บท 27: The White Ghost (End of Arc 1)
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1 week later, Warship Island....
the unknown constellations spread out inside the mystery of space, stars shone brightly, and the moon doesn't shows up at this month.
Rei could be seen laying down on top of the roof basking under the glorious starlight. Rei resting his head on one hand as the other palm holding a reddish-flame colored ethereal ball with 2 flaming threads dancing on top of it spherical shape.
「Tailed Beast Core : 2 tails (inactive)
Chakra : 0/999.999.999.992,00
you are able to infuse this core towards any object you desired (animate/inanimate), once the infusion had been succesful the object will turn into Tailed Beast : 2 Tails.(incomplete)
Note : after the infusion, there will be a gestation period, depending on your environment, it will take shorter or longer time to succesfuly reached maturity.
Warning : once 2 tailed beast hatched, it will not have any consciousness on his own until it reached maturity age! 」
Rei watched the ball on his palm with less interest, he had no desire to become jinchuriki in this world. having 2 consciousness inside one body? no thank you, he thought.
however his mind couldn't help but drifted towards the old dragon Ryu. he wondered if infusing the core with him would make him a different beast? or he would die in the process?
Rei shook his head denying that thought, Rei was sure if he were to infuse it towards Ryu, the later would probably die in agony.
after the huge battle happened in Warship Island, Apis had recovered completely with Rei's help and care, as for Ryu? thankfully the stalagmites doesn't pierced through his vital part, so he was eventually saved too.
the marines were long gone after the battle, the people in seaside village mourned for the lost of their men, however they also felt grateful towards Rei whom had saved them from the complete demise.
Nelson was still M.I.A, and Eric? after Rei dealt with marine mothership, he got 140 g-pts at once and he got an additional 10 from Eric. feeling 150 was an even number he decided to just used it on a whim.
who would have thought he would get another golden-platinum box with 7 seven colored rainbow aura from the system gacha?
and so here he was, contemplating about the prize from the system gacha, a core to make 2 tailed beast jinchuriki.
'tap, tap, tap....'
there was a footsteps coming from the wall heading towards Rei while he still holding the tailed beast core overhead seemingly in reverie.
"sensei?"
Rei heard a crisp little girl voice from his top, raising his head he saw Apis stood there upside down. seeing her sensei was being lazy, Apis proceed to sit besides him.
she hugged her knee and tilted her little head watching Rei.
"Apis? you can't sleep?" Rei asked lazily.
Apis shook her head slightly and answered, "no, i just wants to stay with you here." Apis saw the red ethereal ball on Rei's palm with interest and asked back, "...whats that in your palm sensei? it looks cute!"
seeing Apis smiled at the sight of Tailed Beast Core, Rei had some question coursing his mind.
'Apis as Jinchuriki?' Rei thought, however he shook his head in instant as he probably wouldn't stand seeing Apis as Red chakra monster.
"nothing Apis, just a toy." answered Rei.
Rei finaly sat down and stored the ball back inside his inventory, when he saw his overabundance rows of items he smiled wryly wondering how he could finish them all up.
"you can walk on wall quite smoothly now, thats good progress." Rei smiled.
Apis expression brighten, showing her grinning teeth she giggled, "realy? hehehe, thanks to you sensei! hehehe, so? so? when can i walk on water sensei?"
seeing her cute face, Rei couldn't resist but to pinch her chubby cheeks.
"henhei! pleahe htoph..." complained Apis, Rei let go her cheeks and smiled while Apis rubbed it with a small pout.
"sensei is a bully! hmpph!"
Rei laughed it off when he heard her.
Rei laying down once again on the roof, resting his head on his hands. seeing Rei watched the night starry sky in peace, Apis couldn't help but joined him feeling slightly bored.
"sensei..." Apis called softly.
"hmm?"
"why are you always sleep on the roof? its cold here and dark. you can stay inside sensei."
ever since Rei stayed at Bokuden house, other than eating he always spent his time outside, strolling, exploring and including when he fell asleep.
"Apis..."
"yea sensei?"
"....do you know what its like to stay inside the room for the whole of your life without sunlight?"
Apis was silent when she heard Rei chuckled and continued,
"...nothing to see, no one to meet, nothing interesting."
as if struck with realization, Apis slowly turned her head towards Rei. her little hands reached out to Rei's arm.
noticing her action, Rei grabs her hand back, both of them just keeping their silence. and after a while, Apis asked, "sensei, grandpa Ryu said you came from the moon? is that true?"
Rei laughed in response and answered back, "i came from a place far far away, Apis...."
before Apis spoke, Rei ask interrupted her, "...what do you want to do when you grow up Apis?"
