章節 60: Chapter 60 Realism is Unnecessary for Jedi
Chapter 60 Realism is Unnecessary for Jedi
Rayleigh sat on a pier at the docks of Karate Island's northern port, waiting for the departure of a ship that could take him off this island. Although the money he had was enough for passage on a merchant ship, it wasn't enough for food on the voyage, so he needed to buy some imperishables for the trip.
Rayleigh learned much from speaking with Pirate Players at the Hotel where he taught them Nen, and the biggest thing he learned about this world was that travel was ridiculous. First, there was little to no tourism since everywhere sucked when you were weak and no one had any reason to go anywhere. Because of this, there were no standard means of travel. Next, as the name of the world suggests, Pirates were a large issue here. Two dozen men with single shot pistols and swords would be enough to rob tens of thousands of berries worth of cargo from a merchant ship if the latter didn't have enough manpower to fight back.
Rayleigh wondered why there were no hot air balloons or planes, but apparently, there were strange things in the sky and such modes of travel never caught on among the survivors. Rayleigh guessed if there was such a means of travel, the World Government had monopolized it, preventing anyone else from rising above them.
That left travel by ship as the only means of getting around until Rayleigh figured out how to use Moon Walk for long distances. Oddly enough, Moon Walk didn't work that great with lateral movement. Moving upward was alright and using it to break your fall was fine, but it would never allow you to run forward through the air at an acceptable level. Rayleigh had been working on an alternative that combined Moon Walk, Shave, Force: Augment, Force: Program, and Enhancement Nen, but it was a work in progress and the timing was still off.
If Rayleigh needed to get anywhere in his current region of the South Blue, it wouldn't be too hard since he just needed to find a merchant ship that would head there to stock up or sell supplies and catch a ride. The problem was that his destination was not the South Blue, but the location the other Players were messing around, an area of the sea called the Grand Line. Everything about that place would give travelers a headache.
First, entering the Grand Line had to be done through a dangerous location called Reverse Mountain. Next, once you entered the Grand Line, you could not choose your destination ahead of time without special tools. You could only travel along a specific route, so if you were looking for someone, you had to hope they were on that path too. Next, the weather between islands was unpredictable, so fleet destroying storms weren't uncommon. And finally, you could not leave an island right away once you arrived. The tool that let you find islands along the path on the Grand Line had to charge on the island and wouldn't show you the way to the next one without being charged.
It was this last issue that posed the greatest problem. Rayleigh wanted to encounter the Players in the Grand Line, but since they had started traveling long before he did, he would never catch up to them unless something on an island held their interest long enough for him to arrive before they left.
And yet, all of those were problems that seemed unlikely to even reach in the first place. The very first step of arriving at Reverse Mountain already seemed impossible. The Grand Line was the haven for Pirates, so there were no ships that routinely took others from the South Blue into the Grand Line. The only way to go to the Grand Line would be to wait on the island closest to the Grand Line, wait for a pirate ship to come along, and get on.
There was no way to head to the Grand Line on his own. If the distance between islands was more than a hundred kilometers, he did not think he could use Moon Walk to travel since that skill used a lot of energy. He needed a ship. But a small ship would be torn up in the weather of the Grand Line, so he needed a big ship and a navigator. If the ship was damaged, it would sink in the middle of the ocean, so he needed someone who could fix the ship too. And then he'd need the ship to store all the food for three people.
It wasn't like he could just buy a ship either. The easiest option would be to liberate one from a pirate, but a normal pirate ship might not even survive its first storm in the Grand Line. Then even if he got a ship, he'd have to find some guys crazy enough to sail with him.
All of that was the minimum requirement just to start the first step of this journey. Or, at least, it should have been.
Rayleigh knew all of this before heading out, yet didn't pay a single Mission Point for an identity that could have any of this. Why? He didn't need it.
The situation where you found yourself stranded on an unfamiliar land without resources, without a map, without any connections, and without a clue on how to find what you were looking for was a nightmare for most people, but for a Jedi, this was a Tuesday.
Allowing the Force to guide him, Rayleigh paid for transport on a ship heading for another island. Not one closer to Reverse Mountain, but further away. One would think this would be going backward, but traveling using the Force as a GPS didn't care for logic. As long as a Jedi with a strong enough connection to the Force allowed it to guide him, he could travel to his destination from the opposite end of a planet he'd never been on, through a maze, in the shortest possible time. Even if that meant traveling through the core of a planet.
