Chapter 52: A Island With No Protection
[ I was feeling really tired and sick when I wrote this chapter, today. So sorry if I made any mistakes or if that chapter isn't that good. But I did manage to edit most of the chapter. So yeah drop your power stones for this 3k+ word chapter. ]
[ Location: North Blue Sea ]
[ Word Count 3116 ]
" Hello" - Speech
' Hello' - Thoughts
*Boom* - Sounds
<<<<<<>>>>>>
( Achilles' Pov )
" Commander Sakazuki is someone we can trust with his sense of justice," Bullet said to the crew surprising me when I heard the name Sakazuki.
" Say that again," I asked Bullet just to be sure we are talking about the same person, not some random guy with the same name.
" Uh sure, Commander Sakazuki is someone we can trust with his sense of justice."
" You mind explaining more about him since I don't wanna hand over all this information to a random person with no influence," I asked Bullet looking for more information.
" Okay, Sakazuki is a new and upcoming Marine in the North Blue. Even though he's only 15, he already has the rank of a Commander."
" What's his type of justice?" I asked now fully sure this Sakazuki is the one who will later become an Admiral and Fleet Admiral, Akainu.
From what mom told me about the Marines, they are split into several factions based on the types of justice they believe in. Garp's moral justice is followed the most alongside Sengoku's version of justice.
But a newer extreme type of belief has emerged led by Admiral- Diana, absolute justice. The belief is that justice should be carried out no matter the cost.
This type of justice emerged around that same time as when Rocks D. Xebec created the Rocks Pirate alongside his former first mate/ Vice Captain. And it's even being supported by the World Government, increasing its members each day.
" How should I know?"
"Then how he does deal with pirates and civilians?" I asked changing my question realizing how stupid it was.
" From what I heard, he hates pirates with a burning passion. And will go out of his way to kill or arrest them. But he tries his best not to get civilians caught in the crossfire."
"So from his resume, I think we can trust him."
Bullet answered me making me realize this Akainu right now isn't that one who follows absolute justice.
" This is boring, I'm gonna go play a game. You wanna come, Masterson?" Marco asked interrupting the talk between me and Bullet.
' Guess we were just boring them with our talks.' I thought to myself watching the two walk out twitching my lips in annoyance.
" What base is he stationed on?" I asked continuing our talks. I wanted to know more since depending on how guarded the base is, I could just sneak and drop the documents off before anyone could notice me.
" From what I understand he's moved around a lot from different bases to gain experience. So we gotta find what base he's at currently. Or we can let him come to us, but that moment he uses, he's going to attack." Bullet responded making me sigh at the last part.
" That's fine, go take a rest or something. I'm gonna go sail the ship to an island. I don't feel like sailing anymore today." I said to Bullet, walking up to the ship's steering wheel.
" I go see what Marco and Masterson are up to then," Bullet said back walking into the kitchen where those two are.
[ 3 Hours Later ]
" Yoi- Achilles, you sure this island is safe?" Marco asked me as the Voyager docked into a small size island we came across.
What made Marco and even Masterson nervous was the state this island was in. They were like 10 houses on fire, but no one seemed to care. Adults and even kids were fighting in the streets as if it was normal.
It probably was normal to the locals since people seem just ignored the problems and continued on with their lives. The main street in the island was filled with shops all open, just ignoring the chaos.
" You fought against pirates, bounty hunters, and marines. But this is what scares you?" Bullet who was standing beside me said to Marco in his usual tone devoid of emotions. But this time you could hear the sarcasm clear.
" You'll be fine and I wanna know how this island became like this," I said getting down from the ship. This is my first time seeing an island like this ever since I came to this world. All the islands I visited so far were pretty normal and were overall nice.
' So this island is called Bali, interesting name.' I thought to myself as the name of the island appeared on the map inside my head once I made contact with some land.
" Damn it, this is fucked up," Masterson muttered as the four of us walked through the streets, where people were just laying around the streets asking for food and money.
Almost all of them looked malnourished and were wearing worn-out and ripped clothes. It was hard for even Bullet to look at the scene in front of us without feeling any pity for them.
" Seems like the people aren't afraid of us either," Marco said to us, a little surprised since on every island we want to, the people were cowering in fear.
But this island is different, it's almost as if the people expected us to attack them and were fine with it. As if their lives didn't mean anything at this point.
" Probably cause they got bigger issues to deal with," I replied to Marco.
Right before we were about to cut a corner, a little girl around the age of 11 just appeared out of nowhere surprising us.
She had light gray hair in a twin tail hairstyle and dark gray eyes. She look malnourished as if she didn't eat in weeks and was wearing clothes that almost didn't fit her.
But that problem I had with her was that she appeared right where we were going to walk before we even decided we were going to take a turn.
' But how did she do it?'
