Chapter 6: Chapter 6
[2 Years Later, Year 1516]
Dark into the night of the East Blue, one bar was full of people. Among them were the average civilians who came to enjoy their night after hard works, and also, the pirates who laughed and drank relentlessly.
"HAHAHAHAH!!!"
"HEY!! We're out of rum!! Bring some more!!"
"Coming right away, sir!"
The bar was filled with noises. The pirates, doing as they saw fit, seemed vulgar and ill-mannered in the eyes of average people. However, select few were awed by how 'free' they seemed.
"Hey, have you heard?" At one table, one civilian said to his friend who sat in front of him, "About that recently risen rookie named Mad Treasure?"
"...Mad Treasure, huh." The other one stuttered, "As in that treasure hunter who's known to have defeated 'Dual Axe' Zairo a month ago?"
The first one nodded seriously, "From here on, it's just my speculation, but hear me out. You know about the legend of this town?"
The other one rolled his eyes, "Around two hundred years ago or so, the legendary pirate, 'Ore Seeker' Gouma, hid his greatest treasure somewhere in this town. Trying to take it for their own, numerous people gathered here, only to settle upon failure, and formed what is known as the 'Mine' village today. What about it?"
"That Mad Treasure, you see, is a psycho as far as I can tell." The first one circled his finger next to his temple, "Once, he apparently destroyed an entire village after reading a treasure map in a wrong manner. On another occasion, he murdered all miners of one town simply because they were 'in his way' to treasure hunting. You can just see how obsessed he is with the idea of finding 'treasure,' you know."
Raising his glass up and gulping down the beer, he continued,
"According to the news, he was last seen in the Vikan island—quite nearby here—a month ago. Since then, he wasn't found."
The other one asked with a grimace, "...Are you saying that he's coming here? To prove that legend of Gouma?"
"I bet that he is—"
"Excuse me, misters,"
Two civilians stopped talking as a girl's voice intruded them. Turning their faces, they came across a fine-looking teenage girl with long, orange-coloured hair. She, raising up the bottle of rum, asked, "Are you the ones who ordered a new serving of rum?"
"...Huh?" One among them answered, "No, it's probably the ones over there, not us."
"Oh, I see. My apologies!"
The girl walked away in the direction that the man pointed to. As she left, two men smiled in pleasure,
"...Man, she's quite pretty, isn't she."
"Looks quite young though. If only she was a little older, I would've tried to woo her. Too bad."
They then stood up, having finished everything on the table. Subsequently, they searched for their pockets, looking for their wallets to pay—
"—Huh?" One among them exclaimed, "My wallet, w-wha? It's gone!!"
The other one was in the same situation, "No way!! We were literally sitting here all along!! Just how—"
Little did they know,
"Heheh,"
That the orange-haired girl was never a waitress in the first place, and that her name was 'Nami.' Placing down the bottle of rum on a random table, she swiftly walked out of the bar, into the dark night. She, without any hesitation, walked through the street with a sense of familiarity. However, far before she reached her destination,
"...Oi, girl. You over there."
Nami stiffened up as a rough voice was spoken from the dark. Turning her head, Nami saw the silhouettes of multiple men—all muscular and broad in physique—motioning at her,
"Come over here for a sec."
Nami, expressing an immense dislike, took a step back instead, "Uh... how about no?"
"Ah, come on." They then laughed while standing up, "We aren't bad, ya know. Just wanting to, eh, talk and all."
"As if I'll believe that!"
However, Nami didn't seem afraid. Instead, she pulled down her eye and stuck out her tongue, before beginning her run.
"Hey!! Stop over there!!"
Much to her disgust, those men began running after her, and the chase began. She swiftly jumped over obstacles, turned around the corners, and—
"...Uh oh."
Nami found herself right at a dead end, with the sole path blocked by those huge men.
"Heheh... what, do you think we are some child molesters?" One among them grinned, "We aren't interested in something filthy like that. Just show us what's in that skirt of yours..."
Nami's eyes widened. Clicking her tongue, she scowled, "...How did you know?"
The man snorted, "You aren't the first one who's done this. A day ago... another girl—blue-haired, I think—used the exact same tactic as you to steal from our customers. That one escaped, but you..." He flipped out a gun from his holster and aimed it at Nami's forehead, "...surely won't."
