Chapter 44: I Found You

Third Person's PoV:

On one of the many islands of Conomi, there was a particular island that was about to turn into the center of attention. While ordinary people would never know the truth about what is to happen, the higher brasses of the world would get knowledge of this, however, to them, such a matter was trivial.

At this moment, zaps of electricity could be seen appearing and disappearing at seemingly random edges of the island. Of course, normal humans would never be able to even catch sight of the person responsible for it.

Finally, with a conclusive burst of energy, the figure of a man slowly became clearer through the lightning. Walking even closer towards the edge of the small cliff he found himself on, Josh stared at a single direction with rage burning even hotter.

"I can feel where you are, you whiskered-faced bastard! Keep twiddling your thumbs while you sit on your ass. It's probably the last time you'll be able to do so..." Josh said ominously. The matter with Genzo had affected him more than he thought it would.

While Josh wasn't a stranger to people dying, the most he'd seen was from the news and movies. This made him particularly susceptible to human death as it is the first one Josh had ever seen in person.

While fighting and killing beasts and animals did not feel pleasurable, Josh would not lose sleep over it. However, it might be different for the case of a human death, especially one that he caused.

As a normal human from modern Earth, one did not come into contact with death so often in their life. Unless one had a specific profession such as a doctor, soldier, policeman and the like, normal civilians would encounter death only a few times in their lives, including their own. Obviously, if there was some sort of misfortune or accident, then it might be a different story.

Using Blitz, the lightning man zoomed towards the south of the island, leaving it completely.

Since his case of "enlightenment", Josh had been looking for a person with vengeful fury. Scanning the entire island with his Kenbunshoku Haki, he figured out that Nezumi was nowhere to be found. It seemed that the sly rat left the island.

According to Joshua's memory of the events of One Piece, Nezumi would come swooping in to claim the credits for defeating Arlong right after the battle was won, thus, Josh inferred that he was still nearby.

His conjecture was proven correct when he looked past the island and started scanning the surrounding ocean.

While Josh had great control over his Kenbunshoku, his range was still somewhat smaller when compared to Enel who could see and hear everything that took place in Skypiea.

It wasn't like Enel had full understanding of everything that goes on in there at all times, it's just that his attention needed to be casted at a certain place for him to understand everything clearly.

Josh theorized that Enel's great range was due to the aid of his devil fruit ability. As he has the same one, Josh should be able to do so as well. Therefore, Josh included that in his Kenbunshoku training.

Sending out his senses towards the seemingly boundless ocean, the only things he was able to feel were fishes, birds, the ocean waves and such, making him doubt whether Nezumi was really still around.

However, once he focused his senses on a single direction, effectively narrowing his range, he was able to increase the distance he was able to sense through his Kenbunshoku in that specific direction.

This was the reason Josh zapped all over the island like a madman in search of Nezumi.

The ship of a certain corrupt marine captain,

The marine ship was nothing extraordinary. In fact, a ship like the one Nezumi was currently riding on was the standard marine ship. There were a total of twelve cannons, six on each sides.

The coloring scheme was also the very recognizable marine standard. The body of the ship was mostly light green, while the sail were pure white. Donning the indomitable symbol of the world government, the marine ship was rooted about a few miles away from the island.

Inside the most luxurious room only reserved for the highest ranking officer, a scrawny man with darker complexion sat there gleefully.

According to his deal with Arlong, Nezumi was able to keep half of the total sum, which amounted to about 50 million beli. This brought him endless joy as the captain busied himself with counting his gains.

Over the years, Nezumi had amassed quite the wealth for himself through dirty means, which shall not be spoken of. However, this time's rewards were by far the biggest catch. The sum of 50 million was, in fact, very large in terms of value.

Bang!

Just as Nezumi was diluting himself with countless fantasies, a sudden and loud thud caused him to pause momentarily.

Just then, the door to his room opened up and a marine officer walked in and immediately saluted.

Nezumi eyed the soldier a bit spitefully, he was feeling slightly displeased to be interrupted. Didn't these men know not to interfere when he was in his alone time?

"Speak. What is happening?" With the same displeased look on his face, Nezumi questioned the officer sternly.

"Sir! Reporting, there seems to have been an intruder who landed on our ship!" Straightening his posture to look a bit more presentable, the officer spoke up with a clear voice so as to not incur the captain's wrath.

"What are you waiting for then? Get rid of the intruder!" With an angered tone, Nezumi harshly ordered the officer to deal with the situation, not at all afraid that they could be overpowered. After all, this was the East Blue. Who had the power and guts to go against the great captain Nezumi?

"Yessir!" With another salute the marine officer was about to walk out of the room when he suddenly heard it!

Agonized screams and pained wails rang from the distance. Soon, they all died down and there was nothing but calming silence.

"Chichichi...it seems like the matter is already taken care of." Nezumi said casually. He wholeheartedly believed that the fool who invaded his ship was either full of bullet holes or drowning at the bottom of the sea. "You may leave." Waving his hands in a dismissive attitude, Nezumi shooed off the annoyance.

"Yessir!"

And with that, the officer was about to go back to his post of guarding over the door of the captain's room. However, he was abruptly stopped by another question that came from behind him.

"Wait, was there a ship in sight?" Nezumi asked. He couldn't care less about this matter at first, but his usually perceptive self kicked in. This was how he was able to elude being caught doing dirty work as a marine captain for all those years.

"As I was posted here, I wasn't informed of any enemy ship approaching, sir!" The marine officer answered the question with the utmost respect he could muster. If one wanted to survive under the leadership of Captain Nezumi, one had to quickly learn to bow their heads before him.

"You're dismissed." With a final wave of his hand, Nezumi allowed the soldier to return back to what he was doing.

After the door was closed with a soft creek, the earlier situation couldn't help but resurface in Nezumi's mind again. 'If there was an enemy ship, I should hear cannon fires. Yet there are none...so then, how did the intruder get on the ship?'

This question lingered in his heart. However, Nezumi soon decided to just forget about it since the person was already dead anyway. Just as he was about to go back to his world of fantasy, Nezumi heard the sound of the door being gently knocked on.

His previously jovial mood vanished once again as he felt annoyed by the constant interruptions.

'I need a new guard.' That thought circulated in his mind leisurely as he gave the officer permission to enter.

Creeaak....

The door opened much slower than normal and the sound of creaking resonated for a few moments. After that, there was silence once again. The officer that should've been there was not present, in fact, nobody was standing behind the door. So then, who knocked?

With a puzzled expression, Nezumi got up from his seat for the first time in a while and walked towards the door that was looking more and more ominous by the second.

About five steps in, a hand from behind suddenly reached out to Nezumi's mouth, tightly shutting it. All he could do was protest in the form of muffled grunts.

Nezumi struggled with all of his might as a captain of the marines to free himself to no avail. He wasn't even strong enough to turn himself around to look at the face of the perpetrator.

Then, a voice that was so chilly it sounded like it came from nothing short of the devil himself, Nezumi heard someone say right beside his left ear,

"I found you...."