As long as he traveled while guided by the Force, he would not encounter terrible storms. His ship would not sink. They would not get lost. And they would make great time getting there. All the realistic aspects of travel that the real world possessed were discarded and laughed at by those who traveled using the Force to guide them. If someone who wasn't used to having their journey handed to them on a silver platter traveled with a Force User, they would be disgusted by how easily travel came to them.
The ship Rayleigh paid for passage on didn't stand out in any way from any other ship. Like any merchant ship, it docked at a port, sold its cargo, then used that money to buy something else it could then take elsewhere and sell for more than what was spent to purchase it.
Karate Island was not a crafting or production island, but it was a place filled with strong men and had a lot of warehouses. Even without manufacturing anything, businessmen of the island could simply purchase things they didn't need from merchant ships, store them, and then sell them to other merchant ships. It was like a bank. Banks did not give others money, but the presence of a bank made it easier to make money. And in this world, banks were a luxury of the strong.
The ship Rayleigh was boarding had just sold off hundreds of rolls of cheap fabric. The company that bought it would then sell it later to clothing manufacturing companies. The reason this ship did not sell to such companies directly was that the distance was too far and the danger too high. A smaller, but reliable profit was better than a higher but unsustainable profit, at least to an intelligent merchant. Right now, this ship was being loaded with coal. The same cargo hold that kept the cheap cloth dry on the journey was also ideal to do the same with coal. What Rayleigh paid would let him stay on the ship for the three day voyage to another island where this ship would sell all the coal and buy something else.
Rayleigh shook his head. It wasn't the Marines, Pirates, or World Government that truly ruled this world. It was Capitalism.
After using the remaining berries in his possession to buy a sack and stuff it with food, he boarded the ship which lowered its sails, and left the dock. Rayleigh half-expected some goons to find him on the pier so he could punch them to the horizon, but he wasn't this world's protagonist, so that kind of thing wouldn't happen every time he left the port.
The merchant ship's crew had a dozen laborers, two cooks, a helmsman, a navigator, and five others like himself that paid for passage to another island. Some of the laborers had knives and looked bulky, but other than the captain's pistol and sword, the rest of the merchant ship's crew looked unarmed.
Rayleigh pondered on which cliché he'd encounter. Pirates? Sea Monster? Alien Invasion? He doubted the Force would have directed him to take this ship if things were so simple.
Then again, he was pretty sure the reason he was here had nothing to do with the ship or the cargo. One of the five others who bought passage on this ship smelled of fear and nervousness. The only thing that stood out more was the well hidden killing intent of the guy staring at him.
The nervous guy looked skinny and feeble. Probably about mid-twenties with messy brown hair that hid a large forehead, square frame glasses, and a dusty grey traveler's cloak.
The one who seemed to think the wimp ate his last doughnut or something was bulky, with broad shoulders, bulging arms, oddly skinny legs, and long hair tied back in a ponytail. He wore an open blue vest with bandages covering his exposed midsection, as if he'd been in a fight somewhat recently. Or at least that's how he tried to make it look. The bandages just barely hid a bulge that looked like a pistol the guy had wrapped up at his side.
The possible wannabe assassin wasn't exactly subtle, and the wimp wasn't exactly defenseless. At his side were two others, both swordsmen, who kept an eye on the guy. Well, one kept an eye on him, while the other, the swordsman with partially graying hair, actually kept Rayleigh at the corner of his eye.
All three, the bulky brute and both bodyguards were stronger than the average martial artist on Karate Island, and their standard was quite high, so none of them could be considered weak in the South Blue. From his senses though, both guards were stronger than the brute, so there shouldn't be a reason for him to interfere.
Rayleigh was curious about the identity of the wimpy fellow, but he doubted the bodyguards would appreciate him walking up and having a chat.
Times like this, he could only open the General Chat Room and chat about random nonsense. He couldn't enter the Pirate Chat Room since that would give away his presence here, and he wanted that to remain a surprise.
The sun fell past the horizon and bathed the space between the sea and sky in a myriad of colors. The last time he was on a ship, he disembarked before the sunset, so he wasn't able to enjoy this view. The rest on the ship stared at him oddly. They'd been spoiled with such scenes for so long, they'd lost appreciation for them. A pity, really.