I asked myself looking at the little girl. Bullet seemed to recognize the problem as well since he was giving me an look at it. Marco and Masterson didn't notice anything out of the usual.
" Hey— I no-ticed you guys are new here. Would you like to buy flowers that are only grown here?" The girl asked us stuttering at first but slowly gaining confidence when Marco told her, we aren't gonna bad people.
They were about 10 white lilies in her hands which was quite common in the North Blue but I decided not to tell her that.
" What's your name?" I asked kneeling to reach her height since she was like 5'4 and I'm 6 feet tall.
" Umm… My name is Bronya Zaychik." Bronya said after a minute since it looked like she was debating telling us her real name.
[ Bronya Zaychik > Image Here ]
" How much for the flowers?" I asked taking out some money from one of my pockets, surprising her. The poor girl probably didn't think we were going to buy anything from her.
" Ugh how about 100 berrys for all of the flowers," Bronya said to us, I thought she was going to say a higher price.
' She seems really nice.'
" Sure, we'll buy all of them." Marco answered her behind me taking the flowers out of her hand while I paid her about 10k berrys.
She looked so surprised when I handed her that much, she even started crying saying something they won't have to starve anymore.
" Hey since you are a local, do you know any place we can stay?" Masterson asked once the girl calmed down.
" They aren't any hotels on the island. People rob or destroy any new hotels that pop up so no they aren't any left."
" But if you guys are looking for a place to stay, you can stay at my house. It shouldn't be that hard to convince my mom to let you guys stay here."
"That's awfully nice of you. We will stay for the night and then leave." I said back, patting her on the head.
" Whose going to guard your ship at night?"
" I will guard it," Bullet replied to Bronya, answering her question.
We could stay on the ship but I'm pretty sure everyone is tired of staying inside for now. And I wanna hear about the island's situation from the locals. And what better way than staying with one.
[ A/N: No she isn't that love interest, Achilles isn't into lolis even though he and Bryona are almost the same age. And I'm not even sure if she will reappear again in the story. I have plans for her but I'm not sure if I wanna execute them yet. So don't get your hopes up yet. ]
[ 5 Minutes Later ]
After a few minutes of walking, we reached her house which was far away from that island's chaos.
The house was pretty small and looked old with some parts of it broken. But overall it could fit Masterson and Marco. I wasn't sure if there was going to be enough space left for me.
' Guess I'm staying with Bullet on the ship.' I thought to myself, standing behind Broyna along with the rest of the crew as she knocked on the door.
" Bronya, where have you been?" A middle age woman looking exactly like her daughter said worried, hugging Broyna tight in her arms before she noticed us at her door.
" And who are those men?" Bronya's mom asked her daughter looking at us with worry and skepticism. Can't say I blame her for it though.
I slapped Marco on the back to tell him to explain our situation to her. I figured having a kid that looked harmless would be better than having any of us tell Broyna's mom our situation.
[ 4 Minutes Later ]
" So you're telling me, you four who are the infamous Spade Pirates, whose crew has a total bounty of more than 30 million berrys need a place to stay. You expect more to believe this crap." Bronya's mom said to us, looking pissed off.
I was gonna respond to her but it looked like Bronya got it.
" Mom, they are telling the truth. They even gave me 10,000 berrys for the flowers." Bronya said and handed her that money making her look at us with some surprise in her eyes. We just smiled trying to look as harmless as possible.
" Achilles even told me they were going to pay for letting them stay for one night." Bronya said continuing the talk with her mom.
" And I could sense they are good. They have no bad intentions towards or the island." Broyna remarked got my full attention when she said sensed our intentions.
' Could she have observation haki? One of those very few selected people who are born with observation haki?' I asked myself, noticing her mom seemed to finally agree with her daughter.
" Fine they could stay but harm my daughter, I will haunt you till the end of time." Bronya's mom stated looking straight at us making us sweat.
Not from fear but from awkwardness since she really can't do anything to us. Nor do we wish to harm an innocent family.
" Thank you, ma'am," I said to her as we walked into her house. They were about 3 small rooms in total, a bathroom, and a kitchen with a very small table.
" Sorry if it's too small for you guys," Bronya said to us sounding sorry for it.
" Don't worry about it, its perfect," Bullet replied making her smile even though Bullet had a somewhat blank look on his face.
" Bronya watch over them, I'm gonna go get us food.." Bronya's mom said to her daughter, walking outside of the house.
I had Bullet and Masterson go with her to protect her in case anyone sees how much money she's carrying. Or if anyone is desperate for that food she's going to buy.
[ 50 Minutes Later ]
" Do you mind if we ask some questions?" I asked looking at Bronya's mom.
I alongside Bullet and Masterson was sitting down on the floor since the table wasn't big enough to fit us all. Marco and Bronya alongside her mom were sitting at the table.
