Departure

[Chapter 53: Departure]

...

"I found them!!"

"Attack!!"

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

"What's with this amount of marines?! I know we technically defeated a Shichibukai, but isn't this a bit too excessive...?!"

"Nishishi, don't worry, the Going merry should be right her- Ah!!! The ship is gone!!"

""Naniii?!""

In the middle of the dock of Nanohana, the straw-hats were running away from a giant army of marines that pursued them while shooting every once in a while. Luffy, who until now looked slightly relaxed, had his face grow wide-eyed when he saw that his ship had been taken away long ago.

And as if that wasn't enough problem for the Straw-hats, they were soon surrounded by another group of marines that heard all the commotion from far away.

"Goddammit... Why can't these guys just leave us alone?" Zoro, who was the first to notice the incoming threat, took out his swords and slashed rapidly the group of incoming marines in front of them.

[Tatsumaki]

""Aaaaaaah!!""

Soon, all the marines in front of the straw-hats were sent flying high into the air, and the crew managed to successfully pass through the defenses.

"Oi Usopp, can you see anything?! I'm sure we left the Ship somewhere around this place!"

"N-no, I can't see anything besides all those several marine ships on the coast... Ah, we are so done..."

As they continued to run looking for their ship, the group of marines pursuing them also continued to increase more and more as time passed. And in the end, it wasn't long before the Straw-hats were completely surrounded and left with no other option but to fight.

"Dammit, at this rate, we will arrive late to our meeting with Vivi-swan...!" Sanji who kicked a large amount of marines away, clenched his fist angrily while looking at his friends to make sure everything was okay.

Although Nami, Chopper and Usopp were having a bit of trouble fighting so many marines at once, they were still managing to fight by themselves to some extent. And Zoro and Luffy... Well, they were Zoro and luffy...

"Ahhhhhh!!" One marine was sent flying after receiving Luffy's punch right into the face.

"H-how can these pirates be so powerful?!! Aaaaah!!!" A black haired youth exclaimed before being swept away by the powerful force of Zoro's swords.

"We need reinforcements!!" The superior of one of the marine groups noticed the gravity of the situation, and yelled angrily to see if there was any other marine squad nearby.

*Bang!*

"I'm starting to get tired... I don't think I can keep fighting for long, guys...!" Nami, who noticed the fatigue acumulating on her body, exclaimed in a slightly worried tone after seeing that there were still a lot of Marines surrounding them

Of course, it wasn't like Sanji to leave a woman to fight several soldiers alone, so he immediately dashed towards Nami's spot and helped her clear some Marines away.

"Oi Sanji, help me too!!" Usopp yelled hysterically.

Sanji who heard Usopp's scream, shook his head calmly as he kicked a marine several meters away.

"I think you are fine by yourself..."

...

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

*Bang!*

"Attack that long nosed guy, he seems to be the weakest of all of them!" The captain who was leading the marines yelled at his subordinates right when he noticed that Usopp's strength was undeniably lower than that of his companions.

*Bang!*

*Cling!*

Zoro, who heard the voice of the marine captain, moved immediately and blocked one of the bullets that was aiming towards Usopp with his sword.

"Z-zoro!! Thank god... I thought I could die..."

"Pay attention to the battle, their numbers are decreasing"

"O-oh..."

Soon, the number of Marines started decreasing at an incredibly rapid pace. And it wasn't long before the Straw-hats finally found a weakness in the enemies' formation.

"Oi marimo, Luffy, Let's attack together!"

"Fine by me" Zoro, who heard Sanji's words, grinned excitedly as he readied himself to end this meaningless fight.

"Iyaaah, that took quite a while...!" Luffy, by the other side, stretched his arms while sighing in relief after having to fight that many marines at once.

As all the marines noticed something was wrong, their eyes widened in surprise and the shooting stopped for a second. It was then, before they could even notice, devastating attacks started raining upon them and destroying their formation.

[Oni giri!]

[Gomu gomu no... Gatling!!]

[Frit Assortié!]

