Chapter 4

—Third Person—

–Year 1522: February 26–

–Shells Town–

It was a perfect day, with the warm sun casting its glow over the horizon. The citizens felt at peace.

Then came the ship that docked at their port.The ship was obviously the Miss Love Duck, the vessel of "Iron Mace" Alvida.

If one looked at the port, they could see numerous marines on the ground, with slashes and blood flowing onto the ground.

Of course, this was done by Alvida and her crew. Currently walking towards the marine headquarters were Alvida and her three crewmates: Knox, Rambo, and Peppoko.

"Heh, this is gonna be easy, Captain," Rambo said with a smirk, to which Alvida gave a side-eye, shutting him up as she walked ahead in front of the building.

"You marines, give me what I want, and I'll spare you any more damage than what's already been caused."

The marines assembled in front of the building with guns and swords said nothing, but raised their guns towards her and began to shoot.

With a sigh, she looked at Knox and Rambo, who nodded and quickly began to slice and deflect the bullets with their swords.

Of course, this wouldn't have been possible if not for the gruesome training the crew had done for an entire week on that uninhabited island without a break.

"W-what!?" The marines were shocked to see their attacks failing. With faces of despair, they looked at Alvida, who then began to walk forward.

Their eyes quickly turned to hearts as she winked, swirling the kanabo in her hand and swinging it with force.

What happened next was that none of the marines were left standing. The swing sent a wave of air that slammed them into the building, breaking several parts of the HQ.

Walking inside, she ignored everything and made her way toward the jails.

After passing through the entire row of jail cells, she stopped in front of one. Looking inside, she saw a man with glasses watching her with caution.

It was a tall, slim man with glasses and disheveled hair, with various scratches all over his face. He was wearing standard white prisoner's clothing with horizontal black stripes.

"Kuro of the Hundred Plans," she said as she walked forward. "I'm 'Iron Mace' Alvida, captain of the Alvida Pirates," she continued.

"What do you want?" he asked for the first time since being jailed here. 'What does this woman want?'

"Join my crew."

His expression shifted from caution to shock before settling into a calm look as he analyzed her.

"What will I get by joining you? I quit piracy a long time ago," he said, looking into her eyes, boring into them with an eerie calm.

"Well, for one, I get a reliable crewmate once I beat you into submission. And you will get out of here," she said with a smirk, and he didn't like that look, nor did he like her words.

"Beat me into submission? You seem awfully confident about that, 'Iron Mace' Alvida."

"Of course, me beating you and you joining my crew was always inevitable," she said, ripping the cell door off with her bare hands.

Looking at the display of strength, he understood why she was confident about beating him. But if that's all she had, then she would only be a sitting duck for him to cut down, as speed was his forte, not strength.

"If you're that confident, I'll be glad to show you your place in the food chain," he said and then proceeded to casually walk out of his cell.

"If you're looking for your claws, they're here," she said, taking out a pair of gloves with claws attached to each finger. She threw them to Kuro, who caught them with ease and put them on.

"Ah, finally," he muttered with a smile as he fixed his gloves firmly on his palms. "You want to fight here or outside? Your choice." He smiled a thin smile as he pushed his glasses up with his wrist.

"Let's take this outside. You see, I want those marines to increase my bounty from this measly 5 million berries," she said as she adjusted her hat and walked past him, dragging her kanabo behind her. "Beating you up in front of them would definitely do that."

"Heh, let's see. Though I wouldn't mind joining the crew of such a beautiful woman, I hate losing, you see," he said, walking behind her as he exited the HQ after changing into his former clothes, a butler suit.

While this was going on, another ship docked at the port of Shells Town—a marine warship.

"Capture that ship! Subjugate any pirates inside, and leave Alvida to me!" Commander Akira of the marines gave his orders, then turned around to look at the director of the marine HQ.

"Soru." He blurred and vanished in the blink of an eye, the cape with "Justice" written on it draped over his shoulders, fluttering in the wind as he used "Soru" again and again to reach his destination faster.

Arriving near the marine headquarters, he could see Kuro of the "Hundred Plans" and "Iron Mace" Alvida fighting.

Though it couldn't really be called a "fight," as "Iron Mace" Alvida was toying with Kuro.

'Let's wait for now. When one of them wins... heh..' He decided to wait for one of them to lose, and then, when the other was exhausted, he would go and subjugate the winner.

He could follow Kuro's movements, having trained with captains from the headquarters; thus, he could keep up with such shallow movements.

'But how is she doing that?' he wondered as he watched Alvida's figure gracefully avoiding the claw slashes, dodging with minimal movements.

'Even if she had trained for this before, these movements are perfection. No one can just wake up and become proficient in fighting like this,' he thought as he observed Alvida's outrageous display.

Looking at them, he saw Kuro's shoulders slump as he began to act like a drunk, wobbling on his feet.

'What the fuck is he doi—What!?' He rubbed his eyes in disbelief; he couldn't see Kuro or what had just happened before the sound of clashing weapons brought him back.

Looking at Alvida, who was perfectly fine and now moving around with her weapon in hand, he noticed that she wasn't attacking. Instead, she was defending with her kanabo, allowing Kuro's slashes to connect with it.

After a while, he could no longer see them. With eyes full of disbelief and shock, he found himself on his knees, shivering.

'Monsters,' he thought while wiping the sweat running down his cheek. 'I cannot take them on.'

—Alvida POV—

Heh, what a clown. Sensing a marine nearby, I looked at him with my Observation Haki and continued defending and dodging Kuro's attacks.

"Honestly, you're pretty below average. A normal Grand Line pirate would fold you like paper," I said as I finally decided to end this farce of a battle.

"What did you say?!" he shouted as he once again used his whatever technique. He had already cut through a lot of the clearing, leaving claw marks all over the ground.

I could clearly see him; he was breathing heavily and was exhausted as hell. Heh.

Placing my kanabo behind myself, I grabbed it with both hands like a baseball bat and swung it with strength at the incoming Kuro, who was unable to stop himself.

*Bam!* He went flying and hit a building, cracking it and embedding himself into the wall.

While still looking at him, I took my flintlock from my belt and shot at the marine, barely missing his head and taking a part of his right ear with the bullet.

"Oi! If you really want to catch me, at least come at me with a bunch of captains! Now scram!" I shouted at him while still looking at Kuro. I could sense his fear as he ran away at his fastest speed.

I could also sense someone else, holding what seemed like a camera in his hands. He ran off after I looked directly at him for a few seconds.

A reporter, huh? They better put my best angle on the poster, or I might just decide to attack another base to get a new wanted poster.

"Now then," I walked up to Kuro, who was half-conscious. Looking at him, I asked once again, "What do you say? Will you accept me as your captain now?" With a smile, I extended my hand toward him.

"I... have no qualms in accepting you as my captain," he strained, managing a weak smile as he grasped my outstretched hand and shakily stood up.

Luckily, his claws were shattered. Bah, even if they were still on him, they would just slide off anyway.

"Well then, welcome to the crew."

"Happy to be in your crew." His smile did not leave his face.

Now then, to the Grand Line.

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Read The Author's Note. Also, some reviews would be good motivation for me to take this further.