"...Carina, that witch..." Nami growled, "...You again?!"
"Carina? That's her name?" The man said with a chuckle, "Good to know," before,
BANG. A bullet was shot, and—
"...Huh?"
—the same man found himself dumbfounded as his gun was redirected elsewhere, due to another hand that gripped his gun-holding hand.
"...Who?" The man turned his head around and frowned. He was met with the sight of one black-haired boy, shorter than him in terms of height.
"Rowan!" Nami expressed delight, while taking a sigh of relief.
"Misters," Rowan, gazing at the man and his goons with lazy eyes, asked casually, "Do you happen to have bounties on your heads?"
"Heh—!" One goon immediately exclaimed, "Of course! Our captain over here is 'Bad Boy' Futa, wanted for 100 thousand—"
"Good."
The man, now revealed to be named 'Futa,' gritted his teeth while abruptly twisting his barrel toward Rowan, however, before he could shoot it,
PUK.
Rowan mercilessly slammed his foot on Futa's balls,
"GAHHHHH!!!!"
sending the man into the world of pain.
"S-shoot!! Kill those two!!!" One of the goons then shouted, and all of them, amounting to ten in number, simultaneously brought their pistols up.
BANG BANG BANG.
They then shot at Rowan, who simply raised up the fallen body of Futa with one arm—as if it wasn't heavy at all. All bullets struck onto Futa's exposed back,
"GUAHHHHHHH!!!!!"
generating yet another horrified cry out of the man.
"AHHHHH, CAPTAIN!!!!" One goon screamed in horror, but before he could speak any further, Futa's bloody form was thrown into the air by Rowan, which then fell and crushed two goons.
Rowan, on the other hand, was now flipping around Futa's pistol casually, "I'll be borrowing this."
BANG. One of the goons shot once more. Nami, with a yelp, ducked to the ground immediately, while Rowan instead dashed forward with his body lowered; the bullet hit nothing but a wall.
BANG. Another bullet was shot at the approaching Rowan. This time around, Rowan jumped high up in the air, with the pistol pointed at Futa.
"You've... ugh... just made yourself vulnerable!!!" Futa, with his hands holding onto his leaking eggs, shouted with all his might, "Shoo... shoot down that demon... all of you—"
BANG. Rowan shot a bullet, which directly drove into Futa's neck and choked the man out. subsequently, Rowan pulled the trigger once more, however,
Click.
the pistol didn't shoot, much to Rowan's disbelief. He immediately discarded the pistol and exclaimed,
"Who the hell places only two bullets in a pistol?!"
Then, placing his foot on a nearby wall and pushing his body off of it,
BANG BANG BANG!
Rowan dodged multitudes of bullets shot at him. Immediately after, landing in the middle of the group, Rowan leaned back and grabbed one man's gun-holding arm, before throwing that man over his shoulder,
BANG BANG BANG!
said man was shot down by the bullets from his friends just like his captain. As the blood splashed out and momentarily caused blinded the remaining seven members' eyes, Rowan discarded the fallen man's body and smashed his fist onto the exposed face of another man, disfiguring that man's face and causing him to lose his grip over his gun. Immediately grabbing it in midair,
BANG.
Rowan shot down another with a clean headshot, now reducing the number to five. He then blasted the remaining bullets of the pistol toward the others, however, they quickly dodged by hiding behind the nearby walls.
"Huff... huff..." Rowan's breathing quickened slightly as he discarded the empty pistol, and he was sweating from the intense operation of his body. However, he didn't have time to rest, and immediately rolling on the ground, he dodged another round of bullets that were shot from the recovered enemies.
"...Fuck!!!" One of them shouted, "We should use blades instead!! Can't aim when he's standing between us like this!!"
'...Heh, crowded my ass,' Thought Rowan, 'doesn't take me much to know that you are simply out of bullets.'
Placing the gun back on its holster, that man unsheathed his knife this time around, before charging at Rowan. The remaining others, following the suit, unsheathed the knives of their own.
Rowan, watching as huge and muscular men ran toward him from all four sides, grinned, "...Even better."