Dozens of Marines fell rapidly under the incredible attacks of these three monsters, and it wasn't long before all the marines ended up lying on the floor unconscious.

"Thank god... I thought we couldn't make it..." Usopp, who was the first one to realize that the battle had finally ended, sat down on the ground and started taking a small rest while looking at his companions.

"We better hurry up or we won't make it on time to meet Vivi!" Nami, who noticed the calm demeanor of her friends after the battle had ended, reminded them why they were in such a hurry in the first place.

"Ah, that's right! But what do we do...? The ship has disappeared..." Luffy immediately started looking at the coast to see if there was any clue of the whereabouts of their ship, only to unfortunately fail to find anything.

While the crew pondered what to do in such a predicament, Nami's gaze noticed a certain youth lying on the ground a few meters away from them.

'Isn't that...?'

Soon, she approached to see more clearly the face of the unconscious youth that had a few bruises all over his body.

'It's this guy again... Did he also come to Arabasta?'

Suddenly, the eyes of the seemingly asleep youth opened slowly as it started looking at his surroundings with a bit of a confused expression on his face.

"Hey, you there, are you okay?" Nami, who saw that he woke up, called out to him without worry. After all, the guy seemed to be pretty injured to attack her, and didn't even have his gun nor sword with him.

Finally, the reddish-brown eyes of the youth turned to look at her with obvious surprise and worry after hearing her voice calling out to him.

"You damn pirate... guh!" The youth tried to get up in order to keep his distance from the Straw-hat crew, but ended up falling due to the pain his body was feeling, and fell to the floor powerlessly once again.

'Did they injure him too much?' Nami, who saw the expression of pain coming from the strange young man, suddenly felt some steps approaching them.

*Tap*

*Tap*

*Tap*

"What are you doing Nami, we need to continue looking for the Merry or we will be late for the meeting with Vivi" Zoro, who noticed her talking to someone a bit far away from them, came over to take a look.

"Remember the guy I told you about? The one that had red eyes that Luffy punched at Loguetown"

"This is him? So he came along with that smoke-guy to Arabasta?"

"Seems like it"

"You pirates... just you wait until I can get up..."

Soon, it was Luffy who appeared besides them and looked directly at the black haired youth on the ground.

"Ah, it's the guy with red eyes that I punched at Loguetown! What is he doing here?!"

"Ugh, you're straw-hat... What do you guys want from me...? Just so you know, I will not surrender no matter in which way you torture me" The black haired young man gritted his teeth and clenched his fists while looking defiantly at the group surrounding him.

"What did you say...?" Zoro, who heard the youth's words, looked at him with a scary expression on his face.

"Haha... I was joking, please ask anything you want..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

While still looking at the strange youth in front of them, they suddenly heard Usopp's scream come from behind them in an excited yet dubious tone.

"Hey Luffy, I found the Merry! But... it's actually coming towards us, and there's that guy we met a few days ago that had the power to change his face appearance on top of it!"

"Naniii?!"

Soon, Luffy stopped caring about the youth in front of him, and started running in direction of the ship at full speed.

"Well, it's better to get going... let's go Nami" Zoro, who saw his Captain leave right away, decided to go after the Merry as well and left the two of them alone.

"I better catch up with them... Ah, that's right!" Nami, who was about to leave right away and go accompany her crew members, suddenly started looking inside her robes for something.

"Here it is" Soon, she threw a strange small white colored pot to the youth hands, and started leaving right away.

The youth looked at the pot on his hands, and saw that it had a small paper stuck to the side that said [Medicine]. But before he could even ask anything to Nami, he heard her shout with a smile on her face as she ran in direction of the Merry.

"You owe me a thousand Bellys!"

"..."

And like that, the strange youth was left alone in the floor together with all his unconscious marine companions.

...

Well, there was one of them that may have actually not been really been unconscious ...

...

"What's with that face Aveir...? Want to say something?"

"..."

A few meters away from the youth, a blond thin guy was looking at him with bulging veins of rage spreading over all his face.

"Damn you Sid... how dare you flirt with a woman in front of me... I thought that we were friends!"

"..."