บท 19: Chapter nineteen- first kill and long hugs
"Mother fucker!" Gabriel cursed out loud as he stared at the screen in front of him feeling like he had just been ripped off. He had just finished beating Hatchi, the last of Arlongs lieutenants in preparation for facing the man himself. He had been a pain in the ass to beat too, with those six swords of his that he had appeared with, Gabriel had actually lost count of the number of times he had to phase himself to avoid being cut through by one of those blades, and this was what he got.
Hatchi of the Arlong pirates has been defeated
10AP and 8000 beri has been added to the users' profile.
Ten AP, ten lousy AP and only eight thousand beri after that fight. After that fight he had hoped to get a lot more, as harmless as Hatchi looked he was a monster to take down. But apparently the system didn't take unique cases into account when distributing points and beri.
Now Gabriel was worried what this meant in the long run for his farming in his mind palace, because Nezumi was a captain in the marines, if the system considered him to be the same worth as Smoker who was clearly leagues above in strength then even if he did eventually learn haki at some point it would be pointless by then given that he had crushed Nezumi repeatedly to the point where he was only getting a single point from him when he beat him into the ground.
And if it was the same for bounties classes then he was worried about what he would get for fighting Arlong. He was at the top of the ten and twenty million beri bounty class, the same where Buggy was and he had already beaten him twice by the system standards so whatever AP reward he would get would already be considerably less. Was it even worth the effort to fight Arlong now?
After thinking for a few moments Gabriel sighed, "guess there is only one way to find out." He said before taking a breath and with a thought Arlong appeared twenty feet in front of him…. Holding the mother-fucking Kiribachi…. Great.
Instantly Gabriel had to jump back as Arlong shot forward with murder in his eyes and slashed forward with the Kiribachi, its teeth digging into the ground where Gabriel had stood but a second before.
Gabriel knew that Arlong was a much bigger threat than those he had been fighting before, stronger faster and better armed, he would have to take him down as fast as he could.
Balling his fists Gabriel charged Arlong with his fists shaking ready to fight, only to have to cancel his attack in favor of phasing as Arlong slashed at him with the Kiribachi nearly cutting him in two.
Gabriel moved to the side to counter attack but the moment he was solid again Arlong threw a hard left hook at him and he had to raise his arms to block the attack as he was unable to phase again so quickly.
The punch launched him back and he came down thirty feet back wincing from the pain in his arms, 'Damn that fucker can punch' he thought, but he couldn't hold still for long as Arlong came shooting at him with his nose ready to pierce him, covering the distance in only a second.
Gabriel stepped to the side and phased at the same time to avoid the attack and the second he became solid he clenched his fists and drove a hard punch into Arlong's spine.. it did next to nothing and the next second Gabriel was sent flying again when the back of the Kiribachi slammed into his gut like a baseball bat and he was doubled over in the air.
Gabriel landed and rolled another ten feet as pain racked his body from the hit, he may not have been cut but that had fucking hurt. He heard movement and instantly rolled out of the way as Arlong tried to take his head off with the Kiribachi.
Rolling to his feet Gabriel knew he was in trouble if he didn't think fast, his punches had no effect on this bastard even with his devil fruit powers, clearly Arlong was very thick skinned as well as thick headed.
Opening his inventory Gabriel pulled out one of the pistols that he had liberated from Buddy's crew and took a shot at Arlong as he pulled the Kiribachi from the ground. he had been aiming for his head but the shot was wide and only clipped his elbow.
Gabriel cursed and had to phase again as Arlong came at him once more swinging his massive blade.
Gabriel reached into his inventory as he pulled out a second pistol, it felt cheap to him to use guns but right at that moment it looked like they were the only thing that could be of any use in this fight with his devil fruit powers not being up to par enough for this.
Ducking under another swing Gabriel aimed once more and shot, at this range it was impossible for him to miss and his shot landed right into Arlong's knee cap.
The sawshark fishman gave a yell in pain and tried to decapitate Gabriel again with his sword but Gabriel was ready as he phased and let it pass through him as he rose, dropping the two pistols he had in his hands and pulling a third from his inventory as he did so and at point blank range put a shot through Arlong's temple.
Arlong collapsed his blade clattering to the ground as the fishman fell to the ground dead.
Gabriel took a breath as he looked at Arlong's dead body and swallowed hard as he did so. This had been the first time he'd ever killed someone, yes he knew this was all in his head but it still struck a cord on some level of his mind.