Apis thought for a while and answered, "...i don't know sensei, but i want to protect grandpa Ryu and finding his home. how about you sensei?"
"i'm not sure..." Rei said faintly.
to think about it, Rei actualy doesn't have any grandiose goal when coming here, as long as he could still exploring the outside world under the sun, that was enough thought Rei.
"...i think, travelling around and in the end having a place to stay is enough for me? and maybe a family too." added Rei, there was an uncertainty tone within his speech.
"then, why don't you stay here sensei? if you don't want to stay with us, thats fine. i can help you build a house here!"
Rei chuckled, "hahahaha, thanks Apis. but the world is so huge. i think, it'll be a shame to stay at home..."
Apis face turns to shock then she exclaimed, "sensei! you will leave? how about me? nooo! don't leaavee!" at the end of her sentences, Apis snuggled into Rei's chest.
Rei was amused by her behavior, his eyes turned gentler seeing her spoiled nature like this. however Rei keep his heart firm, he likes Apis and Ryu, however Rei had been awakened his explorations and traveling interest recently.
he wondered what could possibly he sees in the future at the huge world later? will it be marvelous? spectacular? or straight abominable?
Rei felt it was such a shame if he were to stayed within one place. he wants to explore the world, traveling between islands, thats also the reason why he asked for a boat as his payment when he was still in Happy Town.
both of them teasing and joking for a while, laughter could be heard passing the cold night on top of the roof of Bokuden house.
Bokuden shook his head, he could heard both laughter from the roof inside the house, his elderly eyes seeing straight at the dancing flame of burning stove, gentle smile painted his lips in peaceful manner.
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meanwhile....
"sir, we are done!" reported marine officer inside the office room, he saluted towards the lanky brown man with horseshoe mustache sitting on his desk chair.
Hardy currently went through several files piled on his desk, reading the seemingly endless report documents on it. after a few moments he paused when he saw a certain man picture in one of the reports.
Hardy raised his head looking straight at the still saluting officer and said,
"at ease..."
the marine officer complied and stood at ease. currently Hardy was inside his newly appointed office, on top of his desk there was "Commodore" nameplate resting galantly.
after the war with Rei, the 8th branch marine base were left with power vacuum, Nelson was missing in action presumably dead along with his aides.
as Lt.Commander Hardy was the 2nd highest ranking officers within the marine base, he was appointed to Commodore rank, which raising his rank to one level above.
the first thing Hardy does however wasn't to report about the massive lost occured to the marine base because of war, he actualy purged the current corrupt marines and executed lots of cancerous cells within the base!
he does that with lightning speed! even the current Hardy's nickname was "Iron Face Hardy" a moniker which the 8th branch crews came up with due to his cold face.
"sir..." called the officer snapped Hardy back from the photo.
"excuse me sir, when would you detailing the reports about the incident?" the officer probe at Hardy emotionless face.
"to the Headquarter?" asked Hardy and the officer nodded towards him.
Hardy was contemplating for a while until he finaly made up his mind.
"connect my den den mushi with Headquarter asap!"
"sir!" the officer saluted and leave soon after.
Hardy didn't wait too long as his den den mushi rang loudly. then Hardy took the den den mushi microphone and put it close to his mouth.
'clack'
"Hardy." he said simple.
"...Lt.Commander Hardy of East Blue 8th branch Marine Base?"
"it's Commodore now."
"....i'm terribly sory sir Commodore. Headquarters already received your reports about the incident occured towards your base, may we have a details once more?"
Hardy took a deep breath, he spoke with clear voice and reported what happened towards his base, about Nelson misconduct, the corruptions, until finaly about the incidents and the culprit.
"...thats everything." Hardy closed his reports simple and precise.
"...we got your reports clearly sir, thank you very much, and as addition may we offer you a congratulations of your new rank, Commodore Hardy?"
Hardy grunt in response, then he heard the other side spoke once again.
"....then, can you please elaborate more about the culprit? it seems he is such dangerous individual, a rookies and one with ability to destroy a marine base singlehandedly was almost unheard of nowadays."
the voice paused and after a while it could be heard once again asking Hardy question.
"....is he a devil fruit user? if so, what do you think his ability is?"
"no, he is not..." Hardy recalled how he was saved by Rei, the later was clearly able swim and dived underwater.
"...then, what ability he possesed exactly?"
"many, the most notable one was speed, he is fast."
"...how many lives were lost that day sir? if you have any assumptions about how many it was?"
Hardy paused slightly, "we have more than 350 personels missing in action and that including former Commodore, Nelson Royale."
