The First Journey Part 3 // A difficult Situation

-{Scene Break}-{Time Lapse}-

The next weeks went by quickly. They stopped every 2 to 4 days in a new port, while they arrived early in the morning hours and left in the span of 24 hours.

Green developed a sort of rhythm. They would arrive at a new island, which normally meant a relatively big city, he would then ask first on the ship if somebody would recommend anything in that place, or even if he should stay away from certain areas. Repeating this with the workers on the harbour, he would have planned himself a good route throughout the city at that point.

On the route were normally markets, some famous sites and at the end always bookstores. Since his discovery of the instruction manuals he was basically buying anything roughly looking like it instantly.

He, of course, did not find anything like Artoria's family heirloom again. 90% of the books were just some martial artist one a be bragging about their feats. 8% to 9% were books with some actual knowledge in them but did not have anything which he could learn over his System. The rest ~1% were, if Green had to describe them, broken manuals. They did not have enough information so that Green could learn them though his System completely, but they did have some moves which were learnable through his System.

And then there was the one holy grale he was able to find. A full instruction manual.

It was nothing insane like Artoria's one.

No.

It was a manual for a Martial Art which was a combination of Karate and Judo. The author did not know the original name for the Art as he also only learned the entire Art though a half destroyed manual. He only wrote this manual as a sign of respect for the original creators as the Art had saved him countless of times. To save what he thought, a completely extinct Martial Art.

What did it describe?

As it drew inspiration from Karate and Judo, it only revolved around redirecting strikes with certain movements deprived out of the two original Arts.

It even mentioned Haki, to Green's surprise. Precisely it only mentioned Observation Haki. As the Martial Art greatly increases in potency if you can use it, it features an entire improved move set for it.

He, of course, wanted to learn it instantly through his Nanobot-System, but after asking for a clarification what that actually meant from the System, Green learned that his body would be also adapted to match the Art he would learn the best it could. Green did not dare to learn it now as he was pretty sure that Tsuru would be able to tell the difference at first sight.

So, his pile of books grew steadily. The useless 90% of the books, Green sold normally at a loss always at the next island, only keeping some which had some other random knowledge.

Nearly every evening Tsuru would invite Green to at least a single match of chess. It annoyed Green deeply that he had to sort of cheat with his System to at least keep it equal. Tsuru seemed amused that she found a really good discussion partner in Green. To Green she seemed to be annoyed at this journey, but he was not able to pinpoint what made her so annoyed.

He observed her closely still, and the only thing which was weird was that she would leave for somewhere on each island with her Vice and return with a suitcase, which she delivered straight to her cabin. After that happened for three islands in a row Green first thought that she was collecting taxes, but then decided against it as that would make little to no sense sending a highly decorated Vice-Admiral out as a Tax Collector.

The reason for her growing annoyings revealed itself on the fifth island, as an entire patch of local nobles boarded the marine ship.

As it turned out, Green and the princess were not the only nobles asking for a ride. They were all young, below 20 years old, around 4 dozen, with a handful of older people overseeing them.

They went to an island Green could not remember ever hearing about in the story. But when Tsuru explained the only reason that island existed was Green once again reminded that his knowledge of the world was still severely lacking.

The West Seat of the World Government. Or short just West Seat.

An island really close to the Redline, so close that on good days you can make it out on the horizon. That is as the name suggests is the Seat of the World Government in the West Blue.

(AC: map in the paragraph comment for clarification)

Tsuru explained that crossing the Calm Belt near the Redline was always relatively safe if you had a strong enough ship and personal. As such before the Navy was able to develop the technology to cross the Calm Belt freely and safely, they wanted to cut down the time needed staying on the Belt so they started to develop four new islands simultaneously in all four Blues centuries ago.

It was actually later that each of the islands were converted into the Seats of the World Government in the related Blues. Each just started as a bigger Marine base from which the Marine operations of the Blues were coordinated. Today you cannot enter each island without being either a Marine or a citizen of a World Government allied nation. And even then you would have to go through a lengthy admission phase to be able to live there.

