Chapter 10: The Battle for Yotsuba: Direct Confrontation
Commodore Murphy Monsoon sat in his office, a well-decorated room full of his standard items for a man of the marines. Maps of East Blue, ledgers filled with histories of expenses and purchases and more personal additions like books.
A pen tip brushes to a piece of paper on top of the table, its ink marking a larger number down. "Another two… sunk?" He couldn't believe it, days after he had sent out the order for all his ships from their individual smaller marine bases to form up in the main base of the 10th, more of his fleet was getting destroyed.
"Yes, Commodore Monsoon. Branches 112th and 105th have sent out their last message saying that the Reapers had tracked them down. The 62nd Branch requests that they remain in the vicinity of Orange Town in fear of getting sunk."
"…I shouldn't have given out the order. So many men and women have died. Many more will but it looks like it's going downhill. We need more ships but as soon as we try to meet up, more of them get sunk en route… cancel the orders, and all ships will remain in their bases… Dismissed."
The marine salutes before exiting and as he does so, another man enters. The commodore notices the man but already knows who it is by memory.
"I told you so… Commodore. The initial sentiment that your subordinates have was wrong, when we had the chance to sink the Reapers before they got anywhere, your weak will against those you command led to their deaths, making our job much harder than it is."
The bald man slowly walks to the table and brings a chair to sit on. His green coat with brown outlines swayed along while his white inner shirt decorated with gold necklaces jingled as he walked. The heavy rings on his hand settled on the table while a gold belt shone its lustre.
"The danger these Reaper's Bones pose is not to be underestimated, especially in One…" The man coughs before continuing. "Ahem… East Blue. When that report you have gotten from Tallan Isle arrived, I thought I had warned you of their threat?"
The commodore sighs, guilt surfacing as each word poked deep into his mental state. "Now I know… I don't know what to do. We might have to receive more help from the other marines but Commodore Nelson Royale is missing and Commodore Pudding Pudding is dead. The state of the regular marines in East Blue is precarious."
"I know YOU realize but will everyone else? People will underestimate the Reapers just because they are one ship. The common pirate usually uses sloops or smaller vessels that run rather than fight military ships. If the Reapers are sloops then they are usually more terrifying but in this world with those powers of the Eviction and its captain, the galleon is fearsome. That is why I requested and even offered to pay for the bounty I have placed."
The man digs for a poster in his coat and sets it on the table with a stern thud. It was of the Eviction in its full glory, the commodore grimaced further as the image of black sails came to view.
"I know I know," Monsoon responds. "I should have just forced my men to accept four ships to send out, now we have lost more and have lost the surprise. If only I had forced myself to join despite my men saying it's too much for one ship."
"How will you repay your debts… Commodore? I have given you the ships and upgrades that your personal vessel has gotten, yet when I asked again and again, you failed me."
The man stood up and circled the table, reaching over to his shoulder and gripping the commodore tight. "Now you can't even continue my voyages. My commissions are very generous… so I will give you one more chance. I have another set of voyages to find more treasure, you'll get a cut in exchange for me providing where this treasure is."
The commodore felt his shoulder get released as a bottle of whiskey got lifted from the bottom drawer and he took a huge gulp of it before slamming it down to the table and wiping off the liquid near his mouth.
"Like always… but my ships! I can't send out more since those Reapers sank them to hell - I can set sail on my own but with the Reapers in the seas, I don't know if we can defeat him without a fleet of at least 10!"
The man smirks. "Do not worry, I can gather my resources for new ships but I am afraid the price has risen due to you not paying what you owed."
"I'll find a way to get some more money, there are taxes that we can impose and protection payments we can ask for. The treasures we seized from pirates can be sold…"
"We can accept those treasures but they will be marked down. You can decline of course… but risk your 'contraband' disappearing without legal means."
The threat makes the commodore agree, though he was apprehensive about it. "Fine… "
The man turns to leave. "Pleasure doing business, commodore." he mocks a salute.
"…as always, Jeffrey."
"I prefer my last name... Commodore."
~
Days passed since the initial battle, it was easy to interrogate and patrol the seas to search for other marine vessels. They realized that now was the right time to deal a death blow.
With the local fleet neutered and on their last legs with only a few ships at their disposal. Realizing that they would probably avoid a naval battle now, Karma set out on a new plan of attack, a direct confrontation.
Karma was sailing the seas, his hair now let down and his hood up with his outfit altered to remove the reds. His ship wasn't his own, it was a previously captured one from the marines in their last battle.
"I know we left Flameheart Jr. with our ship but is it really okay to leave the marine-turned-pirates with our crew? I know you make bold choices, Karma but you ain't Luffy with his charisma that could make enemies join you."