".....our condolences sir. so, you have no exact numbers sir?"
"unfortunately no."
".....we understand sir, and could you please confirm the individuals name once again sir?"
hearing the question, Hardy face turned colder by several degrees, Hardy gritted his teeth recalled the man's name.
"Rei" he simply said the name without embelished it at all.
"...understood sir, is there any other nickname we could refer to?"
there was actualy a tale fabricated around Rei's existence within the 8th branch circulating currently and the most infamous one was,
"White Ghost." Hardy said and simply closed the connections with the Marine Headquarters.
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East Blue...
within a town there seems to be a festival happening, the people wore an interesting circuss outfit there, laughing and joking to each other.
however inside the town houses one could seen the normal outfit folks seems looking outside warily.
the circuss outfitted people were actualy an uninvited guests of the town, as they were seen bringing a weapons with them at all times!
there was a huge tent at the middle of townsquare, it has a Jolly Roger flag atop of it, depicting the features of the standard comic-style skull-and-crossbones, the skull was modified with a large red nose and black "makeup" crosses on the eye sockets.
inside the tent, the crews were in the middle of a never ending party, there was a man with big red nose wearing a captain hat drinking a tons of liquor seemingly endless. he sat atop of a festive looking colorful throne.
"captain!" one of the man crew called towards the big nosed man, he brought a stack of wanted posters along.
"what!" the man slammed his jug with a thud.
"there's new wanted poster issued captain!"
the big nosed man raised his eyebrow and laugh in distinctive style, "gyahahahhaha! what? new poster? is it me? how much it raise?"
the crew shook his head and said, "unfortunately, its not you captain, but a newcomer!"
the big nosed man slumped back to his throne and picked his nose lazily, "is that so? who is it?"
the crew showed his captain the newcomer wanted poster issued by marine, at first the captain was still casual about it, however when he saw it back in detailed manner, he couldn't help but opened his eyes widely and leaped out from his seat to snatch the poster from the crew's hand.
"how? THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!" the captain yelled loudly interrupting the party, everyone presents turned their heads towards their captain, only to see the later face were covered with cold sweat.
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the scene when everyone within East Blue saw the issued new wanted poster were almost the same, disbelief, frightful, and amazed.
East Blue was considered the weakest amongst the other ocean around the world. however, at this time the common folks were scared with the seemingly storm looming around the horizon, the bounty hunter were nervously excited and the criminals were jubilant just because of one new wanted poster issued by Marines Headquarters.
in the middle of it was a green haired swordsman, wearing simple worned out white shirt with green haramaki covered his abdoment. interrestingly he carried 3 swords on his waist.
he brought a bottle of liquor as he walks and noticed a wanted poster plastered upon the wall. feeling unfamiliar with the photo, he came closer towards the poster.
squinted his eyes, he smiled menacingly, "White Ghost huh? interesting." then he took the poster from the wall and continued his journey while drinking from his bottle once in a while.
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theres another scene on the other side of East Blue. a one armed, scarred face man could be seen inside the bar reading a newspaper with new wanted poster on his table.
"Rei, we will meet again!" the one armed man gnashed his teeth and squeezed the newspaper with force.
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"STOP THAT THIEVING CAAT!"
"STOOP THAT GIRL! HEY! COME BACK HERE!"
"WHERE WAS SHE! WHERE?!
running footsteps of rough men could be heard within an alley in one of the East Blue town.
after a while, hearing the foosteps getting fainter, someone jumps out of her hiding place, she wiped her prespirated forehead and smiled cheekily.
the attractive girl was full of smile, she has a slim figure of average height with orange hair and brown eyes.
"phew*, thankfully they are dumb! tee hee..." said the girl cheekily.
she crawled and took out something from her behind and admired it slowly, it was a golden locket with a treasure map inside. her smile grew larger after she calculated how far the treasures currently burried was.
as she stood up, she noticed a newspaper on the ground, after she pick it up there was a new wanted poster slipped out from the newspaper page.
when she took the poster, she couldn't help but exclaimed in wonder,
"wow! is this real?" the girl turned the poster upside down scrutinized every details on the poster.
seeing its genuine articles, she couldn't help but to open the newspaper on her hand, on it was written about the earthshaking incident regarding one of the marine base war against their foe which happens to be only one person!
the girl mumbled of its content faintly, "new rookies....Rei....destroying the famous 8th branch marine base with its Commodore and more than 350 marine crews along!"
after reading the newspaper, only frown could be seen at her pretty face. then after, she tossed both of it and the wanted poster behind, she shook her head and began to walk away.
on the muddy ground the poster began to absorbs the moisture from the water patch on the ground and what written on it was,
"WANTED, WHITE GHOST REI, DEAD or ALIVE, 45.000.000 BELLIES, MARINE"
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1 month later...
