章 27: Unfortunate bounty hunter
...
"How could this have happened?!"
"C-captain... Please escape... He is too powerful..."
"We... We can't defeat him...!"
"I can't leave you guys here! Even if I have to fight that monster alone, I won't give up on you guys!"
""Captain... You...""
In the middle of Nanohana's dock, an incredible number of unconscious men could be seen lying on the ground completely bruised and injured all over their bodies, as if someone had punched them without mercy.
Standing in front of them there were still three men that somehow, despite them being in a worse condition than the men on the ground, still maintained their consciousness. Their breathing, however, was rough, and their legs trembled continuously as they staggered continuously while trying their best to continue standing.
These three men were paying no attention to the unconscious men behind them, and instead, they were looking straight ahead with eyes full of alertness, not moving their eyes away at any moment, as if something dangerous was approaching them.
Well, not something dangerous exactly... But a person.
"You guys sure are having an emotional moment here..."
""...!!!""
Suddenly, as they were looking ahead of them with eyes full of worry, someone appeared from behind them and tapped their shoulder while speaking in a relaxed tone.
Jumping in fright, the three men jumped several meters away from whoever had touched their shoulders, before they turned around and took a proper look at the person who had tapped their shoulders.
The person that appeared was no one else but a young man approximately 18 years old, with long and messy black hair, and a dirty gray coat that seemed to have passed through a lot of things during the last few days.
His eyes were completely calm and he seemed to be uninterested in the men in front of him. d, he kept glancing at the sea in the distance with a contemplative gaze every now and then, as if it was way more entertaining to look at it instead at the men.
"You damn bastard... Why are you attacking us all of the sudden?! What did we ever do to you?!" Gritting his teeth in rage, one of the men took a step forward before he yelled angrily at the youth and looked at him with a completely pissed-off expression.
Hearing the question, the young man turned his gaze away back from the sea to the men, before he smiled slightly and shrugged his shoulders with an apologetic expression.
"You? You did nothing to me. I just thought that it would be better for pirates like you to enr journey here, and not cause trouble anywhere else... Also, I also forgot to bring some money with me, and I'm quite in need of some right now... And since you three have a bounty in your heads, capturing you would like killing two birds with one stone"
"You bastard... Just because of a reason like tha...-!"
Just as the pirate was about to say something, the young man appeared in front of him and delivered an incredibly fast and fierce kick right to his face, sending him flying away completely unconscious, and startling enormously the other three men in the process.
'When did he move?!'
'I couldn't even notice when he attacked, what kind of monstrous speed is that?!'
-Thud!-
Soon, the body of the man flying away crashed into a wall and stopped moving. After that, the two remaining men looked at the young man with widened eyes and prepared to fight.
"Enough chattering, I haven't had any food for two days straight, and I'm fucking starving, so I will have to end this chat right here" Patting his stomach, the young man took a step forward before he suddenly disappeared from his previous spot and reappeared right in front of one of the men, delivering an incredibly fast punch directly to their chest and making both of them fall backward unable to continue standing.
-Thud!-
-Thud!-
Seeing the two men falling unconscious to the ground, the young man sighed, before he picked a long rope from within his coat, walked towards all of the unconscious men on the dock, and began tying all of them up together.
Thanks to the young man's skillful hands that moved as if they were already experienced with tying up people around, the process didn't take even ten minutes before soon all of the men were tied up and trapped into an enormous net without a chance of escaping.
The view resembled enormously a net with hundreds of fish cramped inside, however, instead of fish, there were people inside.
What was most ridiculous about this, however, was not that there were dozens of people trapped inside the net as if they were fish, but instead it was that soon the young man picked up the net as if it was made of feathers, and lifted it in the air with a completely nonchalant expression on his face, despite the fact that it probably weighed a ton or two.
"Alright... Let's hurry up and get paid... My stomach is grumbling already..." Muttering something like that, the young man soon started walking away while carrying the enormous net of men above his shoulders, before he disappeared into the distance and left the people near the dock confused by what they had just seen.