Rayleigh stayed on the ship's bow, overlooking the sea as the sun's last lights danced over the horizon and the sky transformed into an immeasurable jewel. Again, he received looks. Appreciating a sunset was one thing, but appreciating the night sky was just weird. He didn't care about the looks. This was the first time in any life he'd seen a sky with so many stars. On Tython, the Ashla and Bogan outshined the stars and were somewhat tidally locked in the sense that it was rare to see a sky without one or both of them. When such skies did appear, they were usually covered with clouds. The sky of the Hunter World did not have stars that shined correctly. Rayleigh guessed it was a side effect of being in a fishbowl, or that the Hunter World's atmosphere was too dense, affecting or diminishing the starlight that reached the surface. And of course, every night he'd spent in the MCU was surrounded by circus lights or on the road, so there was never a sky without light pollution.
While he drank in the sights, another passenger appeared on deck. The wimp and his bodyguards were below deck as they had paid extra for a room while the others had to huddle together in the storage shed. Rayleigh decided just to remain on deck throughout the voyage, so he wouldn't bother going down to check the bed-less area he paid to stay in. The man who came up was none other than the brutish fellow from before. He stepped onto the deck and looked around suspiciously for a bit before unwrapping the cloth at his waist.
Once it was loose enough, Mr. Definitely Skips Leg Day pulled out a pistol looking gun from beneath the wrappings. A glance from the side though confirmed it was not actually a pistol. Said man pointed it skyward and pulled the trigger. He wasn't aiming for the ship's sail or mast, but the open sky. The fired projectile became blindingly bright and soared high into the air where it stayed for a while, shining bright enough to be seen for tens of kilometers.
"Hey! It's a Pirate! We've been marked! Take him down!"
Three of the patrolling laborers shouted as loudly as they could, waking the rest of the crew. The sea wasn't a place most could sleep deeply, so it didn't take long for everyone to get up. The laborers got out their weapons and surrounded the brute. Rayleigh would bet on the latter in a fight, but he didn't resist, allowing himself to be tied up with a vicious smile.
Soon, the captain came out and directly asked the bound man, "Who are you working for? What do you want?"
The man answered, "I'm a member of the Six Claw Pirates. And we don't want this ship. Just that little fucking shit over there."
The wimp and his bodyguards had already returned to the deck and since the pirate was looking right at him, no one had to ask who he was talking about.
One of the laborers asked, "Why? What'd he do to you?"
The pirate answered easily, "Him? Nothing. But his fucking father paid a bounty hunter to come after our captain. The guy he hired took out three of me best mates before our captain ripped out his fucking heart. That's not the kinda thing we take lightly, so we'll be taking him off your hands and selling him back to his father, piece by piece." He started laughing hysterically at that last line, like he had told the greatest joke known to mankind.
One of the bodyguards shouted, "Toss him overboard!"
The pirate stopped laughing and shouted, "I dare you to try! If I'm not on this ship when they come, they'll blow it to splinters! This ship is carrying coal you idiot! It won't take more than one fucking shot to kill you all! I'm the only reason the rest of you might make it out of here alive."
That silenced the crew, much to the pirate's pleasure. He was bound, outnumbered, surrounded, and didn't have a weapon, but he was in complete control of the situation, something that showed in the awful smile he displayed.
Rayleigh watched in silence as the crew discussed what to do. From what he heard, the experts of the Six Claw pirates all had claw gauntlets and knew how to use them. Claws could be used to defend against swords and granted better range against hand to hand fighters. The Captain of the Claw Pirates was a martial artist that used his family's legacy to create a strong group of pirates that focused on that weapon. The biggest problem was that the Six Claw Pirate's ship was three or four times larger than this shipping vessel and it had over fifty well trained pirates on its crew.
The merchants didn't have any good ideas. The Six Claw Pirates were definitely on this sea and would have seen the flare shot out by the other. Even if it took them time to reach that flare's position, once they did, they would be able to catch the same wind as this ship. Since that ship was larger, with bigger sails, it would be able to move faster using the same wind and catch up to this ship no matter what they tried.