"sensei, will you please stay behind? pleaaasee." Apis could be seen grabbing Rei's sleeve.
Bokuden, Apis, and Rei were currently at the beach near seaside village, there was a boat currently on standby at the shore not far from there.
facing Apis "pleading attack", Rei almost gave up upon his journey decision, however he held on albeit feeling extremely unwilling to leave his cute disciple.
Rei breathe with difficulty until finaly he kneeled down and facing Apis which had almost burst into tears.
"Apis...." Rei said gently while wiping her slowly falling tears on her cheeks.
Rei and Apis had grown closer after a month of training, Rei thought Apis as his little sister and Apis considered him as one of the most important figure amongst Ryu and Bokuden.
after a month of training, Apis finaly mastered shunshin no jutsu and several techniques Rei knew of, and the most importantly she could finaly walks on water! unless her ankle submerged, she will be able to walk perfectly be it on river or sea, the interesting thing was, about her chakra which actualy stopped working when she was inside the water.
Rei only concluded its as the devil fruit weakness over her body, and unfortunately Rei had no idea how to fix it.
after their long interactions with each other, Rei felt he had done his roles here, and decided to began his journey around the world.
"Sensei, do you realy want to leave? what if bad guy come?" Apis still putting up with her "pleading attack".
Rei sighed and smiled gently, "Apis, be good okay? you are strong enough to protects everyone around you now."
"but, but, but...."
"if there's a meeting, there will be a parting. and the fate brought us together, I as your sensei felt grateful and proud of you Apis."
Apis couldn't help it anymore, she hugged her sensei's neck tightly like a vise. her tears streaming down uncontrollably, wetting Rei's collar.
Rei hugged her back and stroking her back gently, if one looked closely there was a tear on the corner of the man eyes.
after several moments, Bokuden couldn't help but called her from behind, "Apis? it is time.."
Apis finaly released her grips, wiping her tears, she tried to smile with difficulty.
"i understand sensei, please be safe out there." she said with shaken voice.
Rei stroke her blonder hair and smiled back, "i will, and you need to eat on time, don't sleep late, and listen to your grandpas. and also."
Rei reached inside his sleeve, a second later he took of what seemingly a kunai out from there, the kunai has peculiar shape with its three pointed edge and bigger gripping point than the normal kunai, it also has a paper with unknown but beautiful writing wrapping around its grip.
"take this, my parting gift." Rei offered his peculiar kunai to Apis, and the later took it hesitantly.
tilting her head in question, Apis asked, "what's this sensei?"
"that's called Hiraishin Kunai, keep it. it might save you in the future." Rei smiled and stroked her head.
Apis nodded slowly in understanding.
Rei actualy got 3 Flying Thunder God kunai from the unopened boxes, it was a special signature weapon of Minato Namikaze, the 4th Hokage of Konohagakure from the Naruto series.
suddenly Apis pulled her pendant hanging around her neck, the Millenium Dragon Claw pendant.
with tears streaming down, she gave her pendant to her beloved sensei, "sensei, grandpa said my mother gave me this pendant since i was a baby, he said it will keep me safe."
Rei wanted to refuse such precious pendant, however he reluctantly agreed to it at last after Apis almost broke into tears again.
"please sensei! keep it safe for me please?" Apis begged firmly.
sighing, Rei took the pendant and used it to tied his overflowing white hair. now he has different hairstyle from the usual, a long ponytail elegantly tied atop of his head.
seeing Rei action, Apis smiled and couldn't help but hugged Rei once again, after a few moments they parted away tried to hold back their tears.
Rei finaly looked towards Bokuden and spoke, "thank you very much Bokuden, i was so welcomed here, i hope we can meet again in the future."
"of course, you are always welcome here sensei Rei." answered Bokuden with smile.
"WE WILL MEET AGAIN SENSEI! WE WILL!!!" Apis suddenly shouted on top of her lungs seemingly tried to hide her grief.
Rei nodded, he slowly walked on the sea and onto his boat, he waved his hands towards Bokuden and crying Apis.
just when he stepped into the boat, he heard Ryu's voice inside his head,
'thank.you. moon dweller. i.hope. we,meet again. in. future'
Rei smiled hearing that, he cast the boats canvas and pulled out the small anchor from the sea.
"we will meet again Ryu, we will." mumbled Rei faintly as he began to hum a tone and begin his journey.
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