Watching at the body and weapon faded he shook his head and pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He was a pirate, his goal was to be a Yonkō. Yes he wasn't that type of pirate but in this world there were scum that were better off dead. Others would try to kill him on his way to achieving his goal, and it was a guarantee that nearly all of them wouldn't stop unless he put them down. He knew it was only a matter of time until he had to kill someone, this would not be the last time he would have to take a life.
Closing his eyes Gabriel martialled his thoughts and began to calm himself down, he wasn't going to break down over this.
The next second he heard the familiar bell sound and opened his eyes to find yet another screen in front of him informing him of his achievement.
Arlong of the Arlong pirates has been defeated, Double AP reward for death
40AP, 20,000 beri have been added to the user's profile
Arlong defeated: 1/5 to unlock Kiribachi blueprint
Reading the screen Gabriel couldn't help but feel a little sick, the system was rewarding him for killing Arlong, he honestly didn't know how to feel about that. It was an interesting fact to know that the system would give double the points if he actually killed someone instead of just defeating them, but he didn't think that he would be abusing that feature much.
The other thing that caught his eye was the added extra of the Kiribachi blueprint. It seemed that for some individuals the system would give him incentives to beat them repeatedly, well it wasn't all that great this time. While the Kiribachi was a cool looking weapon he didn't really see himself using it, especially considering who it's previous owner was. It might stir up some un wanted memories with the straw hats, Nami in particular.
Deciding that he had enough training for now Gabriel left his mind palace and opened his eyes once again in the real world and began to sit up from his bunk just as the door into the men's quarters opened.
"Oi lazy bones," Sanji said as he opened the door, "didn't you hear me calling."
Gabriel sat up and swung his legs out of bed, "sorry, meditating, what's up have we landed?"
"Tsk, yeah that and way more, surprised you could sleep through it al…. oi what happened are you okay?" Sanji began to say only to stop when he looked at Gabriel with shock.
Gabriel frowned, "yeah I'm fine why?" he asked not sure what he meant.
"You're bleeding," Sanji said and gestured to his mouth.
Gabriel blinked and raised his hand to his mouth and realized he that he was when his hand came away red with blood, he ran his hand over his lips and found he had blood in his mouth, 'hmmm, well the system did warn me that if I died while in my mind palace that I would die in real life, guess injuries transfer over as well' he thought guessing it was from when he had been smacked in the gut by the Kiribachi.
"I'm fine," Gabriel said after a moment and wiped the blood off on his black kimono, "it's nothing."
"you sure?" Sanji asked clearly not buying it.
Gabriel smirked, "Why Sanji-kun, I didn't know you cared so much~" he teased.
Sanji scowled and rolled his eyes, "whatever, just get up on deck you lazy bastard."
Gabriel gave a laugh and went to follow him up the ladder to the deck before continuing on to the shore as Sanji headed to the kitchen.
Stepping onto the shore Gabriel whistled loudly when he saw Laboon for the first time, "Damn, big guy aren't ya" he said impressed by the absolute huge size of Laboon, he knew he was big but damn.
"Indeed he is," came an approving voice and Gabriel looked over to see Crocus watching him come ashore, "his name is Laboon, and mine is Crocus."
"Gabriel," he introduced himself as he approached the man and held out his hand for shaking.
Crocus took it and gave it a firm shake as he seemed to look at Gabriel with an intense stare, "you seem familiar" he said giving him a hard look as if trying to place where he'd seen him before.
Gabriel chuckled but shook his head, "Sorry, we've never met before now, maybe you've seen my wanted poster" he said playing it off while internally curious if he perhaps shared some resemblance to Rayleigh in his youth, if he was related to the dark king, it wouldn't be a surprise if he did.
After looking at him for another few seconds Crocus gave a shrug as he let go of his hand, "maybe I have" he said before gesturing up the shore a bit, "the rest of your crew are up there by the light house"
"Thanks," Gabriel nodded and started to walk that way, all the while feeling Crocus watching his back as he did.
Reaching the light house he saw the others doing various things. Luffy and Usopp were apparently having an avid discussion about something while Zoro was taking a nap against a bolder. Nami was currently at a table looking over a map with a log pose in hand, it looked like she had gotten one somehow, Gabriel couldn't remember where from.
Walking over to her he looked at the map she had out in front of her, "So any idea where our next destination will be?" he asked her.
Nami looked up at him before looking down at the map, "hard to say old man crocus told us about the log pose and how it works, I never would have imagined that the grand line was so different from other oceans. Luffy apparently just found this one somewhere, which was just pure luck, if it wasn't for that we'd be stuck here or lost at sea"
Gabriel nodded, "yeah, lucky that," he said thinking about the log pose that he had liberated from Buggy after first beating him, guess that meant he could keep it to himself in case he needed it if he ever went off on his own.
"Food's ready!" Sanji called as he came up to the group and skillfully set out a dozen plates filled with different dishes that he had made from the elephant blue finned tuna that he had won back in Logue town.
"Oh this all looks so good, I don't know what to eat first!" Luffy said as he came over eyeing all the dishes.
"Back off, Nami-swan~ get's first choice you rubber idiot" Sanji said as he lashed out with a kick at Luffy as he went to reach for one of the dishes.
The kick came hard and fast and sent Luffy flying so fast that he whipped up an air-stream as he pasted Nami and Gabriel. And as he did so, the delicate glass around the log pose on Nami's wrist shattered.
…
Nami blinked once, and then again as she stared at the broken log pose, without which they would be stranded or lost at sea. Her head creaked up as she moved her gaze from the broken log pose to Sanji.
"Oh Sanji-kun~" she said so sweetly that Gabriel felt himself sweat a little in fear for Sanji.
"Yes Nami-swan~" Sanji answered with hearts in his eyes, only to be sent skyward the next second as Nami punched him hard enough to launch him into the air like a rocket before he fell hard like a rock and smashed into the ocean a good hundred meters from the shore.
Gabriel sweat dropped at the sight, 'note to self, phase immediately if I ever piss Nami off, and pray every night that she doesn't learn armament Haki any time soon'
As soon as Sanji landed in the ocean Nami collapsed back at the table with tears in her eyes, "what are we gonna do now, with no log pose we'll be stuck here and if we do leave we'll be lost at sea and starve," she cried.
Gabriel sighed and subtly took out the log pose he had from his inventory before closing the screen and holding it out to Nami, "Don't worry"
Nami's eyes looked to the log pose and then to Gabriel in surprise.
Gabriel shrugged, "I picked this up in Log town, figured we might need it, turns out I was right" he said before suddenly being pulled into a hug by Nami as she jumped for joy.
"Oh Gabriel, I knew I could count on you," Nami said as she hugged him in her moment of happiness at not being stranded.
As she did she couldn't help but realize how broad his shoulders were and how clearly defined his muscles were as she felt his chest through her shirt and couldn't help the faint blush that came to her cheeks at the thought that came to her mind.
She had noticed how handsome he was but compared to the others on the crew he kept more to himself than the others did. He wasn't fawning over her like the perverted cook, and he wasn't as single focused as Luffy or Zoro, nor was he a coward and wimp like Usopp. Sure, the others had some appeal with their looks, but their personalities were a big turn off at times. Gabriel was an enigma.
'just what dose he do to get muscles like these,' Nami couldn't help but think, 'so hard and firm and warm and…' she thought to herself not noticing she was hugging him longer than she had intended.
Gabriel for his part came around from the surprise after a moment and blinked a few times realizing he was being hugged and took note of certain aspects of Nami pressing against him. Sure, he knew that after the two year time skip Nami turned into an absolute bombshell along with Robin, and while both had their quirks neither were ugly or lacking where it mattered in the looks department beforehand.
He enjoyed the feeling of her hugging him for a few moment more before chuckling and patting her back as it neared the point of being awkward, "that's alright Nami, glad I could help, just be sure to keep those two away from this one" he mused.
His words snapped Nami out of her train of thought and her blush deepened as she realized just how long she had been hugging him and quickly let go and turned around to keep him from seeing her blush.
"Y-yeah, I definitely will," Nami said trying to get past her embarrassment as she went back to studying the map on the table trying to keep her mind focused and way from certain thoughts.
Gabriel smiled and nodded giving her a knowing look, he'd seen the blush regardless of her attempts to hide it and suppressed his own proud smirk until he went over and lay down on the opposite side of the bolder from Zoro and pulled his hat down to cover his face. Something told him things were going to get interesting in the future in regard to that blush of hers.
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