People, especially rich ones, want to live there as it still has a high amount of military power there

G-2 to 5 are each located on these islands. So at all times there is at least a Vice Admiral stationed on these islands, which for the four Blues is pretty much overkill.

The nobles heading there, where as students, as all the four islands throughout the centuries transformed into the political and trading Centers of their Blues, which sparked the opening of an Academy for Diplomacy and Trading.

Green was not surprised by that, as he learned back in his home country that nearly all the nobles would either have Diplomacy or Trading as their main subject back in the Royal Academy or both at the same time, only picking something else for "fun" or if the family business revolved around it.

The late teenage nobles behaved as you would have expected them to behave. The older ones, which Green overheard where some instructors of them, were better but Green thought they just were better at hiding it.

So just from the island they boarded the ship till the next island, Green understood the annoyings Tsuru had clearly. The nobles were loud, disrespectful to everyone other the once clearly higher on their packing order -

no joke Green could make an entire flood chart ranking them from their social standing by just watching them after a couple of days but could not name a single one of them -

They tried to flirt with the women marines in the most cringe worthy ways possible, trying to impress them with their titles, ancestry, what other people from their family "glorys" did and of course money. They failed every time, which you would expect as the women marines on this ship all probably "New World" calibar and would not fall for some stupid flirt attempted from some West Blue noble.

-{Scene Break}-{Now}-

Some tried that on Gion even, which failed spectacularly, as she just told them that she only would accept any of these attempts if they could hold a fight against her. Green, witnessing this once again in the mess, thought that this would have been the end again, but the noble piece of shit accepted and challenged her for a little spar.

This scene moved to the deck, while Green quickly picked up Artoria from her cabin as she also hid from the nobles.

Artoria and Green arrived at the deck where a small crowd had already assembled. He was able to see Gion in the middle of it sitting on a barrel waiting with a sort of worried face.

Green looked around and to see if Tsuru was here, but then remembered that she should be able to "see", "hear" or "sense" this from everywhere on this ship.

"She should be already here and break this up…. Gion definitely knows Tsuru is watching otherwise she would not be worried as that noble is less of a threat then your average one-legged drunken pirate… ", Green thought while overlooking the situation.

It took the noble, which challenged Gion, a couple of minutes until he arrived on deck. One look at the noble and Green knew that he definitely had no idea what Gion is capable of.

Wearing clothes that definitely were not good to fight somebody and not even taking off his jewelry, he thought that the noble had to joke. Even the sword on his hip looked too stylish to Green and reminded him of the ornament swords his father had hanging on the walls of the mansion.

The noble pulled the sword out of his scapered and Green was now able to see that at least it was sharpened, but still had decorations over the blade.

"That is not even a real sword, what is that guy even thinking… ", Artoria mumbeled next to Green.

"Of course she knows about swords~ ", he thought and then asked her a question, "Is that just an ornament sword?"

"Yes? No? It's complicated. Most ornament swords are made out of real swords which just had not been sharpened normally. This one has been, but it still has art on the hilt and blade. His grip will not be as good as the ones which are made to be held… " Artoria continued with some more facts about what will hinder the noble chance to win.

"It really does not matter if that guy would wield one of the 12 Supreme Grade Swords he would still lose", Green interrupted her. Artoria looked at him surprised, and then mumbled something again which this time he was not able to clearly hear.

"What?" he asked. "It's nothing really… I am not really surprised that you also know about the holy grails of swords." She paused for a moment and then continued "Also that noble probably had fencing lessons for his whole life, so I would not be sure that the Vice-Captain would win so easily."

Green had to physically hold himself back to not break out laughing from hearing Artorias take. "Gion could literally bisect that guy from where she sits and I am not even joking."

Artoria made a double take at Green from that. "HOW!?", she nearly jelled that, but then saw the attention that threw at her and then began to talk more quietly to Green. "That is not even possible. She would have to do like one of these flying cuts out of those fantasy novels".

"If you think that is fantasy then you are going to be surprised what else is possible in the world."

Green's answer did not do a lot to remove Artorias doubts.