°
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|A few minutes later...|
...
"The drinks are on me today, guys!"
"Woooooh!!"
"Yeaaaaaah!!!"
-Whistle!!-
"Yeaaaah, that's why I consider you my best friend!"
"Then why were you stealing my wallet earlier in the morning?!"
"As I said, I was just looking at it!"
"Yeah, sure. Either way, everyone, drink to your heart's contents today!"
Inside a very lively tavern where dozens of people seemed to be having the time of their lives, standing behind the counter of the tavern, an old man with a bald head and a very fine mustache kept cleaning what seemed to be a cup in his hands, as if not bothered in the slightest by the noisy surroundings.
His hands moved swiftly through the cup as if looking for any dirty spot or stain in the beautiful design of the cup, and his eyes, which were not leaving the cup at any moment, looked carefully for any imperfection within it, similar to a hunter looking for its prey.
-Clink!-
However, when the sound of someone entering the bar reached his ears, his attention changed to the entrance, and soon his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the appearance of the person that was entering.
Unable to suppress his smile while watching that person walk towards him, the old man grinned satisfactorily, before he placed the cup back on the counter and turned to look at the person with a welcoming gaze.
"Farid, so you have come back to the city!"
"Yeah, but first, please give me something to eat, I'm fucking starving"
"E-eh? Well, alright... Wait for me there, I will bring you something right away!"
After making sure Farid sat on one of the chairs at the counter, the old man ran right away towards the kitchen, before then a few minutes later he came back with a very bountiful dish of chicken and rice.
-Tap!-
"Now, eat to your heart's content"
"Thanks"
Giving the food to Farid, the old man sighed, before he began looking at Farid devour the food in front of him with a funny gaze.
He had no regard for manners and was just shoving down all the food he had brought him without a care in the world.
'Well, at least he is using the cutlery...'
"It seems like you were hungry"
-Gulp...-
"You can tell?" Not minding in the slightest the fact that he was still eating, Farid spoke with his mouth full of food, before he then resumed his eating and spared no glance at the old man.
"..."
'As blunt as always...'
Letting out a snort, the old man sighed briefly, before he waited for Farid to stop eating in order to start talking properly. Fortunately, the wait didn't take long, as soon, even though the dish he had brought him was enormous for just one person, Farid finished it all at an incredible speed.
Raising an eyebrow at Farid's abnormal eating speed, the old man let out a short laugh, before he then opened his mouth and asked Farid.
"I thought it would take you a few months to come back?"
Hearing the old man's question, Farid sighed exhaustingly before he then began massaging his temples with a tired expression on his face.
"Well, this time the pirates were weaker and way dumber than what I thought. They left trails all over the island, and it took me only a day to find all of them and beat the shit out of them"
"Then why do you look so pissed-off?"
Seeing Farid's irritated expression, the old man couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in confusion, since what he was telling him seemed to be a good thing.
However, his eyes couldn't help but widen in surprise at what Farid told him next.
"That's because suddenly, when I was already coming back, a storm struck my boat and destroyed it completely. Thanks to that, I was forced to find the Eternal pose that sank somewhere into the ocean after the boat was destroyed, and then swim all the way back here while meeting some Sea Kings on the way"
"...You've had it hard, huh?
"Tsk... Luckily for me, even though I lost all the money I gained by capturing those pirates after the boat was destroyed, I found another crew of pirates just here at the dock, so I was able to regain some of my losses that way" Sighing exhaustingly once again, Farid leaned back on his chair, before he then looked at a pouch of money hidden inside his coat, and took some to pay for the food he had just eaten.
Accepting the money, the old man saved it inside a safe cage, before he then looked at one of the walls of the tavern, which was covered completely in wanted posters, and frowned slightly.
"Another? Geez, pirates these days really are making trouble all around the world... Have you heard about that new pirate... Err... Monkey D. Luffy I think it was? He kicked Arlong's ass and caused quite a commotion at Loguetown just a few days ago!"