Deciding to show a bit of his hand, Rayleigh asked, "What's the bounty on the Six Claw Pirate Captain?"
The older of the two bodyguards answered, "42 Million Berries."
Rayleigh nodded, that was better than pocket change. He then asked, "Is there a Marine Outpost on the island we're heading to?"
There was one on most islands of decent sizes, but he couldn't be sure.
The captain of the ship answered, "Yes, that's actually who we're selling the coal to."
"Alright, I'll jump over to the pirate ship when they get here and talk things out. Don't throw him overboard."
The bound pirate snorted with contempt, "Talk? Fine with me. My mates will toss your head back as a message and your body will feed the sharks."
Rayleigh shrugged uncaringly, pissing the man off more than any insult could have.
To the analyzing eyes of the ship's crew, Rayleigh didn't look old, but didn't look weak either. Although he didn't carry a weapon, he boarded on Karate Island, a place known for its martial fighters. It wouldn't hurt them to let him 'talk,' with the pirates anyways, and they could change their plans if nothing came of it.
It was hours after the sun rose that they spotted a massive ship on their tail. After a lot of arguing, the merchant ship's captain ordered that the sails be raised so that the enemy ship could catch up more quickly. Now that it was visible, they couldn't claim ignorance, and trying to outrun them would only piss them off.
As it got closer, the black sail came into view and its pirate mark was on full display. Rather than a skull and crossbones, it was a skull over two crossed sets of three slashes.
After they got closer, Rayleigh did something no one expected. He walked over to the bound pirate, picked him up, and tossed him high into the air, all the way over to the enemy ship. The man who had reached the peak of arrogance over the last few hours screamed like a little girl as he flew through the air, causing Rayleigh to smile.
Shortly after the toss, Rayleigh jumped into the air himself. He didn't even need to use Moon Walk to reach the ship in a single leap. The moment he landed, what struck him first was neither the sight of the armed pirates or the threatening looks they were giving him. No, what stood out the most was the smell. He originally thought of taking the ship himself, but he'd rather swim to the Grand Line than spend days on a ship that smelled like this. Sure, he could use the Force to seal his sense of smell, but he knew he'd remember it just by looking, and if he stayed too long, the smell might stick to him. He might be a wild monkey man, but even monkeys knew how to clean themselves.
Before anyone could speak up, Rayleigh announced, "I have come to negotiate your surrender."
For obvious reasons, this stunned the pirate crew. They had seen many idiots over the years, but this one was an entirely different breed.
The still bound pirate that had been tossed aboard survived his impact and shouted, "Boss! Kill this bitch!"
Seeing that one of their members was bound and called out for the newcomer's death was enough for the crew. Two pirates, both with a claw gauntlet, stepped forward and the rest made way while forming a circle around their guest.
Without a word of warning, the first ran at Rayleigh's left side while the other ran at Rayleigh's right side. Both extended their arms to slash Rayleigh into pieces, regardless of which way he dodged.
Rayleigh used Ken to defend himself and transformed the aura on his finger into a sword and swiped twice. This movement was faster than the blink of an eye and no one spotted it, they only saw the pair of claw wielding pirates run past Rayleigh and slash at him from both sides, eliciting a roar of cheers as they waited for the blood to spill. And spill it did. Just not from Rayleigh. A deep and bloody wound appeared on the chest of both pirates. The wound was severe enough to send them into shock, knocking them out, but not severe enough to kill or cripple them.
Seeing two of their best attack him yet end up with wounds themselves caused the pirates to take a step back. At least until one of the braver ones shouted into the air, "What are you waiting for? Kill him already!"
This turned the fear into anger, creating a mob mentality and granting them the courage to stupidly charge forward.
Rayleigh swiped his aura blade finger faster than the eye could follow while casually jumping around and avoiding the various attacks. None of these guys could see aura, so no one had any idea what was going on. One by one, pirate after pirate went down with a bloody gash on their chest. Even those with a hearty constitution couldn't stand afterward, since even if they had not passed out from the damage, they felt that they would die if they moved too much after taking such a wound.
After a dozen men had been taken out, one of the pirates shouted, "Step back! He's mine!"
Rayleigh looked over and saw that this guy wore a captain's hat and was the only pirate wearing two claw gauntlets. If that wasn't enough to tell you who he was, the gauntlets were encrusted with gemstones and looked like it was plated in gold. It was tacky as fuck.
The captain of the Six Claw Pirates asked as he approached, "Who are you? I've never heard of a bounty hunter with your description."
Rayleigh answered, "Oh, me? I'm just a wandering swordsman looking for some pocket change. I heard you had a decent bounty and I thought, easy money."
The captain recognized the words as an insult meant to infuriate him, so he didn't bite. Instead, he asked, "Where's your sword, swordsman?"
Rayleigh shrugged, "Don't have one. Don't need one." Technically, his Nensaber didn't qualify as a sword, since it was just a handle. Rayleigh didn't carry a blade on his person at all.
The captain snorted, "A swordsman without a sword. What has this world come to?"
The crew made a much larger circle around Rayleigh and their captain. The pirates Rayleigh had taken out were dragged out of the encirclement so they wouldn't be in the way.
The captain raised his gold gilded gauntlets and started scraping them together to make sparks while the pirates around them looked on with sinister glee.
Rayleigh rolled his eyes and did a half step and bend to dodge the fire of the pistol that another pirate had aimed at his back. The man was not directly behind him so the shot didn't hit the captain, but it did hit another pirate near the captain to the dumbfounded looks of the rest of the pirates who wondered if Rayleigh had eyes in the back of his head.
The captain distracting the target with his claws in a 'duel' while someone shot the man in the back was a time honored classic way of killing strong fighters, and just about every bounty hunter had fallen for it. Sure, they claimed that the captain defeated the guys in honorable fights with great skills, but they all knew the truth. Not that they cared. They were pirates after all, that's how they were supposed to fight.
Rayleigh decided not to play their game any longer and went back to cutting down pirates with his aura bladed finger. The captain and crew were stunned that Rayleigh hadn't even bothered to fight their captain and went back to attacking them. None of them saw or appreciated the irony of the situation.
Still, the captain was the captain, he charged forward and tried to slice through Rayleigh's spine. Rayleigh ducked and dodged while spraying the blood of the man's crew all over the ship. Some tried to fight but Rayleigh moved like the wind and seemed impossible to hit, so one by one, each pirate either fell to Rayleigh's invisible blade or ran below deck.
All except the captain, who had practically lost his marbles at this point. "Stop moving around and fight me you simpering bastard!"
Rayleigh tilted his head, ducked, turned to the side, did a light jump, and then did a front flip over the captain, making the captain's furious flurry of blows look like a child's game.
It was then that the captain's grimace changed into a victorious sneer. "You think you're hot stuff huh? Well, your end is near."
Rayleigh figured the man was referring to the fellow that had just emerged onto the deck. His wrists and ankles were ivory white while he had a tan, implying that he had likely been chained up until this point.
The captain shouted, "Gordan! Kill this man and I'll let you kill as many as you want on our next island!"
Gordon was abnormally tall, nearing seven feet in height even slouched over. He looked over at Rayleigh with manic eyes and made a fist. That fist then bulged out and shaped itself into something resembling the head of a sledgehammer before he brought it down on Rayleigh.
Rayleigh dodged and slashed out with an aura blade, but the invisible attack only caused sparks off the man's chest.
The pirate captain laughed and shouted, "You idiot! Gordan here has eaten the Hammer Hammer Fruit, making him a Hammer Man! His body is like forged iron and nothing can stop him but the sight of blood! He'll crush you to pieces!"
Rayleigh turned away from the newcomer and gave the captain of the Six Claw Pirates his flattest deadpan stare.
Without even looking at the incoming attack, Rayleigh swatted the man with his hand while using telekinesis to toss the man overboard and into the sea.
For obvious reasons, this caused the captain to freeze up. Sweat dripped heavily from his brow. He then lightly asked, "Were you still willing to negotiate our surrender?"
Three minutes later, Rayleigh jumped back onto the merchant ship and said, "I've taken care of everything. We'll sail to the Marine Outpost first and I'll turn in the bounties. Have a nice day."
One of the bodyguards tried to call out for Rayleigh as he jumped back to the pirate ship, but Rayleigh didn't feel the time was right, so he ignored the request. On the Six Claw Pirate's ship, there were enough pirates remaining to sail the ship. This ship was much faster than the merchant ship, so it would make it to the island by the end of the day. The ship's wounded would not recover without medical aid and Rayleigh wouldn't let them return to their hideout, so they had no choice but to go to the Marine Base, turn themselves in, and receive care or end up crippled.
Rayleigh may have lied to them and said he knew the route like the back of his hand, so if they tried to go elsewhere, he'd kill them all.
This decision did have the unfortunate effect of requiring Rayleigh to stay on the stinky ship for a day, but it was worth it since they made it to the marine base before sunset.
It was funny too, the Marines spotted them on the way and sent a ship to intercept, only to board and find that the entire crew had been taken out by a swordsman without a sword.
The Lieutenant in charge, a well fed man with manicured fingers and styled hair, asked, "How did you take all these pirates out yourself?"
Rayleigh answered confidently, "I'm very good."
Seeing the pirates flinch in pain when they saw him implied that Rayleigh was not simply joking. Depending on the circumstances, an ambitious Lieutenant might claim the bounty for himself, but Rayleigh's feat was too extraordinary and the well fed marine was not foolish enough to blind himself to the possibility that Rayleigh was in fact that good. These past few years, youngsters like Rayleigh had been sprouting up like weeds, and if this marine wanted to remain well fed and in charge, he knew there were certain lines that he could not cross.
The Lieutenant nodded and said, "Very well. We shall have the bounties for these pirates gathered by tomorrow. It will not be one berry less than its full value since you not only hand delivered them all, but you delivered them alive." Their base did not have that much liquid funds, but the Marine HQ was very good at the speedy delivery of bounty monies to encourage bounty hunting.
Rayleigh thought back to Hammer boy and wondered if the Marines didn't know about him. That might have been the case. A pirate crew with a devil fruit user was a lot more noticeable and may have been targeted by the Marines. That meant any prior witnesses of hammer boy were probably dead.
As for the fact that Rayleigh killed him, the Force didn't care. Why? Because Rayleigh didn't care. Rayleigh's connection to the Force over these last few years had strengthened greatly. Previously, if he did something the Force didn't like, the Force would retreat from him, weakening his connection to it. As for now, it was a bit more variable. Hammer boy was someone even pirates locked up, he was not an ordinary killer, but closer to a monster. Rayleigh didn't feel anything about ending someone like that, so neither did the Force.
Eventually, all of the restrictions the Force placed on him would be removed and he'd be able to use the full power of the Force on whatever he felt like.
Rayleigh asked, "Would you know of a good Inn with an acceptable bath on the island? As you can tell, I'd rather wash myself of the stench of this ship."
The corpulent Lieutenant nodded and looked around the captured ship with a sneer at the foul odor. It was reasons like this that he did not consider pirates to be human. How could civilized humans live in such filth? They were obviously beasts.
"Of course. In fact, for such a grand display as this, you may spend the night in our base." Although he wouldn't get anything from the bounty, if he could display enough friendliness to get Rayleigh to turn in a few more bounties at his base, he'd be able to claim it was thanks to him and get some merit from that.
Rayleigh accepted the offer and spent the night. The Lieutenant even offered his own bathroom, but Rayleigh declined since that would just be too weird.
The following day, Rayleigh's money arrived via seabird delivery. It wasn't a large sack of gold coins, but a wad of large denomination bills that the World Government used when paying high value bounties. These weren't stored in weaker Marine Outposts since that invited greed.
After collecting the bounty, Rayleigh headed off, but upon exiting the Marine base, he saw a familiar face. It was the wimpy guy from earlier and his two bodyguards. Said wimpy guy had stars in his eyes when he saw Rayleigh and walked up to him like he was meeting a famous super star. He said, "You were amazing sir! Please, I must ask. Would you be willing to be my bodyguard? You see, my father is sending me to the Grand Line for some important business, and you've proven that no pirate can stand up to you. Please? I'll pay whatever it takes."
Rayleigh smiled. Yeah, Force Guided GPS was way overpowered.
*Author's Note*
If Qui Gon can pilot a submarine he's never used before from one end of the planet he's never been on, through the monster infested core, to the other end of the planet, without getting lost or running out of fuel, then you can obviously tell how overpowered Force Guidance is. It also shows how compatible the Force is for stories in worlds like One Piece, so I hope this chapter inspires some Star Wars One Piece Crossovers.
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