"You know that Devil Fruits are a thing?" She nodded slowly. "Then how strong do you think the Captain on this ship is?"

"What has that to do with this", she pointed at the crow, at the "fight". "Because Gion is Tsuru's apprentice. Because she is a representation of Tsuru's teaching; or better her strength; the strength of a Vice-Admiral. Gion has to have at least the same potential to reach the power Tsuru has with her Devil Fruit", 'and Haki,' he added in his head.

"How do you even know she even has one of these Cursed Fruits? From what my father told me they are incredibly rare and even he was not able to attain some for our country."

"I want to know how you knew, too?", said a voice calmly and quietly behind them.

They turned around and both jumped a bit as Tsuru was literally standing right behind them.

"I saw in a newspaper article the aftermath of a fight you had, which looked pretty weird. And before you say it was your enemy it had the title 'The result of Vice-Admiral Tsuru unleashing her full power'" Green answered, while instructing his system to fake him not lying, as he did not want to test out if she could detect it with her Observation Haki.

Tsuru studied him for a moment and then shifted her attention to Artoria. "You seemed to not trust the abilities of my apprentice", she said still in a low voice to still not draw attention to herself, "I am somehow a bit disappointed that a first-born princess from a high ranked kingdom in the World Government does not know what kind of strength you could achieve if you trained and studied enough."

Tsuru's remark seemed to upset Artoria a good bit. Seeing that, Tsuru said something more embarrassing for Artoria. "I know you are trying to learn sword fighting for whatever reason; I also notice you watching Gion and me closely. Before you start to excuse Green for telling, I have to say that he did not tell me anything. There is just nothing that would go under my sight on this ship. If you want our help, advice or something in that way just ask please." Tsuru then turned towards Green "because I hate the feeling of being watched."

Green knew what she meant there. Her Observation Haki was flaring up if you watch her too closely, if he read correctly between the lines here.

Seeing Artoria not responding to Tsuru, Green decided to question Tsuru about the current situation "So, why have you not intervient?", he said while pointing at the crowd.

"It's a lesson for Gion. This is her first journey with 'high priority passengers'. Normally when we do these escorted missions, it is normal that all of the marines are male to completely avoid exactly these kinds of situations, or even worse…

But the higher you go and stronger on the marine ladder, the more the people will give you respect naturally so it is possible that as a Commodore or higher she would be sent out alone to do these kind of lower prioticed missions. I know from experience that these kinds of people are annoying to deal with…"

"Soooo, how should she deal with this situation in the best way?", Green asked.

Tsuru did not directly answer, she just smiled back at Green.

"First, she should have avoided the situation completely, which she will probably do from now on.

Second, a short show of strength never not helped to avoid these situations. During my days as a fresh Commodore, I would help the crew load the ship during these kinds of missions and lift especially heavy stuff alone, right in front of them boarding the ship.

And third and finally, she could just use her title to shut them up. Whenever the marines accept these missions, we act just like any other hired forces, just that we are government approved over the entire world, so the client would have signed a normal contract, in which it is stated that you as the passenger are ranked below the commanding officers. As such, if you disregard orders from an officer, then you can actually be locked up in the bridge in the same way any other marine soldier would be."

Green listened to Tsuru's explanation closely. He wasn't surprised by anything really, other than Artoria, who looked surprised at Tsuru's 'show of strength' as she called it.

"Does that means she could have just told him to "fuck off" or he would have gotten locked up."

"Yes, of course, she would have not used that kind of grass language but this entire situation could have been avoided. Now I hope my apprentice does not actually cause an international incident as the noble she has been challenged by is a member of the family which supplies the marines in this Blue with the standard marine soldier rifle."

Further conversation was interrupted as the noble finally finished parading and got into position. Gion saw that and also got into position as she stood up from the barrel she was sitting on, while also removing her standard marine captain cloak/jacket.

The noble said some pretty sexist stuff, which made Green cringe hard as he knew what was about to happen. Tsuru scoffed at those remarks and Artoria seemed…. like she probably already heard those things said to her which when Green thought made sense.

Gion just unsheathed her sword and readied herself. The noble also did while indicating towards another one to count them down. As the guy counted down, the atmosphere grew more quiet with anticipation until it turned silent on the final count.

It was not the noble going for the first hit, it was Gion. She crossed the distance between her previous position and the noble in a moment, stopping right in front of the man, setting up a regular horizontal slash.

For Green it was really fast but he was able to see, so he reasoned that it probably was not Soru/Shave, just her regular speed.

[Beep!]

[A fight has been detected. Does the Host want to activate the relevant support systems?]

"Yes", Green said in his head and instantly a hud appeared in his vision. Since a couple of nights ago he discovered all the possibilities of his Nanobot-System, he wanted to try them out.

Before Green could actually get into the hud that appeared in front of him, he noticed that Tsuru was staring at him all of a sudden.

"Wow, Observations Haki is insane…" Green thought while Tsuru seemed to turn to the "fight" again.

The "fight" was just Gion dancing around the noble idiot while he was trying to do something but it was clear that he was insanely outclassed. During the beginning all the nobles who were cheering for the one fighting were really quiet now. Artoria next to Green also looked with an open mouth at Gion gracefully sword dancing around her "challenger".

His System was also analysing it and displaying information into his view. It predicted Gions movements surprisingly accurate and the noble on perfectly, like so good that despite Green being a decade younger he was confident that he would be able to beat that guy.

The "training spar" prolonged for a couple of minutes. Green wondered why Gion just did not end it with knocking that guy out. But then Green's System showed him what she was doing and he had to hold back a chuckle.

Tsuru's sighing next to him convinced that his System's prediction was probably right.

It was surprising for all the people watching when Gion all of a sudden stopped attacking. She turned around to the barrel she sat on and picked up her sheath and cloak. The nobel who previously was under a heavy assault took a moment to regain his breath.

For some unknown reason he then decided to interpret Gion walking away with him showing that he could hold a "fight" with her and started to brag like an idiot.

Gion just walked back to him, her captain's cloak hanging on her again, with her sword still in her hand. The noble seemed to not realise that something was wrong, as he continued to spout nonsense. When she arrived in front of him once again she just placed the tip of her sword just next to his neck on the right side and did a slow slash downwards sideways to his left hip where she stopped.

She sheathed her sword and walked back into the ship. Nobody knew what just happened but everybody was frozen equally by her display. It cleared up when the noble who was frozen since he had Gion's sword next to his neck started to move.

All of his clothes just fell down.

You were able to see clean cuts on his clothes but his body was not harmed in any form.

The clothes disintegrating themselfs drew another silenced out, which was cut off by Tsuru as she threw what looked like a blanket at the now naked noble.

"If you finished showing your stupidity go get some clothes! And all you watching can go somewhere else you are hindering the operation of the ship with you clumping up my deck."

That speech seemed to snap them out and some started to go back to their business.

"If my family hears about how I have been treated… ", the noble wrapped in a blanket now said towards Tsuru angrily.

"Your family will not be doing anything as you have disrespected a high ranking marine with a lot of witnesses to prove. You also furthered to disrespect the contract made between whoever paid for you and us. So, if you want to do and make a scene out of this then do this, as I would happily have you banned from all further marine contracts." Tsuru did not say this while raising her voice or showing any kind of emotion; she was saying this as she had said that a lot of times already.

The noble brat was now being pulled back inside by one of the older overseers. The scene dissolved slowly.

--------------------------------

Author Comment:

Six weeks.... since the last update.... woops~~~~

May and june for me are allways filled with a lot of birthdays and other stuff which takes a shit ton of time so yeah....

And then I also threw away a miniarc which i had partially written out whenever i had time and motivation. But when i now finally had time to go over it fully this week and thinking about what and where i want to go with this story i realised that the part i planned out was completly noneplot revelant.

Btw, it would have just been the plot of Green getting something stolen on a new island and him trying to get it back. the entire thing ended with him not losing or gaining anything...

Yeah i am now back, so aspect a chapter or two or maybe three?! per week for at least a month, as then my exam season starts... X_X

See you again soon

Sora Soraha