strength.Black line started to appear on his hand, after a few second his hand became coated with armament haki....then he tried to move the haki from his hand to his sword.... trying to envelop it with armament haki...but after he enveloped half of the sword all the armament haki suddenly vanished...

"sigh.... It seems that I still need to practice more."

One year ago pride started to teach him observation haki and armament haki.He was able to learn observation haki quickly as Pride just blindfolded him and started to beat the shit out of him with a stick.So, as a result he was able to learn observation haki quickly but he still hasn't been able to learn armament envelopment.Whenever he tries to envelop his sword with haki he always fails.

"Well, let's get back to training again.." after saying that Mark started to practice armament envelopment again....

Like this time continued to pass while Mark kept practicing armament envelopment...

Two hours later~

The sun was about set Mark stopped training and turned towards the sea and said....

"Why hasn't Pride came back yet?"

Right after Mark finished the sentence something came at a fast speed~ falling from the sky... right in front of Mark...

*FWISSSH~~!!*

*BOOMMM!!!*

Dust flew everywhere covering everything with in 10 meter radius.... after the dust was clear everything became clear and it seems that the thing that fall from the sky was none other then Pride... who was finally able to find his way back home~

"Pewww~ finally back." (Pride)

Then he turned toward Mark and said with surprised expression, "Huh?! Mark I don't know what kind of intense training you did but you should really take a bath.."

Mark,"..."

The reason why Pride said this was because Marks whole body was covered with dust....

Well it's not Mark's fault~ after all he was just a victim of Pride's crash landing and since he was very close to the place were Pride landed most of the dust flew towards Mark... as a result Mark who was already drenched in sweat from training is now fully covered with dust and looked like a beggar...

Mark,"Sighh~~"

Hearing what Pride said Mark really didn't know what to say but he knew even if he said something Pride won't take him seriously or he will just act like he wasn't involved with it and will ignore Mark's complain...

Well Mark was very familiar to Pride's this kind of behaviour.So,he could only swallow his anger a and ignore Pride's advice while saying with mocking smile, "Forget about me, say why are you so late.Don't tell me the future king of sea has lost his way back home~~"

"How can I make a silly mistake such as forgetting my way back home? it's just that I was mesmerized by the beauty of sea and as a result I wasn't able to keep the trace of time" Facing Mark's mocking questions Pride didn't even flinch and replied with a heartfelt expression as if he was telling the truth.

seeing Pride's shamelessness Mark felt a different kind of admiration for Pride as Pride was not only the most strongest person he knew but was also the most shameless person he knew...

"Ya,ya- you have been saying the same thing for past three years..."

Seeing that Mark still wanted to continue this topic I tried to change the subject, "Well forget about that lets return to the village for now as we need to prepare for tomorrow"

Thinking about tomorrow both mine and Marks eyes shone with excitement as tomorrow is the day when we will finally start our journey.

Yes~ as you can see for past half-year I have been pleading to grandpa and grandma,so that they would allow me go on my journey...

They were really against the idea of me going to the sea at such an early age but after my continues pleading for the past half-year they finally agreed with it...

"I really can't wait for tomorrow!!" Mark exclaimed unable to control his excitement and start cheering happily like kid even though he was 15 years old..

Seeing Mark's excitement I turned toward him with a slight smile but I didn't stop his cheering as I~ myself was very exited....

after a few minutes of cheering we started to walk toward the village...

********

Fifteen minutes later~~

Two young people seems to be entering the Neko village.

They were.....of course Mark and Pride....

Seeing them entering people started moving away from them.To be precise they were moving away from Pride...

Well you see it's not Pride's fault after all he wasn't releasing any aura rather he was fully concealing his aura.....

But the problem is that when his devil back was awakened his body started emanating an oppressive force which makes the onlooker feel like Pride's body was full of explosive strength which is ready to explode and it also creates a hallucination as if the space around his body was getting distorted....

As a result people started to get scared or uncomfortable around him.Pride tried to find a solution for this problem but it seems like he ran

out of luck this time as there was no solution available...

As for the reason why Mark wasn't uncomfortable with the oppressive aurn that was being emanated form Pride's body was because he was very familiar with Pride and already got used to it, not only him even Pride's grandma and grandpa also don't have any problem with this feeling...

Also this people only get this oppressive feeling if their eyes land on Pride which means if you don't look at Pride you won't feel it....

Seeing the people moving away from them Pride

didn't show any expression as he has already gotten used to it..

*******

later at night, in Pride's home.....

sigh~

"Pride do you really have to leave so early?you are only thirteen,why don't you start your journey after a few more years?"

Rebecca's asked Pride with a depressed face....To tell the truth Rebecca and David always knew that a time will come when Pride will decide to leave the island and start his own journey but they never thought it would be so soon...

"Grandma you already promised me, so now you can't go back on you words and it's not like I am leaving for forever.I will be coming back for time to time to visit you and grandpa." (Pride)

"But still.." (Rebecca)

It seems like grandma wanted to continue the argument but was interrupted by grandpa...

"Let him be Rebecca, we can't always keep him to ourselves after all he has his own dreams and I know you are worried about him but you do know how strong he is don't you?!!" (David)

saying this grandpa turned towards me and gave me a wink, in response I gave him big thumbs up with a wide grin on my face showing my white teeth.

"Yes!grandma!! grandpa is right,you don't need to worry about me as I am very strong" I said while showing my biceps...

Hearing me grandma knew I won't change mind so she let out a helpless sigh but then she glared

at grandpa as if she was about to eat him alive....It seems like grandpa is in for a beating for supporting me...

I saw grandpa looking towards me as if asking for help to which I responded by giving him another thumbs up as if say, "You can do it~"

Then I saw grandpa being dragged away by grandma, the rest is history.....

I also returned to my room and closed my eyes with a happy expression after giving a last look towards the sea...