"Arlong, huh? Well, I was gonna go for him one of these days... But I think there's no need now" Looking disinterestedly at the wanted posters, Farid walked up to them and rapidly picked up a certain one, before going back to his seat.
"Monkey D. Luffy, huh? He looks about my age, and he is already a pirate?"
"Well, ain't you quite young to be a bounty hunter as well?"
"..." Hearing the words of the old man, Farid turned to look at him with a small frown, before he then looked back at the wanted poster, and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Thirty million Belly? Well, that's quite an attractive sum... But why give it to a rookie? I know he defeated Arlong, but isn't this a little bit too much?"
"Who knows... Maybe he angered a higher-up of the marine, and now they want his head?" Shrugging his shoulders, the old man sneered, before he then looked back at Farid, and noticed that he was looking silently at the poster of the pirate-rookie.
"What's up Farid? Are you going to capture him next?"
"Hmm? No way, I'm going to take a small rest from bounty hunting. This last adventure took quite a toll on me, and I have a lot of money left to spend... So I guess I will be inactive for a few months. As for why I was looking at the poster so much... Well, I found it quite curious that this guy looks like he is having fun, that's all"
"Oh, now that you mention it, he does look like he is having fun... It's quite rare for a pirate to have such an expression..."
-Rustle...-
Suddenly, as the old man kept looking at the wanted poster with squinted eyes, Farid stood up from his chair and walked towards the exit.
Startled by this, the old man turned to look at Farid, before he sighed and placed the wanted poster down.
"Goodbye, Farid"
"Hm"
Waving his hand to the old man without looking back, Farid quickly left the tavern, before he then started walking across the streets of Nanohana with no apparent destination.
Like that, Farid continued moving through the crowded streets of Nanohana while having a pensive expression on his face, until, at one moment, Farid noticed that he had arrived at the dock, and sighed deeply.
"Whatever, I kinda wanted to sit down right now..."
Shaking his head to disperse his thoughts, Farid walked to the border of the dock, before he then calmly sat on it, and left his feet hanging in the air just a few centimeters from the water of the sea.
-Fwoooosh...-
-Kashaaaaaa...-
Closing his eyes calmly at the peaceful sound of the ocean, Farid's expression soon turned sour, as suddenly his eyes opened, and glanced to the side with a deep frown.
"Seriously, isn't there any way to stop this thing from working...?"
Next to him, laid a screen with a lot of numbers written on it.
▽
『Name: Farid』
-Age: 18
-Species: Human
-〈STATUS〉-
『User characteristics:』
▸Strength: [700]〈0/10〉
▸Defense: [1000]〈0/100〉
▸Stamina: [1000]〈0/100〉
▸Internal Defense: [250]〈0/100〉
▸Soul Power: [150]〈0/1000〉
『Body abilities:』
▸Psychomotor ability: [Lvl 250/1000]〈0/1,000,000〉
▸Healing speed: [Lvl 200/1000]〈0/1000〉
▸Cerebral power: [Lvl 200/1000]〈0/1000〉
『Senses:』
▸Eyesight: [Lvl 25/100]〈0/1,000,000〉
▸Hearing: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Touch: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Smell: [Lvl 10/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Taste: [Lvl 15/100]〈0/10,000〉
▸Gut's feeling: [Lvl 25/100]〈0/1,000,000〉
『Special skills:』
▸Armament Haki: [Lvl 150]〈0/1000〉
▸Observation Haki: [Lvl 150]〈0/1000〉
▸Conqueror's Haki: [Lvl 100]〈0/1000〉
▸Voice: [Lvl 5/100]〈0/100,000〉
___________________
『Status points remaining: [20,922,658]
△
-Sigh...-
"Just how did it end like this...?"
...
-To be continued...-
°°°
(A/N: Now, as per usual, here's an illustration of Farid.
---->
I don't really know if it ended up looking like one piece style (Pretty much because a lot of changes appeared while I was drawing it, so in the end, it somehow ended up looking really different from what it was in the beginning) But here's how he should look right now as an adult.
No crab mask this time, sadly.)
週次パワーステータス
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