Larc had his concern waived as Karma laughed. "Haha! I know but I really wanted a moment like that. Did the old Unoreverse them, as if I can trust cowards to fight like us."
"And leave those who believe in the marines?" Larc asked. Surely having enemies that stood strong in their convictions would be a bad idea.
"Call it an experiment. We're anchoring, let's get prepared."
Their stolen ship docked at the main island. A large marine base with fortifications scattered all over the seas was circling the island. On the opposite side of that is where Karma docked, it was a large village that housed the residences of the entire island.
Xed was the last to get off but he hesitated. "Karma… I know this is all for the Reaper's bones and all but…"
If they were to reduce the chance of discovery, each one of Karma's friends had their clothes changed to keep their identity secret.
"...Why do I have to wear this?"
Karma created a plain white summer dress, the reason why is to hide the tail and Xed was given a hat with the same theme as his dress to hide his ears. Xed was very much uncomfortable… well he actually was comfortable in the white dress but he wouldn't admit it.
Karma did it to get practice for fine control but mostly because it was to make sure to troll Xed. "No one would expect a Reaper to be a little girl. I'd imagine marines trying to ask you about being a pirate would be ludicrous for them." Karma answers.
"…I hate that you're right." Xed wavers at jumping down, and his skirt was held down as he landed on the docks. Thankfully it was ankle height so there would be no chance of some accidental underwear shots.
Larc was wearing pretty much the same thing since his face wasn't that recognizable. He had the most normal features while Krys, Xed, and Karma had hair and traits that could be easily pointed out.
Krys was swapped out of her ordinary outfit and wearing brown boots with loose black pants and using a brown short jacket with a normal grey shirt. Notably, her hair and face were obscured by a black hat reminiscent of classic sailor ones.
"I'm getting good at making clothes, no? I guess practising sewing while we have our day-long travel time is pretty good. More control means I can precisely move smaller dead matter and maybe even awaken my Devil Fruit like you said, Larc."
"Definitely, more practice will be beneficial."
The four travel along the busy streets. Spotting a man sleeping on a chair outside, Larc took the newspaper covering the man's face and read. "The Straw Hats are probably with Vivi and in Alabasta by this point. The newspaper is covering the defection of a sizable part of the royal army to the revolutionaries."
Karma looked afar and saw the towering heights of the marine base. "The marine base is on the other side of here, let's try going over there and asking around oh and Krys, you'll be going with Xed to do your side of the town."
Karma and Larc headed to the far side of town, asking along the way about the status of the base and if the marines were doing anything noticeable. Anything specific would give them away so their questions stuck to general topics like the citizen's attitude to them and how many ships leave.
The face of a man was distinct enough for Karma to stop his walk and make Larc turn around. "Larc, look at that man. He's the one with a 5 million bounty, right? I swear I can tell it's him."
The man in question stood up after what looked like a session of drinking. The man jolts in shock before reaching for his hood and covering his face. "I can see, Karma. Do we follow him?"
"Follow him to his ship, take what we can by hand and most importantly, let you fight."
"Me?"
"You've been mock fighting our crew with your swords. I think it's high time you get your own experience in fighting rather than me just taking down the entire ship with a single thought."
The two tail the gathering of men, eventually reaching back to the docks and seeing a ketch with the jolly roger nowhere to be seen. The pirates had made sure not to get seen and recognised, if only Luffy does the same thing in the actual anime.
"Hey, you can't get - urrkk!"
Larc swiftly slashes the man's jugular with a parrying dagger in his left hand. With a single push from him and the pirate's body falls back to the deck of the ship.
A few exclaim the man's name but the duo of Reapers make haste in declaring their intentions. "Pirates if you scream, call for help or otherwise then call yourselves a bunch of pansies. You can pick my captain's way of dealing with you or you can all try fighting me."
Swinging his weapon high, he dares the others to make a move. One of the pirates gets the bright idea to get his pistol, and without warning, he reaches over to his holster and fires.
The bullet reached Larc and to everyone's amazement, even Larc had a reaction, he did the impossible.
"Holy… did I just split that bullet?" Larc mutters, it may have been those torture sessions of Karma hurling furniture at him or something else like natural talent, but even so… he still sliced a bullet.
He quickly recovers from his own stupor. "Ah! I meant to do that."
The pirates don't buy his reaction. To Larc's credit, he didn't believe his own recovery, quickly dashing to another opponent he swung his sword and whenever an attack came, he parried and quickly dispatched one after the other.
Karma was impressed, he knew his friends never swung a sword in their lives but maybe those HEMA videos he'd been showing them at 2 in the morning were actually helpful.
