Chapter 76: Chapter 72
[Tamarisk, Alabasta]
"Rear Admiral Akehende! We've found a pirate ship nearby the shore!" One marine soldier reported with a strict pose, with his hands attached to his sides. "Through the jolly roger, we identified the ship as the one belonging to Grimheart pirates!"
In front of the soldier, a marine officer, with a justice coat over his shoulders, standard marine cap on, and a headphone-like device on his head, stood without any hint of goofiness. He stood up tall and confident with his hands held together behind his back. He was Rear Admiral Akehende.
"Seize the ship immediately and take down the jolly roger from the mast!!!" Akehende ordered impulsively as he stared down at the marine soldier.
"Yes sir!" The marine soldier replied firmly before turning around and running towards the site where Prominence was anchored. "Get aboard the ship and begin the process!"
Originally, the marine troop led by Vice Admiral Onigumo wasn't the only force that entered Alabasta. There were three groups, with one going to Rainbase, the other going to Tamarisk, where they were expecting to sight the ship of Grimheart pirates (Marines were the ones who initially sighted Rowan and his crew, before reporting to Crocodile), and the last waiting on the outskirt of Nanohana. The purpose was to ensure that the Grimheart pirates won't have any escape route to slip away from them.
Now, confident that no one was there to guard the ship, the marine soldiers were about to walk onto Prominence, until...
*Zoom*
A sudden purple light flashed in front of them, before revealing Carina, Alfred, Farul, and cuffed Robin on top of Prominence's deck.
"Huh?" One marine soldier, whose hands were holding onto the rail of the ship while climbing onto it, stared at sudden appearance of the Grimheart pirates with a dumbfounded expression. That was the last thing he saw before his vision turned black, as Alfred immediately kicked him swiftly, off from Prominence.
"That was a close one." Carina growled as she turned left and right, sharply gazing at the marines that stood on the shore with widened eyes, "No way in hell I'm letting them touch our Prominence."
"Neigh~!!!!!" Farul cried in anger and huffed, with steams expelling out of his nostrils. The marines couldn't help but gulp, intimidated by the hostility of the muscular horse in front of them.
"Decarine... member of Grimheart pirates with a bounty of 60,000,000 Beli! Urgh, we weren't informed that she was a devil fruit user!" A voice was heard from the back of the marine soldiers. It was Rear Admiral Akehende, who approached Prominence with angry visage. "Additionally, unidentifiable horse and man... seems that Grimheart managed to recruit new pirates into his crew!!"
Carina leaned on the rail, rotating a knife on top of her finger as she stared at Akehende, unimpressed. "Alfred, just stay next to Robin and make sure that no one gets on Prominence. I can do this alone."
Alfred chuckled and shook his head, "Youngsters these days. Go ahead, mademoiselle Carina."
Akehende's eyes narrowed and held out his hands wide open, "Wide shield!!" His hands morphed into a giant metallic shields, covering the entire marine soldiers from Carina's sight.
Behind the shields, he spoke out haughtily, "I ate the Shield Shield fruit, allowing any part of my body to turn into a shield! You won't be able to penetrate through me-"
"You, monsieur, certainly lack a common sense." Alfred said with a deadpan, cutting Akehende off. "Who gives away one's own information, in the middle of a fight?"
Carina, with a knife still rotating on her finger, asked casually, "What's your name? Rank? Let me guess, Lieutenant?"
Akehende, whose vision was blocked as well due to his shields, frowned, "I am Rear Admiral Akehende, the one who will throw you in the Impel Down!!"
"Haha, did you see? He actually answered!!" Carina laughed while leaning on the rail, and Alfred facepalmed.
Even Farul shook his head in disappointment.
"Urghhh! How dare you mock me!!!" Akehende roared as he lifted up the large shields from the ground, "Shield Press-"
*Puk*
All of a sudden, Akehende stopped talking and began to shake on his spot, as his shields abruptly shrank before returning to ordinary sized hands.
"R-Rear Admiral Akehende? What's wrong?" A marine soldier next to him asked in confusion.
*Thud* Akehende lifelessly fell down face-first, and the blood began to ooze out of his neck, where a knife, that magically appeared out of nowhere, was seen piercing through.
"Rear Admiral...?" The marines slowly began to back away as the realization slowly creeped into their mind. They looked up to Carina, and saw that the knife she spun around her finger just a second ago, was no longer in her hand!
Impassively staring at the marines who were sweating profusely, she stretched her body and jumped out of Prominence lightly, before landing in the middle of the marine soldiers, who stood on their spots with the weapons in their hands trembling.
"I don't remember someone of Rear Admiral's rank being this easy..." Carina remarked as she reminded herself of Baten, who was far stronger than the dead Akehende. "But then again, that's how assassination works, swift and efficient. Right?"
Robin was staring at this scene with wavering eyes. Right from when she was caught, up to now, the Grimheart pirates never displayed any sign of weakness. The plots of the enigmatic organization called Baroque Works, the intimidation from the rebellion, and the vast number of the marines, they all failed to subdue a mere number of six people and one horse.
'If you were in my shoes...' Robin thought as she looked at Carina, who was facing off against the marines all by herself, confidently, 'Would you still have found where you can belong?'
After twenty years of running, she was tired. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to live anymore. Ironically enough, her stay as the hostage of the Grimheart pirates made her feel safer than ever, and having a Seastone cuff strapped on her felt better than staying on guard 24/7.
'I...' Robin thought wistfully, 'I wish I was part of this crew.'
