Capítulo 83: Chapter 78
[Ourskirts of Nanohana, Alabasta]
The marine battleships, amounting to ten in total, were seen floating with their cannons facing toward the land.
On the deck of the middle ship, a marine officer with a buzz-cut brown hair, large rectangular jaw, and justice coat draped over his shoulder was seen standing. He was Rear Admiral Kanzaki, waiting for the signals to arrive from the infantry divisions led by Onigumo and Akehende.
"Rear Admiral Kanzaki! We still don't see any signal after six hours of waiting!" One marine soldier reported with a fear in his eyes, knowing how well reputed the Grimheart pirates are. The plan was to regularly send a signal every four hours through a special transmission device, but they have not received for over six hours at the current moment.
"In the worst case scenario..." Kanzaki muttered in a cold sweat, "both troops were defeated." He turned to the marine soldier with serious expression on his face, "Wait for two more hours. If there still aren't any signal to sight, notify the headquarter immediately."
Unknown to them, a ship discretely sailed away from Alabasta, by sailing from Alubarna and avoiding the encounter with the marines, by evading Nanohana.
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"We will have to divide into two groups here." Rowan spoke up to Carmen, Dan, and Cavendish. "One group will head to Rainbase and take Crocodile's valuables before anyone else does. Second group will head to Tamarisk and notify Carina, Alfred and Farul of the situation. We will meet up in Alubarna after three days."
"How are we going to divide into groups?" Dan asked, having understood Rowan's plan.
"Well," Rowan looked at Carmen and Cavendish, who looked tired, "it would be for the best that all three of you remain here. I can practically reach any part of Alabasta in an hour; it would be the most efficient for me to go to Tamarisk alone."
"And leave us with these hoards of people? Be honest, captain," Dan crossed his arms in suspicion, "you don't know what to do with them, do you?"
Carmen and Cavendish followed suit, crossing their arms and staring at Rowan comically.
"To be truthful, yes." Rowan sighed, for Dan's claim was indeed true. While he had no qualm in terms of killing, he was no psychopath murderer who killed for no reason. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, this was a rule he always applied in any situation he encountered, but in this case, it was a bit more complicated.
For the agents, they had no idea that Crocodile was their boss in the first place. It didn't matter though, since Rowan was simply planning to hand them in to the royal forces.
However, as for the marines, he couldn't do the same, since the royal forces will simply release them. He couldn't let them go either; it would be like a common trope where a main character does not kill his enemy, and later the enemy returns with more strength. It all pointed to a fact that brutally killing them will be the most 'rational' choice, Rowan was repelled of doing that—they behaved nicely so far.
Rowan helplessly sighed once more, "What do you think about killing all of them?"
hearing Rowan's words, Carmen snorted, "Are you really that afraid of them, captain?"
"Well," Dan spoke up, "I can see why you would say that. But, even if we killed a lot up until now, this doesn't seem right. In the past, we killed the wolves who tried to bite on us. Now, look at them! Remind me of little puppies!"
Grinning like Hakuba, Cavendish raised his sword and slowly licked it, causing Rowan, Carmen and Dan to frown in disgust. "Hehehehe... *Cough* *Cough* gosh, what is that taste?!!" Cavendish spat out and fell on his knees, causing the others to sweatdrop.
"Ugh, you know what?" With his eyes on Cavendish, Rowan spoke up, "Prominence is huge. If the marines can put the pirates into their jails, why can't we? Cuff them with Seastones or whatever, and throw them in."
Carmen shook her head, disagreeing Rowan's argument as well, "No, that would simply focus the marine's attentions on us even more-"
"Pfff, you are afraid of the marines?" Cavendish wriggled his eyebrows, causing Carmen to growl in anger. Turning to Rowan, Cavendish spoke with sparkling eyes, "I'm all in for that! Give me a day, and I will turn them into the fans of mine! Hahahaha!!"
Dan disagreed, "Carina will be angry for having to spend money on them."
"Well, I think otherwise." Rowan placed a hand on his chin, "She would probably think of a way to milk money out of them."
At this rate, the chat was going to be elongated. Rowan decided to end the conversation, and opened up the map of Alabasta along with the compass, determining which direction he should go to reach Tamarisk. After deducing, he approached the tied marines.
Rowan stopped in front of Hina and Shu with thoughtful eyes, before speaking up, "I'll take these two with me. Better keep the leaders away from the rest."
"H-huh?" Shu exclaimed his surprise as he heard Rowan's words to his crew members.
Subsequently, Rowan easily lifted up Hina and Shu by the ropes that they were tied within. Hung up in the air, Hina subconsciously turned her head and glared at Rowan, while Shu seemed helpless with his veil still intact on his face.
"Alright. I'll see y'all at Alubarna then." Rowan said with a cheeky grin, "Just remember, if you don't acquire enough in Rainbase, Carina will get mad."
Dan and Cavendish's eyes looked horrified as they imagined angry Carina approaching them with a knife in her hand. Gulping, they nodded to Rowan.
