บท 2: Chapter two- going fishing for devil fruits

Walking out of the alleyway Gabriel looked around and frowned. He found himself on what looked like the main street of a town of some kind, or rather what had been a town. All the buildings were made from wood but all of them were completely wrecked, it looked at first like their roofs had been torn off and all the buildings had been abandoned.

"What could have done this?" Gabriel muttered to himself as he looked around frowning, the sight seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember where in the series he had seen this before.

Walking forward he tried to get a better look at the place he was in but as he stepped forward he felt something crunch under his foot stepping back and looking down he saw it was a sign with Japanese Kanji written on it spelling out the destroyed towns name.

"Gosa Village" Gabriel read the sign and instantly his eyes widened in recognition of the name and he instantly looked back to the ruins of the town around him.

He knew now what he was really looking at, it wasn't that the roofs of the buildings had been torn off, its that each building had been completely flipped and the roofs crushed underneath each of them.

Gabriel swallowed he knew exactly where he was, East Blue, Conomi Islands, Arlong Pirate territory. He immediately felt a cold sweat gather on the back of his neck. This was bad, Arlong was a Fishman from the grand line, someone who hated humans with a passion because of his kind's treatment at the hands of humans in the past. Gabriel knew exactly who he was, and he instantly began to worry. Fishmen were much stronger than your average human, tougher as well and he had just landed smack in the middle of their territory.

Gabriel knew that Luffy dealt with the Arlong crew early in the main story, but he didn't know if that had happened yet or not. If Arlong was still in command of these islands then that meant that Nami would still be part of his crew, which meant that it would be extremely dangerous around here for those not native to the islands.

Taking a breath Gabriel tried to calm his nerves, it was fine, everything was fine. All he had to do was keep out of sight and not get spotted, he could wait until the Straw-hat crew came and took care of Arlong and the rest of them, he didn't have to get involved.

He knew that with a name like his he would likely attract all kinds of attention if the wrong people found out. Not only did he have the family name of the first mate of the previous pirate king, but he also somehow got given D as his middle name, that he knew spelled all kinds of trouble.

The will of D, that was something that he knew next to nothing about, sure he had read about some fans speculations on what it was about but it had never actually been openly stated in the canon as far as he knew. As far as he was concerned his name was just a trouble magnet. He would have to make sure to keep that to himself for now, at least until he was strong enough to watch his own back.

Speaking of which, he was currently out in the open that was not wise. Thinking better he moved back and to the side to keep to the shadows of the buildings, no one was around now sure, but he still didn't want to risk…

As soon as that thought passed through his mind, he heard the crunch of gravel near by and instantly froze in his steps. The crunching sounds repeated and was growing closer. Panicking Gabriel quickly back peddled into the alleyway he had come from and crouched down and looked in the direction of the sounds and felt his heart skip a beat as a figure came into view.

He was large and scaly, standing at least seven-foot-tall and was clearly not human if his features were any giveaway.

As the figure got closer Gabriel could begin to make out various features on him, he was a pale green and had large eyes that looked to be too big for his head, he also had a small mouth but it was filled with rows of sharp jagged teeth, and he appeared to be carrying a fabric bag at his side. He was a fishman alright.

Gabriel felt his throat dry up in fear, he couldn't be spotted. As much as he didn't want to act like Usopp and be a coward, he knew he didn't have the strength to take on Arlong and if he was caught here it had no doubt that was exactly who he would be taken to.

He started to move back more, taking his time so as not to make any sound, he just had to slip away slowly and keep out of sight until he passed, there was nothing that should give him away.

But after the first back step he suddenly heard a sound in his ear like a small bell chime and a screen appeared up in front of him making him pause.

New Quest available

Quest: I'll take that

Goals:

obtain the bag that the fishman is carrying

Defeat the fishman

Reward: Whatever is in the bag, 100AP

Accept: Yes

Gabriel blinked as he read it, a quest, seriously. So his system has a sentience and can give out quests… that was a thought for another time, reading over the quest again he was really reluctant to even attempt it, he didn't think he could take the fishman as he was.

He swallowed again trying to think, it might be possible, even slightly if he put what points he had left into his Combat strength, it might give him an edge, if he got lucky he might be able to knock him out before he sees him.

It wasn't like he had much choice in the matter, there was no decline option available for the quest and he felt annoyed at that, but he couldn't really do anything about it and so hit accept before going back into his system menu and dropped half the remaining two hundred points he had held back into his strength, not wanting to risk that his current strength wouldn't be enough.

With another hundred points added to his strength Gabriel once again felt his body swell with the energy, he felt a lot stronger once more and even as the swell faded he still felt the strength he didn't know if it would be enough but it would have to do.

Clenching his fists Gabriel turned and positioned himself so that he was ready to move, he wanted to end this hard and fast and then get gone before anything could happen.

He felt his heart begin to race as he heard the Fishman getting closer with each step. He tried to calm himself but knew it wouldn't do any good, this was the first time he would do anything like this.

The shadow of the Fishman came into his view and the second he caught his first glance of him Gabriel moved.

Lunging forward he took one step then another, his movements catching the fishman's attention as he began to turn. He raised his fist and drew it back as he took another step, the Fishman's eyes landed on him and began to open wide in both surprise and shock.

He takes another step and throws himself forward putting all his body and momentum behind the punch. The fishman opened his mouth to speak but he was barely able to get the first syllable out before Gabriel's right hook connected with his jaw as Gabriel let out a shout as his heart hammered in his ears.

The next second the whole of the Fishman's body seemed to lift off the ground as Gabriel's punch followed through, his body spun as his eyes rolled back into his skull and his body went limp before he was thrown backward by the impact and sent sprawling ten feet backwards and crashed to the ground.

The bag in the fishman's hand dropped from his grip as he landed. Gabriel stood with his fists still clenched as he looked at the scene, his chest heaving from the effort of that punch.

Gabriel landed and turned towards the fishman's downed form, his muscles tense and ready as he got ready to move once again. However as the seconds passed it was clear that he wasn't getting up again.

Slowly Gabriel began to get his breathing under control, his heart still hammering in his chest as he relaxed and looked at the scene and then down at his fist, "what?" he said between his breaths, he had never expected it to be that easy. Sure, he had gotten him by surprise, and he had put all he could into that punch but to knock a fishman out with just one hit, he was surprised, having expected so much more from his first encounter.

Slowly a smile came to his face as he realised he had done it and hesitantly stepped forward picking the bag up, keeping an eye on the downed form of the fishman the whole time. The second he had the bag in his hand however, he immediately turned on his heels and began to sprint away from the town as fast as his feet could carry him towards the forest on the outskirts, not wanting to stick around for the fishman to come around or to test his luck that some of his buddies might be around.

Time skip

Gabriel didn't stop running again until he heard the same bell sound from before in his ear and two screens came up in front of him making him stop and let out a sigh of relief.

Quest Complete: I'll take that

Goals:

obtain the bag that the fishman is carrying- Accomplished

Beat the fishman- Accomplished

Reward: Whatever is in the bag, 100AP

-.-.-

For defeating Fishman Pirate you have gained 10AP

Gabriel grinned, it should mean that he was no longer in danger, but looking behind him he didn't want to take chances and continued on for another few minutes just to put some more distance between him and the town before he came to a stop and opened the bag to see just what it was that he had gotten, what he saw instantly made his gape.

Inside the cloth bag on its own was something he'd never thought he'd see in his life. It was a deep brown shade with golden swirls that covered its body that was in the shape of an apple… devil fruit.