_______________
Leaving Rowan and Crocodile's battle, which was on a whole different scale, Onigumo and the Commodores readied themselves to clash against Carmen, Dan, and Cavendish—until Dan suddenly raised his hand, motioning for them to stop.
"Hold on, give us a sec, okay?" Dan shouted before turning back to Carmen and Cavendish, rendering Onigumo and the Commodores dumbfounded.
"I said, I am the one who's going to fight that spider man!!" Cavendish growled as he waved his sword at Onigumo.
Carmen too growled in response, bumping her head against Cavendish's, "I, the Flame Empress, only fight against the ones worthy enough!!
"Whoa guys, calm down, will you?" Dan placed his hands on the shoulders of Carmen and Cavendish, pulling them off from one another. "Why don't we settle this the old-fashioned way?"
"Which is?" Carmen raised her eyebrow.
"Rock-Paper-Scissor." Dan said dreamily as he lifted up his fist in the air.
Cavendish grinned ferociously, while Carmen frowned in disapprovement—they all knew that victory will go to the one with the best Observation Haki and reflex.
"First time, this is the first time I've been mocked in such a manner!!!" Onigumo was seen growling at some distance away, his fists shaking in fury, "All the way from captain to subordinates, scums who only know how to talk s***!!!"
Completely losing himself, Onigumo used Soru to instantly dash towards Carmen, Dan, and Cavendish.
"Rock," Dan spoke out. Onigumo was near them, about to strike at any moment.
"Paper," Onigumo was now in front of them, with his fists targeting three of them at once,
"Scissor!"
*BOOM* The two fists and one open palm slammed onto Onigumo's face, with Armament Haki imbued on all of them. He was blasted backwards, before landing on his feet without a trouble.
"Ever since I came to this idiotic island... nothing but a stupidity like this!!" At this moment, although Onigumo sustained no damage by protecting his face with Armament Haki of his own, he was sent into the depth of absolute rage, boiling all the way from his feet to head.
"Ah damn, seems like Cavendish managed to beat us." Dan scratched his head.
Cavendish grinned and grabbed onto his sword excitedly, "Vice Admiral, this is going to be a great way to begin the rise of Cavendish, the Charming Prince... HEY!!!"
Carmen abruptly blasted off towards Onigumo, disregarding the result from Rock-Paper-Scissor they did previously. Cavendish shouted in anger before dashing off towards Onigumo at a blinding speed, leaving Dan on his spot, alone.
"Haa, I sometimes wonder if they really are above twenties..." Dan shook his head before facing off against six Commodores that stood in front of him with a smile on his face, "Well, I guess six is better than three."
One Commodore gritted his teeth as he pointed his katana towards Dan, "Better? Please, it would take us less than a minute to subdue someone like you, who only amounts to 10 million Beli."
"Well, about that, "Dan cracked his knuckles, getting himself serious for the fight, "you will probably have to reconsider it. Personally, I think I deserve more than 200 million Beli at least."
_______________
[Middle of Nowhere, East Blue]
"Yo Zoro, where are we?" Luffy said with his tongue out, dehydrated and hungry, "MEEEEEAT!!!! I am so hungry!!!"
Zoro was seen scratching his head out of confusion, "Strange. I just followed the map. It indicated to turn right, so I turned right. I don't understand."
The boat they were riding on continued to sail at a slow speed. The sun was continuously shining intensely, causing them to get drenched in sweat.
"Meeeeaat... huh?" Luffy perked up, sighting a small ship passing by, "Oi!!!!! Over here!!!" He waved his hand frantically.
Zoro too raised his head from the map as he heard Luffy's scream, "A ship? Out of nowhere?"
Whoever was on the ship seemed to have noticed the duo, as it changed the course and approached them.
Said ship was quite... unique in terms of design. Black sailing masts, black-coloured ship with spikes standing out on both sides of the ship.
"Hehahaha, look at these fools!!!" On the deck of the ship, there was one man, who had a wild, semi-mohawk and green-coloured hair, nose piercing, and sharp teeth with fangs sticking out. He was seen laughing uncontrollably with his finger pointed at Luffy and Zoro, crying tears out of sheer laughter.
"This is the funniest thing I've ever seen, hehahahaha!!! Hehahaha, these idiots don't even know where they are going to!!!" The man continued to laugh without a stop.
Zoro lazily said, "Fool? We were just heading to Syrup village. What do you mean?"
"Syrup? Syrup village?!!" The man momentarily stopped laughing as his eyes widened, before laughing out even harder, "Hehahahahaha!!!! Syrup village!!!! Hehahaha, you got to be kidding me!! Syrup village?!! You are near the freaking Sixis, located on the opposite side of Syrup village you moron!!"
Luffy didn't seem to mind the man's laugh. He just grinned and spoke out, "Thanks for telling us, nose-ring! You think we can get some food from you?"
"N-nose-ring?!!" The man's eyes widened hearing Luffy's words, "I, the kingpin of Barto Club, called as nose-ring?!!"
"Oi, give us some food!" Zoro casually called out, not reading the mood.
"The antics of these dumb pricks...!!" The man growled angrily before waving his hand, "Blast them off!!"
However, he was immediately bumped on the head afterwards, crying him to yelp out in pain and grab his head.
"Let's just leave these guys and go!" A red-haired woman said with irritation as she stepped out with her fist extended to the man. "Seriously Barto, why bother to waste time on these idiots?"
"Ow..." The man groaned in pain as the ship sailed away from the small boat, having lost interest in Luffy and Zoro.
"Shishishi," Luffy laughed as he stared at the ship that was moving away from them, "Zoro, follow after them! If we follow them, we are going to get meat!"
Zoro grinned, "And some sake too."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone