22. First Bounty

After leaving the small island, where the fight with Mihawk was, I set course towards another uninhabited island. I already bought some maps, of the surroundings from Loquetown during the two days before the execution.

I was currently sitting on deck and was thinking about my fight yesterday.

Although it was short and was only with Basic Techniques, I learned a lot. Although my offense is relatively good, but if I loose the initiative I quickly fall into a disadvantage. Which was clearly shown, as Mihawk could cope with my attacks, but once he got aggressive, the fight ended after just one series of exchanges. Resulting in my loss.

Although I had sparred with Master in the past but he never really went on the offense, and if he did it was either over in an instant, due to his higher strength. Him punishing my openings, I showed in my attacks,or in order for me to train the 5th and 6th move of the Black Oni Gate Sword Art.

During my hunting missions I also didn't fall into such a disadvantage, while defending. But that was due to the beasts being stupid and simply using brute strength to attack. Thus it was still easy for me to predict them.

And during my battle with Captain Ogre, he too behaved more like a beast, and even though he was better than them, but in the end I was stronger than him, so I didn't notice there.

But now in my fight against a stronger and very skilled Swordsman, I noticed this flaw very clearly.

Also I should try something against my habit of over thinking everything during a fight, thus getting distracted and showing an opening. As the fight with Mihawk could have also ended completely differently, if he took advantage of the opening I showed after our first exchange.

But these are all things I have to fix during live combat. Hopefully there are some worthy opponents here on the East Blue. But I think that shouldn't e a big problem, at least not for the next 2 or so years, as now should be the time, where all the powerhouses of the Blues make their way to the Grand Line, trying to become Pirate King.

So maybe I should make a hold for now on my exploration of various uninhabited and unexplored islands and go to more populated areas, trying to find these strong guys and fight them.

Yeah that's what I will do.

So I promptly went under deck, and searched the maps for an appropriate target.

I singled it onto 4 islands. All of them are positioned, so that one had to cross them if one wanted to go to Loquetown. Loquetown is a bit too risky for me, after what I did at the execution. So I settled on roaming the following two years around these four islands and fight all the strong guys I could find.

Now having decided, I went and set the new course.

Cooo

I heard a news coo overhead and waved it town wards to me. I paid it for the newspaper and looked through the news.

Of course the most eye-catching news were about the last words of Roger. But just below this article, was a short article about me and what I did at the execution.

This gives me bad vibes.

Sure enough.

After shaking the newspaper a bit, a Bounty poster fell down.

One of me. My face is very clear and accurately depicted. But they didn't know my name. As such instead of my name, they simply wrote "Freedom Sword". And my bounty were a whooping 68.000.000 Berry.

They should have taken my moniker, from the fact, that I freed Roger from his Handcuffs. Hmm, I like the name.

"Gorararara"

Huh!

What was that?

Was that my laughter?

Seems like I awakened my own unique laughter. Sounded pretty similar to Whitebeards. Well I'm his son after all.

Anyways, I continued to read the newspaper to see if there is anything else that's interesting, but found nothing.

As such I sat down again and began planning my future.

Now that my identity is somewhat sensitive, I should try and consider, how I can disguise myself. Maybe with a specific domain for this?

I went under deck again and into the bathroom. Here was the only mirror on the ship.

I tried to wish for a domain, that can disguise myself and can't be seen through by normal means. I didn't even try to make it even untraceable by observation Haki, as I already know that making a domain like this, without having Haki myself was very draining. But still even this simpler disguise domain was incredibly taxing. Although it only cover 1 cm from my body, but it is still sapping my stamina like crazy. My current self can't even keep it for 30 minutes.

So this is a big no. And even trying to make the principle behind this domain, gave me a big headache, so I simply scratched this method for now.

Then I thought, that if they didn't see me from the get go, then maybe it could work. So I used my Mist domain. First I covered my whole being in around half a meter around myself. And as the domain wasn't this big, I could make it incredibly condensed, so no one could see how I looked. The problem is I couldn't see either. As such I used an Search Domain on top of it, this with a radius of fifty meters. It worked, but this wasn't something, that would work in the long term.

This solution is incredibly inconvenient, both with me not seeing anything and secondly, it was suspicious as fuck.

So I decided on something else. I wanted to wear my mist like a mask. An incredibly dense mist covering my whole face, except my eyes this time. But the problem with this is, that it would show all my other features and was pretty suspicious too.

So I decided to first go with the first solution and when I went to the next island, I would buy a long cape, that could cover my whole body and even my face. As a secondary safety measure I would then use the Mist mask. That should work.

It was also then, I remembered, I still wore the training suit of Mother Aria all the time. Over these last near three months, it grew even slightly outdated and was now only at around fifty percent of the effectiveness. I also grew a dozen centimeters or so during that timeframe, seems like my growth spurt is coming soon.

Now that my disguise is covered I began to think about my training in the near future.

Since I decided to cover my fighting experience with my 2 years of roaming, the next issue is the development of my own Core Technique and my devil fruit ability.

For my Core Technique, there really isn't anything much I can do. I need an inspiration for it. So fighting would be best, and honing my Basic and Advanced techniques. I should also stop training Masters Black Oni Gate Sword Art for now, to not confuse me. In fights it would still be OK to rely on them a bit, but training? No! I have to first create my own, before continuing to train in it.

For my devil fruit, other than further training my old domains, I also have to create new ones. I feel slightly lacking in diversity. As my Kuiki Kuiki no mi is probably the most versatile fruit in existence. I mean I can literally do nearly anything with it. The only limit is my imagination.

It is like I have multiple devil fruits, although my domains, aren't as powerful as the fruit which its effect it mimics, but what it lacks in power it compensates with diversity.

So I should try and create more different domains.

….

5 days later

I reached my destination, Meiko Island. The first of the four islands I choose as my future base of operation. Meiko Island is a really rural island with no more than two or three villages. I'm currently strolling through the streets of the biggest, Mei Village. I was also using my temporary disguise and as expected, it was suspicious as fuck.

I got stared at all the time.

I really could only hardly bear it. So I went straight for the best clothes store in town.

There I bought many things.

Black baggy shorts and pants. In different sizes, as I didn't want to shop again in the near future. I bought sizes that would be enough for a 5 meter tall man. And until that size there were around 14 sizes and buying three or four of each size I was already a big customer. So the employee ignored my suspicious appearance.

For my top, I bought white tank tops, that too in different sizes and each size three or four times.

Lastly I bought a big black coat, with some dark purple and green pattern, that depicted algae swaying in water. The coat was a bit big for the current me, as it was nearly 4 and a half meters long. But after making such a huge deal the employee didn't mind me asking to make it shorter and also to show me how to do it, for the future.

I then went into the changing room and switched into my new outfit, that is in my appropriate size. I wore the coat and used my Mist Mask. And although I used it for the first time, but it wasn't that hard to pull off. The stamina consumption was also OK. I could easily keep it up 24/7.

After changing and now although I still looked a bit suspicious, it wasn't so bad as at the start anymore.

After paying the clothes shop employee, I took all my shopping bags, which I was only barely able to carry in my two hands and went to a big food store, which was specialized in selling rations and bought enough to restock my reserves to two months again. I didn't carry those by myself though, as I told him where my ship was. He then let his workers carry them there.

Next I went to the local place, which sold maps. And bought all maps of the Blues I didn't have yet. But I only got 4, and those were also only of the East Blue,only a bit further away from here.

I also went to the Weapons shop, trying my luck, but no luck. I also tried my luck in the market to see if there was anything interesting, but again nothing.

So I went towards my ship and brought all my clothes and maps back. I then took a short nap and in the evening I went to the bar in town, to see if there is anyone interesting or news of someone interesting in the surrounding seas.

No luck again.

So after 2 hours in the bar I called it a day and returned to my ship.

The next morning I decided to set sail and began my hunt.