Carmen stood behind the two, staring at them with blank eyes.
Rowan turned around with Hina and Shu still lifted up by his hands, "You two, might want to grab onto something- right, there is nothing to grab. Oh well, try not to vomit."
*BOOOOM* Rowan instantly blasted off with Hina and Shu, leaving rest of the marines, Baroque Works agents, and the others to open their jaws wide in a shock.
Koza stared at the sky Rowan blasted away to for a while, before muttering, "Wow..."
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[Outskirt of Tamarisk, Alabasta]
"That's a lot." Carina remarked as she locked her eyes onto the guns and bullets that she collected from the dead marines. They can be used in many ways, such as melting them with Carmen's flame and reinforcing Prominence, or using as weapons, for Rowan in particular. "Welp, these go to storage."
*BOOM* *BOOM* From afar, a faint booming noise was heard, causing Carina, who instantly recognized it as the noise generated from Rowan's ability, to perk up.
*BOOOM* At an instant moment, Rowan flickered on top of Prominence, grinning down on Carina with two marine captains on his hands. Their faces were green, with their cheeks puffed out; they came close to vomiting.
"Yo Carina, how did your side go?" Rowan asked casually while waving Hina, causing the latter to try her hardest to prevent vomiting.
Robin, whose blindfold was removed by Carina some time ago, was staring at Rowan up in the sky with a vivid shock on her face.
"It was too boring." Carina shortly replied and tilted her head in confusion, "What happened on your side though? Why did you bring those two marines here?"
*Creak* Hearing the commotion, the door that leads to the staircase opened, revealing Alfred and Farul.
"Oh, captain Rowan, you have returned! I assume that everything went well?" Alfred spoke up with a brightened expression.
"Yep. Crocodile dead, Onigumo dead, Commodores dead. We were left with these marines and Baroque Works agents, so we just tied them up. And these two are the marine officers, so unless I kill them, they need to be kept under watch." Rowan shrugged casually, ignoring the pale looks that Hina and Shu gave him. "We got two more Seastone cuffs, right?"
Carina sighed and shook her head at Rowan's antics, "Prominence is not a prison ship, you know."
Alfred heard Rowan and went back to grab the Seastone cuffs.
"Hina embarrassed," Hina muttered in a small voice, "Hina ate Bind Bind fruit, and now bound instead of binding."
"And mine had to be Rust Rust fruit..." Shu said in depression under Rowan's grip, "It was practically useless here, especially since almost everyone had devil fruit ability."
Ignoring the two, Rowan descended and waited as Alfred brought the cuffs and strapped them onto Hina and Shu, instantly making them slouch in powerlessness. Rowan placed them on the chairs next to Robin. As Rowan left the scene, the three of them were seen to be sitting around a round table, with an awkwardness.
"...Hi." Shu weakly muttered, but heard no response from Robin, who stared at Alfred with dissatisfied eyes.
Alfred shrugged, "I'm sorry, but that's captain Rowan's decision. Unfortunately, you will have to endure the awkwardness."
With Alfred and Farul now on the deck, Rowan and Carina entered the inside of Prominence to talk in secrecy, not taking any chance of the hostages eavesdropping.
"So what now?" Now in the commons room, Carina asked Rowan with a curiosity.
"Carmen, Dan and Cavendish will go to Rainbase and take Crocodile's possessions for our own." Rowan stated, causing Carina's eyes to turn into Beli sign as her lips morphed into a wide smile, "We will meet them in Alubarna. Hand in those Baroque Works nuisances and... don't know about the marines. Also, there's someone to meet up there."
"Someone?" Carina tilted her head in confusion.
Rowan chuckled, "You remember when I told you about my home village, and how my childhood friends from there became the pirates too? Apparently, they are near right now. Told me to meet up with them in Alubarna."
"Childhood friends?" Carina's eyes narrowed as she leaned towards Rowan with suspicion, "You mean those two girls you talked about?"
"Yeah, Nojiko and Nami." Rowan nodded his head, "They are the captains of the Twin Cats pirates. I think you'll hit off well with them-"
"I already met this 'Nami' that you are so fond of in the past," Carina turned her head away with a pout, "and I think I am superior than her in every way possible. Probably the same with this 'Nojiko.'"
"Haha, of course you are." Rowan laughed and patted Carina's head gently, before getting serious, "But apart from that, Alubarna, as the capital of the large kingdom, is the best place for us to find Eternal Poses and gather information regarding the sky island."
Theoretically, they could already reach the sky island through the combination of Rowan's bounce and Carmen's flame. However, they did not know the direction. If they are unable to gain anything related to the sky island, they would have no choice but to follow the Log Pose.
"Let's think about that when we get there." Carina stretched her arms and yawned, and peeked her eyes to Rowan as a tear drop came out from the corner of her eyes.
"Right." Rowan moved his body to pull up the anchor and set sail.
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