chapter 19

Sitting on the stairs and just waiting for my target to come back soon became too tedious for me to bear, so I started to mutter a sea shanty under my breath after a couple of minutes of waiting. (author note: play the pirate shanty)

"I am not a pirate, but I long to be...," I muttered as I remembered the feeling of the sea breeze hitting my face. "Sailing by the stars across the seven seas..," I smiled as I recalled laying on the deck of the ship and feeling the waves hitting and rocking her gently while I gazed at the starry sky at night. "Living with no earthly cares, my mates and me..," the scene of myself and Winston taking breaks to fish and drink together when the direction of the winds was in our favour, and the weathers were calm, causing my smile to grow even broader. "The envy of all worldly men, who are not free," I remembered some of the more unpleasant sights that I saw while exploring the town this time and sighed, then shook all those thoughts out of my head as I started to hear voices coming from outside the mansion.

I sighed again as I stood up and prepared for the incoming confrontation with the un-sheathed satori in my left hand as my right hand rested on the archangel's grip.

I didn't have to wait for too long this time as a dozen or so men kicked open the mansion's front door and made their entrance. "crunch, look alive, you scum, it's time for us to move out of this town. there's nothing left for us here, and that woman was seen around here too.." the most noticeable of them a rotund, round man standing at three meters tall with scraggly black facial hair and a bald head covered in a cowboy hat. said while taking a bite of a FUCKING APPLE of all things.

He seemed too occupied with the evil fruit in his hands to notice the strange atmosphere around him, but the continued silence and not receiving a reply seemed to have given him a hint that something was wrong. So he raised his head and moved his eyes from the monstrosity he held in his hands and started to look around suspiciously until his eyes landed on myself and the figures of the tied up outlaws. They were now squirming on the ground like worms in a futile attempt to free themselves.

I felt my eyes twitch in irritation at his and the other gang members' expression that seemed to freeze at this sight before them. I cleared my throat to get his attention as I didn't want this situation to become more awkward than it had already become. "Sam Bass, why don't you make this situation easier on both us, surrender and drop your fruit... I mean your weapon, and I won't have to break every bone in you're hands along with your teeth for eating such a... I mean for all the crimes you've committed." I said while trying my best and failing to distract myself from this cursed fruit of Eden that he held in his hand.

"Wha..., just what the hell are you talking about. in the first place, who do you think you are coming into someone's place and telling them to drop their food." He said with a visible tick mark on his forehead as he gestured with his hands wildly.

I looked at the sight of the evil fruit being waved around in the air and felt the twitching in my eyes grow even more intense. BANG, I couldn't hold it any longer and drew archangel and watched in satisfaction as the bullet fired from its barrel turned the apple to smithereens.

"I'm a bounty hunter, and you, my friend, are a walking, breathing bag of bellies. so why don't you surrender? and I promise I won't beat you up too much." I said as I pointed my gun at him.

"What kind of idiot do you think I am. just because you can beat these worthless guys doesn't mean you can do shit to me," He said as he reached behind his back and took out two large canons. "eat this, you shit-eating bounty hunter." he shouted as he simultaneously shot both of them at me.

I looked at the two approaching cannonballs and just swung my sword while muttering, "Gengetsu (Phantom Moon)." releasing a spinning flying slash from the blade of my sword that cut the cannonballs in half mid-flight, causing them to explode prematurely.

'these guys are small fries, but you can't be too careful, I guess so whatever.' I thought to myself as I looked at them again, frozen in shock, outlaws and their boss.

'time to end this ridiculous farce,' I thought again as I closed the distance between me and Sam bass with a quick application of soru and then planted a fist at the top of his head so hard I buried it in the mansion's wooden flooring.

I then beat up some remaining gang members who weren't smart enough to surrender and started unceremoniously picking up and throwing the tied-up bandits outside the mansion. Once done, I raised my left hand and released an arm projectile at the mansion centre, and just left without sparing it another glance while dragging the gang boss's unconscious body with me.

I spent two hours of jogging to return to the town. I halted my steps to greet Wilson, who was now more appropriately dressed, wearing a simple white shirt covered by a black vest, a black, formal pants with thin horizontal white lines all over it, a brown leather belt, and a pair of long leather boots, as he seemed to be waiting for me.

"so that's the guy. he doesn't look strong at all," Wilson said while taking a sip out of a bottle of wine he was holding in his hand. "I guess it's not such a bad thing that I returned earlier than," he concluded as he stared at the bottle in his hands with a smile.

"at least one of us was having a good time," I said lightly with a smile of my own as I reached for my backpack to take out my whisky bottle. "what about the prisoners you took with you? did any of them have a bounty?" I asked as I took a sip of the whisky bottle.

"none of those small fries had any bounty on them, but the guy I handed them to... the sheriff I think he's called, he was quite interesting," he said with an eager expression that I instantly recognized as battle intent.

"oh, then why don't you tell me what's so interesting about him," I said questioningly, but I had a pretty good guess what his answer would be.

"he had the same smell as you," he said with a savage grin. "it wasn't as strong as yours, but it was definitely the smell of a monster," he said again and lost control of his battle intent, causing several horses nearby to flinch and start going wild.

"sounds interesting indeed. now I wanna see this guy who can make you like this for myself," I said as I turned to the gate and started to make my way towards the town, with Wilson following right behind me while taking the occasional sip from his wine bottle.

It didn't take too long for us to reach the town's prison/sheriff's office. After talking to a guard and going through some formal procedures to hand over the prisoner, I soon found myself sitting in an office room waiting for the sheriff to sign the papers stating that I had indeed captured and delivered wanted criminal Sam bass to the authorities. Fortunately, I didn't have to sit around doing nothing for too long as I soon heard the sound of the door opening after merely two minutes of waiting.

"How nice it is to be able to meet you so soon. you must be the partner Wilson told me about earlier." said a tall, pale white man as he entered the room, and I felt my brain freeze at meeting a canon character for the first time in this world.