Isekai Journal Entry 1: Lesson learned, discover random skills pertaining to combat so that in the event of getting isekai'd, you'd be prepared.
Karma watched as Larc parried sword after sword, retuning slices and thrusts, dwindling down the number of pirates until the man himself arrived. Wielding two swords in each hand, the peg-legged individual announced his name, like every other villain that monologues.
"Who dares to try and interfere with 'Three Sword' Zani?!"
Larc looked offended. "Oi, don't call yourself anything with the words 'three' and 'sword'. The only person I respect that can have those monikers is Roronoa Zoro, the pirate hunter. Besides, where is your third sword?"
Zani lifted his peg leg and the wooden shell gets removed, it was acting as a sheathe for his sword leg. Larc formed his mouth into an 'O' after Zani did so.
"Oh, so that's where your third sword is… well, you're still not qualified for your title!"
Larc, boosted by his enhanced physical prowess, directly gets in front of Zani. Jumping back in surprise, Zani tries swinging for Larc's neck which was met by a parrying dagger. Larc responds with his own attack, swinging his sword but was met with a block.
With both arms locked in a clinch, Zani lifts his legs and stomps down, using his sword leg to try hitting Larc's foot. Larc already knew what would come next, Zani had a sword-leg after all, what else would he use in this situation?
Cocking his head back, Larc unleashes the most devastating headbutt on the pirate, who staggers from the face-smashing hit. Pulling his sword back, Larc aimed right at the heart. The resulting hit made everyone gag.
The sword slices true, the blade piercing skin and then severing muscle, right where the ribs hover over Zani's heart, the bone splits just from the strength. Blood spills all over Larc's clothes as he rips away the sword, leaving Zani with a few moments of life left until he dies.
"Well, that was easy. If you're gonna have a third weapon, it's better to be unexpected. I might have been using swords for only a week but even I know that being predictable is stupid."
"Larc, he's already dead," Karma states.
"...If you get one-liners, I deserve them too!"
"Larc, search the captain's quarters. Carry everything you can and find anything interesting, especially the drawer. Personal treasures are always good and cold-hard cash is equally desirable."
Seeing the end of the short duel, Karma manipulates the ship and surprises the rest of the crew, gagging them and tying them all in a few moments. Eventually, they get tied to the mast of the ship.
A few minutes go by when a wide-eyed Larc comes back with pieces of paper in his hands.
"Larc, what did you find-"
"Look!"
The paper gets shoved to Karma's face, as he collects the parchment and closely reads what was on it, his eyes narrow and the edges of the paper get ripped from his grip. "Voyage? There's an island and a few descriptions of treasure to be collected from a ship that lost its cargo in a storm and its loot washed up…"
That wasn't the most jarring thing. It was who the paper was from. "...From the Gold Hoarders!" Karma curses, he couldn't fathom how and why some aspects of the Sea of Thieves carried over to One Piece.
"I couldn't believe it too!" Larc adds.
Karma had death in his eyes as he turns around. "You! He slackens rope on one of the pirates and practically slams his head to the floor hard enough for the wood below to break and smash. "Who did you get this from?! Answer me!"
"I-Its from a man in green the captain meets whenever we weigh anchor here!"
"Specifically who?!"
"I don't-"
"Useless!" He ties up the man and another drop to the ground. "Answer the same question."
"Bezos!" The second man yells out.
At first, was rage, Karma knew having the other companies would be bad news since that would mean the possibility that a certain rival company would be present too. The second was confusion.
"First name?"
"I don't know! The captain only addresses him as 'Sir Bezos!' We get what he calls voyages from him, he pays a cut if we manage to go to wherever they indicate! It's usually locked chests but he comes back the next day with a good amount of money!"
It was exactly like how the company in the game operates. Taking locked chests and paying a fraction of the loot inside of them. Karma didn't get the first name, but if he knows real-world figures, he knew that Bezos was the most absurd name he would ever hear.
"No way, is it actually him?" Larc whispers.
Karma ties everyone back up and brings Larc with him further away from prying ears. "I don't think so… more likely it's a player who named themselves that after coming here. We use our real names but there's an opportunity for people to create new identities."
"So other players are here…"
"I'm not sure, it's just speculation. For now, we need to get to the marines and finish a part of our own voyage. The Gold Hoarders are confirmed to be here, we need to send a message to Flameheart after we kill the Commodore."
"How are we going to do that? It's gonna be heavily guarded if it's a high-ranking officer like a commodore. Not as much as admirals but for East-Blue it's a pretty influential force."
Karma looks to the pirates and a nearby stash of gunpowder used for cannons. "Easy… let's set up some fireworks that are eye-catching enough to warrant the marines to gaze at their beauty. I think the pirates are going to like the front-row seats."
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