Tilting his head, he dodged one knife that was jabbed at his face. Grabbing the wrist with his hand tight, he used the elbow of his other arm to break the knife-holding arm of that man. Said man's grip over his knife loosened, and Rowan, catching onto it while jumping up to evade a slash that was made toward his ankles, caught the same man with a broken arm by the collar of his shirt before slamming his own knife onto his exposed forehead.
Subsequently, upon three others reaching him,
PUK.
"AHHHHHH!!!!!"
Rowan redirected a fist aimed at his face toward the approaching knife of another,
BAM.
then turned and sent a roundhouse kick at the same, knife-holding man's head, causing that man to choke from the sudden shake in his head.
Swoosh!
Immediately after, Rowan bent his body forward, allowing another knife to bypass his back just barely, before holding the outstretched arm with both hands and slamming his knee onto it,
"AHHHHHHH!!!!!"
the arm broke, bending to an unnatural angle.
"Huff... huff..."
And just like that, all eleven of them were dealt with—
—Click.
Rowan froze as one man, who only had one arm broken beyond repair, had a pistol aimed at Rowan's head. This man growled, "...Did you think that you alone will be able to deal with all of us at once—"
BANG.
Then, the man's eyes widened, before falling to the ground with a thud. On his back was a bullet driven into it, and at some distance away, Nami was standing with a pistol in her hands.
"Huff... huff... The pistol had more than just two bullets, Rowan," Though sweating profusely from the intensity of the fight, Nami stated with a grin, "it was simply jammed."
Rowan, while breathing heavily, raised up a knife and slammed it onto the neck of one groaning man, "...I swear, huff, the gun simply isn't meant for me."
Raising up the bloody knife, he then slammed onto another, then into another, and so on—until all the still-alive enemies were dead. Next, beheading the dead body of 'Bad Boy' Futa, Rowan exclaimed,
"100 thousand for this one. 40 thousand on my side. How about you?"
Nami lifted up her skirt, revealing numerous wallets attached to her sticky shorts. She smirked, "About this much."
Though they were standing in the middle of corpses, there existed no form of fear whatsoever. They were already used to this—living the life of a thief, of a bounty hunter.
"Then..." Rowan hummed, "45 million approximately?"
Nami nodded, "About that much. Close to reaching the half—"
"Wow~ you two did wonders here."
Then, a feminine voice was heard from above. Rowan and Carina immediately raised their heads up and saw one blue-haired girl, sitting down on top of one building with her legs crossed, and looking down at them with a mischievous smile.
Nami snarled, "Carina...!!!"
"Why, hello there, Nami," Replied Carina with her cheek leaning into her hand, before winking at Rowan, "and you as well, Rowan."
Rowan raised an eyebrow while wiping the blood on his hand to the shirt of one corpse, "Never thought our path will overlap with you like this."
"Meh, I think this was bound to happen," Carina grinned, "You guys are here for Mad Treasure also, aren't you? I mean, from what we can deduce with the given information, he'll soon arrive here... with all those treasures that he's accumulated over years."
She then held her hand out toward them,
"You know, this isn't the first time that I came across that man. A year ago, I tried to get my way in and steal that man's treasure, only to give up upon noticing how tight the security was—"
"...Give up?" Nami, snorted with her arms crossed, "Pff... loser."
Carina immediately grew a tickmark on her forehead as she barked, "HEY!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW IMPOSSIBLE THE TASK WAS!! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!"
Nami simply stuck her tongue out. Carina, not wishing to lose, mimicked the former's action. Rowan, from the side, was found ignoring the childish antics of the girls and contemplating with his hand on his chin.
'55 million... contender... Mad Treasure... hm.'
Rowan raised his head back up and spoke to Carina,
"Give us more specific details."
"Rowan!" Nami yanked Rowan's arm and shouted in disbelief, "No way we are allying with that witch!! I refuse!!"
Carina shouted back in annoyance, "Hey!!! Since when did I become a witch?!!"
"Since the very start!!"
"What?! Then... then... you are—"
"SHUT UP!" Rowan, unable to handle the noises any longer, roared at the two. Two girls immediately quietened down, before saying robotically,
""Hai~!""
in the middle of a bloody scene.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone