chapter 53

It's been a day since we set sail, and I was currently sitting on a barrel on the deck of the ship, relaxing and sipping whisky.

"If you're just going to keep lazing around, then the least you can do is sing us a song or play some music, you shitty captain," Wilson said from his usual spot up on the black pearls mast to control the sails.

"You see it as lazing around, and I see it as clearing my mind to make better plans for the future, you shitty gorilla, so no, since I don't feel like it," I answered with a shit-eating smile as I looked raised my head to look at Wilson while taking a big mouthful of whisky from my bottle.

"It is a little boring. Won't you play something, please, captain?" Came Elly's voice from the crew's nest as she blinked her eyes cutely at me.

"Well, if Elly is bored, then it can't be helped," I said as I straightened my posture and picked up my guitar, causing Elly to smile and Wilson to jump down and push his face in front of me.

"Why you, pussy whipped bastard! Didn't I ask you the same thing just now?!" He exclaimed loudly in outrage, and I had to begin dodging matrix style to avoid my face getting covered in flying spittle.

"Too close, you four-armed banana humper," I shouted back as I pushed his face away from mine. "Have you looked in the mirror lately? Try asking something from me again when you have a face like that!" I said while pointing at Elly, who was laughing at our antics, causing tick marks to appear on Wilson's uncovered forehead.

"Stop it, you punks, or you'll destroy the ship if you fight now," said Bob as he came out of the lower decks. "Besides, our new companion seems to have woken up from his injury-induced unconsciousness, so you might want to have a word with him, pun- I mean captain," He concluded as he picked up a newspaper and sat down in his usual spot.

"It looks like that song is gonna have to wait," I said with a smile while looking at Elly and then shot a dirty look at Wilson while flipping him the bird before making my way to the room where we left Byron to recover from his wounds after patching him up.

It took me a minute to make my way to the room, and I made my way inside, spotting Byron, who had ninety percent of his body covered in bandages while lying on a bed instantly.

"How are you feeling?" I said, as I began to check up on his injuries.

"I feel like shit," Byron replied with a deadpan expression.

"Well, you look like shit too, Rehahaha," I replied with a laugh, and Byron chuckled as well.

"Anyway, we brought your luggage, so don't worry about that, just rest, and you be good to go a week and a couple of days," I concluded after I finished checking up on his injuries, and he merely nodded.

"So, do you have a family back on Toroa island?" I asked as I began changing his bandages.

"only my old man, but he didn't want me going out to the sea. That's why he didn't show up at the port," He said while grunting in pain as I began applying disinfectant.

"Is that so? You're already in the middle of the sea, so there's no point in talking about that, I guess," I said with a shrug. "Which reminds me, we're currently bounty hunters, but we'll turn to piracy, sooner or later," I stated as I paused my actions to look him in the eye.

"It's not too late for you to turn back now if you don't want to be a pirate," I said in a calm, reassuring tone. "I can give you a boat and enough rations to last you until you get back to Toroa island if you want," I concluded and said nothing more, waiting for him to answer.

"That's even better," Byron replied with a smirk. "I wouldn't mind being a bounty hunter, but a lot of my ancestors were pirates, so might as well," He concluded with a shrug and tried to smile again, but he suddenly started coughing.

"Well, that's fine then, let me just finish up changing your bandage, and I'll leave you to rest," I stated as I resumed my work and was done after 15 minutes, so I bid him farewell and left while telling him to rest properly.

The rest of the day passed peacefully except for one incident when a giant fish creature tried attacking our ship. It was surprisingly stealthy for its size, and only Elly felt that something was coming just a second before it rammed into the black pearl's underside from below the water.

Needless to say that it did absolutely no damage thanks to the durability of the Bally wood from which the ship was made, as it was only second to Adam wood in its durability.

The poor, big fish, however, was able to shake the ship with its sneak attack. The shaking it had caused proved to be its undoing, as it had ruined a dish Bob had been preparing for an hour.

The enraged cook then jumped into the sea while cursing the fish's entire line of ancestry and proceeded to beat the living crap out of it, and even then, he wasn't satisfied as he dived after it when the poor fish tried to escape and brought back to the surface, only to beat to death and cook it afterward.

Wilson, being Wilson, of course, didn't miss this chance to gloat at Bob, which caused the latter to take a rather expensive bottle of wine that Wilson had been saving earlier and throw it into the sea in response.

Wilson was outraged at the waste of good wine and proceeded to call Bob all kinds of different names, which Bob ignored until Wilson called his mustache a dick tickler, which turned the cook's eyes red in anger.

The two then began insulting each other until they were basically ready to tear each other new ones if not for Elly's timely intervention, but even that wasn't enough to stop the two as they kept hurling verbal insults at each other, and Laffite had to interfere as well to calm the two of them.

Where was I during all of this, you ask? I, of course, was enjoying the show while laughing and riling the two against each other as I indulged in my whisky bottle because I was bored, and that was the most entertaining shit I've seen in a while.

Fortunately, that the last incident during our journey towards the 80th marine branch. Even Wilson and Bob were drinking together as they listened to me sing while playing my guitar a couple of hours after their little lovers' quarrel.

We could finally spot the marine branch on the horizon after another day had passed, and not long after, two marine battleships set off from the marine base's docks and approached us.

"You are approaching the marine's 80th branch. Identify your selves and state your business in coming here," shouted a man who looked like he was a marine ensign from the deck of his ship that was a safe distance away.

"We're bounty hunters, here to claim a bounty on a pirate we took out on Toroa island," I shouted back in a loud, clear voice to make sure the ensign can hear me.

"Are you the silver hand bounty hunters?" Asked the marine ensign with shock in his voice after a second of silence.

"That's right. We're here to deliver the head of one Jelly bean Jack and claim his bounty," I answered with a raised eyebrow, feeling weirded by the marine officer's weird attitude.

"I see. Then please prepare to be boarded so I can verify the legitimacy of your claims before we allow you entry into the base," stated the marine ensign in a slightly more polite tone.

"Come over whenever you're ready," I replied, feeling more and more weirded by the situation with every passing second.

The marine officer then turned around and barked some orders at his subordinates.

The marines only took a couple of minutes to anchor their ship right next to the black pearl. They then extended a bridge between our two vessels, which the ensign used to board the black pearl.