She nodded at me giving me the go to start asking questions.
" What happened to this island? I have never seen a place so chaotic and disorganized before. There's no form of order here." I said to her eating my food while the others looked on interested in the answer.
"It's been more than 20 years now since that ruler along with his family and nobles of this country left. No rather deserted that the throne."
" Why did he desert the throne and that country?" Marco who was sitting in front of her asked the question, we all had on our minds.
" It was because we couldn't pay the Heavenly Tribute anymore. Without the protection of the World Government and Marines, the whole country became a living hell."
" Pirates used to raid us daily, mass amounts of kidnappings, deaths, and just pure violence. Without the King, it became an all-out war to determine the next ruler. But in the end, no one won anything but their own deaths."
"Leaving us, the commoners to suffer the most."
Bronya's mom said with a few tears coming out of her eyes but she quickly wipe them away trying to look strong in front of her daughter.
I looked down at the floor feeling quality since it was because of my family and that other World Noble's actions that caused that suffering of this country. I didn't even know what to say to her and Bronya.
" Thank you, sorry for having to remind you of this country's past," Bullet said noticing my mood and trying to change the conversation to something lighter.
" It's no big deal, although I'm not sure why this was so important to you, pirates." Bronya's mom replied to Bullet.
[ 1 Hour Later ]
" Hey Marco, behave and don't do anything stupid," I said to the kid since we are about to go to sleep. Masterson didn't want to stay since the room was too small for him. So me, him, and Bullet are gonna sleep on the ship.
" What do you mean, don't do anything stupid? I'm gonna just talk and have a sleepover in Bronya's room." Marco said, sounding offended at what I just said along with Bronya as well, who was standing next to Marco.
Those two became friends quite fast, for Marco this is the first time, he could hang out with someone around his age in a while. And for Bronya, probably the first time she could be friends with someone without worrying about her safety on this island.
" Well you two, take care," I said to the two walking out of the house alongside the crew leaving Marco with Bronya.
[ Midnight ]
" What's the matter?" Bullet asked walking up to me. I was currently standing in front of the Voyager's figurehead looking at the stairs, trying to clear up my thoughts.
" You looked brothered when she mentioned the Heavenly Tribute. You alright?" Bullet said to me, looking concerned.
" I'm fine, just thinking," I said to him, as he waited for me to continue.
"It's because of those bastards that this happened to this country. The Celestion Dragons just keep on abusing their powers no matter how many lives are lost."
" And one of the reasons they can get away with it is because of my gramps along with the other four Elder Stars."
The Five Elder Stars are the heads of the five highest-ranking families in Mary Geoise along with being the ones who govern the World Government. Ranking far ahead of normal Celestial Dragons.
I said to Bullet looking at him with a guilty expression on my face.
I knew IMU essentially controlled everything but I imagined if the Five-Elders made some kind of plead to him, he will listen, probably.
" Seem like not even the Five Elder Stars can take away power from the normal Celestial Dragons?" Bullet asked, I didn't tell him about IMU yet but I do plan to tell him. But for now, I just nodded at what he said since he's not wrong.
" Probably because of their wealth or they are afraid that Celestial Dragons below them will team up and usurp power from them. They are easier to control if you just give them what they want." I replied to Bullet looking at the stars in the night sky.
" So they can't be overthrown from the inside but what about the outside."
" What if someone drags them down from their so-called Holyland."
Bullet muttered making me look at him in shock.
" Maybe…"
" Oh right, what are we gonna do with Bronya?" Bullet asked me all of a sudden.
" Hmm?" I looked at him confused not understanding him.
" She has observation haki, I'm sure you noticed as well by now. She probably didn't train or awaken it."
" I remember you told me before about a very few selected people being born with observation haki.
" And that only way Bronya could have awakened observation haki is if she was born with it. Bullet explained making me realize what he was trying to say.
" We aren't gonna do anything. She's just a brat not to mention, she has her mom to look after. Don't mention anything about haki to her. Just let her live out her life as a normal girl." I ordered Bullet.
" Understood."
" Now why don't we get some sleep like everyone else," I said yawning, walking towards my room while Bullet did the same thing.
<<<<<<>>>>>>
And this is the end of the chapter folks
That's it, hope you enjoyed it
So with all that said, if you like the chapter drop some power stones, I would appreciate and it helps with getting the story to more viewers and thus more famous. And it makes my ego bigger, lol.
Also, leave some comments as well if you want. You can leave a review as well on what I can improve on. Like seriously leave some comments so I know people are reading my story. And I'm not writing to the void.
If there's anything I can improve or made any mistakes let me know as well.
Join the discord server if you want to as well.
Server Link: https://discord.gg/NMmtDbwHVQ
Cya, peace
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone